Yes, I know, this week’s Gamer Pulse is late. You can blame that on the heavy stream of non gaming-related articles I published this week. The next edition of Gamer Pulse will arrive on Friday, July 1st, so, we’ll be back on track by then. In the meantime, let’s take a look at what happened in the gaming industry this week, shall we?
- Valve’s beloved Team Fortress 2 went free-to-play last week. Yes, that’s right, free-to-play. Forever. For the uninitiated, TF2 is a first-person-shooter title that allows players to assume control of different character classes and engage in all-out battle royales. Since its release a few years ago, the game has enjoyed massive popularity. The decision to make the game free-to-play has been met with much praise and has catapulted the game into the coveted most-played position on the Steam service. The conversion to free-to-play also brought a new title update and an animated “Meet the Medic” video (the latest entry in a series of hilarious videos meant to introduce players to the TF2 character classes). If you’d like to get in on the fun, then head over to the Steam store (either in your browser or Steam client) and install the game. The guys over at reddit have set up a forum specifically for introducing new players to the various intricacies of TF2. If you’re a new player, then definitely check that out to avoid some unnecessary humiliation as you take your first steps in a new gaming world!
- Sad news for fans of the long-running Star Wars Galaxies MMO: Sony announced that the game will shut down at the end of the year after a six-year run. While it’s not particularly surprising that the game is being brought to a close, especially given the impending release of The Old Republic, it’s always sad to see such a long-standing title go dark. Hats off to Sony for keeping the game running this long.
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Remember L.A. Noire? Of course you do. Well, Rockstar announced that the critically-acclaimed detective game will be arriving on PC this fall (in both physical and digital form). The move came after some gamers feared that a PC version of L.A. Noire would be neglected, just like Rockstar’s previous release, Red Dead Redemption. Comic Booked shined the spotlight on L.A. Noire back when it was released – Robb Orr gave our official review of the game and I put it head-to-head against last year’s investigation drama, Heavy Rain. Check both out for more information about the title. We’ll give you a concrete release date as soon as one is officially announced.
- News broke late last week about the arrival of micro-transactions on the Xbox Live Marketplace. Under a new set of guidelines, developers would be allowed to release free-to-play games with an option to charge for additional content. (items, levels, characters, etc.) This is definitely an interesting approach to delivering new content to gamers. It puts a lot of risk on the developer (who has to pay fees to have the game accepted onto the Marketplace). No official word on when we can expect the first wave of free-to-play titles, but, as always, stay tuned to Comic Booked as we’ll be keeping track of this new, exciting feature.
- Dying to get a sneak peek at Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception? Who isn’t, really? Well, for you PlayStation Plus subscribers, this should be a very fun week! Sony announced that, on June 28th, all Plus subscribers will be able to access the multiplayer beta for one of this year’s most anticipated titles. No word on how long this beta runs for, so be sure to get on it as fast as possible. Access to the beta was announced as part of a series of upcoming Plus perks for subscribers. You can check out the full list of goodies, which includes demo access, free downloadable content, and other exclusives, on the official PlayStation Blog.
- Miyamoto sat down for an interview this week to elaborate some more on the upcoming Wii U. The most important thing to take away from it is how Nintendo says their next console will fair compared to the current generation of systems from competitors Sony and Microsoft. Miyamoto said:
We’re very sensitive, of course, to trying to do all of this at an appropriate price. So I don’t know that we would be able to sit here and say that it’s going to necessarily dramatically outperform the systems that are out now. It’s part of the balance that we strike in terms of trying to find entertainment that is new and unique.
Finally, I need to end Gamer Pulse on a correction. As Dan Amrich pointed out to me on twitter, I described Call of Duty: Elite as a “pay-to-play service” in last week’s Gamer Pulse, which is incorrect. Call of Duty: Elite, to quote Dan,
“… will [feature] a premium membership level for people who want it, but Elite is free, [multiplayer] is free.”
You can find out more about the upcoming Call of Duty: Elite service on Dan’s blog and here on Comic Booked. Apologies for the misnomer, folks.
That’ll do it for Gamer Pulse this week. We’ll be back on Friday with more of the latest news from the gaming industry. In the meantime, check out what some of our other staff have been talking about in the video games industry: an introduction to Red Faction: Armageddon and tons of information about the Captain America video game tie-in. Until then, stay tuned to Comic Booked, and, as always, thanks for reading!
Tags: Call of Duty: Elite, comic booked, Dan Amrich, Gamer Pulse, Kyle Black, L.A. Noire, Star Wars Galaxies, Team Fortress 2, TF2, The Old Republic, Uncharted 3 Beta, Valve, XBLA, XBOX Live Marketplace
About the Author
Written by Kyle Black
So much gaming goodness. It is a good time to be a gamer.