Please Don't Play With My Heart - Ed Boon Teases Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks HD Remake

In continuing nostalgia news, Neatherrealm Studios boss Ed Boon tweeted a picture of an MK: Shaolin Monks strategy guide today, hinting at an HD remake of the beat-'em-up for download. Read the man's transparency below:

"Someone put this on my desk. WTF? Do they think we're doing an HD version to download ... um.. or something. 8|"

God this game was amazing, and way too much fun in it's heyday. And no DRM to unlock Sub-Zero and Scorpion as playables!! Make it happen, Boon!!

-- VG247

Soulcalibur II HD Online Footage Is Nostalgic

I remember playing Soulcalibur II on ye olde Xbox as a greatest hits title, and it was one of the few fighters I owned. Not a bad thing no less, as that game kept me busy every time I picked it up. It was perfect. Well-balanced, fun characters to play, looked brilliant, and enough modes to dip into for hours. I loved that game. It's one of the few reasons why I even keep the old black box around.

So of course, when I heard that Namco was updating the game for current-gen, I got pretty happy. When they said Spawn was going to be in it, I got friggin' ecstatic. SCII is widely regarded as one of, if not the best in the series, and so long as Namco doesn't touch the balance of the game at all, they've got gold again.

Check out this new gameplay video featuring badass samurai Mitsurugi and nunchuck acrobat Maxi. Soul Calibur II Online is set to hit the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 in the Fall, which is now. Right now. So, maybe tomorrow?

Next week.
...

We're in the season of Fall, Namco!

 -- VG247

Huh: Japan Finally Gets...Advance Wars: Days of Ruin?

Okay....

Advance Wars: Days of Ruin has been made available to Japanese Club Nintendo members of the Platinum level. Members have a choice between the DS classic or a 2014 calendar for right now, or there's also the option to pick it up as a regular prize for 800 next May. It'll be downloaded through the 3DS eShop.

Here's the kicker: for whatever reason, the game was never released in Japan. Strange, right? It was translated, but never put out. No idea why that is - maybe folks didn't care much for portable military warfare? But in that instance, Fire Emblem wouldn't be as popular. And since the series has remained stagnant for five years, maybe this will lead to a revival.

Either way, there you go, Japan. Have fun.

-- Tiny Cartridge

Get Your Midas On - Link Between Worlds 3DS XL Bundle Confirmed for NA

Right? Because gold...gold with a touch screen...

*cough*

Nintendo of America announced today that the gold 3DS XL bundle for the upcoming Zelda game, A Link Between Worlds, will indeed hit shelves at the same time the game will land here on November 22. The bundle was previously announced for Japan and Europe.

The pack comes with a gold and black 3DS XL with the triforce screened on the top left and bottom right sides, and a download code for Link Between Worlds. It'll retail for $219.99 when it hits shelves.

-- NoA Press Release

Mountiegamescast Ep. 5 - Pay to Win for the Killer

So...we have a podcast. We're slowly getting our legs on doing this, but five episodes in, and I think we're doing alright. What? Don't look at me like that. I was going to tell you about it, but I was waiting for the right time!! That, and running through three Journalism classes is much harder than it seems.

So here's episode five, and I'll drop a link to the others below. Please give it a listen - we know you guys are out there, reading the blog, so hopefully you'll give this a chance. Thanks again!!

This Week:

Managing Editor Sasha Chavez and Sports Editor Mike Chavez of the Mountaineer paper join us in this week's cast! In it, we talk about Killer is Dead's more... intimate actions, ponder the necessity of jet-pack wearing dragons in Divinity: Dragon Commander and speculate on Capcom's new fighting game.We also give Square Enix crap about Bravely Default's microtransactions, because REASONS. 

All this and my feeble attempts to get the talk back on track on this weeks Mountiegames cast!

- Damion
mountiegames.blogspot.com

Special thanks to Sasha and Mike

Here's a link to the rest: Mountiewire Soundcloud

I'm Not Surprised: Bravely Default For the Sequel has Microtransactions

Oh, Square Enix. You cannot leave well enough alone, can you? You didn't learn with that mess called Final Fantasy: All the Bravest, and now you're giving us crap like microtransactions on what is shaping up to be a fine 3DS game. Brilliant.

Bravely Default: For the Sequel has a feature called "Bravely Second" that enables you to slow down time using SP to beat down enemies like a Bayonetta QTE (just a reference). If you run out of SP, you can wait eight hours for it to replenish to use again. If that won't do ya, you can always spend real money to replenish the bar. As in your own hard-earned cash, to refill an in-game ability, because REASONS.

Here's producer Tomoya Asano, "the reason we decided to go through with the plan is because of our wish to have as many people possible beat the game. Some players might want to continue with the story but might not be able to beat the boss no matter how hard they try, and eventually give up on the game, which is the last thing we’d want."

Now you might think that complaining about this is probably tad trivial. I can understand that. However, I don't see a place for this to even be here as a helping aid, when the game already features adjustable difficulty and encounter rates as per the "Enhanced" moniker. So, we're looking at a cash grab, and a pretty blatant one at that. And I couldn't give less of a damn about what sort of ham-fisted, PR speak the company uses to dance around the fact that this is wholly unnecessary.

And (I'm probably stretching here), there's the issue that this may turn people off of the game entirely if this thing is exacerbated any further. That's after what it took to get this thing over here in the first place. I certainly hope that people still buy the game, and just don't delve into the monetary crap.

And for the sake of Bahamut, Square, change the damn name.

-- Destructoid via Siliconera

Titanfall Set For Release March 14, 2014 - $250(!!) Collectors Edition Announced

Just ignoring that monetary value here for a bit, we've got a solid release date for Respawn Entertainment's upcoming online shooter Titanfall - The 14th of March of next year. Pre-orders are now available at you favorite retailer.

Titanfall was revealed at this years E3 Expo as an online only shooter with freerunning and mecha trappings. As in killing people and other mechs in your mech, and this pretty cool thing where your mech will pick you up to get you into the cockpit. Seriously, it's actually kinda dope.

The other big deal stands at 18 inches tall. A collectors edition was also revealed, with an '18 Titan statue with a motorized cockpit. The box is a diorama with LED lights, and contains a 190-page artbook and poster. All that for $250 (again, !!!) bones. Yeesh. The Titanfall website is taking $100 deposits for the CE.

This is pretty pricey for a Collector's Edition, but then again, there was that Saint's Row IV Million Dollar Wub Wub Edition (probably a joke), so this is at least affordable to some. Emphasis on some, as EA stresses that these are "extremely limited."

-- VG247

Mine Eyes!! THEY BLEED!!

Just...wow. Wow. No. No thank you.

I do believe this is tied into the Every 2 Minutes promotion co-opted by Microsoft and Mountain Dew, with Dale Earnhardt driving the NASCAR racer. I hope this isn't the prize.

This is the kind of thing you'd probably enjoy having in your house for a while, then suddenly begin to search for case mods or make your own after the novelty dies down.

Yeesh.

Side Note - I'm not (well, I am) picking on the Xbox One alone. Believe me, if Sony, Nintendo...hell, even Steam were to put something like this up, I'd be saying the same thing. Just a little humor on a slow Saturday.

Xbox One: Real Name Option Won't be Available at Launch

Picture unrelated, I just like Kill La Kill.

A pretty cool feature of the new Xbox isn't going to be ready for the big dance come Nov. 19th. Speaking through a rep, Microsoft confirmed to Kotaku that the ability to use real names instead of Gamertags will drop at a later date through an update.

"While real identities continue to be part of our plans for the experience on Xbox One, at launch, customers will continue to search for friends using their Gamertags," a Microsoft rep said. "Our teams are working hard to deliver a quality experience for Xbox One. This means prioritizing some features and sometimes postponing others for a later update."

This is probably "world's tiniest violin" type stuff to most people, but I think it's an interesting feature. Better real names than XxX[insert uppercaselowercasenumbersaslettersbullsh*t]Xx

-- Kotaku

Watch_Dogs, The Crew Delayed Until 2014

 Ubisoft has moved two of its current/next-gen titles until next year. The open world hacker Watch_Dogs and MMO-style racer The Crew have both been moved to Spring 2014. WD had an initial holiday release window to premier alongside the new consoles while The Crew, despite not having a firm release date, was originally slated for early next year.

In a post on the UbiBlog, Watch_Dog's developers spoke on the delay: "We struggled with whether we would delay the game. But from the beginning, we have adopted the attitude that we will not compromise on quality. As we got closer to release, as all the pieces of the puzzle were falling into place in our last push before completion, it became clear to us that we needed to take the extra time to polish and fine tune each detail so we can deliver a truly memorable and exceptional experience."

This is a major bummer, and understandably a disappointment for folks looking forward to hacking Chicago (myself included). Ditto for The Crew, which had me hooked since Ubisoft's demo back at E3. Still, it's much better that a game take its time through development than be shoved out faster than your drunk uncle was onto the back alley of that one pub Saturday night. Both situations aren't pretty, and often times the end results contain a lot of shame. And tears.

Anguish.

-- Ubiblog, IGN, Destructoid

Side Note - Both Amazon and Gamestop have said that they'll still honor pre-orders of the Playstation 4 bundle that came with Watch_Dogs. Amazon said via Twitter, "Don't worry if you pre-ordered the Watch Dogs PS4 bundle, you will still be getting your PS4 based on your current delivery estimate." A follow-up tweet added,"your console pre-orders are safe," and that more information is coming.

Gamestop released this statement:

"With the news that Ubisoft has delayed the release of the highly-anticipated title Watch Dogs until next year, GameStop is contacting customers who had reserved PlayStation 4 and Xbox One bundles featuring the game. Customers can elect to keep their current bundle orders and their consoles will ship as scheduled with the game shipping separately once it is available, or customers can choose another bundle to replace their current order. Customers should also note that there may be a difference in the price if selecting another bundle and that all reserved orders will be charged upon shipment."

Despite the delay, Target is still pushing the bundle, while Best Buy has yet to update. They still show a release date of November 19.

Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 Remix Hits in 2014

Schweet.

At the D23 Expo in Japan (here I thought they just had it in Anaheim), Square Enix announced news that they've started work on Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMIX, and will launch it here in North America sometime in 2014.

The collection is similar to the 1.5 ReMIX recently released, in that it contains the Final Mix versions of Kingdom Hearts 2, the PSP game Birth By Sleep, and remastered cutscenes from Re:coded. I'm sincerely struggling to keep myself contained right now, I'll be quite honest.

Ah, maybe one. EEEEE!

That's better.

New Patch for GTA V Kills Farming Exploits for Online, Missing Characters Still a Problem

The new 1.03 patch for GTA V has been released, and will remove some farming exploits for the game's Online mode, according to VG247. The patch will settle in at 59 MB for the 360, and 39 MB for the PS3.

Specific details on the patch haven't been released, but according to commenters on a Rockstar Newswire post, the update closes off exploits performed through mission repeats.

The studio is also aware of Online characters disappearing from players' slots. They say the issue is connected to the cloud servers going down, and have since warned users from making a new character in its place. The solution?

“If you receive the message ‘The Rockstar Cloud Servers Are Unavailable’, please return to GTAV Story Mode and follow the steps above. Please do not press 'Retry' on the message and do not proceed online with saving disabled, as this may lead to overwriting your existing character. Do not create a new character in the empty slot where your character should be.”

Hoo boy. This reminds me that I should probably update our game at home ASAP. Hasn't been since we got it, and my brother just lost about 6 hours of gameplay last night when he booted up. 

-- Shack News, VG247, CVG

League of Legends World Championships

As someone who was able to attend the Semi-finals for the World Championships and watched most of the rest of it on the live streams and I must say it was amazing!

Not even taking into account the amazing level of play displayed by all teams from a players standpoint but as a spectator, it was something to see.

The venues whether the stage at Riot Studios, The Galen Center at USC, or eventually the Staples Center in Los Angeles were all prepared perfectly and adorned in League oriented awesomeness. The Life Size statues of Tryndamere, Katarina, Ziggs, and Ryze, the huge wall sized team vs posters and all the cosplayers made the event the place to be for anyone who loves the game.

Even despite some of the outrages prices, all of the merchandise was perfect for the event. From posters to t-shirts, jackets to plushies there was something for any league enthusiast.

And its impossible to mention the quality of coverage by Riot. Not only was the casting for the actual games spectacular, but the additional analyst desk something to watch! The funny yet informative commentary that came from the pro players and casters kept me and many other viewers stuck to the screen in between games to see what we had missed or misunderstood.

In reality there is way to much to say about Worlds then I could possibly mention in a reasonable length post. I will suffice to say that Worlds this year was amazing and it is something I will definitely strive to attend every year.

The Season Three World Champions are Korea's SK Telecom T1, and their victory was very well earned against China's Royal Club. For all coverage of the games and events at worlds go to the league champion series youtube page.

New Strider Reminds me of Sonic and Metroidvania - and I'm Okay With That

Lemme straighten out the title: Sonic, because you're running right at high speeds and attacking. Metroidvainia, because you're hunting for powerups within hidden rooms.

Okay, so it's not too much like Sonic, because of the hunting...and the...uh...searching, yeah, and the...[ahem]

Capcom's dropped another gameplay trailer with kinda more of the same since the initial launch trailer. Strider runs around, takes a few hits, dices fools and robots to keep moving, but he now has a sweet energy bird to get him to higher ground. Capcom also announced the game's being made available for $14.99, which should make it a download-only title.

The biggest fear I've got (and a lot of other folks have) is that this is being developed by Double Helix, the guys behind sorta 'meh' titles such as Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters, and Battleship. Basically, who you go to for movie tie-in stuff. But I can't lie to you: as a huge fan of the original Striders, the reboot looks great, and I'd love to give a demo a try if they push one out. I hope we don't get let down.

Anyone headed to the New York Comic Con will get to play this at Capcom's booth. Strider hits Xboxes, Playstations, and Windows PCs in 2014.

-- Destructoid

A Steep Slope: Another Chance at Glory !

The past few days I had begun to accept that Gold League would not know my name until next season, because season three was to end right after worlds this past weekend. I thought my quest had not only failed but not even come close as I am still only in Silver 3.

But another chance has arisen! Season three has been extended to October 31st, giving me another critical 22 days to complete the climb. 

So faithful readers join me in this last stretch ! I will be streaming the majority of it on my twitch.tv channel 

http://www.twitch.tv/amissus so if you feel like watching and cheering me on, let me know in my chat that you are there and where you came from !

Tomb Raider Headed to Mac Before Year's End

The reboot to the long running adventure series is arriving on Mac computers later this year through Feral Interactive, a Mac-based publisher. Release dates, cost, how the multiplayer works, if it will be on Steam, etc. will be revealed at a later time, according to the publisher's press release.

"We're excited to bring Tomb Raider to the Mac, and in doing so introduce a new audience to Lara Croft's original story," said Square Enix's head of product development Darrell Gallagher. "This is one more step on the road to achieving everything we wanted with the game."

Neat. It's great that Mac's are getting more attention as far as games go, and this is another worthy addition to the list.

-- Polygon

Sunset Overdrive Not Happening on PS4

And the collective Insomnia/Playstation fans let out a big, "Well, sh*t."

Insomniac Games' Paul Vitti responded to a forum post petitioning for a PS4 release of the upcoming Sunset Overdrive. He let 'em down gently.

"Sunset Overdrive is and will be a exclusive to the Xbox One. Petitions will not change that. We have a partner in Microsoft, that we are happy for this title. That doesn't mean we can't and won't work with other publishers (see Into the Nexus).

We realize that not everyone is happy it's exclusive. We hope the game speaks for itself though and the console becomes a nonissue."

There you have it. I hope we don't get another Bayonetta Incident on our hands, where people lose their collective sh*t over console exclusivity. I'd love to see SO on other consoles, including the Wii U. The game looks boss as hell. But with a new generation on the horizon, there's going to be more like these. I don't like it either, but that's the reality. People got to get paid.

Then again, devs have said this sort of stuff before...then the reverse happens.

[Also, can we agree that Sunset Overdrive is a sick title for a game? -DJR]

-- Insomniac Forums via Destructoid

A Steep Slope: Sometimes the slope isn't the only adversary

Well after an overextended break of about a week and a half (or maybe more), I am back. Stuff has been a bit crazy with league with the championships and all and my personal life got VERY busy there for a bit. And without going into detail between watching championships and my life, ranked league took a back seat to everything else and it shows.

The few games that I was able to play, actually did more harm then good and I deranked back to silver IV.
So I am going to keep working on it but seeing as only 7 days remain and honestly ranking up is a good amount of work with my current work and school schedule, gold may be unrealistic but I will still be going for it !
Stick with me people, even if I don't make it there are still lessons to be learned and slopes to be climbed !