This Week in Gaming - The Lead up to E3

We are covering a bit over a week of gaming news and releases. Not only because I actually got last weeks article done earlier than usual, but due to technical issues it didn't get posted until a bit later and I wasn't able to get an article done that early this time. In a way, that's fortunate though as there weren't too many releases this week. With the lead up to E3 in a few days there is plenty of news.

Game Releases

Remember Me

Platform/s: PC, PlayStation3 and Xbox360.

Release date/s: June 3, for PC in North America, June 4 for Consoles in North America, June 6 in Australia, and June 7 in Europe.

Remember Me was developed by Dontnod Entertainment and published by Capcom.

Remember Me is an action-adventure stealth game and features exploration, platforming, stealth, and melee combat. As the name suggests the game is about memories and there are mechanics that allow the player to change and steal their targets memories. It is set in the year 2084 in a futuristic version of Paris.

The game allows players to create and customize their own combos with and their is said to be over 50,000 possible combinations.

Remember me has received mixed to positive reviews. Game rankings gives it a score of 69.78% for PC, 74.21% for PS3 and 68.63% for Xbox360.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Legendary Edition)

Platform/s: PC, PlayStation3, and Xbox360

Release date/s: June 4

As I'm sure most of you know, Skyrim is an action role-playing game by Bethesda, and the fifth installment in the Elder Scrolls series (which this site is named after)

The Legendary Edition contains the game with the 1.9 patch along with the 3 expansions or DLC (Dawnguard, Hearthfire and Dragonborn).

Since its initial release Skryim has been very well received. Game rankings gives it a score of 88% for PC, 94.42% for PS3, and 95.15% for Xbox360.

Animal Crossing: New Leaf

Platform/s: Nintendo 3DS

Release date/s: Released last year in Japan, February this year in Korea, June 9th in North America and to be released June 14 in Europe and June 15 in Australia.

Animal Crossing: New Leaf is the latest game in the Animal Crossing series. where the player lives in a rural village populated by anthropomorphic animals.

The game has revived very positive response, and has been praised for its use of the Nintendo 3DS's stereoscopic 3D effects. Gamerankings currently gives it a score of 86.60%

Gaming News and Announcements

With the Electronic Entertainment Expo (better known as E3) about to take place from June 11-13 a lot of gaming news has been coming out recently.

• Nintendo released an introductory trailer for New Super Luigi U, the clip shows how Luigi's unique moves compare to his brother Mario.
  
  
• Microsoft has released statements clearing up a few things about the Xbox One. Firstly whilst it doesn't always have to be online it does have to connect to the internet at least once every 24 hours and if it doesn't offline gaming won't be possible until a connection is re-established. Live TV, Blu-Rays and DVDs will still work. As for used games, they are leaving it up to the publishers for the most part. Publishers can enable you to trade in games at participating retailers, and retailers, publishers, nor consumers will be charged for this, however publishers can opt out of this and set up transfer fees with retailers if they desire.
  
• The first in a series of developer diaries for Assassins Creed IV: Black Flag has been released. Assassins Creed IV: Black Flag will be released for PC, PS3, Xbox360 and Wii U in North America on October 29, and will also be available on Playstation 4 and Xbox One.
  
  
• Nintendo has announced new animation software, Flipnote Studio 3D, will arrive in the North American 3DS eShop this August.
  
• An image that is believed to show several of the titles coming to the Xbox One has been leaked. (pictured to the right)
  
• Zynga, most famous for the facebook game Farmville, has closed its LA, New York, Austin and Dallas studios and is laying off 18 percent of its work force (an estimated 520 employees).
  
• Capcom has announced more plans for Ducktales Remastered (which is a remastered version of the classic NES game for WiiU, Xbox360, Playstation 3 and PC.)
  
  
• A new trailer for the upcoming game Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows has been released and introduces Donatello. You can watch it here.
  
• A new Wolfenstein game has been announced and is set to be released later this year. You can watch the trailer here.
  
• At a Pre-E3 press conference Konami offered more information on Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2. The sequel is set in modern day and will introduce an open world. You can watch the trailer here, but it does contain spoilers for the first game. The initial game is also coming to PC this August.
  
• The Los Angeles Convention Centre is displaying a huge Dark Souls 2 sign with March 2014 written on it. Namco Bandai have since confirmed that Dark Souls 2 is slated for release March 2014. There are also plans for a Dark Souls art book, Dark Souls: Design Works.
  
• Mortal Kombat's Scorpian is coming to DC's Injustice: Gods Among Us as a downloadable character.
  
  

There will be a heap of news coming out at E3 and we will be doing our best to cover anything interesting that comes out of that, but if you're really interested the press conferences will be live streamed, you can view a schedule for that here.

Weird Gaming News and Facts

• Not exactly weird news, but still interesting and worth mentioning a live-action fan-film has been made for The Legend of Zelda.
  
  
• Sorry to get back to Donkey Kong again after last week but in honor of Donkey Kong Country Returns Nintendo trademarked the phrase "its on like Donkey Kong."
  
• An image of a colour wheel consisting only of pokemon (pictured to the right) has been getting re-tweeted a lot in japan.
  
• Rockstar purposely paid a PR expert to cause controversy and get Grand Theft Auto negative press coverage in order to boost the games sales.
  
• Similarly Microsoft and Sony have reportedly been employing people to post on reddit in order to gain support for their next gen consoles and to attack their rival console. More details can be found at this topic.
  
• In Bioshock Infinite. the letter Elizabeth asks you to deliver (after being deciphered) says : I am a code. I should probably be changed over for something much more official in the future. But I'll do as a stand-in for now I suppose.
  
• Travis Touchdown of 'No More Heroes' is based on Johny Knoxville. The games director, Goichi Suda, would often show his staff a clip from jackass where a baby alligator bites Knoxvilles nipple, claiming "I wanted them to understand the kind of person that Travis is."
  
• Due to music licence expiration an Xbox Live Achievement for Rock Band 3, "Live Free or Die" will be unavailable after June 30 when one of the free songs needed for the achievement will be removed. The removal of songs does not effect users who have already purchased or downloaded those tracks though so you can download. The other six tracks that will be dropped on June 30 are currently on sale for $1, half their usual price.