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GTA 4 Iron Man mod is flying into buildings


Grand Theft Auto 4 has been host to many excellent mods in the past, such as one in which R2-D2 destroys Liberty City. In this case, YouTube user taltigolt recently showed off a video that showcaes improvements made to a complete GTA 4 mod that places Iron Man in the heat of the action.

Not only does the video show Iron Man flying around the city and smashing into buildings, but he destroys police cars with ease by raising his arms. The modding crew also uploaded an album with Tony Stark in the game to their Facebook page. Unfortunately, the video features no sound at the request of another GTA 4 modder. Just imagine various crunch and explosion sound effects while you watch it.

Heavy Gear Assault adds single-player, Oculus Rift to Kickstarter



Heavy Gear Assault has swapped out its parts and announced new goals for its fundraising project, including single-player episodes and Oculus Rift support. Stompy Bot Productions is looking to raise $800,000 on Kickstarter and has donation options on its own site. Currently the game has generated $26,000 with 33 days to go on Kickstarter.

At $800,000, Heavy Gear Assault will now get episode one of an offline, single-player campaign. Episode two is a stretch goal of $900,000, episode three is at $950,000, and at $1 million, Stompy Bot will throw together a single-player/co-op mission generator.

This weekend, Stompy Bot announced Heavy Gear Assault will support Oculus Rift, but has yet to divulge information regarding a development schedule or how that affects fundraising.

MMO Week in Review: The planet of galactic peace

STO
At the end of every week, we round up the best and most popular news stories, exclusive features, and insightful columns published on Massively and then present them all in one convenient place. If you missed a big MMO or WoW Insider story last week, you've come to the right post.

Three-year-old Star Trek Online loosed its Legacy of Romulus expansion this week, carrying with it the thrills of a third faction and the annoyances of extended downtime. Also? Lockboxes. Massively covered the expansion with a content roundup, an interview with Cryptic's Dan Stahl, and a primer to catch returnees up on the newness.

Read on for a look at the rest of this past week's top MMO stories.

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Indie demos Ouya in UK Game store: Positive reactions, poor pre-orders

Indie demos Ouya in UK's Game store Positive reactions, no preorders
The Ouya remains a gray area in terms of profit for developers – it's still technically not available to the public, though plenty of Kickstarter backers and indies have consoles. To test out the Ouya's potential, real-world audience, UK developer James Coote took his dev kit to a local Game store and set up a demo station. After all, the Ouya is an "open" console and devs don't have to deal with any NDAs or legalese before showing it off publicly.

Coote worked with Game employees to set up a demo station on an old PS3 stand, and he spent the day showing off his own game and others on the Ouya. The tiny box wasn't connected to the internet, so players had a choice of games Coote had pre-loaded.

"The Ouya has also been criticised for having a laggy UI, but since there was no need to exit the game library and navigate around the rest of the UI, that particular problem didn't come up at all," Coote said.

Overall, the demo was a success, Coote said – though he didn't receive the foot traffic he had anticipated and he was "quite poor" at convincing anyone to throw down £10 for an Ouya pre-order.

"People responded really positively to the live demonstration, whether they were just watching myself or others play, or actively trying it out themselves," Coote said. "Also, not only being able to respond to customers' questions directly, but not being directly affiliated with Ouya, I was able to honestly address some of Ouya's shortcomings, which helped build trust and a rapport with customers."

Read all about Coote's experience with the Ouya at a brick-and-mortar store, and his thoughts for the console's future, right here.

PSA: First-person mountain adventure, AscendAoN, free to climb



Where we are, the summer sun has been sizzling the sidewalks, melting our lip balms and turning our cars into ovens pre-heated enough for a handful of full-sized turkeys – and it's not even June. We could use a break from the heat already, and AscendAoN looks to be our respite. It's a snowy mountain-climbing adventure game featuring a grappling hook and rope, and it's out now for free on Indie DB.

"Use your trusty Grapple Gun and Rock Climbing Rope to scavenge for resources scattered around the environment and reach the top of the mountain to radio for help ... but from whom?" the AscendAoN description reads. We don't care who helps us, as long as the rescue kit includes a tall pitcher of lemonade.

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Crowdfund Bookie, May 19 - 25: ANNE, Jagged Alliance, Ghost of a Tale

The Crowdfund Bookie crunches data from select successful Kickstarter and Indiegogo campaigns that ended during the week and produces pretty charts for you to look at.

This week in crowdfunding, the Kickstarter campaigns for ANNE, Jagged Alliance: Flashback, Magnetic by Nature, Theme Park Studio, an adventure mode for Guns of Icarus Online, Dog Sled Saga as well as the Indiegogo campaign for Ghost of a Tale came to a close.

Jagged Alliance: Flashback earned the most money this week ($368,614), and had the most backers of the group, with 7,167 people funding the project. Theme Park Studio boasted the highest average pledge per person, with each funder averaging a $53.81.

Take a gander at the results and our fancy charts after the break.

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Sucker Punch scans random faces for crowds in Infamous: Second Son

Sucker Punch scans random faces for crowds in Infamous Second Son
Sucker Punch uses real-life extras to populate the city of Seattle in Infamous: Second Son – developers recruited 75 friends, family members and professionals over three days to sit in front of a complex camera installment, absolutely still, while the lenses strobed out layers of their faces. With friends like Sucker Punch, who needs seizure medication? Everyone, probably.

There's a visual breakdown of Sucker Punch's scanning process on Game Informer. Or, if you're patient, just buy an Xbox One later this year and sit really still in front of that always-on Kinect camera – and maybe you'll spot your own fine face in a next-gen crowd. (You probably won't. We hope.)

Lego Marvel Super Heroes adds Venom, Human Torch to the roster

Venom and The Human Torch both playable in Lego Marvel Super Heroes
Lego Marvel Super Heroes will feature Venom and the Human Torch when the game launches this fall for Xbox 360, PS3, PC, Wii U, Vita and 3DS. TT Games Producer Phil Ring announced the character additions at MCM Comic Con in the UK, according to a series of tweets from TT Games employees.

Lego Marvel Super Heroes has an original storyline starring Nick Fury, Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, Spider-Man, Wolverine and others, all battling Loki and Galactus, and all in Lego form. The game stars over 100 unlockable characters from the Marvel universe, so staples such as Venom and the Human Torch are just the beginning.

[Thanks, Jason!]

Molyneux's Curiosity cube concludes [Update: Winner's video added]


22 Cans' Curiosity: What's Inside the Cube ended today, revealing a live stream of tweets using the hashtag #whatsinsidethecube to the public. Peter Molyneux noted via Twitter that the last person to chip away at the cube is located in the UK, and was the sole person to see what's actually at the middle of the cube, which is seemingly a link to a video and more than just a collection of tweets.

"The winner should have a message on their cube now!!! Asking them to email a special email address, hope they share," Molyneux tweeted.

Curiosity launched in November 2012 on the App Store, and had players around the globe chipping away at pixel-like squares on the multi-layered cube to collectively get to its core. We will update as we learn what was really inside the cube, providing the winner decides to share it with the world.

Update: The video given to the winner of Curiosity has been shared by Molyneux and 22 Cans, and can be seen above.

Update 2: Spoiler alert! The prize for the winner of Curiosity, as outlined in the video by Molyneux himself, is that they "will be the god of all people that are playing Godus. You will intrinsically decide the rules that the game is played by." Godus is a god game in development by 22 Cans, which received over $852,000 in Kickstarter funding for the project in late December 2012.

Molyneux added that the winner, a certain Bryan Henderson of Edinburgh, Scotland, will also "share in the success of the product," in that "every time people spend money on Godus, [he] will get a small piece of that pie." Molyneux said he'll reveal details on how the prize will be carried out at a later date.

Company of Heroes 2 cinematic trailer keeps good company

Image This cinematic trailer for Company of Heroes 2 shows soldiers discussing the price of victory in war. The game will launch June 25 on PC. ... Continue Reading

Weekly Webcomic Wrapup is The One

Apologies to Microsoft, but it's impossible for us to hear "Xbox One" and not think of that amazingly terrible movie starring Jet Li. With the way Microsoft continues to compete for that fictitious "lone spot" in the living room, comparisons between The One and the Xbox One seem fitting, though.

Last week, we tried naming the recently-announced system and were way off. This week, we need your help in figuring out what to call the console without referring to it as "Xbone," because that's just ridiculous. No, we don't want to call it "the One," either. While you help us figure out a sensible abbreviated name for the system, check out last week's webcomics and vote for your favorite after the break!

World of Disney (Virtual Shackles)
The Truth About Zebes (Brawl in the Family)
Interloper (Penny Arcade)
Hate Week (Life in Aggro)
If New Game Console Reveals Were Honest (Dorkly)
Kinect One (Dave the Direman)
Way Past Cool (Nerd Rage)
Chocoho (Corpse Run)

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New Dragon's Crown trailers continue to wreck beasts

Image These latest Dragon's Crown trailers showcase the various ways in which the Dwarf and Elf characters are equipped to burn pig-men and mess up skeleton junk like nobody's business. ... Continue Reading

Microsoft files to claim Xboxone.com, .net from UK resident

It's difficult to register a domain without it quickly becoming a matter of public record, which may be why Microsoft has waited until now to try and secure ownership of Xboxone.com and Xboxone.net, according to Fusible.

The megalithic company has filed a dispute (case #1501205) with the National Arbitration Forum – the company that resolves reports of domain squatting and trademark infringement in URLs, in order to gain control of the two address that have, until now, been controlled by an unnamed resident of the United Kingdom.

In order for Microsoft to win its dispute, it'll need to prove to the NAF that the domains are identical and/or confusingly similar to a trademark that Microsoft owns, that this random person in the UK has no rights to the Xbox One trademark and that the domains in question were registered in bad faith.

Samus and Link Figma figures articulating stateside this fall

Samus and Link Figma figures articulating stateside this fall
Remember that totally boss Metroid: Other M-style Samus action figure that Figma put into production last year, and how it was only sold in Japan? Well, no longer will you have to go to great personal expense to buy one in a used games store in Akihabara – not that any of us have done that or anything.

Varia Feature Samus, fabric-doesn't-work-that-way Zero Suit Samus and Skyward Sword-era Link are all receiving new production runs for sale in the US this fall, though no specific release date has been given. Varia Samus and Link can both be pre-ordered for about $50 a pop, while Zero Suit Sammy rings up at a whopping $100.

More Neo Geo X classics arriving June 6

Those looking to play some new games on their Neo Geo X consoles can now preorder five volumes on Amazon for $25 each that, in total, include 15 of the system's classic games. Neo Geo X owners also have the option to pay $80 for a Mega Pack that contains all 15 games. The game packs will be available on June 6, according to Amazon's listings.

While we knew these games were coming, here's how they are spread out across the five volumes:
  • Volume 1: Sengoku, Metal Slug 2, Top Hunter
  • Volume 2: Samurai Shodown 3, Savage Reign, Super Sidekicks 3
  • Volume 3: The King of Fighters '96, Blazing Star, Kizuna Encounter
  • Volume 4: Garou: Mark of the Wolves, Shock Troopers, World Heroes 2 Jet
  • Volume 5: The Last Blade, Blue's Journey, Art of Fighting 3

Yahoo buys social gaming software company PlayerScale

Yahoo buys social gaming software company PlayerScale
While Yahoo was in the news recently for its acquisition of Tumblr, it was also busy buying up another company this week: PlayerScale. PlayerScale's CEO Jesper Jensen announced the company's acquisition on its official site.

Founded in 2011, PlayerScale creates software that aids developers in scaling their games across social, mobile and casual platforms, including XBLA, Facebook, the iOS App Store and Google Play market. Its service has over 150 million users across 4,000 titles, according to the company's site. Hard numbers on how much Yahoo spent to pick up PlayerScale, as well as Yahoo's plans for social gaming going forward have yet to be revealed.

Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers possesses Europe September 13


NIS America is bringing the updated 3DS version of Atlus' classic 1997 Sega Saturn RPG Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers to Europe this fall on Friday, September 13. The game's labyrinthine dungeons and too-cute-for-their-own-good demonfolk were already released stateside last month and in Japan last August.

We had our souls hacked once, it was this whole big mess – had to cancel all our karma cards, get new Spiritual Security Numbers from the Spiritual Security Administration; it was awful. Nowadays, we keep our souls locked in a safe at the bottom of a well filled with concrete and ghosts.

Microsoft wants to sell another 25 million Xbox 360 consoles

Microsoft wants to sell another 25 million Xbox 360 consoles
Despite all this Xbox One whoopla going on, Microsoft hasn't forgotten about its other horse in this console dog and pony show. In fact, the company hopes to continue to move substantial numbers of the Xbox 360 over the next five years, according to senior vice president of Interactive Entertainment Yusuf Mehdi.

"We believe over the next five years we can break a 100 million unit installed base," Medhi said during an interview with OXM. "That's something we're shooting for, it's not a financial plan as such, it's just rough numbers if you will. To sell another 25 million, half of those will probably come from replacements, but half will come from new buyers."

"The way we'll break into those segments," he continued, "is by hitting new price points, getting new classes of entertainment to come with the Xbox, and breaking into new customer segments." We're not quite sure what a new class of entertainment for the Xbox might mean, or what customer segments remain untapped after such a long console cycle, but "new price points" sure does pique our interest.

Mega Man X coming to Wii U Virtual Console on May 30


Nintendo recently posted a trailer for Mega Man X to its YouTube channel showing the game in action on the Wii U Game Pad. The SNES game will launch on the Wii U Virtual Console next week, on May 30, to be exact.

Meanwhile, Super Metroid is still 30 cents, the service will see more Game Gear titles and Earthbound is coming this year. We're just saying, the Wii U's Virtual Console offerings are looking pretty hot right about now.

Splinter Cell: Blacklist co-op developer diary works together

Image This developer diary video for Splinter Cell: Blacklist explores the characters that players can use in the game's co-op missions. The game is coming to Wii U, PS3, Xbox 360 and PC on August 20. ... Continue Reading

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Quotable

'You know what? We're Blacklist, let's try to build on it.'

— Splinter Cell: Blacklist Producer Sébastien Ebacher on evolving Spies vs. Mercs multiplayer.

The Joystiq Podcast

The Joystiq Podcast

Super Joystiq Podcast 051: Xbox One continued, impressions and interviews from Redmond

Latest episode: Friday, May 24th, 2013

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