While many of you are disappointed with Gears of War 3's delay into the holiday 2011 period, these new multiplayer details are sure to brighten up your day.
News Blips:
Gears of War 3 will receive a multiplayer beta featuring dedicated servers early next year. At a recent press event, Epic showed off the game's multiplayer features for the first time, including social matches and host migration. "A big part of what we're trying to do is embrace the different play styles that people have, so this public beta is going to be a very big chance for us to throw it out in the wild and see how well we've met the needs of what players want in order to use different tactics," said Senior Designer Perry Lee in an interview with Joystiq. I'm relieved to see that Epic learned from past lessons. I haven't touched Gears of War 2 in a while due to its perplexing multiplayer woes. [ArsTechnica]
DreamWorks Pictures is rumored to be working on their own Halo film based on the franchise's novalizations. Vulture's "insiders" revealed that DreamWork's plan to utilize the novelizations is an attempt to skirt any legal entanglements with 20th Century Fox and Universal, the two studios that spearheaded the ill-fated Halo movie project back in 2006. As long as Steven Spielberg stays far away from it (Indiana Jones in a refigerator, anyone?), I'm perfectly fine with this.
Activision announces X-Men: Destiny. While not delving into specific details, the official press release hinted at a cast of "new mutant recruits" in a "rich, branching storyline that features a deep element of choice." That choice, predictably, involves each mutant's "ultimate control of their destiny." Although I'm "invariably pleased and excited" for a new X-Men game, the lack of details causes a "conflicting level of interest." Am I doing it right?
World of Warcraft, Blizzard's massively multiplayer mega-hit, has surpassed 12 million subscribers worldwide. In an official press release, Blizzard attributed the increased player count to the recent launch of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion pack in China in conjunction with mounting anticipation for Cataclysm, the newest expansion. For a game reaching its sixth year of operation, it certainly can rake in the numbers.
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