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Southend Interactive, the development studio behind XBLA darling ilomilo and newly released Sacred Citadel has split with it’s former parent company, Tactel Holding AB, a Swedish IT consulting firm. As reported …
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The long-delayed Skullgirls patch that originally arrived on the PlayStation Network way back on November 20 of last year should finally be available on Xbox Live Arcade within the next two weeks, Lab Zero Games has informed XBLAFans. Lab Zero has been working on getting the “Slightly Different” patch onto XBLA for months, but its enormous original size (590 MB) thwarted the developer’s previous efforts to release it.

“So, if all goes well, the Skullgirls Xbox 360 patch should finally be out soon,” Lab Zero CEO Peter Bartholow said via email. “We won’t know exactly when it goes out – [Microsoft says] it’ll take two weeks, but [Microsoft] actually estimated that it would likely only take one.”

The patch is currently going through Microsoft’s certification process and cannot release unless it successfully passes. “But we don’t expect it to fail,” said Bartholow in response to a follow-up email from XBLA Fans. XBLA gamers’ prolonged wait for the patch should be over once it is finally certified. “As soon as it passes certification it will be pushed out,” Bartholow asserted.

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Telltale Games’ downloadable poker extravaganza Poker Night 2 is well on its way to an April release. In the meantime, the folks behind the scenes have release a brand new trailer showcasing the many unlockables, collectibles and other attainable schwag stuffed with licensed goodness. The cross-promotional voodoo will allow you to customize your character in Borderlands 2 with a variety of aesthetic touches pulled from the other members seated at your virtual table.

Poker Night 2 features Brock, the berserk bodyguard formerly in the employ of Dr. Venture of Adult Swim’s The Venture Bros. Filling the remaining seats are Claptrap of Borderlands fame, Ash from Army of Darkness and the six-foot anthropomorphic canine with a nose for crime, Sam, of Sam & Max. Dealing the cards and high-stakes action is none other than GLaDOs, the murderous artificial intelligence.

In addition, Poker Night 2 offers platform-exclusive rewards for in-game play. Players who clean out the house on Xbox Live Arcade will be treated to a variety of avatar gear to deck out your digital self. Still not enough freebies? Well, Poker Night 2 features in-game unlockables to boot, allowing you customize nearly every aspect of the game as you play against the odds in Texas Hold ‘Em and Omaha poker. To take a peek at everything that’s on the table, check out the trailer after the jump.

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Dave Tach at Polygon summarized a press release by toy manufacturer Jazwares that they will be producing a variety of Minecraft toys, including “action figures, plush, and paper craft …
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The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing touts everything you’ve come to know and expect from an action-RPG. It’s loaded with skills and spells, collectible weapons and armor, quests and discoveries. Sure, it’s reminiscent of those that have come before but, Van Helsing is its own beast, steeped in rich lore with enough innovation to strike out on its own. But what’s so incredible about the adventures of Van Helsing?

“The atmosphere, I think it’s very special,” says Linda Bozoradi, one half of the public relations conduit for Neocore Games. The other is Orsolya Toth, and both have been leading us through the brooding introduction to Van Helsing.

“A steampunk universe in an action-RPG is not a common thing,” Toth states. She’s not wrong. The world of Van Helsing is a strange one. Stuck somewhere between the mystical ways of the old world and the mechanical wonders of modernization.

The cinematic prologue sets the stage as a winding red line curves across a parchment map of Europe. It snakes through Paris, Venice, around the southern tip of Greece and through Istanbul. Each location accompanied by brief descriptions and hand-drawn renditions of an encounter in the region: Gaston the Butcher, The Shadow Casino, the Crimean War Dragon and The Krakken. As the latest in the long line of monster-hunting Van Helsings, our protagonist narrates these adventures, revealing his current assignment in the form of a mysterious letter asking for his family’s famed assistance in the land of Borgovia.

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What we are playing is a weekly column published on Sunday. Select members of the team talk about the games they’ve been playing over the past week and which they’re …
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Official word on Microsoft’s next-generation Xbox — believed to be codenamed Durango — is expected to come out during the May 21 Xbox event with more details to follow at the company’s pre-E3 press conference in June. Last month, Pete Isensee, principle program manager at Microsoft Xbox, told UBM Tech that, “In many ways, the next generation is already here in the form of natural user interfaces powered by Kinect.” Naturally, Microsoft wants to keep the focus on the Xbox 360, the Kinect sensor and titles shipping on the system; however, plenty of rumors have been popping up as the reveal grows ever closer.

One of the most controversial rumors is the Durango’s supposed “always on” requirement. Meaning an internet connection is required to boot any application or game. Allegedly trustworthy sources tell Kotaku the “always on” requirement was still planned as recently as March. They also said a network troubleshooter will display if the system loses connection for more than three minutes during a session.

The good news is nothing is official. It could be that “always on” doesn’t affect games at all. With the poor consumer reaction and Sony officially stating the PS4 needs no internet connection in order to be used, it’ll be interesting to see what Microsoft does.

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God Mode released onto XBLA yesterday for 800 MSP. The game which is being described as a third-person shooter with RPG elements, is said to combine non-linear gameplay, fast and …
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Sega of America has released new screenshots and an extended version of a trailer teased earlier this month for Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse.  The game, described as a “complete re-imagining” of the original released in 1990 on the Sega Genesis, will join the already announced Ducktales Remastered for a summer 2013 launch on digital platforms, including XBLA.  With any luck, this trend of Sega and Disney teaming up will continue and bring even more classics out of the vault.

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Xbox LIVE Gold has been unlocked today in the U.S., Latin America, Japan and Canda. All Xbox owners in these regions will now have access to online multiplayer gaming, …
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