Say What?! - Short Video Game News Clips

Afrooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! Not a bad game either by the way.

Sony Support Center: "We already have your money, now go away." - Some time this week the Playstation Network will be rebranded the Sony Entertainment Network, with a new terms of service and policy agreement with a specific clause that preorders placed through SEN cannot be canceled. "You may not cancel a preorder at any time, and refunds are not available for preorders, subject to applicable laws," says the fine print.

So let me get this straight, say if my kid gets a hold of my credit card (by whatever means), orders 5 or 6 games through the system, without my authorization, and I STILL have to swallow that? Oh hell no. This is going to cause some problems. For Sony. You greedy pricks. -

Honorable Intentions - Despite lukewarm sales and critical praise for the first game, word on the street is to expect a new Medal of Honor to be revealed possibly during the 2012 Game Developers Conference. The GDC will take place in San Francisco March 5-9. -

The Spawn of Respawn - Expect to see the first big release from Respawn Entertainment, the developer founded by former Infinity Ward studio heads Jason West and Vince Zampella, to hit some time around the March 2013.

As far as the duo's legal troubles go with Bobby Kotick and Activision, well, we're still waiting to hear something about that. -

Is Wastelander75 gonna hafta ChOklahoma a B$%ch? - .....Right here we go again with more bulls%it legislation on "Violent Video Games." Because a new Oklahoma Bill, titled HB #2696, would levy a 1 percent tax on any and all video games considered "violent" by this new bill. Not bothering to research what is considered a "violent" video game as outlined already by the ESRB, the bill clearly states that any game rated T through A is considered "violent" and susceptible to the bill's tax.

So let me get this straight; games like Guitar Hero, DJ Hero, The Sims 3, etc. Those are what you'd consider "violent" video games. Since, you know, they're all rated T for Teen. And I mean, ANY--thing rated T through A....they just HAVE to be violent right? Right?! GTFO. -

More News on Layoffs: Sega Australia and Eat, Sleep, Play - Not long after reporting the THQ layoffs and possible delisting from NASDAQ, it seems Sega's Australia branch is laying off 37 of its 80 employees there as the company goes through what it calls a "restructuring effort."

Meanwhile, Eat Sleep Play, the company that will soon be bringing you their updated Twisted Metal game, has laid off 8 employees with co-founder David Jaffe departing the company after it was reported that he and the company are "going down two separate paths." -

Unchartedly Evil - Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception is throwing out some DLC that's simply.....villainous.The Fort Co-op DLC will mark the first time in the series that players will be allowed to play as series antagonists Zoran Lazarevic', Eddy Raja and Harry Flynn as they join forces in this DLC adventure that further explores the mystery behind the Janus head statue from the on-disc co-op adventure.

Back to the Frontlines - Possible news that LucasArts and Spark Unlimited are currently working hard on the hotly anticipated 3rd installment in the critically acclaimed Battlefront series has begun to surface. According to recent tweets from both studios, a flurry of activity on both of their parts maybe hinting that it's not far off. Still a rumor of course, but a guy can dream. -

A Reckoning Has Come - Despite a very buggy demo release, early reports are showing that Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is garnering favorable reviews from the critics. Though from what I've seen, they're not perfect 10's and 5 out of 5 stars, it alleviates my fears of a bug-fest mess that the demo put there. So far the average review seems to give KoAR a decent 8 to 8.5 out of 10 score. -

Into the Great Wide Open - According to a recent Twitter feed, lead developer Jens Bergensten announced plans for an increased world height in Minecraft. Though he didn't say exactly when this would be, he did say that he already has a converter in place that would prevent the new height from destroying current maps. Jens confirmed that the new height would update current worlds by adding more air blocks on top, so current players won't have to restart a world to have this. -

February Releases Worth Noting:

The Darkness II - Feb. 7 - Xbox 360, PS3, Windows
Gotham City Imposters - Feb. 7 - PSN, Windows
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning - Feb. 7 - Xbox 360, PS3, Windows
Resident Evil: Revelations - Feb. 7 - 3DS
Shank 2 - Feb. 7 - PSN, Windows
Gotham City Imposters - Feb. 8 - XBLA
Shank 2 - Feb. 8 - XBLA
UFC: Undisputed 3 - Feb 14 - PS3, Xbox 360
Asura's Wrath - Feb. 21 - Xbox 360, PS3
Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater 3D - Feb. 21 - 3DS
Syndicate - Feb. 21 - PS3, Xbox 360, Windows
Alan Wake's American Nightmare - Feb. 22 - XBLA

A whole s**tload of PSVita games I'm not going to even try listing here. All of them hit Feb. 22

Binary Domain - Feb. 28 - Xbox 360, PS3
SSX - Feb. 28 - Xbox 360, PS3