Week In Review: 02/13

Another week, another Week in Review. Join us as we once again catch up on a week’s worth of video game news, plus a little GI mayhem to boot.

It looks like we might be coming out of the post-holiday drought. After last week’s less than stellar lineup, this week saw the release of two anticipated games, the perfectly average Dante’s Inferno, and the more enjoyable BioShock 2. We also posted our Heavy Rain review, although gamers still have awhile to wait until it comes out. In the meantime, you can also check out Miller’s feelings on the game – or the interactive film, as he sees it  (don’t worry, he means that in a good way).

This week marked the launch of Game Informer 2.1, the first of many improvements we have planned for the website. Check out Nick’s summary of all the new additions, which include a brand new video player and the ability to surf the site in the dark.

We also had some pretty cool exclusives this week, like our interview with Suda51, the man behind No More Heroes 2. We also got a rare look at the creation of Thane, one of the characters from Mass Effect 2, as well as the world of the Collectors – I didn’t read either of them, because I’m not that far in the game yet! We also posted a new edition of Respec Radio that discusses WoW's Icecrown, while our 16th episode of The Game Informer Show covered BioShock 2 and Dante’s Inferno. Additionally, Impulse Weekly covered Darwinia+ and Blaster Master Overdrive, and we posted our Wish List for a Borderlands sequel. Finally, this week’s edition of Replay traded in playing an old, beloved game for Jaws Unleashed. Tune in to hear Tim Turi babble incoherently about a shark car. Enough said? Let’s move on.

Industry news this week was dominated by Microsoft’s X10 conference, which included new information on pretty much all of the company’s most anticipated games. This link will take you to our main X10 page, where we’ve compiled all of our news stories related to the event. But be sure to definitely check out Tim and Dan’s hands-on impressions of Perfect Dark XBLA, Dead Rising 2, and the new Left 4 Dead 2 DLC. X10 also confirmed the previous rumor of an FFXIII Xbox 360 bundle. There were plenty of other announcements too, so check out that hub page!

Besides X10, the other news from this week was all about money. Square Enix announced it did well in 2009, about as well as XBLA did last year. We also found out that Dragon Age is a success, as is Forza 3. Neither can stand up to Assassin’s Creed 2 though, which in turn is nowhere near what the Gran Turismo series had made. None of that stopped Nintendo from dominating sales in January. Aren’t we supposed to be in a recession?

Actually, some companies are. While a few developers are making money hand over fist, other companies haven’t been so fortunate. Recent losses have caused EA to ditch the NCAA Basketball series for the time being,  and step back from distributing third party games in order to focus on its own internally developed titles. The company’s problems led one analyst to declare EA management’s credibility “Nonexistent." Harsh words, but EA hopes 2011 will be better, with new installments of Medal of Honor, NBA Jam, The Sims, and Spore, as well as the launch of Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Underwhelming sales is also causing Disney to narrow its focus, making fewer games for the PS3 and Xbox 360, while Activision announced it will drastically cut the number of Hero games for 2010, to just one Guitar Hero and one DJ Hero. At the same time Activision plans to continue releasing a new Call of Duty title every year. Will gamers get tired of the CoD franchise as well? Maybe, if Kotick's hints of a paid subscription for future sequels comes true. Either way, the next Call of Duty will be out in time for the holidays, as will a new Tony Hawk game. If those don't excite you, how about a new WoW expansion and StarCraft II? Both will be out in 2010, too.

Enough talk about recessions and belt-tightening – how about some good news? Reiner discovered a fix for the Modern Warfare 2 care package glitch was on the way, which has since been released. We also got more free Mass Effect 2 DLC this week, and learned that Bad Company 2 will have day one DLC. Seeing as how these are both EA games, it may mean lots of free DLC for BC2 too, but we’ll have to wait until March to find out. In the meantime, check out this developer tour of Bad Company 2’s Port Valdez.

We heard rumors about a Ghost Recon announcement coming this week, which became true and culminated in a teaser trailer. Finally, we learned about some pretty cool pre-order bonuses for Red Dead Redemption,  Yakuza 3, Crackdown 2, and God of War III.You can also find a new trailer for God of War III right here.

And we also learned of some new games, including Lego Star Wars III, which will be based on the Cartoon Network show, and a new Dragon Age game that's coming in 2011, and is completely different than the Awakening expansion, which we posted a trailer of this week as well. We also found out that RE favorites Rebecca Chambers and Barry Burton will be included in the upcoming Gold Edition of Resident Evil 5, and Ferraris are returning to Need for Speed via an 800 Microsoft Points DLC pack for Need for Speed Shift. That’s considerably cheaper than a real Ferrari, although they don’t impress the ladies in quite the same way either.

And now for the stories that have no segue: Heavy Rain developer Quantic Dream revealed it's working on a title that will use Sony’s motion controller. The folks at NeoGAF are making a game called Dudebro: My S*** Is F***ed Up So I Got To Shoot/Slice You II: It's Straight-Up Dawg Time, voiced by Duke Nukem actor Jon St. John. NASCAR driver Joey Logan is going to be racing a BioShock 2 car this weekend. And last but not least, you'll soon be able to buy WoW plushies, that come with codes for in-game virtual pets. Oh Blizzard, what will you think of next?

This concludes the Week in Review. To see what the crazy minds of GI’s staff dreamed up this week, check out Blog Herding, or read GI Staff Quotables #7 for examples of the nonsensical exclamations uttered in our hallowed halls. See you next weekend!