Grab your battle rifle and don your Spartan armor — Master Chief is back in action. 343 Industries released their first “Making of” video for Halo 4 earlier this week, containing an extremely brief look at in-game footage. Highlights include a revamped HUD geared toward establishing a sense of looking out through Master Chief’s visor, a significant focus on multiplayer (no surprise there), and a storyline heavily focused on Master Chief’s character development. Halo 4 news will begin to ramp up in the near future, as the game is believed to be scheduled for a holiday 2012 release.
In other gaming news this week, we touch on new offerings from the Metal Gear Solid, Silent Hill, and Resident Evil franchises, Valve’s top-secret gaming console project, Mass Effect 3, and more.
- Konami is actively recruiting for a new Metal Gear Solid game. “Snake?! SNAAAAKE!!!”
- It’s been a few days since Mass Effect 3 released and it’s getting some very mixed reviews. Industry reviews have been overwhelmingly positive, but some anti-Bioware trolls (many homophobic and “protesting” the inclusion of a gay relationship choice in-game) have taken it upon themselves to vote the title down on Metacritic. We stand behind our commander in the flamewars. Read our tips for playing Mass Effect 3.
- After 13 years, Everquest, the game that made MMORPGs cool (or at least, mainstream), is going free-to-play on March 15.
- Developer Playdead is looking to take indie game sensation Limbo mobile. No word on whether the mobile version will include a flashlight:
- In an intriguing bit of news for EVE Online players, CCP’s Dust 514 will be free-to-play.
- The Verge reports that Valve is looking to revolutionize PC gaming with a high-end console tentatively code-named ‘Steam Box’. We, for (a collective) one, hope that name changes.
- the Silent Hill HD Collection launches on March 20, and contains remastered versions of Silent Hill 2 and 3. Personally, we’re more excited for the remakes than for the all-new Silent Hill: Downpour, which launches March 13.
- Doom 4 screenshots have purportedly leaked. The lighting and graphics appear to be a step forward from Doom 3. As in, id actually included lighting this time.
- Weekly zombie alert: Capcom’s latest Resident Evil offering hits the shelves in March for consoles and May for PCs.
- And finally, get ready to get your post-apocalyptic desert wasteland back on. Borderlands 2 launches on September 18.
If there are games you’d like us to cover or blogs you think we should be following for more news, please let us know @tdelucci or @pritpaulbains.
