EA Apologizes for SimCity

Feeling sore about the SimCity debacle? A free game is just what you need!

Saints Row Four-some!

OH MY GOD THE AMAZING-NESS!

Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja Storm 3: Housemate League!

The Done Did It Household are wrapped up in an epic struggle to see which housemate will be crowned the victor! 

Thief 4 details teased by Game Informer

Thi4f images teased and due date hinted at, Game Informer to show more details in April Issue

Done Did It Games - March

We're still not done with Februarys games yet but heads up we have some more games coming out this Month!

Microsoft pursue online leaker with WA Police

Western Australian police raid Internet leaker SuperDaE with a warrant from Microsoft itself and the FBI.

Indie game finds success through Pirates

While most game developers struggle with the online Pirate scourge, indie game makers Sean H. and Jon K. have turned the tide.

Leaked : PS4 Controller Prototype

Sources confirm that this leaked image is in fact the PlayStation 4 controller, albeit an early prototype

Batman: Arkham City sequel coming in 2013

Time Warner management confirms that a Batman: Arkham city sequel will be released in 2013

When the Saints go marching

Rumors of Saints Row 4's release date, and confirmation that it will be in 2013

Class is now in session.... A Minecraft session that is

On Tuesday 29th of January, professor Jeffery Brand taught his class at the Gold Coast's Bond University in a rather odd location. A recreation of their entire university within a Minecraft server.


The University in Minecraft form

 "On day one this semester, I introduced my students to the world," Brand said in a recent interview with Polygon. "I asked them to do three things on the welcome sign under the Arch Building: 1) Build Bond, 2) Make Books, 3) Play Nice."
Over the course of two weeks, his class had extensively recreated the university, even filling chests with books within the library. The students even went as far as to create a dungeon beneath the school holding a nether portal, which they "affectionately" labelled "The effects of video game violence".

Tropical Cyclone Oswald flooded the campus earlier last week, so Professor Brand asked the class to join him in the Minecraft server for their Tuesday lesson. With a combination of Minecraft, Slide shows and Instant Messengers, Brand took the class through their course as usual. Brand handed out Experience points to the class for correct answers, some students making it as far as level 26 before the lesson was over, the students setting off fireworks as they left.

The idea to recreate the class in Minecraft was inspired by Mojang's newest project "Block by Block". Back in September 2012, Block by Block was developed in collaboration with UN Habitat as a tool to educate children on their environment and community. "Block by Block aims to involve youth in the planning process in urban areas by giving them the opportunity to show planners and decision makers how they would like to see their cities in the future." was the official statement via Mojangs site.

The story is an exceptional double win, bringing gaming into the spotlight for positive reasons (which is a nice change) showing its uses within the education system, as well as showing the creativeness, ambition and flexibility of Australian Universities. Even if some of the students did walk around wielding TNT...

- Welsh 01/02/13

Sources:

1. http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/121802-Australian-University-Holds-Class-in-Minecraft
2. http://www.polygon.com/2013/1/30/3935576/bond-university-conducts-class-through-minecraft-after-flood-damage
3. http://www.mojang.com/2012/09/mojang-and-un-presents-block-by-block/

The Walking Dead coming to Australian consoles

Good things do indeed come to those who wait. Telltale games held off on releasing The Walking Dead game on PSN and Xbox Live in Australia for a while now, but now that wait is over thanks to the arrival of our R18+ rating. The following statement was recently released by Telltale games on the subject;

"Telltale can confirm today that the award-winning game series The Walking Dead was submitted to the Australian Classification Board and has received a rating of MA15+. The game will be available for purchase digitally on consoles via Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network very soon, and we will confirm expected release dates shortly. Retail release dates for The Walking Dead on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC in Australia will also be announced in the coming weeks."

Telltale announced that it would not be releasing console versions of the game, in Australia and New Zealand, in April last year due to our lack of an adults-only rating on our games. Not wanting another Left 4 Dead 2 fiasco, they held off on the console release until now, which some are claiming was pointless as it only got the MA15+ rating, but you can't blame them for making sure.

The game has been available on PC through loopholes in steam and on line downloads, so some of us here at Done Did It have already played through the emotion-straining game, but for those who have waited patiently (hungry for those achievements girl) the exciting news is a huge relief. Just a few more weeks....

- Welsh 24/01/13

Sources:

• http://www.capsulecomputers.com.au/2013/01/the-walking-dead-game-gets-rating-in-australia/
• http://au.gamespot.com/news/telltales-the-walking-dead-coming-to-australia-6402694

Microsoft sheds a little light

Microsoft has stepped up during Samsungs keynote speech at this years CES to reveal a project of theirs that could change the perception of "bigger is better" with tv screens.

Enter Illumiroom, an experimental project that augments the area around your screen with in game projections to enhance the experience.

What? Yeah it's a little odd of a concept, but just look at the proof of concept trailer below to get the gist of it,

Illumiroom will use a combination of a rear mounted projector and the kinect sensor, to sort out the size of your room and what needs to be projected where.

Microsoft patented an immersive display experience last year, with the hopes to make gaming "more realistic" by elminating exterior out of context images, and now it would seem that they have reached this goal with the illumiroom.

Comparisons are being made to the "ambilight technology" from a few years back, where TVs would project coloured lights depending on what was on the screen at the time. It wasn't a neccessity but it was a nice touch. Illumiroom on the other hand seems to show actual in game footage and effects on your back wall.

They are still a little way off having this product ready for purchase, and it is still isn't known whether this will tie in with the next xbox or future kinect technology, but Microsoft plans to reveal more information in Paris later on in the year at the ACM SIGCHI Conference in April. (Assocaiton for Computing Machinery Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction).

As an avid gamer, and a heavy consumer of television shows and movies, I am very keen to see how this technology pans out across the board. Keener still to see how it works when you already use a projector!

- Welsh 10/01/13

Sources:

• http://www.kotaku.com.au/2013/01/microsofts-illumiroom-xbox-360-project-makes-your-tv-size-irrelevant/
• http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/01/09/ces-microsoft-illumiroom-makes-your-room-a-screen
• http://au.gamespot.com/news/microsoft-reveals-new-xbox-illumiroom-concept-6402178
• http://d1vr6n66ssr06c.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/illumiroom.jpg

LEGO MARVEL GAME ANNOUNCED!



The next cover of Game Informer

 That should be enough, shouldn't it? Just telling you that this game is being made, should be enough good news for this week, but nonetheless I will tell you what I know, just to make it even better!

Warner Bros. has announced that a Marvel LEGO game is to be made, LEGO Marvel Superheroes coming to us later this year. We have already seen such iconic franchises as Star Wars, Lord of the Rings and DC converted into colourful building block form but this is the first time that Marvel characters will receive the treatment.

The game will have a brand new storyline, wherein Nick Fury calls upon the help of such heroes as Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, Captain America, Spiderman, Wolverine, yeahhhh you get the picture, to save Earth from such powers as Loki, and Galactus the Devourer of worlds.

In true LEGO game form, LEGO Marvel Superheroes will have the most characters ever in a console game boasting over 100 playable characters from all areas of the Marvel Universe, and the family friendly action packed puzzle solving is obviously going to remain, along with endless collectibles.

Players will brave the ultimate mission to save the universe, in a LEGO-fied version of New York, along with a selection of Iconic locations from the Marvel universe.

More news will be coming out with the next release of Game Informer, the cover of which can be seen above.

Just quietly, I'm still fangirling like crazy over this announcement :D

- Welsh 09/01/13

Sources:

• http://www.superherohype.com/images/stories/2013/January/gameinformerbig.jpg
• http://www.comingsoon.net/news/gamenews.php?id=98628
• http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/01/08/lego-marvel-super-heroes-announced

Game Over for Registered Sex Offenders

New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced yesterday through his site that companies including THQ and Funcom have joined Operation Game Over and pledged to remove the accounts of registered sex offenders from their games. The newest lot of 2000 or so offenders have had their accounts removed, joining the 3,500 removed earlier in the year by companies such as Microsoft, Apple, Blizzard and Sony.

According to Schneiderman “The Internet is the crime scene of the 21st century, and we must ensure that online video game platforms do not become a digital playground for dangerous predators. That means doing everything possible to block sex offenders from using gaming systems as a vehicle to prey on underage victims. I applaud the online gaming companies that have purged registered sex offenders from their networks in time for the holiday season. Together, we are making the online community a safer place for the children of New York.”

New York State has introduced an Act that says convicted sex offenders must register all of their e-mail address, screen names, and other Internet identifiers with the state. Operation Game Over is the first time that the act, labelled e-STOP, has been applied to online gaming platforms.

The United States has approximately 750,000 offenders total, 34,000 of which are in New York alone. Operation Game Over continues its aim of protecting children from sexual predators online, and paves the way for other countries to introduce the same procedure. Australia had over 17,000 acts of sexual assault in 2010 alone.

Godus reaches Kickstarter goal

With just under a day left of their Kickstarter project Godus, 22 Cans headed and founded by Ex-Lionhead Studios Lead Designer Peter Molyneux, has exceeded their goal of 450,000 Pounds by almost 50,000.

Godus is a spiritual successor to the famed Black and White series, published by Molyneux and Lionhead. The game will task players with reigning over a world, and being a deity to a race of people much in the same way that Black and White did. The team are hoping to bring god-based gameplay to a whole new generation of players, claiming that they want "to make gaming meaningful".

With the funds raised so far, they have promised an extra 3 single player and multiplayer game modes, a social feature where you can create your own sect online, they have secured BAFTA winner James Leach who wrote the Black and White series to write the game. If another 2000 can be raised in the last 16 hours then they will also include a Multi-player and obsession mode in the final game.

You can follow the end of the project or donate to it with the link here.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/22cans/project-godus

THQ Ensures That It's Titles Will Still Hit The Market

THQ has consolidated with an investor, Clearlake, and revealed that Clearlake are interested in buying majority of THQ's components. That is: the developing teams, THQ titles, scripts and all copyrighted material, and even current projects with their contractual ties. Clearlake is providing the opportunity for THQ to rebuilt it's company from the debt that it currently faces, as Clearlake is providing enough money for current THQ projects to be finished and released to the market. Clearlake is even looking at providing a large enough investment in THQ to subsidize future planned THQ titles.

Bankruptcy however is a necessary step for THQ to continue and successfully rebuilt itself. The term, despite its traditional negative connotation, should in fact bring joy to the fans of THQ rather than fear. By launching applications for Bankruptcy the company will be able to rebuilt itself, with the help of investors such as Clearlake, rather than being forced to liquidize the company.

Ultimately once the public is able to clear speculation, and with a little education on fiancee  majority of the public will be able to rejoice at the opportunity that was given to THQ to continue to impress us with its outstanding game history.

Done Did It looks forward to more titles such as Saint's Row, Dawn of War and Company of Heroes.

- Murray of D.D.I

Source: Luke Plunkett, Kotaku, <http://www.kotaku.com.au/2012/12/thqs-boss-explains-in-plain-english-what-the-hell-happened-to-his-company-today/>