News Snatch: Knighting Of The Noobs

A blog spotted by Internet super sleuth Superannuation has revealed that the forthcoming Bungie game, Destiny, is “still quite like Halo” and has nice trees. It also has particles, dynamic lighting and shooting and I would hazard a guess that it also has “characters” and “things to do” as well. Of more interest is the weird cult at Bungie HQ:

“The day started in the Bungie offices (a converted cinema) with a bizarre ‘Knighting of the Noobs’ ceremony, where anyone who started at Bungie within the last 6 months was presented with a signed wooden sword, and asked to kneel in front of Harold Ryan (President) while he read a pseudo oath, culminating in ‘be brave’, a term they have trademarked for the game.”

I have suggested we instigate a similar procedure at TSA Towers but Peter has told me that if he finds me forcing any of the staff to their knees and knighting them with my “sword” then the Police will be called.

Microsoft have announced an Xbox Live Rewards promotion for Halo 4, all you have to do is play the game for more than 140 hours before the end of November and you will be granted a massive 600 MS points. That works out at around six hours of Halo 4’ing a day, every day until the end of the month, an unhealthy amount of time slouched in front of the TV. It’s also worth noting that running your TV and console on for 140 hours is going to be expensive, probably costing more than the fiver you get back from Microsoft.

As well as purchasing Halo 4 promotional fizzy drinks and nomming Halo 4 promotional corn based snacks and pizzas you can also sync your American Express card to Xbox Live to unlock Halo 4 goodies. Next week will see further promotions with Master Chief themed disposable nappies and Halo 4 bath mats. Probably.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GHXkKu-0nE&feature=player_embedded
Sir, You Are Being Hunted, the delightfully British shooter has reached its Kickstarter goal and to celebrate they have released a video of pre-alpha footage. Top marks for the caption simply stating “Balls!”

The U.S. version of the Official PlayStation Magazine (called PlayStation: The Official Magazine over there) is to close, Future have confirmed that the Holiday 2012 issue will be the final publication.

Warner Brothers have confirmed that a new Mortal Kombat movie is in the pipeline. “We’re preparing right now for the film with Kevin Tancharoen, [who] directed the digital series for us,” said Warner executive Lance Sloan, “He’s at the helm of the forty, fifty million dollar film.” The rumoured plot finds a supermarket employee gaining ‘otherworldly powers’ – perhaps he can stack tins of beans at high speed?

More video game/movie news, Variety are reporting Dominic Cooper is in talks to star in the Need For Speed movie. Joining him will be Breaking Bad’s Aaron Paul and Imogen Poots, the movie will release on February 7th 2014.

As you can probably tell now that all the big games are out (bar Black Ops Part Deux), news is rather thin on the ground. Everyone seems to be engrossed in tapping their iPhones like a flock of Woodpeckers on crystal meth.

Not much else is happening, Far Cry 3 has gone gold and Ubisoft have, quelle surprise, said it is fantastic – not really news, just more PR bobbins.

Smartglass has been properly released for iOS, allowing Apple users to control their Xbox 360s with a swish of a finger. The beta version of the Linux client for Steam is being tested and a patch has been issued for the  Xbox 360 version of Borderlands 2 which fixes the Graveyard virus.

Uhm… *sound of bottom of barrel being scraped*

Gamers in Brazil can now pay for goods on Steam using their local currency.

Oh wait, here we go,  EA Sports have given prostate cancer charity Movember $500,000 worth of in-game advertising. The ads will run through November and will appear in FIFA, NHL and the Madden franchise. Well done EA, and well done to face fuzz for being awesome.

And finally…