Weekly Recap April 9th: Anno 2070 Announced, Mass Effect Movie, SOCOM 4 Beta

Quite a few news stories worth checking out emerged this week, including the announcement about a brand new Anno game that will push your poor computer to its very limits and then some. The newest game in the series is set in the not-too-distant future of 2070. Fans of epic sci-fi films will have another movie to add to the collection soon after BioWare and FUNimation have joined forces to make an animated film based on the popular sci-fi epic, Mass Effect. Heck, they could just use the 3D models from the game and turn it into a full length, two hour feature. Fans of military shooters will also be pleased to know that SOCOM 4’s open beta is underway and accepting applicants. These stories and more in this April 9th, 2011 edition of the Gaming Blend Weekly Recap.

Sunday

Madden Designer Sues EA. Who seen this coming? Well, read the full story to get all the insight on how and why it went down.

Angry Birds Rio Racks Up 10 Million Downloads. I can’t believe people love those angry birds oh so much.

Rush’N’ Attack Ex Patriot Review. A review of the remake for the Xbox Live Arcade.

Lego Star Wars III The Clone Wars Co-op Review. Co-Optimus reviews the game’s cooperative features. Find out how well it operates and whether or not it’s worth your time.

Sony Reveals New NGP Trailer. Check out new footage of the system’s capabilities and functionalities.

Monday

Nintendo Downloads: Super Bonk, Absolute Baseball. A few old-school classics from the Turbo Grafix 16 era.

Shattered Horizon Introduces Single-Player Modes. Getting owned in PvP bouts? No worries, there are now bots to practice against.

Final Fantasy V Coming To PS3, PSP Via PSN. One of the coolest games that never came to North America when it should have gets a re-release on new gen gaming platforms.

Bulletstorm PC Demo Released. If you’re a little unsold on the concept of the game a free demo could change your mind.

World of Goo Hitting iPhones Soon. And probably not soon enough.

Anno 2080 Announced for PC. City-building strategy takes a futuristic new twist.

Defenders of Ardania Closed Beta Registration Begins. Tower defense or tower attacking needs CB testers.

Tuesday

Rugby World Cup 2011 Announced For Xbox 360 and PS3. Hard hits and face-smashing gameplay will be arriving for the current gen consoles later this year.

Mass Effect Deception Coming This Fall. A new book in the Mass Effect series will be arriving.

Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters WonderCon Screenshots. Curious how the gameplay looks in this movie tie-in game? Well, new shots have surfaced.

Sims 3 Generations Announced; Release Date and Trailer Revealed. Check out what EA is doing with the latest Sims game.

Mortal Kombat Goes Gold for PS3 and Xbox 360. it’s only a matter of time before you can…finish him.

Call of Duty Black Ops Escalation Coming In May? A new map pack could be on its way and priced at $9.95 no less.

SOCOM 4 Open Beta Launches. Get in some play time with the game before the full game goes live.

Wednesday

Allods Online Vol 4 Astral Odyssey And Official Game Launch Arriving May 11th. The game goes live May 11th…set the date.

Mass Effect 2 PC Free With Dragon Age 2 Purchase. Now that’s a darn good deal.

Tribes Ascend Concept Art Introduces First Map. Check out what the devs are doing with the very first map reveal of the game.

Sniper Elite V2 Announced for Xbox 360 and PS3, Coming 2012. Headshots await the patient and the camping noobs.

Super Meat Boy Coming To Mac; Two More Chapters Coming To Xbox Live. New level editor, new chapters, new maps…all arriving for the Mac.

Unreal Engine 3 DX11 Features Now Available For UE3 and UDK. Making games just got a heck of a lot easier.

Dragon Quest X Almost Finished. Well that’s good news…but it’s not finished until it’s gold.

Thursday

Ragnarok Online Goes Free-to-Play. It was just a matter of time.

DiRT 3 RC Car Bundle Costs $300. Yousers…that’s some serious cash for a radio controlled car that comes with a 3D, state-of-the-art racing game.

Stardock CEO Thinks GameStop Will Beat Steam. Keep dreaming pal…keep dreaming.

Deadliest Warrior Legends, Ugly Americans And Apocalypsegeddon Announced. MTV’s newest game studio is working on some semi-large new projects.

Global Agenda Joins Other Premium MMOs by Going Free-to-Play.

Mass Effect Anime Movie Announced. FUNimation takes on one of the biggest new sci-fi properties this generation.

Sonic Hedgehog Coming to PS3 and Xbox 360. A new 20th anniversary Sonic game is in the works.

Friday

Warhammer 40k Space Marine Dev Goes All Apocalyptical In Space. It’s a bad time to be an orc.

SOCOM 4 Dev Doc Covers Tension In The Single-Player Campaign. Curious what the new single-player narrative will be like? Well, the developers spill all in the new developer documentary.

Battlefield 3 HD Concept Art and Game Screenshots Released. Some additional high definition content is now available.

Team Fortress 2 Receives Nine Hats and teddy Roosebelt. A teddy joins the group…but in what capacity?

Langrisser Schwarz Getting Turned Into An MMORPG, Coming Q4 2011. It looks like a single-player RPG but if it’s an MMO, who am I to complain?

Red Dead Redemption Pre-Order DLC Being Released Through Xbox Live and PSN. Special bonuses you paid for as pre-order content is arriving as DLC for all the other cheapskates out there.

Dungeon Siege III Release Date Revised. Square-Enix isn’t doing too well financially and now DSIII is feeling the heat for it.

Saturday

RIFT Gets Another Free Trial Weekend. Try your hand at RIFT with some free play time over the weekend.

Why HD Remakes Matter. A comprehensive editorial by XBLA Fans discusses the importance of old games getting high definition remakes. Here’s looking at you Halo: Combat Evolved.

Moon Diver Co-op Review. A cooperative review of the new game Moon Diver.

That wraps up this edition of the Gaming Blend Weekly Recap. You can check out a brand new Virtua Tennis 4world tour trailer, which supports Kinect and the PS Move. Enjoy.