A lot of big news dropped this week in the world of interactive entertainment, including a surprising turn of defense of violent video games by house speaker Nancy Pelosi. The good news kind of hit a halt, though, when it turned out that G4 is turning into the Esquire station – goodbye gaming. And Naughty lets loose the sad, sad news that The Last of Us has been delayed to June, which will probably cause the flow of tears and the subsequent raging reactions. These stories and more in this February 16th, 2013 edition of the Gaming Blend Weekly Recap.
Sunday
RAGE SDK Made Available Steam Now you can make mods for RAGE.
Nancy Pelosi Defends Violent Video Games, Cites Low Gun Violence In Japan Did you know that despite having some pretty crazy games in Japan, their gun violence is a heck of a lot lower than America?
StarCraft 2 Heart of the Swarm Beta Ending Soon Blizzard's test for the upcoming expansion of StarCraft 2 will be ending soon.
OUYA Game Approval Allows For Moderate Pornography But not excessive pornography...just so you know.
Tamagotchi App Coming to iOS and Android One of the original games that made portable devices a huge hit is making a return for today's gen smartphones.
SimCity Beta 2 Registration Begins After that awful EULA business was put out of the way, the next beta phase gets underway for the upcoming strategy title.
Dark Souls 2 Tagline Will Be Decided By Fans This is a pretty neat thing that Namco Bandai is doing for the sequel to one of the most popular games of the generation.
Monday
Roam: When DayZ Meets MineCraft You can build stuff, destroy stuff and survive zombie hordes...and do so while playing with friends. Count me in please.
Next Gen Development Costs Will Rise, Says Bobby Kotick Because of...?
Origin Finally Launches For Mac Now you can get screwed on Mac by EA, just the same as you can get screwed on PC by EA.
Half-Life Counter Strike Now On Linux Play Valve's fan-favorite titles on Linux.
Planet Explorers Alpha 0.5 Releases With Even More World Building It's a hugely ambitious title that seems to be coming along quite nicely. But don't take my word for it, check it out for yourself with the free alpha demo.
Pre-Order Gears of War Judgment From Walmart, Get Gears of War 2 or 3 For Free Build a trilogy of games with just one Walmart purchase.
Slender The Arrival Beta Is The Pre-Order Bonus If you order the game early you'll gain access to the beta.
Skylanders Hits $1 Billion, Could Be The Next Call of Duty Activision really hit the jackpot with Skylanders, but can they keep it up?
Tuesday
Orion Dino Horde Lets You Play As A T-Rex The dino PvP genre is really expanding these days.
Daylight, Next-Gen Unreal Engine 4 Game Coming To Steam For $20
G4 Becomes Esquire This Spring Goodbye gaming. Despite rising in popularity you're being replaced by a magazine TV channel.
Dead Space 3 Review: Nope! Yep...Nope!
Violent Video Games Tap Into Survival Values, Says ISU Professor The violent video game debate takes a different turn, with some asking what the appeal is with violent games?
Prison Architect Hits $1 Million In Pre-Orders Who says designing prisons can't be a lucrative software venture.
Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing Transformed Now Available For Nintendo 3DS Sega launches their racing title for Nintendo's 3DS.
Journey Leads List of 2013 BAFTA Games Nominees Thatgamecompany continues to reap success from Journey.
Aliens Colonial Marines Review Round-Up: Nuke It From Orbit It didn't turn out too well for Gearbox Software's Aliens FPS.
Pink 3DS XL Returning For Valentine's Day Nintendo is bringing back the love for Valentine's Day.
World of Tanks To Become Professional eSport It's official, Wargaming.net is making World of Tanks a legitimate competitor in the eSports arena.
Age of Wushu Beta Key Giveaway Grab a beta key for the action-focused martial arts MMO.
WWE 14 Is Now A Take-Two Interactive Game 2K Games gets hold of the license and WWE will now be a part of the 2K Sports line-up.
Mortal Online Character, Armor Graphics Being Overhauled Star Vault is overhauling the graphics to keep them up to date with today's gaming visuals.
Cliffy B Okay With Dead Space 3 Being More Action Than Horror Yes, but are you okay with it?
PlayStation All Stars Battle Royale Adds Kat and Emmett to the Roster Two extra heroes from other games join the PSASBR.
FireFall Now Supports Twitch.Tv A major step up for the official eSport competitor.
Last of Us Delayed By Naughty Dog Why? Click the link to find out.
Thursday
Just Cause 3 Teaser Image Released Could it be? The first look at a next-gen game from Avalanche Studios?
Brutal Legend Coming To PC, Multiplauyer Beta Launches It didn't do so well on consoles but maybe it'll find some new life on PC.
Elder Scrolls Online Interview: Where Did That Sexy Cinematic Trailer Come From? Get a feeling for designing cinematics with the team behind the cinematic sequence that had the net talking about Elder Scrolls Online.
State of Decay Character Customization Stats Abilities Detailed Undead Labs talk extensively about the new features in the upcoming zombie apocalypse title.
Chris Dorner The Last Stand Game goes Viral Some are celebrating this guy as a hero, but it's hard to tell why.
PS4 Controller Picture leaked Could it be? Could this be what the PS4 looks like?
Top 10 Indie Devs of 2012 A look back at the most successful from the previous year.
NCSoft Licenses Unreal Engine 4 For Next Gen MMO Let's hope it's worth the investment.
GameStop Closing 250 Locations This Year Down from the 500 estimate.
Friday
Ace Spades Gets Gangster Themed DLC For Valentine's Day New gun, new maps, new skins.
Steam Now Available For Linux In celebration of the Linux launch, Valve rewards gamers with a nice 75% off sale. How generous of Gaben.
System Shock 2 Re-Released Through GOG One of the greatest games ever made has been re-released on Good Old Games.
Aliens: Colonial Marines Not Canceled For Wii U This whole fiasco turned out to be a lot more chaotic than anyone could have anticipated.
DayZ Closed Beta Test Next Week, Could Arrive For Xbox 720, PS4 Next-gen DayZ? Count me in.
Battlefield 3 End Game Maps Revealed Through Screenshots New screenshots for the latest DLC for Battlefield 3 have emerged.
Arma 2 Complete Collection Features All new Game Content For $40, Perfect For DayZ Newcomers Bohemia has a sale on Arma II collection packs so you can check out DayZ.
Insomniac Says Better Next-Gen Tools Will Cut Down The Costs And that's a good thing for both the developers and for gamers.
Amazing Spider-Man Ultimate Edition Swings Onto Wii U This March The 8th of March, to be exact.
Saturday
Huge PS3 Discount Inbound With PS4 Announcement Info points to a massive discount on the PS3. Let's hope this is true.
Angry Birds Trilogy Breaks 1 Million, Coming To Wii, Wii U Rovio just keeps on rolling in the money with their angry fowl series.
Fuse Hands-on Co-op Impressions Co-Optimus gives some hands-on impressions of Insomniac Games' upcoming co-op shooter.
Gears of War Strategy Game Screenshots Leaked Yes, going the route of Halo Wars, Gears of War is.
In-Depth Rview: Kinect Sesame Street TV Season 2 0/10. I think that answers the question for core gamers. For non-core gamers, feel free to click through.
IGN and Gaming Media Are To Blame For Aliens Colonial Marines Sucking They knew, but they decided not to tell you that the game sucked long before the game released.
That wraps up this edition of the Gaming Blend Weekly Recap. You can check out some new footage of Path of Exile, the super-cool ARPG with a skill-forest available for some of the most hardcore of hardcore gamers, with an extended video below. Enjoy!
The DCU’s Batman And Wonder Woman Appear In Creature Commandos Episode 4, And The Show’s Executive Producer Tells Us James Gunn’s Specific Instructions For The ‘Shocking’ Scene
How To Watch Laid Online And Stream Twisted New Romantic Comedy Online From Anywhere
‘I Think I Was Terrible’: Daisy Ridley Recalls Star Wars Nerves During The Force Awakens’ First Read Through
