Weekly Recap Feb 19th: Dead Island Creates Buzz, Guild Wars 2 Beta, Diablo 3 On Consoles?

The week ending on February 19th happened to be a very fascinating one, with a little bit of zombie news crowding up some of the main headlines. Techland’s Dead Island officially returned to the spotlight after a long and overdue hiatus from the press circuits, offering up a cinematic teaser that has the entire web abuzz about the game and even got a movie producer to pick up the rights for a silver screen adaptation. TellTale also joined the zombie fray with the announcement of a Walking Dead video game series, along with a Jurassic Park game, which is due out in April. NCSoft revealed that Guild Wars 2 alpha and beta testing will take place this year and new info has emerged that could spell out a console iteration of Blizzard’s famed Diablo 3. These stories and more in this February 19th, 2011 edition of the Gaming Blend Weekly Recap.

Sunday

Guild Wars 2 Alpha and Beta Test Confirmed For This Year. NCSoft finally got their crap together and have plans to give gamers a taste of Guild Wars 2.

Magicka Paid And Free DLC Planned. That’s a good thing for gamers who can’t get enough of this title.

New Super Meat Boy Levels Coming Soon. Sooner than you think, actually.

Lord of Arcana Co-Op Review. Find out how the game plays out with a buddy donning the sidekick breeches.

KillZone 3 Leaked Onto Torrents A Week Before Release. It’s like the Wolverine movie except this is probably worth paying for.

Monday

Halo Reach Defiant Map Pack Coming Next Month. Don’t think you’re done with Halo Reach just yet…Bungie has some more multiplayer goodness on the way.

Transformers Dark of the Moon Video Game Announced. If it’s anything like War for Cybertron then count me in.

Portal 2 Pre-Order Bonuses Revealed. There are always some extra goodies for those who pay for the game first.

Mortal Kombat Digital Media Series To Star Michael Jai White, Jeri Ryan. Bone and 7 of 9 join together to kick some butt.

Portal 2 System Requirements Announced. Whether you’re an ATI or a Nvidia fanboy you need to check your PC’s vitals to see if it’s up to par for Portal 2.

Get Fit With Mel B Sprints Onto Nintendo Wii March 22nd. After having some success on the PS3 the game is moving over to the Nintendo Wii.

FEAR 3 Paxton Fettel Single-Player Campaign Revealed. You can take on the role of Fettel, Point Man’s brother after you complete each level. Cool, eh?

Nintendo Downloads: Treasure Hunter X, Pucca Kisses Game. A smattering of oddly unique new titles available for download.

Tuesday

Voltron Video Games On The Way. Wow, now that’s going way back.

Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood PC Release Date Announced. It only took forever but it’s finally coming.

Total War Shogun 2 Demo Confirmed. Get a taste of some samurai action before laying down some money for it.

Duke Nukem Forever Pre-Order Incentives Detailed. It’s a little more sophisticated than pole dancers and hookers.

Rumor: Batman Game In Development for XBLA. If it’s true then we could be seeing a new Batman game with the new Batman movie.

Modern Warfare 2 Security Update Almost Finished. Infinity Ward is staying faithful to gamers with added security for the first-person shooter.

Atlus’ Pandora Saga Officially Launches. A brand new F2P MMORPG launches for fantasy-medieval fans.

Battle Over Ratings: ESRB Ratings Finally Get Exposed. It’s a little more complicated than just “kids games” and “adult games”…get the full story inside.

Lego Pirates of the Caribbean Announced For Nintendo 3DS. In case you didn’t want a standard dual-screen edition…there’s now a 3D dual-screen edition.

Wednesday

RIFT Open Beta Begins. Free play time for everyone who has been wondering if the game is worth it or not.

Painkiller Redemption Gets Release Date. I loved pinning bad guys to the wall…and now it gets a bit deeper with the new expansion.

Inception and Dark Knight Apps Arrive for iOS. Can’t get enough of the Dark Knight? Well, you can watch it from the comfort of your iOS mobile device.

Batman Arkham City Screenshots Head to Fun House. It’s creepy out there in Arkham City.

Crysis 2 PC Demo Detailed. Find out what’s in the demo and how far you’ll be able to go in the game.

Treyarch Says Small Minority Experience Call of Duty Black Ops Bugs. More whitewashing from Activision…no big surprise here.

Game of Thrones Genesis Screenshots Released. Based on the popular novels, you can get a first glimpse at how the novels look as a visually interactive game.

Ridge Racer Type 4 Heading To PSN In March. A classic from the PSX era to make its debut this March.

Thursday

PlayStation Plus Subscribers Get Free Sega Genesis Collection. Paying monthly for something finally pays off…I’m sure Xbox Live gamers are a little jealous.

Sony Presenting Next Generation Portable At GDC. Sony will finally give it a name too.

StarBreeze Studios Sign Multi-Year Deal To Use Epic’s Unreal Engine 3. Too bad this won’t be used for The Darkness II, though.

PlayStation Move Not Supported In PS3’s Portal. That’s too bad because it really could have used it.

Dead Island Open World Horror Game Coming To PS3, PC, Xbox 360 This Year. One of the most emotionally charged trailer hits the net and makes waves.

Vindictus Episode 5 Now Live: Level Cap Raised, New Items, Armor And More. Tons of new stuff to help breathe new life into the action-packed MMO.

Top Shot Arcade Coming To Nintendo Wii This March. Another arcade multiplayer party game…no big surprise there.

Friday

January 2011 NPD Report: Black Ops Still Selling Strong. Bugs or not, people have a fever for some Black Ops.

Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood Da Vinci Disappearance DLC Announced. The inventor has gone missing…and it’s up to Ezio to go all Sherlock Holmes in Rome to find him.

KillZone 3 Post-Launch Patch Detailed. Guerrilla Games already has plans to fix a few things that might irk gamers.

Operation Flashpoint Red River Release Date Revealed. Here we go. Find out when this bad boy will hit store shelves.

Mike Patton Returns To The Darkness II Starbreeze may not be returning to the Darkness but Mike Patton is.

Supercar Pagani Huayra Makes Exclusive Debut In Shift 2 Unleashed. 240mph, here I come.

Dragon Age 2 Demo Could Give Bonus XP and Gold. Now that’s a real beneficial demo worth playing before the game releases.

Console Diablo III Evidence Emerges. Xbox 360 and PS3 gamers can always hope.

infamous 2 Release Date, Hero Edition and Pre-order Bonuses Announced. All this and more for paying for the game before it actually launches.

Saturday

Jurassic Park Game Coming In April. TellTale is stepping out of their comfort zone with a risky new game based on the popular dinosaur adventure flick.

Walking Dead Video Game Confirmed by Telltale. Not only is Jurassic Park on the way but a game based on the popular television series is also coming.

NaturalMotion Morpheme 3 Available For Sony’s NGP. Developers will have a leg-up on the competition when it comes to handheld game design.

Black Mirror 3: Story, Characters And Locations Detailed. Find out more about the horror adventure title.

Islands of Waku Finished With Development. The spinoff of the DOFUS and WAKFU MMOs is close to heading to the Xbox Live Arcade.

Danger Close Making Medal of Honor 2 After the startling success of the first game, the original developers are returning to the sequel.

Review for Marvel vs Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds Find out if our resident reviewer, Rich Knight, liked or hated the game as much as he loved MvsC2.

Marvel vs Capcom 3 Unlock List. Curious about all the characters you can unlock in the game? For unlock enthusiasts who like doing things the old fashioned just skip right on over this article. For all you cheaters out there, you know where to click to get your kicks.

That wraps up this edition of Gaming Blend’s Weekly Recap. You can check out an extended debut trailer for the movie-based game, The Green Latern, with the film starring Ryan Reynolds. Enjoy.