Weekly Recap March 12th: Torchlight On XBLA, Halo Reach Giveaway, Epic Brings On The Samaritan

Second full week of March ends with some notable goodies for gamers, including a Halo: Reach map pack giveaway and a Torchlight giveaway. And in case you didn’t catch it in the headline, yes Torchlight is available on the Xbox Live Arcade. Infinity Ward further clarifies their stance on the Modern Warfare 3 game engine and Epic ‘wows’ audiences with the debut of the new generation of the Unreal Engine 3 with The Samaritan, it’s a video definitely worth checking out. These stories and more in this March 12th, 2011 edition of the Gaming Blend Weekly Recap.

Sunday

Infinity Ward Clarifies Twitter Comments, Confirmed No New Engine For Modern Warfare 3. In a war of words, Robert Bowling is trying to re-tread what he mentioned before about Modern Warfare 3’s counter-productive engine statement.

Sunday Special Top Ten Video Game Industry Insults. Some of the most devastating and insulting things conducted within the video game industry.

Rewind Review: Outrun Online Arcade. XBLA Fans break down the pros and cons of Sega’s 3D Outrun.

Co-op Couples Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. Some cooperative review treatment is handed out to DeadSpace: Extraction for the PS3.

TimeGate Studios Says “We’re Definitely Committed To Continuing Support For The Original Section 8 Community. It’s good to know they haven’t abandoned their roots.

Monday

Infinity Ward Clarifies Twitter Comments, Confirms no New Engine For Modern Warfare 3. Oh, snap…Activision have gone and kicked themselves in the nuts.

Bungie Says “We Were Joking About MMO” Yeah because no one wanted one of the best sci-fi shooter developers in world right now to work on a massive multiplayer, interactive RPG-shooting game that spans the likes of galactic warfare and space opera scenarios. <_<

Egypt The Prophecy Now Available For PC, Mac and iPad. Take a magician on a stroll through the arid deserts of Egypt to uncover a long-forgotten prophecy.

Two New Screenshots Emerge For Amy On PS3. The PS3 version of the game gets a little screenshot lovin’

Nintendo Downloads: Bomberman Hero, Jellycar 2. One of the few good N64 games gets the WiiWare treatment.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning Screenshots Get Feisty. Todd McFarlane and other top-name industry names join forces for a no-holds-barred action-RPG.

PSP Go Price Cut Not Happening. What happened? Well, too much Jagermeister, coffee and HTML caused a webmaster to commit a major booboo.

Angry Birds Coming to Facebook. These angry fellows will be unleashing their rage on Facebook sooner than you think.

Tuesday

Review Torchlight. Does the game hold up under scrutiny?

Dragon Age 2 High Resolution Patch Released. PC gamers suffering from a little low resolution can amp it up with the new patch.

Deus Ex Human Revolution Gets August Release Date. it was pushed back by more than seven months but it will definitely be worth the wait.

Modern Warfare 2 PS3 Hacking Patch Released. Kiss those ugly mother-hackers goodbye.

New Tracks Available Guitar Hero Warriors Of Rock. Activision may have halted the game but there will be some sporadic new tracks every once in a while.

Lucent Heart Joins GamerDating Website For Online Matchmaking. Play games together and then get together in real life. Isn’t gaming grand?

Wednesday

Giveaway: Torchlight for XBLA. Want a free copy? Well don’t sit here pondering about it, click the link and get to it!

Kinect Sells 10 Million Units And Games. That’s a heck of a lot of units in such a small amount of time.

Superstars V8 Racing And Kung Fu-Live Drop Down To $9.99 On PSN. Budget-priced gaming goes to the digital bargain bin.

Samaritan Debut Trailer And March 2011 UDK Released. Awesome new footage of the Samaritan in action.

Torchlight Now Available On XBLA; PC Version Gets Price Drop. Fans of the series can grab a copy on the Live Arcade.

Mortal Kombat Fight Stick And Tournament Announced. $20,000 up for grabs for whoever hands out the most fatalities come May 14th.

Top 10 Game Gear Games You Would Want To See On The 3DS? So, what games do you want to see on the 3DS?

Giveaway: Halo Reach Defiant Map Pack. Free XBLA codes available for a few lucky gamers.

Thursday

Europa Universalis III Chronicles Bundle Announced. You can get all your diplomatic strategic warfare jam packed in a nice little bundle.

Demo Knight Combines Dark Knight And Team Fortress 2. How the heck do you squeeze The Dark Knight out of Team Fortress 2? Watch and see.

PlayStation Plus Subscribers Get Cloud Saves. Now this is a huge upgrade from having to save games on the hard drive, memory cards and USB sticks. Worth the subscription? I’d say definitely.

3DS Going On Tour. Find out when the stereoscopic handheld device will be visiting a city near you.

Star Wars The Old Republic Pre-Launch Guild Program Begins. Grab some friends and build your guild now.

Crytek Addresses Crysis 2 Demo Cheating. Stupid noobs…you can’t even wait for the full game to start cheating? Really?

PX5 And P11 Wireless Headsets Pre-Orders Available; Release Date Revealed. Turtle Beach puts a date to the new headsets as well as pre-purchases at this year’s PAX East.

MicroVolts Heads Into Open Beta. The F2P third-person shooter is now…free-to-play for any and everyone who wants to give it a try.

Friday

February 2011 NPD: Black Ops Best Selling Game of All Time. Un-be-freaking-believable.

Rift: Subscription Discount Extended. Grab the MMORGP from Trion Worlds for a discounted price.

Batman Arkham City Release Date Announced.

Nexon To Demo Dragon Nest, Vindictus Content at PAX East. This weekend to be exact. You’d best hurry if you want to get in some free playtime with the new content.

Total War Sale On Shogun Themed Team Fortress 2 Items Hits Steam. If you want your guys to look all Shogun’d out then now would be the time to grab these items.

Karma Online Prisoners of the Dead Announce Trailer. World War II themed shooter versus zombies. Count me in.

Saturday

35 Million Wii Consoles Sold In The U.S. That’s massive…just massive.

RAGE Comics Coming in June. A little jumpstart on the story before the real deal arrives.

Portal 2 To Have Original Song From National. Will it be as popular as “Still Alive?” Only time will tell.

XBLA’s Most Wanted: Rampage Total Destruction. One of the most fun arcade games of all times lands on the Most Wanted list.

Conquer Online Expansion Release Date Announced. Brand new content is on the way for the old-school hack-and-slash MMO.

That wraps up this edition of the Gaming Blend Weekly Recap You can check out the Prototype 2 trailer featuring a rag doll soldier flying in the air after a wicker throw. Enjoy.