Weekly Recap Nov 20th: APB Goes Free-To-Play, OnLive Console Coming, HomeFront Release Date

Some pretty big news dropped in the industry throughout this week, including brand new footage of Rockstar’s upcoming drama-thriller, L.A. Noire. Activision and Hasbro announced that a new Transformers: Dark Of The Moon game and Transformers: War for Cybertron 2 title is on the way, however one won’t be due out until 2012. GamersFirst did the unthinkable…well, not really, but they picked up the North American publishing license for All Points Bulletin, which will be free-to-play starting in the first half of 2011. OnLive also confirmed an official release date for the MicroConsole, which will be made available beginning early December, and THQ honed in a release date for HomeFront. These stories and more in this November 20th, 2010 edition of the Gaming Blend Weekly Recap.

Sunday

Mafia II Joe’s Adventure Trailer Goes Bada Boom. Bada-bing, bada-boom, right?

3D Gaming Getting Too Costly? Contour Introduces Energy Saving 3D Batteries. Because everyone needs batteries for something…even active shutter 3D glasses.

HomeFront Screenshots Released For Xbox 360, PS3 And PC. Lots of Korean oppression going on in these new screenshots.

Capcom Unveils MotoGP 10/11 Debut Trailer. It’s not a rip-roaring trailer, but it is sexily cool.

Pinball FX2 Review. Is this Live Arcade pinball title worth the few hundred MS points?

Transformers War for Cybertron 2 Coming 2012. It’s a long wait but well worth it.

Monday

Sly Cooper 4 Trailer Revealed. Because usually collection games are actually a stepping stone for announcing a new game.

Call of Duty Black Ops Review. Pete Haas tells it like it is for Treyarch’s attempt at doing CoD better than Infinity Ward.

Hexen: Edge of Chaos Now Available And Free-to-Play. As long as you still have Doom 3, that is.

Fable III Understone Quest Pack Announced. Already finished with the Fable III quests? I don’t think that’s likely so soon after launch, but regardless a few extra more are on the way.

Fight Night Champion Coming March 2011 For PS3 And Xbox 360. Move support and Kinect capabilities would make this own soooo much.

Ministry of War Launching in North America This Week. By the time you read this the game

Tuesday

GamersFirst Picks Up APB; Going Free-to-Play In 2011. A really big step for a free-to-play MMO publisher.

Need for Speed Shift 2: Unleashed Coming Spring 2011.

Asskickers Announced; White Collar Bankers To Get Beat Come 2011. Yeah, let’s kick some white-collar tail for causing the crappy economy!

One Million Kinects Sold For Xbox 360 In Just 10 Days. One week on the North American market and the thing is already a huge hit.

Samurai II Vengeance Gameplay Media Blowout. Check out some new footage of the iPhone mobile game.

Activision May Sell Bizarre Creations. Despite having a nicely reviewed 007 Blood Stone game, Activision isn’t really digging the company that excelled at making Project Gotham Racing.

Wednesday

Budcat Creations Shut Down. They didn’t fare as well and Activision is cutting the cord on the company.

Witcher 2 Collection Edition Revealed. High quality content for a high quality game.

Prince of Persia Trilogy Coming To PSN. Grab the entire thing for a budget price on PSN.

HomeFront Release Date Revealed. The invasion of the USA begins in other countries sooner than you think.

BioWare Next Game Revealed At 2010 SpikeVGAs. It has something to do with science fiction…and guns. That’s all I know. Really.

Daft Punk Invades TRON Evolution Soundtrack. Fusing electronic beats with a…uh…electronic game. Yeah.

2010 Spike VGAs Nominees Announced. It’s like the Oscars for gamers. Did your favorites make the list?

Thursday

OnLive Game Console Release Date Pre-Orders Pricing Detailed. It’s a lot cheaper than you may have been expecting.

Call of Duty Black Ops Sets Five Day Sales Record. Ensuring that Activision continues to laugh on their way to the bank.

Lego Pirates of the Caribbean Announced. New game is on the way to coincide with the release of the new movie.

Achivements Trophies List Revealed for Nail’d How high do you have to fly to nab a platinum? Click the link to find out.

LA Noire Screenshots and Story Details Released. Find out what’s going on in this noire crime thriller.

Section 8 Prejudice Four-Player Co-op Walkthrough Trailer. A complete walkthrough of the new Skirmish mode added to Section 8.

Friday

Mafia II Avatar Clothing Hits Xbox Live. Want to dress gangster? Well, it’s now an option for your Avatar.

Portal 2 Delayed April, 2011. Valve calls it a small delay and I think I concur.

R.U.S.E. Manhattan Project Pack DLC Announced. Still playing this RTS? Well, good news for you then. New DLC is on the way.

Dreamland Online Heads Into Closed Beta November 21st. The arcade, side-scrolling MMO is already in beta by the time you read this…more than likely, anyway.

Lord of the Rings Online: Rise of Isengard Announced. Additional content coming out for the Lord of the Rings Online, which is now F2P by the way.

Natural Selection 2 Heads Into Closed Beta. Gamers looking to blast the crap out of evolutionized aliens can now do so…sort of.

Bungie Seeking Beta Testers For Next Game. Curious about their new project? Well, click on the link to find out how to be a part of it.

Saturday

Yet Another F2P Shooter Coming; Project Blackout Set For Release In December. Standard-fare deathmatch at its best?

Call of Duty Black Ops Wii Patch Coming Soon. Fixing things that should have been patched pre-release.

DC Universe Online Screenshots Get All Fiery And Explosive. A few fireballs leading up to one giant fiery explosion.

GuWange Japanese Bullet Hell Review. The arcade classic from the early 00s gets released on XBLA.

EVGA Has Super Cheap GeForce GTX 460 SE Available In Time For The Holidays. Half the cost of a GeForce 7X on eBay…and that’s no joke.

Haunted House Not That Scary. A review of the XBLA horror game that forgets to bring the scares.

Five Things We Want To See In Left 4 Dead 3. A great way to end the weekend…with a Top 5 from Stick Skills.

We close out this week’s recap with the official Japanese debut trailer for Tecmo Koei’s seventh installment in the long-running hack-and-slash series, Dynasty Warriors. See if you can spot some of your favorites or recognize any of the new faces in the trailer below. Enjoy.