Week in Review

This week, we have the return of a long-absent PC series, a long-quiet PlayStation Move action game and the long-ridiculed concept of Transfarring.

TOP STORY: SimCity V revealed

SimCity will be returning to PCs finally in 2013 compliments of Maxis. During its GDC event this week, EA revealed that this entry would use an entirely new game engine called Glassbox. This engine will enable SimCity V to contain fully-3D cities for the first time, along with curved roads. The only real details about its gameplay state that there will be both a competitive and a cooperative online component to the game. We expect to hear more about it at E3 this year, but if it doesn’t incorporate llamas in some way, it just won’t be SimCity.

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Here at Snackbar Games, we’re as interested in news as anyone else, and this week we have a surprising new announcement from Game Freak.

TOP STORY: Pokemon White & Black 2 revealed

Nintendo made a big Pokemon announcement this weekend, revealing the first direct sequels in the Pokemon series: Pokemon Black & White 2. While this is a surprise by itself, the fact that they will be released only on the DS is probably a bigger surprise. The DS does have a much larger install base, but the popularity of the Pokemon franchise would have assured brisk sales of the 3DS upon release. No release window was given in the US, though it will be releasing this summer in Japan.

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Here at Snackbar Games, we’re as interested in news as anyone else, and this week we look at the new expansion for Civilization V, another attempt to bring MMOs to consoles, and more game releases.

TOP STORY: Civilization V expands this spring

Firaxis has already released a Game of the Year edition of Civilization V, but that doesn’t mean official development on it is dead yet. This week, 2K Games revealed that a full expansion is planned for release late this spring. In addition to the expected inclusion of more civilizations, leaders, units and wonders, the expansion, titled Gods & Kings, will bring religion back to the series after initially being left out of the newest entry. It has been completely overhauled from its presentation in Civilization IV, integrating it more into the fabric of your society, but also making it less powerful for international relations and AI manipulation. Also back is espionage, which will enable you to use spies to discover the plans and machinations of your opponents, even to the point of discovering AI plans to attack you up to 15 turns in the future.

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Here at Snackbar Games, we’re as interested in news as anyone else, and this week we’ll take a ride with Sackboy.

TOP STORY: Little Big Planet Karting announced

Unlike most Sony rumors, this one lasted very little time before Sony commented on it. It was confirmed on Friday via a tweet that a kart racing game featuring Sackboy will be a reality at some point in the not-too-distant future. Nothing else was said, not even what studio is working on it or the target systems. It’s a fair assumption that it will be a PS3 and PS Vita title though, as PSP support is unlikely at this point.

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Here at Snackbar Games, we’re as interested in news as anyone else, and this week we’ve got more news of the Mass Effect 3 demo.

TOP STORY: Mass Effect 3 demo will upgrade your Silver account

EA has already announced a plethora of bonuses for playing the Mass Effect 3 demo, mostly for those interested in the Kingdom of Amalur: Reckoning. However, this week they announced a new bonus that every Xbox Live member should be interested in, as anyone who downloads the demo will have their account upgraded to Gold status until March 6. We suppose this is to allow anyone who wants to the ability to fully play the multiplayer aspects of the demo.

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