Banjo- Kazooie composer creating the soundtrack for Castle of Illusion HD

Castleofbanjo

SEGA and Disney are teaming up to bring Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse HD to all major platforms, the remake will even have a new soundtrack for what it seems. They are teaming up with Grant Kirkhope who is best known for his soundtrack in Rare games like Bajo-Kazooie, Perfect Dark and Golden Eye. Mr. Kirkhope tweeted the following a few days ago.

‘Should hopefully finish my final piece for “Castle of Illusion HD starring Mickey Mouse” tonight!!!’ – Via Grant Kirkhope’s twitter.

So new graphics, new box art and new soundtrack? Hows that for a remake?

Pre-order DLC for Company of Heroes 2 announced

company-of-heroes-2

SEGA and Relic are teaming up with ‘participating retailers’ worldwide and offering up some pre-order bonus DLC. The DLC is titled ‘Theatre of War‘ episode, which will be a mini campaign of sorts. It will also come with multiplayer vehicle skins and two additional commanders for each multiplayer army.

Besides that, if you pre-order now you get access the the beta (which started on April 2nd). Hit the jump to read the full press release.

Company of Heroes 2 closed beta starts April 2nd

companyofheroes2closedbeta

SEGA has stated today that they will be launching the Company of Hereoes 2 closed beta next week. Players that get in will get to test the game’s competitive multiplayer and skirmish gameplay. You will be able to play six maps including ones that are for 1v1, 2v2, 3v3 and 4v4. You will be able to progress to the first 40 levels of the game, customize your loadout using the new Army Customizer.

“We are excited to be able to launch the closed beta for Company of Heroes 2. We invite our fans to help us test and balance the game prior to launch, as well as see the changes we’ve already made since the Alpha test in December.” –Greg Wilson, Producer of Company of Heroes 2

So how do you get into the closed beta? According to SEGA its open only to pre-order customers only. It will be hosted on Steam and will utilize Steamworks (awesome).

Aliens: Colonial Marines gets a massive 4GB patch


SEGA & Gearbox Software have released a patch for the PC version of Aliens: Colonial Marines, the patch promises to improve textures, fix bugs, and much more. Personally I installed the game, did what I had to do for our review and uninstalled it. I don’t see myself playing through it again with a new patch. Sorry SEGA, you should have gotten it right the first time.

But if you want to try it, load up steam and enjoy downloading the patch. If you look at the YouTube video, it seems that the improvements are minimal.

Video Review: Aliens: Colonial Marines


Welcome to our review of Aliens: Colonial Marines. See that YouTube video embedded above? It is our very first SEGAbits Video Review! We’re trying to sort out a way to get these video reviews put up for all upcoming games. Seeing as how this is our first one, there is always room to improve. So positive criticism is definitely welcomed. Let us know what you think in the comments section. After the break, an old school written review.

Aliens: Colonial Marines charts at number six for February in the US

aliens__colonial_marines_13467184271782
We usually don’t post much NPD numbers here because SEGA really never charts. Well, I guess the Aliens license does make quite a bit of cash. In the UK it hit number one the week it released and in America it came in sixth for its release month. Only to be beat by heavy hitters like Dead Space 3, Crysis 3 and Metal Gear Rising.

Want to see the full top ten chart? Hit the jump.

Games Workshop looking for more publishers and developers to make Warhammer based games

warhammer_rules_video_8th_edition

We have reported many times on SEGA picking up the IP license to Warhammer, but today Games Workshop announced that Slitherine, a video game publisher, is creating a real-time strategy game based on the Warhammer 40k universe.

So who else is making Warhammer titles?

  • Siltherine – We talked about above, they are creating a RTS game based in the Warhammer 40k universe. 
  • Zattikka – Announced last week that they will be creating social games based on the Warhammer IP.
  • Full Control – They acquired the Space Hulk license.
  • EA – They have created Warhammer: Age of Reckoning and are developing  Warhammer Online: Wrath of Heroes.
  • Rodeo Games – Creating a game called Warhammer Quest.
  • No Mad Games – Picked up the license to develop games based on Talisman.
  • SEGA – SEGA, which own the studio Relic, responsible for some of the most popular Warhammer 40k games. Also rumored is that Creative Assembly is making a game based on the Warhammer license.

Apparently Games Workshop is open to new ideas and said they will be going to trade shows to meet potential developers for games. With quite the list of developers already having Warhammer games in the works, even our blue and true SEGA, and the licensee looking for more games means that he market is going to be filled with Warhammer based games. Is this good? All I hope is that the games are great. The Warhammer universe is expansive and if they can cover different parts in different style games, they got my money.

Amazon has a PC sale going on, download Binary Domain today for only $5

Farewellfeb
Hey, you got $5 bucks and a capable PC? Well, why not pick up Binary Domain? We here at SEGAbits loved the game, check out our review. It even redeems on Steam, so no worries there. What else is on sale for SEGA? Let’s have a look.

Not as much as I would have liked. But it is still quite a nice selection. Though having a nice sell on SEGA & Sonic All-Stars Transformed would have been really awesome. You can check out over 800 games being discount over at Amazon now. Have fun!

Binary Domain on steam gets update with support for Big Picture Mode and more

tumblr_m7sjz5uqvh1qmzsn0o1_1280
SEGA’s port for Binary Domain isn’t exactly good, so I was thrilled to find out that there was a small 5.5mb update. Sadly I knew it couldn’t fix all port’s problem and I was right.

Fixes: Updated launcher featuring gamepad navigation in Steam Big Picture mode.Fixed issues launching the game on Optimus graphics cards.

Seems there will be another update soon, because…

Known issues: Custom configurations for some DirectInput pads may not save correctly. This will be fixed in an update soon.

Come on SEGA, release worthy updates to your PC stuff and more people will trust your ports!

Aliens: Colonial Marines mods add DirectX 10 lighting effects, sharper texture filtering and much more

ACM_2013-02-13_20-04-19-11
The PC community is great, always striving to make their games look better even if the developers are incompetent.  Right now there are two mod packs that are making this game look ‘less crap’ than it did before. The first one is the DirectX 10 mod packs that add some better lighting effects and soften those shadows. The SweetFX mod gives you a sharper texture filter, deeper color saturation and stronger shadows.

Sadly, the game will still suck. But at least it will be prettier to look at it sucking now.

 

Ex-Gearbox employee says game was outsourced, SEGA denies (sort of)

Aliens
Well, seems that Aliens: Colonial Marines isn’t being as well received as we would have hoped and now everyone is pointing fingers. First comes a statement made by a ex-Gearbox employee, stating that Gearbox didn’t really develop most of the title and that the game was outsourced. The anonymous employee who goes by the forum handle “mugwurt” posted:

“Hate to say it, but I wouldn’t get your hopes up too high for Colonial Marines. I used to work at Gearbox, and the development of that game has been a total train wreck, going on what, 6 years now? Gearbox isn’t even making the game, except for the multiplayer. Primary development was outsourced to TimeGate Studios, which has a less than stellar past.” – Link to response 

When asked about this, SEGA’s Senior Producer Matthew J. Powers had this to say: