Gaming News Roundup - 08/01/2011

Oblivion V SKyrim Detailed

The sky’s the limit

Ever since its announcement at the Spike VGA awards, fans have been clamoring for any information regarding Bethesda’s upcoming action RPG. While the company has remained rather tight-lipped regarding the whole deal, they’ve spilled the beans in the latest issue of American video game magazine, Game Informer. For starters, the game will employ a brand new engine that’ll obviously lead to improved visuals. And yes, this also means no more fugly looking faces. Combat has received a solid revamp as well and just like BioShock 2, players will now be able to dual wield melee weapons and magic at the same time. Neato!

Other than these major upgrades there are a bunch of other features listed out at the NeoGaf forums you can scope out for yourself.

Silent Hill: Downpour is Official

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Its existence has been known for a while now but in the latest issue of Game Informer, Silent Hill has officially been dubbed Downpour. With a name like that, water will apparently play a major role so expect a lot of swimming and uhh… a downpour?  Another interesting bit of information is that this time around, the game will take place on the outskirts of Silent Hill which by the way is so large, players will have the option of quick travelling via the game’s metro system (a la Dead Space?). Players who aren’t too hot on fighting all sorts of nasties will have the option of running away from a fight, however boss fights will be unavoidable.

Once again, scoot onto the NeoGaf forums for more information.

Killzone 3’s new campaign trailer will give you goosebumps

You, me, and even your grandmum knows Killzone 3’s visuals are off the charts but the latest single player video released by Guerilla Games at CES 2011 drove that point home – multiple times.

Will Kinect eventually come to the PC?

Is PC support the next step for Kinect?

I really hope not but it seems Microsoft head honcho, Steve Ballmer has other plans. At the ongoing CES 2011 he enforces the fact that Kinect plans on moving beyond gaming to “include the world of socialization, of movies, of TV, of music.” In doing so they want to tap into not only gamers, but their entire families as well. When quizzed about Kinect’s compatibility with PC platforms by BBC, he said that support could be possible at “the right time”. PC support for Kinect would really be a no-brainer as the device that allows you to become a controller has been selling really well in the West. While I have no problem with Microsoft pimping casual gaming, I do find their attitude towards actual gaming a bit annoying. Have you seen their rather abysmal first party line up this year?

Dragon Age 2 System Requirements Unveiled

If you plan on picking up EA’s upcoming (consolified) action RPG, Dragon Age 2 for the PC, here’s the hardware you’ll need to be packing:

Recommended:

• CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad 2.4 GHz Processor or equivalent
• CPU: AMD Phenom II X3 Triple core 2.8 GHz or equivalent
• RAM: 2GB (4 GB Vista and Windows 7)
• Video: ATI 3850 512 MB or greater
• Video: NVIDIA 8800GTS 512 MB or greater
• DirectX 11: ATI 5850 or greater
• DirectX 11: NVIDIA 460 or greater

Minimum:

• OS: Windows XP with SP3
• OS: Windows Vista with SP2
• OS: Windows 7
• CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo (or equivalent) running at 1.8 GHz or greater
• CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 (or equivalent) running at 1.8 GHz or greater
• RAM: 1 GB (1.5 GB Vista and Windows 7)
• Video: Radeon HD 2600 Pro 256 MB
• Video: NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GS 256 MB cards
• Disc Drive: DVD ROM drive required
• Hard Drive: 7 GB Sound: Direct X 9.0c Compatible Sound Card Windows Experience Index: 4.5

Not too bad eh?

And in case you’ve not been catching up on what’s been going down in the gaming world this week, we got you covered. Here are some of the interesting stories you may have missed out on.

Angry Birds hits Windows, Macs and PSN.