This Week in Gaming

Photo courtesy of: ComputerandVideogames.com

By AARON YNCLAN, Staff Columnist

This week we’ve got superheroes beating each other to a pulp, a new historical assassin, a next-gen title reveal, and a new gaming controller.

Ed Boon of NetherRealm Studios (Mortal Kombat) has confirmed additional characters for the upcoming fighting game Injustice: Gods Among Us. Based on the superheroes of the DC universe, Injustice is being developed by NetherRealm and is currently slated for an April 16, 2013 release date for the PS3, Xbox 360, PC, and Wii U platforms. The current character roster, which includes Superman (duh), Nightwing, Wonder Woman, and Solomon Grundy, will now be joined by Batman villain Killer Croc, the mystical warrior Captain Marvel, and the King of Atlantis himself, Aquaman. These additions now bring the roster total to 16, but NetherRealm has confirmed that more characters have yet to be revealed.

  When Assassin’s Creed III released back in October, it ended the 5-game story of assassin Desmond Miles. While the ending certainly left plenty of new questions for fans to ponder, the biggest question on gamers’ lips has been where the franchise will go next. Though not particularly substantial, fans now have a partial idea as Ubisoft’s Yves Guillemot has confirmed that the next Assassin’s Creed will feature a new assassin and a new time period, with the release window slated for 2014. With the next title not releasing until (most likely) fall of next year and rumors of the next-generation Xbox and Playstation being revealed soon, it’s highly possible that the future of the franchise is next-gen.

 Fans of the multi-award winning ­The Witcher series may rejoice as Polish developer CD Projekt Red has announced the third entry in the franchise, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Based on a Polish book series by Andrzej Sapkowski, The Witcher was released in 2007 as a PC exclusive and was hailed for its enthralling narrative and challenging gameplay. Its sequel, Assassins of Kings, was also released as a PC exclusive in 2011 to equally praiseworthy reviews before being ported over to the Xbox 360 in 2012. For the third installment, CD Projekt Red looks to push the franchise into the realm of open-world gameplay. “We decided that we were ready for the next step,” said studio-head Adam Badowski in an interview with Game Informer. “We decided to combine two types of games. We mastered storytelling in RPG games-that’s our strongest side. On the other hand, we feel that we missed something. We missed the huge freedom of open-world games like Skyrim.” CD Projekt Red has slated the game for a 2014 release on PC and all “high-end” platforms powerful enough to run it. For the full interview and a further look into the game, visit gameinformer.com

 Finally, building on the rumors of the next-generation platforms being revealed soon, pictures have leaked online of a potential touchscreen controller for the next Playstation. A “trusted source” at IGN has confirmed that the controller in question (pictured above) is a replacement for the Dualshock controller Sony has used since the Playstations inception. The controller features significant changes to the D-Pad and analog sticks, but the most noteworthy addition gamers will notice is what appears to be a mini-touchscreen in the center of the controller. Because Nintendo has featured dual-screen/touchscreen gaming as one of its main selling points for the Wii U, it comes as no surprise that Sony would want to follow suit with its next platform. However, the source also stated that the controller is currently an “early prototype”, so if the controller is real it could go through revisions leading up to the platforms release.