Casual giant Zynga is shutting down its Street Racing game on August 2, immediately rendering void all the in-game items players bought with real money. Zynga offered no explanation in the announcement, simply suggesting that players try other Zynga games. Naturally, people whose fake worlds have crashed around them are upset, starting a petition in Zynga's forum to stop the game from disappearing.

Zynga told Develop that it wouldn't be offering refunds on the money spent in-game, opting instead to give credits equivalent to the cost of any purchase made in the last 90 days, plus an extra 100 units of virtual currency, all usable in other Zynga games. Which is really going to satisfy the people planning to stop playing Zynga games when Street Racing goes away.

Zynga shutting down Street Racing game, offering credit for in-game purchases originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 31 Jul 2010 03:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Yeah, now that we think about it, Princess Zelda in Spirit Tracks wasn't exactly the most flattering portrayal of the titular heiress. In Ocarina of Time, she masqueraded around as this badass ninja, in Twilight Princess, she was a killer with a bow and arrow -- heck, in Wand of Gamelon, you actually get to play as Zelda. As Awkward Zombie points out in last week's Wrapup-winning comic "Off Track," all she can do in the series' second DS outing is follow a dotted line, often into a wall, obstacle or slavering jaws of a hideous beast.

Second and third place went to Digital Unrest's "Incognito" and Penny Arcade's "Planting a Flag," respectively. If you've got a strip you'd like to see in tomorrow's Wrapup, make sure you drop a link in the comments, or send in a tip!

Readers pick best webcomic: Off Track originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 31 Jul 2010 02:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Join us as we live stream Brett's attempt to make it through Limbo in a single sitting.

Video inside! ...

If movies, television and America’s Funniest Home Videos have taught us anything, it’s that nothing in this world is funnier than a man doubling over and clutching at his junk in agony and confusion. It’s preferable if this is immediately after his crotch has been nailed with flying sports equipment, a foot or a dog’s teeth, but we’re not really picky so long as someone lets loose a howl of pain and maybe falls over... ...

System 3 has announced yet another Ferrari-licensed racing game, Ferrari: The Race Experience, presumably a follow-up to last year's Ferrari Challenge Deluxe. Like System 3's previous efforts, this will be hitting both Wii and PlayStation 3. However, PS3 owners will only be able to find the game on the virtual shelves of the PlayStation Network. Why? System 3 explains that it's become too costly to deal with retail. "The vast amounts of money required in securing a decent in-store presence through co-operative marketing [makes it] easy to see why some games are doomed before they start. By going down a download only route, System 3 is quietly confident that it can service consumer demand directly and efficiently."

While many of System 3's future releases will be exclusive to download platforms, the company did admit that it can't give up on retail altogether. "Obviously we are not moving away fully from boxed product as we are committed to maximising our games across all formats and Wii games, for example, are still only released as physical product."

Ferrari: The Race Experience steers towards Wii and PSN originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 31 Jul 2010 01:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Shake off that sense of deja vu. We're talking about a different Cabela's game here: Activision has just announced Cabela's Dangerous Hunts 2011, the next installment in its iterative series of hunt-em-down-and-shoot-em-ups. It's set to stalk retail shelves "late fall" and will be available on the Xbox 360, PS3, Wii and DS systems. Every version sans the DS installment will come packed with the Top Shot Elite controller, a wireless gun peripheral created by the same people at Activision who brought you the Guitar Hero controllers.

Activision is apparently putting a lot of production value into this latest Cabela's title, tapping Brad Santos, screenwriter and creative director, to pen the tale of Cole Rainsford, who has joined his estranged father in the African safari to hunt dangerous animals terrorizing local villages there. See, kids? Hunting is a noble pursuit.

Feel free to track some screens from the upcoming game (and the controller) in our gallery below. If you prefer your game a bit more lively, then head past the break for a teaser trailer.

Continue reading Cabela's Dangerous Hunts 2011 is about more than just shooting animals

Cabela's Dangerous Hunts 2011 is about more than just shooting animals originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 31 Jul 2010 00:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If we were to place a single bet on what we thought Square Enix's recently filed European trademark for "Gun Loco" would end up being, we'd almost certainly be proven wrong within a few months. Instead, we've got three hypotheses, which we've ranked below in order of likelihood. Now all our bases should totally be covered.

1. Gun Loco: A stylish, fast-paced shooting game. Features over-the-top gunplay and comedically bad voice acting.
2. Gun Loco: A psychological thriller about an evil scientist who invents a laser capable of driving ordinary people into irreversible fits of insanity.
3. Gun Loco: An FPS in which the hero locates a gun capable of shooting entire freight trains at enemies. (Please, please, Square Enix -- let it be this one.)

Square Enix registers European trademark for 'Gun Loco' originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 30 Jul 2010 23:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Star Wars: The Old Republic website reveals a new world for the MMO: the "smuggler's moon" of Nar Shaddaa, orbiting the Hutt homeworld. It's a huge city full of fugitives and other criminals, and is host to an ongoing war between the Hutt Cartel and the Exchange Syndicate -- you know, the kind of thing that a Jedi pays no attention to because he's too busy bringing down the government of the whole galaxy. It also kind of looks like something out of Phantasy Star Online.

Have you ever noticed how in science fiction, entire planets will just have one defining feature? Like in Star Wars: Hoth is an ice planet, Dagobah is 100% swamp, Coruscant is one enormous city, and this place is a different planetwide city. Based on all the planets we've lived on (pretty much the one), that doesn't seem like how it works. Of course, the Star Wars universe is the one with lightsabers and Wookiee best friends, so there's definitely value to its interpretation of civilization.

Visit scenic Nar Shaddaa in Star Wars: The Old Republic originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 30 Jul 2010 23:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Rumors have been flying around about a subscription-based Call of Duty game for some time now -- Activision boss Bobby Kotick loves the idea, because he loves money, and the company's other subscription-based game, World of Warcraft, is quite the cash-printing machine. So why not go down that road?

Many still believe Activision will, including Janco Partners analyst Mike Hickey. With the publisher's plans to break into China and Korea, Hickey told IndustryGamers he sees Call of Duty as the perfect platform for accomplishing that goal and strengthening ties with NetEase, the online powerhouse of the Chinese market. "We expect the Company [NetEase] could extend their relationship with Activision Blizzard, by establishing an additional license to operate Call of Duty Online in China and Blizzard's unannounced MMO, which will likely leverage their Battle.net platform," he said. "The eventuality of COD in China could bring an additional +$50 to +$100 million in sales and +$0.15 to +$0.30 in EPS in its first year of operation." EPS, to clarify, is short for "earnings per share."

Who knows what's in store for the future, but for now, rest assured: you won't ever have to fork over extra cash to play Modern Warfare 2 online.

Analyst: Call of Duty Online could make $100 million in its first year originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 30 Jul 2010 22:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Still waiting for your PC version of Battlefield 1943? Okay, first, we feel obliged to tell you that you should probably check out Battlefield: Bad Company 2. But second, you might want to know that EA is apparently issuing refunds for pre-orders of the title to folks who reserved the PC release. VG247 asked EA about said refunds, and was told, "All pre-orders can be canceled with refund at any time and we do not have any further information at this time about a release date for the PC version of Battlefield 1943." We asked an EA rep for clarification this afternoon and were told that pre-orders for any game can be refunded at any time -- furthermore, the rep specifically pointed out "Battlefield 1943 is not canceled, but we don't have any news about a release date at this time."

Last we heard, the game was on track for release sometime this year and the game's producer even assured us that the PC version was still in the cards as recently as last March. So, while unfulfilled PC fans eagerly awaiting the game's release may ask for their pre-order money back, it also appears that whatever interest EA earned on your money since last October when pre-orders opened will remain in the publisher's hands. How nice of them! Perhaps it'll be used to support the game with DLC? Yeah, we're not holding our breath either.

Battlefield 1943 for PC remains on track, still no release date originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 30 Jul 2010 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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