Future Gamers, The Gaming Blog

Saali Ne Kela Ghotala 2009 Marathi Movie Watch Online

2010-09-16T00:18:00.001+05:00

Saali Ne Kela Ghotala 2009 Marathi Movie Watch Online Informations :

Language: Marathi
Starring : Bharat Jadhav, Siddharth Jadav, Vijay Chawhan, Kishori Ambiye
Genre : Comedy
Director : Shilpa Gonjari

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When Love Is Not Enough: The Lois Wilson Story 2010 Hollywood Movie Watch Online

2010-09-15T01:09:00.001+05:00

When Love Is Not Enough: The Lois Wilson Story 2010 Hollywood Movie Watch Online Informations :

Director : John Kent Harrison
Release Date : 25 April 2010
Genre : Biography, Drama
Cast : Winona Ryder, Barry Pepper, Paul Popowich, Adam Greydon Reid, Ellen Dubin, Sarah Manninen, Collette Micks, Kristi Angus, Peter Windrem, Ann Turnbull, Carin Moffat, Brent Crawford

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King of the Ants 2003 Hollywood Movie Watch Online

2010-09-15T01:03:00.001+05:00

King of the Ants 2003 Hollywood Movie Watch Online Informations :

Director : Stuart Gordon
Genre : Crime, Drama, Horror, Thriller
Cast : Chris McKenna, Kari Wuhrer, George Wendt, Vernon Wells, Lionel Mark Smith, Timm Sharp, Daniel Baldwin, Carissa Kosta, Briana Beghi, Carlie Westerman, Ian Patrick Williams, Antoine Joseph

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Saali Ne Kela Ghotala 2009 Marathi Movie Watch Online

2010-09-15T00:58:00.003+05:00

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Waah! Tera Kya Kehna 2002 Hindi Movie Watch Online

2010-09-15T00:43:00.004+05:00

2010-08-05T19:49:00.001+05:00

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Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince 2009 Hindi Dubbed Movie Watch Online

2010-08-05T19:47:00.001+05:00

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince 2009 Hindi Dubbed Movie Watch Online Informations :

Director : David Yates
Release Date : 17 July 2009
Genre : Adventure, Fantasy
Cast : Daniel Radcliffe, Michael Gambon, Dave Legeno, Elarica Gallagher, Jim Broadbent, Geraldine Somerville, Bonnie Wright, Julie Walters, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Helena Bonham Carter

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2010-08-05T19:26:00.000+05:00

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Kuch Kuch Hota Hai 1998 Hindi Movie Watch Online

2010-08-03T13:54:00.000+05:00

Kuch Kuch Hota Hai 1998 Hindi Movie Watch Online Informations :

Director : Karan Johar

Release Date : 16 October 1998

Genre : Comedy, Family, Musical, Romance

Cast : Shahrukh Khan, Kajol, Rani Mukherjee, Salman Khan, Farida Jalal, Reema Lagoo, Archana Puran Singh, Himani Shivpuri, Anupam Kher.

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Japan's Celebs Hawking Mario Kart Wii

2010-02-05T23:22:00.000+05:00

Nintendo's Mario Kart Wii TV commercials in Japan show players that even celebrities love racing with Mario.

What began with a tease -- the first commercial only featured the Wii Wheel controller and the sound of engines revving -- continued with a series of about 10 commercials showing various TV celebs getting their kart racing on. This isn't the first time the company has used such tactics -- it hauled out famous faces to hawk Wii Fit last year.

The folks in the picture above, and in the second video embedded below, are model Aki Hoshino (famous for appearing in softcore "gravure" cheesecake DVDs) and comedian Medaka Ikeno. In the first video, we have actor Yusuke Kamiji and enka singer Aki Yashiro.

Actually, I was hoping that the Mario Kart Wii commercials would bring back my favorite Japanese comedians, Takashi Okamura and Hiroyuki Yabe, also known as the comedy duo "99." They were the spokespeople for the DS version of the series, taking on the roles of Mario and Luigi.

Have a look at the first eight commercials in the Mario Kart Wii campaign below. Pictured above, an ad in a train station that uses the same celebs.

The Last Word 2008 Hollywood Movie Watch Online

2009-07-13T20:17:00.001+06:00

The Last Word 2008 Hollywood Movie Watch Online Informations :

Director : Geoffrey Haley
Genre : Drama
Cast : Winona Ryder, Wes Bentley, Ray Romano, Gina Hecht, Pippi

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Love Takes Wing 2009 Hollywood Movie Watch Online

2009-04-24T00:36:00.000+06:00

Love Takes Wing 2009 Hollywood Movie Watch Online Informations :

Director : Lou Diamond Phillips
Release Date : 4 April 2009
Genre : Western
Cast : Annalise Basso, John Bishop, Jordan Bridges, Erin Cottrell, Haylie Duff, Patrick Duffy, Andy Scott Harris, Sarah Jones, Cloris Leachman, Lou Diamond Phillips, Mary-Jessica Pitts

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The Don No. 1 2008 Hindi Movie Watch Online

2009-04-23T13:29:00.000+06:00

Review: Tokyo Beat Down: Mediocre Beat-Em-Up, Hilarious Story

2009-03-31T12:48:00.004+05:00

Since their heyday in the mid-'90s, Double Dragon-style beat'em-up games have been on life support. Few games manage to re-create the simple pleasure of teaming up with a friend to punch and kick your way through a ravaged city; those that do only accomplish that feat by blatantly ripping off the classics.

Tokyo Beat Down, a new Nintendo DS game from Operation Darkness developer Success, initially seems like a great success (ahem) as it blends attractive 3-D artwork with responsive controls and a clever storyline. Unfortunately, that seems to merely be a superficial sort of glamor.

Beat Down does little to differentiate itself from its predecessors. The characters' fighting moves are repetitive, feeling as if they've been directly cribbed from the best 1992 had to offer. And while the game's dialogue is clever, it doesn't make up for the fact that the graphics aren't technically impressive at all.

Tokyo Beat Down tells the story of detective Lewis Cannon and his squad, colloquially dubbed the "beast cops" for their tendency to shoot/punch/kick first and ask questions only if the suspect is not yet dead.

Beat Down's story unfolds through comic book-style scenes in which the only motion is the repositioning of a character's face or the materialization of text balloons. This style is slightly distracting, especially since the scenes take up half your time playing the game. However, the writing was entertaining enough to keep me from skipping the huge chunks of dialogue -- an option the developers helpfully offer players during all the cut-scenes.

I don't know who I should be praising when talking up the game's story, publisher Atlus' renowned localization team or developer Success' Japanese-language writers. Atlus has proven its ability to write witty translations, but Success' greatest strength has always been the wild ideas from its creative team. Whoever is responsible should be praised for irreverent humor that rivals anything in the world of gaming.

A typical conversation:

Crime Lord: You cops don't have any evidence on me!
Lewis Cannon: "Have" is my middle name!
Crime Lord: ... Um, what?

The gameplay in Beat Down, though, is where the brilliant facade starts showing cracks. This game apes the Genesis classic Streets of Rage to the point where changing the faces on two of the three main characters would be enough to pass off Tokyo Beat Down as Streets of Rage 4.

You're given punch, kick, jump and action buttons. Combining these commands with the L and R shoulder buttons allows your character to snatch a young punk and pile-drive him to the ground, discover delicious hamburgers in newly smashed oil drums, and pop a few caps into the head of Tokyo's (suspiciously ethnically diverse) gang-bangers.

The similarities wouldn't necessarily be an issue, except Success failed to fix any of flaws found in the now 17-year-old Streets of Rage. Tokyo Beat Down benefits from a pretty new three-dimensional coat of paint, but the entire game is still a blend of repeatedly hitting one or two buttons and dashing around the screen in an effort to avoid being surrounded.

And even that new coat of paint doesn't look as good as other DS games. Perhaps the graphics are low-quality so that the fighting could be more intense, but if so, why did I never encounter more than six people at once?

Even with the slightly below-average graphics, even with the blatantly swiped mechanics, even with the simplistic punch-kick-repeat gameplay, I still want to recommend Tokyo Beat Down. As with Operation Darkness, the title's story and writing are so different and original that I couldn't help but enjoy the game. Tokyo Beat Down won't please those looking for the next blockbuster action game, but it could be a fun diversion for anyone looking for a new experience in this dying genre.

Images courtesy Atlus

Additional Maps Planned for Riddick: Dark Athena

2009-03-31T12:48:00.003+05:00

It has yet to hit store shelves, but developer Starbreeze Studios is already working on a downloadable content pack for The Chroncles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena, reports IGN.

Included in the DLC pack are 5 maps designed specifically for the game's multiplayer modes. These join the 15 maps scheduled to ship along with the game for use in the Dark Athena's 6 multiplayer variants (Arena, Butcher Bay Riot, Capture the Flag, Deathmatch, Pitch Black and Team Deathmatch).

Price and release details for the DLC have yet to be announced.

The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena is scheduled to hit the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC platforms on April 7 (April 24 in European territories).

Image courtesy Atari

Gaming Blamed for Childhood Finger Deformities

2009-03-31T12:48:00.001+05:00

Author Mike Tomich believes videogames can cause finger deformities among young children, reports GamePolitics.

"Children develop the injuries because their bones are too soft and readily yield to the strong repeating forces," says Tomich, a self-described "quality engineer" and author of the book Our Silent Epidemic. "The
permanent and accumulative damage from these forces is silently
inflicted without pain because of the numbing effects they deliver to
the soft bones."

Tomich believes his repeated attempts to convince the U.S. Senate to pass a bill which will lead to the study of the issue have been stymied by the gaming industry.

"We spoke with Senator Ted Kennedy's Office today and they said
Senate bill S.948-CAMRA Act which was going to study children's health,
including the effects of video gaming, will have to be submitted for
the 8th time next year. Senator Lieberman's Office informed us that
Senator Mike Enzi (R-Wyoming) killed the bill for it's 8th year because
he didn't want it passed," Tomich wrote on his website.

"The
Video Gaming Industry wants Senate bill S.948-CAMRA Act to go away
forever. Did you know that on 11-14-08 Microsoft Executives visited
Washington and discussed children's finger injuries from video gaming
and S.948 is now being stalled? The Nintendo Wii is suppose
to replace the damaging game controller, but the Wii is equally
damaging," he adds.

Image: chaps1/Flickr

Xbox Live Community Games Dev Decries Poor Sales

2009-03-31T12:47:00.000+05:00

Despite its pre-launch hype, developers who have opted to release games under Microsoft's Xbox Live Community Games banner are finding that their titles aren't attracting the vast audience they'd hoped for.

In a blog post detailing the newly released sales figures for caffeine monster software's DUOtrix (pictured above), creator Mobeen Fikree points out that while the demo for his game was downloaded 7,438 times, only 157 copies of the full version were paid for by consumers.

This amounts to a 2.07 percent conversion rate, a figure that Fikree describes as "not great, but I believe that’s around the average rate for downloadable games."

Continuing, Fikree believes that the poor exposure of XBLCG games is to blame for the poor sales of DUOtrix:

"I think DUOtrix quickly got lost in the flood of games on XBCG," Fikree writes. "We were
on the 'featured 5' list on the Community Games page at launch, which
is where most of the traffic came from. When we were pulled off the
list in December the downloads slowed down dramatically."

Echoing Fikree's concerns, Nathan Fouts of Weapon of Choice creator Mommy's Best Games describes his game's sales as "in one word, sobering."

His game received quite a bit more press than Fikree's, but still moved fewer than 10,000 units since its launch in November 2008.

"What all that means to our bottom-line, we do not yet know, but it does
not feel great," Fouts adds. "Maybe rational people hang up their keyboard and call
it quits. But if you played Weapon of Choice, you realize we’re far from rational."

Image courtesy caffeine monster software

Video: Gameplay and Character Customization in Fallen Earth

2009-03-31T12:46:00.004+05:00

Fallen Earth may have slipped below many people's radar, but the post-apocalyptic massively multiplayer online roleplaying game looks to be coming along nicely, if the newly-released footage from the title's beta is any indication.

Scheduled for a PC release "when it's done," the game tells the story of "a
post-apocalyptic Earth in the year 2154."

"Within the Grand Canyon
Province, an isolated pocket of settlements around one of the world's
most amazing landmarks, you'll face threats to mankind's continued
survival, from irradiated zones to mutated beasts to raiders," says the game's official website.

The first clip, seen above, is a minute-and-a-half long trailer introducing gamers to the world and offering a glimpse at Fallen Earth's gameplay, while the second clip demonstrates the game's character creation utility. It's pretty
standard stuff for an MMO, but it does seem to offer players a wide
variety of customization options.

No price has yet been revealed for Fallen Earth, but the game's site says "it will be
competitive with other major MMOs." Expect something along the lines of $50 for a boxed copy of the game, along with a $15 per month subscription fee at launch.

Fallen Earth MMO New Videos: Gameplay & Character Customization is Awesome [OMM]

EA, Starz Media Planning Dante's Inferno Animated Film

2009-03-31T12:46:00.003+05:00

Following the success of the Dead Space animated movie, Electronic Arts and Starz Media's Film Roman have revealed a collaboration to produce an animated flick to tie-in with the publisher's upcoming Dante's Inferno.

Monday's official announcement describes the film thusly:

Just as the poem and
game take players on a stunning journey through the nine circles of Hell,
the Dante’s Inferno animated feature will also follow
Dante as he travels through limbo, lust, gluttony, greed, anger, heresy,
violence, fraud and treachery in search of his true
love, Beatrice. Both are based on part one of
Dante Alighieri’s classic poem, “The Divine Comedy,”
better known as “Dante’s Inferno.”

More interesting than simple plot details however, is how EA and Starz Media are approaching the project: Instead of simply handing the film's reins to a single creative team, the duo are "commissioning unique visions from multiple studios" with film credits ranging from Dead Space Downfall to Hellboy Animated: Blood & Iron and The Spectacular Spider-Man.

Image: Electronic Arts

The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai Arrives April 1

2009-03-31T12:46:00.001+05:00

This Wednesday, April 1, will see the Xbox Live Arcade launch of Ska Studios' cryptically-named, 2-D, side-scrolling, three-player beat-em-up The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai.

The game, which will run $10 on release, is something of a cross between Alien Hominid, Shinobi and MadWorld. Though it may sound like a strange combination, once you've seen the game in action, it will make much more sense -- and hopefully you'll be as excited for it as I am.

What's more, TD:DS has one of the more novel (read: bizarre) plotlines we've seen:

An undead samurai dishwasher in a dystopian universe is on a quest for
revenge against the evil cyborg army. To dispatch hordes of zombies,
cyborgs, and robots, the Dishwasher has at his fingertips a devastating
array of attacks using ancient blades, disturbing machinery, and
screen-obliterating Dish Magic. Compete with the rest of the world in a
variety of speed run and high score challenges to become the most
formidable Dishwasher yet!

As an aside, those of you wondering how exactly developers craft these sorts of XBLA titles should check out Building XNA 2.0 Games. It's a thick tome (450 pages) authored by Ska Studios' single developer, James Silva, that he describes as detailing "pretty much everything I did when making The Dishwasher so that others could benefit from the experience."

Image courtesy Ska Studios

Left 4 Dead Tops 2.5 Million Sold

2009-03-31T12:45:00.000+05:00

Surprising no one, Left 4 Dead is a huge hit. Surprising a few perhaps, is today's revelation that the game has sold more than 2.5 million copies since its debut in November 2008, according to Edge Online.

While that figure does include all boxed sales of both the Xbox 360 and PC version of the game, it doesn't include any copies sold through Valve's digital distribution platform, Steam.

Valve tightly guards any and all sales figures related to its online service, so though we may never know the true scope of Left 4 Dead's success, two things are quite evident from what we already know.

First, Valve's history of crafting the best-selling games in the industry continues with its latest title.

Second, even those bothered by the concept of sprinting zombies bought Left 4 Dead (truth be told, I actually own three copies).

Image courtesy Valve

Left 4 Dead Sales Surpass 2.5m [Edge Online]

GDC Videos: Indie Games, Nintendo Keynote, Zelda Trailer

2009-03-31T12:44:00.000+05:00

SAN FRANCISCO -- Here are our videos from this year's Game Developers Conference.

On Thursday, we stopped by the Independent Games Festival kiosk to talk to some of the award winners, who took home prizes for games like Cortex Command and Tag: The Power of Paint. We also checked out Carneyvale Showtime and The Graveyard.

Wednesday morning, we filmed what we could of Nintendo president Satoru Iwata's keynote speech, then did a brief video wrap-up of Nintendo's announcements on the show floor, complete with footage of me playing Punch-Out!!

And, because we know you want it, we put up the Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks trailer in its entirety.

The latter two videos are below.

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Hands On: OnLive's Streaming On-Demand Version of Mirror's Edge

2009-03-31T12:43:00.002+05:00

SAN FRANCISCO -- "But is it going to work?"

I've had a lot of conversations with a lot of people at this year's Game Developers Conference about OnLive, the streaming games-on-demand subscription service set to launch later this year. The pitch is that you'll be able to hook up a tiny little box to your TV, or just use any cheapo low-end PC, and stream games to your set that are being run on remote servers. It all sounds fantastic in theory, but... well, you know.

So OnLive knew they had to at least demonstrate, in the impossibly ideal conditions of a convention hall, that they can stream games. I was told that the servers were located in Santa Clara, about 50 miles from San Francisco's Moscone Center. To test the service out, I decided to pick out the fastest game I could find in the lineup, something I knew that would be ruined by lag: Mirror's Edge.

In a nutshell: Mirror's Edge felt slightly different than the console version. Not worse, exactly. Different. In the same way that ports of games across older platforms like Super Nintendo and Genesis would sometimes feel a little bit different. If I hadn't played the console versions of Mirror's Edge I probably wouldn't notice how the gameplay felt just a tiny bit slower, a tiny bit choppier. But I could feel it having the frame of reference.

The graphics were also just a little bit blurrier, due to the compression. OnLive's remote servers there in Santa Clara, as I understand it, are doing all the computation, then compressing each individual frame of graphics, then beaming it out to the set-top box or PC, which then decompresses it and splashes it up on-screen.

So it's a little jumpy, a little blurry. It's still the same amount of fun. Given what the OnLive system is doing, is that a fair tradeoff? If you can sign up for games-on-demand with little to no up-front cost -- that tiny box might cost under $100 or it might even be subsidized just like your cable box -- is it worth it? I think it will be to many people. The question, of course, is whether OnLive can replicate the ideal conditions that I tried here, when it's working with my home internet connection and I'm sharing the servers with a million other people, not just the few on the GDC floor.

Actually, that's not the only hurdle this needs to clear. I will quote at length from your friend and mine Bill Harris:

Publishers, at the same time they have been screaming that current piracy rates represent the apocalypse, have also told us over and over again that game prices would be cheaper if it weren't for pirates. They've also been screaming that the resale market is just absolutely killing them.

Well, if this service actually launches, we will all see if, to put it delicately, they were full of shit. They have every reason in the world to want this technology to succeed, and one of the ways it has a much, much better chance of succeeding is if they reduce the price on games sold through OnLive. I don't mean $5 off a $59.95 game--I mean at least $15, and preferably $20.

I mean, they should, right? They're keeping $23 more per unit!

Games cannot cost $60 on OnLive, especially when you consider that what you're doing is analogous to renting, not buying. Even if you download a game today, you at least have a file that sits on your hard drive no matter what. If you use OnLive, your games are only as good as your internet connection and your subscription to the service. The prices need to reflect that.

Image courtesy OnLive

New Myst iPhone Screens Surface

2009-03-31T12:43:00.001+05:00

A handful of screens have surfaced from the upcoming iPhone version of classic adventure game Myst, simultaneously reaffirming its existence after months of ambiguous silence and offering fans a glimpse at the game's progress.

A beta tester, using the presumably phonetic nom de internet "Mystdee," posted the images to the Myst Online forums, saying, "I have been given permission to post a few screenshots of the Myst for
iPhone so you can see it's really happening and coming along well."

I don't quite know what I was expecting when viewing the images, so while they're quite obviously an aesthetically correct recreation of Myst, I feel a bit let down.

I don't know if it's the advances made in gaming since Myst's "photo realistic" graphics drove the adoption of CD-ROM drives, or if I had remembered the game as more attractive than it actually was, but something about these screenshots just seems so stagnant.

Image: Cyan, via Myst Online forums

PixelJunk Eden Encore Content Detailed

2009-03-31T12:42:00.000+05:00

Sony's PlayStation.Blog once again has details on the upcoming PixelJunk Eden Encore direct from creator Q-Games head Dylan Cuthbert, offering a price point for the title and details on what exactly the downloadable game contains.

Though a solid release date has yet to be established for the title, Cuthbert says the game will set you back $6 once it reaches the PlayStation Network Store.

But what does Eden Encore offer fans of the PixelJunk series? Cuthbert explains:

We have added five whole new stages, each one choc-a-bloc full of ideas
and gimmicks. We also designed five brand new backgrounds for them
(each background for a garden is programmed uniquely just for that
garden’s style - just in case you hadn’t noticed that in the original),
and Baiyon went away and created five brilliant new tracks of music to match it all up.

Cuthbert also says Encore adds a zero-G item that "lets you float and control your Grimp with no fear of falling" and that collecting each of the game's 25 new spectra will allow players to "play the entire game again in a completely different way."

Image courtesy Sony

Hands On: Classic Punch-Out!! Boxing Feels Just Like Old Times

2009-03-31T12:41:00.000+05:00

SAN FRANCISCO — I'm a big fan of Nintendo's classic Punch-Out!! boxing series, so I'll be among the most difficult critics of the new Wii version of the videogame. I think it has a lot to live up to if it's to use the Punch-Out!! name.

It's not just about fighting a succession of cartoon boxers that use ridiculous punches. It's about learning the perfect patterns and precise timing, reacting in precise ways that will let you beat up every boxer without getting a scratch on you.

And it is most certainly not about motion controls, which should be part of the new version purely for marketing purposes, but should be additive, not fundamental, to the experience.

As far as I can tell from my brief play session on the Game Developers Conference show floor, Punch-Out!! for Wii is exactly what I want it to be.

The version of Punch-Out!! on the GDC show floor features the game's first four boxers: Glass Joe, Von Kaiser, Disco Kid and King Hippo. Three of those names will be familiar to Punch-Out!! fans; Disco Kid is the one new boxer. If you attempt to play the game at the kiosk — after waiting in line for a while, as there are more Punch-Out!! fans than me here at GDC — you'll be handed the Wiimote and nunchuk controllers, which are used in concert for the motion-control option.

Perhaps it's a bit too early to be making this sort of critical judgment, but it seems to me that Nintendo has made some good decisions about where — and perhaps more importantly where not — to use motion controls.

Some things in a game of Punch-Out!! require precise timing. When a boxer pulls back to throw a punch, you have to dodge left and right (or duck) at the right moment to avoid the blow. Assigning a body movement to a gesture would be a mess, because precision timing is not the Wiimote's strong point, so all your movement is controlled with the analog stick on the nunchuk.

Similarly, selecting a head punch versus a body blow is done by holding up on the control stick, not by angling your hands differently. And just to make sure you don't accidentally punch when you don't want to, you have to hold the trigger buttons on the controllers before you throw anything.

But doesn't the slightly awkward nature of swinging your fists affect the precision of the game? Not really. Again, look at how you play this game. While you can, at times, sucker-punch enemies during the brief times they drop their guards, you're mostly dodging their punches, then counter-attacking with a flurry of punches immediately following. The timing window on when you can counter-punch has always been pretty wide, even in the Mike Tyson fight at the end of the NES game. So punching the air with your hands actually doesn't require a whole lot of precision.

I used motion controls for the final fight against King Hippo (above — obviously), and didn't find them that objectionable. That's about the highest praise that Punch-Out!! motion controls were ever likely to get from me. I realize that this game absolutely needed them for that portion of the Wii audience that sees a boxing game and immediately thinks they'll be able to punch in the air. It had to be there. I'm surprised Nintendo hasn't announced Balance Board support yet.

I like motion controls. But this whole game is playable with the standard controller, and in a game where gestures are used as substitutes for button presses, I'll be pressing buttons. So I took the nunchuk out of the controller — you can do this pretty much any time during a Punch-Out!! game, as I understand it — and it switched over to the classic mode, which can be played by holding the Wiimote sideways or plugging in a classic controller.

Immediately, Punch-Out!! felt much more familiar. Now that I wasn't getting slightly flummoxed by the controls, I could concentrate more on teasing out the behavior of the boxers and trying to see how I could hit them in their weakest moments to rack up Stars, which let you do superpowerful uppercuts. Interestingly, if you can get three Stars, I am told you can unleash them all at once to throw a punch more powerful than anything your tiny human brain can imagine. I didn't actually try it for myself.

So far, we know one thing for sure about Punch-Out!! — it works really well as a 10-minute trade show demo. This does not guarantee that it will hold up when I spend 10 hours with it at home. But right now? Looking good.

Images courtesy Nintendo

Journey, Glasvegas, Spongebob Songs Join Rock Band

2009-03-31T12:40:00.002+05:00

The March 31 downloadable song list for the Rock Band Music Store includes tracks from Journey, Glasvegas, and most surprisingly, Spongebob Squarepants.

While the former two are easily in line with the game's existing rock music selection, adding tunes from a popular cartoon character seems to be yet another step in the game's attempt to court a larger, more varied audience.

Fans will recall that MTV Games recently added country music to the game's DLC selection, as well as an announcement that tunes from hip-hop artist Snoop Dogg would appear in the game at some point in the future.

A full listing of the tracks scheduled for March 31 can be found below.

Track listing courtesy "hmxhenry," a representative for Rock Band developer Harmonix, via the Rock Band forums:

Journey - Don't Stop Believing

Pat Benatar - Heartbreaker

Glasvegas - Geraldine

Von Bondies - C'mon C'mon

SpongeBob SquarePants - I Can't Keep My Eyes Off of You

SpongeBob SquarePants - The Best Day Ever

SpongeBob SquarePants - Where's Gary?

All songs are masters.

The Journey, Pat Benatar, Glasvegas, and Von Bondies singles are $1.99
(160 Microsoft Points) per track. The SpongeBob SquarePants singles are
$0.99 (80 Microsoft Points) a piece, or $2.99 (240 Microsoft Points)
for the 3 song SpongeBob SquarePants Pack 01.

Braid PC Release Delayed

2009-03-31T12:40:00.001+05:00

PC gamers hoping to play Jonathan Blow's award-winning platformer Braid will have to wait a bit longer, according to a post on the game's official blog.

Originally scheduled for release on March 31, Blow's post says the game is now scheduled to reach the platform on "August 10." Presumably Blow actually meant to say the game is now set for release on April 10, as he later states the delay is only "an extra 10 days."

Unless of course, Blow has no concept of time -- an extremely esoteric gag considering Braid's reliance on time-shifting gameplay mechanics.

As explanation for the delay, Blow says "it’s only so that I can try to ship you guys a version that works well
(which frankly is impossible in Windows, but the best I can do is make
it work for most people most of the time)."

Image courtesy Jonathan Blow

Braid release date slightly delayed. (And other info). [Braid Official Site, via Big Download]

Eidos Shareholders Approve Square Enix Deal

2009-03-31T12:39:00.002+05:00

Shareholders of U.K.-based publisher Eidos have officially approved of a takeover by Japanese firm Square Enix, the former announced Friday morning.

85 percent of Eidos' voting shareholders (representing almost 94 percent of the company's total shares) were in favor of the takeover, while the group of shareholders who voted against the deal comprised less than 1 percent of total shares.

At the subsequent Extraordinary General Meeting, the requisite majority of the firm's shareholders approved the takeover plan.

Square Enix officials have yet to reveal any sort of future plans for the Tomb Raider publisher, though we've got our finger crossed that Ms. Croft might tangle with a few Cactuars in her next adventure.

Rock Band Series Tops $1 Billion In Sales

2009-03-31T12:39:00.001+05:00

Since its launch in late 2007, the Rock Band series has pulled down more than $1 billion in sales -- and that's only including its success in North America.

That figure comes courtesy of a press release issued by Rock Band distribution partner Electronic Arts Thursday morning, that also includes word that fans of the series have paid for more than 40 million downloadable songs from the game's vast DLC selection since the series' debut.

Though Rock Band 3 has yet to be announced, the upcoming Beatles-themed Rock Band release, PSP port of the series and weekly downloadable song additions should continue the series' lucrative track record for quite some time.

Correction: MTV Games is the publisher of the Rock Band series, while EA is a distribution partner. We apologize for any confusion.

Image courtesy EA

Gaming Themes Added to Google's Home Page

2009-03-31T12:37:00.000+05:00

In case Google's selection of customizable homepage themes doesn't properly express your personality, the search engine giant has just installed a new swath of themes including imagery from the world's most popular gaming series.

Included in Google's latest theme pack are images from World of Warcraft, Street Fighter IV, The Legend of Zelda (above), Tomb Raider: Underworld and Mass Effect 2 -- though the image from ME2 looks more like a scene from the first Mass Effect filtered through a haze of orange tint.

Users of any of Google's many services can alter the scheme of their customizable homepage by visting iGoogle, clicking on the "Change Theme from classic" link in the top-right corner of the page, then using the "Get New Themes" link toward the center of that page.

Google currently offers four pages of gaming themes, so you should be able to find something you like.

Image: Google

Themes > Games [iGoogle, via Yahoo]

Dissidia: Final Fantasy Confirmed for Europe

2009-03-31T12:36:00.000+05:00

European Final Fantasy fans can breathe easy: Publisher Square Enix has confirmed that Dissidia: Final Fantasy will be coming to PAL territories this Fall.

The PSP game, which features popular heroes and foes from throughout the history of the fan-favorite roleplaying series doing battle in a 3-D fighter, will appear "a few months after" the game's mid-2009 American release, reports Joystiq.

Dissidia: Final Fantasy has been available in Japan since December 2008, and while only importers have so far been able to enjoy the title, it has earned widespread acclaim in its home region, including a glowing 36/40 review from notable Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu.

Image courtesy Square Enix

Dissidia: Final Fantasy confirmed for PAL territories [Joystiq]

Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time Coming This Fall

2009-03-31T12:34:00.000+05:00

Update: Sony has released a much better looking version of the game's logo, now pictured above.

The next Ratchet & Clank title has been officially revealed: Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time will appear on the PlayStation 3 in Fall 2009.

"Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time will conclude the story arc that started in Tools of Destruction and continued in Quest for Booty," writes James Stevenson, community manager for developer Insomniac Games, on Sony's PlayStation.Blog.

Unfortunately that sentence and the above, poorly cropped image of the game's logo is the extent of solid information Stevenson offers on the game, though he does urge fans to watch Spike TV's "Gametrailers TV" this week to catch the game's first official trailer.

Image courtesy Sony

Introducing Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time [PlayStation.Blog]

New PSP to Feature Sliding Screen, Same Guts?

2009-02-24T17:30:00.000+05:00

There's a new rumor floating around about an upcoming PSP redesign. It predicts a complete aesthetic redesign, including a sliding screen, but no new hardware inside.

So you'll have the same internal architecture as the current models, but the form factor will be more cellphone-like with the inclusion of a sliding screen. Interesting. What say you, would you be excited about a smaller, more pocketable PSP if it didn't offer any updates hardware-wise?

Note: the above image is a fan mockup, not the next PSP. [VG247 via Kotaku]

Review: Puzzle Quest: Galactrix Blasts Fun Into Space

2009-02-24T17:20:00.000+05:00

Puzzle Quest bewildered casual and hard-core gamers alike when it came out in 2007, tossing aside party lines in favor of a genre-busting hybrid that brought the best of both worlds.

The game mixed the fan-favorite, match-three mechanic of Bejeweled and its many clones with a full-blown, role-playing experience. The game sent players on an epic quest in which they vanquished foes and formed a party of heroes by way of puzzle-centric combat and mini-games. Now Puzzle Quest: Galactrix is set to do it all over again -- in space!

Fans of the original Puzzle Quest will feel right at home, but Galactrix is no shameless retread. Completely revamped gameplay mechanics power this sprawling space adventure, resulting in an incredibly entertaining sequel that's barely recognizable. Despite the casual-sounding moniker, this is a decidedly hard-core game: All but the hardiest puzzle fans might find themselves over-matched.

(Puzzle Quest: Galactrix will be released Tuesday for Nintendo DS and Windows. We reviewed the PC version.)

If you've played the original Puzzle Quest, you already have a general idea of how Galactrix works. In the new game, matching three or more red, yellow or green gems provides energy to power your ship's various subsystems. Matching three or more mines will deal damage to your opponent; matching blue gems will add energy to your shield, which serves as a buffer before your ship's hull starts taking damage.

Galactrix complicates things a bit with a hexagonal grid, eliminating gravity to complement the space setting. Gems flow onto the board based on your last move -- slide a gem to the left to complete a set, for example, and the ensuing gap will be filled by new gems flowing from left to right. It's a simple change, but it adds a fresh, deviously complex level of strategy to a traditionally simple genre.

Utilizing its space setting, Galactrix offers up far greater opportunities for players to customize their characters and combat experience. You start the game with a single ship, but will be able to field up to three at a time, tailoring each to your liking. You can purchase ships from spaceports, or build them once you've found blueprints. A fast shuttle will help you speed past threats in hostile solar systems, while a slower, stronger vessel can be equipped for fighting specific threats.

Galactrix replaces Puzzle Quest's spells with ship equipment that performs a wide array of functions, from attacking your enemies or hampering their abilities to boosting your own powers. A standard laser will cost a certain amount of red energy and directly damage your opponent. Another module might cost both yellow and green energy, and bolster your shields or disrupt some of your opponent's weapons. Getting the right gear for the right battles will make all the difference, as the enemies you face will require a varied number of strategies to defeat.

Though battles are still the highlight of the Puzzle Quest: Galactrix experience, you'll be doing decidedly less fighting this time around. As your ship travels through space, unraveling mysteries and taking on quests, a number of other activities spring up that demand your attention, in the form of match-three mini-games.

You'll spend a great deal of time playing the Hacking mini-game. Leapgates scattered around the Galactrix universe are the only means of traveling from one solar system to another. For reasons unbeknownst to you, they've all been disabled, forcing you to rely on the skills of your trusty engineering drone to access them. Hacking requires matching gems in a specific sequence before a timer runs out. It's an exhilarating challenge -- at first. But traveling anywhere requires working your way through these timed matchmaking sessions, a process that will likely become maddening to even the staunchest puzzle-solving fans.

A number of other mini-games -- Mining, Crafting and even Haggling with shopkeepers for discounts -- vary the match-three theme. Hacking is the only one that is absolutely mandatory, but the well-rounded (or obsessive-compulsive) player might find these additions a bit distracting. Galactrix also rolls out a full trading economy to dabble in, with specific bits of cargo, which can be acquired by mining or raiding other ships, fetching variable prices in different solar systems. You can even smuggle contraband, if you don't mind risking the ire of law enforcement officials.

Galactrix is a surprisingly robust game, but you really need to have an investment in the rote act of matching gems to appreciate it all. Combat and the various mini-games are all strikingly different, which stands as testament to developer Infinite Interactive's ability to keep a rather simple puzzle mechanic feeling fresh, but the sheer multitude of activities detracts from the opportunities to wage puzzle-based war on enemy ships -- arguably the most fun of the lot.

A note on the multiple versions: While the games are essentially identical, the DS version of the game naturally lacks the visual panache of the PC version, and suffers from rather lengthy loading times. Of course the PC version isn't nearly as portable, so you'll just have to decide which flavor of the game is more to your liking.

Images courtesy D3Publisher

BioWare: Keep Your Mass Effect Game Saves

2009-02-24T17:19:00.000+05:00

Planning on buying Mass Effect 2? BioWare wants you to make sure not to delete the saved games from the original, though the firm's representatives aren't very forthcoming on the reason.

Amidst a forum post on BioWare's site discussing the seeming demise of ME's protagonist, BioWare's community coordinator Chris Priestly chimed in with the decidedly cryptic: "We are not yet discussing the details of the game. However, as Jack said, don't delete your Mass Effect 1 saves yet."

While this far from guarantees some sort of carry-over from the first game to the second, even the most jaded Internet speculators see this as an early hint that the company has planned some cross-title interaction for the series.

Similar schemes were in place in BioWare's Baldur's Gate series almost a decade ago, so I wouldn't be shocked to see such things in ME2.

Image courtesy BioWare

Funcom CFO Quits Amid Losses

2009-02-24T17:18:00.000+05:00

More bad news for Age of Conan creator Funcom: The firm's Chief Financial Officer Olav Sandnes has resigned his position.

Sandnes' departure has interesting timing, as Funcom recently posted quarterly losses of $23.3 million. It's unknown if the two events are related.

"Funcom is a company with a substantial potential based on a unique combination of
skill sets in a fast growing global market. I wish Trond Aas and the
rest of the organization all the best in realizing the full potential
of the company," Funcom's official announcement quotes Sandnes as saying.

Those following Funcom will also recall the departure of Age of Conan game director Gaute Godager late last year, alongside his comments on the state of the game: "There are elements which I am dissatisfied with. I have decided to act on this, and as a result I have chosen to leave Funcom"

Image courtesy Funcom

Riddick: Dark Athena Coming in April, Demo in March

2009-02-24T17:16:00.000+05:00

The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena is coming to the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC on April 7, with a demo planned for release one month prior, Atari revealed this morning.

The game is includes the new "Assault on Dark Athena" storyline, as well as a now-generation remake of classic Xbox action game The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay.

Please note that no official date for the demo is offered by Atari. Instead the company describes its release as "just a month before" the full game hits shelves.

Whether that means that the trial version is incomplete as of yet and Atari doesn't want to overpromise their ability to deliver the content, or if the company simply wants to spring the demo on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 gamers with a bit of dramatic aplomb is currently unknown.

Image courtesy Atari

Street Fighter IV Moves 2 Million Units

2009-02-24T17:14:00.000+05:00

It's only been on store shelves a short time, but Street Fighter IV has already shipped more than 2 million units worldwide, according to creator Capcom.

The NPD numbers -- the industry-standard tally for how many copies of a game have been sold in the United States -- have yet to be issued, but Capcom seems excited by the figures, saying: "First
week sales in North America have been unbelievable -- just wait
until you see the figures in NPD next month!"

Hopefully this brings some solace to those gamers unable to find a copy of the game. It's not just your local store selling out of copies as soon as they come in, it's the entire world.

Image courtesy Capcom

Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena Preview (Xbox 360)

2009-02-23T15:00:00.000+05:00

Due out April 7th, Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena is an expanded universe Riddick title featuring voice work from Vin Deisel. Primarily a stealth game, AoDA harkens back to a simpler time in FPS games, when players progressed from one hallway to another and from one room to the next, and dealt with enemies in a similarly individual fashion. But the game is graphically very appealing, and Starbreeze Studios finds clever ways to compensate for some tried and true game mechanics and maps. Despite this, AoDA is fun and feels like a game that knows how to operate within itself - and it comes with an added bonus. Included with the new game is a re-mastered version of the 2004 title Escape of Butcher Bay.

For the story, Riddick must escape the merc ship Dark Athena commanded by the Captain Revas. As Riddick, you work your way from shadow to shadow, quietly disposing of drones with weapons like hairpins and Ulak knives. (A good portion of the game revolves around melee weapons and sneaking so be prepared for that.) As you explore deeper into the ship, you meet a host of character (all with stellar voice work and beautifully rendered models in cut scenes) and learn about the mutiny, a slave colony and mother’s lost daughter. It’s clear what you must do as Riddick, which is kill a lot of people and get the hell off the ship - if you help some people along the way that is your choice.

To get off the ship you must sneak and to sneak you must use the darkness. AoDA often requires you to move from shadow to shadow in platform puzzles. Whether it’s a spotlight or a drone on patrol, you slither around trying to avoid detection or eliminating an enemy if you are noticed. If you are hurt, health is readily available on the Dark Athena in Nano Medical units peppered throughout the ship: apparently, being a merc means many injuries. Still, caution and timing should help you navigate depths of the Athena avoiding numerous instances of serious damage.

As for the combat, Riddick is a melee heavy FPS, and since you spend a good portion of the game of trying to be all silent and stealthy, you will end cuttin’ a fool more often than not. Using a hairpin to take out a drone is how Riddick would do it and allows you to immerse yourself in the character. If the gameplay seems simple at times, it helps you feel more Riddick-like. He’s a badass and wouldn’t have too much trouble sneaking passed some guards and killing a few space mercs. Yes, he will get himself into trouble, serious trouble and you will have to do your best to get passed it, but the little stuff is no sweat to Riddick.

So, while AoDA may not dazzle most gamers with it’s ingenuity, there’s a good fun to be had as a lone-wolf killing-machine that slowly dismantles a reprehensible space merc outfit. Good voice work, pretty environments and excellent character design will keep the eye sugared up and happy. This is fun, fast-moving action game that will turn a few heads and remind longer term fans what they enjoyed about the old game.

Release Date: April 7, 2009

Price: $59.99 (Xbox 360 and PS3)

$49.99 (PC)

Rating: Mature (Tons of Cursing, Blood, more Cursing)

Publish: Atari

Developer: Starbreeze Studios

Can the DSi Become the Portable Wii?

2009-02-23T14:59:00.000+05:00

Millions of people picked up a video game controller for the first time because of Nintendo's Wii. Can the Japanese game developer now conquer the pockets of those same freshly minted gamers with its latest portable console?

The Nintendo DSi, which hits North America on April 5 for $170, comes with a touch screen, two cameras and the ability to store pictures, music and downloaded software on a memory card.

But what is most fascinating about the latest iteration of Nintendo's DS is the company's plan to make the DSi not just a gaming platform, but a personalized piece of a person's life as invaluable as a day planner or a cell phone.

Built into each DSi is the ability to purchase and download software directly to the device through a DSi Shop. And those bits of software won't just be games, they will be the types of programs that can help turn a DSi into "My DSi."

Nintendo President Satoru Iwata said recently that he could see people buying a Zelda Calculator, an Animal Crossing Clock, route maps of various cities or maybe a simple game like Tetris through the service.

The idea isn't just to make money through a slew of micro purchases, but to make the device so personalized that people carry it around with them more often and are less willing to share it with friends and family.

"Hopefully, each person's personality would be reflected in their DS and they wouldn't be able to take their hands off it," said Nintendo's Masato Kuwahara, in a recent public discussion with Iwata. "It would be great if it became so integral to them that if they accidentally left the house without it in the morning they would hurry back to get it!

"Since you can save your own photos, you're sure to want your own console, rather than, say, share your big brother's."

A recent survey showed Nintendo that while there are an average of 2.8 DS users per a household that has a DS in Japan, each of those homes only have 1.8 DS consoles in them. Iwata and company hope to get that number up by making the DSi so personal to its users that more people will want to buy them.

That's the sort of out-of-the-box thinking that drove the creation of the Wii and turned it into the video game powerhouse it is today, chiefly among an audience that never before gamed.

Looking over the DSi, there are quite a few traits the two now share. Like the Wii, the DSi has a Home menu of sorts that updates to show gamers which game is currently in the device. It also has non-gamer friendly built-in applications for playing with photos and music. And, like the DSi's downloadable digital clocks and calendars, some of the Wii's most successful titles are the ones built on simple ideas, like losing weight or playing tennis.

Nintendo seems to realize that for the DSi to become as popular as the Wii it will have to serve more than one role. Where the Wii can serve up weather and news and act as a sort of family bulletin board, the DSi will have to become as invaluable outside the home.

Well Played is a weekly column about the big news of the week in the gaming industry and its bigger impact on things to come. Feel free to join in the discussion.

Playstation soap washes the stink of nerdsweat off

2009-02-22T13:25:00.001+05:00

Regular soap gets its job done well enough, I suppose, but where's the fun? It's just a square of cleaning product, there's nothing interesting about that. But a bar of soap shaped like a Playstation controller? That, my friends, is fun.

The soaps are handmade and come in a variety of colors, so you can lather up with a blue, purple or yellow bar shaped like a Playstation controller. Options! And for a mere $5 per bar, it's really not much more expensive than regular soap. And the fun makes it so very worth it.

Etsy, Via Shiny Shiny

Solar-Powered DS Lite

2009-02-22T13:23:00.001+05:00

Every once in a while, some DIY tech from a site called Instructables displays some homemade tech that should have been created by major electronics companies and not the people at home.

Today, it is a Solar Powered Nintendo DS Lite. Yes, someone other than Nintendo has figured out that affixing 60 x 60 millimeter solar panels to charge a power draining device is a good idea. They can create 6 volts of electricity, which is just enough for playing in the sun.

Why didn’t Nintendo think of this when they created the DS Lite? I mean, most pocket calculators are solar-powered, so shouldn’t we put solar panels on other portable electronics? That is, if it works.

I guess solar power isn’t as efficient as we like it to be. There has got to be a way to stretch out the power of the renewable source of energy as ever-present as the sun. That’s right, we are supposed to be saving energy now, so let’s figure out how to really do it, please.

Well, if you want to make your own solar-powered Nintendo DS Lite, feel free to head over to the Instructables site and find out how to make it here. If you want to mass-produce it and make some money of this good idea, then you’ll probably have to make a few phone calls.

Guy Plays 36 World Of Warcraft Accounts At The Same Time, Runs Raids By Himself

2009-02-22T13:20:00.000+05:00

Gamer Prepared runs 36 accounts of World of Warcraft at the same damn time. Why? Because he can, and it's his God-given Canadian right (I don't actually know where he's from).

A lot have asked me, why create so many? The main reason is to invade Stormwind and Ironforge when they reach top level. I'm sure the Alliance will put up a big fight when that happens. We'll see how it goes. If they don't make level 70 before Wrath of the Lich King, then it will be at level 80. That is my main goal. That will probably happen after I've got some PvP gear from the battlegrounds. I'm also planning to do some 25 and 10 man raid instances but that is secondary to my PvP goal. Of course I'll be doing arenas too to build up PvP gear but I'm not expecting to do that great there because I'm way behind in gear right now. I need to get to level 70 first, then level 80 and by then I will probably have all green gear while most others have been doing the battlegrounds and arenas.

It costs me exactly $5711 in subscription costs per year with 36 accounts on the 6 month pay schedule. Not bad considering I'm looking at it like it's a hobby and there are more expensive hobbies out there than World of Warcraft.

When Wrath of the Lich King is released, I plan to be at the store when it opens and will purchase 36 copies of it. With tax, it should be about $1500 for all of them. Then the shaman are on their way to level 80 along with the priest, druid and mage.

Huh? I have no idea what that means because my girlfriend threatened to punch me in the face with her Jetta if I ever touched World of Warcraft (or another woman). But I do know that $5,711 is more money than I make in two years and this guy spends it on game subscriptions. Making him quite possibly the richest man in the world. In spirit. Rich in spirit.

Hit the jump for another picture of the setup, along with some screen shots.

Oh, and if you're a loyal Geekologist living in the Huntsville, AL area, give me a shout and then take me out and buy me a beer. Whee, I'm cheap! No, but seriously.

Firebreathing Dog Robot Will Ruin Your Day

2009-02-22T13:18:00.001+05:00

This firebreathing robot-dog-beast-cycle (inappropriately named Lrry) was made entirely out of recycled materials by the Mutoid Waste Company in London. "Why?", you ask. "Why not?", the makers reply. "Because that f***er's gonna kill us all!", you scream while throwing an empty beer can and lacing up your running shoes. Perfectly at home at any monster truck rally, Lrry is guaranteed to melt your face off then trample your body. And, seriously, what better way to go? You know, besides every other way, excluding impalement.

How That Awesome Half-Life Movie Was Made

2009-02-22T13:10:00.000+05:00

About a week ago, we showed you part one of "Escape From City 17", a short, fan-made Half-Life movie put together by the Purchase Brothers. Let's all today see how they made it.

In an interview with NewTeeVee, the brothers - David and Ian - reveal that the movie didn't, as first believed, cost $500 to make. It cost $500 Canadian dollars, which at the moment is around USD$400. They kept costs so low because, as people who do this kind of thing for a living (making ads/films, not battling the Combine), they already owned expensive an expensive editing suite.

No, the money went on the Combine uniforms and guns they use in the film, with all acting and editing work done for free. As for what we can expect in part two, the pair say that the avalanche of interest in the work since part one was released has actually slowed things down, with all the phone calls and emails distracting them from the job at hand.

That said, they reckon the second instalment in the series will be out in around six to eight weeks. Can't wait.

Interview With David Purchase, Co-creator of Escape From City 17 [NewTeeVee]

Get Clean With Donkey Kong Junior

2009-02-22T13:09:00.000+05:00

Having seen this, I wonder why I haven't seen it more. Colombian artists Andres Barragan and Miss Vynilos tiled up a shower to match scenes from Donkey Kong Jr.

While this would be an awesome bath to have, I can easily imagine going to work with the damn Donkey Kong Jr. chiptone stuck in my head - every. single. day.

Donkey Kong Junior Shower is Truly Bananas [Technabob via GoNintendo]

Wireless SingStar Mics hit stores March 20th

2009-02-22T13:08:00.001+05:00

Sony has announced that they will release Wireless Microphones for the company’s karaoke franchise, Singstar. Released on March 20th, the new mics will be compatible with both Playstation 2 and Playstation 3.

To coincide with the launch of the game, Sony will also be releasing a new PS3 exclusive SingStar game, “SingStar: Pop Edition” in April. To save me the embarrassment of trying to pick out notable pop songs, I’ll let the press release do the honours.

Unleash some attitude with P!nk’s So What? Then grab your best mate for a pop duet with Jordin Sparks feat. Chris Brown’s No Air , rock out with Bon Jovi’s Livin’ on a Prayer or perform a sexy solo with Sam Sparro’s Black and Gold.

The game also introduces voice controlled menus, allowing you to navigate menus, pick songs and browse the store simply by speaking into the microphone.

See the full post for an entire track list of SingStar: Pop Edition.

Alphabeat - 10.000 Nights Of Thunder

Amy Winehouse - Rehab

Black Kids - I’m Not Going To Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance

Bon Jovi - Livin’ On A Prayer

Chris Brown - With You

Chris De Burgh - Lady In Red

Cyndi Lauper - True Colors

Gloria Estefan - Rhythm Is Gonna Get You

Jordin Sparks feat. Chris Brown - No Air

Kaiser Chiefs - Never Miss A Beat

Kate Nash - Mouthwash

Kings Of Leon - Sex On Fire

Klaxons - Gravity’s Rainbow

Little Jackie - The World Should Revolve Around Me

N*E*R*D - Sooner Or Later

P!nk - So What!

Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody

Robbie Williams - Angels

Robyn - Be Mine

Rockwell - Somebody’s Watching Me

Sam Sparro - Black And Gold

Solange - I Decided

Sugababes - Girls

The Feeling - Rose

The Killers - Human

The Police - Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic

The Script - The Man Who Can’t Be Moved

Will Young - Changes

will.i.am Feat Cheryl Cole - Heartbreaker

Yazoo - Don’t Go

Parents Group Warns Against Lost And Damned Nudity

2009-02-22T13:06:00.001+05:00

Parents group Common Sense Media has issued a public warning against Grand Theft Auto IV expansion The Lost and Damned, decrying the game's full-frontal nudity alongside the series' trademark violence and profanity.

"The Lost and Damned is laden with mature content and should be kept away -- far away -- from children," says the TLaD review found on the non-profit group's website.

"It is even more controversial than its predecessors because this game has full frontal male nudity," the description adds, referencing a cutscene found in the expansion.

Though the Common Sense Media site explicitly warns against the game's violence and sexuality, the review avoids any hint of shrieking hysteria by admitting that the game is "a fun ride worth considering" for those not appalled by the mature content.

As an aside, it's interesting that the group continually refers to TLaD's nudity as "full-frontal male nudity." Perhaps they would have been less incensed had developer Rockstar Games opted to push the boundaries of virtual morality using a pretty girl instead of an oversexed, middle-aged gent.

Image courtesy Rockstar Games

Review: Halo Wars Swaps Shooting for Strategy

2009-02-21T17:37:00.000+05:00

For many shooter fans, Halo was the game that convinced them that you didn't need a keyboard and mouse to line up the perfect headshot -- you could do it with a control pad on a home console. Halo Wars does the same thing for the real-time strategy game.

The RTS has long been the domain of PC gaming, thanks to its depth and complexity. With a screen full of tiny troops, bases and resources to manage, and full-scale combat that requires serious precision, how could simple game pads hope to compete with the sheer versatility of the keyboard and the accurate aiming power of the mouse?

In spite of a few glaring faults, Halo Wars illustrates that an RTS can work on a console. When this Xbox 360 game ships March 3, Halo junkies who are new to the genre will find an exciting campaign bolstered by a polished and unique multiplayer game. Experienced RTS fans will find a lot to like, too, but the simplistic game mechanics and sluggish controls mean that Xbox 360 still isn't an adequate replacement for the PC.

If you're going to redefine a genre, call in the experts. Halo Wars was created by the now-defunct Ensemble Studios, maker of the fantastic Age of Empires games. It has carefully re-created the Halo universe right down to the dull whine of the Warthog's engine. The fastidious attention to detail is one of Halo Wars' strongest points, and perhaps the aspect that fans of the series will appreciate most.

Halo Wars is a storyline prequel, with a plot unrelated to the shooters in the series. It's entertaining, but also pretty short for a strategy game: There are 15 missions, which took me about 40 minutes each on the standard difficulty level. The Halo series' standard Heroic and Legendary difficulty modes are available for players who enjoy upping the challenge. But the single-player game serves as little more than a primer for the multiplayer experience.

As an RTS, Halo Wars features all the usual trappings of the genre. But these are generally hobbled somewhat so they can work with a less adept game controller. For example: Military supply pads and Convenant warehouses generate resources perpetually, meaning that you don't really need to manage your economy.

What is precious, however, is space. Each map holds a number of predetermined base sites that players can capture. A base will provide you with a fixed number of building sites on which you can construct factories, supply pads and the like. Thus, deciding what to build and where is the bulk of the strategic experience. Upgrading your base will net you a maximum of seven building sites, but a single base simply won't provide enough space to support a well-rounded army.

It's a simple system, designed to make fielding an army as painless as possible. But Halo Wars' design suffers a bit from the fact that it is designed to be a more casual experience. If you understand rock-paper-scissors, you understand the combat: Vehicles beat infantry, infantry beat aircraft, and aircraft beat vehicles. You can fight as either the enemy Covenant or the UNSC heroes, and the slight differences between them mean you'll have to alter your play style a bit depending on your side.

Your opinion of Halo Wars, though, will likely be determined by how you feel about how the game controls with the Xbox 360 pad. Players familiar with first-person shooters (and how could you not be, if you're considering playing this) will feel right at home: The targeting cross hair is fixed on the center of the screen, shooter-like. While this works fine for covering wide swaths of ground, using it to make precise selections can be frustrating, particularly when you're dealing with large groups during a hectic firefight. Tapping the left and right bumper will quickly select all of your units, or just units in your current field of view, while the directional pad will allow you to jump between armies, bases and recent alerts.

With a little practice, you'll be able to quickly give large groups general orders, but I never quite escaped the feeling that I was wading about the battlefield instead of deftly commanding my armies. My relative inability to painlessly select and control individual units created battles that consisted primarily of throwing massed blobs into a firefight, and hoping I had brought the right mix of units.

While Halo Wars won't be relieving strategy fans of their mice and keyboards, Ensemble Studios has crafted a genuinely fun experience. There are drawbacks, but those new to the genre likely won't even notice them, and Halo fans won't care. Most importantly, console fans finally have a genuinely good real-time strategy experience on their gaming platform of choice.

Images courtesy Microsoft

WIRED Expertly captures the Halo ambiance, accessible gameplay

TIRED Sluggish controls, simple mechanics might turn off RTS veterans

$60, Microsoft

5 New Screens From Ghostbusters Wii

2009-02-21T17:35:00.000+05:00

Publisher Atari has release a new batch of screens from the Wii version of the upcoming Ghostbusters game, demonstrating the game's decidedly cartoonish art style.

The first (above) and second images (below) are of the game's stylized interpretations of series stars Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis and Bill Murray, the third shows a character utilizing his proton pack to capture a ghost, and the fourth is rife with spirits obviously hailing from the Civil War era.

Rounding out the pack is another stylized character: Receptionist Janine Melnitz (made famous in the films by actress Annie Potts).

I like the decision to infuse the game with this more graphically simplistic style instead of forcing Nintendo's console to ape the graphics found in the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of the game, but I wonder if Wii owners, on seeing these images, won't deride this game as purely aimed at the kiddies.

Ghostbusters comes to the Wii on June 16 (June 19 for European gamers).

Street Fighter Movie Withheld From Critics

2009-02-21T17:29:00.000+05:00

You won't be hearing any damning critical barbs leveled at Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li before the movie hits theaters on February 27, not because the movie is fantastic, but because Fox has opted to withhold the game from early critical screenings, reports Variety's Cut Scene blog.

While we can't judge the film based solely on Fox's decision to keep the would-be Eberts of the world from ruining their bottom line with a preemptive thumbs down, it certainly doesn't bode well for the film. If Fox had faith in the movie, why keep it from critics?

For perspective, remember this: 2008's Alien Versus Predator Requiem was aimed at the same demographic and Fox opted to bar critics from any early screenings.

If you saw the film you already know how well it turned out.

Quake Live Enters Open Beta Feb. 24

2009-02-21T17:28:00.000+05:00

The latest entry in the venerable Quake series, the ad-supported, browser-based Quake Live, enters public beta testing on February 24, according to a newly revised splash page on the game's official site.

Alongside an almost-unrecognizable countdown clock, and a brief snippet of text telling players that the game is "coming at you live" next Tuesday, developer id Software also offers the page's striking new Quake Live logo (see above) as a free wallpaper download.

Though details of how the firm will conduct the test have yet to appear, the prominence of the word "open" indicates that the game -- though not officially finished -- will be available to any member of the public willing to agree to whatever Terms of Service id's lawyers have cooked up.

Sony: God of War III, MAG Coming This Year

2009-02-21T17:27:00.002+05:00

A press release from Sony trumpeting the firm's pride in the PlayStation 3's 2009 lineup includes the first official word that we'll see God of War III, and the 256-player online battles of MAG later this year.

The February 27 release of Killzone 2 "ushers
in an unprecedented year of titles to hit the PlayStation platform
throughout the year including the blockbuster exclusives Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, inFamous, MAG, Heavy Rain, God of War III and MLB 09 The Show," Sony writes.

This is the first release window information for many of the games mentioned by Sony, and while unforeseen delays could push any of them back to 2010 or beyond at a moment's notice, it's nice to hear the PS3's biggest upcoming releases are so close to completion.

Sony Expands PlayStation Biz Into Latin America

2009-02-21T17:27:00.001+05:00

Sony has announced that the full PlayStation line will now be available in 13 Latin American countries, bringing PlayStation and PSP games, peripherals, and all three of Sony's platforms in an official capacity, with the PlayStation Network digital distribution service following shortly.

While PlayStation fans who reside in Latin America have technically been able to get their hands on PlayStation 3 and PSP for quite some time, doing so typically required relying on import stores and specialty shops. Having an official presence in these nations, alongside Sony's established consumer electronics division, will likely go a long way towards lowering the prices on the hardware and software, and expanding the user base of PlayStation owners worldwide.

Though it's certainly taken them quite some time, this is good news for Sony, and great news for folks who've been eagerly anticipating Grand Theft Auto but won't pay import prices.

DICE: Nintendo Courts Indie Developers for Wii, DSi

2009-02-21T17:25:00.000+05:00

LAS VEGAS -- Nintendo wants more indie games -- not only on Wii, but on the upcoming DSi hardware.

That's the message that Tom Prata, the gamemaker's senior director of project development, sent to an audience of game developers and executives as the DICE summit drew to a close on Friday. While Prata acknowledged that Nintendo's move into indie game distribution was not without its hitches, he sought to assure the crowd that Nintendo was committed to fixing those issues.

Prata was joined by Kyle Gabler of 2D Boy, whose downloadable game World of Goo (above) is the third highest rated Wii game on the market and the winner of last night's Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences award for outstanding achievement in game design.

Gabler brought the requisite indie street cred to the presentation -- he did not directly discuss how his two-man company worked alongside Nintendo, but he did illustrate how being such a small organization can help drive a game with a singular creative vision.

For Prata's part, he addressed some of the issues that have become apparent with WiiWare development thus far, the sort of things that might turn off potential developers. "WiiWare is not magic, and digital is not perfect," he said.

Reach is a problem, he began: Not all Wii owners are connected online, which is a requirement if one wants to sell them a downloadable game. Prata said that Nintendo is "working to increase the connection rate."

Storage is a constant issue -- the Wii only has a small amount of onboard storage for games. Prata did not reveal Nintendo's solution, but only pointed out that the company president Satoru Iwata had, speaking in Tokyo last month, announced that a better storage solution is forthcoming.

Finally, Prata said that Nintendo is still attempting to work out better ways of promoting WiiWare games. As one example of new tactics the company is using, it will partner with GameTrailers to let users submit their own videos of World of Goo playthroughs for an upcoming contest.

With downloadable content, Prata said, "making it and forgetting it" doesn't fly -- "you have to create the content, and then you have to raise it up," he said. "I think that there's more that Nintendo can do to support (WiiWare games). This year, Nintendo will increase resources for development and promotion."

Prata concluded by discussing the upcoming launch of the DSiWare download store, which he said would go live when the Nintendo DSi hardware is released in the U.S. on April 5. While he did not say which games Nintendo would release in the U.S., he showed a lengthy video demonstration prepared by Nintendo developer Yoshiaki Koizumi especially for the event, in which the Super Mario Galaxy director explained Moving Memo Book, a DSiWare title that lets users draw their own animations on the DS and share them online.

The Joystiq Free Game Club: The Several Journeys of Reemus 2

2009-02-20T18:08:00.000+05:00

Wow, what a milestone. After, like, eight months of doing the Joystiq Free Game Club, we finally have a sequel to a game we've previously featured. Wow, it looks like one semi-regular feature is all grown up. Ladies and gentlemen, please, give a big hand to our guest of honor, The Several Journeys of Reemus: Chapter 2.

Sadly, on this proud, proud day, we don't have a whole lot to add to the discussion that we didn't say about the first one. We're still following exterminator Reemus and his purple bear buddy Liam as they travel the countryside fighting vermin. It's still lovely to look at and the point-and-click puzzles are still as well-conceived as they are amusing.

More to the point, though, it's still free, free, totally free -- so what are you waiting for?

MS 'actively working' on linking Gamertags to new Windows Live IDs

2009-02-20T18:05:00.000+05:00

Is that Tilda Swinton in the middle?

Having amassed an impressive Gamerscore by slogging through Cabela hunting games, forgettable anime beat-em-ups and the last Iron Man game, it's no surprise that Xbox Live users become agitated when their Gamertags are placed in jeopardy. Earlier this week, it was reported that Windows Live IDs linked to dormant email addresses were at risk of deletion, taking associated Gamertags with them.

However, Microsoft has clarified the situation, noting, "People with dormant Windows Live IDs can continue to enjoy the benefits of their Xbox LIVE Gamertags on their Xbox 360 consoles, including earning Achievements; however, they will not be able to use their expired Windows Live IDs for activities such as account management on xbox.com." According to a company representative, "An Xbox LIVE Gamertag is unrecoverable from the system only when the associated Windows Live ID has become dormant and the Gamertag has been deleted from all Xbox 360 consoles." In other words, a dead Windows Live ID will prevent you from recovering your Gamertag online should you change consoles or attempt account management, such as renewing your Xbox Live subscription.

Microsoft is "actively working" on a solution that should allow you to sever the dead weight of an expired Windows Live ID and link your Gamertag to a new one. In the meantime, Major Nelson recommends you log into your Windows Live ID (do it through xbox.com) at least once every four months. Think of it as an insincere pleasantry with long-term benefits -- like visiting your mother-in-law.

Katamari Creator Gets Weird, Wormy With Noby Noby Boy

2009-02-19T18:11:00.001+05:00

Noby Noby Boy and SSFIITHDR on PSN Tommorow

Katamari Damacy creator Keita Takahashi will be releasing his brand new game, Noby Noby Boy, on the Playstation Store tomorrow, in all regions.

The game will be priced £3.19 in the UK, €3.99 in Europe and $4.99 in America. You play as “Boy” who loops his snake-like body around objects, collecting doodads and stretching his body. Players around the globe work together, uploading their stats, to help stretch out “Girl”.

Confused? So is Takahasi, who writes “One big question most people have asked is, ‘Why did you want to make such a game?’ Seriously, I don’t know”.

Update: It has also been confirmed that Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix will be launching on PSN in Europe tommorow.

Also expected on the store tomorrow are a pack of Legendary Cars for Burnout Paradise (spoofing famous movie vehicles) and a WipEout themed pack of LittleBigPlanet costumes.

Review - Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned

2009-02-19T18:10:00.001+05:00

Review - Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned

The Lost and Damned continues Rockstar’s love affair with morally ambiguous felons, murderous anti-heroes who are struggling to cement their place in a city that doesn’t want them.

Grand Theft Auto IV’s immigrant story of hunting the illusive American Dream runs concurrently with the story of Johnny Klebitz, the Vice President of Liberty City’s most ferocious, relentless and intimidating biker gang, The Lost – or so its muddled collection of snarling members would have you believe.

Locked in a bloody gang war against rival bikers, The Angels of Death, Johnny fights on foot and on the road against the enemy gang. Unlike Niko, Johnny rarely fights alone and trusts various random bikers to have his back in fire fights; they’re expendable and die easily, but become more dependable allies if you can keep them alive.

Helping your cause is an arsenal of new weapons, offering alternatives to nearly every weapon class; sawn off shotguns, automatic pistols, grenade launchers and pipe bombs give the bikers a more deadly and explosive assortment of tools.

At the heart of the gang is the trusty bike – a collection of 60s style choppers and Harleys, complete with retuned handling and less spills, to represent Johnny’s riding proficiency. To keep the convoy spirit alive, the game doles out health boosts and extra dialog for keeping with, or leading, the pack. If Grand Theft Auto IV’s main character was Liberty City, Lost and Damned gives top billing to the bike; most missions can’t be played without one, and the city is scattered with motorbike races, complete with brutal Full Throttle and Road Rash inspired combat.

The new adventure is bursting at the seams with new content, proving that Rockstar is not one to rest on its laurels. New tracks flood the radio station (including plenty of suitable metal and rock), new shows can be seen on TV and Frankie Boyle makes an appearance in the game’s comedy clubs. The Onion News-esque humour is in full force, and some of the new radio gags are the game’s funniest yet. Even the interface has been remodelled to suit the new brand, with a grungy mini-map and scratched icons.

There’s also plenty of playable content to get your teeth into including races, gang wars, side missions and even more birds to find. New activities, such as cards and arm wrestling are little more than scene-setting fluff though as, without even new threads to purchase, Johnny empties his wallet even slower than Niko.

Johnny juggles his commitments to the gang with odd-jobs and favours for some of Liberty City’s criminal overlords; Congressman Stubbs, Ray Boccino and Elizabeta Torres to be precise. His story regularly interweaves with Grand Theft Auto IV’s tale, leaving any seasoned GTA fan with big smiles when Weasel News covers Niko’s antics, his reputation floating around the city and his trail of violence sorely stinging.

The story feels far tighter than big brother IV’s ill paced and dwindling tale, with only ten or so hours to tell it. Lost and Damned employs the sense of close company as appose to the main game’s sprawling story, and achieves the goal with a fantastic atmosphere and attention to detail – the club house is painstakingly decorated with posters and knick-knacks, each bike is interestingly fashioned and every character is uniquely designed. Johnny’s aching struggle to keep the gang together inspires empathy from the player, and each biker grows to be a memorable character; all of which allows for a narrative that the player can easily invest in.

It slightly suffers at the end as, like Niko’s tale, it struggles to present a finale that’s satisfying both in terms of gameplay and narrative. It has far more success, in that respect, than the Cousin Bellic’s climax, however.

Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned provides a remarkable new experience for Grand Theft Auto IV fans. With a tight and satisfying storyline, an unexpected level of new content and hours of engrossing content, Rockstar has set the bar even higher for downloadable packs.

SEGA Announces MadWorld Preorder Goodies

2009-02-19T18:09:00.001+05:00

SEGA Announces MadWorld Preorder Goodies

SEGA and Platinum Games have announced a collection of goodies available to MadWorld fans who preorder the game at the UK’s top retailers.

Although none of the retailers are currently advertising the offer, they will be available both online and off.

HMV will be providing a full, 20 song soundtrack of the game. The retailer has the game priced at £29.99. Pre-order MadWorld from HMV here.

Gamestation has a black T-Shirt, sporting the game’s iconic Skull and Spanners logo. Pre-order MadWorld from Gamestation here.

GAME has a different T-Shirt, in white and adorned with little road sign men, killing and maiming. Fun! Pre-order MadWorld from GAME here.

MadWorld will be released on Nintendo Wii on March 13th. Read our preview now, or I’ll scrape your face alongside a bullet train.

Source - SEGA Europe Blog

Nintendo DSi receives April 3rd UK Launch

2009-02-19T18:07:00.000+05:00

Nintendo DSi receives April 3rd UK Launch

Following the announcement that the Nintendo DSi will launch in America on April 5th, Nintendo has revealed that their new handheld will be released two days earlier, on April 3rd, in the UK. The system will launch in Black and White variants, at £149.99.

Like the DS Lite, the DSi is simply a feature-improved redesign of the Nintendo DS hardware and is the slimmest and lightest system yet. It has sports the largest screens, at 3.25 inches, and is even brighter than the DS Lite. In compromise the Gamboy Advance slot, that allowed backwards compatibility and the use of peripherals such as a rumble pack and Guitar Hero grip, has been removed.

The DSi is equipped with two cameras and comes packed with a photo editor to apply effects and distortions. These photos can then be saved to an SD card, in the system’s new memory slot. The updated console also boasts improved audio and the ability to play AAC audio files.

Perhaps most exciting is the ability to purchase and download DSiWare, new games built specifically for the hardware and stored on the SD card. A free Opera Browser will be available, and a 1000 points will be gifted to all DSi systems that register before 2010. Some of the most popular DSiWare games in Japan have included:

Utsusu Made in Wario (500 Points)

A micro collection of Wario Ware games which uses the system’s camera to interact with the player.

Chotto… (500 Points each)

A collection of DS remakes, all with the “Chotto” (Little) prefix. Games include 42 All Time Classics, Dr. Mario and Planet Puzzle League.

Mr Driller World (800 Points)

A new version of Namco Bandai’s popular Mr Driller game.

Art Style… (500 Points Each)

Continuing the WiiWare additions to the BitGenerations series, Art Style sees more releases on DSiWare. Games include Aquario, Decode, Picopict (left) and Somnium.

For our friends in Australia, the DSi will release even earlier, on April 2nd. Nintendo DSi launches across Europe on April 3rd in black and white for £149.99.

The Making Of… The House of the Dead: Overkill

2009-02-16T10:40:00.000+05:00

The Making Of… The House of the Dead: Overkill

Overkill isn’t your typical House of the Dead game. “We watched a lot of nun exploitation movies… nunsploitation” says Headstrong Producer Neil McEwen. “’Killer Nun’ is still on my desk” adds Mark Slater, lead artist.

Tasked with creating an all new addition to the franchise, London developers Headstrong Games held a mirror to the campy characters, ridiculous storyline and unforgettable voice acting of the arcade series.

“When we started making the game, we were just doing another version of House of the Dead, similar sort of graphic style, slightly chunkified monsters” Mark begins, explaining the ambiguous proposition worked out between Headstrong and Sega. Neil adds “When Sega came to us and said they’d like to work with us, we talked about a number of games. I think Sega picked up on our passion to do House of the Dead. We were like ‘yeah yeah, we could do House of the Dead!’ and he mumbles ‘or Jet Set Radio’”.

“We did play around with different themes, like Steampunk, but Sega and Headstrong wanted to do something different, and over one weekend we all watched Planet Terror and thought ‘this is genius, we could totally do something with this!’” Planet Terror is part two of Grindhouse, a double presentation movie by legendary directors Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino. Paying homage to the exploitation genre of film that inundated American cinemas in the 20th century, Planet Terror intentionally presents a damaged visual style, a B-Movie styled plot and numerous other tropes and clichés.

“So SEGA totally came up with a whole marketing plan based on the exploitation style and the art team was like ‘yes, we would love to create it in this style’. We went from there really, and it was a really fun style to make. When the Americano thing came up it led to so much; locations, types of characters we have in the game, what the bosses would be like, the kind of music… the swearing. All of that stuff just fell into place”. The producer from Sega’s end, Gwilym Hughes, quips “the exploitation stuff writes itself”, and all eyes land on the game’s writer, Jonathan Burroughs, worried for his job.

The Grindhouse-esque look led to a veritable oasis of ideas, gags and spoofs. “It allowed us to be really creative as well. All those old movies are just ridiculous fun”, Mark hesitates “well, most are utter crap, but great as well”. “We watched a lot of shit” says Neil. “I went into HMV when we started talking about the Grindhouse theme, and I met a fanatic of them. He was awesome; he was listing them off like ‘you should watch this and read this’.” No such luck at the British Film Institute, “they were like ‘I dunno mate, I’ve got a film with Kate Winslet in it’”. Grindhouse Trailer Classics was another firm favourite, which is described online as “a rollercoaster ride through the sleazy world of 1970s exploitation trailers. Featuring 55 prime cuts from the most outrageous rape-revenge, blaxploitation, slasher, biker, zombie, sexploitation, kung fu and women-in-prison movies”.

“We had a lot of fun watching those movies, I liked ‘The New York Ripper’”, explains Neil. He goes on to explain how it’s about a serial murderer who would phone up the police and explain his actions in a Donald Duck voice, “It was hilarious, you’d have quick zooms on the Inspector going ‘Sounds like a duck!’” “It was funny talking about them” says Neil, as he explains how he brought the topic up to the team at Headstrong. “I’m going to show some exploitation thing that’s gonna have people being cut from their lady parts right up to their neck. Is this going to be ok?”

But while the team held marathon sessions of awful B-Movies and added the suffix “sploitation” to every word imaginable, the game play was still the highest priority. “We made sure it was fun shooting zombies, worked out how fast they should move and what they should look like when they move around and the types of zombies we wanted to do”. Sega’s previous titles were never far away, “we had House of the Dead 2 and 3 on the Wii; we were always constantly referencing that”. The near million copies sold of that Wii port is just a tiny number of diehard arcade fanatics, and alienating that core group could spell failure. Were the team worried? “A little bit, but we stayed true to what was fun about those games, the core mechanics. We’ve just been getting the review scores in and they’ve been mostly positive. We thought they’d be more polarising than that, it would be marmite and something you got and found amusing or something that offended you”.

“We went to the arcades a lot and played [House of the Dead] Three and Four a lot. We pumped like 250 quid into the machine”. When quizzed why SEGA didn’t provide a personal, in office House of the Dead 4 Arcade Machine, all eyes, this time, turned to SEGA Producer Gwilym. “We looked into it… it was a space issue. Their offices are tiny and the cabinets are absolutely huge”

“We went down to the arcade and filmed ourselves playing it”. As expected, they got kicked out. “We went to SEGA World and they wouldn’t let us film in there at all. Which was like ‘do you know who we are?’ But we went to Namco and they let us film; I gave them a copy of Battalion Wars 2 like ‘I’m really important’”.

It seems Producer Neil McEwen carries a copy of Battalion Wars 2, the previous title by then-called Kuju London wherever he goes (even though he didn’t work on it, as Mark was quick to point out). “We did a team photo in a butcher’s window. We went down to a local butcher shop and gave them a copy of Battalion Wars 2, and he looked at it puzzled and tried to bite it. He didn’t understand what was going on”. The butcher naturally enquired on the use of the photo, “Its best you don’t know”. “But he wouldn’t let me have the cleaver, which I really wanted”.

The finished photograph featured the decapitated heads of the Headstrong employees, scattered around a butcher’s front desk. The image, coupled with the announcement that Headstrong would be making a game for one of SEGA’s franchises, sparked excitement from fans, and some rather puzzling speculation. “We put that photo out a month before the game was announced at Leipzig and everyone was saying we were doing Jet Set Radio, which was really odd”.

Traditionally a Japanese franchise, Headstrong had obvious worries about the cultural barriers and the very Western-centric humour of the game. “Sega were really good, we were worried that culturally Japan wouldn’t get what we were doing and think ‘oh god, what have you done to our baby’, but Sega came back to us and said they liked it and just wanted us to run with it.” On the top of Headstrong’s worries, though? “Definitely the “G Thing”. It wasn’t the prolific swearing, the busting cleavages or the excessive blood that was getting Neil sweating, but the fact that G from House of the Dead is a playable character in Overkill. “He’s the main link, so that was more contentious” adds Gwilym, “that and the origins of formulas, things like that”. “We were amazed when the box art went out and all the fans were talking about the game and were like ‘I can’t believe G is on the box!’ Yeah we flew him in, I know him; he’s a really nice guy”.

It became obvious that Headstrong were extremely invested in the game’s main characters. “We spent a lot of time creating our characters, creating that universe. We know where they came from and where these characters go. What their fathers and mothers did, we really worked out this family tree and we’ve worked out where they go”.

“Washington is cosmetically based on Common”, an American rapper and actor, known for over-the-top action flicks such as Wanted and Smoking Aces, while G is a mish-mash of straight up, enigmatic and professional agents; “Keanu Reaves from Point Break” is one of his influences. Varla Guns is based on Parisian model Vikki Blows and “Papa Caesar is Burt Reynolds”. The in jokes and references don’t stop at the main cast; a random decapitated head rolls down a flight of stairs on the first level, “that’s the level designer”. The first boss you come in contact with is a boy in a wheelchair with round glasses and a dodgy haircut. Neil explains that Harry Potter was the last game he worked on with EA, and wanted to give something back. Harry’s Overkill counterpart, Jasper, eventually turns into a mutant before being gunned down by G and Washington.

Varla Guns, a stripper in the game, “changed quite a lot. I wanted her to be a kind of Kate Moss, with a slight figure. I don’t know what happened to her, but her boobs gradually grew.” Mark, the artist, interjected “you told me to make her like a boy”, to which Neil replies “I wanted her to have that figure where you don’t know if she’s walking away or coming towards you”. As the final product shows, with her breasts almost bursting out from her skimpy top, Neil’s androgynous look didn’t stick. Sega producer Gwilym says “with the whole sexploitation thing, the change was needed”.

“We did the voice recording in New York for that authentic Americano vibe. We read through the scripts and filmed ourselves doing it; we honed in it until we thought it was in a pretty good state. We sent it out to the states and we were getting really good feedback from them; they found it funny, and we weren’t sure because it was the first time an American had read it. Apparently they were in character the whole day”.

“The wheelchair kind of became an icon”. A red, empty wheelchair is plastered over promotional material, appears twice on the box and is the sole image on the collector’s edition sleeve. “Jasper Guns, the first boss of the game, is wheelchair bound, but it really became quite iconic, and it felt a bit naughty as well. The more you put it places, the more people ask ‘what’s with the wheelchair?’ It’s something Sega picked up on, we had the character in a wheelchair, and suddenly it’s on all the promotional materials. Little did they realise worse was yet to come”.

Sega Producer Gwilym explains the Hand Cannon, a Wii Remote holder that is fashioned after the AMS pistol, and complimented the game’s release. “It was a company called Big Ben who approached us and said they wanted to do something and tie it in with Overkill, but then we worked closely with Headstrong from there”. Neil explains his side of the deal. “They asked us which gun we should do and what shape it should mock”. Artist Mark explains “all the other guns”, referring to a slew of pistol shaped peripherals intended to hold the Wii Remote, “were standard 9mm pistols, so it was nice to have a big hand cannon. We actually bought loads of the gun peripherals to try them all out; we got some shockers. We went to San Francisco and brought back a shotgun one, and it was awful, just a long bit of plastic and a long tube”.

During the interview, it was plain to see the team’s enthusiasm and passion for design, and how proud they were for their first game under the studio’s new name. “I joined Headstrong about a year ago, and I went there to do House of the Dead with the team, who absolutely love that game”, explains Neil McEwen, “You could see that they wanted to do something special. I had the best year of my career; it was just great fun making that game, we didn’t want it to end”.

Special thanks to Neil McEwen, Jonathan Burroughs and Mark Slater of Headstrong Games, Gwilym Hughes of SEGA Europe, as well as Mike Mason of Cubed3 and Ashley Jones of N-Europe who contributed questions to, and attended, the interview.

Impressions - MadWorld is Killer Entertainment

2009-02-16T10:39:00.000+05:00

Impressions - MadWorld is Killer Entertainment

These are hands-on impressions of MadWorld, which we played at the “Guns ‘n’ Gore II” Event in London, hosted by SEGA Europe.

MadWorld’s fictional local of Varrigan City exists in a Graphical Novel inspired world of juicy monochromatic visuals, ludicrous comic book violence and all backed by a hip-hop soundtrack.

The city has been invaded by a terrorist cell called The Organizers, who set out to turn the city’s population into unwilling participants of a sadistic game show called “Death Watch”. You play Jack, a mechanic with a chainsaw on his arm (what else?) and hope to win the grand prize of a 100 Million Dollars.

Each section of the game, from city streets to subways, is passed by beating a set score for that area, and points are earned by pulling off stylish, violent and brutal kills. A strong, sharp decapitation with your chainsaw will net you a few insignificant points, while slamming a tyre over an enemy’s body, jabbing a road sign through their head and tossing them into a spike-lined dumpster will see you earning thousands of points.

Control of Jack is relatively simple, with the Nunchuck offering movement and the Wii Remote’s primary buttons giving melee and chainsaw attacks, as well as allowing you to pick up objects scattered around the city. The majority of attacks though, from throwing an enemy to pulling off most of the finishing blows, are performed with shakes and waggles of the Wii Remote; spinning it in a circle to hammer toss an enemy, for example. Comparisons to No More Heroes are likely come release.

So it stands to reason that diehard Clover Studios fans (which mostly transformed into Platinum Games, the designers of MadWorld) could be worried about the difficulty of the game. Both Viewtiful Joe and Godhand were revered for being extremely difficult games, but MadWorld eschews button combos, small timing windows and even a dodge/block button in favour of accessible controls. Still, the levels we played were extremely early in the game, and were presented alongside tutorials and help text, so there’s every chance that the difficulty will ramp up soon.

Like Sega’s Yakuza, MadWorld is bursting with location-based moves, calling on the environment to help create violent blows. Enemies can have their face shred against a speeding train, tossed against a spike wall or dunked into a toilet. Visual cues onscreen indicate when such a move can be performed.

The game features plenty of minigames, which are unlocked throughout the story. The first, and available at the event, is called “The Turbinator”, and involves you lobbing bewildered foes into a gigantic aeroplane engine, churning them into giblets and a vapour of blood. These will be playable as multiplayer games; however as pass-the-remote, hotseat style games.

Visually, the game is extremely striking; bold comic book lines, splashes of blood red and the odd golden pop-up. When viewed on a properly calibrated HDTV, the game could be mistaken for an Xbox 360 or PS3 title; the sharp lines and strong contrast of black and white allows it to surpass chunky-polygonal models and low-resolution textures. Also, the game has a rocking hip-hop soundtrack and hilarious commentary by Greg Proops (Whose Line Is It Anyway?) and John DiMaggio (Jake the Dog from Adventure Time, Bender, Marcus Fenix).

MadWorld is looking extremely exciting, with absolutely hip presentation and utterly brutal gameplay. It might not be as hardcore as GodHand and Viewtiful Joe, but its every bit as cool.

If you’re still craving MadWorld impressions, jump over to the previews written by some of the other journos and bloggers at the event: SegaNerds, Cubed3 and BlueHeroGaming.

Review - Flower (Playstation Network)

2009-02-16T10:34:00.000+05:00

Review - Flower (Playstation Network)

Flower is a single petal, dancing in the wind, tickling the tops of the grass or soaring high above the fields, before collating into a dense cloud of vibrancy, fluttering across dreamlike landscapes.

Thatgamecompany’s second release turns the micro-organic creatures of flOw into a snakelike queue of rainbow petals, and swaps the vast Nothingness of the ocean into a number of fields, each bristling with fresh grass and beset by a soft wind.

Flower’s charm is almost ethereal and its play is refreshingly relaxing, relegating all control to the controller’s ability to detect motion, tilts and banks. Players are tasked, with no time limit or strict structure, to glide their train of petals over eager buds, instantly causing the flower to bloom and a single petal to join the line as a memento.

What Flower lacks in length or replay-ability, it makes up for in the strength of the experience; the howling wind and the looming soundtrack, the swaying grass and the endless serpent of petals.

Flower presents a message rather than a strict storyline, a visual poem constructed of noisy urban stanzas and orchestral rural verses. Its message isn’t necessarily coherent, but it has powerful themes, and elegantly introduces a longing for crisp spring mornings and careless summer days.

Yet another champion of downloadable games’ ability to offer short but memorable experiences, Flower is powerful yet subtle; an outstanding achievement of music, visuals and movement.

BGB Shout: S3E04: PS3 Sucks

2009-02-16T10:33:00.000+05:00

BGB Shout: S3E04: PS3 Sucks

BGB Shout’s been reviewed by EDGE, and rated 7/10! This is assigning a numerical value that basically says, “it’s good, but there are better shows out there.” This…is…a…lie. That’s right, a lie. Like it or not, this review is akin to saying something similar about “The Godfather II” or “Citizen Kane.” We all know that the show is one of the best podcast ever made; anyone who knows this industry and has a functioning brain will admit to this. Disgrace.

On the greatest podcast ever made this week…

The Opening Link: Rog’s joined the club of the PSTriple, but is far from impressed, and Bacon does an interview in the toilet at Sega’s Guns ‘n’ Gore II event held last week at the Wii Flat.

New Releases: House of the Dead: Overkill on Wii, and mixed views on PSN’s Flower.

Media Mayhem: Jon read the news today, oh boy, and it’s not good: GamesRadar are on the search for testicles, the EU can’t find the power button, and Mario causes teen pregnancy.

MadWorld: Hands on impressions with Platinum Games’ controversial Wii title.

The Conduit: More violence on the family friendly console with quick impressions from Bacon.

Killzone 2: Rog’s still complaining about the lack of cover in online play.

Review Scores: Rants over the rants over EDGE’s reviews. Again. This time, it’s factually impossible that Killzone 2 could be a 7/10.

Dear Capcom: The stupidity continues as the team find emails that people thought they were sending to Capcom.

The Final Thought

And as your bonus feature, it’s a 6 minute rant from Rog about everything PS3 from the console, to the PS Store, to the games themselves. Controversial!

All this and more on the Citizen Kane of podcasts, BGB Shout!

Review - The House of the Dead: Overkill (Wii)

2009-02-16T10:13:00.000+05:00

Review - The House of the Dead: Overkill (Wii)

Light Gun shooters, a relic of arcades and a painfully Japanese genre, are almost universally campy and embarrassing. Be it a sub B-Movie voice acted Sega cabinet or an FMV shooting range that looks like it was filmed in your garage, not one can be played without laughing or cringing.

So Headstrong’s take? Make it as camp and C-Movie-esque as possible, filled with hilariously bad voice acting, filming goofs and errors, gratuitous violence and plenty of obscene language. Its every zombie movie ever made, mashed up with every exploitation Americano flick that hit Grindhouse theatres in the late 20th century.

The game plays very similar to the previous shooters in the House of the Dead series; your characters move on a set path while zombies bust through windows, pop up from behind desks and slam open doors, rigged like a perfect ghost train, and purely for light gun cannon fodder.

Conventionally short, the game is busting with features to entice second plays, from collectable golden brains to a number of Xbox 360-esque achievements in each level. Completion of which rewards the player with concept art, videos, music and 3D models. More thorough play also unlocks a “Director’s Cut” mode with significantly more content and difficulty, as well the option to up the zombie count and dual wield the game’s modest arsenal.

The game takes the protagonists, uptight enigma, Agent G, and stereotypical black guy, Detective Washington, through a number of expected locals in a ruthless attempt to capture Papa Ceaser, a Burt Reynolds inspired baddy who unleashed the zombie plague on the world. Zombie clown filled carnivals, speeding trains, dilapidated hospitals and murky swamps are filled with bustling mutants, tricky bosses and a massive number of references, clichés, one-liners and tropes.

The game’s Americano vibe is held up throughout the entire experience, and shows the expanse, and quality, of Headstrong’s DVD shelf. It’s vile and repugnant at times, and is absolutely deserving of its 18 rating, but it has a surreal sense of humour that has to be seen to be believed. It’ll either leave you laughing out loud of flinching in disgust; either way, it’s done its job.

But while the game’s damaged-film look, constant scan lines and continuity goofs are intentional, it’s plagued with technical issues that can’t be swept under the carpet as deliberate mistakes. Enemies appear from nowhere, clip through scenery and appear after death for split seconds. All the while, the game is coughing and spluttering at the very sight of the game’s lighting effects and filters, resulting in a spotty frame rate. It tarnishes an otherwise very enjoyable experience, and negates the otherwise impressive graphics.

Overkill is a great addition to the Wii’s slowly building library of light gun shooters, adding a fresh new face to old classics like House of the Dead and Ghost Squad. British developers Headstrong have truly bought something fresh and exciting to the genre, with liberal influence and generally successful execution. Infinitely replayable, and thoroughly enjoyable, Light Gun fans mustn’t miss out.

Hands-On: Dragon Age: Origins Hearkens Back to Fantasy RPGs of Old

2009-02-14T12:28:00.000+05:00

Hands-On: Dragon Age: Origins Hearkens Back to Fantasy RPGs of Old

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REDWOOD CITY, California — With its giant battle axes, labyrinthine dialogue trees and magical quests, the upcoming Dragon Age: Origins is a blast from ye olde past.

Were it not for the game's vastly improved visuals, you might think you had stepped back into the golden age of the late '90s, when PC gamers could put on their robes and wizard hats and fake a familiarity with the arcane Dungeons & Dragons rule set.

But much has changed in the last decade. During a recent visit to the Redwood Shores studio of the game's publisher, Electronic Arts, I played Dragon Age and once again stepped into a world swirling with magic and swordplay.

Developed by BioWare, the company known for epic, story-driven role-playing games like Baldur's Gate and Mass Effect, Dragon Age is shaping up to be a decidedly next-gen approach to the classic fantasy genre.

(Dragon Age will be released for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC in the second half of 2009. I played the PC version div class="entry-more">

The mere whisper of the name Baldur's Gate is likely to get more than a few role-playing fans waxing poetic. BioWare's classic RPG stole hundreds of hours of our lives, steeping players in a world rich with lore and complex combat mechanics. That we're still talking about it so many years later is a testament to the power it held over a generation. BioWare hopes to resurrect those fond memories, dubbing Dragon Age: Origins the "spiritual successor" to Baldur.

Dragon Age: Origins puts players in the boots of one of the last Grey Wardens, an ancient order of warriors sworn to protect the world from the Blight — evil monsters that once lived underground, but have risen to surface to wage war. My experience began in the encampment of the Dalish, elves who were enslaved by humans for thousands of years, but are now living life as second-class citizens. I was there to recruit fighters for an army to take on the Blight, but getting help was going to require doing a few favors.

Dragon Age is a story-driven game, which means lots of introductions to other characters, history lessons that kick-start quests and sifting through dialogue trees to chat with the populace. If you're the type of gamer who abhors anything coming between you and bludgeoning something to death, Dragon Age will be a difficult title to get through.

And don't think you can just skip through the dialogue, because it's crucial to understanding the decisions that you're asked to make during the adventure.

"There are times when you just sort of push back from the keyboard and go, 'What am I going to do here?'" says the game's executive producer, Dan Tudge. Dragon Age, he says, is a game for mature audiences — not because of blood and gore, but because of "the weight and reality of the choices you'd expect to experience in heavy situations."

In the quest I became entangled in, the Dalish leader needed the heart of the local werewolf chieftain to prevent wounded elves from becoming werewolves themselves. Sounds simple enough. But when I fought my way into the heart of the werewolves' lair, they asked me to sit down and discuss things. Without spoiling the plot, the werewolves told me that the elves weren't exactly the hapless victims they appeared to be. What call will you make?

Your in-game party can consist of a maximum of four characters. A "party
approval meter" will determine how partners react to you, and is based
on the actions you take during your adventure. If you kill too many innocent people, your morally correct sidekicks might ditch you. But if you play your cards right or ply
characters with gifts, they might offer you a lucrative side quest, or even
become a romantic interest.

Battles take place in real time, with the computer taking control of whatever players in your party you're not controlling directly. A Tactics menu allows you to program characters in your party to take
specific actions when certain conditions are met. For example, if Warrior B
ever falls below 50 percent health, Mage A could automatically drop whatever
he or she is doing and start casting healing spells. The higher your character's level, the more
Tactics you'll be able to assign.

While BioWare has abandoned the traditional Dungeons & Dragons rule set in favor of its own system, it has kept the Pause function that defined the combat in the developer's earlier games — simply tap the space bar and you'll be able to stop the action, allowing you to assign commands to your characters and observe how the battle is going.

Modern, next-gen influences include quick recovery of health and mana as opposed to having to rest at inns. There's also a cool-down period after you cast spells — players familiar with World of Warcraft's combat mechanics will find the skills they've picked up managing toolbars coming in quite handy.

BioWare plans to let players craft their own adventures. The Dragon Age Toolset will allow users to modify the game by crafting new worlds and changing the characters' and enemies' AI, then share their designs with the community.

But Dragon Age won't offer a multiplayer mode, which might offend players who shared their Baldur's Gate experience with friends. Tudge explained that while BioWare is currently fully devoted to the single-player experience, there is a good chance we'll see multiplayer components in the Dragon Age universe somewhere down the road.

With a role-playing game of this scale, it's difficult to form any concrete impressions from a brief demo, but from what we can observe right now, Dragon Age: Origins is shaping up to be an epic experience.

Images courtesy BioWare

Rockstar Drops Amazon for GTA IV Music Deal

2009-02-14T12:27:00.000+05:00

Grand Theft Auto IV creator Rockstar Games has opted to drop Amazon.com's MP3 store in favor of Apple's iTunes for the game's ZiT service -- a feature that allows players to purchase and download any of the songs from the game's many radio stations.

The switch will coincide with next week's launch of the Lost And Damned downloadable content add-on, reports Variety. Along with the new music partnership, the DLC adds a number of new songs and content to the game's radio offerings.

Though Rockstar has offered official reason for the switch, Variety posits the idea that iTunes' recent decision to remove DRM from its vast catalogue plays into Rockstar's preference for music that is not chained to any single audio device.

Of course, the ubiquity and massive market share iTunes holds over Amazon's store certainly makes the decision a simple one, if only from a purely financial perspective.

Image courtesy Rockstar Games

Rockstar switching GTA IV music partnership from Amazon to iTunes [Variety]

Capcom, Ninjas Sign Up for PlayStation Home

2009-02-14T12:25:00.002+05:00

On February 12, you'll be able to purchase a ninja costume for your Home avatar, but unless you're a die-hard fan of buying digital clothing, that's hardly a reason to get excited.

In the coming months, Capcom will also be augmenting your Home experience, offering up Street Fighter IV costumes and "additional themed content" that you'll be able to unlock. What that additional content might be is anyone's guess, but the idea of tying in-game actions to your Home presence opens up a floodgate of possibilities for the beleaguered virtual world.

But on to the most interesting announcement: Resident Evil 5- and Warhawk-themed Home spaces (whenever they arrive) will allow players to launch straight into the game from Home.

Back in December I waxed poetic
about how great it would be if Sony converted what is essentially a
glorified chat room into a free, organic matchmaking service. We still
have to wait to see what they come up with, but if Sony can make Home-based
game launching a relatively painless experience, there's a good chance
we'll see an entirely new realm of possibility for their little
experiment.

Image courtesy Sony

I Love Ninjas in PlayStation Home [Playstation.Blog]

Rumor: Sega Kills Aliens Game, Layoffs Ensue

2009-02-14T12:25:00.001+05:00

Sega has canceled development of its role-playing game based on the Aliens franchise, causing developer Obsidian to lay off over 20 people, Kotaku reported Thursday.

Though Kotaku classified the story as "rumor" and cautions that we should take it with a "grain of salt," this does jibe with exactly what Sega said earlier this week when it announced over 500 layoffs at its Japanese home branch -- that it would cancel some games in and pull back on outsourced game development, which is precisely what this Aliens game is.

Sega responded to Kotaku saying that the company does not respond to "speculation or rumor questions."

Rumor: Aliens RPG Canceled, Layoffs Hit [Kotaku]

Dragon Quest IX Delayed, Final Fantasy XIII Might Be Next

2009-02-14T12:23:00.000+05:00

Square Enix said Thursday that it has delayed the launch of Dragon Quest IX for Nintendo DS from March 28 to July 11, pushing it out of the company's current fiscal year.

Speaking to reporters, company president Yoichi Wada said that the delay might affect the launch of the PlayStation 3 game Final Fantasy XIII, scheduled to ship in 2009 in Japan.

According to Japanese-language site ITMedia (translation), Wada said: "[FFXIII's release] may be affected by Dragon Quest IX's delay. ... We've yet to finalize our plans for the next term, so I cannot say for sure if there will or will not be an effect, but Dragon Quest's release being March or July changes the premise. I can't say that there won't be an influence."

Square Enix is generally loath to release both a Dragon Quest sequel and a Final Fantasy sequel in the same fiscal year. The properties are so lucrative that it prefers to spread the release dates out. Should Square Enix decide to shuffle its release schedule around based on the DQIX delay, FFXIII could find itself bumped into 2010 worldwide.

The U.S. release of Final Fantasy XIII, for both PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, is already set for the next fiscal year beginning in April 2010.

Wada said that the delay of Dragon Quest IX was due to a "major bug" in the game. "It was definitely not in a state that could be delivered to players," he said.

Image: Square Enix

First Screens: God of War III as Brutal as Ever

2009-02-14T12:21:00.000+05:00

Sony has finally pulled the veil off of God of War III, releasing six images of what just might turn out to be the best PlayStation 3 game yet.

What else is there to say? Gaze upon the screens. Soak it all in. Sony hasn't revealed a release date for the game yet, but says we'll find out at E3 this year.

More visual stimuli from God of War III, below.

Images courtesy Sony

January 2009's Top 10 Game Sales By Platform

2009-02-14T12:19:00.000+05:00

Apparently getting fit with your Wii is a big deal, these days.

I don't just mean Wii Fit, either. NPD has released the top 20 videogames for January 2009, and two other Wii exercise games are on the list: Jillian Michaels' Fitness Ultimatum by Majesco (pictured) and My Fitness Coach by Ubisoft.

In fact, there are quite a few Wii third-party games on the list this month, probably owing to the fact that legions of brand-new Wii owners went out after Christmas to stock up on software for their new machines. Wii had nine games, Xbox 360 had eight, and PlayStation 3 managed to get just one game on the overall Top 20.

That list, plus the Top 10 list for each gaming platform, are below.

Also see: The best-selling games and hardware of the month, with numbers.

Top 20 Games Overall, January 2009

WII FIT WII NINTENDO OF AMERICA

WII PLAY W/ REMOTE WII NINTENDO OF AMERICA

MARIO KART W/WHEEL WII NINTENDO OF AMERICA

LEFT 4 DEAD 360 ELECTRONIC ARTS

CALL OF DUTY: WORLD AT WAR* 360 ACTIVISION BLIZZARD

SKATE 2 360 ELECTRONIC ARTS

GUITAR HERO WORLD TOUR* WII ACTIVISION BLIZZARD

NEW SUPER MARIO BROS NDS NINTENDO OF AMERICA

MARIO KART DS NDS NINTENDO OF AMERICA

LORD OF THE RINGS: CONQUEST 360 ELECTRONIC ARTS

CALL OF DUTY: WORLD AT WAR PS3 ACTIVISION BLIZZARD

GEARS OF WAR 2* 360 MICROSOFT

FALLOUT 3* 360 BETHESDA SOFTWORKS

JILLIAN MICHAELS FITNESS ULTIMATUM 2009 WII MAJESCO

LINK'S CROSSBOW TRAINING WII NINTENDO OF AMERICA

MY FITNESS COACH WII UBISOFT

ROCK BAND 2* 360 MTV GAMES/ELECTRONIC ARTS

GUITAR HERO WORLD TOUR* 360 ACTIVISION BLIZZARD

CALL OF DUTY: WORLD AT WAR WII ACTIVISION BLIZZARD

LEGO STAR WARS: COMPLETE SAGA WII LUCASARTS

Top 10 Wii

WII WII FIT NINTENDO OF AMERICA

WII WII PLAY W/ REMOTE NINTENDO OF AMERICA

WII MARIO KART W/WHEEL NINTENDO OF AMERICA

WII GUITAR HERO WORLD TOUR* ACTIVISION BLIZZARD

WII JILLIAN MICHAELS FITNESS ULTIMATUM 2009 MAJESCO

WII LINK'S CROSSBOW TRAINING NINTENDO OF AMERICA

WII MY FITNESS COACH UBISOFT

WII CALL OF DUTY: WORLD AT WAR ACTIVISION BLIZZARD

WII LEGO STAR WARS: COMPLETE SAGA LUCASARTS

WII SUPER SMASH BROS: BRAWL NINTENDO OF AMERICA

Top 10 Xbox 360

360 LEFT 4 DEAD ELECTRONIC ARTS

360 CALL OF DUTY: WORLD AT WAR* ACTIVISION BLIZZARD

360 SKATE 2 ELECTRONIC ARTS

360 LORD OF THE RINGS: CONQUEST ELECTRONIC ARTS

360 GEARS OF WAR 2* MICROSOFT

360 FALLOUT 3* BETHESDA SOFTWORKS

360 ROCK BAND 2* MTV GAMES/ELECTRONIC ARTS

360 GUITAR HERO WORLD TOUR* ACTIVISION BLIZZARD

360 NBA 2K9 TAKE 2 INTERACTIVE

360 FABLE II* MICROSOFT

Top 10 PlayStation 2

PS2 GUITAR HERO WORLD TOUR* ACTIVISION BLIZZARD

PS2 MADDEN NFL 09 ELECTRONIC ARTS

PS2 GUITAR HERO AEROSMITH* ACTIVISION BLIZZARD

PS2 CALL OF DUTY: WORLD AT WAR ACTIVISION BLIZZARD

PS2 KINGDOM HEARTS RE: CHAIN OF MEMORIES SQUARE ENIX INC

PS2 WWE SMACKDOWN VS. RAW 2009 THQ

PS2 NBA 2K9 TAKE 2 INTERACTIVE

PS2 ROCK BAND 2 MTV GAMES/ELECTRONIC ARTS

PS2 GRAND THEFT AUTO: SAN ANDREAS TAKE 2 INTERACTIVE

PS2 ROCK BAND* MTV GAMES/ELECTRONIC ARTS

Top 10 PlayStation 3

PS3 CALL OF DUTY: WORLD AT WAR ACTIVISION BLIZZARD

PS3 SKATE 2 ELECTRONIC ARTS

PS3 LITTLE BIG PLANET SONY

PS3 MORTAL KOMBAT VS. DC UNIVERSE* MIDWAY

PS3 GUITAR HERO WORLD TOUR* ACTIVISION BLIZZARD

PS3 LORD OF THE RINGS: CONQUEST ELECTRONIC ARTS

PS3 MADDEN NFL 09* ELECTRONIC ARTS

PS3 FALLOUT 3* BETHESDA SOFTWORKS

PS3 RESISTANCE 2* SONY

PS3 ROCK BAND 2* MTV GAMES/ELECTRONIC ARTS

Top 10 Game Boy Advance

GBA UNO 52 DESTINATION SOFTWARE INC.

GBA BIG MUTHA TRUCKERS DESTINATION SOFTWARE INC.

GBA VALUE GAME BUNDLE 14.99 MULTIPLE VIDEO GAME MANUFACTURER

GBA PUPPY LUV: SPA & RESORT ACTIVISION BLIZZARD

GBA ASTEROIDS/PONG/YARS DESTINATION SOFTWARE INC.

GBA VAN HELSING ACTIVISION BLIZZARD

GBA MADAGASCAR ACTIVISION BLIZZARD

GBA SONIC THE HEDGEHOG SEGA OF AMERICA

GBA SPYHUNTER/SUPERSPRINT DESTINATION SOFTWARE INC.

GBA PRINCESS NATASHA: STUDENT SECRET AGENT DESTINATION SOFTWARE INC.

Top 10 Nintendo DS

NDS NEW SUPER MARIO BROS NINTENDO OF AMERICA

NDS MARIO KART DS NINTENDO OF AMERICA

NDS CLUB PENGUIN: ELITE PENGUIN FORCE DISNEY INTERACTIVE STUDIOS

NDS BRAIN AGE 2: MORE TRAINING IN MINUTES A DAY NINTENDO OF AMERICA

NDS MARIO PARTY NINTENDO OF AMERICA

NDS BRAIN AGE: TRAIN YOUR BRAIN IN MINUTES A DAY NINTENDO OF AMERICA

NDS SUPER MARIO 64 DS NINTENDO OF AMERICA

NDS KIRBY SUPER STAR ULTRA NINTENDO OF AMERICA

NDS PERSONAL TRAINER: COOKING NINTENDO OF AMERICA

NDS COOKING MAMA MAJESCO

Top 10 PSP

PSP MIDNIGHT CLUB: LA REMIX TAKE 2 INTERACTIVE

PSP MADDEN NFL 09 ELECTRONIC ARTS

PSP GRAND THEFT AUTO: LIBERTY CITY STORIES TAKE 2 INTERACTIVE

PSP LEGO BATMAN WARNER INTERACTIVE

PSP WWE SMACKDOWN VS. RAW 2009 THQ

PSP GRAND THEFT AUTO: VICE CITY STORIES TAKE 2 INTERACTIVE

PSP STAR OCEAN: SECOND EVOLUTION SQUARE ENIX INC

PSP NEED FOR SPEED: UNDERCOVER ELECTRONIC ARTS

PSP CRISIS CORE: FINAL FANTASY VII SQUARE ENIX INC

PSP WWE SMACKDOWN VS. RAW 2008 THQ

Top 10 Accessories

WII NUNCHUK CONTROLLER NINTENDO OF AMERICA

WII REMOTE CONTROLLER W/ JACKET NINTENDO OF AMERICA

PS3 DUALSHOCK 3 WIRELESS CONTROLLER SONY

WII REMOTE CONTROLLER NINTENDO OF AMERICA

360 LIVE 12 MONTH GOLD CARD MICROSOFT

360 LIVE 1600 POINT GAME CARD MICROSOFT

WII WHEEL GRIP NINTENDO OF AMERICA

WII CHARGE STATION NYKO

360 LIVE 1 MONTH GOLD CARD MICROSOFT

360 HEADSET MICROSOFT

*Includes limited, collectors', instrument bundles

Image courtesy Majesco

Top 10 iPhone Games, as Voted by Wired.com Readers

2009-02-14T12:15:00.000+05:00

But then, how could we please everyone? With more than 4,700 games in the App Store for Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch music players, completing a thorough review of the library's offerings would be impossible.

Luckily, plenty of you are playing games on the gadgets. Apple has sold more than 20 million iPhones, plus countless more iPod Touches, and market-research firm comScore reports that 32.4 percent of iPhone users say they have downloaded a game in the last month, compared to an average across all mobile devices of 3.8 percent.

Hoping to tap the wisdom of the crowd, we asked you to vote for your favorites. Here, after more intensive play-test sessions, are Wired.com readers' top-rated iPhone game picks, plus our take on each one.

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10. JellyCar (Free)

You said: "You guide your car through various courses trying to complete in the best time. The game uses 'Jelly Physics,' where your car bends, stretches and even breaks. It seems silly at first but after a few minutes, you're hooked!"

Our take: Based on the Xbox Community Game of the same name, JellyCar has clever crayonlike graphics and a unique gameplay gimmick where your gelatin-based vehicle rolls and smooshes its way toward the goal. Figuring out the physics can be challenging, and playing with the iPhone can be a bit of a pain. You have to press the left and right areas of the screen to get the car accelerating, then tilt the iPhone to add rotation to the vehicle. A few minutes of this and it's carpal tunnel time.

9. WordWarp ($1)

You said: "Take six given letters and make as many words as possible in the time limit."

Our take: Do you enjoy playing Jumble in the daily paper? Just like the well-known pen-and-paper puzzle, WordWarp gives you a scrambled six-letter word. You're tasked with unscrambling it, but also with coming up with as many smaller words as can be made from its letters in a two-minute time window. The "warp" feature lets you randomize the letters, which helps when forming words. Unfortunately (and aggravatingly), the word list isn't complete -- we found a lot of words it didn't accept.

8. Cube Runner (Free)

You said: "Free and highly addictive."

Our take: Looking very much like an early prototype of Star Fox, Cube Runner is a very simple exercise in not screwing up. Pilot your ship by tilting the iPhone left and right. Don't hit any of the cubes. For each second you stay alive, you get points; crash and it's game over. No checkpoints, no goal other than a high score. Cube Runner makes great use of subtle and responsive tilt controls, but it's less a test of your gamer aptitude than an exercise in seeing how long you can be exposed to the same repeating stimulus until you inevitably get distracted and crash.

7. Tap Defense (Free)

You said: "Set up turrets, then let the demons attack. It's great for playing in short bursts."

Our take: You're lucky we even let this one on the list, considering we covered its genre to death with Crystal Defenders and Field Runners in our previous Top 10. Tap Defense is nearly identical to those games -- waves of enemies approach your position, and you have to set up increasingly powerful sets of weaponized defense towers to hold them off. Once you buy and place your towers and the enemies flood in, there's nothing you can do except wait to see if your automatic defense system works.

6. Topple (Free)

You said: "Fun, casual stacking game from the folks that made Rolando. Bought Rolando but seem to end up playing this free game more. It's fast and fun and makes great use of the iPhone interface."

Our take: Blocks fall from the sky. But instead of just rotating them by 90-degree increments and placing them in neat piles, you have to drag and rotate them with your fingers, then gently build a stack that doesn't fall over. At first it's easy, but then you get more-challenging oddly shaped platforms (above) and things like eggs that don't stack perfectly. It's charming, addictive, works very well with the iPhone -- and you can't beat the price.

5. iShoot ($3)

You said: "Seriously? How could this not be at the top?"

Our take: Hey, it's Scorched Earth! We used to play this in high school on the computers in the library. This classic DOS game pitted four tanks against each other in turn-based, 2-D battle. Each tank takes its turn firing off a round of ammo, which destroys other tanks as well as the environment. Last tank standing wins, and you can buy more weapons between rounds. In iShoot, you can aim with the touch screen. Otherwise, it's pretty much identical to the classic, down to the taunting battle cries from your opponents.

4. Trism ($3)

You said: "Bejeweled-like but better, with tilt controls and more complex movement/combo possibilities. Very addictive. You can save games too (they can last quite a while). I would pick Trism over Bejeweled every time."

Our take: I'll agree with this -- Trism is much more complex than Bejeweled. So much so that it seems to be out of my league. Matching three like-colored gems by sliding the diagonal rows of pieces is one thing. But going beyond that initial match to set up combos isn't something my brain can process. Especially since you can alter the way the blocks fall by reorienting the iPhone so "down" is a different direction. Clever. But I just started sliding the rows in all different directions and racked up crazy combos by tilting the iPhone around randomly. Trism might be great for puzzle nuts, but I wouldn't call it casual.

3. Wurdle ($2)

You said: "Wurdle is similar to the board game Boggle, but even more addictive. Wurdle is the only game which has the privilege of living on my home screen."

Our take: One of many Boggle clones in the App Store, Wurdle's gameplay will be immediately apparent to you if you've ever played the famous word-creation game. Join up contiguous letters from the randomly generated 5x5 grid to make as many words as you can in 12 minutes. The word lists are far more complete than WordWrap's, so it'll recognize just about anything. But you won't even make a dent in the list of possibilities. If a 5x5 grid is too much for you, competing game Quordy ($3) is almost identical to Wurdle, but with a 4x4 grid instead.

2. Galcon ($5)

You said: "So easy, yet so challenging."

Our take: This is my favorite of the iPhone games recommended by Wired.com readers. It's a lightning-fast game where you and your opponent start out with a planet, and quickly start dragging your ships to nearby planets to take them over. The number on each planet is the number of your ships it'll take to conquer it. Each time you take over a planet, it starts generating more ships depending on how large it is. So the optimal strategy is to drag your ships to large planets with small numbers. Games take a minute or two at most -- you don't have time to plan a huge strategy, just to think on your feet.

1. Lux Touch (Free, deluxe version is $8)

You said: "A casual, Risk-like game that is thoroughly addictive. Can't save, but hey, it's free. And you can finish most games in 10 to 15 minutes."

Our take: Similar to Galcon, Lux World is about taking over territory and building your armies in a short span of time. But this game is turn-based instead of real-time, and hard instead of easy. In each turn, you can attack neighboring territories, place more armies on the map and shuffle their positions around. But it takes a careful balance of offense and defense to secure more land without leaving yourself vulnerable.

Images: Wired.com

January NPD: Lord of the Rings Squeaks One Out

2009-02-13T13:55:00.000+05:00

January NPD: Lord of the Rings Squeaks One Out

I'm sick of talking about what game topped the software charts every month. Especially because I don't feel like putting up another picture of Wii Fit. So for today's release of the U.S. game sales for the month of January, here's a picture of the game that just barely made it in the top ten: Lord of the Rings: Conquest for Xbox 360.

Which is weird because Lord of the Rings: Conquest is a mess. But hey, to each his own.

Anyway, I bring this up because otherwise the January NPD sales are boring. The same consoles are winning and losing; the usual suspects are in the Top 10. Here are your lists.

Wii 679.2K

Nintendo DS 510.8K

Xbox 360 309K

PlayStation 3 203.2K

PSP 172.3K

PlayStation 2 101.2K

Top Ten Software, January 2009:

WII FIT NINTENDO OF AMERICA WII 777K

WII PLAY W/ REMOTE NINTENDO OF AMERICA WII 415K

MARIO KART W/WHEEL NINTENDO OF AMERICA WII 292K

LEFT 4 DEAD ELECTRONIC ARTS 360 243K

CALL OF DUTY: WORLD AT WAR* ACTIVISION BLIZZARD 360 235K

SKATE 2 ELECTRONIC ARTS 360 199K

GUITAR HERO WORLD TOUR* ACTIVISION BLIZZARD WII 155K

NEW SUPER MARIO BROS NINTENDO OF AMERICA NDS 135K

MARIO KART DS NINTENDO OF AMERICA NDS 132K

LORD OF THE RINGS: CONQUEST ELECTRONIC ARTS 360 113K

...New Super Mario Bros.? Where have you been hiding?

Image courtesy EA

World at War Developer Promises More Zombies in DLC

2009-02-11T17:07:00.001+05:00

A vague forum post from a member of Treyarch's Call of Duty: World at War development team promises the one thing the game's fans have been clamoring for since completing the game: More zombies.

"Nazi Zombies scare us too, which is why we’d like to give you a
heads-up to stay tuned for official word regarding upcoming DLC," a developer using the nom de internet "JD_2020" wrote in the game's official forums only hours ago.

"Yes, there will be a new wave of undead coming soon and we
assure you that these zombies will only be found in the Call of Duty:
World at War Map Pack. Stay tuned for more details," the post adds.

Additionally, the game's official site includes a large Flash banner mimicking the recent freeway sign vandalism warning against an invasion by undead hordes.

Sadly, neither forum post nor flash banner offers any release date or pricing info on the Map Pack.

Image courtesy Activision

Battlefield Heroes Beta Testing Returns Feb. 11

2009-02-11T17:05:00.000+05:00

In case you missed the first round of beta testing for Electronic Arts' free-to-play online shooter Battlefield Heroes, good news: The company is starting another round of testing effective tomorrow, February 11, according to the game's official website.

All those gamers who participated in the previous round of beta testing are automatically enrolled in the second round, using their earlier credentials. If you missed the first round, EA invites you to sign up for this latest test, and promises to inform you via e-mail as soon as a spot opens for you.

Unfortunately, EA also mentions that those gamers who have lost their earlier credentials will need to re-apply for a spot, due to their inability to resend beta keys.

Image courtesy Electronic Arts

GTA IV: Lost And Damned Multiplayer Free for Six Days

2009-02-11T17:04:00.001+05:00

To celebrate the February 17 launch of the first add-on content for Grand Theft Auto IV, Microsoft and Rockstar Games are offering players the chance to experience the multiplayer gameplay from the Lost And Damned DLC pack free of charge.

Beginning at 9 AM on February 17 and continuing until midnight, February 22, all Grand Theft Auto IV fans with access to Microsoft's Xbox Live service (read: both those with paid Gold subscriptions and those with free Silver accounts) will be able to experience the multiplayer functionality of the add-on, free of charge.

The company has planned a full slate of Xbox Live events during the time period including a chance to play the game online with members of the development team at Rockstar Games who crafted GTA IV.

Image courtesy Rockstar Games

The Lost and Damned [GTA IV Lost And Damned Xbox Live Week]

Developer Details World At War Map Pack

2009-02-11T17:02:00.000+05:00

Hot on the heels of yesterday's news that the first downloadable content for Call of Duty: World at War would include more zombies, developer Treyarch has revealed a whole host of new info, including word that the DLC will see release sometime next month.

The pack (cleverly dubbed "Map Pack 1") will include four new multiplayer maps. The above-pictured "Nightfire" is set in the darkened streets of Berlin, "Knee Deep" takes place in the jungles of a Pacific island, and "Station" has you battling through the bombed out ruins of a subway platform.

Most World at War fans, however, are hoping for more information on the final map, which Treyarch community manger Josh Olin describes thusly:

This new level, named “Verrückt” (Zombie Asylum), splits your team up
as you cooperatively battle wave after wave of undead Zombie soldiers.
It features new weapons, electroshock defense systems and a
Perks-a-Cola machine for purchasing multiplayer PERKS to combat the
Zombie horde!

So far, neither Treyarch, nor publisher Activision, have revealed a price point for Map Pack 1.

Image courtesy Activision

Call of Duty: World at War – Map Pack #1 Coming in March! [PlayStation.Blog]

Review: F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin Scares Up Atmospheric Thrills

2009-02-11T16:55:00.000+05:00

Horror videogames are difficult to get right. What makes something scary? Blood on the walls? Spooky sound effects? Dimly lit corridors with blinking lights?

F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin, a new first-person shooter for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC (reviewed), delivers all those standards of the genre. But Origin's scares come mostly from the game's frightening atmosphere, not cheap shocks.

It's a classic sort of horror, and succeeds in actually being scary by leveraging a player's psychological reactions to the environment — you'll be jumping at shadows, not at creatures routinely popping out of them. But the game telegraphs these sequences so much that they lose a lot of their fear power.

Origin kicks off moments before the previous game ends, and provides little in the way of exposition: If you didn't play the first F.E.A.R.,
you'll be a bit lost. Let's play catch-up: Armacham Technology is building an army of telepathically controlled clones,
but Alma, the 8-year-old psychic who was forced into a coma, trapped
in a vault, impregnated and then abandoned all those years ago is
apparently still alive — and pissed.

As Sgt. Michael Becker, it's up to you and your squad of elite military operatives to arrest Armacham's president, a mission that devolves into chaos when a massive explosion vaporizes most of a city.

Origin's creepy levels gave me a nagging sense of paranoia. Strolling down one of the many dimly lit corridors, an uncomfortable silence crept in. My visor began to flicker, as it would do in regular intervals throughout the adventure. I heard the haunting cries of a young woman. More psychic apparitions? Perhaps a few boxes flying about? Five minutes of foggy vision and uneventful silence later, I turned a corner, and an entirely new sound blasted through my speakers, causing my heart to leap into my throat — it's the radio chirping, a comrade wondering what I'm up to.

That Origin's greatest scares come during totally danger-free moments is a testament to how well developer Monolith has sculpted this horror experience. But it's a shame that scenes of abject terror are just that — scenes, which begin and end with clear lines of demarcation, giving players ample time to brace themselves.

While you're technically part of a squad of six, your silent protagonist is quickly separated from the pack and usually fights alone. Your status is relayed by health and armor bars; power-ups littered about the generic offices, subway stations and ravaged neighborhoods that you're trudging through keep you in tiptop shape.

You'll only be able to carry four weapons at a time, though every weapon has its merits. You might be inclined to immediately dump the pistol, but lighter weapons will allow you to sprint faster, which will aid you in getting the jump on enemies so you can pummel them with your barrage of deadly melee attacks — or run away, if things get dicey.

Your character will eventually gain heightened reflexes, granting you the ability to slow down time. The ability is limited, but recharges fairly quickly, and more collectible power-ups will allow you to extend its duration. While entertaining, this has the drawback of eliminating much of the terror of combat: The reasonably intelligent enemies are left with very little time to react once you're dancing circles around them.

As if your foes didn't have enough to worry about already, there's the mechanized power suit — a self-repairing, nigh-invincible juggernaut, spewing death from twin mini-guns and rocket launchers. Entertaining? Sure. But playing Giant Robot Whac-A-Mole in a game that's ostensibly about being afraid simply doesn't fit.

Once you've made your way through the single-player campaign (I finished in just over nine hours), the online multiplayer mode is waiting in the wings. There's no cooperative play and no local multiplayer, but competing in multiplayer games lets you earn experience, which will increase your rank, granting you achievements and insignias you can flaunt for bragging rights.

Before starting a match, you'll have to choose or design a loadout — the equipment you want to carry into the match with you. First, you'll pick one of three armor types — scout, grunt or tank. Scout armor will grant you the most loadout points, but the least protection, while the grunt and tank armor types provide more defense but fewer equipment slots. There's always the option of looting weapons from fallen foes, if you can't afford the gear you really want.

I didn't find Origin's multiplayer offerings especially noteworthy. There are six modes in all. "Deathmatch" and "Team Deathmatch" are exactly that. "Blitz" sees teams alternating between capturing and defending a pair of canisters of goo. "Control" is a king-of-the-hill mode, where teams fight over three different control points. "Armored Front" is a variant of Control, but the aforementioned mechanized power-suit is thrown in. Finally, "Failsafe" — a mode I did not get the chance to play — sees one team attempting to detonate a bomb while the other team tries to defuse it.

F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin is a contemporary classic — but not necessarily in a good way. Yes, slightly antiquated design elements like health and armor packs give it a familiar feel. And quite a few genuinely scary moments are guaranteed to make you feel a little silly for being so freaked out. But the game tries to be too many things at once, and the transparent, jarring transitions from horror to next-gen action sequences break the otherwise carefully executed atmosphere.

Images courtesy Warner Bros.

WIRED Genuinely scary, clever enemies and combat mechanics

TIRED Blend of horror and action causes ambiance to suffer, overpowered abilities can make for dull combat

World’s 1st Highest Performing Intel X58 Gaming PC

2009-02-09T21:16:00.000+05:00

Asus announced the launch of its Gaming PC- ROG CG6190. Asus ROG CG6190 features Intel’s latest platform and provides top-notch solutions to deliver the ultimate in gaming experience. The Asus ROG CG6190 is the world’s first highest performing consumer desktop platform that features the most advanced Intel Core i7 CPUs and X58 chipsets to allow gamers to experience even higher levels of speed and performance.

It is equipped with the most advanced features such as:

Built-in biometric fingerprint scanner for system security
A unique 2-kilowatts dual power system
Customized liquid cooling modules for non-stop sustainability
A Supreme X-Fi Audio Card that provides support for 3D nine virtual speakers.
The Corei7 delivers 52% faster processing speed in 3D gaming application.

Asus CG6190 is built to bring about the most engaging, most exclusive, and most exciting gaming experience to date—to satisfy any gamer demand. In comparison to the previous generation Quad Core platform

Blackbird 002: HP's Gaming PC

2009-02-09T20:47:00.002+05:00

Proposed merger of Voodoo PC with HP in September 2006 was a major occurrence in the business world. It is merely a year of governance of new entity and we have started reaping fruits of alliance as HP has introduced a new gaming PC dubbed Blackbird 002. The premium gaming PC seems to be introduced for choking the huge success of ‘Dell’s XPS 720′.

Hosting a rich hardware, HP’s Blackbird owns AMD Athlon 64 X2 processors and Radeon HD graphics cards to Intel Core 2 Extreme CPUs, Nvidia GeForce 8-series GPUs, with Ageia PhysX physics accelerator cards and Blu-ray burners to boot. Moreover, unlike the XPS, the Blackbird uses standard ATX motherboards and power supplies, making it easier to upgrade.

HP says that Blackbird 002 has been designed by gamers and for gamers. Beautified with gorgeous looks including aluminum chassis, the cast-aluminum foot, the PC has is designed to deliver extreme performance. It features patented, full system liquid-cooling to keep itself running cool in even the most heated head-to-head gaming scenarios.

The system’s removable side panel, open BIOS, and interior and back panel LED lighting make it convenient for gamers to get inside the machine for performance modification.

Blackbird 002 will be available for purchase from October 1st onward with one year limited warranty at a suggestive price of $2500 - $7100 (Pricing depends on configuration).

Picture 1 Picture2 Picture 3
Picture 4

Toshiba Shocker: That Crazy Game Helmet Is For Reals

2009-02-08T11:19:00.000+05:00

A while back, the above photo did the internet rounds. No way this product could really exist. Even by Japan standards, this is just too bizarre. But wait, it is real. Toshiba R&D is indeed working on this "Wearable Home Theater." There's even a clip from TV Tokyo to prove it! While this Apollo astronaut helmet weighs in at 2.7 kilograms, but the Toshiba rep says the contraption was designed to be worn comfortably. It gives players a full 360 experience and head movement correspond with screen movements. Baffling, I mean, truly. Brian Ashcraft

Toshiba Really Spends Money On This

Netflix app on Xbox 360 reaches 1 million members

2009-02-08T11:14:00.001+05:00

Netflix should be happy with the performance of their application on Xbox LIVE. According to a joint press release by Microsoft and Netflix, it seems that 1 million Xbox LIVE GOLD members have downloaded and activated the application. The application allows current Netflix subscribers to watch movies and television shows instantly through their Xbox 360 console and television.

The Xbox 360 console is currently the only gaming console which allows Netflix subscribers to access a catalog of online movies and television shows instantly. Since Netflix first offered its application for the Xbox 360 console in November, Xbox LIVE members have watched 1.5 billion minutes of video programming through Netflix. In order to access the Netflix application you must be a Netflix unlimited and Xbox LIVE Gold member.

The Maestro is Guitar Hero-like guitar teacher

2009-02-08T11:08:00.000+05:00

I have been seeing this gadget on many a tech blog this morning, and it is not hard to see why. After all, if there is one thing that gadget-lovers love, it is Guitar Hero, and this Maestro is designed to teach geeks how to play the guitar for real.

I believe we have already covered a device like this by Roland at CES, but this was for a keyboard, with a guitar version to come out soon. The Maestro is currently a concept from that fun website that we love to peek at every once in a while, Yanko Design.

As you can see from the photo, the Maestro clamps onto the guitar and then uses lasers to point to the right frets. How can it do this? You need to have an MP3 copy of the song on an SD and then put it on the Maestro.

I’m not certain how the Maestro can take the MP3 and translate the audio file into the proper frets, but it can somehow do it. I’m also not certain how you can calibrate the Maestro so the lasers beam on precisely the right places, because all guitars are not the same.

Still, you got to give Eugene Cheong, the designer of the Maestro, credit for trying something that Guitar Hero addicts dream of: a chance to actually play the guitar for real, and not just hit fret buttons and a strum bar.

Source

DICE Returns to WWII for Battlefield 1943: Pacific

2009-02-08T11:04:00.002+05:00

DICE Returns to WWII for Battlefield 1943: Pacific

In these trying times gaming companies have to rely on proven hits. Hence, DICE is once again returning to World War II for the next Battlefield sequel, cleverly dubbed Battlefield 1943: Pacific.

All the announcements I've seen have breathlessly touted the new game's upgraded graphics engine and "new" locations, but from the trailer above I'm getting serious déjà vu -- not only from all those hours I spent playing the original Battlefield 1942, but from the official remake of BF1942's most popular levels within Battlefield: Vietnam.

I have no doubt that whatever additions DICE makes for this sequel will be entertaining. I have no doubt that I will spend months firing my pistol impotently at soaring planes. Unfortunately, I also have no doubt that this is the quintessential rehash, generated purely to make a quick buck from gamers nostalgic for a game that is only six years old.

The fact that it's a download-only release for Windows, PlayStation Network Store and the Xbox Live Marketplace (as opposed to a $60 boxed release) almost excuses the unnecessary, financially motivated, self-plagiarism, but until publisher Electronic Arts offers an official price point, I'm going to assume it to be depressingly high.

BF1943: Pacific also currently lacks an official release date, but every piece of documentation I can find on the game promises that it will debut sometime this summer.

Resident Evil 5 Racism Debate Revived

2009-02-08T11:01:00.000+05:00

Resident Evil 5 Racism Debate Revived

Ever since Capcom revealed the first images from Resident Evil 5 certain factions in the gaming community have labeled the title as racist against the African natives it portrays. If you thought the debate was long behind us, Eurogamer's preview of the game wants to assure you that its not.

After warning that the game most certainly has visible undertones that at least hint at racism, the preview offers examples:
Later on, there's a cut-scene of a white blonde woman being dragged
off, screaming, by black men. When you attempt to rescue her, she's
been turned and must be killed. If this has any relevance to the story
it's not apparent in the first three chapters, and it plays so
blatantly into the old clichés of the dangerous "dark continent" and
the primitive lust of its inhabitants that you'd swear the game was
written in the 1920s. That Sheva neatly fits the approved Hollywood
model of the light-skinned black heroine, and talks more like Lara
Croft than her thickly-accented foes, merely compounds the problem
rather than easing it.
I'm not about to get sucked into this argument during daylight hours, while sober, so instead I offer it up to you commenters who have now had a week to download and digest the demo on your platform of choice.

Is Resident Evil 5 perpetuating long-standing racist stereotypes against the native peoples of Africa, or are those with a voice in the gaming community inventing a slant on behalf of developer Capcom to generate controversy (and thus, page hits, ad revenue, and their continued employment)?

Image courtesy Capcom

ME2: Handheld Video Game that Encourages Kids to Exercise

2009-02-03T15:57:00.001+05:00

Anyone want to get in shape while playing video games? I’m not talking about the Wii, but the ME2. The ME2 is a lot like Wii Fit, as it rewards physical action with points. I suppose the big difference between the two systems is that the ME2 is a handheld portable.

Another difference is that the ME2 requires physical activity before you play on the ME2 handheld or the affiliated website. There is a built-in pedometer on the handheld that you need to develop points by walking, running, or jogging. The more you travel, the more points you will accrue.

Yeah, you could shake the ME2 rigorously and cheat to get more points, but you would definitely be the Biggest Loser. (I know there is an NBC show where being the Biggest Loser is a positive thing, but not in this case.)

Once you have your points, connect the ME2 to the PC with a USB cable. Points will be uploaded to the ME2 site, and you can play in a 3D interactive world, even download new titles to the handheld.

I’m not certain kids would be interested in this. They might be able to see their parents’ ploy to make them get out and exercise more. Maybe kids will use that shaking method that I parenthetically mentioned earlier.

The best part about the ME2 is the price. There has been a recent fifty percent price cut on eToys from $34.99 to $17.50. It’s affordable, and encourages kids to be physically fit.

Inside FusionFall, Cartoon Network's New Kid-Friendly MMO

2009-02-03T15:52:00.000+05:00

With its new FusionFall, Cartoon Network hopes to introduce young players to the addictive joys of massively multiplayer online games in a tightly controlled setting that parents will appreciate. While strictly aimed at the tween set, this vibrant, colorful world saturated with familiar cartoon characters masks a surprisingly robust game that serves as a primer for would-be MMO junkies.

Released Wednesday, FusionFall packs a fun, well-polished experience into an extensive, interactive cartoon episode. The story revolves around the evil Lord Fuse, who travels about the galaxy converting planets into slime-coated wastelands. He eventually reaches Earth, and the plethora of Cartoon Network characters join forces to stop him. Your character is enlisted by Dexter (of Dexter's Laboratory) to aid in the fight, but a lab mishap sends you hurtling far into the apocalyptic future.

I've spent some time traipsing about in the beta, but now that the game is open to the masses I wanted to offer my impressions on all that FusionFall has to offer.

If you're an MMO veteran, or at that special age where any game without an M rating causes you to recoil in terror, you've probably already written this one off. But if you're a fan of the many cartoons that form the game's cast of characters, it's well worth investigating.

When I first checked out the game back in September, I was already fairly impressed with the level of attention that's gone into what is essentially a free browser game for kids. The game runs on the Unity web-player plugin, a small download that works just fine in Internet Explorer or Firefox. It should support every browser, but I had a bit of trouble in Google's Chrome. FusionFall should run fairly well across a wide range of systems — the minimum requirements are 512 MB of RAM and a 1.4-GHz Pentium 4 — and includes joystick support, if you'd rather not deal with a mouse and keyboard.

FusionFall follows the standard MMO quest-and-rewards system, with missions typically consisting of destroying a certain number of enemy slime critters or robots, or fetching objects and returning them to quest-givers. There are no classes, but players will have the option of choosing a Guide, who will reward them with distinct items and equipment.

While there are character levels, there are no experience points, at least in the traditional sense. Destroying enemies and completing quests will earn you Fusion Matter. Once you've collected enough, a quest-giver will inform you that you're ready to retrieve your next Nano by defeating a Fusion — an evil slime-clone of a Cartoon Network character.

Nanos work much like pets in other MMOs. They're collectible mini-avatars of popular Cartoon Network characters, and will assist you in battle. Each Nano has three distinct abilities, which will provide your character or group with bonuses or fight alongside you. Once you've chosen an ability for your Nano, you'll be unable to swap it out for another without visiting a Nano Station and paying a fee in items and Fusion Matter.

You can equip up to three Nanos at a time, but must pay yet another fee in order to swap between them. In addition to their abilities, Nanos (and enemies) come in three different flavors: Adaptium, Blastons and Cosmix. Type-A Nanos will provide damage bonuses to Type-B Enemies, Type B will trump Type C, and Type C trumps Type A. Your character will automatically assume the characteristics of whatever Nano is currently activated, and deactivating your Nano will prevent you from doing less damage if you've brought the wrong types along. Nanos are also limited by stamina — once you activate them, their stamina bar will deplete, until they must be deactivated to rest. The stamina bar depletes faster if you're using active abilities.

There's a surprising amount of depth here, especially if you're a fan of light micromanagement: Do you carry one Nano of each type, or stick with your favorite abilities? Should you equip Nanos with health and speed bonuses that benefit a group, or stick to abilities that will buff your own character? And while you're at it, should you equip your Nanos with active abilities that will drain their stamina bar but stop enemies in their tracks, or passive abilities that will allow them to last longer in combat, but have less tangible benefits? While you'll technically be able to mix and match as often as you'd like, all of that indecisiveness will start to cost quite a bit.

Once you've constructed the ideal Nano squad, it's time to pick your gear. Clothing will increase your defense against enemy attacks, and there'll be plenty of cosmetic equipment — masks, capes and the like — that doesn't do anything beyond altering your appearance. You can equip both ranged and melee weapons, swapping between them during combat. Ranged weapons will usually limit you to attacking one opponent, while melee weapons allow you to hit several targets, for less damage. There are variations, such as shotgun-esque rifles that do less damage, but let you hit multiple enemies.

Combat is simple — click the attack button on your mouse, keyboard or joystick while facing an enemy, and activate the occasional Nano-support powers, if applicable. Some enemies can perform powerful attacks that will require you to run out of the way, but you likely won't run into too much trouble. If your character loses all of its health, it'll get knocked out and be resurrected at a "Resurrect 'Em" station in a nearby town — these are run by the Grim Reaper from Billy and Mandy, naturally.

FusionFall also features extensive platforming elements, with a wide variety of races and puzzles revolving around navigating an increasingly challenging series of moving platforms. While there are a few bugs that can result in awkward animations if you've missed a jump, these segments can be quite a bit of fun — players can compete against one another to collect floating orbs while navigating a particular course, which (for obvious reasons) makes up the full extent of the player-versus-player content.

Parents need not worry about their kids getting into any sort of trouble while they're on FusionFall, as the game is a fortress. Chatting, for those who don't wish to pay a subscription fee, is limited to a slew of preselected phrases, which are all fairly wholesome. Even selecting a character name is protected: Players who choose to use a custom name will have to wait until it's vetted by game masters, and most players seem to be choosing the option to build a unique, randomly generated name by combining preselected options. If you're worried about your child playing a bit too much, you'll be comforted to know that FusionFall decreases the rewards you earn if you're logged in for too long, encouraging kids to go outside and pace nervously until it makes sense to play again.

If your kid convinces you to spend a bit of money on the game, a subscription fee will grant them Unlimited Access. They'll then be able to create up to four characters (instead of just two with free accounts), post messages on the forums, access a proper chat mode and send their friends in-game e-mails — though these will be heavily monitored. You'll also be able to collect 36 Nanos (the free-to-play version limits you to a paltry four), and access the entire FusionFall world (including future expansions), instead of the limited free-to-play zones.

A subscription costs $6 per month. $10 a month gets you a Family Plan, which grants you four unlimited accounts and more parental controls, by way of Master accounts. A master account can block a child's access to the game entirely, and limit his or her ability to chat, e-mail or post forum messages.

If you're a kid (or a kid at heart), you're probably already off giving FusionFall a shot. The game is pretty fun, and while the free-to-play options are a little lacking, folks who choose to pay the subscription fee will find a lot to like. And this is Cartoon Network we're talking about — the company has a veritable army of licenses waiting in the wings, so if you like what you see, you can be sure there's plenty more content on the way.

Images courtesy Cartoon Network

Xbox 360 dash update to bring HDMI audio fix

2009-02-03T15:45:00.002+05:00
Xbox 360 dash update to bring HDMI audio fix

Those not experiencing audio from your Xbox 360 HDMI connection can stop complaining. Not only because your whining was becoming irritating, but because Microsoft has a solution that's coming soon.

Major Nelson just informed us that a mandatory 360 dashboard update will be released this Tuesday morning at 2:00AM pacific and will fix the HDMI audio problems some have been experiencing. As always, dashboard updates will only begin rolling out at 2:00AM pacific, so it may take a while before actually being prompted to download.

Review: Killzone 2 Is a Thoughtful, Atmospheric Shooter

2009-02-03T15:43:00.000+05:00

How many epic first-person shooters can one gamer take?

You might feel like skipping over Killzone 2 purely out of FPS fatigue. But that would be a mistake. Yes, gamers are currently inundated with critically acclaimed shooters starring grim, determined men facing insurmountable odds. But Killzone 2 is a stunning example of the form, with gorgeous graphics, an engaging story and combat that forces you to devise strategies at a frantic pace.

While Killzone 2 does walk on mostly well-trodden ground, it does so with a keen attention to style and detail, pushing beyond the gray-and-red color schemes that define its competition while encouraging gamers to put a little bit of thought behind every bullet they hurl.

It's also a win for Sony, since you will need a PlayStation 3 to play the game when it launches Feb. 27.

The first thing you'll notice about Killzone 2 are the amazing visuals. The purely technical stuff like textures and lighting effects are great, but the real beauty is in the atmosphere.

You're on the planet Helgan, home of your enemies the Helghast, who are best described as genetically modified, vaguely European space Nazis. Helgan is a callous testament to efficiency and productivity, a planet-turned-war-factory reeling from an invasion by the International Strategic Alliance (that's you).

The skies are at best a sickly sort of green, swaddled in ominous clouds and streaked with lightning. Rust-ravaged balconies give way all too willingly when you're cowering behind them for protection, while errant gunfire and grenades will kick up dust and debris that obscures your vision and leaves you open for an ambush. This planet hates you.

Killzone's brilliant opening sequence sees you and your three ISA cohorts dumped onto Helgan's surface while riding transport vehicles that defy safety regulations and common sense. It's a visceral thrill ride, heightened by stellar character animation and exemplary sound engineering -- you'll really want to consider a sound system or headphones that can do justice to 7.1-channel surround.

Unfortunately, it's during these first awe-inspiring moments that you also experience Killzone's sub-par voiceover work. It's occasionally good -- the main bad guy Scolar Visari is an especially good tyrant -- but there are times when you wish your chatty pals would keep their observations to themselves.

Killzone's carefully designed levels avoid many of the stereotypical pitfalls of FPS design. You won't find many overly scripted action sequences or locked doors that only open once you kill a half-dozen waves of aliens. Instead, you might encounter a pair of enemy-occupied turrets at the end of a narrow bridge, snipers hiding out in buildings you need to walk past or soldiers armed with rocket launchers scurrying about on catwalks high above you.

Battles can start to feel like puzzles -- but the enemies are reacting to your actions, and not simply going through the motions. This becomes especially clear once you've been forced to restart a particular scene a few times, and you notice that enemies aren't acting the same way they did previously . If you're the type of shooter fan that loathes being forced into a particular style of play when all you want to do is shoot stuff on foot, Killzone will rarely disappoint you.

Killzone 2's cover system works relatively well. Holding the right trigger will quickly move your character alongside or behind most objects, allowing you to avoid enemy fire while resting to recover from damage, and peek out and provide some fire of your own. Unfortunately, you can't use everything as cover. It can be frustrating to run out into the middle of a street, only to discover that you can't sidle up alongside a ruined tank's treads, for example. (Luckily, at times like this, you'll find the game's checkpoint system surprisingly forgiving.)

The Helghast troops are crafty foes. They'll hoist their weapons around cover and fire aimlessly to keep you suppressed. They'll toss grenades to flush you out of cover. If their position is compromised, they'll scamper away, then regroup and strike again.

Your three computer-controlled comrades are fairly smart as well, although they do occasionally make dumb moves. You might find them barreling headlong toward the next checkpoint, ignoring the hordes of bad guys still lurking behind, flanking your position. You can revive your friends if they fall in battle, but not vice versa.

Killzone has a decent selection of weapons, from pistols to rocket launchers, but you can only carry two at a time. If you're the trigger-happy type, prepare to spend a considerable amount of time scavenging for ammunition. Being forced to choose your weapons carefully adds to the strategic challenge.

The single-player campaign will take roughly 10 hours to complete. Killzone 2 could really use a cooperative mode that lets you tackle the campaign with a buddy, but the game doesn't get it (or any other local multiplayer mode). The online multiplayer mode scraps Killzone's cover mechanics for traditional run-and-gun gameplay in two flavors: Skirmish and Warzone.

Skirmish lets you choose from among five different multiplayer games. Three are simple variants on the classic themes of King of the Hill, Death Match and Capture the Flag. In Search and Destroy, one team is charged with planting a pair of explosives at key locations, while the other must attempt to defend the locations and defuse the bombs. And in Assassination, a single player is randomly chosen as the target. One team must defend him; the other must attempt to kill him.

Warzone is a class-based campaign for up to 32 players. Everyone starts out as a basic soldier only capable of carrying a single grenade and using a basic assault rifle and pistol. Killing opponents earns you points, which you can use to improve your military rank, which lets you carry more weapons. Rising in rank also allows you to form squads and clans with other players, making combat and communication more efficient.

You can also specialize. You might choose the Medic class, which lets you revive fallen friends. Bring five of them back to life, and you'll get the Revival Specialist ribbon. Collect eight of these, and you'll get the ability to toss Health Packs to your pals. Get eight Healing Specialist ribbons by doing this, and you'll then be able to bring your Medic's skills over to your next class.

In this way, you can combine classes, creating the ideal hybrid to suit your play style. Want to play as a Medic who can build an air-support drone? How about a Saboteur who can disguise himself as a member of the other team, then use his latent Engineer skills to build turrets in their base?

Killzone 2 performs a lot of the same old tricks as other console shooters, but it does them right, and it does them with noticeable style. The well-paced tactical combat and strong narrative make for an enthralling single-player campaign, while the varied multiplayer modes provide depth that will entertain PlayStation 3 fans for quite some time.

Review: iZ3D Monitor

2009-02-01T18:02:00.001+05:00

The iZ3D has some areas it could improve in, but it's worth it for the astounding 3D effect it delivers.

The iZ3D monitors have been generating a lot of buzz lately between the custom paint job models they have recently offered, as well as the unique position of being a forefront company developing a true 3D presentation in gaming and movies. Whether that is necessary or desirable will depend entirely on taste and is outside of the scope of this review–my interest here was how well the tech worked.

The iZ3D renders games, videos and photographs in a stereoscopic 3D presentation with the aid of glasses. These peripherals are lightweight and look like normal sunglasses, and are comfortable enough for long media sessions. The monitor came with two pairs of glasses as well as a snap-on overlay for those who already wear glasses. The package also came with a slew of cabling, drivers and an array of documentation.

Nothing like a good unboxing first thing in the morning.

This unit is compatible with VGA or DVI output, and this review tested the dual-DVI setup on a Geforce 260 card using Vista x64. Setup was a bit difficult, but that goes without saying for any device on Vista x64 so I can hardly fault the manufacturer on that. I feel quite sure any user experience on 32-bit Vista or XP would be MUCH smoother than mine.Luckily, iZ3D was really helpful in addressing the issues I had with my setup and after patching to the newest drivers (the recommendation is to use the newest NVIDIA drivers if you have that chipset) and fixing my cabling and dualview setup, I had the unit ready to tune. Tuning consists of adjusting the convergence and separation of the two panels built into the monitor that present the 3D image until it syncs and is crisp.

Luckily, iZ3D was really helpful in addressing the issues I had with my setup and after patching to the newest drivers (the recommendation is to use the newest NVIDIA drivers if you have that chipset) and fixing my cabling and dualview setup, I had the unit ready to tune. Tuning consists of adjusting the convergence and separation of the two panels built into the monitor that present the 3D image until it syncs and is crisp.

It isn't huge, but it is chunkier than a normal LCD.

So it takes a bit of time to fine tune to the desired levels, but produces a distinct effect when that is done. Games tested on the unit were Left 4 Dead and Fallout 3 and both games looked great with glasses on or off on the monitor. The monitor only does a 1680 x 1050 resolution, which may be a turn-off to some, but it does deliver a very colorful and crisp image in the traditional 2D viewing mode.

In 3D the picture gets a tiny bit blurry even at the tightest tuning, but still looks great. The 3D effect really does come off very well, adding a great deal of increased depth to characters and environments. Finding a proper viewing depth and angle as well as adjusting the monitor settings in tandem to get the best picture does take a great deal of fine tuning, and at times I still got a bit of a glare off of very white surfaces. I suspect that these limitations are temporary, as an exploration of the iZ3D website reveals a quick driver update rate and a very passionate community of users that are quite enthusiastic about the product.

The glasses could be a real dealbreaker for the package, luckily these are very lightweight and comfortable to wear.

There are a few aspects here that may turn off prospective buyers from this device, in that the resolution tops off at 1680 x 1050 as mentioned above and the difficulty in using a two-monitor setup with the iZ3D. A single card with two DVI outputs can only support the iZ3D alone, a second monitor in addition to that requires a second card in SLI. It also has a very beefy depth in form factor that requires a bit more desktop space than normal monitors do.

Another hangup I had with this device is there is a very limited on-screen menu for adjusting video settings. As far as I could tell only brightness level could be controlled with the menu button. One final drawback to the unit is that HD movies are not rendered in 3D. Well, iZ3D says they aren’t, but I could swear I saw the effect on a Blu-Ray copy of 300.

The iZ3D has a very capable screen that handles normal desktop viewing very well.

The IZ3D is one of the most unique displays I’ve ever seen. The versatility it has in both a 2D mode with the glasses off and the 3D mode with them on is very compelling. It looks absolutely astounding in both modes and makes the 22″ size limit and average resolution constraints very easy to bear. iZ3D is being very active in generating free software and drivers to get the most out of this device, which is a very refreshing thing to see in a hardware company and something that bodes very well for the future of this device as well as those who buy it.

If you are looking for something different for your PC gaming or media time, the IZ3D Monitor is definitely worth a purchase.

iZ3D Supported Games
This list contains games that were tested by iZ3D and/or forum members that have been reported to work. Games that are Linked and in Bold are user-submitted games. Don't see your game? Don't worry! Most DirectX 8 & 9 games not on our list should work with no, or limited issues. Some OpenGL games as well. If not, let us know and we'll do our best to quickly release a fix.
Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures
Armies of Exigo
Assassin's Creed
Ballance
Battlefield 2
Battlefield 2142
Battlefield 2 Special Forces
Beowulf
Bet on Soldier (B.o.S.)
BioShock
Black & White 2
Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway
Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30
Call of Duty 2
Call of Duty 4
Cars Demo (Pixar-Disney)
Civilization IV
Command & Conquer III: Tiberium Wars
Command & Conquer: Generals
Counter Strike: Source
Crysis - ATI Only
Dark Messiah of MM
Day of Defeat: Source
Defense Grid
Delta Force: Xtreme
Devil May Cry
DIRT
Dungeon Siedge II
Dungeons and Dragons
Empire Earth II
EVE Online
Fahrenheit
FallOut 3
Far Cry
Far Cry 2
FEAR
Flatout 2
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
GTR
Guild Wars
Half Life 2
Half Life 2: Lost Coast
HALO
HALO 2 (Vista Only)
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Hellgate: London
Heroes V
Infernal
Jade Empire
Left4Dead
Lego Star Wars
Live For Speed
LOTR: Battle for MiddleEarth II
LOTR: Conquest
LOTR Online: Shadows of Angmar
LOTR: Return of the King
Men of Valor
Medal of Honor: Airborne
Micro Machines 4
Mirror's Edge
Medieval Total War
MTX Moto Trax
NBA 2005
NBA 2006
Need for Speed: Carbon
Need for Speed: Underground 2
Need for Speed: Most Wanted
NHL 2005
NHL 2006
Painkiller
Pirates of the Burning Sea
Prince of Persia: Warrior Within
Portal
PURE
PyroBlaster
Quake 3
RaceDriver Grid
Rainbow Six: Vegas
Red Orchestra
Resident Evil 4
Rise and Fall
Ryzom
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl
Serious Sam II
Sid Meier's Railroads
SiN 2: Episodes
Sins of the Solar Empire
Singles 2
Sniper Elite
Sonic Adventure DX
Space Strike
Spell Force 2 Shadow Wars
Starship Troopers
Star Trek Legacy
Star Wars: BattleFront I
Star Wars Galaxies
SWAT 4
Team Fortress 2
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
The Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles
The Movies
The Witcher
Titan Quest
Tomb Raider
Trackmania Nations
Turok
Unreal Tournament 2004
Unreal Tournament III
Warcraft III
Warcraft III: Frozen Throne
Warhammer 40k Dawn of War
Warhammer 40k Winter Assault
World in Conflict
World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade

A First-Hand Tour of Batman: Arkham Asylum's Madhouse

2009-01-31T14:18:00.000+05:00

"I have to say — this is the best cape in a videogame."

Nathan Whitman, an associate producer at Warner Bros.' videogame division, is proud of the way Batman's cape is coming along in the game Batman: Arkham Asylum. It's a third-person game, so you spend the entirety of it staring at the cape, and Warner's is taking particular care to get it right.

"We've got a guy working full-time on cape physics," Whitman says. That means that Batman's signature mantle won't act like most videogame capes, floating through walls and enemies as if it were a holographic projection. It'll animate and collide realistically with everything.

At least, it should, when the game's done. Watching Whitman play a pre-alpha version of Arkham Asylum recently, I saw the cape doing all the things he says it's not supposed to. But the game's summer release date is still months away, he points out, and Warner's, co-publishing the game with Eidos, wants Arkham to be more than just your usual licensed game.

Yes, we've heard this all before. What could help Arkham on the long journey out of franchise hell is that it isn't based on any specific Batman movie, comic book or television show. It's an original take on the series, so its developers have more creative freedom.

Although the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC game bears no direct
relationship to the film The Dark Knight, the plot centers around the
ongoing conflict between Batman and The Joker. Things kick off with caped crusader capturing the clown prince of crime and bringing him to Arkham, where Joker is
strapped into a Hannibal Lecter-style human hand truck and wheeled off
into the asylum's inner cells. Suspecting that something is wrong, Batman
follows him in.

This is where the player takes a limited amount of control, in a mostly cinematic sequence that sets up the plot and introduces some of the main characters. Over the course of these five minutes, we get to experience quite a bit of this game's version of the Joker, as played by Star Wars' Mark Hamill. It's a much more strangled, maniacal performance than Heath Ledger's Dark Knight Joker, which fits well with the thinner, lankier, comic-book appearance of the character in the game.

For his part, Batman does look a bit like Michael Keaton (if the Batman actor were
on steroids). In fact, everyone in this version of Gotham City is
totally buff, up to and including Commissioner Gordon. They are
all apparently oiled up for the gun show. This might be a good time to
mention that Batman: Arkham Asylum is powered by Unreal Engine 3, which
seems to be used in a disproportionate number of games featuring angry
people with shiny muscles. (It is not considered appropriate to speculate why.)

Anyway, long story short, Joker locks down the nut house and traps Batman in there with a whole host of petty thugs and most of the major villains from the comic book series. Yes, the Riddler is in there. And Harley Quinn is definitely in there — we saw her in the opening scenes, sexed up quite a bit more than the comics version. "She's showing a little more skin than usual," said Whitman, unnecessarily.

Characters pulled from deeper in the Batman canon, like Killer Croc and Blue Beetle, also appear. (Don't worry, I don't know who they are either.)

Generally speaking, there are two things Batman can do to take care of business in Arkham Asylum: Punch people, and punch people quietly. Warner's has trademarked the names for both these actions: The FreeFlow™ combat system lets Batman "ping-pong" between enemies, sliding back and forth on the floor and racking up combos as he punches them into unconsciousness — but not death. You can go nuts mashing the attack button, or you can patiently wait for enemies to begin their attack animations — pointed out by a helpful flashing highlight — then hit the counter button to dispatch them with more cinematic flair.

And then there is the Invisible Predator™ mode, in which you stay undetected, sneak around behind enemies and take them out silently. You can grapple up to the top of gargoyles (there are lots of gargoyles on the ceilings, naturally) and then glide down, kicking the unsuspecting enemy in the back of the head. (Whitman illustrated this technique by taking out Zsasz, another character that non-fans have probably never heard of.)

Batman can also enter the (inexplicably untrademarked) investigation mode, which works a bit like Metroid Prime's scan visor. You'll get a whole host of information about the current situation when you enter this mode — things you can interact with will be called out, you'll know how many hostile enemies are around and whether they're aware of your presence. It's sort of like an X-ray and heat-sensing visor all in one cool (if impossibly unrealistic) package.

In addition to using this mode to hunt down enemies in silence, you'll use it to do detective work — following footprints, investigating odors ("whiskey breath" was one I saw) or solving puzzles, like using a Batarang to hit a switch to shut off poison gas that's filling a room. You'll be able to save people, which you'll want to do, said Whitman, because — wait for it — you earn achievements by saving people.

So, is Batman: Arkham Asylum actually going to be good? The developer, Rocksteady Studios, is largely untested — its only previous effort, Urban Chaos: Riot Response, garnered what might be charitably called mixed reviews.

I haven't been able to actually play Arkham for myself yet, but the amount of care that Warner's and Eidos are obviously putting into this game makes the title worth paying attention to.

Watch the trailer for Batman: Arkham Asylum.

Prototype New Xbox Experience Images Revealed

2009-01-31T14:15:00.000+05:00

The New Xbox Experience that Microsoft rolled out in November was definitely not the first iteration of a new interface for the console's dashboard, and thanks to Portland-based design firm Gridplane we can have a look at what one alternative might have looked like.

Aside from the "immersive 3D environment" the firm's website describes, Gridplane's design isn't all that far off from the current NXE. The avatars are present, the whole thing is much more glossy and neo-modern than the original dashboard and there is an abundance of unused, monocolor space (presumably prior to users mucking everything up with Premium Themes).

Personally, after seeing this I want to play with it for a few hours. I like the iteration Microsoft went with, but -- aside from the bizarre duplicate game boxes in the fourth photo -- this three-dimensional thing looks entertaining.

More images can be found at Gridplane's official site, linked below.

Images: Gridplane

XBOX Experience [Gridplane, via CVG]

Three New Need for Speed Games Announced

2009-01-31T14:09:00.001+05:00

The Need for Speed line of arcade racing games is getting three new entries, dubbed Need for Speed SHIFT, Need for Speed NITRO and Need for Speed World Online, respectively. All three are scheduled for release during 2009, with the latest debuting in Winter.

Though details from the official announcement are a bit scarce, it seems that SHIFT is the more realistic of the three (and, bizarrely, is being developed with help from Heat producer Michael Mann), NITRO is the arcade-oriented racing game, and NFS World Online is, unsurprisingly, focused on online racing.

Long-time NFS fans may remember 2001's ill-fated Motor City Online. Originally conceived as the MMO version of Need for Speed, the game was one of the genres first high-profile failures.

Unannounced Turok Sequel Canceled Amid Layoffs

2009-01-31T14:07:00.000+05:00

The economic crunch continues to take its toll on the gaming world as layoffs hit Disney Interactive Studios' developer Propaganda Games.

As a result of the "approximately 70 employees" being laid off at Propaganda, the company has canceled an unannounced sequel to 2008's Turok (pictured above), claims Kotaku. The other project Propaganda was developing for DIS is believed to still be on track.

Additionally, one employee at DIS said that the company plans to "consolidate a handful of its studios, including Avalanche Software and the Fall Line studio."

DIS has since confirmed the report, saying "In response to this challenging business environment, we have examined
ways in which we might be able to work more efficiently. We have taken
measures to control costs by freezing most open positions, deferring
some capital projects, reducing support from third parties, taking
significant reductions in travel and entertainment expenses and
eliminating other activities."

Faith And A .45 Indefinitely Delayed

2009-01-31T14:03:00.000+05:00

Deadline Games' intriguing 3rd-person, pulp-action title Faith and a .45 has officially been put on hold, reports PS3 Attitude.

In case you're scratching your head wondering what Faith and a .45 is, here's a primer: Think Gears of War-style cover-based shooting laid on top of a Depression-era, Bonnie-and-Clyde-esque love story. At the very least, it's an original idea.

The developer has seemingly been unable to find a publisher for the game, despite the widely positive critical response to early looks at the game.

Deadline's comments offer no hint as to whether the game will ever re-enter development, but the current economic climate does not bode well for the game's future.

Image courtesy Deadline Games

Faith and a .45 is officially on hold

Grand Theft Auto IV “Review”: 76 out of 100

2009-01-30T19:02:00.000+05:00

So, I’ve been playing some weeks Grand Theft Auto IV (PC) that these guys bought to me (thanks again folks). I was asked for a review (by you readers), so here we go.

So, those bastards tried to attack me…

This is what happened me when I first time played the game:

I was walking on the streets of Liberty City when I walked and knocked some fat guy. He shouted and called me bastard (or something) and I turned on to him. The next thing I knew the guy was asking for trouble and was ready to punch me. I was about to punch back, when I noticed his friend was running to help him.

I decided to do what any sensible wanna-be gangster would do.

Run away.

Those who run away…. can run away another day is the motto I follow and so I run. I noticed that these guys were following me so I started running towards a car. Just when I was about to get hit by that car I did a maneuver and dodged the blow. Those who were after me weren’t so luck. I turned to see that other guy got killed by the car, and other was getting back to his feet.

The guy who was still alive continued the chase and I decided to run in nearby alley.

There I turned around.

After some punches and kicks (which resulted in one dead guy - not me) I left from the scene (with $32 extra in my pocket) and heard the ambulance sirens.

What’s it all about?

So… that’s how I started the game. The game continued with phone calls, missions and of course cars.

I must say that GTA 4 is bit like “good old grand theft auto stuff with fancier cars and all.” That probably sums up almost everything there is. I’ve mentioned in an earlier blog post that there’s lots of content in the game, but somehow the missions start to feel like repeating the same thing over and over. At some point I started to finish missions just to see the next cut-scene, and was “rushing” the process.

Bug stopped my progress

After I had progressed the game about 25% I experienced a bug: I could get no more missions. I think it occurred when I received a phone call in the game, and was immediately pressing some button after walking away from building to save things… when it happened: the phone call ended before it had started and I wondered what it was. Then I decided to try accomplishing some missions (I had 2 places where I could go) but whenever I went to the “mission spot” nothing happened. The yellow arrow (which marks “special location”) disappeared… and appeared when I went away from the spot. Normally a cut-scene and a mission would start, but now nothing happened.

Not sure if this bug has happened to anybody else, but at least I couldn’t proceed any further.

Now I remember why PC is so much better than consoles

Due the stupid console saving/loading system (meaning: you don’t really know when stuff gets to saved and there’s no chance that you could actually save the game when you’d want) my last save was somewhere around “20% of game completed” and I felt dip in my motivation to try continue the game from there (instead I came here to whine about it in this blog entry).

I’m switching to my whine gear here, and the GTA 4 reminded me about why I really hate some stuff in games that were ported from consoles.

The bloody camera: in GTA 4 it’s “okay”, but still there’s some console-legacy there. The camera just is not as to what I’m used to see in games.

No save & load when you want (see bug description above)

Oh well…

Where they put that ‘Multiplayer’ in menus…

You know what you need to do to play multiplayer in Left 4 Dead for example? The process is quite simple:

1) Click the play new game button and you are pretty much done

In GTA 4 it goes like this:

1) Wait for the game’s first screen to load

2) Wait for the game’s second screen to load

3) Press ’start’

4) Wait for the game to load (!!!)

5) Press UP key (to bring ‘phone’ up)

6) Navigate through phone menus

7) Find multiplayer and click it

8) Notice that the “just loaded game” (that took some time) will now be “lost” (sigh…)

9) Go to a multiplayer finder

10) Whine about the possibility to filter options easily (and not ‘console way’)

11) Realize that you cannot filter options like you’d wanted

12) Click one game and wonder what kind of game it might be (like “how much traffic” are there “cops”, is it day or night or what)

13) Join game

14) Realize that game doesn’t have the options you’d want, and quit

15) Repeat steps 12-14 until at some point you find a decent game

Like… why not have “Play multiplayer game” in the Start menu?

Sorry. It’s easy to whine, but basically I think they could have put some more effort on doing a proper menus, but I guess that is just me. Overall, the multiplayer again is “decent” so that one can play it, but when I compare it with Left 4 Dead the difference is just so big that I must mention it.

So… is there anything good?

Yes, definitely.

There’s lots of good stuff in GTA 4. In fact, there’s lots of amazing stuff in GTA 4. The graphics are really nice. The cars are fun to drive (not realistic, but FUN). There’s all kinds of small details that give you such feeling that you could just go on and keep driving some cars without doing anything else.

I liked the cut-scenes and the possibility to choose between “good” or “evil” acts (don’t know if they play any meaning in the game, but it was still fun to choose whether to shoot the mob boss or not). The cut-scenes are fun to watch (I liked for example the “I said hello” scene - I think it’s in the game’s trailer also).

There’s loads of content, and it’s cool.

(And yes, there’s nudity, adult material and violence and all that stuff in the game)

Bottom line

I think GTA 4 is a good game and can provide fun for those who like GTA games. There’s violence and other K18 material that’s not suitable for children. Even though the game is good and well done (except for some minor things like “the multiplayer menu”) for some reason I didn’t enjoy it as much as I had hoped (I think the progress stopping bug probably hurt my rating, since I wanted to finish the game & see the ending, but felt that it is waste of time to repeat same missions again).

It was fun to play, car were goods - but something was missing. 76 points from here (out of 100).

(As a record, I’m giving 93 points to Left 4 Dead - I suppose my rating is affected by the fact that I really enjoy playing multiplayer…)

Falcon Northwest Mach V

2009-01-30T18:58:00.000+05:00

$15,000

•
falcon-nw.com

8 out of 10

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Mach V Screams, But Is Overclocking Worth the Price?

No expense was spared for the Mach V: Its 3.2-GHz processor is overclocked by 800 MHz, and the machine packs three Nvidia GeForce GTX 280 cards running together for screaming performance. While media files live on the 1-TB hard drive, programs have their own pair of 64-gig solid-state drives. That way, when the CPU comes knocking, it reaps the benefit of the SSDs' read and write speed.

WIRED Pretty quiet. Go ahead, run everything at once while you try to hack the NSA: You've got 8 GB of RAM. Combination Blu-ray and HD-DVD drive. The best all-around PC of the bunch.

TIRED Load times are quick, but those drives won't help games play any speedier. Airbrushed aluminum case ain't exactly pretty. You can game faster for half the price.

HP Blackbird 002 Exhilaration $6,311

Sturdy case with a pedestal for quiet airflow. Needs faster graphics cards.

Alienware Area-51 ALX $8,780

Uses a pair of efficient ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 cards that placed third in speed tests. Plastic and aluminum case is chintzy.

Uberclok Reactor $4,300

Cheapest tested. Ran Crysis without making it look like a flip book, but stuttered a bit.