YouTube to sell music, games in revenue push [Reuters]

Wario Land: Shake It – Amazing footage! [YouTube]

Interestingly enough, in the first video he plays the game with what looks like a consumer grade Soul Calibur II arcade stick. Hats off you to you Gillybaba, the internet envies you. Second video after the jump.

Thanks, Bruno!

It's not like we're lacking in DVD and Blu-ray ports of Dragon's Lair, so if you really want to give it a go and use the guide, now's your chance.

Dragon's Lair Complete Strategy Guide - With Annotations [YouTube via Waxy]

PocketGamer got a look at a new accelerometer-based mobile racing game from Firemint.

As you can see from the video, Real Racing runs on the iPhone — and certainly confirms our hopes for that platform's gaming prowess — but Firemint also have it up and running on a Nokia N95 (all the recent N-series phones have motion sensors built in).

Multiplayer races can take place over a wifi link, and your racing stats are automatically uploaded to the Firemint web site. Brilliantly, the game will also upload videos of your best times to YouTube and share your rankings via Facebook and OpenSocial into the bargain.

GCDC 2008: Firemint shows off awesome iPhone racing game [PocketGamer]

"On the seventh day, we ran out of candy..."

Rare continue their series of Halo 3 'tribute' virals with this nod towards the 'Museum' ad.

For my money, it doesn't work quite as well as 'Believe' - mainly because the sombre woman in a Piñata mask they have got to play Leafos seems to be on the verge of turning the proceedings into a Bat For Lashes video.

Dylan Cuthbert, president and executive producer, of Q-Games, says this new ability will revolutionize how people talk about games.

The YouTube upload feature is going to revolutionize how people share tips. Up until now it has been limited to people with video capture equipment, but from now on, anyone can record their game and upload it directly to YouTube from within the game! It is as simple as pushing one button to start and one button to stop and upload, and there is no affect on the gameplay thanks to the power of the PS3 and its abundance of SPU processors.

The YouTube people are pretty excited too, pointing out that this is likely just the first Playstation 3 game to do this.

We've already seen the significant positive impact for games like Spore and Mainichi Issho and how gamers share & show off their creations. We look forward to the day when having YouTube upload support in games will be a standard feature.

As Q-Games President Dylan Cuthbert said on the Playstation Blog, "The YouTube upload feature is going to revolutionize how people share tips". We wholeheartedly agree!

I hope more, bigger games will start to include this amazing feature.

PixelJunk Eden Now Fortified With YouTube APIs [APIBlog]

By the way, this is not an invitation to send your boner-centric creation to tips. Just consider it a heads up.

We had a secret test program in Europe back in 1997 on PSOne, running a black and white text-based, moderator-led community chat group with a special box called 'Net-Station' that hooked up PCs to the TV. Nick Parker ran it. The project codename was 'Moccasin 5'. I have no idea where it came from.

Then, at Sony Europe, we worked on a PS2 concept called 'Central Station' which was planned to stream its own PlayStation TV channel, back in 2002. This was four years ahead of YouTube. But uptake in broadband and wireless routers took longer to reach mass market levels than we expected, and we couldn't get other regions of the Sony PlayStation world to buy in.

It just goes to show, success isn't just about having a great idea or the ability to pull it off. In many ways, timing really is everything. And I'm guessing that actually releasing the product has something to do with it too.

Sony beat Facebook... to Facebook [MCVUK]

"Despite the growing popularity of YouTube, MySpace, and Facebook, gaming remains the king of online entertainment, driven largely by casual gaming activities," James Kuai, a research analyst at Parks Associates, said in a prepared statement.

Over the last year, casual gaming has risen 79%, while social networks like MySpace and Facebook only rose 46%. Things aren't completely rosy for gaming's dominance, however, as the casual video viewing portion of the audience grew a massive 123%, which I attribute completely to Chocolate Rain.

"The casual gaming industry cannot rest on its laurels," Kuai said. "In order to counter the growing competition from other online activities, the industry needs to continue to grow its fan base and find ways to better monetize its existing audience."

Game-Playing Eclipses Social Networks, Online Video [Yahoo! News]

It's YouTube for your Wii. The interface is Wii-mote pointer friendly. Meaning it looks like those telephones with big numbers that they make for old people. Combine with WiiAIM and, well, you've got two applications that really work better on computers. Brian Ashcraft

YouTube For Wii [The Last Boss]

The Wii? Whatever. The Xbox 360? Pffft. Sony's playing field is wider than that. Way wider! While giving his typical we-were-never-first spiel, he got down to brass tacks regarding whom Sony is competing with:

If you look back at the history of product launches we were never first. The real test comes when any other products are available in abundance so the consumer can walk into any retailer and pick up whatever console they want.

...and...

There have always been other entertainment options. Certainly YouTube and iPods are other entertainment options we are now competing with.

Not only that, the PS3 is also competing with sunlight. Oxygen, you're next! WATCH OUT. Brian Ashcraft

PS3 Takes On Everything [Yahoo]

Oh, I suppose you could spend a few hours searching YouTube for Captain N episodes, but wouldn't you rather have them all at your finger tips for maximum masochism? I'll admit it's been a while since I've subjected my eyes and ears to this Saturday morning parade of brand violations, but the liberties they take with classic Nintendo (and Konami and Capcom) characters are hilariously bad.

Thanks for the pointer, Blake. Michael McWhertor

Captain N: The Game Master

OR, it 's his other primo video, of him eating a banana to the theme tune from Super Smash Bros. Some people will do anything to get on YouTube?

Don't tell me this isn't news. Of course it isn't news. It's CULTURE. Or as we like to say, cultcha. Also, it's hot. Men in kimonos, videogame theme tunes and bananas? Come on. You couldn't be more spoilt. Alice Taylor

Sorry, Saturn fans. This is NOT a post about the excellent turn-based SRPG Dragon Force, but a quick diversion for fans of the speed metal cheeseball shredders from across the pond. Upping the cheese factor once again amidst all the lightning quick squealing of guitars and vocals, Dragon Force does their famous picture-in-picture soloing, but this time with a fighting-game schtick. It's impressive how the effects go from average to laughable during this portion of the video.

Oh, Dragon Force. You are my guilty pleasure!

Thanks for the tip, Henry. Michael McWhertor

We hope you're curious about multiplayer in Splinter Cell: Double Agent and want to see some videos, because we've got two of the blasted things to insert into this one throwaway post. The first details the 'Spies' multiplayer mode; the second, 'Mercenaries', after the jump. I'm not quite sure I'm any more in the clear on how 'Spies' is played after watching it, though. But 'Mercenaries' sure looks cool. Florian Eckhardt

This video popped up on YouTube yesterday, and, frankly, I'm surprised it's survived this long. That little "H" in the corner of the vid means it's for Hyperspace subscribers, aka victims of George Lucas' masochistic attempts to keep the Star Wars franchise viable. That means that George's army of clone lawyers will surely be sending YouTube a request to pull the above video soon.

In it, we see some nameless Jedi kicking all sorts of Empire ass, courtesy of some neat levitation tricks and that special Force brand of lightning made famous by the Emperor. Funny how the Jedi were slaughtered so easily in Episode III, despite wielding such amazing destructive powers. Graphically, it looks like it might be pretty good, but looks suspiciously like pre-rendered footage. Wait, I'm sure it is.

Decide for yourself if you're psyched to drop next-gen prices on another Star Wars game. Michael McWhertor

You may recall how trivially M. Bison owned the first level of Super Mario Bros. It was rather depressing, actually: those big-eyed waddling mushrooms just couldn't compete with his Somersault Skull Diver.

Well, Zangief's taken a knock at it, and he has a bit more trouble. In particular, despite the fact that he appears to be 200 feet tall, he can't stop from accidentally falling in World 1-1's collection of bottomless pits. Watching this video, it's hard for the avid Street Fighter II player to avoid asking himself one question: just what would it be like to be You Sou Kyakued by Chun-Li if she weren't wearing any panties? Florian Eckhardt

A tour of Lee Grithiffths Games Megamart from the second season of Look Around You, Featuring Diarrhea Dan, a game based on a recently rediscovered novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and the Norwegian retro classic P ng . Florian Eckhardt

Holy crap! I can shoot through the barriers?!?!?! Florian Eckhardt

As near as we can figure, we completely missed this amazing video of a Super Mario Bros. run muted but with all sound effects and music filled in with aural simulacrums squirted out of one gamer's word hole. If we've actually posted it before, we apologize, but we think you should watch it again so we can make our post quota and be parceled out a thin, mealish gruel in reward for our services at the Gawker Orphanarium tonight. Florian Eckhardt

You guys need to stop posting these charmingly incompetent video game tributes on YouTube. We're powerless to stop posting them.

From YouTube's description: "A throw back to the punchout style. The villian is Madd Stan an evil demon that takes the form of a mask. This is a short clip from an extremely long goof off movie with alot of video game jokes, visit www.sla-productions.com to read more about yawbus."

In other words: a big fat guy wearing a pillow case fights a Little Mac look alike while two guys in the background do the wave and pretend to be a crowd. Florian Eckhardt

In case you missed last night's airing of Mega 64's Resident Evil 4, here it is. Alternate formats, including Windows Media and PSP versions, are available for download at the official site. Heh. Thank you. Michael McWhertor

This 1968 short film was namechecked in the Wall Street Journal's recent profile of Sims and Spore creator Will Wright, cited as part of Will's inspiration for his E3 award winning game. Now it's on YouTube for your viewing and personal motivating pleasure. The feeling that your life is as inconsequential as a speck of space dust? That's free!

Thanks for the tip, c—b! Michael McWhertor

Official Powers of Ten Site

Whatever happened to Pac-Man after his 80's heyday? He apparently spiraled further and further down into a world of pills, porn and booze. This is a sad, sad marionette tale of a yellow orb's decline.

Videogame Theater [YouTube]
Videogame Theater Official Site

Watch the video: There's no mistaking that for anything other than a Tribes-inspired game, complete with Tribes' hallmark spinfuser. While Garage Games doesn't hold the Starsiege license from which the Tribes series draws its backstory (Vivendi still holds that, we believe), the core gameplay of Tribes could certainly be emulated in a new 'spiritual' successor, not unlike what Ken Levine's Irrational Games is doing with its upcoming System Shock-alike, Bioshock.

Update: This could be an official Tribes Universe game after all. Why (and the rest of our original post) after the jump.

Update 2: Yet another video has been discovered by Tribalwar. We've got a copy after the jump.

To describe us as rabid Tribes fans would be understatement. While the last title Tribes: Vengeance (coincidentally, produced by Irrational) was well-intentioned, it ultimately fell flat due to an ill-timed launch and a negligence to incorporate the broader strategic gameplay that was as much as part of the Tribes magic as the free-flowing movement of jetpacks and skiing—the same strategic gameplay that made the Battlefield games so gratifying as team-based shooters. Indeed, the Battlefield team has often given a nod to Tribes as a source of inspiration for their extremely successful gameplay model, going so far as to add a jetpack in one of the 1942 expansions.

A new Tribes game with the same attention to teamplay as Battlefield 2 would be the true sequel the series' fans deserve.

We'll be at GDC, so expect us to be all over this one, but in the meantime, we'll see what else we can dig up.

News: Garage Games - what exactly are they working on? [TribalWar]

Update: This post by 'ajaxprotection' says "MarkF is in France this week." Surely he means Mark Frohnmayer, President of Garage Games, who just happens to have also been lead programmer of Tribes and Tribes 2.

France happens to be the home of Vivendi Universal, holders of the Tribes license. Could Frohnmayer be working out the details of the next Tribes game even now?

We've also gathered that Garage Games' Marble Blast Ultra 2 Xbox 360 download game is selling very well, perhaps giving them enough fiduciary leeway to start development on a new, triple-A title like Tribes.

Update 2: We talked to Garage Games' Jay Moore, who told us, in essence, that they have no current plans to work on an update to Tribes and that the video and images are related to Torque engine upgrades (with 100 kilometer view distances, no less) and not a retail title. Our impressions are that a Tribes sequel is possible, but probably only in the initial discussion stages, if at all.

Nevertheless, we hope against hope. We'll find out more when Kotaku visits with Garage Games at the GDC.

Update 3: Another video!