Brian Crecente

How Would I have Texted for Help?

To: Ash From: Crecente Are you one of those see a button, push a button guys? I am. That’s why I don’t sit in the emergency exit row of airplanes. I have almost zero control over my innate curiosity. Take for instance the knob of the bathroom door at the lab I had to go…

Pop Goes The Joystick

As seen on a third-floor wall of San Francisco’s intriguing Hotel des Arts.

Gliding Through Crackdown 2’s Latest Build

Crackdown 2’s X10 showing last week wasn’t rife with new information or details, but it did give us a, surprisingly, hands-off look at some neat new elements of free falling. As with the original Crackdown, the sequel is really a sandbox of brawling, driving, shooting and destruction. There are plenty of ways to tear things…

Hands-On Dead Rising 2 Weapon Crafting

First things first: You can’t take any two things you find in the zombie Vegas landscape of Dead Rising 2 and turn them into a weapon. But there are still plenty of weapon-crafting options in the upcoming action title. The latest gameplay sizzle revealed for Dead Rising 2 is the ability to collect design schematics…

Halo Reach, Reaches For the Stars

We see a desert plain, distant mountains and a sky so light blue it’s almost white. The ground too fades to white, from a dusty light brown. In the distance there are mountains and what appears to be mining equipment. Everything we see is real terrain. That means if you drive, walk or fly long…

iPhone Chart Toppers: Plants Vs. Crazy Zombies

It’s Zombie week again here on iPhone Chart Toppers. The release of $5 add-on pack of Verruckt pushed Call of Duty: World at War: Zombies back to the top of the charts, and Plants Vs. Zombies managed to hit the number nine spot this week despite going live just late last night for $3. Yes,…

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

Is Street Fighter 3’s Dudley Coming to Super Street Fighter IV?

I received a special Saturday delivery package from Capcom today. Inside a blue boxing glove clutching a red rose. Sound familiar? Either Capcom is trying to tell us something about Dudley coming to Super Street Fighter IV, or they have a wicked mad crush on me. I’ll take either. 😀

Love In Hell: Dante’s Inferno’s Take on Romance

While religion and an allegorical journey through a medieval hell remain the central themes of the video game adaption of Dante’s Inferno, an exploration of love and lust and what separates the two is nearly as important in the game. In both works, Dante Alighieri comes across different relationships in hell that ended poorly, from…

Five Hours of Rest

To: Owen From: Crecente I’m writing this as I fly back from San Francisco to Denver. Yesterday was a busy, busy day. I got up at 3:30 a.m. to catch a 6 a.m. flight to San Francisco, writing some stories and reviews as I flew. When I landed I caught a cab to my hotel…

Perfect Dark XBLA Could Get More New Maps, Weapons

The Xbox Live Arcade remake of classic Nintendo 64 shooter Perfect Dark sings on the Xbox 360, mixing the game’s original geometry with high-definition graphics and a silky frame rate without tinkering with the unique controls. And that was the goal, said Kenn Lobb, creative director for Microsoft Game Studios, and executive producer for Perfect…

Microsoft: This Will be the Biggest Year In The History of Xbox

Microsoft’s robust X10 video game showcase this week in San Francisco was just the tip of the iceberg for the Xbox 360’s 2010 offerings, Microsoft’s Aaron Greenberg told Kotaku. “To be this early in the year and able to have an E3-quality line-up with triple-A blockbuster titles, that really speaks to how big a year…

Original Survivors Get Chatty In Left 4 Dead 2’s The Passing

I wasn’t able to spot one of the new “fallen survivors” of Left 4 Dead 2’s upcoming map pack, The Passing, but I did find one of its new weapons, a monstrous machine gun. I grabbed it while playing through a chunk of the second map, tearing through zombies with abandon until I burnt through…

Mile Marker 27: Super Meat Boy!

Tired of stodgy corporate games made by The Man and his minions? We’re playing the 31 best indie games for a change of pace —- and so we can judge them. Today, Super Meat Boy! In A Sentence An old-school platformer starring cast of indie lead characters, but initially played through with a smiling chunk…

Fable III’s Three Big Innovations: Touch, Weapons And Kingly Responsibility

Three major shifts in gameplay mechanics will make Fable III the most innovative entry in the popular role-playing game franchise, developer Peter Molyneux told a gathering of journalists today at Microsoft’s X10 event. Fable III will present three key changes in play: In-game touching, highly-customized weapon morphing and the challenge of ruling a kingdom. Molyneux…

Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars Review: FanFic Comes to Life

In Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom Ultimate All -Stars, players select from among 26 characters plucked from the universes of Tatsunoko Productions and Capcom to create a tag team to brawl their way through waves of paired-off fighters. Much has been made of the fan-driven nature of this latest entry in the casual-meets-hardcore Versus fighter franchise. It…

Dev Eyes Call of Duty: World at War for iPhone

Treyarch wasn’t really interested in the business of making cell phone games, at least not before the iPhone. But the tremendous success of Call of Duty: World at War: Zombies on the iPhone has the developer, best known for their hardcore console shooters, reconsidering. “We are very interested (in bringing more games to the iPhone),”…

Mile Marker 28: Trauma

Tired of stodgy corporate games made by The Man and his minions? We’re playing the 31 best indie games for a change of pace —- and so we can judge them. Today, Trauma. In A Sentence Trauma is the point-and-click love child of Kafkaesque confusion and Myst exploration. State Of Completion The PC game will…

X10

To: Ash From: Crecente Re: Tomorrow morning I have to get up at 4 a.m. to catch a 6 a.m. flight to San Francisco so I can meet with Ubisoft and then spend the rest of the day covering Microsoft’s big X10 event. It’s going to be a PACKED day. Packed with news, hands on…

iPhone’s World at War: Zombies Getting Verruckt Tomorrow

Solid iPhone first-person shooter Call of Duty: World at War: Zombies is getting its first new downloadable map tomorrow, Activision told Kotaku today. Map pack Verruckt will come with the same extras that were included with the console version of the downloadable content. That means a Perks a Cola machine loaded with player perks, new…