Luke Plunkett

Activision Learns Lesson, Drops Celebrities From Guitar Hero

Perhaps sensing that a string of lawsuits wasn’t terribly good for business, it appears publishers Activision will be dropping playable celebrity characters from the upcoming Guitar Hero 6. After Courtney Love, Jon Bon Jovi and No Doubt spoke out over the use of famous likenesses in the game – often inappropriately – the latest issue…

Build Yourself Some Mario Cosplay

Rather than dress like Mario the way everyone else dresses like Mario – with overalls and a red cap – these guys tried a little harder, building a propeller cap and, more impressively, the FLUDD from Mario Sunshine. You can find details on how they were made here and here, which also double as a…

Prince Of Persia, Chesty Sand

Prince of Persia. Prince of Persia has a new game coming out. New movie, too. It’s set in Persia, Persia has sand. All of which explains this giant Prince of Persia sand castle! It’s been built in London, and while it’s a shameless marketing ploy engineered in order to gain column space on video game…

Who Wants A Dragon Age…Letter Opener?

What is this, 1876? Who still writes letters? Not me, though that won’t stop me looking fondly at these Dragon Age letter openers, which fittingly are tiny replicas of Dragon Age swords. Distributed by Sideshow, there are two available, the Grey Warden’s “Render” and the Darkspawn’s “Greatersword”. While small – both are only 7″ tall…

The Real Reason Obama Can’t Work An Xbox

The controls? Too complex. As seen on Toby Toons

Bring Me The Head Of Master Chief

Master Chief is a big man, but he wasn’t always big. He was once a boy, called John! And when John was a boy – no, a baby – then maybe these Halo helmets would have fit him. Special effects house WETA, who at one stage were signed up to do the Peter Jackson Halo…

The Greatest PC Games Of All Time (According To 2010)

Readers of PC Gamer, one of the last bastions of the specialist press for the platform, have been voting on what they think are the best 100 PC games of all time. And the results are in! The results of course skew towards more contemporary titles, and as such serve more as an illustration of…

John Cleese Will Serve You In Fable III

I may be slightly biased in saying this, as I have British family, but games – or, at least fantasy games – always sound more professional to me when they hire a good, English cast to handle the voice work. Case in point: this is John Cleese, of Monty Python and Fawlty Towers fame, recording…

Modern Warfare 2’s Next DLC Brings More Old Maps

Repeating a pattern set by the game’s first batch of downloadable content, Modern Warfare 2’s “Resurgence” pack will contain a mix of maps, some new, some not so new. This, of course, was the focal point of many consumer’s anger over the first pack, being that they were spending $15 for something that only contained…

The DS Is About To Become The Biggest-Selling Console Of All Time

The PlayStation 2 deservedly holds the record as the top-selling video game console of all time. It won’t, however, hold the record for much longer. Because the Nintendo DS is nipping at its heels, and despite having released five years after the PS2, will – barring an unforseen disaster – overtake Sony’s console towards the…

Comparing The Worldwide Sales Of The Wii, 360 & PS3

In the past month, all three platform holders have handed in their financial results for the 2009 fiscal year. Bean-counters are pleased, but so are we, because we now know how many consoles have been sold worldwide. As you know, the Wii leads, yet despite its head-start on the market the Xbox 360’s lead over…

Portal On Mac, Brought To You By Aperture Laboratories

Portal may be free on the Mac for a limited time, but nothing’s ever really free. It’s just being subsidised. Sponsored by a benevolent artificial intelligence, who is only too glad to motivate you for Portal 2. The term “marketing engineers” sounds made-up, but in Valve’s case, you can never be too sure. Ideas like…

This Guy Owns A Game Company, Now He Wants To Buy Liverpool FC

Liverpool FC is one of the world’s oldest, proudest and most successful sporting teams. It’s also on the shopping list of a Chinese video gaming giant. Zhu Jun is founder of The9, the online gaming provider that used to operate World of Warcraft in China, and now holds a majority stake in Red 5 Studios.…

Mass Effect 2 Gets New “Man vs Robots” Downloadable Content

There’s more “premium” downloadable content on the way for EA’s Mass Effect 2, and while this newest pack doesn’t introduce a new character, it does have you playing John Connor over five missions. The pack is called “Overlord”, the entire thing set on a single planet as you try to shut down a dangerous enemy…

In 2009 PSP Sales Were Down, PS3 Sales Were Up

Sony released today its financial results for the 2009 fiscal year (April 1 – March 31), and where there’s results, there’s hardware sales figures. The Networked Products & Services division – of which Sony Computer Entertainment is a part – saw its sales fall by 10%, the company blaming exchange rates, along with both a…

OnLive Getting British Release

OnLive, the “cloud” service that promises/hopes to revolutionise online gaming by removing the need for a PC or a console, will also be launching in the United Kingdom, it’s been revealed today. British Telecom has teamed up with the American company to bring the service to Ol’ Blighty, and in doing so has also bought…

Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker’s Toys, By Square Enix

The Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker figures from Square Enix (who, yes, also make toys) that we first spied earlier this year are now available for preorder. They are both detailed and expensive. There are four figures available: Snake, and three Metal Gears from the game (Pupa, Chrysalis & Basilis). Snake stands a decent 26cm…

Valve’s Indie Bundle Is Only Charitable To Your Back Pocket

Never ones to let a bit of charity corner the market for gaming bargains, Valve’s Steam service is now offering the “Steam Play Indie Pack”, which bundles five great games along with ability to play on both Mac and PC. That means you can buy the games on PC and play them on Mac, or…

Report Reckons Steam Coming To Linux, Too

If a report in Britain’s The Telegraph is to be believed, then Valve’s Steam service isn’t happy just making the jump to the Mac, as it’s now on its way to Linux operating systems as well. “Valve has also confirmed that it will make Steam available to Linux users in the coming months”, the report…

Sony Making A Movie Out Of…Rollercoaster Tycoon

There are currently plans to make movies based on World of Warcraft, Gears of War and BioShock. Those all make sense. But a new deal that hopes to make a film out of family strategy game Rollercoaster Tycoon? Um… Sony Pictures Animation has picked up the rights to the game, which was published by Atari…