Michael McWhertor

Xbox Live Update: Games On Demand, Netflix Movie Party & More

Next week, Microsoft will be previewing some of the new Xbox Live changes it announced at E3, updates that include improvements to Netflix streaming, Xbox 360 games on demand, an Avatar Marketplace and a whole lot more. That preview will roll out to media and select Xbox Live community members starting Monday. It includes new…

Sony Tries Pay-To-Play Arcade Pricing On PSN

Japanese PlayStation 3 owners can experience the thrill of depositing credits to continue with today’s release of 100 Yen Gomibako, a special release of the PlayStation Network game known as Trash Panic in the West. This version of Trash Panic will cost only 100 yen—about one U.S. dollar—to download. But those who purchase it will…

Shadow Complex Has Peter David Written All Over It

Chair Entertainment‘s brilliant looking Metroid-esque adventure Shadow Complex appears to have some storytelling meat to it, not just tried and true side-scrolling gameplay. The developer announced today that comic book scribe Peter David penned the game’s original story. That story is based on the works of Orson Scott Card, whose novel Empire the Xbox Live…

Wii MotionPlus Sales Off To A Good Start

June may not have been a good month for the video game industry, but the prospects for Nintendo’s motion-controller are looking promising. First month sales for Wii MotionPlus were what we’d consider a pretty good start. First month figures for the Wii Remote add-on were “nearly 374,000” according to the NPD Group. That was split…

Prototype, UFC Beat Up The Competition In June

U.S. consumers liked what they saw in Activision’s Prototype making the open world action game June’s bestselling title by an impressive margin. Last month, its single-console sales doubled those of the game it was often compared to, Infamous. The same was true for THQ’s UFC 2009 Undisputed, which topped U.S. game sales in May. The…

U.S. Console Sales Take Another Big Hit In June

The NPD Group‘s sales figures for the month of June are in and they are not pretty. On the hardware side, sales dropped a painful 38% year-over-year, with nearly every console seeing a drop in sales from June of 2008. Month-to-month, things improved over May’s sales. But seeing big declines from the previous June were…

PlayStation Store Update: Summer Savings

North American PlayStation 3 owners looking for cheaper PlayStation Network games should run, not walk, to the online store. In addition to plenty of new stuff, the old stuff has been kindly marked down. Savings can be had for the next week on games like Wipeout HD, Savage Moon, PixelJunk Eden and more, some of…

Is Team Fortress 2’s Soldier Trying To Tell Us Something?

Yesterday, Team Fortress 2‘s Soldier class took over the game’s official blog to inform players of new avatars and instruct them on the ways of military masculinity. Some speculative TF2 fans believe there’s something more substantive to that update. One theory currently running through the game’s Steam forums—a dark and dangerous place—is that the Soldier…

New Star Wars: The Force Unleashed DLC Spoiled By New Achievements

LucasArts may be ready to drop some new downloadable content for Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, as five new Xbox 360 achievements have expanded not only the possible gamerscore, but the game’s character roster as well. Warning, spoilers ahead. The five new achievements boost the Star Wars: The Force Unleashed achievement count from 1220—220 of…

Sony Specs Assassin’s Creed: Bloodlines PSP Bundle (Mostly)

Ubisoft’s wee Assassin’s Creed adventure is getting its own PlayStation Portable “Entertainment Pack,” a bundle that might make it worth your while to invest in Sony’s portable platform. What’s in the box? Obviously, you’re getting Assassin’s Creed: Bloodlines when the PSP game ships this November. But you’ll also get the standard Entertainment Pack stuff, included…

See How Easily Dragon Quest IX Outsold The Competition

Square Enix released Dragon Quest IX on the Nintendo DS in Japan last week to long lines, over 2 million in sales, and virtually no competition. Want to see how impressively the portable role-playing game outsold its competition? Dragon Quest IX‘s 2.3 million in sales over the course of three days bested its nearest competitor,…

Shadowy Clip Of An Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet

.html This trailer for Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet is the best thing you’ll see all day, a gorgeous introduction to what may become one of your most anticipated releases, whenever and on whatever platform to this game is coming. If you’re unfamiliar with the game, currently listed only for a PC release at this point,…

Bayonetta Makes A Date In Japan

Sega and PlatinumGames have pledged to release Bayonetta for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 worldwide this Fall. The good news is that the game has been dated in Japan, arriving overseas on October 29th. That date was dropped in the latest issue of Famitsu, which could mean good news for those of us in…

LucasArts Touts “World Exclusive Announcements” At Comic-Con

Who’s hyping its Comic-Con showing now? LucasArts! The publisher of all things Star Wars and Indiana Jones is bringing with it games, creative types and “several world exclusive announcements” to make your visit to the convention worthwhile. Two games promised to be on hand at LucasArts booth are Star Wars The Clone Wars: Republic Heroes…

Sega Debuting Iron Man 2 Game, More At Comic-Con

The video game presence at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con is quickly expanding, as Sega has revealed what it’s bringing to the pop culture convention. That list includes Iron Man 2, which the publisher will debut at the show. We will, of course, be making our way over to Sega’s booth to check out the…

Hulu Tries To Explain Why It’s Blocking The PS3, Fails

Last month, streaming video service Hulu began blocking the PlayStation 3’s web browser from accessing its content, a practice that continues to this day without official explanation. But customer service has attempted to explain the decision, somewhat cryptically. G4 received a response from Hulu that might leave one more bewildered about the change than not…

God Of War Slaying The Comic Book Medium

The adventure of Kratos will continue in the pages of a six-issue God of War comic book series published by DC/Wildstorm Comics, slated to hit before the release of the third game on the PlayStation 3. The God of War mini-series will be written by comic book legend Marv Wolfman, notable for his work on…

InstantAction Fortified With Castle As New CEO

Browser-based games company InstantAction, responsible for the web-based Tribes and Fallen Empire: Legions, has a new CEO in Westwood Studios founder Louis “Lou” Castle. That’s Lou, pictured to the right of Steven Spielberg playing Boom Blox, by the way. IndustryGamers reports today that Castle has moved on from Electronics Arts to run InstantAction, relocating the…

Kenka Bancho 3 Gets A Badass New Name

Last week, Atlus announced that it would bring Kenka Bancho 3 to North American PSPs, admitting that Kenka Bancho 3 is not the most Western friendly or marketable of names. It asked you to decided the final title. Which is… …Kenka Bancho: Badass Rumble, the option I voted for in Atlus’ online poll. Turns out,…

Dragon Age Collector’s Edition Gets Mass Effect 2 Bonus

BioWare will be issuing a collector’s edition for Dragon Age: Origins, one that Mass Effect completists should pay attention to. Details on the higher priced option reveal an exclusive unlockable for the developers other big upcoming role-playing game. GameStop, by way of Destructoid, has a full run down on what’s included in the Dragon Age:…