Michael McWhertor

New Lost and Damned Trailer Has A Little Wild Side

In anticipation of next week’s launch of the first downloadable episode for Grand Theft Auto IV, The Lost and Damned, Rockstar Games has unleashed a bigger, more leathery taste of the expansion’s motley crew. The trailer not only features some fantastic metal flashbacks, but also a few guest appearances from familiar GTA IV faces, including…

StarCraft II, Next Gen Battle.net Betas “In The Next Few Months”

While the wait for StarCraft II may already be agonizingly long, the promise of a playable multiplayer beta helps many of us get out of bed every morning. So when will we get it? According to Blizzard COO Paul Sams, the StarCraft II beta is likely just months away. Two months? Ten months? We hope…

The Force Unleashed: As If 5.7 Million Gamers Suddenly Cried Out In Ownership

LucasArts Star Wars spin-off The Force Unleashed was a Star Destroyer sized hit for the publisher, selling 5.7 million copies since its September launch, making it the fastest-selling Star Wars game in history. That figure is according to a release from LucasFilm, which released Star Wars: The Force Unleashed on just about every platform one…

PlayStation Network Catches Spring Fever, Expected To Make Full Recovery

Remember Microsoft’s Xbox Live “Summer of Arcade” promotion? Well, Sony’s looking to do the competition one better, announcing its own plans for a slew of exclusive PlayStation Network titles an entire season earlier. Outdoor allergy sufferers will be pleased to learn that, with the coming of Spring, a batch of PlayStation 3 and PSP titles…

Activision Compiles Guitar Hero: Greatest Hits For 2009

Activision will squeeze more cash from the stone that is Guitar Hero with Guitar Hero:Greatest Hits. No, not Modern Hits. This is the ultimate cash-in, a “best of” compilation for Guitar Hero World Tour. Mike Griffith, president and CEO of Activision Publishing, announced the Greatest Hits repackaging during today’s quarterly earnings call, a collection it…

Blizzard Mum On Its One Big Game For 2009

Is StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty going to make 2009? Blizzard isn’t saying, sticking to the “it’s done when it’s done” release date. But there’s definitely one big Blizzard-developed title in store this year. What is it? Blizzard COO Paul Sams wouldn’t confirm whether that game is, indeed, the first chapter of the StarCraft II…

Activision Blizzard Shrugs Off Recession, Reports $5 Billion In Revenue

While nearly every other company bled cash, fired employees and cancelled projects, Activision Blizzard posted record results, announcing over $5 billion in revenue for 2008, seeing $429 million worth of profit over the holidays. Activision CEO Bobby Kotick boasted that 2008 was the company’s 17th consecutive year of growth, with operating income up 20% from…

Battlefield Heroes Beta Lives Again, Sign Up Now

If you want to play Battlefield Heroes for free, now’s your chance. The game’s latest round of closed beta testing is officially underway, giving cheapskates the opportunity to get their hands on the game early. The free-to-play cartoony shooter from DICE is currently undergoing more public playtesting, which, if you participated in previous Battlefield Heroes…

Activision: No Plans To Drop Phelps, A-Rod From Guitar Hero Ads

Now that Alex Rodriguez has admitted to being a juicer and Michael Phelps has been caught sucking on a bong, will Activision yank its Guitar Hero World Tour ad spots featuring the two? Nope! According to the New York Daily News, Activision has no plans to stop running the ads amid controversy over two of…

New Watchmen: The End Is Nigh Screens

The downloadable beat ’em up prequel to the upcoming Watchmen movie, known around these parts as Watchmen: The End Is Nigh, has been the subject of new hands-on previews. (Watch for ours later today.) In keeping with the preview tradition, Warner Bros. has released new screens of Watchmen: The End Is Nigh. While you pick…

Finally, Zelda II Has Been Translated Into Latin

While I would prefer to play Zelda II: the Adventure of Link in the original Klingon, a full translation of the Nintendo classic in Latin can do in a pinch. The fan translation, dubbed Zelda II: Expeditio Linci, was created by ROM hacker “abw,” a fan of the dead language who’s also tackling The Legend…

Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon: New Screens, Old Logo

The arrival of a new Fire Emblem is a frightening thing for me. Why? Well, while the prospect of playing this NES remake is exciting, the obsessive desire to keep every soldier alive isn’t. I’ll likely have to forgo that obsession Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon, scheduled to move six spaces forward to retail next week.…

Team Fortress 2 Demake Gang Garrison 2 Goes 2.0

When things go 2.0, it’s a big deal. Remember Web 2.0? Boy did we have some fun with that! Thankfully, the fan-made, Team Fortress 2-inspired 8-bit”demake” Gang Garrison 2 has reached such a milestone. The game’s creators, having officially flipped the 2.0 switch, feel Gang Garrison 2 “is now stable enough to start telling the…

Report: Game Industry Spent $823M Shilling Games In ’08

The video game industry racked up impressive sales in 2008, pulling in more than $21 billion in sales in the United States alone. That make for a similarly impressive marketing tab. According to researchers at the Nielsen Company and its Monitor-Plus advertising monitoring service, the industry spent an astounding $823 million promoting its video game…

Without Guitar Hero, We Might Never Have Had Brütal Legend

The fate of Double Fine Productions’ Brütal Legend has been in doubt before, but without the success of Harmonix and RedOctane’s Guitar Hero, it might never have seen the light of day. Double Fine founder Tim Schafer tells OXM that pre-Guitar Hero, when the team was pitching concept of a roadie turned savior of a…

Ric Flair Knocked Out By Man In Bear Suit In The Name Of Red Alert 3 Marketing Confirmed

Seems that our sources at Electronic Arts are correct. Professional wrestler and Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3: Uprising star Ric Flair was indeed fighting bears in Los Angeles. Here’s video proof. In part one of the “To be continued” series of Flair Vs. Bear spots, Mr. Flair is assaulted by a Russian bear, imagery…

Nintendo Magazine Delay Hints At Exclusive Game Reveal?

Subscribers to the UK’s Official Nintendo Magazine have suffered a momentary delay in monthly Nintendo news, possibly in the interests of exclusive new game info, which could hit as early as Friday. According to subscriber communication passed on to a GoNintendo reader, the Official Nintendo Magazine staff apologized for the long wait between issues, noting…

The Lost And Damned Soundtrack Gets More Death Metal, Hip Hop

When Rockstar Games ships Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned for the Xbox 360 next week, it will do so with an updated playlist tailored to serious fans and biker gangs. While we’d heard a few peeps about the new (and old) tunes from Busta Rhymes and Motorhead coming to The Lost and…

Dante’s Inferno: Like God of War, But Marginally Different

Details on Electronic Arts’ video game interpretation of Dante’s Inferno, announced last October, have been hard to come by, but UK’s PSM3 has first details. What is it? God of War in Hell, apparently. So much for originality, it seems. PSM3’s own cover description boils down Dante’s Inferno‘s mechanics to essentially “Dead Space meets God…

Activision Hastily Tosses Together Fun4All Wii Label

Activision UK has had a smashing idea, cobbling together a half-dozen Wii games that “the whole family can enjoy!” then slapping on the Fun4All label. Sound familiar? The North American Activision recently did the same. The UK’s Fun4All label is, for all intents and purposes, North America’s “Wee 1ST” label, a branding scheme that will…