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Modern Warfare 2 Bigger than Lady Gaga and Transformers Combined
No disc – game, CD, DVD, whatever – sold more in 2009 than Modern Warfare 2, in the U.K. anyway, where the game bested phenomena such as Lady Gaga and Susan Boyle, and standbys like James Bond and Harry Potter. Modern Warfare 2‘s sales triumph over all games of 2009 is common knowledge, but it’s…
By Owen Good -
Troubled Star Left Out of NBA Jam Roster
NBA all-star Gilbert Arenas, whose joking pistols-at-dawn challenge to a pissed-off teammate was no laughing matter to the league, is absent from fan voting on the NBA Jam roster. EA Sports says it’s not entirely because of his legal troubles. Speaking to The Sporting News‘ First Cuts blog, an Electronic Arts spokesman attributed Arenas’ absence…
By Owen Good -
Library Seeks $300K in Funding for Video Game Collection
With the goal of one day offering 150 titles for checkout across its 38 locations, Toronto’s public library has taken steps toward building a video game collection – but figures it needs $300,000 to make it happen. Library administration says such a collection would foster literacy and problem-solving skills and reach younger patrons in ways…
By Owen Good -
Yes, the Ol’ Zig-Zag Still Works in Tecmo Bowl Throwback
This interview with the producer of the upcoming Tecmo Bowl Throwback delivers tons of gameplay video and tells us what to expect from the game – although it still doesn’t tell us when it will release. Throwback will give you a 2D and a 2.5D/3Dish game mode, and it looks as though both play with…
By Owen Good -
The Ginormous Flow Chart History of Game Studios
Before Tecmo and Koei, before Square met Enix, before Namco found Bandai – this chart seeks to catalog the history of game studios – spinoffs, mergers, acquisitions, defections. It’s also suitable for posterizing on your laundry room wall. The chart’s creator, Eric Wall for Games Are Evil, advises that “this is by no means the…
By Owen Good -
NCAA 11’s Lighting Strives for Postcard-Perfect Saturdays
Upgrades to lighting and shadows have become something of a trend in sports gaming – we saw it in both baseball games that just released, and we’ll see it improving the photorealism in July’s NCAA Football 11. Here’s a closer look at the new game’s screen: EA Sports released this screen comparison showing what Ohio…
By Owen Good -
Resource File Might Hint at Future Plans for Xbox Game Room
Someone picked apart the resource file for the Microsoft Game Room – the PC version of the Xbox Game Room that launched this week – and found a curious Star Wars image that doesn’t seem to fit anything. Blogger TechKnight looked in the Game Room’s director and noticed a sizable file. Figuring it held clues,…
By Owen Good -
Prince of Persia Has Lost Players to God of War, Says Ubisoft
The animation director for Prince of Persia says the game’s suffered from a migration of players away from it and to the God of War series, and says his game’s tamer visuals, particularly death animations, are the reason why. “When we make questionnaires and we ask, ‘what did you play in the past?’ The answer’s…
By Owen Good -
Actor Who Portrayed Half-Life 2’s Villain is Dead at 79
Robert Culp, known to some as the voice of Dr. Wallace Breen of Half-Life 2, to others as FBI Agent Bill Maxwell on “The Greatest American Hero,” died today in Los Angeles. He was 79. Significant though it was to gamers, Culp’s role as the director of the doomed Black Mesa Research Facility was far…
By Owen Good -
New Kong King’s Record Chase Almost Dethroned His Toilet
The newly minted world record holder in Donkey Kong didn’t have a lot of space in his high-rise condo. So when he brought home an arcade cabinet, one of three things had to go: sofa, fridge, or commode. Hank Chien (pictured) told Details magazine that he jokingly passed that ultimatum to his brother, with whom…
By Owen Good -
Here’s One Way to Make a Pirate Pay — Dearly
It’d be rather embarrassing to be publicly outed as an erotic novel aficionado, especially one that supports a USB attachment that gets you off while playing it. This happened to some Japanese file-sharers who thought they were pirating a game. Someone took advantage of the interest in Cross Days, an erotic visual novel now out…
By Owen Good -
Vote Kratos, Forza Italia!
Elections are this weekend in Italy, where apparently a Greek is eligible to run for regional president. That billboard, which recently went up in Italy, reads “Vote Kratos: To save this city we need a real leader.” It’s one of two Sony’s cooked up specifically for Italy. Another touts Madison from Heavy Rain: “Make the…
By Owen Good -
Arkham Asylum‘s Director Ponders Game Starring … Bane?
Generally, the reason you adapt a comic book franchise for a video game is because its most recognizable characters help drive its sales. Bane, while familiar to the Batcore, probably doesn’t have much of a Q-score with the general public. That doesn’t stop Sefton Hill, the director of Rocksteady’s award-winning Batman: Arkham Asylum from daydreaming…
By Owen Good -
NBA Jam Tosses Up Another Five Shots, Hits Them All
The NBA Jam fan page on Facebook rolled out another five screens of the upcoming reboot of the beloved arcade/early console classic. We now know the names of eight more players who’ll be appearing in the game. They’re identified inside. Indiana’s Danny Granger (shooting) and Mike Dunleavy versus New Orleans’ David West and Chris Paul.…
By Owen Good -
Apple Cuts a Larger Slice of Mobile Gaming Pie
If iPhone and iPod Touch gaming is in the same category as the Nintendo DS and PlayStation Portable, then the Apple device surged in 2009 at the expense of the two dominant mobile platforms, especially the PSP. That is the finding the analytics site Flurry, which found Apple’s control of the DS-PSP-iPhone portable gaming marking,…
By Owen Good -
Army Toughens Training for Generation ‘Softened’ by Games
The Army is remaking its basic training for the first time in 30 years to cope with a generation that, as the general in charge says, has a courage and physique shaped by, you guessed it, video games. Speaking to National Public Radio this weekend, Army Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling didn’t single games out specifically,…
By Owen Good -
Receivers Achieve Awareness in Madden 11
You know those short hook routes where your receiver stands three yards in front of the first down? Or those swing routes where the halfback runs straight out of bounds? They’re supposedly a thing of the past in Madden 11 Giving the first details of the upcoming game to IGN, the game’s developers are going…
By Owen Good -
Real Scientist Examines the Science Fiction of Mass Effect
Cloaking devices? Oh yeah, we can totally do that. Telekinesis? Suuure! In this video, Real Actual Scientist-mans Dr. Michio Kaku, speaking more like a futurist and less like a physicist, tackles the plausibility of what you see in Mass Effect I recommend getting good and high for the discussion of dark matter, although he does…
By Owen Good -
CEO: We’ll ‘Explore the Possibility’ of Final Fantasy VII Remake
Creative types like game directors saying they’d love to do a remake of Final Fantasy VII, that’s one thing. But now the CEO himself says the company will, at least, “explore the possibility” of doing so. Yoichi Wada, the president and chief executive of Square Enix, told Siliconera that the company has heard its fans’…
By Owen Good
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