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  Pirates of the Caribbean: Armada of the Damned Is A Guilty Pleasure

  I can’t help but think of it as a guilty pleasure. Sitting down yesterday to play through a chunk of Disney’s upcoming button-mashing adventure game Pirates of the Caribbean: Armada of the Damned, I wasn’t expecting an experience that shook the tenets of game design or innovated in some surprising way. What I was expecting,…

  By Brian Crecente Published May 19, 2010
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  The Scientists Who Made A Zombie Game

  Life is funny. You can set out to become a human genome researcher or study bioinformatics and end up making a zombie iPhone game. Just ask Matthias and Thomas Hoechsmann. That’s exactly what happened to them. It was summer 2009, and Matthias was doing post-doc work at the University of California at Santa Cruz studying…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published May 19, 2010
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  Game Design as Make-Believe: Participation

  Based upon part five of the Mimesis as Make-Believe serial. See part four here When my wife and I played the Resident Evil remake (pictured left) and its sequels in the early 2000s, we did so by pad-passing. My wife would take control during the ominously-quiet exploration sequences, poking in the corners for green herbs…

  By Lauren Orsini Published May 19, 2010
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  We Get Our Lightcycle and Disc Throwing On In Tron Evolution

  There is nothing more iconic in the world of Tron than those neon light cycles and identity discs. So it’s fitting that my first encounter with the upcoming Tron game involved both. Tron Evolution: The Video Game is meant to bridge the gap between 1982’s Tron and the upcoming movie Tron: Legacy. While we don’t…

  By Brian Crecente Published May 19, 2010
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  PAX East Breach Code Theft Suspect Faces Arraignment

  Arrested at the inaugural Penny Arcade Expo East in Boston for allegedly attempting to steal early code for Atomic Game’s upcoming multiplayer shooter Breach, Justin D. May faces arraignment today in Boston Municipal Court. May was arrested on Sunday, March 28, after representatives from developer Atomic Games caught him attempting to download the source code…

  By Mike Fahey Published May 19, 2010
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  Talk Amongst Yourselves

  Here at TAY we hear your concerns about a lack of replay value, but at least TAY has cutting-edge graphics, yes? Now please keep on talking here about video games.

  By Stephen Totilo Published May 19, 2010
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  Phew

  To: Crecente From: Bashcraft Phew! Just…phew! Pheeeeeeeeeeeeeew. What you missed last night Yes, We Have A Winner Multi-Platform Final Fantasy Versus XIII Remarks Cleared Up Red Dead Redemption’s Truly, Truly Dastardly Achievement Another Countdown Clock Sorta Ruined! But Hey, Virtual-On! The New Call of Duty: Black Ops Trailer: ‘Everything You Know Is Wrong’

  By Brian Ashcraft Published May 19, 2010
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  Dragon Quest IX Comes Stateside In July

  The wait for the North American release of the game that sold more than four million copies in Japan comes to an end this July, as Nintendo locks in a date for Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies. Dragon Quest IX for the Nintendo DS shattered sales records in Japan, so it came…

  By Mike Fahey Published May 19, 2010
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  This Schoolgirl Is Good At Drumming

  Senri Kawaguchi (in the pink shirt) is a 13-year-old junior high school student. But that’s not all. She’s also a drumming whiz. She’s been drumming since she was a kid (I know, she’s still a kid), and most of her vids on her site are of her doing the drumming parts for songs from schoolgirl…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published May 19, 2010
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  Sony Isn’t Arrogant, Apple Is

  There once was a time, when PS3s looked like grills and still played PS2 games, that Sony was accused of being arrogant. Now, though, another company has assumed the mantle. That’s not me saying that. It’s Sony! “I don’t think we (Sony) are arrogant anymore”, Sony Computer Entertainment Australia boss Michael Ephraim told Screen Play…

  By Luke Plunkett Published May 19, 2010
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  Yes, We Have A Winner

  In 2008, Anthony Le set out to do something very important: Build a suit from Iron Man. The 25-year-old fitness consultant has been a life-long Iron Man fan, and his first attempt was more of a costume. His second? His second is a US$4,000 dollar suit held together by high-impact urethane and, according to Popular…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published May 19, 2010
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  Everywhere You Look, You See Tetris

  You know you’ve been playing too much Tetris when you start seeing coloured, falling blocks when you’re away from the computer. This Flickr group, Tetris Tetris Everywhere, mixes instances where actual Tetris blocks have been placed in the real world with real world images that look like they’ve come straight out of Tetris. Shipping containers,…

  By Luke Plunkett Published May 19, 2010
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  Mario Is Good At Spanish, Really Good

  From first grade until college, I studied Spanish…and since I moved to Japan, I have forgotten it all. Kaput, gone, bye-bye. But not Mario voice actor Charles Martinet. He totally remembers it. At a recent presentation, Martinet not only showed his Mario voice acting skills, but his mastery of the Spanish language. Since Mario speaks…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published May 19, 2010
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  Drive The A-Team Van Around A Poorly-Rendered Cityscape

  Google Earth has already been used for a few games, like cheap flight simulators. Know what it hasn’t been used for? A giant map to let you drive the A-Team’s black van across. There’s no score to beat, no time to race, no objectives you have to accomplish, all you have to do is…drive around.…

  By Luke Plunkett Published May 19, 2010
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  Watch Pac-Man Gobble Up The Minutes

  Another chic Pac-Man product for the heap. We’ve got leather wallets, a zippo and wine glasses This limited edition stainless steel Pac-Man watch is priced at ¥18,500 (US$201). Pre-orders start this summer with the watch being released this October. So wakka wakka. Yeah. What Pac-Man goods does the future hold? Pac-Man Watch [lalabit market]

  By Brian Ashcraft Published May 19, 2010
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  Empire Strikes Back, The 1950 Production

  Quick refresher: The Empire Strikes Back, like me, was released in 1980. Explains the haircuts. And the whole “Luke” thing. If it had been released in 1950, however, it would have looked a little different. Believe it or not, aside from the on-screen graphics this footage is all from real movies, including instalments from the…

  By Luke Plunkett Published May 19, 2010
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  Multi-Platform Final Fantasy Versus XIII Remarks Cleared Up

  At a Tokyo investors meeting, Square Enix president Yoichi “Imperial Hot” Wada stated that the company was “looking into” bringing PS3 exclusive Final Fantasy Versus XIII to the Xbox 360. As previously posted, publisher may consider a multi-platform release. But there’s some “looking into it” to be done, so don’t expect an announcement of that…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published May 19, 2010
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  Katamari vs. SimCity vs. Pixel Art

  The Prince of all Cosmos gets busy reticulating splines. As seen on Coolvibe

  By Luke Plunkett Published May 19, 2010
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  Red Dead Redemption’s Truly, Truly Dastardly Achievement

  Take a cowboy, a damsel in distress and one speeding train. What do you get? Red Dead Redemption is from Rockstar, the folks behind the Grand Theft Auto series — so don’t be too surprised. Though, we are certain this poor lady would get caught in the train’s cow catcher It’s there to clear obstacles…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published May 19, 2010
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  Exclusive Showdown Reveals…Pointlessness Of Exclusives

  Here’s something to fire your synapses on a Tuesday night: a comparison of the average review scores of Xbox 360 exclusives vs PlayStation 3 exclusives. The figures, of course, do nothing to somehow magically settle the argument over which console has the “better” exclusives. So don’t go into this expecting them to. What they do…

  By Luke Plunkett Published May 19, 2010