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  A Life Is Well Wasted Without Attractive Game Posters

  Former Brodeo member Robert Ashley has a new(ish) podcast, but of more interest to us today, his podcast has some new, amazing posters to go with it. Ashley has teamed up with Olly Moss – who created those great gaming “book covers” – to release a number of retro-themed promo prints. They’re limited to 200…

  By Luke Plunkett Published September 2, 2009
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  Voice Actress Threatened, Man Arrested

  Glasses-wearing voice actress Mai Kadowaki is known for her voice work in the Konami anime Tokimeki Memorial Only Love and her work in games like console game Cross Edge and DS title Tales of the Tempest — among other titles. Since last November, threatening letters have been sent to the 28-year-old’s agency. A 26-year-old unemployed…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published September 2, 2009
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  God Of War Collection Might Get A Nip Here, A Tuck There

  Despite Sony’s own admission that the God of War Collection remakes are just “ports”, that’s not to say both games will be identical to their PS2 forebears when they hit the PS3. That’s because, aside from the stuff we already knew – 720p, 60 frames-per-second, 2x anti-aliasing – the collection’s developers haven’t ruled out making…

  By Luke Plunkett Published September 2, 2009
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  Developer “Terrified” While Making Beatles Rock Band

  Think making a game with The Beatles would be all gumdrops and lollypops? Wrong. Rock Band developer Harmonix was “terrified”, says the studio’s John Drake. Terrified in the sense that the developer did not want to screw up the game and piss off The Beatles. “I don’t know what Apple was considering before they started…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published September 2, 2009
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  New LocoRoco Game, New LocoRoco Trailer

  There’s a new LocoRoco game due out later this year, and a new game means new gimmicks, in this case a fundamental change to the game’s simple control scheme, with the introduction of the "boing".

  By Luke Plunkett Published September 2, 2009
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  Konami Publishing Ninety-Nine Nights II, Shoko Nakagawa In A Big Hat

  According to Microsoft, Konami will be publishing hack-and-slash Ninety-Nine Nights II. The prequel was developed by Rez designer Testsuya Mizuguchi; however, he does not appear to be involved with this title. Ninety-Nine Nights was published by Microsoft in 2006. South Korean developer Phantagram worked on the title with Mizuguchi’s Q Entertainment. This time Microsoft development…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published September 2, 2009
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  Time Donkey Loves Tacos

  Time Donkey launched today. It’s from the guys behind Velociraptor Safari, Jetpack Brontosaurus and Minotaur China Shop. So, yes, you should know what you’re getting yourself into. The premise of Time Donkey is actually really neat: you’re a time-travelling donkey on a quest for tacos. To get those tacos, you have to respawn yourself, creating…

  By Luke Plunkett Published September 2, 2009
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  Xbox 360 Gets Price Drop In Japan

  As expected, Microsoft announced a price drop for Japan. Are you excited yet? No? So, yeah, the Xbox 360‘s price tag has been cut for The Land of the Rising Sun. Pricing looks like this: • Xbox 360 Elite Previous Price: ¥39,800 (US$429) New Price: ¥29,800 ($321) • Xbox 360 Pro Previous Price: ¥29,800 ($321)…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published September 2, 2009
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  Here Come The First DirectX 11 Cards

  Pity those who only just got on top of Crysis’ recommended specs. Because if word on the street is to be believed, the next next generation of PC hardware is only a few months away. First off the starting blocks will be ATi’s Radeon HD 5800 series of cards (starting with the HD 5850 and…

  By Luke Plunkett Published September 2, 2009
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  Are You 20-Something Years Old? Do You Want To Love A Game Character?

  Konami Digital Entertainment polled 500 Japanese men to find out. Questions asked include things like if they thought of themselves as a herbivore male (Almost 64 percent said yes!) or whether they enjoyed in-game romance (42 percent said affirmative). The grass eater term was coined by a Japanese columnist to describe effeminate young Japanese men…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published September 2, 2009
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  PC Sales Charts: Buy Now, Play Later

  One thing that always gets me about the PC sales charts is the number of times you see a game tagged “pre-sale”. It’s interesting, because it reveals a level of dedication in the PC market you don’t normally see from console gamers. When you think of a “pre-order” for a game at, say, GameStop, you…

  By Luke Plunkett Published September 2, 2009
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  What Do You Think Of PS3 Firmware 3.0?

  The royal we have updated our PS3. There are little things we’ve noticed, little things we like, little things we don’t. What about you? Things that stuck out: More sparkly, less smokey. New PS3 logo. No more Spider-Man PLAYSTATION logo when you start up a game. We kind of miss that! It had an awesome…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published September 2, 2009
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  And The Last, Secret Beatles: Rock Band Song Is…

  Some “surprise” this turned out to be. While we’re sure MTV would have liked this to remain a secret until a little closer to the game’s September 9 release, word has already got around that the game’s final song is… SPOILERS “The End”. END SPOILERS. If this checks out (it’s unconfirmed for now, but seems…

  By Luke Plunkett Published September 2, 2009
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  Up Close And Very Personal With Beatmania’s Celica

  Konami has just released a limited edition 19-cm figurine of beatmania IIDX Celica Mizushiro. As we pointed out before, she’s priced at ¥5,985 (US$60) and comes with different sets of arms in various poses. The link below has a photo review of the piece. There are several discerning pictures — like this: Not to everyone’s…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published September 2, 2009
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  Report: 360 More Reliable, Repairs Less Frequent

  According to data released by third-party warranty providers SquareTrade, since the mid-point of 2008 the Xbox 360‘s reliability has improved out of sight. Now, before we go any further, know this: we have our doubts when it comes to SquareTrade. A third-party warranty provider? Who nobody had ever heard of until they released some selective…

  By Luke Plunkett Published September 2, 2009
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  Look What Some Lucky Taiwanese People Got When Buying PS3 Slim

  No, they didn’t get those guys. Who wants stuffy businessmen when you can get other stuff? That’s right other stuff. During the Taiwan launch, Sony Taiwan gave away 150 of these special commemorative launch sets to 150 individuals who bought the PS3 Slim. Included in the bundle were one DualShock 3, one PS3 t-shirt, a…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published September 2, 2009
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  Guitar Hero 5’s Song Importing Isn’t As Great As We Thought [Update]

  Yeah…so it turns out Guitar Hero 5’s ability to import songs from previous games isn’t as good a deal as we first thought. Turns out that, of World Tour’s 85 songs, only 35 can so far be copied over. That’s less than half. Funny that there’s some mysterious ailment afflicting songs sold on a retail…

  By Luke Plunkett Published September 1, 2009
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  Professor Layton As An 8-Bit Game

  Level-5’s puzzle franchise Professor Layton series are not 8-bit NES games. They have many more bits and are on the Nintendo DS. Let’s say, for snots and giggles, that Professor Layton was a NES. What would it look like? Perhaps, just perhaps, it would look something like this. 8-bit Professor Layton theme by Nonsak. I…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published September 1, 2009
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  In a Terrible Economy, the Hopeless turn to Gold4Jetpack

  Bionic Commando’s cheeky YouTube ads were pretty alright; the game, eh, it had problems. But Capcom’s right back at it with this pitch, giving your pre-order of Dark Void from GameStop all the fulfillment of visiting a pawn shop. And just like Cash4Gold, you get nothing for something with this offer, too! Well, not really.…

  By Owen Good Published September 1, 2009
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  What’s Holding Up Trine On The PSN?

  PC platformer/puzzler Trine has long been coming for the PS3, but never actually arrived. What’s taking it so long? Like Lando, Lauri Hyvärinen, CEO of developers Fronzenbyte, has told GameSetWatch that it’s not his fault. It’s not his fault! It’s just something that happens when you leave a game with free-form physics in the hands…

  By Luke Plunkett Published September 1, 2009