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UFC Undisputed Helps THQ Tap Out Record Quarter
THQ is off to a much better year than last, thanks in part to the UFC. The publisher announced record results today, a $243.5 million three month take bolstered by nearly 3 million copies of UFC 2009 Undisputed sold worldwide. THQ’s take of nearly a quarter billion dollars during the April to June quarter was…
By Michael McWhertor Published July 28, 2009 - Uncategorized
Champions Online Open Beta Detailed
Champions Online developer Cryptic has dropped details and dates for its upcoming “open” beta test, with 50,000 keys up for grabs worldwide via IGN’s FilePlanet. Yes, Cryptic and FilePlanet have teamed up to help streamline the beta testing process. There are now two ways to get beta keys, either by actually preordering the game at…
By Mike Fahey Published July 28, 2009 - Uncategorized
Borderlands Preview: It Shoots Rockets!
Coming this fall is a game that surprises even itself, a shooter that will make you say “WoW.” Maybe “wow” as well. But definitely: “WoW.” Diablo and World of Warcraft would co-win the award for games most frequently name-checked by game developer Randy Pitchford as he explained his team’s October game Borderlands at a recent…
By Stephen Totilo Published July 28, 2009 - Uncategorized
Star Ocean: The Last Hope Finally PS3 Bound?
Star Ocean: The Last Hope was a good get for Microsoft, moving more than 420,000 copies on the Xbox 360, managing to become bestselling Xbox 360 game in Japan. That game may also be coming to the PlayStation 3. According to a listing from online retailer and rental service Gamefly, a PlayStation 3 port of…
By Michael McWhertor Published July 28, 2009 - Uncategorized
Aksys Suggestively Bringing “Soul Breeding” Game Stateside
Aksys Games has launched a placeholder website for Record of Agarest War, the “soul breeding” Japanese strategy RPG that is completely distracting me with its teaser image. What were we talking about again? Oh yes! Record of Agarest! We’ve mentioned the game on several different occasions, generally in the middle of the night when the…
By Mike Fahey Published July 28, 2009 - Reviews
Gears of War 2: Dark Corners Micro-Review: Putting the Stealth in Curb Stomps
Director’s Cuts: Fans love them, studios profit from them, so why don’t we see more of them in gaming? That’s what Epic seems to be delivering with Dark Corners, the latest update to 2008’s third-person shooter Gears of War 2. While Dark Corners comes packed with seven new maps for multiplayer gaming, the thing that…
By Brian Crecente Published July 28, 2009 - Uncategorized
Square Enix Is Bringing These Games To GamesCom
Germany’s annual gaming convention is moving from Leipzig to Cologne this year, redubbed GamesCom, but retaining the spectacle of its eastern predecessor. Everyone’s going, including Square Enix, which will be armed with Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts and much, much more. Square Enix will be showing largely what you’d expect, Final Fantasy XIII, Final Fantasy XIV…
By Michael McWhertor Published July 28, 2009 - Uncategorized
Nintendo Breaks Its Silence About Silence
Nintendo’s lead characters are rare among modern gaming heroes in that they seldom talk out loud. But rarer still is a Nintendo game that does include recorded speech. Punch-Out Wii did, and its creators explained why. “Nintendo’s tradition is that the hero or central character never vocally speaks,” the game’s producer, Nintendo’s Kensuke Tanabe, told…
By Stephen Totilo Published July 28, 2009 - Uncategorized
NBA 2K10: Draft Combine Gives Fans A Head Start
2K Sports takes advantage of today’s download friendly consoles, giving fans an early taste of this year’s basketball with NBA 2K10: Draft Combine. Available in September on Xbox Live Arcade and the PlayStation Network, the NBA 2K10: Draft Combine is a downloadable game that allows players to fully customize their own player and put them…
By Mike Fahey Published July 28, 2009 - Uncategorized
Risen Trailer Flaunts Symphonic Gothic Metal
This new trailer for Piranha Bytes‘ RPG Risen features music by Nightwish, "the most successful symphonic/gothic metal band world-wide." I’m not sure what that means. I’m sure there’s a large symphonic/gothic metal band scene that I am completely unaware of. In fact, the comments section could potentially fill up with arguments on which of those…
By Mike Fahey Published July 28, 2009 - Uncategorized
Scott Pilgrim VS. Your Game Console
Scott Pilgrim, the heroic comic tale of triumph over evil ex-boyfriends, is getting a movie adaptation next year, and Ubisoft has signed on to create the game of the movie of the comic. Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim is a digest-sized comic series from Oni Press that follows the tale of Canadian slacker bassist Scott…
By Mike Fahey Published July 28, 2009 - Uncategorized
Poor Rock Band Sales Blamed For Declining Viacom Revenues
Viacom’s second quarter 2009 financials dropped this morning, singling out lower than expected Rock Band sales as one of the primary causes of the company’s 14% drop in revenue over the previous year. A little over a year ago Viacom was singing the praises of Rock Band, heralding the rhythm game as the driving force…
By Mike Fahey Published July 28, 2009 - Uncategorized
Splinter Cell Conviction Delay Won’t Lead To Major Changes
Splinter Cell Conviction‘s delay is all about meeting expectations and nothing about major changes or additions, an Ubisoft community developer says. Yesterday Ubisoft announced the delay of four of their big titles, including Splinter Cell Conviction. The news popped up on the official forums for the game with a statement from Ubisoft Community Developer UbiRazz.…
By Brian Crecente Published July 28, 2009 - Uncategorized
Ryu And Momiji Work Well Together
Here’s five minutes or so worth of the co-op gameplay PS3 owners will see when Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 launches this September. It looks like a great deal of fun, doesn’t it? I haven’t really gotten into the Ninja Gaiden games since the first one on the original Xbox kicked my ass from here to…
By Mike Fahey Published July 28, 2009 - Uncategorized
GameStop Has Street Fighter IV Ridiculously Cheap
In case you were either holding out or saving up for Street Fighter IV on the PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360, now would be an excellent time to scrape up those pennies and head to GameStop. How cheap is cheap? How about $40 off the normal retail price? That’s right, GameStop has marked down Street…
By Mike Fahey Published July 28, 2009 - Uncategorized
Space Invaders Reimagined For iPhone
Space Invaders Infinity Gene hit the iPhone today for $4.99. The remake of the classic features a customizable “evolutionary tree” and the ability to play original stages based on your own music. It sort of looks like it’s getting the shmup treatment.
By Brian Crecente Published July 28, 2009 - Uncategorized
More Quantum Screens Emerge From Cover
This new set of screens Tecmo’s East-meets-West third-person shooter Quantum highlights the game’s strange mix of Gears of War-esque characters in a high fantasy setting. I first saw Quantum (formerly Quantum Theory) at E3 this year, and boy was I confused. It looks and plays a bit like Gears of War, but the environments are…
By Mike Fahey Published July 28, 2009 - Uncategorized
Bionic Commando PC Swings Into Action
Nathan Spencer is back and he’s pissed, as Capcom’s remake of Bionic Commando attempts to grab PC gamers where it counts – Steam and retail. Ascension City has been taken over by terrorists, which turns out to be good news for Nathan R.A.D. Spencer, pardoned from execution at the very last minute and sent behind…
By Mike Fahey Published July 28, 2009 - Uncategorized
Preorder Scribblenauts, Get a Rooster Hat
As if the ability to create mayhem and blend zombies with pirates using just the words you write on a screen weren’t enough of a reason to pick up DS-bound Scribblenauts, the publishers are throwing in a hat to sweeten the deal. People who pre-order the 5th Cell-developed game at GameStop in the U.S. or…
By Brian Crecente Published July 28, 2009