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  PAX, IndieCade Will Now See Your Indie Games

  Penny Arcade Expo has officially opened the PAX 10 Indie Game competition to submissions in the same time frame that IndieCade has opened their second annual indie game competition. Both competitions invite unpublished indie developers to bring any kind of game they’d care to develop to the table — shooters, casual, puzzle or whatever. PAX…

  By AJ Glasser Published March 9, 2009
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  Ever Wonder How Much Money Game Executives Make?

  Having dug through the various filings submitted by companies last year, The Game Trade Journal have compiled a list revealing how much the top video game executives made last year. How much? Let’s just say Activision boss Bobby “What, Me Worry?” Kotick won’t be sleeping on the street any time soon. Or, for that matter,…

  By Luke Plunkett Published March 9, 2009
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  Primrose: Passage Developer Puzzles Your iPhone

  Jason Rohrer, the developer behind memorable and experimental artistic games like Passage, Gravitation and Between, has released his latest title, Primrose. It’s an unconventional—for Rohrer, anyway—puzzler, designed with the iPhone in mind. The tile-placement gameplay is mostly straightforward, using a simple color-swapping, block-deleting rule set on a 7-by-7 grid. The author describes it best, noting…

  By Michael McWhertor Published March 9, 2009
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  When You Wish Upon A Sim, You Get A Steel Bladder

  June can’t come fast enough and EA sees fit to rub it in by dumping yet more Sims 3 screens on us. This set details the wants and desires that make up a Sim’s Lifetime Wish. Sims develop Lifetime Wishes based on what personality traits you grant them. A Sneaky, Evil Sim will be more…

  By AJ Glasser Published March 9, 2009
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  EA Offers Up More Details On Spore Hero

  Electronic Arts has plenty of Spore planned for 2009, as it revealed in January. Two Spore Hero games, one for the Nintendo DS, the other for the Wii have been under wraps until now. EA shared details on the Wii version of Spore Hero with MTV Multiplayer, pointing out that it’s not just a down-rezzed…

  By Michael McWhertor Published March 9, 2009
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  Silent Hill Gets Re-Rated, Wii-make Announcement Coming Soon?

  If Konami does have plans to re-release the original Silent Hill for the Wii and PSP, as previously rumored, that announcement must be coming soon, as the BBFC has just recently rated the title. Rating a ten-year-old PlayStation game isn’t typically the kind of thing the British Board of Film Classification does these days, so…

  By Michael McWhertor Published March 9, 2009
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  Here’s How Rock Band 2 For The Wii Catches Up This Week

  This week’s Rock Band 2 catch up session for the Wii brings an impressive fourteen new tracks to the Rock Band Music Store. Most important are Wii owners first taste of downloadable Metallica. …And Justice For All‘s “Blackened” and the title track from Ride The Lightning lead the week of Wii re-releases, further showing that…

  By Michael McWhertor Published March 9, 2009
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  A Sad Passing

  To: Bash From: Crecente Re: Has Spring Started Yet? Over the weekend I learned that someone I knew from work died as the result of a bicycle accident. James Meadow was a talented, charming writer and a genuinely nice guy. I’d hesitate to call us friends, I didn’t know him that well. But I always…

  By Brian Crecente Published March 9, 2009
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  The Conduit’s Dropping Of Wii MotionPlus Explained

  The Conduit‘s contribution to the Wii library is exciting. It’s easy on the eyes, seems like a smart publishing decision by Sega, and planned for Wii Speak and Wii MotionPlus support from the get-go. For better or worse, Wii MotionPlus support has since been dropped from The Conduit, a seemingly curious decision for a first-person…

  By Michael McWhertor Published March 9, 2009
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  GamePro Is Now A Video Game Publisher Too

  With GamePro magazine on the cusp of its 20-year anniversary and having already trailblazed the magazine-editor-as-action-figure space, it’s expanding its reach to actual video game publishing. Get ready for GamePro Labs. The venture, according to a report from GameDaily, will see games published for the iPhone as well as through Microsoft’s XNA initiative. Telling GameDaily…

  By Michael McWhertor Published March 9, 2009
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  Stranglehold Getting Movie Treatment

  Midway’s John Woo-backed shooter Stranglehold may be turned into a movie, according to Hollywood Reporter. The 2007 video game is a sequel to John Woo’s 1992 Hong Kong action flick, Hard Boiled. The game stars Chow Yun-Fat, who played inspector Tequla Yuen. The video game was the first project the two had collaborated on since…

  By Brian Crecente Published March 9, 2009
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  Rare Teases Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts Expansion

  Rare is planning on lifting the lid off an expansion for Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, potential downloadable content it hopes to announce sometime this week. That announcement may even herald a new promotional logo! That last part probably isn’t all that exciting, except to sales and marketing types, but Rare’s Lord of Games, the…

  By Michael McWhertor Published March 9, 2009
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  The Extremely Limited Edition UK RE5 Watch

  The creators of the limited-edition Metal Gear Solid 4 watch that UK fans went crazy over last year are back, with a Gamestation-exclusive limited-edition Resident Evil 5 timepiece. The designer of the watch himself, Adi Wells, sends us the scoop on the Resident Evil 5 watch, which will be available for pre-order through UK retailer…

  By Mike Fahey Published March 9, 2009
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  Castlevania Cake

  We don’t really write about cakes that often anymore, but this one is pretty amazing. The sides of the cake show a typical level in the early days of side-scroller Castlevania. Happy birthday Matt!

  By Brian Crecente Published March 9, 2009
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  US Drug Czar Targets Gaming Skills In Anti-Pot Ads

  The United States government is going after gamers in its latest “Above the Influence” anti-drug ads, warning potential pot smokers that their gaming skills may suffer if they choose to get high. The ads warn that “many of the skills required for winning a background, defeating an opponent, [and] beating games” can be hindered by…

  By Michael McWhertor Published March 9, 2009
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  Sony Ponders Suing Over UK Early Death Ad

  The UK’s Change4Life campaign, which links playing video games with obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer, could draw legal fire from Sony for using a PlayStation-like controller in their print ad. The magazine ad in question features a young boy obviously not enjoying himself while holding a dual analog wireless controller, similar to that used…

  By Mike Fahey Published March 9, 2009
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  PC Game Featured in NY Contemporary Art Show

  The New York Times has an interesting story up about the art of the computer generation. In it they talk about the opening, next month, of the New Museum of Contemporary Art and how one of the exhibits there will be Flywrench, a sort of puzzle game meets art creation by Mark Essen. The images…

  By Brian Crecente Published March 9, 2009
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  Edge Picks “The 100 Best Games To Play Today”

  The latest issue of Edge—which happens to be the magazine’s 200th—not only features 200 different magazine covers, it lists “The 100 Best Games To Play Today,” compiling the best of what’s still extremely playable. This isn’t a “These Are The Best Games Of All-Time” list, nor a rattling off of the 100 most influential. It’s…

  By Michael McWhertor Published March 9, 2009
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  Warhammer Online Offers Prizes For Your Friends’ Lives

  Warhammer Online is turning up the heat on their refer-a-friend program, offering free in game pets and items to players who pull their friends into the conflict. Warhammer has had a pretty standard refer-a-friend program up until now. Simply drag a pal into the game, and get 30 days free game time. Now they up…

  By Mike Fahey Published March 9, 2009
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  id: No Rage In 2009, Come Back Next Year

  id Software has a lot on its plate. The developer has its fingers in Wolfenstein, Quake Live, Doom 4 and Rage, maybe even some Wii development. So it’s no surprise that Rage won’t make 2009. Todd Hollenshead, the ponytailed co-owner and CEO of id Software, drove that point home in the most recent episode of…

  By Michael McWhertor Published March 9, 2009