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  Army of Two: The 40th Day: Whatta Drag

  Oh, don’t get me wrong. EA Montreal‘s Army of Two sequel looks like a blast. It’s very pretty. Textured just the way we like it. It’s just the name — Army of Two: The 40th Day. See, when we learned that the game was going to carry the secondary title with the acronym “TFD,” well,…

  By Michael McWhertor Published March 16, 2009
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  Irem Does Its Best To Sex Up Spelunker

  Minna de Spelunker is coming to the PlayStation 3 in Japan. How does one generate interest in a high-def Spelunker remake? Put women in short outfits! Short Spelunker outfits! It’s a pretty easy formula, one that publisher Irem capitalized upon when opening up the “Spelunker Lounge” this past week to Spelunker-crazed Japanese journalists. Simply take…

  By Michael McWhertor Published March 16, 2009
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  Scorned Splatterhouse Dev Thinks Maybe It’s Namco Who’s Inept

  Ex-Splatterhouse developers BottleRocket Entertainment aren’t taking accusations of poor performance lying down. The independent studio has issued a strong response to Namco Bandai‘s claim that a “performance issue” led to the project being pulled. While Namco Bandai Games chief operating officer Makoto Iwai put blame on the Splatterhouse developer, BottleRocket defends its development on the…

  By Michael McWhertor Published March 16, 2009
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  The King Of Fighters XII Gets New Fighters, Smoother Graphics For Consoles

  When The King of Fighters XII comes to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 this July, it will come with some swell, console-exclusive bonuses, including a new graphics mode and an expanded roster. New shots of the game in action were released today, showing off an optional anti-aliasing graphical style, one that makes SNK Playmore…

  By Michael McWhertor Published March 16, 2009
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  Rocky Reborn

  To: Ash From: Crecente Re: Shopping For Furniture, With Added Cosplayers So a bunch of former Rocky Mountain News writers held a press conference today to announce that they were going to try and launch an online only newspaper. InDenver Times is meant to be an aggressive, well-written, edited, thoroughly professional online newspaper. I love…

  By Brian Crecente Published March 16, 2009
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  Fight Night Round 4 Is Shiny, Sweaty

  What does Fight Night Round 4 get right? Well, we’re not sure how faithful the recreation of Muhammed Ali and Mike Tyson’s fighting styles are, but it nails the shine of sweat and satin. EA Sports‘ newest trailer for the now-gen boxing game plays up the Ali versus Tyson match up, touting “actual gameplay footage”…

  By Michael McWhertor Published March 16, 2009
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  Layoffs: The Video Game Is Depressing Fun

  If you’re suffering the consequences of the current economic shitstorm, you’ll have plenty of time to play Layoff, an examination of the current financial scandal cleverly disguised as a Bejeweled-like casual game. It’s not only educational and entertaining, it’s also depressing. Edutainment meets pain. That makes it “edutainful.” Layoff was developed by Tiltfactor Lab and…

  By Michael McWhertor Published March 16, 2009
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  Nike Air Force Ones Reworked to Celebrate Playstation Anniversary

  Playstation and Nike are at it again, collaborating on a new pair of Air Force Ones to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of Playstation 2‘s launch in Japan. The new Playstation Air Force Ones feature full patent leather upper and a color design very similar color to the original Playstation 2 Air Force Ones. This time…

  By Brian Crecente Published March 16, 2009
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  Rumor: You Got “The Touch” In Guitar Hero

  What Stan Bush wants, Stan Bush gets. His motivational power jam "The Touch," featured so prominently in the animated Transformers: The Movie, is coming to Guitar Hero, according to the man behind the song. Wait… it gets even better. Mr. Bush writes to Transformers fan resource Seibertron.com to let music enthusiasts know that Activision has…

  By Michael McWhertor Published March 16, 2009
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  The Final Resident Evil 5 Viral – Chris Kills A Television

  Resident Evil 5 is finally upon us, signaling the end of live-action Chris Redfield‘s flashbacks and the beginning of his vendetta against appliances. A word to the wise: be careful using your television remote around live-action Chris Redfield. You might want to quietly warn him first, lest the sudden powering up of the entertainment device…

  By Mike Fahey Published March 16, 2009
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  Rolando Update Delivers New Levels

  A new update recently hit iPhone puzzler Rolando, adding five new secret levels to the game and tweaking the physics and rendering, according to iTunes. The $5 iPhone game was already stuffed with 36 levels spread out over four worlds and has received mostly favorable reviews. There’s even a free version now, if you’re not…

  By Brian Crecente Published March 16, 2009
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  Rockstar Delivers With Custom GTA: Chinatown Wars Styli

  Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars for the Nintendo DS arrived this weekend at Kotaku Towers West in a swag-filled box, including a pair of brilliant DS styli that make playing the game much harder. Actually, playing Chinatown Wars is challenging enough with the stock stylus. I opted to get smudgy, using nimble finger pokes to…

  By Michael McWhertor Published March 16, 2009
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  Metal Gear Online SCENE’s Charming New Skills

  The Metal Gear Online SCENE expansion comes out tomorrow, bringing with it some charming new skills and fishy emblems for players to strive for. Three new skills drop with tomorrow’s expansion. Close Quarters Combat EX automatically counters any CQC attack on your character, while Toughness allows you to endure knockback moves, lessening your recovery time.…

  By Mike Fahey Published March 16, 2009
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  Dark Void Setting Concept Art Explained

  Capcom dumped a few pieces of concept art for their upcoming Dark Void title over on their Unity site, and walked through some of the ideas they were going for in creating the different settings. In Dark Void, they say, they want players to be able to move from “lush jungle, to alien canyons floating…

  By Brian Crecente Published March 16, 2009
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  Alpha Protocol Brings On The Job Training To The Spy Game

  If you caught this weekend’s GameTrailers TV, you’re probably well-schooled in Sega and Obsidian Entertainment‘s Alpha Protocol, the "first modern-day spy role-playing game." If not here’s two minutes worth of introduction. Making RPG-style character progression work in a realistic setting—more realistic than, say, Mass Effect or Final Fantasy, for example—always seems like a challenging thing…

  By Michael McWhertor Published March 16, 2009
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  Valykyria Chronicles Getting Triple Deployment Of DLC

  Sega’s PlayStation 3 exclusive tactical role-playing game Valkyria Chronicles is calling in reinforcements soon, with three separate packs of downloadble content soon bolstering the ranks. Two entirely new missions and a Hard EX mode add new life one of the most under appreciated titles on the PlayStation 3. Edy’s Mission “Enter The Edy Detachment” follows…

  By Mike Fahey Published March 16, 2009
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  Capcom Calls “BS” On Resident Evil 5 DLC Complaints

  Capcom received some backlash last week when they announced that they would be selling downloadable content for Resident Evil 5 which would add multiplayer modes to the game. Most of the Internet angst seems to surround the timing of the release and questions why it wasn’t just included on the disc. But Christian Svensson, vice…

  By Brian Crecente Published March 16, 2009
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  Solid Snake Gets Squared By Michael Lau

  Seminal urban vinyl toy designer Michael Lau riffs on Hideo Kojima’s Solid Snake with his upcoming collection of Gardener figures, planned for a release later this month at the CS Booth 16 event in Hong Kong. Lau’s Snake Square nods not so subtly to the Snake of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, packing geometric…

  By Michael McWhertor Published March 16, 2009
• Reviews

  Puzzle Quest: Galactrix PC Review: Lost In Space

  Infinite Interactive takes its innovative mix of role-playing and puzzle games to the stars with Puzzle Quest: Galactrix. The follow up to 2007’s smash hit Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords, Galactrix takes the blend of role-playing mechanics and puzzle game to a whole new frontier, replacing the fantasy role-playing adventure of the first title…

  By Mike Fahey Published March 16, 2009
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  Polishing The Chronicles Of Riddick: Assault On Dark Athena

  In this second developer diary for The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena, developer Starbreeze talks about what goes into making the most polished game they’ve ever created. Starbreeze is big on polish, a fact they’ve readily demonstrated in their two previous outings, The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay and The Darkness.…

  By Mike Fahey Published March 16, 2009