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  PC Sales Charts: The Thin Red Line

  On the NPD charts for the week ending February 28, Dawn of War II reigns supreme. But on the more current Steam and Direct2Drive ones? It’s all Empire: Total War, baby. Yes, proving that the PC market’s thirst for epic strategy titles is as strong as ever, Creative Assembly’s latest Total War title has come…

  By Luke Plunkett Published March 9, 2009
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  Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete Special Screening For 800 People

  Want to see feature film Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete before it goes on sale on April 16 in Japan? Japanese game maker Square Enix is offering the chance to silver members of its online site Square Enix Members who have reserved the Blu-ray movie or the movie’s special PS3 bundle at the Square…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published March 9, 2009
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  Xbox Live Arcade File Restrictions Just Don’t Matter Anymore

  Once was a time Microsoft were very stingy with how big a game downloaded from Xbox Live Arcade could be. These days, though? Don’t worry about it, publishers, knock yourselves out. Old-timers on the 360 front will remember a time that Xbox Live Arcade games had to come in under 50MB. That 50MB was then…

  By Luke Plunkett Published March 9, 2009
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  Resident Evil 5 Cinematic Director In Talks To Make Capcom Movie

  Jim Sonzero, the cinematic director for Resident Evil 5 has announced that he’s in negotiations to direct a feature film version of a Capcom game franchise. While he would not explicitly state what the live-action project is or give hints about which franchise it is, he did say he would direct it. (Why not wait…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published March 9, 2009
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  What Factor 5’s Superman Once Looked Like…

  Lair and Rogue Squadron developer Factor 5 was hard at work on a Superman video game before it contracted a near-fatal case of Brash Entertainment Publishing Agreement Syndrome. This is what that game looked like. Unseen 64, where games goes when they die, has concept screen shots and a brief video of the planned PlayStation…

  By Michael McWhertor Published March 9, 2009
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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