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Guitar Hero: Metallica Ad Has Exactly Four Too Many Pantsless Men
Activision’s marketing team looks to be suffering from a bout of March Madness, as the new Guitar Hero: Metallica television spot is ruefully lacking in Heidi Klum pantslessness in favor of Bobby Knight pantslessness. Four NCAA coaches match wits with four Metallica band members—thankfully modest in black denim—complete with Bobby Knight launching a trademark tirade…
By Michael McWhertor Published March 30, 2009 - Uncategorized
Missed Opportunities: Lionhead Could Have Made LittleBigPlanet
Peter Molyneux still wouldn’t give up the goods on his new game at the “Lionhead Experiment Revealed” panel, but he did give us a glimpse into how Lionhead let LittleBigPlanet slip through their fingers. The studio that brought us Black & White and the Fable games has a creative process called “experiments” where anybody in…
By AJ Glasser Published March 30, 2009 - Uncategorized
What Diablo III’s Interface Got From World Of Warcraft
In the latest episode of the Blizzard podcast, Diablo III senior artist Mike Nicholson discusses organizing the inventory system by size and giving skill buttons a World of Warcraft makeover. The Diablo series has always had inventory issues. I’d say 90% of “Town Portal” scrolls are used to head back to town and offload your…
By Mike Fahey Published March 30, 2009 - Uncategorized
Tomorrow Is Wii Deal Day At Amazon
Wii owners would do well to pay close attention to Amazon.com tomorrow, when the Gold Box fills with more Wii games than you can shake a white remote-control looking dealie at. We normally don’t hear about Amazon.com’s game deal days until whatever the first one was sells out, but this time around we’ve been given…
By Mike Fahey Published March 30, 2009 - Uncategorized
Excitebots Trick Racing Preview: Excite Trucks Gets a Make Over
The word Excite isn’t the only thing that Excite Truck and Excitebots: Trick Racing have in common. Anyone who spent time with the off-road Wii racer may notice a few similarities between the games. But a developer doesn’t have to reinvent the wheel to make a game fun and a new enough experience to warrant…
By Brian Crecente Published March 30, 2009 - Uncategorized
Xbox Originals Getting Double Dose Of Payne?
Rockstar Games and Microsoft may be giving Xbox 360 owners a chance to brush up on their Max Payne history in advance of the release of Max Payne 3, courtesy of the Xbox Originals program. The ESRB lists relatively new ratings for both Max Payne and Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne for…
By Michael McWhertor Published March 30, 2009 - Uncategorized
Frankenreview: MadWorld
Platinum Games and Sega turn down the color and turn up the violence with MadWorld, a brutal, bloody beat-em up for the Nintendo Wii. As soon as the first black, white, and red all over screenshots of MadWorld first surfaced, everyone knew this wasn’t going to be your ordinary Wii beat-em up. The game’s art…
By Mike Fahey Published March 30, 2009 - Uncategorized
Wolfenstein Lifts the Veil
Mystical weapons and plentiful Nazis remain a mainstay in the latest iteration of first-person shooter Wolfenstein. “For id, Wolfenstein is a very important IP, it goes way back and we care a lot about it,” said Peter Sokal, community manager for id Software. The game takes place right after the events of Return to Castle…
By Brian Crecente Published March 30, 2009 - Uncategorized
PlayStation Moving Into The Cloud?
Sony may be the latest company to explore the hot topic of cloud computing, the off-loading of software and services to remote servers, based on recent trademark filings with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Sony Computer Entertainment Japan has registered a trademark for “PS Cloud,” protecting it against it against all manner of video…
By Michael McWhertor Published March 30, 2009 - Uncategorized
Re/Visioned Activision 2600 Classics Finally Arrive
In November of 2007, Gametap promised to continue their Re/Visioned animation series, with comic book talent taking on classic Atari 2600 games. Now those shorts have finally seen the light of day, and they’re brilliant. Since Gametap isn’t quite the original content developer they used to be, the six animated shorts now appear on the…
By Mike Fahey Published March 30, 2009 - Uncategorized
The Heavyweights Of Fight Night 4
Decades worth of ass-kickery come to life in the latest screenshots from Fight Night Round 4, showcasing the power of seven legendary heavyweight boxers. Ali. Frazier. Foreman. How can you tell a true boxing heavyweight legend from the rest? Well for one, you could say those three names and I’d know what you’re talking about.…
By Mike Fahey Published March 30, 2009 - Uncategorized
Xbox Live Arcade Finally Gets A Dishwasher
A year and a half of drooling comes to fruition this Wednesday, as The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai rides a blood-soaked guitar riff onto Xbox Live Arcade. The Dishwasher has come quite a long way since it won Microsoft’s 2007 Dream-Build-Play competition, but its core values remain intact. It’s still a bloody good mess of sexy,…
By Mike Fahey Published March 30, 2009 - Uncategorized
Nickelodeon Kids Choose Guitar Hero Over Rock Band
Nickelodeon once again justifies our nation’s voting age restrictions, as Guitar Hero World Tour comes out at the top of a rather sad nominee pool at the 2009 Kids’ Choice Awards. Not that Guitar Hero World Tour isn’t a fine game, and out of the four nominees it could certainly be argued from a certain…
By Mike Fahey Published March 30, 2009 - Uncategorized
Nintendo’s DSi Midnight Launch Spectacular
Nintendo is kicking off the release of the DSi with a ever-so-slightly star-studded midnight launch event at Los Angeles’ Universal CityWalk GameStop. Nintendo’s mom Cammie Dunaway and the host of G4’s Attack of the Show, Kevin Periera will be on hand, counting down to the midnight launch of the third iteration of their dual-screen handheld,…
By Mike Fahey Published March 30, 2009 - Uncategorized
Battlefield Bad Company 2 Ups the Destruction
A first-look at Battlefield Bad Company 2’s gameplay reveals a lot more destruction, an icy setting and plenty of gun play. Last week, DICE gave a slew of reporters an early look at the gameplay for their upcoming destructive shooter Battlefield Bad Company 2. Senior producer Patrick Bach warned that the gameplay we saw that…
By Brian Crecente Published March 30, 2009 - Uncategorized
Dragon Age: Origins – A Tragedy in the Making
As “spiritual successor” to the Baldur’s Gate series, BioWare’s upcoming fantasy RPG has lot to live up to. Not to mention a console port expectation that no PC RPG has ever fulfilled. It doesn’t help that the game is being touted as a “new” take on the fantasy genre, or that the PC ship date…
By AJ Glasser Published March 30, 2009 -
UncategorizedMetal Gear Solid Mega 64: Super Stealth Kojima
Mega 64 stealths their way through the streets of San Francisco, Metal Gear Solid style, until the characters they are portraying finally meet their maker. In a brilliant callback to their 2007 Game Developers Conference Mario skit, which featured a cameo by creator Shigeru Miyamoto, Mega 64 runs into the creator of the Metal Gear…
By Mike Fahey Published March 30, 2009 - Uncategorized
Toby Keith Drops A 6-Pack On Rock Band
The country music singer that’s sold more than 25 million albums this century sells some more music next week, with the release of the Toby Keith 6-Pack for Rock Band. Six of Keith’s tunes will be available for purchase on April 7th and April 9th for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 respectively. The lineup…
By Mike Fahey Published March 30, 2009 - Uncategorized
Could The Future of Gaming Be Console Free?
Last week’s annual Game Developers Conference in San Francisco gave gamers a tantalizing glimpse at things to come in the world of interactive entertainment. While the week of talks, demonstrations and press conferences was packed with news, the biggest attention grabbers included a device that promises to deliver high-end PC gaming without the computer and…
By Brian Crecente Published March 30, 2009 - Uncategorized
The Last Weekly Wii Update: Super Punch-Out!!
It’s the end of an era, ladies and gentlemen, as Super Punch-Out!! and Bonsai Barber mark the death of the Weekly Wii Update and the beginning of the Weekly Nintendo Download. With the Nintendo DSi releasing this coming Sunday, Nintendo’s weekly list of Wii downloadables will be expanding, as weekly DSi downloads join the mix,…
By Mike Fahey Published March 30, 2009