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  Three Things I Liked About X-Blades

  The last game in the world I expected to like anything about is X-Blades – it’s a blatantly sexist, shallow anime rip-off with a paper-thin plot. But it turns out that this blatantly sexist, shallow anime rip-off game does a few things so well that I can almost overlook the sexism, the shallowness and even…

  By AJ Glasser Published January 7, 2009
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  Microsoft Dates PlayStation 3 Price Drop For Springtime

  The PlayStation 3 will get a price drop in 2009. It just has to if Sony wants the console to keep up, install base-wise. Microsoft’s Aaron Greenberg agrees and expects a cheaper PS3 within months. He tells Edge Online that Microsoft is planning on its console competition becoming more price competitive in 2009. Not really…

  By Michael McWhertor Published January 7, 2009
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  Rickrolling Finally Comes To LittleBigPlanet

  Clearly, this was just a matter of time. But for someone to record an attempted shot-by-shot remake of Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” in Media Molecule’s LittleBigPlanet makes it worth the time. Honestly, if I tried to pretend that I was keeping up with the LittleBigPlanet Rickrolling scene, you’d be right to call…

  By Michael McWhertor Published January 7, 2009
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  First Spore Expansion, “Galactic Adventures” Due In Spring

  Super sim Spore will get its first expansion pack in the form of Galactic Adventures this Spring, according to an invite from Electronic Arts. And, no, the Spore Creepy and Cute Parts Pack doesn’t count! While retailers like Amazon, GameStop and Play have had Spore Galactic Adventures listed for a March release for a week…

  By Michael McWhertor Published January 7, 2009
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  McGee

  To: Ash From: Crecente Re: Tough Times Yeah, horrible times. I just found out that a paper I worked at years ago had massive lay-offs, like six months ago. Even though it’s old news to everyone involved it’s still pretty shocking stuff. Print may not be dead, but it’s certainly going into hibernation. I really…

  By Brian Crecente Published January 7, 2009
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  CES 09: Don’t Count On Rock Band 3 This Year, Expect Beatles Game Instead

  Harmonix CEO Alex Rigopulos says that Rock Band may be taking the year off in 2009, with the developer focusing its efforts on the Beatles game it announced in October. Instead, expect more music. Rigopulos said at the Billboard Digital Music Live keynote at CES that the Harmonix team will be directing its “creative energy”…

  By Michael McWhertor Published January 7, 2009
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  CES 09: XBLA Doritos Game Downloaded Almost 1 Millon Times

  Advergaming is huge. At least that’s the takeaway from Microsoft’s John Kroese, who revealed that the Mike Borland and Ninja Bee developed Doritos’ Dash of Destruction racked up almost a million downloads in December. Kroese, General Manager in the Entertainment & Devices Advertising Business Group at Microsoft said that the Xbox Live Arcade freebie was…

  By Michael McWhertor Published January 7, 2009
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  Red Bull Coming to Home This Week

  Red Bull island, complete with Red Bull air racing, is coming to Home this week, hopefully free of the lines that have made bowling feel so restrictive in the virtual Playstation 3 world. Playstation Home community manager CydoniaX says that Home-goers will be able to access and explore the island by clicking on the Red…

  By Brian Crecente Published January 7, 2009
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  Reggie: Nintendo Listens To Its Fans, Honest

  If you’re feeling a bit neglected by the folks at Nintendo of America, now that it’s at the top of the console market heap, President Reggie Fils-Aime wants you to know that they’re listening. Fils-Aime tells GameDaily that Nintendo that “We listen to our fans all the time.” But what about the grumble-inducing decisions? Things…

  By Michael McWhertor Published January 7, 2009
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  Tetris Spells Trauma Relief

  Researches at the Oxford University in England have discovered that the effects of traumatic stress can be dampened by something as simple as playing a bit of Tetris. 40 healthy volunteers were exposed to a film containing a series of traumatic graphic images of injuries. Half of the subjects were given the game Tetris to…

  By Mike Fahey Published January 7, 2009
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  The Kinetics of Pinball

  The man behind such pinball greats as Fun House, the Addams Family and The Twilight Zone, Pat Lawlor, recently sat down with Gamasutra to discuss the history and design of pinball games. The interview covers a bunch of topics, but most interesting is Lawlor’s take on pinball kinetics. There are obviously many aspects involved in…

  By Brian Crecente Published January 7, 2009
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  CES 09: Audiovox Puts PlayStation 2s In Your Car, Dawg

  Yo, dawg, Audiovox heard you like the PlayStation 2 and car ownership. So it co-branded with Sony on a PlayStation 2 for your car so you can play games while you drive. Announced at today’s Audiovox press conference at CES, the new entertainment system featuring an integrated PlayStation 2 and 16-channel wireless FM modulator is…

  By Michael McWhertor Published January 7, 2009
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  Uwe Boll Receives Four Razzie Nominations

  The Golden Raspberry Awards are the anti-Oscars, celebrating the worst that film has to offer, so it comes as no surprise that our favorite video game movie director Uwe Boll be nominated for four. According to Larry Carroll of the MTV Movie Blog, Boll appears four times on the 2008 Razzie ballot, with nominations for…

  By Mike Fahey Published January 7, 2009
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  Major Left 4 Dead Update Coming Very Soon to PC, Console

  Valve will be announcing a major update to the software development kit for PC users and downloadable content details for the Xbox 360 “very soon”, a company spokesman told Kotaku today. The new details, first hinted at in our December in-game interview with Valve’s Chet Faliszek, could be announced as early as next week. Valve…

  By Brian Crecente Published January 7, 2009
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  Wii, PS3 See Hardware Sales Gains In Japan

  The holidays were very good to Nintendo in Japan, with hardware sales big enough to translate to a second bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken on Christmas Eve. We’re talking 380,000 game machines moved in a week. Leading Nintendo’s hardware charge was the Nintendo DSi. Sales were actually down, week to week, but still far enough…

  By Michael McWhertor Published January 7, 2009
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  GameCrazy Offers Street Fighter Coinage For SFIV Pre-Orders

  Take a gander at this special, limited edition commemorative Street Fighter IV coin, available exclusively to folks who pre-order Capcom’s next big fighting game from retailer GameCrazy. The commemorative Street Fighter 20th Anniversary coin is a thing of joy and wonder, encompassing everything it means to be a coin, while still commemorating an event. It…

  By Mike Fahey Published January 7, 2009
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  The 2008 GOTY GOTYs: The Best of the Best

  Last year Multiplayer came up with a great idea: sorting through all of the Game of the Year Awards to pick one conclusive winner. This year, I’m stealing that idea, and not making it better. After scouring the internet for upwards of 45 minutes I managed to find 24 different publications that had finished drip-feeding…

  By Brian Crecente Published January 7, 2009
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  An American (McGee) In Shanghai

  Like most stories, this starts with a girl. Rather, this starts with a boy chasing a girl — to Hong Kong. The boy wasn’t a boy, but developer American McGee. And the girl? We’ll get to her later. For the time being, she’s the impetus that spurred McGee to start frequently visiting Hong Kong and…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published January 7, 2009
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  Saint’s Row 2 Hits Steam

  The nice folks at Valve have just informed us that THQ’s open-world gangbanger simulation Saint’s Row II is now available to download and play on your PC via Steam. Yes, along with your local PC game dealer, Saint’s Row 2 is now available for download on the Steam Service for the low price of $39.99,…

  By Mike Fahey Published January 7, 2009
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  Ubisoft Makes Grey’s Anatomy Game Official

  Though most likely perturbed by having their fun ruined by the ESRB last month, Ubisoft has gone ahead and made Grey’s Anatomy for the Nintendo Wii, DS, and PC official. The Grey’s Anatomy games sounds like a cross between Trauma Surgeon and a an adventure game, with players taking on the roles of their favorite…

  By Mike Fahey Published January 7, 2009