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Watch/Pity The Participants In The Halo Wedding
As a man on the cusp of marriage himself, I’ve got a few ideas on the kind of wedding I want. A Halo one, I don’t want. But I do enjoy watching them. Watching them and saying, out loud, “thank Christ that’s not me“. Click to view
By Luke Plunkett Published January 26, 2009 - Uncategorized
Game Retailers Buying Less, Expect Fewer Copies Of Smaller Games
Not sure if you’ve heard, but the economy is shit and everybody’s losing their jobs. If you’re still gainfully employed, the downturn might start to hit home soon, thanks to game retailers stocking less. Sega Europe president Mike Hayes tells GamesIndustry.biz that U.S. retailers are “being far more prudent in what they buy, so they’re…
By Michael McWhertor Published January 26, 2009 - Uncategorized
Puzzle Quest: Galactrix Has Me Sold On Space
D3’s Dorks, Dealers and Double-Ds event made much of Galactrix, even if they did designate it as the “dork” portion of the evening. Two PCs and four DS stations were set up for gamers to go head-to-head in multiplayer or take a stab at story mode. The PC demo had already dropped earlier that day,…
By AJ Glasser Published January 26, 2009 - Uncategorized
The Legend of Princess: If Zelda II Went 16-Bit
Joakim “Konjak” Sandberg, developer of the gorgeous IGF nominaated Noitu Love series, has released a one-level “love letter to Zelda” called The Legend of Princess. It’s the unofficial sequel to Zelda II we’ll never get. This stunning, two-dimensional, arcadey hack and slash represents a potentially frightening alternate reality scenario, one in which the sidescrolling sequel…
By Michael McWhertor Published January 26, 2009 - Uncategorized
iPhone Dominates Independent Games Fest Mobile Award Finalists
Maybe Apple’s iPhone really is “the future of gameplay.” This year’s Independent Games Festival Mobile finalists are almost entirely comprised of titles for iPhone and iPod Touch platforms, with just one Nintendo DS entry appearing. Two iPhone titles lead the pack of nominations, with tower defense game Fieldrunners and cubic puzzler Edge up for three…
By Michael McWhertor Published January 26, 2009 - Uncategorized
Grand Theft Auto IV PC Gets All Patched Up
Rockstar Games has given owners of the Windows version of Grand Theft Auto IV a new title update, issuing a suite of bug fixes, tweaks, new options and new controller support. Probably most welcome to those of us sporting a PC that is brought to its knees by GTA IV are new graphics sliders, giving…
By Michael McWhertor Published January 26, 2009 - Uncategorized
New York Comic Con
To: Ash From: Crecente Re: Look What You Get For Being On Japanese TV! I’m trying to decide if we should cover the New York Comic Con this year. I mean it’s never been a HUGE gaming event, and I’m not sure if it’s worth the resources. What do you think? If we go who…
By Brian Crecente Published January 26, 2009 - Uncategorized
EA Still Partying At The Super Bowl, Despite Layoffs
With the economy in a rut, it’s hard to justify fabulous Super Bowl bashes when companies are bleeding cash and slashing headcount. But Electronic Art’s is proudly soldiering on with its festivities, Madden Bowl-style. The publisher is just one of a handful of corporate entities going all out at Super Bowl XLIII with Madden Bowl…
By Michael McWhertor Published January 26, 2009 - Uncategorized
Sensory Sweep Responds to Labor Claim
Sensory Sweep, the Utah developer that is the subject of a $2 million unpaid-wages federal investigation, denies some allegations levied against it and says they are working out an agreement with investigators. Chris Rushton, a company vice president, tells us: Sensory Sweep has undergone some significant hardships since Brash Entertainment went out of business. We…
By Owen Good Published January 26, 2009 - Uncategorized
Spore Galactic Adventures: Behind the Scenes
Spore was an interesting experiment, one that didn’t totally live up to the absurdly high expectations, but that I still enjoyed. One of the issues I had with the game was that it felt a bit too skeletal. Sure you could go from single cell to space exploration, but you couldn’t really dig into any…
By Brian Crecente Published January 26, 2009 - Uncategorized
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time Travels To Wii, DS In March
Square Enix has put a firm date on Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time. The game, dual-shipping on the Wii and Nintendo DS for euphoric connectivity, will land at retail on March 24th. Both the Wii and DS versions of Echoes of Time will set you back a budget-priced and outrageous $39.99 USD, respectively.…
By Michael McWhertor Published January 26, 2009 - Uncategorized
Stormrise Units On Parade
With only a few more months to wait for Creative Assembly’s post-apocalyptic real-time strategy title Stormrise, the company drops details on some of the units we’ll be controlling after the world ends. It’s a matter of blue versus brown in Stromrise, apparently, with the tribal Sai units sporting earth tones and the technologically advanced Echelon…
By Mike Fahey Published January 26, 2009 - Uncategorized
Winter X Games Keeps Playstation Sponsor, Loses Many Others
Playstation, Oakley and Totino’s pizza rolls may still be sponsors at the Winter X Games in Aspen, but several other top sponsors have dropped out, including the Zune, The Aspen Times reports. “Given the economic environment out there, obviously we’re being impacted, like everyone else,” said ESPN executive Rick Alessandri. Among the sponsors to drop…
By Brian Crecente Published January 26, 2009 - Uncategorized
Left 4 Dead 4 Kids Now Suitable 4 Framing
If you were serious about picking up artist Jason Chan’s Left 4 Dead 4 Kids print (not actual video game fan art, mind you) now’s your chance. Prints are available for purchase. Chan’s “Zombie Playground” is available in physical form in one of three size flavors: 13″ by 19″, 18″ by 24″, or 24″ by…
By Michael McWhertor Published January 26, 2009 - Uncategorized
New(ish) Puzzle Quest: Galactrix Screens
Man, if only NASA were really like Puzzle Quest – I’d so have signed up for space camp. Puzzle Quest: Galactrix is coming out on PC, Xbox Live, PlayStation Network and Nintendo DS. GameStop tells me the DS version ships February 24th and I am so pre-ordering it. DS and PC screens below.
By AJ Glasser Published January 26, 2009 - Uncategorized
Guitar Hero World Tour Gets Temp $25 Price Drop
Target dropped the price of the Guitar Hero World Tour guitar bundle by 25 percent for the week. That brings the Playstation 3, Wii and Xbox 360 version of the game down to $75. The only problem is that you still can’t buy a drum kit or microphone on it’s own. So you’ll have to…
By Brian Crecente Published January 26, 2009 - Uncategorized
The Sims 3 Getting Pushed Back?
Micro-managing your Sim all over again may be further off than originally planned, if retailer reports are accurate. According to Edge, Electronic Arts is “evaluating the launch window” of The Sims 3. Whether that means a formal delay for the next installment in EA’s 100 million unit selling franchise is unclear, but its European release…
By Michael McWhertor Published January 26, 2009 - Uncategorized
Custom Crocheted Sackboys Defy Logic
Not only has video game scripter and user interface artist Maggie Wang created her own custom LittleBigPlanet sackboys based on characters like Spock and Hellboy, she’s also willing to make yours as well. Maggie started off just wanting to make her own basic brown sackboy, but soon found herself branching out, creating sackboys that channel…
By Mike Fahey Published January 26, 2009 - Uncategorized
Movie Critics Second Guessing Star Ratings Too
More than 80 years ago the movie rating star system was born in the New York Daily News. On July 31, 1928, the paper announced they would be using a three-star reviewing system from then on out to rate movies. And almost from the same day, movie critics starting hating the system. It took video…
By Brian Crecente Published January 26, 2009 - Uncategorized
Steam Users Beware: There’s No Such Thing As A Free Game
Be careful what you log into, Steam users. A new account phishing scheme is targeting users of Valve’s digital distribution platform, luring in gamers with the promise of gifted copies of Ubisoft’s Far Cry 2. While Steam users are regularly warned by messages from Valve not to provide their login details to anyone — “Steam…
By Michael McWhertor Published January 26, 2009