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Atlus Teases New Title
Sigh. Another announcement of an announcement. This time it’s Japanese game maker Atlus. At least the teaser site is interactive! On July 24, Atlus will announce a new title. The teaser site is covered with a mosaic, but if you drag your cursor over the blue tiles, it reveals a view of the globe from…
By Brian Ashcraft Published July 17, 2009 -
Watch Some Guy Play Gran Turismo PSP For Two Minutes
Yes, watch as somebody from Spanish site Fase Extra puts Gran Turismo PSP through its paces for a few minutes, menu screens and all. It’s actually looking quite good! I think the downgraded graphics and d-pad input brings us back to a time when Gran Turismo meant “enjoyable racing sim”, not “soulless shrine to tedious…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 17, 2009 -
PaRappa Creator: East And West Should Not Be “Too Separate”
PaRappa the Rapper creator Masaya Matsuura is an international dude. Heck, he worked with American artist Rodney Greenblat to bring PaRappa to life. He knows the benefits of international collaboration. “Developers in the East and West should not be too separate,” said Matsuura at Develop Conference 2009 in Brighton, Uk. “It should me international, and…
By Brian Ashcraft Published July 17, 2009 -
Porn Actress In The Running For New Yakuza Game
SEGA held a cattle call for its upcoming Yakuza game with an open audition. Women with experience as cabaret hostesses were encouraged to apply. One finalist has more experience than that. Much more. Finalist Rio is one of the 16 to be in the running for a slot in the game. According to her personal…
By Brian Ashcraft Published July 17, 2009 -
Midway Fires 20% Of Workforce, Including CEO, Ahead Of Sale
Now that Warner Bros. owns Midway, there’s not much need for Midway’s corporate offices in Chicago. Warner Bros.’ offices can handle that sort of stuff just fine. So all 60 employees there have been laid off. As per the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, the employees were given 60 days notice on Monday. Those…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 16, 2009 -
More About This White-Haired Boy Final Fantasy XIII Character
His name is Hope Estheim. The white-haired boy did make an appearance in the E3 Final Fantasy XIII trailer, but thanks to this Japanese magazine article, we have more details about him. Hope wields a boomerang as his weapon, and there is a bit of friction between the fiery tempered character and bandana dude Snow.…
By Brian Ashcraft Published July 16, 2009 -
Level-5 Announces It Will Announce New Games (Oh Great)
Level-5, the Fukuoka-based developer behind those puzzling Professor Layton games and PS3 exclusive White Knight Chronicles, has announced an announcement. Yep. At upcoming event Level-5 Vision 2009 in late August, the developer will reveal a trio of new titles. Current games that Level-5 is developing include Studio Ghibli title The Another World, a new Professor…
By Brian Ashcraft Published July 16, 2009 -
1 vs. 100 is Again a Free for All — Literally
All you cheapskatin’ silver members in North America should know Xbox Live is opening 1 vs. 100 to everyone this weekend, meaning you can play for prizes – no purchase necessary! As you might have heard, this coming weekend last weekend will be was the first involving skill-based prizes for players during the 1 vs.…
By Owen Good Published July 16, 2009 -
PlayStation Camera To Support Facial Recognition
Forget full-body waggle, the thing that most excited me about Project Natal’s E3 demo was the promise that the camera could recognise my face, and log me into Xbox Live automatically. Yes, I’m that lazy. Not wanting to be outdone, Sony Europe’s Head of Developer Services, Kish Hirani, announced yesterday during the Develop conference that…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 16, 2009 -
Houston Chronicle: Video Game Racism “The New Norm”?
No, not that guy. Norm, as in, status quo. As in, we’ve masticated the shooting-black-people argument in Resident Evil 5, now let’s pile on Call of Juarez and an unreleased game for good measure. It’s a blog post that’s a bit too sensitive and an argument that’s a bit too convenient and dramatic for my…
By Owen Good Published July 16, 2009 -
Xbox Live Update: Games On Demand, Netflix Movie Party & More
Next week, Microsoft will be previewing some of the new Xbox Live changes it announced at E3, updates that include improvements to Netflix streaming, Xbox 360 games on demand, an Avatar Marketplace and a whole lot more. That preview will roll out to media and select Xbox Live community members starting Monday. It includes new…
By Michael McWhertor Published July 16, 2009 -
Sony Tries Pay-To-Play Arcade Pricing On PSN
Japanese PlayStation 3 owners can experience the thrill of depositing credits to continue with today’s release of 100 Yen Gomibako, a special release of the PlayStation Network game known as Trash Panic in the West. This version of Trash Panic will cost only 100 yen—about one U.S. dollar—to download. But those who purchase it will…
By Michael McWhertor Published July 16, 2009 -
Nobuo Uematsu Sells Out San Francisco
If you missed Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu in Seattle last weekend and you don’t have tickets to this weekend’s show in San Francisco, you’ll just have to move to Japan and stalk him. The July 18th San Francisco performance of Distant Worlds: the music of FINAL FANTASY sold out within weeks of the tickets…
By AJ Glasser Published July 16, 2009 -
Spyborgs Gets Box Art, Drop Date
Capcom just announced a drop date in North America for Spyborgs, its Wii-exclusive co-op brawler, and it is Sept. 29. It’ll set you back $49.99, of course. You may recall Spyborgs went off to a less-than-whelming reception in 2008, and Capcom took the shoulder-shrugs to heart. The game you’ll get is less of an homage…
By Owen Good Published July 16, 2009 -
Shadow Complex Has Peter David Written All Over It
Chair Entertainment‘s brilliant looking Metroid-esque adventure Shadow Complex appears to have some storytelling meat to it, not just tried and true side-scrolling gameplay. The developer announced today that comic book scribe Peter David penned the game’s original story. That story is based on the works of Orson Scott Card, whose novel Empire the Xbox Live…
By Michael McWhertor Published July 16, 2009 -
Wii MotionPlus Sales Off To A Good Start
June may not have been a good month for the video game industry, but the prospects for Nintendo’s motion-controller are looking promising. First month sales for Wii MotionPlus were what we’d consider a pretty good start. First month figures for the Wii Remote add-on were “nearly 374,000” according to the NPD Group. That was split…
By Michael McWhertor Published July 16, 2009 -
The Fantastic Fieldrunners Makes The PAX 10
Fieldrunners, the pretty successful tower defense title for the iPhone, landed a spot today in the Penny Arcade Expo’s PAX 10 indie game selections. If you don’t own an iPhone, you might know the game from a panel I covered at a Game Developers Conference 2009 called “No Publisher? No Problem! iPhone for Indies.” Fieldrunner…
By AJ Glasser Published July 16, 2009 -
Fun With Feynman
To: Bash From: Crecente Re: Photoshop Alternative? Are you familiar with Richard Feynman, Safecracker, bongo-player, and, oh yes, physicist? While his eccentric personal life (he used a topless bar as an office while at Caltech and included among his hobbies safecracking, juggling, bongo painting and painting.) helped propel his name to fame, it was his…
By Brian Crecente Published July 16, 2009 -
NPD Instant Analysis: Things You Should Note [UPDATE]
EA finally gets the Wii, and not in a way that will excite hardcore gamers. Ghostbusters goes missing. PSP jumps. And more observations you can use at cocktail parties from today’s June NPDs. (Check out our software and hardware reports for June here… then read this analysis and add yours.) EA Nails The Wii, Thanks…
By Stephen Totilo Published July 16, 2009
