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Taking Damnation To The Next Level

Building the vertical-oriented worlds found in Blue Omega‘s Damnation takes a great deal more effort than simply plotting out points on graph paper. Damnation’s lead game designer Jacob Minkoff walks us through the process of creating the expansive, realistic spaces found in the Western steampunk shooter Damnation. They use a completely different method for mapping…

Killzone 2 DLC Hits on April 30

The Killzone 2 Steel and Titanium downloadable map pack hits the Playstation 3 on April 30, SCEA announced this morning. They didn’t, however, set a price yet. The DLC pack comes with two new multiplayer maps and “new gameplay element and strategic twists.” Wasteland Bullet takes place on a bullet train rocketing between Pyrrhus and…

How Dumbed Down Acting Is Creating Dumbed Down Games

There’s an interesting story over at The Brainy Gamer that discusses the techniques of voice acting and how it rarely applies to voice acting in games, mostly because of time and money constraints. Michael Abbott talked to a voice actor who explains how the typical tools of an actor aren’t just disused, they’re a hindrance…

City Of Heroes Team Becomes Paragon Studios

NCsoft cements their commitment to the City of Heroes franchise today, officially changing the name of development team NCsoft NorCal to Paragon Studios. Paragon Studios gets its name from Paragon City, the central location in NCsoft’s massively multiplayer online superhero game. NCsoft NorCal was formed in Mountain View, California in 2007, when NCsoft took over…

How To Experience The Red Faction: Guerilla Demo

While North American gamers still have to pre-order Red Faction: Guerrilla through GameStop to gain early access to the demo, lucky Europeans need look no further than their web browsers. GameStops across North America are reporting the arrival of demo codes for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of Red Faction: Guerrilla, handed over…

Starhawk Trademarked, Warhawk in Space Confirmed?

A trademark filed last week by Sony Computer Entertainment America seems to confirm rumors we posted last month of a upcoming Warhawk title set in space. SCE filed a trademark for Starhawk on April 9 for a computer or video game and operating a real-time game for others over a global and local area computer…

World Of Warcraft Patch 3.1 Reveals The Secrets Of Ulduar

New dungeons, dual talent specializations, user interface improvements, and much more arrive today with The Secrets of Ulduar, patch 3.1 for World of Warcraft. Though it snags top billing, the massive dungeon of Ulduar is just the tip of the iceberg in patch 3.1. The patch sees the implementation of a relatively expensive but extremely…

GameStop Breaks Demigod Street Date, Ruins Stardock’s Easter

A street date broken by GameStop late last week had Demigod publisher Stardock scrambling to get enough multiplayer matchmaking servers up to handle the sudden rush of players. GameStop was selling the real-time strategy PC game from Gas Powered Games as early as last Friday, days ahead of the planned April 15th street date. Those…

Winner: Worst Product Catch Phrase

As seen at Fry’s. Offworld

Black Or Brown Eyes?

To: Crecente From: Bashcraft RE: Viral Happiness I’ve kinda forgotten, actually. So many people in Japan use the word “black” to describe their eye color: dark brown. Today, Mini-Bash was telling me that some kids in his class have black eyes and other kids have brown eyes. I know in English we use “black eye”…

Prayers Answered: Grim Fandango Action Figures

People, if you want to impress us with custom action figures, don’t do Metal Gear Solid, or Grand Theft Auto. Do classic Lucasarts adventure games! That’s what Iain Reekie did with these Grim Fandango figures, which are amazing not only for the likeness, but for the fact that he did the entire sculpt. Then again,…

MotionPlus, Wii Sports Resort Dated & Priced For US

Earlier this week, Nintendo announced that Wii Sports Resort and MotionPlus would be out “overseas” in July. Today, Nintendo of America sets firm release dates for both. The Wii MotionPlus accessory goes on sale a month earlier on June 8 in the U.S. for US$19.99. Wii Sports Resort drops later the following month on July…

First Look At Assassin’s Creed On iPhone

If you were excited by the prospect of Assassin’s Creed appearing on the iPhone, well, good for you. Just a word of advice, though: you might want to scale that excitement back a little. Why? Because the game isn’t a new title, developed with the iPhone in mind to take advantage of the platform’s numerous…

These Games Are Hard

Some games are easy, others are hard. But then there’s a batch of titles that are in a category all unto themselves. Website GameDaily has a list of 25 truly difficult titles. While it’s not a perfect list (no list is), it does start an interesting dialogue. Yippie. Before we get to that, let’s have…

British Sales Charts: Business As Usual

It was a respectable few weeks you had going there, Britain. Street Fighter, Resident Evil, Empire: Total War…pity it couldn’t last, then. Because this week’s charts look a lot more like last year’s dreary procession of fluff than this year’s showcase of genuinely interesting titles. Wii Fit, Mario & Sonic, Wii Play, Mario Kart…and what’s…

Beatles Rock Band Bundle Detailed

The Fab Four are coming to Rock Band, and they’ve got a limited edition bundle to prove it. Dubbed the Limited Edition Premium Bundle, it includes The Beatles: Rock Band game; a Höfner Bass controller, Beatlesque and Ludwig-branded Rock Band drums with classic pearl finish, a metal kick pedal and a vintage replica drumhead

Microsoft Extends Warranty For “E74” Failures

For a few months now, Xbox 360 users have been quietly venting about a “new” hardware fault with the console, where instead of displaying three red rings, machines would show an “E74” error. Just because it didn’t flash the iconic red rings, though, doesn’t mean it wasn’t bad! If you got it, your console would…

Who Knows, Ten Years Of New tri-Ace RPG

Like what you’ve seen of upcoming multi-platform role-playing-game End of Eternity? Get used to it, because you might just see more of it. Lots more of it. Ten more years of it, maybe. At the SEGA press event today in Tokyo, it was excitedly stated that End of Eternity was a “truly epic title” and…

Netflix Looking For Console Programmers

Hey, Netflix. We get it. If two surveys weren’t enough to get us ready for it, this job listing certainly has us convinced you’re interested in streaming moves from the PS3 and Wii. The position is for a “Engineering Leader-Gaming Platforms”, who will be responsible for “prototyping, testing and building the Netflix experience for gaming…

Wii Sensor Bar Stand Is Totally Patented

Two-and-a-half years after the Wii was released, the Nintendo sensor bar stand patent has been approved by the U.S. government. On April 7, Nintendo’s patent for “Base Stand for Sensor Bar” was approved for a 14-year patent. The stand is described as an “ornamental design for a base stand for sensor bar.” That’s an ornamental…