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Week in Games: Afro Thunder
Afro Samurai and Front Office Manager are your big multiplatform drops this week. The lineup: Six titles for DS, five for PC; three for Wii; two for 360, PS3 and PS2, one for PSP. Monday (Jan. 26) AC-130 (PC) MLB Front Office Manager (360, PS3, PC) Niki – Rock ‘n’ Ball (Wii) Tuesday (Jan. 27)…
By Owen Good -
Study Debunks Crime/Game Connection, Takes a Poke at Researchers
A prof supplies data showing exposure to violent video games has “no significant relationship” to mass shootings. In other news, exposure to “Dancing with the Stars” has no significant relationship to train robberies. Before you go all “No shit, professor, I could have told you that,” realize the guy is trying to answer the question…
By Owen Good -
Strong Sales Make de Blob Sequel Certain
IGN noticed that De Blob outsold Wario Land: Shake It by 80,000 copies, and both were released the same day. THQ, asked for comment, said there’s more where that came from. What they literally said, attributed to a THQ spokesman, was, “We’re pleased with de Blob’s performance worldwide. It’s a great intellectual property and you…
By Owen Good -
Chicago Trib Asks “Is GTA This Century’s Best Writing?”
The profile of Rockstar and the Housers doesn’t really answer that (beyond mentioning the Goatie we gave it for writing). But the writer talks to critics and eggheads who say it’s a legitimate question. “Look at film in 1908 — there was no sound, you viewed it through a nickoleodeon, there was a limited filmic…
By Owen Good -
Now You Can Be Certain You’ve Bought a Jasper
The newer, cooler, less red-ring-of-deathy Jasper configuration of the 360 has been out since the holidays. If you want make damn sure that’s what you’re buying, Newegg is offering them virtually by name. Ordering online or picking up in the store can be a crapshoot whether you get a Jasper as the new config filters…
By Owen Good -
Labor Dept. Says Utah Dev Owes Workers $2 Million
Sensory Sweep Studios is facing allegations it hasn’t paid nearly 200 employees in more than 100 days. The US Department of Labor has filed an injunction, saying more than $2 million is owed. According to lawsuit documents, the Department of Labor was notified in late October of the pay issue and sent a wage-hour investigator…
By Owen Good -
Zelda Bento: The Adventure of Lunch
Annathered’s back from her bento creation station again. She breaks her rule about 3D bentoing to give us a 2D Wind Waker incarnation of Link. It’s time for lunch on the east coast, right? Here’s the full list of ingrediments for this lovely scene of Link finding more heart in the forest: Toon Link: –…
By Owen Good -
Knicks Player’s Salute Proves He’s CoD:WaW Gamer?
Saturday, New York’s Nate Robinson saluted before taking his first free throws. Seems he was proving his identity to a Call of Duty: World at War player he’d faced earlier this week. Inside Hoops, a comprehensive site covering just about everything in the NBA, reports the item. But there’s no video or audio of this.…
By Owen Good -
No Love Among the Ruins of Circuit City
A storewide liquidation always summons one’s buzzard instinct. One imagines the goods strewn about like carrion on the desert floor, practically there for the taking. Not so at Circuit City. Circuit City’s in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy which means all its assets are being sold off. That includes the in-store stock. But rolling up on…
By Owen Good -
MLG Giving Out 25 Halo Wars Early Demo Invites
Major League Gaming got 25 invitations from Microsoft that give early access to the Halo Wars demo, and is holding a drawing to see who gets ’em. Winners can play it a week early. The demo goes out Feb. 5; these codes will get you in on Jan. 29. MLG’s asking entrants to just post…
By Owen Good -
Fallout 3’s Four New Achievements
Eagle-eyed readers Andrew D. Larry B. and Captain McNinja spotted four new achievements for Fallout 3, worth 100 gamerscore, up on their Xbox profiles. I guess this needs a spoiler alert. So, there it is. The achievements are “Aiding the Outcasts,” “The Guns of Anchorage,” “Paving the Way” and “Operation Anchorage.” Of course, we knew…
By Owen Good -
Braid Creator Now Working on 2D RPG?
That’s one nugget in a four-page interview Jonathan Blow gave to Gamasutra. But he’s not sure if he’ll end up finishing it: “My newest game I started is looking very promising. I’m very excited to do it. But if the patterns of history continue, then I may not be working on it a month from…
By Owen Good -
Snake Makes a Solid Tat
There seems to be no shortage of the impressive art gamers are both willing to pay for and have etched into their skin. Reader Aaron S. – I believe emailing from Japan but I could be wrong – sent us that one, which he says is a picture of his friend. Not him. Because that’s…
By Owen Good -
Bethesda Still Balking at Post-Ending Play for Fallout 3 on PS3
Upcoming DLC will enable 360 owners to continue exploring the wasteland after they complete Fallout 3’s main quest. But Bethesda again says no such capability will be extended to the PS3 version. MTV Multiplayer went back to the developer to ask about the possibility. “Not at this time, no,” said executive producer Todd Howard. Welp,…
By Owen Good -
Meet Billy and Malc of Lost & Damned
Two 30-second trailers have hit introducing us to Billy Grey, badass-in-chief of the Lost motorcycle gang, and Malc, a crotchrocket-riding bike thief, in Grand Theft Auto: The Lost and Damned, out Feb. 17. Character bios only, so no gameplay of course. But Billy looks like a garden-variety bonebreaking sociopath. Malc hews to stereotype, too, in…
By Owen Good -
F.E.A.R. 2 Trailer Employs Beaten-to-Death Joke, Bewbs
Monolith put up an Armacham site promising to chase all your fears away, and flacked it with that infomercial above. Ha ha. OK. Yeah. I get it. Shrug – wait, boobie?! I have to say, I do admire Nurse Lauren’s commitment to delivering her lines even though she knows not one dude is listening to…
By Owen Good -
Mario Gets a Ransom Note
The -Minus World hallucinated a ransom demand from Bowser to Mario Re: Princess Peach (aka “ho” according to this) – but look closely. All the letters were cut from game-related logos. Can you guess from which source all 39 letters came? Skimming over it I can recognize a dozen, easily. Spoilers are in the comments…
By Owen Good -
L4D Mod Puts More Survival Into Horror
Someone’s put together a Left 4 Dead mod that aims for more realistic gameplay but definitely ratchets up the difficulty. It does pack a nifty laser sight however. A modder by the handle Doku found the original a little too arcadey and set to putting the survival back into survival horror. Among the fun he…
By Owen Good -
Nuka Cola Recipe Omits Rads
Unless you’ve got some Polonium-210 in your spice rack, this homebrew brew of Fallout 3’s sody-pop lacks the oomph of the real thing. Judging by the ingrediments, It also lacks any kind of appealing flavor. Here’s the secret formula for standard Nuka, written up by forum poster aznz888 on Facepunch. 1/3rds Cream Soda 1/3rds Coca-Cola…
By Owen Good -
Korean Dev Goes all Nazi to Promo MMO
A bunch of half-nekkid Korean dudes got their sieg heil on in chilly downtown Seoul to promote Karma II, an MMOFPS (we’re doing that abbreviation now? OK). Cue shocked and outraged onlookers? Eh, not really. Instead, once they saw the shirtless fascists (say that five times fast) and the Karma II banner, many ran up…
By Owen Good