Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Gaming Today

Gaming Today

Valve Gives Us Portal 2 Box Art

Posted: 04 Jan 2011 05:35 PM PST

Doesn’t that image just make you feel like, yes, we will one day play Portal 2? Whoo-hoo! And it’ll be on PC and Playstation 3 as well as Xbox 360, but all the boxes pretty much look just like this one. Europe too. And it’s totally going to come out sometime soon — hopefully April 21, like we’ve been told.

Valve is known for its delays. In fact, we’re in the middle of a Portal 2 delay right now, since the game was originally slated for the holiday season of 2010 but now is supposed to be a few months away. Last time, the guys at Valve’s PR department called this “the shortest delay in Valve’s proud history of delays.” And we were supposed to laugh and take it. The bastards.

So hopefully we won’t see any further delays, seeing as we even have a box mock-up, and that’s totally proof that there’s going to be a real game in there at some point. Right?

Here, watch a trailer in the meantime to help stave off the pain as we wait for robotic cooperative goodness.

Please Enjoy The Dumbest Gamer On The Face Of The Planet

Posted: 04 Jan 2011 05:27 PM PST

We don’t know if this is real or fake. We’re pretending it’s real, and wish to remind you all that she’s talking about this game:

This is the gamer equivalent of complaining that the Declaration of Independence wasn’t written Lol. That’s some good educationing, America. Word.

Nintendo DS, Wii Set 2010 Sales Records

Posted: 04 Jan 2011 05:07 PM PST

Nintendo has a few things to gloat about from 2010, including the fact that its Nintendo DS is now the best-selling game system ever.

According to a press release from the company, more than 47 million DS units have been sold in the U.S. since the first DS was launched way back in November 2004, which puts it past the Playstation 2 to become the best-selling video game console ever.

The company’s internal figures show that Nintendo moved more than 7 million Wiis in 2010, making it the third year in a row that has happened, and pushing the Wii up to more than 34 million units sold in the U.S.

The holidays were a particularly good time for Nintendo, apparently — it estimated 3 million Wii sales for December alone. Between Playstation Move and Microsoft Kinect, apparently Americans are still screaming for motion-controlled casual gaming.

Killzone Just Got More Nerdy with a Card Game

Posted: 04 Jan 2011 05:00 PM PST

I never really understood the appeal of trading card games. I’m not dissing them; just saying it’s not my thing. I can, however, understand going all out on something you do like. (I am an alcoholic.) So I can get that if you like TCGs, you might wanna make one for some intellectual property out there you really like.

And that’s the story behind the Killzone card game. A guy/lady known as “thepinapple1″ made his/her own set of Killzone cards. He/she has also made them available for download. This is neat. Check the development of this whole deal of at some Eye of Judgment forum, and download the sets of cards here for ISA and here for Helghast. Below is a video of thepinapple1 unboxing these bitches.

via Kotaku

Morrowind 2011 Is Out. Right Now.

Posted: 04 Jan 2011 04:56 PM PST

When I say ‘Elder Scrolls’, most of you reading this probably unconciously added ‘Oblivion’ and recalled the vast amount of time spent playing that incredible waste use of your time. And for good reason. In the last 5 years Oblivion Developer Bethesda has been the go-to people for huge, high quality RPGs, so much so that the period of time prior to the current gen seems like some kind of fever dream. But way way way back in the day, when we had a President who gave unsolicited back massages to other heads of state, there were actually Elder Scrolls games predating Oblivion, and the most beloved of all was 2002′s Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind.

So beloved, in fact, that people have never stopped playing, particularly modders. And seriously, Morrowind has so many mods I’m surprised Half-Life 2 isn’t standing outside its window holding up a boom box that blasts Peter Gabriel songs.

Anyway, here’s the deal: Morrowind 2011. It’s a massive collection of Morrowind mods that almost qualifies as a full conversion. It drastically updates the gameplay and graphics, bringing them to a level that compares favorably to Fallout 3 or Oblivion. And yes, we are super impressed. We won’t bore you with too many Details. Instead, check out this trailer and see for yourself:

Get your copy here. A 1 GB of it. We also reccomend their Reddit page.

Lie to Yourself, Others with this Actual Guitar Rock Band Guitar

Posted: 04 Jan 2011 04:36 PM PST

Soon avid Rock Band 3 players will be able to pretend they’re actually applying their time to developing some kind of musical talent with the Fender Squier Stratocaster guitar controller — which is an actual guitar.

The guitar is exclusive to Best Buy, which is currently accepting preorders for the controller. It’ll run you $279.99 and is already compatible with all three console platforms, but you’ll need to purchase a MadCatz MIDI PRO-Adapter — $39.99 — for your Xbox 360, Playstation 3 or Nintendo Wii.

Actually, you might really be able to develop some musical skill the Squier, which is designed for Rock Band 3‘s PRO mode that lets you use actual strings, frets and chords to play the game, and learn something more than just that green is the top fret button.

Here are the rest of the Strat’s features straight from the BestBuy.com listing:

  • Agathis wood body with polyester finish
  • 22-fret maple neck with polymer fingerboard and position-sensing electronics
  • Enclosed tuners
  • Custom bridge pickup
  • Custom truss rod
  • 1/4″ output jack
  • Standard 5-pin MIDI output jack, compatible with MIDI recording software

You can snag your Squier Strat when it’s released in March, or in early April, when Best Buy is expecting to receive its shipments.

Via Shack News.

Tiger Woods 12 Goes to the Masters (TEASER)

Posted: 04 Jan 2011 04:28 PM PST

Tiger Woods PGA Tour is a solid franchise, but it’s always been missing something. That something is Augusta National and The Masters, which is, like, the thing in golf. It’s like not having the Super Bowl in Madden or the BCS Championship in NCAA Football.

That changes this year, because Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12 will have The Masters at Augusta National. On top of that, they’re releasing it early; rather than put it out in June like they usually do, EA is opting for a March 29 release, a week before the event in real life, which starts April 7. It also gets a name change: “Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12: The Masters” is what you’ll see on the box this spring.

God, this is so cool. One of the reasons I enjoy playing these games is because it’s awesome to play these famous courses I’ve seen so many times  on TV. Augusta National is the most famous course of all, so this year’s edition is gonna be like megacool. Now, for a teaser narrated by the man who has called The Masters for more than 20 years (Jim Nantz) and who EA brought in to call the event in the game as well.

download

No More Heroes Screens Looks Flashy on PS3 (GALLERY)

Posted: 04 Jan 2011 03:54 PM PST

Konami’s upcoming port of the formerly Wii title No More Heroes has some new screens out today, and they all look like the game is making some pretty good use of its Hi-Def up-conversion.

No More Heroes: Heroes’ Paradise is due out sometime this year, although there’s no firm release date yet. The new version of the game adds a lot of cool new features to Grasshopper‘s quirky Wii action game — namely, more levels, Playstation Move support, and better enemy AI. Looks like it keeps all the stylized weirdness, however.

What else? Well, there’s a Viewer mode so you can rewatch cutscenes (many of them featuring people being violently killed), a Rebout mode so you can refight defeated bosses (many of them featuring people being violently killed), and more bosses to fight (with people being violently killed — because that’s what this whole game is about). The dev team is also working hard to reduce load times and clean up technical issues with the game that appeared int he Wii version.

Have a look.

Via VG247.

Mass Effect: Evolution (comic book) Free Preview

Posted: 04 Jan 2011 03:19 PM PST

There’s a new Mass Effect comic on the way (which we already knew), and it’s called Mass Effect: Evolution. It’ll have four issues, and the first will be out on January 19, and it’s totally exciting because it’s about what the Illusive Man was doing during the First Contact War.

The BioWare blog has post a preview of the first issue with the cover art, alternative cover art and five pages from the inside of the book. It looks cool, and got damn do some Turians get all shot to hell. For example:

Check out the rest on da blog.

Avatar Kinect Shots Leaked from CES 2011

Posted: 04 Jan 2011 02:26 PM PST

Somebody got behind a velvet rope at CES 2011 in Las Vegas and snapped a couple of shots of Avatar Kinect, some kind of new Xbox 360 service Microsoft is expected to address in its keynote tomorrow.

Glimpse Dog posted the shots of the thing, and speculation from around the Intertubes suggests the new software will be part of an Xbox Live update and allow users to use Kinect and their avatars to do stuff, like chat, maybe watch Netflix Instant or ESPN together, or otherwise interact the way you can using video chat on Xbox Live now. Sounds like it’ll be something like Nintendo’s Mii Channel, although a lot more interactive.

Despite some very frank statements on various blog posts, it’s all speculation — we won’t really know what Microsoft is planning, or what Avatar Kinect can actually do, or how it’ll come to be available, until tomorrow night. But apparently you can stream the Microsoft keynote at 6:30 PST Wednesday from its Facebook page.

Via TechCrunch.

Minecraft nearing 1 million sales

Posted: 04 Jan 2011 01:56 PM PST

That’s right — nearly 1 million people’s painstakingly built digital houses are at risk to be catastrophically destroyed by digital fire.

After being released in May 2009 and receiving three nominations for Independent Games Festival awards, Minecraft still isn’t finished, and is still quickly gathering players, according to creator Markus Persson’s blog. It just entered beta last month and got a price hike to about $23, with the full game going for about $31 when it’s sold.

Persson has said he’s not sure what Minecraft will actually be in the end, in terms of content, but in the meantime, players just keep building awesome things in it. And it keeps spawning hilarious situations, like this NSFW video of the audio of someone giving commentary about Halo: Reach overlayed with Minecraft video. In fact, we picked ourare our favorite awesome and hilarious Minecraft videos from last year, because there’s just so much creativity being spawned there. So keep it up, you million Minecraft minions, because we like being entertained.

Via VG247.

Body Wars: The Game is Out Now!

Posted: 04 Jan 2011 01:29 PM PST

Y’all ever go to Epcot Center? They used to have this ride called Body Wars, where you’d ride in a ship that is shrunk down and injected into somebody’s bloodstream so you can fly around and find some previously shrunken scientist who’s floating around in there somewhere. It was totally awesome.

I just wanted to let y’all know that there’s a new game from EA on XBLA and the Playstation Store that’s like that. It’s called Microbot, and you fly around through some bro’s bloodstream in order to cure some weird “biotechnical” disease. Basically, it’s Body Wars meets Trauma Center, except it’s a shooter. I’m in. It’s 800 MS points/$9.99, and, like I said, it’s there now for the taking.

via press release

OnLive System on Sale for $66

Posted: 04 Jan 2011 01:11 PM PST

OnLive is spinning a lot of plates today, announcing that it’ll be adding 5.1 surround sound support to its streaming PC gaming service sometime this year and that its partnership with Vizio will have OnLive built in to several of that companies new devices, including TVs and blu-ray players.

Oh, and OnLive’s mini-console, which plugs into your TV and streams games using a Wi-Fi connection, is 33 percent off through Jan. 9.

The discount is part of OnLive’s Consumer Entertainment Show celebration and knocks the console’s price down from it’s usual $99.99 mark. You’ll also get a free game and free access to PlayPack Beta, which would normally have you paying a monthly price of $9.99 for non-new-release games.

Surround sound for OnLive is coming in the early part of this year, as part of a partnership with SRS Labs. OnLive’s partnership with Vizio is even cooler, though: it’ll mean the service will be integrated into Vizio’s HDTVs, blu-ray players and the new VIA Tablet and VIA Phone.

The idea, according to OnLive head Steve Perlman, is that the service doesn’t need hardware updates on the consumer end, just on the company’s end (they’re also working to reduce lag this year, he said). So putting OnLive in TVs makes sense, as they can hang around for several years — usually substantially longer than a cell phone.

If you’re in the market for a new HDTV, you might want to consider Vizio if you’re interested in cloud PC gaming. But now’s also a good time to grab OnLive’s console if you don’t need an upgrade.

Via VG247.

A Sweet NES Scion, Courtesy Of Giant Robot

Posted: 04 Jan 2011 01:06 PM PST

This is the best thing you’ve seen all week, and all the convincing you’ll ever need to move to LA. Open since December 30th, the Zen Garage is an art exhibit sponsored by Giant Robot magazine, featuring a slew of striking art created by Asian-American artists. It’s brilliant and beautiful, and the centerpiece is the car you see above, David Choe’s custom Monster Scion, built to look, for the most part, like a giant, drivable NES mothaf-ck-n’ Famicom!. Yes, it really drives, but better still, this car is also the console on which visitors to the exhibit can play a retro video game called The Super Famicom Car. Though no word on whether or not the mechanic has to open the hood and blow on it when it breaks1.

But don’t take my word for it – here’s a video all about the car. Enjoy.


8 bit Nintendo Scion – Watch more Game Trailers

I wonder,

Some comparisons may be in order.

Famicon:

The NES:

And of course, another shot of this MUSTHAVEITNOW car:

Honestly, who would have thought those clunky AcTiVision box designs would look so warm and comforting as upholstry? I guarantee you my next scooter will be tricked out to look like this.

If you’re in LA, the Zen Garage is at the Japanese-American National Museum until February 13. Go. Now. (More photos at Giant Robot’s Flickr stream).

1) (H/T Greg Saunders)

New Screens Make Dead Space on iPad Look Awesome

Posted: 04 Jan 2011 12:25 PM PST

There’s still not a lot of information about whatever Electronic Arts is doing with Dead Space on the iPhone and iPad — reportedly it’s some kind of bridging story between Dead Space 1 and 2 — but at least it looks pretty, as evidenced by some new iPad images that just popped up over at Slide to Play.

Here’s what we’ve heard so far on the iOS versions of Dead Space: they fill in the gap between the first game and the sequel, which lands on shelves on Jan. 25, but you’ll play as someone called Codename: Vandal — whether that’s usual protagonist Isaac Clark isn’t clear yet, although that engineer suit looks pretty familiar. We’re also hearing that portions recreate environments from the first Dead Space, which suggests this one takes place on the doomed mining ship Ishimura.

In fact, the screens look a whole lot like the original Dead Space, right down to the weapons and environments (although, don’t all horror-filled space ships and stations from the future look the same?), so it seems as though the formula consisting of slowly walking down a hallway while things jump out and attack you is pretty much what we’ll be dealing with.

As to how you’ll play it — virtual controls, tapping to aim, shacking the device violently in rabid fear — it sounds like the game has no visual controls to speak of, and touching the screen in various places does various things. Movement is controlled by touching the left side of the screen, camera on the right and firing by tapping, which suggests you’ll be aiming by pinpointing where you want a shot to go rather than trying to line it up with a pair of thumbsticks.

So all signs point to a pretty literal translation of Dead Space 1 to iOS, with a new story and on a smaller scale. Not that that would be bad at all — iPhone and iPad owners can definitely use more spooky high-end games. Hopefully soon we’ll get a release date, or any info from EA at all.
at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)
hit counter