Here we go again. PSN is down and ruining people’s lives everywhere I’m sure. Sony is investigating the cause of the outage and so far, there are no answers. We will keep you updated as news comes, but don’t sit around holding your breath. That’s not good for you. Hope you didn’t have anything fun planned that involved playing online with your PS3, because your day (or two) may very well be ruined. Last time PSN was down, I gave you a list of things to do while you wait for it to come back online. Today, I am going to give you a new list. It will be better.

These things will make you forget about playing online with your PS3 and hopefully make you remember that life is good even without online gaming.

- Depending on the weather in your area, just grab chairs, place them in the sun, get some close friends, turn on some music, get some beer and soda, relax, soak in the sun, and enjoy the company of good friends.

- If you are in an area with crappy weather, go out for a nice meal. Get something you don’t usually get, and then steal a fork or two.

- Clear off that crappy music you have on your iPod, Zune, or whatever mp3 playing device you own. You know… those songs you never listen to. They’re taking up space and they irritate you enough to skip them every time.

- Invite friends over to your house and have the scene in Silence of the Lambs, where Buffalo Bill is dancing like a “lady,” paused on your TV and start putting lipstick on to frighten them (this only works if you are a man). Good fun!

- Slap a random person next to you and see what happens.

- Make one of those giant sandwiches they have in old WB cartoons.

- Learn to play a musical instrument. If you already know how to play one, learn a new one.

- Make your own list of things to do and tell me how much better it is than mine.

Anyway, you’ll survive the outage. I know you can do it.

SOURCE: Playstation Blog

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Before you PC gamers out there give yourselves nosebleeds from cringing so violently upon reading that, Todd Howard explains some details as to why this may be a good thing for everyone. Hint: PC mods possibly getting released on consoles? Awesome.

Bethesda’s Todd Howard spoke a little bit with Eurogamer about what differences gamers will see between the PC and console versions of Skyrim. Howard basically said there won’t be huge differences between the versions of the game and the PC version “scales up in all the ways you would expect” and further stated, “We author our art really high res. There are little things we do with all of our games on the PC. With the PC the texture sizes are going to be as big as you want to make them, and you can pump the resolution up, obviously.” Howard went on to say they weren’t using all of the fancy bells and whistles of DirectX 11 like the shaders, but that isn’t to say they don’t want to use DirectX 11 features in the future.

Sounds like fairly standard PC and console comparison talk, but what’s really cool, is what Howard had to say to Edge recently. It sounds like the decision to make the game more in line with DirectX 9 will benefit console gamers in the long run. According to Edge, Howard stated the creation tools will only be available for the PC, but the content created by the tools also work on the console version. “It works on all the consoles,” Howard said. He also went on to say this:

“As far as the 360 and PS3, right now there’s not an avenue for us to make that available, but we’d very much like to find a way. We have talked to Microsoft and Sony, and so there’s a chance it might happen one day, [but] I don’t see it happening for release.”

“We’d like to see it happen, because it works, it’s how we made the game. I think it’s something really cool about what we do, but 90 per cent of our audience is on the consoles, so 90 per cent of our audience can’t even see this thing. So if we can solve that we’d like to.”

Sounds good to me! Skyrim is going to be my personal Game of the Year, without a doubt. I still play Oblivion to this day and can’t wait to see what Bethesda gets done as far as bringing user-generated content to consoles goes. There are so many cool Oblivion mods for the PC… I’d like to experience at least a few of the most popular ones this time around. My fingers are crossed.

SOURCES: Eurogamer / Edge

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Ed Boon has claimed he don’t need no stinkin’ patches to tweak fighters in the new Mortal Kombat. Before anyone says it, yes, I know it’s badges. Anyway, it looks like NetherRealm Studios has taken some preemptive measures to make sure any unforeseen balancing issues can be corrected without the need to download a patch.

How do they do this you ask? Boon states there are things called “dynamic updates” built into the game’s fighting system that allow room for tweaking and meddling. I’m not sure exactly how it works without getting the internet too involved with its downloads and whatnot. Ed Boon wasn’t very specific with his details on how it works, or really anything that useful, but it is cool to hear about developers doing things like this. As far as we know, it’s magic. Technology!

SOURCE: Eurogamer

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Just in case you haven’t already downloaded most of these titles already, either on XBLA or the million other ways to get them now, check out the list of games you can save some cash on. It’s a pretty damn good list and packed full of quality titles, but like I said, most of you probably already have these. If you don’t, or worse yet, you’ve never played them before in your life… check them out now! It also wouldn’t be a bad idea to have some of the same games on different consoles anyway. There’s no such thing as too much old school SEGA goodness… most of the time. There are even a few current generation titles peppered in there for good measure. The sale lasts until April 25. Happy Easter.

Streets of Rage 2 400 200 ($2.50)
Ecco the Dolphin 400 200 ($2.50)
Virtual On: Oratorio Tangram 1200 600 ($7.50)
Golden Axe 400 200 ($2.50)
Sonic Adventure 800 400 ($5)
Sonic the Hedgehog 400 200 ($2.50)
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 400 200 ($2.50)
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 400 200 ($2.50)
Sonic and Knuckles 400 120
Phantasy Star 2 400 200 ($2.50)
Happy Tree Friends 800 400 ($5)
Crazy Taxi 800 400 ($5)
After Burner Climax 800 400 ($5)
Altered Beast 400 200 ($2.50)
Gunstar Heroes 400 200 ($2.50)
Comix Zone 400 200 ($2.50)
Outrun Online Arcade 800 400 ($5)
Shinobi 400 200 ($2.50)
Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode One 1200 800 ($10)

SOURCE: SEGA

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Notch, or Markus Persson in the real world, has done the math… he is now rich. Minecraft has been catching on for quite a while now and there are 1,813,527 who’ve purchased the game. You can check out the stats here. I’m pretty impressed with those numbers. I downloaded a free version of Minecraft to see what the fuss was all about, and while I didn’t get hopelessly sucked into it like most unfortunate souls did, I really can understand what the appeal is. I’m really happy for Persson. It’s super cool to see someone just make something they love and get paid to do it. In this case, Markus made something he loved and really cared about, and it made him a millionaire.

It sounds like Notch is pretty weighed down with the idea of keeping up on the demands of his customers and had this to say about the whole situation:
“I’ve always had a tendency to feel like I’m just not quite keeping up with demands, even before starting work on Minecraft. It’s not gotten better by having a runaway hit like this.”

Well you better get used to it, buddy. People are just going to want more and more and expect more and more from you. Before you know it, you’ll be quitting the programming business just like Dave Chappelle quit his show. Try to hang in there, man. I know being an insta-millionaire is hard, but someone has to do it!

SOURCE: Gamasutra

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This is a bummer for any of you out there who decided to buy the full retail version of the game last year, but for the rest of us, this is some great news. I passed on the new version of NBA Jam that came out last year thinking it was priced a little bit high, and the gods have blessed me with this. NBA Jam On Fire Edition will be hitting PSN and XBLA this October. Just from reading the EA press release for the game, it appears the downloadable version will have more features than the full retail version and will be the best version available. There’s no word on whether or not there will be a Wii version in the future.

The game will have online play, with both competitive and co-op modes and will include all of the things we have come to love from the NBA Jam series. EA had this to say about NBA Jam On Fire Edition: “We’ve listened to all of the feedback from our fans and we are driven to deliver the very best NBA JAM experience to date.”

Sounds like it’ll be something worth keeping an eye on. I hope EA is offering some kind of apology to the people out there who decided to buy the full retail version of the game last year that will have less features than the upcoming downloadable title. Oh well, it’ll be the first time playing it for me!

This picture is for you old-timers that remember this good stuff from the arcade!

SOURCE: EA

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This deal of the week is pretty good if you haven’t picked up the Vietnam expansion, or you’re looking for an excuse to get into BF 1943. I can personally vouch for the Vietnam expansion. It gave me some great hours of online shooting action and was definitely worth the full price of admission at 1200 points ($15), so you can’t go wrong with the discounted price of 600 points ($7.50). The rest of the list is pretty nice too if you are interested in picking up all things Battlefield. Check out the list below.

Battefield: Bad Company 2 – Vietnam 1200 600 ($7.50)
Onslaught Mode 400 200 ($2.50)
Kit Short-cut Bundle Pack 1200 600 ($7.50)
SPECACT Upgrade Bundle 480 240 ($3.00)
Battlefield 1943 1200 600 ($7.50)

The Onslaught mode is definitely worth the 200 point price and it looks like it might be time to finally pick up BF 1943. This should all be enough to get you hyped for Battlefield 3 and get you through that painful wait until this holiday season.

SOURCE: Major Nelson

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Looks like you can pick up these two solid 2K Games titles for a pretty great price on Amazon.com’s Deal of the Day For today only, you can pick up Bioshock 2 for a nice price of $10.99 and Mafia II for a slightly higher nice price of $14.99. Seeing as how Mafia II just came out like… well, over half a year ago, this seems like a pretty great deal.

I don’t have much to say other than that. If you think you need some new games and you’re low on cash… AND you haven’t played these games yet, then you may be in the right place. I’ve got my eye on Mafia II. I heard it was pretty good and you get to drive around in the old days wearing suits while shooting people who don’t pay up. That’s always a good time in my book.

SOURCE: Amazon.com

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It’s been a while since anyone has heard anything regarding Max Payne 3, but EDGE brings us a little more than we have. So… at least it’s something! Rockstar is apparently promising a “sophisticated” Max Payne game. Rockstar Vancouver has stated gamers are expecting a little more from the series these days than they expected from it back in 2001 when it was first introduced to the world. I would have to agree with them. As much fun as running around and diving all over the place in slow motion is, it would be nice to have some substance to back it up. Now I’m not saying the first two Max Payne games were lacking in substance… in their day. They got the job done and told gritty, sometimes creepy stories, but It would be nice to see the game get the royal treatment that Red Dead Redemption and GTA IV got, as far as budgets, talent, and polish go.

So far Rockstar seems to have a lot of faith in the game. It sounds like there will be a huge emphasis on the Euphoria tech used in both GTA IV and RDR. They’re saying they want to take the Euphoria and NaturalMotion tech beyond what they did with it in RDR. I’m pretty interested to see how they are going to do that. The tech was used in such in incredible way in RDR. It will be cool to see them really just take things to the next level. Rockstar is also aiming to keep the game a more linear experience, but trying to maximize the excitement people can get from a linear experience with making varied environments and keeping things exciting.

I know Rockstar will deliver something pretty awesome when Max Payne 3 hits. I’ve always been a big believer in their work and this will be no different, I’m sure.

SOURCE: EDGE

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At select Walmart locations across the country, you can trade in your old DS for a $100 credit towards the purchase of a new 3DS. Is the offer available in your state? The offer is only being honored in these following states: Alabama, Kentucky, Florida, Georgia, Arkansas, Texas, Mississippi, Tennessee, South Carolina, Missouri, North Carolina, and Oklahoma. You can even reportedly trade-in two old DS consoles if you happen to have two, and get $200 towards your new 3DS. Apparently Walmart isn’t going to accept any more than 2 DS consoles per person though.

So what do you think about this? You have time to think about it. The 3DS is launching on Sunday and you’ll have from then until April 30th to figure out whether or not that sounds like a good deal. The deal isn’t valid for online orders, so get over your fear of Walmart if this deal sounds good to you. You may come back smelling of McDonald’s and shame, but at least you’ll have saved $100-$200 on your shiny new 3DS!

SOURCE: Joystiq

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The sequel to one of the best Nintendo games ever is getting released in Japan this summer. Will it make it to US shores? There’s no word yet on whether or not it will make it as a US WiiWare title, but it will supposedly be coming to the PC as an “online title” sometime in 2012. I’d like to see this hit the US because it is hands-down one of my most favorite games from the NES era. There’s something great about riding a tire into some dude’s gut, hopping off, beating him senseless with a trash can, and taking his money all in the name of saving your girlfriend.

Make this happen please.

SOURCE: Joystiq

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The only freezing issue I think Kaos Studios should be looking into, is the issue of freezing themselves until people forget about Homefront. Burn. Seems like things aren’t too peachy these days for THQ and Kaos Studios. Homefront has been received in a fairly lukewarm-to-cold fashion by critics since its release and now reports of game-freezing issues are popping up. Kaos Studios is apparently looking into whatever the problems are and stated it “will need a bit of time” to get things sorted out.

Consumers don’t seem to be noticing anything else wrong with the game though. It has been selling relatively well, but apparently THQ’s stock prices plummeted after the rash of poor review scores were released into the world. Followed by that, Amazon and Walmart had a price drop battle of sorts with Homefront, which reportedly had nothing to do with the poor reception of the game. THQ released this official statement on the Homefront price drops:

Amazon and Wal-Mart.com have raised the prices back up and it was a one day play to gain market share on the biggest title in the industry right now. THQ did not support this in any way, shape, or form.

Biggest title in the industry you say? I see. You mean you spent so much money on the advertising that it feels like it should be the biggest title in the industry right now. Anyway, I haven’t tried the game yet, but just from seeing all of this nonsense, I will be waiting for another price drop sometime in the future.

SOURCE: Joystiq

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Some people are really digging and piecing things together for this one, but their efforts combined reveal a possible revealing of Hitman 5. It looks like some sly little marketing stunts are leading people to believe that the next installment in the Hitman franchise will be revealed at E3. Apparently in an ad in a catalog at the Sundance Film Festival, someone spotted a doughnut box with a barcode on it. The ending numbers on the barcode were “47.” I know, pretty crazy stuff. Someone on Hitmanforum.com started harassing IO Interactive about the teaser of an ad and they began sending him pictures of black gloves, paperwork with what looks like a doodle of Agent 47 on it, and another barcode. It’s all relatively wacky business, but it’s good to know something is happening with the next Hitman game. You can check out a picture of the weird things here. It all seems very odd and slightly tacky in a way, but good job to the guy who had nothing better to do with himself!

I’ll be glad to get some real info on this game, so if it is coming at E3, awesome.

SOURCE: OXM UK

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I can’t think of a better way to get people more accustomed to the Playstation Move than using the very series that introduced people to the potential of the Dualshock controller. This summer you’ll be able to wave your virtual ape-catching net around with your PS Move wand and hopefully take part in some mad-cap antics involving apes and calamity. The game will be downloadable from the PSN and will reportedly include 15 levels for you to hunt down those infamous apes, using a variety of strange tools and gadgets. It’s cool to see the Ape Escape series continuing on and taking advantage of some new peripherals. I actually wish I had the PS Move setup just so I could play this game. Catching the little apes is really just that much fun.

I had a blast with the original Ape Escape on the PS1 and I actually popped it in my PS3 just the other day to goof around for a bit. It still kicks ass and is one of the most charming games ever made. I really wish people would get it straight though… every time I hear something about the series, apes and monkeys are always mentioned. I hate to be that guy… but apes are not the same as monkeys. I don’t know if some of those “apes” are hiding tails under their little shorts, which would make some of them monkeys… but it is just strange to see them talked about as basically the same thing. I may just be making a big deal out of nothing, but hey… come on now. Call it “Monkey Escape” if that’s what it is!

SOURCE: Playstation Blog

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All of you music makers out there, now’s your chance. Using ACID, you will get the chance to remix some music from Killzone 3′s soundtrack and potentially win some amazing prizes. I haven’t used ACID in a while myself, but I might fire it back up just to take part in this contest. My brother and I placed 5th in a Chemical Brothers remix contest for the song “Galvanized” on ACIDplanet.com a few years back, so maybe I have a fighting chance. Everyone out there who likes to create music on their computers and likes to remix stuff, give it a shot. The track that will be up for remixing is called “Stahl Arms Battle.” I’ve never heard it myself, but it sounds like a pretty heavy title.

Here’s some info about how to enter and a list of prizes for the winner:

How To Enter:

- First, create your remix of “Stahl Arms Battle.” If you don’t already have ACID software, download the free ACID XPRESS software. Next, download some of the loops. Using the ACID music creation software, paint the loops into your remix. When you’re finished simply click the “Upload My Entry” button. Upload your track, and you’ve entered the contest.

- At the end of the contest, Joris de Man himself will choose One (1) Grand Prize winner and (2) second place runner-ups.

Prizes:

- One (1) Grand Prize winner will receive:
Limited Helghast Edition Killzone 3 (MSRP $300)
Vegas Pro software (MSRP $699)
ACID Pro software (MSRP $499)
Twenty (20) Loop Libraries (MSRP $1400)
Sony MP3 Walkman (MSRP $159)

- Two (2) second place runners-up will receive:
Killzone 3(MSRP $59.99)
ACID Music Studio software (MSRP $69.99)
Ten (10) Loop Libraries (MSRP $700)

Rules:

- The contest begins Thursday, March 10, 2011.
- All entries must be fully uploaded by 12:00 a.m. midnight PST on Thursday, April 21, 2011.
- Entrants must be at least 17 years of age.
- Entrants must provide accurate contact information for the purpose of contacting winners.

Check out this link here to get the lowdown on the complete set of rules for the contest.

If you don’t have ACID already, you can go download the free version of ACID XPRESS over on ACIDplanet.com. Get crackin’ on some music and try to win some really great stuff!

SOURCE: Playstation Blog

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EA is looking to make Dead Space a household name and they’re going to make that push with Dead Space 3. EA practically crammed the Dead Space name down people’s throats with novels, toys, a movie deal, comics, and DLC and it looks like they have quite large ambitions for the series. The first Dead Space was a great game and while it was met with critical acclaim, it wasn’t a huge flagship game for EA. With the release of Dead Space 2, the series is starting to really pick up some steam. I haven’t had the chance to check the game out personally, but WPR’s Ryan Wilson gave his thoughts on Dead Space 2 in his recent review and he appeared to think rather highly of the game.

EA’s Frank Gibeau had this to say about taking the Dead Space series to new heights:

“The Resident Evil series was awesome, the early versions were phenomenal. [Capcom] did a good job of growing the franchise to a very large market. I think we still have some areas to grow with Dead Space in terms of trying to reach a broader audience without losing the quality and that survival-horror mechanic. That’s how we’re going to think about it as we think about Dead Space 3 and what we do next with the IP.”

“Overall, we want to try and grow the business in the action category. EA doesn’t really have a very strong stake there; survival-horror kind of lives in that genre.Third-person action is something that we think we can build and our Visceral Games team is really working hard at crafting some new IPs as well as building out ones that have succeeded. Horror movies are great films; it’s a genre that’s been around for decades. We think the same holds true for interactive.”

I don’t know if Dead Space will ever reach the same level of popularity that the Resident Evil series has, but I think it’s admirable for EA to tackle that goal and really try to claim their place in the action-survival-horror genre. Resident Evil has gotten a little stale for me since RE5 hit, so I can see there being some room for EA to move in and give gamers more of what they want without forcing antiquated game mechanics on people just for tradition’s sake. However, I’d have to say the characters in the RE series have always been more appealing to me. They always seem so over the top and out there and I just don’t get that same feeling from Dead Space. It can only mean one thing to us gamers in the end though. We’ll get an amazing game when Dead Space 3 hits regardless of whether or not people begin to see Dead Space in the same light as Resident Evil.

SOURCE: IGN

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The company is looking into making more bite-size games that tie into full retail versions of their games. The thought of more standalone games, that also serve as demos, is rather appealing. Dead Rising: Case Zero was a brilliant idea. You pay $5 for a sort of prequel to Dead Rising 2, get to level up your character, check out the game before you plop down $60, and take whatever progress you make in the game over to the retail version. In an interview with GameIndustry.biz, Capcom’s US VP Christian Svensson spoke about using the model in future games.

“It’s not something we’re going to be doing on every title, but it’s something we’re looking at on a title by title basis,” he explains. “Can we provide a compelling, self-contained pre-amble with persistence that links to a full product that helps people to upsell?”

“The learnings that come from this are that it’s something you have to plan from the beginning,” Svensson continues. “It’s not something you can do mid-development. It was hard enough even when we planned it from the beginning, just time-wise, the co-ordination of the Vancouver studio finalling practically three pieces of content at once — that’s hard.”

It’s cool that Capcom is thinking about doing more of this. I’d personally like to see more companies adopt this approach to the standard demo model we see these days. I like the idea of being able to try out a game, but then also getting a little standalone game that entices me to continue on into the full retail version. I know this would encourage me to pick a game up on its release day instead of waiting for a while to get it a little cheaper. It would be awesome to see this happen in games like Dragon Age or maybe games like Battlefield 3 where you actually level up your character for online matches.

It’s a great idea, Capcom. I’m all for it.

SOURCE

The post Capcom plans for more games like Dead Rising: Case Zero appeared first on WatchPlayRead.

Well, I didn’t really expect to hear this today, but there it is. I hope you are all proud of yourselves. It looks like people really enjoy themselves some Call of Duty: Black Ops. It’s a pretty fun game in small doses, but I personally can’t really stomach the Call of Duty series anymore. It would appear that the majority of you out there do not feel the same way. According to NPD analyst Anita Frazier, Black Ops has surpassed Wii Play as the best-selling game in the US… ever. Black Ops sold a whopping 5.6 million copies on its first day in the UK and US. Wii Play has apparently sold 13 million copies total and whatever Black Ops has sold must obviously be higher than that.

Nice work Activision and Treyarch. It paid off. I guess it’s sort of a shame because there were so many other great games that came out last year that deserved a lot of attention, but Black Ops effectively smashed the hell out of those games with its insane advertising blitz. I guess it just goes to show you having a lot of money will get you whatever you want… and really, I can’t think of any message more important than that.

Soak it in Nintendo fans… Black Ops > Wii Play. I know it’s tough to face, but I had to say it.

SOURCE

The post What’s the best-selling game in the US ever? Black Ops… appeared first on WatchPlayRead.

She’s been in quite a few good roles, so all of you weeabos looking forward to Catherine should be excited. Laura Bailey has provided voice work for tons anime and games in the past, so this seems like it’s a pretty natural fit. Bailey has been in hits such as Full Metal Alchemist, One Piece, Naruto, K-On, like… almost every Dragon Ball game ever made, FXIII as Serah, Chun Li in SFIV and SSFIV, Nier as Kaine (awesome role), Tekken 6 as Christie Monteiro, and a crapload more than I can list here. If you want to take a look at the list yourself, go ahead. Catherine should be a pretty unique game since it makes me slightly uncomfortable just by looking at the screenshots, but it’s cool to see the game getting backed by such awesome voice talent.

I know most of you who are awaiting this game probably already know who Laura Bailey is, so I will stop typing now to let you be alone so you can go be questionable in private. I know what you are doing. You are all perverts.

SOURCE

The post Laura Bailey will be the voice actor for US version of Catherine appeared first on WatchPlayRead.

Cliff Blenszinski is determined to make the multiplayer experience in Gears of War 3 a memorable experience. He just wants to make sure it’s memorable for actually working instead of being memorable for being completely broken. It looks like Epic Games is taking the multiplayer seriously this time around, with the beta coming in April and Cliff B. stating, “… if we release Gears 3 and it has the same launch as Gears 2 online then the franchise is dead. So you can’t afford to make that mistake twice, right? And to be fair over the course of the six title updates, we got Gears 2 in a very good position. And we need to take it to great. And that’s what this will help do.”

This is nice to hear because I really wanted to like the multiplayer in Gears 2, but it was just so damn broken. I’m not really sure what he means in saying they “got Gears 2 in a very good position.” The last time I attempted to play competitive multiplayer in Gears 2, I swore it off because it just seemed like it was getting progressively worse. Maybe they fixed it eventually, but it shouldn’t be broken from the start. I have high hopes for the multiplayer in Gears 3 now, so don’t let me down, Epic.

SOURCE

The post Epic Games knows Gears of War 3′s multiplayer needs to be perfect appeared first on WatchPlayRead.

Well, I hope you didn’t wake up this morning with grand plans to download tons of games and play online with your PS3. The maintenance started today at 8:00 a.m. PST (11 a.m. for you east coast folks) so you better plan your day accordingly. More importantly, if you are planning your day around being on the PSN, maybe you should reassess your priorities. Here are a couple of things you can do while the maintenance takes place:

- Read a book
- Play with your children
- Go out and watch about 4 movies
- Sleep until it’s over
- Clean your damn house because if you’re spending that much time on the PSN, it probably needs to be done
- Comment telling me how insensitive I am being to people who will be crushed by this period of downtime
- Cry

SOURCE: Playstation Knowledge Center (Yes, apparently this is a thing)

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Epic showed off their new technology at the GDC 2011 in a pretty impressive way. The demo comes in the form something called ‘Samaritan’ and shows a guy killing the crap out of some other guys. The new engine looks like it’ll pave the way for some really cool action later on down the line and if nothing else, it’s always fun to watch people get messed up in a flashy fashion. I’m not entirely sure if this is a new game by Epic Games or if it’s just a demo, but it looks like it would make a pretty cool game. I’m just hoping this new tech is used in the next Rainbow Six game. It’ll be interesting to see who jumps on the wagon with this new tech, because there are some pretty impressive engines in use right now. I’m personally still leaning towards the Frostbite 2.0 engine and would like to see that used in more games, but if Unreal Engine 3 can create equally impressive destructible environments, I’d like to see it.

Video courtesy of IGN

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It seems a little odd to offer up a high resolution texture pack on a game’s release day, but Bioware is doing it right now. It makes you wonder why these textures weren’t just included in the retail release of the PC version of Dragon Age 2, but I guess maybe it helps people run the game on lesser machines. I guess it’s cool they are giving people with high-end rigs the opportunity to enjoy something a little fancier, but it still just does make me wonder… if you have nicer textures, why not just use them to begin with and let the users scale the game according to their tastes? Anyway, the high resolution texture pack is available right now for your crisp adventuring needs. You can grab it here and enjoy the highest quality textures as soon as you take Dragon Age 2 out of the box. It looks like you’ll need over 1 gigabyte of space on your hard drive, at least 1 gigabyte of video RAM, and Bioware is recommending you have DirectX 11. Now go get your awkward game-sex on with a high-resolution character of the opposite sex… or one of the same sex if that’s your thing.

I can’t wait to play through this game, even if it’s only on my now extra-lower-res PS3!

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If the recent HD overhaul of Beyond Good and Evil isn’t satisfying your need for all things BG&E related, Ubisoft would like you to have the soundtrack at no charge. There’s no word on how long they will be giving this away, but I am providing you with this lovely link to make sure you can take advantage of this cool opportunity. You can start downloading here at any time. For those of you who haven’t checked out this game still, you should get on that while you are downloading the soundtrack. I’m waiting for the PS3 version to get released so I can enjoy the game on the controller I enjoyed it with many years ago.

Now go get yourself some great, free music!

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There’s not much to say about it, but there is a pretty good amount of it to watch. It looks like Resistance 3 will have kill-streak perks just like every other popular shooter out there these days. I’m not complaining about it, I’m just pointing it out. At least there didn’t seem to be any airstrike-like kill-streak rewards in the video. Despite my passive-aggressive bashing of kill-streak rewards being in Resistance 3, the game is looking pretty damn nice and seems like it will have some pretty cool multiplayer action. I’m not super excited and foaming at the mouth for this game, but it least it looks better than Resistance 2, which was just sort of “blah” in my book.

For those of you eagerly awaiting this game, this must be a real treat to get a lengthy video full of alien-shooting shenanigans.

I’m sorry… Battlefield 3 just totally has my FPS needs covered forever… I want to be excited about this game.

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Steam is giving you yet another way to experience some Dreamcast classics. The same Dreamcast Collection that was released for the Xbox 360 a couple weeks back, is now available for your pleasure on Steam. You can get Power Stone Sega Bass Fishing, Shenmue Space Channel 5: Part 2, Sonic Adventure DX, and Seaman Crazy Taxi all in one four-pack for $29.99, or you can pay $8.99 for them individually. It’s not really super exciting news, but it’s something cool if you’re one of those wacky people who just can’t get enough of the Dreamcast.

I don’t really think I have much more to say. Go buy them… if you want to.

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First the Ubisoft four game bundle on Steam, now this? It’s like Christmas in video game land… a lame Christmas where you buy your own gifts. Amazon has 12 months of Xbox Live Gold for the reasonable price of $40, which is a complete bummer for me because I just renewed at the full $60 about four days ago. For the rest of you, another year of Live’s features for $20 less is available as we speak.

Amazon is also offering up Fable 3 for $28 for a limited time, so if you have been on the fence about picking it up, now may be a good time. I’ve personally sworn off the series after Fable 2 and promised myself I would never be lured in by Peter Molyneux’s slippery words again. I’m sure there are enough of you out there that will find it decent enough to spend $28 on though, so don’t miss it if that’s your thing.

There’s no word on how long these sales are going on for, so if any of this tickles your fancy, do something about it!

Amazon: Xbox Live Gold deal
Amazon: Fable 3 deal

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The Gears of War 3 beta will coming next month. Bulletstorm players will get in a week earlier than others and Epic included some great unlockables as well. This means all of you people who bought Bulletstorm will be getting an extra week to practice up in the Gears of War 3 beta before I get there to curb-stomp you into oblivion. Use it wisely. Gamers that decided not to pick up Bulletstorm will have to wait until April 25th to get in on the beta, and all you need to do to get it in is pre-order the game from Gamestop. We all know that everyone who owns an Xbox 360 will be picking up this game, so pre-ordering it to get in on the beta seems like a no-brainer.

Players will be able to unlock a load of cool things during the beta and will actually be able to carry the items over into the retail version of the game. This is such a great idea, it’s amazing we don’t see this happen more often.

Here’s a list of the things you’ll be able to get your hands on during the beta:

Beta Tester Medal – Complete a match in the beta to get the Beta Tester medal, which will then be displayed in multiplayer lobbies in the retail version of the game.

Thrashball Cole – Complete 50 matches in any game type to unlock the version of Thrashball Cole. If you then complete 10 matches as Thrashball Cole during the beta, the character will carry over to the retail version of Gears 3.

Gold-Plated Retro Lancer – Complete 90 matches in any game type to unlock it for the beta, and score 100 kills with it once unlocked to get it carried over to the retail version.

Flaming Hammerburst – Complete one match by Sunday, April 24 to unlock.

Flaming Lancer – Complete one match during the week of April 25 to unlock.

Flaming Sawed-Off Shotgun – Complete one match during the week of May 2 to unlock.

Flaming Gnasher Shotgun – Complete one match during the week of May 9 to unlock.

I’m ready for this.

I hope Epic learned from their mistakes last time and Gears 3 finally gets the online right on launch day. Gears 2 had some serious issues with its competitive multiplayer early on and it really turned me off to the point of making me just wanting to play the multiplayer for Gears 1. Get it done right the first time, guys. You have a pretty superb track record when it comes to making online multiplayer games… make this one perfect.

SOURCE

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This weekend you can pick up four great Ubisoft games for dirt cheap. In this weekend’s sale on Steam, you can snag a four game bundle consisting of Assassin’s Creed, Rainbow Six Vegas 2, Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood, and Far Cry 2 for the insanely low price of $12.99. I can’t vouch for the PC versions of these games, but I’ve played every single one on my Xbox 360 and if you haven’t played any of these games for some reason, get them. Now. You’re looking at around $3.24 per game and each one of these is definitely worth paying $12.99 for alone. It’s definitely a pretty kick-ass bundle that just so happens to include some of my favorite games from Ubisoft. I played Rainbow Six 2 for at least a couple of years after its release and I still play Far Cry 2 to this day. Bound in Blood is also a gem of a game that got lost amidst a flood of more well-known titles during its release. Assassin’s Creed… well… it’s Assassin’s Creed. The first one.

Sales don’t really get much better than this. Go grab ‘em while you can. The sale ends March 7th at 10am PST.

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Join me as I celebrate the game that created and defined a genre.

I can’t remember where I saw the game for the first time, but my brother and I were with our parents eating somewhere out of town, most likely Round Table Pizza. I must have been eleven or twelve at the time, my brother would have been fourteen or fifteen. We walked up and were curious about some new game called Street Fighter II. We watched the attract screen and saw two guys getting ready to deliver a beat-down to each other, surrounded by a crowd of people. The guy on the left got knocked out and the screen panned up to reveal the Street Fighter II logo. We were intrigued. We plunked a couple of quarters in and tried the game out. It was definitely unique and had the most awesome characters we had ever seen in a game at that point in time, but we didn’t quite understand it fully… yet. We played until it we heard the beckoning of pizza-offering parents, but something happened that day. We began our love affair with the Street Fighter series which has continued to this very day.

After that first experience with Street Fighter, we did everything we could to find it in different arcades in our area. We only got the chance to play it on rare occasions when we’d visit family out of town, but then one day we hit the jackpot. We were just getting done filling up our Slurpees and picking up some sugary snacks at the 7-11 down the road from our house on one of our random walking adventures. We spotted a new arcade cabinet in the corner as we were walking out the door. Much to our delight, it just so happened to be a Street Fighter II machine. We fished around in our pockets for whatever change we had left from our impulse purchases and took turns playing against the CPU. It was a good day and it was then that we had discovered how deep the rabbit hole of Street Fighter II actually goes. We discovered special moves through experimentation and just kept practicing and practicing. We eventually got to Vega, Balrog, Sagat, and M. Bison and we were blown away. We had no idea these characters existed. They weren’t on the character select screen, and this one dude has a mask and a claw and can climb the cage in his level! They have boss stages like they do in a platforming game or like Final Fight? Awesome. We were hooked.

Time went on, we played on the unit at 7-11 whenever we could and then the unimaginable happened. We had always wished for a way to just play Street Fighter II at home whenever we wanted, and our wish was granted in the form of a SNES game. The day we got Street Fighter II, we played for hours. We learned everyone’s moves, sparring all day and that’s when our decades long rivalry between my brother’s Ken and my Ryu began.

It’s a funny thing really. Some people might think it’s a little weird, but Street Fighter II brought my brother and I together. I was always his little brother he could pick on and give a hard time, but when we played Street Fighter II, all bets were off. We came to grow a form of mutual respect for each other from a game that provided us with a form of friendly competition. When those moments came where we were staring each other down, both with a sliver of health left, we cheered and cursed at the outcome with smiles on our faces. There were times when we took on the CPU together as well, switching off when one of us lost, and tacking on one more star of difficulty each time we beat it. We were becoming masters, taking on the task of beating the game on the highest difficulty without losing a round. We discovered just how complex Street Fighter II really was.

We got older and experienced all of the different iterations of the series. We used the code on the SNES version of SFII to get the Champion Edition colors, we sought out each new version of the game in arcades, and we even experimented with our Game Genie to get weird doppelgangers of the boss characters in our SNES game. Luckily Capcom released SF II Turbo for the SNES so we could be legit. Time went on and we perfected our techniques, still practicing with each other, still learning and growing. Other games came and went, but we always came back to Street Fighter.

We still play from time to time these days. We played our fair share of SFIV and SSFIV when they came out, but sometimes adult life can get the best of you. Though we may not play like we did before, the spirit of those times is still there when we do. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Capcom for providing 20 years of Street Fighter fun to everyone. I hope there are others out there that experienced something similar and I encourage any new gamers these days to try to get into the Street Fighter series. It is definitely one of a kind and is, in my opinion, one of the finest game series of all time.

Here’s to you, Street Fighter II!

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The 3DS was already poised to take over the world when it launches, but these features pretty much get it ready to dominate the universe. First up, Netflix is coming to the 3DS this summer. If you don’t already have enough electronic devices linked up to Netflix in your life, you can add your shiny new 3DS to the mix when you get it. No real details have been released about the software involved and how it will look, but the important thing is… Netflix on the 3DS.

Next up we have the Short-Form Video Service coming for the 3DS. Apparently it will be short streaming videos that range for comedy to music, to whatever and it will all be brought to you by Nintendo themselves. Reggie Fils-Aime claims, “We’ll do the primary content selection, pushing the most interesting and entertaining content to find you,” so there you go. You basically get a Nintendo propaganda channel. Not quite as exciting as Netflix, but I’m sure it will be fun to kill time with.

So… that brings me to some slightly weird news. Apparently the 3DS will also be getting Game Gear games (kind of weird) and Turbo Grafx 16 games (not so weird). I had a Game Gear back in the day, and I don’t really recall there being any “must-have” games on the massive handheld device. Turbo Grafx 16 games should be cool on the other hand. I never got the chance to play most of them and would like to get the opportunity to check them out in a more legal fashion. It’s nice to see that old Gameboy games won’t be the only downloadable old school games we’ll get.

And finally… Nintendo has cozied up with AT&T which will give 3DS owners access to over 10,000 wireless hotspots starting in May. This will allow 3DS owners to access all of the things I mentioned above almost everywhere they go. It sounds like Nintendo is really trying to make sure nobody has the chance to take the crown from them in the handheld gaming world. I’d say they’re doing a pretty damn good job.

SOURCE

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Sucker Punch announced the new feature at GDC and we get our first glimpse of the creation tools in this video. If you needed another reason to get excited about inFamous 2, I don’t think it gets any better than this. Apparently players are going to get the same tools the developers used to make the game, which should result in some pretty fantastic user-generated content. While I don’t think the tools are quite as flexible as say, Little Big Planet 2, they are quite welcome in a genre that usually doesn’t get cool features like this. I can’t wait to see what people come up with after they get familiar with the creation tools. Granted, the tools aren’t as robust as the ones in Little Big Planet 1 & 2, but if the user-generated content from those games is any indication of the creative nature of some of you people out there, we should be in for a real treat.

There will be a “limited” public beta starting in April. You can get the lowdown on how to sign up for it on the official site for inFamous 2 on March 14th.

SOURCE: Playstation Blog – Video courtesy of IGN.com

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In some GDC news, Sony has announced some new features that will be introduced in the next Playstation Home update. The update will be coming in early spring and will apparently be bringing some new technology to the table. According to the Playstation Blog, “PlayStation Home v1.5 was developed with one singular goal in mind: high-quality games.” Sony is supporting Home with new and improved network mechanics to provide users with “the fastest action available.” Home v1.5 is reported to get a “revamped” physics engine which will allow for new, better animations, graphics, and an overall boost in gameplay that should bring about some new experiences.

The Playstation Blog is also reporting that the types of games you will start to see in Home will range from FPS games with complete peer-to-peer competition, to kart racers… sounds interesting. The new tool set will allow for “richer graphics and an overall improvement to frame-rate” which are both definitely things Home could use.

There’s a video up on the Playstation Blog that showcases one of the new games that will be available in the new Home update. It looks alright, but it’s really not something I can really get too excited about. Home has never really been that appealing to me, as I really don’t enjoy being e-groped and danced on in a Second Life fashion, while watching strange internet people awkwardly flirt with each other to no avail. Well… part of me likes watching the latter just because it’s that special kind of depressing that only the internet can provide.

It’s cool that Sony is thinking about more social networking features for the PS3 and they are at least committed to doing something a little different. Even if this isn’t my cup of tea, it’s interesting to keep an eye on.
Is anyone out there excited about this news?

SOURCE: Playstation Blog

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PC users can now brag about how good it looks and 360 players will apparently be getting an improved multiplayer demo. I checked out the multiplayer demo for the 360 a while back and came away from it feeling pretty unimpressed. I’m definitely willing to give the updated demo another chance to see if most of the issues have been corrected. There were a lot of balancing issues with melee attacks being one-hit kills and just an overall lack of polish. I was surprised to see these things coming from such a big game for EA and Crytek and it’s nice to see they are serious about their product.

PC gamers can pick up the demo from EA’s website and 360 users can find the replacement demo in the Xbox Live marketplace today.

I’m really hoping things got ironed out a bit and the multiplayer is a little more fun to play. It has a lot of promise and I would definitely like to be my fun alternative to most of the other online shooters out there these days. If you were disappointed by the demo before, maybe this is enough to give it another shot. And… if you happen to see some guy online jumping around like a wild monkey and sliding off of rooftops to his death… it’s most likely me.

SOURCE: Xbox.com/EA.com

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This is one of the coolest things I’ve seen in a while. Microsoft has been doing some interesting things with their Kinect hardware since it’s been out, but this is taking things to a different level. In the video, you’ll get treated to a new way of viewing 3D images (sans glasses!) and also a new way to interact with your 3D environment in a controller-free fashion. It seems like they have a lot of crazy gear set up in the video in order to make all of this happen, but it is definitely some very intriguing technology. I’m wondering how long it’ll be before we start seeing some different variations of Kinect come out with different hardware add-ons for this kind of thing. I’m sure the 3D wars will get so much crazier as time goes on and I will be there watching, slightly terrified and completely captivated.

Stuff like this makes me think that I will actually live long enough to see something like the Holodeck from Star Trek. All I need now is a computer that can make me tasty meal out of thin air.

SOURCE: Engadget

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Well all I can say is… it’s about damn time. I’ve been waiting years to check this game out. I passed on it back in the old PSone days, and constantly heard about how awesome it was. I’ve been kicking myself for not picking it up when it was actually affordable and just watched the price climb on Amazon and eBay year after year. I had pretty much given up hope on playing it… until today!

Vagrant Story is coming to the US PSN later this week for $5.99 and I will be there to download it the instant it hits. For those of you that don’t understand why this game is awesome… all I have to say is… Square Enix at their finest and the game is set in Ivalice, the same world as Final Fantasy Tactics. For those of you who understand what that means… you’re probably already eagerly awaiting this PSN release.

Also… don’t forget that Xenogears is now available for download as well!

SOURCE: Playstation Blog

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In this new trailer, we get to see a tiny smidgen of gameplay that’s just enough to get me pumped for this game. Along with the exclusive blowout in Game Informer, this trailer has pushed me over into the “must-have-now” zone. I’ve been playing Bad Company 2 and the Vietnam expansion pretty much exclusively to fill my online shooter needs. I’ve always preferred the team-based gameplay of the Battlefield series to the spastic, spam-fests known as Modern Warfare 2 and Black Ops.

This game is going to be something incredible. People have waited 6 years for a proper sequel to Battlefield 2, and this is going to be that and more. I mean… just look at what’s going on in the trailer. The Frostbite 2.0 engine is looking like one fine piece of game building equipment, and if all goes well, I’d like to see it used in some games other than the Battlefield series.

Anyway, this game is going to be up there with Skyrim and DiRT 3 as my game of the year. I’m sure I’m forgetting some other great titles that are going to be released during the holidays this year, but Battlefield 3 has definitely pushed its way to the top of the list.

Watch the trailer.

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Looks like there will be some pretty good content for Xbox Live users coming up in the next couple of weeks. Next week you’ll be treated to some great deals on Tom Clancy DLC, which only really applies to a very specific audience out there. You guys still playing GRAW and GRAW 2, you know who you are. You can also pick up Splinter Cell Chaos Theory for a cool 600 points. Still one of the finest games made to date, in my opinion. It is definitely the peak of Sam Fisher’s adventures, in my book, and has an awesome soundtrack by Amon Tobin. I’m sure you’ve all played it, but if you haven’t, do it. Then the following week it looks like you’ll be able score PAC-MAN Championship Edition DX for 400 points, which is an absolute steal. I’ll be picking that up for sure.

Then closer to the bottom of Major Nelson’s Deal of the Week post… you can see that Beyond Good & Evil HD is coming out March 2nd! Maybe some of you already knew this, but I didn’t know it was coming out so soon! It is also only listed as 800 points which is a damn fine price.

You can check out the full list of upcoming deals here.

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Valve announces “complete” Move support for the PS3 version of Portal 2 and also had some nice things to say about their commitment to the PS3 in the past. [Update] Portal 2 is NOT getting full Move support for the time being.

According to Joystiq, the German Playstation Blog got things mixed up and Chet Faliszek was actually saying Move is a “completely new experience” and it’s “not yet fully integrated” into Portal 2. Apparently Gabe Newell also joked saying people will “have to wait for ‘Portal 3′ or another title. We won’t be supporting [Move and 3D] in Portal 2.”

Well, there you go. The man himself already said it wasn’t happening and some eager German blogger for the Playstation Blog got a wee bit mixed up. The bottom line is, Valve is going to make good PS3 games. I’m pretty sure Portal 2 will be plenty awesome without Move or 3D support. I wouldn’t have been using either of them anyway.

Original Post:

According to Eurogamer, Valve’s Chet Faliszek said the inclusion of full Move support is “compensation” for PS3 owners being shafted when it came to getting any versions of Left 4 Dead for their console of choice. I don’t really see how that’s much of a consolation prize, but at least Valve is aware of their lack of support for the PS3 in the past and appear to be doing everything they can to make up for not warming up to the PS3 sooner.

Faliszek took a little time to talk about the quality of the PS3 version of The Orange Box and had this to say, “We made a mistake back then and gave the Orange Box console versions to an external team. They did a good job, but didn’t quite achieve the same quality level that we have at Valve. Now everything happens in-house, we created a special console department just for that.” I like seeing companies take full responsibility for their mistakes and then actually offer up a solution. I’ve always respected Valve and thought this was pretty cool of them to acknowledge how weak their PS3 support has been. Valve continues to promise PS3 owners that their version of Portal 2 will be the ultimate version with a free PC code for the game, PS3-exclusive cloud saving, and cross-platform play between PC and PS3 users, full Move support is just icing on an already delicious cake (no Portal pun intended).

Coming from the man that declared the PS3 a failure back in 2007, Gabe Newell had this to say, “We made a promise to gamers at E3 that Portal 2 for the PS3 would be the best console version of the product.”

Sounds good to me. I have a PS3 and an Xbox 360, but you better believe I’ll be picking up the PS3 version. I’m excited to see what else Valve has in store for PS3 owners in the future.

SOURCE: Eurogamer

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I know zombies are kind of getting old these days, but this trailer has gotten me genuinely interested in a sub-genre I thought I was done with. Techland, the developers of the Call of Juarez series, has been developing Dead Island for quite a long time. The game was announced back in 2007 and they just couldn’t seem to find a publisher for it. Now, Deep Silver (Risen, Nail’d) has taken hold of the publishing reins and Dead Island appears to be on its way to being something awesome. The last Call of Juarez game ran on Techland’s own engine and I thought it was pretty impressive.

This trailer would have been enough to get me interested, but IGN’s preview of Dead Island shed some more light on what we can expect from the game. According to the interview, there will be very few firearms and ammo. The game will instead focus on melee combat that requires players to really get up in a zombie’s business, which should create an intense feeling of dread when you see a horde of zombies closing in on you. Techland seems to be aiming for realism over arcade-like action, and I think if it’s done well, it could be really awesome.

Much like another zombie FPS-style game released in the past couple of years… Dead Island will feature 4 player co-op in which players can “drop in and out of the game seamlessly.” The welcoming news for me, however, was the fact that you can just play the game alone if you want to. That was one thing that always bothered me about the Left 4 Dead series… just having AI partners around that pretty much either killed everything way too quickly, or ones that got in the way and died all of the time.

The game is reportedly styled in an FPS/RPG sort of way where there will be a skill tree, along with stat upgrades, new attacks and new abilities and that sort of thing. Overall, the game sounds like it’s going to be pretty bad ass. It gave me a weird feeling watching the video and it really seems quite disturbing at first, but it all ties together nicely in the end. It definitely left me with feelings of excitement and sadness, as I have children of my own. This is some dark stuff.

This is one to keep an eye on for sure.

SOURCE: IGN

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There isn’t a lot going on in the pictures, but they sure are pretty. I’m definitely looking forward to getting my hands on this game. Arkham Asylum is still one of my favorite games of this generation and I’m hoping Rocksteady Studios keeps it real and does nothing but improve upon an already impressive formula. All I can really ask for is a little more variety in the enemies you kick the crap out of. I honestly can’t think of much more I would even want from the game. I just want more awesome Batman action and I want it right now. I guess there’s not much to say other than that. I want this game. Now.

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The process of creating fatalities for the new Mortal Kombat is apparently quite similar to things I used to do with my friends in elementary school. Today the director of art at NetherRealm Studios, Steve Beran, put up a post on the Playstation Blog, which you can read here, about the creative process behind the fatalities in Mortal Kombat. What it basically boils down to is a bunch of people sitting in a room talking about the most horrific things they can think of. They use “gruesome murder news stories, old horror movies, and actual nightmares” in an attempt to create the most brutal and disgusting fatalities to date. Sounds like these folks are living the dream, which is basically just acting like a 12 year old and getting paid loads of money to do it. Like I said, these are things I did for free with my friends while sucking down Slurpees and staying up way too late, so I can only imagine how much fun everyone is having who is involved with the project.

I’m looking forward to checking out the game when it hits, but I’m also pretty wary of it. In my opinion, the MK series hasn’t been that great since MK3. I’m definitely hoping the series is brought back to its former glory and brings solid gamepay to match the crazy ideas NetherRealms Studios has been throwing out there.

Any of you guys ever come up with your own fatalities or did you do similar stuff when you were kids?

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I normally don’t mind some quality DLC, and I know Capcom is a company I don’t mind giving my money to, but it just bums me out sometimes to see DLC withheld from a release just for money’s sake. Capcom has already left Jill Valentine and Shuma-Gorath out of the game and announced they will be available for purchase on March 15th. No price point has been nailed down for the two characters, but anyone who picks up the Special Edition of the game will get a voucher for a free download which will allow you to download the characters today. If you ask me, I think people who purchase the Special Edition should also get free access to any alternate costume DLC packs that come out down the road. I just don’t really care much for this specific flavor of DLC, it kind of tastes like paying for content that’s already on the disc, and that really kind of sucks.

I’ll probably end up picking up the game a little later when it’s cheaper and then maybe I’ll be able to spring for the alternate costume packs and character pack with the money I saved. Sorry Capcom, I can’t shell out at least $90 for your game in the long run, so I’ll have to wait.

Having said that though, those of you that are planning on picking up Marvel vs. Capcom 3… Newegg.com is having a special where you can get $10 off the purchase of MvC 3 and you get free shipping as well. The deal ends tomorrow, so if you’re going to do it, do it now!

SOURCE: Capcom

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In some rather unexpected news, Warner Bros. Interactive announced this morning that Double Fine Productions is working on a new game for Johnny-5′s head Kinect. I suppose the real unexpected part of this news, however, is the fact that it will be a Sesame Street game.

According to the press release, the upcoming Kinect game will be “A truly original interactive experience” and players will experience “a living storybook…” in which “Parents and children literally become part of the whimsical storybook adventure by getting active together through dancing, jumping, flying and more.” While I’m not a huge fan of Sesame Street these days, I can see this game really being a huge hit with parents and kids alike. Double Fine has a solid reputation for creating great games with great characters, so seeing how they already have the character part handled for them, I’m sure they’ll deliver on a really unique and polished experience.

Tim Schafer had this to say about the whole situation, “Sesame Street had a profound effect on me, and many members of the Double Fine team, when we were children. So did video games. Now many of us are parents and we want to share with our kids the great experiences we had, but also the completely new ones made possible by cutting-edge technology like Kinect for Xbox 360. So it’s a labor of love on many levels.”

It will definitely be interesting to see how this turns out. I have a couple of little monkeys running around the house that would most likely dig something like this. Having Double Fine involved seems like it could be a form of children’s entertainment that I might actually be able to sit through without cringing. It would be cool to see this spawn some more forms of interactive media for children that also have some really great production values. Most of the time, those two just don’t match up. No word yet of a release date, but I’m sure Microsoft will be all up in your face about it since it’s a Kinect game and Kinect is the future(?).

SOURCE: Warner Bros.

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While I don’t know a lot of people who are eagerly anticipating Sony’s new Xperia Play phone, it seems like this is a bit of news that will turn off practically everyone who is interested in it. In a weird move by Sony, your existing PSN accounts will not be compatible with the phone, which means you will not be able to play PSN games you already own without purchasing them again. Now I’m not going to pretend like I was totally interested in this phone, but this is just an extremely foolish move on Sony’s part. I can understand that there may be DRM issues or whatever, but come on, this isn’t cool.

In an interview with Gamespot, Nathan Vautier, executive director at Sony Ericsson, said, “I think the exciting thing is that there are games which people are very, very aware of.” I’m not sure how that’s exciting. People are very aware of what games exist on the PSN, yes, but what people don’t want to do is purchase the game twice. This is just beyond any kind of reasonable explanation, especially since Sony is always touting their products’ abilities to sync up and work together in a futuristic, integrated manner. Anyway, good luck selling that phone now. Sounds to me like Sony has killed what was most likely one of the main selling points for most of their fanbase.

SOURCE: Gamespot UK

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After being around for almost 11 years, Sony’s awesome little console has shipped over 150 million units worldwide. I was there the night of the PS2′s launch. I waited in line with a bunch of crazy people outside of a Target and braved the cold just to get my hands on the best thing since sliced bread (or the PS1). It was well worth it. I picked up SSX and The Summoner as my two launch titles, but unfortunately wasn’t able to get my hands on a memory card. This didn’t stop me from playing the crap out of these games and didn’t stop me from being extremely excited about Sony’s new black beauty. I definitely had some of the best gaming experiences of my life on the PS2 and it looks like I wasn’t the only one.

There have been over 1,527,000,000 PS2 games sold over these past 11 years, which is extremely impressive considering the PS2′s game library consists of just under 11,000 games. If you do the math… that’s about 138,818 copies of each game, which isn’t actually the case because we all know most people just bought millions of copies of the GTA games, Metal Gear games, Final Fantasy games, and Madden games, but it is fun to think about just how huge that number really is.

I’m sure the lack of backwards compatibility in the newer versions of the PS3 helped keep the PS2 sales afloat, because I know I’ve thought about going out and getting myself a slim model PS2 just so I can play some of my favorite PS2 games. I had to trade in my old PS2 when I got my Xbox 360… it’s a long story, but let’s just say it was lame and I miss my PS2.

Anyway, long live the PS2! I hope the PS3 is just as successful and has the healthy 10 year life span everyone says it will.

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Um… this is pretty damn cool. Looks like I need to start checking out more user created levels in LBP2. I’ve had the game for a couple of weeks now, but I haven’t taken it online to check out all of the great content people have been making. This video just made me excited to go see what other crazy things are out there. If anyone still doubts the amazing creative possibilities LBP 2 offers after seeing this video, they are dead inside.

I wish I could get into the creation tools enough to figure out how to do stuff like this, but I probably never will. Thank you random internet people for making things for the rest of us to enjoy!

SOURCE: Kotaku

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From now until February 14th on XBLA, you’ll be able to score some sweet shooters, saving some serious space bucks. Alliterations are fun. What’s more fun than alliterations you say? Well, maybe Serious Sam HD and Geometry Wars 2 are… but I doubt it. Now you have the opportunity to find out for yourself in this Deal of the Week on XBLA. I think I might check out one of the Serious Sam games now that they are a paltry 400 points instead of 1200. Sounds pretty good to me. Anyone else think they might pick something up?

Check out the list below:

SOURCE: Major Nelson

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ICO is a game that I hold very dear in my memories. I can’t remember if my first experience with the game was on an Official Playstation Magazine demo disc, or if it was on one of those Playstation Underground mailer demo discs. Anyway, the point is, when I first experienced ICO, I knew it was a really heartfelt effort by the developers to create something unique and beautiful. One could even possibly argue that ICO was the first game that really pushed people over the fence when it came to whether or not games are art.

Personally, I don’t care either way whether anyone thinks games are art or not, but that’s not the point here. Now, games are books. No, that doesn’t make much sense. I don’t literally mean that games are books, but that the story of ICO has been made into a novel that was written by Miyuki Miyabe. Miyabe wanted to take the ideas behind the game and write about what the story meant to her, and basically write a novel based on her interpretation of the events in ICO. ICO: Castle of the Mist was released way back in 2004 in Japan, but now, it is finally being translated and brought to our shores. It will be interesting to see what her interpretation of the game is like, as ICO allowed you to sort of fill in the blanks and come to your own conclusion about pretty much everything that happened in the game. At any rate, it should be an interesting read.

The tentative release date is August 16, 2011and I will most definitely be in line to check this book out. No pun intended… like a library joke… I just meant I’m going to buy it.

SOURCE: siliconera/

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Today Ubisoft announced that the latest installment of the series, Call of Juarez The Cartel, is a thing and will be “relevant.” This is welcome news as I thoroughly enjoyed Call of Jurez Bound in Blood. It may not have been perfect, but as far as FPS games go, it had a fun story with interesting characters and the gameplay was pretty solid. It’s definitely worth checking out if you enjoy cowboys and people of a questionable nature.

The press release stated the following, “Call of Juarez The Cartel is an action-packed shooter game with a strong story, interesting characters and a wide variety of gameplay options. The game will bring the best elements of the Wild West into modern times with a very gritty and relevant plot.” I’m not exactly sure what the Wild West is like in modern times, but I’m willing to give the game a shot if it’s just as good as the last entry. From the sound of it, there will be some very mature themes involving the drug-riddled Mexico of today, which seems like it would make for a pretty interesting setting if it’s handled in a classy way by Techland. It’s not often enough that games get a chance to tackle current events and maybe make people think a little more about what’s going on in the world around them. I have no idea if this game will even come close to achieving, or even attempting that, but if they do, good for them.

Electronic Gaming Monthly has a full exclusive on the game in this month’s issue and I will definitely be keeping my eyes open for any additional information as it becomes available.

SOURCE: Ubisoft

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