All Topics

Minecraft, the world-building cult hit from Markus Persson, has now sold over 100,000 copies of its paid version. Impressive! [thanks Tristan!] More »

Well, what do we have here? While visiting lovely and scenic Redmond, WA to spend some time (about two hours, to be exact) with Fable 3, we accepted an invitation to swing by one of the Xbox buildings and check out the new (and, yes, improved) Xbox 360 wireless controller with transforming D-pad. We not only played with a final prototype controller, but also got a first look at the retail packaging, lenticular image and all.

First, the obvious attraction: The new "transforming" D-pad. With a not-so-simple twist of the D-pad, the corner quadrants drop out of the way leaving just the cross-shaped D-pad. I say "not-so-simple" because it actually requires a little bit of effort; after all, you don't want to go from cross-shaped to old-fashioned in the middle of a hadouken. Using two thumbs to spin the D-pad improves the process though, when not being twisted deliberately, it remained firmly in place. We were told that engineering the transforming D-pad was no easy feat and the final product is not only the result of several prototypes, but all sorts of stress testing.

#what Telltale Games' tease that featured a cryptic crossover between Homestar Runner, Penny Arcade, Sam & Max and Team Fortress 2 turns out to be the developer's latest gambling game, Poker Night at The Inventory. Yeah. More »

#gunweek In many genres, the gun is the point where the gamer meets the game, making it the single most important element in a given title. That makes the guys who make the guns important, too. More »

#clips Because the world was in need of something particularly soft and precious right now, Nintendo of Japan has released a new trailer for its hyper adorable platformer adventure Kirby's Epic Yarn. (It's perfectly acceptable to squeal now.) More »

TOMMOROW. JUDGEMENT DAY.

OF GAMES.

 

BECAUSE I WILL BE PLAYING THEM.

Going to pax, all three days tomorrow, *crag* yeah worlds largest open to the public gaming expo. I'll report back on shit like portal 2 and all kinds of K-RAD stuff. Anyone else going?

That mysterious Telltale mashup game teased last week? Telltale laid its cards on the table, revealing ... Poker Night at the Inventory, the second "pilot" game from the adventure publisher, which brings Team Fortress 2's Heavy, Penny Arcade's Tycho, Homestar Runner's Strong Bad, and Sam & Max's Max together for a little good-natured gambling. Now, we know what you're thinking. How can Strong Bad play cards with boxing gloves on?

Poker Night at The Inventory features fully voiced characters utilizing Telltale's dynamic dialog system," according to the announcement. "All the characters will talk trash, give unique tells, and react to the game dynamically as it is being played, providing a unique experience with each round played." It also features Steamworks integration, a first for the publisher. Oh, and pre-orders from Telltale for the fall release ($4.95!) come with coupons for 25% off your order. If we knew the first thing about poker, we'd totally relate that to a hand of cards you'd be confident about holding.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

Filed under: Podcasts We've just touched down in Seattle for PAX Prime, but we've already made a brief stop in Redmond to check out a few hours of Fable 3 and get hands-on with the new Xbox 360 controller.

Chris and Justin found a few minutes as they waited for a pizza to talk about what they've seen so far. So come, pull a chair, grab a beer and enjoy the calm before the storm with us.

Get the podcast:
[iTunes] Subscribe to the Joystiq Podcast in iTunes
[Zune] Subscribe to the Joystiq Podcast directly in the Zune Marketplace
[RSS] Add the Joystiq Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator
[MP3] Download the MP3 directly

Hosts: Justin McElroy (@justinmcelroy) and Chris Grant (@chrisgrant)
Music: "Gravity (Don't Let Me Go)" by Jon Black, "Red Eye" by Ben Kweller
For fans: Joystiq Podcast Facebook group
New to the show?: Listen to Episode Zero
The Do It Line!: 1-(877)-JOYSTIQ

See all of this week's links after the jump.

We don't think it would really be all that nice to bathe in a hot tub of money. It makes for a pretty memorable image in this Yakuza 4 trailer, though. Head past the break to see the yen-soak. Plus guns! Explosions! Tattooed gangsters fist fighting! Men in black suits looking tough!

#addiction Quinn Pitcock, the once promising defensive lineman who washed out of the NFL in 2008, citing games addiction, has opened up about his dark days in front of a screen. His game of choice was Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. More »

Mega Man Universe, which will be making an appearance at this weekend's PAX, looks pretty great. More »

The following are the results of a 4Gamer study including 21,810 responses. This question pertains to what Nintendo 3DS titles respondents are looking forward to. As you can see, Japan is very hungry for games that don’t even exist. Metal Gear Solid is on there, a handful of Nintendo titles, but the list is [...]

When Supergiant Games opened its doors during GDC earlier this year, it revealed it was working on a digital title to be released in 2011. This week, Giant Bomb unveiled that title -- it's called Bastion and should be available for public consumption by next summer.

Supergiant explains Bastion as an "action role-playing game set in a lush imaginative world, in which players must create and fight for civilization's last refuge as a mysterious narrator marks their every move." The "mysterious," somewhat lyrical narrator makes his first appearance in the game's trailer -- which we've dropped after the break. Considering Supergiant's pedigree (ex-EALA Command & Conquer devs) and how beautifully detailed this initial media is, we have high hopes for Bastion.

The game will be playable at PAX Prime this weekend as part of the "PAX 10."

A portion of an NWR interview with Beenox’s creative director, Thomas Wilson… Nintendo World Report (NWR): What differences are there between the Wii version and the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions? If they’re very similar, what challenges arose when making a Wii version? Thomas Wilson (TW): There are practically no differences between the Wii version and [...]

When Super Giant Games opened its doors during GDC earlier this year, it revealed it was working on a digital title to be released in 2011. This week, Giant Bomb unveiled that title -- it's called Bastion and should be available for public consumption by next summer.

Supergiant explains Bastion as an "action role-playing game set in a lush imaginative world, in which players must create and fight for civilization's last refuge as a mysterious narrator marks their every move." The "mysterious," somewhat lyrical narrator makes his first appearance in the game's trailer -- which we've dropped after the break. Considering Supergiant's pedigree (ex-EALA Command & Conquer devs) and how beautifully detailed this initial media is, we have high hopes for Bastion.

The game will be playable at PAX Prime this weekend as part of the "PAX 10."

Should sports games feature injuries? Should the rosters reflect real-life injuries that the human players have? I’m not one to comment on this, but I can see how it would be a topic of debate for sports game fans. You want a realistic representation of the sport at hand in your sports [...]

A pair of GameStop listings… Cabela’s Dangerous Hunts 11 Special Edition Top Spin 4 Thanks to Hero of Legend for the heads up!

#screengrab Custom-made Portal shelf art, spied by reader martinf1 via Bob's House of Video Games. More »

#wii I can tell you, they're not for the pursuit of medical science. More »

The bump in cost for a Gold membership on Xbox Live is just the tip of the iceberg, according to game industry seer Michael Pachter. Predicting a $100 plan as the next evolutionary step in subscription options soon to be available to Xbox Live consumers, he told IndustryGamers reports that while the initial extra $10 "translates to around $100 to 150 million per year in additional revenue for Microsoft," the company will "reinvest at least this much in developing other new applications, and will roll out a premium service with $100 to 200 million worth of enhancements. If they can get 2 million users to switch from the $60 plan to the $100 plan, they'll make an extra $80 million a year, and can keep investing to try to grow that business."

It makes sense: Xbox Live is easily one of the biggest draws of the console and consumers have already shown they're willing to pay a premium for it. But even if Microsoft were to offer a "Platinum" service, what could justify what is comparably such a heftier price tag?

"For all I know, the Platinum plan might include virtual goods credits for various Microsoft games," Pachter posits. "If members could get specialized Halo armor or weapons worth the extra $40, they might be more willing to sign up, and it doesn't really cost Microsoft anything to offer things like that." You know what? We may know a few people willing to pay for something like that.

[Thanks, Mark]

#xbox360 Crackdown 2 players who downloaded the newly released Toy Box add-on for the Xbox 360 game are finding their games on lockdown. Reports from readers and the official Xbox support forums indicate today's DLC is a bit broken. More »

The spiritual successor to TimeShift under the spotlight.

At last year's TGS, Capcom producer Keiji Inafune had some pretty grim things to say about the Japanese game industry. "I said that comment hoping that the Japanese creators were going to wake up," Inafune told Videogamer in a new interview. "However, there has been no change whatsoever to the situation since last year, so I'm still very pessimistic."

Inafune said that some Japanese developers are "still living the glory of the '80s and '90s," when the NES, Super NES and Genesis delivered a steady stream of hit games from Japan to the world. "So they don't admit that there is a problem to start with." He advised his colleagues to "get humble and start learning what's going on."

Inafune also added that just buying Western companies isn't enough, unless publishers "start working with them properly, rather than just commissioning a game and then putting their name on the final product." One company must be feeling that one in its Extreme Edges.