All Topics Gaming older than one year ago

Masamune Date from the Sengoku Basara series is going to be used in a promo campaign for Miyage Prefecture’s upcoming governor election. The character will appear in posters (like the one above) as well as TV commercials, all in the hope of luring the younger crowd out to vote. It certainly is an [...]

Out of the bajillion self-involved Tweets which were released unto the internet yesterday, one 140 character dispatch in particular pierced the din -- "I'm tweeting from Xbox Live," exclaimed Andrew Yoon, our correspondent from a future where such technology is within the realm of possibilities. Fine, he's not from the future -- he was actually tweeting from a Microsoft Open House event where the Fall Xbox Dashboard Update was previewed for a number of outlets. Check out the above video (shot by our cohorts at Engadget) to see the new Facebook, Twitter, Last.Fm and Video Marketplace functionality in action. Make sure you stick around for the last minute, in which the conversation breaks down in a hilarious, Comedy of Errors-esque manner.

Behind every great man, there is a woman making him kill for her.

Just when you thought he'd finally get around to avenging his father's death, Ryo Hazuki has appended one more thing to his lackadaisical to-do list: "Appear as a playable competitor in Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing." It seems Sega might have a lucky hit (how about it?) on its hands, especially if the compulsion to purchase any new Shenmue-related material -- no matter how tactlessly integrated -- is as strong with you as it is with us. Of course, one can hope (in vain) that Ryo and his forklift follow a similar trajectory to Rocket Knight, first appearing as an undignified cameo and then a proper protagonist. Expect to make your grudging purchase of All-Stars Racing sometime in 2010, henceforth referred to as the day of the incident.

If a consumer survey sent over to us by a tipster is to be believed, Microsoft is looking to bring a virtual Avatar arcade to the Xbox 360. Some of the potential names listed in the survey are "Game Room," "RetroCade," "Tower of ROM," and "Classics LIVE." Yeah, we're partial to "Tower of ROM" also. If the proposed service sounds familiar, that's because it's nearly identical to PlayStation Home's arcade spaces - like Namco's virtual arcade; just replace the dead-eyed dopplegangers of Home with the scrunchable avatars of Xbox 360. The second survey question sent to us asks, "Which of the following names would most compel you to purchase the product?" clearly indicating the potential that the "Tower of ROM" won't be a free space but instead could have some fee associated with it. While the survey doesn't give us much more to go on (besides a sinking feeling that we're not interested), we thought we'd ask you, Joystiq Biomass, to weigh in on the product's name. Let the fat cats in Redmond know what you think! View Poll

PlayStation Network games are now available for purchase through Amazon.com, meaning Sony has joined Nintendo and Microsoft in offering its digitally distributed goods through the online mega-retailer. In some cases, the benefit of this middle-man purchase is avoiding those pesky sales taxes that several states place on goods bought directly through the PlayStation Network. At the moment, we don't see any deals that jump out at us, but if you do, feel free to note 'em in the comments. [Thanks, Jason]

Speaking at the First Annual Microsoft Open House in Manhattan yesterday, E&D Division prez Robbie Bach danced around the issue of pricing the company's upcoming motion tech for Xbox 360. "Relative to Natal, we'll see how the pricing/costs work out," Bach said. "But I think people should expect it to be like other things: We work through the price curve, just like we have with other products." Though muddled, Bach's comment does not suggest that Natal will hit retail costing an arm and a leg (geddit?), but rather the device's launch price will be set high enough for significant discounts to go into effect over time. Using Wii as the bad example, Bach emphasized that Nintendo's launch price and its new discounted price aren't notably different. "When you start at $249, I don't know that a [price drop to] $199 -- I don't know how much difference that's going to make in the marketplace," Bach observed. "We'll see."

Immediately after I got my first chance to play Resonance of Fate, with my ears still ringing from virtual gunfire, I met with director Takayuki Suguro (tri-Ace) and producer Mitsuhiro Shimano (Sega) to discuss the futuristic title. In our brief chat, the developers talked about the unique setting, the guns, and the difficulties of making both a multiplatform game and a game designed for a worldwide audience. And if you ever wondered what tri-Ace does to unwind after a hard day at the RPG mines, that happens to come up too.

EA's annual footie franchise must must be doing something right this year because FIFA 10 has apparently sold 1.7 million copies in Europe during its first week. According to EA, the title is "the fastest selling sports game ever and EA's biggest European launch in history." Even with the positive launch, GI.biz spoke with an analyst who believes the sales aren't going to help EA in the long-term. Doug Creutz of Cowan and Company notes that heavy discounts at supermarket chains and other incentives made initial sales strong, but if the situation plays out anything like FIFA 09, the year-on-year sales will only grow marginally. But like a head-butt goal in the first minutes of a match, FIFA 10 is putting on a good show during launch. Source -- EA announces record-breaking launch FIFA 10 (EA) Source -- FIFA 10 record sales won't boost profits (GI.biz)

Once again proving that regular people don't care about what critics have to say, TMNT: Turtles in Time Re-Shelled managed to climb to the top of the PSN download chart for September. With Final Fantasy VII and Marvel Vs Capcom 2 also maintaining enviable positions, it's clear that people love paying for nostalgia.1) TMNT: Turtles in Time Re-Shelled2) NBA 2K10: Draft Combine3) Final Fantasy VII4) Marvel Vs Capcom 25) Fat Princess6) Battlefield 19437) Zombie Apocalypse8) Silent Hill9) Final Fantasy Tactics10) SimCity 2000We'd also like to point out that this may be the first month Mortal Kombat II is not in the top 10. Did everyone in the world finally buy it?

Back in July, we wrote a headline about Topatoi and its slow journey to the US. Well, looks like we were right: more than three months after its original European release, Topatoi will finally grace the American PlayStation Store next week, on October 15th.Critics have been mixed about the PSN platformer, with Worth Playing calling it a "fantastic platformer" while OPM faults the game's "mystifyingly unintuitive control mechanic." It won't be long until we can judge the game for ourselves, though.

Here at Joystiq, we take our duty to cover teh vidya gamez seriously, but one of our lesser jobs goes unnoticed. While we do our best to bring you the scoops and news you want, we also kind of see ourselves as paternal figures for these budding new titles. We coach games along through previews and hands-on sessions and we do our best to be honest about a game's flaws and the things that we like. Now, with this final trailer to go along with the release of Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising today, we kind of feel like a parent sending off its kid to college, where it will undoubtedly learn the secrets of the world and not drink itself into a stupor. Fly free, Operation Flashpoint -- fly free!

Ziggy Stardust himself makes a Lego appearance!

Through a joint collaboration with IDW Publishing and EA's new EA Comics brand, comic versions of Dragon Age and Army of Two will find themselves on shelves and available for download on iTunes in monthly runs. The comics will be backed by some pretty heavy hitters; Orson Scott Card will be penning the story for Dragon Age and veteran Peter Milligan will be handling the story for Army of Two, which is due to start its run sometime in January 2010.There's no information on the Dragon Age comic at this time, however we know the events of the Army of Two bromic (see what we did there?) will bridge the gap between the conclusion of the first game and the events of The 40th Day.

I’ve been holding onto this EoD for a few days now. Finally had a chance to post it up. I sure hope my point comes across, instead of starting an argument. That’s not my goal with this piece at all. I’m sure you guys will have an interesting conversation nonetheless. [...]