All Topics Gaming older than one year ago

We're going to break this post down into three distinct (and clichéd!) categories: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. First, the Good: The suddenly puritanical Australian government -- by way of The Office of Film and Literature Classification -- has seen fit to grant the previously unclassified Left 4 Dead 2 an MA 15+ rating, paving the way for millions of impressionable minds to be programmed into zombie-killing machines. Next, the Bad: The version of Left 4 Dead 2 that the OFLC approved was an "edited version" that "no longer contains depictions of decapitation, dismemberment, wound detail or piles of dead bodies lying about the environment." In other words, it's nothing like the real zombie apocalypse. And when the inevitable human-vs-zombie war reaches Australia's isolated shores, her people will be ill prepared for what they encounter. "Gross, these zombie corpses don't disappear when you kill them! And, what's this? Blood?" Valve and publisher EA are still hoping to launch an unmodified version, pending the October 22 review by the OFLC board. Lastly, the Ugly: 1UP noticed a "special modifier" in its Scavenge Mode demo last night: "Realism mode." Valve's Doug Lombardi explained that it was for the serious player: "Take Portal for example: We had our best internal players who could blow through that game in about 30 minutes, but within weeks of launching it we had people on YouTube beating [the testers'] times by 10 minutes or more. Realism is for those players." In other words, it's training for the real zombie apocalypse. If our imagination is any indication, expect Realism mode to feature plenty of realistic pants crapping. Source - "Left 4 Dead 2 Secures Australian Release" [Edge Online] Source - Realism mode detailed [1UP]

Three years and $300 worth of price cuts later, PS3 may finally hit the top of the hardware sales charts in America. EEDAR's analyst Jesse Divnich predicts 400,000 PS3s were sold in September, edging out both Wii and Xbox 360 sales (375k and 370k units respectively).It's far from a landslide victory for Sony, but it may be the start of a turnaround for the long-beleaguered company. If the hardware maintains momentum, the next issue Sony will have to tackle is software. While EEDAR's hardware numbers peg PS3 at the top, its software charts only show one PS3 game in the top 10: Batman: Arkham Asylum. With the remainder of the chart dominated by 360 and Wii games, it's clear Sony still has a long way to go in the console wars.

If you have a Japanese PSN account or Japanese Xbox Live Gold account, there's a demo for Platinum Games' boot-shoot-em-up, Bayonetta, available for download right now. If you enjoy free stuff (or crazy things), we'd suggest you give the demo a whirl -- the final game will include some badass rocket tonfas and the ability to suplex dragons, after all. [Via Siliconera; thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

Without disclosing actual sales figures, Sony has found a way to trumpet last week's launch of the PSP Go: In its first three days at retail (October 1-3), North American PSP platform sales soared by 300 percent over the previous week's figures. Again, we don't yet know the numbers -- but that's not even the most important part of the equation.Read it again: PSP platform sales soared by 300 percent. Whether the Go tanks or not, it's got the PSP brand on consumers' wish lists again. "With several blockbuster games launching digitally and on UMD in the coming weeks -- from LittleBigPlanet to Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines -- we expect this momentum to continue and look forward to a strong holiday season for both the PSP Go and PSP-3000," SCEA corp. comm. director Patrick Seybold told Gamasutra.The PSP Go currently retails for around $250, and its most compelling trait could be that it highlights what a great deal the only $169.99 PSP-3000 model is -- it plays all the same games, after all; from Minis to full-game downloadables.

After yesterday's full-fledged assault on mainstream gaming news coverage, we were refreshed to read this great USA Today report on the current state of the Halo franchise. Sure, it further promotes the tired opinion that Bungie's ever-popular shooter is set to overtake the Star Wars franchise in the cultural marketplace. However, it backs up that assertion with startling figures: According to the report, Halo 3: ODST has sold 2.5 million units in the past two weeks, bringing the total sales for the entire franchise up to a cool 27 million. Additionally, USA Today further supports its thesis by compiling a list of the future franchise spin-offs, including -- *deep breath* -- Halo: Reach, the Halo: Blood Line comic series, Halo Legends, Halo Waypoint, the Halo: Evolutions novel (and another heretofore unnamed book trilogy), and more McFarlane toys. Some may accuse this franchise of succumbing to oversaturation -- we think it crossed that bridge around the time it got its own Mountain Dew.

Look, we're not going to waste your time. A lot of new content for the PSN landed in Europe today, but only one piece of that content is a PSP Mini titled Yummy Yummy Cooking Jam. The rest of the game developing world might as well give up, because Yummy Yummy Cooking Jam exists, and only costs four pounds. How is anyone supposed to compete with that? Choose your platform to view the corresponding release list: (Note: Continue past the break to view both release lists.)

EA has announced a selection of downloadable content for Dragon Age: Origins, which will conveniently be available right at launch. However, unlike most launch DLC, which elicits complaints of ripping off customers by holding back content that clearly could have been on the disc, most of this DLC is intended only to rip off people who buy used copies of the game.The "Stone Prisoner" DLC, which includes a new Golem character, has been previously announced as free to new buyers and $15 to those who don't have the code in the box, or buy it past the April 30 cutoff date. The "Blood Dragon Armor," which offers a new suit of, well, armor, will also be included. No price is given for a non-bundled download of this armor. The "Warden's Keep" download offers an entirely new "dungeon-exploring adventure" with exclusive items and even new player abilities. This will be $7 to download, or free to people who buy the "Digital Deluxe Edition" of the game.The fact that no reference is made to the packaged collector's edition, and the fact that it seems to have disappeared from both GameStop and Amazon make us question its status. We're checking with EA about that -- and thinking of something else to put on the wall where we had planned to hang that cloth map.

You know those neighbors you have? The ones with fake deer, flamingos and gnomes all over their yard? This is for them. More specifically, it's to utterly petrify them with abject terror. Have no fear though, for the piranha plant you see above is not real, but rather a sculpture created by one Jaime Margary. We suggest you check out Margary's Flickr account for a closer look at the piece, which is also accompanied by a baby piranha plant (and a dog that is entirely too calm about whole situation). And yes, the sculpture will be up for sale on eBay soon. Throw on a motion-activated flamethrower and you'll have the nerdiest home security system ever devised. Watch a step-by-step video of the sculpture's creation after the break.

Honestly, I understand if you aren’t interested in the review of Squeeballs Party. All I ask is that you watch the video I’ve included, as I’m quite sure you’ll be surprised at the violence within. It’ll get a chuckle from you…or a look of shock! Either way, it’s a great way to [...]

Hero of Legend caught the Pikachu’s Great Adventure news from earlier tonight, and he found something interesting… There’s an Amazon listing for the title! If everything is on the up-and-up here, that would mean that the title is retail and not WiiWare as suspected earlier.

Capcom is releasing 4 brand-new Monster Hunter 3 guide books in Japan, each one costing 500 yen each. Capcom is still trying to reach the million mark with MH3, and perhaps some new books might convince people to give the game a shot.

Take your cardio and strength training to the next level with the new Everlast™ 2lb Dumbbell for Wii Fit™. Transform your Wii Controllers into workout weights. (Wii Remote and Nunchuk controller, not included) › Adds 2 pounds of weight to each controller › Perfectly balanced and solidly constructed › Great way to add a strength element to any [...]

This is the reason I am most excited for New Super Mario Bros. Wii. We found out that the Koopa Kids were in NSMBW back during E3, but Nintendo was quick to state that their inclusion wasn’t exactly set in stone. Now that we are just weeks away from the game, we know [...]