All Topics Gaming older than one year ago

A spooktacular WiiWare alternative to the Mario Party series.

An inferior edition of a superior design.

Sukeban Shachou Rena Wii, the game that currently has a petition for stateside release, managed to sell a slim 100 copies in its first week on store shelves in Japan. That’s even worse than the recent Spyborgs sales. I don’t get why Japan isn’t interested in cats running a company!

Those of you who pre-ordered Left 4 Dead 2 (PC)on Steam or at participating retailers now have exclusive access to the momentous event they said would never happen. For the first time in history, two separate Valve universes collide. That's right: it's a Left 4 Dead/Team Fortress crossover! This is not fan fiction! This is not a dream sequence! The characters from Team Fortress 2 will team-up with Bill's hat from Left 4 Dead 1!

We compile the evidence...

Hey Japan. Remember all those games you made for, oh, decades that we couldn't wait to get our hands on in the West? Well, we thought for once we'd give something back. We know you like Batman. And Batman: Arkham Asylum is really wonderful. So of course you've wanted it. Ever since it came out here in August.So, Eidos is going ahead bringing you the game on January 14, 2010. Unfortunately, it's up in the air whether you'll get the cool extras we did, like a replica Batarang and really big packaging. Seems you will be getting the DLC though, according to Andriasang. So yeah, please enjoy this gift from us to you. We'll be watching the sales numbers closely.(P.S. If you want, you can return the favor by sending over the Final Fantasy XIII edition PS3.)

Change history in this new trailer.

You know, the monsters and other wildlife in Monster Hunter 3 don’t make it their sole purpose to kill you. Some of them actually stay away from you until you start causing trouble. Case in point, the video below.

Play (as either Chris or Jill) until you get to the residence (after the courtyard). You’ll know the location because you will have used the square crank to lower the water to get to the elevator that leads to a garden full of crows. Capice?

Jump into the boots of Shawn and his crew.

A portion of a C3 review… The Spore concept is a difficult one to transfer well to weaker hardware, but thankfully EA have not tried to shoehorn in anything unnecessary to a good gaming experience. Sadly, what is here, in regards to fighting and journeying, doesn’t hold up interest in Hero Arena for too long, and [...]

With LittleBigPlanet's first birthday coming up, it won't be long until Sackboy grows up and turns into acne-riddled, smelly, moody Sackteen. Before he joins Myspace and listens to Linkin Park, enjoy these precious moments by grabbing a free birthday cake costume from the PlayStation Store this Thursday, November 5th. If Sackboy's edible outfit wasn't good enough for you (selfish!), Media Molecule has upped the ante just a little bit: the launch-exclusive Spacesuit costume will also be made free for all this week. The spacesuit will certainly come in handy when traveling underwater in the new LBP levels that are coming up. [Thanks, Pumapayam!]

The site E4G reports that Gran Turismo 5 will include a very exciting option: The ability to create your own tracks or edit the existing tracks. Eurogamer checked in with Sony to confirm this new feature, and, while Sony refused to confirm the news, the company also refused to deny it, in a carefully worded statement that makes the news suddenly seem more plausible: "We haven't confirmed this and aren't offering any other comment at this time," Sony told Eurogamer. We contacted SCEA but have yet to hear back, so this rumor is going to have to remain a rumor. Hopefully we'll find out before the game comes out, although Sony also has yet to announce the release date beyond a possible "early 2010." Okay, we'll simplify the whole thing: Gran Turismo 5 is an unconfirmed rumor. [Original image credit]

See the whole thing from start to finish.

This is the third song of Nobuo Uematsu out of the collection of 10 that he wrote while in junior high.

Remember Greg Strope? No? Perhaps you'll remember his dog, Oscar, who purchased 5000 Microsoft Points -- worth $62.50 -- last week while his owner slept. At the time, we reported that Strope was out of luck thanks to Microsoft's "no refunds" policy. As it turns out, Microsoft contacted Joystiq to inform us that it will refund Strope's money after all, and will be "providing extra for good measure." In addition, Microsoft is sending Strope an extra controller and an Xbox Live subscription just for Oscar. The company even set the dog up with his own Gamertag: Oscar The K9. Now, if Microsoft would just introduce a canine Avatar model, Oscar would be set for life.

Tim Shafer moderates a murderous battle of doom featuring Brutal Legend's new DLC map.

Explore post-apocalyptic Moscow if you dare.

Explore Russia's devastated underground world

forums.shoryuken.com/showthread.phpWe know about the "big picture" changes made to Tatsunoko vs. Capcom for the North American release (and the Japanese re-release to follow): online play, new characters, no Hakushon Daimao. But those aren't the only changed. In every iteration of its fighting games, Capcom tweaks tiny behaviors and damage effects to balance the game. The fighting game obsessives at Shoryuken have produced a list of minute changes that will affect how the game works. For example, the Megacrash move (which pushes the opponent to the opposite side of the screen) now pushes up in addition to away. And Roll's air dash is faster. Check out the wonderfully informative post for plenty more details that we never, ever would have noticed. [Via GoNintendo]

With Quantic Dream's previous (and very weird) Indigo Prophecy available on multiple platforms, many gamers have been curious as to why Heavy Rain is a PS3 exclusive. PushSquare reports that Quantic Dream's David Cage -- once again -- explained the reasoning behind the game's exclusivity at the Eurogamer Expo. He first noted that any answer he gave would be "suspicious," but further explained that the PS3 hardware is "extremely powerful," adding, "If you make a real PS3 engine, then you can have really fantastic performances." He elaborated that porting to the Playstation 3 from other platforms "becomes difficult" (something we've heard before). Beyond technical reasons, Cage said that the team at Quantic Dream loves the console. "I play PSOne, PS2, it's really a part of my culture," said Cage. Cage also added that realistic graphics aren't necessary to create emotional characters, but noted that the goal of Heavy Rain was to create truly believable characters. "With this approach," said Cage, "PS3 was by far the best platform." Given what we've seen of Heavy Rain thus far, we'd be hard-pressed to argue. [Via VG247]

Filed under: Podcasts We discuss a lot of things on this week's Fancast. Borderlands bugs,Modern Warfare 2 controversy, all kinds of stuff. None of that is really important though. What is important, is that we apprise our audience of the very real danger posed by dropbears. What's a dropbear, you ask? You'll have to listen to the show to find out. However, as a teaser, please direct your attention after the break, where you will find an artist's rendering of the vicious creature -- as drawn by guest host Dave Hinkle. Now listen. Listen and learn. (Also after the break, see what Richard, Xav and Alexander dressed as for Halloween.) [iTunes] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in iTunes (MP3). [Zune] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in Zune Marketplace (MP3). [RSS MP3] Add the Xbox 360 Fanboy Podcast feed (in MP3) to your RSS aggregator and have the show delivered automatically. [MP3] Download the MP3 directly. Hosts: Richard Mitchell (SenseiRAM), Alexander Sliwinski (Sli Xander), Dave Hinkle (KnifefightYoDad) Produced by Xav de Matos Music: Intro/Outro: "Electromooq" by Uma Floresta. "Shine a Light" by Wolf Parade. For fans: Xbox 360 Fancast Facebook group

IGN visits FreeStyleGames for the lowdown on its awesome music game.

I like to think of this as a bunch of Smash Bros. characters traveling to their next bout. That’s got to be a pretty tense subway ride, don’t you think?!