All Topics Gaming older than one year ago

Check out the first couple levels of this arcade action game.

There may be extra incentive to check out the PSP version of Tekken 6, as Siliconera reports the handheld port will feature story modes for newcomers Lars and Alisa. The news originally fought its way onto the net via online retailer Rakuten, but the page has since been pulled, with no new listing surfacing. The PSP port will also apparently replace the console version's Scenario Mode with Gold Rush Mode, where each fight earns the player money to customize their character. Many of you may have noticed the game failed to meet its October 27 release date, just as we thought it would -- several retailers now peg down the US release for November 29, while it looks like Japan will have to wait until January 14, 2010.

A new look at Bowerstone.

It's got personality, but is that enough of a reason to play?

It only took 15 months, but Braid has finally found its way to the PlayStation Network. Jonathan Blow's critically acclaimed puzzle-platformer may be late, but its time-shifting gameplay mechanics certainly make the old adage "better late than never" all the more apropos. The Hothead-developed port will be available on the North American PlayStation Store on November 12th, "with a European version to be announced shortly thereafter." The PSN version of Braid will cost $14.99, the same price as its XBLA equivalent.

Telltale also celebrating with new Wallace & Gromit games on Xbox Live, special offer on PC full series and charitable contributions.

Hothead Games Bringing Beloved Indie Game to New Platform

This muscular design features an aggressive stance and a sleek profile resulting in a powerful road presence that screams speed, even at a standstill.

Find out who's been fragging who, and how.

Further proving that digital distribution is the new name of its game ... distribution method, Sony will begin selling a new PSP-3000 bundle in Japan on December 3 which includes no extra UMDs, but rather, a 4GB memory stick. An empty 4GB memory stick, upon which video games, once purchased, can be placed. Though it somewhat defeats the pick-up-and-play accessibility of other game-infused bundles, at a price point of 19,800 yen, it should leave enough in Japanese gamers' pocketbooks to make a few PSN purchases.

Taito surprised us with a last-minute addition to the Japanese DSi Shop, and a rather awesome one at that: a modified downloadable version of Space Invaders Extreme 2! Space Invaders Extreme Z features three "courses" of increasing difficulty based on SIE2's levels, playable in "score attack" and "time attack" modes. Space Invaders Extreme Z is available on DSiWare now (in Japan only) for 500 DSi Points. It's the first DSiWare game from Taito, who has released several WiiWare titles including Space Invaders Get Even, Bubble Bobble Plus, Rainbow Islands: Towering Adventure! and Arkanoid Plus -- all of which were released in North America.

Available now to all PC gamers and all Xbox LIVE Gold members.

Back to Hoth, baby.

You might become entranced by the grandiose visuals featured in the latest trailer for Darksiders, which we've posted above -- however, don't let your sense of sight get you too distracted from the video's sounds. It might be too soon to say, but it looks like Darksiders could be the most gravelly-voiced video game in the history of the industry. Seriously, even the woman briefly featured in the above trailer makes Solid Snake sound like Dakota Fanning. Check out the trailer, but keep in mind that it comes to us from the mysterious land of Europe, explaining the release date of "08/01/2010" which appears at the end of the video. See, they do dates backwards in that continent. Just like they do democracy.

Japanese purchasers of The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks will receive a transparent quill stylus as a gift when they put down their yen for the game. AndriaSang reports that the stylus will be given out on launch day as an "early buyer bonus," but there's no need to pre-order. If the plastic quill seems familiar, it's because Nintendo used it as a bribe back in 2007 for registering Phantom Hourglass and filling out a survey. Spirit Tracks choo-choos into retail on December 7. We're currently unaware of the quill being offered as a pre-order in North America but if the retail masses out there know differently, please let us know in the comments.

Classic bonus stage confirmed along with new online play details.

While Street Fighter may be the perfect symbol of man's inhumanity to man, we always considered SFII's bonus stage (which used the punching of a car as a John Henry-esque metaphor for the struggle to maintain humanity in the face of an industrial age) as the more poignant symbolism. Capcom appears to agree, as some new Famitsu scans seem to indicate that the car-punching bonus stage will return in Super Street Fighter IV. Also depicted is the barrel smashing mini-game, though that doesn't represent anything ... except that it's fun to smash barrels.

We know that Xbox Indie Game creators have been programming non-game apps for all sorts of odd purposes, but we thought this one was especially interesting. Scare Me lets you use your console to horrify your loved ones with cheap scares when they least expect it for just 80 points ($1). There are some generically scary sequences filled with screams and spooky imagery (you can even program your own) but we're partial to the "Shock Game" section, which lets you bait friends into playing mocked up games for a few seconds before startling the bejeezus out of them with a screaming death mask. But Joystiq, why would I be interested in doing something this cruel to friends and family after Halloween? A fair question. But we, in turn, ask you: When will they ever be expecting it less?

Taito doing the shrink for Japanese download service.

PSP go? No!

CBS announced today that it's bringing a wide array of its TV programming to the video game world, mainly via the PC, Wii and DS. As you can see after the break, the company revealed equally insipid-sounding game versions of Survivor, Hollywood Squares, The Amazing Race, and Criminal Minds, but we don't see how we're supposed to care about any of it when it was also revealed that a Diagnosis Murder game is in the works. We're assuming it's a Visceral-developed "dark" take on the DM mythos, with a Gothic Dr. Mark Sloan walking a demonic version of Los Angeles, solving murder mysteries with a caduceus-shaped staff dipped in angel blood. We assume this because we laid out the design doc pretty clearly in our letters, and we can't fathom why CBS would want to disappoint us.

Quantic Dreams' founder speaks out on the PS3 exclusive.

Grand Forks, North Dakota is a small city with a population just over 51,000 -- a large portion of which are students at the University of North Dakota -- that's tucked within a much larger rural portion of the state. It's not the first city to come to mind when you think of prestigious national honors in the technology sector. However, according to online retailer Amazon, which has been vigilantly tracking the geographic location of Modern Warfare 2 pre-orderers, it's currently the Call of Duty-est town in America. Amazon will continue to rank American cities based on per capita Modern Warfare 2 pre-orders until the game is released, and has agreed to ship a $5,000 gift card to a charity of its choosing which serves the winning town. We hope Grand Forks manages to hold its top position in the rankings, if only because it desperately needs something to put on its city limits signs. You know, something more inspiring than "Welcome to Grand Forks: We've Got a Pretty Good College, Here, We Guess."

The developer takes you on a tour of several levels with all-new footage.

The developer takes you on a tour of several levels with all-new footage.

Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles may not come out until November 27 in the UK, but a gaggle of Resident Evil fans recently took to the streets to celebrate the impending release regardless. Following the end of the London Games Festival, Capcom organized around 50 undead at the Tate Modern for a good ol' group shamble. As you can see in the image above captured by The Tanooki, the event erred on the side of Shaun of the Dead rather than 28 Days Later. Though now that we think about it, we're not sure if it's more or less terrifying if zombies are smiling. We're thinking more. [Image credit]