All Topics Gaming older than one year ago

Boldly go where no screen has gone before.

Meet the gladiator and pugilist.

In a positively baffling announcement, Microsoft's Major Nelson has tweeted that Xbox Live has reached a new record: Two million simultaneous users. That means two million people were logged into Xbox Live at the same time earlier today. The puzzling question is this: What in the world could have possibly driven so many people to sign synchronously onto Xbox Live? We can only assume that people are taking part in some seriously heated matches of Dragon Ball: Raging Blast. Barring that, it could be that the Final Fantasy XI Ultimate Collection has brought thousands back into the fold. We just don't know what else it could be.

As Activision predicted, sales of its DJ game are a little slow out of the gate.

We show you Ezio's best kills in Italy's most beautiful city.

Dead on arrival.

Boom goes the dynamite!

Some folks measure the length of time it takes for a new console to be hacked wide open by how long it takes to display a "Hello, World!" message. For us, that metric is determined by how long it takes to get a Sega CD emulator running on the system. For the PSP Go, that period of time has been finalized: 43 long, lonely, Night Trap-less days. A YouTube video by "Neon" from "Team Typhoon" (is that some sort of gang?) appears to prove that on some PSP Go, somewhere in the world, one can play Sonic CD. Don't get your hopes up -- the video's annotations repeatedly promise that the hack will not be released to the general public, so for the time being, you're going to have to keep playing that old copy of Wirehead on your clunky, Voltron-esque home console. Still, our heart swells knowing that our wildest dreams are possible -- if not slightly out of reach. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

Fly, Tink, fly!

When the original Call of Duty: Modern Warfare was announced for the Wii, we kinda had to do a double-take on the whole thing. Would one of the current generation's most popular games be done justice on the Wii? Well, according to what few reviews have made their way online, yes ... and no! Nintendo Dpad (85/100): "Overall, the game is just what you would expect from an HD game like Call of Duty 4 being ported to Wii. Everything is there, from the great multiplayer and single player modes, to Wii specific controls that really trump those found on other consoles. The only real bad part is that the graphics needed a major step down for the port, and we would have liked WiiSpeak support for those who prefer that, though it is not necessary." ONM UK (80/100): "Given the extra two years Treyarch had to squeeze every last drop of polish from the Wii, this is underwhelming visually. It looks okay for a Wii game - that's the dreaded caveat - but it's not even up there with Metroid Prime: Corruption. Having said that, Modern Warfare is still an excellent shooter packed with options and it should be a big player online so we can welcome it to the Wii family." IGN (70/100): "Unfortunately, Reflex Edition on Wii just doesn't cut it as a Call of Duty branded game or as a top-tier Wii first-person shooter. The framerate is jumpy, the pointer tracking needs some serious polish, and while most of the elements of COD4 are included, none of them are given enough fine-tuning to truly excel."

Could this be Naruto's finest ninja adventure yet?

The hardcore shooter puts up impressive overall numbers.

Atlus has announced that it's previously revealed Demon's Souls strategy guide replacement program is now active. If you purchased the deluxe edition and wound up with a defective strategy guide -- the defective units have "unusual cover ink wear / fading" -- then all you have to do is visit the replacement program website and follow the instructions. In short, it amounts to filling out a form and shipping off the front cover and first page of the guide. Within 8-12 weeks, players should receive a shiny new copy. All requests have to be postmarked by December 31, 2009, so hop to it if you've got a defective copy.* *The editors of Joystiq realize that this post doesn't include a single crack about how incredibly difficult Demon's Souls is. Please accept their heartfelt apology.

Direct link here You just watched a trailer for Symphony, the next title from Groovin’ Blocks devs, Empty Clip. The gang isn’t saying what platform their next title is heading to, but I’m sure hoping it lands on Wii.

Microsoft today announced that it has sold in excess of 10 million Xbox 360 consoles throughout Europe, Africa and the Middle East. The company then touts Aaron Greenberg's favorite chestnut, noting that the Xbox 360 is the only console that has managed to achieve sales growth in 2009. The press release quotes Martin Olausson of Strategy Analytics, who states his belief that Xbox Live is "12 to 18 months" ahead of PSN in regard to delivering "content beyond traditional games." Microsoft also cites an internal study, which found that 60 percent of Xbox 360 consoles are now housed in a "family living room." Furthermore, the study found that women now account for 35 percent of Xbox owners, and that 64 percent of Xbox owners are over the age of 25. If that's true, we're guessing that the majority of Xbox Live headset owners make up the remaining 36 percent.

Crave will release another pinball compilation this holiday season, an exclusive to Wii.

Remember that awesome ad starring Wario from back in the ought eight? Well, Capcom's taken a page straight out of The Big N's playbook and offered up an interactive Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles trailer over at GameTrailers. The trailer doesn't shake things up like Wario did, but it does make a comparable mess. If you've got children in the computer room or folks who cringe at that one scene in The Shining (you know, that one), then you may want to escort them out of the room before clicking through....Done? Good. Now go enjoy yourself some zombie de-faceification.

Claim your place in the legend and lore of the ever expanding world of Norrath.

We put the Facebook version through its evolutionary paces.

Another VC release for our Euro friends to look forward to. As usual, no word on when this game will actually hit the VC.

An impressive fighting game in a Naruto-flavored, candy coating.

All the fun of unboxing with none of the buyer's remorse.

If you're impressed by the works of artist Ben Mauro -- featured on his blog, "Perpetual Motion" -- you may soon be seeing more of it in the next game from Resistance developer Insomniac Games. According to Mauro's LinkedIn profile, he spent three sleepless months from March until May 2009 crafting content for several projects, including "RCF2" (presumably Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time), "R3" and some unannounced items. [Note: Mentions of "R3" and "unannounced projects" have mysteriously vanished since we contacted the parties concerned.]Though Insomniac's PlayStation 3 release pattern -- oh, and a massive billboard -- would seem to unfurl "R3" as Resistance 3, a third outing for Chimera crusher Nathan Hale has not been officially announced. A bigger, better sequel would undoubtedly provide a good opportunity to counter the negative feedback that the previous game incurred in hardcore fans.[Via Game Guru]

Trust me, you might not want to watch these if you want level paths completely ruined for you. With that said…these videos are amazing.

Air to surface combat plays an important role in any even halfway serious naval combat simulation, just as attacks from above are one of the biggest threats for any marine vessel in real life, even today.

Lock and load with this futuristic RPG.

It's like Hogwarts but with soccer instead of quidditch.