Hola señoras y señores:
Just in case the last Steam deal we told you about wasn't good enough, why not try 66% off the strategy/sim Tropico 3 this weekend? Steam users can nab a copy of Tropico 3 for $13.60 until the end of the weekend -- down from $39.99. The best part of the promotion? The Steam version of Tropico 3 includes two exclusive maps, two additional avatar costumes, and two accessories for the el presidente avatar editor. If you're on the fence about picking it up, you can download a demo of the title from our friends at BigDownload.
Download Tropico 3 Demo (1.10 GB)
Gallery: Tropico 3
Direct link here
Assoria has announced via their Facebook page that Move your Brain: Rollway Puzzle is due out this Monday. I think this one could be a lot of fun, even though the visuals aren’t too hot. Thanks to NintenDaan for the heads up!
This image comes Mario Mania, a promotional book released by Nintendo discussing the development of the series up to Super Mario World. Looks like Yoshi was even weirder looking before Nintendo came up with his final design! Thanks to Bentendo for the heads up!
Since January 20, the team at Behemoth have been raising money through Xbox Live DLC sales of Castle Crashers and Alien Hominid to support relief efforts in Haiti. Over four days, Behemoth has collected $15,585.65 through DLC purchases; however, since the promise was to donate 200% of all DLC sales, The Behemoth has matched the total leaving the donation jar filled with $31,171.29!
That's great, but for The Behemoth it isn't great enough. Today the team announced they will continue to extend the promotion until the total donation jar hits $50,000. What a bunch of sweethearts. Check out a list of the DLC you can buy to help offer support for the people in Haiti. They really need your help.
I know a lot of people had trouble with original vrsion of this Red Steel 2 video tour, but now a YouTube version has popped up. If you missed this the first time around, make sure to check out this version! New game footage and development details!
Direct link and part 2 here (thanks [...]
Between all of January's blockbuster releases, we're guessing you're already up to your neck in gaming opportunities this weekend. However, if you're looking to add a bit more slag to the top of the pile, digital retailer Impulse has cut the price of a few PC games for this weekend only. Until tomorrow, you can pick up fantasy-platformer Trine for $9.99, or the self-explanatory Gratuitous Space Battles for $11.49. There's a few other discounts currently running as well -- go check out Impulse for more delicious bargains.
Throughout the weekend, Steam is offering two special packages that include all games in the Freedom Force and X-COM franchises for the insanely low price of $2 for each bundle. That's right, kids! For a two-spot you could pick up a bundle with Freedom Force and Freedom Force vs. The Third Reich or an X-COM collection which includes Apocalypse, Enforcer, Interceptor, Terror from the Deep, and UFO Defense. That's a lot of game for some pocket change, so get on it.
Shortcut - Freedom Force Steam bundle
Shortcut - X-COM: Complete Steam bundle
Further expanding on LittleBigPlanet's catalog of costumes portraying PS3-exclusive game protagonists, Media Molecule has revealed that the next set of in-game duds will come from White Knight Chronicles on February 25. According to the PlayStation.Blog post announcing the new content, the costume pack will include the garbs of four of the RPG's legendary heroes: The White Knight, Black Knight, Dragon Knight, and ... Leonard. One of these things is significantly less awesome than the others.
February's Japanese Virtual Console lineup is exceptionally small -- four games in all -- but all four games are high-quality. In advance of Mega Man 10, Capcom offers Mega Man 4, which, while one of the weaker games in the series, is still a real Mega Man game and thus pretty good. A never-localized (and probably still not to be localized) SNES Advance Wars game will be available sometime in the month, and MSX versions of the familiar Contra and the delightful scrolling puzzle game Quarth.
Of course, we've seen zero of these MSX games outside of Japan. Oh, we just made ourselves sad.
Famicom:
Rockman 4
Super Famicom:
Super Famicom Wars
MSX:
Quarth (Feb. 2)
Contra (Feb. 2)
Extreme Hangman is finally going to see its release on DSiWare. This one was announced pretty much right when the service was announced, and I thought that the project was dead in the water! Turns out I was wrong, as the game is now set for a February 8th release. It’s only [...]
We wouldn't blame you if you're hesitant to trust your cold, unfeeling game console with your credit card information -- when that thing inevitably goes sentient, you just know its just going to go on an overpriced accessory-shopping spree. Fortunately, there's other ways to obtain content on the Xbox Live Marketplace; for instance, a recently added GameStop listing has revealed that Borderlands' two DLC packs, The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned and Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot, will soon be bundled together in a retail package for the 360 and PC.
The bundle, which is set to drop February 23, will be priced at $19.99, which is how much the DLC would cost if purchased separately on the Marketplace. Only, now you're also paying sales tax, meaning you're buying an expansion pack and paying for a few pages of a public elementary school textbook. How nice of you!
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]
There is no shortage of button-mashing action titles coming in 2010, and Dante's Inferno is right around the corner. Promising buckets of blood, brooding and boobs, the team at Visceral Games hope to capture the overlapping fans of both literary masterpieces and punching monsters in the face. It's like an obvious Venn diagram of awesome. Well, until someone finally turns Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret into a collectible card game.
We certainly didn't see this coming. While it may seem strange to doubt the release of another Disgaea game, Disgaea Infinite is not what you might expect. No, it's not a SRPG. It's not even a platformer. Instead, it's a visual novel game -- an interactive story-based adventure, akin to the Phoenix Wright series. According to a press release, this will be NIS America's first visual novel published in America.
Disgaea Infinite promises to keep the same over-the-top humor the franchise is known for. Players will assume the role of a Prinny on the hunt for an assassin trying to take down the demon Laharl. With the power to take over other characters minds and bodies, Prinny will be able to solve this almost-murder mystery. Expect it on PSP this May.
While things around the track have been quiet, Capcom is finally spilling the oil regarding DLC for its upcoming racer MotoGP 09/10. At this week's Silverstone event, Capcom revealed that two free DLC packages will be released for the motocross title "shortly" after the game's release.
Before the MotoGP 09/10 turns the final corner onto store shelves, Capcom will release an Xbox 360 and PS3 demo "about a month" prior to the game's launch. The demo is slated to feature the world-famous Mugello, Italy, track as well as all three bike classes and will probably make any race fanatic's wheels spin with joy. Whether you're looking forward to its upcoming March release or not, one thing is certain: The racing references in this post need to end, immediately.
Vroom. Okay, now.
VideoGamePriceCharts.com, a site that tracks average online prices for video games and consoles, has released its year-end report for 2009, and if you were buying and selling games speculatively (we all do that, right?), you'll want to check it out. Okay, so maybe you weren't picking up the now-discontinued Demon's Souls Deluxe Edition because you hoped it would get rare, but if so, you're in luck: That game topped the list, raising in value from an MSRP of $69.99 up to a high of $116. Grand Theft Auto IV's Lost and Damned retail box (which contained a code for the DLC) is another big collector's item, and if you were so lucky as to nab a copy of Bass Pro Shops' The Strike (with Fishing Rod) for Xbox 360, then reel in the money, because it raised in value over 50%. Whew! Welcome to the exciting market of video game price speculation!
For a little more practical information, you can also see which companies and consoles kept their value in 2009 -- turns out MTV, Atlus and Nintendo games all did well at resale, with the Wii (surprise!) topping the market for overall value held among its games. Of course, you should really be buying games (and supporting developers) for their quality, not for their resale value, but it doesn't hurt to figure out which ones will give you a few more bucks in return when you're done.
The other day, our friends Alex and Jen invited us up to their loft to play this new racing game for the Wii. We were a little leery about going (Jen kept yelling things like "Waaaah! Super horn!" and "Shortcut cheat!," which was weird), but they promised us it was kart racing "with attitude," so we went anyway. It was okay, we guess. You could ride planes and cars and stuff (Jen was really excited about riding bananas for some reason), but when Alex and Jen kept yelling random competitive cliches in between these weird clinical explanations of powerups, we got kind of freaked out and started checking our watches.
Things got a little uncomfortable when Alex threatened to make Jen cry like a little girl, and when she replied with a confident "Bring. It. On," we knew it was probably time to call it a night and quietly excused ourselves from their apartment. On our way out, we heard Alex creepily mumbling about "the sweet taste of victory" under Jen's nonsense shouting. They've already called us to see if we want to hang out next weekend for a "rematch," but uh, we think we're probably busy then.
