All Topics Gaming older than one year ago

A bold new enterprise. Choose your platform to jump to a specific release list: Last updated: Monday, 12:15 PM

As evidenced by the image above and this link, Dragon Age: Origins' once-released and subsequently pulled DLC offering, Return to Ostagar has, uh, returned to Xbox Live! No, seriously, we're not lying -- we understand your skepticism, but, we assure you, it's there. As for the PC and PS3, well, it's still not available on those platforms at the time of writing this post. BioWare says it'll be on those platforms "soon." The 400 campaign add-on takes you to Ostagar, the site of a vicious battle with the Darkspawn. One captive has managed to escape and seeks the Grey Wardens' aid to ... wait for it ... Return to Ostagar. Epic! Update: The PC version of Return to Ostagar has also been released (400 BioWare Points / $5). The PS3 version is still "coming soon," as of today, January 29. Shortcut: Add Return to Ostagar to your Xbox Live queue [Xbox.com]

In space, no one will let you role-play your way.

Okay, if you're not that familiar with the level designing mechanics of LittleBigPlanet, your domepiece might not explode at the sight of the video above. However, if you have first-hand knowledge of how difficult it is to make creative, functional engineering marvels in Media Molecule's platformer, you'll certainly appreciate the Contraption Challenge entrants' efforts. You can even catch a glimpse of the last Challenge's winner, the "Rusty ol' Bridge Builder," at the 3:27 mark. Keep an eye out for future Contraption Challenges -- Media Molecule promises the next one will be announced soon.

We told you last week, but with a certain something likely taking up every ounce of delicious brain juice you've got right now, we felt it prudent to put out a reminder. 'Splosion Man, Twisted Pixel's game of splodey splendor, is 50 percent off this week on Xbox Live, bringing it down to a very reasonable 400 price tag. If you haven't bothered to check it out yet -- it is one of 2009's best games, y'know -- then there's really no excuse now. Shortcut: Add Splosion Man to your download queue [Xbox.com]

Back in November, Capcom told Joystiq it was "hoping" to add voice chat support to Monster Hunter Tri using the neglected Wii Speak accessory. Today's announcement of the European release of the game confirms that players will be able to coordinate with their hunting parties by yelling at their TVs. Not only will the Western releases of Monster Hunter Tri support the Wii Speak accessory, but it will be offered as part of a bundle in the European version. In addition to the standalone game and a Classic Controller Pro bundle, you'll be able to buy a pack containing Monster Hunter Tri, a black Classic Controller Pro, and a Wii Speak mic. [Via Siliconera]

Series 'The Tester' to follow 11 contestants competing for job as PlayStation game tester and feature actor and comedian Hal Sparks as judge.

Nintendo continues to drag its feet on an official response about Metroid Prime Trilogy's retail status, though online retailer Amazon tells Joystiq that the game has been discontinued. According to a representative from the online retailer: "Per Nintendo, we will no longer be offering Metroid Prime Trilogy at this time." Requests for comment from other retailers were not returned. The fate of Metroid Prime Trilogy has been shrouded in confusing statements and PR jujitsu for almost a month now. Nintendo refuses to acknowledge it ever made the statement that the game was "no longer being shipped." Nintendo PR told Joystiq, in part (full statement after the break), "Copies of [Metroid Prime Trilogy] are currently available at major retailers nationwide." When pressured, the company representative stated that it is still "clarifying this matter" -- a process which has taken more than two weeks at the time of writing.

Mass Effect 2 has warped to the top of Chart-Track's UK sales chart, revealing that Britain isn't just about Just Dance (which still stepped its way into second place, by the way). Comparing debut weeks, the Normandy crew's second outing sold twice as well on Xbox 360 than the original did back in 2007 and three times higher on PC. EA is expecting a good financial return from Mass Effect 2, having already shipped 2 million copies. Taking the bronze this week on the all-formats chart is Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and in fourth is ... MAG. Yes, coverage of the PS3-exclusive may have been totally eclipsed by BioWare's space opera, but it still managed a strong debut -- have a look at our review to see if it's worth the attention. The rest of the list features the usual suspects, though Dragon Age: Origins has made a return to the top 40. It seems Mass Effect 2 wasn't the only BioWare game casting a spell over consumers last week. Source - Mass Effect 2 gravitates to No1 [GFK Chart-Track] Source - Latest UK Software Charts [GFK Chart-Track]

According to a new trademark, EA's surprisingly adorable MySims are preparing for another adventure -- after Agents, Kingdom, Party, Racing, and the original MySims (the last of which being less of an adventure and more of a life). EA has filed a trademark for MySims Sky Heroes (and MySims SkyHeroes), for what we assume will be a game about operating a small neighborhood coffee shop flying flghter planes. We can safely guess that if this game does end up being made, it'll be released for DS and Wii. And it'll be really cute. Unless this is to be the "mature" relaunch of MySims. [Via Trademork, Destructoid]

Sony's PlayStation Network-exclusive reality series "The Tester" will begin February 18th. The competition will have the above real gamers vying for a chance to win a glamorous testing job at PlayStation. Until April 8th, the PlayStation Store (for PSP and PS3) will update every Thursday with new -- and free -- episodes of the series. Should "The Tester" successfully sidestep traditional employee recruitment and take off, don't be surprised if Sony announces "Who Wants to be Our Janitor?" next season.

There are a couple of interesting games hidden in an unusually crowded lineup of new Nintendo downloads. The Tales of Monkey Island series concludes, Alex Kidd appears in a weird crossover game, and DSiWare features a game that uses the camera for motion controls. And somehow, Digital Leisure released the same game twice! Find out how that happened (and what all the other new games are) after the break.

Come on in, the water's fine!

Filed under: Mac, PC, Meta (about Joystiq) January 2010 ended with the release of one of the best games of the year in Mass Effect 2. At least -- we assume it's one of the best games of the year. If they get much better than this, we're going to be in good shape. However, PC gamers have even more goodness in store for February. Before we enter a new month let's look back at the events of the last seven days in January. Exclusive Features Independent Games Festival 2010: We look at all of the nominees entered into the annual celebration of indie games. Check out part one, part two, part three, part four and part five of the series. Interviews: We chat with the co-founder of CD Project on GoG.com and more and with Gas Powered Games' Chris Taylor on Supreme Commander 2. Opinion: Apple's iPad - threat or help to PC gaming? - We give our opinion on if the new Apple device will affect PC gaming. Boot Disk: Our retro games feature checks out the original Tropico. Freeware Friday: Our weekly feature on free PC games checks out the rogue-like Tiny Crawl.

Following up on the warning that PAX East will sell out, Joystiq has learned that the inaugural East Coast edition of the show will have over 60,000 attendees. Robert Khoo, President of Operations and Biz Dev for Penny Arcade Inc., tells us that they can't release final figures until the show is over, but are "looking at more attendees than the last PAX in Seattle." PAX 2009 sold out and had 60,750 participants. PAX East organizers plan to make an announcement this week that the show has fewer than 1000 3-day badges remaining. At this point, PAX East has no announced speakers, music guests nor sponsors. It seems like everyone is buying into an expectation that the show will deliver an experience similar to PAX West -- and you don't want to disappoint an audience this huge.

Swing True, Bet Big and Vanquish Evil with New Game Downloads

Alright, alright, you kind of already knew about the giant blue dragon in the upcoming Dragon Age: Origins 'Awakening' expansion pack, but you hadn't seen her (yes, her) in all her rage-filled majesty, scaring the crap out of those venturing into Blackmarsh. Between her and Skeletor, we're getting pretty psyched for March's DA:O content infusion. Sure, there's that other BioWare RPG that we're obsessively playing for now, but how long will that last before we feel the urge to venture back into the fantasy realm? We're guessing about two months. And hey, if nothing else, it'll give us something to talk about at PAX East during the Joystiq / Blueberry Muffintops Breakfast.

There was no ESRB back in the day when Splatterhouse hit the TurboGrafx-16. Here’s how Namco remedied that… I’m no coward, damnit! I’ll play the hell out of Splatterhouse on the VC…with all the lights on…and someone rubbing my back.

The other day, we posted up the official trailer for Vanquish, the next game from Mikami and Platinum Games. The trailer wasn’t officially tied to any platform, leaving open discussing for all three current consoles. Some were hoping that the game would end up on Wii, but we have no evidence that that [...]

I honestly don’t know how you guys feel about ripped game soundtracks. Hell, even I don’t know how I feel about them. I’m talking about the legal side of things. Please leave a comment and let me know. I’ll base my future soundtrack coverage on what you guys have to say. Check [...]

A portion of a VG247 interview with Q-Games’ Shouichi Tominaga, Rhod Broadbent and Duncan Flett… Rhod: Piracy’s a factor when we decide what projects we’re doing next – whether or not that platform is suffering heavily from piracy or not. I know Dylan’s made some comments about this, but we don’t solely base our decisions around [...]

The full episode won’t be on Hulu until tomorrow, so for now you’ll have to enjoy these screen caps! More pics here (thanks Pugwishbone!)

Did you notice what’s wrong with that email? I think Nintendo might want to start using a current picture of the Wiimote. Pretty sure that thing has a speaker on it. Thanks to Haleman for the heads up!