All Topics Gaming older than one year ago

We've seen plenty of retrogaming celebration in 3D Dot Game Heroes, but we just haven't seen enough ... juvenile humor. Atlus recognized this humiliating deficiency, and sent out this trailer featuring a series of innuendos that would put an even bigger smile on Smilin' Bob's face. The real gameplay info buried within all the embarrassing jokery is that the in-game blacksmith enables players to upgrade their swords to (admittedly) Freudian proportions, allowing them to mow down enemies from a comfortable distance. While chuckling to themselves like Butt-head, of course.

A better Dark Void than the actual Dark Void.

DLC available once again for Dragon Age fans.

SEGA shows off Platinum Games interstellar DS offering with full English voice-over for the very first time.

The latest issue of Famitsu stated that there are 5 titles in development by Square Enix right now although we don’t know their names. Will any of these 5 be integrated to a Nintendo platform? Will it be related to Dragon Quest X? Just some things we just do not know yet. Link (thanks [...]

The second in an ongoing series of Skate 3 developer diaries where dudes sit around on a couch like a bunch of Chatty Cathys, this latest episode features one of the most ambitious locales to make its way into a Skate game: a quarry. Looking more like a multiplayer map from Modern Warfare 2 than a sweet spot to bust some darkslides, we're anxious to see if the execution will be up to snuff. If so, it'll be among the most unique and diverse spots the series has to offer. Aside from the quarry, the video above also provides a brief look at an industrial district, a new spillway and a new area dubbed 3rd & Army 1st & Air Force 2nd & Navy.

There'll be no excuse for lacking precision in your sword swings.

The stabby new iPhone game could hold clues about the series' online future.

Is this it?

We take a look at what the 6th expansion is all about.

This is a phenomenon? I don’t know about this game, man. It looks like it messes with people’s minds! Direct link Trust me, this is not the worst of them. Apparently, this kind of stuff is all over YouTube. Click through to see some real doozies that I won’t post up here! Thanks thegreatone!

And here come the pretzels.

With posts that go back to 2006, the public embarrassment that is Sadness is far more interesting than the game could ever have been. The epic tale of vaporware, which is comparable to Duke Nukem Forever, receives another notch in its timeline today. The latest is that the Sadness website is gone and the URL is up for grabs. Developer Nibris has yet to speak on the matter and, frankly, whatever they say doesn't really matter. Dare we say this is the end of Sadness? Heck no. Where there's a developer and a desperate fan base, there's a way. [Via GoNintendo]

A portion of the NintendoLife Review: Geometry Wars Galaxies is a great adaptation of an excellent console game made even better by including Bizarre Creations original hit as an extra. The DS controls nicely mirror the Wii’s Nunchuk+ Remote controls, providing a responsive 360-degree firing arc in a frantic shooting match against increasing numbers of enemies. [...]

The Industrial District makes for near-infinite possibilities in the Skate world.

Playing as a Big Daddy has its benefits.

New titles expected to hit in the next few years.

Now there's a name we've heard before: "PlayStation Arc." Only now instead of being bandied around as rumor, it's been uttered by someone who should know something about it -- THQ chief executive officer Brian Farrell -- multiple times during the same investor call. "We are focused on our continued leadership in [casual games], taking advantage of the lower hardware price points that we expect will attract new mass market gamers, and new family-friendly platforms such as Microsoft's Natal and the PlayStation Arc motion controller," he announced. The as-of-yet officially named controller -- which was recently bumped back for release this fall -- was referred to as "Arc" by Farrell several more times, during both his prepared statement and subsequent Q&A session. Responding to a question on the company's plans for Natal and "Arc," Farrell replied that THQ "would like to be there at launch" for both motion control devices. We've contacted Sony for comment on Farrell's ... comments, but don't expect its reps to be as loose-lipped as the THQ boss.

Quantic Dream chats about the considerable amount of work left before Heavy Rain is complete.

The Wii gets a homegrown version of the movie tie-in. First impressions here.

New titles expected to hit in the next few years.

So, yeah, Stargate fans. That whole Stargate: Worlds MMO you've been waiting for since forever? Well, at least you'll get to shoot things while you wait some more. Stargate: Resistance, the third-person online shooter that FireSky and Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment inexplicably dropped news on last month in lieu of anything to say about the game fans have actually been anticipating, is set to hit next week -- February 10 -- and can be pre-ordered for $19.95 from Direct2Drive. Hey, it could be good -- or it could be a quick-and-dirty attempt to recoup the costs incurred developing an MMO that may never come out. (C'mon, we were all thinking it.) [Via GateWorld; Thanks, Robin!]

Yep, it says it all right there in the headline, folks. Gameloft swiftly took $122 million from consumers in 2009, roughly equating to 12 million digital copies of DSiWare Oregon Trail. Alright, alright, the digital distribution-based publishers probably sold some of its other games too, we guess -- mobile games (in general) represented a whopping 94 percent of the company's sales in 2009. And despite our voracious habit for mobile games here at Joystiq, North Americans were second place in terms of worldwide sales at 32 percent, with Europeans leading at 39 percent and the rest of the world trailing at 27 percent. Good luck catching up, rest of the world! And yes, even amidst the global economic recession, Gameloft predicted "further growth in 2010 in terms of revenue and profitability." The publisher also pointed out its strong position in the long term, saying it will "benefit from the rapid emergence of digitally distributed video games on mobile phones, tablets, consoles, and from major technological innovations." You catch that tablet reference in there? Yeah, we did too. Hey, it's 2010, right? The future. We're in it.

I knew that games were big, but I suppose I didn’t know just how big. I think the most significant part of these polls is the ammount of young ladies that own a gaming system these days. It’s great to see my favorite hobby spreading across genders and age barriers — I just [...]

The official GDC 2010 website has revealed that Metroid director Yoshio Sakamoto will be leading a lecture at this year's conference. The lecture is titled "From Metroid to Tomodachi Collection to WarioWare: Different Approaches for Different Audiences." The session will focus on Sakamoto's "thought processes and techniques on game designs that have allowed him to find market acceptance for his expansive portfolio of titles." In other words, it will delve into the success of Sakamoto's many wildly different games. Assuming the lecture has a Q&A session, we also imagine it will focus on journalists needling Sakamoto about Metroid: Other M. Curiously, the lecture listing also fails to mention the inevitable follow-up event: Watch fanboy journalists and developers rush Sakamoto to get their DSes autographed.

StarFleet, Plasmids and Tons o' Betas!

THQ plans to show off its new title this June in LA.

Back in early 2009, THQ hinted at more games in its De Blob franchise. In early 2010 ... it's hinting again. During an investor conference call, CEO Brian Farrell told us to expect more from its amorphous hero in fiscal 2011 (which takes place in real time between April 2010 and March 2011). The franchise has been similarly amorphous, consisting of one Wii game, one iPhone game, and one cancelled DS game. Given THQ's recent attitude toward Nintendo consoles, if we were to guess a platform for whatever this new game is, we'd go iPhone.

THQ's Brian Farrell has revealed on today's investor conference call that the company is planning to revisit some of its most successful franchises as far away as the fiscal year of 2012 (which would be sometime after March 2011), including this year's bestseller Darksiders, and the popular Saint's Row franchise. Farrell says the company is looking to fiscal 2012 for "accelerated growth with three major core game titles scheduled: Warhammer 40k Space Marine, a sequel to Darksiders and the third generation of our popular Saint's Row franchise." Given that these are more than a year away, we don't have any more information besides the fact that they're planned for release (Who will Darksiders ape next? Will Saint's Row finally solve all of those bugs?). But news of sequels for both games will be welcomed by their respective fans.

THQ today announced to investors its financial holdings for the year ending December 31, 2009, reporting a net income of $1.4 million and sales of $701.5 million in the final nine months of the year. To put that in some perspective, the net income for the same period last year was a $334.2 loss. No doubt well-reviewed titles like UFC Undisputed 2009 and (personal favorite) Red Faction: Guerrilla helped that financial 180° turn -- a much needed one after a rocky 2008 and a mess of layoffs in 2009. The publisher also announced "first four week" sales of Darksiders have already reached 1.2 million in the US (Ahem, Mr. Greenwald? Did you hear that?). Interestingly, THQ called the game part of its "growing portfolio of owned brands," among Red Faction, de Blob, Drawn to Life, and Saint's Row. And with this afternoon's investor call, it would certainly appear we'll be seeing more from that portfolio in the coming year.