All Topics Gaming older than one year ago

Take a tour of the many levels of Bounce! on PC.

Third downloadable content for Borderlands coming this week.

Aside from a cursory description of the game's premise on its official website, we've heard very little about Fallout: New Vegas. Today, friends, that changes, with a USA Today feature that reveals the game's protagonist as a shot and left-to-die package delivery boy who finds himself in Sin City "and the surrounding area" in 2280. "You were a courier, and you were obviously carrying something that somebody wanted," Bethesda Softworks' Pete Hines says of the player's character. "Part of the story is finding out what you had and what they took."

Hines additionally insists New Vegas will "feel" far different from 2008's Fallout 3 through one key aspect: the setting. "Vegas is up and running. It is not a ghost town. It still exists and thrives. There are casinos, and you can go down onto the Strip. It will have a very different feel from that standpoint."

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Hines also notes that the New Vegas will "take you hundreds of hours to explore every nook and cranny" -- not unlike the 2008 iteration of the Fallout franchise. We'd be straight lying if we said we weren't unbelievably ready to invest that time in more of the Fallout universe this fall, even after all of last year's DLC.

“The fantasy of the hero doesn’t survive that one-to-one modelling, so we’re always doing a little bit of handholding. Every attack goes through the centre of the screen, for example, no matter where you’re swinging - but the angle of that attack is 100 per cent determined by you and what you did. It’s not [...]

The most fun-filled racing game lands on Wii.

I really do love the WarioWare series. It’s one of the few mini-game collections that I actually get excited about. I think on a game-by-game basis, the WarioWare series has provided some of the most unique an imaginative ideas that Nintendo has had. I’m sure that trend will continue with WarioWare: D.I.Y. Article [...]

Take the law into your own hands.

Gamers have one more week to try it out.

If you're reading this, there's a good chance you've seen a certain video that recently began circulating the internet. The video in question, which you'll find after the break, depicts an Xbox Live moderator (Gamertag: The Pro) banning an Xbox Live gamer during a match of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. The video, entitled "The Pro : XBOX Live Moderator Abuses His Power," begins with a narrator asking netizens to share the video in an effort to spread the word about the allegedly "corrupt" moderator.

It didn't take long for Microsoft's Major Nelson to make note of the video on his twitter account. The video was passed on to Stephen Toulouse, director of Xbox LIVE policy and enforcement, who made several comments on his own twitter account. Toulouse noted that 'The Pro' was "policing" Modern Warfare 2 modding, which can result in Xbox Live Gold account bans or complete console bans.

In a statement to Joystiq, Toulouse said, "The player behavior in question and subsequent interaction with the moderator violated the Xbox LIVE Terms of Use and Code of Conduct. The Xbox LIVE moderator followed protocol and, while he regrets his tone, the video was heavily edited to omit the inappropriate behavior and we fully support the moderator's decision to take action against the offending players."

It's worth noting that iTzLuPo, the YouTube user who originally uploaded the video, states that he is a modder in his bio. Taken from his YouTube page: "I am now part of one of the best Glitching/modding clans there is on Xbox LIVE." He also lists "Glitching/Modding/tutorials" under the hobbies section.

Ready to cross the border into new lands in your ... Borderlands? The doors will creak open to Borderlands' "Secret Armory of General Knoxx" add-on tomorrow. TeamXbox reports that the downloadable expansion, which adds new areas with new missions, the requisite piles of weapons, and even an increased level cap, will be released on Xbox 360 tomorrow, February 23, for 800 ($10), with PS3 and PC releases to follow on Thursday for the same price.

One more thing: When you go online to explore the new content, we recommend that you let Gearbox's own hiring policy govern your interactions with your fellow mercenaries.

This week, the Nintendo Channel is a bit light on content. There's a new Deca Sports DS demo to check out, but, aside from that, we found ourselves looking to Nintendo Week -- the weekly Nintendo-produced video marketing exercise -- for entertainment. It's a nautically themed episode this week, complete with brief and completely inappropriate bouts of screaming. Who knew ship captains were so deranged? ... Oh, right.

Head past the break for the full list of this week's content.

You know what, Uncharted 2? We get it -- okay? We get it. You're awesome. Not only did you win all the awards, now, according to Scott Rohde, VP of product development for SCEA, you've sold 3.5 million units, enough to become the fastest-selling first-party game on the PlayStation 3 to date.

Frankly, Mr. "Among Thieves," we've all been talking about it and ... well, it's starting to come off as a little desperate. And, to be honest, we're a little upset that Joystiq GOTY honors wasn't good enough for you. There -- we said it.

It's still a little early in 2010 to be handing out our "Human of the Year" award, but a Halo.Bungie.org forum poster by the username of Seraph XXVII is already high atop our list of candidates. In a recent post on the fan site, Seraph displayed his massive Halo memorabilia collection, seen above, and revealed that he'll be auctioning the whole lot off within the next few days.

Half of the proceeds from the auction are going to Child's Play, and the other half will go towards paying the medical expenses of a fellow Halo.Bungie.org forumite, whose fiancee learned she had a tennis ball-sized brain tumor last week. Needless to say, both of these are great causes -- if you've got room in your home for six bajillion miniature Spartans, why not show your support once the auction goes live?

They wear sunglasses Wesker certainly isn’t helping his cause by wearing sunglasses. Even more telling are the all-black clothes that he’s donning.

Derek Stiles, a rookie doctor that more than proved his worth in the Trauma Center series. Man, just the thought of having a rookie doctor work on me gives me the sweats. I don’t like the doctor as it is, and I especially don’t want the new guy/gal working on me!

Dear 2010,

It's a chilly December day here in New York City. Ubisoft has stopped by with a copy of Red Steel 2, forcing me to adhere to a strict embargo, one that ends in a brand new decade: February 22, 2010. I hope with the new decade comes flying cars, robot servants and -- perhaps more reasonably -- a better version of Red Steel 2.

You see, here in 2009, Red Steel 2 continues to control poorly. Once again, Red Steel fails to capitalize on the dream of "1:1" sword controls, as Wiimote swings still translate into predetermined animations. Although Red Steel 2 requires the MotionPlus accessory, the game doesn't demand precision or finesse; all enemies are seemingly killed the same way: by stabbing them in the back. Battles are largely reduced to waiting for an enemy to attack, dodging and then swinging wildly at the enemy's weak point. Any other method seems ineffective, with gun play serving a largely decorative purpose. (Enemies seem to block every shot you fire.)

Baiyon was the art and music director of PixelJunk Eden, and he’s been doing a project where he teams up with another composer to work on music outside of the game industry. This time around he has chosen none other than Hip Tanaka, the man behind the music of Metroid, Dr. Mario and many [...]

A game based on the movie is headed to PSN.

Capture beasts and then conquer worlds. Mount the beasts after you tame them, and then ride them.

After completing 2009 with redesigned hardware and several high-profile games (including Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines, MotorStorm: Arctic Edge and LittleBigPlanet), the PSP platform is looking for another strong lineup to carry it until the end of another year. Sony's senior vice president of publisher relations, Rob Dyer, told Industry Gamers that third parties will provide a "very robust lineup" in 2010 -- albeit one that has to face a very old problem.

"I think we had a great lineup last year. The biggest problem that plagued PSP was piracy; we have not been able to slow that down," Dyer said. "We think we have some answers going forward, but we're not ready to talk about that publicly at this point. So we're working on fixing that, because that's been a big problem. Publishers, when they put out good games, are not getting the same sales results that they got a few years back. So piracy's been a big issue and we're working on that very diligently to bring about some solutions."

Some solutions include the PSP Go, which focuses on digitally acquired games (through the PlayStation Store, of course!) and -- as recently demonstrated by third-person shooter SOCOM Fireteam Bravo 3 -- a form of potentially consumer-unfriendly online activation. And while Sony appears pleased with the platform's longevity, six years is a long time to still be tinkering with anti-piracy experiments.

"We're into the sixth year now on the platform, and that's a long time for a handheld," Dyer noted. "I think given where we're at right now, we're doing very, very well. But yes, the business has had problems and I think it all stems, candidly, from the piracy."

When we look at the charming puzzler The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom, we don't think of it as a high-stakes competitive sport; however, 2K Play and The Odd Gentlemen recently announced a contest for the game's speedy completionists. Each week for the next month, a level from the game will be designated as a gruesome battleground, where players with the top ten fastest times will be eligible to receive P.B. Winterbottom-branded 360 faceplates and t-shirts.

Click past the jump to see the four levels on which you should start tirelessly practicing your insidious pie-thieving craft.