All Topics Gaming older than one year ago

Mario Kart meets Smash Bros. in a clone that gets it right.

Filed under: Podcasts Yeah, the Fancast is a little late this week. We had a little technical problem. You see, technically, we forgot to hit the record button the first time we did the show. We made sure to rectify this error the second time around, and now you have a brand-spankin'-new episode. It's a pretty good one too, filled with news, fan mail and accent abuse. Next time, we'll hit the record button the first time. Promise.

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Hosts: Richard Mitchell (SenseiRAM), Alexander Sliwinski (Sli Xander), Xav de Matos (Snypz) and Dave Hinkle (KnifefightYaDad)

Produced by Richard Mitchell

Music: Intro/Outro: "Electromooq" by Uma Floresta. Break: "Forgive Me" by Le Loup.

For fans: Xbox 360 Fancast Facebook group

How far would you go ... to have better box art for Heavy Rain? Thankfully, you won't have to go much farther than a color printer. The "wet t-shirt" Heavy Rain box art shipped to North American retailers today can now be replaced by the much classier -- and far more representative -- European box art. Make sure you use high quality paper and ink. "I'd recommend printing it on an 11 x 17 and cutting along the lines so it fits just right," SCEA's Cristian Cardona advises.

If you haven't picked up Heavy Rain yet, you may want to check out our review. Then, check out a new trailer after the break.

This email just came through from the gang at Capcom… Our COO and dear friend, Mark Beaumont, passed away this morning. This sudden loss has left us with deep sadness. Our hearts go out to his family and loved ones. We will remember him for his humor, passion and commitment to Capcom [...]

The Epic evolution of gaming's most influential engine, from Gears of War to Mass Effect 2.

Compare MLB 2K10 and MLB2K9 side-by-side in this trailer!

General Knoxx makes his move in Borderlands via downloadable content.

Can Joba Chamberlain out-pitch Antonio Bastardo? Find out in this gameplay from the just-released demo.

In a move intended to cause as much embarrassment to said party as possible, Binary Tweed is chuffed to reveal that the secret guest actor in upcoming PC watercolour political platform puzzler Clover: A Curious Tale is none other than games journalism stalwart Gary "UK:Resistance" Cutlack.

It's rare for a console to get a spec upgrade in the middle of its life. However, Sony has stealthily upgraded the PS3 over the past few months to unlock additional usable RAM for developers. Much like the PSP received a boost in clock speed, the latest firmware updates provide developers an additional 70MB of RAM to work with. The change was initially discovered by PlayStation University, noting the reduction in the system OS's memory footprint, from 120MB to 50MB. As the OS continues to slim down, developers are allowed access to even more usable system memory.

SCEA's Patrick Seybold recently confirmed the change to Joystiq. "Since the launch of the PS3, we have been continuously making efforts to reinforce our support system to game developers, allowing them to express their creativity freely on the PS3. As part of this support for game development, the size of the PS3 OS memory footprint has been reduced through network update for the game developers."

While 70MB of additional memory is not insignificant, don't expect drastic changes to future PS3 games. A PS3 developer told us that "any bit of RAM helps. Generally it probably won't change design, but might allow extra effects resolution or dynamic lights or something. Probably more beneficial from the systems and art side then from design/gameplay." In tandem with increasingly efficient code, the added RAM will undoubtedly make for even better looking games. Certainly, that's not something we'd complain about.

This new patent seems to give us a heads up for what to expect with the next handheld system. When will we see this system and how will it differ from the DS, DS Lite, DSi, and DSi LL? Only time will tell.

Publisher not expecting current consoles to go away anytime soon.

Publisher not expecting current consoles to go away anytime soon.

Meet the four character classes of Dragonica Online on PC.

Regardless of whether or not you're a fan of ludological interpretations of America's pastime, you should really plan on grabbing the demo for MLB 2K10. See, you're going to need as much practice as you possibly get in order to pitch a perfect no-hitter once the game's released, effectively netting yourself a cool million bucks.

However, though the demo is currently available on Xbox Live, PS3 owners won't have access to it until March 4 -- two days after the full game is released. By that time, the 360-owning populace will have had over a week to turn their pitching arms into Randy Johnson-esque baseball cannons. Depending on how you look at it, that's either a huge handicap, or the makings of a fantastic underdog story.

Publisher not expecting current consoles to go away anytime soon.

You can now play Mario Kart like LL Cool J would! Bid on it here.

Namco Bandai has issued a recall notice for copies of Tales of Graces, the Wii Tales RPG released in Japan on December 10. In the announcement, the publisher listed all of the bugs it hopes to address with replacement discs, mostly occurring in "New Game +" replays. Apparently, certain enemies, team conversations, and even key items may not appear in subsequent playthroughs. In addition, bugs in shops can randomly change the types and numbers of items in player possession, and pausing during cutscenes may result in other item glitches.

Namco promises that all of these issues will be addressed in the updated discs, and that players' save files will remain compatible. Users need only send in their discs, and not the whole Wii bundle.

[Via Kotaku]

End your foes with a lethal blow from Red Steel 2's samurai cowboy.

An ancient evil awakens in the Legend V update to Silkroad Online.

Celebs play Bad Company 2 for charity, and we get the details from DICE Senior Producer Patrick Bach.

I’m marking this as a rumor because I don’t speak Dutch, but wiids.nl claims that their reliable source told them that June of this year is when we can expect to see SMG 2 hit the shelves. Hopefully we will find out more as the night progresses. Link (Thanks Dragoon!)

Alongside today's release of The Secret Armory of General Knoxx DLC for Borderlands (on the Xbox 360, at least -- it's this Thursday for PC and PlayStation 3), Gearbox Software has unveiled a new trailer touting the many new features of its third content pack. As you can likely guess, a multitude of guns, creatures, dudes, and the destruction thereof, makes up the majority of what you see above -- there's also some pulse-pounding music to go right alongside that, if you're so inclined.

With a raised level cap and a lack of arena-based combat (at least as far as we know), General Knoxx could very well be the most enticing content add-on to date for Borderlands. And that's exactly why we're standing near a couch when reviewing it, hoping to be knoxx'd off our feet. (Sorry, there was no getting around that one.) We'll let you know in a few.

A quick note to anyone looking to purchase an Xbox 360, Best Buy currently has a good deal on both the Elite and Arcade models. The retailer is currently offering a $30 gift card for the purchase of an Xbox 360 Arcade unit, while an Elite purchase will net you a $50 gift card. That effectively drops the prices of the Elite and Arcade to $250 and $170, respectively -- assuming you were planning to spend more money at Best Buy, anyway. To take part in the promotion, simply head to Best Buy's promotional pages for either the Arcade or Elite console, toss the selected hardware and the $50 gift card into your cart and place your order.

Not a bad deal, especially if you want some actual games to play on that fancy new Xbox 360. Oh, and if you have an HDTV, don't forget that the "flexibility" of either console will require the purchase of HD cables.

Source -- Best Buy Xbox 360 Arcade offer
Source -- Best Buy Xbox 360 Elite offer

Sega's all-stars are out of the pits and racing for the checkered flag with the release of the Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing video game.

At times we must purge things from this world because they should not exist--check out what's meant in the official launch trailer for Deadly Premonition.

Battle Kid is the first NES platformer in 15 years.

Research the treacherous artifact after a conversation with Niccolo himself and kill the lieutenants.