All Topics Gaming older than one year ago

#gdc There are people who can't play Call of Duty. Maybe, according to a flight of fancy proposed last week at the Game Developers Conference, those people could at least help us CoD players out. More »

#releasedate Want to know how to get Ratchet & Clank, Kratos, and Nathan Drake figures for ModNation Racers when it hits stores on May 25? It all depends on which retailer you preorder the game from. More »

This week's most noteworthy Nintendo Channel item is by far the Developer's Voice video on Cave Story above. Next week, we'll finally get to play it. How pumped are you? Like, beyond pumped? We sure hope so!

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

Filed under: Podcasts It's another week of putting up with a sub-par Richard-less Xbox 360 Fancast, we're afraid, made even worse by the fact we're down two people this week -- Xav won't be joining us. Alexander and Dave try to make a show for you all still, but without the love and guidance of the other two, things kinda go off the rails: both figuratively and literally. So buckle up, it's going to be a bumpy ride filled with more Battlefield: Bad Company 2 gushing, some John Cleese chit-chat and even a surprise phone call -- maybe. Enjoy!

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Hosts: Alexander Sliwinski (Sli Xander) and Dave Hinkle (KnifefightYaDad)

Produced by Dave Hinkle

Music: Intro/Outro: "Electromooq" by Uma Floresta. Break: "Rat is Dead" by CSS

For fans: Xbox 360 Fancast Facebook group

[sugree]
After a rocky launch period, EA assures us via Twitter that the Battlefield: Bad Company 2 online servers should now be finally stable. Pretty much every iteration of Bad Company 2 has seen issues arise when connecting to EA's servers for multiplayer online, with Xbox 360 kicking some users all the way out to the Dashboard and PC users experiencing authentication issues with PunkBuster.

The developer now says that those issues have been addressed, due in no small part to new servers being added over the weekend. "All new hardware is in place and ready to serve your BFBC2 needs," the tweet reads, backed up by a Q&A on the Battlefield Blog with more info. While some players may still experience a stat loss issue, EA and DICE are actively looking into a fix and encourage anyone who experiences said glitch to report it right here. Now, if you'll excuse us, we've got dudes to sneak up on and knife in the back.

Source 1 - Twitter
Source 2 - Battlefield Blog

This bit of art was created by capturing photographs of a lightbulb’s filament burning. Obviously the color and eyes were added post-filament, but the actual outline itself was created by the filament. Pretty amazing stuff that I could never tackle on my own!

Yeah, when you actually slow it down and say it out loud, it does sound like this title is just a bunch of thrown-together words. You have to wonder if each game company has a dart board filled with words that they use to determine game names.

ModNation Racers has come a long way since the release of its public beta last year. Since then, Sony San Diego Studios and United Front Games have expanded the franchise quite a bit, adding a number of new creation tools, four-player split-screen support and even a PSP counterpart. We chatted with ModNation Racers producer Dan Sochan about what's new, and what we can expect from the future, including support for the PlayStation Move motion controller.

Joystiq: What's new about the code we're seeing today at GDC?
Dan Sochan, producer, ModNation Racers: There's the four-player split-screen, two-player online split-screen, and we've also announced and have been showing off more of the single player career. We kept the story of the single player career mode quite light. At its core, it's still a racing game, so we didn't want to complicate it with you saving the world. The story is you're this young racer who goes into this league, the ModNation Racing Championship, and you're basically going from a nobody to take on the ultimate champion. Through the way you have also have a bit of an influence. It has some elements of Pleasantville, where everyone tends to be a little bit more drab with the colors they choose for their characters and karts, and you influence them by being very creative. So all of a sudden everyone wants to have bright, vibrant colors and doing very elaborate decorating of themselves and their karts, and it's narrated through two characters: Biff and Gary, who offer comic relief through the game.

How does progression work in the single player campaign? Do you unlock creation tools in that mode, akin to LittleBigPlanet?
Yes, definitely there will be a certain number of unlockables you'll get through the career, but we tried not to make it exclusively through the career. We didn't want to pigeonhole people and force them to play that way. So you'll also get more unlocks by publishing, sharing, downloading, voting, basically being a participant in the community, which is kind of cool.

If you’ve been keeping up with the Blog or recent preview coverage, you know ModNation Racers is continuing the Play, Create and Share movement allowing both PS3 and PSP owners to design their own racers, karts and best of all, custom tracks! Creations can then be raced with friends (four-player split-screen confirmed!) and uploaded to the rest of the PlayStation Network! But the question is:

When will it hit store shelves?

Well it’s official! ModNation Racers on both PS3 and PSP releases May 25! On top of this, we kick off our official pre-order program today with participating retailers.

That’s right! Ratchet and Clank, Nathan Drake, and Kratos have officially been Mod’ed! Depending on where you pre-order your copy, you’ll get to race with one of your favorite characters.

Pre-order from GameStop and score Kratos and his Kart of Chaos!

Pre-order from Amazon and race as Ratchet or Clank!

Pre-order from Best Buy and score Nathan Drake and his Jungle Jeep!

On top of this, each pre-order gets an additional BONUS Mystery Mod and Kart package that include not just a special Mod and Kart, but additional accessories that you can use to make your own creations!

Four possibilities in total, and just like a vinyl figure you buy in stores, you won’t know which one you get until you download it and see for yourself. Wondering what they could be? We will reveal them soon enough! Just look for a future post right here on the Blog. :)

So there you go! Pre-order today and you might be racing with your favorite PlayStation character! To make sure you know which box to grab on May 25, here is a sneak peek at our packfront!

More updates to come right here on the PS.Blog! See you then.

Auction here 1990 Nintendo World Championships NES NWC CART No.0087 JAPAN PEPSI 30 BOTTLE CAP FIGURES * SUPER MARIO BROS.

Lilt Line, winner of a 2010 IGF Mobile award for Audio Achievement is a simple iPhone game, in which you tilt the phone to guide a line through winding tunnels, and tap the screen in response to on-screen cues, all in time to dubstep music by 16bit. Essentially, it's Irritating Stick without the irritation! Developer Different Cloth revealed in a tweet that Wii owners will get to experience Lilt Line as well, thanks to Bit.Trip creator Gaijin Games.

All we know from the (necessarily brief) announcement is that Gaijin is bringing the game to the Wii. We can assume, both from the nature of the game and the fact that we don't think the three-person Gaijin Games team is going to start publishing packaged games, that it's WiiWare. We've asked Gaijin for more information. In the meantime, check out the iPhone version after the break.

As we said last week, our friend Chris Scullion over at Official Nintendo Magazine has set out to catch every single Pokemon to be found in Pokemon HeartGold. It’s going to take quite awhile to round up all those pocket monsters, but Mr. Scullion is dedicated to the task. Click over to read [...]

3-D shooter brings the thrill of action movies to the next-gen platform.

Very few games manage to instill a pure kind of terror such as Limbo, an aptly-titled puzzle-platformer in development for the past four years. Winner of multiple IGF awards, Limbo is a beautiful and haunting journey, one that must be experienced to be understood -- and thankfully, you'll be able to experience it on Xbox Live Arcade this summer. Like Braid and Shadow Complex before it, Limbo is likely to become the headlining downloadable game of the year.

To describe Limbo in great detail would be a huge disservice to gamers. What makes Limbo so mesmerizing is its mysterious quality: the game simply begins, and continues. The abstract narrative is told simply through the journey; don't expect long Jonathan Blow-esque prose throughout. Presented in black and white and silence, Limbo's simplistic style carries a foreboding atmosphere unlike any other game. It's gorgeous, with detailed animations giving life to every object in the world. Were it not for its interactivity, one might be hard pressed not to think it's a painting.

Limbo offers players little direction, nor does it need to. A GUI would ruin the simple beauty of developer Playdead's project. The controls will be immediately familiar to most gamers: A to jump and X to grab. It may seem a bit too simplistic, but Limbo offers some rather unique puzzles that take advantage of the environment in unusual and unexpected ways. Timing and precision is a necessity -- as is repetition, with death an unavoidable part of the gameplay. Traps, enemies, and pitfalls will make this a perilous journey, and the graphic depictions of death will keep you uncomfortable and on edge for hours.

It was hard to resist the urge to continue playing through the entire adventure. While I found myself stuck at a few devilish puzzles, I never found myself too frustrated to go on. Limbo is a gorgeous game that explores emotions so rarely found in games: not just terror, but a distinct sense of helplessness and longing.

#clips In this video documentary for Transformers: War for Cybertron, the development team at High Moon Studios talk about bringing the Autobots and Decepticons back to Cybertron to tell a story never fully told. More »

Shipments are flowing in now.

Still looking for a reason to pick up Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker? Would a totally sweet camouflage bandana push you over the edge? GameStop hopes so: it's offering an exclusive camo bandana, reminiscent of something Snake might adorn his head with, as a pre-order bonus for the game. Wear this, and even if you're not playing on the amazing limited edition system, everyone will know that you're Peace Walking.

We have yet to confirm whether or not it grants infinite ammo to the wearer.

[Thanks, Aidan!]

#clips Windows Phone 7 is shaping up to be a mighty powerful looking platform for all forms of entertainment. What's that mean? Well check out all of the things you can do on the upcoming mobile phone platform. More »

With a band name like Hadouken, you know that these guys are serious gamers. Now they’re a part of EA’s ‘EA Trax’ label. They’ll be contributing music to EA’s future projects, although nothing specific has been named. Expect to hear some of their tuns in upcoming sports titles from EA. I [...]

#gdc I was outclassed last week by the other games reporter watching a demonstration of EA Sports MMA. He knew the name of the game's fighters, the name of the referee — and — he knew the ref's shaving habits. More »

I’ve never seen this picture before! What a great idea for potted plants. Well…block plants, I guess they’d be called. Check out the gallery here