All Topics Gaming older than one year ago

Are you looking for a way to play arrangements written for piano from NES and SNES games? If so, you might want to check out Piano Games: Vol. 1, which offers just that! I always love hearing the different ways that people reinterpret NES/SNES themes for the piano, with all sort of embellishments [...]

Everyone loves to jump into a fighting game from time to time. Super Smash Bros. Brawl is it’s own fighter in and of itself, but if you’re looking for something a bit more traditional, you can’t go wrong with Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom. Online play, hectic battles and an insane roster of characters. [...]

So you want to make a video game. Most folks would tell you, "Start simple." Well, it doesn't get much simpler than the "microgames" of the WarioWare series, which are about as long as ... that pause right there. WarioWare D.I.Y. is all about building your own teeny-tiny titles -- as talked about in our recent preview of the game app game-app -- and Nintendo's attempting to show how easy it can be with a series of brief tutorial videos. We've plugged in the one above, as well as another after the break for your educational needs.

You'll notice that the guy in the videos is using a DSi XL -- we can tell you that, after seeing the hardware running D.I.Y. in person, the hefty handheld's humongous screens really are great for editing sprites and other details, as is the pen-sized stylus. Either that, or our eyesight really is getting worse.

It's been over 20 years since Golden Axe, and all they added was combos and cut-scenes?  I just played the GoW III demo and while the cinematics are great, the actual game is disappointing...

• Gameplay consists of button mashing the same enemies, move up a screen, repeat.  *yawn*
• Why have unexplained chests of energy everywhere?  Just auto-heal if you are going to be lazy game designers.
• Enemies disappear instantly after you kill them, so you don't get to appreciate the damage you dealt.
• During the QTEs, you don't get to enjoy the cinematics because you have to stare at the corner to see what button to press.

I have only played the demo, and none of the previous GoW games, so is there something else to this?  Why are games like this (Ninja Gaiden, DMC, etc) so highly acclaimed?  </rant>

#smartpeople Only video games can save the world, says Jane McGonigal, but only if we dedicate more time to playing them, some 21 billion hours of game time per week needed to survive the next century. More »

A portion of another interview with Reggie: Are you concerned that Sony’s newly introduced PlayStation Move motion controller and Microsoft’s planned motion-sensing camera Project Natal are moving onto turf that Nintendo has dominated? RF-A: Looking at what PlayStation is doing, it feels very “Wii-too.” In terms of Microsoft, we’ll see when they actually show off their software. [...]

Sony has added two titles to the PlayStation Move's launch lineup that we haven't seen before. Not only will you be able to get your Move on in Slider, Sports Champions and all of the other announced launch titles, but we can now add Disney-Pixar's Toy Story 3 and Brunswick Pro Bowling into the mix as well. Toy Story 3 is of course a tie-in to the movie, and Brunswick is in there because you can't have a motion controller in 2010 without a bowling game attached.

No seriously, you can't. Which is weird, because the future of gaming sure does look a lot like the 2007 of gaming. Only with better graphics.

[Via PSLS]

Tired of yelling CROSS GAME CHAT into every post on the PlayStation.Blog? Thankfully, there's a new venue for you to take advantage of. PlayStation.Blog Share lets fans submit requests and vote on new features to implement across Sony's family of consoles. The requests range from the ever-popular cross game chat option to more specific options, like enabling PSP Remote Play of PS2 games.

It's certainly an interesting social experiment, but we wonder if fans will see any requests (large or small) come to fruition. At the very least, Share gives Sony the appearance of listening, and should reduce the obnoxious comment spam that oftentimes clutters the PlayStation.Blog.

The world of Rapture as it appeared in the first BioShock may have seemed totally complete, but Irrational Games revealed some elements that were kept behind the development curtain from us -- basically, monsters. The company revealed some rejected enemy designs from its "Vault," including some mutants that were much more ... mutated than the Splicers we saw in the final game.

We imagine that people wouldn't look back so fondly on their experience in Rapture if it had been populated by melting guys and people that were in the process of turning into giant bugs. Creepy little girls seem just a bit less creepy in comparison.

Ghostwire lead developer Tom Soderlund told us at GDC that his upcoming DSi-exclusive Nintendo DS game might be coming to Apple's iPhone and Google's Android. The DSi version, published by Majesco, is set to come out near Halloween this year, and it's possible that other flavors might join it at that time.

"With the DSi we have location to some extent using the wifi chip, because we can kind of recognize when the user is in a new location, or where they are somewhere they've been before." Soderlund said, "But, we're thinking of taking to the iPhone or the Android which have more emphasis on location-based gameplay.

We hope Elvis' grave is first on the list.

#feature I've lived in Japan for a long time. When I first came here, I liked living here. Now, I don't. I haven't changed. Japan hasn't really changed, either. Something else, however, has. More »

What’s up with this? We have to “write in” the Wii? Guess it’s not a real gaming system. Thanks to PsychoDuck for the heads up!

#sony Cross-game voice chat. How do we know? By looking at the newly launched PlayStation.blog Share, a PlayStation fan's sounding board that will let the powers that be know just how badly you want auto-syncing trophies and backwards compatibility. More »

Not only does PlayStation Move enable realistic motion controls for PS3 games -- it also allows for corporate dispatches from the future. We didn't hear about that at any press conference! But there's Kevin Butler, addressing us from November 2010 about advances in nutrition and the success of the PlayStation Move. That means, according to Sony's time travel technology, the Move should be out sometime in November at the latest.

This commercial features plenty of footage of some guy completely battering air in Motion Fighter, along with some not-so-subtle callouts of the motion-based competition, and even a little bit of reverent Tretton worship. Check the ad out after the break.


[Thanks, Antony!]

Are you working your way to a Platinum in God of War III? You may want to check out this video, which helps you net Hit Man, one of the more challenging Trophies in the game. To get the award, you must perform a 1000 hit combo. Should your fighting skills not be up to snuff, there are two easy (but time consuming) ways of getting the achievement. It can take upwards of 20 minutes of mindless button mashing, but it's a sure-fire way of making sure you get the Bronze Trophy.

Check out the (rather cheap) strategies after the break.

[Via N4G]

I can tell you that in the 2 weeks that I’ve owned an iPhone, I’ve thought of countless ways in which I wish my DS could do some of the things that Apple has achieved with this thing. Is it necessary? Not at all, but neither are half the Apps that I’ve downloaded. [...]

#xbox360 Sony has already showed its hand in the upcoming motion control battle, debuting playable PlayStation Move games at GDC last week. Looks like we'll see Microsoft's response with at least one Sega game in tow at E3. More »

#easports Electronic Arts may be a little late to the mixed martial arts game, but its first effort, EA Sports MMA, may win over fans who don't find what they're looking for in THQ's UFC-licensed competitor. More »

You wouldn't expect to find "We've tightened up the graphics on Episode Three" among the usual list of noted improvements between Telltale's episodic releases. After all, with endearing, demented characters like Sam and Max taking up quite a bit of the screen, who cares how many polygons are left for that pot plant in the corner?

"We wanted to bump everything up presentation-wise for this season," said designer Chuck Jordan, drawing attention to the Telltale engine's impressive -- nay, tight -- visual enhancements. The Penal Zone, the first of five monthly episodes comprising Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse, features noticeably improved lighting, real-time shadows and more expressive facial animation. As Jordan pointed out, "an expression can sell a joke for the first time."

Based on the demo I saw at the Game Developers Conference, it's also apparent that the improved graphics do make a difference to that pot plant. Because you transform into one. "When you finally get to control Max," Jordan said, "it's really weird." Like, really really weird.

With Final Fantasy XIII finally done and in stores, Square Enix fans are now scouring the internet for the next big project in the Final Fantasy series: The still-PS3-exclusive Final Fantasy Versus XIII. Character designer and director Tetsuya Nomura was interviewed on Twitter, an appropriate venue that forces brevity and a general lack of detail. According to Nomura (as translated by Andriasang), "not everything is connected together" in Versus, "so the various areas have different levels of progress." He did manage to reveal at least two facts about the upcoming game: "You can fly across the world map in an air ship."

Adding both world maps and controllable air ships should help appease Final Fantasy fans disappointed by their absence in XIII. While Versus represents a spin-off for the franchise, it sounds like it may be closer to a traditional FF experience than its counterpart. For hardcore Square Enix fans, that news alone should be enough to restart the long wait to the next Final Fantasy game.

I’ve been wanting to know when this title was coming stateside. It’s shaping up real nice and it has quite a bit of extra features that I’m interested in. Time to get three friends in on this one!

A lonely boy's search for a silver-haired girl at the end of the world. Great concept. But is the game good?

A new voice joins the crew.

"Now it's a fight," this new trailer for EA Sports MMA proudly proclaims. And it's true -- EA Sports has a huge fight ahead of it. Not only is EA Sports MMA a latecomer to the genre, it's missing the UFC license and some of the biggest fighters in the business. Still, the game looks to stay true to its promise of showcasing "authentic Strikeforce environments," and the animation does look particularly good (and very reminiscent of the Fight Night series).

Still, it's hard to know if EA Sports has what it takes to go up against THQ in the MMA arena. Will EA get its foot in the ring, or will it be KO'd before the fight even begins?