All Topics Gaming older than one year ago

Update: The service seems to working properly now.

The good news: Microsoft's new cross-platform Game Room service is now available. It's free to download and gives you access to 30 different classic arcade games that can be played on Xbox 360 or PC. The bad news: You can't actually play any of those games. Upon the initial Game Room load, users are prompted to download at least one of two game packs, after which the service should load up the games and let you start playing.

Unfortunately, Game Room simply hangs on the loading screen, allowing you to enjoy the retro music playing in the background, but not the actual retro games. Major Nelson has stated via Twitter that Microsoft is aware of the issue and it is "being investigated." He reminds users that the Game Room application itself is still available, and it should be okay to download it now and wait for the issue to be resolved. We'll update this post once we hear any new information.

Update: As some of our commenters have pointed out, there is a workaround. First, sign in with an offline profile or disconnect your internet source (ethernet or wireless). Then load Game Room. It should get past the initial loading screen. Once everything is loaded, you can then sign into Xbox Live and all the games should be accessible.

If we told you that the user creation tools in Skate 3 were robust, we'd be selling the game short. From the highly customizable skate parks (that can be shared online) to the revamped graphics creator, there's no doubt that the devs at Black Box have upped the ante on user creation in a significant way.

While there's always the worry that the Skate franchise could start packing in a bit too much (the Tony Hawk-ization of Skate, if you will), it looks like the folks in charge of improving the annual franchise know to keep the game focused on skateboarding culture and real physics. We'll be checking out the game this weekend at PAX East, so look for a more thorough opinion soon (and feel free to tell us in the comments below what you want to know about the game).

There's a lot to learn about playing Infinite Space, as evidenced by the fact that Sega has made a second tutorial video for the Platinum Games space RPG.

This video teaches one of the most important techniques in the game: skipping battle scenes. Every action in a ship battle is accompanied by a long sequence in which crew members call out what they're doing and prepare whatever kind of action is to be deployed. It's dramatic, and it lends the game a very "spaceship anime" feel -- but it also takes a long time. So, yeah, you can skip that after the first couple of times.

The tutorial also covers crew battles and, strangely, recalibrating your touch screen.

The Wii exclusive weapon and magic based 3D-fight game Tournament of Legends features epic battles in fantastic fighting arenas where they will wield mythical blade weapons, launch 40 magic attacks, and dodge giant mythological creatures that protect the battle lairs. In intense one and two-player fights, players master a range of character [...]

Hey PSN Folks –

Spring Fever returns! Join us as PlayStation Network celebrates exceptional games during Spring Fever, one of our biggest annual events. Find spring-inspired game sales, special content bundles and exclusive bonus items only downloadable on the PlayStation Store. This week’s offerings include Gravity Crash (PS3) and Everyday Shooter (PS3) and (PSP) each for $4.99 (regularly priced $9.99).

Each week, more PS3 and PSP game favorites and DLC will be available at big discounts. Be sure to check back every week as new sale items enter the spring spotlight with a very special bonus: With your game purchase, receive a male and female piece of the Spring Fever Home Avatar Costume as a gift.

Collect all five to create a stylish bee outfit for male avatars and a fashion-forward flowerpot costume for females — and give your Home Avatar a new, sought-after look for the spring season! Note – you must have a valid email address for fulfillment of the Home avatar costume voucher code.

So, catch Spring Fever with the rest of PlayStation Network and come away with great games, new content and special gifts. The big event is all season long on PlayStation Store, so visit early and check back often!

#clips The retro-friendly Game Room hit the Xbox 360 early this morning somewhat out of whack, not allowing gamers to actually enter the arcade. More »

Motion camera will adjust to all room sizes.

#secrets Those sneaky developers at CD Projekt RED snuck a frame's worth of secret messages to their biggest fans in the middle of today's trailer for The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings. So what do they have to say? More »

Amazon is having a sweet "but two, get one free" promotion on Xbox 360 platinum titles -- however, the online retailer gave it the more confusing title of "3 for 2." Until March 27, pick up any two platinum titles and receive a third game of equal or lesser value for free.

The platinum hits library is quite substantial at this point in the console's life. If you're a new console owner there are plenty of great games to choose from. Console veterans with several RRoDs under their beltsm can probably find some games they missed out on over the years at a fine price.

Do you want a new WarioWare game, with the same kind of rapid-fire microgame play you've come to love since the first game? WarioWare D.I.Y. is that. If you want the world's easiest game design utility, WarioWare D.I.Y. is that. If you want the long-awaited Mario Paint sequel, WarioWare D.I.Y. is, surprisingly, pretty close. If you want a game about shaking up a bottle of root beer and using it as a firehose to extinguish a fire ... you'll have to make that one yourself.

WarioWare D.I.Y. does for making games what the original WarioWare did for playing them. The series has always been about distilling the act of gameplay down to its simplest elements, so that a game can be learned and completed in five seconds or less. In this case, a simple, menu-driven interface, combined with the harsh time restrictions of the games, allows you to go from idea to full (but tiny) game in just minutes.

Another 3d system from Nintendo. Should we start getting our headache medication ready? I really don’t think things will be the same this time around. Do you guys believe that Nintendo would go ahead with another 3d platform without being sure of the tech behind it? I bet there are [...]

#podcast Kotaku Talk Radio is coming to you live RIGHT NOW with special guest Ubisoft's Jason VandenBerghe, the creative director of Red Steel 2. More »

Sunnyvale, CA - March 24, 2010 - Gamelion revealed today new teaser trailer of the intro story for Furry Legends. The upcoming game for Nintendo WiiWare service and Samsung Bada, a physics-based 3D puzzle-platformer game, scheduled for world-wide launch on WiiWare during Q2 of 2010. About Furry Legends In “Furry Legends” players take control of [...]

Prolonged exposure to the Animus has resulted in the Bleeding Effect, allowing you to use your Eagle Vision to try and crack the Abstergo Labs security system. Can you escape before being apprehended?

This isn’t the premise of some as-of-yet unannounced Assassin’s Creed II DLC pack; this is what you can expect to encounter in the new Assassin’s Creed game space, launching this week in PlayStation Home. Packed with heaps of interactive content – including a multiplayer tower defense game that pits Assassins against Templars – the Assassin’s Creed space marks this highly-celebrated franchise’s next foray into the ever-evolving world of PlayStation Home. And it is coming at you this Thursday, complete with regularly-updating Developer’s Blogs, concept art, the Animus 2.0 database, the full Assassin’s Creed: Lineage short film, and all the other content that die-hard Assassin’s Creed fans simply can’t miss out on. Your friends here on the PlayStation Home Community Management team donned our own assassin’s threads over the weekend and managed to snag some images, which we’ve posted below for your convenience.

By popular demand, we will be releasing a load of Aliens vs. Predator items in PlayStation Home this week. We’re talking full Predator costumes, full Alien costumes, Facehuggers stuffed in stasis tubes, and more. But there’s a catch: These highly-coveted items will only be available for purchase for a limited time only in the PlayStation Home Exclusives store, after which they will be pulled off the shelves forever. So do yourself a favor and log in to PlayStation Home this Thursday and stock up on these super-sweet items while you still have a chance. Because ol’ Locust_Star ain’t going to be patting you on the head if you’re boohooing because you forgot to set your alarm clock and missed out on what he is pretty sure are some of the coolest items ever to be released on the PlayStation Home platform. Consider it a fair warning.

We’re opening the doors to the uber-exclusive SingStar VIP room tomorrow, March 25 and loading the music player up with tracks from the critically-acclaimed Welsh rock band Stereophonics (they of such hit songs as “Superman” and “The Bartender and the Thief”). Be sure to come out to the SingStar VIP Room to pick up exclusive Stereophonics virtual items, listen to a handful of Stereophonics tracks, and play the limited-time-only Stereophonics SingStar Quiz.

Also releasing this week in PlayStation Home are two new additions to our line of luxury personal spaces. Situated on the Nile River, the Pharaoh’s Tomb is a step back in time to when the rays of Ra shone upon the Egyptian sands and the age of Horus was a few millennia removed from the dynasties of Ramesses, which reigned supreme across the land. A must-have for history buffs and PlayStation Home completists alike, the Pharaoh’s Tomb releases this Thursday, March 25th, along with the Anime personal space (a penthouse headquarters perched atop a Tokyo high-rise circa 2050). Check out the pics below for a taste of what to expect from these awesome new personal spaces.

We’re placing bets on who gets the boot next on the upcoming episode of The Tester. In anticipation of what is sure to be a real fingernail-biter, we are once again bringing out two cast members – Big D and Nauseous – to chat with you, the PlayStation Home community. So come out to The Tester screen in the PlayStation Home Theater tonight from 6:00pm – 7:00pm PT (9:00pm – 10:00pm EST) to meet two of the most popular cast members of this hit PlayStation Network exclusive reality show. And be sure to check out Episode 6 of The Tester, which will air in the PlayStation Home Theater starting this Thursday. As always, we’ll be offering commemorative The Tester virtual items, such as this Big D Teddy Bear.

Last but certainly not least, Irem will be adding a ton of new content to the Irem Seaside of Memories space, at the request of you, the PlayStation Home community – from new rewards in the Deep Sea Treasure Hunt mini-game to a bunch of fashionable beachwear.

See you in Home!

It's Rico time. Again.

BURBANK, Calif. – March 23, 2010 – Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment announces that Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole - The Videogame will be available on Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system, Wii™ and Nintendo DS™ in September 2010 in conjunction with the release [...]

Minneapolis, MN – March 24, 2010 – Activision Publishing, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI) and Feld Motor Sports today announced Monster Jam® 2011 for the Wii™, Nintendo DS™, the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system and PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) system. The Monster Jam 2011 video game promises to [...]

You may have been a bit bewildered by Nintendo's out-of-nowhere announcement of a new DS a week before the North American launch of the DSi XL, but one group seems to have no issues with the timing or technology of the Nintendo 3DS: investors.

Marketwatch reports that Nintendo stock rose 9.7 percent yesterday in response to the hardware announcement. While it's hard to gauge exactly what it is about the 3DS that has inspired such confidence among investors, we would guess it's less about the current 3D trend and more about the fact that Nintendo announced a new thing, and Nintendo things have been good for stocks in the last five years or so.

Did Resonance of Fate and Final Fantasy XIII whet your appetite for JRPGs? NIS America plans to release Trinity Universe this June, just in time for gamers looking for a new adventure. Developed cooperatively by Idea Factory, Nippon Ichi and Gust, Trinity Universe is a crossover RPG similar to Cross Edge, combining the worlds of the Disgaea and Atelier franchises. Unlike NIS America's previous efforts, though, this game will be in full 3D.

Trinity Universe is undoubtedly the best looking game to come from NIS America, but it's still likely to struggle in a competitive sales market. Still, hardcore JRPG fans are used to PS2-style sprite graphics from NIS, so the publisher's next offering could be a pleasant surprise.

#appreciation Five years ago today the PlayStation Portable went on sale in North America, and I was one of the first people in line for Sony's gorgeous new handheld gaming device. Four months later, I traded it back in. More »

Add another tombstone to the increasingly populated Xbox MMO graveyard. The Xbox 360 port of Champions Online is seemingly kaput. A forum user known as Jackalope -- Cryptic Studios CCO Jack Emmert, according to TeamXbox -- responded in a thread regarding the beleaguered port, saying, "100% of our focus is on making the current PC product the best it can be. There are no current plans for a console version of Champions."

Previously, the Xbox 360 version of the MMO had seen its share of setbacks. In August last year, Emmert laid the blame for the delay squarely on Microsoft. "It just takes time for the big beast known as Microsoft to get moving," he said at the time, adding that "it's as baffling to developers as it is to everyone else."

This marks the latest in a long string of failed MMOs for the Xbox platform: Ensemble's Halo MMO, True Fantasy Live Online for the original Xbox, Marvel Universe Online, Age of Conan, Huxley -- all of them either canceled or in development limbo. Thus far, the only traditional MMO to see the light of day on the Xbox 360 has been Final Fantasy XI. We can only speculate as to what the bottleneck is for MMOs on the Xbox 360 but, given the litany of failed projects from multiple developers, Microsoft certainly appears to be the common thread.

New Sam Fisher odyssey almost here.