All Topics Gaming older than one year ago

You fight bears. With a knife.

#sales Electronic Arts today boasted that Battlefield 1943 sold a million copies over Xbox Live, the fastest game ever to do so. But for those wondering when this game will release for PC, there's still no info more specific than "soon." More »

San Mateo, Calif. – March 29, 2010 – The beloved Diner Dash is now available for the first time on WiiWare™ for 800 Wii Points™. Hudson Entertainment, the North and South American subsidiary of HUDSON SOFT, partners with PlayFirst, creators of Diner Dash, to bring this best-selling brand to WiiWare. The point and click [...]

Note that these pics aren't forsaken- the kindom is.

#rumor Retailer Play.com is apparently confirming (or re-confirming) 27 tracks from the upcoming Green Day: Rock Band, noting that two of the punk band's albums, 1994's Dookie and 2004's American Idiot, will be included in the game "in their entirety." More »

Read any good books lately? We've got a couple you might be interested in: Guinness World Records 2010: Gamer's Edition and the God of War III Signature Series Strategy Guide. We're giving away 5 copies of each, courtesy of Guinness World Records and Brady Games. Plus, one lucky reader will also win a copy of the God of War III game!

To enter this giveaway:

• Leave a comment with the correct multiple-choice answer to the following trivia question:
  At the launch party for God of War II (in April 2007), Sony made headlines for which controversial display:
  • (A) Scantily clad women dancing in cages
  • (B) A headless goat
  • (C) A model of the Parthenon desecrated by graffiti
  • (D) A boneless chicken
• You must be 18 years or older and a resident of the US or Canada (excluding Quebec).
• Limit 1 entry per person.
• This entry period ends at 3:00PM ET on Wednesday, March 31.
• At that time, we'll randomly select 1 grand prize winner from the eligible commenters who answer correctly to receive the God of War III game (ARV $59.99), the God of War III Signature Series Strategy Guide (ARV $19.99) and the Guinness World Records 2010: Gamer's Edition book (ARV $14.99); and 4 first prize winners to receive the God of War III Signature Series Strategy Guide (ARV $19.99) and the Guinness World Records 2010: Gamer's Edition book (ARV $14.99); check your emails!
• For a list of complete rules, click here.

What is Joyswag? Since we don't keep the games and merchandise we receive for review or promotional purposes, it becomes "Joyswag," which is passed along to our readers. Please note that Joyswag may be in "used" condition. For more info on our policy, click here. Oh, and if you're stumped by the trivia question above, this hint should help you choose the right answer.
Joyswag: God of War 3, guide & Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition

Kids these days, they're big into this Harry Potter dude. Whether it's the books or the movies, the kids want to know what's going down at the Hogwart's, whereas we were more concerned with what was going down at the F.A.O. Schwartz in our younger years. That keyboard from Big? We were all about it.

That's why the above trailer is so hard to understand for us. Of course, the classic Traveler's Tales stamp of charismatic plastic dudes and dudettes is there and easily recognizable, but we're just not up on that Potter tip. We lack the info. Good thing LEGO Harry Potter is a crash course on the up-and-coming wizard's first four years at that crazy school, right?

Nintendo, at one point in time, had plans to release Project Hacker: Awakening in the states. This title released in Japan, and we had some pretty extensive coverage of it. Unfortunately, we aren’t going to get a chance to play a localized version. Nintendo originally planned to move forward with a stateside [...]

Behold the power of ink!

Check out all the deals Walmart.com is offering here

Enjoy your stay in Leaf Valley with these new screens.

Both works of art created by Donna (on sale at the links below)

The interactive cookbook is ready for a second helping with more recipes and features.

Check out more in our Flickr set The days are getting longer. The cherry blossoms are beginning to bloom. With these first days of spring, Ignition Entertainment turns the attention of the Arc Rise Fantasia dojo to a specific facet of this definitive JRPG for the Wii – the story! A critical element of any [...]

Click to enter the Forsaken GalleryNamco Bandai sent out a Majin-sized update for Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom, bestowing upon us forty new screenshots of the boy and his behemoth.

Game Republic seems to have hit upon the secret formula for emotional resonance: the quiet-looking, overgrown ruins of stone buildings, and the pair of explorers therein, give Majin game a strong Ico vibe. Just replace Ico's reedy, ethereal princess with an enormous, moss-covered Muppet and you've got Majin. Which is fine with us -- more games should take Ico as inspiration. And to be honest, Yorda would have been way more helpful if she were twenty feet tall.

Sony's not telling us what the secret site means, so we're pooling our guesses.

#xbox360 Does your Gamerscore not end in a zero or a five? And does that bug you? If so, you're a little weird, but you're also lucky. But! There's a guy who knows how to help you out. More »

#easports EA Sports doesn't sound enthusiastic about integrating Project Natal or PlayStation Move motion control into its FIFA series, with the game's producer saying the soccer experience they can supply for such a game "isn't particularly authentic." More »

#namcobandai Heavenly Sword developer Ninja Theory's next game, Enslaved, may offer the pleasant looking post-apocalyptic environment ever, as new screen shots of the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 game illustrate. More »

In its latest weekly update, Bungie has offered its own rundown of how the new matchmaking system in Halo: Reach will work. Many of the details were covered by Shacknews earlier this month, though the Bungie update does mention a few new features. First of all, the player muting feature has been streamlined and is "much more effective at rooting out the blathering idiots you'll undoubtedly come across."

Map voting has been revamped this time around as well. In Halo 3 players were given the option to veto any given map in online matchmaking. If the majority of players voted to veto, a new map was selected and that was that. The problem there, according to Bungie, was that you might just wind up with another map you don't like. To rectify the problem, Halo: Reach presents players with a default map and three alternative maps in matchmaking. If players don't like the default choice, whichever alternative map receives the most votes will be chosen for the next round.

The other major discussion was the new Active Roster system. Essentially, the Active Roster takes all of the tediousness out of finding friends to play with. Rather than forcing you to open the Guide and find out what your friends are playing, all the information is displayed right inside the matchmaking lobby. From here, you can see what your friends are doing and create or join parties. Furthermore, Reach has a new "queue join" which takes the hassle out of waiting for your friends to finish matches.

"Queue joins are a stab at solving the thing that was most irritating about trying to get into a game with your friends in Halo 3," says Bungie's Tyson Green, "waiting in the lobby, sending messages, and hoping they remember to invite you between games." Now, if you attempt to join a friend's game that's already in progress, the system will wait for the game to finish and then automatically join said friend's party.

All in all, the update has more info than we could condense here -- including some tidbits on the social settings illustrated above -- so you'll just have to head to Bungie.net and read it yourself.

The next system software update for the PlayStation 3 (PS3) system will be released on April 1, 2010 (JST), and will disable the “Install Other OS” feature that was available on the PS3 systems prior to the current slimmer models, launched in September 2009. This feature enabled users to install an operating system, but due to security concerns, Sony Computer Entertainment will remove the functionality through the 3.21 system software update.

In addition, disabling the “Other OS” feature will help ensure that PS3 owners will continue to have access to the broad range of gaming and entertainment content from SCE and its content partners on a more secure system.

Consumers and organizations that currently use the “Other OS” feature can choose not to upgrade their PS3 systems, although the following features will no longer be available;

• Ability to sign in to PlayStation Network and use network features that require signing in to PlayStation Network, such as online features of PS3 games and chat
• Playback of PS3 software titles or Blu-ray Disc videos that require PS3 system software version 3.21 or later
• Playback of copyright-protected videos that are stored on a media server (when DTCP-IP is enabled under Settings)
• Use of new features and improvements that are available on PS3 system software 3.21 or later

For those PS3 users who are currently using the “Other OS” feature but choose to install the system software update, to avoid data loss they first need to back-up any data stored within the hard drive partition used by the “Other OS,” as they will not be able to access that data following the update.

Additional information about PS3 firmware updates, including v3.21 (once it becomes available), can be found here:
http://us.playstation.com/support/systemupdates/ps3/index.htm

PS3 owners who have further questions should contact Consumer Services:
http://us.playstation.com/support/ask/
800-345-7669 (800-345-SONY)

#screengrab To dislike Monday Night Combat would be to disagree with a woman dressed as bacon. This representative of bacon-flavoring company J&D's (makers of Baconnaise) recently visited MNC studio Uber Entertainment. I played the upcoming Xbox Live Arcade game, sans bacon outfit, at PAX East. More »

Add one more title to the list of PlayStation Move launch games -- Zen Studios has announced that its Planet Minigolf game, set for a release as soon as this spring, will be "Move-enabled." Of course, Move isn't released until later this fall, but Zen promises that their game "will be fully-compatible" with the motion controller anyway.

Presumably, that means you'll be able to swing the controller like a putt-putt club, but who knows -- maybe the game will incorporate any number of other minigolf-associated motions, from throwing your club in anger when the clown blocks your shot to stealthily nudging the ball with your foot when your opponent isn't looking. The possibilities are endless!

Murder has never been so aggravating.

The God of War III art team held a panel this past weekend in Alhambra, California, at a place called Gallery Nucleus. In front of an audience packed to capacity, artists (from left to right above) Scott Seeto, Jung Ho Park, Izzy, Andy Park, Cecil Kim, and Andrew Kim spoke and answered questions about how they'd come up with the art designs for Kratos' final story ("as far as I know," Cecil Kim said, "there is no more God of War").

They were first asked about bringing the game into the HD generation, and how that affected their work on the games. Mostly, it just meant more work for them -- they pointed out that even when the camera isn't close-up on Kratos, you can still see the muscles in his back tense as he pulls out his blades. Art designers in HD have to be meticulous about details, and as a result, character development takes about six times longer. The team also said that they were impressed by the PS3 hardware -- on the PS2 versions of the game, the developers knew how far they could push the older console, but on the PS3, "we still don't know what we can do with it."

Filed under: Podcasts PAX East has come to an end, and the whole X3F crew is back together again. In a manner of speaking anyway. We've got two major segments this week. First, Richard grills Alexander and Dave about the magic that was PAX -- as well as some of the news that broke during the show. And second, since Xav was still on the road back to Canadia during recording, we've got a pre-recorded fireside chat with him hosted by Alexander. At the very least, you'll learn never to forget who Angie Harmon is.

Oh, we take some questions via the #x3f hashtag on Twitter. Keep an eye on our Twitter accounts (listed below) next Monday around 11:00am ET when we call for questions for the next show.

[iTunes] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in iTunes (MP3).
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[MP3] Download the MP3 directly.

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

Music: Intro/Outro: "Electromooq" by Uma Floresta.

For fans: Xbox 360 Fancast Facebook group

Murder has never been so aggravating.

#paxeast Halfbrick Studio's early 201 Xbox Live Arcade Game Raskulls looks and plays like the kind of old-school platformer that surely someone must have thought of years ago. More »