All Topics Gaming older than one year ago

#expensiveassgamer The title of "Holy Grail of Video Games" changes almost monthly, or whenever an extremely rare specimen hits eBay. The latest claimant: a weird-shaped Atari 2600 cart by the name of Air Raid. More »

The tools of destruction.

A portion of an AC review… I only recommend this for those who feel the need to collect every Nintendo game ever made, or gluttons for punishment. It is not worth the time it takes to register 80 points worth of games on Club Nintendo.

#georgebroussard George Broussard, main man at the house the Duke Nukem built—and eventually demolished—3DRealms, is giving his dedicated followers and detractors an open forum in which to ask him almost anything, like "Will Duke Nukem Forever ever see the light of day?" More »

SCEA's head of marketing, Peter Dille, spoke with Fortune earlier this week, and he says that rather than catching up to Nintendo's Wii with the PlayStation Move, Sony is actually blazing new ground. He says that Sony's "White Room campaign wasn't very inclusive," and so it is changing up the game towards including as many people as possible. But unlike Nintendo, says Dille, it is aiming to both pull in a casual audience and keep the hardcore gamers interested. "Hard-core gamers have looked down their nose at motion gaming," says Dille, adding that Sony will "be able to do hard-core gamer games via a motion device that has never been done before."

Dille also says that Sony's product will be different because, while Nintendo has a controller and Microsoft has a camera, Sony's system has both a controller and a camera, and thus will be more precise and responsive than its competitors' offerings. Man, he sounds like a marketing guy, only a little less entertaining. Where's Kevin Butler when you need him?

[via VG247]

Speaking with Multiplayer, NBA Jam creative director Trey Smith shared the inspiration behind the digitized faces of the upcoming Wii remake. According to Smith, tne of the key features of the original NBA Jam was the ability to tell who each individual player was from a distance. "You could tell who each [player] was," said Smith, "and that was something really key to us." He added that the team behind the new Jam worked closely with series creator Mark Turmell, who currently works with EA Tiburon. "He spent time with the team, and really kind of talked to us about it," said Smith, adding that Turmell shared "a lot of the stories" about the visual style of the first game.

And, if you like the crazy, 2D faces used for each player model as much as we do, there's more good news. Smith confirmed that NBA Jam will include a big head mode. "Wait until you see big head mode, because that's where we really start playing around with it." He concludes that the team wanted to be "as true to the original NBA Jam as possible, but using all the bells and whistles we have in the last 17 years since it came out."

Whatever the team is doing, it seems to be working.

Activision says you'll have to play with something called "a controller."

Activision says you'll have to play with something called "a controller."

#taketwo Considering the ESRB lists all of 10 Nintendo DS titles rated M, this isn't surprising. Still, the publisher of Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars bragged the game accounts for more than half of M-rated game sales on that platform. More »

#list It was a week full of reasonably and unreasonably priced downloads, upscaled Wii games, and one game that was about making your own games. It was a week in Kotaku reviews that we'd like to get caught up on. More »

We can't be gaming all the time, despite our best efforts, and from time to time we'll actually take advantage of the movie-playing abilities on our gaming systems. JBO features our top picks for XBL, PSN, Netflix's Watch Instantly and Blu-ray each week.

Recommendation of the Week:

The African Queen (Blu-ray: $39.99 MSRP, much lower at most retailers)
Can you believe Humphrey Bogart only won one Oscar in his lifetime? It was for this movie. Personally, I think he was robbed from winning it for Casablanca, but The African Queen is a worthy win as well. He really delivers a powerful performance as Charlie Allnut, the rough and tumble boat captain working his boat, the African Queen. But it's Katherine Hepburn who really turns in a tour de force performance as Rose Sayer, a tough as nails missionary in East Africa. Paramount recently completed a massive 4k restoration on this title, and it looks simply amazing on Blu-ray. The standard Blu-ray set gets you the movie, while the slightly more expensive box set comes with a CD of the original radio production of The African Queen (with Bogart) and Hepburn's book The Making of The African Queen or How I Went to Africa with Bogart, Bacall and Huston and Almost Lost My Mind. Seriously good filmmaking and performances against a wonderful story based on C.S. Forester's novel of the same name. Highly recommended. Now someone just put Bogey's The Caine Mutiny on Blu-ray and I'll be happy.
Read on after the break for the rest of our recommendations, then chime in below!

#clips When you're a world famous three-time Formula One champion, you take any rare opportunity for me-time that you get. Here Brazil's Bruno Senna combines his morning cardio with some Modern Warfare 2. More »

#screengrab Southpaws, rejoice, as the Xbox Live Arcade version of Perfect Dark gets new Advanced Control options in the next title update, as seen on Twitter. More »

Click to enlarge Activision chose a fitting event during which to take the webbing wraps off of its latest Spider-Man game -- the annual WonderCon comics convention in San Francisco -- but based on what I saw of Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions today, it might have been best to hold off for an E3 debut in June.

After a rousing reveal trailer earlier in the week, I have to admit to some fairly high expectations going into my first live demo of the game. What had been shown of two out of the game's four unique Spider-Man universes looked great in the video, after all, and had us excited enough to start pondering what the other two might be. While I'm still completely sold on the concept of a game based on the comics that visits four different Spideys, each in their own dimensions and each of those featuring a different gameplay hook, the actual execution as it stands doesn't live up to the team's ambitions.

A portion of an OSV interview… With only 9 tracks clocking in at 13 minutes total, half of which are roughly a minute and a half long, you might be wondering if it’s at all worth it. It redoubtably is if you’re a fan of authentic styled NES soundtracks, and being a Mega Man fan doesn’t [...]

#consoletaisen Sony's PlayStation 3 enjoys its second week atop the pile of consoles being sold in Japan, another 50,000-plus new owners enjoying fresh copies of Hokuto no Ken and Yakuza 4, the country's current bestselling games. More »

#clips With four matches coming down to penalty kicks in the knockout stage of the 2006 World Cup - including the Final - you'd better brush up your shootout skills, especially as the feature gets fine-tuned in 2010 FIFA World Cup. More »

Tecmo has been calling Dead or Alive Paradise a piece of "paradise in the palm of your hand." It's a pretty hilarious phrase, but it would seem that the game is anything but -- according to the reviews that have rolled in, anyway. Turns out the majority of gaming press that have braved the buxom beauts and horde of mini-games in the PSP title have found it mediocre at best.

And if you're still on the fence after checking out these reviews, remember there's a demo available on the Japanese PSN right now.

• IGN (50/100): "Dead or Alive Paradise is a poorly conceived, undersized grouping of mini-games that aren't aided by the visuals' ability to sell the characters' sex appeal."
• Game Informer (4/10): "Not only is Dead Or Alive: Paradise a bad game, it also drags down whatever reputation its namesake carried."
• Eurogamer (30/10): "If it's erotic imagery you're after, just get some porn. The visuals will be more realistic, the acting will be better and the plot will make more sense."
• G4 (1/5): "The greatest problem facing Paradise is that, in the end, once you cut through the photography and tedious friendship process, the gameplay and entertainment value are as skimpy as the most risqué bikinis on display. Had the games been better and more bountiful, and the socializing/photography nonsense been left out, maybe this might've been okay."

Don’t let our recent love affair with the East Coast fool you – we’re giving the West Coast a shot to go hands-on with PlayStation Move… next week. This time, the lucky city is Seattle.

We’ll be at Sole Repair Shop (near downtown and Seattle U) this coming Thursday evening, armed with food, drinks, and state-of-the-art motion-based gaming; that’s *months* before PlayStation Move will show up in stores, so don’t miss out on your opportunity!

You’ll also get to chat with the devs, us (if you care to), and meet some of your fellow Washington-based PlayStation gamers. Of course, we’ll also raffle off prizes – always a fan favorite at our meetups. And the price – as always – is FREE. If you’re not convinced (really?), take a look at some pics from last week’s PAX East meetup. A good time was had by hundreds.

Here are the details:

• Date: Thursday, April 8th
• Time: 6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
• Location: Sole Repair Shop
• Directions: Sole Repair (aka ‘the Shop’) can be found just off of East Pike 1 block past Broadway on Seattle’s Capitol Hill. Located right next door to Quinn’s, and directly across the street from Neumos. Be sure to enter in the 10th avenue entrance. Look for the white door.
• Parking: Plenty of places to park! Available at 10th & East Pike ($7), Broadway & East Madison ($5), Pike & Broadway (free!) and, of course, street parking is free after 7:00 p.m.

Adult beverages will be served, so we have to limit admittance to ages 21 and up… remember to bring your ID.

We hope to see you there – so make sure you RSVP today.

#sharp Did electronics manufacturer Sharp just give the world an early look at what the new Nintendo 3DS will be capable of? Because Sharp's new 3D touchscreen display for portable devices sounds precisely what the 3DS needs. More »

#review The marauding Blight has scattered, but a new, more sinister evil rises in its wake, and once again the Grey Wardens rise to face a deadly foe in the Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening expansion pack. More »