All Topics Gaming older than one year ago

Unique bulletin boards serve as entry points for quests, boss fights and PvP

Popular Harvest Moon franchise returns to PSP better than ever.

If you're surprised by the news that last month's Xbox Live Arcade sales were the highest for any March in the digital platform's history, think back to the games featured in said month. Remember? Marketed as a month-long "Block Party," XBLA was home to a total rager, which brought us Toy Soldiers (209,000 units sold), Perfect Dark (161,000 downloads), Scrap Metal (18,000 units sold) and the Game Room app (sales and download data of Game Room games is unknown).

With the sales strength of these titles, as well as purchases of a few persistent favorites like Trials HD and Battlefield 1943, the XBLA platform raked in an estimated $10.6 million last month, according to analysis from market research firm Forecasting and Analyzing Digital Entertainment. That total completely trounces February's pathetic $6.8 million in revenue and surpasses sales figures for March 2009 by 41 percent.

We foresee XBLA playing host to a great deal of parties in the future. Like the house from House Party, but with less hijinks from Kid n' Play.

Custom-engraved iPad's and notebook PC among prizes for best expressions of Bejeweled devotion.

First-person shooter from popular Korean developer expected to ship in 2011.

New content headed your way.

#officialkotakuforum Several new characters have been added to this addition of Talk Amongst Yourselves. But the old ones can stick around too, if you'd like. Just please talk about video games. More »

Motorcycle racer and adorable shop sim to be available exclusively at Toys"R"Us stores nationwide and online.

Special weapons for the retail chain.

We hope you understand, dearest reader, that when we alert you to one of Amazon's game-related Gold Box sales it is in the name of public service. After all, any sale that features BioShock 2 brand new for $40 and Battlefield: Bad Company 2 for $46.50 (until 12PM ET) -- with other Xbox 360 "games and accessories" deals littered throughout the day -- is always worth bringing to your attention, right? And besides, who doesn't enjoy solving a few puzzles ... when they lead to extra savings:

• 12PM ET: "Prepare to journey to the darkest reaches of space in this RPG hit." (Our guess: Mass Effect 2, duh.)
• 2PM ET: "BioWare's deepest universe to date just got bigger..." (Our guess: Wait -- Mass Effect 2 ... again? Hmmm ... or maybe the Dragon Age expansion, Awakening?)
• 5PM ET: "Rock out with your Stratocaster." (Our guess: Rock Band -- likely of the "Rock Band 2" variety. But maybe just another guitar for your collection?)
• 7PM ET: "A legendary war between two of science-fiction's most popular characters." (Our guess: Aliens vs Predator, obviously -- but they're not "characters," they're monsters!)
• 9PM ET: "Charge up your Xbox 360 controllers." (Our guess: Clearly, this is the power to shoot energy from your hands. A lightning deal indeed!)
• 11PM ET: "This hit franchise comes to life on Xbox 360." (Our guess: The answer is Cars. Or, yeah, we have no idea whatsoever...)

#sims3 When Life-simulator The Sims 3 makes the leap from computer to home and portable consoles this fall it will include at least one feature only available to the original purchaser of the game. More »

That better be a hockey stick in your pocket.

As promised, last year's best-selling PC franchise is finally coming to consoles, just in time for the holiday season. EA has announced that The Sims 3 is in development for PS3, Xbox 360, Wii and DS, with all versions planned for fall releases. The console versions promise "all-new" features, like "Karma Powers" that let your Sim to "get lucky" or experience an "epic fail." In addition, the PS3 and Xbox 360 editions will include Facebook connectivity, so you can share Trophy and Achievement updates with friends.

The Wii version will be gifted with an exclusive beach town, featuring its own residents, careers and "lifetime wishes." The DS version will introduce a brand new "Story Mode," a first for a handheld Sims game, allowing players to go through a "complete life simulation."

"We're bringing players the best console and handheld game for The Sims franchise to date and are excited to offer a unique experience for all types of gamers on their platform of choice," Sam Player, Executive Producer at EA, stated in a press release. And there's good reason to be excited, too -- considering the franchise has already generated over $2.5 billion in revenue for EA, we can already hear EA's coffers quivering in anticipation.

#nintendods Studio Ghibli, the animation studio behind classic anime like My Neighbor Totoro and Kiki's Delivery Service, is making a Nintendo DS game title Ni no Kuni with Fukuoka-based developer Level-5. It is Studio Ghibli's first venture into video games. More »

The latest Samurai Shodown's finally makes it to the West – and SNK tells us all about it.

#science Think Pokémon is just for play? It's not! When appropriated for the needs of science, it can also be a tool for learning. More »

#idoru In late March, images surfaced of former Mario Kart Wii pitch girl and bikini model Aki Hoshino. She looked dangerously thin. And now, she's back with a book about having the "ideal body". More »

Popular PC franchise heads to Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, and DS this fall.

#pc Thinking back to Wing Commander III's manual the other day persuaded me to take a trip to my parent's house over the weekend, and pick up my old copy of the game. And not just pick it up. Open it. More »

#squareenix Square Enix, the company best known for its Japanese role-playing games Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest games, is ready to release some of the more "extreme" games in The Land of the Rising Sun. More »

#japan Oh hi! This is 28 year-old voice actress Eriko Nakamura. She voices Haruka Amami, one of the main idols in Namco's idol simulator THE iDOLM@STER franchise. More »

#screengrab As seen on G4. More »

#clothing Launching its third line of Street Fighter clothing in as many years, label Triumvir is about to release a new range of t-shirts inspired by Capcom's World Warriors. More »

The Just Cause 2 website has official news on the game's first two DLC packs. We'd already heard about the April 29th "Black Market Aerial Pack" (which will give you a new Jet Fighter to play with, along with a parachute addon to create a little more breeze), but less than a month later, May 29th will bring the "Black Market Boom Pack," with a Quad Rocket Launcher, Cluster Bomb Launcher, and an Air Propulsion Gun, which fires jet blasts powerful enough to send both soldiers and vehicles flying. You don't really get bonus points for saying, "This... is my boom pack," after sending said enemies into the air, but we'll pretend that you do.

Both packs will be $1.99 on PSN, or 160 ($2) from the Xbox Live Marketplace. Also on the official Just Cause 2 blog: you'll find YouTube videos of the game being played back at both slow- and fast-speed, showing off slow motion and time-lapse views of the impressive in-game world. We've put both of them after the break in case you want to give them a look.

#psp When Metal Gear Solid 4 was released, mulit-media store Tsutaya held a promotion for 15 movies that influenced MGS. For Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, it's not about movies, but books. More »

#clip Hollywood has tried for years to make a good movie based on a video game, and failed. May as well try making one based on an indie game, then! More »

#manga After considering the issue, the Osaka Prefectural Government has begun regulating boys love manga. More »

#sports Originally published in 2007, we've just updated this feature - on why there's no such thing as the "Madden Curse" - to reflect some of the game's more contemporary "victims". More »

We're not sure why, but, when presented with the option to try out Steam's new user interface weeks ahead of time, some people actually said, "No thanks -- the future scares me." Well, just to prove you can't escape from your future (or because it considered the face-lift ready to go live) Valve has flipped the switch labeled "New UI" and your Steam client is in for a world of change -- like it or not.

The next time you fire up your Steam client, you'll be prompted to install the update, thus severing all ties to the past. If this thought is just a little too much to bear, you can always take a screenshot of the old UI (it's the Print Screen key) before clicking "Update." If, for some reason, you don't have Steam on your PC, the client -- all new-UI-ified -- can be downloaded here.PSA: Steam's new look & feel is out of beta