All Topics Gaming older than one year ago

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We're not sure what it is about this batch of screenshots for Rocket Knight that fills us with such euphoria. Perhaps it's all of the pretty colors. Perhaps they remind us of the simpler days of our youth. Perhaps we've only recently realized how preposterous the concept of an opossum strapped to a rocket really is. Seriously, think about it. Really think about it. It makes zero sense.

Check out the gallery below to see Sparkster -- the flying, furry contradiction -- in action.

#rumor While Ubisoft is busy teasing players via Facebook, we've got anonymous tipsters sending us images of the placeholder art for something called Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. Is this Ezio's next big thing? More »

Wow, take a look at that nice surprise! I sure hope that’s how the North American version is. I’d definitely go with that cover!

#column A faithful companion. A star in the making. Adoration, rejection, and finally, a triumphant return. More »

High Moon Studios' Matt Tieger, director of Transformers: War for Cybertron, says his game is influenced by the movies -- but not just those directed by Michael Bay and starring CGI robots. Instead, Tieger pointed to Sam Raimi and a certain webslinger as big influences for his upcoming release, as he spoke to a group of press during a recent preview of the game at the studio's offices in Carlsbad, Calif.

Tieger says that even though his team is creating a licensed Transformers game, he wants it to be like the first Spiderman film in that it appeals to three audiences: folks who just want a good action ride; brand fans, who want to be reminded of what they liked about the universe as kids; and hardcore fans, who will get every single reference and inside joke -- he wants to "smash you in the face with nostalgia."

Following his presentation and a hands-on preview of the game, I chatted with Tieger about War for Cybertron and what game he would "love, love, love" to make next:

Joystiq: So what was the pitch behind this game? What was the impetus behind a game like this?

Matt Tieger: Well, we knew that Activision came to us and said, "We think you guys are a good fit for a Transformers game." Based on our sensibilities for some things that we had done before, we had done some prototypes, and they thought we were a good match. And we had lots of Unreal Engine experience. And they wanted to make a non-movie based Transformers game. So they asked, "What do you want to do," basically, within the confines of that. And we came up with a plan, and redesigned a bunch of characters and then started talking to Hasbro.

The UNCHARTED 2 adventure continues this week, as the celebrated franchise expands further into the wide world of PlayStation Home with the release of the new UNCHARTED 2 personal space. Situated in the heart of Pokhara, this dazzling personal space harkens back to the action-packed scenes of Naughty Dog’s award-winning title, where Nathan Drake and Co. battle it out with Lazarevic’s henchmen in the war-torn streets of Nepal. A true must-have addition to your UNCHARTED collection, this personal space will be available this Thursday, May 6th in the Estates store in the PlayStation Home Mall. Like they always say, a picture may be worth a thousand words, but a video is worth a million pictures, so check out this video we’ve made for you that shows off this exciting new space.

To celebrate the release of the first ever DLC for what is inarguably one of the biggest titles of the current generation — Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 — our friends at Infinity Ward will be joining us in the Gamer’s Lounge this Friday, May 7th at 4:00pm PT (7:00pm ET) to launch into the new multiplayer maps of the Modern Warfare 2 Stimulus Package. You make the call as to whether you want to jump into the Bailout, Salvage, Storm, Crash, or Overgrown maps — just let us know when the time comes to set up the multiplayer session. More details, including host accounts, will be posted in our Message of the Day prior to the event start time this Friday.

Also coming this week into the ever-growing PlayStation Home universe (which is currently expanding at the rate of your average supernova) are special items from the upcoming remake of the classic martial arts film The Karate Kid. Available from the LOOT store in the PlayStation Home Mall, these hot new items are essential for fans of the classic film that are anxiously awaiting the June 11th release of this highly-anticipated remake. Be sure to grab yours first thing Thursday morning.

Those of you that, like me, obsessively collect each and every unlockable reward from your favorite PS3 and PSN games in PlayStation Home will be stoked to learn that Rockstar’s upcoming sandbox-style western game Red Dead Redemption (available for the PS3 on May 18th) will unlock exclusive outfits for your avatar upon reaching in-game milestones. We don’t want to spill any beans concerning the plot of this sure-to-be-hit title, so we’re not going to tell you how to earn these rewards just yet but trust me when I say that, if you love Red Dead Redemption, PlayStation Home is the place to be when you are looking for people to challenge to a good ol’ fashioned Mexican standoff in the 16-player max multiplayer.

In other news, Sodium is getting yet another update this week. Be sure to keep an eye out for Vendy – the artificially intelligent vending machine-bot conveniently placed in the Sodium Hub to provide all you scorpion stompers with Vetoxade, the anti-venom needed to stomp the fiendish blue scorpions.

Finally, we want to alert you to a pretty awesome event in which PlayStation Home will play a pivotal role. As the excitement builds for the highly-anticipated release of METAL GEAR SOLID: PEACE WALKER for the PSP, Konami, Best Buy, and Sony Online Entertainment will feed the frenzy by hosting a code-collecting contest that begins the month before the game’s launch. The CODE HUNT will have contestants 18 and older in the United States scouring locations for elusive Peace Walker codes, each of which gets them closer and closer to the grand prize. Hint: Hunters that visit PlayStation Home should keep their eyes peeled. The contest begins today, May 5th and will end just in time for the Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker release on June 8th. Join the hunt now at http://www.konami.com/mgscodehunt and win big (official rules can be found at http://www.konami/user/rules)!

See you in Home!

First off, please pardon the rather low-quality pictures. I haven’t moved my cameras over to the new warehouse just yet, so I had to use the camera on my iPhone. Today, the delivery man hit my doorstep with a couple surprises, but one of them was more peculiar than the other. I can definitely say that [...]

First look and pre-order for inaugural Puzzle Agent pilot now online.

Sony Online Entertainment launches new game full of pulse-pounding action and intrigue.

These are your Sims. Get it?

#republished Kikiyama's Yume Nikki is a poem written in videogame. More »

The MySims return to save the skies from Morcubus with the new flying action-adventure.

Tony Stark uses his metallic fists to privatize world peace.

I don’t know why you’d need to be convinced further about picking up The OneUps’ Super Mario Kart album. I just streamed it for free yesterday, and that convinced me of a purchase. If you’re looking for more details on the album, just hit up our search bar and type in [...]

#blizzard Starting with the release of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty your Facebook friends can easily become your Battle.net buddies as well, as Blizzard unveils integration with the world's most popular social networking website. More »

#science Computers crash all the time, even when running Linux. Human beings do not. A Yale study compares the structure of the Linux operating system to E. Coli bacteria to help determine why you and I suffer so few system crashes. More »

We're shipping a quick update to clean up some of the confusion around the 119th Update badges. We initially chose to calculate which badge to give players based on the beta release of TF2, because that was the date that customers could first play TF2. This turns out to have been a mistake, largely because many players did the math and thought they were getting something other than what they ended up with. So to remove that confusion, this new update moves that date forward to the official retail release of TF2, the 10th October 2007, and reissues updated badges to anyone who would be affected by that date shift.

Expansion pack announced.

Charlie Murder's punk-rock adventure will now debut on Xbox Live Arcade in 2012, Ska Studios has revealed to Joystiq exclusively. Originally announced as an Xbox Live Indie Game, the beat-em-up was taken out of the indie lineup without reason following an appearance at PAX East 2010. As suspected, Charlie Murder will be pushed into the spotlight with a full XBLA release, alongside the previously scheduled end of the world in 2012.

While Ska Studios jokingly claimed development of the title had been put on hold while the game's stars could enter a rehab facility, developer James Silva revealed Charlie is getting a "complete overhaul" from its original vision. "We're going back to development for awhile so we can build tons of new content for Charlie Murder, to give gamers an XBLA-caliber, mayhem-infused, punk rock experience," Silva told Joystiq, while presumably ignoring "rules" and "not caring what you think."

Like Duke Nukem and Alan Wake before it, Charlie Murder adds to the delay curse befallen games named after their titular protagonists. At least Ska Studios is hard at work on another project in the meantime.

For as much as you've been tirelessly playing (or trying to play) the Halo: Reach beta, we're sure there are some things you didn't know. Example: did you know that you can actually kill somebody by hitting them in the face with a grenade? Yup, totally possible. How about a tried-and-true way to avoid fall damage? It's a lot simpler than you may think!

Thanks to Defend The House -- of Modern Warfare 2 Mythbusters fame -- we now know how. And you too can feel the Quickening-like surge of power that is knowledge by simply heading past the break and watching the first episode of Halo: Reach Betabusters. Enjoy!

Grab yours here at CDBaby (iTunes and Amazon coming soon - thanks NintenDaan!)

Check out more screens in our Flickr set Burlingame, Calif., May 5, 2010 - Natsume, a worldwide developer and publisher of family-oriented video games, announced today that Witch’s Wish has gone gold and will be released for the Nintendo DST toward the end of May. The game will retail at an MSRP of $29.99 and is [...]

The Wii's next DQ game isn't DQX. Get your first look at the arcade port.