All Topics Gaming older than one year ago

#clips There's so many different battling factions in Sega's Alpha Protocol you'd need a score card to keep up, or perhaps an explanatory trailer. More »

The next Yakuza is on PSP. The full background story and some glimpses at combat and hostess club gameplay.

Jesse Venbrux must be quite proud of his indie platformer, They Need To Be Fed. Not only did he recently win the top prize of the YoYo Games competition, he's earned a $1,000 cash prize, and a deal to port the game over to PSP.

The platformer can be best described as a 2D version of Super Mario Galaxy, with players navigating the unique gravity of each platform to reach their goal: to be eaten. If that doesn't make much sense, you can wait for the PSP version, planned for release this summer, so you can see for yourself. Or, you can download the PC game here. (Or, you can just watch the video we placed after the break.)

[Via Pocket Gamer]

#screengrab Platinum Games' good witch Bayonetta gets the pin-up treatment from comic book artist Adam Hughes—"I have no idea what they are using it for," he says—in a piece commissioned by Sega. As seen (larger) at Hughes' deviantArt page. More »

This first look at the White Knight sequel since the Tokyo Game Show focuses on the continuing adventures of Leonard and crew. White Knight 2 hits Japan in July.

Nintendo has fired yet another volley in its war on video game piracy, this time against a Queens, New York-based seller of "illegal video game copiers." Nintendo has filed suit against the owner of NXPGAME, which presided over a website that sold "illegal video game copiers that enable the user to download, play and distribute illegal copies of Nintendo DS and Nintendo DSi video game software." Nintendo alleges that the owner agreed to shut down the website after several calls and letters from Nintendo legal counsel, but proceeded to open another website selling the same products. Nintendo adds that the old site also redirected users to the new one.

Nintendo doesn't specify exactly what the "Illegal game copiers" in question are, though it does mention a 2009 court case in which the California Central District Court judged the infamous R4 flash cart to be a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and deemed them illegal in the United States. According to Nintendo, such devices "circumvent the technological protection measures" of the DS and DSi and thus infringe on the company's intellectual property rights.

Jodi Daugherty, senior director of Nintendo's anti-piracy effort, noted that using such devices "is illegal and it's wrong," adding, "Piracy is especially harmful to smaller developers." Alex Neuse, CEO of Gaijin Games (Bit.Trip Runner) states in the press release that he estimates that "more than 70 percent" of his company's games have been obtained illegally. "Put simply," said Neuse, "if you enjoy a company's games, paying for them helps to ensure that they will continue to make products you'll like."

The news follows a recent win for Nintendo in a similar Australian court case this past February. That case saw offenders pay in excess of $500,000. In the same month, Nintendo won another case against a man that leaked New Super Mario Bros. Wii onto the internet, ending in a fine of $1.5 million. Once again, would-be pirates, Nintendo is serious about this.

Greetings everyone! At G5 Entertainment we are really excited to announce the upcoming release of our best-selling casual game Supermarket Mania on PSP minis! On May 18 you’ll be able to try Supermarket Mania yourself and understand why our team is so much in love with the game and its cute characters. In Supermarket Mania you are challenged to help our beautiful character Nikki who is busy stocking shelves and serving customers in several supermarkets around the town. Nikki has to develop her time management skills and learn to be tough when dealing with nasty thieves, naughty teenagers and evil competitor TORG Corp., a supermarket chain run by robots. Nikki needs your help in adding that important human touch to store management, and attract most loyal customers including snobby celebrities!

Well, check out the video and preview images and save the date – the game will be available on May 18 just for $4.99! We are looking forward to hearing what you think!

Interested in the insights of the game creation process? It was a long way. The first version of Supermarket Mania took us around a year to produce. We aimed to work out very simple but addictive and fun game play for fans of casual gaming, and wanted the game to be set in the supermarket. We made a number of iterations, trying different way of organizing game play process. In the first prototype, Nikki had to bring products to customers who were queuing at the counter, but we figured out it was rather boring and it took Nikki too long to serve everyone. Also customers were not mobile and lacked character because of this. In the second major prototype iteration Nikki used a number of shop assistants responsible for bringing different goods, and they gave out the products that customers asked for at the counters. The customers were given some animations and started going back and forth between counters. However, this concept didn’t work well either, as the player was easily getting lost trying to control several assistants at the same time. Eventually, we concluded that the most efficient way to run the shop in our game was like in real life – we gave customers access to all shelves in the shop, and they were free to wander around and buy whatever they wanted, while Nikki had to bring goods from the storage room and make sure that all shelves were stocked. This simple concept turned out to be a lot of fun, which you will see yourself soon!

If you like casual and time management games, you are welcome to check out our other PSP mini games: classic board game Mahjongg Artifacts: Chapter 2 and Stand O ‘Food - another great time management game. Both of these games will be on sale during June 1-8 – you can get each for only $1.99!

More information about G5 is always on http://www.g5e.com/. Hottest news and best deals are available for our friends on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/G5games – you are invited to join!

Two articles in the span of an hour that have absolutely fantastic imagery to go with them. Once again, I’ll let this image do the talking for me! Careful, it’s quite a disturbing one!

#glitches Rayman doesn't have legs, and I bet he can skateboard. Miis don't have legs, and I bet they can too. This Skate 3 glitch confirms it: Legs are not needed for skateboarding. More »

Do you remember when Snake was announced for Super Smash Bros. Brawl? I was at E3 sitting in my hotel, when an email popped into my inbox. I couldn’t believe the news, and followed the link that was in the email. When I saw the trailer, I nearly burst into tears! [...]

#salesget Snake will settle for second place again this week in the battle of Dragon Quest Monsters Joker 2 and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. The two portable games sit comfortably atop the country's weekly sales chart. More »

Netflix movie streaming may be available on all the major consoles in the States now, but it's the demographic-busting Wii that most recently got some high-quality ad treatment from the rental service. In the commercial, a gallant knight is off to fulfill his destiny and leaves "a piece" of himself behind for a young maiden. Without getting into the Freudian subtext oozing out of the ad, it's a pretty clever piece of marketing. Check it out after the break.

[Via GoNintendo]

Wow, an even bigger push than I thought. Two Wii-specific commercials in the span of a week. I wonder how well this approach is working out for them!

It's been a busy week for the Team Fortress team. That's right: the police are here again. We're on a first name basis with them, the fire department and the nasal extraction emergency response team at Overlake Hospital by now, so it was like meeting with old friends.

Eurogamer recently got an extensive look at BioWare's upcoming MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic, during which time it learned the game's seemingly narrow list of eight classes will be expanded upon by offering the player specialization options. Each class will have the option of two distinct "Advanced Classes," increasing the total number of archetypes available in the game by, like ... 300 percent? Maybe?

The first two Advanced Classes revealed can be chosen by a high-level Sith Warrior, who can follow the path of the Marauder (a damage-dealing, Darth Maul-esque class) or the Juggernaut (a heavily armored, Darth Vader-esque class). Considering the former got totally cut in half by Ewan McGregor, we might appreciate the safety and security offered by the latter.

[Via BigDownload]

See, I told you I’m not the only one that is addicted to Picross 3D! There are plenty of people out there that will love this game. They just need to give it a shot for about 10 minutes. If they make it to that mark, they’re already sucked in!

#gameon It might not be the City of Heroes meets the X-Men we were hoping for, kids should get a kick out of playing as tiny versions of their favorite Marvel characters in Gazillion Entertainment's Super Hero Squad Online. More »

All you need is a printer and a webcam, and you can enjoy the feature below! Full details here

#review Not since my Mii arm-wrestled the Mii of television's own Geoff Keighley has Nintendo technology allowed me to witness such a titanic virtual battle of video game journalists as it did the day Photo Dojo allowed me to battle… me. More »

Alan Wake won't be exploring the darkest corners of your Xbox until next week but developer Remedy has already announced via Twitter the release date for the game's first DLC episode: July 27.

... Or is it July 28, as seen on promotional dashboard show Sent U A Message host Daniel Maher's Twitter account? We're just as confused as you presumably are and have reached out to all parties (including Microsoft) to help us cast some light on things. Inconsistent release dates aside, users will be able to access the DLC through the included token download card packed in with all new copies of the game. No word yet on how much the DLC will cost those of you who go the used games route.

[Via XboxGaming]

#iphone It's more than a miserable little pile of gems—it's Konami's new puzzle role-playing game for the iPhone, featuring some of the most memorable characters from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Yeah, we weren't expecting this either. More »

We investigate Capcom's latest WiiWare port.

The best way to blow up a machine gun nest.

Gazillion Entertainment has officially announced the first of its MMO games based on Marvel properties, the unfairly adorable Super Hero Squad Online. How are we supposed to resist the idea of playing as Chibi Thor or Widdle Silver Surfer in "Super Hero City"?

This game allows players "to be their favorite Super Heroes in a living online world," as long as said players don't mind being (almost literally) Nerfed versions of those heroes. Players can join up with friends to form squads to fight evil together. Of course, they can also collect items for their customizable personal spaces.

If you'd like to see these lil' heroes (and the game) in action, GameTrailers TV will debut a trailer on Friday at 12:30 AM.

Update: Gazillion informed us that these are CG images and therefore don't precisely reflect the actual game's visuals.

#betawatch The closed beta test for World of Warcraft's Cataclysm expansion is just around the corner, and Blizzard is encouraging players to opt-in for their chance at early access. Here's how you do that. More »

Click to fill your browser space with Dead Space 2
In the run-up to Dead Space 2's full unveiling at E3 next month, Visceral Games executive producer Steve Papoutsis recently gave me an all-too-brief run-through of some environments from the game, introducing me to a new array of nasty necromorphs -- but also some fancy new weapons with which to carve them up. Papoutsis was also keen to reassure me that, despite rumblings on the internet (oh, that thing) the game is not a run-and-gun shooter. Having seen it in action, I can assure you that it's not a run-and-gun shooter.

The demo took place deep into the game, according to Papoutsis, so the weapons and suit that Issac Clark was sporting were far cooler than what you'll start out with while fighting to stay alive inside (and outside) of a mining complex -- the "Sprawl" -- on Saturn's moon. Though I could see the towering spires of a cityscape in the distance, we were headed into the mine itself for our first stop on the tour ... of terror.

#wii This is the Super Mario Galaxy 2 game disc. It sure looks nice. Click the image to enlarge it, which will make it look even nicer. More »