All Topics Gaming older than one year ago

If you didn't make it through the entire headline and simply started panicking when you read "StarCraft 2 beta ends," the first thing you need to do is relax. Now breathe. It should help you to calm down knowing that the beta will start back up again after "some hardware and software configuration changes" from Blizzard are made "in preparation for the final phase of the beta test and the release of the game [on July 27]." That said, you've still got another two-ish weeks of gameplay left before the beta goes on hiatus. That's like ... 200 Zerg rushes or something!

#starwars Show your Rebel pride, your Imperial allegiance or your carefree bounty hunter love with new The Empire Strikes Back-themed Avatar gear, adorable enough to force almost any Star Wars fan to drop Microsoft Points on virtual clothing. More »

Cosplay enthusiasts will tell you: making costumes based on your favorite fictional characters can be expensive. Depending on how accurate a recreation you're going for, you can drop some serious duckets on materials. Not to mention the trouble of explaining to your parents who Marcus Phoenix is and why you would want to dress up like him.

That's why we'd like to inform you of the latest Avatar Marketplace update, a cheaper alternative for your fixation with dress-up. Two new game styles are available: A World of Keflings and Army of Two. You can find a plethora of branded hats and shirts from each title, as well as some full body costumes -- you can see the Ninja Bee outfit above.

Source - Army of Two Avatar items
Source - A World of Keflings Avatar collection

A chance to purchase the total package.

Woody and friends are ready to play. Are you?

#prizes A million bucks? A key to the city? Those aren't the prizes you'll win if you are among the first 10 people to finish Zon8, a Ripley's Believe It Or Not webgame launching in June. You'll get a shrunken head. More »

#artsandcrafts Dissatisfied by the video game LEGO offerings released thus far, LEGO enthusiast Ben Fleskes takes matters into his own hands, crafting a working Pac-Man arcade cabinet made almost entirely of LEGO bricks. More »

Gamasutra reports that in the weeks preceding its launch on the shiny new Steam for Mac client, Runic Games' top-down RPG Torchlight hit a pretty substantial milestone. Since its launch last October the game, which typically sells for $20, has been purchased over 500,000 times.

We imagine Perfect World, the game's publishing partner that recently purchased a majority stake in Runic, is pleased as punch about reaching the sales milestone. You should be, too -- in honor of hitting the half-million mark, and in celebration of the game's launch on Mac, you can grab Torchlight on Steam for $10 for a limited time.

Do you feel like satisfying that evil streak you've got locked away deep, deep inside you? You can now play as the maleficent baddies of Ferelden by picking up Dragon Age: Origins' newest DLC pack, Darkspawn Chronicles. It's available today on 360 and PC for 400 ($5). Check out the trailer above to get an idea of how the other, uglier half of Dragon Age's epic conflict lives.

According to BioWare's official website, the PS3 version of the DLC is "coming soon." We're not sure what the hang-up is, but we've contacted BioWare to get a rough idea of the content's ETA.

A portion of an IGN review… The Forgotten Sands is a very impressive continuation of the Prince of Persia franchise. It seems equal kudos has been given to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of the game, but I can only speak for the version made for Wii. It’s common to get a “different” experience [...]

Wii Games - E3 2010 - Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands

#squareenix Will Square Enix's long-in-the-making Final Fantasy Versus XIII follow the lead of its predecessor and make the leap from the PS3 to the Xbox 360? Probably... err Square Enix is "looking into it," according to the company's president. More »

Perhaps you've been glossing over any stories with the words "Lara Croft" in the headline, sure that it couldn't possibly have anything to offer you. You and Lara had your thing ... but that was years ago. You're older now. You've moved on.

Well, so has Lara. The team at Crystal Dynamics did an admirable job updating the Tomb Raider series with the Legend, Anniversary, and Underworld trilogy but they understood that they "needed to make a drastic change for the studio and that continuing down the same path wasn't really going to cut it any longer." So, Crystal Dynamics split itself into three groups: one focused on making the "pillar games" that will use the "Tomb Raider" branding; another focused on controlling the Lara Croft intellectual property and brand in-house; and the last one intent on delivering fresh "experimental" gameplay in a downloadable format using the "Lara Croft" brand. And that gets us to Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light.

If you've been ignoring the Tomb Raider reboot, perhaps still spurned by the atrocious Angel of Darkness, you owe it to yourself to reevaluate that relationship once again. You see, Guardian of Light isn't a "Tomb Raider" game. It's something new: A $15 isometric co-op puzzle game. Ludwig's already given you his impressions of the game, but at a recent pre-E3 event I got to take the controller myself - along with Mr. Mike Schramm - for some co-op puzzle solving.

Put together the pieces of the Hogwarts puzzle in this latest LEGO adventure.

#clips After covering the 2009 Game Developers Conference, BlinkWorks Media decided they wanted to create a documentary film that studies independent game developers as a way to understand the medium and the theory behind video games. More »

#science A team of scientists from Joseph Fourier University in France have successfully implant biofuel cells into rats, generating 6.5 microwatts by harnessing the power of glucose. If they can amp that up, I might never need a DS charger again. More »

It's still a ways out, but this action RPG is already more fun than the last Pirates movie.

#redcarpet Who was at the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time big-time Mann's Chinese Theater premiere in Hollywood yesterday? These folks, among others... More »

Who done it?

Love and escape do not compute.

A joint press release from Facebook and Farmville creator Zynga has announced that the two have entered into a "five-year strategic relationship," which "increases their shared commitment to social gaming on Facebook and expands use of Facebook Credits in Zynga's games." The new union likely comes as a response to reports that Zynga CEO Mark Pincus was considering leaving Facebook behind to start a new social gaming hub.

The terms of the relationship aren't being discussed, but we imagine a new agreement was reached regarding how much Facebook takes from purchases using the aforementioned Credits. We're likely to hear more about the specifics of this agreement in the coming weeks.

Publisher may follow EA's model of $10 access keys.

Ubisoft started with the best of intentions when making the Prince portable.

#delayofgame The future has been delayed, now that Ubisoft has pushed its next big Ghost Recon game into next year. Ubi's big boss Yves Guillemot had bad news/good news today for anyone hoping to play Ghost Recon: Future Soldier this year. More »

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