All Topics Gaming older than one year ago

Winning Rock Band band to win $10,000 and an opportunity to meet Ringo Starr.

#screengrab plus one! More »

Oh, great. Once again, Europe has beaten America to the punch in adding a Square Enix classic to the PlayStation Store. Prepare yourselves to sink a multitude of hours into Final Fantasy IX (you lucky jerks) -- or, if you're in the mood for something more modern, check out Fret Nice, Voodoo Dice or Episode 2 of Sam and Max: The Devil's Playhouse. PSP owners have a ton to check out as well, including DJ Max Fever, and, oh yeah, Final Freaking Fantasy IX.

Choose your platform to view the corresponding release list:
(Note: Continue past the break to view both release lists.)

Normally, voodoo isn't something to be taken lightly. As dear old pa liked to say, "Just because you don't believe in voodoo, it don't mean you laugh in the witch doctor's face." Wise words indeed, but then pappy didn't know about Voodoo Dice, this week's Xbox Live Arcade release -- a puzzle game of sorts from Ubisoft and Exkee. All we really know is that it involves dice, includes single-player and multiplayer and will cost 800 ($10). Thus far, it appears to be free of vengeful witch doctors itching for an excuse to zombify us, so that's a relief.

Update: This week's XBLA update will also include id's classic first-person shooter Doom II, as well as Ben 10 Alien Force: The Rise of Hex -- for 800 ($10) each.

[Via Major Nelson]

Hey dudes! I’m really excited to let you all know that our new game Kung-Fu Live is coming to the PSN Store later this year! It’s a unique fighting adventure that uses the PlayStation Eye and our internally developed tech to create an experience like never before.

As some of you may have heard, we announced Kung-Fu Live with a playable sneak preview last week in New York. The reception from journalists, as well as gamers, has totally overwhelmed us! We also found ourselves in the middle of the rising motion gaming discussion as many of the stories call out that our game already does what Natal is trying for: Kung-Fu Live uses full-body skeleton tracking to track the player’s moves in real-time. Thus, people have been saying that our game and tech using the PlayStation Eye is stealing the thunder from Natal. LOL!

With our Freemotion technology and the awesome quality of the PlayStation Eye camera, full-body motion gaming is already here. Kung-Fu Live also scans you inside the game world where you literally become the hero of the game. There you are boosted with super human abilities, such as being able to jump flips without actually making flips, do high jump kicks, shoot lightning from your hands, and so on. Oh yeah, not to mention that you can do The Matrix trick of slowing the speed of your opponents’ time while you kick their asses.

So toss away the gamepad for a change and experience what it’s like to be Jackie Chan (no real martial art skills needed): Punch, kick, jump and pummel your enemies into oblivion using your body as your only weapon. I can’t wait to show you guys more of Kung-Fu LIVE, but for now, check out the teaser trailer above for a glimpse of the kick-ass action we have in store.

Feel free to post questions here about the game, I’ll try to answer them as best I can.

P.S: For legal purposes, I have to add a small disclaimer: Freemotion technology can make you extremely fit — just by playing a video game! Any resulting six packs are unintentional. :-) I lost about four pounds in four days playing the game for an hour a day. For once, I’m ready for the beach before the summer starts!

"Social Matches" are coming to Gears of War 2 in today's patch for the game. The new feature allows players to jump in or out of multiplayer games without disruptions. The catch? You'll need to own all four download map packs. More »

Batman's super villain is going out on a high note says actor.

VG247 met up with Blizzard Executive Vice President Frank Pearce in London to talk about StarCraft 2 and World of Warcraft. While it appears that WoW reached its peak with 11.5 million players, Pearce disagrees. "I don't think 11.5 million is a peak, necessarily," he says, "but there are certain things that we need to do and need to do well in order to see it go further." Those things include finally launching the Wrath of the Lich King expansion in China and bringing players back with the upcoming Cataclysm expansion in the US.

And while some have guessed that the release of StarCraft 2 might make a dent in WoW's player base, Pearce says he expects the opposite: StarCraft's Real ID social network system works across both games, and it may "potentially have a strong enough connection so that [someone playing StarCraft] may get a message from someone in WoW saying, 'Hey, come on over, we need a last person to fill our raid.'"

#foxconn This year, ten employees have died at the Foxconn Shenzhen plant. Foxconn produces products for Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft and Apple. Apple has stepped forward and finally commented on the issue. More »

#enslaved Alex Garland made a name for himself as the writer of the novel The Beach. Then he wrote the script for horror flick 28 Days Later and the one for sci-fi film Sunshine. Now? More »

#halo This guy has built himself a replica Halo Assault Rifle that not only looks good as a replica Halo Assault Rifle, it's also a fully-functioning Nerf gun. More »

Super Mario Crossover was already a miracle, faithfully dropping protagonists from Contra, Mega Man, Castlevania, Zelda and Metroid into Super Mario Bros. A teaser trailer (that's right, a trailer for a Flash game!) after the break heralds the arrival of another NES-era champion: the wall-climbing, statue-hunting ninja in the sleeveless uniform, Ninja Gaiden's Ryu Hayabusa. Ryu brings his wall-climbing ability from his NES games, as well as the shuriken and boomerang-style Windmill Shuriken weapons.

Now we'll get to see how powerful Ryu can be in a game free of heat-seeking birds! Or, we'll get to see that whenever creator Jay Pavlina actually makes the new version of Crossover available.

#music "Let's just make it so no one turns off the music". An inauspicious first step for one of the best gaming soundtracks in recent memory. More »

This Saturday at midnight (ET), Fox will air a 30-minute short film made from Red Dead Redemption. That's right -- this film was created using in-game assets. And it's not just any old basement machinima -- it's been directed by John Hillcoat (The Road) and, according to Rockstar's description, "reimagines" protagonist John Marston's, uh, redemption, as he pursues that prickly Bill Williamson.

Sounds interesting enough -- just so long as it doesn't interrupt MADtv. That's still on, right?

The Star Wars actor talks about reprising his role as The Joker.

This Saturday at midnight (ET), Fox will air a 30-minute short film made from Red Dead Redemption. That's right -- this film was created using in-game assets. It's not just any old basement machinima, however, it's been directed by John Hillcoat (The Road) and, according to Rockstar's description, it "reimagines" protagonist John Marston's, uh, redemption, as he pursues that prickly Bill Williamson.

Sounds interesting enough -- just so long as it doesn't interrupt MADtv. That's still on, right?

#screengrab "Prince Holds The Katamari On His Shoulders", 8" bronze scultpure by Everfalling. More »

#imperialhot Thriller Heavy Rain has a fan in Yoichi Wada, the guy who runs Square Enix. That company churns out Final Fantasy games. In a recent interview with game magazine Famitsu, Imperial Hot says he's recently played the thriller. His thoughts? More »

We know our first thought after watching this Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom trailer should be, "Wow, look at all the pretty colors," or "Hey, this looks like it's going to scratch our Ico and Beyond Good & Evil itches pretty definitively." However, our minds are only addled with raw, unchecked jealousy.

How come we don't have a giant, lovable, moss-covered golem companion? We wouldn't make him fight monsters or lift gates for us. We'd only ask that he let us pet his grassy head, and occasionally ride on his back, and go on the most magical adventures together.

Curse you, Namco Bandai! You knew our weakness for giant, adorable companions, and you exploited that weakness without remorse.

#godofwar Renowned for its blood, glares and exposed breasts, the God of War series is also famous for having some rather exquisite artwork associated with its games. Fans of this art should keep Saturday night free. More »

#davidhayter David Hayter isn't just the English language voice of Metal Gear's Snake, he also wrote the first X-Men movie. So he probably has a good handle on why it's so hard to make a good video game movie. More »

Epic has released an update to its Unreal Development Kit (UDK), the free version of Unreal Engine 3. The update includes a host of new features, but one of the most significant additions is support for Steamworks. According to the changelog, Steam has become the default online system for UDK and will handle online functions like friends, matchmaking and server browsing.

The update also adds Scaleform GFx, which allows game creators to build attractive user interfaces. You can check out a video of Scaleform GFx in action after the break. Head over to Shacknews for the full list of new UDK tweaks.

#pc There'll most likely be a new Total War game unveiled at E3, but in the meantime, Sega is happy to release a new expansion for the recent Napoleon: Total War. More »

#ruhroh There have been rumblings that the next Persona role-playing game, Persona 5, will be a PS3 game. The Australian Classification Board seems to have confirmed that. Or did it? More »

Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket effectively scared an entire generation away from boot camp. However, a new tactic being considered by the US Navy may completely change our perception of boot camp: video games. In the latest issue of Navy Times, Navy Surgeon General Vice Admiral Adam Robinson (he does sound important) suggested that games like Wii Fit and Dance Dance Revolution could help "newcomers to the military service build up the endurance they need to get in shape safely."

According to the report, today's recruit requires much more work to get into "fighting shape" than in the past. With America's youth becoming increasingly sedentary, the US Navy has observed an increasing number of injuries suffered during boot camp. Recruits are "not used to the amount of standing and running that comes in recruit training," the report indicates. Games would theoretically provide a more approachable, familiar solution for physical activity.

However, don't expect games to completely replace current recruit training techniques. The US Navy is simply looking into the possibility of augmenting its current regimen with fitness games. Additionally, there's no timetable in place for when games would be introduced into the military. Still, we're eager to see if the boot camps of the future will look less like the one in Kubrick's war movie and more like ... this.

[Thanks Joseph!]

#clips No, it's not us. We fly. This is Infinite Lives: The Road to E3, a small-time documentary about four normal dudes who drive across American to attend E3, the industry's biggest show of the year. More »

#tokyogameshow Last year's "main visual" for the Tokyo Game Show gaming expo featured a hodgepodge of images and a very bland slogan: "Game, it's so energetic". This year's? More »

We know it's supposed to be a moving moment in Heavy Rain, but we can't get enough of parody tributes to the game's true protagonist, little lost Jason. First there was the hit Flash game Press X to Jason and now the Dead Workers Party brings us "Press X to Jason," a bubbly, melodic retelling of the story of the boy who touched America's heart as America touched its X button. You can find it right after the break.

We're intentionally being pretty vague about the content of the scene here, since you really shouldn't be watching the clip unless you've already played Heavy Rain. Like, you really shouldn't. Trust us.

[Thanks, Spencer]

#review There are video game art books, then there are video game art books. Most fall into the first category. Uncharted 2's is a proud member of the latter. More »