All Topics Gaming older than one year ago

#ps2 With Resistance and Ratchet & Clank developer Insomniac Games going multiplatform, bringing an "all-new franchise" to the Xbox 360 and PS3, a look back at one of its canceled original games seems timely. Meet Girl With A Stick. More »

The grizzly-named composer Bear McCreary, most famous for putting together the score on the recent Battlestar Galactica TV series, has announced on his blog that he'll be composing the music for Zipper Interactive's upcoming SOCOM 4. McCreary previously did the scoring work on Capcom's Dark Void (and 8-bit spin-off Dark Void Zero), and for SOCOM 4, he says he's written, "muscially, a franchise re-boot," with over eight hours of original music featuring "ethnic percussion, virtuosic Asian stringed and woodwind instruments, and the spectacular, other-worldly tones of the gamelan." Insert joke here about how that Indonesian ensemble's name actually looks like "game LAN."

McCreary also says that the soundtrack will fulfill his dream "of a video game score that would feel as if it were being composed specifically for each player, adapting and shifting perfectly to capture the mood of the individual gamer." Which sounds fun, but if we start hearing an orchestral version of "All Along the Watchtower" as our individual score, what exactly does that mean?

That's a lot of custom hats.

Hey! This is Yan from Sanuk Games. You probably know about us if you’re familiar with PlayStation minis: over the last couple of months we have released Hysteria Project, Spot The Differences and Telegraph Sudoku & Kakuro.

On Tuesday, June 1st we’ll release our latest minis game: Telegraph Crosswords.

Telegraph Crosswords offers you a whopping 500 crossword puzzles. You can browse through a wide assortment of Quick crosswords, General Knowledge crosswords and Cryptic crosswords, and make your picks depending on your skills and mood.

The handy interface and intuitive controls transfigure the classic pen-and-paper experience. Forget about crumpled pages covered with erasures!

Errors can be notified either immediately or after completion. Interactive hints are available when you’re stuck. And of course, you can stop a game and resume it at any time thanks to the autosave feature!

Telegraph Crosswords is coming out on June 1st for PSP and PS3 at the price of $2.99.

For more information about our games, please visit our website. And to get first-hand information about our future releases, please follow us on Facebook.

#pax Booth babes are a staple of many games expositions, but not Penny Arcade's. Still, Some scanty-pants booth reps have made it into recent shows and caught PAX organizers' attentions. Before they put their foot down, they want some community feedback. More »

#activision Guitar Hero is changing course with Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, a music game with some unexpected additions, including a story-driven quest mode that involves a group of heavy metal warriors seeking a legendary guitar and a battle with The Beast. More »

#activision Guitar Hero is changing course with Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, a music game with some unexpected additions, including a story-driven quest mode that involves a group of heavy metal warriors seeking a legendary guitar and a battle with The Beast. More »

Hey everyone! I’m pleased to announce that Laughing Jackal’s first PlayStation minis title, Stellar Attack, is to be released on the PSN Store on June 1st for the PSP and PS3. Stellar Attack is an homage to classic shoot-em-up Star Castle, and is also inspired by a range of action-puzzle games, featuring a mix of score-chasing puzzles, fast action and precision targeting.

Here’s some background to the game (featuring the best story I could think of in under five minutes!):

Deep in space, a lost starfighter is trapped by a series of evil turrets; turrets that are generating a purple energy field which is preventing the starfighter from returning home. To make things more difficult, these evil robo-turrets surround themselves with vast strings of protective coloured orbs. Using its multicoloured laser, our intrepid starfighter must blast a path through the orbs to destroy the turrets in each level — and if it can achieve a new high score on the way, then so much the better. In the future, everyone knows that the only language an evil robotic turret understands is destruction…and a good high score.

Stellar Attack’s “racking” multiplier score system means that you only build good scores by hitting orbs consistently with the right colored lasers. Breaking your chain of hits resets your multiplier and messes up your score, ruining your starfighter’s day and making evil turrets laugh at you.

If score-chasing, orb-blasting, turret-destroying, old-school puzzle action is your idea of fun (who’s isnt?) then Stellar Attack has everything you need.

Some of Stellar Attack’s best features:

• Old school shooter gameplay blended with score-chasing puzzle elements.
• Vibrant, colourful presentation and a thumping soundtrack.
• “Racking” multiplier score system offers great replayability.
• Six different craft to master.
• “Vector” and “Direct” control schemes to suit old-school and fast-action play styles.

Stellar Attack is our first release on the US PSN Store, so please check it out — we hope you like it!

#salesget The recently stagnant Japanese game charts have been injected with a massive dose of new games, including this week's biggest seller, Lost Planet 2. More »

Seemingly hearing the plea to convert our "non-pessimism" about Two World 2 into actual optimism, Topware Interactive has released a new trailer for the game. It's packed with thumping music and positive quotes from the press, and it certainly sets the stage. There's also a moment where an Orc kicks a dude in the face, so that's nice.

We should be getting some hands-on time with the game at E3. Here's hoping that Reality Pump has fleshed out the potential we saw at PAX East.

This scary image was sent in by reader Kaminari1, with a bit of an explanation… While my wife was at cosmetology school today she made a Pikachu-ish mannequin head. I was going to label this as video game art, but the damn face was too scary for me to not go with the weird factor!

In an interview with IGN UK, voice actor extraordinaire Mark Hamill -- also involved with something called Star Wars, we're told -- revealed that he won't be revisiting the role of Joker after the release of Batman: Arkham Asylum 2. According to Hamill, he was reticent to take up the mantle for the sequel, saying, "My answer to [developer Rocksteady] for the sequel was, 'Guys, we're never going to be able to top the original.'" He added that he had intended to leave the role on "a high note" with his work on the original Arkham Asylum.

However, once Rocksteady told Hamill of its intentions for the sequel -- swearing him to secrecy in the process -- he agreed to reprise the role, though he's adamant this will be the last time. "This will be my last, there's no question about that," said Hamill, "but it's the last hurrah." Whatever Rocksteady has planned, it was obviously enough to get Hamill back on board, and that's reason enough to be excited, right?

#politics Retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor recently spoke a word of charity for video games, telling ABC News in an interview that the medium's a "fabulous" way to get children to learn. More »

The latest media released for image epoch's WIi RPG Arc Rise Fantasia introduces "Rogress," the game's summoned creatures. They act as powerful attacks, of course, but also apparently as the source of the "Ray" energy that powers the game's cities and vehicles.

The trailer above shows the game's first Rogress, Simmah, merging its power and wisdom with the protagonist. We'd like to tell you more about what happens in the game, but we're distracted by the voice acting. Much like Infinite Space, all we can say about it in this game is that it is present and audible.

Does Rockstar's Red Dead Redemption not satiate your need for rough and tumble cowboy stuff? Relax a spell, friend. We'd like to tell you about some new Xbox Live Avatar items now available for download.

You'll find several full outfits are on offer, including the John Marston uniform above and the Walton Gang outfit in the bottom-right corner for the boys, while the fairer gender gains access to Bonnie McFarlane's in-game getup, as well as an Armadillo Woman ensemble -- each full outfit will set you back 320. If you're a bit short on coin (what did we tell you about spending all your time playing poker in the saloon?), there are cheaper fashions available -- including T-shirts with various characters and sayings on them and some hats. There's even a lasso prop your virtual self can play with.


Xbox.com: Add Red Dead Redemption Avatar gear to your Xbox 360 download queue

#security Anti-virus software maker Symantec recently uncovered and analyzed a cache of stolen online accounts—many from games like World of Warcraft and Aion—an impressive collection of 44 million swiped virtual credentials. What does Symantec find so interesting about this? More »

According to the ESRB, it looks like the Xbox won't be the only platform stuck in Limbo this summer. Assuming the recent ESRB listing is accurate, Playdead's terrifying, striking platformer is also headed to the PlayStation 3 and PC. Definitely good news if true, given how much we enjoyed the game's brooding atmosphere earlier this year.

We've contacted Playdead for confirmation on the listing and will update this post with any new info.

Come see the nifty creations that have been whipped up in the game's first few days.

A brief aside: The scaly antagonist from the Harry Potter series would be a whole lot less intimidating if everyone just shortened his name to Mort, wouldn't he? That's not a name that inspires much fear, even when prefaced with "The Nefarious Dark Lord of All-Wizardkind."

Check out the video above to see a brief vignette of clips from the fourth and final school year featured in Lego Harry Potter, which covers the events of Goblet of Fire. You know, the one with the Tri-Wizard Tournament, and Mad-Eye Moody, and all the thinly veiled lessons about the frightening changes puberty can visit upon teenagers. Yeah, that one.

#dlc Friendly reminder: Splinter Cell Conviction's first downloadable content package, Deniable Ops Insurgency hit PC and Xbox Live marketplaces today. Ubisoft would also like you to know that another 250 achievement points are now available with the DLC. More »

Natal is going to shake things up. Does that mean good things for you?

The latest Pokemon spinoff game, Poképark Wii: Pikachu's Adventure, is being localized for Europe, according to a press release from Nintendo. As you might have surmised from the title, the game stars Pikachu and takes place in a Pokémon theme park.

As Pikachu attempts to collect the shards of the "Sky Prism" that protects the park, he and new Pokémon friends take part in the park's various attractions. Yes, Pikachu's idea of "helping" is to have fun on all the park's rides. Pikachu is kind of a hedonist. The attractions include Poke-themed activities like Rhyperior's Bumper Burn, Bulbasaur's Daring Dash, Salamence's Air Ace, Venusaur's Vine Swing, and Gyarados' Aqua Dash.

Poképark Wii will be released in Europe on July 9. We don't want to ruin the surprise, but if we had to guess, we'd say this game will be announced in North America at some kind of large industry event being held soon.

While the SOCOM franchise may be best known for its top-notch online multiplayer aspects, we think you’ll be blown away with what’s in store for you in SOCOM 4’s single-player campaign. We’re pushing the franchise further than it’s ever gone in terms of visuals, storytelling, presentation and, of course, action sequences that will leave your jaw on the floor, all while maintaining SOCOM’s classic tactical focus.

With all that in mind, we wanted to round out the experience with a stellar soundtrack, one that would help define the franchise’s next big release. We’re very excited to announce that the score is being handled by none other than Bear McCreary, who is best known for his critically-acclaimed work on Battlestar Galactica.

No stranger to blending genres of music, Bear’s work on the soundtrack is largely influenced by Asian instrumentation, which corresponds to the Southeast Asia setting of SOCOM 4. Making use of ethnic soloists and gamelan ensembles, SOCOM 4’s score will perfectly fit the mood and atmosphere of OpsCom and company’s operation.

If you’d like to be one of the first people in the world to not only hear SOCOM 4’s soundtrack, but do it in person and even meet Bear McCreary, science fiction website io9.com is running a contest to send one lucky fan to a recording session for the game’s score. How can you pass on that chance?

#farmville You may already know about 7-Eleven buddying up with Zynga, the maker of Farmville and Mafia Wars, for farm flavored ice cream, but are you aware that purchasing one of the convenience store's hot dogs gets you a bulletproof vest? More »

The second game in Tecmo's odd "A Topsy Turvy Life" DSiWare series will be released on DSiWare on May 31, according to Tecmo's official Twitter account for the series. While the first game, Turvy Drops, was a falling block puzzle game, this one is a vertical shooter based on Star Force.

Like Turvy Drops, Turvys Strike Back is meant to be played with the DS upside down, such that the touch screen is on top. The player then uses the stylus to place enemies to try to defeat the shooter's protagonist. Maybe you should just watch the video after the break to make sense of it.

#nintendo Three out of four Mushroom Kingdom plumbers have scored starring video game roles. The man who voices them all, Charles Martinet, wants to make it four out of four, lamenting the lack of a game starring Wario's skinny lackey, Waluigi. More »

#farmville You may already know about 7-Eleven buddying up with Zynga, the maker of Farmville and Mafia Wars, for farm flavored ice cream, but are you aware that purchasing one of the convenience store's hot dogs gets you a bulletproof vest? More »

E3 is right around the corner, and the big publishers are rolling out lists of what they'll be bringing to the show. Ubisoft's list includes Assassin's Creed Brotherhood, Shaun White Skateboarding, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, the next installment of the Driver series, and "many other titles" that haven't been revealed yet. Keep an eye on Kotaku on MOnday, June 14, when Ubisoft's annual press conference kicks off at 5PM. More »