All Topics Gaming older than one year ago

Let's not spoil anything. Instead, let's just say that Square-Enix's CGI work for Deus Ex: Human Revolution is really paying off. You should watch the trailer above right now. And then watch it again.

Now that you've done that, we've got some actual news: It looks like Deus Ex: Human Revolution has been confirmed for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC. The game will be released in 2011, and is now available for pre-order from the usual suspects.

Let's not spoil anything. Instead, let's just say that the Square-Enix's CGI work for Deus Ex: Human Revolution is really paying off. You should watch the trailer above right now. And then watch it again.

Now that you've done that, we've got some actual news: It looks like Deus Ex: Human Revolution will be released on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC. The game will be released in 2011, and is now available for pre-order from the usual suspects.

Accidental self-healing and friend-stabbing rates are expected to drastically decrease in the world of MAG on June 8 -- the recently announced release date for Update v1.06. In addition to changing the credit costs of a number of weapons and accessories, the patch will map the "heal self" and "heal ally" functions to two different buttons on the controller, making the act of battlefield triage much less frustrating for folks who subscribe to the Medic archetype. Also, your friends won't accidentally stab you in the head anymore, which is always nice.

Check out the update's initial announcement to see all the changes that will come to MAG next Tuesday.

Who will be victorious?

Ever wanted to throw paper bears with the Wiimote? Of course you did!

#trailer The year is 2027, the game: Deus Ex: Human Revolution. More »

#promisechecking A year ago, three companies predicted, planned and promised to you, the gamer, many things about the future of the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, DS and PSP. Someone had to separate that hype of E3 2009 from the reality of the 12 months that followed. How about us? More »

The revolution begins now.

#heavyrain Life is full of moral decisions to make, every minute of every day we are faced with choices that can affect the rest of our day or indeed, the rest of our life.  More »

#apple It seems highly likely that Apple will be showing off yet another iPhone design come Monday at their annual Worldwide Developers Conference. More »

All your evil fantasies of Decepticons finally working together can come true.

Codemasters' upcoming Bodycount is a rather curious project, building upon the foundations of last generation's Criterion Games-developed FPS Black with inspirations as varied as Alias, Star Trek and Lady Gaga. The eccentricities of Bodycount appear to be a reflection of its creator, Stuart Black -- a man that shares his game's energetic, in-your-face attitude.

Joystiq: First off, the title: Is there a deeper meaning behind the obvious implication of the name "Bodycount?"

Stuart Black: You shoot a lot, a lot of people. You're going to kill a lot of people in this game, achieving that body count. We're not going to be apologetic about it. That's not what the game is about; it's about firing guns -- and what are guns for? Killing people. We want you to understand that everyone you kill in this game ... they deserve it! They're all nut-jobs.

I didn't actually come up with the title Bodycount. It was actually one of my other designers in the studio, and soon as he said it, I was, "Of course, it totally fits."

Though the alerting of Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock's existence to the general public has been taken care of, Activision provided new details about the upcoming music title in an official announcement today.

Warriors of Rock will include a newly-designed guitar controller inspired and born from the game's unique art style and specifically made for "shredding." With this controller (or presumably with one of your countless old plastic guitars), you'll play over 90 "guitar-shredding tracks" included on the disc -- which Activision notes is the largest on-disc collection for a music game yet. Apparently, it'll involve shredding.

The Gene Simmons-narrated Quest Mode will take players from the CBGB club in New York City to "the molten lava fields of rock treachery" to defeat "The Beast." In more gameplay-related news, developer Neversoft is adding a Quickplay+ mode, featuring 13 challenges for every song on the disc -- and every DLC song released since Guitar Hero World Tour. Challenges include Band Band Streak, High Score and Power Challenge, in which players choose any two previously unlocked "warrior powers" to attempt "ridiculously high scores."

The first set of announced tracks is posted after the break.

#interview Summer shooter BlackLight: Tango Down features the Hyper Reality Visor - an advanced imaging system that uses augmented reality to deliver battlefield intelligence. Lead game designer Jared Gerritzen tells Kotaku about the real-life inspirations behind the game's tech. More »

Blur is a great proof of concept. Bizarre Creations set out to update Mario Kart's tried and true formula with real cars in a "mature" setting -- and for the most part, the developer succeeded. Racing has a great sense of speed, enemy AI isn't nearly as elastic (even in the harder levels) as in Nintendo's kart racer and the power-up mechanics offer a balanced selection of weapons, making gameplay more tactical than dependent on dumb luck.

However, between a poorly paced campaign, a small handful of available race modes and an uninspired sense of style (from the announcer to the menu layouts), I found myself wanting much more from the single-player campaign. The best part of the game is its plain-Jane racing but, unfortunately, Blur forces you to complete its two lesser modes (Destruction and Checkpoint) in order to get to all of it. Combine that with an exponentially increasing difficulty level in the game's later competitions and you've got Blur: a fun, interesting racing game with terrible structure.

Just another quick announcement to let you all know about our exciting third PlayStation minis title for PSP and PS3, Vibes, which will release on the PlayStation Store on June 8th at the price of $5.49. Vibes is an action-packed rhythm game that includes a lucky 13 music tracks, covering everything from Classical to J-Pop, to Psychobilly, to Punk. With three levels of difficulty your finger will be well and truly wrecked. ;)

The game is squarely aimed at fans of the rhythm-based genre and has a steep learning curve, so if you think you have conquered Guitar Hero then give this a try. Starting off on the Easy difficulty allows the player to get used to the control mechanism — the difficulty then builds and builds, and will push players to the limit on the harder difficulty settings.

One feature we’re particularly proud of is the music-video inspired background sequences during gameplay. These not only look awesome, but they’re also hilarious (if I do say so myself), and feature things such as pulsating ducks, throbbing buildings and flexing sumo wrestlers. If that list isn’t 100% WIN then I don’t know what is — and don’t forget these items and more are all in the same game!

When creating Vibes, our principle aim was to create an addictive gameplay mechanism, accompanied by a fresh art style. We’ve definitely achieved both those things and — for my money — made one of the stand-out PlayStation minis titles. For more details on the game check out the trailer above (which is also available via the PlayStation Store).

For those who need reminding, Vibes is out on June 8th at $5.49. Hope you like it!

#activision Activision reveals the next entry in the Guitar Hero franchise, Warriors of Rock, featuring more than 90 tracks, a Gene Simmons-powered quest mode, and new challenges for every track in the Guitar Hero catalog. Check out the first 35 tracks! More »

Following the success of its other MMO property, Dungeons and Dragons Online: Eberron Unlimited, it's not surprising that Turbine has elected to make the three-year-old MMO Lord of the Rings Online free-to-play sometime this fall. At that time, players will be able to download and explore the game for free, with the option to purchase additional content, including expansions, quest packs, items and "account services" from an online storefront. Players will also have the option to become "VIP" members, which automatically gives them access to these items. Turbine did not specify if VIP membership was a one-time fee or a ongoing subscription cost.

If you're wondering how Lord of the Rings Online will operate under this new pricing structure -- well, Turbine probably is as well. Both parties' curiosity will likely be satisfied by a closed beta, which kick offs June 16.

#pc May 31 seemed like just another Square Enix monthly update to its Final Fantasy XI online game registration server system. It wasn't. More »

#kotakumagu Fangoria, the magazine that has been servicing horror fans the world over for over 30 years, has never had a video game on its cover. Until now. More »

#guitarhero Here, courtesy of music magazine Kerrang, is our first real look at footage from the upcoming Guitar Hero 6. More »

#jonnygreenwood Game developer Level-5 has released a series of popular Professor Layton games through Nintendo onto the Nintendo DS. Level-5, however, is planning its worldwide escape. More »

#art A is for Apple. B is for Bastard. C is for Carrot, and D is for...DualShock 2? More »

#akihabara You might think you are looking at a regular elevator. Technically, you are. It's the stickers, promoting a new adult video game, that give it pizzazz. Would you like to step inside? More »

#humor It's taken them long enough, but the World Warriors of Street Fighter II have finally found their way onto Facebook. And what are they doing? What everyone else does: flirt and play Farmville. More »

#tron That isn't a rhetorical question. Why? More »

#design When veteran developers Rare changed their logo earlier this week, it got me thinking about other studio's brands, and how a good logo can really help define what a developer is all about. More »

#comic As seen on Penny Arcade. More »

#g4 Attack of the Show host Olivia Munn, who recently played a reporter in Iron Man 2, is appearing as a correspondent for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart over the next couple of weeks. More »