All Topics Gaming older than one year ago

Hey Rockstar, we'd kill for some of these!

If you thought Fat Princess couldn't pack on any more pounds, think again, because the promised "Fat Roles " DLC is now available for download on the Euro PSN. On top of that, the celebration of Sonic's 19th birthday continues and -- honestly, guys, there's so much this week, it'd probably be best if you just cruised past the break and saw the full list for yourself.

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

#column Are games our escapist fantasies, or our outlets for dealing with reality? Either way, why is our most common gameplay choice the pursuit of war? More »

Shank your friends with a broken beer bottle.

#screengrab Nintendo's Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies celebrity sneak-peek event gets a lil' crunk, thanks to Lil Jon and DJ Slade. Slimes beware! [Photo courtesy of Nintendo of America] More »

Man your cockpit like never before.

Batman: The Brave and The Bold - much of the team from A Boy and His Blob is involved in this project - the same Art Director, some animators are returning - gameplay is always co-op - in single-player, the AI takes control of the second character - friend can join in at any time without pausing the game - [...]

Direct2Drive has the PC version of Dragon Age: Origins for $20 today. For those seeking an even epic-ier quest, one could go spelunking for coins between the sofa cushions to pick up the "Digital Deluxe" version for $5 more. Even by our most conservative estimates, that price makes the Joystiq best of 2009 epic something around the cost of a pack of gum per hour -- although we don't recommend actually chewing a pack of gum per hour. You'll get a jaw like an ogre.

#halfgoatie We are almost exactly halfway through the year twenty-ten, and lest we forget, there have been quite a few spectacular games to buy and play already. One could already make a substantial list of the best games of the year. More »

New title promises a new start for the series following White Knight 2.

Could classics like Nights and Burning Rangers be on the way?

Could classics like Nights and Burning Rangers be on the way?

We’ve already talked about the speculated price point for 3DS software through Amazon listings, but now let’s talk about 3DS release date and price points, shall we? Retailer Bart Smit has the 3DS listed for the equivalent of $208 U.S. dollars. I could see that as a plausible price, and don’t think it’s all that [...]

Could classics like Nights and Burning Rangers be on the way?

PC version hitting this September. PS3 release this March.

#clips Comedian, voice actor, and television producer Seth Green isn't just the star of Nintendo's Dragon Quest IX commercial, he's also a client, or at least well-coached on the game's merits, as demonstrated in this video clip. More »

#crime Justifying the harsh handling of protesters at the G-20 summit this weekend, Toronto police invited journalists to a viewing of dangerous confiscated weapons, including foam swords, sock-headed arrows, and a suit of scale mail. Did someone call forth a flame bolt? More »

With Hothead Games having ceased work on Penny Arcade Adventures Episode 3 (and finishing up DeathSpank), it's ready to pursue a brand new project: Swarm, a game which stars some seemingly dull-witted blue things. The introductory trailer (which you can find beyond the break) gives us a Lemmings vibe, with just a touch of sadism.

Players must take control of 50 Swarmites, navigating them through "gauntlets of death and destruction," all in the search of precious DNA. You'll also need to ensure that at least one Swarmite survives in order to make use of that collected life goo. Look for Swarm in 2011, when it'll be available "across multiple platforms."

New PSP title promises quests, four player ad-hoc play, and customizable characters.

At some point, even die-hard Yakuza fans are going to grow weary of the series, and Sega is doing its best to determine exactly when that will happen. The latest Famitsu brings word from Toshihiro Nagoshi that, as development on Black Leopard: New Yakuza Chapter for PSP continues, the team is simultaneously working on another Yakuza game for PS3. This will be the seventh game in the series.

Even among those suffering from Yakuza fatigue, Nagoshi's announcement that this game would feature the eyepatch-clad Goro Majima as a playable character is likely to ignite some frothing demand. Majima, the "Madman of the Shimano Family" is notable mostly for being kind of crazy, and obsessed with fighting Kazuma Kiryu. Inhabiting his life will be pretty different from following the comparatively virtuous Kazuma.

"While I can't give a release time frame yet," Nagoshi said, "we're working to deliver it at a time Yakuza series fans will want." Whether he means the fans clamoring for an uninterrupted supply of Yakuza, or regular sensible people who think there should be some time between sequels, is unknown.

#clips Be prepared, it's not pretty. More »

#nasa The '90s may've given us Blink 182 and stonewashed denim, but I very much doubt NASA will be reviving 1993's virtual reality system alongside those other comebacks, seen here modeled on a (presumably) taken-advantage-of intern. More »

Calling all Warheads! Get ready for another head-to-head tournament this July 4th weekend. This time around try your skillz on the expansion pack map “Fallen Star” and in the free update mode “Collection”! (see rules below). Ten Grand Prizes will be chosen between SCEE and SCEA. These top Warheads will receive a three month subscription voucher to the new PlayStation Plus* and a Warhawk Champion’s Blade!

*Voucher can be used to extend your current service or to create a new one.

This tournament is short, so be ready to go!

And for those of you that don’t already have Fallen Star, we’ve dropped the price 75%! From June 22nd to July 6th you can pick up this explosive expansion pack for $1.99.

*You must have the full game Warhawk to play Fallen Star.

When: 5:00am Pacific, July 1 to 5:00am Pacific, July 5
Where: Warhawk Fallen Star: Collection Tourny servers (look for the blue Tourny-FallenStar # servers)
Modes: 32-player Fallen Star, Collection Mode, Team Game only
What You Need To Win: Be a part of your match’s “Winning Team” and you will get one point. You get 0 points for losses and ties.
Where To Find Your Rank: Just like last time, your stats will be posted on www.warhawk.com in the Leaderboard area. Look for the “Tourny” tab.
What You’ll Win: The top 10 players from North America and Europe will all win the fabled “Champion’s Blade.” Also, they’ll win a three-month subscription to the new PlayStation Plus subscription service.

“Collection” Rules
This gameplay mode is like multi-flag CTF. There are four energy cores scattered around the map, generally positioned in the center or between the two teams’ main bases. Each team has a Reactor where Energy Cores are taken to score points.

In the screen shot above you can see two Energy Cores positioned on a Eucadian bridge. Bringing these Cores back to your team’s reactor will score points for your team…and you can carry more than one Core at a time.

The scoring system is progressive, so if you score just one Core, your team gets just one point. Two Cores will score three points. Three Cores are good for six points…and if you manage to work as a team and bring all four Cores back to the Reactor at once, then your team scores a whopping 10 points!

As you can see in the screenshot below, the Cores are displayed on your character and the more you are carrying, the more you see whirling and orbiting around you. You’ll also see them on the mini-map as pulsing energy symbols. The score is displayed in the upper right corner as usual, but there is a new display there for Collection mode. It’s the little yellow number that shows you how many Cores your team currently is currently carrying. This ends up being critical for knowing where your focus should be — offense or defense.

…and you can press the Triangle button to throw the Cores you are carrying! Passing Cores among your team is “super-effective.”

#blizzard With many major massively multiplayer online role-playing games adapting the free-to-play model, could Blizzard's immensely profitable World of Warcraft one day make the switch? Lead designer Tom Chilton says that one day the game's subscription model "may not make sense." More »

If you're starting to lose count, that's... wait, we lost count too.

We're gonna need a bigger boat. Developer Teyon (responsible for games like 101 Minigolf World, Hubert the Teddy Bear Winter Games, and ... Heavy Fire: Special Operations) wants to introduce you to a hundred and one special little friends: 101 Shark Pets. (What is it with Teyon and groups of 101?)

"Choose from over 101 baby sharks or simply adopt them all!" the game's website reads. In the most terrifying of virtual game pets, you are given responsibility for feeding, training, and even cleaning as many baby sharks as you can handle. You can enter your sharks in pageants, play minigames with them (like having them chase your boat!), and mix up special recipes of chum, using hundreds of different ingredients, to satisfy each shark's specific cravings. Okay, we made that last one up.

101 Shark Pets will circle the DSi Shop on July 5 (circle that on your calendar).

#dlc Aliens Vs. Predator fans who weathered the storm of mediocre review scores are being rewarded with a second helping of downloadable multiplayer maps next month in the Bughunt Map Pack, complete with environmental hazards and weather effects. More »