All Topics Gaming older than one year ago

We kick around the latest (and most promising) rumor on the PSP phone.

Poor PSP, we feel sorry for you.

Poor PSP, we feel sorry for you.

#lookatthis*crag*inghoopster Preordering NBA 2K11 from GameStop will land your Xbox Live or PlayStation Home avatar a Michael Jordan No. 23 Bulls jersey for free. I hear if you pre-order Rock Band: Lollapalooza you get a Gary Trent Miami Heat model instead. More »

Poor PSP, we feel sorry for you.

Poor PSP, we feel sorry for you.

Grow up already.

#valve Now that every Team Fortress 2 class has received his (or her) class updates, where does developer Valve go from here? Onward and upward, with at least one new substantial update, due soon(ish). More »

Warhammer meets Gears of War in Relic's new third-person shooter.

#review In Bryan Lee O'Malley's Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, the hero has to fight his girlfriend's seven evil ex-boyfriends. In Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game, Scott and his friends have to fight The World. More »

With the announcement of BioShock Infinite, you may be asking yourself, "Well, why did you bow out of doing Bioshock 2, Irrational Games, only to come back to the BioShock universe?" According to comments from IG head honcho Ken Levine during our recent interview, he "felt like we said what we wanted to say about Rapture." He went on to say, "that's one of the reasons BioShock 2 wasn't the right project for us and, as we agreed with the company, we didn't have the timeframe or the scale to make the product of the ambition we had."

The sequel, which was developed mainly at 2K Marin and launched earlier this year, was also brought up by Eurogamer during its interview with Levine, though it was more concerned with his thoughts on how the sequel came out. "I think it's a very talented team," he said of developer 2K Marin, "and I think it fulfilled the mission of completing the story of Rapture."

Here's what you bought last month.

Just don't expect a happy ending.

Here's what you bought last month.

Here's what you bought last month.

Not enough new to justify the 2.

Microsoft rolls in the dough as the top console dogs of the summer.

Microsoft rolls in the dough as the top console dogs of the summer.

We dissect the first trailer and wonder what happens to the unwanted babies in a city above the clouds.

#thq The Warhammer 40,000 universe's descriptive tagline—"In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war"—does not sound like a cheery fantasy many of us would like to find ourselves in. More »

Well, every id and Bethesda game available on Steam, anyway. The QuakeCon 2010 Pack contains enough games to choke a Cacodemon, including titles from the Quake, Doom, Heretic and Elder Scrolls series, Fallout 3 and more. Oh, and also Rogue Warrior. But hey, you still get 27 games for only $70, a savings of over $230.

In related news, the prices of several id mobile games have been slashed as well. Doom Classic and Doom Resurrection have both dropped to a wallet-pleasing $1.99, while Doom 2 RPG and Wolfenstein 3D Classic Platinum have both been knocked down to $0.99. Snag 'em from the App Store quick, because the sale ends August 15.

Microsoft rolls in the dough as the top console dogs of the summer.

#screens Apparently the recession has not hit Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit's Seacrest County. Or the sheriff and the county commissioners are gonna face a recall election for giving the deputies Dodge Vipers instead of the good old honey-brown Crown Vic. More »

Naked women and digital fish.

Even at this early point in the game's production, it's probably already clichéd to refer to Relic Entertainment's Warhammer 40,0000: Space Marine as "Gears of Warhammer," but man is it an apt description. Despite its innovative RTS roots (working on the acclaimed Homeworld and Dawn of War series), Relic is diving headfirst into the third-person shooter genre, and all of the conventions are here: Gruff-voiced space marines (literally), big shoulder armor, big guns, huge explosions and production values, and there's even a gosh-darn exploding train.

I got to see the game in action for the first time this week at THQ's headquarters in Agoura, California, and while the influences from other shooters are very clear, Relic producer Raphael Van Lierop wants you to know that Space Marine is Relic's big opportunity to step outside the genre they've become known for. "It's about putting our foot down and making a statement," he said. "And saying we're not just really great developers of RTS games, we're great developers of entertainment."

The Event
This wasn't a normal video game press event. First, and perhaps most obviously, the security was thick. While an allegedly corrupt politician celebrated his birthday upstairs - an endless procession of well-dressed upper crusters made their way into the historic Plaza Hotel while protesters held court outside - another high-profile event was being held on the second floor. And while there was no police presence like outside, the black-pants, black v-neck crew that Irrational Games brought with them had things on lockdown. "Does that computer have a camera on it?" one of them asked me. "You'll need to check it." I went back into the hallway and got back in line. The same line I already stood in to check my cellphone. Security was thick.

But that's been the Boston-area developer's modus operandi since work began on its new title nearly three years ago. It's exceedingly rare in our industry to have a high-profile developer like Irrational keep something so completely under wraps for so long. And now, a room full of gaming press were assembled to see what Ken Levine and Co. have been working on. With an embargo less than 24 hours away and the promise that no outlet would be getting an early exclusive, Irrational wasn't about to let up on security now. After an introduction by a PR representative, again pleading with us to keep things quiet until today, Irrational Games' founder Ken Levine took the stage. "It's a long way to come for a trailer, a demo, and a little conversation," he admitted. "We also appreciate the patience you've had with us. It's been three years and we've said nothing about what we're doing," but it was finally time to see what was beneath the curtain. Cue the trailer.

The only video game that gives you points for talking about knocking someone up.

Compared to last year, July's NPD numbers are fairly static, with overall video game industry sales down just 1% from $850.6m to $846.5m. While software sales were down a sizable 8% with newcomer NCAA Football 11 bringing in the top two spots for a combined 667K units sold, hardware sales were up a hefty 12%, mostly on the back of the newly redesigned (and, ostensibly, fixed!) Xbox 360 S. Looks like there was "unprecedented demand," like Microsoft said.

Most notably, that July sales surge resulted in a minor 2% drop in Xbox sales while every other console suffered double digit drops. This, as you can see in our lineup below, has earned the Xbox 360 the rare opportunity to best the Nintendo DS as the best-selling piece of video game hardware last month. To put things in perspective, NPD analyst Anita Frazier notes, "It's the first time since September '07 (Halo 3 launch) that the 360 was the top-selling hardware platform."

While the list of software sales only charts console and portable SKUs, there is one other game that deserves to be mentioned: StarCraft 2. Despite just five days on the market in July, the much-anticipated RTS sold an impressive 721K units at retail in July. Of course when you factor in digital and global sales, it sold a lot more than that.

• 360: 444K, down 9K (-2%)
• DS: 398K, down 113K (-22%)
• Wii: 254K, down 169K (-40%)
• PS3: 215K, down 90K (-30%)
• PSP: 84K, down 37K (-31%)

#pennyarcade Followers of Penny Arcade's foray into game development may never see the last two chapters of their Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness come to video game form. But the series will continue, if only in text. More »

#ruhroh A Cincinnati-area father took bad parenting to a new depth this past weekend by swiping his 9-year-old son's console and games and trading them all in for cash. What for exactly wasn't said, but the guy has a drug problem. More »