All Topics Gaming older than one year ago

#dlc All week long Marvel teased the costumes for the fourth LittleBigPlanet/Marvel DLC package, and says they'll be available on Wednesday. You get Magneto, Storm, Hulk, The Punisher and the Green Goblin. See the gallery of 15 shots inside. More »

Your friendly neighborhood bookstore's shelves will soon be stocked with yet another game-to-prose adaptation -- this time around, it's a completely original story set in the Fable universe, titled The Balverine Order. The book will be penned by Peter David, who has written roughly a billion novels and comic books, one of the most recent of which being the five-part Halo: Helljumper series.

According to Amazon, The Balverine Order is set to ship on October 5. As an added bonus, the book will include a redeemable code which unlocks a heretofore unrevealed in-game weapon in Fable 3. We really hope it's powerful, so when we're playing with our friends, and we're killing stuff with greater efficiency than them, we can say "we guess the pen really is mightier than the sword," and then we'll both share a brief, polite laugh.

#dealtaku You're ghostin' us. I don't care who you are back in the world, you give away our coupons one more time, I'll bleed ya, real quiet. Leave ya here. Got that? More »

#openthread The rumor that Duke Nukem Forever might arrive at long last raises an interesting question. What thrills us more, the game's release, or the thought of it? More »

In the market for a new PS3? Kmart is offering the 250GB model at a $50 discount, bringing the cost of the console down to $300. Now, think about what else that $300 could get you and you'll realize it's a pretty decent deal:

• A 32GB iPhone 4
• A new puppy
• Two tickets to the Justin Bieber concert (nosebleeds)
• A Kinect Xbox 360 bundle

All of those things are fine, don't get us wrong, but you've gotta keep this in mind: none of them will let you play Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. Just saying!

Known for such prized collectibles as its Zero Suit Samus statue, First 4 Figures has turned its attention to the Zelda franchise once more. Twilight Princess, to be exact, and its big bad guy, Zant. 750 of the 21-inch statues are being made, priced at $330. Keep reading for a full-sized photo.

There just isn't enough full motion video in games anymore. Now, thanks to GoG.com, you can snag one the FMV fad's brightest and most controversial stars, Roberta Williams' Phantasmagoria, and its sequel for only $11.18. The offer expires Monday though, so hurry ... the pendulum is swinging.

Who should ex-Friends star Matthew Perry thank for landing his latest job, a role in Fallout: New Vegas? Not his agent. According to senior producer Jason Bergman, Perry's role was cemented thanks to talk show host Ellen DeGeneres. On the April 24, 2009 show, Perry appeared not only to promote 17 Again, but he also gave Ellen an Xbox 360 system with a copy of the game.

"I played this video game so often that I injured my hand so severely that I had to go to a hand doctor and get injections in my hand because I love this video game so much," Perry told Ellen at the time. "The game is called Fallout 3. I'm not affiliated with this game at all, I just love it. But I signed it, so it looks like I created it."

Apparently, that act earned him the good graces of Bethesda and Obsidian, leading to his eventual casting as Rat Pack-esque character Benny. With his name now cemented in the game's credits, he'll able to give away signed copies of New Vegas ... and actually have it mean something.

Square Enix's upcoming shooter, Mindjack, has a pretty nifty gimmick: you can "hack" into people's minds and take control of them! However, this video tutorial reveals that, beyond that one gimmick, you already know how to play this game.

Enter cover. Shoot. Exit cover. Congrats.

You'll forgive us if we hadn't heard of "Norwegian animator, musician, and videographer" Lasse Gjertsen until this morning -- we're just not that cultured, apparently! Last year, he and his friend Trygve Knudsen made a 8-bit-inspired short film titled "Consoul" (no, not that Consoul). But due to YouTube's length constraints at the time it was completed, there was no way for him to release the short on his preferred medium. On July 29, however, YouTube added five minutes to its length limit, making it a full 15.

And just like that -- within two weeks of the new limit -- Gjersten has released Consoul to the public via his YouTube channel, which we've embedded after the break. Hopefully you're sitting down, as you need to be prepared for your mind to be fully blown.

[Thanks, Greatslack]

Pre-ordered copies of Etrian Odyssey 3 already include the 60-page "Forests of Eternity" artbook, but Atlus has added a little more bounty to the game, in the form of a two-sided poster.

We showed you the production photos of the 1/4 Scale “Master Arts” Zant Center Piece the other day, and now you can see some more shots of the final version. Check out more here

There are some wonderful throw-backs to classic coin-op games in this Freddie Wong short film, Time Crisis. While the two heroes are a bit more agile than typical on-rail protagonists, they're also prone to some traditional coin-op curses. "Got a quarter?" Be warned, the film features realistic gun violence and some blood.

Kung-Fu Live, PSN's upcoming PlayStation Eye-powered martial arts beat 'em up, features a multiplayer mode, but it's probably not what you expected. You won't have multiple players flailing around in front of the camera. Instead, one player will be able to fight human-controlled opponents. While the hero will still have to use his physical prowess to progress through the game, his enemies will be able to use standard controls via the DualShock. Kung-Fu Live becomes a very literal battle between traditional and motion controls.

Tracking more than one player via the PlayStation Eye may be a technical limitation, but Virtual Air Guitar's Teemu Mäki-Patola does also admit that allowing more than one human player has ... unintended consequences. "It seems inevitably dangerous to let more than one people on the same camera," he said. "Especially kids forget about the other and easily end up bumping to each other." Kids don't need fancy video game consoles and camera tracking technology to fight the old fashioned way.

iPhone developer Revolutionary Concepts, responsible for the great port of the Data East FMV game Cobra Command, as well as Karate Champ and the original Frogger-like game Banzai Rabbit, announced plans for another refreshed FMV title: Road Blaster (also known as Road Avenger).

Perhaps best known as an early Sega CD title, Road Blaster was an anime-style FMV driving game originally released to arcades in 1985. Like Cobra Command, Revolutionary Concepts has cleaned up the video footage, added a brand new UI, and tilt controls. In addition, it's got enhanced graphics for iPhone 4 and iPad, along with leaderboard and GameCenter support (presumably when GameCenter launches).

Revolutionary Concepts hopes to release Road Blaster next month. For now, check out some iPhone and iPad screens in our gallery.

#screengrab Luckily, it seems they're all being very well behaved. By fmk, as seen on Tiny Cartridge. More »

GamesCom and GDC Europe are set to be even bigger in their sophomore years when both shows kick off next week in Cologne, Germany. After GamesCom's successful first year, which had about a quarter million attendees, the expo will welcome an incremental increase in the number of exhibitors, foreign companies (up 8.3 percent), foreign exhibitors and "country specific pavilions." GamesCom organizers also note that the show expects 200 "world, European and German premieres" and mention having 100 last year -- though most people likely only remember one.

GDC Europe, which is expecting a couple thousand attendees, will start next Monday, leading into GamesCom. Speakers include representatives from BioWare, Remedy, Crytek, Quantic Dream and Sony Europe (among many others). Joystiq will be at both shows and we'll be sure to deliver the latest info, while hyped up on our nutritional Nutella-covered pretzel breakfast.

#disney From Deus Ex to Mickey Mouse to...Duck Tales? It may seem an unlikely career path, but it's the dream for Deus Ex creator Warren Spector. More »

#crysis Crysis 2 is no longer due in the vague window of Jan-Mar 2011, publishers EA having narrowed that down to two days in March. More »

Bethesda engine can't handle ladders.

Techland's insane ATV game Nail'd might defy reality in many ways, chaining together ridiculous stunts that nobody should ever do, on courses that rely on incredible, unlikely circumstances -- but even something with as little regard for the real world as this must adhere to linear time. To that end, publisher Deep Silver has announced a release date for the game: October 19 in North America, and October 22 in Europe.

Past the break, you'll find a new trailer, absolutely loaded with both guitar rock and slow-motion absurdity.

The Konami-published DSiWare platformer Reflection, which sends players through two different, mirror-imaged worlds simultaneously (one on each screen), will be released on the North American DSi Shop this Monday, August 16, according to a tweet from developer Intrinsic Games.

#screengrab The Midway logo goes to its final resting place as employees pack up, clean house and make the move to their new home at Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. As seen on Twitter. R.I.P. More »

The in-app music store for Activision's pint-sized iPhone port of Guitar Hero has been updated with three new $1.99 song packs. The first includes one tune each from Band of Horses, Coldplay and Nada Surf, while the second and third each feature three tracks from KISS and Motörhead, respectively.

Zenimax Media not licensing out id Tech 5.

For better or for worse, Neversoft has decided to go a very different direction with the Guitar Hero franchise from its competitor, Rock Band. In an interview with Develop, project director Brian Bright explained that the the stark difference between the two games is intentional. "Rather than go head-to-head with our own games and our competitors, we decided we wanted to make something different."

Being tasked with developing three games in the Hero franchise simultaneously -- Band Hero, Guitar Hero Metallica and Guitar Hero 5 -- was a drain on the team's creativity, Bright admits. "We did make quite a few games last year ... But the release of all those games split the marketing team's focus, it split our studio's focus." The upcoming Warriors of Rock, however, represents a newfound yearning to go back to the franchise's origins, and deliver a game for "the core audience," the kind of gamer that loves guitar music, and has already mastered the plastic guitar. "The core has got to a pretty high level, so we really want to up the challenge." Developing a game that even franchise stalwarts would find difficult would set the game apart from the upcoming Rock Band 3.

It's somewhat fitting that Neversoft is paying homage to the franchise's origins, considering Warriors of Rock is supposedly the last Neversoft-developed Guitar Hero game. But will it be the end of the franchise? No way. "I think it's a given that there will be a Guitar Hero game every year," Bright said, perhaps relieved that his studio won't be tasked with that burden. Who knows? We may even learn more about the team's new shooter before Guitar Hero 7 finds its way to store shelves.

There's a LittleBigPlanet 2 beta on the wayhttp://www.lbpcentral.com/forums/content.php?211-LBP2-Beta-Coming-soon! for a select group of lucky PS3 owners, but beyond that details are scarce. Keep an eye peeled! More »

A DJ's life isn't all about mixing phat beats and ill rhymes, you know. As the DJ Hero 2 trailer below shows, they've got other things to worry about, too. Things like branding, legacy, and running the hottest dance club within the Ibizan city limits. The kind of concerns we all share.