All Topics Gaming older than one year ago

Retailers on high alert, DLC uncovered for August 31.

#gamescom2010 During the EA press conference at GamesCom in Cologne, Germany, BioWare's Dr. Ray revealed that the second game in the Mass Effect series would hit the PlayStation 3 in January. More »

Hi everyone – as a reminder, PlayStation Plus publishes on a bi-weekly schedule (every other week). This is the last week to download some of the free games that are currently available because they will be replaced with new games next Tuesday. So make sure to download Critter Crunch, Syphon Filter or Kahoots, if you haven’t already. And stay tuned for next week’s publish of PlayStation Plus. Here’s a peek of what’s on offer for next week:

PlayStation Plus Highlights for 8/24:

Free Games
Mushroom Wars – FREE
2Xtreme – PS One – FREE
Vempires – mini – FREE

Early Access Game Demo
TerRover

Game Discounts
Soldner-X2: Final Prototype + Soldner-X: Himmelstrurmer Bundle (PlayStation Plus price $10.79, original price $17.99)
Soldner- X2 : Final Prototype (PlayStation Plus price $9.09, original price $12.99)

Last Chance, Get Them While You Can – Coming down next Tuesday (8/24):

Free Games
Critter Crunch (original price $6.99)
Syphon Filter – PS One (original price $5.99)
Kahoots – mini (original price $4.49)

Discounted Games
PixelJunk Racer 2nd Lap (20% Off)
Echochrome (50% off)

Discounted DLC
Resistance 2 Skin Bundle (50% off)

Themes (Free to PlayStation Plus subscribers)
Bloody Escape

Avatars (Free to PlayStation Plus subscribers)
MAG Avatars – SVER, Raven, and Valor
LittleBigPlanet – Sack Boy
Heavy Rain Swan Avatar

Dragon Age 2 has been given a March 8 release date for the US and March 11 in Europe at this morning's EA press conference at GamesCom. That's one week late, according to the liner provided with Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening!

Those Darkspawn don't stand a chance.

Tearing up Seacrest County in what could be the best NFS yet.

BioWare's medieval RPG returns next spring.

"I'm Commander Shepard, and this is my favorite announcement from Gamescom."

The wait is over.

Get ready to wave your wand.

EA just announced at its GamesCom 2010 conference that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 for Xbox 360 will magically lift butts off of couches, with some Kinect support. EA didn't put it exactly the same way, of course. The game features an on-rails mode in which players gesture to cast spells, moving automatically from location to location, and competing to achieve the highest score.

This would explain why Walmart offered Deathly Hallows: Part 1 in pre-order Kinect bundles. The game has, however, since been removed from the promotion.

We're live at EA's Gamescom press conference in Cologne, Germany and things are just getting underway. We're going to be following along at home on EA's livestream here, and giving you our impressions live from the show. Find it all after the break.

#gamescom2010 Kotaku is in Germany and so is Electronic Arts. What will EA show us? New games? We will liveblog all about it. More »

The latest edition of PULSE, presented by the PlayStation Network, hits PlayStation Store later today in full HD and for your PSP system. You can also catch it right here, right now:

This edition features Scott Pilgrim, Shank, ‘Marvel-ous LittleBigPlanet’ add-ons, along with the Top 10 Avatars available. There’s also the new Top Gun game which made the PULSE crew want to rent this 80′s action classic (which by the way is currently available for rental or purchase on the video side of PlayStation Store.)

Thanks for downloading and watching.

#review Partners in crime, Kane and Lynch, meet in Shanghai for one more score. An arms deal goes—how else?—horribly wrong, resulting in death, double-dealings and grisly torture. Kane & Lynch 2 made me sick, perhaps my favorite part. More »

#comics Famed games developer Warren Spector (Deus Ex), has warned the video game industry to tread very carefully, lest it end up as niche and marginalised as he thinks comic books are. More »

Bungie fans -- and more specifically, Halo fans -- are feverish in their dedication. This tenacity is exemplified by the recent discovery of a hidden live-action short for the studio's forthcoming game, Halo: Reach. Bungie forum user "Canuckian" discovered the short (embedded after the break) by poring over the code from the "rememberreach" ARG, where a handful of Windows Media video file names were found. After replacing the first ARG video's URL with the names of the WMV files found in the code, only one video worked: "Patrol."

In the clip, a trio of UNSC troops engage in brief, hurried discussion about the civilian rebellion on Reach and Noble Team's efforts to calm the "insurgents." The other videos -- "balloon," "hybrid long," "hybrid short," "new life," and "spaceport" -- aren't functional as of right now, but presumably will go live as we draw closer to the Halo: Reach launch.

[Thanks, Zeridian]

Get your battle on with these new images.

Nintendo sent out one of its seasonal mega-press releases, announcing pretty much everything at once. Its whole fall Wii lineup now has solid release dates, with newly dated games including:

• Kirby's Epic Yarn: October 17
• Wii Party: October 3
• PokePark Wii: November 1
• FlingSmash: November 7
• Donkey Kong Country Returns: November 21

On DS, Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem has been given a November 14 date. But Nintendo didn't stop there with the announcements: we now know we can expect Super Meat Boy for WiiWare and Shantae: Risky's Revenge for DSiWare this holiday season (which was previously announced, but it's good to know that game is still on track). Also ... Bit. Trip Fate this fall! That's right, not content with merely giving release dates to games we knew about, Nintendo went ahead and announced someone else's unannounced game. And that's why we love these press releases.

The classic RTS evolves into cyberspace.

The return of flight simulation to the PC.

I’m not in Cologne, Germany, for gamescom. You’re not either. But that’s OK; James Gallagher from PlayStation Blog Europe is – and he’s liveblogging today’s PlayStation press conference for all of us.

The event gets underway at 9am Pacific/noon Eastern/6pm CET.

SCEE gamescom Press Conference Live Blog

Once the press conference is over, the fun begins – make sure to refresh the Blog at approximately 11:30am Pacific to see some of the trailers James was just describing to you.

Better than a stick, but not quite a wand.

Images from one of the THQ drawing tablet games.

Three weeks at the top for the Pixar tie-in.

Out of Jack Handey's "Deep Thoughts," one of my favorites goes something like this: "If God dwells inside us like some people say, I sure hope He likes enchiladas, because that's what He's getting." It's a quote that was oddly present in my mind during my time with Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days.

If you end up with this game in your disc drive, you'd better be ready to hide behind cover and shoot your way from one end of the game to the other over and over again, because that's what you're going to get. If that doesn't sound so bad, I should warn you that this isn't necessarily a great enchilada. ... Err, cover-based shooter. Sorry.

See the new drawing game in action.

A new drawing tablet peripheral with lots of games on the way.

More on the Kinect rhythm game that dominates the dance floor.

#itsadate Nintendo of America has revealed a slew of release dates for this month and the coming months. Let's dive in. More »