All Topics Gaming older than one year ago

Impressions of Ubisoft's take on the sports collection for Kinect.

Sick new images to check out.

Even if we never play Okamiden, it is still going to cute us to death. Capcom revealed the next item in its series of fan-requested merchandise, the Okamiden Mofu Mofu ("Fluffy") Book Cover. Guys, it has a tail. It has a tail.

#clips Doom was released in 1993, so most guns in the game that didn't have the word *crag*ing in the middle of them are looking a little antiquated by now. More »

It looks like the official website for GoldenEye has been updated with some new content. The main focus is some sort of mini-game that should unlock new content if you manage to solve its mystery. I’m not quite sure what to do just yet, but I’ve only been looking at it for a [...]

#blizzard Blizzard hasn't been very talkative at this week's Gamescom show, preferring to hold all of their big news for October's BlizzCon convention. More »

Move over exercise compilations and virtual pets: it's time to bloody some faces.

European PS3 owners can look forward to playing No More Heroes in HD, with Move controls, courtesy of Konami. Those of us in North America, so far, can only look forward to importing No More Heroes: Heroes' Paradise, as the publisher hasn't made any announcements regarding the title.

The screens released by Konami today look about how you would expect: No More Heroes, in HD, with little (non-pixelated!) Move controller icons in the UI where Wiimote simulacra once stood. However, it seems that Konami (or developer feelplus) took the initiative to put even more controller icons on screen than were in the Wii original, as seen above. In the original game that was just an arrow -- and we all figured out what it meant.

The OFLC rating is the first step in release to other territories.

#gamescom2010 Namco Bandai's Knights Contract is an action adventure game that combines bloody melee combat with magical spells. It's also a game that shares a major similarity to a handful of other games on the verge of release. More »

Gravity effects abound in Namco Bandai's upcoming shooter.

DanceMasters, Konami's Kinect dancing game, has a more Konami-like name for its European release: Dance Evolution. And very DDR-like music, if the trailer is any indication. We hope, for everyone's sake, that this works out better than the last time Konami tried to compete with a Harmonix game.

- due to release on October 28th in Japan - CyberConnect2’s 15th anniversary title - three years of development - Wi-Fi quest download system. - download new quests via Wi-Fi Connection - quests will provide a better look at characters’ pasts and their other sides - early on in the game, Red gets a Dahak Mk2 mech - explore dungeons and fight [...]

Gravity effects abound in Namco Bandai's upcoming shooter.

#gamescom2010 New video game convention = new trailers of two of the most promising upcoming DS games, 2010's Ghost Trick and 2011's Okamiden, both from Capcom. More »

What happens when Blanka fights Armor King? We may soon find out.

Okamiden on the DS manages to capture the painterly art style of the PlayStaton 2's (and then the Wii's) beloved Okami while also adding a heavy dollop of adorableness to the mix. This really comes through in some of the animations, such as tiny wolf god Chibiterasu's darling backflip attack, or the way he flails his paws in mid-air, Saturday-morning-cartoon style, before he falls from a collapsing bridge. Okami's trademark magical paintbrush is back in the DS game, of course, and the short Gamescom demo showed it being used to manipulate the world in some of the same ways as the original game -- slashing rocks and obstacles in half, circling trees to make them bloom, and building bridges across gaps. Using the stylus to do all these things feels a bit more natural than awkwardly painting with the Wii remote, but was essentially similar.

#xbla Creepy indie platformer Limbo is one of the surprise hits of 2010, not just with critics, but with the game-buying public, too. More »

So you probably think you're pretty good at first-person shooters, right? Well, we're pretty sure you're not as good as the person playing Crysis 2 multiplayer in the video past the break.

#science There are six men currently living in cramped isolation in Moscow, enjoying and suffering 520 days of isolation as the Russian Space Federation simulates the loneliness of a manned flight to Mars. Good thing these guys have a Wii. More »

Age of Empires Online may be a freemium title, but Microsoft Game Studios General Manager Dave Luehmann tells us "it's not a nickel and dimey microtransaction thing." During an interview at Gamescom today, the executive expressed that the studio doesn't want it to feel like some other freemium titles where "what you don't want to do in the game is what you pay for," or "that you pay to skip the parts you don't like." Luehmann explained, "I don't like to pay for things I don't like to do, that seems kind of backwards. So how about we produce things that people actually want?"

Robot Entertainment Designer Jerome K. Jones, who is working on the game chimed in, "So it would be like paying for an expansion pack. ... You won't buy one thing at a time. You might buy an entire civ or another region with a bunch of quests in it."

The game is currently in Beta and will officially launch in the first half of 2011. Both Robot and Microsoft are trying to figure out how much to eventually charge for content. The duo told us the game currently has over 25 hours of free stuff available, which kind of stops making the game sound "freemium" and makes it sound more, um, free?

The boys break down every PlayStation news story out of Germany and shove it into your ears.

The original LittleBigPlanet was billed as a platform for platformers -- but what about those gamers whose favorite entries into that particular genre include Kazooies, Ratchets and Bandicoots? Media Molecule co-founder Alex Evans recently revealed to Joystiq at Gamescom that an early build of the original LittleBigPlanet allowed for that kind of 3D gameplay, explaining, "LBP 1 had free depth and completely moving cameras, and the gameplay engine wasn't layered fundamentally."

Evans added that while the developer "used to make levels that could travel into the screen," this feature was ultimately removed from the game. "It's really unconstrained in 3D. It's really hard -- I mean creatively unconstrained, it's really difficult to have something to push off," Evans explained. "We found our level designers wasted tons of time in 3D land, so we iteratively reduced it, first of all we reduced the scope, then we added the layers, and with each restriction we did, it improved the quality."

According to Evans, the lack of 3D platforming wasn't due to a technical snafu, but rather, "entirely a game design decision." He added, "so when we go 3D, and I'm assuming at some point we will go 3D, the challenge we will have, and any other user-generated content company -- you know, I want to be one-upped, I'd love to see a fully-3D creation game. I'm not saying it's impossible, I'm saying we haven't cracked it yet." Keep an eye out for our full interview with Evans in the coming days.

Ubisoft's 2011 downloadable release puts the power of a god in your controller.

#sex There are video games that track the calories you burn while playing them. There are games that count the number of virtual miles you race in them. Mafia II tallies how long you "read" its in-game Playboy centerfolds. More »

Today, SCEA and Nihilistic Software are excited to announce additional details about Heroes on the Move (working title) exclusively for the PlayStation Move, which is playable to the public for the first time this week at gamescom in Germany. Here’s our new trailer to celebrate the event.

When SCEA and Nihilistic started development on Heroes on the Move we began with the question “what would happen if Ratchet, Clank, Sly, and Jak all showed up in the same game?” We’ve been working with the SCEA producers who helped bring you the original franchises to answer that question, and we’re happy to show you some of what we’ve been working on.

For the first time ever, Ratchet, Clank, Sly Cooper, Bentley, Jak, and Daxter, have been assembled together into a single game where they’ll have their unique skills tested in a diabolical series of competitive challenges. Before each challenge you’ll be able to choose which hero to play, and the locations of the challenges will span across areas from all of the heroes’ home planets – Metropolis, Paris, and Haven City – except this time, the heroes can explore each other’s environments. Expect to see each memorable location upgraded to PlayStation 3 high-definition graphic quality.

That gives you a little more high level detail about what to expect from the game, but what exactly are we showing at gamescom? On the show floor we’re proud to be demoing two rockin’ challenges to give you a taste of the game.

“City of Fights” gives you a chance to try Sly against an onslaught of enemies from each of the three universes. Sly must find and return energy orbs hidden in the nooks and crannies of Paris. With the PlayStation Move you’ll swing Sly’s cane directly smacking enemies over the head with a satisfying crack!

“Fistful of Crystals” Clank blasts his way through Haven City with the Combustor. When using the PlayStation Move controller, aiming and firing the gun feels natural and satisfying. You’ve got to watch your heat gauge though, firing too much too quickly will temporarily overheat your gun. What’s really cool is that the sphere at the tip of the PlayStation Move controller changes colors the hotter the weapon gets, so you’ll always know when to let it cool down a bit. Expect to see more characters, enemies, and weapons inspired from the series!

All of us at Nihilistic have fond memories of playing as these heroes – in some cases, playing these games is what brought us into game development. It has been a pleasure working with the minds at SCEA to bring them to the PlayStation Move for the first time. We hope this blog post gave you a hint at what playing Heroes on the Move will be like.

Look for more information on the PlayStation.Blog in the coming months!