You've seen quite a bit of Worms: Reloaded lately, but not any single player -- 'til now. We've got footage showcasing the many isolationist modes, but the best part of this trailer are the groovy, afro-sporting soft-bodied invertebrates causing chaos. Boogie on past the break to see what we mean.
#crime
Last August, a 29-year-old factory worker was arrested for setting his house on fire. The cause? An altercation with his mother over Gundam figurines. More »
Best Buy is offering a pretty sweet incentive to do your game shopping on its online store. The retailer will reward you with a $25 gift card when you purchase two games or accessories from its site. There's no end date listed for the promotion, but there is a list you'll have to choose your games or gear from. Don't worry about having to pick from a crop of stinkers though -- it contains 694 items, including all the big upcoming releases.
Keep in mind that this deal is only available through BestBuy.com and that, as the fine print says, the gift card will ship separately. (Hopefully that isn't retail-speak for "three months later.")
#kazunoriyamauchi
Officials from the Italian city of Siena are ticked that the city's Piazza del Campo is a track in Gran Turismo 5. There have been legal threats with Siena saying it'll seize the game. More »
Speaking with the New York Times about its web-based video content portal Crackle.com (it's not a TV channel, folks), Sony execs ambiguously noted that "an expansion is in the works" for the service on PlayStation Network. Currently, Crackle content is available through PSN in the "Featured Collections" video section, offering some free and some paid programming (as seen above).
Through its web portal, Crackle avails a sizeable piece of Sony Pictures' film collection as well (read: over 200), though, currently, these films are only offered on PSN behind a pay gate. In the future -- with any luck, at least -- we might find ourselves perusing that same, streamable selection of films at no charge from the comfort of our living room couch. Or we might just see more content in general from Crackle making its way to PSN in a similar, partially paid structure. Yeah, we're betting on the latter too.
#crime
Late last week, two men from New York got into a heated argument while playing a PS3 game online. Normally, that's where the beef would end, but in this case, it was only the beginning of hostilities. More »
#yakuza
Sega's Yakuza series began in 2005 when the first game was released in Japan on the PlayStation 2. A sequel followed the following year, and to date there have been five games. More »
We supposed that, when dealing with an announcement as tremendously dull as the fact that protection plans for PlayStation 3 can now be purchased via the PSN Store, you have to appreciate even the smallest sparkle. In this case, it's that PlayStation Plus subscribers can purchase a two-year extended console warranty for what the unwashed masses must spend for only oneyear.
Yes, your dues for being a part of the PlayStation Plus service entitle you to ... the opportunity to pay for another PlayStation service -- at a discount, mind you! We're talking $44.99 for a two-year plan, down from $59.99. Sony is keen to point out that a one-year plan costs non-subscribers $44.99; we're keen to point out that you can't get something for nothing. (And that PS+ updates have already gone bi-weekly.)
You may have already deduced this in light of the complete absence of marketing for the game, but CVG report that long-in-development-hell, ex-Midway game This Is Vegas has finally been put out of its misery. More »
#nintendo
Mario Party games, those part games featuring...Mario, aren't actually made by Nintendo. They are made by Hudson Soft. And it's no wonder they are similar to the newly released Wii Party. More »
Movie adaptations of console games are no surprise. But when was the last time you heard of a movie based on an iPhone game? Angry Birds, a Boom Blox-esque 2D puzzle game, may be the first App Store title to find a Hollywood adaptation, according to a new report in Variety.
At first, the idea may seem ludicrous, but developer Rovio sees opportunity to transform the title into an "evergreen" franchise. With over six million sales, the game has already generated more than $5 million in revenue for the Finnish developer. And with more than five million views of the game's animated trailer on YouTube, it's clear that there is certainly a demand for resentful winged vertebrates.
Rovio has enlisted the help of various "Hollywood advisors," including Peter Levin and Russell Binder, with the hopes of an adaptation with the appearance of claymation (a la Aardman Animation). While a deal is being secured, Rovio's challenge is to bring the game to "every possible place," including consoles like the PS3, PSP and DS. With Hollywood deals taking years to complete, Rovio knows that it will be difficult "to make sure the brand is relevant when the movie comes out."
#business
Having trialled them in select regions for almost two years now, GameStop last night officially opened their "store of the future" in Palo Alto, California. Get a good look, because it'll soon be the past. More »
Big Fish's gorgeous old-school adventure game, Drawn: The Painted Tower, has spawned a sequel. Launching next week at retail and on Big Fish's website, Drawn: Dark Flight promises to offer more of what the first game offered. You can expect tons of hand-drawn art, an orchestral soundtrack and classic adventure game puzzles.
The sequel is promising a greater variety of art styles, with scenes as varied as Disney movies to pop-out books. As expected of the genre, some of the puzzles require some sideways thinking -- but if you get lost, the built-in hint system should be able to help you out. The system is tiered, so that hints can range from a "nudge in the right direction" to blurting out exactly what must be done.
Dark Flight will arrive in both standard and limited editions at both retail and online, with prices ranging from $6.99 to $19.99. (The cheapest way to get it will be online!) Check out the game's intro after the break.
Man, I hope SEGA swoops in on the person that made this! I think they know a thing or two about the Sonic universe. They’re expertise might be of great value in the future!
Well, at least someone working on Weeds has seen fit to pay tribute to MadWorld. Nice to see the game getting some love, as it didn’t get much from retail! Thanks to George for the heads up.
It's been a long time coming, but World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King will finally launch in mainland China on August 31. The release date comes nearly two years after the second expansion pack invaded the free world. China is a tad behind the times in Azeroth, as the next expansion, World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, is planned for release later this year elsewhere.
China's latest World of Warcraft operator NetEase has faced a series of unfortunate events trying to keep the game running (and cash flowing) from the region. Obviously Activision-Blizzard is seeing enough money from China to make all the political hassles worth it.
#clips
War has changed. Where once the stars of Modern Warfare and Metal Gear fought mercenaries and other bad men, today they are taking on...internet memes. More »
The first dev diaries for Brink explained game mechanics , but the latest one has Splash Damage engaging a more amorphous subject: the game's inability to be defined by genres. It may also be about the studio's choice to make XP persistent between single and multiplayer. Maybe.
Following the release of the first two episodes of the super successful (and super free) Doctor Who: The Adventure Games series, BBC Worldwide has announced two more interactive iterations of the franchise. The migrant Time Lord and his companion, Amy Pond, will appear in Doctor Who: Evacuation Earth on the Nintendo DS, and Doctor Who: Return to Earth on Wii. We're guessing the latter comes after the former, as people tend to Return to things they've Evacuated.
The two games will be developed by British studio Asylum Entertainment, which specializes in licensed games for consoles and web browsers. No word yet on whether they'll resemble Sumo Digital's free-to-play Adventure Games series, or whether they'll fall into another genre entirely. Perhaps a TARDIS kart racer, or a very, very, very non-canonical FPS?
#capcom
There were some that perceived Capcom's Resident Evil 5 to be a racist game. Not in intent, perhaps, but certainly in its imagery and execution. Well, Capcom have certainly learned their lesson! More »
Odds are that if you want it, you've already got the Red Dead Redemption soundtrack, given that it was included both with the Limited Edition of the game, and available on sale over at Amazon MP3. But just in case you prefer physical liner notes with your music, Rockstar now has the original soundtrack CD available in its online store, featuring all the tunes from the hugely popular virtual Wild West title.
The CD comes with almost twenty tracks of Red Dead music, along with a case full of original art and recording information, all for $9.99. But if you want the ultimate version of the soundtrack, you better hold your horses -- Rockstar says a "very limited red-vinyl LP release" is coming out next month. Real cowboys, we all know, don't do digital.
#halo
The Halo universe is famous for explosions and the colour purple. But pregnant British women? Never seen one of them in a Halo game before. More »
In a candid post on Introversion Software's DEFCONforums, company co-founder Mark Morris admits that the Darwinia+ developer was close to closing up shop following disappointing sales of the game's XBLA port. "Internally we knew within about an hour of Darwinia+'s launch that it hadn't done well enough," Morris wrote. "It took us about two weeks to really accept that and the awful realisation that we didn't have enough to continue with the office or the staff. We had a bunch of creditors knocking at the door, but worse than all of that we were absolutely shattered."
Having let its staff go, closed it office and retreated to the bedrooms of its three remaining employees, the company made a last-ditch move to generate some income. "We put together a rescue plan involving creating Steam achievements for DEFCON so we could convince Valve to run a promotion with it," explained Morris. Turns out, a seemingly small tweak and some promotion delivered major results, Morris revealed: "The promo exceeded all of our expectations and when combined with our low burn rate (no office or staff now) we had gone from being fearful about paying our mortgages to having a year's operating capital in the bank."
Introversion is still running lean, but is back on track to release its "most ambitious project so far," Subversion, in 2011.
