#rumor
Beleaguered rental chain Blockbuster's financial woes have gone from bad to really bad, with the LA Times reporting that the company will next month file for bankruptcy. More »
#ps3
GT5 designer Kazunori Yamauchi wasn't kidding when he said there might be "too much" detail in the game. Just look at that engine! Detail out the whazoo. More »
Just because you're off gallivanting across the galaxy and slicing up bad guys, that doesn't mean you can't look good doing it. The latest Blade Kitten trailer proves that the demands of a spaceborne bounty hunter are no excuse for being unfashionable. Metroid fans already knew that, of course.
We know the idea of a current-day shmup where the player spends more time firing bullets than avoiding them is pretty crazy, but that's actually the gameplay mechanic of 5pb's Bullet Soul. The look of this retail Xbox 360 title is the work of Bakemonogatari character designer Akio Wantanabe (any anime fans guess that before reading this far?), while on the soundtrack side, the team of Kenji Ito (Romancing SaGa) and Kouta Takahashi (Klonoa) are composing and arranging the tunes, respectively.
#left4dead
Before Valve roped the gang at Turtle Rock to come on over and make Left 4 Dead, the Half-Life developer was working on something else. Something with...fairies. More »
The following information is for Japan only…
- Nintendo Channel demo on Sept. 8th to Oct. 5th
- DS demo kiosks hosting the demo from Sept. 9th to Oct. 6th
- Nintendo Zone demos from Sept. 10th to Oct.
#akihabara
We do not know when Nintendo is releasing its 3D-glasses-free portable, the Nintendo 3DS. Nintendo has said sometime this financial year. A seller of R4 cartridges. More »
A website run by Earthbound creator Shigesato Itoi is offering up some new content. Believe it or not, he has an official Super Mario Bros. Winter outfit that you can preorder right now.
Too bad this one is for Japan only. Some other import retailers have to jump on this one soon!
We, as it turns out, are in a race with PR to the end of civilization. It goes a little like this: they keep coming up with more obstinately dumb ways to promote games and, since we too are dumb, we fall for it and write about it. Then they get dumber and we have to write about it harder. And so on.
So we're going to do our part and tell you that 2K Games is offering free haircuts to gamers in the UK to entice them to check out Mafia II (full details after the jump). But we do so with the understanding that we're propagating a cycle that terminates with "Hurl Your Feces at Halo 4 as You Screech in Delight" in the not-too-distant future.
So, sorry. For that.
(P.S. The title of the press release literally includes the phrase "Invite You To Become A Mane Man." We didn't add that.)
#rumor
If you're one of the lucky ones receiving an invitation to Kinect's beta testing program tonight, a word of caution before you accept: you'll be losing most of your means of communicating over Xbox Live. More »
We apologize that we can't deliver this post to you in glorious red monochrome 3D. Unfortunately, that technology hasn't been invented yet and hopefully never will be. So here in boring old 2D, we bring you news that Nintendo's unloved offspring, the Virtual Boy, is back. Well, sorta. It's back in the sense that someone has actually made a new flash cart that allows for homebrew devs to make games for it. (Or -- and this is never going to happen -- unscrupulous individuals to play pirated ROMS on it.)
That "someone" is Richard Hutchinson and the something he's built is the Flashboy Plus. Hutchinson introduced the original Flashboy back in 2007; the Plus model, costing $130 and already sold out until late this year, can store one game and has battery backup for a single save slot. (Swap games and that save state gets wiped, too.)
We know it's a long shot, but perhaps this device will lead to fan ports of 3DS games to the superior Virtual Boy. Mark our words: Glasses-free 3D is a fad; nothing is more immersive than pressing your face into a sweaty eye hood for hours at a time.
#japan
This fall, a spin-off installment of the popular "Yakuza" crime franchise will hit the PSP. That's not all, though. The game is also getting turned into a Japanese television show. More »
EA has released a video detailing the bonuses included with the Limited Edition of Crysis 2, which you can see after the break. This special release of the game, which includes a SCAR weapon skin, hologram decoy, a unique Platinum Dog Tag and bonus XP, is somewhat less exciting than the Nano Edition, which adds a statue and a backpack -- but, of course, it's more exciting than the standard edition, which only includes ... Crysis 2.
Prepare for the medium level of excitement, is what we're saying.
#microsoft
Xbox Live Studios boss Jerry Johnson has revealed that the Xbox 360's voice chat feature is in for an upgrade, aimed at improving the quality of player-to-player communication over Xbox Live. More »
So there we were at the wedding last weekend -- our cousin Video Gaming and his fiancée 3D were all set to tie the knot, when Uncle Todd stood up at the rehearsal dinner table and said what most of us were thinking. "Maybe we're getting to the point," he said loudly while spilling a little champagne, "where the people who have been pushing 3D, or are pushing 3D now, have figured out a way to make it cool and not so nerdy that nobody wants to do it." The rest of the room gasped, gaming looked really confused, and 3D ran out the back door, her eyes filling with tears.
Hollenshead had a point, though -- it's been a really quick romance, and while gaming's certainly attracted to 3D (who wouldn't be -- Avatar made her look super hot), the couple's definitely been pushed together by the two families. But maybe Uncle Todd was right when he said that the relationship "has to be more pervasive and more widely adopted before it makes sense for videogame development companies to invest."
We talked it over with Video Gaming, and he agreed that maybe they should take it a little slower -- spend some more development time together, sell a few more solid titles and then we'd talk about an actual marriage. 3D was kind of bummed out by the whole thing, but everyone agreed that as much it would cost to lose the deposit on the reception hall, the cost of going through with a troubled marriage would be even worse. As Uncle Todd put it, "the TVs are f***ing expensive. Is there enough content to justify?"
Little brightens are day more than hearing about developers working to make games accessible for those of us with color blindness (blast you, Super Puzzle Fighter!). That's why we're so happy to write about this year's Penny Arcade scholarship winner, University of Washington PhD student Jeffrey Lin, who wooed the award committee with his "research into applying vision science to solve practical problems in game design." One such problem? How color-dependent games work with color blind players.
Specifically, Lin believes, "Vision scientists have the tools and skills to help developers tackle problems from how to reduce motion sickness some experience in FPS titles to how to make games more accessible for the color blind." Lin predicts that vision scientists will begin to play an important, ongoing role for development teams in the future. And hey, if that means making those tasty, tasty puzzle games of the past comprehensible for the color blind, then we're all for it!
#legal
The agency that handles PR for Harmonix, 505 Games and other developers will settle charges brought by the Federal Trade Commission that its employees posed as ordinary consumers to post positive game reviews on the iTunes App store. More »
We doubt you could forget about a game called Z.H.P.: Unlosing Ranger VS Darkdeath Evilman, but in case it's slipped your mind even for the briefest of moments, publisher NIS America has released a heroic number of screenshots of the PSP strategy RPG.
In Z.H.P., players not only control the superhero Unlosing Ranger, but build a sort of "superhero town" to support, train, and build items to help fight against his rival "Dangerama" and other villains. Unlike most strategy RPGs, the hero is totally alone during battles, which means it's probably a good idea to boost his abilities in town -- or risk becoming the Losing Ranger.
#howisthisnews
The Internet has eliminated guys' rite-of-passage shame of avoiding eye contact while a clerk takes his time ringing up a glossy magazine with impossibly shaped hot women on the cover. Unless it's Glamour, in which I appear this month. More »
Visitors to Nintendo's PAX booth will be able to try out some upcoming Wii games, including Kirby's Epic Yarn and Donkey Kong Country Returns, along with anticipated third-party games Goldeneye 007 and NBA Jam. Next week's Metroid: Other M will also be on display. Nintendo will also show a new WiiWare game, Fluidity, for the first time. The game involves "using the three forms of water -- liquid, ice, and cloud" to solve puzzles.
Be sure to bring your DS as well, as Nintendo will be distributing a new Dragon Quest IX map, "Orgodemir." If you're anything like us (which is to say hopeless), the rest of the convention will be spent trying to complete said map. Go sit on one of those bean bags and find some pals for multiplayer questing!
#capcom
In the Monster Hunter universe, felynes are the cat-like characters. They're cute, but these posable figurine versions of them are cuter. More »
#xbox360
Shank, the side-scrolling beat-and-slash-em-up out this week, runs like a dream on the PS3 but is having some stuttering issues with its cinematics on the Xbox 360. The game's developer says older models of that console are the problem. More »
The Zucker brothers' classic The Naked Gun and video games are no strangers. We've seen Naked Gun mashed up with GTAIV, and Doom, for example. Now, an enterprising YouTuber has brought the classic intro into Mafia 2's Empire Bay. We're pretty sure it's the first time we've seen a car use a toilet.
