All Topics Gaming older than one year ago

No more Castlevania trailers for the Metal Gear master.

Maintenance means early content for you.

#tgs Were you too busy this weekend enjoying the sun, the out of doors, to read all of our amazing Tokyo Game Show coverage? More »

If you've been mulling over the decision to snag a premium subscription to Quake Live, now's your chance to see what you're missing. Bethesda has announced that all Quake Live users can try out a premium subscription for free from now until September 26. Additionally, those who purchase an annual Premium or Pro subscription to the service during the promotion will receive an additional month free. The offer ends at 11:59pm ET on September 26, so grab a rail gun and get cracking.

#science A new study by researchers from Ohio State and Central Michigan Universities finds that simply thinking about playing violent video games can stimulate violent behavior long after your game console has gone cold, unless you're a girl. More »

#downloadables If you had the Nintendo Countdown Calendar app for the DSi last week, you would have been acutely aware of the Nintendo Countdown Calendar's release this week, along with Aero the Acrobat 2 and one very hungry caterpillar. More »

Deck out your computer with Victorian style.

Major game update enables the PlayStation Move motion controller & adds a ton of new features.

The second episode of the highly-anticipated freeware game can now be downloaded.

Hit game comes to PSN, features more than 50 types of fish and more.

#igaming The Sims finally push those Angry Birds from their perch. More »

Bungie's first Weekly Update since the launch of Halo: Reach included some startling statistics regarding the amount of time we've already thrown at the game's armor-clad feet. As of last Friday, over 31 million matchmaking games had already been played, over 78 billion credits had been earned and over 953 and 1,365 years had been poured into the game's matchmaking and campaign modes, respectively. We shudder to think how those figures expanded over the weekend.

Bungie also included some info on an update which will be applied to the game next month, saying, "the first matchmaking update for Reach will occur in early October and consist primarily of fixes for bugs and balance issues." The update will also add new game types and Forge maps to the Matchmaking playlists, and will enable co-op Campaign Matchmaking as well. Bungie also reports that it's considering changing its quick-to-boot betrayal system, but in the mean time, provides this clever workaround: "Stop shooting your teammates." Helpful!

Hey there everybody, Steve Stamatiadis here again for one final blog about everyone’s favorite pink haired catgirl game, Blade Kitten. The game is just about to finally hit the PlayStation Network and you’ll be able to try it out, buy it and enjoy it. Pretty cool, huh?

We said originally that the game would be out spring this year and technically is still is since it’s just turned spring here in Australia, and it’s already been a beautiful start to the season. See, we kept our word… sort of. Why did it take so long? Well we had the awesome good fortune of Atari… yes THAT Atari, picking up Blade Kitten. Not only has that allowed us to make the game even better, but being published by Atari has a very special significance for me personally. See back when I was about 13, I got my first computer: an Atari 400 (with all of 16K of memory, that’s less than the average icon or avatar image). So as you can imagine having the Atari logo at the start of the game just makes it all that much more cooler to me. So a BIG thanks to Atari for coming on board.

It’s been an exciting and challenging time bringing Blade Kitten to life from idea to comic to final game reality. Though it’s been more than a few years in the making, it’s been a lot of fun too. Working with a great team to bring the comic world to life has been a great pleasure. They’ve been totally committed to making the best Blade Kitten game they could and as a Blade Kitten expert I can safely say, without any hesitation, that this is the best Blade Kitten game EVER made. OK so it’s the only Blade Kitten game ever made… that just makes it rare and even more valuable.

Oh snap! We should totally have charged more for it, well too late now, it’s all in the system and stuff. I guess you get to buy it at the amazingly good value that it’s set to. I mean there’s all the excellent voice action in the fully voiced dialog. When you hear the spot on voices of Kelly Fuller as Kit Ballard, Dave Mitchell as Hundert Tonne or Eliza Schneider as Justice Kreel you’ll completely believe these characters, especially when you see them in the amazing cutscenes. The cinematics alone are worth the price of admission. But you’ll get to see all this for yourselves in a week or so.

For the newcomers here’s what to expect, in a short single paragraph version. Obviously the actual game is much longer:

Blade Kitten is a full on classic side scrolling adventure in glorious HD. You play Kit Ballard a catgirl Bounty Hunter on a mysterious planetoid called Hollow Wish. Kit is tracking down a local trouble maker when she’s ambushed by a rival who is after the same bounty. So you need to track down your rival then your bounty and along the way uncover the mystery that is Hollow Wish’s darkest secret. You’ll get some help from a little alien critter sidekick called Skiffy and your uber-cool floating A.I. sword, the Darque Blade. Get ready for level after level of free flowing, scrambling exploration and intuitive combat as you find make your way through this comic based adventure.

So for $14.99 on September 21st, PlayStation owners will be the first to get your hands on Blade Kitten from the PlayStation Store and check out all the fun for yourselves. Thanks and I hope you enjoy playing the game, I know I enjoyed making it.

New images from the browser based strategy game.

#column Unlike most things that come out of my mouth, THIS IS A TRUE STORY. More »

The PlayStation Network is getting its oil checked and tires rotated tomorrow, September 21, and will knock several features offline during that time. The regular maintenance is expected to run from 8AM-5PM Pacific (11AM-8PM Eastern; 4PM-2AM BST) and will prevent access to the PSN Store, Home, Account Management. Users "may encounter difficulty while signing in to PSN."

Due to the maintenance, Sony will have its regular PSN update today. Follow the PlayStation Twitter for updates tomorrow on when the network will return to normal operation.

Now with multiplayer horse racing.

A team of crafters led by one "DrKamina" has pieced together BioShock Infinite's floating city, Columbia, in the suddenly popular indie creation game Minecraft. The 3D model incorporates design elements adapted form screenshots and concept art, video and, of course, sheer imagination.

The group's vision of Columbia is housed on DrKamina's "City of Rapture" server, which is also home to adorable recreations of BioShock's underwater utopia and Half-Life 2's City 17 and Black Mesa. Visitors be warned: Kamina and company run a tight server, as evidenced by the prominent graveyard for the banned. RIP Snifflles, Errorz and Deerman -- we hardly knew ye!

For a little over two years, CD Projekt's digital distribution platform, Good Old Games, has offered shoppers shelves stocked with DRM-free indie gems and beloved classics. Sadly, it seems the site's run has come to an end -- an update on GOG.com announces "we've decided that GOG.com simply cannot remain in its current form."

CD Projekt might not have given up on the classic archive altogether, as the update later adds, "this doesn't mean the idea behind GOG.com is gone forever. We're closing down the service and putting this era behind us as new challenges await." If you've purchased games on the platform before, don't panic, as the site will soon "put in place a solution to allow everyone to re-download their games."

Update: It's starting to look like the platform's shutdown is just a marketing stunt. Good Old Games spokesman Tom Ohle told us that "as the site says, this doesn't mean GOG is dead. We will have more to share in the next couple of days." A NeoGAF poster dug up a Polish business forum, in which CD Projekt co-founder Michał Kiciński purportedly mentions a conference dated for this Wednesday, adding, "we'll post information about this soon on GOG.com (please do not panic after reading the information contained there.)" We'll keep an eye out for more info.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

#impressions I'm not a sports gamer, not even a little bit. More »

See this deadly conpiracy.

This week, we must thank Sunsoft once again for keeping the Virtual Console alive (if not entirely lively) with its release of Aero the Acrobat 2. Meanwhile, Nintendo offers a DSiWare app that allows you to make something with which gamers are entirely too familiar: countdown calendars. We must admit, though, that it's more fun when they count down to a personal milestone of instead of an artificial deadline for the release of information.

Head past the break in 3 ... 2 ... 1 to see this week's Virtual Console, WiiWare, and DSiWare stuff.

Discover new ways to run, throw, kick and count down on nintendo systems.

#stevewiebe The Dong Kong high score record has been shattered three times this year with Steve Wiebe recapturing the title from his King of Kong rival Billy Mitchell. More »

"I think Japanese gaming is dead. When I say these things, I'm called a traitor. But I love Japan. I want to save it." Keiji Inafune still hovers over the Japanese video game industry, defibrillator paddles at the ready. According to an interview with the New York Times, the outspoken designer and Global Head of Production at Capcom saw little at this year's Tokyo Game Show to change his pessimistic outlook on Japan's creations.

"I look around T.G.S., and everyone's making awful games. Japan is at least five years behind," he said. "It's like we're still making games for the last generation of game consoles." And Inafune's ire isn't just aimed at competitors -- he cited Lost Planet 2 as a clear failure to connect with audiences everywhere. "Lost Planet 1 was designed for the Western market. But the guys who made Lost Planet 2 were misguided. They made it too Japanese. They made it like Monster Hunter."

The Monster Hunter franchise is far more popular in Japan than it is elsewhere, and modifying it could alienate its current customer base. Inafune is willing to compromise here: "We basically want to make games that will sell globally, but some games might sell only in Japan.That's O.K. - as long as we make a profit on it." Still, he warned that Capcom remained complacent in the ranks of worldwide competitors, who are already targeting bigger markets like China. "I'm always so shocked when I see global sales rankings," he said. "I think: Wow, Capcom's ranked so low. However you approach it, we're dead. Resident Evil sold 5 million copies. That's still no good."

Inafune is well aware of how harsh his comments appear among Japanese creators -- who are "always so ambiguous" -- and expects to be treated like a "lunatic." He'll either be in full control of Capcom and the Japanese industry within the next five years ... or be relegated to playing cards with Yu Suzuki in a basement somewhere.

PlayStation Network will undergo maintenance tomorrow, September 21st. Maintenance is expected to start at just after 8 am Pacific and will last for several hours, until approximately 5 pm Pacific. During this time, users won’t be able to access the PlayStation Store, PlayStation Home or Account Management, and may encounter difficulty while signing in to PSN.

Because this maintenance window overlaps the normal PlayStation Store publish, we’ll be making new content available tonight. Grace Chen will post the store content as normal when the content is live.

Please stay tuned to the PlayStation Twitter feed for updates on tonight’s store publish and for a notice when PSN is fully back online.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

#rockband In 2008, Konami filed a patent lawsuit against Harmonix (and MTV, and Viacom). More »

#ps3 Wondering what that $50 for a PlayStation Move wand gets you? Take a look at the chips and boards and wires inside the thing and find out. More »

BBC confirms second 'series' of free-to-play games.

#politics California's violent video game law, currently with the Supreme Court, is a pretty big deal. So it's nice to hear games have support from a man who's been there before. More »