All Topics Gaming older than one year ago

Yes, Japanese McDonald’s locations were actually giving out Taiko: Drum Master toys in their Happy Meals. While that’s pretty cool in and of itself, it’s the other feature that makes these a real collector’s item. Each of these toys makes a sound, and that sound can be used in Taiko no Tatsujin DS [...]

This trailer came out around E3 time, but I never actually saw it! What’s the big difference here? We get to hear the different vocal takes on Pit, among other characters. Looks like NCL is taking a much more ‘Kid’-like approach to the voice acting for Pit.

"I will say I think one Halo game every three years -- which was kind of our old cadence -- is probably not frequent enough," Microsoft VP Phil Spencer told IGN. For Spencer, it's a matter of keeping players "engaged" and "not going dark for two years" at a time, akin to what Activision has done for Call of Duty.

"I used to look at annual releases of non-sports games as people just trying to milk me," Spencer said. "I figured nobody had enough time to do a good job, and all of the negatives that we would associate with those kinds of scenarios. Kudos to Activision because they've done a good job building a good game, continuing to release each year and I think the fans feel like it's a good thing that they do that." He added that, "watching them and seeing what they do -- we take inspiration from a lot of places -- but obviously they're a big success."

For Microsoft, the hurdle is now going to be a change in developer -- Bungie's leaving some big shoes to fill.

- spikes will only do damage if hit the spiky tops, not the sides - you can walk through them from the side “Difficulty is the key to fun. (Games should) taunt in a way that excites and encourages the player.” - Nigoro (dev team) There’s nothing like the satisfaction of wrapping up a particular tough portion [...]

#science In this Finding Your Science video from the National Science Foundation Arizona State University linguist James Paul Gee discusses how schools kill the joy of learning and how video games can bring it back to life. More »

#wii Wii owners who have already earmarked funds for Donkey Kong Country Returns for the Wii may want to fork over some of that cash to GameStop, especially if you want to encase your Wii Remotes in banana pouches. More »

We all learned the tragic news that Sackboy wouldn't be appearing in a new video game for a few months longer than we thought. What this post presupposes is: Maybe he will? Not as a part of an officially sanctioned LittleBigPlanet adventure, mind you -- rather, he's been added to the roster of playable characters in Silicon Studio's 3D Dot Game Heroes in an update launched earlier today.

The patch also adds 50 player-made heroes to everyone's lineup, allows players to carry weapons over into their New Game + files, and incorporates a handful of bug fixes, which can be read about in detail after the jump. Could the game's former lack of Sackboy actually be considered a bug? We'll have to think on this for a while.

Platforming at the speed of misery.

Sling guns against crazy foes in this silly freebie shooter.

We were about to comment on the aesthetics of 1950s technology, as examined in this new Fallout: New Vegas dev diary, but then we saw the machine gun that shoots grenades. Seriously -- it's a machine gun that just happens to shoot grenades.

#peripherals When peripheral manufacturer SteelSeries bought out Zboard creator Ideazon in 2008, everyone wondered what would happen to the Zboard. The SteelSeries Shift is what happened to the Zboard. More »

Microsoft recently launched a tempting partner program for its Bing search engine. By installing the Bing toolbar (which appears to only be compatible with Windows rigs running Internet Explorer) and using it to search or taking part in daily promotions, you can earn Reward points. Notably, this form of fake currency can be easily exchanged for another: Microsoft Points.

The program allows you to trade in Reward points for Microsoft Points in 100-point denominations -- though it's unclear how quickly one can accumulate these points. We do know that installing the Bing toolbar earns you 250 points from the get-go, of which 200 can immediately be exchanged for $2.50 worth of Xbox bucks. So what's the catch? There doesn't appear to be one.

#xbla Team Meat, the makers of upcoming Xbox Live Arcade release Super Meat Boy, have devised a way to deliver downloadable levels to their bloody, meaty indie platformer, all for free. They call it "Teh Internets." More »

#modnationracers Thanks to the PlayStation 3's ModNation racers, game developers who might dream of detouring their best series into the Mario Kart genre can instead just make, say, an Uncharted ModNation track. The official Uncharted mods are now available for all. More »

Spartan Army! Still haven’t pre-ordered God of War: Ghost of Sparta? The exclusive Kratos PSN Avatar not enough for you? Perhaps this will change your mind — introducing the God of War: Ghost of Sparta Original Soundtrack, one of six reasons to pre-order the game.

Kratos PSN Avatar (More here) Original Soundtrack Legionnaire Skin PSP Theme God of War Live (Creative Directors Documentary) PS3 Dynamic Theme

Joel Yarger, the Music Supervisor of God of War: Ghost of Sparta leads the charge this week with a behind-the-scenes look (and audio samples) for the Original Soundtrack.

I’m Joel Yarger, Music Supervisor on God of War: Ghost of Sparta, and I bring the sound of music to the PlayStation.Blog today. As you probably already know, God of War: Ghost of Sparta is the second God of War game from Ready At Dawn Studios and I think it outdoes their previous effort, Chains of Olympus, in pretty much every way! I’ve personally been involved with the music for the God of War franchise since God of War 2 and it’s always fun to see where we can go with it.

The original music for Ghost of Sparta was written by Gerard Marino and Mike Reagan, both of whom have worked on the previous God of War games. They really had the hard jobs of creating something new yet keeping it all within the God of War musical universe. That’s no small task as there are four other games worth of music written, so kudos to Gerard and Mike for nailing it! Dana Jan, the game director for Ghost of Sparta, really wanted the new music to contribute to the game’s identity: You know you’re playing a God of War game, but it still feels fresh. Some quick factoids: There were roughly 13 minutes of new music composed for Chains of Olympus (all Gerard writing) and then we re-worked music from the other titles. Ghost of Sparta features roughly 37 minutes of new music and uses significantly less cues from the previous games.

There were many new elements in this game to draw inspiration from, everything from the new story and main characters to the new environments and cities. We had plenty of concept art, good screenshots, some gameplay videos, and of course both the script and game director (Dana) to help us along the way. Here are four samples from the game that I think help showcase some of the inspired work both Mike and Gerard contributed.

Atlantis and The Caldera are both pieces written by Mike Reagan. Mike did some really interesting things given our tight budget on the project. Since we weren’t able to record most of the music with live musicians, Mike took it upon himself to record some of his own live elements. He bought a double bass, a cello, a didgeridoo, and even modified a hammer dulcimer to have a curved bridge so you can reach individual strings with a bow. The sounds he achieved were just awesome and worked very well for establishing that “fresh feeling”, but sounded much older, even ancient. The hammer dulcimer especially lends itself to Atlantis, an ancient, mysterious city that has hints of splendor and regality. In The Caldera you can hear the cello and bass as they carry both the melody and rhythm that are very much inspired by the ebb and flow of lava.

For Gerard’s contribution we should mention the story for a second (don’t worry, it’s all vague and spoiler free!). The story in Ghost of Sparta has some very strong emotional moments and we felt that the music needed to pay appropriate attention to them. Kratos goes through what amounts to an emotional roller coaster and that was yet another opportunity to introduce something musically new for this title. We leaned heavily on Gerard to turn on the emotion for the 2 pieces highlighted here. Both cues are based on the same theme but they each showcase very different emotions, and different character’s perspectives, which was essential for this score in order to have a good balance. One more factoid: If you listen even more closely you can hear that these themes are based on non-other-than the original Gof of War melody — one part of it, anyway. Because much of the actual story in the game is for you to discover when you play it, I won’t say any more than I already have.

Be sure to pre-order the game to get the full soundtrack directly through PSN starting November 2nd, 2010.

Valkyria Chronicles 3 may not mark the franchise's return to the PS3, but it does take the series into darker, more adult-themed territory. Gone are the school setting and happy-go-lucky characters. In their place are the "Nameless" -- a collective of criminals and social deviants serving the military in a side-story that takes place concurrently with the original's tale. Not only have the characters and story matured, but the presentation has as well. An updated UI and a more complex color palette make Valkyria Chronicles 3 look closer to the PS3 game.

It's hard to pinpoint a single reason, but I walked away from the TGS demo impressed by how much better this sequel looked. It could be that the graphics have simply improved in the franchise's second outing on the PSP. The environment felt larger, and a bit more detailed, and other elements helped give the impression of a better looking game. The UI looks a bit sleeker, with helpful status icons appearing on the command map, highlighting characters with low HP, for example. Character portraits take much bigger prominence on the screen during the gameplay sequences and the manga-inspired cutscenes. The rich red hues and expressive portraits offer a visual "pop" that its predecessor lacked.

Dead men tell no lies.

#atlus On the same day LittleBigPlanet 2 is delayed a feature update for Atlus' 3D Dot Game Heroes brings a special guest to the retro land of Dotnia. More »

Here’s another juicy rumor for you guys and gals. The source of this information is said to be someone working within the game industry, as part of a major developer. Obviously that developer is working on a 3DS title, and according to their information, the buttons on the front of the 3DS are [...]

The PC version of Ubisoft's HAWX 2 won't be making its September 30 take-off date. As for when the PC port will launch, that's sorta, um ... not known. A Ubisoft representative tells Joystiq that it could "possibly be November," but the publisher isn't certain at this time. We're told a new date should be available "shortly."

HAWX 2 flew into retail earlier this month for consoles to middling reviews. Waiting is hard, but PC owners can always play the (superior?) 8-bit version of HAWX any time they want.

#unhappiness Facebook is not working well right now. It's down for a lot of folks. That means FarmVille crops may be dying. And that means some people are upset. Others are laughing. More »

A new hero is born.

God of War 2 director Cory Barlog is likely working on the Mad Max game (a supposed tie-in with the 2012 movie sequel) at Just Cause developer Avalanche Studios. Eurogamer reports Avalanche Studios' founder Christofer Sundberg told the site, "I can't comment on the projects we are working on, but Cory is working here with us in Stockholm."

We've known Barlog had been working on a Mad Max game since 2008, with production reportedly still going on last year -- we just never knew exactly where he was making the game.

The studio's Avalanche Engine would actually be fantastic for driving an enormous, lush Mad Max game -- well, if "lush" existed in the Mad Max vocabulary. The engine certainly proved its graphical power in Just Cause 2. Now, if Barlog could only help deliver a cohesive concept, instead of just an empty sandbox, that could be a truly beautiful thing.

#xbox360 Microsoft wants key entries in the Halo series to make their way to your Xbox 360 a little faster, increasing the frequency of the standard three year cycle developer Bungie was known for. But just how frequent? More »

IRVINE, CALIFORNIA — September 21, 2010 — Atlus U.S.A., Inc., today announced that Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City, the third chapter in the acclaimed series of exploration RPGs for Nintendo DS™, has sailed into stores across North America. A limited edition first-run “Explorer’s Poster” is included free in the first manufacturing run of the [...]

A surprisingly deep game exclusively for PSN.