All Topics Gaming older than one year ago

Double Fine's first downloadable title, Costume Quest, is set to bring out your inner child on Xbox Live and PSN on October 20, Game Informer reports. The action RPG -- which is the brainchild of lead animator Tasha Harris -- will be published under THQ's new "Kids, Family, Casual Games division" for $15 and tasks players with finding their lost sibling on Halloween night.

[Thanks, Tyler C]

#pc Games on demand service OnLive is now free and free from now on, according to the company's founder, who brings word that the streaming game service has dropped plans for monthly subscription fees. More »

Carry the universe in your pocket.

The fallout from the closure of APB and developer Realtime Worlds continues this week, with the Herald Scotland reporting that creative director Dave Jones may be joining Epic Games. The report notes that Jones is "linked with a senior post" at Epic and adds that he is "known to be a close friend" of Mark Rein. If true, the report lends credence to recent rumors that Epic is interested in acquiring the rights to APB. (We've contacted Epic for comment and will update this story with any new information.)

Meanwhile, former Realtime artist Tahir Rashid tells the Herald Scotland that 70 percent of the Realtime staff has yet to receive redundancy payments.

#d3publisher Bangai-O HD: Missile Fury, the Xbox Live Arcade update to the Treasure series that gets a surprising amount of attention, will not be coming out this year as originally planned. Don't worry, there's a happy ending to this story. More »

Costume Quest, the next game from the Psychonauts and Brutal Legend studio DoubleFine — and more importantly, the only trick-or-treating role-playing game of the year — will be released on October 20, the game's publisher THQ revealed today. Price: $15. More »

Like a bowl of comforting chicken soup, FIFA 11 premiered at the top of the UK all formats chart. According to Chart-Track, the game had the third-largest debut in UK chart history, unseating previous bronze holder FIFA 10's first week by 21 percent in unit sales and 36 percent in revenue. Chart-Track also states that the top two premieres belong to CoD: Modern Warfare 2 and Grand Theft Auto IV.

We followed up with Chart-Track because this information doesn't exactly jive with details it provided a couple weeks back. At the time, FIFA 10 wasn't even mentioned in the top three and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was in the third spot. Turns out there are two charts the company is tracking, one that's "individual formats" and the other is "combined formats." We've placed both after the break for clarification.

Surprise winner last week, F1 2010, lost its pole position and slipped into second. Dead Rising 2 maintained its third place with the help of a chainsaw paddle, while Halo: Reach began its slow fall down the charts, slipping two spots to fourth. Moving up a spot and rounding out the top five is Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, showing the rhythm genre has life in the UK beyond Just Dance (#12). Check out the UK's top ten after the break.

"It's definitely not a joy ride," promises this trailer of next year's NASCAR game, courtesy of Eutechnyx and Activision.

Hello everybody. Jason Coker here, proud citizen of ModNation. There’s a lot going on at the moment, so let’s get right to it:

Guess Who’s Coming to the Nation…

We’ve got a special guest coming to ModNation Racers next Tuesday courtesy of the good folks at Progressive Insurance. Every Racer in ModNation has at least a couple of Karts that they’ve grown to know and love, and who better to watch your back than Progressive Insurance’s lovely spokesMod, Flo?

In addition to handling all your Kart insurance needs, the Flo Mod comes with:

• Flo’s Blouse
• Flo’s Hair with Headband
• Flo’s Apron
• Flo’s Button and Nametag

Absolutely for free!

Oh, and that’s not all that Progressive Insurance has in store for ModNation — stay tuned for more goodies to come.

Next Week: Family Guy meets ModNation!

Giggity giggity goo! If Kazunori wasn’t enough for you, we got a special treat next week. The next MNR Artist Spotlight takes us behind the scenes of one of the funniest shows on television today, Family Guy!

We meet some of the creative minds that bring Family Guy to your sets including Joe Vaux (Assistant Director), Raul Guerra (Storyboard Artist), and Dominic Polcino (Director) and see how they get their Mod on.

Best of all, these guys will be online to answer any fan questions on how the show is made and how they got their sweet gigs.

Tune in next week for an EPIC ModNation Monday!

ModNation Creations of the Week
Please keep your creation submissions coming, folks. You can submit your Mods, Karts, and Tracks on the official ModNation community website and your work may be highlighted as one of our weekly picks. Let’s take a look at this week’s selections.

MOD OF THE WEEK
Creator : nofriendo1
Mod: “Baboon”

I apologize now for the terrible pun, but this Mod is bananas. It’s truly a special feeling to blast somebody in front of you with a straight shot and then breeze by them with a trash talking ape. Imagine how much better driving would be in the real world if you could have a baboon in your car… Well, this is probably about as close as you’re ever going to get, so enjoy!

KART OF THE WEEK
Creator: Icandy55
Kart: “Pink Frost”

OK, I admit it – I like bling. You can’t hate on the attention to detail here. This may not be everyone’s favorite color, but the airbrushed look and the shine can’t be ignored. This is impressive work.

TRACKS OF THE WEEK
Track Name: “Central Park Drive-Thru”
PSN ID: atheistsw

Yes, yes, YES!!! Giant track in a park that’s surrnounded by a city? Check! Ridiculous amount of forks, shortcuts, and even a hidden route? Check! A freaking HEDGE MAZE? Check! This track has all the elements of great design. It’s perfect for Action racing, Pure racing….whatever. This is extremely well done.

Track Name: “Biffonium Empire”
PSN ID: pikminenco

I hate the fact that I love this track so much. There are tons of ways to excel on this track, and there are tons of ways to screw up royally as well. It’s got that great mix of skill and luck factors that make it hard to perfect. Several races in, I still don’t have it down, and that’s what makes it so awesome.

Name of the Track: Jungle Survivor
PSN ID: NyghtHawk

No doubt, this is the hotness. And I mean that literally. Placing Flame Vents just before Boost Pads really makes me think more about strategy on this track. Depending on where I am in the pack, I may have to consider the trade off between shielding my way through them or taking a little more time and weaving through. There are also some killer drift opportunities in this one, and a word of warning – some Item Pods just are NOT worth getting! Love it!

Hot Lap Roster for this week
As many of you probably know, there were some issues in getting the Hot Lap Tracks updated early last week, so we’re bringing back the ones that didn’t get put up on time. For you speed demons, here’s a look at this week’s killer tracks:

Monday: BOSS Gardens, by CIV_BOSS
Tuesday: The Megaplex, by OakBiscuits
Wednesday: da ghetto masta (v4), by daaa57150
Thursday: Central Park Drive-Thru, by athiestsw
Friday: Biffonium Empire, by pikminenco
Saturday: Jungle Survivor, by NyghtHawk
Sunday: Alpine Sprint Series, by TBomber

Believe it or not, we’ve still got TONS of stuff coming for ModNation Racers, so keep checking in here and on modnation.com/ for the latest info on the best race, create, share experience in the (Mod) Nation!

#pc Runaway indie success Minecraft will treat players to a deeper, scarier, more difficult version of the game later this month, when developer Notch has promised a new Halloween-themed update, complete with a new element—pumpkins! More »

Are you experienced enough to score a download code?

Gaming analyst Michael Pachter expects good things from the industry in 2011, but not without a little sacrifice from the Big Three. Pach Attack prognosticated to Industry Gamers that "a $50 console price cut across the board will impact software sales by a positive 5 percent." (He expects to see an additional market boost from sales of 3DS, as well as Move and Kinect products.) Pachter further predicted the Xbox 360 to be the first to fall in price at some point during the spring of next year.

When questioned, competing analysts The Joystiq Consortium had a far more monolithic picture of 2011 to paint, saying, "It's basically just going to be Minecraft." Time will tell, we suppose.

#politics New York Republican Gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino invokes a certain video game plumber in the latest flyer attack on his opponent, Democrat Andrew Cuomo, eldest son of former New York governor Mario Cuomo. See what he did there? More »

Cloud-based service is now free to join.

"Although we wish we could have confirmed no monthly free from the get-go, pioneering a major new video game paradigm is hard," OnLive CEO Steve Perlman writes in a blog post, continuing, "we had to first grow to a large base of regular users before we could understand usage patterns and operating costs."

And just like that, the formerly $14.95 per month service - which, through its Founding Members program, has offered a year of free service since its launch earlier this year meaning it never actually collected any monthly fees - is free, greatly reducing the mostly psychological barrier many gamers had regarding OnLive. To capitalize on that lower barrier of entry, OnLive is "kicking off this change with the introduction of its Free Trial program for new users to its service," giving curious gamers quick access to the service sans credit card.

With no monthly cost, no credit card needed for sign-up, and plenty of free demos, we're not sure why someone would elect to not at least try the service. Here's how it works: you push buttons and those go to a server somewhere and then it sends you back video of your game. It's freaky. Not interested until you can get the service on your telly? Perlman notes that "MicroConsole TV Adapters are in manufacturing," giving us hope it'll make its planned 2010 release.
View Poll

#screengrab Twenty points if you buy a game used; 10 if you buy it new. Part of the promotional flyer from GameStop advertising the gaming chain's new rewards system. Points net you Nintendo Wallets, iTunes cards, Call of Duty dog tags and more. More »

Perfection ... ish?

#enslavedodysseytothewest There is a man named Monkey and a woman named Trip. New York City is in shambles, its landmarks collapsed or covered in ivy. What looks like a new co-op game is a single-player epic, gaming's new sci-fi original. More »

An ostentatious Classic Controller Pro isn't the only bonus you'll get for picking up Goldeneye 007's "Classic Edition" bundle. You'll also get immediate access to the "Classic Conflict" multiplayer mode, in which players will pick from eight classic characters (Jaws, Oddjob, Baron Samedi, Dr. No, Scaramanga, Red Grant, Rosa Klebb and Blofeld), respawning as a different character after each death.

Non-Classic Edition buyers will get to play Classic Conflict as well, but they'll have to wait until they reach level 35 in online multiplayer to unlock it. And why spend all that time playing the game you bought?

#clips According to Warren Spector, it isn't the story of Epic Mickey that's important; it's how you relate to the story. More »

An ostentatious Classic Controller Pro isn't the only bonus you'll get for picking up Goldeneye 007's "Classic Edition" bundle. You'll also get immediate access to the "Classic Conflict" multiplayer mode, in which players will pick from eight classic characters (Jaws, Oddjob, Baron Samedi, Dr. No, Scaramanga, Red Grant, Rosa Klebb and Blofeld), respawning as a different character after each death.

Non-Classic Edition buyers will get to play Classic Conflict as well, but they'll have to unlock it by achieving level 35 in online multiplayer. And why spend all that time playing the game you bought, when you could just pay more?

The official website for 999: 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors has received a few interesting updates in the media section. Now you can grab yourself a brand-new wallpaper, as well as a fan-kit with all sorts of goodies with. You’ll find art, screens and other assets that you can take and do [...]

Castlevania re-enters the third dimension.

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#announcementsofannouncements According to a very cryptic report from Gaming Age, a "major consumer electronics company" will unveil a new "gaming related" product today. And they'll do so tonight, via MTV. More »

- 1-4 player - board game action and first-person challenges - 3D visuals (red/blue glasses)