All Topics Gaming older than one year ago

Rock Band platform offers more songs than any other rhythm videogame.

Yesterday's Monday Night Football festivities were sponsored by a comparatively solemn advertisement for EA's Medal of Honor -- one that compiles all the testimonies from the game's anonymous military advisers into a single ad. Check it out after the break, provided you have codeword clearance.

Spike Games' surprisingly fun and unsurprisingly gory downloadable fighter, Deadliest Warrior: The Game, will make its way to the PlayStation Store later today in the next PSN update. The fighter, which arrived on Xbox Live in July, will cost PSN shoppers $9.99. It may also cost them an arm and a leg. And a head. Or any combination of those appendages.

According to an announcement on PlayStation.Blog, developer Pipeworks Software is making plans for a three-character DLC expansion to the game. The only fighter announced so far is the "Rajput," which, according to Wikipedia, is "a member of one of the major Hindu Kshatriya (warrior) groups of India and are a ruling class of the Indian subcontinent." Hey, we learned something today! Thanks, video games.

#milestones Next week Rock Band fans can hold hands and watch the sunrise from the bottom of the sea as song number 2,000 hits the Rock Band Store, but first, are you experienced? More »

#betawatch Care for a first-hand look at how the PC version of EA's Medal of Honor multiplayer stacks up to Call of Duty? Three days of free multiplayer play is now underway. Did renaming the Taliban make a difference? More »

It was rumored yesterday that Realtime Worlds creative director Dave Jones was moving to the United States in order to join Epic Games. Jones has since contacted Develop, informing the site that the initial report seen in the Herald Scotland was incorrect. Commenting directly on the Develop story, Jones said, "I'm still in Dundee and not in any way joining Epic. No idea where that rumour came from."

Before founding Realtime Worlds and developing both Crackdown and the recently closed APB, Jones contributed to several well-known titles, including the original Grand Theft Auto and Lemmings.

[Image credit: Jon Jordan]

#impressions Over the last two weeks, Mike McWhertor and were each given a hands-off demonstration of Call of Duty: Black Ops running in 3D. He saw it in Los Angeles. I saw it in New York. We've compared notes. More »

#clips The day Halo: Reach hit stores Elpresador recorded a live video showing his thoughtful take on the Bungie shooter. It was not positive. Earlier this week someone took that audio and applied it to Minecraft. More »

Hello again PlayStation Assassins! It’s Gabe Graziani, your Community Developer on Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, back this week to announce that the Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood Beta is in full swing! This Beta is exclusive to PlayStation 3 and available to PlayStation Plus members, as well as those who pre-ordered from participating retailers.

If you are playing in the Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood Beta, I invite you to submit your feedback on our forums.

The Brotherhood Diaries

Surely you have seen our series of developer diaries called Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood Diaries. Well, we are planning on releasing another episode this week that you won’t want to miss. Entitled “The Perfect Nemesis,” this new instalment in the Brotherhood Diaries discusses the increasing hostilities between Ezio and Cesare Borgia. Powerful, ruthless and well-defended, Cesare Borgia wields tremendous might as the ersatz ruler of Rome. Cesare may even have swayed some of Ezio’s former allies to his side!

Fear not, dedicated Assassins, because Ezio has some new tricks up his sleeve as well!

You can check out all of the Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood Diaries here.

Multiplayer Character Reveals on Facebook

In case you haven’t seen them yet, be sure to head over to our Assassin’s Creed Facebook page for our fan-exclusive Multiplayer Character Reveals! All you have to do is click that little button called “Like” and you will get access to a special tab on our Facebook page set up to deliver exclusive content to our most dedicated fans!

So be sure to head over to our Facebook page and become a fan!

Developer Blog on Official Assassin’s Creed Website

We’ve been publishing a series of written developer blogs on our Official Assassin’s Creed Websites for a couple of weeks now… so, be sure to stop by and check them out! The initial entries are designed to catch you up on where we are in the story behind Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, but with that out of the way we are going to start digging into more specific game-related information about ACB.

These blogs are published in the News section of the site, so head on over and look at our latest offerings here.

See you in the Beta!

Gabe
PSN ID: UbiGabe

Enough to hold you captive?

Helen Mirren caused a ruckus a couple years back by wearing a bikini while under the influence of around 63 years of life. She'll soon profit on that nigh-inhuman feat by demoing Wii Fit Plus in a series of British Nintendo ads slated to run this holiday season. Considering the timing, we suspect she will not be wearing a bikini ... or perhaps she'll just choose a very festive one.

Videogamer.com reports on several other highly British-sounding celebrities that will join her in the campaign, but we refuse to believe any of them are real people.

Gamers invited to experience the most authentic modern combat action game set in today's war, fighting today's enemy in Afghanistan.

Protect the sky!

Strategy in the 19th century.

Xbox Live socialistas were upset by Modern Warfare 2's policy of prohibiting players from taking part in certain online multiplayer modes while in a Live Party. In a recent interview with Videogamer.com, Treyarch's online director Dan Hunting explained that this policy returns in Call of Duty: Black Ops, reminding players that "we have that same restriction in certain playlists where they can use party chat to exploit the game mode." The hardcore Search and Destroy gametype is used as an example of where this would be appropriate.

However, the restriction won't be applied to as many playlists as it was in last year's Duty, including Team Deathmatch and "any game mode where it doesn't make sense to have it." So, yes, certain game modes will still require you to converse with the hoi polloi, but isn't that part of the magic of online shooters?

THQ reveals final details on Double Fine's Halloween adventure for Xbox Live and PSN.

SEGA's second pack of hits on the PC.

Save the world from giant bugs.

Uniting the trinity of Liberty City's anti-heros in one bundle, Grand Theft Auto IV: Complete should be out by the end of October, according to a couple of major retailers. As picked up by Gamespot, both Amazon and GameStop have the $40 game listed for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 with an October 26 release date.

The "complete edition" includes the original Grand Theft Auto IV, motorcycle gang add-on The Lost and Damned and the "never own a night club" fable The Ballad of Gay Tony, all in one box. It seems like a great way to catch up before Rockstar announces the next GTA.

We're already getting tired of the voice clips in this Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon footage. That's kind of a bad sign. We're taking the preponderance of jetpack-based action in the trailer, however, as a good sign. You can mute a game, but TV remotes don't have "add jetpack" buttons.

#gameface At a recent Pac-Man exhibit, the game's creator Toru Iwatani poses a Pac-Man made from naan. As seen here. More »

Direct2Drive is pushing an awfully hard bargain to nab your business -- provided you're planning on purchasing Bethesda's upcoming apocalyptic RPG, Fallout: New Vegas. The digital retailer is offering pre-orders on an exclusive "Digital Collector's Edition," which includes a 48-page digital graphic novel titled "All Roads." The comic, created in conjunction with Dark Horse Comics and penned by Bethesda's Chris Avellone, tells the backstory of the town of New Vegas, and sets up the plot of the upcoming game.

If digital comics aren't your thing, pre-orders of the Collector's Edition also come with the "Tribal Pack" -- a DLC pack which adds a handful of relatively primitive weapons to your arsenal, including a machete, doses of venom and throwing spears. Those sound ... nice. Just fine. We're going to stick with our gun that shoots mini nuclear warheads, though. But thanks, all the same!

For a quick look at what’s happening on PlayStation, join Christina Lee for a look at the Game of the Year edition of UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves (only the most critically acclaimed video game of 2009!) as well as Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light and the new PlayStation Network dragon-roasting-villagers-title, Hoard. There’s also news about the latest PlayStation Move updates including Heavy Rain and MAG.

Along with the recent Top 10 PSP titles, we’ve got a look at why you should pre-order the upcoming God of War: Ghost of Sparta PSP game. Veronica Belmont also provides a preview of Qore’s October episode. And from the Video Store, we take a look at the new Karate Kid, The LXD, and Christina’s favorite movie of the Summer, Iron Man 2.

So, watch above! Or download to your PS3 in full HD after today’s regular PlayStation Store publish.

#superstreetfighteriv The arcade version of Super Street Fighter IV features characters that are not in the console version. That might change. More »

#activision Activision and developer Treyarch are adding a new dimension to the Call of Duty series, bringing stereoscopic 3D visuals to Call of Duty: Black Ops for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC. More »

Call of Duty: Black Ops has joined the ever-growing list of 3D-enable games, even though the required hardware remains prohibitively expensive to most. Unlike Sony's crop of flagship 3D titles, this isn't exclusive to any system. Activision recently demonstraed its high-profile first-person shooter running on Xbox 360, reminding us that 3D is a feature most HDMI-equipped systems can handle. (Previous 3D games for Xbox 360 include Invincible Tiger and Avatar.)

The experience was not unlike any other 3D game I've seen or played before. Because 3D demands individual images for your left and right eye, the scene must be rendered twice, requiring developers to come up with ways of shrinking what would otherwise be a doubled footprint on the system. As with Killzone 3 and Motorstorm Apocalypse, there's a noticeable drop in the fidelity of the image. With 3D enabled, Black Ops appears fuzzier than normal, producing an image akin to what you'd experience in a split-screen game.

While the image may not be as detailed or sharp, Black Ops' selling points still remain in 3D: its fluid animation and focused art direction aren't lost in the translation. As with movies that take advantage of the feature well, the 3D effect isn't overstated here. More subtle examples of the technique -- a thin cloud of smoke that permeates the air, and the way your sniper barrel comes out of the foreground -- helped "sell" the experience. I was mesmerized by the HUD and subtitles (which also appear in 3D). But the highlight of the demo had to be a level that places you in the cockpit of a low-orbit plane. From that perspective, the dashboard, buttons and switches looked especially realistic.

Both new features will be available on every platform.

#lbp2 Big-hitting PS3 sequel LittleBigPlanet 2 has been delayed until 2011. Why? It's all about the patches. More »

A GameTap representative has informed Joystiq that the "4100 Error" affecting some games should be fixed with the "new version" of the website launching "by the end of October." GameTap's new website is part of the company's plan to feature "more recent titles," in addition to the retro games the service is known for.

According to GameTap, the 4100 Error plaguing over a dozen titles, "Occurs with games that were packaged with a progressive download technology that is no longer in use when packaging new games. We now use a more effective and recent technology for all our new games. We have also started during the summer to upgrade our back catalog with the new technology."

The update at the end of October will allegedly be more reliable and the company expects it to eliminate the 4100 error. Regarding concerns that the errors were a sign that the service was ending, the representative stated plainly, "We are not ceasing our operations in the US."

[Thanks, Kyle B.]

#nipponichi PSP game Criminal Girls puts players in the role of a prison guard that "spanks" and "disciplines" bad girls. Oh yeah, and the game is set in hell. So a manga version of this would look like... More »