All Topics Gaming older than one year ago

Activision and Marvel have announced a new X-Men game, due to "invade consoles" in Fall 2011. X-Men: Destiny has you playing a new recruit amongst comic's motley mutant band, and promises a "branching storyline that features a deep element of choice." Dare we envision a Marvel-fueled Mass Effect?

Activision also notes that X-Men: Destiny will grant "players ultimate control of their destiny," which means at least one mutant will have the uncanny ability to spontaneously alter and contradict the contents of a dictionary.

You can check out the game's sparse teaser website while we pursue further information on the game. A screenshot would be nice.

#gearboxsoftware Duke Nukem Forever has been in development since 1997. And the man who toiled away on that game for over a decade lost a bunch of cash. Tens of millions, apparently. Ouch. More »

#indie A prototype version of Pirates of New Horizons, the game that gave us vivid Skies of Arcadia flashbacks a few weeks back, is now available for download. More »

Epic's engine unlikely to make the jump to Nintendo's handheld.

'Third entry' making its way to Yahoo's new social service in Japan.

#screengrab The always-impressive James Hance does it again, this time showing the Mario Bros. may be more "Soulful" than "Super". More »

#wii Late last month, Nintendo confirmed that new Wii Remotes with on-board Wii MotionPlus. Today, the company has dated and priced the new Wii-motes, dubbed "Wii Remote Plus". More »

When we're not spending $150 on "collector's edition" versions of games or buying $50 worth of post-launch DLC, we're spending less than ever on brand new retail copies of video games. Ars Technica explores the history of game prices in comparison to the current climate in a recent piece, astutely pointing out that when adjusted for inflation, game prices of yesteryear are vastly higher than today's Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 games (by as much as $40). As seen in the image above, Streets of Rage 2 brand new would've run $64.99 in 1993, amounting to $98.19 in 2010 dollars.

EEDAR analyst Jesse Divnich offered an explanation for the declining cost for brand new games at retail, saying the cause is the continually growing audience for video games. "Our industry continues to grow, and as such, so does the revenue, which increases competition in the market and generally results in bigger development budgets," Divnich posited. Of course, publishers are finding other ways to get our cash -- namely the aforementioned collector's/limited editions and various downloadable content. Still, though braving your local used game retailer might not be the most pleasurable experience every time, it offers another opportunity to pay less for games than ever before. As Ars says, "This is a fine time to be a gamer."

[Image credit: Ars Technica]

#gameface You hear someone has a Jigglypuff tattoo on their arm, you begin to think horrible, horrible thoughts, but Danielle White's forearm piece looks...well, it works. More »

#xbox360 Hydrophobia, a downloadable Xbox 360 survival adventure title, claims to have some of the most realistic water physics video games have ever seen. But does the title wade into the deep in or is it just shallow? More »

#nintendo That lovely re-release of Super Mario All-Stars, presumed only for the Japanese market, will also be released in Europe, Nintendo has revealed. More »

Deathspank is coming to PC later this month, and a little later, to the Mac as well. More »

#pokemon There are two. On November 20, a pair of Pokemon: Black and White Nintendo DSi handhelds will go on sale in Japan. One is black. The other? More »

Sega is releasing a new PC version of its classic typing-based shooter The Typing of the Dead tomorrow in Japan. The Typing of the Dead: Featuring Minna no Shuushoku Katsudou Nikki is mostly the same game we know from the Dreamcast, except it differs in word selection.

Sega surveyed members of Minna no Shuushoku Katsudou Nikki (Everyone's Job Hunting Diary), a job placement site, to gather a selection of 3,000 job search-related terms, to be used in the minigames in the new "Job Hunting Mode." There's also some kind of new "mystery" written by a Japanese comedian.

In a way, this new collaboration makes a kind of warped sense. Not only is fast, accurate typing a valuable job skill, we can imagine there being great therapeutic value in destroying zombies that represent aspects of your ongoing search for employment. Like the "disability income" and "stagnant air" zombies above (our best guess for translation).

#gameface So says the subject line in the email reader Zenboy. In the pic, he and his wife show off the clothes they work to Video Games Live in Vancouver. More »

Wii Goes Red in Japan-only Super Mario Bros. Anniversary Pack

#rumor According to a report on French site PSPGen, Sony has informed those in the relevant communities that come November 15, they won't be able to order development kits for the handheld any more. Wonder why that would be? More »

#hollywood Funny, because Japan's D3 Publisher releases games called "Earth Defense Force". More »

Harmonix and MTV Games have announced that the total sum of the on-disc and downloadable songs for the Rock Band franchise has surpassed 2,000 tracks. Though these songs have been contributed by over 800 recording artists and bands, Jimi Hendrix's "Are You Experienced" was the song responsible for pushing the series' catalog past the massive milestone. We find that somewhat appropriate, as if you were to play all of the Rock Band franchise's 2,000 songs, you'd be pretty experienced at playing Rock Band.

The game's creators also appear to be experienced at making oodles of money from song downloads, as the press release announcement reveals that players have downloaded over 75 million tracks from the Rock Band Store and Rock Band Network. We'd bet dollars to donuts that at least 65 million of those downloads were of Kenny Rogers' "The Gambler." Dollars to donuts, we say!

Nintendo to bundle new device with future Wii consoles.

#nintendo Super Mario Bros. is 25 this month, and to mark the occasion Nintendo is releasing this hot new variant of the Wii in, what else, Mario Red. More »

I have been waiting many, many years to see a sequel to Shantae actually fall into my hands. My interest in a sequel happened pretty much the day after I beat the original Shantae, and that desire hasn’t dropped one bit since then. If anything, it has only grown more intense. That [...]

This event is open to North American readers only - my apologies to our fans overseas. I’ll make it up to you sometime in the future, I promise! Could this be the most awesome thing that GoNintendo has ever been involved in? I may be a bit biased, but I believe it is! [...]

Nintendo has finally made a release date announcement for the Wiimote Plus in Japan. They’ve also offered up some other details. Check out the tidbits below. - Wiimote Plus due out in Japan on Nov. 11th - ¥3,800, same price as a regular Wiimote - colors available will be Shiro (white), Kuro (black), Ao (blue), Pink [...]

#clips Sadly, this is off-screen footage of the game, not raw, delicious high-definition video, but you can still see that Beyond Good & Evil is looking quite nice at a more contemporary resolution. More »

If you're looking for a new addition for the rack you keep on your entertainment center which specifically houses your concert DVDs, we've got a great suggestion for a box that'll look great between "Rush in Rio" and Dixie Chicks' "Top of the World Tour: Live." We're speaking, of course, of "Level 2," the upcoming concert video from Tommy Tallarico and his band of gaming troubadours, Video Games Live.

"Level 2," which will be released on DVD and Blu-ray on October 19, features a 100-minute concert performance and hours of bonus interviews and behind-the-scenes featurettes. A CD will be released on the same day, featuring 16 of the group's video game-inspired suites. For a full tracklist, as well as information about pre-orders, check out Video Games Live's official site, or check out the trailer after the jump for a sneak peek at the performances therein.