All Topics Gaming older than one year ago

Look sharp, US-based Sackboy enthusiasts -- an update on PlayStation.Blog has revealed that the beta test for LittleBigPlanet 2 will be expanded next week, when a second round of invites will be sent out to a mix of "LBP contributors, DLC owners and PlayStation Plus members" worldwide. The update explains that this will be a "small phase," so if you're not one of the chosen ones, don't feel too bad about it.

Just kidding, of course! You're going to feel really bad about it when you watch LBP 2's happy-go-lucky "Bounce Pad" featurette posted after the jump, because you're going to be sad that you're not playing it right now.

The Marvel vs Capcom 3 roster just keeps on growing. At a New York Comic Con panel, Capcom announced the addition of Bionic Commando's Nathan Spencer (with dreadlocks and bionic arm!) and Ghosts 'n Goblins' Arthur, both from the Capcom half of the fighting mash-up. In addition, Capcom revealed some alternate costumes for Spider-Man. Oh, and there's a story, too:

"Victor Von Doom has assembled the greatest villains his world has to offer. Together with the diabolical Albert Wesker, this unholy alliance will join their respective universes in an effort to conquer both. But doing so has come with a terrible price. A great and powerful threat has been awakened .... a threat that will set into motion a battle the likes of which neither world has ever seen ... a battle that threatens the fate of two worlds!"

But that's not all! This weekend will hold at least one more MvC3-related surprise. Marvel is having a panel of its own tomorrow morning at 10:45AM, where they will announce two more characters from the Marvel half of the game, in addition to a brand new game. We know that one is a returning character, but one is a brand new addition to gaming. Exciting, no? We're planning on live-blogging the event, so stay tuned!

#twitter Few video games reach trending topic status on Twitter. It's the sort of thing normally accorded to disasters, celebrities, and global news. NBA 2K11 has been a trending topic every day since Monday, for 57 hours straight at one point. More »

Bit. Trip Beat may not be easy, but this weekend, it's going to be really easy to buy. Publisher Namco has marked down both the iPhone and iPad versions of the WiiWare hit to 99 cents for the weekend. Sure, it's portable, but play it at home -- you don't want strangers to see you having a tantrum.

- dress up in six suits - elephant costume: Shin-Chan can pull blocks towards him with his trunk, or swing from his trunk - Action Bastard costume: fire laser beams and a spin dash attack - penguin costume: beak attack and the ability to swim in water, as well as slide on your belly - flying squirrel costume: ride [...]

We don’t have too many details on this soundtrack just yet, but we do know that it officially exists. While it’s listed for Japan right now, don’t be surprised to see this offered to North Americans and Europeans at some point. Thanks to Shadzter for the heads up!

Our favorite penguin is back, dood!

A dead amnesiac's work is never done. In the latest Ghost Trick trailer (after the break), we see a new scenario in which a police car drives through a restaurant window, dropping a gigantic piece of meat on a bystander. Naturally, the only person able to set this right will be Sissel, a dead man with the power to possess and control objects.

Wait, does that mean a dead person's going to be touching the food in the restaurant? Gross. Of course, Sissel doesn't appear to be the only "free spirit" in the establishment -- it's staffed by a (literally) meatheaded, rollerskating waitress and a philosophically-minded bartender with blue Guile hair.

#wookieesightings Video games have now given the society at least two things: 1) children with better hand-eye coordination and 2) the opportunity for people dressed as Chewbacca to dance to Michael Jackson. More »

In a cheeky response to the Video Game Voters Network initiative to bombard California senator Leland Yee's office with old and broken controllers, Yee's chief of staff Adam Keigwin told GamePolitics, "I think the Senator would appreciate a Kinect add-on rather than those dated controllers." That wasn't his only zinger.

"I can only assume these broken controllers must represent the broken promises of the video game industry to parents," Keigwin quipped in his reply to GP on the matter, before firing off a list of "free speech awards" Sen. Yee has earned for his apparent commitment to the First Amendment. "In fact, there is not a California legislator who has authored more bills to promote speech rights than Senator Yee."

Sen. Yee is the author of Caifornia's law AB 1179, signed by Gov. Schwarzenegger in 2005, which bans the sale of certain "violent" games to minors. Two years later, the Ninth District Court of Appeals found AB 1179 to be a violation of the First Amendment and effectively terminated the law. However, the Governator fought back, leading us up to November 2, 2010: the day the U.S. Supreme Court will hear opening arguments in the case -- and two days before any of us can actually send Yee a Kinect unit.

Would the senator settle for a Move in the meantime?

#clips Kevin Butler, Sony's fake vice president of animal control, doesn't drop the snark even if cute widdle pwane-fwying pets are the subject. And hey, dude's got a point about chewed furniture and piddle stains. More »

Hey there, True Believers! This is Chris Baker in Marvel’s games division (some of you might remember me from the Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine, back when PS2 ruled all), and I’m here to tell you that there’s never been a busier, more announcement-heavy week in the history of Marvel videogames. New York Comic Con is in full swing now, and tomorrow morning’s Marvel Games panel at 10:45 a.m. in Room 1A06 is going to be chock-full of reveals and further information about other new information already released this week, like the announcements of Captain America: Super Soldier and X-Men: Destiny.

In all, we’re talking about eight total games at the panel, seven of which involve the PS3. Here’s a game-by-game rundown of all the new information you can expect in the order we’ll be discussing them at the panel:

EXCLUSIVE NEW INFO for Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions: Yeah, I know you’ve already played this one (you have, haven’t you?!…), but we’re not done with Beenox’s awesome trip through four Spidey universes yet. In addition to having Creative Director Thomas Wilson answer some lingering questions posed by the Marvel gaming diehards at HeroHQ.com, we’ve also got another revelation about the game for you.

Marvel Super Hero Squad: The Infinity Gauntlet: Creative Director Jason Gholston of developer Griptonite joins us for THQ’s first PS3 outing for the Squaddies. This is the kind of Marvel game that kids will dig while their Marvel-loving parents play with them and appreciate the humorous take on an iconic Marvel story they grew up with.

EXCLUSIVE REVEALS for Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds: You might have heard something about this one. In addition to chatting with Writer Frank Tieri and Producer Ryota Niitsuma, we’ll also be unveiling two new Marvel characters. And because I like you people, I’ll go ahead and give you a couple of PlayStation.Blog exclusive clues: One of these Marvel folks is a returning character, one is brand new as a playable character not only to fighting games, but to videogames period. Any guesses?…

(Side note: Within the next hour, Capcom will announce two new Capcom characters of their own during their MvC3-specific panel, which begins at 7:15 EDT. If you’re reading this, and you’re not already in line or seated for it, you’re probably too late…)

Thor: God of Thunder: Thor’s first ever solo adventure is coming from Sega and Liquid Entertainment, and Producer Matt Powers will be on hand to talk about things like working with Matt Fraction on the game-specific story, where the game will take us, and what separates it from other action games.

EXCLUSIVE NEW INFO for Captain America: Super Soldier: OK, I’ll admit there isn’t a specified reveal here (hey, we just announced the game three days ago), but we’re talking to the game’s writer, Christos Gage, so you’re bound to learn a lot more about the story. Brandon Gill from developer Next Level Games will also be on hand to talk about the first new game with “Captain America” in a long time.

EXCLUSIVE NEW INFO for X-Men: Destiny: Like with Captain America, you just learned about this fall 2011 Activision game, and while there’s nothing exactly planned in terms of revelations, we’re talking to the game’s writer, Mike Carey. (If you don’t know who he is, you need to get back into reading your X-Men: Legacy comics, my friend!) I know a lot of you are wondering exactly what the game actually is, and this panel might just shed a little more light on the subject for you.

And finally…

AN EXCLUSIVE GAME ANNOUNCEMENT! That’s all I can say. Sorry. Well, OK, I’ll give you this to chew on anyway: This is something I’ve been wanting for as long as I’ve been at Marvel, and it’s finally really happening. Maybe you have a good guess, maybe you don’t. But, as I said on Twitter last week, the game is so likeable, only people who hate fun won’t want it. Trust me.

That’s all I’ve got for now, friends. If you can make it to the panel, great. If you can’t, well, at least you have a solid rundown on all of the great stuff Marvel games have in store for you over the next year.

Well…not all of it…

Last night in Austin, Texas, the creators of some of this year's biggest and boldest online games were honored during the Game Developer's Choice Online awards ceremony. In particular, Riot Games and its heavyweight debut title, League of Legends, took home half of the awards up for grabs, including Best Online Technology, the Audience Award and Best New Online Game. It also took home "Best Game With a Title That Reads 'LOL' as an Acronym," but that's not ... a real thing. That's a thing we made up, just now.

Check out the real list of real winners after the jump.

#rumor NaturalMotion Games, the developer of the football cult fave Backbreaker, is now working on an ice hockey game apparently titled "Icebreaker," according to a video profile by the BBC. More »

An MMO nerd and a comic dork played for a day. Here's what they think...

#consoletaisen Nintendo wins the biggest slice of the pie in this week's hardware battle in Japan, thanks to still strong sales of Pokemon Black and White. But the PSP wasn't too far behind, thanks to K-On! More »

The upcoming Undead Nightmare expansion for Red Dead Redemption is both a rather difficult and easy concept to grasp. On the one hand, it's hard to understand how or why this zombie plague is striking the American Wild West. (Rockstar still wouldn't talk about story details.) On the other hand, it's an easy excuse to introduce new enemy types into Rockstar's open world. Undead Nightmare adds a lot of things to shoot at, and looks to be a meaty extension of the game's single-player experience for a rather reasonable $10 price.

Perhaps as an admission of its incompatibility with the canon of the world, Undead Nightmare is a standalone experience that takes place between the end of Marston's quest to find his family, and the game's final battle. Nothing is carried over from the main game, with the exception of any new weapons unlocked by the game's other DLC. The goal of this quest is to rid the country of a zombie infestation, a journey that will take a player anywhere from 5-12 hours, depending on their skill and propensity to complete side quests. Rockstar wouldn't reveal exactly how much of the map would be infected, but they did tease that a new area would be added to the world via this expansion.

The cure to the undead plague appears to be rather simple. At cemeteries, there will be a collection of coffins you'll have to burn. Of course, this is easier said than done. Burning one coffin will trigger a massive influx of enemies, as they rise from the ground. As you burn the coffins and fight the swarm, you'll eventually encounter a boss zombie. Take him down, and you'll rid the area of the zombie menace, clearing the skies in the immediate vicinity whilst lowering the frequency of random "ambient" zombie attacks.

We've been hearing murmurings about a sequel to 2007's The Darkness since back in 2008 when the property's creator -- comic book company Top Cow Productions -- hinted about one at the New York Comic Con. Fast-forward to this morning and we're once again back at the Jacob Javits Center on NYC's west side bugging Top Cow about The Darkness 2. "There are certain rights issues that we needed to clear up in order to move ahead with The Darkness 2. Those are getting cleared up. While there are no specific plans, it is definitely that is still on all of our minds," sales and marketing director Atom! Freeman explained to us this morning.

We pushed for confirmation that a sequel to The Darkness is still being planned. "Absolutely. We loved the game. The fans loved the game," he told us, adding, "There's no reason to not do another one. Just making sure that all of our ducks are in a row so that we can begin that process." Unfortunately, that's all Freeman would tell us, preferring to keep other information ... shrouded in darkness for now.

A portion of an IGN review… A Shadow’s Tale is one of the Wii’s most beautiful and interesting games, both understated and deceptively deep. It never overuses one element or another, never dropping in a particular type of light or switch puzzle too often and changing things up just as you begin to suspect it’s getting [...]

Iron Man and Iron Man 2 haven't inspired much confidence in Sega's ability to make good Marvel games; however, its approach to Captain America: Super Soldier might just have a fighting chance. Why? It takes heavy inspiration from the comic game to beat: Batman Arkham Asylum. While the early, pre-Alpha preview we saw at New York Comic Con felt derivative, there are far worse games to aspire to.

The comparisons between Super Soldier and Rocksteady's brawler will be immediately evident during combat. Like Batman, Captain America isn't a particularly fast fighter. Instead of relying on fast multi-hit combos, you'll perform heavy punches, and use enemies to your advantage. The Captain is quite adept at countering enemies, disarming them, and jumping over them. By timing your dodges correctly, you'll be able to string together various acrobatic moves around enemies, attacking them in context-sensitive ways. You can even throw the Shield, much like Batman would his Batarang. It looks almost entirely like the "FreeFlow" system implemented in Arkham Asylum.

Combat isn't the only more-than-familiar facet of the game. Captain America has access to his very own version of "Detective Mode." Tactical Vision will paint the scene in a blue filter and will highlight important interactive objects throughout the environment. The psuedo cel-shaded look coupled with the color palette make no effort to hide its inspiration -- although developer Next Level Games assures us the current visual implementation is simply placeholder.

#cosplay Kotaku is at New York Comic-Con where there are some video things here: games, statues, cosplayers. More of all that forthcoming, but let's start with two photos of Steampunk Boba Fett, designed by Penny Dreadful Productions. More »

Decent multiplayer and an abysmal story mode mark the latest Sims spinoff.

BRITISH COLUMBIA October 9th from 11am-5pm Future Shop, #102 - 5300 No.3 Road, Richmond October 10th from 11am-5pm Best Buy, 1135 Pinetree Way, Coquitlam October 16th from 11am-5pm Best Buy, #700 - 5300 No. 3 Road, Richmond October 17th from 11am-5pm Toys”R”Us, 1110 Lougheed Highway, Coquitlam October 23rd & October 24th from 930am-400pm The Pumpkin Patch at Richmond Country Farms, 12900 Steveston HWY, Richmond October 31st [...]

#preview The video game series that made PlayStation thumbsticks mandatory is now one of the first Sony franchises moving to PlayStation 3's motion controller. We wrote about Ape Escape for Move in Tokyo. In New York yesterday, we shot video. More »

Hey, UK people, whatcha doing at the end of this month? Oh, right -- that whole Halloween thing. How about aside from that? No plans, huh? Well, if you're into those wars in the stars, you can pick up Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2, launching in the UK on October 29.

If you're the try-before-you-buy type of Jedi/Sith, there will be a demo on October 12. If you end up purchasing the game, just make sure you don't forget about Samantha's Halloween party, okay? She spent a lot of time making sure her apartment looks like the inside of the TARDIS.