Hey, do you like to zap helpless humans with lightning? Then you're probably a super villain. Cool -- and we've got the perfect Facebook game for you: Castlevania: Lords of Shadow Friend Challenge. Seriously, it's all about zapping helpless people ... and your friends! It really scratches that sadist itch, trust us.
Developed in-house at Konami, the Facebook game allows you to unlock various bits of content from the console game including "screenshots, videos and items" as you recruit Facebook friends to your army and level up your character. Sorry, it doesn't look like these unlockables are on a two-way street -- performance in the Facebook game doesn't impact your Castlevania: Lords of Shadow game.
#blizzard
Blizzard has released statistics showing how popular each of Starcraft II's three races are amongst the game's multiplayer users. And it's the poor Zerg coming in last. More »
Thanks to Super Scribblenauts, we've learned all about this delightful little caste of words known as "adjectives," which can be used to describe things. With this knowledge, we now have the ability to talk about Warner Bros. bizarre, inscrutable, unprecedented and delicious new promotion for the wordy puzzle title: A partnership with UK's Stonegate Eggs, to include Scribblenauts branding on cartons of the company's "Intelligent Eating Eggs."
The promotion will have an accompanying website, where egg consumers can solve puzzles for a chance to win a DSi and a copy of the vocabulary-expanding sequel. We guess we can see the correlation, but we still wish the game had a more direct impact on the foodstuff. Imagine if you will: Super Scramblenauts, a foil pouch with pre-made scrambled eggs inside, for on-the-go oh man that would be disgusting.
#keijiinafune
In a recent interview, Capcom's Keiji Inafune (of Dead Rising and Onimusha fame) talks about the impossible, doing the impossible and how that makes game developers grow as people. He also says he hates his job. More »
#clips
Minecraft is a game that's difficult to really sell with words. It's something you have to play to get a feel for. Or watch, in this case, as people do inspiring things. More »
Andy writes to tell us his buddy has completed work on the new American Eagle site. No, we aren't directing you to seasonal Zelda jammies (would you wear those?) -- the update includes a "hidden" Asteroids mode! Just add "?mode=asteroids" to the end of any page url to crack this Easter egg open.
#halo
When sci-fi shooter Halo: Reach ends, so too does humanity's presence on the planet. This gallery of environment art for the game shows what the place would look like with everyone gone. More »
Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest was Castlevania: Symphony of the Night before Symphony of the Night even existed! Sure, it may not have been anywhere near as good as that PS1 title, but there’s no denying that the two games have a lot in common. We get one big world to explore, upgradeable weapons [...]
#shigerumiyamoto
Super Mario Bros. was originally released in 1985. Televisions were different then — blurry and fuzzy-like. Thus, seeing the game on a HDTV makes Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto feel slightly embarrassed. More »
- Ace Attorney series’ 10th anniversary is in exactly one year
- official site renewal and a special anniversary site
- anniversary site has comments from Ace Attorney series musicians and character designers
- site also contains an interview with series director Shu Takumi
- Takumi started writing the original game’s design document in August 2000
- the placeholder name [...]
In the United States (and also Canada) we have a wondrous thing called Netflix. In the UK and other European territories, there's a similar miracle called LoveFilm, and thanks to a supposedly official video announcement -- which has been pulled from the Sony YouTube channel on which it emerged -- an app for the video rental service is coming to PS3.
The video was spotted by Everything PlayStation and promised access to the LoveFilm rental and streaming service would be available on the PS3 as of next month. Accessible via the XMB, the app will apparently allow subscribers to manage their movie queues right from the console and stream available content -- or have anything else mailed on disc.
Jump past the break for a short blurb from the now-pulled video's description.
#crime
Darren Suchon, a 42 year-old unemployed man from Lehigh Township, Pennsylvania, likes video games. He likes them so much that when somebody tries to take them away, it results in a car chase, road rage and the cops. More »
GDC Online -- formerly known as GDC Austin, but still held in the Texas town -- welcomed 3,000 attendees interested in online and social gaming this year. The show will return to Austin, Texas on October 11-14, 2011, at which time it'll be known as "GDC Zynga" -- kidding, maybe.
Highlights of the convention included the inaugural Game Developers Choice Online Awards, along with some revealing revenue details from MMO developer Turbine and the 3DS's ability to use the Unreal Engine. Check out more from GDC online by following this: handy-dandy GDC Online link.
#japan
The forthcoming Nintendo 3DS will cost ¥25,000. That's US$305! That's... a lot of cabbage. The handheld does not yet have a price point outside of Japan. But what does The Land of the Rising Sun think? More »
Here’s a little sneak-peak at a level for you…
For the life of me, I cannot figure out what I need to kill off this thing. Even the game’s hint system doesn’t help. All I know is that he’s a Golem, and he’s ready to fight. Using the rules that the game states [...]
Redbox has been playing around with video game rentals from its disc-spitting kiosks for a few years now, but the company has decided the program is ready for the big time, and will reportedly expand the program to "thousands" of its 24,000 machines around the country. Rentals cost $2 and let you take the game home for just one day, which, given the apparently shrinking lengths of popular titles, is more than doable, depending on the game and the day.
If you want to find a box near you, you can punch your zipcode in on the company's official website and see if there are games in your neighborhood to be rented. Most of them seem to be at 7-Elevens or other convenience stores, which seems pretty convenient if you ask us.
#rumor
It's fine to take drastic action against somebody cheating in multiplayer. Those people are scum. But what happens when people begin to be banned for bending the rules of a game's singleplayer component? More »
Macy's is bringing the Kinect demo "experience" back to its New York Herald's Square store through October 17, with four titles to test drive. The historic department store will also sell the Xbox 360 with Kinect bundle via its online store beginning November 4. Just don't tell Gimbel's about it.
#ea
For years now, Electronic Arts and Steven Spielberg were supposed to have been working on a project called "LMNO" (pronounced "elemental"). We'd long thought it was dead. Now EA has finally confirmed it. More »
FIFA 11 spent a second week atop the UK all formats chart this week, holding off Pro Evolution Soccer 2011's premiere in second, despite a 63 percent drop in sales. Chart-Track states that FIFA 11's launch last week was 10 times that of Konami's footie franchise and that this is the first time Pro Evo hasn't debuted in the top spot since the original game kicked off in 2001. Dead Rising 2 shambles along, rounding out the top three.
With competition so brutal during this time, it's good to see that Castlevania: Lords of Shadow and Enslaved debuted at the sixth and seventh spots, respectively. Hopefully both of these quality games can hang onto a spot in the top ten for more than a couple weeks.
As much as we wish the best for those games, we're not expecting either title to be stamina-infused like Just Dance, which moved up three spots this week to ninth place, and has a sequel coming out next week. Place your bets now if Just Dance 2 will glide across the UK charts to best FIFA 11. Check out the UK's top ten after the break.
#clips
This latest Call of Duty: Black Ops trailer gives us a much better sense of what we can expect from the upcoming shooter, both the story and gameplay. More »
Activision debuted the latest, single-player campaign focused trailer for Call of Duty: Black Ops during Monday Night Football this evening. It's okay if you didn't catch the game -- you can watch the entire thing (the trailer, not the football broadcast) just past the break.
#videogames
Gabriel Belmont will have his revenge upon the Lords of Shadow, venturing to the very depths of hell to find retribution against those who have corrupted the ideals of the Brotherhood of Light and murdered his wife. More »
It's okay if you don't remember Omega Five. The Natsume-developed side-scrolling shump hit XBLA (pictured) in early 2008 and has since shot into obscurity. According to Famitsu, the game is set to appear on Nintendo 3DS in Japan during Spring 2011 -- where it'll probably make a more memorable bow among a launch lineup otherwise devoid of "traditional" shoot-em-ups.
Hudson published Omega Five on XBLA. The company hasn't made a peep about the 3DS version, but we'll check in to see what -- if anything -- it has to say about a possible North American release.
