All Topics Gaming older than one year ago

Zynga's newest effort heads to the city.

#facebook The people who make the games you either love or love to hate on Facebook have a new one coming out in a few weeks. It's called CityVille, which looks like Sim City without the tornadoes or FarmVille with skyscrapers. More »

Browser-based frag-em-up Quake Live keeps chugging along, as id's gone and announced the addition of some new premium content. Through "Premium Pak 4," players can access two new maps (Evolution and Three Story), along with 20 new premium awards and some advanced server mechanics, allowing players to customize matches by setting certain modifiers on or off -- runes, gravity, weapon switch speed and more. Finally, the introductory match against Crash has been removed for new players, who will instead be "placed in an assessment period before skill matching begins to take place." We're sure Crash is most happy about that new feature.

If you're lost on all of this talk of "premium," then you likely missed out on the new subscriptions. Read up on that here and be sure to hit the link below if you're looking for the full patch notes. Or just hit up Quake Live if you're looking to shoot some stuff. Don't be embarrassed: we all feel that way every now and again.

Fewer and fewer gamers are sticking around for the closing credits.

Fewer and fewer gamers are sticking around for the closing credits.

Fewer and fewer gamers are sticking around for the closing credits.

Fewer and fewer gamers are sticking around for the closing credits.

#playstationnetwork The power of the PlayStation 3 and the PlayStation Network will bring you a brand new Tetris later this year, thanks to Electronic Arts, a high-def version of the frantic puzzle classic stuffed with new ways to play. More »

THQ's Homefront, the game that might anger some Americans, will come to PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 on March 8, 2011 in the U.S., according to the game's official Twitter account. Australia gets it March 10, Europe one day later. More »

"Who writes this stuff?"

It's something considerate game players and critics often ask aloud -- and they're barely heard over the sound of a laser chainsaw going into some monster's maw. The New York Observer has published an interesting piece on writing in games, with a focus on novelists, screenwriters and journalists that have made the leap to interactive storytelling. Some of these writers seem to have a higher profile than the plots, characters and dialogue they provide.

"What I found on the other side was that I'd never really understood how hard it was to get any kind of coherent story into a game, let alone a good one," said Rhianna Pratchett, former journalist and writer behind the Overlord games. Her observation isn't just critical of the quality of games writing, but of how late it finds its place in the development process -- if it's incorporated at all. Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter author Tom Bissell and his writing partner, Rob Auten, were apparently called in to fix the dialogue for an upcoming franchise reboot at stage where the game was "largely finished."

"I always say that the games industry makes Hollywood look like avant-garde poetry publishers," Bissell said. Games writing pays a lot less than Hollywood, of course, and doesn't offer the same kind of recognition.

Marc Laidlaw, novelist and writer at Valve, believes the world of books provides a more apt rival. "I think you learn a lot about writing dialogue and stuff from movies," he said, "but games just compare more closely to novels, I think, because you immerse yourself in them and they take up a big part of your life for a very long time."

Valve is anomalous in having in-house writers like Laidlaw, and the studio's games, like Portal and Half-Life 2, are anomalous in being commended not just for dialogue or individual scenes, but for how well their scenarios and characters fit within the unique structure of a game. If writers become part of the collaboration at an earlier stage, we might again ask, "Who writes this stuff? And where can we play more of it?"

#stfu Hey there! Are you a busy person on-the-go and don't have time to get stupider? ESPN has a six-minute solution: Gasbag Skip Bayless, opining that Kobe Bryant should be disciplined for appearing in that Call of Duty: Black Ops ad. More »

Did you know that Cranky Kong was the original Donkey Kong!? Okay, we all did, but I didn’t find that out until recently. That’s what I get for not owning a Super Nintendo as a lad. This is a fun article for anyone not only interested in Donkey Kong and Nintendo, but video games [...]

Understanding the mysterious project and why you should care about it.

Well, that's it then. That's everything, right? Like, Dragon's Lair is on every single technology platform known to man except for the PlayStation Network? And now, this oversight will be corrected, according to a trailer (which you can watch after the jump) that appeared in the latest PlayStation Store update. Yes, Don Bluth's almost-30-year-old animated classic will arrive on the PSN in that crisp, crisp 1080p resolution -- though no pricing or release date information has been revealed.

You know, come to think of it, Dragon's Lair's isn't on Xbox Live Arcade, either. So, it's got to show up there eventually, and then, of course, there's our Oral-B electric toothbrush ... and then ... well, we can all probably just keep on living our lives at that point.

#review What happens when you take the magical world of Harry Potter, mix in a little Gears of War shooting and Splinter Cell stealth gameplay, and shake vigorously? Things go boom. More »

Finally, Square Enix is giving us a chance to play a Monster Hunter-style action RPG -- and on the PSP. How novel! Lord of Arcana will be released in North America, on both PSN and UMD, on January 25.

While our own experience with the bloody PSP adventure didn't leave us terribly impressed, the game was directed by Deadly Premonition creator Hidetaka "Swery65" Suehiro. So maybe it'll turn out to be a misunderstood, quirky masterpiece, instead of just a bad game.

#sega Game retailer GameStop has listed (and since yanked) the Dreamcast Collection, a compilation coming to the Xbox 360 early next year. What could it be? More »

#clips The developers behind Mass Effect and Dragon Age plan to show off their next big game during this year's SpikeTV Awards, but here's an incredibly short glimpse of it. More »

#fashion How does a video game movie inspire high end fashion? The new Tron Legacy collection from Opening Ceremony shows us, in the form of light cycle inspired cargo pants, handbags modeled after identity discs and laser cut dresses. More »

Though it's been officially confirmed that Jeff Bridges won't be heard as Kevin Flynn in the forthcoming Tron: Evolution game, French robots (and DJs) Daft Punk will be lending two tracks from the film's soundtrack to the game. Disney announced this morning that Daft Punk's "Derezzed" and "The Grid" will show up in the game, alongside tracks from Sascha Dikiciyan, Cris Velasco and Kevin Manthei. Their addition was first teased during New York Comic-Con last month.

If you have a burning love for Daft Punk and need the entire film's soundtrack, you'll be able to grab it on December 7 alongside Tron: Evolution.

If you see us walking around over the next few days, randomly shouting phrases like "Card Wizard" and "Spell Deck," we need you to know that we haven't completely lost our minds. We're just trying to come up with some helpful submissions for the name of Hothead's next game.

All we know about the game is that it features wizards, and also cards, as evidenced in the screenshot above. Here's a little inspirational fuel for your brain-fires -- let's see if you can top us, possibly ascending yourself to ludological superstardom in the process:

• Card Carrying Wizard Club
• Cardmaster's Quest: Eternal Mana War of the Deckwizards
• Cards of Duty: Black Arts
• Get Out of My Dreams, Get Into My Cards
• Gin Runey
• Go Fish (With an Enchanted Fishing Pole or Something, I Don't Know)
• Guess Who: Portraits of Power
• Hocus Poker
• Middle Earth Hold 'Em
• Protect Ya' Deck
• Yu-Gi-Oh

Just drop your ideas in the comments of Hothead's post, and feel free to also share your cleverness with your fellow commenters below!

[Thanks Austin!]

Today, Nintendo released a Shigeru Miyamoto pet project for Japan's DSiWare service: "Make Your Own DS Guide," an app that allows users to record image and audio samples, and then push them out to nearby DS systems via Download Play. The idea is that people and businesses can create self-narrated guides for any event or location (like menus for a restaurant or information about an art exhibit).

In fact, this idea is based on Nintendo's experiments with using the DS to provide maps and audio tours in museums. You can see the free app in action at Nintendo's DSiWare site.

The Behemoth's BattleBlock Theater has apparently gotten away from the team and won't make it to XBLA this year. The "confession" was made on the developer's site, in which The Behemoth said that the game is "becoming so much more" than the team had expected and that there's "a little more R&D than we thought and lots of new ground to break."

Following the impending, November 25 release of Castle Crashers on PSN in Japan, the team hopes to focus on getting more BattleBlock Theater videos and details together to share publicly. We're good with waiting for a quality product ... just so long as it has functional online support at launch.

[Thanks, Blacked Out]

#thebehemoth The creators of Alien Hominid and Castle Crashers are going to need a bit more time with their third game, BattleBlock Theater, an Xbox 360 title that is "becoming so much more than we ever expected," says developer The Behemoth. More »

#clips "Look Wii, it's not you, it's just, it's me. I need to see other people. I need to see them in high definition, I need to see them online ... But I'll always remember the good times ..." More »

The Behemoth's BattleBlock Theater has apparently gotten away from the team and won't make it to XBLA this year. The "confession" was made on the developer's site, in which The Behemoth said that the game is "becoming so much more" than the team had expected and that there's "a little more R&D than we thought and lots of new ground to break."

Following the impending, November 25 release of Castle Crashers on PSN in Japan, the team hopes to focus on getting more BattleBlock Theater videos and details together to share publicly. We're good with waiting for a quality product ... just so long as it has functional online support at launch.

[Thanks, Blacked Out]

Standalone game coming to download services.

The Metal Gear Rising star's suit is in the game.

Hi everyone,

At the end of November, Housemarque, the developers of Super Stardust HD (the first game to ever feature trophies), returns to the PlayStation Network with the widely-anticipated title, Dead Nation. PlayStation Plus subscribers can take it to the zombie apocalypse for 20% off. Also, for our trophy hunters out there, Dead Nation has a platinum trophy, so be sure to pick it up while it’s on sale!

Looking for something to keep your mind off of the zombie apocalypse? PlayStation Plus subscribers will also receive discounts on two huge PlayStation franchises: Tomb Raider and Twisted Metal. Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation takes Lara Croft to Egypt in the continuation of her adventures on the PSone. Twisted Metal 2 comes from the mind of David Jaffe and takes gamers deeper into the destruction of Calypso’s Twisted Metal tournament. Along with these classics, we are discounting two new import titles, Blockids and Dezaemon Plus, and offering a free download of Vector TD, a tower defense from the minis collection.

As always, here’s a friendly reminder to pick up the content that will be removed from PlayStation Plus, including free downloads of Breakquest, Dead Nation Dynamic Theme, and a discount on Tomb Raider 2. Also God of War fans, be sure to pick up the PlayStation Plus exclusive skin bundles of God of War I and God of War II before they are removed from the PlayStation Store.

Also, another quick reminder that we published new PlayStation Plus content in yesterday’s PlayStation Store update. Visit the store for free downloads of Shatter, Oddworld’s: Abe Exoddus, and DYNOGEMS – minis.

Finally, our introductory offer is still available. For a limited time, subscribers of a full year of PlayStation Plus will receive three months for free.

PlayStation Plus Highlights for 11/30:

Free Games
Vector TD – minis (Free to PlayStation Plus Subscribers, regular price $3.99)

Discounted Games
Dead Nation (20% off) (PlayStation Plus price $11.99, regular price $14.99)
Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation (50% off) (PlayStation Plus price $3.00, regular price $5.99)
Twisted Metal 2 (50% off) (PlayStation Plus price $3.00, regular price $5.99)
Blockids – PSone Import (50% off) (PlayStation Plus price $3.00, regular price $5.99)
Dezaemon Plus – Psone Import (50% off) (PlayStation Plus price $3.00, regular price $5.99)

Free Themes
Smoke and Mist (Free and exclusive to PlayStation Plus Subscribers)
PlayStation 15th Anniversary Dynamic Theme

Last Chance, Get Them While You Can – Coming down on November 30:

Free Offers to PlayStation Plus Subscribers
BreakQuest – minis
God of War III – Dominus Skin
Dead Nation Dynamic Theme
Shadowy Graves

Discount Offers to PlayStation Plus Subscribers
Tomb Raider II (50% off) (PlayStation Plus price $3.00, regular price $5.99)
Crazy Taxi (20% off) (PlayStation Plus price $7.99, regular price $9.99)

Exclusive Offers to PlayStation Plus Subscribers
Free Kratos: Phantom of Chaos Skin with the purchase of God of War I
Free Kratos: Forgotten Warrior Skin with the purchase of God of War II