All Topics Gaming older than one year ago

Silver Surfer and an outspoken lawyer almost made the cut.

SYDNEY, 24 November, 2010: Mindscape has announced new tracks to feature in its upcoming Wii karaoke title, U-SING 2 Australian Edition. In an exclusive for Wii, additional tracks will also be available for purchase via the Nintendo U- Store using Wii points. The Australian edition will feature 40 tracks in game with 16 tracks from Australian [...]

#sony Sorry, sneakerheads and Killzone fans, but these new ultra-limited edition kicks from the most recent Nike and PlayStation collaboration are for "friends and family" only, two more Sony commissioned sneakers that will likely become instant collector's items. More »

Tepig. Snivy. Oshawott. Sure, these three gibberish words don't mean anything to your brain right now, but learn them well -- they're the English names of the new starters in Pokémon Black and White, as revealed by the game's recently launched, official North American website. You don't want to be left behind when these guys become part of our cultural vocabulary, much like Squirtle, Charmander, and the grass one which nobody ever picked. (Just kidding, Bulbasaur. We cool, we cool.)

There's a few other details about the new environment of Unova, and the two new playable trainers as well. There's also a section about the two endgame legendary 'mons, Reshiram and Zekrom -- who will also be making their debut as floats in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. Which should be ... well, terrifying. Look at them! Can you imagine those things, forty stories tall, floating down the streets of New York City? We liked that scenario better when it was called Cloverfield, and was, you know, not a real thing that happened.

IGN unleashes twelve years of wishful thinking.

Homebrew developers continue to do much more interesting things with the Kinect sensor than have been done in any of the retail games so far. Two recent projects manage to use the sensor for proof-of-concept programs that are simultaneously sophisticated and kind of juvenile.

Dan Wilcox rigged up Kinect to see a human body and estimate approximately where the chest area would be on that body ... and then display either a bra or pasties over that area. Of course it's called "Titty Tracker." And Robert "Flight404" Hodgin created a program that generates a 3D model of the person in view of the Kinect, and then distorts that model to create some kind of puffy monster. The point isn't to create nightmare fuel, it's just proof of the open-source Cinder software's ability to access Kinect data.

Other hacks can be found in this roundup, including one that renders people entirely in horizontal white lines, one that uses movement with a MIDI controller to turn the Kinect into a sort of theremin and a head-tracking program.

With an impeccable, topsy-turvy career of stunt racing behind him, Joe Danger's certainly no chicken -- we've heard that his middle name is "Danger," despite the obvious redundancy. Still, if you insist that Joe "Danger" Danger make a fool out of himself and don a costume of the poultry persuasion, you'll be pleased to learn that Hello Games is introducing "Chicken Joe," along with several new characters, to the PSN's bike bounce-'em-up.

You'll be able to download four new characters, who all have access to unique collectables, bikes and stunts, from the PlayStation Store following today's update (and tomorrow's in Europe). "We actually asked the community for suggestions for characters, which has been eye-opening," said Hello Games MD Sean Murray in an announcement. "Apparently monkeys really are as popular as you might think, but zombies are on the wane, which is long overdue ..."

Aside from Chicken Joe, the community has conjured up undead knight Sir Bonehead, Geronim-Joe ("We're from the UK," said Hello, "so Indians eating turkey is as far as our understanding of Thanksgiving goes") and, by popular demand, a monkey. If we're not mistaken, the desire to put a monkey on a motorcycle and send it through a cartoonish obstacle course is what prompted Harold Video to invent the Video game in 1987.

Joe Danger will be discounted to $7.49 from today's update until next Tuesday's update in the PSN Fall sale. While Hello Games did not confirm whether the new DLC characters will be free (we assume so!), we'll know soon enough.

#war If war flares again on the Korean peninsula as it threatened to today, there will be far more dire things to worry about than a video game, but the upcoming Homefront will nevertheless feel different. More »

Free downloadable content and multiplayer features announced.

#clips I've called Darkspore a sort of Diablo-meets-Spore-in-space game. This developer diary gives you a better look at why I felt that way when I played it. More »

Nintendo was nice enough to send over a giant box to the warehouse today. I had no idea what was inside. When I opened it up, I found all sorts of goodies, which you can see below. I also found a note saying that the Big N had included a gingerbread house for me [...]

Looking to expand your DJ Hero 2 and/or Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock catalogues at a significant discount? Activision's offering of free DLC for each game seeks to solve your problem, adding a DJ Tiesto-mixed three-track pack to DJ Hero 2 and a My Chemical Romance pack to Warriors of Rock, each of which is free in the US "via redemption code while supplies last." The catch: each pack is free for this week only before becoming paid content on November 30 (also, the content for Warriors of Rock is only available to Xbox 360 owners).

Details for both packs can be found after the break, including pricing for when they're no longer free next week. But hey, you're on top of things, so you're totally gonna get them while they're free. Head over to Activision and Coca-Cola's code generating website "while supplies last."

The hottest way to get a speed fix.

#hellogames Hello Games' cheerful PlayStation Network stunt 'em up Joe Danger was dinged by at least one person for not having enough monkeys in the game. That lack of simian stuntmen has been corrected with Joe Danger's new downloadable content. More »

Full track list revealed; Special Edition Glove included in initial Wii release, available while supplies last.

Get spanked.

While Battlefield: Bad Company 2 soldiers wait for VIP Map Pack 7 and -- more importantly -- a Vietnam release date, it appears that a much-welcomed update to the game's multiplayer is coming to consoles. You'll recall that a version of the patch was released for PC last month. Included in the multiplayer patch are several needed tweaks, the most important of which is the 50 percent weapon damage reduction to MCOM stations so the device doesn't detonate instantly thanks to the ol' "C4 on UAV" exploit.

PlayStation 3 players will get the patch today, while Xbox 360 players should be receiving the patch "in the coming days." Stop laughing, PC owners; you're getting another update, too. DICE says the update will be large, in preparation for the incoming packs (the prior PC update was a whopping 900MB). Peruse the details after the break.

The Mac side of glory.

During the first three episodes of “The Tester 2,” the cast has been tested on their PlayStation knowledge, attention to detail, memorization and communication skills. This week, it’s time to see what they’re truly made of in the most physically demanding teamwork challenge of the season, inspired by Medal of Honor. We’ll see who can really dig into the trenches and continue to prove that they have what it takes to be the next PlayStation QA Tester.

Along with the Medal of Honor themed challenge comes the Tier 1 beard! Greg Goodrich, EA’s executive producer for Medal of Honor, joins both Adrianne Curry and Brent Gocke to determine who’s moving up the ranks and who’s turning in their badge.

Episode 4 of “The Tester 2” debuts today only on the PlayStation Network. Look to download from the PlayStation Store later today after the update and check it out in PlayStation Home starting Wednesday to receive a new ‘Game Over’ T-shirt.

This Week’s Prize Package

Continuing with our Medal of Honor theme, this week’s ‘Download & Win’ prize is a copy of the newly released Medal of Honor Limited Edition signed by Greg Goodrich and a ‘The Tester” Limited Edition PS3 system. Download Episode 4 from the PlayStation Store to be automatically entered to win. See the official rules here.

More Deleted Scenes

This season we increased the length of the episodes for “The Tester 2” to show you more behind the scenes with the cast. However, there is still more that wasn’t included in each episode. Check back on ‘The Clips’ section on the official “The Tester” website for previous Extra Scenes. Here is a sneak peek at some of the deleted scenes from Episode 3.

Catching up with Fantasy Girl

Fantasy Girl was one of the quieter cast members in the house. However, she definitely had a lot to say after her season ended, including an outburst that was not shown in Episode 3. Check out PlayStation LifeStyle’s weekly podcast to learn more about Fantasy Girl.

Enjoy Episode 4 and tell us what you think!

Striking a balance between cute and kinda disturbing, developer Insomniac and artist Jason Freeny have teamed up to auction off some one-of-a-kind Ratchet & Clank sculptures, with a portion of the proceeds going to charity. The set includes a 12" statue of Cpt. Qwark signed by Insomniac staff, a 6" Clank with flip-top head and brain inside, and a 10" quarter-cut sculpture of Ratchet that exposes his skeleton and digestive system. Also, if you're as perplexed (and nerdy) as we are to have noticed Clank has a brain, you'll be pleased the hear an Insomniac representative rationalizing it: "Let's call it artistic interpretation - as Clank is certainly a mechanical character in the series."

Now to work on the long process of getting the visions of a skinned Ratchet, laying on some medical student's dissection table, out of our heads.

Update: Insomniac framed this auction to us as a "charity auction." Freeny contacted Joystiq to inform us these auctions are how he makes his living, that the charity portion was an agreement between he and the developer, but that this is not a "charity auction." We've updated our piece appropriately.Ratchet & Clank cut-away sculptures up for auction [update]

Company rejoins Sony, Microsoft in Vegas.

Launches simultaneously across multiple platforms to broaden franchise's audience base.