Joystiq older than one year ago

Marketing agencies rarely want to promote their product as "an atrocity." However, a new ad campaign by EA does exactly that. "Your Mom Hates Dead Space 2" subjects focus group participants, comprised entirely of older females, to experience footage from Visceral's upcoming survival horror game.

The PS3 jailbreak threatens to wreck havoc on the PlayStation ecosystem in ways beyond just piracy. The integrity of the PS3 trophy system hangs in the balance, as hackers have supposedly created an app that unlocks trophies in games automatically. CVG reports that the tool has been used to unlock trophies in BUZZ! and the notoriously challenging PAIN. Oddly, the tool apparently doesn't work in games like Resident Evil 5 and Batman: Arkham Asylum, meaning it isn't quite foolproof yet.

Obviously, a compromise like this undermines the entire point of the trophy system. Sony's Eric Lempel explained to us that the PSP couldn't support trophies due to the unsecured nature of that platform. "If people can artificially inflate their rankings ... it kills the whole [Trophy] system," he explained. Unfortunately, it appears Sony now faces the same issue on the PS3.

"We are aware of this, and are currently looking into it," a SCEE representative commented. "We will fix the issues through network updates, but because this is a security issue, we are not able to provide you with any more details."

Turning a Warcraft 3 mod into a fully-fledged product is probably a tricky process, especially when that mod has a feverishly devoted fan base. Valve senior project manager Erik Johnson recently spoke to IGN about how the Dota 2 dev team is tiptoeing through this potential minefield, explaining that the core gameplay of the mod will remain unchanged. "We'd be pretty hard-pressed to improve on that," Johnson explained.

Valve's additions to the DotA formula will be largely cosmetic, focusing on "infrastructure, art, and providing helpful tools to newcomers so they can figure out what's going on." That seems like a good compromise -- keep the things that hardcore DotA fans already know and love, while giving a leg-up to people like us, who manage to lose DotA matches within mere milliseconds.

Here's one of CES 2011's less technical, but most awesome, revelations: Mattel is working on a board game adaptation of Rovio's mobile hit, Angry Birds. The game looks like a pretty authentic recreation of its source material; players draw "Mission Cards" depicting structures of bricks and pigs, which they then build using plastic models included in the game. Oh, and then they shoot birds at those structures using a tiny slingshot. That part is pretty integral to the whole experience, apparently.

The game will cost $14.99 when it launches worldwide this May. Even if you don't want the board game, $14.99 is a perfectly reasonable price for a tiny catapult. Just think of all the tiny things you can terrorize with a catapult of that size!

Breaking! Sailor Moon has washed up in Italy, years after her abrupt disappearance from US syndication. Following a new initiative to globalize Ms. Moon's brand of magical girl ... sailing (is it?), Namco Bandai Europe has announced the world's first Sailor Moon DS game -- and, in fact, only the second Sailor game to be released outside of Japan, ever: La luna splende, which, as you may have gathered from the title, will be exclusive to Italy.

La luna splende, planned for release this spring, looks to cash in on the Sailor Moon revival in Italy, where Toei Animation has been broadcasting a remastered version of the anime series since last March, according to Wikipedia. "Adventure, fantasy, fun, action ...," teases the Google translation of Namco Bandai's Italian announcement, "these are the watchwords for next spring." Hmmm ... maybe it's more convincing in Italian: Avventura, fantasia, divertimento, azione ... ecco le parole d'ordine per la prossima primavera?

Or perhaps Finnish? Seikkailu, fantasia, hauska, toiminta ... tässä ovat avainsanoja ensi keväänä! Yep. There it is.

Good news! There's now a way to run UMD-only games on a PSP Go. The bad news: it's an unofficial exploit. Coders "Virtuous Flame" and "Coldbird" have released a "Homebrew Enabler" for PSP firmware 6.31 and 6.35. Using that, "Liquidzigong" was able to get the Prometheus ISO Loader program running on the disc-free handheld, allowing copied UMD disc images to be saved and run on the system.

After the break, you can see a demonstration of the hack, in which a user loads up Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep -- a high-profile title never released on PSN. While we can't speak on the legality of using this method to back up your UMD games and play them on a Go (and then on the go), we can confidently condemn the use of this exploit to play games that aren't yours.

Okay, not quite. But fans of Super Meat Boy in Russia now have the opportunity to design the cover art for the PC box-copy release in the territory (so team Meat doesn't have to). Published by Buka Entertainment, the Russian release will be the first box copy of the game available in the world, so it's ... sort of a big deal?

To enter the box art contest -- well, first you have to be a resident of Russia or any of the former Soviet Union countries, and then -- just put together a 709x709-pixel image using this set of SMB assets (.ZIP link), send it in to Buka before midnight on January 15, 2011, and calmly wait for the results to be announced a day or so later (more specific instructions can be found here). Not only will the winner become "like semi-popular," but he or she will also receive an Acer monitor!

A personal message from Team Meat's Edmund McMillen spells out the intentions behind the contest, which you can view after the break. If you don't watch it for the pitch, watch it for his totally sweet hat.

While we already knew a level editor was on the way for the PC version of Super Meat Boy, news that it will also add an online portal for the custom levels is, um, news! Additionally, both the PC and Xbox Live Arcade versions will soon be updated with a new hub-world chapter, which will be home to new levels uploaded by Team Meat. All the new content is expected to be released mid-January, according to the developer.

The PC-only online portal will catalog all user-created maps (created with the level editor, of course) and allow players to rate them and sort them based on a variety of criteria, says Team Meat. As for the new hub-world chapter, dubbed "Super Meat World," it will unlock as a destination prior to the first chapter (The Forest) on the chapter select screen once the player has collected 20 bandages.

"Super Meat World" will behave a bit differently on each platform. On both XBLA and PC, this world will become the default destination for all new levels uploaded to the game by Team Meat (but not "Teh Internets" world, which will continue to reside in its own spot and even get some additional level love via this impending update) and will gain levels designed specifically for some of the hidden characters in the game. Also, Team Meat says that while a level editor won't be gracing XBLA, it will upload "all compatible user made level packs that we deem 'awesome'" to the XBLA's "Teh Internets" world.

On the PC, "Super Meat World" gets an additional exclusive feature: an "Enter the Unknown" area which will feature a dynamic playlist of random, highly-ranked, custom maps made by the community each time you play. Players will need only to choose a level of difficulty at the outset on PC, then they'll be thrust into multiple levels that meet both the rating prerequisite and toughness level chosen.

Even though we should be totally used to seeing insane feats of game design in LittleBigPlanet 2, we're still amazed by this Marvel vs. Capcom-style fighting game created by beta player "POLLOIZARRARAZ43." The stage, inspired by Resident Evil's Umbrella Mansion, is awesome, and introduced with dramatic camera movement, and the game's existing Marvel costumes are put to great use to create a character lineup.

But neither of those features is the best part. The best part is how, after all this buildup, the round starts and it instantly devolves into a rapid-fire Sackboy slap fight -- punctuated by impressive special moves. Really!

The Left 4 Dead 2-themed Hunter and Tank plushes will just make their planned "late December" arrival on the Valve Store. The new additions to this line of frighteningly inappropriate stuffed "animals" will begin shipping to pre-purchasers on Monday, December 27, ensuring that Christmas will not be ruined for any young recipients of these special ... Infected.

Sold separately and currently available for pre-order at a 10-percent discount, the Hunter Plush ($26.95) and Tank Plush ($31.45) both feature ten likely terrifying sound samples that should never, ever be played in a child's bedroom when the lights are off. Thankfully, the pair looks decidedly cuddlier than its sibling, the Boomer Plush.

But, you know? That isn't saying much.Left 4 Dead Hunter & Tank plushes shipping December 27

Nine months after the ESRB listed Neo Geo games for PS3 and PSP, publisher SNK Playmore has announced plans for a "Neo Geo Station" on PlayStation Network. Starting December 21, games from the Neo Geo's library will be released on PSN in both PS3 and PSP versions, costing $8.99 and $6.99 each, respectively. The pricing on the PS3 versions is equivalent to the cost of buying Neo Geo games on the Wii Virtual Console.

Unlike the Virtual Console releases, these aren't just emulated versions of the originals. SNK has added features like online co-op and versus play on PS3 (and Ad-Hoc Party support on PSP), along with other unspecified enhancements. Check after the break for all ten games hitting PS3 on December 21, and the two PSP games arriving at the same time. The other eight are scheduled to arrive on PSP sometime in January.

Nintendo offered a strange promotional deal for Donkey Kong Country Returns at UK video game stores recently. All fans were asked to do is bring in real bananas; the first 20 who did would get a copy of Retro Studios' brilliantly tough platformer. And, sure enough, it worked -- fans handing over bananas got a copy of the game, as well as a photo opportunity with ... the store employees.

The promotion worked so well, according to Nintendo, that the company is planning some similar giveaways in the future. Soon, by bringing in real-life psychadelic mushrooms, you'll be able to get a copy of the trippy Super Mario Galaxy 2. A fully knitted sweater will net you a copy of Kirby's Epic Yarn and 20 lucky game store shoppers will be able to get a copy of Metroid: Other M by bringing in a real extraterrestrial being. Good luck with that one.

Television network G4 announced today that it has signed a three-year deal to be the official broadcaster of E3. The partnership between the network and the mega-convention's organizer, the ESA, extends a relationship the two have renewed annually for the past several years, relieving G4 of having to ask the awkward "wanna go steady (again)" question for a time.

The Comcast-owned network's multi-year agreement gives G4 access to "uninterrupted press conference coverage" and all the other flare you'd expect from the moving-picture medium. All you DirecTV subscribers, of course, will have to head over to a friend's house to watch the coverage, since the satellite TV company recently dropped the network -- or you could just join on us these little ol' internets for our own extensive E3 coverage with written words.

Well, here's another reason for us to be jealous of our up-north cohorts -- for tomorrow only, Canadian tech retailer Future Shop is letting shoppers trade in six Wii, 360 or PS3 games for a 32-inch Dynex LCD TV, which normally retails for $300, which is absolutely crazy.

"Are we going to be charging for multiplayer? The answer is no," Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg told IndustryGamers in what we could only hope was a Stuart Smalley staring-in-a-mirror moment. "The experience you have out of the box, connecting with the online community to play Call of Duty is absolutely integral to the experience, and we'll never charge for that. It's not going to be something we'll attempt to monetize; it's part of the package."

As if his point wasn't clear, Hirshberg further insisted that he could say "unequivocally" that Activision will "never, ever charge for the multiplayer." Earlier this month, statements from both Hirshberg and CFO Thomas Tippl hinted at vague plans to better monetize the franchise next year with more digital content, which in turn renewed speculation about the long-considered Call of Duty subscription model.

Some madman over at PC Gamer has been trying out something called the "Minecraft Experiment," in which player death results in the immediate deletion of the world he or she has been working so hard to spruce up. The game's creator, Markus Persson recently posted on his blog that the feature series has inspired him to include a similar "Hardcore" mode in the game, where the world will be destroyed and reset every time the player gets killed by a Creeper, skeleton, gravity or any of the other deadly forces present in the game.

Look, we have a hard enough time rationalizing the remarkable amounts of time we put into this game already. To play a mode where, with one missed jump, entire weeks of our lives are erased, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind-style? That's straight-up masochism, dudes.

In case the flood of promotional messages from your friends hasn't tipped you off yet, here's some news: a lot of people have checked out the Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit demo on Xbox Live and PSN. According to some stats from EA, "more than" two million consoles downloaded the demo within the span of two weeks, making it the most successful demo for the series yet.

Throughout their time with the demo, players have raced across 54 million miles of road in Seacrest County, resulting in over 20 million busts by law enforcement. If you were looking to get in on either side of the conflict, we're afraid you can no longer download the demo. But! We've got the next best thing: our review of the game!.

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit launches on November 16 for the PS3, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii and Windows PC.

Professionial Activision, umm, guy Dan "One of Swords" Amrich has posted nine interesting secrets from Call of Duty: Black Ops' multiplayer map Nuketown. Sure, everybody probably noticed the double rainbow all the way across the sky (what does it mean?), but did you notice the names on the mailboxes, or the fact that the town clock and population board actually count the actual time left and players present in the match? There's also a few secret RC-XD hidey holes (seen above), and apparently Nuketown isn't the only map with a few secret places to send your buzzing remote controlled car of doom.

Say what you want about Activision's evil empire or the money-making steamroller that Call of Duty has become, but no one can say Treyarch didn't pack the stuffing out of this game with hidden content.

From our "It's Fun to Dream" file comes a story from the latest issue of PSM3, in which Double Fine's Tim Schafer says he's ready to do a sequel to his classic action platformer Psychonauts. So ... Psychonauts 2: Revenge of the Milkman coming fall of 2012, pre-order now to get your commemorative goggles. Right?

Not so fast, bucko. Schafer wants to make a new Psychonauts, but he still needs to find someone to help foot the bill. "It's really a question of getting a publisher who's interested in doing it," he told the magazine. "Over the years it's gotten into the hands of a lot of people ... so if all these people were going to buy the sequel it would be a big hit."

So, any of you have a few spare millions kicking around? Maybe if everybody pooled together? Let's see, we have ... $7.12, a piece of Bazooka and a marble. That's ... that's not going to cut it, is it?

Due to an error on Activision's part, any female Xbox Live Avatar can be outfitted in some Call of Duty: Black Ops virtual gear free of charge. Having only printed codes for male Avatar gear inside of the Hardened and Prestige edition packages, the publisher had to quickly create two universal codes for female gear, allowing any account with a female Avatar to nab the two outfits -- with the right codes. Thankfully, a CAG user has shared these codes with the rest of the world. (Those bears would be so proud!)

By inputting the code GYVF8-PF7RY-28D7V-VGWV8-CFGRM into your Xbox (or online), you can snag the "SR 71 Flight Suit"; while inputting R76BQ-CR3MF-G2TTF-9G36R-BQWJD will net you a "Woods Outfit." The duds aren't available through the Marketplace otherwise, so sorry ladies, you can't try them on first -- but, hey, beggars can't be choosers!

[Thanks, David from Berkeley]

Last year, New Super Mario Bros. Wii introduced the "Super Guide" -- if you died eight times in one level, you'd get the option to have Luigi play through it for you (and you could take back control at any time) -- and gaming was ruined forever. (Not really.)

Nintendo has since included the Super Guide in Super Mario Galaxy 2, and now it's been confirmed that the feature will return in Retro Studios' Donkey Kong Country Returns. Should you die eight times (apparently the magic number just before most controllers are smashed!) in any level, you'll be able to initiate a playthrough by the white "Super Kong." Once he takes over, you can either watch the rest of the level be played for you or resume playing it once Super Kong passes any problem area. Of course, you won't get to keep any of the bananas, "KONG" letters or other collectibles picked up by Super Kong -- he has to be rewarded with something for his masterful efforts, right?

Our own first experience with the game, along with a subsequent preview, suggests that we might no longer shun the Super Guide when it comes to Donkey Kong Country Returns. We fully expect to be rescued by Super Kong at least once.

The Pokémon Company recently polled the hardcore players of its monster-collecting franchise to find out who's the most popular 'mon of all time. You'd think Pikachu, right? Like, that's a totally logical assumption, considering how much exposure that little yellow bastard has received over the years. Unfortunately, you're totally wrong -- first place went to Arceus, a legendary Pokémon first introduced in Diamond and Pearl.

Fellow legendaries Darkrai and Deoxys came in second and third place, respectively, followed by Pikachu in fourth and Meowth in fifth. As Siliconera points out, seeing as how the polls were conducted among hardcore players, the polls probably skewed towards the more powerful guys rather than the more recognizable guys, which is not the best metric for determining popularity. Like, we were clearly the buffest guys at our high school, but we were never elected prom king, you know?

What? Why are you laughing?

Guys, we're screwed. We're not going to be able to resist buying Donkey Kong Country Returns, but the more media we consume from the game -- like the trailer posted below -- the more convinced we become that the game is going to be so difficult, that we might uncontrollably weep while playing it.

The quest to uncover the North American and European release dates for the Nintendo 3DS became a little bit easier earlier this week, when the megapublisher confirmed that the eye-popping handheld would visit itself upon our store shelves in March. However, the exact date of its arrival is still up in the air -- though scans of the latest issue of Official Nintendo Magazine obtained by VGTribune might just clear up the confusion. According to the mag, the U.S. and European 3DS release date is March 11, 2011.

There's no way of knowing if the magazine's report is on the money until Nintendo makes an official announcement -- after all, it's possible the article's mistaken, due entirely to the fact that March '11 looks a whole heck of a lot like March 11 on paper. Also, though Nintendo is accustomed to launching new gaming hardware in European territories on Fridays, those kinds of releases usually come stateside on Sundays. We've contacted Nintendo for a comment on this supposed due date but, as is the case with these things, we're not likely to get anything official until the Big N puts it into a press release.

Update: Some of the magazine's readers are reporting that the scan obtained by VGTribune was photoshopped, and that it did indeed read "March 2011." Another scan on GoNintendo shows the release timetable in its unaltered glory.

Sorry, "horrifyingly awkward news bloopers," you've been surpassed by our new favorite YouTube search term: "Kinect with night-vision goggles." When viewing your living room through the lens of NVGs (like the ones included in the Prestige Edition of Modern Warfare 2), you can see the beautiful galaxy of pinpoint sensors projected by Kinect's obsidian eyes.

Check out some videos of this phenomenon after the jump, and contemplate the fact that by buying Kinect, you're not only purchasing the controller-free controller of the future -- you're also getting a funky-ass invisible disco ball.

Here we are, having our own little private November Christmas, tearing apart the freshly delivered Xbox 360 S console bundle, replete with Kinect and Kinect Adventures, only to make an inconvenient discovery -- the Xbox 360 S Kinect bundle doesn't contain a standalone power cord for Kinect, leaving folks who want to use those Kinects on older (pre-Slim) Xbox 360s in the lurch. How in the world are we going to show Grandma all our stylish new Dance Central moves when she's only got a regular Xbox 360?

As of this minute, Microsoft isn't showing individual Kinect power cords on its website, though a Microsoft rep is looking into whether they'll be offered in the future. Those in dire need could always purchase a standalone Kinect (which comes bundled with the cord), but we'd suggest against that. For now, though, unless Grandma's got her own Kinect, or an Xbox 360 S, your dance moves are staying firmly holstered in your own abode.

After Keiji Inafune finally got his wish and began development of a new Mega Man Legends game ... he left Capcom. The remaining team members collectively issued a statement through Capcom-Unity to let us know that the 3DS Mega Man Legends 3 Project continues unabated. "We have been reading all of your comments from the past few days, many of them expressions of anxiety and many of encouragement," reads the open letter. "Honestly, though many of us are still a little dazed and confused about all of this, the 'can-do' fire inside us is still burning as hot as ever!"

The team also promised to reveal info soon about upgrades to the Devroom community, through which fans help decide design decisions (like the new character design). You can find the full statement after the break. And though it's not explicitly mentioned, we can assure you that Capcom will also continue making Mega Man games in other series. All the time. Forever.

Nintendo of America has announced plans to celebrate Super Mario Bros.' 25th anniversary by selling us Super Mario All-Stars again. On December 12, the Super Mario All-Stars Limited Edition will be released in North America, with the same contents as the European and Japanese releases: the game on a Wii disc, a Super Mario History CD with tracks from classic and modern Marios, and a 32-page Super Mario History booklet.

Nintendo says that sales will continue "while supplies last," which makes it sound like there will be only one run of the All-Stars collection. Considering the bonuses, that $30 price actually compares pretty favorably to buying All-Stars on eBay.

Cartoon Network's stable of characters will make the jump to stereoscopic 3D this spring thanks to an agreement with Crave. The publisher announced a deal through which it would release an "action-packed battle game" on 3DS starring characters from various current and classic Cartoon Network shows, including Ben 10, the Powerpuff Girls, Dexter's Lab, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, and not Adventure Time.

Developer Papaya Studios is also working on versions of the game for Xbox 360, Wii, and PS3 for release in holiday 2011, but without the appeal of new hardware, those aren't nearly as exciting!