The Gerstmann-gate scandal left a sour taste in the mouths of many gamers. When Jeff Gerstmann was let go by CNET(the company that owns Gamespot), he took Gamespot's credibility and reputation for honest reviews along with him. The newly appointed editor of Gamespot, Ricadro Torres, is determined to regain the former glory of Gamespot(even if it means giving your favorite game a 6.0).
Torres states in a recent interview with GameDaily, that he plans to win back readers through "untainted" content. Torres seems sincere, but are readers really ready to forgive? Source
Sorry for the tired joke in the title....but I couldn't resist.
Nintendo's much anticipated fighting game, Super Smash Bros Brawl has been released this week in Japan. According a Japanese blogger by the name of Sinobi, Super Smash Bros Brawl sold 500,000 units on its opening day. If this is indeed true, SSBM outsold every other game released this week in Japan. This also means that SSBM sold double what Super Mario Galaxy sold in it's opening week.
Disgaea 3, was released today in japan. Nippon Ichi held a release day event at Akihabara's Messe Sanoh game store in Tokyo. Customers were able to enter a drawing contest, where they could win prizes which varied from, a small Disgaea flag signed by a member of the voice cast, a Disgaea wooden cup and a promotional DVD.
Disgaea 3 has yet to be announced for release for anywhere else, but I remain optimistic it will ship out by next year.
For those of you who don't know, Disgaea is a 2d SRPG series developed by Nippon Ichi and published by Altus. The series has many features that set it apart from other games in the genre, such as the ability to lift and throw characters across the map. This makes it possible to force enemies to keep their distance. You can also capture enemy monsters by throwing them inside your base panel.
The game also features multiple storyline endings, over 200 hours of gameplay and a 9999 level cap(yea.. say goodbye to your social life).
If your a fan of anime and RPGs, I definately reccomend checking the series out.
The first screen shots for Fatal Frame IV are out and boy do they look pretty...
Fatal Frame IV which is being produced by Grasshopper Manufacture (Recently known for No More Heroes) looks to be a Wii exclusive, which is great because these screens look good, and the Wii needs some stronger games to counter all of the third-party games they've been releasing.
You can view the rest of the screens over at WiiFanboy.
Lore Sjöberg, yet another journalist, in response to all of the controversy of Mass Effect, has created a list of raunchy games that would corrupt our children faster than a case of Budweiser and a marathon of Die Hard.
The difference with this list however, is that the author is looking for publicity and "attacking" games that truly have no place having attention brought upon.
Now before you raise your fists in anger and your pens in a furious response, do note that he only does this in the most sarcastic manner and it's quite entertaining with some of the things he came up with.
So Fox, if you're reading, here are a number of other videogames with explicit sex scenes and/or other unsavory elements, or so I'd be glad to claim on your network. At the slightest provocation, I will appear on your program and repeatedly interrupt other people in order to describe the innocence-devouring depravity of these amoral games, each of which can be purchased from gum machines by 3-year-olds.
Katamari Damacy
First of all, the King of All Cosmos has a very disturbing crotch. He's got these tights on and his externals are just wadded up in there like a week's worth of laundry. Dude just flaunts it, too. Just, just ... puts it out there. I think it has its own Flickr account. Also, "Katamari Damacy" translates roughly to "Let Us Each Have Orifice Penetration Nightly."
Please now, I do encourage you, our fair readers to go check out the remaining parts of his article because I encourage this sort of behavior. We all just need to lighten up about some things, and this guy realizes it.
Another rumor is floating around the internet, apparently Sony is planning on releasing another model of the Ps3 in America, the 120gig. This comes after the news of Sony discontinuing the 80 gig model and only supporting the 40 gig.
The 120 gig is rumored to come packaged with a DualShock 3 controller (Yay rumble!) and be priced at 499.99. Sony has yet to confirm this, though they have made a comment stating it had no plans to release the new model in the UK. Seems like the UK is always getting the shaft from Sony.
In my opinion, SCEA needs to pick a model and just stay with it. I'm beginning to lose count of all the different models.
A crook who was selling illegal PSP SD Memory Sticks and mod chips had his house raided on Monday, January 14th by the police where they found his hidden stash, of cash.
After the seized consoles were handed over to ELSPA investigators began to remove casing from the consoles with the intention of checking for chips and tampered hard drives, but to their surprise they found clear bags containing £12,210 cash.
The original Xbox contained the largest sum, housing £5,925 where the hard drive is usually found. The three PlayStation 2 consoles contained £2,835, £2,025 and £1,425 respectively.
Now while I don't support active crime, I think that hiding your money in a console is pure genius. It also makes me wonder if I should go pop open my consoles that I've bought used, maybe I got lucky...
Nexon has added a 4th class to their 2d MMORPG, Maple Story. Only after completing the requirements of the player's 3 previous classes, can the player access the 4th job change. Along with the new class change, Nexon has released a town, Leafre. This area will be dedicated to high level players ( Level 100+ ). Within Leafre, players will find upgrades to the game's most powerful weapons, and some of MapleStory's most ferocious monsters. Another feature players can look forward to is riding mounts. Beasts ranging from Wilds Hogs to Red Dragons will be available to ride.
Though it seems Nexon is only catering to it's hardcore players, several updates have been planned for players of all levels.
A new Trailer has been released for Lucasart's upcoming game, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. The game utilizes 3 different physics engines. The Havok Engine controls the movement of objects, the DMM engine defines what materials the objects are made of, and the Euphoria Engine determining how the enemy AI reacts to the environment. The Force Unleashed is shaping up to be a game worthy of the Star Wars universe. I just hope it loves up to all our expectations.
Kudo Tsunoda of Electronic Arts is cutting loose his ties to EA and moving over to Microsoft to lead for the next upcoming Gears of War title.
One staffer that won't be needing the assistance of EA's HR department is the studio's former general manager, long-time Electronic Arts exec Kudo Tsunoda. The gregarious GM has taken up a post within the Xbox division at Microsoft, a Microsoft staffer confirmed today.
The move reunites Tsunoda with his former EA Vancouver colleague Don Mattrick, who was hired last year and who now runs the Xbox business under Entertainment and Devices division boss Robbie Bach.
It was at EA's Vancouver studio that Tsunoda cut his teeth on fighting games (working first on Fight Night 2004). Tsunoda then moved to Chicago from Vancouver to take the reins of EA's new Chicago studio--a renamed NuFX, an independent that had worked closely with EA on the commercially successful fighting game.
Good luck to you Kudo, and other EA members, if you get fired look to Microsoft. They like your kind.
The Wii's Virtual Console will be getting a few new additions from a buried treasure of a console, the Sega Master System. The Sega Master System is scheduled to be arriving on the Virtual Console's listing sometime in February starting with Sega's Fantasy Zone and Fist of the North Star (Which is also known as Black Belt).
Fantasy Zone is a surreal arcade game created by Sega in 1986. It was later ported to a wide variety of consoles, including the Sega Master System. The player controls a sentient spaceship named Opa-Opa who fights nonsensical enemies in settings atypical of the traditional scrolling-shooter, thus it is considered a cute-em up.
In the game, the player's ship is placed in a level with a number of bases to destroy. When all the bases are gone, the stage boss appears; when the boss is defeated, the player moves on to the next level. There are two buttons: shoot and bomb; the normal shot is generally useful though weak, while bombs are powerful though of narrow use. One major difference between this and many other shooters is that the player can turn around and fly the other way; the screen will scroll along with the player. There is also a shop that occasionally can be accessed. The player can buy items and weapons from it using coins from defeated enemies.
In this game, you play Riki. Kyoko, your beautiful Japanese girlfriend, has been kidnapped, and in order to rescue her, you must get through a tireless army of enemies. These enemies come equipped with weapons that include whips, knives, swords, and flamethrowers, but Riki has to make do with his well-trained martial arts body.
Black Belt is a side-scrolling game that is split into seven chapters. During these chapters, you are fighting Chinese Kung Fu men, wrestlers, jujitsu men, eagles, ninjas, and black women. When you get halfway through the chapter, you will fight a different enemy than one that you encounter before. At the end of each chapter, you have to defeat several bosses before continuing on to the next round. Each type of these has their own personal strengths and weaknesses.
Today Rockstar announced the release date of its next highly anticipated game, GTA VI. The game ships April 29th . Along with the release date, Rockstar has released several screen shots of the game. The 10 screens look great but it makes the wait seem much longer.
For those of you who don't already know, there is a MMORPG currently undergoing beta testing named Mythos. Mythos is dungeon crawler heavily influenced by Diablo.
The game is developed by Flagship Studios, the current developer of Hellgate:London. Originally intended for testing the networking technology for Hellgate, Mythos has evolved an independent game with a separate release.
The Setting of Mythos
The world of Uld is an ancient one, but the current civilized Kingdoms are young. Recorded history only reaches back one hundred and fifty years. Prior to that is darkness; an epoch-long war between the Kingdoms, which are devoted to order and prosperity, and the chaotic forces of Discordia.
Now, since the war has ebbed, there is only a hazy, lingering memory from that age of darkness. The conflict lasted for generations and it scoured all written chronicles from the memory of Uld. Some few tales survive, passed down mouth-to-ear from those days of bedlam, but truly reliable accounts have been forever lost in the mists of mythology.
There are several major cities where the Kingdoms of Elves, Gremlins and Humans congregate. Here, commoners find protection and community while entrepreneurs find opportunity and fortune. These cities thrive in a cautious but optimistic age, in the aftermath of a great war that nearly wiped out everything. Although almost nothing survived intact from the Time of Darkness, there is now a palpable sense that it is time for a new age of renewal.
Beyond the precarious walls of these nascent cities, however, great brutality rampages unchecked. The pockets of civilization are only tiny grains compared to the endless, corrupt wilderness. These barbaric domains are overrun with the races of Discordia, and they feed off of the spoils of fallen nations. They are a mongrel assortment of hopping, skittering, slavering fiends that befoul the forests and haunt the limitless ruins of Uld.
But out in this dangerous wilderness lies great opportunity. For the ambitious adventurer, there is limitless treasure hidden in the depths of ancient lost dungeons. There are caches of precious metals, rare gemstones, arcane tokens and magical artifacts of great power. Some say that there are even relics of the Old Gods out there, beckoning for a hero to awaken their power.
City-dwellers have a huge appetite for the spoils of the ancient world. There is much to be learned from even the lowliest trinket - and the most elite and epic items are so powerful that they could even turn the tide of the war, and restore the world of Uld.
If any of you want to check out the game, I have 4 invites left. Just email me if you want one.
Super Mario Bros. 2 for the NES had the best soundtrack of the NES Mario games in my opinion. It was also my favorite, it felt different, unique, and fresh. Thanks to this Italian drummer, Andrea Vadrucci, my favorite Mario game's soundtrack was just given new life.
Watch the video and you'll see what I mean, he's an awesome drummer and he keeps right up with the tunes perfectly.
If you want more information on Andrea check out his homepage or his myspace page.
Congratulations Xbox Live and Playstation Network users, the Devil May Cry 4 demo is finally going to be up for download on Thursday, January 24th...
The demo introduces gamers to the gothic-inspired supernatural world of Devil May Cry 4, new protagonist Nero and the awesome power of his Devil Bringer. The demo consists of a sampling of sections from the full game, chosen to showcase Devil May Cry 4’s varied locales and allows gamers to familiarize themselves with Nero’s unique abilities. Players will receive instruction on the various new actions that the Devil Bringer bestows, such as the ability to slam creatures to the ground, cover great distances in a single bound or even grab enemies while on the ground or in the air and pull them towards Nero to continue the attack combo. The Exceed system allows Nero to “rev up” his sword as if it were a motorbike throttle and unleash devastating attacks. Players will need to master all these techniques before the end of demo showdown with the mighty Berial.
Sounds like it'll be fun, thought I'm not sure how fans of the Devil May Cry series will feel about an all new white haired main character. If Nero ends up being a knock-off of Dante, I know that I'll be upset about that.
Also if you're wondering what the mysterious Berial boss looks like, check out his picture over here. He looks like a centaur mixed with Ifrit and dipped in a cauldron of fire. Oh, and a beard to rival the members from ZZ Top.
Monday, January 22nd a couple of GameStop employees were held up and robbed by a crazy white guy with a knife.
Employees of Game Stop, in the 1200 block of East Sunset Drive, told Bellingham Police that a tall, very skinny white man who appeared to be about 20 years old browsed the store for about 45 minutes, then took several games to the register.
An employee rang up the games, but the man began to walk out of the business talking to himself, according to police. He then went back to the register and pulled out a small knife, demanding cash and the games.
Employees gave cash to the man, who jogged out of the store and sprinted east. The suspect was wearing a black hooded sweatshirt with the hood up and jeans. Employees said he smelled strongly of cigarettes.
With incidents like this it makes GameStops seem like not such a hot place to work, but every store-chain gets people robbing, or trying to rob it at some point. It's not going to stop me from eventually getting a job at a GameStop.
Today Sega announced that Condemned 2 is set to ship March 11. If beating Hobos with lead pipes, 2x4s and whatever else you could get your hands on didn't satisfy you the first time around, Sega has Announced several multiplayer modes.Besides the traditional Death match and Team Death match modes, Condemned 2 boasts two unique modes, Bum rush (a gameplay mode where players must Survive an onslaught of enemies) and Crime Scene (One team of players must use their analytical skills to gather clues while the opposing team stops them). Multiplayer will be available for PSN and XBL and support up to 8 player matches.
An 18.8 billion dollar deal will create us a new game company that will be come to be known as Activision Blizzard...
Vivendi Universal and Activision have set up a deal where the two gaming giants will join up and create a giant gaming industry baby that will be Activision Blizzard. The deal looks to be closed by mid-2008 with Vivendi being the majority stakeholder in the new company.
Janice Turner over at the UK TimesOnline wrote a fairly interesting article where she gives her opinions about the state of children and their media. She makes some relevant points about television, but it's that last moment when she talks about video games...
I really don't have much to say about the article, she makes some interesting points and talks about what her feelings are on children and technology. but some of it seems a little bit over the top like this little excerpt,
Technology boggles us with its unfathomable black magic: what if Microsoft used its power for evil and patented spyware that could suck our brains out through our noses? But our children with their instinctive understanding of new systems, stroll with happy confidence through the techno garden.
It's easy enough for parents to relate to that wordy statement I suppose, the whole thing seems a bit eccentric to me though.
What really made me want to write about this article was the following paragraph,
I refuse to buy them portable gaming consoles, Xboxes, GameCubes, PS2s. These are Satan's Sudoku, crack cocaine of the brain. Even the crappiest cartoon or lamest soap teaches a child about character, plot, drama, humour, life. Playing video games, children are mentally imprisoned, wired into their evil creators' brains. And they play them - beepety-beep - on journeys, over family meals, any minute in which they find themselves unamused.
I think I would rather have my child play Age of Empires and learn about history while having fun playing a video game, than to let said child watch Spongebob Squarepants for hours on end. I can guarantee that the things learned from AoE will better the child in life much more than anything a talking sponge would. World history, time management, and multi-tasking skills. AoE would even better a child's decision making process, should I build another Barrack and up my military or should I build more houses so my villagers can gather resources to upgrade my city faster?
Age of Empires is only one example of course, ryizzel mentioned to me Metal Gear Solid which I completely agree with. Throughout the whole game you can talk to Natasha who will teach you about the history of nuclear waste and nuclear war.
Heck, I learned my cardinal directions by playing The Legend of Zelda! The secret lies on the easternmost peninsula.
One final thing. Game creators are not evil, and children are not imprisoned in the games at any point. The common goal for a lot of next generation game developers is to break away the linear plot lines and enable the player to truly immerse oneself in the game by going wherever and doing whatever he/she would choose. Of course however, we would never want our children to actually enjoy a video game, they'll grow up to be losers working for successful game companies and making lots of money doing something they enjoy. God forbid.
Tragedy strikes as the line between virtual reality and real life blur. A Lineage II clan named the Platinums has sustained a casualty in real life.
In Lineage II, the game emphasizes on clan warfare, so its easy to get caught up in the hype. However, when players Decide to go Aggro In real life, nothing good can come of it, as 33-year-old Albert found out. Albert is Survived by his Sister, Albina, A fellow member of the platinums, who is also recieving death threats from members of the Accused's guild.
Things like this happen When people start taking the events that occur on a virtual world seriously. I think that players of Lineage need to step back, relax and realize...Its just a game.No need to kill over it guys....kay? source
