Posted by Keenan in PC, Videos | 0 comments | Game: Mega Man Universe | 9 hours ago

Here’s your first look at Mega Man Universe

It looks like the first video with gameplay footage of Mega Man Universe has surfaced, and was surprisingly…underwhelming. I mean the game had pretty nice graphics, but to me is just another sidescrolling Megaman game where you can supposedly play as Ryu. Online.

The level editor is a nice addition though. Hopefully there will be some more additions or “innovations” (I hate that word but for some reason I need to use that word to articulate what I’m going to say) so that the game will differentiate itself from the rest of the series. Besides the level editor and being online. I’m not saying that I wouldn’t that I wouldn’t enjoy just a traditional game, but I think that myself and a lot more people were hoping for something…more.

Posted by Keenan in Apple, Nintendo, Nintendo DS, PSP, Sony, iPad, iPhone/Touch | 1 comment | | 1 day ago

Apparently the iPod Touch is in direct competition with the DS and PSP when it comes to gaming

It looks like Apple, at their recent keynote, announced that they had sold more iPod Touches, not including iPhones, than all versions of both the Nintendo DS and PSP combined. Wow, what a remarkable number. One thing I think is hard to gripe with though is that at the same keynote just moments before, Steve Jobs announced that the company had shipped 120 million iOS devices. Oh yeah, that happens to include the iPod Touch, iPhone, and iPad.

Now a little look would tell us that the Nintendo DS has sold over 132 million units worldwide…. well over 120 million that Apple had announced previously. That’s just fact-checking though.

Okay, the next thing is just the common sense comparison between the iOS devices and the DS or PSP. The iPod Touch/iPhone is meant for music, videos, cheap games/apps, and phone calls. The DS was made for gaming, and with the DSi, the addition of downloadable gaming. The same can be said for the PSP minus the fact that there are UMD’s of movies you can watch on it.

Seriously though, the hardware is in two different categories. I mean since when can you get games and apps for free and $.99 on the DS or PSP (minus the piracy factor). Sure you sold 1.5 billion games and apps, but that doesn’t mean you made the profit that a million units sold of a $39.99 game did.

I guess Apple has got a little explaining to do, and Engadget has already emailed asking about the questions posed by many people who have heard about the announcement.

Posted by Derek "Debonaire Death" Sommer in Other News, Videos | 0 comments | | 1 day ago

BarfQuestion’s Awesome Video Game AMV

I don’t know how many of our readers know BarfQuestion, but I know him as the quirky, brilliant creator of some of the coolest frame-by-frame animations in the business. A few months ago he released a new AMV to “The Faster the Treadmill” by I Fight Dragons. The AMV is about a sad misfit of an NPC in a crazy video game world. I feel the AMV has been underrecognized and thus I share with you! Enjoy.

Note from the Author: Crap! I still don’t have the hang of embedding videos with WordPress. Forgive me! The video will be up as soon as a wiser being can fix it, or I figure out what to do. The link works just fine, though.

Posted by Keenan in PSP, Sony | 0 comments | | 2 days ago

Oh hey, go ahead and trade in your PSPgo for a nice, shiny PSP-3000

You know that the PSPgo isn’t doing so hot when Sony starts a trade-in for the their latest, but failure of a handheld in for it’s predecessor, the PSP-3000.

So what the trade-in does is that with the upcoming God of War: Ghost of Sparta release, there will be a special edition PSP-3000 being released that is black and red, that you can get when you trade in your PSPgo. The sad thing is, I don’t think enough people own a PSPgo to make this deal worthwhile.

What’s included though is:

• Black-and-red PSP 3000
• Ghost of Sparta UMD
• Chains of Olympus PSN voucher
• Kick Ass UMD movie
• 2GB Memory Stick Pro Duo

So shazam! You can get yourself a PSP, the God of War game, Cains of Olympus, Kick Ass, and a memory card. It’ll pretty much set you up for gaming on the system if you haven’t started doing so yet and are interested.

Posted by Keenan in Gaming in General | 0 comments | | 2 days ago

UK Sales for Week Ending 8/28/10

And the UK sales, while coming in a little late this week, still have… numbers, and show… sales. Mafia II unsurprisingly debuted at the number one spot  knocking down Kane and Lynch 2, Toy Story 3, and Red Dead Redemption. Surprisingly enough though, Dance on Broadway has moved from the number 9 spot last week all the way down to 15. Maybe people finally had enough of looking like dumbshits in front of their TV’s.

Wii Sports Resort also made a large jump up to the number 5 spot this week all the way from 16 last week. I guess being coupled with the Wii and great Wii sales aren’t going to hurt, eh?

POS.		TITLE	PUBLISHER	LAST WEEK
1		MAFIA II	2K GAMES	-
2		KANE & LYNCH 2: DOG DAYS	EIDOS	1
3		TOY STORY 3	DISNEY INTERACTIVE STUDIOS	2
4		RED DEAD REDEMPTION	ROCKSTAR	3
5		WII SPORTS RESORT	NINTENDO	16
6		JUST DANCE	UBISOFT	5
7	-	SUPER MARIO GALAXY 2	NINTENDO	7
8		LEGO HARRY POTTER: YEARS 1-4	WARNER BROS. INTERACTIVE	4
9		SNIPER: GHOST WARRIOR	CITY INTERACTIVE	13
10		PRINCE OF PERSIA: THE FORGOTTEN SANDS	UBISOFT	8
11		BATTLEFIELD: BAD COMPANY 2	EA GAMES	10
12		CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE 2	ACTIVISION	18
13		NEW SUPER MARIO BROS.	NINTENDO	17
14		MASS EFFECT 2	EA GAMES	12
15		DANCE ON BROADWAY	UBISOFT	9
16		WII FIT PLUS	NINTENDO	19
17		FIFA 10	EA SPORTS	14
18		NEED FOR SPEED: SHIFT	EA GAMES	15
19		DRAGON QUEST IX: SENTINELS STARRY SKIES	SQUARE ENIX	11
20		NEW SUPER MARIO BROS. WII	NINTENDO	-

Posted by Joelpk in Gaming in General, Microsoft, Xbox 360 | 0 comments | | 3 days ago

Rumour alert! Are Microsoft making a new 360 Pad?

"Thiiiiiiiiings are gonna get betteeeeeerrrrrr!" Except you'll have to pay more for LIVE

The Xbox 360 pad is the crème de la crème of controllers. No really it is. Since first using one in 2006 I can say (even as a PS3 owner too) that no controller comes close to it and this is especially true when playing your favourite FPS game. However, many gamers, fanboys and downright nitpickers have often voiced their disgust at the D-pad. Sure it’s somewhat… unique but I personally have never had the slightest problem with it (what can be better than being able to press left on the D-pad with you palm?)

Now then, rumour has it that Microsoft are planning to release a new controller that will raise the D-Pad around a quarter of an inch when you rotate it 90 degrees, sounds simple but it could be very effective and more so when playing games such as Street Fighter.

It’s a wait and see, but if the sheer accuracy of recent rumours in this industry are anything to go by (new Xbox, new PS3, Reistance 3) then you could be seeing a brand new Xbox controller in the near future.

Posted by Keenan in Breaking, Featured Articles, Microsoft, Xbox 360 | 1 comment | | 4 days ago

Paying for Xbox Live just got better with the extra money you’ll be spending on it

After reading the story I don't think you'll be doing much partying

Xbox Live is a great online service. Chatting with friends, the marketplace for both games and add-ons is fantastic, and it offers something that you can truly not get on any other console. Sure you have to pay for it, but the millions of people subscribed to it don’t have much to complain about.

Well, now Microsoft is planning on raising the price of Xbox Live for everybody in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and the United Kingdom (since they haven’t sold a single console in Japan and China they don’t have to worry about that). What is the new price going to be though? Well for the US citizens, the price has been raised from $50 to $60. Yup, 10 bucks for a whole year. There is some justification for this raise though:

Since launching Xbox LIVE in 2002 we have continually added more content and entertainment experiences for our members, while keeping the price the same. We’re confident that when the new pricing takes effect, an Xbox LIVE Gold membership will continue to offer the best value in the industry.

What if you’re one of the many gamers like myself who doesn’t use one of the Facebook, Twitter, Netflix, Last.fm, ESPN, and Video Kinect services? Well tough shit, because the price stays the same. Yeah, it’s not like that’s why people have computers to use all of those services right? I mean for fucks sake, I know a ton of people use Netflix on the 360 but how many actually use anything else? How fun is it to type up a status update on Facebook or Twitter on the 360 or try to stream music on Last.fm?

I think of this as the wrong move. I mean I’m going to obviously pay for the service still because I only own a 360 and a Wii and god knows I can’t play any game online on the Wii, but with the PlayStation 3 gaining ground and fast in the industry, the whole price increase seems counter-productive. To me it seems like they’re just kicking their loyal fans in the balls and then laughing about it.

So what happens next? If they add some other service such as “Bing Search” or some other service, as if it wasn’t already ignored enough by the world, gets ignored even more by 360 owners, are we going to get another price raise? Microsoft should be giving these services as an add-on, or a thank-you for us actually paying for their service, not as another thing that we have to pay for no matter what we do with it.

via [Major Nelson]

Posted by Keenan in Nintendo, Nintendo DS | 0 comments | Game: Golden Sun: Dark Dawn | 4 days ago

It’s been 7 years in the making, but Golden Sun: Dark Dawn will be coming out on November 29th

Yes, it is true, Golden Sun: Dark Dawn has officially been dated for you gaming pleasure! The game will be coming out on the DS November 29th, and we have been waiting a long, long time for this game. Oh wait, it’s been 7 fucking years.

Alas though, the game will be taking a huge 180 when it comes to the series as the game will feature a full 3D environment unlike the 2D traditional RPG environment that we have been accustomed to. I’m really not so sure if I’m going to adapt well as both of the Golden Sun games are not only on the top of my favorite GBA games, but also my top games of all time. People have been saying positive things though and it has been getting excellent previews so we’ll just have to see when it comes out.

Posted by Keenan in Nintendo, Nintendo DS | 0 comments | | 4 days ago

Nintendo will be dropping the price of all DS models on September 15th

Yup, if you still haven’t picked up a DS yet or are wanting to upgrade from that old DS Phat or DS Lite, then September 15th might be your date to do so as Nintendo will be dropping the price on all models. The DSi XL will cost $169.99, the DSi will be $149.99, and the DS Lite at $129.99. Maybe it’s just me but I don’t see DS Lite sales booming after this price drop.

So Nintendo will be trying to milk as many sales as they can before their landmark and revolutionary handheld, the 3DS, comes out later next year.

Posted by Derek "Debonaire Death" Sommer in Featured Articles, Originals, PS3, Previews, QuakeCon, Xbox 360 | 2 comments | Game: Hunted, Hunted: the Demon's Forge | 5 days ago

DPrime Previews: In-Depth and Hands-On With Hunted: the Demon’s Forge

At Quakecon 2010, I sat down with Maxx Kaufman, game director of InXile entertainment, to play through a 30 minute demo of the company’s latest and greatest, a cinematic dungeon crawler called Hunted: the Demon’s Forge. I also settled in at the grand ballroom to see Maxx play a much more epic demo of a different level. No news on whether or not the main characters in Hunted are actually being hunted, but I can say that a lot of things are trying to kill them in a game that requires a lot of very satisfying killing.

I played through the demo as the male starring role, a stoic badass called Caddock who is one of two characters you can choose from to play through cooperatively with. After what I can assume have been years of hardcore smoking, Caddock’s voice has been reduced to a low purring growl that really utilizes the bass woofer. Caddock breaks things, and I’m pretty sure his favorite color is red. Everything Caddock does looks titanic and violent: if he wrote this article, he would be TYPING violently, I swear to god.

There are three main weapon types that you can cycle between in Hunted: a ranged bow (or crossbow in Caddock’s case [of course]), magical attacks (ranged and close), and the hack ‘n slash sword. Characters also have abilities such as one of my favorites, a rushing magical maneuver that can cover around 50 feet in a half-second. The two major stats are health and magic, and magic regenerates as you kill shit and do cool stuff, or take potions.

BOOM

Hunted is the first promising dungeon crawler that I have seen in some time, but don’t let the “dungeon” in the genre suggest anything about the locales in which the game takes place: from high peaks to Zen-like gardens to the more traditional dark scary cave and beautiful jungle oases, Hunted has some beautifully crafted environments for players to slaughter in.

There are also simple puzzle mechanics in the game that allow for a rest from the action and time to find valuable equipment and items that will help you later in the quest, such as crystalline shards that can be used to upgrade magical abilities. The puzzle I went through in my demo was a rather simple affair that left me feeling neither crafty nor accomplished when finished, and hopefully some of the conundrums encountered in the final build of the game will provide a more comprehensive challenge for the title.

Meet your new friends, Caddock and E'lara. I think you can guess which is which

I mentioned Caddock breaks things: probably the most important of those things would be shields, which he goes through like cigarettes, using them to smash enemies to the ground and other badass activities you don’t see at summer camp. Players who choose Caddock will find themselves getting new shields whenever they can. Maxx explained to me that as players go through the game, enemies will drop better equipment to be used, much in line with the dungeon crawler tradition—though equipment will be taking a backseat to magical ability in the realm of upgrades and modification. Stat elements in the game will also be limited to what you’d normally see in a hack ‘n slash, so don’t expect to be telling your friends how much this new enchanted chainmail buffed your strength.

Caddock, though holding his own with E’lara in most weapon categories, is best suited to the up close and personal, with his magical rush attack, stunning shockwave spells that engulf nearby enemies, and of course large muscles and a big sword. E’lara, on the other hand, is the Elven ranged goddess of classic fantasy lore, capable of shooting a large volume of arrows from her longbow and with precise lightning spells to deal concentrated damage from afar. By shooting spells at each other, our two heroes can give one another a temporary elemental charge. At one point in the demo, I started crackling with energy and was informed that my teammate had given me an electric boost that was reflected in all of my attacks, boosting my damage the way you would expect lighting to. In the ballroom demo, an epic final battle with a demonic boss could only be brought to an end when Caddock was lent the strength of E’lara’s magic to help defeat him in an incredibly badass way.

The demon boss from the ballroom demo

The Hunted duo is more than simply two killing machines, however: backed by good voice actors, interesting and amusing dialogue and banter circulates between Caddock and E’lara constantly, with what Maxx described as a “Tarantino tension” in the relationship of the two exceptional fighters. Caddock is in every way a representation of the masculine, less in control of his emotions than E’lara and more blunt in terms of his thinking and action. E’lara is the calculating and alluring female, and more the strategist and planner of the pair, based on my experiences with them. Both characters are portrayed as stoic and intelligent, and their relationship—platonic in the circumstances—holds and underlying sexual tension that—Maxx had it spot-on—reminds me of similar tensions between characters in Tarantino movies (like Mia and Vincent in Pulp Fiction).

CHARGIN' MAH LASAH

Of course, cooperative play is being stressed in Hunted, with two players on stage for the ballroom performance and undisclosed special features Maxx hinted at for Co-op only. As I’ve mentioned above, some obstacles in the game cannot be surpassed without cooperation, and considering the difficulty of the game—me dying many times and Maxx and his partner quite a few times themselves—the player-assisted resurrection dynamic (sort of like in Gears of War, only viable from a great distance) is all the more incentive for another human being behind the wheel of the character at your back.

With an early ’11 release date, there are still plenty of kinks to iron out of the game, with he hack ‘n slash controls feeling slightly clunky with Caddock and some room left for more destructible environments, but the game is coming along nicely and has a cinematic feel more at home with blockbuster movies than dungeon crawlers. Hopefully the other aspects of the title will live up to Hunted’s epic vistas and exciting moments.