A lot of noise gets thrown around over opinions. Whose opinion is right, whose is wrong? By definition, opinions are subjective and vary from person to person. They can, however, be influenced by more prominent external factors. Gaming sites featuring preferred personalities, independent podcasters and even casual word of mouth all factor into a purchasing decision. Outside of these traditional channels, every now and then we are gifted with a rare perspective on a new release that warrants some serious attention. This week our lucky contributor is the ESRB, although not in the way you might think. The ESRB recently rated Dead or Alive Paradise for the PlayStation Portable and generated a lot of attention throughout the Internet with their view on the game.
Thankfully, the rest of this article is rated A for Awesome.
Ubisoft has announced the latest release date for Splinter Cell: Conviction, and it looks like this time they mean business. GameSpot reported today that it recently received a very unusual item in the mail: a rock with the Conviction logo on one side and the numbers "4.13.10" on the other. It's been a very long time coming, but Conviction's release date is now literally set in stone.
To call Conviction's development cycle troubled would be an understatement. This is a game that was first announced in 2006 for a 2007 release. But then in 2007, the game was delayed to 2008, only for that year to pass without any mention of the game at all. When Conviction finally reappeared last year, it was completely overhauled, bearing few similarities to what was shown before. It then missed its holiday 2009 release date, and was recently delayed again from its February 23 release date. It's been embarrassing, but Ubisoft seems to have taken it in stride with this unusual but funny message. I guess for Ubisoft, the fifth time's the charm.
For a limited time, if you pre-order Madden NFL 11 at Walmart, they will give you a $20 e-gift card. For some reason you can only use it online, but who cares? Do you really want to go inside that circus tent? This is great news for football fans who buy every year's iteration of the Madden franchise. Hell, for what essentially amounts as twenty bucks off, I might even hop back into the Madden world.... if only to realize that not much has changed since the last time I was there.
EA, will your tricks ever cease? Some may remember the debacle that EA was in a few years ago when they decided to offer players the chance to buy in-game currency, in The Godfather, with real cash. One could view this as a good thing, offering players who didn’t want to spend a lot of time in the game the chance to have the full experience. On the other hand, it seems that this actually misses the point of playing the game, in that it gives players an easy out.
Imagine my surprise today when I logged into the European PSN and saw the above image in the Dante’s Inferno category. For those who don’t know, “Souls” are a way to buy upgrades for your character in Dante’s Inferno. The game isn’t even out yet and already players are being given the easy out.
On the European PSN, EA is offering 4 different deals: 5000 souls will set you back £3.19 (appx. $5), 3000 souls is £1.59 (appx. $2.50), 1500 souls is £0.79 (appx. $1.25), while the lowest amount, 500 souls, is free. While it is nice to see the option available, I can’t help but feel that this will take some of the edge off the game itself. The game is meant to be a combat heavy game where you are rewarded for performing combos, similar to God of War.
Tell us what you think of this option in the comments section. It won’t cost you a dime.
The Madden NFL franchise announced the results of its annual Super Bowl simulation today, predicting a Super Bowl XLIV final score of 35-31 in favor of the New Orleans Saints. This differs from analysts' predictions that the Indianapolis Colts will win the big game, but the Saints have been bucking expectations all season.
The Madden NFL Super Bowl simulation has picked the right winner five times in the last six years, with its only incorrect prediction being the astonishing Super Bowl XLII in 2008 when the New York Giants upset the undefeated New England Patriots. Its prediction of last year's match between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Arizona Cardinals was surprisingly accurate, even including the fourth quarter rally by Arizona only to come up short in the end.
According to the simulation, the fourth quarter will begin with Indianapolis leading 24-21, only to immediately find themselves down by four when Saints running back Reggie Bush opens the quarter with a 42-yard punt return for a touchdown.The teams will exchange leads twice more in the fourth quarter, with Colts quarterback Peyton Manning will then complete a touchdown pass to running back Joseph Addai, making the score 31-28 Indianapolis. But in the end, Saints quarterback Drew Brees will connect with tight David Thomas for an 11-yard touchdown pass resulting in the final score, 35-31 New Orleans. Brees was named MVP.
If correct, this would be the first time the Saints won the Super Bowl in their entire 43 year existence, not bad for a team that went from being historically one of the NFL's worst teams to the behemoth they were this season.
Xbox is on a mission to prove something. That something is that gamers will pay for anything. With all the technological advancements in graphics and levels of interactivity, and with Project Natal on the horizon, Xbox is trying to push this newfangled “Game Room” on us. It’s just another of Xbox’s cons. The con started for a lot of us when they introduced downloadable classic games, and now this? According to Microsoft, Game Room will be the be all, end all, when it comes to retro gaming. Hailed as the project that will finally bring back that old arcade feel, Game Room is nothing more than a money grab to me. The sick and twisted Xbox big wigs have been hard at work trying to come up with a way to pump every last dollar out of your wallet.
Over the past year, Behemoth, the creators of Alien Hominid and Castle Crashers, has been keeping a development blog on its third game. In the blog, they only referred to the game as "Behemoth Game #3," ....until now. Yesterday, Behemoth revealed on their blog the title of the game, "BattleBlock Theater," as well as a short description of the game's story:
"Having shipwrecked on a mysterious island you find yourself both betrayed by your best friend Hatty and captured by the locals. All of this is happening while being forced into deadly performances. This however, is just the start of your problems.
BattleBlock Theater is our upcoming third title for the Xbox Live Arcade. Website to follow in the next few days and as we inch closer to the release of the title, we'll be unfolding more of the story online."
You just gotta love kitty-dragons. Sony Computer Entertainment of Japan has launched the official website for Team Ico's much-anticipated Playstation 3 exclusive, The Last Guardian. The screens seem to be taken from what we've seen of the game via trailers at E3 and Tokyo Game Show 2009. Anything at this point will do though.
For all you who have played Team Ico's previous games (Ico, Shadow of the Colossus), you know the quality of work this team can produce. Oh, just one spoiler though. They want to make you cry. So pretty much count on seeing your kitty-dragon take a dirtnap during the game. Just a heads-up there.
Continue on after the break for some more screenshots and let us know what you think in the comments.
This week in Bungie Studio's weekly update, they officially quelled the rumors about Reach being a Natal game saying:
"Halo: Reach is NOT a Natal title and is being developed expressly with the traditional Xbox 360 controller in mind."
This announcement should calm the minds of many "core" gamers like myself who are not really interested in the casual experience that a motion controller promises. Although Microsoft says they are aiming Natal for both casual and core gamers, I'm not sure that will be the reality. The company said that over 70 percent of Xbox 360 developers are working on Natal-compatible games, but the only major title that has been confirmed so far for 2010 is Fable III.
Natal is scheduled for release this holiday season.
It's been another one of those weeks. Everyone on my Xbox Friends List is playing Mass Effect 2 and everyone else is talking about Steve Jobs. These are the weeks that are particularly trying on my ability to select a topic interesting enough for both you and me. I have no right discussing a sequel to a game I have installed on my Xbox's hard drive but have yet to play. One day that game will be a mark of pride instead of a badge of shame, but that day is not today. So let's talk about Apple. If you missed the news -- and I know you didn't -- Steve Jobs unveiled his latest masterpiece to the public on Wednesday: the iPad. As expected, everyone has an opinion on the viability and prospects of this device. Is it worth the money? Will it cure Juvenile Diabetes? Who was responsible for naming this thing? Given the circumstances, I could not resist the opportunity to gather my thoughts for you to consider and most likely dispute. But let's not jump to conclusions just yet.
Be sure to stick around until the end for One More Thing.
Fifty million dollars is no small amount. When dealing with one of the biggest franchises in gaming, though, it’s not too large of an amount to score exclusivity. When I first heard that Microsoft had paid that tremendous amount of cash for exclusivity on the episodic DLC for Grand Theft Auto 4, I figured I would never get the pleasure of playing it, since I’m a PS3 owner.
Well, it seems that the deal wasn’t really for exclusivity. Proving once again that, in this day and age, “exclusivity” really only means “timed exclusivity”, Rockstar announced that Episodes from Liberty City would be available for both the PS3 and PC versions of the game.
The episodes, which will be launched on March 30, will be available on the Windows LIVE platform and Playstation Network. They will share the same price as the Xbox 360 counterpart at $20. In addition, PS3 owners will be able to buy a Blu-ray copy of the Episodes for $39.99.
So, this begs the question: was it worth the $50 million that Microsoft paid only for timed exclusivity? Sony might also want to question just how "exclusive" the upcoming Rockstar title, "Agent" is.
Hit the jump for the full press release from Sony.
As a huge fan of adventure games, I have a bit of a soft spot in my heart for Telltale games. Sure, their games are, on a basic level, the same thing with every game released, but they do a great job of capturing that old-school point-and-click feel. There’s just something unbelievably satisfying about each of their games.
So, it should come as no surprise when I received an email just moments ago telling me that Sam and Max Season 1 was on sale for the low, low price of $4.95. Obviously this is huge news, but what might be even bigger news is the fact that this sale seems to be a tease for an all new season of Sam and Max, probably releasing this year.
With Tales of Monkey Island out of their way, it seems that Telltale can go back to (arguably) what made them so popular.
The sale can be found at http://www.telltalegames.com/samandmax2010
In a recent interview with NowGamer, BioWare cofounder Dr. Ray Muzyka was asked about a timeline for bringing Mass Effect to the PS3. His response revealed plans to put out new BioWare games on the PS3 in the near future.
"All we've ever said when we've been asked about Mass Effect, is that we've launched it on 360 and PC. But PS3 for Dragon Age was exceptionally fun to do, and I can tell you, we're working on more unannounced PS3 projects right now."
Muzyka went on to discuss the fact that both the PS3 and the Xbox 360 hold their own distinct advantages in terms of development, saying "...they are both good consoles at the end of the day."
The good doctor also confirmed that their Edmonton studio was currently working on Mass Effect 3. Although they have not officially announced it yet, BioWare stated long ago that it would be a trilogy, so there's no real surprise there.
Mass Effect and Dragon Age sequels aside, I'm pumped to see more original IP from BioWare, a company that has a habit of putting out some of the best games of the year. And now even PlayStation owners can look forward to more BioWare RPG goodness!
The End is coming. Sony has announced an official release date for God of War III. So get your Blades of Chaos ready, because ultimate badass Kratos is bringing his ferocious brand of revenge to the gods of Mount Olympus exclusively for the PlayStation 3 on March 16. They also revealed this box art, which I think is pretty sweet.
I hope this means we will start seeing some more promotion for the game. Of all the big games lately, we really haven't heard much about this one. That's pretty unusual considering it is easily one of the most anticipated PlayStation 3 titles ever. Now that we are less than two month away from the game's release, hopefully Sony will start hyping the game with the sort of trailers, gameplay footage, and developer interviews that are typical to get gamers excited about event games like God of War III.
In the meantime, I'm going to go and practice my animalistic grunts and growls in preparation for March 16.
In the past 48 hours, gamers everywhere have isolated themselves from the outside world as a result of this week's two big releases: Mass Effect 2 and MAG. While the most hardcore of Mass Effect players spent the weekend leveling up their Shepard, others have been getting swallowed up by the hype machine. The hype machine has always been responsible for people getting giddy over and plopping down money for games that they usually don't play, but because the hype machine is so strong, they do so without giving it a second thought.
Re: Plz help Thinking about buying a lab... - nonja121 - If you're looking for an all-around PC for both work and gaming, the Alienware M11X might be worth looking into. Heard on IGN Game Scoop (or Three Re...
Re: Heavy Rain? - BulletHound - I found this short review of heavy rain by famitsu. http://n4g.com/ps3/News-472812.aspx
Anyone reading Blackest Night? - NemesisPrime117 - I picked up the first 6 issues of the series and I wonder if anyone else is reading this? If not your missing out on a great DC Zombie story
Has this happened to anyone else? - Tonnous24 - I got on my 360 today and saw that I got 400 Microsoft points randomly added to my account, is there a reason for this? I'm not complaining, but it's...
Re: What games are YOU looking forward t... - FishermanQ - 1) Halo Reach
2) God of War 3
3) BF: BC2
4) Splinter Cell Convictions
5) Bioshock 2
6)Battle Blocks (Arcade Game)
7) Fallout New Vegas
Fable III
