Posts

For those waiting patiently to dress their Avatars as a pimp or in a hot dog costume, your day has come. THQ has announced that it has released a slew ofSaints Row 2Xbox 360 Avatar items on the Xbox LIVE Marketplace. This stuff will range from 80 MS Points to 400 MS Points, and includes Ultor t-shirts, a purple suede pimp pimp outfit, and other Stillwater gang-related gear. Watch out, though — wear the wrong colors in the wrong Game Room arcade and get capped....

I’ll let the big guns do the heavy lifting for the good cosplay photography (check back later this weekend), but we did snap off a few candid shots while running around the show floor here at San Diego’s 2010 Comic-Con in between appointments and panels. Comic-Con is different from other events that have cosplay in a couple of ways. First off, the costumes here are like regular clothing. Sure, people will stop for a picture, but many of these people are really just dressing up for fun, and not to impress....

Killer app. GOTY. Editor’s Choice. Platinum Award. Greatest Hit. I can see it now. I don’t even know whatKinect Googly Eyesis, but I can already feel how successful it’s going to be. The Australian Classifications Board is at it again, spoiling surprises for game companies. Maybe they’re spoiled Microsoft’s E3 show killer. They’ve just listedGoogly Eyes, which is sure to use the Kinect sensor, but otherwise remains a mystery. Everything I’m imagining in my head is amazing....

Here are some screens forSilent Hill: Downpour, that game Ihadn’t been impressed by at E3. I’m still hoping the final product turns out to be good and that someone just made a really stupid decision to put a crappy build on the showfloor. We can but dream. Anyway, the screens are exactly what you’d expect. Lots of spooky rooms and spooky corridors with spooky stuff happening in a spooky way. Spooked yet?...

I’m really glad that ultra-niche gaming blogs likeOffworldandSiliconEraexist — without the Spencer Yips and Brandon Boyers of the world, I would never know that Tecmo acquired the rights to bringPieces Interactive‘sFret Niceto Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network next year. My indie sensibilites, you see, are about as refined as Cheez-wiz. And that’s too bad, becauseFret Nicelooks to be the kind of quirky, carefree, and innovative platforming fun we need right now....

I just gotSam and Max Episode 1: Culture Shockthe other day, and I loved it. While the puzzles were pretty easy, the series’ sense of humor remains completely intact, and in the end I felt satisfied. Kind of. While $8.95 isn’t much to charge for a game–especially one that promises to be the first in a series of six, released a couple of months apart–it was extremely short, and almost felt more like a demo than a full game....

I like Achievements, I think they’re neat. I also recognize that they serve no real purpose whatsoever other than to fulfill man’s inherent desire to amass arbitrary and worthlessstuff. That said, if Sony decides to act uponits recent ideaof a Trophy reward system, then I might have to declare Sony’s Achievement copypasta an Achievement beater. AccordingOfficial PlayStation Magazine, the company is “mulling over” some sort of extra incentive for Trophy collection, although we don’t know what the potential benefits could be:...

I have been fairly critical of Sony’s Trophy system in the past, but that’s mostly because they have a vast amount of potential that hasn’t been realized. Take the PSP for example — had Sony shared the Trophy system between its handheld and the PS3, something really interesting could have happened. Sadly, however, Sony is Sony, and this isnever going to be. “You’re not going to see Trophies on the PSP,” explains PSN director Eric Lempel....

Now this is what I’m talking about. In order for theWii to survive, it needs quirky games that don’t begin with Mario, Zelda, or Metroid and that at the same time use the Wiimote as it really is — a glorified mouse. Just announced,Space Station Tycoon(from the makers ofOutpost Kaloki Xon Xbox Live Arcade) is exactly the kind of software that will make the Wii not so much of a doorstop....

Sure you knewSplinter Cell Convictionwas revamping theSplinter Cellfranchise’s single player in a major way, but did you know that it was also doing the same for the multiplayer? Oh, you did? You’ve heard all about the game, huh? Well, hear some more. We’ve got three fresh videos explaining all about the new multiplayer. The first takes you through the new co-op gameplay that acts as a prelude story to the game’s main single player....

You guys know I can’t standtacky gamer fashion. There’s just too many people out there with silkscreening machines and terrible senses of humor. Split Reason, on the other hand, seem to have both style and comedy down to a science (and I’m not saying that just because they made some of our tees!). Their newest assortment includes some hilarious must haves, my favorites beingSlot Machineand theHead Stomp Beanie, but there is also something that a lot of gamers are going to be majorly thrilled to see: new Zero Punctuation tees!...

As time progresses and technology races forward gaming engines start to get old. At some point game developers must put their old game engines out to pasture and start to develop new ones so that they can keep up with the ever advancing gaming marketplace. Square Enixis preparing to do just thatby hiring a plethora of developers and programmers to get them where they need to be. In a Japanese ad featuring the eyes of Cloud fromFinal Fantasy VIIthe company has put out the call for a newgame engine system programmer, 3D graphics core programmer, online system programmer, Windows application programmer, rendering programmer, server/DB programmer, plug-in programmer, technical artist and technical writer....

Specifically,Indigo Prophecy(a.k.a.Fahrenheit) andHeavy Rain. Sorry, noOmikron: The Nomad Soulthis time around. If that first sentence wasn’t confusing, then I’m not trying hard enough. Quantic Dream is a French software development team, and sometimes motion capture studio, that has created two “Interactive Drama” video games. Those games are the focus of this adventure. Indigo Prophecywas one of those games that I heard about from the static noise fans produce. The viewpoint of many was since it challenged the definition of a game and, ergo, was incredibly artsy, the tragedy of the century was the fact it didn’t sell millions of copies....