Shank now on sale for Xbox Live Gold members

Klei’s gorgeous side-scrolling brawler,Shank, is this week’s Xbox Live Marketplace deal of the week for Xbox Live Gold members. Usually 1200 MS Points, you’re able to now pick up the game for 800 MS Points. I played it on the PlayStation 3for my review, but loved the game’s brutal style and slick 2D combat. I can’t imagine things are any different on the 360, and at $10, I give you my blessing when it comes to picking this one up....

August 3, 2025 · 1 min · 101 words · Nathaniel Brown

Shenmue set to music; finest rock opera since Tommy

The above video proves, once and for all, that indie pop and cult classic SEGA games go together like theInternet and IP theft.The amazing part is that the song is way better than most of whatever passes for music even in the idealist realm of indie rock. Yes, Sufjan, that 50 States gimmick was clever for a moment or two, but you never wrote a song about forklift races, did you?...

August 3, 2025 · 1 min · 143 words · Jerome Kennedy

ShortRound Games started by ex-Black Rock staff

FollowingRoundCube Entertainment, another studio has been created by former Black Rock Studios employees. ShortRound Games includes game director Andrew Hubbard, technical director Kim Burrows, technical art director Stuart Pharoah, and creative and art director Steve Uphill, according to GI.biz. “We’ve just been made redundant from Black Rock which has given us a great opportunity to achieve what we all came into this industry to do; make games that we want to play and in the way that we want to make them,” says Hubbard....

August 3, 2025 · 1 min · 180 words · Barry Perez

Sierra Spring Event: Prototype impressions

Prototype, the game where you play a poor soul that has no idea who he is but has the power of a god. Run anywhere you want, gain super powers, and destroy anything you want in this sandbox game. The hype on this game is getting bigger and bigger, but not much had been shown off. Well, a good section of the game was finally shown off to me and I’m here to tell you all about it....

August 3, 2025 · 4 min · 787 words · James Garcia

SOE grants another G.I.R.L. a $10,000 scholarship

Sony Online Entertainment’s G.I.R.L. scholarship grants $10,000 to a student in the creative and applied arts. They’re looking for someone who would promote and help create games that would be more enticing for women to play. This year, the second ever scholarship was granted to Game & Art design student Rebecca Gleason, from Indianapolis, IN. Aside from the $10k to be applied to her education, she was also granted an optional paid internship of up to 10 weeks at SOE’s headquarters in San Diego, to work onFree Realms....

August 3, 2025 · 1 min · 134 words · Amy Owens

Sonic the Hedgehog 20th anniversary figure looks classy

SEGA has revealed a commemorative 20th anniversarySonic the Hedehogfigurine. In keeping with the theme ofSonic Generations, the figure pays dual respect to both “classic” and “modern” Sonic, with the green-eyed version posing next to a monitor featuring the original Genesis star. There are only 1,000 of these being made, and there are also two different versions for North America and the rest of the world. This is because the US box art forSonic the Hedgehogon the Genesis was different from the International version....

August 3, 2025 · 1 min · 185 words · Steven Rose

Sony says there’s no real plans for a PSP2 … yet

Since the introduction of Game Boy in 1989, Nintendo has groomed us to expect follow units more powerful than its predecessor. From spinach-green tones to a bright and colorful touch-screen, Nintendo has evolved their handhelds quite a bit. So when you hear rumors of a follow-up to Sony’s first gaming handheld, the PlayStation Portable, they shouldn’t seem so crazy to you. That is, of course, unless you’re Sony Europe’s President David Reeves....

August 3, 2025 · 2 min · 214 words · Daniel Hill

StageSet: make virtual films in PlayStation Home

You know how PlayStation home has guys chasing girl avatars that are really guys? Or how you always walk past a crowd making racist slurs toward other people online? It’s great fun! Okay, so not really. But a new space called StageSet looks like it could be a lot of fun for creative types. Machinima comes to Home with this new Home space that lets you create your own virtual film inside your PS3....

August 3, 2025 · 1 min · 155 words · Gerald Woods

Stats won’t transfer to Mass Effect 2 in obvious way

Commander Shepard’s abilities and statistics won’t transfer toMass Effect 2in an obvious fashion. Retooling of the game’s core systems has made raw character data carryover impossible. But don’t start throwing things yet.Mass Effect 2will know if your character was a level 60 Geth stomper with a Renegade edge and acknowledge it. Also, as an added bonus, the game will explain away the stat wipe. Mass Effect 2lead designer Casey Hudson explained the stat wipe and the reasons behind it toComputer World....

August 3, 2025 · 2 min · 331 words · Karen Sparks

Stuck in a wall? New, more efficient collision algorithms should help

Games look great these days, but something that could use a bit of sprucing up is collision detection. Even today we still see a missed hit, or the rare arm through the wall. Despite all the other advances, sometimes it seems like collision detection isn’t much better than it was back in the 8-bit days. A new model by researcher Thomas Larsson, from Malardalen University in Sweden, is said to present a faster and more interactive solution to collision not only in games, but also in robotics, virtual surgery, and more....

August 3, 2025 · 1 min · 184 words · Joseph Davis

Teaser Web site for RAGE appears

RAGE, id Software’s upcoming mix of first-person shooting and racing isn’t expected to be out until the second quarter of 2010. That’s not stopping publisher EA from trying to get a little bit more interest generated for the title early on. Today, they unveiled ateaser siteto help familiarize players with the world they’ll be exploring next year. On the site, you’ll be able to follow a lone survivor as he explores the game’s world....

August 3, 2025 · 1 min · 199 words · Dennis Duran

Telltale to release Wallace & Gromit episodic game

IadoreWallace & Gromit. Unfortunately, after gallivanting throughthree incredible shortsand an Academy Award-winningfeature film, the wacky inventor and his verbally-challenged dog companion starred in a few subpar videogames. They weren’t necessarilyterrible, they just turned out as generic platformers, lacking not even half of the creativity and cleverness of the duo’s on-screen antics. Luckily, Telltale Games — the makers of the recent, critically acclaimedSam & Maxgames — are creating an episodic series based on Aardman Animation’s revered films entitledWallace & Gromit’s Grand Adventures....

August 3, 2025 · 1 min · 207 words · Suzanne Bauer

TGS: Dead or Alive 5 concept video is freakin’ nuts

After seeing the results of a year’s worth of work onNinja Gaiden 3we thought Team Ninja’s evening presentation was over. They tricked us and unveiledDead or Alive 5and their pre-TGS event tonight. Were we surprised? Not really. You can see something like what we saw at this event in the video above. Team Ninja boss Yosuke Hayashi said that they were wanting to bring Dead or Alive into the next generation in both graphics and gameplay....

August 3, 2025 · 1 min · 148 words · Cody Douglas