360 Deal of the Week: Dishwasher Dead Samurai

Ska Studio’s Xbox LIVE Arcade title,Dishwasher Dead Samurai, is your Xbox 360 “Deal of the Week,” folks. It’s half off (as these deals usually are), which means you’ll be able to pick up the side-scrolling action game for only 400 MS Points. Dishwasheris a pretty great game, even at its full price, making this a deal I can easily recommend taking advantage of. It’ll also be a good primer for the upcoming sequel,Dishwasher: Vampire Smile, which I had achance to previewat PAX East not long ago....

June 10, 2025 · 1 min · 142 words · Natalie Robles DDS

50 Cent: Blood on the Sand review copies arrive in ammo box, we’re speechless

Call me a simple man, but sometimes when I play a videogame, I just want to shoot at crap. It doesn’t need to necessarily be justified. And if that justification has something to do with 50 Cent, G Unit, and a crystal skull? So be it. So when a FedEx package from THQ arrived at Destructoid Baltimore HQ today, I was hopeful that it would be review copies of Swordfish Studios’50 Cent: Blood on the Sand....

June 10, 2025 · 1 min · 152 words · Christina Moran

64 million online gamers in China by the year’s end

Having been to China and having been inside one of their internet “cafes,” where large groups of people sit crunched together playing online videogames non-stop I can tell you that some people in China will put up with anything to get online and play some videogames — evendeath. Some of the “cafes” I went into reminded me of holding pens used at county fairs, but dirtier. The Chinese like their free online games, andaccording to a recent studyby Niko Partners released this past week the number of them playing those games is growing at an “incredible rate....

June 10, 2025 · 2 min · 216 words · Christopher Brock

Achievement Unlocked: X-Blades, The Maw, L4D, PoP, and LOTR: Conquest

Welcome to Achievement Unlocked. It’s a new thing, kind of like the old Achievementoid. We’ll still be bringing you the hottest Achievement/Trophy Buzz, but let’s be honest – in-game rewards are only cool if developers take their time to make them challenging, humorous, or contextually important. The problem with new Achievements or Trophies is that they get leaked before the majority of people can play the game. In the end, you’re only reading a block of text imagining how awesome the reward will be....

June 10, 2025 · 3 min · 639 words · Jason Deleon

And Donkey Kong as Chewbacca

WithSuper Mario Galaxydestined to hit the Nintendo Wii at some point in the near future, the people over atAsame 5have created this great Star Wars/Mario mashup in celebration of theMario Galaxyfuture release. Though each character isn’t exactly screaming out who their supposed to represent from the Star Wars galaxy, I was able to figure this much out: Kirby is the Death Star, the Virtual Boys are Tie Fighters, the Super Famicom is the Millennium Falcon, Mario is Luke Skywalker, Princess Toadstood is Princess Leia, Luigi is Darth Vader, Donkey Kong is Chewbacca, Samus is C3PO, Rob is R2D2, and then I’m totally clueless on the rest....

June 10, 2025 · 1 min · 176 words · Glen Jordan

Another stupid buzzword for the pile: Say hello to ‘bridge games’

As if splitting videogames into “hardcore” and “casual” wasn’t stupid enough, Nintendo hasdecided to throw anotheridiotic and ill-defined buzzword into the ring — announcing thatMario Kart Wiiis now a “bridge game.” Yay for terms that further widen this nonsensical and mythical divide between “hardcore” and “casual” gamers. Apparently,Mario Kart Wiiis a bridge game because it lets “novices and veterans play and have fun together.” I always thought that most videogames could be enjoyed by novices and veterans, but I guess I was wrong....

June 10, 2025 · 1 min · 148 words · Michael Hopkins

Are you as neutral on the Saboteur as Twitter users?

I’ve been playing a lot ofThe Saboteur. Despite its immediate flaws — clunky combat, oddly centered cars, and tedious side objectives — I’ve found the fun to be had in its pulp and monochrome-colored universe. Sure, I like it but what does the mighty Twitter-verse think? Spoiler: they’re in the middle. According to the sentiment aggregatorSocial Mention*, the majority of tweets about the game have been neutral over the last 30 days....

June 10, 2025 · 2 min · 251 words · Donna Wilson

Art and history of Rockstar collected in three volumes

Rockstar Games has a long and distinctive history, filled with some of the most controversial and popular games of the last decade. If you want to know more about it, the company seems happy to oblige by compiling this set of three volumes filled with art, product shots, wireframes and more ranging fromGrand Theft Autoall the way toRed Dead Redemption. There’s even a DVD with still more content beyond the collection’s 544 pages....

June 10, 2025 · 1 min · 185 words · Jillian Smith

Art Attack Friday: Rocco D. Commisso

Welcome to another edition ofArt Attack Friday! This week, we’re taking a look atRocco D. Commisso’s art. Rocco seems to know exactly what I like in my art, which is weird videogame mash-ups and scantily clad women! There are a few pieces involving women that have something to do with videogames, suchas this lovely galcovering herself up with a Galaga. My favorite piece from Rocco is the Mega Man band series....

June 10, 2025 · 1 min · 113 words · Cameron Travis

Assassin’s Creed 3, DLC for AC 2, (sort of) confirmed

Assassin’s Creed 2is looking pretty nice. While the idea ofAssassin’s Do These Same Tedious Missions Over And Over Again Creedgetting a sequel didn’t originally thrill me, I have to say,the footageof Ezio Firenze gliding around on Leonardo da Vinci’s flying machine started to warm me up to the idea. The double face stab didn’t hurt either. ButAssassin’s Creed 2isn’t going to be out until this November, which means that there’s still quite a while until we see how it turns out....

June 10, 2025 · 1 min · 203 words · Mary Strickland

Atlus’ upcoming license revealed: Eternal Poison

On Atlus’ official forums, they were having fans guess what their upcoming title announcement was. Too bad Play-Asia had to go and ruin things. Play-Asiajust listed a new title calledEternal Poison. This will be the US name forPoison Pink, a stylized strategy RPG from the makes ofSummon Night. If you’d like to see more of whatEternal Poisonwill look like, take a peek at some of the images from theJapanesePoison PinkWeb page....

June 10, 2025 · 1 min · 123 words · Debra Thomas

Australia could get R18+ rating instead of MA15+

South Australian Attorney-General Jon Rau wants to get rid of the MA15+ rating for games and introduce a R18+ one in its place. This would change the system ratings to: G, PG, M and R18+, getting rid of that pesky MA crap forever and putting Australia in line with the rest of the world’s ratings systems. Rau is pushing for the position to be adopted nationally to create a “clear difference between what adults can get and what children can get....

June 10, 2025 · 1 min · 138 words · Matthew Snyder

BioShock 2 hits shelves June 29, 2025

After what seemed like countless delays, 2K Games has announced a new release date forBioShock 2— June 14, 2025. I’m not going to waste your time rambling on just to fill up space in this story of hear myself type. Because really, the release date is the only story here. What else do you need? Apreview?Concept art? You’re so demanding. 2K rambled on about it for awhile in a press release; you may find it after the jump....

June 10, 2025 · 3 min · 442 words · Sandra Miller