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The party game is a curious genre. Most other game genres describe some inherent characteristic of the game. Adventure games take you adventuring, shooters let you shoot aliens and/or Nazis, and sandbox games are usuallyfull of bugs, just like a real sandbox. But if you want to play a party game, it is best to have a party handy. By this measure, Wii owners must be virtual Paris Hiltons, luxuriating in a vast wealth of brief social interactions punctuated byfurious bouts of waggling....

After last night, THQ, I officially give you free reign to wine and dine me anytime. You see, I headed out to the New York Hall of Science in Flushing yesterday for THQ’sWALL•Eevent, and I had a great time. THQ held the event because they’re publishing a movie tie-in videogame for the upcoming Disney/Pixar animated filmWALL•E, a movie that I’ve been very, very excited about for a long, long time....

While you’d never see me showing up to a human’s first birthday party (I hate babies!), I’ll come to a game system’s electronic software distribution’s party. WiiWare won’t get fussy or sh*t itself mid-party. It isn’t the biggest games distro service out there, but it does have some pretty great titles in its lineup for only being a year old. HE’s got his daddy’s eyes. We’re happy to say that WiiWare weighs in at a healthy 81 games today....

This really is quite remarkable. Not only has the Wii been successfully and competently emulated on the PC, but the graphics are being brought to us in shiny 720p HD. While it does have a few issues, the Dolphin emulator currently makes Wii games look far better than they do on the console itself, and gives you a taste of what could have been if Nintendo had bothered to make the Wii a bit more powerful....

I am obsessed with Quantic Dream’s previous titleIndigo Prophecyand now, after viewing this new Games Con trailer, I am officially obsessed with PlayStation 3 exclusiveHeavy Rain.Wow. I really can’t wait to play this game.For anyone not familiar withHeavy Rain, or evenIndigo Prophecyfor that matter, the game is being written and directed by Quantic Dream’s CEO David Cage. LikeIndigo Prophecybefore it,Heavy Rainfocuses more onstorytellingthan gameplay. Dubbed the first interactive movie,Indigo Prophecyutilizes timed button presses, a complex conversation system, and scripted set pieces to present a very cinematic experience....

Now, I’m not making fun of Yasunori Mitsuda here. He’s a musical hero of mine. Hell, he’s a God damned game music legend, known for his work onChrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, Xenogears, Xenosaga, andShadow Heartsand many other epic scores. He makes amazing music. I was even a member of his Japanese fan club! But it has to be known that the end ofChrono Triggermade him cry… like a little bitch! Kidding, Yas!...

Is it just me, or is the tower defense genre becoming the latest overly-exploited trend in the videogame industry? I guess since they’re so easy to design and the concept is something that anybody can grasp, it’s hardly surprising that so many have been popping up, especially on portable platforms. Speaking of which, here’s Hudson withCreature Defensefor the PSP. Creature Defensedoes things a little differently by bringing inanotherexploited videogame trope — card games....

After the psychological mindf*ck metagame that wasExecution, this week’s Indie Nation goes back to basics. There are no anti-war messages, questions of murder and consequence, or really any theme at all inLove. Dtoider Blake turned me onto this charming (yet blisteringly difficult) platformer, which was just released a week or so ago. As a game, it has no pretentions whatsoever: it’s just a solid, incredibly challenging platformer that just happens to allow the player to set their own respawn checkpoints....

Something Awful, that site that your mother would have warned you about if she wasn’t afraid of the computer, hasan update todaythat speaks to the idiocy of the internet when it comes to video games. It takes a look back at the landmark release of the secondLegend of Zeldagame, but it filters it through the lens of today’s internet. I don’t want to ruin it via over-analyzation, so, seriously, just go read it....

It’s been a year now since Destructoid brought into the world a screaming bundle of joy that could only be described as “Japanator.” With eyes as large as plates (and disproportionate to the rest of its face), Japanator was in awe of the world of blogging about anime. And, like any epic story should be, we were thrown from the nest a few weeks later and expected to fly. Sure, we didn’t even have feathers yet, and still needed to be fed by someone else, but hey, we survived the long plummet down....

For all I know, this video has been taken down already. Activision has been really quick to lay the smack down on allBlack Opsvideo leaks. That’s assuming this video is even legit. It’s so dumb, and awesome, that it’s hard to believe that it’s real. Anyway, here it is, hot off the presses; JFK, Nixon, and Castro taking on hordes of zombies. Life just got a little weirder. Hit the jump for the link, but beware ofSPOILERS....

Like a nail through my heart, Konami has closed the lid on several of its PS3 and Wii titles, including — may God have mercy on their souls — the PS3 incarnation of its timelessGradiusseries, presumably the sixth. Also on the chopping block wasJikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball(PS3) and other long-awaited titles likeNew Action Game(PS3),New Role-Playing Game(PS3), andRole-Playing Game(Wii). Axed before they could even benamed. Such is the way of things, I suppose....

Law and Orderis one of the most successful series in the history of American television. After almost 70 years on television and more spinoffs than theMary Tyler Moore Show, it stands to reason that the world of gaming would take notice and start churning out low-budget titles to capitalize on the insane popularity of murder in New York City. Unfortunately, it seems the latestcash-intitle crossed a line usually reserved forFaces of Deathvideos and mainstream news organizations by including a background photo of one of the most infamous child murder cases in UK history....