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Fire up your Xbox 360 and get on Live Marketplace, because a demo forViva Piñata: Party Animalsis now available for download. Most of you probably ignoredcoverage of the gameafter hearing that Rare would not be the developer; I know I did. But hey, the demo is free after all, so what have you got to lose? Absolutely nothing. If you go intoViva Piñata: Party Animalswith an open mind and take the title for what it is – a party game – you’ll probably enjoy yourself....

It’s not often that a non-high-profile videogame, especially a non-licensed title, will feature an A-list voice cast. But whileThe Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragonseems to have become lost in the shuffle of all the other triple-A releases this season (yourFables, yourLittleBigPlanets, yourFallouts, etc.) — if you look at Metacritic for thePS3,360, andWiiversions, there’s onlyonereview up at the moment — the game employs a collection of top-tier voice talent. You can check out the wide range of said voice talent in the trailer above....

I had no ideaHeavy Raininvented anentire new genre… oh wait …no it didn’t.

Any ex-player who returns toWARbetween December 16 and December 23 will receive special in-game items to go along with their ten days. It’s not as tempting asAge of Conan‘srather desperate offer, but it’s better than nothing. “So much has changed on the battlefields ofWARover the past several months, and we are giving all returning players 10 free days to come back and experience these improvements for themselves,” says Mythic. “The game runs faster and is more stable than ever before....

Ryu Vs Scorpion. It pretty much sucks, fyi. [Spotted onEndangered Gamer]

[Weekend Destructainment is a collection of funny videos brought together from all across the Internet to bring you entertainment on these slow and boring weekends.] So this guy, named Dr Zeus, performs theLegend of Zeldatheme on Tesla Coils. It’s …. it’s different. Ain’t no party like a Destructainment party. After the break, Dtoider Mr PORC and friend sing some game music sadly. Then it’s theKirbytheme played with just Windows XP error sounds....

Because I’ve been away for most of the weekend to sightsee the hookers in Amsterdam with Dale North and Dtoider Takeshi, this weekend edition of the mobile roundup is a bit shorter than usual. Short like theterrifyingblue-painted midget Smurfette that was looking to score in the Red Light District. Retinas were burned, but some of these games are pretty good! And apparently101-in-1Games(iPhone,$0.99; Android,free?) now has 121 games after an update, reducing it to one of the more ridiculous names for a mobile game to date....

Nintendo Gamers Online, the site that was created in response to Nintendo’s pig-headed refusal to design a decent online matchmaking system, is reporting that they have undisputed proof that the friend’s code debacle is here to stay. In their latest article titledSad: Individual Friend Codes Confirmed(how’s that for original?), they give us the down and dirty … A friend match, as you would imagine, lets you play with up to 3 of your friends....

[Japan correspondent 50ft. Samurai breaks down who is buying all of those Dragon Quest XI’s.] You’ve all read about howDragon Quest IXhasinvadedJapan and is selling like the proverbial crack rock and really there’s no surprise there, even with itsone save slotandRapeLayknock-offs. As Jim astutely pointed out: it’s Japan, it’s DS, it’sDragon Quest. Exactly what kind of Japanese people, though, are shoveling upDQ IX? Does the fact it’s for the DS change anything?...

All the way back when the originalBioShockwas selling at retail, the murmurs of the lack of co-op were already surfacing. Not a surprise, considering the current trend to pack co-op play into absolutely everything. I’m not personally against co-op, but as some of you may recollect,I have some pretty distinct feelings about the value of single player games— and why sometimes games are a great deal better with no co-op option anywhere in sight....

If you didn’t know, the creators ofStubbs the Zombiehave been hard at work on a gamenotcalledStubbs the Zombie: Part 2. Their latest is calledGuilty Party, and it’s a clever family party game that plays something like a cross between classic board games like “Clue” and “Guess Who?” So in other words, it couldn’t be any more different than whatStubbs the Zombiewas. But here’s the cool thing — the game now has a release date....

As an American, I’ve grown up in a country known optimistically as a melting pot for the cultures of the entire world, and while my Italian ancestors seem to have agreed with that ideal, I’m not so sure they would appreciate what America has done for my utter lack of enthusiasm for their beloved national game. Watching the above trailer for the latest entry in theWinning Elevenseries —ilMetal Gear Soliddicalcio— the only thing going through my head was “Where’s David Beckham?...

Narrative design in role-playing games has to be one of the most difficult areas to work in, especially if you are working with an already well-established world. You are not only put under the microscope by the fans of the lore, but also by the fans of role-playing and fantasy games. After watching this video, it looks likeKingdoms of Amalur: Reckoningis finding the balance point between keeping fans of the fiction happy, while keeping players engaged through the many options...