Posts

Ready your index finger, because you’re about to click the play/pause button a bunch of times. As promised, GameTrailers released the debut teaser trailer for the Treyarch-developedCall of Duty: Black Ops. The key word here is “teaser,” folks — the gameplay is A) shown in ridiculously short snippets and B) hard to make out. Like I said, be ready to press that handy pause button. We were toldBlack Opswill take us tosuch locations as the Arctic, Cuba, and Vietnam....

This is confirmed. 100 percent. Cammie Dunaway will be showing up inShaun White 2on the Wii as a playable character. I’m not lying… oh, I can’t keep this up. This is most likely a joke from some clever employee at Game, the UK gaming retailer, but it’s frickin hilarious. The box art thatGame’s siteshows forShaun White Snowboarding: World Stageclaims that the game features Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo’s VP of Marketing. It’s pretty clearly a joke as the box art is the exact same as the first game, but bravo to Game for having a sense of humor and not ripping it down yet (as of this writing)....

I don’t follow politics at all. I know, I know. I’m a terrible American. I get a lot of sh*t for it, and I know that I probably should, but I just don’t. Maybe it has something to do with the politicians or something. I don’t know. I give gamers a bad name. If I am giving gamers a bad name, I might as well go all the way with this t-shirt....

Catherinereleased this week in Japan and the word is that the game is harder than holding together an Egyptian dictatorship. According to a post on the game’s official blog, the team at Atlus have received numerous reports that action sequences are too difficult to complete, even on the easiest setting. Atlus is currently working on a patch to soften the difficulty, though what those changes are or when they will be coming has yet to be revealed....

It’s been reported that prisoners in a Jixi labor camp were made to farm gold in MMOs, so the prison bosses could get rich selling it on. Some people already think gold farmers ought to be locked up, and it seems China is taking the notion literally. Liu Dali would break rocks and dig mine trenches as part of his daily prison duties, then be made to play a range of online games at night to accrue vast amounts of virtual wealth....

Wolfire Games and Unknown Worlds have joined forces for theOvergrowth/Natural Selection 2pre-order sale. For the next week only, you can pay $39.95 to not only pre-order bothOvergrowth(the sequel to indie kung fu classicLugaru) andNatural Selection 2for 40% off, but also gain access to the alphas for both games. If you’re not in the paying mood, however, we’ve got you covered: Wolfire gave us nine codes for the pre-order pack, and I’ve decided to give them away using the only objective metric I know of: brutal, gratuitous violence....

Labor Day Weekend continues withDragon*Concosplay, day 2. On Saturday, even more not-so-familiar faces made their debut, like the amazingly crafted sackboy 9 from the film of the same name. There were also a surprising number of phenomenalMass Effectensembles. Then we’ve got the friggin’ Wonder Twins, Marge Simpson, She-Hulk, MODOK, War Machine, Canti fromFLCL, a very lost-looking Hawkgirl, and the loveable Kon fromBleach. Once again, big props to theBeat Down Boogieteam for hooking us up with these photos....

Serious Samis hard. We all know that. But one thing it’s never been considered is complex. You have a gun, you run around, and you shoot waves upon waves of slobbering monstrosities. However, if you callSerious Samsimplistic, Croteam may have something to say to you, like what studio founder Roman Ribaric said to us when we asked why the game’s simplicity was so profound. “Yes, simplicity is our thing. There are lots of players to enjoy that kind of gameplay....

Offering crisp visuals and twisted slaying scenes to boot,Dante’s Infernocan sicken the most iron-bellied players with its gore. The narrative content may also sicken most classical lit majors, but the game is what it is — a brawler that borrows concepts from Dante Alighieri’s epic poem. Check those story expectations at the door because from what we’ve seen thus far, this thing is nowhere close to exploring the nature of sin or faithfully following the author’s journey to the depths of Hell....

We have a very weird story coming from Sweden.Dead or Alive: Dimensionshas been canceled in Sweden, Norway and Denmark by Nintendo, and fear of violating a child pornography law has been named as the chief cause. Although Nintendo refused to give anofficialreason for the cancellation, the decision comes following a fan’s concern thatDimensions‘ depiction of big-breasted teenagers risk breaking the law. Swedish law dictates that nobody under the age of eighteen — be they real or not — are to be depicted in any sort of pornographic situation....

A strategy role-playing game is a strategy role-playing game, right? You start out as an unlikely hero, pull together a small force that grows larger as the game progresses, and you work together to save the kingdom. The king dies, the princess fights alongside you. Archers go first. Protect the leader. Blah blah. Lather, rinse, and repeat. That’s not the case withEternal Poison, the latest SRPG from Atlus and developer Flight-Plan....

Oh,Galaga Legions. A game that should well be one of the most anticipated XBLA titles of this year given its developer’s street cred (it’s by the same folks who made the wonderfulPac-Man Championship Edition) has been more or less pushed to the wayside by the three other incredibly good, incredibly high-profile titles to come out of the Xbox Live Summer of Arcade. With games likeGeometry Wars 2andBraidandBionicCommandoout, and withCastle Crashersless than five days away, one might not be blamed for asking the obvious: why should anyone give a rat’s ass aboutGalaga Legions?...

Games that strictly approach from a comedic angle are rare these days. In a time when interactive entertainment predominately consists of badass protagonists wielding large guns, it’s refreshing to see that there is still a place for a dog wearing a business suit and a psychotic bunny wearing his birthday suit to run amok. Of course, they too are wielding large guns. I’ve been a fan of Sam & Max since their first foray into gaming, the 1993 LucasArts adventure,Sam & Max Hit the Road....