Posts

It’s Saturday morning, so you know what that means — time to watch Conrad and myself play this week’s batch of Xbox LIVE Indie games. And, for those who aren’t familiar, we have some hard times ahead of us. Hard times indeed. Join us from 10:00 – 12:00 PST aswe stream livefrom CouchToid Studios in lovely Portland, OR. We’ll be giving away codes for recent and noteworthy releases likeVorpalandCthulu Saves the World, so be sure to stop by for big money and possibly even big prizes....

[Backlogis the ongoing quest to ridConrad Zimmerman’scollection of unfinished games. As voted on by the Destructoid community, Conrad plays each game from start to finish live onDestructoid’s Twitch.tv channelevery weeknight at 8pm Pacific] Last night onBacklogwe brought to an end the machinations of a hatter gone far round the bend. Now Alice must traverse a fiery path to the Jabberwock’s lair, take its eye and finish the weapon destined to destroy the Red Queen....

Balaclavas are masks that cover your entire face except for the eyes. Thanks toModern Warfare 2’sGhost, everyone wants a Balaclava with a skull on it now. Well, I knowIat least want one. In comesBallys with Balaclavaslike the one Ghost wears. There are four skull themed masks —original white, fire, ice and green— on sale now for £12.99. The masks are perfect for everyone that will be dressing up as Ghost for a con or planning on robbing a bank in the near future....

It looks like Xbox LIVE Gold members will be able to connect with four buddies and shoot the crap out of giant, icy monsters next week. Capcom has revealed that aLost Planet 2cooperative demo will be made available for Xbox LIVE Gold members on August 19. Silver members can either pony up to upgrade to Gold, or patiently wait a week when the demo becomes available to all on August 26....

Some of us love violence. We love seeing mayhem. In fact, for some of us, it is the sole reason of our meaningless existence. Sadly, Best Buy in Bel Air, MD, has pulled a bitch move and decided not to launch the PlayStation 3 or Wii on Friday and Sunday, respectively. According to a phone message (410-893-6101), the store has decided not to go with either launch because of “safety concerns....

It’s been a particularly flavorful week of corporate trash talk this week, with Microsoft and Sony each getting their digs in. Now Microsoft has decided to take a steaming dump over Blu-ray, by way of UK boss Stephen McGill. What is this, 2007? “I think people may have spoken about [Xbox’s lack of a Blu-ray drive] originally, but that’s long gone,” says McGill. “I think people now recognize what a smart decision it was to keep the pricing low, and actually Blu-ray is going to be passed by as a format....

Microsoft Research is collaborating with the company’s Interactive Entertainment Business to provide a free Kinect-for-Windows software development kit. They are planning to release it later this spring with“academic researchers and enthusiasts” in mind. A second, commercialversion of the SDK is coming sometime “later.” Microsoft wasn’t willing to divulge any information about this other than its existence. The simple heads up is appreciated, though. Clearly, this is a good move for Microsoft....

I’m no sports fan, but even if I was,MLB Stickball(800 Microsoft Points) still wouldn’t look or sound all that enticing. Even the tiny press release for the game, which can be viewed after the break, doesn’t do a very good job of selling the title. Of the sports games I’ve enjoyed in the past, almost all of them were unrealistic rather than simulation. From what I can gather from thefew screensofMLB Stickballavailable, the game falls under the former category, not the latter, so why does it look so unappealing and bland to me?...

Modern Warfare 2.It is popular. Infinity Ward’sterrorist-lovin’ shooteris looking set to become one of the biggest videogames of all time, with GameStop declaring that it has more preorders than any other title in the retail chain’s history. “By all indicators, we anticipateCall of Duty: Modern Warfare 2will be the biggest entertainment launch of all time,”says GameStop’s Tony Bartel. “As of today, the number of pre-order reservations we’ve taken for the game is the highest for any title we’ve ever sold in our 6,200 store network....

You know how it works! With the help of each other, attempt to figure out all of the disguised game covers. They all share a common theme that, once solved, can help you figure out the harder ones. Last weekI stumped everyone again, with Hard #5 still unsolved, so this week I decided to take it easy on you guys. The teasers themselves are a little tricky this week, but the theme is extremely simple, and once you figure that out the rest should crumble quickly....

The wide, wonderful world of videogames can be rather confusing at times, especially when you’re talking about the nebulous area of release dates. Here’s a follow-up to our original post onRock Bandand how itfinally got a European release date. If you remember, that story explained that EA had set a May 23rd release date for the Xbox 360 version of the game; they would only say that PS3, PS2, and Wii versions would come “later this summer”....

It appears that Valve isn’t abandoningLeft 4 Deadafter the release of the“Crash Course”campaign downloadable content. During a recent visit to Valve HQ, thetwoLeft 4 Dead 2boycotterswere “given a rough idea” of the unannounced and apparently upcomingL4Dcontent. “There is more DLC forLeft 4 Deadcoming after ‘Crash Course,’ Walking_Target saidvia the boycotter’s Steam Web page. “We were given a rough idea of what it should be, however we were asked not to talk too much about it so it didn’t ‘influence the creative process....

MSNBC has been all about thegame music lately, haven’t they?Today they posted a featureon the video game cover band The OneUps, covering their recent performance at the 2007 Penny Arcade Expo. The feature talks about the seven-piece cover band’s struggle for the last several years to land a big gig, and how they finally ended up PAX, playing a show for over 5,000 people. After their 23-song set at the show, the line in front of the band’s booth stretched almost all the way back to Arkansas [see above picture]....