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The next two weeks are kind of a big deal for Activision. The publisher has two James Bond games,GoldenEyefor Wii andBlood Stone, hitting shelves today. Next week, a little game calledCall of Duty: Black Opswill be released. But the real gem in Activision’s line-up may beBlood Drive, an over-the-top car combat title for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 that’s in stores today. I had a chance to play it for a bit a few weeks back, and you basically smash your car into zombies and try to blow up other cars, all while a foul-mouthed announcer calls the shots....

Quick, somebody get me CNN on the phone, because I have a red hot tip that will shake the entire foundations of America as we know it.Disaster: Day of Crisis,an IP as old as time itself, has NO release date and won’t hit store shelves in May,contrary to rumors! SHOCK! The game, which has been in development since the day Charles Darwin was born, is a survival title which charges players with the task of escaping a variety of natural disasters....

If you’ve been a disobedient Capcom fan, know this: the Capcom-specific Platinum Hits Triple Packis now available for purchase. For 40 bones, you’re able to become the proud owner ofDead Rising,Lost Planet: Extreme Condition(Colonies Edition) andDevil May Cry 4. All three of these titles aren’t the visual darlings that they once were, but they all rock the same as they did when release 50 billion years ago. Consider this a minor PSA....

Your eyes do not deceive you — you’re looking at video footage of a newCastlevaniaarcade game. It appears to use some Wii Remote-like device that you point and swing to take out ghouls.It looks reasonably fun, in the way that most light games can be fun (which is the say for 15 to 20 minutes … and intoxicated at an arcade). So this begs the question: Why not release this game for the Wii?...

Sony Online Entertainment invited me over to take a peek at their upcoming spy-themed MMO,The Agency. The PS3/PC title lets players enter the world of espionage as a member of either the stealthy, 007ish UNITE agency or the more in-your-face mercenary alternative, ParaGON. Both drop you into a skill-based massively multiplayer shooter. Forget fantasy; there’s no staffs, “tanks,” or giant rats here.The Agencyarms players with state-of-the-art weapons and high-tech spy gear, and your skills in combat, stealth, and cover will determine your level of success....

TheAce Attorneyseries is exceptionally fun. But with four games under its belt that all play very much the same way, I’m open to something new.Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworthis new alright, and looks to provide a fresh spin on the classic formulas. We had the opportunity to play the English localization ofMiles Edgeworthwhile talking to Capcom this weekend and it’s looking pretty cool. I dig the third-person perspective, as it puts a little bit of motion on the screen and feels more like a game than an interactive story....

[For hisMonthly Musing, manasteel88 tells us how being a father not only changed his day to day life, but also how he responds and engages with games, particularly games that have children and familial relationships. Want to write your own Musing on this month’s topic?Click hereand start writing! — JRo] A little over a year ago I became a father. It is one of the crowning achievements in my life. It’s also the moment my entire life changed....

A week ago, I complained that too many so-called “exploration” games were actually about collecting doodads and less about the joy of progressively uncovering and understanding more of an immersive, interesting world. Imagine my surprise and joy when I found (and by “found,” I mean “a reader linked me to it”)Small Worlds, by David Shute. It’s a game about exploration and, pleasantly enough,nothing else. You progress through the game by working your way through the environments, revealing more and more of the levels with every step....

In this promotional video forBrink, we’re shown the game’s parkour mechanics as compared to how the activity looks as performed by one of it’s best practitioners, freerunner Daniel Ilabaca. Is it just me, or is this stuff far more interesting to watch in the third-person? I understand the appeal of seeing through the eyes of the person running but it often winds up just being disorienting as I become acutely aware of the disconnect between what I’m seeing and my lazy butt being parked in a seat....

I have been privy to some rather interesting game-related things this morning, not least this particular little gem. Passed on by a personally trusted source who I shall refer to only as Mr. Chips, here is a list of what mayor may not beachievements forGoldenEye007on Xbox Live Arcade. Bear in mind that this is no proof the game is still in the works. In fact, Rare’s official line is that, whether the game was in development or not, it currently is doing absolutelynothingwith the IP....

The MMORPG genre is stale. The last big shakeup of the MMO industry was when the originalEverquestbrought 3D graphics to the mainstream, and as much as we all loveWorld of Warcraft, it’s more a distillation of the finest ideas on the subject than a revolution in gameplay. The devs aren’t entirely at fault though, as it takes at least a metric c*ntload of cash to get these games off the ground, and the games that have dared to stretch the boundaries have been the least successful (this is the time where you would tip a forty for dear, departedPlanetside)....

Likely to celebrate yesterday’s release of the“Trials of St. Lucia” add-on packforDante’s Inferno, a slew of related Avatar items have hit the marketplace on Xbox LIVE. Here’s what’s available: Dante Cap (80 MS Points), Beatrice Costume (240 MS Points), Dante Male T-Shirt (80 MS Points), Phlegyas Pet (160 MS Points), Dante Female T-Shirt (80 MS Points), Dante Headwear (80 MS Points), Dante Costume (240 MS Points) Typical stuff, really. Except for one item — the Phlegyas Pet....

We’ve all been going a little Capcom crazy thanks to the company’sslewofexcitingannouncements, but getting lost in the news was the revelation ofDark Void, a brand new game from the house of Ryu that got overlooked mainly because there was no real information to go on.A trailer, however, makes a world of difference and what do you know? It’s a dark, gritty sci-fi game … wow, we’ve never seen one of THOSE before....