General gaming

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• Dance Central 2 Can Import Dance Central 1's Songs for $5
• A Guide to Tokyo's Retro Gaming Bars
• Sony Working to Bring PSN Back Online [Update]
• Japan Review Check: Gears of War 3
• Gears of War 3 NYC Launch Event Gallery
• NHL 12 Enjoys the Franchise's Biggest First Week Ever
• Final Fantasy XIII-2: The Post-TGS Postmortem
• Dark Souls Dev Attacks Early Players with Super High-Level Monster
• Tetsuya Nomura on Kingdom Hearts 3D
• Viacom Lawsuit Seeks $131 Million Refund From Former Harmonix Shareholders

Dance Central 2 Can Import Dance Central 1's Songs for $5 Posted: 21 Sep 2011 02:38 PM PDT Much like the Rock Band games, Harmonix will allow you to bring the first Dance Central's songs into Dance Central 2, provided you're willing to part with a small licensing fee. Microsoft's Twitter account revealed a price earlier today: 400 Microsoft Points ($5) will be the cost to play the previous game's songs in DC2. Of course, you'll need a copy of the first game in order to import the songs in the first place, as well as 200-250MB of free space on your 360's hard drive and an Internet-connected system (Xbox Live Gold isn't necessary). You'll need more than just a DC disc -- you'll be asked to input a code from the back of the manual, meaning you can't pass around a copy of DC with friends or rent it to get the songs in DC2 on the cheap. A pre-order deal will save you from having to pay at all. A free 400 points awaits those who pre-order DC2 at select retailers.

A Guide to Tokyo's Retro Gaming Bars Posted: 21 Sep 2011 01:48 PM PDT Feature Share it: Tweet A Guide to Tokyo's Retro Gaming Bars Essential knowledge for people who like playing classic games and paying too much for drinks. By: Jeremy Parish September 21, 2011 One of the more interesting trends in recent years is the rash of retro game-themed bars that have cropped up around Tokyo. These hangouts have about as much in common with a Dave & Buster's as a motorcycle does to a German tank: Rather than being the brightly lit barcades that have tried and failed to make inroads in America, Japan's game bars are simply modest watering holes that have begun decorating themselves with kitchsy Famicom-era knick-knacks and memorabilia and offering customers the opportunity to while their time away by dabbling in old (and occasionally new) games. It's a pretty fun idea, and one that's intrinsically Japanese in nature. More specifically, these bars are very much a natural evolution of Tokyo's social politics. The idea of a bar where patrons can play video games makes perfect sense in a country where Nintendo's 8-bit Famicom is a potent focus of nostalgia for a time when Japan's economy was a booming powerhouse; rather than entertaining guests with karaoke or sports television, retro game bars instead let them kill time with fondly remembered classics both good and bad, from Super Mario Bros. to Spelunker. And in a city where social drinking is practically mandatory and last call is at 5 a.m. (because the trains shut down at midnight and don't open again until dawn), people often find themselves killing an evening in a bar after missing the last train. What better way to kill time than by slugging it out with Ghosts 'N Goblins' diabolical red arremer or NInja Gaiden's hateful birds until the sun comes up?

Sony Working to Bring PSN Back Online [Update] Posted: 21 Sep 2011 12:48 PM PDT Update: It sounds as if the issues have been resolved. You should now be able to log in and go about your PSN-related business. Original Story: Anytime the PlayStation Network goes down, it's hard not to assume the worst after the April breach. While we can only hope for the best and that things will be resolved quickly, the service remains down for the time being. Issues arose when users were unable to log in earlier today. A message on the official PlayStation Twitter account explained that Sony is aware and working to fix the matter, though we haven't gotten any further updates over the past few hours. We've been given no indication that this downtime was planned or that it's anything particularly serious.

Japan Review Check: Gears of War 3 Posted: 21 Sep 2011 12:01 PM PDT Still a bit of a slow week in Japan in terms of quantity, but two major releases coming this week are likely to dominate the hearts and minds of gamers over there for a while to come: - Gears of War 3 (10/10/9/10, 39 points): The latest of what's become quite a large number of Western-developed games to miss a perfect score in Famitsu by a single point. Like most M-rated games, the Japanese version of Gears 3 has been censored to get rid of some of the most visceral gore. Some hardcore FPS fans over there have imported the US version in order to get around this...only to find that the censorship still kicks in when the US Gears 3 is loaded on a Japanese 360, causing some consternation on Internet forums over there. Imagine spending the extra cash to import this game, only to find that not only is it still censored, but there's no Japanese-language support, either. You'd be crying in your curry, no doubt. Regardless, Famitsu cares more about gameplay than decapitation, and they loved what they saw. "The graphics are top-of-the-line on the 360," one editor said, "and you can immediately lose yourself in the game world. It's top-level SF action, and with the well laid-out multiplayer support, there's not a single blind spot to it."

Gears of War 3 NYC Launch Event Gallery Posted: 21 Sep 2011 12:00 PM PDT RAZOR HAIL Gears of War 3 NYC Launch Event Gallery Check out all the festivities and fans who came out to celebrate Gears 3. By Anthony Parisi, 09/21/2011       Share it: Tweet Page 1 of 83   VIEW AS: SLIDESHOWLIST

NHL 12 Enjoys the Franchise's Biggest First Week Ever Posted: 21 Sep 2011 11:51 AM PDT With the NBA likely to miss at least a substantial chunk of the upcoming season, now is a perfect opportunity for the NHL to grab some new fans. If the success of the latest NHL game from EA is any indication, it's going to do that very well. Electronic Arts has announced that NHL 12 enjoyed a "record-breaking launch." After its release on September 13 in North America, EA's internal figures peg it as having the biggest launch week in the franchise's history. Sales were up 19 percent in North America and Europe (where it launched on September 9) as compared with last year, resulting in it bringing in more than $27 million at retail worldwide. Record amounts of time was spent playing online, too; over 6.9 million online matches took place between September 13 and September 19. That's the most during one week in the franchise's history and 17 percent more than last year.

Final Fantasy XIII-2: The Post-TGS Postmortem Posted: 21 Sep 2011 11:34 AM PDT Final Fantasy XIII-2 had its formal Japan debut at the Tokyo Game Show last week, and the net feedback's been pretty encouraging so far, especially if the original XIII turned you off with its, well, FFXIII-ness. Director Motomu Toriyama and battle-system lead Yusuke Matsui talked in detail about XIII-2's TGS presence in this week's issue of Famitsu magazine, and here are some of the highlights. Note: Really mild spoilers for XIII and 2 ahead.

Dark Souls Dev Attacks Early Players with Super High-Level Monster Posted: 21 Sep 2011 11:07 AM PDT Dark Souls isn't meant to be out until September 22 in Japan. That didn't stop certain retailers from selling it early anyway and now, unfortunately for those who purchased the game and are already playing it, a nasty surprise awaits early palyers. According to Esuteru (and translated by Edge), developer From Software is systematically murdering those playing the game early. The game allows for players to invade the world of other players and kill them. So what From has done is take a max-level (145) character with 1900HP and abilities maxed out at 99 and sent it out to attack players. It's a guaranteed death for any player who run into it; even with 60 hours played, Edge's reviewer is only at level 43 with no ability higher than level 30. Clearly this character From has decided to sic upon players is no joke -- unless you're only reading about it, in which case it is pretty funny. Besides, for a game that's sure to be even more cruel than the notoriously difficult Demon's Souls, such a harsh punishment for playing the game early is to be expected.

Tetsuya Nomura on Kingdom Hearts 3D Posted: 21 Sep 2011 10:42 AM PDT Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance had a full appearance at the Tokyo Game Show last week, with a new trailer and playable demo on the offering and fully dissected by 1UP at the show. In this week's issue of Famitsu magazine, series director Tetsuya Nomura had a fair bit of commentary on his first 3DS game, along with a few other things he's working on. Some of the highlights: - The story is set around what the preview coverage calls 'worlds enclosed by sleep,' populated by creatures called Dream Eaters. "It's a bit complex," Nomura said, "but basically there are worlds that fell into darkness besides the ones Sora returned to normal in the first Kingdom Hearts -- some of the princesses' worlds, Dumbo's world, and so on. The original story had all these worlds get fixed up in KH1's ending, but not all of them completely returned to normal, instead lying in stasis between light and dark. Since the worlds themselves are asleep, the game is set in the dreams these worlds are having. It's Sora and Riku's job to wake these worlds up, return them to normal, and gain their Keyblade Master certification." - The playable demo featured Sora back in his KH1 outfit. "That's because he is entering the dreams of these sleeping worlds," Nomura explained. "It also has to do with the fact that Master Yen Sid told him that he needed to completely re-learn how to use his Keyblade, to go away from the self-taught approach he had been using. Sora doesn't think that's necessary, but Riku, his confidence low due to having been taken in by the darkness before, agrees to it. Thus Sora comes along with him on this quest."

Viacom Lawsuit Seeks $131 Million Refund From Former Harmonix Shareholders Posted: 21 Sep 2011 10:30 AM PDT Following MTV's purchase of Harmonix in 2006, the music genre became a huge business and subsequently crashed, resulting in the developer being sold earlier this year. In the midst of all this, there has been a dispute between MTV parent company Viacom and the former shareholders of Harmonix regarding whether a $150 million bonus is indeed owed to the shareholders. A new lawsuit filed by Viacom indicates how serious it is about getting much of that money back. Early last year, Viacom stated that it was seeking a partial refund of the money it paid out. Later in the year, Harmonix's former shareholders filed a lawsuit against Viacom alleging that the company was not properly handling bonus payments and that they were in fact owed even more money. Viacom denied this was the case before moving on to to sell the company to investment group Columbus Nova for virtually no money; doing so netted it a substantial tax deduction. This new lawsuit was filed by Viacom on Friday, September 16, in a Delaware court. Claiming that the bonus payments were previously calculated incorrectly, it's looking to get a refund of $131,827,980 of the $149,770,149 it paid when it acquired Harmonix, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Experts indicated it's an unusual thing for a company to do; it apparently really wants that money.

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