General gaming

General gaming

Review: Burnout Crash is a Bad Console Game (But Would be Awesome on iOS)

Posted: 22 Sep 2011 05:25 PM PDT

Burnout Crash isn't a very good console game. It's entertaining enough, and I could imagine a smartphone version might monopolize my commute for a few weeks, but I wouldn't have played it on the Xbox 360 or PS3 for more than fifteen minutes if I weren't doing so for work.

Fans of mobile games (myself included) often complain loudly about designers shoehorning hardcore games into touch-control interfaces that don't really suit the gameplay. Burnout Crash is the inverse of that phenomenon: It's a mobile game thrown onto a console, and the experience suffers for it.

Former Guitar Hero, Tony Hawk Dev Neversoft Creating an FPS

Posted: 22 Sep 2011 04:33 PM PDT

Gun

Job listings at Neversoft's website have revealed the company is at work -- or soon will be -- on a first-person shooter.

As noticed by GamerZines (via Eurogamer), there are multiple positions related to FPSes at the jobs area of Neversoft's website. These include network programmer, senior concept artist, senior level designer, senior technical artist, level designer, and Windows PC platform lead engineer. None of the listings reference anything specifically, though they do mention that employees would be working on "our new FPS."

It was reported last year that Neversoft was looking to hire for a new "action shooter" game.

Tokyo Game Show 2011 Saw More Visitors Than Ever Before

Posted: 22 Sep 2011 03:40 PM PDT

Matt Leone pregnant

This year's Tokyo Game Show welcomed in more total visitors than in any previous year, and it also had the single most-visited day in the show's history.

222,668 visitors visited between September 15 and September 18. The first two days were business days and therefore had much lower attendance than the rest; 25,631 and 27,042 people attended on Thursday and Friday, respectively. The two weekend days saw attendance shoot way up: there were 86,251 visitors on Saturday and 83,744 on Sunday.

The Saturday number beat out the previous one-day record of Saturday, September 23, 2006, which had 84,823 visitors. Last year's show saw about 207,000 people in total, so it was a pretty big jump overall (15,021, to be exact) for a show that was missing a company like Level-5.

Demon's Souls Multiplayer Will Stay Online Until at Least 2012

Posted: 22 Sep 2011 03:07 PM PDT

Demon's Souls

Yet again, Atlus has decided to extend the deadline for the shutdown of Demon's Souls online multiplayer servers.

The game will now remain online at least until 2012, the game's publisher announced today. Since being released on October 6, 2009, the notoriously-difficult RPG has had its servers extended several times, and with good reason -- the online portion of the game is quite unique as it allows you to invade other players' worlds and attack them, see how they died, and more.

This functionality is also present in its spiritual successor, Dark Souls, which comes out next month. It was used to punish pirates and those who got their hands on early copies of the game in Japan when developer From Software sent out a max-level enemy to murder early players.

You Can Thank AT&T and the Supreme Court for Sony's Anti-Class Action Terms of Service

Posted: 22 Sep 2011 02:20 PM PDT

PSN logoAlong with a new PlayStation 3 firmware update, Sony recently introduced new terms of service that users must agree to before being allowed online. By agreeing to them, you forfeit the right to join in any class action lawsuits against the company, save for those filed no later than August 20, 2011. It seemed like a hostile and perhaps even illegal clause. As it turns out, we can thank AT&T and the Supreme Court for its inclusion.

Earlier this year, the Supreme Court ruled that AT&T had the right to include a clause in new employees' contracts stating they may not bring a class action lawsuit against the company. After word of a similar clause popped up in the Sony TOS last week, there was some speculation that the two could be connected, and indeed there is, CNN reports.

"The Supreme Court recently ruled in the AT&T case that language like this is enforceable," a PlayStation spokeswoman told CNN. "The updated language in the TOS is designed to benefit both the consumer and the company by ensuring that there is adequate time and procedures to resolve disputes."

New 3D Classics Game TwinBee Now Out on 3DS

Posted: 22 Sep 2011 01:31 PM PDT

TwinBee

The latest 3D Classics title has been released on the 3DS eShop today. TwinBee is a vertical-scrolling shooter that started out in arcades before being brought to the Famicom (NES) in Japan. It was never brought to North America on that platform, but we did get the arcade version as a part of Konami Classics: Arcade Hits for DS in 2007, albeit under the name RainbowBell. It's also available on the Xbox Live Arcade's Game Room and on PSP. As a part of the 3D Classics line, it can be played in 3D and costs $4.99.

That's the lone new 3DS-only title this week, although owners of the system can also check out a pair of new DSiWare game. Escape Trick: Ninja Castle is an action game where you solve puzzles for $4.99. The other new one is Break Tactics, a strategy game with some RPG elements that will also run you $4.99.

On WiiWare, there is a demo of racing game 3D Pixel Racing (where everything looks like it was built out of Lego-style blocks) to be checked out before dropping 500 points ($5) on the full version. And there's a brand-new 1,000-point ($10) Aya and the Cubes of Light, a 3D platformer that almost looks a bit like Crush without the crushing mechanic.

Chrono Cross and Final Fantasy Origins Headed to PSN, ESRB Listings Suggest

Posted: 22 Sep 2011 12:37 PM PDT

Chrono Cross

Slowly but surely, Square Enix continues to bring many of its older PlayStation games to the PlayStation Network. Sony erroneously announced that Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy VI (better known to many as Final Fantasy III) were going to be out on the PlayStation Store in North America this week. Both are games we know are coming and this week seemed as good as any to release them, but Sony later realized it had made a mistake and clarified that neither game was slated for this week.

Disappointing as that may be, this may make up for it: another pair of Square Enix games seem to be destined for PSN releases. The ESRB has published listings for Chrono Cross and Final Fantasy Origins, Joystiq reports. They are each listed as being for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable; PSone Classics on PSN are playable on both platforms and this is very often how we find out about these games' re-releases ahead of time.

Square Enix hasn't made any official announcement about either coming to North America.

Go to MineCon, Get Your Character an In-Game Cloak

Posted: 22 Sep 2011 11:50 AM PDT

MineCon

The Minecraft fan convention MineCon is now less than two months away. Aside from the fun of being able to attend the very first such event and getting to be there when the final build of the game goes live, an in-game bonus will be given away to attendees.

Everyone at MineCon will get some swag in the form of an in-game cloak. It'll stay with you even after the event is over and will be one of the five designs pictured below. You can vote for your favorite here and hope it is what ends up on your character's back.

Minecraft is a sandbox building game for PC that has been a massive success that is all the more impressive considering it was largely created by a single person. It was first released in pre-release form in 2009 and has still yet to be "finished," though developer Mojang has been selling it a discounted rate for some time now. It entered beta late last year and Xperia Play and (a Kinect-enabled) Xbox 360 versions are in the works. The game has been unofficially ported to other platforms such as DS.

Vanillaware's Grand Knights History Being Released Internationally on PSP

Posted: 22 Sep 2011 11:05 AM PDT

Grand Knights History

With Vita on the horizon and PlayStation Portable becoming a less significant system in North America, it's always nice to see a publisher step up and bring a new PSP game here, particularly when it's an especially good one. XSEED Games today announced it will soon bring Grand Knights History to North America.

Grand Knights History is a traditional, turn-based RPG from Vanillaware, the developer of Muramasa: The Demon Blade, Odin Sphere, and the upcoming Dragon's Crown. Vanillaware is well-known for its beautiful 2D graphics and GKH is no exception, as you can see from the screenshots in this story. It earned a 36 (of 40) score from Famitsu prior to its recent release in Japan, where it was published by Marvelous Entertainment.

"XSEED Games is excited to be bringing Grand Knights History to the North American audience," said XSEED president Jun Iwasaki. "Vanillaware is renowned for their beautiful and striking hand-drawn 2D graphics, and with its stunning visuals and strategic gameplay, Grand Knights History will be a must-have for all PSP owners with a taste for deep, engrossing RPGs."

Forza 4's $30 Season Pass Includes Six DLC Packs, 60 Cars

Posted: 22 Sep 2011 09:46 AM PDT


Another DLC Season Pass has been announced, this one for Forza Motorsport 4.

It will be available alongside the game at launch for 2,400 Microsoft Points ($29.99) on the Xbox Live Marketplace, as well as at Best Buy, GameStop, and other retail stores. Buying it grants access to six DLC packs being released between this November and April 2012. The $29.99 price offers a 30 percent discount over buying the DLC individually at their normal prices.

If this all sounds very familiar, it's because Gears of War 3 is doing something very similar with a $30 Season Pass that grants a discount over buying the DLC on its own. The similarities are due to Microsoft being the publisher of both games; this may be a recurring thing for first-party Xbox 360 games going forward.

Posted by Shri Krishna

Total Pageviews

statcounter

View My Stats