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Grand Theft Auto 4
Review by: Cyril Lachel
Find out what Cyril thought of this year's biggest title. Here's a hint...he loved it. READ FULL REVIEW...
Gran Turismo 5 Prologue
Review by: Dave Gamble
Sony has released Gran Turismo 5: Prologue for the Playstation 3. Our PC curmudgeon takes a look to see if it might just be the prologue... READ FULL REVIEW...
Mako
Review by: Dan Keener
Dan pushes the Razer Mako to its limits and thinks he has found a black pearl. READ FULL REVIEW...

Top Spin 3 trailer looks good, still doesn't cross the Uncanny Valley

by: Chuck - posted: 5/10/2008 9:38 AM - Comments (0)
2K Sports has released the debut trailer for Top Spin 3 which features such tennis stars as Roger Federer, Andy Roddick, Maria Sharapova, James Blake, Bjorn Borg and Monica Seles.  The game will features 40 different events and while the animations and gameplay look great the faces of the players remind me that once again we still have a way to go before we cross the Uncanny Valley.

News Roundup: LittleBigBusSimulator

by: Randy - posted: 5/9/2008 8:43 PM - Comments (0)
Demo
 Videos, Screens
 Articles
 Thanks to Pi Studios, AtomicGamer, and Digit-Life for today's news roundup.

Pictured: The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar [Book 13 Epic Quest]
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Gaming Gibs for 5/9/2008

by: Chuck - posted: 5/9/2008 2:25 PM - Comments (1)
Here are a few things I missed while watching the first seven minutes of Speed Racer:
  • Law of the land talks about how to create real video game legislation
  • Activision is shelving the Tony Hawk series for this year, it's amazing what competition can do
  • No video game tie-ins for Indiana Jones or Batman, this isn't necessarily a bad thing
  • Aaron Goldberg trashes the PS3, RROD of irony escapes without notice
  • Silicon Knights talks about the Mana system in Too Human
  • Bizzare Creations is no longer doing DLC for Project Gotham Racing 4, up to Microsoft for new content

Demo of Bad Company coming

by: John - posted: 5/9/2008 8:46 AM - Comments (0)
For Xbox and PS3 owners,  June 5th is the date you can download a demo of Battlefield: Bad Company that will feature both single and multiplayer gameplay. You can also get in if you pre-order the game. The single player portion will let you play a little of the beginning while the multiplayer map consists of Oasis with the Gold Rush mode. The final game will hit stores in the US on June 25th so you get a good 20 days to try it out and see if you like it. [READ MORE]

LBP trailer from Sony Day warms the dark cockles of Chuck's heart

by: Chuck - posted: 5/9/2008 7:48 AM - Comments (0)
I've made no attempt to cover up my love of Little Bit Planet since I saw it at E3 last year.  Here's the new trailer from the game which debut at the Sony event in London this week.  There's some new gameplay shown off as well as some new Killzone 2 inspired sackboy creatures.   This footage is almost enough to offset the news that we won't be getting a beta of the game before it's released this fall.

Projectile Dysfunction got you down? Take Stroyent today!

by: Randy - posted: 5/9/2008 12:53 AM - Comments (0)
Activision and id Software are taking a much more humorous approach to their new official site in support of the Enemy Territory: Quake Wars console release.  The 2-in-1 health and ammo of the Strogg Race, Stroyent, gets one of those warm, sunny commercials dealing honestly with the problem of Projectile Dysfunction.
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News Roundup: The Ninja Mask of Elefunk

by: Randy - posted: 5/9/2008 12:22 AM - Comments (2)
Articles
 Videos, Screens
 Thanks to WarCry, AtomicGamer, and Techgage for today's news roundup.

[Pictured: The Lord of the Rings: Conquest]
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New Killzone 2 trailer shows off new Killzony goodness

by: Chuck - posted: 5/8/2008 9:23 PM - Comments (0)
Here's the official version of the Killzone 2 trailer that Sony released at the Sony day earlier this week.  I can't say that my socks were knocked off by this but we've got a while before the game ships and I'm way more stoked for Resistance Fall of Man 2.

Thou Shall Not Pass!

by: John - posted: 5/8/2008 1:01 PM - Comments (0)
The folks at Pandemic Studios are working to bring hobbits, orcs, and Balrogs to life as they have just announced The Lord of the Rings: Conquest today. This time around you'll be able to join the evil forces of Sauron instead of playing as the good guys only. Some images of the game can be found on the official website but June 20th will be the date that you'll get to see game footage on GT TV. I'd really like to see how the game works taking the part of a Cave-troll or the Balrog.  With the recent announcement that Ian McKellem is set to reprise his role of Gandalf for the two Hobbit movies, there seems to be a good amount of Tolkien news coming about these days. [READ MORE]

Gaming Gibs for 5/8/2008

by: Chuck - posted: 5/8/2008 12:07 PM - Comments (0)
Here are a few things I missed while checking if my ISP was throttling my bandwidh:
  • The Analog Gamer is back with a D&D Bar Fighting game...I'd kick ass my with +4 Tankard of ass kicking brew
  • Totilo wonders if reviewers needs to finish games, the overhype of Bioshock comes to mind
  • GameSetWatch looks at the good, the bad, and the kind of ugly of the PlayStation Network.
  • The NES re-imagined
  • Ars Technica examines how Activision will still be milking the ESA even though it's not paying dues anymore

Come talk video games tonight in Columbus

by: Chuck - posted: 5/8/2008 9:18 AM - Comments (5)
If you live in Columbus and can pry yourself away from Grand Theft Auto IV for 90 minutes you might want to head down to Columbus State's Nestor Hall Auditorium from 6-7:30 to listen to a panel talking about video games as the Convergence of Art and Technology.  The Q&A panel will feature several smart people as well as one idiot from a local video game website (me).  The topics will range from the morals and ethics of video games to ARG's and more.  The panel will open up to the public at some point so you can ask me fun pointed questions that I will answer with vague yet satisfying answers.

There's also the Downtown Digital Arts festival going on which will be open before and during the panel.  Thanks to the Fuse Factory for inviting me to participate.

News Roundup: A Million Billion Strokes of Fate

by: Randy - posted: 5/8/2008 12:29 AM - Comments (0)
Demo
 Articles
 Videos, Screens
Thanks to Defunct Games, Xbox America, AtomicGamer, Legit Reviews, and Digit-Life for today's news roundup.

[Pictured:  Haze]
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EA SPORTS Fight Night is back for Round 4

by: Randy - posted: 5/7/2008 8:54 PM - Comments (0)
It's been over two years since the last round (less than that for PS3 owners) but the highly-ranked Fight Night boxing series is coming out of the corner with Fight Night Round 4.  Fatigue, adrenaline, footwork, and timing are all part of the sweet science, and now rough and tumble inside fighting is thrown in the mix.  Not coincidentally, Mike Tyson makes a return to boxing games after a decade of no-shows.  The new physics systems now accounts for missed punches, glancing punches, and knockout blows.  We'll see if these old gloves can still hold their own against the challenger, Don King Presents: Prizefighter, and FaceBreaker coming out of EA's newly sub-branded EA Sports Freestyle development house.  Fight Night Round 4 is ballparked for a 2009 release on PS3 and Xbox 360. [READ MORE]

PS3 version of Grand Theft Auto IV patched

by: Chuck - posted: 5/7/2008 1:37 PM - Comments (0)
Rockstar has released a patch for the PS3 version of Grand Theft Auto IV which should help reduce the locking and stuttering issues the game was having.  It looks like the culprit was the GameSpy servers as they were getting flooded with requests.  Here's the statement from Rockstar

Rockstar Games has released a GTA IV patch for Playstation 3 today that prevents Gamespy’s servers from being overloaded and therefore reduces the impact on those servers that were causing the game to stutter and lock up. We continue to monitor the performance of the game both on and offline and will provide further updates as necessary. We want to assure everyone that, together with our hardware partners, we continue to strive to give our fans the best possible interactive entertainment experiences possible. This update will ensure that everyone will experience Grand Theft Auto IV the way it was intended. We apologize for the inconvenience this has caused.

Doom 4 announced, they mostly come out at night...mostly

by: Chuck - posted: 5/7/2008 1:06 PM - Comments (1)
There aren't a lot of details yet but id Software has announced that they are working on Doom 4.  I'm guessing the game will be using some version of the engine that's powering Rage and that we'll be shooting demons, imps, and undead marines once again.  Hopefully id learned some things from Doom 3 and we'll actually get decent plot development, weapons with flashlights on them, and fewer monster closets. 

Help stop Uwe Boll, get gum!

by: John - posted: 5/7/2008 12:48 PM - Comments (1)
Besides games, I love movies and it hurts to see both of them get bastardized by Uwe Boll. The guy makes bad movies period and on top of that he makes bad movies based on some good video games. You'd think companies would learn not to sign off on the deal to give him the ability to turn their creations into horrible wastes of time. Word is if StopUweBoll.org gets 1 million signatures, he'll stop making movies. To help achieve that goal, Stridge Gum has said they would provide one free coupon for a pack of their gum to each individual who signs the petition should the 1 million mark be reached between May 7th and 14th 2008. So what are you waiting for? Go sign the petition and chew bubble gum. If you sign it you won't be out of bubble gum. [READ MORE]

Gaming Gibs for 5/7/2008

by: Chuck - posted: 5/7/2008 12:43 PM - Comments (1)
Here are a few things I missed while remembering that knowing is half the battle:
  • Despite no real evidence, Variety wonders if Activision had something to do with the delay of Prototype
  • Wii Fit to usher in a whole new generation of body issues for it's users
  • Game design lessons from the Crysis team, no advice on how to afford a machine to play the game though
  • This is kind of old but if you get a red ring on your 360 and want better service then you should check out this advice piece from the Consumerist
  • MTV tries to make some sense of the increasing number of perfect scores in games and wonders if we need new standards

5 million in two weeks? Hogwash! Try 6 million copies of GTA IV sold in the first week

by: John - posted: 5/7/2008 8:05 AM - Comments (0)
The New York Times has word that Take-Two will announce today that they have sold six million copies of Grand Theft Auto IV in the first week with 3.6 million going on the first day alone. Industry analysts, not to be confused with analyst therapists, were expecting 5 million in two weeks. So how will this effect Electronic Art's attempts in purchasing the company? Take-Two said all along they are going to wait until after the sales of GTA IV before discussing being acquitted by anybody.  Being #2 I'm sure doesn't suite EA well and acquiring Take-Two and the GTA franchise is one big step in trying to be #1 again.

Thanks Kotaku,

The rest of the NCAA Football 09 cover athletes

by: John - posted: 5/7/2008 7:55 AM - Comments (6)
This year EA's putting different athletes onto their NCAA Football 09 games based on the platform it is released. For the PlayStation 2 you have DeSean Jackson from California who went to the Philadelphia Eagles at #49. The 163rd selection overall, Owen Schmitt from West Virigina (Who BTW choked their last game against Pitt to drop from the National Title game) will be showcased on the PSP version. As announced previously, Darren McFadden will be the 360 coverboy and Matt Ryan will be on the PS3 cover. The Wii version doesn't even get a real player as the mascot for the Michigan State University Spartans will grace the cover for that console's version. [READ MORE]

First look at Far Cry 2

by: John - posted: 5/7/2008 7:43 AM - Comments (0)
If you're itching to see some Far Cry 2 action, well the video below will give you the first glimpse and some information about the game. It's not being made by the same folks who did the first one so we'll see how the people at Ubisoft Montreal  I have to say that by visiting Africa and camping outside to do research takes some guts so I hope they got some great experiences and translate that into the game.

News Roundup: Mirror's Black Edge Blade

by: Randy - posted: 5/7/2008 3:40 AM - Comments (0)
Demos
 Articles
 Videos, Screens
 Thanks to Defunct Games, Legit Reviews, and Strategy Informer for today's news roundup.

[Pictured: Sudden Strike 3: Arms for Victory]
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Crash Bandicoot: Mind over Mutant debuts with a swift kick in the groin

by: Randy - posted: 5/7/2008 2:34 AM - Comments (0)
The debut trailer for Crash Bandicoot: Mind over Mutant is a real kick in the junk.  You'll, uh, see what I mean.  Too bad Crash thinks it's funnier than you will.  There's some humpty-dumpty platforming and some mildly-interesting environments mixed in with some mildly-interesting character designs.  This one's brought to you by Radical Entertainment, the developers behind Crash of the Titans.
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Scarecrow and Two Face run amok in LEGO Batman

by: Randy - posted: 5/7/2008 2:25 AM - Comments (0)
The video comes off a tad sterile in the sound department, but this latest LEGO Batman: The Videogame trailer showcases Two Face and Scarecrow wreaking havoc with local authorities.
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