The only thing that Tiger Woods likes more than golf is probably… money. If you thought I was going to write women, then I fooled you! Even with his recent image of being a squeaky-clean athlete has been tarnished because of his third love, multiple women, and advertisers axing his face on their products, EA Sports is still sticking with him.

The giant publisher has announced Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii and iPhone, will be released sometime in June of 2010; however, no specific date was revealed. The game will feature the same famous golf star that your girlfriend most likely slept with, among other golfers from around the world. Of course, we don’t know any of their names because it’s well…golf.

So there you go, Electronic Arts promised Woods would still be their cover athlete for the sports game, and they were true to their word. With the announcement, EA Sports was unable to provide any screens or trailers — so, you’re just gonna have to wait a tad longer.

Tonight is one of the biggest nights in the videogame industry because Spike TV is broadcasting the seventh annual Video Game Awards. While it pales in comparison to such conventions as the Electronic Entertainment Expo; it does give us a glimpse into what games we should expect in 2010 — thanks to the world premier trailers, announcements and surprises during the show. Not only that, it will honor the very best of what 2009 had to offer, by handing out select VMA awards to the outstanding titles of this past year.

After the jump, we will live blog the award ceremony. If all you want to see is the latest trailer, just refresh our homepage, and it will be below this live blog — as we are making this a sticky post until the show ends.

The show started off as Mark Hamill doing a voiceover as the Joker and asking the the audience if they were ready for a surprise and trailer for the sequel to Batman: Arkham Asylum is on the way. It looks as though the Joker has escaped from infamous asylum and is running amock in gotham and his Harley Quinn back. I can’t wait!

Zachary Quinto, Spock from Star Trek (2009), came onto the stage and confirmed he will lend his voice in the new online Star Trek game. He also announced the first award.

BEST VOICE
Arleen Sorkin as Harley Quinn in Batman: Arkham Asylum (Eidos Interactive – Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment)
Claudia Black as Chloe Frazer in UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves (Sony Computer Entertainment)
Jack Black as Eddie Riggs (Brütal Legend / Electronic Arts)
Mark Hamill as The Joker in Batman: Arkham Asylum (Eidos Interactive – Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment)
Nolan North as Nathan Drake in UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves (Sony Computer Entertainment)

Jack Black came on stage to accept the award and proceeded to bash ‘Game of the Year’ nominees, ‘thinking’ he had won the prestigious award. He eventually called Uncharted 2,, “Uncharted Poo,” and made fun of Left 4 Dead by calling it “Left 4 Dead…Poo.” He then proceed to thank God, who was apparently the lead animator, but when he was “informed” that Brutal Legend wasn’t nominated for Game of the Year and he had won the award for best voice over, he smashed the podium in a fit of anger. This wasn’t a horrible way to start the show, in fact it reminds me of the MTV movie awards.

Olivia Wilde, from TRON Legacy, came onto the stage, acting all sexy into the camera and wanted to promote and announce the next trailer for… TRON Evolution… obviously. While it’s hard to grasp how it will be, I will know longer doubt Disney as a player in the videogame world. The company has started realize a good videogame could end up being big bucks for the distributor.

Tony Hawk came onto stage and made a few unfunny jokes, then announced the next award.

BEST ACTION ADVENTURE GAME
Assassin’s Creed 2 (Ubisoft / Ubisoft Montreal)
Batman: Arkham Asylum (Eidos Interactive – Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment / Rocksteady Studios)
Brütal Legend (Electronic Arts / Double Fine Productions)
UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves (Sony Computer Entertainment / Naughty Dog)

While I think Assassin’s Creed 2 was certainly great, I think two better titles were nominated for the same category, which were Batman and Uncharted 2.

MMA fighter, Kimbo Slice, came onto the stage and promoted UFC 2010 and told everyone to watch the next trailer. If you enjoy MMA, than I’m assuming this will be a must buy when it launches next year.

Scrub’s Zack Braff presented the next award and called the audience follow nerds.

STUDIO OF THE YEAR
Infinity Ward
Naughty Dog
Rocksteady Studios
Valve

Wow, what a surprise this was. While the other studios might have made better games this year, it is fantastic to see the “little guy” like Rocksteady get such a great award and you know what, they deserve it — considering they made the first good Batman game.

Self-proclaimed badass Samuel L. Jackson, introduced the next Star Wars trailer, which ended up being Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II. Hopefully, LucasArts can match the gameplay to the story this time around.

Jake Gyllenhaal took over the stage and brought with him some footage from his next film he stars in, which happens to be based off of a video game — Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. Most of the clip showed off stuff we already have seen.

The cast of a Spike TV show I never heard of, called Blue Mountain State, announced the next award. They also brought some cheerleaders with them — which I’m totally happy with.

BEST TEAM SPORTS GAME
FIFA Soccer 10 (Electronic Arts / EA Canada)
Madden NFL 10 (Electronic Arts / EA Tiburon)
NBA 2K10 (2K Sports / Visual Concepts)
NHL 10 (Electronic Arts / EA Canada)

The best part of this award was the fact the best sports game of 2009 wasn’t even nominated. That would be MLB: The Show. Also, people still watch hockey? Who knew!?

The show came back from commercial and announced that Hugh Jackman had won the next award. Wow, was that lazy.

BEST PERFORMANCE BY A HUMAN MALE
Bill Murray as Dr. Peter Venkman in Ghostbusters: The Video Game (Atari)
Hugh Jackman as Wolverine in X-Men Origins: Wolverine Uncaged Edition (Activision Publishing)
Samuel L. Jackson as Afro Samurai / Ninja Ninja in Afro Samurai (Surge)
Shia LaBeouf as Sam Witwicky in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (Activision Publishing)
Vin Diesel as Richard B. Riddick in The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena (Atari)

So Jackman beat out Bill Murray. Interesting, eh?

I guess the VGAs ran out of celebrities because Olivia Wilde ated sexy once agian, and the audience, who probably had never seen a girl up until this point, went crazy by shouting at her. She presented the next award.

BEST INDEPENDENT GAME FUELED BY DEW
‘Splosion Man (Twisted Pixel)
Flower (ThatGameCompany)
Osmos (Hemisphere Games)
Trials HD (RedLynx)

Flower 100% deserved to win this award. Not only was it fun, it might be one of the most innovative titles to come out this year.

Snoop dogg came onto stage and rapped some lines, proving once again he might be the coolest man on earth.

When he show came back from break, it showed showed a clip of Spec-Ops: The Line.While I wasn’t to impressed with the trailer, the publisher somehow grabbed the rights to a Bjork song. Congrats to them.

Steven A. Smith, a sports analysts, presented the next award.

BEST INDIVIDUAL SPORTS GAME
EA SPORTS Fight Night Round 4 (Electronic Arts / EA Canada)
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 (Electronic Arts / EA Tiburon)
UFC 2009 Undisputed (THQ / Yuke’s Media Creations)
Wii Sports Resort (Nintendo)

Oh, god — I highly doubt I was the only one hoping Tiger Woods would win. Right before the award was announced, Smith said the joke of the night, which was about Tiger. “This morning he played a round at Pebble Beach and went back to his hotel room and did another three holes.” BAM!

The next segment was the first trailer for Crackdown 2 — I loved the first, and the second is looking like mindless fun. Count me in.

Snoop Dogg presented the next award.

BEST RPG
Borderlands (2K Games / Gearbox Software)
Demon’s Souls (Atlus / FromSoftware)
Dragon Age: Origins (Electronic Arts / BioWare)
Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story (Nintendo / AlphaDream)

BioWare should thank its own hype because this was the worst game out of all the nominations.

Green Day came out and confirmed that they would be having their Rock Band game. I figured that this would eventually happen with the alternative group — they deserve it in my opinion.

A bunch of awards were handled out earlier today before the show started, and below are those very ones.

BEST PERFORMANCE BY A HUMAN FEMALE
Eliza Dushku as Rubi Malone in WET (Bethesda Softworks)
Kristen Bell as Lucy Stillman in Assassin’s Creed 2 (Ubisoft)
Megan Fox as Mikaela Banes (Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen / Activision Publishing)
Tricia Helfer as Dare (Halo 3: ODST / Microsoft Game Studios)

I’m sure Fox would have had air-time if she cared to showed up.

BEST DOWNLOADABLE GAME
Battlefield 1943 (Electronic Arts / DICE)
Fat Princess (Sony Computer Entertainment / Titan Studios)
Plants vs. Zombies (PopCap Games)
Shadow Complex (Microsoft Game Studios / Chair Entertainment)

I 100% agree with this pick.

BEST Wii GAME
MadWorld (SEGA / Platinum Games)
New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Nintendo)
Punch-Out!! (Nintendo / Next Level Games)
Wii Sports Resort (Nintendo)

I again agree with this one.

BEST DLC
Fallout 3 – Broken Steel (Bethesda Softworks / Bethesda Game Studios)
Fallout 3 – Point Lookout (Bethesda Softworks / Bethesda Game Studios)
Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony (Rockstar Games / Rockstar North)
Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost & Damned (Rockstar Games / Rockstar North)

Another good pick by the fans.

MOST ANTICIPATED GAME
Bioshock 2 (2K Games / 2K Marin)
God of War III (Sony Computer Entertainment / SCE Studios Santa Monica)
Mass Effect 2 (Electronic Arts / BioWare)
Starcraft II (Blizzard Entertainment)

GOD III, is the one I’m looking forward towards too!

The Soup’s own, Joel McHale was with in the audience and joked that he was Ryan Seacrest — yeah not funny. He then presented the world premier of the Medal of Honor reboot. Looks like Modern Warfare has some competition.

The GREAT Mike Tyson came out along with the cast of Jersey Shore and presented the next award.

BEST SHOOTER
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Activision Publishing / Infinity Ward)
Halo 3: ODST (Microsoft Game Studios / Bungie)
Killzone 2 (Sony Computer Entertainment / Guerrilla Games)
Left 4 Dead 2 (Valve)

Really, did anyone else think otherwise!?

The show did another round of winners for various awards.

BEST FIGHTING GAME
BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger (Aksys Games / Arc System Works)
Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny (NAMCO BANDAI Games / Project Soul)
Street Fighter IV (Capcom / Capcom/Dimps)
Tekken 6 (NAMCO BANDAI Games)

No surprise here.

BEST HANDHELD GAME
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars (Rockstar Games / Rockstar Leeds)
Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story (Nintendo / AlphaDream)
Professor Layton and The Diabolical Box (Nintendo / Level-5)
Scribblenauts (Warner Bros. Interactive / 5th Cell)

I was hoping this would win, but I actually thought Scribblenauts would have taken home the prize. To bad GTA didn’t sell like how it won.

BEST DRIVING GAME
Dirt 2 (Codemasters)
Forza Motorsport 3 (Microsoft Game Studios / Turn 10)
Gran Turismo (PSP) (Sony Computer Entertainment / Polyphony Digital)
Need for Speed SHIFT (Electronic Arts / Slightly Mad Studios)

If Forza didn’t win, it would have been robbed.

BEST SOUNDTRACK
Brütal Legend (Electronic Arts / Double Fine Productions)
DJ Hero (Activision Publishing / FreeStyleGames)
Guitar Hero 5 (Activision Publishing / Neversoft Entertainment)
The Beatles: Rock Band (MTV Games / Harmonix)

I love The Beatles and it pains me to say this, but DJ Hero deserved it.

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
Assassin’s Creed 2 (Ubisoft / Ubisoft Montreal)
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Activision Publishing / Infinity Ward)
Halo 3: ODST (Microsoft Game Studios / Bungie)
UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves (Sony Computer Entertainment / Naughty Dog)

I’m going to have to disagree with this one. Uncharted 2 isn’t just the best score of this year — but it compares to most movies of 2009.

BEST GAME BASED ON A MOVIE OR TV SHOW
Ghostbusters: The Video Game (Atari / Terminal Reality)
South Park Let’s Go Tower Defense Play! (Microsoft / DoubleSix)
The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena (Atari / Starbreeze AB)
X-Men Origins: Wolverine Uncaged Edition (Activision Publishing / Raven Software)

Was South Park fun? Sure it was, but it was hardly better than X-Men and/or Ghostbusters? Simply put, no!

The legendary Stevie Wondered was on stage and he got a standing ovation and he then presented the next award.

BEST MUSIC GAME
DJ Hero (Activision Publishing / FreeStyleGames)
Guitar Hero 5 (Activision Publishing / Neversoft Entertainment)
LEGO Rock Band (MTV Games – Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment / Traveler’s Tales Games – Harmonix)
The Beatles: Rock Band (MTV Games / Harmonix)

I can’t really argue with this one, but I was kinda hoping DJ Hero would take home the prize.

The band The Bravery preformed.

Tricia Helfer, from Battlestar appeared to debut Halo: Reach. It looks like we will be playing as other Spartans in the Halo universe — as some of the leaked photos suggested.

Once again, Jake Gyllenhaal took the stage to announce the big award, “Game of the Year.”

GAME OF THE YEAR
Batman: Arkham Asylum (Eidos Interactive – Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment / Rocksteady Studios)
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Activision Publishing / Infinity Ward)
Left 4 Dead 2 (Valve)
UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves (Sony Computer Entertainment / Naughty Dog)

I’m so happy that Uncharted 2 won Game of the Year. It is in my opinion not only the best of 2009, but one of the best period. Congrats to the Naughty Dog team.

The show closed with the Bravery preforming one more time. Overall the show was fun, but nothing great. I really hope the producers start to focus more on the awards, than just book it as a “trailer” show.

Ubisoft has just confirmed a new Prince of Persia game, subtitled “The Forgotten Sands,” is going to be available for next-generation consoles and handhelds. According to the small official press release, the next installment of the highly-praised series is expected to launch sometime in May of 2010. What is probably not a coincidence is the fact that Disney is set to release the film adaption of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time the same month and year.

Not only that, Ubisoft revealed this next PoP game is going to “feature many of the fan-favorite elements from the original series as well as new gameplay innovations.” Is it sounding like a sequel to the 2004 critically-acclaimed The Sands of Time to you? Well of course it does and the company confirmed it will be returning to the storyline of the Sands of Time. Although, I’m not convinced it’ll follow the game — but rather the film.

All and all, the publisher looks as though they’re trying to capitalize as much as they can when the film hits theaters, as they obviously should. Every time a new Prince of Persia hits stores the game does very well with the critics; however, they don’t seem to sell like they should — hopefully the film will help this next version become a blockbuster.

I should also note that the “Prince” has had a different look in every game he had starred in. It will be interesting to see if this time around he’ll look more like Jake Gyllenhaa from the Prince in the film, or be more like the videogame character of The Sands of Time.

Read the press release after the jump. New Adventure in the Prince of Persia® Sands of Time Series Debuts May 2010

LONDON, UK – November 30, 2009 – Today Ubisoft announced that Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands™ video game is in development and is scheduled to be released May 2010 for consoles and handhelds. This new installment in the critically-acclaimed franchise marks the return to the Prince of Persia® Sands of Time storyline. Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands™ will feature many of the fan-favorite elements from the original series as well as new gameplay innovations that gamers have come to expect from the Prince of Persia brand.

On the same day it was announced, Activision has released Call of Duty: World at War: Zombies for the iPhone and iPod Touch. The portable first-person shooter, has the player kill zombie Nazis, and if you remember was a mode that was available for the console version of World at War, which was released last year.

Up top is a video of someone playing the actual game and as you can see, has mighty impressive graphics considering the device it’s running on is a phone. While it looks like the game has potential of being fun, there are some flaws — especially when it comes to the facts about the title.

First and foremost, the action title is rather expensive for an iPhone game. While most videogames run anywhere from $1 to $6 or $7 on the App Store, Call of Duty: World at War: Zombies is priced at $10. While it certainly won’t break the bank, it seems a little too much mainly because it includes only one small level for you to roam. Actually, judging by the video above — it looks like just a room. Although, the publisher did confirm more maps will be available in the future to download; however, no word if that will cost extra. But there are some positives, besides the graphics and I’ll tell you what they are.

The game can be played on WiFi with up to four-additional players, or you can play a two player mode over bluetooth (iPhone only). Unfortunately you can’t kill zombies on a bus with a friend over the net using 3G. the company decided to disable that feature. There is also a leaderboard to see where each gamer ranks, when compared to other players around the world — along with achievements.

Is it worth buying? Maybe. It really depends on how much you want a decent first-person shooter on your iPhone. Sadly, the lack of levels might discourage people to spend their $10 on a game that feels more like a demo.

Apple believes their iPhone is the future of the gaming handheld market. It just might be, I mean look at it, it’s powerful, a phone and even could be considered a mini-computer. But one thing the company needs to address before anyone can give them the crown for the king of portable gaming — piracy. According to an iPhone developer, Smells Like Donkey, almost 80 percent of all the downloads for Tap-Fu have been illegally downloaded. The sad thing is the game isn’t even expensive. Right now, if you head over to the Apple’s app-store, you’ll find the game only to be the cheap price of $1.99. But that hasn’t stopped people from getting the game for nothing.

This is sad and terrible news for the gaming industry. One of the great things the iPhone has done for the industry over the last year or so, is giving the designers the chance to create their own idea for a title. Believe it or not, making an independent game was both hard and financially a huge risk. But thanks to devices like the iPhone, anyone who has decent knowledge on programing and has the time, can actually make a title for the fraction of what it used to be.

If piracy becomes more of an issue and Apple doesn’t fix it, we’ll see less and less of these entrepreneur take the risk — which in turn means less original games.

We already know that Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars for the Nintendo DS was met with fantastic reviews, but the majority of DS owners didn’t purchase the game. Later, the publisher, Rockstar Games, announced it was headed to the PSP. Although I don’t think the dismal sales initially forced Rockstar to port the title over to Sony’s handheld, but it certainly didn’t discourage them either.

If you thought the decision to port the game over to the PSP was big, then you’re gonna surprised by the company’s new revelation. Rockstar Games has announced that Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is going to be ported over to

Apple’s iPhone/iPod Touch. The game is expected to be available in the App Store starting this fall which is around the same time the PSP version ships, but an exact date has yet to be revealed.

This is huge for Apple because they have been trying to convince gamers that their platform can be a real gaming system. We already know how big of a franchise GTA is and having it available for a device that so far, isn’t perceived as a serious gaming machine — is a win situation for Apple. Not only that, considering Rockstar doesn’t have to box and ship actual software for the iPhone; they just have to throw up a digital copy in the App Store, which means its not very costly to port and definitely worth the risk.

source: venturebeat

To everyone that lives in or around the Massachusetts area, we just wanted to remind you that “the biggest video game convention in the history of New England” begins tomorrow. Game Unicon takes place at the Best Western Royal Plaza in Marlborough, MA and when doors open at 11:00 am on Friday, they won’t close until the last day of the convention which is on Sunday at 6:00 pm.

The convention will showcase some of the best gaming tournaments in the country and will have over $10,000 in cash prizes. Some of the games included in the playoffs are; Halo 3, Street Fighter IV, Super Smash Bros. (Brawl and Melee), Rock Band, Gears of War 2 and Madden 10. They are even going to have some classic titles for you to compete in, like a Tetris tournament and a Battletoads speedrun; where the faster player to beat the game wins.

Read more about what the convention has to offer after the jump.

In addition to the many tournaments, Game Unicon will feature hundreds of screens around the showfloor for you to experience some of the latest videogames, along with some classics retro titles. So even if a gaming tournament is not your thing, there will be plenty to do. Not only that, there will be a full fledge concert, of course with a gaming theme, which be going on during certain times of the show.

The bands include: Freezepop and Bam Camero; who both are famously known to be in the Guitar Hero and Rock Band franchises, Powerglove; who plays retro videogame songs with a metal twist, The Konami Kode; much like Powerglove but with rock influences, The Megas; who also play famous videogame covers.

Sounds like a good time right? Well there’s more. The convention will involve a huge selection of dealers, where they will be selling everything pop-culture like; comic books, anime, videogames and much more.

While walking around the showfloor, you see some appearances by the original WWE diva Sunny, TNA’s super hot Velvet Sky and even a performance by Brentalfloss; who is known to give musical lyrics to Tetris and other recognizable videogame theme songs from the 80s.

For those who can’t make it, /gamer will be covering Game Unicon and will be bringing the excitement to the website. If you check out the right-side of the site, you’ll see a tab about Game Unicon and when clicked on, it’ll give you the latest information about the show.

But again, if you live anywhere near the Game Unicon, you should check it out yourself. Tickets are only $40 to access both the showfloor and concert for all three days. However, if you only want to check out the concert — it’s $30. Head over to Game unicon’s official website for more details.

TNA’s Velvet Sky

We’ll see you there.

Earthworm Jim is officially ready to make a comeback. Gameloft has inked a deal with Interplay, the original developers of the classic 16-bit game, to bring Earthworm Jim to Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, WiiWare and mobile phones. When the sidescroller debuted on both the SNES and Genesis, it quickly became a smash hit and even spawned a sequel and a few spin-offs. However, there hasn’t been a new game since 1999.

“We are delighted to partner with Interplay to bring Earthworm Jim to multiple downloadable platforms,” said Gonzague de Vallois, senior vice president, Gameloft. “The game, with its humorous and edgy style, is a great fit for today’s gamer who craves a fully immersive experience that is fun and easily accessible. We look forward to delivering a fantastic game.”

The new deal is a bit vague. A press release was sent out, but it made it sound like both companies are planning to bring out the original, and not new installments. If this is true, hopefully the title sells well enough to warrant a brand new incarnation of Earthworm.

Basically, if it ends up being the first Earthworm Jim and you want a new story — make sure you purchase the download. And hopefully we will finally see a new adventure featuring your favorite invertebrate.

When I think augmented reality videogames, I think about walking around a real world environment but interacting with computer visuals. For the most part, I’m pretty sure most people think closely to the way I do.

A group of programmers over at Georgia Tech have done something a tad different and developed a cool idea for an augmented reality shooter for mobile camera-phones. Although the title has rather basic gameplay mechanics, the team has created something which definitely has potential in the industry.

I’m sure most people have seen some sort of viral campaign for either movies or even videogames, where you hold up a piece of paper in front of a computer webcam. Once you do that, a 3D graphical image appears on the computer display. The technology used for those things, is the basic idea that the Georgia Tech team did with their game called ‘ARhrrrr.’ Although this game is much more interactive.

The story is rather simple. Civilians are trapped inside a small town square, where a zombie invasion has begun. It’s up to the player to shoot and kill the undead, who are terrorizing the town square. The way you do this, is by lying a special paper with images on it, which made for the game, flat on a table. You then grab your camera-phone, and simply point the lens towards the paper and it’ll reveal an interactive 3D world. By moving the phone around the paper, it’ll seem like your flying inside a helicopter overhead the town in a 3D landscape. From there you’ll see swarms of zombies trying to attack people, and its your job to shoot them down by aiming your phone towards an enemy. Pretty awesome stuff.

Check out the developers trailer above.