A few nights ago, Robin Williams made an appearance on the Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien to promote his new movie World’s Greatest Dad. During his interview, Williams talked about his love for online gaming — especially shooters. He then proceed to discuss the trash talking that is associated with playing a game over the Internet and obviously the man makes a joke or two. I guess that’s his job or something.
It’s been known that Williams has a passion for videogames and at one point, he bragged how he was obsessed with the Battlefield series. The man went as far to name his daughter Zelda. And yes, she was named after The Legend of Zelda series.
It’s always cool to see someone of Williams’ age and be successful as he is, but still finds the time to game.
Up top is an embedded video of that same interview.
EA has released a few commercials for their newest installment of their ultra-popular football series Madden 10. The advertisements proves being good at videogames does not only take years of dedication, but months of physical training.
Okay, maybe it doesn’t but its certainly fun to pretend.
Up top is one of these commercials, and after the jump is the second. Both have a few NFL superstars starring in them too. Check them out. (more…)
Last night during The Tonight Show, Conan O’Brien made a joke about how a new statistic which proves the elderly are underrepresented in videogames. Apparently Rockstar is going to try and change this perception. But, I don’t think I want to play this ‘new’ game.
If you enjoy the Madden series, chances you have read Sports Illustrated in the past. If you don’t have a subscription to the famed sporting magazine, you might want to check this out.
The publication time-from-time, offers free promotions if you sign up to receive S.I. for a certain amount of time. Right now, the magazine if giving away what I believe is their best deal yet.
Sign up for 28 weeks of Sports Illustrated for only $50, you’ll receive Madden 10 for free. Basically, you’re getting Madden for $10 cheaper than its retailed price and getting 28 free weeks of what could be the best print sports coverage. You can also specify which system you want Madden to run on.
Yeah, not a bad deal at all, eh? If you want to take advantage of the offer — click here.
I should mention, if you want take the mag’s deal, I should forewarn you. I doubt you’ll receive the game on launch. Most likely, it’ll take a few weeks after the game debuts in stores.
When the PlayStation 2 hit the market in 2000, the launch, in my opinion, was pretty poor. There really wasn’t an original title that captivated me. We were stuck with Tekken Tag, which I already played to death in the arcades (those were the days) and few sports titles. The first really fun title I had, was a little known game called Shadow of Destiny.
The game was heavily story driven, which at the time was more rare than compared to today. It followed a young man named Eike, who in the beginning of the game was murdered. He then wakes up in a room on a bed, presumably in the afterlife, where an unknown voice tells him that he can have a second chance at life. All Eike has to do is travel through time and try to stop the events through history that lead to his demise. The best part of the game was you controlled what era you wanted to move through. Depending on what you did before, the future could change. Although it had some questionable plot points, it was certainly fun and extremely original.
A couple of weeks ago, we learned that Shadow of Destiny was coming to the PSP in Japan. I, among a select few who played the cult PS2 title, were hoping for a US release date. Today, we get just that. Konami, who is the original publisher, has confirmed that America would be receiving Shadow of Destiny for the PSP but a date has to be revealed.
This is very exciting news for me at least, I’ve been itching to play this game again — but for some reason I can’t find my old copy.
Yesterday, we reported that Nintendo’s sales were down about 40 percent. In hard economic times, this wasn’t exactly breaking news and if anything, proved the videogame industry isn’t recession proof. Thankfully Capcom is proving that not every company in the business is hurting, when compared to last year.
According to the Osaka-based videogame publisher, the company’s net sales are up 36 percent and their operating income is up 32.5 percent, when compared to last year’s first quarter. One of the biggest reasons for the noticeable increase was the release of their highly popular Resident Evil 5 and Street Fighter IV games, which are both established franchises.
Things don’t look like their going to slow down either for the company. In the upcoming year, Capcom expects to release Dark Void, Lost Planet 2Dead Rising 2 and possibly a new Onimusha title.
When LittleBigPlanet for the PSP was first announced earlier in the year, I thought, along with everyone else, the game would communicate with the PlayStation 3’s version. Guess what? We were all correct. Players who own the PS3 version of LBP and also decide to buy the PSP game, will get exclusive access to a feature called “cross-talk.”
Sony has yet to give any details to what exactly this means, but I’m guessing we’ll see some extra costumes and other tools to create even more in depth levels, with the editor. That’s what I figure at least, but does this extra content mean it will be only for the PSP, PS3 or both? I don’t know, but here is hoping to both.
Sony has also confirmed that a demo for the PSP LittleBigPlanet will be making its way to the PlayStation Network. However, when exactly that will happen has yet to be revealed. Most likely it going to be closer to the actual release date for the full game, which should happen closer to the release of the PSP Go.
We already heard about the ‘musical geniuses’ who have spoken out against music videogames. From artists like Prince to Jimmy Page, we heard many talents express their displeasure in a genre that has become a pop-culture phenomenon.
However, not all artists are against the new craze. Drummer of the legendary band Aerosmith Joey Kramer, spoke nicely about games like Guitar Hero and/or Rock band, with Spinner. Kramer believes that these type of games are a gateway for kids to learn about classic music and maybe get them more involved with music as a whole.
“If that’s what you gotta do to get kids to understand what a band like Aerosmith’s all about and encourage them to learn more about the music, then that’s just one more way to find out about it,” Kramer said. Although he admitted that videogames might not be the best way for people to learn about music. “It may not be the most ideal way to find out about historic bands, but we’ll see what happens when they offer those guys boat-loads of money. We’ll see if they turn it down or not.”
While I 100 percent agree with Mr. Kramer about kids being more entice to play or even learn about music, I wonder if he would have felt the same way if Guitar Hero: Aerosmith was never made. If the reports are true, the amount of money the game had made, was more than any record the Band released in their long history. Not only that, Aerosmith saw a 40% increase of their catalog the week after Guitar Hero: Aerosmith was released. Basically, Kramer has literally millions of thanks because of music rhythm games.
Probably one the better surprises at E3 for portable gaming was the announcement of Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker for the PSP. The game, which is written and produced by the legendary game designer Hideo Kojima, follows events 10 years after Metal Gear Solid 3. Kojima promises that the title is not some spin-off or half-ass game, but a completely new story of the Metal Gear universe.
Konami has just released some new images of the game and boy is it shaping up rather nice. Graphically speaking, the PSP doesn’t seem like it will have a hard time portraying the lush jungles of Costa Rico on the tiny screen. Nor does it look like the system’s specs will diminish the Metal Gear solid experience. This is one to watch out for.
Check out the rest of the pictures after the jump. Remember to click each image to enlarge (more…)
If you played videogames in the 16-bit generation, than you should completely remember the TurboGrafx-16. Most likely you didn’t own one because only 10 million were sold worldwide, but you probably wanted one nonetheless. When it debuted in the US, it was the first console of the 16-bit era and no question had superior graphics than the ever popular NES.
Sadly, the system was ahead of its time and ultimately failed compared to the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo overall numbers. The system finally received some recognition in 2006 when the Wii was released. Once bitter rivals, Nintendo would allow the system have playable games on the Wii’s Virtual Console.
Nintendo won’t be the only ‘next-gen’ system to play TurboGrafx-16, from here on out. Sony is now allowing some of the retro games be available on PlayStation Network — in Japan anyway. If you are living in Japan right now, you can download a handful of videogames for ¥600 ($6.40). So far only Bomberman ‘94, Sengoku Mahjong, New Adventure Island and Devil Crush are available through PSN. And even more titles are expected in the future.
The best part about these newly acquired games could be the fact they could be played on either the PlayStation 3 and/or PSP. Unfortunately, no date has been revealed or if we will even see them outside of Japan. My guess is that we will, and hopefully it’s sooner rather then later.
The only studio that Midway Games had outside the United States is no more. The UK based studio Newcastle has officially closed its doors for good. “We can confirm we closed the Newcastle studio this morning, our time,” said Midway spokesman Geoffrey Mogilner. “During the notification period we were actively searching for bidders, and since we didn’t find any unfortunately it was necessary to close it down. We tried really hard to find a solution for the Newcastle studio.”
According to various reports, the studio had employed roughly 80 people and all are now no longer working. Before Midway purchased the studio, they were known as Pitbull Syndicate and were best known for creating L.A. Rush and four games in the Test Drive series.
It’s no secret that videogames based of films for the most part, suck. Sure there has been a few exceptions over the years, but that is far in-between. Graham Hopper is the boss over at Disney Interactive Studios, and he is promising the videogame adaption of Toy Story 3 is going to ‘wow’ us gamers.
“Really, it was about quality – that is what Disney Stands for. The game itself is really unlike any other movie license game. It is going to be very innovative and will garner a lot of attention when it comes out.”
If memory serves me right, the original Toy Story videogame for the 16-bit generation was actually good. Not only was it a decent platformer, but graphically the title stood on its old. It might have been one of the better looking games to come out that year, which was in 1995. Although, those were much simpler times and honestly, Disney had some other good 16-bit titles like ‘The Lion King‘ and what probably was their best; ‘Aladdin‘. Until recently — their titles have started to degraded.
Today, the company has changed its tune as of late. Disney published the off-road, quad bike racing title Pure, last year. When it came it, it was met with some pretty great reviews and currently holds a 85/100 score on metacritic. During this past E3, the company showed of their next unique racing title Split/Second, for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC. Many people including myself, felt Split/Second could be the best racing title at E3. Of course, these games are developed by different studios, so we can’t give all the credit to just Disney themselves. But the company is certainly trying to publish decent original games and not just trying to make a quick buck — like they have done in years past.
With all that said, Disney looks like they are definitely upping the quality of their videogame division and maybe, just maybe — Toy Story 3 will actually be good. But please, don’t hold your breath.
Not to long ago, we told you about one of the topics Penn & Teller will discuss on their show Penn & Teller: BULLSHIT! is if there is any harmful effect on children when they play videogames, particularly violent ones. If you are a subscriber to Showtime, make sure you tune in this Thursday because that is when the videogame episode will air.
The show will interview the infamous ex-lawyer Jack Thompson, and at one point says something really ridiculous. “Video games are the greatest threat to children since polio,” said Thompson during a preview we saw a few weeks ago.
Up top is a clip Showtime is providing of the videogame episode, but oddly enough it shows not Thompson, rather a not so well known activist against violent games named Chris Cooney. Cooney tries to act professional by having his own ‘Fire Triangle” for violent videogames. If you don’t know, a Fire Triangle is a simple way instructors teach firemen what a fire needs in order to survive. Mr. Cooney tries to use this same method to teach people how a violent game does indeed harm this young generation. Of course, Penn & Teller do what they do best, and make Cooney look well…dumb.
Check out the video up top and remember to at least DVR Penn & Teller: BULLSHIT! this Thursday at 10:00 PM on Showtime. I know I am.
The new PSP Go isn’t just a smaller, UMDless version with a new design; it actually has a faster processor. According to some FCC documents, which were filed by Sony and uncovered by Sony Insider, the PSP Go’s processor is about 40% faster than its predecessor. The original unit was capable of about 333MHz, while the newest device, which comes out later this year, can reach 480MHz.
What does this all mean? We’re not to sure, actually. They might have just raised the speed to use PSP Go features like accesses to an in-game XMB. However, it could definitely make a difference in-terms of games and maybe one day we could see PSP Go exclusives. Although, if that were the case, don’t expect to see anything anytime soon. In fact, even though the portable system can reach faster speeds, I think Sony will most likely lock it to the current 333MHz, much like they did when the PSP first came out.
If the company feels like they need to sell more PSP Go units, that is when we could most likely see the increase of speeds and exclusives.
In February, we told you about how Penn & Teller were going to dedicate a full episode about video games on ‘Penn & Teller: Bullshit!.’ We found out that the episode would try to disprove that videogames were harmful to children. It was also said that everyone’s favorite disbarred lawyer Jack Thompson, would be interviewed on the show and obviously speak out against the gaming industry. A promo trailer was released and it shows Jacko speak briefly and says:
“Grand Theft Auto is the worst assault on children since polio.”
Up top is a promo for season 7, and I guess it’s NSFW because Penn says “Bullshit” several times.
