Artificial Mind and Movement’s upcoming “Naughty Bear” for PS3 and Xbox 360, is a twisted game. You play as a teddy bear Hellbent on slaying all who’ve wronged him. Missed the chainsaw trailer? It’s right here.

But today, the studio released this trailer, clearly deriving its horror from the classic, “Alien.”

Enjoy. And sweet dreams.

A teaser trailer for the game popped up recently and, for LOTR fans not so happy with LOTR: Conquest, this game very well may be the mature LOTR game you’ve so long waited for.

PAX East

The show, March 26-28 at the Hynes Convention Center in lovely Boston, Mass. is now completely sold out, with over 60,000 expected to attend.

We’ll be at the show in full force, reporting on panels with industry folk and bringing you in-depth hands-on coverage of unreleased games. So if you missed out on buying a badge and attending, keep it locked at Blast for round-the-clock coverage.

PAX East 2010

All songs are master recordings and come to Xbox 360 and Wii March 23 and PS3 March 25. Songs marked with + are also available in the LEGO: Rock Band music store and * denotes 99 cent songs and “Am I Crazy” will be a free cut for Xbox 360 and PS3, sorry Wii owners.

• X – “Blue Spark” +
• X – “The Hungry Wolf”
• X – “I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts”
• X – “Los Angeles”
• Little Fish – “Am I Crazy” +
• Little Fish – “Bang Bang” *
• Little Fish – “Darling Dear” *
• Ace Frehley – “Outer Space”
• Carrie Underwood – “All-American Girl” +
• OneRepublic – “Stop & Stare” +

War In The North

The fantasy role-playing-game will descend at an unknown date in 2011 and is currently being described as an action-RPG that supports up to four-player co-operative gameplay.

Snowblind Studios, the team behind “Champions of Norrath” and “Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance,” are handling the development duties for War In The North, so at least a more than capable studio is hard at work on the title.

When Electronic Arts handed the LOTR rights to Warner Brothers I was immediately skeptical. But this news might just be what LOTR fans have been looking for.

Games Investor Consulting analyst Nick Gibson, speaking with MCV, said a Twilight-themed video game would have gone on to push seven figures or more.
“Given how hot a property it is, [a Twilight video game] could easily present a seven-figure exploitation opportunity, especially if publishers consider taking it beyond retail gaming and considers network gaming.”

“It may well be that the rights holders aren’t aware of the potential benefits because they haven’t explored the games market before.”

There has yet to be a standalone Twilight video game, which seems extremely odd, given the popularity of the series, especially with females. A DS/Wii game could, potentially, sell extremely well.

The only Twilight game on the market today is the Scene It? offshoot, hardly a proper vampire game.

With the second film, “New Moon,” hitting shelves on DVD next week and a third film planned for this summer, the prospect of building a Twilight game seems more likely now than ever. Though, I don’t know if that’s a good thing.

Source: CVG

He said, via Twitter today, that he is “slightly worried” about the lack of opening scene combat.

He’s asking his Twitter followers if they think this half hour denial of hand-to-hand action is too long.

“Been playing the opening of Fable 3, I am slightly worried that there is no combat for the first 30 mins. Is this too long, thoughts.”

What do you think? In Fable II you fought rambunctious juvenile with a wooden sword who punched your sister in the opening minutes of the game (at 7:35 in this video to be exact). That was fun. But unless you speak up and respond to Molyneux, the same might not happen in the third installment.

UPDATE: Molyneux updated the story on Twitter, saying:

In responce to the 1st 30 min no combat. There is no combat because it is so dramatic, and that drama has little room full combat.

Source: Peter Molyneux’s Twitter

Developer Zipper Interactive dropped the news recently on the PlayStation Blog and specified that the “Trooper Gear Pack” will include flashbang grenades, two new uniforms, and new special edition Light Machine Guns for each PMC.

But that’s not all. Arriving alongside the DLC on March 25 will be a double XP event, lasting three days, until March 28.

Zipper promises to keep offering up content for its game, which is great news, considering the other project the team is currently developing.

More information,and shots of the gear, at the PS Blog.

GTA: Episodes.

Rockstar said the decision was “forced” upon them by Sony Europe to accommodate “minor content changes” for the European regions. Rockstar said “there are different regional requirements for content” and so such a delay could not be avoided.

The packs will now arrive for Windows and PS3 April 13 in North America and April 16 in all other regions.

Here’s the apology.

“Despite our best efforts to work through this quickly, the two weeks were needed to complete submission.  We understand and sympathise with the fans that will be upset by this delay.  We want to assure our fans that the minor changes made to the game will not affect the gamers enjoyment of the games, these will not affect any gameplay elements and were not related to any local ratings requirements.”

Looks like you’ll have to wait a couple weeks longer PC and PS3 gamers. But you’ve waited this long, two weeks more won’t kill, will it?

When Halo: Reach, the final Bungie-developed Halo title releases this coming Fall, besides a killer campaign, it’s been toted as having the most absolute matchmaking system ever, and today we learn why.

A multiplayer beta for Halo: Reach descends May 3 for owners of Halo 3: ODST, and this is what to expect.

Shacknews somehow got a sneak peak inside the world of Halo: Reach’s mutliplayer and posted their feelings and reactions today. I won’t steal their thunder, you need to read their entire post, but here’s the skinny.

Veto 2.0- In Halo: 3, when you vetoed, you had no idea what might come up, in terms of gametype and map. But in Reach, you’ll have the options laid out in front of you. You’ll now exactly the repercussions of vetoing, and that’s good.

Veto 2.0

Social Settings- Here, you can choose from four options that will, hopefully, match you up in a better fashion than in Halo 3.

• Teamwork – Team Player vs. Lone Wolf
• Motivation – Winning vs. Having Fun
• Chattiness – Chatty vs. Quiet
• Tone – Polite vs. Rowdy

New Social Settings

Arena Playlists- Easily the largest change coming to matchmaking in Halo: Reach, this new playlist is for the elite. Here, games of Slayer and Team Slayer will be played, players will be placed into divisions and month-long seasons will be played, encouraging those with maxed out characters to continue playing, instead of climbing the ladder again and f*cking over the little guys.

Really, I haven’t even scratched the surface on this story. Head to Shacknews for the full details, it’s worth it, I promise.

That statistic covers PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 copies sold, and, with the month not yet finished, EA said it’s “on pace” to become March’s best-selling game.

EA released additional statistics also today, detailing why its game might have the upper hand on the competition.

• 81 billion points have been earned in online multiplayer sessions
• 43 million weapons and gadgets have been unlocked in online multiplayer
• Over 6 million video views on YouTube
• 2.9 million hours have been spent playing online in the last 24 hours alone
• 230k peak-concurrent-users (PCUs)
• Over 44k Twitter fans (most out of any EA title) http://twitter.com/OfficialBFBC2

Now, Pokemon HeartGold/Soul Silver released this month too, and we know why popular those are. Guess we’ll have to wait till months end to find out for sure.

Image credit.

“Sony bet on the physical disc, and there are costs associated with that,” Greenberg told Edge magazine.

“The fact that we’re able to offer a console starting at $199 is a benefit of not being burdened with that cost.”

“For us, our bet was on digital distribution, that was the future – the ability to [play] 1080p movies with no disc, no download required; we have the largest movie and TV library, the largest HD library of any console.”

Can’t argue with that logic. But it’ll be interesting to see forthcoming figures from Sony and how much ground they’ve made up against Microsoft with their new $299 price point.

Source: CVG

Splinter Cell: Conviction

But the game is coming to PC and its PC system requirements surfaced today. They aren’t too show stopping.

Recommended specs:

* Supported OS: Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7
* Processor: 1.8 GHz Intel Core2 Duo or 2.4 GHz AMD Athlon X2 64
* RAM: 1.5 GB Windows XP / 2 GB Windows Vista, Windows 7
* Video Card: 256 MB DirectX 9.0c–compliant video card (512 MB recommended) (see supported list*)
* Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c–compliant sound card
* DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c
* DVD-ROM: DVD-ROM drive
* Hard Drive Space: 10 GB
* Peripherals Supported: Mouse, keyboard, headset, 12-button gamepads with analog sticks
* Internet Connection: Broadband Internet connection

*Supported Video Cards at Time of Release:

* NVIDIA GeForce 7800 / 7900 / 8 / 9 / GTX series
* ATI RADEON X1800 / X1900 / HD 2000 / HD 3000 / HD 4000 / HD 5000 series
* Laptop versions of these cards may work but are NOT supported. These chipsets are the only ones that will run this game.

Note: A permanent high speed internet connection and creation of a Ubisoft account are required to play this video game at all times and to unlock exclusive content. Such content may only be unlocked one single time with a unique key. You must be at least 13 to create a Ubisoft account.

What’s unfortunate is Ubisoft’s digital rights management system, which kicks users out of their games if their Internet connection drops. Ouch.

On a better note, a demo for the title hit Xbox Live today.

Source: Kotaku

But today, two more titles using the “Move” controller were announced; the next “Brunswick Pro Bowling” and “Toy Story 3.”

The movie-game to use Sony's "Move"

Now, we understand the bowling choice. That goes hand in hand (pun very much intended), but Toy Story 3, how’s that going to work?

Guess we’ll find out later this year when we get our hands on both.

Source: Joystiq

In it, the famed and hilarious Kevin Butler, this time around the PlayStation VP of Realistic Movements, pokes fun at motion-control competitors Microsoft’s Project Natal and Nintendo’s Wii.

What do you think?

The development studio released a new trailer for the game today. And, similar to previous entries, it’s narrated like a History Channel program and this one details “Life In The West.”

Without giving a heck of a lot away, the game will afford its users a host of opportunities both sinister and kind. The choice, as in any Rockstar game, is yours.

Marc Normandin: The original Perfect Dark was a hit with gamers and critics alike when it released nearly 10 years ago on the Nintendo 64. First-person shooters have come a long way since then, as far as level-design and immersion goes: everyone has their own opinion on this, but let’s hear why you think the design is timeless enough to work for gamers today, in 2010.

Nick Ferguson: Perfect Dark plays very differently to recent shooters like Call of Duty and Halo. Whereas COD is a tightly scripted rollercoaster ride, Perfect Dark gives players a huge amount of freedom in how they choose to navigate the levels and complete mission objectives. The visuals may not be as spectacular, but the mission design is very smart and the system of level objectives that change based on difficulty has never been bettered.

Halo introduced the concept of limiting players to use of two highly focused weapons at a time and built great, strategic gameplay decisions around that. Perfect Dark works at the opposite end of the spectrum – players can start levels with access to an incredible toolkit of weapons and equipment, including a gun that can fire through walls (Farsight), a laptop that doubles up as both a machine gun and remote sentry post (Laptop Gun) and a weapon that turns enemy characters into allies (Psychosis Gun).

Like both Halo and Call of Duty, Perfect Dark on Xbox LIVE Arcade also has a deep and engrossing multiplayer mode that rolls all the great content from the single player into competitive online play!

MN: Obviously the Xbox 360 controller is a different beast than the N64 pad, and not just because it doesn’t resemble a Star Wars space fighter. How will the game control, two generations later? Has anything significant been added or subtracted from the controls in order to make this work (or work more effectively?)

NF: We’ve worked really hard to preserve the original “feel” of Perfect Dark on a twin-stick controller, and we’re really happy with the results. The original game made ingenious use of the N64 controller, but there was a lot of advanced functionality that required buttons to double-up for actions like cycling weapons backwards or even reloading. We’ve put those functions on their own buttons on Xbox 360.

We’ve adapted the feel of Perfect Dark onto the dual analog layout that modern gamers are familiar with so if you never played shooters on N64, you’ll be able to pick up and play Perfect Dark with ease. We’ve even included control schemes based on Halo (“Spartan”) and Call of Duty (“Duty Calls”) so players familiar with those titles can dive right in. Having said all that, if you played Perfect Dark on N64 for hours and hours back in the day I think you’ll find the new controls will fit you like a glove.

MN: One of the things that kept people playing Perfect Dark for countless hours, even before online play, were the various game modes. There was a single-player campaign, a co-op campaign, a wealth of multiplayer modes and options, a shooting gallery, as well as challenge levels that were worthy of their name. Is all of this being retained? Has it been modified? Has anything else been added to this for the XBLA release?

NF: Everything players remember from the original game has been retained in Perfect Dark for XBLA. This includes the Firing Range and Device Training in the Carrington Institute to the use of bots (Simulants) in multiplayer. The biggest change that drags Perfect Dark roaring into 2010 is the fact we’ve plumbed LIVE functionality into every aspect of the game – from Co-op and Counter-Op modes which can be played online, to the Combat Simulator multiplayer modes which now support 8 players over Xbox LIVE.

Players who remember the glory days of couch multiplayer will be pleased to hear we’re retained all the split-screen game functionality from the original, too! In fact, players can even compete via split screen over Xbox LIVE. On top of LIVE multiplayer, we’ve added all the things players have come to expect from their XBLA games including Leaderboards, Achievements and a ton of unlockable content including Avatar Awards and an exclusive free Premium Theme.

MN: What tech benefits will we see by switching from our dusty cartridge to a download-title in 2010? The framerate in the original, for instance, was notoriously poor in multiplayer.

NF: Xbox 360 lets us run Perfect Dark at full 1080p HD resolutions at a solid 60 frames per second. The game has never looked better, and that silky smooth framerate also applies to the multiplayer mode – even when we’re running in 4-player split screen. We’ve updated every texture and remodeled all the characters and weapons to make them look great in HD. Locations have all had a lick of paint, from new skyboxes to updated geometry and level objects. Pipes that used to be flat polygons on N64 are now fully-rounded 3D objects. Finally, the game makes great use of 5.1 surround sound and original master recordings have been used to update the soundtrack without compression!

MN: Perfect Dark is known for its weaponry. Confession time: what is your favorite gun, and why? Favorite secondary function?

NF: love the Laptop Gun, not just because of the awesome sentry gun secondary function but because of the way it kicks off the action on Carrington Villa’s Perfect Agent difficulty setting. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, I won’t spoil the surprise! A close second would be the Psychosis Gun. A weapon that turns your enemies into allies – what more can you possibly want!?

MN: Finally, not everyone has played Perfect Dark, so why don’t you tell the readers why they need to own this updated classic. The floor is yours.

NF: Perfect Dark is an incredible game that just got the tune-up of the decade. Some classic games don’t age well, and even when they do it can be hard to look past blurry graphics, outdated controls and a sluggish framerate without a healthy dose of nostalgia for the original release. We’re incredibly proud and privileged to be bringing a top-notch update of a legendary game design – one that was years ahead of its time – to Xbox LIVE Arcade in 2010 where a new generation of players will get to discover its unique charms all over again.

Perfect Dark comes to the Xbox Live Arcade March 17.

This is one of them.

SMT: Strange Journey hits shelves next Tuesday, March 23 and each copy of the title ($34.95), comes bundled with the game’s official soundtrack.

More information about the game at its Web site.

If you played Perfect Dark Zero when it released for the Xbox 360, but haven’t played the original, please don’t judge the Nintendo 64 classic by its prequel’s attributes—this game is the reason Zero was such a letdown to many. Plus, for just 800 points, you’ll be picking up a game with more to do than many of today’s retail releases, never mind the fact that it towers over every single XBLA game—even Shadow Complex—in terms of depth and the hours you will sink into it.

Perfect Dark stars Joanna Dark, a British secret agent with gadgetry and weaponry at her disposal in a sci-fi themed future. She works for the Carrington Institute, who at present are investigating dataDyne, a wealthy corporation with their hands in some shady business. What starts as a simple romp through a near-future world turns into a race to save the president, shut down super weapons and end an alien threat in space. The voice acting is what you would expect from a game released originally in 2000, and the script is as corny (in an enjoyable way) as you would expect from a Rare release. Characters don’t open their hands, but flail fat looking fists around when they talk to let you know it’s their turn to speak—character’s lips don’t move with the words, so some kind of indicator was necessary.

That’s about the only thing that hasn’t aged well over the past 10 years though. The campaign is a bit short, but there are four difficulties—the first, Agent, is meant to familiarize you with the story and the levels. Special Agent adds additional enemies, moves some weaponry and shields around, and gives you more tasks to accomplish within each stage as well. This makes each playthrough a bit different, especially since the final difficulty does more of what Special Agent did, only harder. The game is also designed with speed runs in mind, thanks to some generous auto-aim, fast walking speeds and online leaderboards that can track your progress. Once you complete the game on Perfect Agent, a Perfect Dark difficulty unlocks as well, and you can unlock bonus levels through some of the other game’s modes in order to use previously non-playable characters.

Graphically, while not stunning by any means, Perfect Dark has cleaned up very well. The textures are highly detailed, the game was originally meant to run in 16:9 widescreen, meaning there is no weird transition issue, and the game’s art itself is also well done. This game was too ambitious for the system it was on—it required the expansion pack for the N64 just to play, and despite that still chugged along at an inconsistent 24 frames per second. Now it sits at not only 60 frames per second, but 1080p, full HD.

There are two areas where Perfect Dark shines as bright as any other first-person shooter on the Xbox 360, and that’s in the weaponry and the additional game modes. There are 32 weapons for you to choose from—the Carrington Institute weapons, which range from standard issue shotguns and pistols to sci-fi rifles, the dataDyne weapons, as well as an array of alien weapons from both the Maian and the Skedar. At their most basic, these are standard weapons, but each gun holds a nifty surprise—a secondary fire mode. Your AR34 assault rifle has a scope you can walk around with. Your Callisto NTG fires high impact shells rather than at an assault rifle rate. Your shotgun can have a double blast. The K7 Avenger becomes  a threat detector for locating mines, defense turrets and enemies. The Devastator, a grenade launcher, shoots sticky grenades. The Slayer rocket launcher has a camera-guided missile that you control to ram into targets. Most famously, the Laptop Gun becomes a turret that you can place anywhere, and it will fire until it runs out of bullets or enemies to kill. The thrill of experimenting with these guns will keep newcomers glued to their televisions, and veterans will do the same in order to excel with old friends and tactics.

As for game modes, there’s seemingly no end to them. You have multiplayer, which consists of six different game modes: Combat (death match), Hold the Briefcase, Hacker Central, Pop a Cap, King of the Hill, and Capture the Case. Capture the Case is basically capture the flag, Hold the Briefcase has you scoring points for holding onto a case the longest before losing it via a bullet to the head, Hacker Central has you invading enemy territory to hack into their computers, King of the Hill and Death Match are self-explanatory, and Pop a Cap has everyone targeting a specific person at a time. You can customize these matches to include stimulants (bots) as well, and these can be tailored to your preferences. Use the JudgeSim, whose only goal is to kill the current leader in order to keep the score even. The VengeSim wants nothing other than to attack the last person to kill them. The TurtleSim has a ridiculous shield to fire through. There are many others, and there are also difficulty levels for all of these sims—Meat, Easy, Normal, Hard, Perfect, and Dark. The Perfect and Dark sims are meant to move faster than you are capable of—you will find yourself shot at without ever seeing who did it, despite them being in front of you.

You can play these modes online now in eight-player multiplayer, but there is also four-player local, a godsend for those of us who want to revisit the days when we played nothing but Perfect Dark with friends at home. My one complaint in regards to multiplayer is that instead of eight simulants you can now use just four—this was most likely done to keep things streamlined so the game always maxed out at eight players, on or offline, but the original, despite its jarring frame rate issues in multiplayer, supported up to 12 players at a time thanks to the eight stimulants and four humans. [Edit: This is untrue--after completing the first eight Challenges, you unlock the ability to use eight bots in multiplayer  alongside up to four human players.]

The original game had maps from Goldeneye in addition to the Perfect Dark ones, as well as some unlockable Goldeneye weapons—these have returned, and are now available from the start. You can’t get Goldeneye on your 360 (or your Wii, for that matter), but you can play Goldeneye maps and use its weapons while playing the better game.

Perfect Dark also features 29 Challenges, which can be played with 1-4 players. These range from the simple (kill enemy bots with standard weaponry) to the slightly ridiculous (kill enemy Dark sims in a level without radar), but you unlock additional content for the game as well as a higher ranking for your profile by completing them. You can’t unlock things like the Dark sims in multiplayer until you have completed a certain number of challenges, so it’s worth your time to explore this portion of the game.

Additionally, there is a firing range for you to test out all of the game’s weaponry. There are bronze, silver and gold level challenges within the firing range, and you will find yourself sinking time in here in order to earn the best scores possible as well as unlock bonus levels. It’s also a great place to test out the secondary fire modes and capabilities of weapons without having to worry about someone trying to shoot back at you.

There’s still, amazingly, more to do: there is a co-operative campaign mode, as well as a counter-operative mode. Co-op is self-explanatory—I couldn’t care less that it doesn’t make sense from a story point of view to have two characters at once, because including co-op is a win. Counter-operative has one player take on the role of Agent Dark, while the second player uses a guard within the level—if the guard is killed, you simply take on the role of another guard until there aren’t any left.

One last thing—there are three control schemes. 4J Studios translated the N64 pad’s controls to the 360’s very well in the classic style. If you’ve played a lot of Perfect Dark, this is what you will want to use. If you’re more of a Halo guy, go with “Spartan”, and for Call of Duty fanatics, there’s “Duty Calls”.

Blast Factor: One of the most critically acclaimed shooters in gaming history is available once again with a new coat of paint, multiple control schemes, as well as all of the things that made the original great and then some. If you have played this before, go get it. If you have never played it, go get it. If the cartridge is sitting in your Nintendo 64 that’s kept in your bedroom on your other television (guilty), go get it.

Perfect Dark is available for 800 Perfect Dark is available for 800 Microsoft Points on Xbox Live Arcade. A copy of this game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes.

Skate 3

Sadly, we were graced with nothing but the arrival date, so here’s my take on the franchise.

As someone who recognizes and appreciates the vast complexity and utter impossibleness of the extreme sport of skateboarding, Tony Hawk games appeal to me because they are tipped so heavily on the gnarly scale. Why would I want realistic skateboarding? Where’s the ‘extreme’ in that?

I also appreciate the Skate franchise for what it is, but as Jackie Mason would say, “not for me.”

The internal memo, obtained by trade site  Joystiq, cites IGN President Roy Bahat revealing the sackings at the entertainment site.

No mention was made concerning how far-reaching the layoffs are, but they are said to have affected multiple divisions of the Web site.

Part of the memo read:

“We’re doing this to reduce costs. While we’ve been doing well — we’re profitable and our audience continues to grow — we’re still feeling the effects of the economy, and we need to make sure we can invest where there is opportunity.”

Unfortunate, definitely. Check out the full internal memo, which outside eyes were never supposed to see, below.

“Today’s a hard day at IGN. We’ve had to reduce the size of our organization and are eliminating roles today in every part of the company. We are making every effort to be compassionate and fair to the people whose roles we’ve eliminated.

“Thank you,
“Roy”

Source: Joystiq

For those unfamiliar, Activision released a trailer, with Phillies pitcher Cole Hamels in it, titled “Friends Against Grenade Spam” or F.A.G.S.

This is EA attempting, with the help of a stoned-sounding CC Sabathia, to parody that effort and, in my opinion, succeeds masterfully.

Tiger Woods

He’s admitted his wrongdoings and will be back to the game next month at the PGA Tour’s most prestigious event, The Masters in Augusta.

EA Sports breathes a sigh of relief as the publisher, sticking with their man (and another), won’t have to worry about shipping a title with an inactive athlete.

“We’re looking forward to seeing Tiger back on the golf course,”  EA Sports executive Peter Moore blogged recently. “All eyes will be on Augusta in a few weeks.”

Woods was dropped by several sponsors, including Accenture and the future of the Tiger Woods PGA Tour video game franchise was in question, but no more.

Everybody, glad to see Tiger return? He’s doing it at the place he began his career and at a club with some of the most respectful and reserved galleries in the game. That’ll make it easier, right?

Source: Kotaku

Image Credit

The Batman: Arkham Asylum Game Of The Year Edition, according to Eidos and the below shots, will come bundled with glasses for 3D viewing.

Game Of The Year Edition

The GOTY edition comes to North America May 11 with the aforesaid 3D glasses and six challenge rooms. Enjoy!

Those glasses look ultra-gimmicky. Just saying.

Endless Ocean was something of an ocean sandbox where you generally spent time free of direction, free to do as you pleased. This did not sit well with many gamers though, as even open-world games have some sort of structure to them. Endless Ocean: Blue World, this year’s sequel from developer Arika, fixes that issue by focusing more on story and giving you more direction in your gameplay. They do this without sacrificing the things many folks loved from the original as well, which makes this sequel a better purchase for both fans of the original and the uninitiated.

All of the things you love from the original are intact—you can still take photos, the descriptions of sea life that you can read as you discover them, hidden locations that you must dive to discover, and the multiplayer, which allows you to dive with a friend online. This time around though, Wii Speak is supported, so you no longer have to quietly dive underwater, as calming an experience as that may have been. Now you can talk with a buddy, which makes things easier if you’re trying to direct someone towards an area or creature.

As for the story, your character, who you create with the very simple character creation, joins the R&R Diving Service in order to learn more about the Song of the Dragons, which is a song of legend that is said to be cursed. Conveniently enough, the diving company has ties to the song through pendants left to the owner’s granddaughter, a fellow diver. The story is entertaining, though mostly because it’s ridiculous and good for the occasional laugh. The highlight of the game remains the diving and exploration under the sea.

This time around you have some gadgets at your disposal. First is the Multi Sensor, which is a sonar device that helps you locate treasures and artifacts—you’ll find many of these just by swimming around fish and aquatic life, but the sensor is appreciated for making this easier. Second is the Pulsar, which magically heals fish simply by giving them a few jolts of energy. Realistic? Of course not, but it’s still fun when a tiger shark is about to bite you and you shock him in the face with a pulsar to settle him down and save your hide. For those who are concerned that Arika has put headshots into your calm, ocean exploration title, don’t be alarmed: these moments occur infrequently, as the game certainly isn’t all fighting off tiger sharks and the like.

Just because the game is structured more than the original doesn’t mean you can’t swim as long as you feel like, taking your time in order to discover treasures and interact with all of the life underwater. The game still encourages you to lazily make your way through the very deep and very much alive diving stages. In order to build a better sense of accomplishment though, there’s a leveling system in place for your oxygen—the more dives you complete, the longer you can stay in the depths of the ocean. It’s a good incentive to keep playing for those who need a push to keep playing.

Graphically, Blue World is superior to its predecessor—everything that is underwater is beautifully rendered and detailed, and the sea life animates very well. Even when the camera zooms in close on specific areas or creatures, the visuals hold up. This may be a budget title, but its production values, at least graphically, outshine plenty of games on the system.

The one thing I dislike about Endless Ocean is the control scheme—it’s entirely pointed based, as you point at the screen and then hold B to swim in that direction. Nunchuk support would have been helpful, especially with a relaxing title such as this—I just want to lay on the couch and use my thumbs for something like this, not hold the Wii Remote aloft in order to stay aligned with the sensor bar. This is more of a personal complaint than something that’s wrong with the game though—it’s not the developer’s fault I want to be lazy. I just hope that if there’s an Endless Ocean 3, they give you the option of more than one control scheme.

Blast Factor: Endless Ocean: Blue World takes everything you enjoyed about the original and tightens up the offering with a more direct storyline, new gadgets to change up the pace of ocean exploration, and even more areas and sea life for you to discover and explore. This is not a game for everyone, but it is a game everyone should try—you never know, even the most cynical of you may enjoy the beautifully rendered environments and the calming sense of atmosphere.

Endless Ocean: Blue World is available exclusively for the Endless Ocean: Blue World is available exclusively for the Nintendo Wii, and retails for $29.99. A copy of this game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes.

Atlus released a  trailer for “3D Dot Game Heroes” today dubbed “The Most Interesting Hero in 3D” explaining why the game’s hero is the most compelling yet.

The retro-action adventure game slides its way to the PS3 exclusively May 11.

That’s right, a Kevin Butler commercial!

This one, like the others, is both hilarious and does a great job of selling the first-party software. Hell, I’m sold.

Though the game was delayed a month to May, if that equates to an extra month of polish, I won’t be too upset.

The game’s debut trailer hit the Internet today and you’d be remiss to miss it.

Series developer Epic Games are handling the development duties and the story arch is said to continue to detail humankind’s struggle against the Locust.

A source reporting to Edge says the game could be finished as early as this year, but won’t see release until April 2011 to stay well out of the way of Halo: Reach’s September 2010 release and Project Natal at Holiday 2010.

“Microsoft’s keen to avoid a clash with Halo: Reach and wants Natal to own Christmas. That’s why we won’t be seeing Gears Of War 3 until next year, but expect a major marketing push ahead of its release,” said Edge’s source.

More details on Gears of War 3 are expected for E3 2010 in June.

Source: Edge

Sony published the title in its local Japan, believing it wouldn’t do much in terms of sales, and the port that made it stateside was handled by Atlus.

Demon's Souls

The game went on to push more than 250,000 copies and became one of last year’s biggest sleeper hits.

Sony Computer Entertainment VP of international software Yeonkyung Kim, speaking at a GDC 2010 panel, said passing on it “was a mistake.”

“It should have come out as a first-party title,” Kim said.

Now, if Demon’s Souls II is made, we know who’ll be first in line to publish it.

Source: CVG

But it gets better.

A demo for the title (involving the bathroom scene below) arrives exclusively on Xbox Live this Thursday, March 18. And if it’s anything like the trailer, might have to call out sick April 13 to play it all day.

Sh*t is literally going to hit the fan

If Saint Patrick’s Day was nice to you and your hangover isn’t too overbearing, check out the demo, I know I will.

That puts it a full two months before Activision plans to launch Call of Duty 7, a game believed to take place in Vietnam.

“It gives Halo enough time to maximise sales before CoD arrives,” said one senior trade source. “Xbox 360 is pretty synonymous with Call Of Duty, so it makes commercial sense for Microsoft and Activision to agree both games won’t come out too close to one another.”

We already knew it was penciled in for Fall 2010, so this date makes sense. Fans looking to get in on the action sooner can do so May 3 when the multiplayer beta goes live.

Source: CVG

The game will arrive for  Xbox 360, PS3 and PC whenever Bethesda says it’s ready.

Brian Fargo, Interplay founder and head of InXile Entertainment, said the game is a return to its noted past.

“We are thrilled to be working with Bethesda Softworks on this upcoming release that takes us back to our roots, Bethesda’s track record speaks for itself and the game we are developing for them is no exception.”

“inXile has an extremely talented team and we couldn’t be more pleased to have them working on one of our upcoming titles,” said Vlatko Andonov, President of Bethesda Softworks.  “We believe gamers will be really excited about what these guys have in store for them.”

Nothing else was revealed concerning the game today besides the screenshots embedded below.

A Tweet (which has since been deleted), read “In the PR world, this is considered ‘going rogue,’ but I’m too excited to contain it. This is real & dropping soon.”

He then uploaded the below picture of himself playing it, which looks to be very real.

Tony Hawk for the iPhone

The screenshot looks like Pro Skater 2, but feel free to correct me. Also, the Tony Hawk games require lots of quick-fingered movements and combos. Can the iPhone’s basic controls do it?

Source: GamesRadar

The sequel was an overwhelming hit, though at least some of its success is attributed to the inclusion of the Halo 3 beta in it, and its sequel, simply named “Crackdown 2″ looks to be just as appealing. But you’ll decide July 6 when it arrives in North America.

Along with the announcement Ruffian Games released a “Fun With Friends” video documentary for the game, letting you know, from the mouths of developers, why its multiplayer will be worth it.

This week in new releases sees Kratos take his first PS3 adventure with God of War III and Pokemon further its DS domination with HeartGold/Soul Silver.

Here’s the full list.

Sunday (March 14)
Horrible Histories: Ruthless Romans (DS, PC, Wii)
Pokemon HeartGold Version (DS)
Pokemon SoulSilver Version (DS)

Monday (March 15)
101 MiniGolf World (DS)
Rage of the Gladiator (Wii)
Triple Shot Sports (Wii)

Tuesday (March 16)
Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight (PC)
Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening (PC, PS3, 360)
Family Gameshow (Wii)
Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon (Wii)
God of War III (PS3)
Hidden Mysteries: Buckingham Palace (DS)
Infinite Space (DS)
Metro 2033 (PC, 360)
Resonance of Fate (PS3, 360)
Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space (Wii)
Sonny With a Chance (DS)
T.A.C. Heroes: Big Red One (DS)

Wednesday (March 17)
Hall of Fame: Ultimate Hoops Challenge (Wii)
Perfect Dark (360)
Pet Forest (PC)

Thursday (March 18)
Wakeboarding HD (PS3)

Friday (March 19)
Mount & Blade: Warband (PC)

Source: Kotaku

Enjoy the trailer, courtesy of GameTrailers below and look for Medal of Honor this coming fall for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.

PlayStation Home Director Jack Buser quantified that 12 million figure further, saying the social space is a “extremely sticky” saying those 12 million have spent at least an hour in it and 85% returned more than once.

Buser, at GDC 2010 last week, said PS Home isn’t going anywhere and that it’s a major part of Sony’s strategy.

“You’re going to see us really embrace this idea of total game integration,” and that the service will “really extend out the experience of your games.”

Anybody spend much time in PS Home? I downloaded it and jumped it just to see what it was all about and haven’t been back  much.

Source: CVG

Infinity Ward’s Robert “FourZeroTwo” Bowling appeared on Xbox Live spokesman Larry Hyrb’s podcast last night and confirmed the March 30 release date of “The Stimulus Package” exclusively for Xbox Live and that it’s going to cost and arm and a leg. Translation? 1200 MS Points/$15.

Now, that’d be fine and dandy if the DLC was a robust piece of multiplayer joy, but it’s five maps and two are remakes.

I’m boycotting it on the argument that if I throw my money at it, $15 could become the new norm.

Source: Kotaku