Recent Articles: Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars

Madden NFL 12 blitzes the September NPD list

Posted on October 14, 2011 by John Scalzo

Boom! After taking the month of August off thanks to the NFL lockout, the debut of Madden NFL 12 has reclaimed its rightful spot at the top of The NPD Groups’s monthly rankings.

The football sim was joined at the top of the charts by other big new releases: Gears of War 3 chainsawed the second spot and Deep Silver’s Dead Island landed at #3 (behold the power of hype, folks). EA Sports claimed the rest of the top five with FIFA Soccer 12 at #4 and NHL 12 a spot below. Resistance 3 at #7 and Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine at #10 round out the bevy of new releases on this NPD list.

Holdovers from previous months include Deus Ex: Human Revolution (#6), Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars (#8) and Call of Duty: Black Ops (#9).

The complete top ten can be found after the break. (more…)

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Xbox 360 standalone 320 GB hard drive (with Lego Star Wars III) coming soon

Posted on October 11, 2011 by John Scalzo

Microsoft has announced the 320 GB hard drive featured in the Gears of War 3 Limited Edition Xbox 360 will be available separately later this month.

The drive will retail for $129.99 and it’ll be compatible with all Xbox 360 S models. If that price seems a tad high to you, don’t worry, Microsoft plans to package a download code for Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars with each drive.

OK, that’s still pretty pricey for a 320 GB drive, but that’s par for the course for Xbox 360 hard drives.

Posted in News, Xbox 360 | Tagged

Daily Scoop: July 25, 2011 – The nightmares begin tomorrow

Posted on July 25, 2011 by Nicole Kline

It’s Monday, and tonight will be my last good night of sleep for a while, as I’ll be getting my copy of Catherine tomorrow. Hopefully the nightmares won’t be too bad… though I don’t think counting sheepmen is going to help me much.

Amazon’s Deal of the Day in video games is EA’s Mass Effect 2 for the PS3. It’s marked down to $29.99 from $39.99, so if you’re a PS3 owner who’s been dying to get into this once Xbox 360-only franchise, now’s your chance to get it on the cheap – and just in time to get it done before the third game comes out next year! Amazon’s also got two new weekly video game deals – Crysis 2 is $39.95 for PC, PS3, and Xbox 360, and Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars 3D for the 3DS is $27.99.

In other news, Toys R Us is having a buy one get one free sale on some select dancing games, and they’re also having a whopping three for $10 sale on video game t-shirts. Hot!

“Mushroom Battle” is today’s Qwertee, and it’s a good one: (more…)

Posted in Daily Scoop, Gaming Etc., News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360 | Tagged , ,

L.A. Noire tops NPD chart in May

Posted on June 14, 2011 by John Scalzo

Rockstar Games’ detective procedural L.A. Noire has topped The NPD Group’s list of bestselling games in May. The PS3/Xbox 360 game was followed by several other new releases including Brink at #2 and Lego Pirates of the Caribbean in the third slot.

The remainder of the top ten is a mix of recently games (Portal 2 at #4 and Mortal Kombat at #5) and holdovers from last Fall’s game rush (Call of Duty: Black Ops at #6 and NBA 2K11 at #8).

The complete top ten can be seen here:

1. L.A. Noire (PS3, Xbox 360)
2. Brink (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)
3. Lego Pirates of the Caribbean (3DS, DS, PC, PS3, PSP, Wii, Xbox 360)
4. Portal 2 (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)
5. Mortal Kombat (PS3, Xbox 60)
6. Call of Duty: Black Ops (DS, PC, PS3, Wii, Xbox 360)
7. Zumba Fitness: Join the Party (PS3, Wii, Xbox 360)
8. NBA 2K11 (PC, PS2, PS3, PSP, Wii, Xbox 360)
9. Just Dance 2 (Wii)
10. Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars (3DS, DS, PC, PS3, PSP, Wii, Xbox 360)

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Mortal Kombat decapitates the competition in April NPD report

Posted on May 13, 2011 by John Scalzo

It’s no secret that the video game community has responded to NetherRealm Studios’ Mortal Kombat reboot with a resounding “I love it.” But like Shao Kahn taunting a clearly inferior kombatant, the game also emerged on top of The NPD Group’s April 2011 sales report. And according to a tweet from Kombat creator Ed Boon, the game sold over 1,000,000 copies during the month. Flawless victory indeed.

April 19′s other big release, Portal 2, teleported its way to the top of the list with a strong #2 showing. Of course, it’s important to point out that a good portion of Portal 2′s sales were digital downloads through Steam, which isn’t counted by the NPD.

But the biggest surprise from last month’s top ten might be the absence of Sony’s SOCOM 4: U.S. Navy SEALs. The online shooter was also released on April 19th, one day before hackers took down the PSN. The service has yet to return and its offline status definitely contributed to SOCOM 4′s lackluster sales.

Hit the jump for the complete top ten of April’s bestselling games. (more…)

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Daily Scoop: May 9, 2011 – The PSN outage continues

Posted on May 9, 2011 by Nicole Kline

The ApocalyPS3 is still in full swing, with Sony now admitting the service will likely not return “fully” until May 31. In case you hadn’t noticed, May 31 is 22 days from now. That is a ridiculous amount of time for the PSN to be down, bringing their total downtime to well over a month. I’m not sure what their welcome back package is going to include, but I think for some people, it’s going to need to offer to pay for the therapy they’re in right now as they’re going through multiplayer withdrawal.

And now, onto the deals! Today’s Amazon Deal of the Day in video games is LucasArts’ Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars for the Wii. It’s $34.99 down from $49.99. I would definitely recommend it for the fan of the Lego games in general – sure, if you’ve played one, you’ve played them all, but they’re really enjoyable either way. I’ve been playing the 3D version on the 3DS and it’s been a pretty fun time!

Also, Brink is coming out tomorrow, and Amazon’s running a $10 promotional credit on that, as well as cutting $5 off the price tag on both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions. They’ve also upped the promotional credit for L.A. Noire to $15 for both PS3 and 360 versions. Click here for a full list of all bonus offers at Amazon right now.

Today’s daily t-shirt is courtesy of Ript, and it’s called A Moogle We Can Believe In:

Can we say Moogle/Chocobo ’12?

Posted in Daily Scoop, Gaming Etc., News, PS3, Wii, Xbox 360 | Tagged , ,

Pokemon Black/White dominate sales chart

Posted on April 15, 2011 by John Scalzo

The NPD Group has revealed the list of bestselling games for March and the latest Pokemon game, Pokemon Black/White, has caught the top of the chart.

Pokemon White Version came out on top with Pokemon Black Version just behind it in the number two slot. According to Nintendo, both games combined to sell nearly 2.5 million copies (over 1.3 million for White and another 1.1 million for Black).

New releases were well represented among last months bestsellers with Homefront (#3) and Dragon Age II (#4) both taking up residence in the top five. The bottom half of the top ten was also almost completely made up of new releases including Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars (#6), Crysis 2 (#7), MLB 11: The Show (#9) and Fight Night Champion (#10).

Hit the jump for a complete look at the NPD Group’s top ten for March. (more…)

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3DS stocked aplenty at retailers

Posted on March 29, 2011 by Mike Gutierrez

Gamer interest in Nintendo’s 3DS has been off the charts and no one was overly surprised when the entire initial shipment in Japan sold out. Indeed, Nintendo may have had another case of the Wii on their hands, which has been scarcely available at many times over the last few years.

That won’t be the case in North America, as retailers are reporting they have plenty of units to sell to consumers. GameStop, Target, and Toys R Us reported to GameSpot that they’ve been able to meet pre-orders and have plenty of units to go around. This doesn’t necessarily mean the system isn’t selling well, instead a Toys R Us representative pointed towards “a very strong partnership with Nintendo” that has allowed them to meet demand.

What about the games? Super Street Fighter IV, Pilotwings Resort, and Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars have been cited as the top selling titles so far. I know Senior Editor Nicole Kline got her 3DS and Podcast Producer Ryan Littlefield is about to get his, so hopefully we’ll have some impressions from launch titles incoming.

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