Most Recent: News

Nintendo planning downloadable GameCube games for Wii U

Posted on July 20, 2011 by John Scalzo

The NintendoGal spoke to Amber McCollom, Nintendo’s Director of Entertainment & Trend Marketing, at E3 and she has dropped a pretty huge bombshell. It looks like the Wii U’s online store will include GameCube games in its download offerings.

Here’s the relevant exchange from the interview:

NintendoGal: I noticed on backwards compatibility at the press conference that the GameCube was missing. Why is this?

McCollom: You know it’s interesting that you bring up backwards compatibility and Nintendo’s history usually goes back one system. The Wii was compatible with GameCube and Wii U will be compatible with Wii and that’s pretty traditional in launches from Nintendo.

NintendoGal: So the Wii U will not support the discs or accessories?

McCollom: Actually the GameCube discs will not be compatible with Wii U, but a number of the games that were playable on GameCube can be downloaded from WiiWare.

The one thing McCollom didn’t mention is how GameCube games will be made available on the Wii U. Will they be the original games running off a Virtual Console-like emulator? Or will they be HD ports rebuilt from the ground up like we’ve seen on the PS3 and Xbox 360?

Hopefully, we’ll find out soon.

Posted in News, Wii U |

A cop, a wrestler, and a porn star walk into the Saints Row 3 voice cast

Posted on July 20, 2011 by John Scalzo

It sounds like the beginnings of a bad joke, doesn’t it? And yet, that is the perfect description of the newly announced voice cast for THQ’s Saints Row: The Third.

Daniel Dae Kim, known to Saints Row fans everywhere as the voice of Johnny Gat, will reprise his role in The Third. In the new game, Gat has become “the face of high class crime,” which is a far cry from Kim’s appearances as Jin on “Lost” and Chin Ho on “Hawaii Five-0.”

The wrestler is none other than Hulk Hogan. The Hulkster will fill the (thankfully) yellow boots of Angel De LaMuerte, a legendary professional wrestler. According to THQ, Angel was “betrayed by his former tag-team partner Killbane, now the merciless leader of the Lucadores street gang.” To exact his revenge, he teams up with the Saints.

Finally, the porn star is none other than Sasha Grey. Surprisingly, the “Entourage” star won’t be playing a porn star (THQ refers to her as just “Actress Sasha Grey” in the press release). Instead, she’ll lend her voice to Viola DeWynter, the mastermind behind The Syndicate’s financial empire.

So anyway. A cop, a wrestler and a porn star walk into a bar and the bartender says…

Posted in News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360 | Tagged ,

Halo: Primordium to continue story of Forerunner Saga

Posted on July 20, 2011 by Nicole Kline

Halo: Primordium, the sequel to Halo: Cryptum and the second novel in the Forerunner Saga, will be coming out on January 3, 2012. Published by Tor Books, the novel – which will be available in both print and audio versions – will be penned by Greg Bear, who was also the author of Cryptum.

Fans at San Diego Comic-Con will be able to see the award-winning science fiction writer at two Halo panels, “Writing in Videogames: In-Game, Novels, Comics, and Other Franchise-Building Offshoots” (Room 32AB), and “Halo Universe” (Room 6BCF). Those panels are at 10 AM and 11:30 AM, respectively, on Friday, July 22. Also on Friday, at 2 PM, Bear will be at the Tor Books booth (#2707), where there will be a giveaway as well as signing of Halo: Evolutions books, totebags and posters.

Posted in Etcetera, News | Tagged

Family Guy Online MMO announced by 20th Century Fox; customize your character today!

Posted on July 20, 2011 by Nicole Kline

20th Century Fox has announced Family Guy Online today, a new MMO based on the popular television series. An open beta for this free-to-play, browser-based, 3D game will be launching later this year. Eager players can start customizing their own characters today at the game’s website. You can then annoy your Facebook friends even more by posting your character directly to your Facebook page. Lucky fans attending San Diego Comic Con can make characters right there on the show floor, and can get limited edition Family Guy Online posters signed by the mayor himself, Adam West.

Fans can explore all of Quahog, from Spooner Street to the Drunken Clam, and interact with characters from the show, including the whole Griffin family and all of their wacky neighbors. You can choose to either go solo in a single-player experience or team up with your friends. Fans will also be happy to hear that the show’s writers are a part of the development team.

The social online game production company, Roadhouse Interactive, is at the helm of development. Hosted on the Unity platform, the game will have “vibrant graphics,” and “the flexibility of the platform will allow the game writers and developers to continuously evolve the game play and content.”

I bet whoever made the call to bring Family Guy back on the air is celebrating right now.

Posted in News, PC | Tagged

James Bond will officially return! GoldenEye 007 Reloaded announced by Activision

Posted on July 20, 2011 by John Scalzo

We first saw the leaked screenshots for an HD edition of GoldenEye 007 yesterday and they were pretty impressive. Today, Activision has officially announced GoldenEye 007: Reloaded, an HD remake of last year’s GoldenEye 007 remake on the Wii. They’ve also released the first trailer for the game, which you can view above.

Once again developed by Eurocom, GoldenEye 007: Reloaded will be available on the PS3 and Xbox 360 this Fall. The re-remake is being built with an all-new engine and will include PlayStation Move support.

Reloaded will add several new features that weren’t found on last year’s Wii game including “Mi6 Ops Missions,” a challenge mode that asks players to complete different Assault, Elimination, Stealth and Defense objectives.

But what about the multiplayer? Well, Activision has promised to include four-player splitscreen and plans to double the number of online players (from 8 to 16). The multiplayer mode will also include “more maps, weapons, characters and game modes than ever before.”

Oh yes, James Bond will definitely return.

Posted in News, PS3, Xbox 360 | Tagged ,

El Shaddai pushed back to August

Posted on July 20, 2011 by John Scalzo

Ignition’s ambitious biblical beat ’em up, El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron, had originally been scheduled for a July 26 release on the PS3 and Xbox 360. Unfortunately, the development gods (via Twitter) have declared “let there be a delay” and the game, which is based on the apocryphal Book of Enoch, will now be released on August 16…

the rumors are true… El Shaddai’s U.S. date slips to 8.16.11, but “Don’t Worry, Everything’s Fine.”

Destructoid caught up with the developers at Ignition and got them to elaborate slightly on the delay. Apparently, “unforeseen logistical issues” are being blamed for the delay.

Posted in News, PS3, Xbox 360 | Tagged

Daily Scoop: Wednesday, July 20 – Every day should end with kittens

Posted on July 20, 2011 by Nicole Kline

On my way home from work yesterday, I passed by a kitten adoption that was going down right on the street from someone’s car, and I got to hold two 1-month-old kittens. They were so sweet and tiny and lovable! And if I didn’t have two jealous cats, I probably would have brought one of them home. As it stands, I had to make due with just cuddling them. And I think everyone would be happier if their evening commute included holding sweet baby kittens!

Anyway! Back on track! Amazon’s Deal of the Day in video games is Nintendo’s Kirby’s Epic Yarn for the Wii! It’s on sale for $29.99, which in the grand scheme of how often big Nintendo classics actually go on sale, is a pretty good deal. Pick it up if you like cute things and haven’t been able to love on any kittens lately!

Also worth noting is the crazy PSN sale happening right now. The most insane part of it is that you can get Borderlands and all of the expansions for $14.99, which is absolutely absurd. Buy this immediately if you do not have this game! It’s complete and total robbery, as in you are robbing them blind. This is a steal at twice the price! They’ve also got deals on two other 2K games – BioShock 2 and Mafia 2. You can get the DLC bundles for $10.99 and $14.99, respectively. Damn.

No game-related shirts today, but I have a fondness for today’s Tee Fury, which is called “Master’s Ruin,” and is described as a He-Man/Sailor Jerry mashup: (more…)

Posted in Daily Scoop, Etcetera, News, PS3, Wii |

Limbo, Final Fantasy Tactics PSP added to PSN; big sale on Borderlands GOTY bundle

Posted on July 20, 2011 by John Scalzo

The atmospheric puzzle-platformer Limbo was added to the PlayStation Store yesterday. It’ll be joined by light gun shooter Fast Draw Showdown, the zombie defending sim Dead Block, and a pair of NeoGeo classics: Baseball Stars 2 and The King of Fighters ’95. Both NeoGeo titles can be downloaded on the PSP as well.

Also available this week is Kyuiin, a wild PSone Import where you control a sentient vacuum in a side-scrolling shooter battle against dirt. On the PSP side of things, Square Enix has added Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions to the PlayStation Store.

Finally, if you’re a Borderlands fan, or even if you’re not, you might want to know that all Borderlands content will be 50% off this week. And if you’ve never played Borderlands, the store has an even better deal: The Borderlands: Game of the Year bundle for just $14.99! That’s the original game and all four expansions, a package that goes for $60 regularly. Whoa!

Hit the jump for more details on all of this week’s releases and check out the PlayStation.Blog for a complete list of this week’s add-on content and PlayStation Plus perks. (more…)

Posted in News, PS3, PSP | Tagged