Most Recent: Xbox 360

Keiji Inafune tricked Capcom into publishing Dead Rising, Lost Planet

Posted on May 9, 2011 by John Scalzo

It’s almost fitting that Keiji Inafune, best known as the creator of Mega Man, is the proud owner of a giant pair of brass balls.

Two of Inafune’s more recent projects, Dead Rising and Lost Planet, have become big moneymakers for Capcom. But the company didn’t have the utmost confidence in them when development began. In fact, the publisher canceled both games when they were still in the prototype stage. Expecting this outcome, Inafune and his team continued work on the games in secret and he went back to his bosses a second time. Not wanting to lose all the money Inafune spent on developing both games, Capcom executives gave the go-ahead to push them into full production.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Inafune was prepared to be fired for his act of treason. But he did it to fight back against a rule at Capcom that mandated that 80% of the company’s output had to be a sequel to a previously released game. So all those Street Fighter/Resident Evil/Mega Man sequels? They were the result of an actual company policy to sequelize everything. That explains so much.

Inafune believes his work on Dead Rising and Lost Planet (and their eventual blockbuster sales numbers) saved Capcom from bankruptcy. We’ll never know for sure, but if the father of Mega Man said it, I believe it.

[Soruce: Andriasang]

Posted in News, Xbox 360 | Tagged

Saints Row 3 character creator announced

Posted on May 7, 2011 by John Scalzo

Ninja? Pirate? Ninja-pirate? Naked ninja-pirate? The choice is yours…

First off, that’s the greatest opening to a press release in… well, pretty much ever. Secondly, ninjas and pirates are almost totally identified by what they wear, so there can never be a “naked ninja-pirate.” Although, I suppose if anyone could pull it off, Johnny Depp could.

All this talk of pirates and ninjas is because THQ has revealed the Saints Row Initiation Station, a standalone character creator that’ll be made available for free ahead of Saints Row: The Third‘s holiday release. But pirates and ninjas running around Steelport will seem relatively normal next to some of the other character ideas THQ has suggested:

  • Your favorite train wreck celebrity-turned reality TV star
  • Your least favorite overpaid prima donna professional athlete
  • A cape-wearing superhero (or villain)
  • Cowboys and Indians
  • A Dominatrix and her sex slave
  • Tag-team wrestling partners with sordid pasts

Players will be able to use the Initiation Station to create as many characters as they can come up with. These characters can then be uploaded and shared with all your closest friends. You can even download someone else’s character and change it to suit your own twisted imagination.

Oh yeah, Saints Row 3 is going to awesome. Or at least awesomely bizarre.

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

New Releases: Brink, Lego Pirates of the Caribbean, MX vs ATV Alive, More

Posted on May 7, 2011 by John Scalzo

After moving up its launch date up week, Bethesda and Splash Damage are ready to release their parkour-inspired shooter Brink on the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.

If you’d rather travel by sea, then you should know that Disney and Lego Captain Jack Sparrow will release Lego Pirates of the Caribbean on every current system (3DS, DS, PC, PS3, PSP, Wii and Xbox 360) this week. Perhaps wall running and boating aren’t for you. Then you’d be well to know that THQ is bringing their latest off-road racing title, MX vs ATV Alive, to the PS3 and Xbox 360 this week.

Moving on from the “ways to get around” theme, Sega has Virtua Tennis 4 set to be released on the PS3, Wii and Xbox 360 while Deep Silver is bringing Duke Nukem: Critical Mass to the DS. Let’s hope it doesn’t take forever for our next helping of Duke.

Check out the full list of the rest of this week’s new releases after the break. (more…)

Posted in 3DS, DS, News, PC, PS3, PSP, Wii, Xbox 360 | Tagged , , , ,

Brink boasts 100 quadrillion unique characters

Posted on May 6, 2011 by John Scalzo

Like our Weekly Warp-Up, that is definitely not a typo.

With Brink‘s release just a few days away, the Bethesda Blog has posted some interesting numbers relating to Splash Damage’s parkour shooter. It seems, that when counting all possible variations, there are over 100 quadrillion (that’s a 100 followed by 15 zeroes) unique characters. That deserves a low whistle.

Here are some more stats, courtesy of Bethesda:

  • Voice Packs: 8
  • Number of ways to die: 45
  • Individual weapon sounds: 4,500
  • Lines of Dialogue: 26,000
  • Minutes of Music: 60
  • Weapon attachment combinations –
    Not counting for Resistance variations or pre-order content:     4,963
  • Unique Security Characters
    • Not counting minor tint variations or body types): 4,530,240
    • Not counting minor tint variations but including body types: 13,590,720
    • Including minor tint variations, but not body types: 15,775,119,360,000,000
    • Including minor tint variations and body types: 47,325,358,080,000,000
  • Unique Resistance Characters
    • Not counting minor tint variations or body types: 4,530,240
    • Not counting minor tint variations but including body types: 13,590,720
    • Including minor tint variations, but not body types: 18,307,441,152,000,000
    • Including minor tint variations and body types: 54,922,323,456,000,000
  • Total Unique Characters: 102,247,681,536,000,000

Brink will be in stores for the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 on May 10.

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

Burnout Crash! outed by ESRB

Posted on May 6, 2011 by John Scalzo

The ESRB has outed the next game in the Burnout series, Burnout Crash!

In development for the PS3 and Xbox 360, the game’s Rating Summary describes the title as having a “top-down perspective” and “cartoony” graphics. Also, players have to dodge “oversized airplanes, tornados, lobster monsters, and UFOs” as they race for the finish line. I don’t think it’s much of a stretch to declare that Burnout Crash! is likely in devleopment for the PSN and XBLA.

Here’s the game’s complete Rating Summary:

This is an action game in which players earn points for creating traffic pileups. From a top-down perspective, players initiate crashes by driving ‘cartoony’ vehicles (e.g., cars, trucks, vans, buses) into busy intersections; multiple crashes trigger score multipliers and rack up large ‘bills’ of property damage. Each level is accompanied by crashing sounds, small explosions, and vocal encouragement (e.g., ‘Cool,’ ‘Maximum Carnage!’). In some levels, players are instructed to crash into police cars (e.g., ‘Crash them before they bust you!’); in other sequences, oversized airplanes, tornados, lobster monsters, and UFOs slide across the screen, destroying any vehicles in their path.

Posted in News, PS3, Xbox 360 | Tagged

The Balcony is Closed: Whatever Happened to the Licensed Game?

Posted on May 6, 2011 by John Scalzo

In case there was any doubt, Thor and his mighty hammer have officially opened the 2011 Summer movie season today. What will follow is four months of blockbusters that will be heavy on action and even heavier on reviews comparing their visuals to video games. But as Hollywood and Redmond trade ideas back and forth, the once great institution that is the licensed game has gone by the wayside.

Okay, “once great institution” might be the nostalgia talking, but licensed games were always plentiful, even if they weren’t always good games. We all know the story of Atari practically bankrupting themselves to produce the woefully bad E.T. game for the Atari 2600. And Acclaim’s history of low review scores (and eventual bankruptcy) could be attributed to the company’s string of licensed games.

But titles like GoldenEye and The Chronicles of Riddick prove that a licensed game doesn’t have to be a cheaply made cash-in. They can be classics. Yet their number is decreasing, even as gamemakers have embraced the trappings of Hollywood during the development process. (more…)

Posted in DS, Features, PC, PS3, Top Story, Wii, Xbox 360 |

Next Week on Rock Band 3: Foo Fighters! Oh, and Run DMC too!

Posted on May 6, 2011 by Adam Woolcott

Long-time fans of the Rock Band franchise are well aware that the Foo Fighters are one of the most prolific bands in the game – there’s well over twenty of their songs available in the Rock Band store. That number is set to increase this coming Tuesday, as the Foo Fighters are bringing four new tracks to Rock Band 3. That’s not all, however, as hip-hop legends Run-DMC make their Rock Band debut. Previously, they were only available in 2008’s Guitar Hero: Aerosmith. Anyway, here’s what’s on tap for Tuesday, May 10th:

  • Foo Fighters – “Long Road to Ruin”
  • Foo Fighters – “Rope” X
  • Foo Fighters – “Stacked Actors”
  • Foo Fighters – “Walk”
  • Lordi – “Hard Rock Hallelujah”
  • Run-DMC – “King of Rock”

“King of Rock” is an amazing pick, though hopefully this leads to their “Walk This Way” collaboration with Aerosmith. Otherwise, my only disappointment is the inclusion of just one track from the great new Foo Fighters album “Wasting Light” – hopefully more will appear in the future… like, you know, the entire album. In addition to the all-new tracks, there’s two previously available Foo Fighters songs being enhanced for Pro Guitar:

• Foo Fighters – “Monkey Wrench”
• Foo Fighters – “The Pretender”

As always, each song will retail for 160 Microsoft Points, 200 Wii Points, or $1.99 on PlayStation Network… though as I said last week, the availability on PS3 depends on whenever PSN is up and running again. The two “legacy” updates for the older Foo Fighters tracks will set you back half the cost of a full song, as will the Pro Guitar upgrade for “Rope.”

Tune in next week for another run down of Rock Band 3 goodness!

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

Gears of War 3 Beta Survival Guide

Posted on May 5, 2011 by Troy Matsumiya

I love Gears of War multiplayer: great action, eye-popping graphics, over-the-top violence, and an overall fun experience. The only problem is I suck at it. A lot. As in turbo-charged Hoover suckage. My kill/death ratio is embarrassingly low, and I sometimes feel like I spend more time waiting to respawn than actually playing the game.

So if you’re a casual player or brand new to the series and are getting your butt handed to you in the beta, I feel your pain. The franchise has attracted a seriously hardcore following and I am constantly amazed (and sometimes frustrated) by how good the players are. It can get bad enough to potentially turn off the average or casual player, which is a shame because they will miss out on a fantastic multiplayer shooter.

However, if you’re one of those people, don’t despair. Take it from me: a little time, patience and smarts will have you holding your own even against the toughest opponents. Hopefully this guide will help you enjoy all the fun the beta has to offer. No, you still may not get the most kills, but at least you won’t feel like cannon fodder either. (more…)

Posted in Features, Top Story, Xbox 360 | Tagged