New Saints Row: The Third trailer has you “Freefalling”

Posted on August 12, 2011 by Nicole Kline

THQ’s Saints Row: The Third just keeps looking better and better. The latest trailer, “Freefalling,” is from the second mission in the game. The Syndicate gets miffed when the Saints rob one of their banks, and capture you, Johnny Gat, and Shaundi. After it’s clear the Syndicate won’t get what it wants from the Saints, they try to take them out – but you and Johnny have a different idea. I love the humor in this – Johnny Gat says he’ll go fly the plane, to which Shaundi replies: “Johnny, you can’t even drive stick. How are you going to pilot a plane?” Check out the trailer to see some of the freefalling action, and how you have to catch Shaundi before it’s too late.

Saints Row: The Third will be out October 15 on PC, PS3, and Xbox 360.

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NBA 2K12 soundtrack revealed

Posted on August 12, 2011 by Nicole Kline

NBA 2K12‘s soundtrack was released today by 2K Sports, featuring tracks and collaborations by Eminem, Cee-Lo Green, Busta Rhymes, and many more. Alex K. and D.J.I.G. made the soundtrack through a contest called “Duck Down,” giving them the opportunity to collaborate and create the track “Now’s My Time.”

2K Sports’ Vice President of Marketing, Jason Argent, emphasized how important music is to the series. “Music has always been an integral part of our NBA 2K video games, as it further immerses players into the world of basketball and enhances their gaming experience,” he said. “It was important to us that the NBA 2K12 soundtrack was not only what you hear while navigating the menus, but also in real-life situations like pre-game highlight introductions and during timeouts, just as you would hear a song while at a game or watching on TV.”

NBA 2K12 will be available October 4 for the PC, PS2, PS3, PSP, Wii, and Xbox 360. Hit the jump for the full track list.

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Google+ adds games, surprises no one

Posted on August 12, 2011 by John Scalzo

We all knew it was coming, but yesterday, Google officially added a “Games” stream to their Google+ social networking service.

Facebook users have often complained about feeling overwhelmed by the amount of game notifications in their feed, so Google+ plans to segregate all game activity under a “Games” button.

“The Games page is also where your game accomplishments will appear. So you can comfortably share your latest high score—your circles will only see the updates when they’re interested in playing games too. If you’re not interested in games, it’s easy to ignore them. Your stream will remain focused on conversations with the people you care about,” said Vic Gundotra, Senior Vice President of Engineering.

But if you think games and social networking are two great tastes that taste great together, then you’ll definitely want to hit the break for the full list of games now available on Google+.

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Posted in News, PC |

Daily Scoop: August 12, 2011 – Please buy Pokemon!

Posted on August 12, 2011 by Nicole Kline

Hello everyone, and welcome to a beautiful Friday! Today, my biggest advice to you is: please buy Pokemon HeartGold or Pokemon SoulSilver! They are currently $24.99 at GameStop, and they come with Pokewalkers! What does that mean? That means they come with pedometers that look like Pokeballs that you can put your Pokemon on and level them up as you walk around. Has your brain exploded yet? This also means that if you see me at PAX, we can connect our Pokewalkers and our Pokemon can play together. Yay!

Also up for today is Amazon’s Deal of the Day in video games, which is the Rock Band 3 Wireless Fender Mustang PRO-Guitar Controller for Xbox 360 by MadCatz. It’s $92.99 down from $149.99 today, and has an “advanced tilt sensor for Overdrive activation.” Bring the noise!

Today’s shirt.w00t is entitled “The Perfect Moment,” and captures my life so succinctly:

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Posted in Daily Scoop, Etcetera, News, Xbox 360 |

NCAA Football 12 is the valedictorian of July’s NPD chart

Posted on August 12, 2011 by John Scalzo

The NPD Group has revealed the top ten bestselling games for the month of July and NCAA Football 12 jumped to the head of the class. None of the rest of the month’s new releases managed to crack the list (including the awesome Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon or the alluring Catherine). Even the heavily-hyped Duke Nukem Forever was unable to maintain its place in the top ten.

With few new releases, only 17 titles were released during the month, gamers spent their money on other things in July. According to The NPD Group’s Anita Frazier, July was the “lowest month [for game sales] since October 2006.”

Maybe that’ll show publishers that the gaming community is pretty desperate for new games in the Summer. So maybe they shouldn’t backload every worthwhile game into the September-November period. In the meantime, check out the full top ten after the break.

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“Create or Destroy” in new Ridge Racer Unbounded trailer

Posted on August 11, 2011 by John Scalzo

Namco Bandai’s Ridge Racer Unbounded appears to owe quite a debt to Criterion’s Burnout series. But it looks like Unbounded will also have some new options under the hood.

Dubbed “Create or Destroy,” players will be able to create their own city and then share those creations online. They can then destroy those cities during some absolutely wild races. For example, the Gamescom trailer above shows players driving through a mall, toppling the elevator inside and then crashing through the front door. Oh, and I’m sure that mall has everything.

Ridge Racer Unbounded will be released next year for the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.

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Nintendo of America is watching Xenoblade’s reception in Europe

Posted on August 11, 2011 by John Scalzo

Xenoblade will be published in Europe next week and even though a Nintendo of America spokesman said the company has “no plans” to bring it across the Atlantic, Xenoblade is a major subject of conversation around Redmond.

Speaking to IGN, Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime said: “We will be watching very closely what happens in Europe. Certainly if there are business opportunities and positive consumer uptake from some of those titles, that will be great data for us to consider as we look at what to do with these titles.”

Don’t pop the champagne corks just yet, but this is the best news to come out of Nintendo of America about Xenoblade since the company first announced it under the title Monado: Beginning of the World (yes, at one time, Xenoblade had an official American release scheduled).

Posted in News, Wii | Tagged

Nintendo Download: Avenging Spirit, Super Adventure Island II

Posted on August 11, 2011 by John Scalzo

It’s Thursday and Nintendo has added several new games to their trio of download services. This week’s new releases include:

Nintendo DSiWare
* Go! Go! Kokopolo – Take control of hyperactive wildcat Kokopolo in a fast, frantic, action-packed caper of pure arcade mayhem. Hunt down those responsible for disturbing your afternoon slumber.
* Crazy Hamster
* My Asian Farm

3DS eShop
* Avenging Spirit – This classic action game introduced a unique system for possessing and controlling other characters. Help a heroic ghost rescue his girlfriend from her kidnappers so he can finally rest in peace.

WiiWare
* Kyotokei
* Super Adventure Island II (Virtual Console)

More information on all of this week’s releases can be found in the Nintendo Download weekly newsletter.

And don’t forget, today is the last day for current 3DS owners to log-in to the 3DS eShop and register for the 3DS Ambassador program.

Posted in 3DS, DS, News, Wii |