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.

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Posted in 3DS, DS, News, PC, PS2, PS3, PSP, Wii, Xbox 360 | Tagged , , , , , , , , ,

MotorStorm Apocalypse shocks stores May 3rd

Posted on April 15, 2011 by John Scalzo

MotorStorm Apocalypse was originally scheduled to be released on April 12, but was delayed after Japan suffered a massive earthquake in March. Today, Sony announced the game’s new release date: May 3.

To celebrate, the PlayStation.Blog has posted a new interview with Game Director Matt Southern where he talks about “how the game will deliver one of the best racing experiences to date on the PS3.”

Sony has also confirmed that every new copy of MotorStorm Apocalypse will include a voucher for the Premier Pack DLC bundle, which consists of two additional (and exclusive) vehicles.

Posted in News, PS3 | Tagged

“F**king Run!” in FEAR 3 multiplayer modes

Posted on April 15, 2011 by John Scalzo

Back when it was first announced, developer Day 1 Studios revealed that they had enlisted John Carpenter to bring some horror to FEAR 3. It looks like the famed director wasn’t only involved in the single-player campaign as his unique stamp is all over the game’s four multiplayer modes.

Check out the trailer above for some absolutely hellish (and awesome!) imagery or hit the jump for the full scoop on escaping the Wall of Death in “F**king Run!,” the Horde-like “Contractions,” the divide-and-conquer of “Soul Survivor” and the collector-fest that is “Soul King.”

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Rumors grow stronger for Nintendo HD console

Posted on April 14, 2011 by Mike Gutierrez

The whispers have spoken incessantly about it, the gamers have begged for it, and Michael Pachter has said it would fail. Ladies and gentlemen, the High Definition successor to the Wii is coming very close to its confirmation.

Game Informer reports multiple sources have confirmed that Nintendo will definitely unveil an HD console at this year’s E3, if not sooner. The common denominator from all sources is that it will run in High Definition; whether it will surpass, compete with, or fall short of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 is up in the air.

Apparently, Nintendo is showing the console to third party publishers already, in order to garner support early on, and possibly even go after the western gamer. This could remedy the lack of third party support that has plagued Nintendo since the N64 days.

I declare the plausible speculation season for this year’s E3 TO BE OPEN for gamers.

Posted in News, Wii U |

NetherRealm shows off Mortal Kombat’s King of the Hill mode

Posted on April 14, 2011 by John Scalzo

NetherRealm’s Mortal Kombat is only five days away, but the studio is still showing off the game’s many, many modes. King of the Hill mode is the developer’s attempt to replicate the Mortal Kombat arcade experience through the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live. There’s an “I got next” line, a spectator mode with a cheering (or jeering) crowd and, according to NetherRealm, some surprises.

Awesome! And it won’t be long now, Mortal Kombat will be released for the PS3 and Xbox 360 next week.

Posted in News, PS3, Xbox 360 | Tagged

Activision: “True Crime would’ve been an 85”

Posted on April 14, 2011 by John Scalzo

Activision’s Head of Developer Relations, Dan Winters, recently sat down with GamesIndustry.biz to talk a little about the megapublisher’s developer culture and possibly refute some of that “evil empire” talk. He also touched on the recently canned True Crime: Hong Kong and revealed that Activision actually had great confidence in the quality of the title. Its cancellation appears to have been strictly business (specifically, it wouldn’t have done as much business as Red Dead Redemption):

We think that the game was tracking to be a very good game. The question was really the size of the prize based on how good it could be. We are confident that thing would of been eighty plus. Eighty five maybe. […] But…The challenges in the market place right now, when you’re talking about open-world games that are going to compete with titles like Red Dead Redemption, expectations for the consumer are really high.

Winters would go on to hint that Activision might be willing to offer the nearly complete game to another publisher: “[True Crime: Hong Kong] would have been, and still might end up being, a very successful mid-tier opportunity for someone.”

Who can say whether Activision is really the evil empire or not? But if they’re cancelling a nearly complete game that they think is worthy of some great review scores, I’d say that’s pretty frickin’ evil.

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SSX to come down the mountain in January

Posted on April 14, 2011 by John Scalzo

Electronic Arts held a press event a few days ago where they revealed a little bit more about SSX. Most of the presentation should be familar to anyone who read the SSX team’s interview with Game Informer last week. But Creative Director Todd Batty did reveal one new bit of info about SSX: it’ll be released for the PS3 and Xbox 360 in January 2012.

Batty also confirmed that SSX will be playable at this year’s E3 Expo and that the game will feature “spontaneous avalanches,” which will no doubt make the descent down the mountain even deadlier.

I haven’t played an SSX game in ten years and this already sounds too awesome for words.

[Source: Joystiq]

Posted in News, PS3, Xbox 360 | Tagged ,

World’s Biggest Pac-Man brings user-created mazes to your browser

Posted on April 14, 2011 by John Scalzo

Microsoft and Namco Bandai have teamed up with developer Soap Creative to bring The World’s Biggest Pac-Man to your Internet browser. Specifically designed for Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 9, the game will run in any HTML5-capable browser.

So how did The World’s Biggest Pac-Man become the biggest Pac-Man maze in the world? The game actually allows players to create mazes that can be attached to the title’s massive continuous maze. And each new maze is linked through the secret passageways that Pac-Man is famous for. The World’s Biggest Pac-Man has been live for a little over 24 hours and users have already created over 1,800 mazes.

“We are giving the world one of its favorite video games through the browser, in a fun and engaging way that truly showcases how developers can deliver a new class of web experiences by taking advantage of modern web standards and hardware acceleration,” Microsoft Australia “developer evangelist” Michael Kordahi said.

While the game is web-only for now, I would bet my last Power Pellet that a “best of” pack will make it’s way to the Xbox Live Arcade someday.

Posted in News, PC |