Bought Dragon Age II? Get Mass Effect 2 for PC free

Posted on April 5, 2011 by Adam Woolcott

It’s been out just about a month now, but Dragon Age II has apparently been a rousing success, because BioWare and EA are celebrating in a pretty big way. Between now and April 30, purchasers of Dragon Age II on any of the three platforms it released for can get a free PC download of one of 2010’s (and perhaps 2011 if you’re playing it on PS3 for the first time) best games, Mass Effect 2. There’s only one real downer to the party, however; the free download doesn’t include the Cerberus Network, which cuts off the free DLC that comes with purchased copies.

Getting it is a simple task – just visit BioWare’s Dragon Age portal, and follow the instructions. All you have to really do is make sure you’ve redeemed your Black Emporium “online pass” and you’ll be ready to adventure with Commander Shepard and company… for the great cost of zero dollars.

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

Angry hackers declare war on Sony, go after CEO’s kids

Posted on April 5, 2011 by Mike Gutierrez

The self-proclaimed “hacktivist” group Anonymous has declared war on Sony in response to their recent legal actions against members of the hacking community. The group has threatened attacks on Sony’s websites, and many comments on the official PS Blog suggest PlayStation Network service outages are also their work.

A reconnaissance campaign has also been launched to gather as much public information as possible on the judge in the upcoming litigation, Sony’s lawyers, employees, and their relatives. One user on their IRC channel asked “no one found ANY info on Stringer’s kids?” in relation to Sony CEO Sir Howard Stringer.

I honestly can’t believe all this started from the removal of the Other OS feature and Linux support. Have any of these “hacktivists” even tried using Linux on the PS3 before it was removed? Trust me, it isn’t worth bringing back.

Posted in News, PS3 |

If you want peace, dress for war: Peace Walker clothing line launching 4/11

Posted on April 5, 2011 by Mike Gutierrez

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker was easily one of the best games of last year, and to commemorate such a classy game comes a classy clothing line for men starting next week. Konami and musterbrand LLC will be launching the first complete Metal Gear Solid clothing line on April 11, with quarterly updates surrounding “special events” throughout the year.

Peace Walker must have done pretty well for Konami, with Careen Yapp, VP of Acquisitions and Franchise Development, stating “the mass success and support for our latest Metal Gear Solid hit has allowed us to expand beyond what we’ve done in the past with the series, and we are very much looking forward to offering this new line to a global community of fans.”

I personally want to know what these “special events” are going to be. Kojima stated the results from working on Peace Walker will lead to the development of an NGP/PS3 cross-platform title. Peace Walker 2, perhaps?

Posted in PSP | Tagged

Michael Jackson: The Experience trailer will make you want to dance

Posted on April 5, 2011 by John Scalzo

Trailers featuring teenage and twentysomething models getting super excited about some game they’ve likely never played are often embarrassingly bad. But this trailer for the Kinect version of Michael Jackson: The Experience is actually pretty entertaining. Sure, they’re all faux-excited, but “Smooth Criminal” is still as awesome as ever.

Michael Jackson: The Experience will be released for the Xbox 360 (powered by Kinect) on April 12th. A PS3 version will also ship to stores on the same day.

Posted in News, Xbox 360 | Tagged

PopCap goes experimental with 4th & Battery label

Posted on April 5, 2011 by John Scalzo

As if Plants vs Zombies wasn’t weird enough, PopCap Games has announced 4th & Battery, a new label for “smaller, simpler, and sometimes edgier games.”

“4th & Battery is a pressure valve intended to keep our heads from exploding,” explained Ed Allard, Executive Vice President of Studios at PopCap. “The PopCap brand has become closely associated with ultra-high quality, polish and attention to detail – which is a great thing. But our standard game development process is therefore long and involved, and doesn’t really accommodate all of the creativity pumping through our collective veins. 4th & Battery gives us a way to quickly try really strange or marginal ideas, and to give our designers a safe area to hone their chops.”

“Expect weirdness,” Jason Kapalka, Chief Creative Officer at PopCap, added.

To that end, 4th & Battery has announced their first game, Unpleasant Horse. The iPhone title will be added to the App Store later this month and it definitely brings the crazy:

Players take on the role of – wait for it! – a strikingly unpleasant horse that sports wings and advances through the game by destroying small birds and landing on more pleasant horses from above. Landing atop other horses enables the player to force them earthward into a perpetual meat grinder for extra points and special bonuses.

Posted in News | Tagged ,

Daily Scoop – April 5, 2011: Daily t-shirts are making me broke

Posted on April 5, 2011 by Nicole Kline

I’m trying to limit myself to just one t-shirt a month, but seriously, they’re making me broke. The daily scoop is making me broke, I say! And some of them aren’t even video game related. I think I just need to have fewer interests!

Anyway, first thing’s first: today’s Amazon Deal of the Day in video games is EA’s Nerf N-Strike Double: Blast Bundle for the Wii. It’s half price at $14.99 from $29.99. There’s two games here – the bundle “includes two Wii games (NERF N-Strike and NERF N-Strike Elite) and the NERF Switch Shot EX 3 Blaster Peripheral, with Red Reveal decoder lens and three NERF darts.” Whoa. That sounds pretty awesome! Pick this up for yourself, if there’s a Nerf nerd in you.

And today’s Ript t-shirt is not video game related, but I’m pretty sure it’s going to be impossible for me to stop myself from buying it:

This loving and affectionate rendition of characters from My Neighbor Totoro made me squeee with delight as soon as I saw it. Trying to stop self…from purchasing…can’t…control…aaaaaaaaaaaaaagh! If only Ni No Kuni was already available here. Then I would be too busy playing it to notice anything ever.

Posted in Daily Scoop |

Fools! Final Fantasy V being remade on PSN

Posted on April 5, 2011 by John Scalzo

Square Enix’s European arm has announced that Final Fantasy V will be coming to the PSOne Classics Store soon as a special PSN-exclusive edition.

Final Fantasy V on the PlayStation Store will be based on the PSOne version (with its Active Time Battle system) that was released as part of the Final Fantasy Anthology. Even though that version of FFV is playable in your PS3, Square Enix is adding “all-new [and exclusive] CG cinematic sequences” to the game in hopes of encouraging PS3 owners to buy the new PSN version. As with all PSOne Classics, it’ll also be playable on the PSP.

An American release has yet to be announced, but I’m sure one will be announced sooner or later.

Posted in News, PS3, PSP | Tagged

Make time for Spider-Man: Edge of Time teaser trailer

Posted on April 4, 2011 by John Scalzo

Activision has unveiled the first teaser trailer for Spider-Man: Edge of Time. The time-jumping adventure is being developed by Beenox and seems to share a lot of similarities with their last Spider-Man game, Shattered Dimensions (even though Activision said the two games aren’t connected at last weekend’s WonderCon).

We’ll find out just how similar they are this Fall when Spider-Man: Edge of Time swings into stores.

Posted in News | Tagged