Video Games Archive

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Download The Portal 2 Soundtrack For Free From Valve

Being the nice people that they are, Valve is offering up the soundtrack score to Portal 2 on their website for free. They’ve also got up some ringtones in both Android and iPhone audio formats along with some previews to boot.

I can’t say I’m enamored with any of those ringtones to actually use them since they’re a bit noisy for me, but if you’re into any of them, they’re there for you. What I really need is a great short SMS notification sound clip because the iPhone comes with the worst noises possible.

The soundtrack itself is innocuous enough to use as background noise while you work, although some people might find the tracks with high pitched beeping and pew pews a little annoying.

You can hit up the direct link for the ZIP file for the soundtrack here.

via Official Portal 2 Website – Music.

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Sony Japan: PSP Go shipments have ended

Editor’s note: This was originally supposed to be posted in early June, but WordPress pooped out on, so here it is now.

Lost in the midst of the PlayStation Network security fiasco was the fact that Sony discontinued the PSP Go:

The Japanese Playstation.com site placed “shipment ended” notices on both the black and white PSP Go listings, along with several PSP-3000 color variants. According to the site, the only PSPs currently in production are PSP-3000s in black, white, silver, pink, blue, and red.

Anyone not see this coming?

via Sony Japan: PSP Go shipments have ended | Joystiq.

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Gamestop Will Sell You A Gears 3 Retro Lancer Replica For $100

Who wants a $100 plastic gun replica from Gears of War 3?

I will admit that it’d be a pretty sweet Halloween costume accessory, though. Too bad I usually don’t give a shit about Halloween.

via Gears 3 Retro Lancer Replica Pre-order Bundles Available | Epic Games Community.

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These Are The Games To Pick From Sony’s List Of Free PS3/PSP Titles For PSN Outage Reparations

Sony’s finally begun the process of rolling out reparations for its millions of consumers that were affected by the Great PlayStation Network Hack Of 2011. Whether or not you’re happy with Sony’s response to the whole fiasco, they’re still offering up free stuff, so you may as well take advantage of it. Before we get to the fun stuff, be sure to enroll in the AllClear ID PLUS identity theft protection that Sony is paying for all PSN users. If you’re a PS3 user, you get to pick two out of the following titles: (We’ve included a quick one line description of each game)

  • Dead Nation – 2D twin stick action shooter kind of like Robotron or Geometry Wars with zombies
  • inFAMOUS – Third-Person open world action game. Think Grand Theft Auto if you were the only super hero in town.
  • LittleBigPlanet – A 2D platforming game (Think Super Mario Bros.) with up to 4 player cooperative play. You can design your own levels and play ones designed by other players.
  • Super Stardust HD – Traditional 2D twin stick action shooter in space with lasers and powerups.
  • Wipeout HD + Fury – A fast paced futuristic racer with weapons. Think Mario Kart meets F-Zero with even more speed.

All things being equal, we would pick up the titles in this order:

  1. LittleBigPlanet
  2. inFAMOUS
  3. WipeoutHD + Fury
  4. Super Stardust HD
  5. Dead Nation

For what it’s worth, inFAMOUS and LittleBigPlanet were originally $60 retail titles, while the other titles were downloadable games ranging  from $9.99 to $19.99. Despite that, all of the games Sony offers are all quite good and hit a wide variety of genres. At the end of the day, you can’t really go wrong with any of the titles – they’re all good games in their respective genres. If you’re in the mood for a racer, definitely pick up WipeoutHD because it’s quite possibly still the most thrilling racer on any video game system. If you’re looking for something to play with your kids or someone who doesn’t play video games all that often, be sure to pick up LittleBigPlanet because it’s essentially a cute 4-player Mario-like platforming game. PSP owners can choose from two of the following games:

  • LittleBigPlanet (PSP) – A portable version of the PS3 game – it’s got completely different levels if you were worried about getting both LittleBigPlanet titles.
  • ModNation Racers – A GoKart racer (Think Mario Kart), but with the ability to create and share your own racetracks like LittleBigPlanet levels.
  • Pursuit Force – An arcade combat-racer where you’re a rookie cop chasing criminals.
  • Killzone Liberation – A top-down isometric view action title with cover-based gameplay similar to Gears of War.

In full disclosure, of the available PSP titles, we’ve only played Killzone Liberation. However we can wholeheartedly recommend that title if you’re an action fan — it’s surprisingly provides similar gratification to playing a third-person shooter on a console. We’ve also read up on reviews for the other titles and if it were up to us we’d rank them in this order:

  1. LittleBigPlanet
  2. Killzone Liberation
  3. ModNation Racers
  4. Pursuit Force

Again, feel free to pick by your desired genre, though we think there may be a marked quality difference between the first two titles and the last two ones. Other than the games, Sony is also offering a package that includes the following:

  • A selection of “On Us” rental movie titles will be available to PlayStation Network customers over one weekend, where Video Service is available. Those titles will be announced soon.
  • 30 days free PlayStation Plus membership for non PlayStation Plus subscribers.
  • Existing PlayStation Plus subscribers will receive an additional 60 days of free subscription.
  • Existing Music Unlimited Premium Trial subscription members will receive an additional 30 days of free premium subscription.
  • Additional 30 days + time lost for existing members of Music Unlimited Premium/Basic subscription free of charge for existing Premium/Basic members.
  • To welcome users Home, PlayStation Home will be offering 100 free virtual items. Additional free content will be released soon, including the next addition to the Home Mansion personal space, and Ooblag’s Alien Casino, an exclusive game.

Since Sony hasn’t announced which movies will be available through the “On Us” program, we can’t really give any recommendations on that front. We can, however, still say that PlayStation Home is still a complete waste of time.

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Anyone Surprised With How Sony Still Refuses To Take Responsibility For PSN Fiasco?

It’s been about a month since Colin Campbell’s take on how Sony should have responded to the PlayStation Network fiasco was published, and its pretty eerie how some of his predictions are playing out:

Here’s a little test for you. Which of the following statements are you most likely to agree with in one year’s time.

A: “Sony handled that situation amazingly. They held their hands up and took appropriate share of blame. They outlined a clear plan of action to remedy the situation and they made sure all stakeholders were recompensed beyond reasonable expectations. They showed their human side and came out of this a stronger company.”

B: “It just kinda went away, didn’t it? Sony entirely laid the blame on the hackers, launched a lot of legal flak, refused to take any responsibility, offered the minimum clarity and token recompense. But no-one cares any more. At least they’ve encrypted my personal data now.”

I’m going to go out on a limb here and predict that answer B is looking a whole lot more likely than answer A.

Sure, Sony has offered up some free games and enrollment in an identity theft program, but has it really made you believe that it’s truly sorry for what’s happened and that it will do its best to make sure it doesn’t happen again?

I didn’t think so.

Wired had a pretty funny list of ridiculous things that Sony could have used to compensate users for. It’s a silly read, but you know what? If Sony had the balls and/or humanity to take responsibility and show off their human side, why not pull off one of the stunts listed in the article? Pay the Kevin Butler actor to go to someones house and personally apologize. Make a whole media blitz out of it. Everyone has a laugh and Sony comes out with some great PR.

Instead, we get reports that Sony CEO Howard Stringer still doesn’t believe he has anything to apologize for.

From an interview last week:

Sony believed it had “good, robust security,” Stringer said. He rejected suggestions that the company is paying for a lack of vigilance and said he was unaware of the 2008 intrusion on the PlayStation Network.

“We have a network that gave people services free,” Stringer said. “It didn’t seem like the likeliest place for an attack.”

When the April incursion first started, he didn’t know how serious it was, Stringer said. “I really don’t think I could apologize for not knowing,” he said. “It’s a whole new experience for everybody at this scale.”

Seriously, dude? You didn’t think that a service with over 77 million users whose target demographic also happens to include the most computer savvy and vocally active people in the world could be the target of an attack? Sure it may be a whole new experience for your company at that scale, but you’re not the first people to have a massive database of users to take care of. If anything, you should have been more cautious and vigil because networked software solutions has not been your company’s strong suit in the past.

We may be forced to live on with Sony due to game developers being obligated to support a platform with such a huge userbase, but you can bet your ass that if we could still enjoy all of the exclusive content on the PS3 elsewhere, we’d be gone in a heartbeat.

via Gamasutra

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The Shadows Of The Damned Trailer Is An Extended Dick Joke With Pedigree

Some may think this promotional trailer for Shadows of the Damned is too juvenile because it’s essentially a laundry list of penis double entendres — not me.

I’m a sucker for dick jokes so they definitely got my attention with that, but after doing a little digging, I was surprised to find out that the game is actually a joint venture of acclaimed Japanese game designers Goichi Suda (No More Heroes/Killer 7) and Shinji Mikami (Resident Evil).

That’s a little mind blowing. It’s analogous to maybe something like a joint movie between Quentin Tarantino and JJ Abrams. Needless to say, Shadows of the Damned is now on my video games radar. It’s scheduled for release on June 21, 2011.

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Portal Kombat Mashes Up Portal With Mortal Kombat

These bros couldn’t decide what to get on April 19th with the release of both Portal 2 and Mortal Kombat, so they decided to make a game trailer out of both of them. It’s pretty amazing how well the two titles go together from the way both titles combine so well to the actual gameplay mechanics. I mean, fatalities that “think with portals?” Too perfect.

(Alright, so I meant to post this when Portal 2 came out a month ago (already!), but dropped the ball on it until now. Still, it’s pretty entertaining even if you saw it on April 19th and haven’t seen it since.)

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The Darkness II Preview

I recently had a chance to demo an early build of The Darkness 2 by Digital Extremes and 2K games at a press event in LA. Though it’s sad to see that Starbreeze (developers of the underrated Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay on 360) would no longer be developing the title, Digital Extremes has an equally impressive resume as well with titles like Unreal Tournament, Bioshock, and Dark Sector under its belt.

The biggest draw to me of the game is the “graphical noir” art style in the game. It’s not quite cel-shading because it involved a gaggle of Digital Extremes artists painstakingly hand drawing textures to make the game really “feel” like a 3D graphic novel. Most cel-shaded games are algorithmically rendered by the graphics engine — this one contains actual hand-drawn art everywhere. It looks strikingly beautiful and there’s really no other game out with the same visual style.

My full preview is up on ComicsAlliance if you care to learn more. As a certified potty guy, I leave you with this tidbit about the new Darkling from the preview:

Instead of having to be micromanaged by the player, Darkling will act as an autonomous companion, distracting and attacking enemies, picking up weapons and ammo to bring to Jackie, and dispensing post-mortem justice via urinating on fallen enemies. (No I did not make that up.) He’s got a bright Union Jack logo on his frontside and even talks in a cheery British accent. While it’s sad to see some of the more strategic elements of controlling Darklings go away, there’s just no substitute for the satisfaction value of having your diminutive British demon companion drench fallen foes with green pee.

Read More: ComicsAlliance Demos ‘The Darkness II’ Game & Free Comic Book Day Tie-In

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This Is The First Screenshot From Assassin’s Creed: Revelations

Ubisoft sends word this morning officially announcing the development of the fourth Assassin’s Creed game, Revelations. That lovely screenshot you see above is the first official image of the game and looks to be Ezio hanging on using a new device called the “hookblade.” He’s overlooking Constantinople during the era of the Ottoman Empire. It’s supposedly the last chapter of the “Ezio trilogy” which presumably means that the next AC game will have a new assassin for us to play with.

I, for one, am honestly ready for Ezio to go. After the first Assassin’s Creed, I assumed that each subsequent title would have us control different members of the Assassin Brotherhood in other time period. It’s why I was a little hesitant on jumping into the last entry into the franchise, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood — did we really need another AC game set in Rome starring Ezio? However, Ubisoft ended up surprising me with a well-paced, solid story and unique hide-and-seek themed multiplayer game. I’ve given up pooh-pooh’ing the fact that a yearly Assassin’s Creed game is overkill. If Revelations is of at least the same quality as Brotherhood, there’ll be no issue there.

In their teaser for their June magazine-exclusive AC: Revelations feature piece, Game Informer revealed that players will be able to control Altair, Ezio, and Desmond in the new game. Sounds like a great way to incorporate all the character’s we’ve played as in the previous game into an epic wrap-up of the Ezio story.

Obviously, Ubisoft will tell us more details about the game at E3 next month. Assassin’s Creed: Revelations is set to come out on the 360, PS3, and PC in November 2011.

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Denis Dyack Wants To Finish The Too Human Trilogy

I’m of the opinion that the (recent) history books don’t look upon Silicon Knights’ Too Human favorably mostly because of Denis Dyack’s hubris in promoting the title. I mean, when you take a bet on your game’s metacritic score with the NeoGAF forum users, you’re just asking for trouble.

The actual game itself wasn’t that bad, though. I had great fun with it; it’s more like a modern day Diablo meets God of War kind of hybrid using the Unreal Engine. While I can’t remember much about the game’s plot (other than some mythical Greek God references) since I played the game 3 years ago, I do remember liking the gameplay enough to be in on any sequels they would have made are going to make.

However, let’s be real though, if Dyack wanted to make a Eternal Darkness sequel, I would encourage them to drop any other project and just do that shit. Eternal Darkness might be one of the best games I’ve ever played. Genuinely terrifying with an epic storyline spanning centuries and family lines – just thinking about the game gives me chills.

And while we touched on the subject of XM:D during the half hour, the first questions I had for Dyack were about his studio’s last major release, Too Human. Primary among them: Is the Too Human trilogy dead? “No, not at all,” Dyack told me. “It is still on the table and we do plan on finishing the trilogy.”

via Silicon Knights’ Dyack on Too Human: ‘we do plan on finishing the trilogy’ | Joystiq.