New Doom 3 For Xbox 360 And PlayStation 3 Supports Head-Mounted Displays 
Far Cry 3 And The Stranger In A Strange Land 
Why Robin Makes Batman Better 
Resistance: Burning Skies: The Kotaku Review 
Harley Quinn's Revenge Is Batman: Arkham City's Bad New Ending 
High Scores And Egos: There's Always A Bigger Doodle You may have heard. EA want to buy Take-Two. And probably will. What does this mean for Take-Two bread-winners Rockstar and their star franchise, Grand Theft Auto? Not much, at least for now. If you visit Rockstar’s site, you’re greeted with a split-second splash screen subliminally advising you to – in typical British fashion, of course – keep calm and carry on. Stiff upper lip and whatnot, eh?
Kotaku guest editor and Game Trailers faceman Geoff Keighley talks to David Jaffe about important things like overestimating the audience for small games, the possibility of Twisted Metal for the PS3 and hair loss. There’s also a hundred dollar bet whether Ken Kutaragi knows who David Jaffe is. So exciting! Hit the jump for part 2, where Jaffe talks about how he’d do a Mario game. (Hint: DRUGS.)
Here’s a rare treat: NPD have released some sales charts for the PC games market, which list the platform’s 20 top-selling games for January. Of course, this doesn’t count things like digital delivery, but a compromised chart’s better than no chart at all, amiright?
1. World Of Warcraft 2. Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare 3. World Of Warcraft: Battle Chest 4. World Of Warcraft: Burning Crusade 5. The Sims 2 Deluxe 6. Diner Dash 7. 15000 Games 8. The Sim City 4 Deluxe 9. The Sims 2 Teen Style Stuff 10. Crysis 11. The Sims 2 Bon Voyage 12. Half Life 2: Episode 2 The Orange Box 13. Battlefield 2 14. Warcraft III Battle Chest 15. Pirates Of The Burning Sea 16. Rock Tour Tycoon 17. Sim City 5: Societies 18. The Sims 2 Seasons 19. Age Of Empires III 20. Age Of Empires III: Asian Dynasties
Look at that Warcraft III Battle Chest go! For all the billions WoW must have raked in by now, Blizzard must also have made a tidy profit on people acquainting themselves with the series’ RTS heritage. The Top 20 Best Selling PC Games of January [IGN]
Ken Levine is a thinker. Which means, he thinks. A lot. And what does the BioShock designer think about casual games? This: I think, what it is, it’s a nice gateway drug. It makes people understand the principles of gaming… I think it is a nice gateway drug. I think it is going to strictly expand the market, which doesn’t scare me very much… Nothing on the scale of a Wii Sports, but again, Wii Bowling is like the ultimate gateway drug and God bless them for figuring that out because there is no barrier of entry. “Hey, can you go like that?” [swings arm]That’s what you do in bowling, that’s what you do in Wii Sports.
Today’s Ken Levine catch phrase: Casual games are a gateway drug. Storytelling Beneath The Surface [GamesIndustry via Go Nintendo]
Over the past week or so, we’ve been hearing reports from retailers across the US that the current 40GB PS3/Spider-Man 3 deal was about to wind up. They’d stopped receiving them, and had instead been told to expect new 40GB units without a movie. Seemed odd. Might be a very good reason, though: we’ve since heard from Circuit City employees that they’ve begun receiving shipments of these “new” PlayStation 3s. On the shipping box? The model number CECHH01. Which the more observant amongst you will recognise as the model # for the White PlayStation 3. Seems these will be held in stock until the current Spider-Man 3 bundles are gone, and will then be offered for the standard price of $US 399. I guess black 40GB units, sans Spider-Man 3, will go on sale then as well.
John DiMaggio is the voice of Bender. He’s also the voice of Marcus Fenix, which is the more likely reason IGN were interviewing him, hoping no doubt that – as is becoming common these says – as a voice actor he’d spill the kind of games-related beans a developer wouldn’t dare. DiMaggio didn’t disappoint. He reveals that, like the PC version of the original, players will face off against a Brumak in Gears 2. He also says Franklin will be returning, then goes and loses himself with excitement: Oh man, dude – there’s new weapons, new beasts, there’s a couple of new characters, and it’s just badass.
Yes, that’s wonderful, but is there story this time, John?
There just might be. It looks cool as s—. The storylines are really cool and the relationships of the guys in the game – the sequences that explain things that are going on – they’re a lot deeper.
Excellent! Marcus Fenix Talks Gears of War 2 [IGN]
Wii owners, you feel screwed in a sense, we’re sure. Cross platform has come to mean PS3, Xbox 360, PC and no Wii. Yes, no Wii. Sure, the Wii does get he occasional solid multi plat game like The Godfather and Medal of Honor Heroes 2. The rest have largely been a disappointment. That doesn’t mean third party publishers are giving up! Definitely not Capcom — it already did a bang up job with Resident Evil 4. And Street Fighter IV could be next. Says the game’s producer Yoshinori Ono: Street Fighter IV, as it stands now, would be well-suited for the higher-level platforms. But the game doesn’t have to have these visuals in order to be fun. We could go, potentially, to the Wii. We could make it on Game Boy, for all we know right now.
Or, heck, a board game?! Inside Street Fighter [Wired]
To: Ashcraft From: McWhertor Re: Hey, wait… where’s the Night Note?
I was telling Crecente earlier today during one of our phone conversations how difficult it is to even attempt a Day Note when you spend the majority of your day holding the couch down. I suppose I could come up with some interesting fabrications that might make life seem more exciting than whiling away one’s time watching Arrested Development and The Colbert Report between bouts of nose-picking, but I’d feel like nothing but a liar. Tomorrow will certainly be more exciting though, as a good portion of my day will be spent playing a highly anticipated game that I’m not 100% sure I’m allowed to mention. Expect impressions and news from my hands-on this Monday, though. That is, unless there’s an embargo. I’m off to play its predecessors in an attempt to warm up the digits.
What you missed today Maggie looks at Cinema, Games, and Sex New Silent Hill V screens Are Microsoft’s best Xbox 360 years behind them? Bionic Commando goes under the Crecentescope Titan Quest team gives up the ghost Wii games set (region) free
What, you forgot Konami already said this? Repeatedly? You probably need reminding, then. That June 12 release date for Metal Gear Solid 4′s not just for the US. It’s for Japan, too. And Europe. And Asia. To quote: “This will be the first time ever for KONAMI to simultaneously release the METAL GEAR series throughout the world”. Bravo. Europeans rubbing their eyes with disbelief are welcome to check the press release after the jump.
Demiforce’s Trism may be the first iPhone (and iPod Touch) game that we’ll ever play. Willingly, that is, because its use of touchscreen and built-in accelerometer controls sound far more interesting than playing a quick and dirty port of Bejeweled or Solitaire. Simon Carless from GameSetWatch spoke with Steve D. of Demiforce to learn more about the game, which is planned for a commercial release as soon as that SDK is ready for primetime. In the meantime, however, anyone looking to play it would have to do so on a phone unlocked with Jailbreak. The video and interview are both worth some of your precious internet time.
Interview: The Next Big Puzzle Game Wave? iPhone + Accelerometer! [GameSetWatch]
