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It seems that every year there's at least one stand out game-themed do-it-yourself that just blows everyone in the community away. Last year it was those giant stuffed Companion Cubes. This year, well I wasn't sure what it was going to be until Adam dropped a link to NerfHaven on us.
This has got to be a new record. Call of Duty: World at War has only been out for a week and it's already in an episode of South Park. I wonder why they chose this particular game over all of the other big titles hitting now? I guess it best plays to Cartman's... unique comedy stylings.
Scowly antiheroes and sexy, cleavage-packed molls return in live-action cutscenes for Need for Speed: Undercover, the sixth installment of the series since the franchise was reimagined in 2003 and taken underground. Following last year's disappointing Need for Speed: ProStreet, Black Box and EA went back to a known winner, the cops-and-robbers formula of 2005's Need for Speed: Most Wanted. You're infiltrating a stolen auto ring, whose members are blissfully unaware of your cop credentials, and also the larger international ramifications of their car thievin'.
Care to take a spin? Drop it into third and see our review.
Midway is finally ready to give us a solid release date on Wheelman, which means our long struggle for another video game featuring the likeness and voice of Vin Diesel is finally over! Wheelman well be hitting stores simultaneously in North America and Europe on February 16th, with plans to be available in Australia on February 27th. It just misses Valentine's Day, but nothing says "I love you" quite like a pre-order of Wheelman for the Xbox 360, PS3, or PC.
After the excellence that was Ubisoft's last venture into the Naruto universe, I am really looking forward to getting my hands on Naruto: Broken Bond for the Xbox 360 this week, their follow-up to last year's Rise of a Ninja. The only real problem I had with the previous title was the lack of fighters in the game's Fight Mode, and it seems like they've gone out of their way to address that issue in Broken Bond, offering up 25 combatants for our battling pleasure.
In order to help us keep tabs on which anime ninja is which, Ubisoft has released a document containing bios of all the characters, along with some very spiffy flash cards, suitable for printing, framing, or using as filler in the next Naruto music video you upload to YouTube. Hit the jump for the text bios!
There isn't much of "later this year" left, so it's about time Konami gave us a solid date on the upcoming second expansion for Metal Gear Solid Online. The Meme expansion, first announced last month, should be available for download next week. November 25th to be exact, which places the release on a Tuesday.
The Meme expansion of course adds three new maps to Metal Gear Online, along with two new characters; Revolver Ocelot and the lovely Mei Ling, who has the means to transfix enemies by strutting her stuff.
Is it guerrilla marketing when you're doing it in your own game? Cranky Gamers UK noticed that Easter egg in Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, which declares we've got "new Killer Instinct, Battletoads and Jet Force Gemini games," on the way. "Even Ghoulies 2!" Whoa. But then they say, "Oh, you'll never believe that." Screw it, I will. This qualifies as an announcement and I am committing Rare to this, even though there's nothing on the Rare Web site yet, and a Killer Instinct sequel has long been involved in cat-and-mouse rumour games.
Rare Drop a Massive Bombshell Hidden in Banjo Kazooie! [Cranky Gamers UK, thanks Jordan, Maze, and many others]
It's been quite awhile since we've seen much of anything on Blade Interactive's water-physics showcase Hydrophobia. In fact, things have been pretty quiet on the subject since we posted screenshots of the title back in May of last year, so we're happy to hear that not only is the project still in existence, it's also nearing completion. Blade is now aiming at a March 2009 release for the title on the PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3.
Sorry for the unsavoury headline, but, uh, we're pretty sure that's what's happening in the above picture. A zombie bat, flying around, covering heroine Sheva Alomar in...discharge. Maybe it's a marinade. Who knows. Oh, anyone disappointed at the lack of focus on zombie dirt bike riders in the headline - or the post itself - hit the link for the gallery, you'll find zombie dirt bike redemption inside.
"Wheh Ma Skull!". Funny the first time you hear it, funny the next 17 times you hear it. Honestly, not only does this game look hilarious (bravo Swordfish for taking the low, tongue-in-cheek road on the concept), but it looks decent. Like Gears of War, with baseball caps. But with less Locust. And more punching in the stomach.
The original Gears of War hit the Xbox 360 like a freight train, bowling over critics and fans alike with it's gritty graphics, rough characters, and run, gun, and hide gameplay that seems to have taken over the shooter genre these days. Cliff Bleszinski's baby even managed to give Microsoft's golden boy Master Chief a run for his money, easily sharing a spot with the Halo series among the must-have titles for the system.
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was a marvel. One of the best, I think, games of last year and certainly one of the best in the Call of Duty franchise's history. So how do you top that? Certainly not by having someone else do the next step for Call of Duty and having that step be an about face that returns you to the well-trodden mud, trenches and broken landscape of World War II, right?
The LittleBigPlanet community is in an uproar over their favourite levels suddenly disappearing off the face of the LittleBigEarth, and while Sony appreciates the creativity, they aren't planning on cutting back on moderating them any time soon. In a statement released on their Three Speech Blog, Sony lays down the simple guidelines to follow if you'd like your levels to stay in play.
*Ensure that the content you share with other users is suitable for all ages - everybody has access to your level if you publish it
*Please respect other people's intellectual property rights. For example, don't use images, brands or logos that you're not entitled to use.
*If you come across any content that you feel the need to report, then please do it responsibly. Hoax reports will be considered inappropriate behaviour.
Bet you never saw this one coming, armchair sales fans. Microsoft just announced that Gears of War 2 has sold over 2 million copies worldwide since it's launch last week. Of that 2 million, a whopping 1.5 million had their stats tracked by the Xbox Live bean counters over the weekend. Those 1.5 million played 15 million hours worth of Gears 2 - which, on average, is a lot of Gears 2 - and unlocked 19 million achievements. No doubt Dude Huge and Chocolate Rein are, at this very moment, beside themselves.
Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts is the third proper console entry in the Rare-developed series, founded on the Nintendo 64, one that steers the former action-adventure platformer into new territory. Gone are the Super Mario 64-like romps traipsing through green mountain sides and caves dripping with molten magma, replaced by driving and flying challenges through green mountain sides and caves dripping with molten magma. Nuts & Bolts eschews traditional running and jumping mechanics almost completely, instead focusing on mission-based vehicle challenges that don't veer too far from the series' core, but veer far enough to give fans pause.
Two nuggets of Mirror's Edge news fresh from the courier's satchel - the PC version of the free running game will be taking the scenic route to arrive in early 2009 and will be turning up at the same time as a load of cross-platform DLC for the game.
Gears of War was all testosterone. Gears of War 2 is mostly testosterone with bonus estrogen. The sequel brings an element of romance between character Dom and his wife Maria, who's gone missing during the Locust horde onslaught. According to the game's designer Cliff Bleszinski:
North American LittleBigPlaneteers are going to be on the receiving end of a downloadable content assault from Sony and Media Molecule starting this Thursday. And so is Japan. Plans on the other side of the planet for LittleBigPlanet include all manner of man and beast. We're getting the frog and gorilla, we know that. But that sweet Shark get up? Helluva lot better than that lame Penguin one.
Gears of War hit a lot of high notes when it was released in November 2006, but despite all of the high scores and hoopla surrounding its release, the game missed out on plenty of fantastic potential. There was that short, rather unsatisfying story, the shallow, almost stereotypical characters, the paltry eight-person multiplayer engagements. With Gears of War 2, Epic Games promises a title that is bigger, better and more badass than the first. Does that mean we can expect some story to go along with all of those chainsaw kills and blood baths or will plot continue to be superfluous as the franchise marches ever onward toward its culminating third game?
Hit the jump to find out.
Just when we thought the horror was over and we could go back to playing games that were more colourful and less deadly, EA goes and announces Premium Upgrade Packs for their new survival horror franchise Dead Space, delivering a brand-new sort of terror to the series - useless, cosmetic upgrades...for a price! Now to be fair, some of the upgrade packs do add functionality to the weapons and armour in Dead Space, such as the Heavy Damage Pack that adds a new look and increased firepower to several of the game's weapons, but at the same time we get the Hot Rod Pack, which lets us pay a dollar for flame graphics for the flamethrower and pulse rifle. The only difference between that and horse armour is the horse armour cost a bit more.
The new packs will be available on the 13th for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation Store in Europe, with the rest of the world getting the PS3 versions on the 20th. Hit the jump for a full list of all nine packs, plus two console-specific packs per system.
You ask, and you receive. Last spring, when faceplate creator extraordinaire SpaceGhost2K attended a Microsoft Spring Showcase in San Francisco, Gears of War's Dude Huge, AKA the game designer formerly known as CliffyB, told SpaceGhost2K he liked his custom faceplates and jokingly (we think? we hope?) put in a request: TubgIrl. SpaceGhost2K agreed and created a Tubgirl faceplate, which he gave to DH at the Gears 2 launch.
Hit the jump for an uncensored version. It's anime-style, but should still be stomach churning to those who haven't erased the original image from their brains. Note: New to the internet and unfamiliar with Tubgirl? Check out this text only Wiki entry. Anyone who posts or links the actual picture in the comments section will get cozy with the brunt end of the Banhammer.
Far Cry 2 Review: Hurry Boy, It's Waiting There For You
LBP Servers AWOL, Media Molecule On It
A pleasing dollop of screen finery from cross-platform gunblade romp X-Blades.