Only on Destructoid: [Whenever possible, Destructoid critiques overlooked design aspects of games both old and recent for our "Revisited" series.]There exists in the gaming community a particularly virulent strain of... 59 comments
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Assassin's Creed is generally considered to be a solid, if somewhat flawed, videogame. Despite earning praise for its visuals, concept and unique story, the 2007 title was criticized for its repe... 594 comments
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Tis' the season for gift giving. With some many great games released this year, finding the perfect gift for that gamer in your life (or for yourself, you selfish jerk!) can be quite a task.
That... 31 comments
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All these Black Friday deals are a bitch to keep track of. That's what we're here for, though. Over the past few weeks we've been reporting on some good deals, but having to hop around our fine w... 32 comments
Zombies. Gamers love them. They infest almost every single genre of gaming and then some. There are zombie shooters, zombie survival-horror, zombie platformers, zombie tower defense games, zombie... 31 comments
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While those of us with laptops who couldn't process their way out of a simple algebraic equation are playing Left 4 Dead 2 on their 360, there is definitely a large chunk of gamers out there who ... 25 comments
A surprise announcement at E3 this year, the PlayStation 3 exclusive ModNation Racers looks to redefine the kart racing genre with its ridiculous level of customization and community featur... 27 comments
Upcoming Wii RPG Shiren the Wanderer has got the new trailer and website treatment today. Oh, and we've got the new boxart in our gallery below. We've known about the game for a bit, but it's nice to see some new material coming out of Atlus on the game.
It's not coming 'till February, but it's worth the wait. Shiren got high marks from the Japanese gaming press, what with its dungeon crawling and feudal Japanese setting and its talking ferrets and so forth. The new official site has game info, art, and a few screens. The system page talks about how this is the first Shiren game that lets you freely switch between yourself and a couple of other companions, adding some new strategy to your crawl.
The new trailer is pretty epic. It looks like a big game with a big story, which is my kind of thing.
Shiren the Wanderer hits Wii on February 9th, 2010. Lookin' forward to this one. How 'bout you?
"Well, seems some developers have finally realized that just because it's a Wii game you don't have to leave graphics at "little beyond crap" level. If the gameplay is as good as the trailer we mi..."...
XB Elegant Edition is a case for your Xbox 360 that actually makes it look like a box. A high-end A/V component, if you will. That weird letter I/pillar/pillow-looking thing not cutting it for you? Maybe this Sweedish-designed box will help things out.
Inside the futurist box is three 120mm fans to keep your system from red ringing, and they say that the larger open area keeps airflow constant and helps limit some of the noise. You'll have to do a bit of modding if you want this look, though:
They say: "Use the case your own risk, the Xbox360 warranty is voided once you break the seals to open up the case. The case's warranty will only cover the chassis itself, and will not include the Xbox 360 or any of its associated components."
No price is given on this box from Industrie Pro yet. I think it manages to look both sleek and boring at the same time.
I'm always happy when game music gets some US lovin', and today Square Enix is treating with an early release of the remix album Love SQ.
Really slick arrangements of twelve great songs from games like Crono Trigger, Final Fantasy, and Romancing SaGa, and Legend of Mana are on Love SQ. Each song blends old 8-bit chippy sounds with modern day beats and samples, making for an interesting listen. I love De De Mouse's arrangement of "Eternal Wind," and the treatment of "Frog's Theme" is a crowd-pleaser, coming complete with 16-bit croak samples.
If I could ask you to do one thing, I'd ask that you at least download a song to tell Square Enix that we dig these kinds of releases here in the United States.
Love SQ is on iTunes now. $9.90 for the full album. Go!
Cast away your fears of terrorist attack or natural disaster while immersed in a session of your favorite Xbox 360 game. It's no longer a problem if you live in New York.
New York State is planning on blasting out alerts of natural disasters, terrorist attacks and the like to your Xbox 360 messaging service from the Emergency Management Office. This is like an updated emergency broadcast system. The goal is to reach younger people to spend more time on game systems than they do radio or TV. Good call.
InformationWeek says that the plan is still early, and is only in the testing phase so far.
I'm one of those rare ones that has his messages shut off in Xbox Live. I guess I'm screwed should we be hit by the Big One one day.
Oh, and look at what one douche's reply at IW:
Wonderful. This is just more way for the government to invade our personal lives. I believe that the current warning system is quite adequate. At what cost is this being implemented and how many lives is it expected to save? Isn't there somewhere else that our money might be spent with greater impact?
LucasArts is looking for some help. Something to do with consoles, they say. One ad mentions that they have "top secret projects in development" and that "experience building and shipping titles on the Xbox360 and PS3" is desired.
Right now they have plenty of want ads for positions at their San Francisco offices, looking for everything from environment artists and level designers to graphics and multiplayer engineers. Gearing up for something, looks like.
So what is it they're working on? No ideas, I'm afraid. Let's hope it's not Fracture 2.
Maybe it's that there's a large number of Japanese with bad eyesight. That's all I can figure. With the tens of thousands of DS and DSi that sell every week there, you'd think that the whole country has two by now. Well, now going on three.
A whopping 103,524 DSi LL, the new big-screened monster portables, sold in just two days, says Enterbrain data. That's almost as fast as the DSi Regular, and way faster than the PSPgo.
Is it all old people buying the LL? Probably. Here's why I say that: Bigger screens, big ol' fat stylus, muted "adult" colors, and packed-in brain-type and practical applications. It's like the big type books of videogames. And if this is the case, then Nintendo is really making new customers.
"Japan's economy is about to enter decline (and population decline). Right now the portable handhelds are the prevailing platform in Japan. Their game industry is stagnating, but the handheld ma..."...
A modern-day fighting game without DLC is like a Thanksgiving without indigestion. You just don't see that anymore.
Tekken 6 had DLC...kind of. Cardboard Tube Samurai was cool, but not really what most would expect to see as Tekken DLC. There could be more coming. When asked about the possibility of some hot new DLC, Katsuhiro Harada, Producer, told PlayStation Europe, “There is a strong possibility we will. However, even if we were to do so, it would be free to the end user.”
I like "strong possibility" a lot, and I love "free." Gimme some crazy sh*t, Namco Bandai. Throw in the Prince from Katamari Damacy. I'd love him and KOS-MOS to fight.
Damn, someone needs to let me make a fighting game.
"I would wait for the Online fix. Once the online runs nicely Tekken should be back to the top of the competition. Scenario Campaign is forgivable because I can still enjoy the game without it, bu..."...
We've known about Resident Evil 5: Alternate Edition for awhile now, but we haven't been clear on what exactly it includes. Now, thanks to the BBFC ratings board, we know a bit more.
Alternate Edition is supposed to have two new levels. One, Lost in Nightmares, has Chris and Jill back in the past, busting into Spencer's mansion. The other we know now to be called Desperate Escape. As to what it's about, well, you'll have to use your imagination, as the BBFC only lists the name of the new level. I'd like to imagine that Chris and Nemesis are dining at fine establishments all over Paris, and then dashing out when it comes time to pay the bill. Wouldn't that be fantastic?
Of course, as requested, you'll be getting this new content by way of DLC in some form. Note, though, that this information comes from BBFC's listing for a retail version of Alternate Edition, which they call Gold Edition. I hope we get that, too.
Just like any other game system, we knew that someone in Japan or China would eventually crack open Nintendo's latest. Yep, the one that made us ask "What? Why!?" when we heard about it. It's the DSi LL, the bigger DSi with bigger screens.
Japanese site PC Watch cracked one open, prodded it, and gave their thoughts. There was some divide there on the new screens. Younger staff members were bitching about the pixels being more apparent while older ones liked that they could see it better? Old persons' DSi? Maybe. That was PC Watch's recommendation, at least.
Inside they say it's business as usual, with the design being very similar to the DSi. There's a bigger, higher capacity battery to power those big screens now, of course. They did say that the Wi-Fi chip is a better make than in previous systems, though they did not give specifics. Otherwise it's just a bigger DSi.
I don't know if I need one of these. Being easier on the eyes isn't a strong enough selling point for me. What about you?
We're trying to help make navigating Black Friday deals easy on you, but Amazon.com isn't helping things much. Instead of giving us a nice, tidy list of games and consoles that will be on sale for this holiday shopping week, they would rather slowly release timed deals every little bit, from now through Black Friday.
They do this every year, but the difference this year is that they've stepped it up to about 400 deals in all, and that's just videogames alone. What's great about doing your Holiday shopping at Amazon is no crowds. Sure, you still have to get up early, but you can shop in your underwear, with your hair uncombed.
How do you find out what's on sale? There's Amazon's Black Friday Video Game Deals page, which has all of each day's timed releases teased. Look, DJ Hero is $50 off today! DualShock3's are $42. Uncharted 2 is $10 off.
A better idea is to follow Amazon's Twitter feed. There, followers will actually get the jump on the people checking the page, getting an early leak to the deals going up.
All these Black Friday deals are a bitch to keep track of. That's what we're here for, though. Over the past few weeks we've been reporting on some good deals, but having to hop around our fine website to find them all isn't going to help you get your shopping done any easier.
We've made a list of the most notable items for sale this Friday. We've also compiled a list of stores running holiday deals. On top of all of that is a link to all of our Black Friday reports. We'll keep updating these lists throughout the week, so keep checking back. If you see any good ones we've missed, let me know.
Game makers really want to use the DSi cameras, it seems. Konami's latest announcement uses them in a sort of RPG mechanic.
Foto Showdown has players snapping pictures with the DSi cameras. From these photos, monsters with the same primary colors are spawned. Remember Monster Rancher? It's kind of like that, but instead of generating data (monsters) from CDs, it comes from images. Konami says that there are more than 100 levels to battle through, using your generated monsters against various opponents' ones. Your monsters gain strength each time they're used. In all, there are 152 different monsters to collect.
Konami is bringing this out early next year for the DSi.
Remember Driver? Sure you do. It was a PlayStation game (and later a PC release), and a pretty good one at that. I had totally forgotten about this classic until Gameloft dusted it off for re-release on the iPhone.
So yes, it's a port, but its actually an improvement on the original game. We're talking better graphics and interfaces put on top of the same fun gameplay and physics of the original. An improvement port on a mobile phone? Nice.
The world's largest retailer is pulling out all the stops this Black Friday to make sure you buy something from them. Their videogame offerings are damned solid this year. They were kind enough to pass along some of what they've got lined up for the end of this week, and we've made a list of some of the key offerings.
Nintendo DS Lite - $98
PS3 Slim + Batman: Arkam Asylum, inFamous, and Dark Knight (movie) - $299
Xbox 360 Arcade + Madagascar 2 game and movie - $199
Nintendo Wii Console w/ Wii Sports Resort (walmart.com only) - under $300
Even better is the games list:
Rock Band Special Edition (PS3 or Xbox 360) - $50
Midnight Club LA - $10
Grand Theft Auto IV - $10
The Godfather (PS3) - $10
NFS: Undercover (PS3) - $10
Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3 (360) - $7
This is just a selected list. Not even the half of it. On games alone, there's tons under $10. And at the $25 range there are even more, like Call of Duty 4 and Tiger Woods Golf PGA Tour 10. Oh, and if your TV sucks, plenty of really great prices are listed for HDTVs of all sizes.
I've got more non-gaming items of interest after the jump for you. Some pretty good stuffs, mind you.
Destructoid is an independently-run publication forged by our love of video games and the gaming community's need of accountable enthusiast press living the dream since March 16, 2006
5:40 PM on 11.25.2009, Dale North
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