Play old Atari games at the new Atari.com
by Randy Nelson 
{ 2 hours ago } 
Atari has a new website. We know -- big deal, right? Actually, in this case it's worth checking out if you're a fan of the company's classic arcade and console games. That's because the site is offering up free-to-play browser-based versions of Adventure and Yar's Revenge for the Atari 2600 and the legendary coin-ops Battlezone, Crystal Castles and Lunar Lander.
The site's Arcade page is at this link, should you not want to risk an encounter with dreaded marketing materials on your way to the good stuff. Remember: If your boss catches you blowing up vector tanks and space rocks while you're on the clock, you didn't hear about the site from us.
The site's Arcade page is at this link, should you not want to risk an encounter with dreaded marketing materials on your way to the good stuff. Remember: If your boss catches you blowing up vector tanks and space rocks while you're on the clock, you didn't hear about the site from us.
Gameloft talks up Android support -- wait, what?
by Alexander Sliwinski { 4 hours ago }
Gameloft's statement today in no way negates Rochefort's words, as the latest release is just some yammering about the second generation devices allowing the development of high definition games, but the timing and its lack of substance is suspect. The executive previously noted the Gameloft sold "400 times" as many games on iPhone as on the Android. Of course, if Google's platform develops a more significant install base, we're sure Gameloft will be happy to invest more and take everyone's money equally.
Direct2Drive offering $10 off Dragon Age: Origins through Nov. 30
by Xav de Matos { 5 hours ago }
The standard edition is priced at $39.95, while the Deluxe edition is priced at $54.95 for the promotion. With the savings we recommend you look into purchasing the (somewhat controversial) downloadable content already available for the title. If paying for storage space if your thing, that is.
New York State will issue emergency alerts via Xbox Live
by Randy Nelson { 6 hours ago } 
According to a report by InformationWeek, the state of New York is in the planning stages of a revamped emergency broadcast system capable of sending alerts to Xbox Live (and presumably other console online services) in the event of a natural disaster, terrorist attack or other not-so-good event. The state's deputy chief information officer says the idea makes sense "considering the amount of time our youth spend on video games."
No specifics of how the system would actually work were provided, but we'd hope those who heed the warnings would get Achievement points for doing so. After all, it'd mean taking precious time away from griefing other players in Modern Warfare 2.
[Thanks, Nick!]
No specifics of how the system would actually work were provided, but we'd hope those who heed the warnings would get Achievement points for doing so. After all, it'd mean taking precious time away from griefing other players in Modern Warfare 2.
[Thanks, Nick!]
Tesla guitarist reveals 'Modern Day Cowboy' headed for Guitar Hero 6
by Xav de Matos { 7 hours ago } 
While some (completely talentless) acts have decried the popularity of music games such as Guitar Hero, Rude feels the genre is an important step for up-and-coming rockers. "I think it's a good thing," Rude said. "Even if people don't learn to play guitar, it's exposing them to all sorts of cool guitar-based music that they wouldn't have ever heard otherwise." You hear that Kroeger? Stop crying ... and writing the same song over and over and over again.
Nintendo DSi LL gets DS-ected
by Randy Nelson { 8 hours ago }
The Nintendo DSi LL (DSi XL here in the West) may be big, but it's still susceptible to being dissected by anyone with the proper screwdriver and no qualms about potentially ruining a 200-plus-dollar piece of electronics. In this case, it's the daredevils at PC Watch who had the guts (and spare yen) to pop open the Big N's newest handheld offering.
The site has posted step-by-step photos documenting the teardown, the highlights of which include a look at the system's larger capacity battery and downright mammoth mainboard. Rumors that a member of the site's staff fell into the device and got lost during the process remain unsubstantiated.
[Via Andriasang]
The site has posted step-by-step photos documenting the teardown, the highlights of which include a look at the system's larger capacity battery and downright mammoth mainboard. Rumors that a member of the site's staff fell into the device and got lost during the process remain unsubstantiated.
[Via Andriasang]
Tony Hawk talks Ride sequel, confirms board for snowboarding and surfing games
by Ben Gilbert { 9 hours ago }
Additionally, like multiple people at Ride developer Robomodo have already intimated, Hawk confirms plans to put the game's board to use in other places – specifically, the woefully underserved snowboarding and surfing game genres. Hawk even speaks of resurrecting one-shot last-gen game Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer, saying, "I always thought that Kelly Slater's [Pro Surfer] was an underrated title for the PlayStation 2 ... I thought that people didn't really give it the attention it deserved." And us, well, we're still hoping that someone makes a bicycle peripheral so that we can finally get the reboot of Downhill Domination that we've been waiting for.
Rumor: Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep not releasing on PSN
by David Hinkle { 10 hours ago }
This strikes us as odd not only because of the tenuous nature by which this has been reported, but because a lot of Disney Interactive's titles have been made available via digital distribution in the past. We've contacted both Square Enix and Disney Interactive about this and will be sure to let you know what we hear back.
[Via Sankaku Complex (site NSFW)]
Devs to get Project Natal tips at Gamefest in Feb.
by Randy Nelson { 10 hours ago }
The tech summit, which runs from February 10 and 11 in Seattle will offer two types of Natal-themed sessions. The first, Project Natal Design, promises to help devs with "creating new ways to work, building showcase experiences, divining user intent, and designing gestures for UI versus game interactions." The second, Project Natal Technical, will "dive deep into gesture recognition, avatar retargeting, speech recognition, advanced raw stream processing, handling different player environments, and many other topics."
Avatar re-what? Advanced raw stream huh? $100 says Microsoft just hands attendees Minority Report on DVD.
[Via Gamasutra]
Miyamoto thinks his college degree wouldn't get him a job at Nintendo today
by Ben Gilbert { 11 hours ago }
Though he adds that he "might pick up on [applicants] and try to find out something really different within them which you can't judge just by a college degree," it worries us greatly that today's equivalent of the man who helped to birth some of the game industry's landmark franchises may end up unemployed or even dissuaded from game development altogether. All alone! Without a home! We imagine somewhat like a rolling stone!
... Our apologies. That was quite enough.
Undead Labs creating zombie MMO for consoles
by Justin McElroy { 11 hours ago }
In the announcement, company boss Jeff Strain said "Every time I see a good zombie movie with friends, we spend days debating our strategies for surviving the zombie apocalypse. The police station, or the supermarket? Garden rake, or staple gun? Bach, or the White Stripes? I'm a game developer, so I'd probably be useless for anything other than ghoul bait, but I'm excited to have the opportunity to build an MMOZ that lets us put those strategies to the test and find out for sure."
Strain, who helped found ArenaNet and was the executive producer for NCsoft's Guild Wars, certainly has the right pedigree for a project like this. But it's hard to say if this will be the ultimate zombie experience, or the title that finally (re)buries zombies for good. Here's hoping it's the former.
BioShock cosplay recreates Rapture at the Aquarium
by David Hinkle { 12 hours ago }
If you're scratching your head, wondering just where you've seen these two before, let us help you: right here on our website. Krix's girlfriend (holding another of his creations in the pic above, the ADAM syringe) is quite the cosplayer, which initially got Krix into the game of making things from games. Take notes, gents! That's how you woo the ladies.
[Via Geekologie]
Goozex temporarily drops trading fees for students
by Richard Mitchell { 12 hours ago }
Goozex, the online game trading service, has announced a special promotion for its student members. Starting now and running through January 31, 2010, Goozex members that are enrolled in college will be able to trade their games without paying any trading fee whatsoever. Granted, the trading fee is normally only $1, but every little bit helps these days, especially with the holiday shopping season currently preparing its first major assault.Now, technically, the deal applies to anyone using Goozex under a .edu email address, so we suppose the less scrupulous folks out there could game the system. Then again, so long as it gets people using the service, we're not sure Goozex will mind all that much.
LittleBigPlanet PSP coming out on PSN tomorrow, patch available now
by Griffin McElroy { 12 hours ago }
Perhaps even more newsworthy than that is the fact that the studio has already launched a patch for the title which "will improve the performance of some of the physics and tools in the Create mode." To download the game-specific update -- a fairly new feature on the handheld -- make sure you're connected to the internet, select the game's icon on the XMB, press Triangle, and select "Update." Now, sit back, and prepare to witness unthinkable technowizardry in the palm of your hand. Or hands, should you still be using the original double-wide PSP.
Marvel vs. Capcom 2 defeated HD Remix in sales battle
by JC Fletcher { 13 hours ago }
"We have three titles that have drastically over-performed our expectations," Capcom's VP of strategic planning and business development Christian Svensson told GamesIndustry.biz. "The most recent of which was Marvel vs Capcom 2, which we didn't expect to exceed Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix's numbers, but it has."
One IP that hasn't quite exceeded Capcom's expectations in the west is Monster Hunter. The company is working to turn that around with events like Monster Hunter Tri University designed to familiarize press with the workings of the series. "We are strategically investing in the brand in the West," Svensson explained, "because we know that as a company we're going to continue to be creating Monster Hunter content, so it behooves us to do what it takes to make it stick here." In other words, Japanese sales ensure that Capcom is going to continue making the things, so Capcom might as well try to sell them outside of Japan as well.
