Telltale’s Strong Bad episodic adventures continue to prove themselves leagues ahead of the disappointing Sam & Max series (yeah, want to fight about it?). Episode 3 was completely stunning, some of the finest adventure gaming I’ve had in a very long while. In case you missed it, you can get the demo here. And now the demo for the next episode is out, and here’s the full title:

Strong Bad’s Cool Game For Attractive People: Episode 4: Dangeresque 3: The Criminal Projective

Is that a record?

(...)
Read the rest of Looks Like You’re Going To Have To… Download! (129 words)

Posted by botherer. | 12 comments | Donate or subscribe to RPS | Post tags: adventure, demo, strong bad, telltale, trailer
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GameDaily BIZ: What are your plans for the Nintendo DSi?

Gonzague de Vallois: We’re preparing for the North American launch. There’s nothing official on when this will be. We’ve heard spring-summer. We’ve heard Q3. I believe from Nintendo’s perspective there’s no hurry to release the device in North America because DS is still selling extremely well. If the DSi and DS are close in price, the DSi will kill DS sales.

BIZ: How will you support Nintendo DSi?

GdV: We’ll support both Nintendo DS and DSi. We’re working on some games that we’ll release at retail through our distribution partnership with Ubisoft. These games will come in a single package and will work on both DS and DSi, with the DSi version taking advantage of additional options like the cameras and advanced sound capabilities. We’ll be much more aggressive with the DSi Store than at retail.

BIZ: How has Nintendo’s WiiWare been working for Gameloft?

GdV: WiiWare is pretty open. We have eight games on WiiWare, including Brain Challenge, TV Show King and games like bowling and pool. Downloads depend on the title on WiiWare. We’re experimenting a little. Party games do really well. Simple mono-player titles like bowling or pool aren’t doing as well. The target is family or Nintendo fans only looking for Nintendo games. We’re learning on the platform.

BIZ: How has working with Nintendo been?

GdV: Nintendo still limits publishers to one title a month. They’re talking about removing this limit. Nintendo seems to be more open to more titles.

Please make sure to read the full interview. Almost the entire piece is about Nintendo, in regards to the DSi or WiiWare. Click here to check it out.

Although Need for Speed III and IV, subtitled Hot Pursuit and High Stakes, came with various new things, the big step - and the apex reached by the Need for Speed franchise was Need for Speed: Porsche Unleashed, released almost a decade ago, in 2000. Since this is not today’s topic, I will only say this: I loved it from first second, I love it, and I will always love that game!

Next, came along the beginning of the end - Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2, saved by the presence of a BMW in the car list(I loved that car). After that, the tuning madness started with Need for Speed: Underground, and old fans started to wait. The wait for a real Need for Speed game, and we’re still waiting now, in 2008, after 12 games in the series, including Need for Speed: Undercover…

..but let’s leave the past where it belongs now, and move on to what you’ve been waiting for, the one and only PlayerzBlog…

Need for Speed: Undercover PC Review

Just look at this - Need for Speed: Undercover is available for an amazing range of platforms, probably more than the cars available in the first Need for Speed game: PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS, Wii, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation Portable, iPod Touch, iPhone, N-Gage 2.0! Anyway, that doesn’t necessarily make it better, it only gives it better chances to be purchased and played by more people, and that’s all. These being said, let’s check the plot, graphics, gameplay, and the amazing things I discovered in the time I spent with this game…

Need for Speed: Undercover - The Plot

Some people enjoyed ProStreet simply because that game didn’t have any silly plot, but this time things have changed - you’re UNDERCOVER! Yeah, right, just think about this - you’re a cop, and you have to infiltrate the street racing gangs in Tri-City, but once you’re inside the first gang…you have to “take out” your team mates, because “you don’t have to raise suspicions.” I don’t know exactly where did they see this, but I missed that movie where the cop infiltrates a gang and starts killing all members, just to avoid being uncovered!

OK, “The Transporter” is one thing, but what about “Gone in Sixty Seconds?” Yeah, I know, the blonde Angelina Jolie is totally smokin’ in there, but think about the plot of that movie, and the part of the game here where you have to steal “six cars within 48 hours.” Expensive exotics, of course. Nothing in common, right? Suuuuure…

Need for Speed: Undercover - The Graphics

“Look, mom, I discovered a new Pixel Shader function, it’s called Blurrrrr!,” said the little programmer, and its poor drawings, once animated, started to look better… that’s exactly what happens in Need for Speed: Undercover.

Need for Speed: Undercover - The Gameplay

In Undercover, you start off with a highway chase, and once you evade the cops, a boring introductory cutscene tries to tell you more about what’s going to happen. In fact, it tells nothing, because you’ll basically play around a lot of races in the different game modes available, and sometimes receive “special missions,” most of them without any introductory cutscene.

Need for Speed: Undercover - The Incredible Stories

I could have named this section “bugs,” “lamest parts of a silly game,” or something similar, but let’s leave it this way. If I could rename this game, I would call it Need for Speed: Unreal, and here’s why…

Needless to say, damage is as “realistic” as usual - after losing my wing, the car still remains in control at over 300 km/h, and once you see your Porsche taking 90 degrees turns at 250 km/h, there’s only one thing remaining for you to do, but I’ll keep that on hold for now.

Need for Speed: Undercover - The Conclusion

I guess someone will be glad to receive my copy of the game as a gift. Unfortunately, my hamster can’t use a computer. Hmmm…and I think he would also find his wheel more interesting than EA’s disaster… ehem, “game.”

If I had to award some scores, here’s what I would gladly award to Need for Speed: Undercover these -

Story: 0/10
Graphics: 2/10
Sound: 4/10
Gameplay: 2/10
Originality: 0/10
Tilt Factor: 5/10
Overall: 2/10

The soundtrack, pretty good, as usual, the wide range of cars and parts, as well as those BMWs I really enjoyed seeing included can’t save Need for Speed: Undercover from being nothing more than an abysmal title. I am sure that its name will help it sell too many copies once again, when compared to the fun provided for your money, but let’s hope this will happen for the last time.

Not even Jesus can save Need for Speed: Undercover, and the only thing remaining to be done I mentioned a bit earlier is this - go to Control Panel, enter Add/Remove Programs, and uninstall it. Take the DVD carefully, order some gift packaging, and send it to your worst enemy… but don’t forget to drop a comment below and share with the rest of us your opinion about this so-called “game.”

Check out more screens here

TOMY Corporation today announced that My DoItAll is currently in development exclusively for Nintendo DS. The first-ever lifestyle game for both boys and girls, My DoItAll is an all-in-one title that gives players the ability to have fun and interact with friends through customization capabilities, mini-games and voice over and sound effect applications. Players can also stay organized and up-to-date with a calendar and reference tools.

My DoItAll provides gamers a unique way to socially interact with friends and have fun, while staying organized on their DS handheld system. Players start off by customizing their very own avatar with a personal look and style, followed by creating a privacy protected Friend Card that includes basic details such as contact information, likes/dislikes, and personal data. From there, My DoItAll becomes a treasure chest of applications for the player to explore. Taking full advantage of the Nintendo DS capabilities, the game also allows players to connect wirelessly with up to six friends to participate in questionnaires, plan social activities, and play mini-games. As an added bonus, My DoItAll features a voice changer that records with the microphone, as well as a sound effects machine comprised of over 25 sounds. To complete the all-in-one package, players can also manage their schedules, keep a journal, and utilize reference tools such as a calculator and world map in order to become the ultimate whiz-kid.

(more…)

VideoGamer.com: A lot of people seem to feel that while the Wii has been very successful, the system hasn’t really seen enough decent third party games. Do you think there are too many “waggle-a-thons”?

Jordan Itkowitz: Yeah, there’s a lot of that and there’s a lot of party stuff too. Some of it is really good and some of it is not so good, but it’s one of the things for which we’ve got to give credit to THQ. They said, “We want to do more original IP, and we already have a lot of licenses to fill out our portfolio.” The last title I worked on was Cars for Pixar, which is about as different from Deadly Creatures as you can get. But THQ were already making De Blob, and then when we brought this to them they bit as well, because they wanted original content in general, and then it felt like a good opportunity to do something on the Wii. And it was really different, we knew we would stand out. You know, I hope that a game like this… it’s received a really positive response from the press, and the fans on messageboards seem to be excited by it, so hopefully it’ll do the right numbers and get the right scores so they want to make more of them. Because the flipside is, and we all know this… you have an original game, it looks good, it plays well and people seem excited about it - but if it doesn’t perform, you’re going to see a lot more party games.

_________________________

I have a feeling that Deadly Creatures is going to be another fantastic third party game from THQ. Perhaps not as good as de Blob, but still an excellent title. To read the full Deadly Creatures-focused interview, click here

One of Nintendo’s major reasons for not supporting HD and keeping the Wii’s specifications conservative was to make it a viable platform for original IPs. The argument was that developing games on machines with multi-core processors and complex architectures was increasing development costs to such a degree, that the appetite for risk was rapidly diminishing within the industry resulting in endless sequels and me-too titles. Two years have passed since the Wii was released and it has since gained many original IPs that allow us to see if Nintendo’s decision has borne fruit, or whether it was just an excuse to limit R&D expenses.

Red Steel

VGChartz estimated worldwide sales:1,006,000

As of April ‘07, Ubisoft reported that Red Steel had sold 950,000 copies, and VGChartz has current sales of the game at just over a million; likely well short of the true number. The success of Red Steel cannot be in doubt - a game that was hyped to be sure, but one that also ended as being a pretty mediocre shooter made enjoyable because of the Wii Remote. The question of why Ubisoft has not tried to replicate its success with other Wii FPS games can be explained with other successful Ubisoft games from the Petz/Imagine series. The latter required smaller teams and shorter development cycles, so that even minor sales resulted in strong profits. Nintendo’s own strategy seems to have backfired in this case, as Ubisoft has since become reluctant to release anything other than mini-game compilations, albeit quality ones in the form of Rayman Raving Rabbids, and expanded audience games on the Wii. Motion Plus seems to have provided Ubisoft the impetus to make the sequel that so many expected this year: Red Steel 2 should see a release in the ‘09 holiday season.

Boom Blox

VGChartz estimated worldwide sales:560,000

Initially deemed a failure at retail, Boom Blox sold a paltry 60,000 copies in its first week. Many worried that gamers would simply see a glorified version of Jenga and balk at the $50 price tag. Though, like many Wii games, despite not having the front loaded sales so typical of games on the 360, it’s shown real legs due to a solid advertising campaign and strong word-of-mouth buzz. EA stated that the game had sold 450,000 copies in their first fiscal quarter, so VGChartz current estimate of 560,000 copies sold is likely well short of the actual number. It’s tough to determine just how much cash EA plowed into Boom Blox; Steven Spielberg’s influence and the superb level design can’t have come cheap, but ultimately it didn’t feature the lavish visuals and presentation that are known to really elevate development costs. If its sales approach 750,000 worldwide, it will surely represent a very good return for EA who are also strongly rumored to be preparing a sequel.

Zack & Wiki

VGChartz estimated worldwide sales:450,000

Capcom clearly lavished a lot of time and money on Zack & Wiki - the game’s art direction, level design and sheer length show that the company also invested a lot of its top talent on the project. In February ‘08, 4 months after its release, Capcom announced that it had sold 300,000 copies of the game in the U.S and Japan. A surprising figure as it had sold a mere 35,000 in its first week on sale in the U.S. VGChartz has current sales for the game at 450,000, but once again this seems a conservative estimate, and shows the site’s general inability to properly track sales figures for games that fall out of the top 20 yet still maintain consistent sales. Despite this, Capcom has not seemed eager to announce a sequel. The success of both Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition and Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles seems to be at the heart of this. Both games have sold over a million copies each despite one being a direct port and the other reusing art assets from earlier games. This is further proven by Capcom’s decision to port the 360 title Dead Rising to the console. Compared to Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition’s sales and development cost/time, Zack & Wiki appears to be an apparent failure. Judged on its own however; with its niche point and click adventure gameplay, high difficulty and kid friendly sound and visuals, its sales begin to look a lot more impressive.

And a few that didn’t make it

Perhaps the best game to have completely flopped on the Wii is We Love Golf. Capcom acknowledged in a press release that its performance was ’sluggish’ and VGChartz has its current sales at 40,000, though this does not include Europe. Quite why it sold so badly is a bit of a mystery - Camelot, the game’s developer, has been responsible for numerous golf games that have been successful for both Nintendo and Sony in the past. Konami’s overly cute Dewy’s Adventure and Leftfield’s poorly designed Nitrobike are other notable failures of original IPs.

In part 2 of TVGB’s look at how original IPs perform on the Wii; De Blob and Okami will be covered, as well as a look at whether the high sales of ports and spin-offs could be shaping developers’ release lists a little too strongly.

The iNiS Corp-developed karaoke title Lips should be available in stores today, and with it Microsoft has revealed the first batch of downloadable content for the Xbox 360 exclusive. 

Starting tomorrow, November 21, Microsoft will be making four songs available: Adele's "Chasing Pavement," Estelle's "No Substitute Love," Jason Mraz's "The Remedy (I Won't Worry)," and Coldplay's "Violet Hill." 

November 28 will bring three more tracks, Supertramp's "Give a Little Bit," Smash Mouth's "All Star," and Vanessa Carlton's "A Thousand Miles." Holiday content, with custom holiday videos, will be coming from Bing Crosby, Elvis Presley, Gen Autry, and more starting on December 5. Each song will cost 160 MS Points a piece and will be available from the Xbox LIVE Marketplace of in-game "Get Music" store.

I'm not going to lie -- I want Lips. Maybe it's the fancy light-up microphones, or the fact that the wireless mics may possibly someday be compatible with that other game I play that requires singing. (I'm not talking about Left 4 Dead, although my "Zombies Be All Up In My Grill" song is tearing up the Xbox LIVE charts.)

Anyone pick up Lips? Let us know what you think. 

Aside from it’s unique brand of humor, you have to admire South Park for at least one thing: their timeliness. Where most movies and TV shows would have made up some Doom-looking game that no one would actually play (*cough* Simpsons *cough*), this show keeps up-to-date with the current video gaming world. Last night’s episode for example had the boys playing Call of Duty: World At War, a game that’s been out for just over a week — and just over two days on PC. This being a game that focuses a lot on Americans fighting the Japanese in World War II, you can probably imagine what Cartmen’s thoughts on the whole thing are.

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Related Articles at Gaming Today:

• E3 2008: Explosive Trailer for Call of Duty: World at War
• Infinity Ward is Sick of WWII Shooters Too
• Call of Duty: World at War Beta Coming in October
• South Park XBLA Title is a "Strategy" Game
• Call of Duty: World at War Multiplayer PC Beta Installer Now on FileFront

• Patapon 2: story, multiplayer modes, new game plus, eggs, heroes, and Pata-screens galore
  

Here we are, the final selection of XNA Community Games that are available to you from day one on the New Xbox Experience update for your Xbox 360. This time, we've got a little more than 10 titles, pushing it past 30 separate titles on day one. That is an awful lot of choice.

Titles can go up at any time, so it's difficult to keep track. We'll continue keeping you informed with every new game that comes available, hopefully with a little commentary to give you a bit of an idea of what each game is like.

Alien Ambush

Creator: Star Gaming Network
Genre: Classics
Price: 200 Points

Trial Play: A Space Invaders / Galaga clone. It's also not very good from what I could see from the trial. Enemies follow very simple patterns and overall just seems a little boring. Sorry, Star Gaming Network.

Loot, Steal 'n Destroy

Creator: reallyjoel
Genre: Action & Adventure
Price: 400 Points

Trial Play: A game about looting gold from the source and from your enemies. The game is multiplayer only, but looks like it could be some fun. A hearty opening theme too.

Blow

Creator: David Flook
Genre: Other
Price: 400 Points

Trial Play: One of the best games on the service right now, Blow is a entrancing puzzle game where you set up fans in order to blow bubbles through checkpoints and on to the exit. The game relies on you setting the speed of the fans, and whether they can make bubbles hot (and rise) or cold (and fall faster). Sporting 70 man made levels and infinite procedurally generated levels for endless variety, it is absolutely worth your 400 Points.

Colosseum

Creator: Shortfuse Games
Genre: Fighting
Price: 800 Points

Trial Play: Here we have one of most expensive XNA Community Games, Colosseum. It's a 4 player brawler which uses the second analog stick for combat. While it looks nice, the single player experience appears to be pretty mundane. It will probably be at its best in the local multiplayer modes.

Totem

Creator: Fervent Interactive
Genre: Puzzle & Trivia
Price: 400 Points

Trial Play: Totem is a single player puzzle game involving a variety of totem pieces. Each stage is about surviving through whatever the computer throws at you.You then stack up several totem pieces of one color, and when the next comes crashing down, the matching ones break. It's simple and a bit of fun, and has some nice artwork too. Reminds me a bit of the GameBoy Mario & Yoshi title with a dash of XBLA's TiQal.

Artoon

Creator: Oscar K
Genre: Platformer
Price: 400 Points

Trial Play: Bounce your buddy Art through tens of levels as you rack up a multiplier by jumping on new squares in the level. It looks nice - Oscar K has his head around some very neat shader effects, it has some decent techno music, and it includes a split screen challenge level too. The first few levels are very simple, but do the later ones offer any challenge?

Galax-e-mail

Creator: BogTurtleCarl
Genre: Shooter
Price: 200 Points

Despite the crazy premise, this game is actually quite fun. The graphics, while simple, are consistent and very clean looking - it "knows" what it is. I'm not really sure just how the game does work in terms of levels (does the game simply generate a level based on difficulty) but for 200 Points it looks like it may be worth your money.

In the Pit

Creator: luvcraft
Genre: Action & Adventure
Price: 400 Points

Trial Play: Now here is something that can only be done on XNA - In The Pit is not your normal game. In fact, the game has no graphics whatsoever. It is an audio-game. You play a blind monster in a cave, and new prey is dropped into your cave. Using only sounds, you must find these people and eat them. You hear them breathing, running away, all through your surround sound system. The controller vibrated to their heart beat too. It's certainly something you've never played before.

SMASHELL

Creator: Antab
Genre: Platformer
Price: 400 Points

Trial Play: Plug yourself into an arena and begin to jump on top of enemy heads. This is one of the better looking XNA games on the marketplace, but I don't know how long it will last. You appear to be able to upgrade and see many different kinds of enemies, but you don't see a lot of that in the trial space.

BIOLOGY BATTLE

Creator: Novaleaf Software
Genre:Action & Adventure
Price: 800 Points

Trial Play: The most XBLA-like game on the service. Biology Battle pits you inside of a giant cell, battling the oncoming hordes of bacteria coming to kill you. It's got a whole lot of modes, and online leader boards through some tricky measures.

Funky Punch XL

Creator: SolusG
Genre: Fighting
Price: 400 Points

Trial Play: A 3D fighting game played on a 2D plane. You play as very simple characters, ranging from fireball throwing karate masters to cheerleaders. The game does support online play, which is great for such a game. It might be some fun for kids, but I can't see many people getting into it unfortunately.