• February 2nd, 2011

    USA Is Dominate: Duty Calls Masterfully Deconstructs Why A Certain Shooter Franchise Is Rubbish

    Now I understand why Call of Duty costs hundreds of millions of dollars to produce. So real! → Read More

    February 1st, 2011

    Study: Young Girls Are Happier When They Play Video Games With Dad

    Here’s an interesting study: the effect video games have on kids’ happiness. BYU surveyed a couple hundred families, and asked to tell about their children’s video game use along with school performance and behavior. The results are kind of interesting: it turns out that young girls who spent more time playing games with their dads are happier and better-behaved. → Read More

    February 1st, 2011

    Miyamoto: Yes, I'm Making A Mario For The 3DS

    Not that this should shock any of you, but Nintendo has admitted that it’s working on a new, proper Mario game for the 3DS. So says the mighty Shigeru Miyamoto, who was recently profiled in the New Yorker. This is most welcome news, yes. → Read More

    February 1st, 2011

    For Marvel vs Capcom 3: Mad Catz’s Arcade FightStick Tournament Edition

    Marvel vs. Capcom 3 comes out in two weeks—woo!—and that means it’s time to throw your standard-issue controller in the trash and pony up for a proper arcade stick. Mad Catz has one that may interest you called the Marvel Vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds Arcade FightStick: Tournament Edition. The name is quite the mouthful, yes. → Read More

    February 1st, 2011

    Madden NFL 11: Pittsburgh Steelers Will Win The Super Bowl, 24-20

    Good news for Pittsburgh Steelers fans: Madden NFL 11 has predicted that the black-and-gold will win the Super Bowl, 24-20. Hit the music! → Read More

    January 31st, 2011

    Nintendo 3DS Starter Kit: Headphones, Styluses & Cleaning Cloths

    A quick “this exists” for your Monday morning. It’s a Nintendo 3DS Starter Kit, from Icon. The $20 kit contains a number of items to make your 3DS-ing all the more pleasurable come March 27 when the system is released. Rumor has it you’ll find a copy of Fernando Torres’ transfer request in there! (No you won’t.) → Read More

    January 30th, 2011

    Cloud-Based Storage Coming To PS3 (But For A Premium)?

    Word on the street is that cloud-based game save management will be coming to the PS3 beginning with firmware 3.60. Hate the idea of the cloud managing your saves? Don’t worry, for it looks like the feature will only be available to PlayStation Plus subscribers. Outrage! → Read More

    January 28th, 2011

    Crytek: Yes, There Will Be A Crysis 2 Demo

    Good news for you, this cold Friday afternoon. Crytek now says that there will, indeed, be multi-player demo for the PC version of Crysis 2. Huzzah! → Read More

    January 28th, 2011

    With Call Of Duty Black Ops Permabans Incoming, Are PS3 Permabans Next?

    By now you surely must know that Sony has released PS3 firmware 3.56, which applies a “minor security patch” to the system. Of course it does, and of course it prevents people from hacking their PS3. What happens hereafter will be most telling. → Read More

    January 28th, 2011

    John Carmack: Thanks To Low Level APIs, Sony NGP Should Be A ‘Generation’ Ahead Of Smartphones At Launch

    John Carmack, the man behind Doom and Quake, appears to be a bit of a Sony NGP fan. That shouldn’t come as a shock to close followers of id Software, which has very much embraced mobile gaming, particularly of the iPhone variety. Shortly after Sony’s big reveal, he tweeted: “Low level APIs will allow the Sony NGP to perform about a generation beyond smart phones with comparable specs.” Is that… → Read More

    January 27th, 2011

    Sony Wins Restraining Order Against Geohot, Updates PS3 Firmware To 3.56 In Effort To Stop Hacking

    PS3 owners will be prompted to update their system to firmware version 3.56 today. Why is that? Hmm, could it possibly have something to do with Sony trying to prevent your from jailbreaking your system? Yes, obviously. (“This is a minor update that adds a security patch.”) If you update your system say goodbye to being able to hack your PS3 to pieces… for now, at least. And maybe for a good… → Read More

    January 27th, 2011

    The Briefest Of Introductions To Modern Video Game Emulators: Dolphin, PCSX2 & More

    It’s probably a snow day for many of you, so what better way to kill a few hours than to fire up an emulator? “But Nicholas,” you interrupt, “there are so many emulators out there, and so much conflicting information. I wouldn’t know how to start if my life depended on it!” Don’t throw away your life—there’s so much beauty in the world! With this handy guide you should be… → Read More

    January 26th, 2011

    Congressman Proposes New Warning Label For Violent Video Games

    How many of you have played “violent video games” since you were a wee pup? I certainly have, and you don’t see me stealing cars or robbing banks, do you? Exactly. The most violent I get is when I boo the TV when stupid Manchester United improbably comes back against the most entertaining team in England, Blackpool. I bring this up because a congressman from California has proposed a new… → Read More

    January 25th, 2011

    U R Not (Red-E) For This Pair Of PlayStation Nike Air Force 1s

    You’re now looking at a pair of Nike Air Force 1 sneakers. But these are special in that they have the classic PlayStation logo on them. You’ll be the coolest kid in Long Island City, the new new Williamsburg. → Read More

    January 24th, 2011

    DC Universe Online: So Popular They Can't Keep It On Store Shelves

    DC Universe Online, the first “big” non-World of Warcraft MMO release of the year (the other being Star Wars: The Old Republic), has done quite well for Sony. It’s done so well, in fact, that Sony has had a hard time keeping it on store shelves. So says a tweet from Sony Online Entertainment president John Smedley. → Read More

    January 24th, 2011

    Video: LA Noire's Second Trailer Graces Your Monday With Its Presence

    http://www.rockstargames.com/videos/embed/6441 Ladies and gentlemen: the second LA Noire trailer has landed. “LA Noire?” Yes, it’s the next Rockstar game that will sell 80 zillion copies in two days. → Read More

    January 24th, 2011

    Anyone-Can-Enter Newsdemon Contest Puts Up Black Ops, Civilization V

    Uh, oh: the second Usenet story of the day, this time from Newsdemon. Someone check to see if the planets are still in their orbits, or whether or not that second sun has popped up yet. They’re running a contest over there that I thought I’d point out for a minute. The prize? A couple of free games up for grabs. Nothing wrong with that. → Read More

    January 24th, 2011

    Direct2Drive Now Has A PC Game Rental Service: $5 For 5 Hours Of Gameplay

    Direct2Drive, the digital download service for PC games, has started a rental service. It’s $5 for five hours of gameplay, which, doing some maths, works out to $1 per hour. There’s a small catch: only three games are available to rent right now: Grid, Divinity 2, and Silent Hill: Homecoming. The future, Conan? → Read More

    January 21st, 2011

    Duke Nukem Forever: May 3

    Quickly now: Duke Nukem Forever will be released on May 3 of this year for the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC. 2K, the game’s publisher, says that “May 3, 2011 marks Duke’s return as he unleashes his brash and brutally honest wit on the world. His return is going to be epic and one that will make video gaming history!” Indeed. Update: Reveal trailer after the jump! → Read More

    January 21st, 2011

    UK Video Game Piracy Caused £1.45B In Losses & 1,000 Jobs Last Year

    Video game piracy cost some £1.45 billion ($2.31 billion) in lost sales last year, as well as around 1,000 lost jobs. So says the Association of UK Interactive Entertainment (UKIE), which cautioned that even those impressive numbers are on the conservative side. That’s console piracy, mind you, which yet again throws a wrench in publishers’ arguments that piracy is only a problem on the PC, so… → Read More

    January 19th, 2011

    Nintendo 3DS Spy Report, Part 2: Hands-On With Zelda, Super Street Fighter IV & More

    The one disappointing thing about the Nintendo event from this morning: we still don’t have the exact list of launch titles, with Nintendo instead opting to draw attention to the system’s “launch window,” the several week period between its March 27 launch and E3. What are you gonna do? Me, I played a couple of these “launch window” games right after the press conference. Here’s a quick… → Read More

    January 19th, 2011

    Spy Report: Live From Nintendo's 3DS Press Conference In New York: It's March 27, $249

    Nicholas here, live from Nintendo’s big press conference in New York. The star of the show will be the 3DS, and Nintendo is expected to announce launch details: exact release date, price, games, etc. The stuff you’ve been waiting for. Like with the IBM Jeopardy challenge last week, feel free to refresh this post every minute or so; I still don’t know how to use fancy… → Read More

    January 18th, 2011

    LittleBigPlanet 2 Review Round-Up: Pretty Much Universal Acclaim

    It’s probably fair to say that LittleBigPlanet came out of nowhere to become the early face of the PS3. You’ll recall that the system didn’t have the smoothest of launches, completely overshadowed by the Wii back in 2006, but then this odd little platformer and its troupe of sackboys appeared. What, a PS3-exclusive game worth playing?! Has the world gone mad? (No.) → Read More

    January 18th, 2011

    Portal 2 PS3 Edition To Have Cross-Platform Play, Other Steam Features

    Nice, it looks like the PS3 version of Portal 2 won’t stink on ice—something that can’t be said about the Xbox 360 version of Team Fortress 2. (Though that’s hardly Valve’s fault, having to play by Microsoft’s silly Xbox Live rules.) PS3 owners can look forward to cross-platform (PC/Mac vs. PS3) gameplay in multi-player mode, Steam Cloud-based storage of saved games (eh…), and… → Read More

    January 17th, 2011

    Jailbreaking Your PS3: All Fun & Games Until Your Online Gaming Is Ruined

    Sony’s trying its hardest to erase the PS3 Jailbreak hack from the Internet, but we all know that’s folly. Two seconds on YouTube turns up not only links to all the necessary files, but detailed, how-to videos describing how to hack the system. The scary thing for Sony is that we’re long past the point where hacking a video game console requires soldering knowledge and a hard-to-find modchip. → Read More

    January 17th, 2011

    Direct2Drive Gets The Sims, Puts Them On Sale

    We talk about Steam seemingly every 18 seconds here, so it’s only fair that we pay attention to some of the other digital download services that are out there. Direct2Drive, the IGN-owned download service, has added The Sims to its existing catalog of “more than” 2,500 games. That means one thing for y’all: there’s a big sale! → Read More

    January 12th, 2011

    Sony Now Sues PS3 Hackers: Good Luck Trying To Stop The Flow Of Information

    Ha! Well that didn’t take long. Sony has now officially sued the folks behind the PS3 hack, Geohot and fail0verflow. This is good news for Sony’s lawyers, and bad news for pretty much everyone else, particularly those of you who still believe the quaint notion of hardware ownership or anything like that. Foolish! → Read More

    January 12th, 2011

    Will People Flip Out Over The New THQ Logo?

    Well, well, well. THQ, the famous video game publisher that’s brought us all those UFC and WWE games, not to mention the criminally underrated (particularly if you have a beefy computer) Metro 2033, now has a new logo. Surprisingly, the logo doesn’t once mention the publisher’s distaste for the used games market, nor are the letters D-L-C anywhere to be found. → Read More

    January 12th, 2011

    Nintendo 3DS Countdown: One More Hands-On Before The Storm

    You forget about some of the fun stuff you’ve seen after having spent an entire week fighting crowds in Las Vegas while sick and tired. And I do mean sick and tired: I was sick flying into Las Vegas (you know the sharp, stabbing pain you get in your ears when your airplane descends from the heavens while sick? Yeah, I had that, and it wasn’t fun), and all that running around, lugging… → Read More

    January 12th, 2011

    Sony Looks To Scrub All Mentions Of PS3 Hack From The History Books

    Whatever happened to the idea of “you bought it, you can do whatever you want with it”? You buy a car and want to add all sorts of silly aftermarket modifications like it’s 2004 and Pimp My Ride is still relevant? Feel free! But no, you buy a video game console, explore its inner workings, maybe discover and exploit or security vulnerability and The Man wants you silenced. In this case, The… → Read More