Archive for the ‘Casual’ Category:
Borderlands soundtrack coming Dec. 8
If you’ve played Borderlands, and you really should, you’ve listened to the sweet tunes from the game, and you’ll soon have a chance to throw them on your iPod as well. Gearbox announced that the soundtrack will be released on iTunes on December 8, and includes composers such as Jesper Kyd, Sascha Dikiciyan, Cris Velasco and Raison Varner.
However, it won’t include the hit song “Ain’t No Rest For The Wicked“, which has been featured in the game and its promo material. Bummer.
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DJ Hero review
In the midst of all the Modern Warfare 2 madness and onslaught of news, we’d like to bring you something a bit more lighthearted: a review of DJ Hero for Wii. As a sidekick to Activision’s Guitar Hero, DJ Hero focuses on DJs and their world, and contains artists like Black Eyed Peas, 50 Cent, Justice, Marvin Gaye, Beck, Beastie Boys and N.E.R.D., with over 100 songs and over 90 mixes by real DJs.
DJ Hero comes with a DJ mixing board controller, and the gameplay process is very similar to that of other “Hero” games from Activision, you punch the correct keys as best as possible, scoring the best score you can. While listening to the songs, of course. There’s a huge assortment of songs, which span almost every genre, meaning you’ll probably find something you like in there. The songs are mixed by well known DJs, and you won’t find them anywhere else — they’re exclusive to DJ Hero. While you can’t create your own DJ, you can play as some fairly decent ones, and if you’re good, you can unlock superstar DJs like Daft Punk (complete with their outfits). Read the rest of our DJ Hero review
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Facebook support coming to PS3

Mega-social network Facebook is already coming out on the Xbox 360 (alongside Twitter) later this month, and now Sony is getting a piece of that action as well, as Facebook has been confirmed for the PlayStation 3, after leaked shots showed some Facebook action on the console. Details haven’t been released yet, but we assume that it’ll at least support whatever the Xbox 360 supports in terms of functionality.
Tags: ps3 facebook
NBA Unrivaled available on XBLA on Wednesday

If you’re not into the latest simulation games of NBA Live 10 and NBA 2K10, but in for something more in the arcade scene, NBA Unrivaled might just do the job for you. Based on the old NBA Hangtime-ish arcade games of the 90s, complete with the retro look and feel, and with the full NBA license. The game will be out on Xbox Live Arcade tomorrow, and on the PS3’s PSN sometime in the future.
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1 vs 100 season 2 begins November 19
Microsoft has announced that the second season of the highly successful Xbox Live game 1 vs 100 will begin on November 19, 5 PM Pacific time. The first season, which was a beta season of the massively multiplayer show game, ran for 15 weeks and had over half a million contestants. Over 2 million Microsoft Points were given out as prizes during for the best players of the trivia game, and it looks like season 2 will surpass in both player count and prizes.
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Assassin’s Creed novel coming this month

It seems that all games are getting books deals these days, from Gears of War, to Mass Effect, to Oblivion, to, well, everyone, really. That’s including Assassin’s Creed, which will get its own novel, titled Assassin’s Creed: Renaissance, written by Oliver Bowden and published by Penguin Books. The novel will be released later this month. You can check out the book on Amazon, although there isn’t much information there, nor is it available for pre-order.
Developer puts own game on BitTorrent

PC piracy is at an all time high, some estimate that over 90% of games played on the PCs aren’t actually bought, but downloaded and cracked. Developer RedLynx, of course, isn’t really happy to hear that kind of news, and they have now resorted to a rather new strategy: they uploaded their own game before the pirates did.
With the release of RedLynx’ Trials motor cross game, the developer hurried and uploaded its own game to popular BitTorrent sites, with one feature missing from the game: leaderboards. RedLynx then hoped that the pirates would love the game and miss leaderboards so much that they went out and bought the game.
Did it work? Well, they don’t really know, but there’s definitely a lot of folks playing Trials without leaderboards, that’s for sure.
Wii Fit Plus review
Wii Fit has been one of the few original and innovative games on the Wii, something new and refreshing in the hail of never ending Mario games. The Wii Fit training game, coupled with the Wii balance Board, has sold in excess of 20 million units worldwide, so it’s no surprise that Nintendo is looking to offer a bit more on that side. Enter Wii Fit Plus, which retails for only $20 if you already own Wii Fit with a Balance Board, but if you don’t, the whole package will cost you $100, which is $10 more than the original Wii Fit.
Wii Fit Plus isn’t really a sequel — it’s sold separately without the Balance Board for those that already own it — it’s actually an expansion pack which includes the original games and workouts, and even transfers your data from the old game. This is pretty slick, meaning that you won’t have to swap the new and old Wii Fit disc. Wii Fit Plus features 15 new work out mini games and six strength training and Yoga workouts, and this time, you can mix and match your workouts as you see fit. Read the rest of the Wii Fit Plus review
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Miami police arrests Modern Warfare 2 pirate
It seems that Activision can’t get enough PR for the release of Modern Warfare 2, as the game is now in the spotlight after 18 year old Christian Del Amo was arrested by Miami Police for trying to sell pirated versions of the game.
This comes after Activision had hired an online investigation firm to look into suspicious posts on Craigslist advertising Modern Warfare 2 Xbox 360 bundles for sale. With the age of high-speed internet, where anyone can download the pirated version, why would you even try and sell the pirated version on a burned disc? That kind of “business” seems so 1999.
Tags: modern warfare 2
Scribblenauts review
Scribblenauts for the Nintendo DS is a kind of adventure game that you don’t see often — actually, there hasn’t ever been a game like Scribblenauts; an adventure game where your character progresses through the levels by you typing the name of an object, pretty much any object you can think of, from dinosaurs to cars, to monkey to trees, as long as it isn’t vulgar or trademarked, it’s probably in Scribblenauts. The core concept of the game is highly original and extremely entertaining, and if it wasn’t for a few issues, it would’ve been the ultimate must-have game for any DS owner.
The gameplay is simple and follows the standard 2D side scrolling fashion, but to solve puzzles in Scribblenauts, you need to use an object that might fit and help you move forwards. You “scribble” the object (say, a “meteor”) and poof! it appears on the screen. The goal of each level is to secure a Starlite at the end, and accumulate them. On top of that, you have dedicated puzzle levels, which don’t feature as much action but pack plenty of challenge for your imagination. Once you’ve settled in the gameplay and figured out how advance through the levels (maybe you need a club or a crowbar to break something, maybe you need a walking robot), you’ll be troubled by the rather frustrating controls the game has to offer. You control your hero (named Maxwell) via the stylus, where you point to an area on the screen, and he’ll run to it. But it’s far too easy to point a few pixels too far, and see yourself walk into certain death. More »
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Braid coming to PS3 November 12

The highly successful platformer Braid, which has already won the hearts and minds of Xbox 360 and PC gamers, will find its way to the PS3 next week, on November 12. The game was released on the Xbox 360 over a year ago, and on the PC via digital distribution earlier this year. The PS3 version will carry the same price tag as the other versions; $15.
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A chance to meet Uwe Boll

Uwe Boll, the infamous German filmmaker with smash hits, sorry, flops such as Alone in The Dark and Bloodrayne, will be available for photographs and signing in Van Nuys, California for two hours on Nov. 7, at the Spudic Movie Empire, where his film “Postal” will have a few screenings.
“Hold your wee for a Wii” gets $16m awarded by court
Remember the infamous stunt a radio station pulled off a few years ago, when the Wii was in shortage? The KDND-FM radio station offered the winner of the “Hold your wee for a Wii” contest a Wii console, all the contestant had to do was to hold their wee, or urine. Sounds easy, right? Well, no.
Contestant Jennifer Strange died of water intoxication, and her family sued the parent company of the radio station, Entercom Sacramento LLC. Today, the court ruled in favor of the family, awarding them $16.5 million in damages.
Nintendo announces DSi XL

Nintendo has gone ahead and confirmed various rumors of a new DSi with larger screens, by officially revealing the DSi XL, which the console will be called in Europe. The new console will have 4″ screens instead of the regular 3.25″, and the whole system will be substantially larger (as you can see above) and will even include a full sized stylus. So far the console has only been announced for Japan (as the DSi LL) and Europe (as the DSi XL), but we expect a North American announcement to come shortly.
Mini Ninjas review
Since Team Fortress 2 popularized the cartoonish look, many games have followed suit, most noticeably Battlefield Heroes and a few indie titles. Another game has joined the club, the not-so-serious Mini Ninjas, which, for a developer like IO Interactive, is certainly new grounds. IO is mostly known for the Hitman franchise, so few might be skeptical in how the developer handles a title meant for a far younger audience. Rest assured, the young audience will probably love Mini Ninjas, while the mature one will find aspects of the game enjoyable as well.
The story of Mini Ninjas is set in ancient Japan, where a Ninja Master sends out his students to investigate an Evil Samurai Overlord, but the students get captured. The Master sends his last two students, Hiro and Futo, who set off after the Evil Samurai Lord, who has used his powers to turn ordinary animals into his henchmen. The story is very similar to classic Samurai and Ninja movies, and especially Samurai Jack, if you ever crossed the cartoon series. More »
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