You know what the best thing about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time is? Throwing enemies into the screen. Thankfully, that feature is retained in the upcoming XBLA remake. The HD remake is obviously going to be a much prettier version of the original game -- but how good does it really look? The fine folks at GameVideos have made a stellar comparison video that highlights the sleek new look of this 2.5D remake. Watch all the way to the end to see how even the voice overs have -- for better or for worse -- changed.
Doug Lombardi has told Joystiq that a multiplayer demo for Valve's Left 4 Dead 2 is planned for both the Xbox 360 and PC. According to Valve's PR guru, users who pre-order the upcoming zombie survival title at "participating retailers or [via] Steam" will gain "advanced access to the demo," which will eventually land on both platforms for all users prior to the game's November 17 launch.
Speaking with OXM at a recent London preview event, Lombardi discussed the strength of Left 4 Dead's "word of mouth," which has presumably fueled the need for a demo to the sequel. With groups calling for a boycott of Left 4 Dead 2 due to lack of content support for the original title, a demo may be the best way for Valve to prove why it believes its sequel warrants a full price tag. Although, strong pre-order numbers tell us the game is already on pace to decimate sales charts like a zombie tank.
Virtual Shackles only just appeared on the gaming webcomic scene, but has held its own in every Wrapup it's appeared on, usually netting one of the runner-up spots. However, their eighteenth strip -- a cautionary tale about the dangers of sentient camera peripherals titled "Still a Few Bugs in the System" -- managed to pull down first place in last week's WeeWebWrap. Congratulations, VirtShack! (Do you mind if we call you VirtShack? We feel so much closer to you now.)
Second place went to GameSpy's "The Life Cycle of a Videogame" (which missed top honors by a mere eight votes!) and Brawl in the Family's "The Lesson," respectively. If you've got a favorite gaming-themed webcomic to throw into the ring this week, act quickly! We'll be webcomic wrapping later today, shortly before we recklessly play with fireworks -- and after that, we may not have enough fingers left to throw any tardy entries into the fray.
Though this is a short version of the show that lacks Chris Grant and Ludwig Kietzmann, we've made up for it with Joystiq's Ben Gilbert and Jem Alexander and super special guest Wombat of Cheap Ass Gamer fame.
We're talking The Conduit, Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood and a load of other stuff. Enjoy it and have a happy 4th! Oh, and thanks to TV's Alan Black for the photoshop.
Get the podcast: [iTunes] Subscribe to the Joystiq Podcast in iTunes [Zune] Subscribe to the Joystiq Podcast directly in the Zune Marketplace [RSS] Add the Joystiq Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator [MP3] Download the MP3 directly
Hosts: Jem Alexander, Ben Gilbert, Wombat of CAG Fame and Justin McElroy
Swag Saturdays continue on this 4th of July with Atlus' first downloadable XBLA game, Droplitz. Don't know much about the game? Well, watch the video to find out how to play this puzzler.
Leave a comment telling us what XBLA game is your favorite game so far. Note: If you say Yaris, you are automatically disqualified from this contest.
You must be 18 years or older and a resident of the US or Canada, excluding Quebec. Note: In Quebec, you are legally required to like Yaris.
Limit 1 entry per person
This entry period ends at 7:00pm ET on Sunday, July 5. We'll randomly select 4 winners at that time to receive: one download of Droplitz for Xbox 360 (ARV $10.00).
Screenshots and details for Codies' Ashes Cricket 2009.
Ashes Cricket 2009 will be the first cricket game on Wii when it bowls into shops in August, and we've got some new screens.
Devs speak while Batman wrecks some villains.
Here's another video for Batman: Arkham Asylum, this time a developer diary talking about the moody setting of the game.
Seven minutes of L4D2 gameplay inside.
Here's an awesome seven minutes of actual-us-playing-in-game-footage recorded from the Left 4 Dead 2 press demo we hammered yesterday.
Contender for best-looking Wii game?.
Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles could be one of the Wii's best-looking games yet, we reckon. Why? Take a look at this new gameplay trailer.
Worms, Tiger Woods and Battlestations: Pacific.
Here we are then. This week's Xbox Live highlights include ten tons of Battlestations nose cones, Worms 2 on Xbox Live Arcade and some Tiger Woods DLC.
Grease Gets Summer Loving From 505 Games and Paramount Digital Entertainment! 505 Games Announces Global Alliance with Paramount Digital Entertainment to Develop A Video Game Based on the Iconic "Grease" Film!
Forgive us, but we haven't kept up with all our youth trends -- do kids still care about Dragon Ball? Has it become pass? Did the disastrous live-action movie kill the license forever? We're guessing the answer to that last one is no, considering how hard a fight there's been over the North American publishing rights to games based on the anime series. Now, Gamasutra reports that emerging victoriously from the kerfuffle is Namco Bandai, who has acquired the exclusive rights following a contract dispute between Atari and license-owner Funimation.
While Atari had been the original owner to the lucrative rights to publish games based on the series, those rights were challenged when Funimation entered a legal dispute with the publisher after alleging they committed certain "breaches of the license agreement" (although exactly what those breaches entailed was never revealed). But this opened the door to challengers wanting a piece of that sweet, sweet Dragon Ball pie, and Namco Bandai stepped in.
Namco Bandai's contract won't officially begin until 2010, but it appears they'll publish three Dragon Ball games this year that were in limbo during the contract dispute with Atari: Dragon Ball: Raging Blast (Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3), Dragon Ball: Revenge of King Piccolo (Wii), and Dragon Ball Z: Attack of the Saiyans (Nintendo DS).
Considering Sony only just revealed their new motion control wand at E3 last month, we're not quite sure what to make of this: Siliconera reports (via Joystiq) that Sony has patented new motion control technology that will apparently allow gamers to use any real-world object as a controller.
According to the description of this technology, it'll use the PlayStation Eye camera to read any object a player holds up to it, which will then be used to control actions in a game. One example described is the use of a U-shaped block. Although it's just a standard block, the camera can read its position, allowing the player to affect the game world depending on how the block is held. So for example, if the block is held with the U-shape pointing upward, a character in a game will turn on a lightsaber-like sword. Hold the block downward, and the laser-sword turns off.
While the u-shape block is one example given, the system can apparently use any real-world object in similar ways. It can also save these objects to profiles in order to use them later on.
In what appears to be a very concerted effort to reassure fans that the announcement of Left 4 Dead 2 doesn't mean the abandonment of Left 4 Dead 1, Valve has announced that details on forthcoming downloadable content for the original title will be released soon.
"More info will be coming shortly on the [Left 4 Dead 1] DLC," said Valve's Chet Faliszek to Shacknews. Faliszek further confirmed this DLC will arrive in addition to other forthcoming updates for Left 4 Dead, including a promised update to team-based matchmaking.
This announcement also comes in the wake of surprisingly harsh reaction to the announcement of Left 4 Dead 2 at E3 last month. Set for release only a year after the original (which is well outside Valve's modus operandi), it compelled many fans to go as far as pledge to boycott the new game out of concern that it will mean Valve's abandonment of the original title.
Fez 'GDC 2009' trailer
We saw a pretty strong hint of it back in March, but now developer Polytron has confirmed it: their perspective-shifting puzzle-platforming game Fez will be released over Xbox Live Arcade in "early 2010," according to a post on their website.
Although it was made with Microsoft's XNA development framework, Polytron has until now remained quiet on what platforms Fez would be released. The announcement post only mentions Xbox Live Arcade, but it's unclear whether this rules out a PC release as well.
For those unfamiliar, Fez is an independently developed game that combines the 2D/3D switching of Super Paper Mario with the perspective puzzle-solving of Crush and Echochrome. You can check out the video above to get a better idea of how this intriguing game plays.
The News: Sega has announced an official release date for espionage-based RPG Alpha Protocol. The game is set to hit shelves on October 6, which as previously reported puts it right in the middle of the holiday season. Sega has also added a descriptive subtitle: "The Espionage RPG."
Our Take: Alpha Protocol has us intrigued, but the title of the game doesn't seem very distinctive, and new RPGs can have a hard time catching audiences in the holiday rush. We're hoping Alpha Protocol doesn't find itself lost in the crowd. Check out our latest preview for more details on the game.
You may or may not know about this new addition to the Prince of Persia series. Ubisoft released a hands on preview at the Tokyo Game Show to reveal a bit of the play style that the new game will…
Sins of a Solar Empire was one of the best strategy games on the market last year. It took the strategy and civilization building of Galatic Civilizations and put it into a powerful RTS game. If you liked the original,…
This new PSP title should be a nice boost for starved fans of action RPGs. This new addition to the Star Ocean line should be a pleasant addition to the PSP’s lineup. There isn’t anything too groundbreaking. The combat is…
This looks like a fun little title from Nintendo. Wario is back for some old side scrolling adventures and they are all centered around the Wii’s shake ability. You basically do just about everything in the game by shaking or…
Alright. It looks like Molyneux is actually staying realistic with the game in not promising the world with this game as it approaches its release. He recently did a demonstration of the game at London and it looks fairly solid. …
Battlestations: Pacific is the sequel to the well received Battlestations: Midway. This real-time tactics and action video game was released in May of this year. Now Eidos Interactive has made known...
Monster Hunter Freedom Unite is the most recent title in the Monster Hunter franchise. The game was released in Japan as Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G, and adds a new feature of a Felyne companion,...
The Atari 7800, technically called the Atari 7800 ProSystem, is a console from yesteryear. Now completely outdated, the 7800 was once the talk of the town, with a host features over its predecessors....
Dissidia Final Fantasy was released last year in Japan to mark the twentieth anniversary of the super successful Final Fantasy series. Now Square Enix has announced that the exclusive PSP action RPG...
Cricket fans who happen to own a Wii can rejoice, as for the first time since its inception, the console will have cricket video game. Now Codemasters announces that Ashes Cricket 2009 is slated to...
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