Posts

Pokémon SoulSilverandHeartGoldlaunched this Saturday in Japan, and already people arefinding waysto cheat. The image above is somebody using the Pokéwalker — a pedometer that’s bundled with the DS remakes — in a nefarious manner, cheating both Nintendo and his own physical fitness in order to win at games while failing at life. The Pokéwalker transmits data to your DS, measuring your real-life footsteps and translating them to in-game rewards. Theoretically, it’s a great way to promote walking and getting gamers up on their feet....

Breakoutis a perfect example of how the simplest games can be the most timeless. In all its many varied forms, it’s still the same wonderful, basic experience of breaking blocks and moving on. Today, a new PSP Mini game offers yet another version. CalledBreakQuest, the game features a hundred different levels of block destruction and a physics system that the press release affirms is the bees knees. I’m not sure what kind of previously unknown physics this has that every prior game in the genre did not, but I suspect that it has something to do with collisions....

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata thinks that the recent trend of game publisher downsizing could help them out, and his points kind of make sense. He says that publishers are backing the more popular consoles, and not necessarily the most powerful ones. “A number of major software manufacturers are reporting that they are experiencing a financially challenging time or that they will be scaling down their operations,” commented Iwata in a recent press conference....

The episode ends with Doug coming back into Jeremy’s life thanks toCall of Duty 4. Is their friendship really back or is this some clever plan by Doug for another backstabbing. What do you think?

Okay chap and chapettes, the results fromyesterday’s feeding frenzyare in and I’m ready to announce the lucky spammers who’ve got themselves a beta key forEnemy Territory: Quake Wars. Given that things got a little messy with the low-numbered posts, if someone got a second number, then the prize for that number has been shunted to the next new name after their first win. Still with me? Good. 7 –iNerd 33 –BlindsideDork...

Strap yourself in folks, because we have an utter shocker for you. Microsoft has turned the industry on its head by making thesurprise predictionthatResident Evil 5andFinal Fantasy XIIIwill sell more Xbox 360 copies than PS3 copies. Gamespotasked the “big three” companies how they interpret February’s sales numbers. Nintendo and Sony both spoke highly of the industry, looking at the rising game sales of last month as evidence that videogames are still proving rather resilient to the current economic troubles....

I boughtTetrison PlayStation Network when it launched awhile back. Don’t look at me like that, I really likeTetris. Now, Electronic Arts has announced, it’s getting a 3D update. Yes, that’s right, the PS3 version ofTetristouting 5.1 Dolby Sound and 1080p visuals is now all up in your grill. That is, of course, if you have a 3D television. I do not, and I’m not sure thatTetrisis going to be the game to get me to rush to Best Buy for an upgrade....

In his weekly “Rev Rants” series, Anthony Burch discusses game design while unsuccessfully attempting not to twitch like a maniac. In a specific sense, this week’s rant is aboutArkham Asylum. In a larger sense, it’s about the importance of unity between character and gameplay scenario. Not in aPrototype, I’m-a-hero-in-cut-scenes-and-Hitler-through-gameplay sort of way, but more in a the-ending-of-Arkham-Asylum-was-bad-for-these-reasons sort of way. I am alsoturbo-retardedand about half the background footage is the size of a postage stamp....

Do you remember the awesome water effects ofBioShock? Did you ever see that, and wonder what it would be like to play a game designed entirely to show those effects off, to the point where it gets in the way of the actual gameplay? Did you then want that imagined game to be one of the worst XBLA games released this year? If so, then you are in for an absolute treat becauseHydrophobiawill have you covered....

Want to help Harmonix celebrate the release of the tenth anniversary of Slipknot’s albumIowa? Set to coincide with the re-issue ofIowathis Tuesday, you can expect to find a single track from each of the band’s four albums; those beingSlipknot,Iowa,Vol. 3 (The Subliminal Messages)and finallyAll Hope is Gone. You know, I lived in Iowa for a good amount of time and I’ve gotta say it’s not too bad. It’s boring and there’s not much to see at all, but hey, it’s pretty peaceful....

No doubt inspired bySumma’s recent relocation, Rockstar games has announcedMidnight Club: Los Angelesfor the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. There’s not much information on the game, as the press release (which you can read after the jump) couldn’t be more vague. I’ve decided to extract the important information for Destructoid readers, so that we can all get a better sense of what to expect from Rockstar’s next-gen racer: –The game will “once again push boundaries and expectations,” re-defining the experience of street racing....

The more I hear, the less I think that Microsoft has a standard way of dealing with Xbox 360 replacements after the dreaded Red Ring of Death. I’ve seen and heard everything from two-week turnaround times to multi-month bitchfests, with replacements varying from ones that break again in a month to brand new systems. Should you want to avoid all of this hassle, you could just do what one disgruntled Xbox 360 owner did: email Bill Gates....

The Daily Mailis at again. Without any real videogame controversy in the British news lately, the tabloids are once again having tomake their own up. This time, it’sScrabblefor the DS, teaching children awful, awful words that will destroy Great Britain. According toThe Fail, Tanya Carrington gave her eight-year-old son Ethan a copy of the game to improve his vocabulary. The game certainly made some improvements, teaching him the word “tits” and “f*ckers....