Posts

Games really shouldn’t have special editions unless they’re truly special and/or revered, but that didn’t stop the originalAssassin’s Creedfrom arrogantly believing it deserved one.Assassin’s Creed 2carries on the tradition (along with seemingly 50% of all games these days) with its owncollector’s version, crammed to the gills with special goodies. Assassin’s Creed 2: Black Edition(zomg racist) will come shipped in “black packaging,” with each copy having its own “unique authentic holographic signature....

Yeah, this Best Buy ad forPrince of Persia: The Forgotten Sandskind of sucks. It starts with an obnoxious soundtrack that’s soon supplemented by an even more obnoxious voiceover. But there’s some good info here, if you can make it through the first five seconds without throwing up. It seems that pre-orderingThe Forgotten Sandsat Best Buy will get you an exclusive “Sandwraith” skin. Sure, it kind of makes the Prince look like Juggalo, I’ll give you that....

Not because it looks bad or anything, but because it lookssoeffing goodthat I want to personally hold Ken Levine at gunpoint and force him to release the game a month early. Honestly, who would it hurt? But in regards to the actual video, my goodness — did youseewhat he did with the fire and electrical plasmids? Or how he repositioned the trap? Or how he dealt with the Big Daddy? Incredible....

Walmart has a bundle for the PlayStation 3, Wii and the Xbox 360 planned. Which one is better? You tell us! The PS3 comes with a 160GB HD plusUncharted 2andMedal of Honor. You’ll also get $10 in movie credits. The Xbox 360 is for a 4GB Slim withCall of Duty: Modern Warfare 2andMass Effect 2. Walmart also plans on selling the red Wii with three games:Wii Sports Resort,New Super Mario Bros WiiandDisney Epic Mickey....

Bethesda has stated that a patch is coming next week to fix the crippling lag issues inBrink. Because this is the generation where we cannot play videogames until two weeks after we paid $60 for them. If you’re playing on PC, there are a range of unique fixes coming to deal with sound problems, graphical performance, server browsers and memory leaks. The dedicated server is getting beefed up in order to improve CPU performance....

It’s nice to see big-name games that aren’t too big for Steam. It was revealed this morning thatCall of Duty: Black Opswill be using Steamworks as its backend for both the digital distribution and retail versions. So, support for automatic updates, achievements, offline play — that sort of thing. There’s currently a humongousBlack Opssite skin for the Steam store, so clearly someone is pumped about this collaboration. I guess they can make up for my lack of enthusiasm....

Unsure what that means? You’re not alone. Unfortunately, Hirshberg also commented “We’re not going to give much more detail until we have something to show. That’ll be later in the year.” “If you’re a sports fan, there are lots of ways for you to connect with that hobby, that passion, not just on the day that the games are played, but throughout the week, and we wanted to give [Call of Dutyplayers] real entertainment value....

All is quiet on the “historic fighters” Capcom front. In a conversation withVG247, US business chief Chris Svennson said that Capcom is thrilled with the performance of their recent fighting game titles, but they are not working on anything — a follow-up or DLC — at the moment. Of course, the developer is open to doing more with the successful titles in the future. “I’ll be honest: right now we have nothing in development,” Svennson said, “but we’ve been pleased with how our fighting games have performed and our re-releases have performed, so I’d be shocked if we didn’t explore that further....

Those that have never been to the Consumer Electronics Show may think it to be an exciting event. It isn’t. And if you’re a gamer, it’s even more of a drag. It’s really just miles and miles of tech that you don’t care to look at. Honestly, it all starts to look the same after awhile. I always run into the devout tech geek that swears that they’d love to attend....

Just when you thought Microsoft wasn’t freakishly interested in nabbing timed exclusivity for high-profile game add-ons — wait, why would youeverthink such a thought? — we find out at CES that the company has made sure Xbox LIVE will receive the initialModern Warfare 2DLC packs first. We’ll have to wait until we get closer to the DLC’s spring release to find out more details, but for now, we can look back at what’s been said by Infinity Ward on the add-on front....

Champions Onlineis an interesting beast. Made by Cryptic Studios, the original team behindCity of Heroes, they have a high pedigree of making superhero based MMOs. I mean, if you check out my preview, as well as my interview with Jack Emmert, the Chief Creative Officer of Cryptic, you’ll know they aim high to makeChampions Onlineinto the definitive superhero experience, allowing players to make and be whatever type of superhuman they want....

Two (proper) installments ofThe Simswith countless expansion packs and these things still creep the hell out of me. This video is doing nothing to change that assessment as we watch Sims change body shape, features and clothes and dance just enough out of unison to suggest that they’re all individual despite carrying out exactly the same motions. The options look pretty varied, though, and I dig the architectural designs they’re showing off here....

The law is sometimes a slow and ponderous beast, but it eventually makes up its mind. Way back at the end of 2008, the Chicago Public Transit systembanned M-rated gamesfrom being advertised on the sides of buses and the like. In reaction to this,the ESA sued. Flash-forward to now and we finally have some action in the case, and it appears to be a win for gaming. While the case has not been decided yet, the ESA has reported that the courts have issued an injunction into the ban on the ads....