In many ways, THQ’s Gamer’s Day that took place last night at San Francisco’s Terra nightclub remind me a bit of the “old” E3. I’m speaking about cramming too many people into a cramped space, lining them up to play games they couldn’t hear, and having developers yell at them about various features of stated games. It’s not necessarily the best way to have a handful of gaming journalists experience some of your games for the first time.

But if it’s analogous to the videogame industry conventions of old, it’s only proper that I pick a game of the show, and that honor has to go to Red Faction: Guerilla. The third game in the Red Faction series brings players back to Mars fifty years after the events of the first game, where players will have to battle against (and ultimately overthrow) a militant Earth Defense Force. In a surprise turn, the game tosses out its first-person roots and goes the third-person open-world route, while taking its “destroy anything” GeoMod technology to the next level.

Believe me when I say this — the destructibility found previous Red Faction titles, or even the huge destruction found in Midway’s Stranglehold, is kid’s stuff compared to what you’ll see in Guerilla. Put bluntly, you’ve never been able to f**k up a world like you’re going to be able to when Red Faction: Guerilla ships in 2009, and man … it feels great.

More details after the jump.

Via Destructoid

Share This

Share This

It’s really just a bizarre twist of fate that I happened to have a chance to play both Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto IV and Volition’s Saint’s Row 2 during the same week. Volition’s near-launch Xbox 360 open-world driving/shooting/crime-spree simulator was a solid title, but garnered more than a few comparisons to Rockstar’s now classic series. Some went as far as to call it a “good Grand Theft Auto ripoff,” and for good reason — it kind of was.

But when Saint’s Row 2 ships to stores on August 26, gamers are going to find that those comparisons, in many ways, are no longer apt. Put it this way — if Rockstar’s this-gen iteration of GTA is a $200-a-head Las Vegas illusionist performance featuring Pamela Anderson, then Volition’s sequel is a balls-to-the-wall, over-the-top Coney Island sideshow starring a limbless, glass-eating female midget named Senorita Cobrita. To be clear, one approach isn’t necessarily “better” than the other, and it’s evidently Volition’s intentions for Saint’s Row 2 to be the most ridiculous gangster/crime fantasies in videogames. A faithful adaptation of violent street and gang life this isn’t.

As for the phrase “balls-to-the-wall,” it gets thrown around a lot, but in Saint’s Row 2 they’re taking it literally. Morbid curiosity forces you to hit the jump.

Via Destructoid

Share This

Share This

If you’re one of the few people on the planet who don’t already own a copy of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare — and if so, you probably either don’t like FPSes or are destitute — then Activision has just the deal for you! They’ve just shipped the Game of the Year Edition for Call of Duty 4, which was one of 2007’s top-selling games. It retails for $59.99 on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

You might be thinking to yourself, “Why should I purchase this edition over the original version, especially when I have the ability to get the old one for less than $60?” Well, here’s the skinny. Have you heard about the new map pack that just came out on Xbox Live? It costs 800 Microsoft Points (in real money, that’s ten American dollars), but guess what? The GOTY Edition of CoD 4 comes with a “token” to download the map pack (again, it’s a $10 value) for free!

The press release (after the jump) makes no mention of the PS3 version of the GOTY Edition, but if you check out its listing on Amazon.com, it states this: “The Game of the Year Edition includes a code that allows players to download the Variety Map Pack, a $10 value for free on the PlayStation Network.” So presumably, PS3 owners will be able to download the map pack for free when it comes out on the PSN in three weeks.

But there’s another special surprise for Xbox 360 owners who play CoD 4. In conjunction with today’s launch of the map pack, Xbox Live is currently hosting a Double XP Weekend. So from Friday, April 4 through Sunday, April 6, you’ll be able to work toward your next Prestige mode twice as fast! If you’re not already on Xbox Live with the new maps, hopefully you’ll be there during Friday Night Fights. Hop to it! If you don’t buy the GOTY Edition and/or download the map pack, the terrorists win!

Via Destructoid

Share This

Share This

Filed under: Sony PlayStation 3, Microsoft Xbox 360, Action, Online, Galleries

Never before has a videogame so accurately granted characters to pantomime taking a dump on a slain enemy. Years from now, when each game has a dozen user-selectable taunts built into it, we’ll all look back on August 26’s Saints Row 2 as the game that started the virtual dumping trend. And as this article was posted, in the comparison between Saints Row 2 and GTA IV, only the former could claim the virtual, pantomimed dump. Your move, GTA IV.

There’s more to Saints Row 2, and the rest of it also caters to adolescent boys (or the adolescent boy in us all). You can play co-op with a friend online and just fly helicopters, drive boats, race cars and motorcycles, and otherwise play in the updated Stillwater setting. If you want to follow the story missions–purported to be “darker” than the original by developers–you can both drop in and out of a single-player game in a way that keeps track of each players progress, so you don’t miss any content.

But, who are we kidding? THQ had fans of Saints Row at “pantomimed dump.”

%Gallery-19838%

Continue reading Joystiq impressions: Saints Row 2 (360/PS3)

Permalink

Share This

Share This

Filed under: Computer, Sony PlayStation 3, Microsoft Xbox 360, Action, Online, Galleries

At a current THQ game event, another writer asked me about the original Red Faction. I told him it was one of the first games to use destructible environments. And then as I kept speaking, I added qualifiers and backed off from that statement. Eventually, I rambled on to say it was also the first not-fully-successful game to do that in a long line of unsuccessful games. It was still cool — smashing through a window was impressive — but it didn’t give the destroy-anything sense that the developers pushed.

Due late this year, Red Faction: Guerrilla could finally deliver on that promise, although it has caveats of its own. Still on Mars, this time you play nearly the entire game above ground. I had fun smashing holes into buildings and even destroying them with a sledgehammer. But I missed the underground, mining elements of the original. If everything is supposed to be destructible, why not the ground, too?

On a technical and design level, it makes sense that a destructible ground would be a lot to ask. But it sure would be satisfying. Even without that option, Red Faction: Guerrilla could be a great game

%Gallery-19834%

Continue reading Joystiq hands-on: Red Faction: Guerrilla (360/PC/PS3)

Permalink

Share This

Share This

http://www.prizerebel.com/index.php?r=166374 above is the link to the site This site isnt a scam. it really works ive gotten a prize already myself. its a pretty good site to get free games and if you’re not into games you can place a custom order and theyll order it for you. the purpose of this video is to let all you gamers out there know you can get some free games…if you’re p…

Share This

Share This

Title.

Share This

Share This

Filed under: News, Xbox Live, Xbox Live Marketplace

Updating you from our story a few hours ago comes new information regarding the say of Xbox Live. A tiny under an hour ago Microsoft and Activision have acknowledged the issues that have plagued the Xbox Live and Xbox Live Marketplace services. A notice was posted on the Xbox.com support page as well as the above message found on the Game of the Year Map activation page for Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.

While no formal reasoning is given the community finger has points squarely on the Variety Map Pack for Call of Duty 4 that released earlier today. Although we’re assured via Twitter, “the team is aware of issues w/ LIVE” from Xbox Live’s Major Nelson, we wonder how the service will cope on April 29 as the world attempts to experience Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto IV.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Via Xbox360fanboy

Share This

Share This

Filed under: News

The devs over at Criterion must be happy, their game was received well, their upcoming DLC is looking good and Burnout Paradise, their newest game, has sold over a million units. Now whether you liked the gameplay changes that were introduced or not, this is definitely good news. Selling a million duplicates in the gaming world nearly guarantees a sequel, and this should give Criterion the opportunity to smooth over any bumps in their game formula. And, not only did Burnout Paradise sell a million units, but those sales pushed the total for the entire Burnout series to over 15 million pieces of software sold. Congrats Criterion, keep up the god work!

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Via Xbox360fanboy

Share This

Share This

Filed under: News, Videos

We saw the reveal of the newest lady in the Ninja Gaiden universe earlier this week, and now, courtesy of 1up, we bring you another cutscene with Sonia, direct-feed this time. The cutscene comes from the end of the game’s first chapter, Sky City Tokyo, and is rather similar to one from the first game. It involves Ryu saving Sonia from an enemy who needed a distraction and seemingly has bigger fish to fry.

In another extraordinary reveal, apparently the CIA is recruiting from the S&M community, as that’s who Sonia is working for to get help from Ryu to fight the fiends, who themselves are trying to resurrect the arch-fiend. As you likely have noticed, the story is rather thin, so focus on the funny things (like the reuse of the DOAX bounce physics). The only other thing of note to come out of the update was a great piece of concept art for Sonia.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Via Xbox360fanboy

Share This

Share This