Here I was under the impression that the disc-based Borderlands add-on pack bundle was already out and had been out since late last month. Whoops! It turns out that retail won’t be getting a dose of “The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned” or “Mad Moxxi’s Underdome Riot” until April 6 (April 9 for our international friends).

The two-pack collection costs $19.99, so you won’t be saving any money versus buying the digital download copies. Also, it’s only going to be available in the following flavors: PC and Xbox 360.

It’s nice to see this retail package for videogame collectors and people who don’t have reliable Internet access, for sure. I have to wonder, though — does this mean Gearbox will only do one more DLC pack so “The Secret Armory of General Knoxx” can be bundled up, or are there more on the way beyond that?

Via Destructoid

Take one part Wave Race, mix it with some Tony Hawk and Smash Cars and you get Creat Studios’ next PSN game, Wakeboarding HD. The game has you snatching all sorts of collectibles while you navigate the choppy, trap-filled waters left in your jetski’s wake. Stunts seem to be a crucial aspect of getting a high score, as is trying to keep an “action chain” alive throughout each race.

Wakeboarding HD will be available on March 18th in Europe and March 25th in North America for $14.99. Check out a trailer after the break.

Continue reading Wakeboarding HD splashes onto PSN this month

Wakeboarding HD splashes onto PSN this month originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 15 Mar 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Via ps3fanboy

What do you do when a laptop breaks down three months after purchase? Get it repaired? Sell it? Or do as this Chinese man did, and destroy it silently at a HP store, with not a single swear-word passing your lips? More »

Via Gizmodo

Get ready for some buyer’s remorse if you’re one of the thousands who pre-ordered an iPad last Friday: your soon-to-be new toy already pales in comparison to the $19,999 diamond-coated iPad from Mervis Diamond Importers. What you have here is a stock unit of undisclosed specifications that’s been coated with 11.43 carats of G/H color diamonds rated VS2/SI1 for clarity — not exactly top-shelf stuff but chances are you’ll be so transfixed with the amazingly beautiful user experience you won’t notice the flaws. This poor iPad is just the latest in a long line of ridiculously expensive gadgets made more luxurious (many of an Apple persuasion) and is every bit as tasteless as the rest.

World’s first diamond iPad tries to deliver that magical experience originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Mar 2010 07:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Via Engadget

Motion controls are coming and there is nothing you can do about it. They’re coming to your favorite games too, not just new ones. With the new PlayStation Move site up and running we can check out which games will feature Move controls. Nothing much surprising there under the featured game list… wait, is that Gran Turismo 5? Well, that’s interesting to say the least. Could Move work with GT5?

Now, it should be kept in mind that this is simply under a listing of featured games on the site, so it may be that Sony is just randomly listing Gran Turismo 5 as a cool game for the PS3. However, looking over the rest of the featured games on the page, which include SOCOM 4, Move Party! and Sports Champions, they have all been confirmed as Move compatible except for Split Second and ModNation — two other racing games that could easily have motion controls. The fact is this confirms nothing, but offers up plenty of speculation.

Considering that motion controls have really only been proven with kart and arcade racers this is an interesting find. It’s even more interesting when you consider the fact that Move doesn’t really lend itself to well to being turned sideways and pushed into a plastic steering wheel. Would we be using both the Move and its sub controller to drive or simply grabbing the light bulb end and steering that way? Would the latter even work considering the light is what the PlayStation Eye picks up on?

Even more importantly, do Gran Turismo fans even want this? I can hardly believe it would add to the realism of the racing no matter how 1:1 the controls are. Do you want waggle with your Gran Turismo?

Gran Turismo 5 works with PS3 Move? [CVG]

Via Destructoid

Last week, Infinity Ward announced that a cure for Modern Warfare 2 “mapathy” would be coming to Xbox Live on March 30th. Infinity Ward’s Robert Bowling guested on the most recent episode of Xbox Live’s Major Nelson Radio to provide details of the “Stimulus Package” map pack, and they confirm the leak from a few weeks ago. But don’t get excited just yet.

According to an Xbox Live Marketplace listing, the Stimulus Package will comprise five levels: three all-new arenas, and two that are “slightly reworked” versions of “fan-favorites” from the original Modern Warfare:

New maps:
• “Bailout,” a multi-level apartment complex
• “Storm,” an open industrial park littered with heavy machinery
• “Salvage,” a snowy junkyard fortified by stacked debris and crushed cars

Modern Warfare maps:

• “Crash,” a war-torn urban environment
• “Overgrown,” which features a massive dry creek bed

Activision and Infinity Ward have the audacity to charge 1200 Microsoft Points — i.e., $15 — for the map pack. This is outrageous enough when you consider that they priced the Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare ”Variety Map Pack” at $10 for four maps. But when you realize that you’re paying 50% more and you’re getting one fewer new map, well, then it becomes somewhat infuriating, if you ask me.

I’m sure Activision and Infinity Ward are charging this much because they know that people will pay it, if reluctantly. Let’s do the math that they likely did: the MW2 user base consists of more than 25 million players, so even if only 20% of them buy the Stimulus Package, that’s still $75 million of revenue.

I certainly won’t be forking over the 15 bucks for these maps when they come to the PlayStation Network at the end of April. Will you?

Modern Warfare 2 Stimulus Maps Priced at $15 [1UP]
XBLM listing reveals 5 maps, 2 CoD4 remakes in MW2 ‘Stimulus Package’ DLC [Joystiq]
Show #353: Wil Wheaton, MW2 Stimulus Package and Supreme Commander [Major Nelson]

Via Destructoid

Via Gizmodo

While it’s certain to be the best game this week about playing fictional arcade shooters, singing karaoke with dates from hostess clubs and hitting gangsters with street signs, how did Kazuma Kiryu’s latest saga fare under more common rubrics?

• IGN (8.5/10): “You’re getting this intense story about Japan’s seedy underbelly that’s set in an open world where you can take all sorts of side quests, but as you do so, random battles are popping up, you’re earning experience points so you can level up your moves, and you can take stuff from your extensive inventory list and craft new weapons and armor. There are no cars or chocobos, but you see where I’m going with this — one minute you’re slamming a crowbar into a guy’s face or tearing off a fingernail with pliers, and the next minute, you’re taking photos to blog about or on a fetch quest to find a certain fish.”
• GameSpot (8/10): “While the pace and events of the story are enough to propel you towards its conclusion, the non-story peripheral content gives Yakuza 3 a welcome sense of diversity. There are more than a hundred side and hitman quests that allow you to do everything from carrying ice cream for a father who has overpurchased, to playing UFO Catcher claw machines in the arcade, to chasing down a bag snatcher, to offering financial advice to a man deep in debt and precariously perched on the edge of a bridge.”
• Eurogamer (8/10): “From the publisher that brought us Streets of Rage, Virtua Fighter and Shenmue, Yakuza is essentially a mashup of all three, which is hardly surprising but does mean it’s the stuff of Segaphile fantasies. Liberally sprinkled with their genius, it’s the grateful beneficiary of some of their most satisfying elements, in a context which delivers a uniquely Japanese — and uniquely Sega — flavour.”

Metareview: Yakuza 3 originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 12 Mar 2010 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Via ps3fanboy

PlayStation Move requires only 2MB of RAM, developers breath sigh of relief originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 13 Mar 2010 05:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Via Engadget

We already know how Yakuza 3 is blatantly better than Final Fantasy XIII, but it turns out that it could have been even more blatantly better, because some folks have reported that SEGA cut much more content out of the game than was originally revealed.

It wasn’t just the hostess bars and the obscure history trivia minigame that were cut out, it seems that the mahjong, shogi, “loser song” minigames were axed, as well as dozens of side quests. Estimates are placed at about 13% of the content available in the game’s first 6 chapters were absent from the English version of Yakuza 3.

And it’s not just a problem of most players not knowing what they’ll miss. Many of those sidequests are worth experience and cashed used to buy upgrades and items, potentially making the game more difficult or grind-heavy.

I don’t really understand why they had to go and do this. Why were they concerned about releasing the game ASAP? Were they in that much of a hurry to get steamrolled by Final Fantasy XIII and God of War III? And it’s not as if cutting content suddenly makes an already very Japanese game more appealing to western audiences. After all, it was the constant whining by Japanophiles like myself that convinced them to bring the game over in the first place. Sega’s continuing inability to properly gauge its audience is maddening.

All that said, I’m just glad Yakuza 3 is happening at all. There’s plenty more content available to play, even with the cuts, and I encourage everyone who’s interested to take the plunge. If nothing else, you’ll get a good game, and Sega might be convinced to bring Yakuza 4 over in a more complete state.

Euro Yakuza 3 sees huge content cuts [CVG]

Via Destructoid