A resounding “Bang” detonated across the scene followed by the words “Head Shot!” - shortly there after a small chime rings signaling achievement/trophy/medal unlocked. These  aforementioned achievements cloud our vision and poison the enjoyment and purity of the games themselves.

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#1 - The Triforce

(From The Legend of Zelda series, this legendary item grants wishes to
those who touch it)

This is my easy everything in one item….seeing as it grants wishes - I just can’t conceive of what exactly I’d wish for at this point.   Obviously though, having wishes granted is top notch.

#2 - Portal Gun

(As seen in Portal - creates two portals, an entrance and an exit)

http://www.wegame.com/view/portal_cup_of_tea/

Not just for getting from point A to point B….As is evidenced in this picture

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August 13th, roughly two weeks after the similar Xbox Live release (Fuel for the console wars).   While I waited it out simply to use the more responsive D-Pad on the PS3 controllers…this sort of staggered release is rather bogus, especially for a download title.   According to JC Fletcher (as the link he posted to the evidence as of this post is no longer available) what  PSN users are going to receive in compensation is an exclusive boxed retail package which “will release on August 13 for $19.99 ($5 more than the cost of the game) and include a redemption code (obviously), a DVD case, a disc containing exclusive wallpapers and other media, an 8-page manual, one month of free access to Marvel Digital Comics, and 2,000 Capcom Unity points, which are used on the Capcom site to participate in auctions.”   I have been hearing this information floating around ever since Gamestop originally listed it in thier computers.

See the original post here: http://www.joystiq.com/2009/06/24/gamestop-lists-ps3-only-retail-box-for-marvel-vs-capcom-2/

Update via my co-worker T Collins: “The Retail box only has the game code and 1 month of Marvel Digital comics. Everything else was taken out. But they lowered the price to 14.99″

- More information and images from the Capcom site after the jump -

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Demon’s Souls

After reading about how old-school punishing this game is….I was deeply intrigued especially when I read an article (http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3172516) detailing a 3 point gap (9 to 6) between two of Famitsu’s reviewers where the quotes that Nick Des Barres points out - the reviewer on the low end simply complains about inaccessibility and difficulty where as the other reviewer finds it to hearken straight from the retro days and to be extremely rewarding…”The basis of this game is trial and error… the lack of checkpoints in the stages is punishing,” wrote Leona Ebihara, while Sugashi Kawada said, “Since death means the end in this game, I might compare it to an expert chess problem.”   After reading that I find myself greatly amused as it has become so commonplace in games these days for ‘death’ to not mean ‘game over’ or ‘the end’ to a point where you can even say that “death means the end in this game” as death is no longer an end in games.

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“Morality” and storylines driven by players’ choices have seemingly become all the rage in videogames these days. A convention that used to be limited to, traditionally, the realm of western RPGs (Bioware’s Baldur’s Gate series were my first exposure to the idea of being “good or evil” in my young gaming career), with the continual bleeding together of genres you will probably find yourself confronted with moral choices in Unreal Tournament 2k10. However, the novelty of “moral choices” is quickly wearing off, as, with most innovations, the industry’s trend for “me-too” has lead to a lot of cut-and-dry, simplistic renditions of morality. So, for the first edition of a new series of posts called “Thinking About Games,” I’d like to explore the problem of morality in games. What’s being done right, what’s being done wrong, and what could lead to innovations for its usage in games?

Two warnings before the jump: First of all, since I’ll be talking about specific instances of games, there will be spoilers (sometimes major) within this post. I’ll be sure to introduce the game I’m speaking of before throwing out plot points, but be aware that even recent games (such as inFAMOUS) are fair game here. Last, but not least: tl;dr. Read more

We may be poor college students/unemployed college graduates and thus unable to go to E3, but through the magic of the internet we can see the big press conferences IN REAL TIME! Thus, like every other gaming site on the internet, we will be live-blogging the big press conferences. Why watch our liveblog instead of a so-called “professional” site’s? Because we’ve got Nate Gamer, dammit.

Here’s our liveblog schedule:

Monday, June 1st:
Microsoft’s Press Conference: 10:30 am PST (1:30 PM EST)
EA’s Press Conference: 2 pm PST (5 pm EST)

Tuesday, June 2nd:
Nintendo’s press conference: 9 am PST (12 pm EST)
Sony’s Press Conference: 11 am PST (2 pm EST)

Many of you have played one of The Behemoth’s more well-known constructions, like Castle Crashers or Alien Hominid.  I would wager, however, that few of you modern gamers are aquainted with Dad ‘n Me, a far earlier collaboration between artist Dan Paladin and Newgrounds creator Tom Fulp.

On Newgrounds, where Sturgeon’s Law is always in effect, the works of Paladin and Fulp are part of the 10% content that is worth dying for.  While you’re waiting for your XBLA remake of Turtles in Time (NSFW; odd it should be that way since it’s a link to this site), give Dad ‘n Me a shot.  It can be methadone to the heroin that is Turtles, holding you over until you can feel the potency of the real fix.

In Dad ‘n Me, players take control of a little skull-faced bruiser who’d like nothing more to visit terrible, bestial violence upon the hapless children of his neighborhood.  He’s been egged on by his father, presumably, who hails from one of this design team’s even older works, Chainsaw the Children.  Like father like son, I suppose.

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Aside from the rather stellar adaptation of Resident Evil 4 for Wii, last Tuesday there was an influx of a couple more Gamecube titles released on the Wii with Pikmin and Mario Power Tennis. Obviously Nintendo continues its profiteering with a trend of re-releasing titles. Of course, none of that holds a candle to the cash cow Nintendo is reaping in with distributed ‘shovel-ware’ and brand marketing muscle ‘casual appeal’ of the Wii.

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The Killzone 2 demo went live today for anyone who pre-ordered the game through GameStop and got a code to download the file. I didn’t pre-order with GameStop, so I didn’t have one of those codes. So I made a new profile on my PS3, and told the Playstation Network that my alter-ego lived in the United Kingdom. On the UK Playstation Network it just so happens that the demo is both live and free, with no GameStop intermediary. After a terrible, three-hour download that I chalked up to over-burdened servers, I finally booted up the demo.

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Rumors of the demise of EGM and the sale of 1UP.com to various suitors have floated around the interwebs for awhile, but now, unfortunately, it has come to pass: 1UP.com has been officially bought out by UGO, resulting in a enormous rash of firings. Many other blogs have covered this event well, so instead of just copy-pasting their hard work for the sake of site-hits or content, I’ll merely link to three stories that I feel are most pertinent. Said links and my personal feelings on the 1UP “fallout” after the jump. Just a warning: it’s pretty long.
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