Get excited! Tomorrow sees the release of Mass Effect: Ascension by Drew Karpyshyn, lead writer of Mass Effect for the 360 and PC. Sure, you’ll probably be tied up with Soul Calibur IV, and rightly so, but hear me out on this one.
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Now, I know that video games with some amount of sex appeal tend to sell well, but I’m pretty sure that only works if the sex appeal in question doesn’t say stupid one-liners like, “Don’t be afraid of women with muscles, boys; we are not afraid of yours.” Ugh.

Anyway, this is Gina Carano, and she’ll be playing Natasha in Red Alert 3. This is shameless, EA. I’m surprised you guys don’t just have her playing with a tiberium dildo or something…

Everybody loves contests, and here at MEGATONik, we totally get that. That’s why we’re committed to giving as much as humanly possible to our readers.

Today, the guys at EA were nice enough to provide us with a batch of demo codes for Battlefield: Bad Company that let you play the demo before it’s officially released onto XBL and PSN on June 5th.

So, what I’m going to do is, until I run out, pick one or two people who comment on this post every so often over the next day and hook them up with these codes. Just make sure your comment says whether you want it for 360 or PS3.

Easy enough, right?

WINNERS:

The first screenshots of the upcoming PC, Xbox 360, and PS3 Prince of Persia game have been released, and it’s looking great. As previously speculated and then confirmed, it’s cel-shaded, and these pictures show that they’ve done a great job giving it a nice, crisp, unique look. If I didn’t know otherwise I would think some of these were concept art (the last one is anyway), and it’ll be interesting to see how everything looks in motion.

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Here it is, the video that everyone who’s anyone has been waiting for, the debut video for Guitar Hero World Tour (also previously known as Guitar Hero IV)! The video shows players rocking out on the guitar, bass, drums and microphone, something that Rock Band aficionados will be quite familiar with. However, with the game boasting the biggest track list ever as well as the ability to create and share your own songs with other players, Rock Band might be a thing of the past!

Microsoft has released four high resolution (2935 x 1684) screenshots of Gears of War 2, from the level Assault, the same one featured in the previous gameplay video. It’s from Act One, Chapter Three, so it’s pretty early in the game.

It’s really looking amazing though, and the resolution on these screenshots really shows off the graphics and the same attention to details the first game had. From the explosion to the picture of the girl on the vehicle, everything looks beautiful.

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Wow, did you guys see all those Locusts on the screen at one point? This game is going to be amazing when it releases in November.

New Ninja Gaiden II screenshots were released today - but not just a few. No, Microsoft went all out and released more than 40 new screenshots to prepare you for the game’s release on June 3 (June 6 for you European folk).

These screenshots show plenty, from various creatures, enemies and werewolves (and flaming werewolves) to different environment and even boobs. And blood. Lots of blood. If there’s one thing almost all these screenshots have in common, besides featuring Ryu Hayabusa, it’s the extravagant and over-the-top blood spraying and spattering from every slice on every thing that can bleed. It’s surprising some of theses things even have that much blood in them - I would imagine by the time they’d lost as much blood as is seen leaving their bodies, they would be paper-white and entirely lifeless.

But this game obviously isn’t about realism - what would be the fun in that? Extravagant blood and gore has its place, and it seems to fit quite nicely in Ninja Gaiden II.
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…I’d say Fox News is going to have a fit, wouldn’t you?

With all the attention on Grand Theft Auto IV right now, it’s easy to forget that there are other games with identical similar premises. But the developers of Saints Row 2 have not forgotten, and they’ve just released some new screenshots as well as artwork that details some of the weapons you will have at your disposal to destroy everyone and everything you want (make sure to read the descriptions). Fortunately, while there may not be many screenshots, they are extremely high resolution (except for one) so every detail and point can be scrutinized and examined nice and close. I’ve also included two old screenshots, because their beautiful resolution is enough to merit their inclusion with the new ones.

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When I saw the teaser trailer for the Oneechanbara movie, I immediately knew it had potential, since putting boobs, violence, and zombies together in one epic movie seemed like the best idea since putting boobs, violence, and machines together. While the premise is almost flawless, my excitement was only based on a brief, unrevealing teaser and speculation. Now a longer trailer (embedded above) has been released, and it’s definitely looking awesome. It has all the scantily clad cowgirls and over the top, campy, bloody, violence I was hoping for and the combination of boobs, violence, and zombies should make for some good old fashioned mindless entertainment.

A while back it was announced that the Japanese hack-and-slash game OneeChanbara was being made into a movie, and now we have a brief trailer (embedded above). It may not show much, just some dark shots of the decidedly hot protagonist tilting her hat, doing expressive dance in a field, and staring at the camera, but it’s only a teaser after all.

While video game movies are notorious for just sucking in general, this one has potential. First, there’s no Uwe Boll in sight; and second, the game’s plot seems simple enough that it can’t be ruined by scriptwriters who think they know better than the people who created the game. Which brings us to where the real potential lies: the game is about a Japanese cowgirl who runs around in a bikini gorily killing zombies and other creatures with her katana.
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Nintendo has just sent word that their epic Wii fighter, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, sold 874,000 copies on launch day (March 9th) and 1.4 million units total since then in the United States alone. Apparently, this averages out to around 120 copies being sold per minute as of March 16th and it’s the fastest selling game in Nintendo’s history.

Of course this is to be expected, because it’s a really f*cking great game. This just goes to show that Nintendo should be focusing on creating more hardcore games like Brawl, instead of turning the Wii into an exercise machine. Still, I do have a strange feeling that Wii Fit is going to sell a ridiculous amount of units. I hope I’m wrong.

Full press release after the jump.

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In an interview with Electronic Gaming Monthly, Rockstar founder Sam Houser talked about the idea of a Grand Theft Auto-type MMO. He seems to think it is an intriguing idea (and I can’t help but agree), saying “it’s definitely something that we’re very keen to explore.” Not only that, but Houser says it is “very, very doable”:

“I think a subscription-based Grand Theft Auto-type game…is very, very doable and is a very, very compelling proposition.”

However, he does admit there would be definite challenges:

“I think the basic things that you can get away with in a fantasy thing–that fantasy players don’t mind doing–just wouldn’t fly for the kind of mass-market users that we really talk to.”

In response to another question statement from EGM, about the lack of successful massively multiplayer games on consoles, he refers to them as “the Holy Grail,” talking about what he believes would make it work:

“I think if you can combine the vibe and attitude and also the gameplay and the tangibility of the games we make, with some kind of–for want of a better term–MMO subscription model, I think that’s like the golden-goal kind of thing… I think this is a world that really can support it”

However, he wouldn’t want everyone just “running around and firing fucking rocket launchers,” because “having 2,000 people run around a map shooting each other, that’s just not interesting.”

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Ubisoft just started a contest where you can win a trip to Vegas, among other less glamourous and safer prizes. The Grand Prize is a three day/two night trip to Las Vegas with airfare and hotels covered. While they at least had the decency to give you a hotel room to take hookers to, their expenses are not covered and all the money you inevitably gamble away will come from your own pocket. Fortunately, however, once you’ve lost your house, money, dignity, and whatever else you once had, you’ll at least have an Xbox 360 Elite and a copy of Rainbow Six Vegas 2 Limited Edition to go back to since those are included in the Grand Prize.

The Runner Up gets a 1TB Maxtor OneTouch 4 Plus, and I’m not sure how it relates to Rainbow Six Vegas 2 but you can’t complain about an extra terabyte to store everything from porn to the illegal copy of Rainbow Six Vegas 2 you’ll probably download if you don’t win it in this contest. Ubisoft values the hard drive at $400, but Newegg.com will sell it to you for under $300.

There is one Grand Prize as well as one Runner Up, and 10 Additional Winners will get the Limited Edition of Rainbow Six Vegas 2.

Entries are accepted until 11:59pm PST March 31st, 2008, and the winner will be chosen on one of the worst days they could picked, April 1st.