The staff has been hard at work preparing to start recording what we like to call “The Mushroom Cloud,” MEGATONik’s new podcast dedicated to serious and not-so-serious discussion on facts that are important to gamers. We’re not talking about the latest sales figures or boring things that people in suits care about. The Mushroom Cloud will go that extra mile to give you the latest gaming news, thoughts, and enough not-safe-for-work jokes to land you in your office’s gender-sensitivity training for the rest of the week. We’re doing this for you, our readers, because we care.

We’re finishing up the details and preparing to record our first episode next week. Prepare yourself for a show that will take your questions and discuss with us live. Expect reviews, live games, and plenty of ridiculous humor that will leave you rofl-ing all over yourself. Nasty, huh?

We’ll be posting show notes and much more for the first episode in the middle of next week. Until then, let us know if you’ve got any ideas for topics, features, or live games. I promise that this podcast will be worth your time, or I’ll post embarrassing pictures of Cortez. You’ll be entertained either way.

Valve has finally provided a release date for Left 4 Dead as well as shared some interesting information about the AI systems at work in their upcoming zombie-shooter title.

In an interview with Left 4 Dead project lead Mike Booth, Booth discusses the game’s “AI Director.” The AI Director monitors what each player is doing and makes sure that there are plenty of high and low points in the action to prevent an unstoppable army of zombies. The game will also procedurally place zombies to help create the high and low points of action rather than randomly or manually placing the zombies on the map. There are a few points in the video where this feature becomes evident when a zombie rushes up behind the player to cause pain and suffering.

Turtle Rock has also released a series of videos showing the game play in action and highlighting some seriously hectic moments in game play. I’ve embedded all of the videos below after the jump.

I don’t know how you guys feel about this game, but I’m ready for some zombie killing fun. How do you guys feel about this game, and will you guys be joining me on release date? I can’t fight zombie hoards alone.

Left 4 Dead will be released November 4th for the Xbox 360 and PC platforms. Turtle Rock hasn’t revealed any PS3 details as of yet.

[via GameTrailers]

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Time to break from the Microsoft leaks to reveal some of Activision’s probable plans.

The Spider-Man game franchise has always been a favorite of mine, despite almost every other game being a total failure. Activision is making damn sure that they will release another good Spider-Man game, as their Intellisponse leak features a whopping 14 different potential Spider-Man game concepts. The concepts include making use of the Wii Balance Board and the Wii’s motion controls.

After the jump, you can view all 14 concepts with comments provided by Michael McWhertor of Kotaku.

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According to Far Cry 2’s producer Louis-Pierre Pharand, the single player campaign in the game could last up to 50 hours. While there are games that last that long (and longer), it’s usually role-playing games like Oblivion, not first person shooters like Far Cry 2. I would assume that’s because of the nature of first person shooters; they are usually fast-paced and more frantic, which means everything is a lot more packed and takes more work to create less play time. This is also what many FPS fans expect and enjoy, and a genre that is usually fast-paced could become tedious if stretched over the equivalent of more than two straight days.

However, the wording of Pharand’s claim didn’t seem as confident as many of the other numbers game producers throw around, and instead sounded more like an optimistic guess:

“Just on single alone, gamers can potentially have close to 50 hours of game play”

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A new trailer for Guitar Hero: On Tour is out, and I have to say that it just plain sucks.

It’s not very well done and it just keeps on going, so it ends up being embarrassing for everyone involved.

I know this isn’t meant to be a serious trailer, but I don’t think it was supposed to be this bad either. They are trying to sell a game, after all. They could have went with the easiest option and just put some almost naked chicks in there somewhere, or they could have followed the Guitar Hero: World Tour approach and just showed people rocking out with a list of features, both of which would have ended up a lot better than some guy picking his DS and some dumbass singing about all the features. Especially when you have the kind of features that Guitar Hero: On Tour has.

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BioShock seems to be the go-to video game for storytelling comparisons these days, and according to Carlos Ferro, Gears of War 2’s story will be even more emotionally impacting than BioShock’s. Ferro does the voice for Dominic Santiago in Gears 2, and speaking to The Official Xbox Magazine he said that Gears 2’s storytelling goes “beyond” BioShock’s.

“It’s going to be more emotionally effecting than BioShock,” he says, “a lot happens.”

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As more details about Epic Games’ Gears of War 2 hit the internet I’m finding it more difficult not to salivate at the mere thought of playing this game. In this interview, Epic’s Cliff Bleszinski talks more about the plot, chainsaw duels, and plenty more. Hit the jump for a summary of the video.
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GameTrailers.com recently posted a video comparing GRID on the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360. The only problem - according to the above video (the original has been removed from GameTrailers), not only was the “PlayStation 3″ gameplay from a PS3, so was the “Xbox 360″ gameplay. Instead of comparing the visuals of the two consoles like a so-called comparison video is intended to do, they just took gameplay from one console and by their choice of settings and what they showed made it seem like two.

While it certainly makes you wonder about GameTrailer’s integrity and bias, it also puts the validity of their numerous other comparisons into question. People have always argued over console comparison videos, sometimes doubting them (usually when their console of choice didn’t come out on top), but that didn’t stop people from trusting that the footage was at least from the console it was labeled as.

We now have one instance where that wasn’t the case, so how many others were not what they claimed to be, or were doctored or arranged to make one console seem superior? GameTrailer’s comparisons have been used by so many to fuel the fires of fanboydom, and we may never know which ones were valid comparisons and which ones were fake or at least influenced. This could have been a one time lapse of judgement (or an unusually unrestrained exclamation of console preference), but whatever credibility these comparisons had in the first place, it’s been lost.

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.

Do you like to save money? Do you think the prices of Xbox 360 games are just too damn high? Do you shop at Target? If you answered yes to these questions… well, just keep reading.

How would you like to get 10 dollars off any 360 game at Target? All you need to do is print out a coupon! Click here to download the PDF.

Keep in mind that at most Target stores, you can find a ton of clearance games at really, really good prices (for example, I’ve seen PGR4 for 14.98 (or 4.98 with coupon) recently).

[Via CheapAssGamer. Big thanks to members skube and grap3fruitman (for cleaning it up into a PDF)]

Peter Moore may not work for Microsoft anymore, but that doesn’t mean he can’t talk smack complain about Sony’s Playstation Home from his position as the President of EA Sports.

Here’s what Moore had to say about Home:

“I just wish it would ship. I [previously] questioned it a little bit, whether I’d want to wander around there. Phil Harrison showed me a demo - it’s very cool, but let’s go already. And so I’m disappointed that it’s been pushed back a little bit again.

“But I really hope it gets going and becomes that portal to the PlayStation Network and we can utilise it. But boy, I just wish we’d get going.”

While Moore may or may not still have a bias against Sony, I don’t think this quote suggests any bias. He does compliment Home, and you can’t blame him for being anxious - when something’s been delayed as much as Home, of course people just want it to finally be ready and are disappointed when it’s not.

He’s just expressing the same feeling plenty of gamers have, but his prominent position makes his opinion actually matter.

Downloadable content for games is a sensitive subject. If handled correctly it can enrich and expand a game, opening up new options, or if it’s free it can be a reward to loyal fans. Then there’s the opposite, when it costs more than it should considering the content and is only a tool for game publishers to make some quick, easy money. Like when gamers were charged $2.50 just for some horse armor - or, in this case, ninja armor.

The current offender is Microsoft, who is planning on charging 200 Microsoft Points, or $2.50, for downloadable armor in Ninja Gaiden II. While ninjas are certainly more awesome than horses, it’s still a pretty high price to pay for “new and never before seen looks,” especially when that’s the kind of stuff that most games include free, right on the disc itself. Plus, since the game isn’t even out, this could easily be included as part of the game, but instead they’ve chosen to charge for it.

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Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama talked about gaming, television, and entertainment’s effect on education and how the importance of school has to be emphasized at a recent stop in Indianapolis. He specifically made reference to Grand Theft Auto IV (you may have heard of it), although he talked about games in general as well:

“I was just catching the news this morning about Grand Theft Auto, alright, this video game, which is gonna break all records, and make goo-gobs of money for whoever designed it. Now, this isn’t intended for kids, I understand, although I promise you there will be kids who are playing it. But, those video games are raising our kids.

“It just reminded me, video culture, TV culture - across the board - middle class, upper class, working class kids, they’re spending a huge amount of time, not on their studies, but on entertainment.

“And so part of our job is gonna have to be to inspire the entire country to say how are we giving our kids a thirst for knowledge, and turning off the TV set, and getting them to be engaged and interested and really feel… that their future really does matter on how well they do in school.”

It’s true that a lot of parents try and let games and entertainment raise their kids instead of doing it themselves, and I don’t think it’s an attack on video games as much as Obama saying games shouldn’t detract from things like education. Michelle Obama, his wife, also clarified that this applied to “not just one specific game.”

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The PAL version of Grand Theft Auto IV for Xbox 360 supposedly leaked earlier today, and has shown up on torrent sites across the internet as a 6471 MB (6.32 GB if you don’t like big numbers) file released by iCON. The NFO file warns not to connect to Xbox Live until the game is released to the masses (three full times in ALL CAPS, so you better heed the warning), and even encourages people to buy the game anyway since “R* deserves it.”

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Epic Games’ president, Mike Capps, reiterated what Epic has previously said in an interview with IGN, stating that Epic won’t ever be developing games for the Wii. It’s not about the success of the platform to him, but what can be done on it. When asked whether there would ever be a time when Epic would be forced to give in and create a game for the Wii, Capps said, “no, we go forward, not back. It makes more sense for us to invest in the next-generation tech.”

As for why he believes the Wii has become so popular, he says it’s like a virus that just keeps spreading:

It’s a virus where you buy it and you play it with your friends and they’re like, “Oh my God that’s so cool, I’m gonna go buy it.” So you stop playing it after two months, but they buy it and they stop playing it after two months but they’ve showed it to someone else who then go out and buy it and so on. Everyone I know bought one and nobody turns it on. Obviously there’s a class of people who really love it and enjoy it and are getting into the games but I’m still waiting for that one game that makes me play it.

Some in our forums have shared a similar sentiment regarding games for the Wii (at least this year), but others are very excited about the upcoming games for the system. It seems that in many cases it may just be personal taste.

Capps also talks about everything from Gears of War 2, Grand Theft Auto IV, and Unreal Tournament III to the comics, paying for weapons, and Wii Fit, so if you want to hear more of what he has to say make sure to read the rest of the interview.

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