General Games 2.0

I have re-launched the site as General Games 2.0, I hope you enjoy it.

Click Here for redirect to www.generalgames.ca

Site down for a month.

THe site's going to suffer until September as myself and Chief Zando will be heading out west for vacation. Please try not to kill yourselves.

E3 Shrinks

ost of you have heard by know that something has changed about E3. The official statement is that the con is not cancelled. It is however a smaller more "intimate" experience with invite only attendance. This is royal balls for anyone who ever hoped to go to the amazing gamerfest, but makes total sense from a publisher's viewpoint. Perhaps PAX will fill the void in the near future, but look for E3 to be less than stellar forevermore.

Emergence Day: Nov. 12

It's been officially announced that Gears of War will be released November 12th, for the low-low (and promise breaking) first party price of $69.99 CAD or $79.99 CAD for the Collectors Edition. With GoW launching just short of a week before the PS3 it'll be interesting to see who's sales get hurt by who.

Sony's Playbook Filled With Torn Pages

The achievment system on the Xbox 360 has been one of the driving factors for the system. It builds competition and makes gamers desire to play more. It was such a good idea that Microsoft decided to extend it to their PC and mobile platforms with Live anywhere. Apparently they weren't the only ones who thought it was a good idea.

Introducing the "Entitlement System" Sony's attempt to recreate the thrill and reward of a flashing icon and a blipping sound effect. Players will rack up "Entitlements" by completing various objectives and it will all be kept on a player card that can be compared and updated. Sony's just brimming with originality these days...

What's next? Wiiwards?

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Small Games Sunday: Narbacular Drop

Developer: Nuclear Monkey Software
Price: FREE

Many of you have now seen the trailer for Valve's upcoming Portal game. A friend tipped me off about this one and damn he was right. This game is amazing. It takes the principal of what Portal will bring and brings it together in a free small game with level editting and a wide community base. In this you play a small princess on a quest to do something or other but for some reason find yourself trapped in a series of rooms only able to escape using a series of giant mouths that act as portals. So you teleport and ride lava turtles to safety only to be confronted with another obstacle filled room. This is a MUST DOWNLOAD NOW!! game for certain.

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New Games This Week

Hitting store shelves this week:

Xbox 360:

Street Fighter II Hyper Fighting

Xbox:

Flatout 2

PS2:

Barnyard

Flatout 2

Super Monkey Ball Adventure

LarryBoy and the Bad Apple

PSP:

Super Monkey Ball Adventure

GameCube:

Barnyard

Super Monkey Ball Adventure

GBA:

LarryBoy and the Bad Apple

Barnyard

PC:

Atlantis Quest

Big Oil

Combat Mission Anthology

Dungeon Seige II

Jaws Unleashed

Barnyard

Total War: Eras

Mahjong Towers

Poker Superstars II

Specnaz: Project Wolf

Mac:

Battleground Europe: WWII Online

Mobile:

Super K.O. Boxing

Xbox 360 Assassin's Creed Previewed

That's right, Assassin's Creed is officially coming to the Xbox 360. It has just been previewed by CVG and has been announced by Ubisoft. It looks like the drive to make money outweighed Sony's grip on exclusive rights!

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Electroplankton Creator Makes Music

Toshio Iwai, creator of Electroplankton has been secretly developing a new musical instrument. Similar to a synthesizer, a grid of 16*16 LEDs can be stroked like a harp to make music. Very natural and intuitive the instrument responds to aggresiveness of strokes and can pick up sbutlety making it just as reactive as any traditional instrument. Can't wait to see the Toronto Symphony Orchestra incorperate these.

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Windows Vista's Free Games

Gamespot's got their hands on a new update for the Vista Beta and it comes with all the little free MSN games we've grown to love. They've done a nice little roundup and all your favourites are there, Minesweeper, Hearts, Freecell and all that other nonesense, plus a few new titles. They've also done a comparison to their XP editions respectivly and do a nice job of making a big deal on such a trivial topic.

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New Games This Week

Releasing this week:

Xbox360:
Galga (XBLA)

Xbox:
Fuel
Painkiller: Hell Wars

PS2:
The Ant Bully
Sprint Cars

PSP:
Tekken: Dark Ressurection

GameCube:
The Ant Bully

GBA:
The Ant Bully
Battle B-Damon
Summon Night: Swordcraft Story

PC:
Cibilization IV: Warlords
CivCity: Rome
The Ant Bully
Nancy Drew: Danger by Design
Total War: Eras

Small Games Sunday: De Blob

Developer: Utrecht School of Arts and Utrecht University
Price: FREE
Very much inspired by Katamari Dmacy, De Blob has you playing a giant fat alien blob that's crashed into a dreary monochrome city and has taken it upon himself to race around town, running over the primary coloured citizens to absorb their pigments and spread them through the city, all while on the run from the law-abiding INK'd Agents. It's a fun simple game for the not-so-serious gamer and most will find it quite enjoyable.

Nintendo 64 Kid FOUND

Remember the N64 kid? A bunch of YTMND users found him and called him. Check the source for a recording.

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