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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StarCraft Chronicles

The fan base for StarCraft is one of the largest ever seen. It's no surprise then that when Blizzard canned Ghost and fails to offer any other mentions of the Universe, the community'll take it into their own hands. Introducing, StarCraft Chronicles, a CGI movie in development by the fans. They're still in the early stages and looking for various skilled fans willing to work for free, but it's there. I'd love to offer my skills as a 3d architecht, but remembered I don't even know how to spell it right. Maybe I could be like Andy Circa (Circas? Circus?) and run around in leotards pretending to be something cool!

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Castle Crashers Coming to XBLA

Several of the top requested XBLA titles have been X-Men, TMNT and other 4 player Beat-em-ups. Looks like the alot of prayers have just been answered as it's been confirmed that Behemoth, creaters of Alien Hominoid will be bringing (along with the aformentioned Alien Hominoid) an exclusive new title, Castle Crashers to the Arcade. The game looks great, 4 players, side-scrolling, beating-em-up?! Not to mention it's amazing artistic style. This is going to be one of the most succesfull XBLA titles yet. Don't believe me? Check te video and see for yourself.

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Texas Hold'em Un-Free!

In an interview with Joystiq.com, Greg Canessa (PD for the XBLA program) announced that Texas Hold'em will unfortunately not be free, contrary to previous statements. It would appear that the lawyers couldn't deal right with RiverBelle Casino for the advertising rights, so instead it looks like we'll be paying 400-800 MSP for it. Still a fair deal if you ask me. Greg didn't want to leave on a completely sour note so he mentioned that the game will attach a bankroll number to your gamercard and explained that the more money you get you can "buy" into higher tournaments and such, loose it all and you're back at the bottom. While this isn't terribly fascinating, the mention that it's attached to your gamercard is intriguing, what if there were a whole line of casino games? could your bankroll stay between them?

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Nintendo Wii Site Blooper

Looks like Nintendo messed up for a minute as 3 hidden webpages became available leaking a bit of new information. Smash Bros Brawl (YAY!) and Tony Hawk's Downhil Jam (yay...) will be playable online using the NiWiFi Friends Code system. They're also expanding their Wii Compilations (see Wii Sports) with WiiMusic, possibly calling the line WiiParty Not a bad name if you ask me). More info was added about the Wi-Fi service, including the mention of it being free, and Fire Emblem Wii was confirmed, but the sites were quickly torn down leaving only 2nd hand reports. I presume the news will be announced officially soon.

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Portal Video Surfaces

When I heard Portal was going to be a new puzzler I had no idea it was like this! I was imagining some sort of small app, but this is amazing. This has potential for game of the year!If you thought Prey's portals were cool Valve breaks all the boundries! This is unbelievable.

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Animal Crossing: The Movie

Looks like the animated (Japan only for now) Animal Crossing film is well under wya. Their website has gone up and a few images have been posted up. I can't read Japanese, but it looks like there's a female protagonist. But most importantly the leafe on Tom Nook's apron aligns perfectly with his little racoon nether region.

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Live 10k Club

As you can clearly see on my gamercard in the sidebar, I recently broke 10,000 Gamerscore. To my surprise a few days later I recieved a strange message, inviting me to join an exclusive website available only to those 10k and above. It's a neat little community. Decent people on the (mostly quiet) forums, no little kids and even a game store that offers some discounts. It's great being recognized for my awesomeness. Check out the site here.

Game With Fame: Athena Twin PMS

I finally decided to give Live's "Game With Fame" a try and managed to score a few games with Athena Twin from the PMS clan. She was really nice, and we played a few rounds of Joust. Well, we tried to play a few rounds of Joust. I'd make a private game and invite and as we started the screen just locked in this evil cavern. I just stared as it looked straight back at me and into my soul. We didn't let that stop us though, connected a private chat and after several tries we finally managed it. Needless to say she stomped my sorry ass, but we had a great time working as a team and even earned a couple of achievments doing it!

The Evil Cavern of Doom!

Small Games Sunday: Cake Mania

Developer: Sandlot Games
Cost: 1-Hour Demo / $19.99 (USD)

Although it's another point and click frenzy game Cake Mania has one of the better stories. You play Jill grandaughter to small business bakers. As she returns from culinary school she finds that a big-box company has bought the land where the shop is and she must raise enough money to save her grandparents business. It's very similar to Root Beer Tapper, but with pastry. This game proves while it may be a piece of cake to bake a pretty cake, pleasing a customer may not always be so easy.

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New Games This Week

Hitting store shelves this week:

Xbox360:
NCAA Footbal 07
Cloning Clyde

Xbox:
NCAA Football 07

PS2:
Monster House
NCAA Football 07
Super Dragon Ball Z

PSP:
NCAA Football 07
Miami Vice: The Game
Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth

GameCube:
Monster House

DS:
Monster House

GBA:
Monster House

PC:
Wildlife Park 2
Atlantis Quest

Gears of War Theatrical Trailer

Miami Vice, Pulse, A Scanner Darkly, Clerks 2, and Little Miss Sunshine. What do tyhese movies have in common? Before each begins you'll catch a short trailer for the upcoming Gears of War. All the footage is old, but it's interesting that more games are doing this. New Super Mario Bros. the most recent to memory's got me thinking if video games should hae abigger on-screen presence advertising. Does it really make a difference? Personally I can't say because by the time I see a commercial for it I've reported on the game months ago, but what about you, the laymen. Have you ever seen a game commercial and been affected? Persuaded? Desuaded?

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Team Fortress 2 Art Revealed

After yesterday's announcement that Half-Life 2 is coming to the next-gen consoles they've followed up by sending Joystiq a capture of what the new Team Fortress Classic art is going to be like. Cartoony indeed, I'm not sure if I like it though. I'll reserve judgement until I see the environments.

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Want 13 Months FREE Xbox Live Gold?

Xbox Canada's cooked up a great promotion to bring people onto Xbox Live. All you have to do is get an Xbox 360, and transfer your old Xbox Live account. They'll send you a FREE 13 month Gold card just for joining the next-generation. But hurry, offer's ending July 31. Check the Source for more details.

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Half-Life 2 to Xbox 360 & PS3

With the less than stellar (that's an understatement) sale of the console version of Valve's Half-Life 2, it looks like they've decided to give it another shot. At EA's summer press event Valve announced that it will be releasing a retail version of the game that comes bundled with HL2, Episode 1 &2, Team Fortress 2 and a brand new title, Portal. Also, Team Fortress 2 will be given an artistic update, featuring cartoonish spy-like graphics (ala No One Lives Forever). Expect Downloadable Content to follow the episodic story on the XBLMP.

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DS Lite Stress Test

Some guys went to a Wal-Mart and decided to see how hard they could press a touch screen before it cracked. Results? They couldn't. I've said it before, Nintendo makes high quality shit.

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School Orchestra Does Halo

A while ago Bungie started selling the Halo orchestral music to schoolboards, this school however was a few steps ahead when on e student made copies for the whole ensemble, here's a video of them performing it at a concert.

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Alan Kotok Dies

You may not know his name, but you should. Alan Kotok was one of the few guys that worked on Spacewar, the world's first video game. He also invented the first joystick. News has just broken today that he died in May. He will be missed.

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Konami Code Works on XBLA Frogger

Chief Zando reminded me that Frogger was a Konami game, so I gave the XBLA version I bought today a test. Turns out if you hit "Arcade Mode" and then punch in the code (up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, Start) you get to play as a GIANT Frogger. Pretty cool eh?

Xbox Live Arcade Party-in-a-Box

The Xbox Live team has thrown together a lovely promotion for the announcement of the Xbox Live Arcade Wednesdays, a free "Party-in-a-Box". They're offering 1000 Free MS points for a few game downloads, coupons for free pizza from Papa John's and free music downloads for your favourite 80's tunes. Best of all, you only need to send an e-mail to xlmail@microsoft.com with the subject "Arcade Party". All they ask in return is a few pictures of the party and a little write-up. Check the source for further details. I've already applied and if it goes through any Toronto based readers are free to join me.

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Sony Fanboy Breaks Down

All jason16888 wanted was some good news about the PS3, it never came. It's a true tragedy, but it makes for hilarious radio show call-ins.

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Small Arms Achievement Spreads Like The Clap

Gastronaut, developers of the XBLA title Super Smash Bros. clone "Small Arms" have let loose one of the game's achievements, and it's definately one of the coolest invented so far. When the game is released, the 4 members of the Gastronaut development team will be the only ones to have it. Anyone that plays with them gets the achievement and anyone that plays someone that's recieved the achievement gets it aswell, so it's like "paying it foreward" for gamerscore. Oh, and it's aptly named "Sx Degrees of Small Arms".

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Microsoft "Announces" Xbox Live Arcade Wednesdays

ALthough the press release has been been removed at the request of MS, Gamasutra posted a notice they recieved from Big Bill's group that was intended to be released after the "Summer of Xbox Live Arcade" event in San Fransisco tomorrow. The release announced that starting tomorrow (!) every Wednesday a new arcade game will be available on marketplace. they also announced their starting line-up for the next few weeks. Unfortunately for Microsoft many early readers copied the post so, here's the complete press release a day early:
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Starting today, Xbox Live Arcade users will now go live on Wednesdays at 0800 GMT (Midnight Pacific) to download the first in what will be a series of new releases.

The program will start with a release of Konami's 1981 arcade classic Frogger. Other Xbox Live Arcade Wednesdays titles debuting in the coming weeks include Cloning Clyde, Street Fighter II Hyper Fighting, Galaga and Pac-Man. Details on pricing for each game were not immediately released.

Xbox Live Arcade's Frogger has been enhanced for the Xbox 360, and features new, enhanced artwork that matches and complements the original style. In addition, according to Microsoft, the game's audio, including sound effects and music, has been modernized to sound crisp and clear on today's high performance sound systems.

The complete schedule is announced as follows:

- July 12 - Frogger
- July 19 - Cloning Clyde
- July 26 - Galaga
- August 2 - Street Fighter II Hyper Fighting
- August 9 - Pac-Man

New Games This Week

Hitting store shelves this week:

Xbox360:
Prey
Chromehounds

PS2:
Ultimate Board Game Collection

PC:
Prey
Big Oil

Small Games Sunday: The Battle Grounds

Although technically not a small game this Half-Life 2 Mod is way too cool to not showcase. The Battle Grounds is a Revolutionary War multiplayer shooter, using the Source engines (albeit poorly) the game offers all the fun aggrivation of reloading one pellet at a time. The games play like your normal territories maps, but the old weapons and focus on team play really make it interesting. You can download it free as an add-on to your Steam account from their site or just search for it through Steam itself.

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Proof of Genius

There you have it, undeniable proff that the Chief and I are complete geniuses. Perfect Brain Ages. I wish we could say the same for our sister, but I guess we got all the good genes.

Gears of War to Be amazing

Cliffy B, in an interview with GameDaily has let loose a whole bunch of features Gears of War will have. "Instead of dying right away, you find the screen turning a blood red, and if one of your cohorts walks up, they can revive you and put you back into battle. However, this situation can be devastating if an enemy opponent comes at you, as you're left in a vulnerable spot. In that case, they can whip out a chainsaw and carve you literally in half, splattering blood everywhere and killing you off in a humiliating fashion, and then you're stuck in "watch mode" until the current match is over and your team is revived."

Real-time voice synching and voice commands will also be available when you play online. This means that when you yell "Hot damn, no-scoped your spawn camping ass!", your character's mouth will move justly. This is the coolest feature I've heard in a long time, Master Chief's going to have a hard time topping this one, since y'know his mouths under a helmet.

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Cool Fanart Wii Periphrial

This is the coolest fan periphrial I've seen so far, Nintendo Execs better take note, this thing could be huge!

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1Up Gets CoD3 Coverage

All week 1Up is posting new info on Call of Duty 3. They've already put up a new trailer with actual gameplay footage and it looks amazing, I included it below, but you really need to see the source for all the pictures and info. I thought it was just marketing baloney when the E3 trailer showed you wrestling for your life, but this trailer proves my skepticism wrong. This game looks amazing! Best part of all it's super multi-platform, so everyone can enjoy!

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PSP ad REALLY Offensive

We've seen the PSP ads that've told us to jump infront of trains and snap upskirt shots, but this one really crosses the line. I don't know what they were thinking when they came up with this, but I'm sure the board meeting went a little something like this:

"What if, and I might be talking crazy here, but what if we had an angry anorexic white chick choking a poor black guy?", pipes in one of the Sony ad execs.
"Genius, white play, white power, we promote both our causes!", exclaims the head of marketing. "Kaz'll be pleased! Now everyone don your white hoods and join me in our chant!"
"Riiiiiiidddggggeeee Raaaaacccceeeerrr!", they chant for hours before heading off to the 3:00 lynching.

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