Digital Chumps

Check out the screenshots and details for Chillingo's upcoming sci-fi shooter, Assault Squadron!

The upcoming gorefest gets a few more screenshots to whet our appetite further...

Check out these brand new screens from I-O Interactive's new one, Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days.

Tecmo's upcoming X360/PS3 shooter is looking good - check out the screens now and be sure to check back later today for the trailer!

Enjoy these new screenshots for Hotel Giant 2.

2K Games' new IP, Spec Ops, has some fresh screenshots the world needs to know about. Check out these images and be sure to stay tuned for continuing coverage of this exciting new title being developed by YAGER.

Check out the trailer for the game on Youtube at this location.

Capcom released new images of the upcoming SSFIV -- enjoy!

Namco has released some new screenshots for the upcoming Dead To Rights game; enjoy!

Get the latest news on Lucasarts' Star Wars: The Old Republic at this location. This update includes information on the Jedi Knight class, including a trailer, screenshots, and wallpaper.

I love epic boxart...

Here are several more screenshots from Tecmo's Undead Knights, available 9/29 for the PSP. I'll have the hands on preview up this weekend.

Lead an army of undead and be the antagonist in a new zombie title from Tecmo... I'll let the fact sheet and pics do the rest of the talking for now, but check back for a hands on preview this weekend =)

Our preview code for this new Obscure title is on its way, but while we prepare our impressions article, enjoy these screenshots!

Here's a batch of new screenshots just released by Atlus. Review copies have begun shipping as well, so that's certainly exciting!

Deep Silver has just released images of the box art for Risen, an upcoming Windows/360 title being developed by Piranha Bytes, makers of the popular Gothic games. In case you didn't know: "This epic RPG is set in a medieval world on a volcanic Mediterranean island. The "Risen" story unfolds over four engrossing chapters and will offer multiple ways for the player to develop the story by his own actions and decisions. An innovative and intuitive user control interface will support both casual and hardcore gamers. With full world streaming support, players will have a seamless experience while playing in a fully-simulated game world with authentic, customizable characters."

Sounds good to me. Risen is due out mid-October (Amazon currently has the release date wrong); check back for a review around that time.

I recently reviewed Space Miner for the iPhone and really enjoyed it. If you were on the fence about making the purchase, Venan Entertainment just released the Lite Version on the App Store...

It's good to see old school fighting coming back.

Details below:

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Time to get creative.

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Bad company in good company.

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Official details are below:

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Official details below:

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Official details below:

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It's going to be fun to play this a week before E3. Enjoy the official details.

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Screenshots on the right, info below:

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Yeah, it's okay to get excited.

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Neat news for Samurai Warrior fans.

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MGS for the PSP is such a beautiful thought. Enjoy the info below.

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How many of us have found memories of playing through Crackdown with friends? I sure do, and I'm eagerly awaiting what will likely be one of summer's hottest games, Crackdown 2...

Official details below:

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Bethesda is announcing some very interesting stuff so far this year. Here's a little bit more.

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Good luck, folks. You wanted a challenge and they provided.

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Official details below. Reviews coming soon.

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One of the best games in 2010 gets a bit better. Details below, screenshots to the right.

Enjoy.

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Ladies and gentlemen, who are 18 or older, I present to you the Brink trailer.

Enjoy.

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Might & Magic fans have something to look forward to this summer when Ubisoft and developer Capybara Games brings the series to XBLA and PSN...

I attended a Q&A conference call regarding Bioshock 2 yesterday with several members of the game's development team. On the call were a lot of media outlets like Digital Chumps, and these folks from 2K and Digital Extremes:

Jordan Thomas – Creative Director, 2K Marin
Zak McClendon – Lead Designer, 2K Marin
Hogarth De La Plante – Lead Environment Artist, 2K Marin
Mat Tremblay – MP Art Director, Digital Extremes
Jesse Attard – MP Lead Programmer, Digital Extremes

As most of you know, 2K Marin is handling the single player portion of the game, while Digital Extremes is putting their strong multiplayer experience to work in adding a multiplayer component to Bioshock for the first time. Dozens of questions were asked and answered, and following is a breakdown of the notes I took during the call. Enjoy, and be sure to come back for our full review of the game in about a week!

Much turmoil has ensued surrounding Seagate's drives this year, with many claiming that they're outright unreliable in the face of (seemingly) hundreds of thousands of them exhibiting a specific "click" and "freeze" behavior on various laptop models in which they happen to be installed (including, but not limited to, MacBook Pros and Dell Studios).

Now, today, Dell has released firmware updates for the drives to supposedly fix the issue.  These fixes pertain to the following notebook models, per Dell's update site:

If we could figure out how to link directly to the Dell download page, we'd do so.  But until we figure that out (as apparently it's dependent upon session IDs, or maybe I'm just stupid), here are the direct links to the downloads.  Please keep in mind you will need to burn the firmware update to a CD and boot to it to install it.

There are two different fixes; one for the models with the G-Sensor, and the other for drives without the sensor.  This confirms that the sensor has nothing to do with the problem (as was previously theorized by some):

For drives WITH G-Sensor:

Firmware 4SDM1 or 5SDM1 fixes clicking noise on Seagate 2.5" 7200RPM HDD's Model #'s:

80G - ST980412ASG DP/N FC63Y
160G - ST9160412ASG DP/N C384R
250G - ST9250410ASG DP/N C385R
320G - ST9320423ASG DP/N C386R
500G - ST9500420ASG DP/N D111N

For drives WITHOUT G-Sensor:

Firmware 4SDM1 or 5SDM1 fixes clicking noise on Seagate 2.5" 7200RPM HDD's Model #'s:

160G - ST9160412AS DP/N J423T
250G - ST9250410AS DP/N K556T
320G - ST9320423AS DP/N F729T
500G - ST9500420AS DP/N G629T

We are attempting an install now and will report back with our findings.  Meanwhile, does the fix solve the problem for you?

I attended a conference call today with Erick Boenisch (Lead Feature Designer) and Rob Jones (Gameplay Director) who have been working hard on the 10th anniversary edition of 2K Sports' NBA 2K series. NBA 2K10 is set to take the court next week and will once again be facing rival franchise NBA Live from EA Sports, although the 2K series has been the champ for several years now. Numerous questions were posed and answered by Erick and Rob today, and following are the highlights that I took note of during the conference call.

Kotaku has got some gameplay footage of Diablo III, from Gamescom in Germany. Still no word on a release date for is going to be a huge PC title.

The link: http://kotaku.com/5340525/thirty-seconds-of-diablo-iii-gameplay

We've spent some time this week with the new Map Pack for CoD: WAW. Adding three new multiplayer maps, a new zombie survival challenge, and ten new Trophies/Achievements, this is a fairly substantial update for the continually popular WWII action game.

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Following the (effective) death of the Wii verison of the game, we were interested in what exactly Tecmo's upcoming Tecmo Bowl iteration for Xbox Live Arcade might include.  Upon inquiring as to whether it'd merely be an updated port of the NES original or instead a remade version with enhanced presentation (as per many of the Live Arcade games), Tecmo had to say to us:

"...we’re not sharing details yet, but given the target audience and platform, Tecmo realizes that many of gamers would like to play the NES original as well as an updated version of it."

They also warn that they won't be announcing anything on the title at E3, so we'll have to wait for a while to hear more.  We'll keep you updated.

Such is the risk of saturating your library with non-games meant for grandmothers and gifters.  Tecmo confirms the latest casualty in the Wii WIP camp: Tecmo Bowl Wii.  Previously known to be in development for the console and expected as a 2009 release, a Tecmo rep has now confirmed to G4 that the project has been mutated into the considerably less-interesting Family Fun Football, a game that--preconceptions be damned--has "shovelware" written all over it.

"As much as we’d like to say this [Family Fun Football] is a completely different game, it did start out as the 'Tecmo Bowl Wii' project," a Tecmo spokesperson told me this morning. "However, given the recent trend on the Wii and its target audience, Tecmo made a business decision to switch the project into a family oriented football game. So then what happens to Tecmo Bowl? For now, we're focusing on bringing Tecmo Bowl to the Xbox LIVE Arcade [in] early 2010."   [G4]

The (only) good news is that we'll now be seeing Tecmo Bowl on Xbox Live Arcade.

We'll have more on this development as it takes place.

The latest Nintendo Power apparently reveals that the highly-regarded Tatsunoko vs Capcom will, in fact, be making its way stateside.  The magazine suggests an end-of-year release, possibly complete with new characters.  There's even mention of possible online play being added, though that is unlikely if you ask us.

So now, in light of this news, please allow us to respond in Stitch/Neogaf fashion:

We think so.  Judge for yourself, and let us hear your thoughts in the comments below.

Following the success of Gradius Rebirth, Konami's now announced Contra Rebirth for Japan.  It'll be released on May 12 for 1,000 Wii Points there.  Here, well, nothing's been said just yet.  Let's hope we see something on it for Europe and North America soon.

Since we're not important enough to be invited to private showcase events yet, we bring you instead footage from those events (thanks IGN!).

I'm kidding... sort of.  Check out the screenshots by clicking the image to the right!

Breaking news from Yahoo.co.jp (it's all in Japanese, don't waste your time):

We learned on the 7th that "Pocket Monsters Gold and Silver," the second entry in the popular RPG series, originally released on the Gameboy system in November of 1999, will be remade for the Nintendo DS this autumn under the titles "Heart Gold" and "Soul Silver." New elements will be added in this tenth anniversary return to the Johto Region.

A continuation of the original series (Pocket Monsters Red, Green, Blue, and Pikachu), Gold and Silver recorded remarkable sales of 23,000,000 copies worldwide. It introduced monsters that hadn't appeared in the gameboy games, along with various new features.

Red and Green, the first games of the Pokemon series, were remade for the Gameboy Advance in 2004 as "Fire Red and Leaf Green," making this the second set of remakes. Just as with Red and Green's transition from Gameboy to Gameboy Advance, the Gold and Silver games will likely receive a graphical and sound update in the transition to DS. Details will be released on the official site shortly.

I know at least one editor who is sure to be thrilled by this news... and five bucks says he's the first one to post a reply in the comments section.

More as it breaks.

[UPDATED: 12:01 PM 5/6/09]

In a bit of a surprise deal, Sony has signed up to publish Ghostbusters: The Video Game - but as Atari clarified at 12:01 PM with their press release to the US media, this news applies to Europe ONLY.  In America, Atari will still be publishing title as planned on all major consoles.  In Europe, it's set to launch simultaneously with the movie, and we've now got full details on the development.

In short, the PS3/PS2 versions of the title will launch side-by-side with the movie on June 19 in Europe.  The PSP version will follow later in Fall 2009.  The Xbox 360 version, on the other hand, has been scrapped, but it will still release in North America.

Confused yet?

Check out the full press release below (after the jump) for more details.

An actual customer review of Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure at Amazon.com reads:

Okay, so I complained to some degree about the rapidly-escalating difficulty of the game in my professional review as well.  But the difference is, as far as I'm concerned, the game would not be perfect if it stayed "simple and fun".  I strongly prefer games that treat me as a skilled and persistent player as opposed to holding my hand throughout the entire experience; one of my biggest qualms with the modern industry is a dwindling number of products which begin with a simple foundation and build into a significantly challenging yet still comparatively simple formula.  Those were the Mega Mans and the Castlevanias of yore, and I know I'm not the only gamer who misses them (though with those two particular series, of course, the challenge thankfully remains).

With more and more so-called "casual gamers" being wisely targeted by the gaming industry, we're starting to see more and more titles take advantage of the "easy street" and lapse in the challenge and presentation departments; Henry Hatsworth is not one of these titles.  It's brutally difficult and wonderfully-polished, and it's sure to please hardcore gamers throughout nearly every moment of the experience.

So in case it isn't already obvious, as far as I'm concerned, we need more games like Hatsworth.  It isn't perfect (an 8.8 by my assessment, which equates to a "Great", almost Excellent game by our scoring rubric), but it's creative and humorous, and that counts for a lot.  My co-editor and brother Greg Schardein just completed his own copy of Hatsworth (which he received for his birthday as a gift from yours truly) and he had no shortage of positive reactions to share with me regarding his experience with the game. If you're a self-respecting gamer who appreciates a creative challenge and you haven't bought a copy for yourself yet, I've got just one thing to say for you:

Buy your copy now!

This one's been circulating for a few days now, but it's sort of hit a fever pitch in various online gaming communities, so it's worth a report.  Apparently Japanese television program Pokémon Sunday will be making a "world-exclusive first announcement" on May 10.  According to Bulbanews:

The most recent episode previewed the annnouncement, showing two balls, one gold and one silver, which will be opened to unveil the announcement's subject. Based on this as well as the fact that the game is said to have been the center of much speculation, many fans believe that the announcement will pertain to two titles: the Pokémon Gold and Silver remakes. It is also theorized that Junichi Masuda will appear on the show to make the announcement, since he did so both last month and the month prior in regard to other game-related scoops.

These remakes have been hinted at for some time now within the anime and game series, but nothing official has been said on the matter to date.  If true, this is obviously huge news, as many people consider Gold and Silver to be the pinnacle of the entire game series.

We'll have more on the matter when it breaks.