How About A Little More Lost in Shadow…

You know what really sucks? Realizing that you can’t depend on other people. Don’t worry, I’m not going all emo on you; I’m not in danger of becoming a cutter or doing myself other bodily harm, like befriending a ginger. This isn’t about some childhood friend abandoning me in an hour of need. I’m talking about the sucky realization that, for the most part, you can’t depend on other people to do what they say. Let’s take contractors, for instance. I used to think was that unless you were Tim Taylor or Wilson, and you wanted to get some work done on your home, you had two routes you could take. You could either hire each individual person to do their one specific job, or you could hire a general contractor to deal with all the headaches and hiring for you. Well, when Mrs. Mike and I decided to redo our kitchen, we hired a GenCon; more specifically, we hired one that was recommended to us and that we had met several times before. We trusted that they wouldn’t ruin our shit. We were wrong, it’s been a total pain in the ass. In fact, it’s basically at the point where if I have to talk to them much more it’s going to be all cussing and yelling and shaking and crying, so I’m forcing myself to accept shoddy half-finished work instead. It’s stupid, right? I mean, how hard is it to make sure that the tile guys who took off a backdoor in order to cut it to fit in with the new flooring didn’t somehow mess up so bad that the door won’t even open anymore? And, if you’re the tile guys who cut said door, why would you put it back like that? Did you think I wouldn’t open my back door ever again?? What I’m trying to say is, if you’re in the Atlanta area, don’t use Callaway Homes to do any work you may need done.
Alright, sorry about that. I had to vent as that’s what I’ve been dealing with since the middle of last week. I feel like I’ve aged about 10 years in that time, which means I’m now almost 40. That fact was driven home today when I discovered something called the “Misquito Ringtone”. Apparently, only young’uns can hear certain pitches and my range ends at 14khz, which is for the 49-years-old and younger crowd. I wish I could look on the bright side and say that 29 is there, but I can’t hear past the 39 and younger setting. Yeah, apparently my ears are in their 40’s. Wow, this post actually is kinda emo. If I see a ginger later I’m freaking the eff out…
Before things go full cutter mode around here, let’s have some Wii news. Nothing like 450+ words into a post before the Wii is even mentioned. Maybe I should put the Wii stuff first and ramblings second? It shall be considered… Anyway, yesterday I posted the Japanese trailer for Lost in Shadow, the Wii-exclusive game from the creator of Final Fantasy. Well, today we have more of the game, and it looks freaking beautiful. Our dear friends at IGN have a nice little direct feed gameplay video that they put up, and I’m gonna share it with you guys. Lost in Shadow is set to launch “Q3 2010″; yeah, that means it should be here some time soon. Enjoy, and stay thirsty my friends.

 

The “Nintendo Murdered E3″ Media Blowout Pt. 2!!!

Yeah, I know the title of this post doesn’t sound like it’s the running diary that I promised you yesterday. That’s because it isn’t. As I’m sure you can tell, this is the highly anticipated Part 2 of TheSpin’s Official Wii E3 Media Blowout aka The “Nintendo Murdered E3″ Media Blowout Pt. 2!!!
Before we get into the massive bowl of deliciousness I have planned for you today, I’ve got another new product to tell you about. While I’m still waiting to hear more about POWER A’s Pro Pack Mini, including details of perhaps trying them out for myself, those are certainly not the only new devices coming out of E3. Today I was contacted by a gentleman by the name of Tiger, whose name alone makes him my hero, about Wii2HDMI, pictured up there, from Neoya. That’s right, another device I had no clue I needed until I heard about it suddenly materializes out of thin air. E3 week is so magical…
Any way, Wii2HDMI apparently does exactly what it sounds like it does: allow you to connect your Wii to your HDMI capable TV or monitor. Don’t sleep, this doesn’t magically enable graphics on par with the HDC’s, Wii will do no greater than 480p and Neoya points this out on their FAQ, which you’ll find on the product’s page. It’s basically a dongle that fits into the Wii’s slot for the A/V cables you’re already using. The end that sticks out acts as an HDMI port. After that, it’s the exact same functionality of every HDMI cable, and the same compatibility with your Wii as the component cables you can buy for your Wii to upgrade from the composite.
I’ll be honest with you, I still use the composite cables for my Wii. This is mainly because I don’t need any other cables from Monoprice. So this is great news to me, especially since I’ve got a few extra HDMI cables collecting dust. If I manage to get my hands on Wii2HDMI you know I’ll tell you all about its glory!! If you’re impatient, you can pick one up now at Neoya.com for $39.95.
Speaking of glory, I can’t believe I didn’t put up one of the most amazing and badass trailers from E3, Donkey Kong Country Returns, so you’ll be getting that first today. After that you’re gonna get all the Samus you can handle with the new Metroid:Other M trailer. Finally, we’ll end this parade of La Familia Nintendo with a bit of Mario Sports Mix. Enjoy, and stay thirsty my friends.

 

BAFTA releases people's choice nominations

The UK's premier gaming awards have released the shortlist for the ceremony's one publicly voted award; rest to follow next week.  
Since the British Academy of Film and Telvision Arts started honouring video games in their own ceremony in 2003, the annual gaming BAFTAs have become the top gaming awards handed out in the UK.



Will John Marston once again be riding roughshod over the competition this March?

Today the 2010 awards kicked off in earnest with the release of the shortlist for the People's Choice award, with 10 of the year's best titles offered up for public voting. While the rest of the gaming BAFTAs are decided behind closed doors, the people's choice award is decided by public voting, conducted on the BAFTA Game Award website.

This year the nominees are Call of Duty: black Ops, Dance Central, FIFA 11, Halo Reach, Heavy Rain, Limbo, Mass Effect 2, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, Red Dead Redemption, and Super Mario Galaxy 2. The shortlist is decided on by a panel of industry experts, who choose from games released in 2010.

Call of Duty has strong form in the People's Choice award, with the franchise having taken home the award in both 2008 and 2009, through Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and its sequel Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. In 2007, the award was taken by the 2007 iteration of Sports Interactive's perennial favourite Football Manager.

The rest of the nominations will be released next week, on 16 February, with the awards themselves handed out a month later on March 16. Last year's awards were dominated by Uncharted 2: Drake's Fortune, which took home five awards, but was pipped at the post to the Game of the Year award by Batman: Arkham Asylum, which also won Best Gameplay.
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"BAFTA releases people's choice nominations " was posted by Alex Sassoon Coby on Thu, 10 Feb 2011 07:34:17 -0800

Ridge Racer Unbounded revving for PS3, 360, PC

Namco Bandai's flagship racer series returning to consoles after five-year absence, coming to PC for first time ever; FlatOut studio Bugbear Entertainment tapped to develop.
The Ridge Racer franchise is about to get a jump start. Namco Bandai today announced Ridge Racer Unbounded, a new installment in the series for the playstation 3, xbox 360, and PC that will take the series "in [a] whole new direction," according to the publisher.


Namco Bandai's racer hasn't appeared on consoles since 2006's Ridge Racer 7 (pictured).
With the stated goal of shaking up the entire racing genre, Unbounded will take the circuit-racing franchise onto city streets with a new emphasis on havoc and destruction. To help accomplish that objective, Namco Bandai has enlisted Bugbear Entertainment to develop the game.

Bugbear's previous work includes the FlatOut series of demolition derby racers for Empire Interactive, which featured minigames requiring the player to crash such that the car's driver would be ejected through the front windshield and into targets, such as a set of giant bowling pins. The studio also developed the PSP edition of Sega Rally Revo in 2007.

Unbounded will be the first installment in the Ridge Racer series to appear on the PC, and the first to hit consoles since the 2006 release of Ridge Racer 7, a ps3 launch title. However, the series hasn't been completely dormant in the meantime. It debuted on the iPhone in 2009 with Ridge Racer Accelerated, and Ridge Racer 3DS is expected to launch alongside Nintendo's newest handheld next month.

For more on Bugbear's racing acumen, check out GameSpot's reviews of Sega Rally Revo and FlatOut: Ultimate Carnage.
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"Ridge Racer Unbounded revving for PS3, 360, PC" was posted by Brendan Sinclair on Fri, 04 Feb 2011 12:04:27 -0800

 

More The Last Story in-game footage

A new gameplay trailer for The Last Story, has hit the webs. The sad thing about this whole barrage of video releases is that unless you're in Japan, you really won't be able to get your hands

 

Big in Japan Jan. 24-30: The Last Story, Valkyria Chronicles 3

Mistwalker's latest wii RPG and Sega's PSP strategy sequel take top two spots as new releases dominate Japanese sales charts.  
If the Wii role-playing game The Last Story really is the final game from Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi, at least the revered developer gets to go out on top. Tracking firm Media Create has released its Japanese sales charts for the week of January 24-30, with The Last Story in the best-seller spot for its debut week.


The Last Story may yet serve as a happy ending for Sakaguchi's career.
The Last Story sold 114,722 copies in its first week on sale, leading a flood of new releases that claimed seven of the top 10 spots on the charts. Sega's PSP strategy RPG Valkyria Chronicles III was a relatively close second, selling 102,779 copies for the week. Other notable new releases in the top 10 included the latest Kenka Banchou title from Spike (fourth place with 58,977 sold) and the Japanese debut of BioWare's Dragon Age: Origins for the ps3 (sixth place with 42,854 sold).

As might be expected, the three titles that retained a spot in the top 10 were the three best sellers from the week prior. Former sales champ Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep (Final Mix) slipped all the way to ninth place, selling 20,528, while the previous week's third place finisher, Donkey Kong Country, rounded out the top 10 with 19,214 sold. The January 17-23 runner-up, Capcom's Monster Hunter Portable 3, showed the most staying power of the group, finishing the week in seventh place with 33,338 sold.

On the hardware front, the pecking order remained the same. Sony's PSP led the pack once again with 34,648 sold, followed by the PS3, which managed to move 25,149 new systems into Japanese gamers' homes. Although the Wii remained in third place, it did see a notable uptick in sales, with 19,448 sold compared to 14,547 the week prior.

JAPAN GAME SALES WEEK OF JANUARY 24-30, 2011
Software:
Rank / Title / Publisher / Platform / Unit sales
1. The Last Story / nintendo / Wii / 114,722
2. Valkyria Chronicles 3 / Sega / PSP / 102,779
3. Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii wake ga Nai Portable / Namco Bandai / PSP / 88,493
4. Kenka Banchou 5: Otoko no Housoku / Spike / PSP / 58,977
5. Toaru Majutsu no Index / ASCII Media Works / PSP / 56,017
6. Dragon Age: Origins / Spike / PS3 / 42,854
7. Monster Hunter Portable 3 / Capcom / PSP / 33,338
8. Dream C Club Zero / D3 Publisher / xbox 360 / 21,734
9. Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep (Final Mix) / Square Enix / PSP / 20,528
10. Donkey Kong Country Returns / Nintendo / Wii / 19,214

Hardware:
PSP - 34,648
PS3 - 25,149
Wii - 19,448
DSi LL - 11,891
DSi - 9,611 xbox 360 - 3,513 ps2 - 1,938
DS Lite - 1,059
PSP Go - 280
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"Big in Japan Jan. 24-30: The Last Story, Valkyria Chronicles 3" was posted by Brendan Sinclair on Fri, 04 Feb 2011 17:02:30 -0800

 

Aava Mobile reportedly set to reveal Medfield-based Android / MeeGo phone at MWC

Eager for a way to forget about Moorestown? We wouldn't be shocked if Intel was in the same camp, and if this here rumor pans out, it could be Medfield acting as the amnesia at Mobile World Congress. If you'll recall, Intel briefly showed off a Medfield-based phone late last month, and now we're hearing that Aava Mobile -- the same company responsible for a WoW-crunching Moorestown demonstration at Computex -- is poised to release a real stunner in Barcelona. Slashgear has it on good authority that Aava's second-generation Core design will be officially rolled out in a matter of days, complete with Intel Inside, an 8.9mm-thick chassis, Android and MeeGo. You read correctly -- both mobile operating systems will be supported. It's said that Aava doesn't actually plan on hawking these to consumers; instead, they'll be shuttled off to developers in order to promote its integrated ACPU and modem platform. Hard to say if the shell we'll (hopefully) see at MWC will remain final, but you can bet we'll be digging for more once the show floor opens.Aava Mobile reportedly set to reveal Medfield-based Android / MeeGo phone at MWC originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 03 Feb 2011 15:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink   |  Slashgear  | Email this | Comments

 

Bulletstorm pokes fun at Call of Duty

Epic Games releases free game parody of Activision's popular military first-person shooter to promote its own take on the genre.  

Call of Duty may be a blockbuster success on a global scale, but Activision's cash cow isn't quite bulletproof. For example, Epic Games is taking shots at the franchise with Duty Calls: The Calm Before the Storm, a free downloadable game parody that mocks the military first-person shooter and a number of its gameplay conventions.

The difference between Duty Calls and its inspiration becomes apparent as soon as players start the game. Upon being dropped into a level, a voice gives the player marching orders over the radio.


Look familiar?
"Here's your objective," the commanding officer says. "Blah blah blah blah secret base. Blah blah blah blah plan. Blah blah blah nuclear missile bomb. Blah blah blah counting on you. Utmost importance. Win. Good luck."

As players make their way through the game, they find useless objects (a stick, loose leaf paper), run into villains who can be beaten only in slow motion, and achieve the rank of Sergeant of the Master Sergeants Most Important Person of Extreme Sergeants to the Max. The game isn't exactly subtle about its critiques, as every one of the player's gunshots is accompanied by a voice clip loudly saying, "Boring!"

Although the game's parody is pretty apparent, its purpose--promoting Epic's upcoming shooter Bulletstorm--is less overt. Up front, the biggest clues at the tie are the game's subtitle and a plug for Bulletstorm in the description section of a YouTube video on the official site. A short commercial for Bulletstorm also runs at the completion of Duty Calls, which can be finished in about five minutes.

Developed by Epic subsidiary People Can Fly, Bulletstorm is a first-person shooter built around a skillshot system that rewards players for dispatching enemies in creative and often gory ways. The game is set to launch for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC on February 22. For more on Bulletstorm, check out GameSpot's previous coverage.

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"Bulletstorm pokes fun at Call of Duty" was posted by Brendan Sinclair on Wed, 02 Feb 2011 12:35:20 -0800

Why the camera isn't the culprit for the white iPhone 4's delay (update: Woz responds)

Unless you've been away from the Internet over the last few days, you would've no doubt heard about Woz's special appearance at the Engadget Show on Sunday. Unsurprisingly, a few websites ran with some quotes that they pulled from our interview -- specifically, the highlight was Woz "confirming" that the white iPhone 4 was indeed delayed due to camera issues. Well, I don't think this is the case at all. In fact, I'm sure there are plenty of other good reasons for why Apple's been delaying the much anticipated flavor of its flagship smartphone, but the camera just isn't one of them. Head right past the break and all will be explained.

Update: Our man Woz has just responded in the comments:

I said plenty to make it clear that I know nothing of Apple's reasons for rejecting anything ever. I told how when I got my white iPhone 4 assembled I tested the flash photos and they did indeed have problems. I spoke of testing flash photos versus non-flash ones and comparing flash photos between my white and black iPhones. I don't recall saying that it was a 'reason' Apple rejected the parts although I had read that.
For the last part, we were referring to 0:55 in the interview video after the break, but now that Woz has spoken, it could've been a joke at the time that got misinterpreted by some websites. They tend to do that with Woz. Read on!Continue reading Why the camera isn't the culprit for the white iPhone 4's delay (update: Woz responds)Why the camera isn't the culprit for the white iPhone 4's delay (update: Woz responds) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Feb 2011 17:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

PRESS RELEASE: And On The Eighth Day: Atlus Brings Expanded, Enhanced SMT: Devil Survivor Overclocked for Nintendo 3DS to North America in Summer 2011

IRVINE, CALIFORNIA -- JANUARY 26, 2011 -- Atlus U.S.A., Inc. today officially announced a North American release for Shin Megami Tensei®: Devil Survivor Overlocked™, an RPG/SRPG hybrid for Nintendo 3DS™ currently scheduled to launch on the highly anticipated handheld in Summer 2011. Considered one of the best RPGs of 2009*, the original Devil Survivor presented gamers with a novel premise: Tokyo is in full lockdown, the government's swift, coldblooded response to a surprise demon invasion.  While you and your friends must solve the nature of the interdimensional rift through which the horrific creatures are entering your world, saving the world is not your highest priority; staying alive, on the other hand, is.
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Marvel vs. Capcom 3 gets limited Fight Stick

Mad Catz announces $160 PS3 and Xbox 360 joystick to be limited to 5,000 numbered units; release expected in time for game's February 15 launch.  

After a decade-long cease-fire, Marvel and Capcom are set to renew their storied fighting game rivalry in two weeks with the launch of Marvel vs. Capcom 3 for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. To commemorate the return to hostilities between the two companies, Mad Catz will release a limited edition Marvel vs. Capcom 3-branded version of its arcade-style joysticks.

The Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds Arcade Fight Stick Tournament Edition will be limited to 5,000 individually numbered joysticks and is expected to begin shipping out to customers by the time the game launches February 15. Like the Tournament Edition joysticks Mad Catz produced for Street Fighter IV, the Marvel vs. Capcom 3 controller will feature a stick and buttons from arcade manufacturer Sanwa Denshi, turbo functionality, and a storage compartment for the controller cord when not in use. Mad Catz has indicated the stick will be available to order through its own online store, though there's no product page for it as of press time.


Want to take it for a ride?
Marvel vs. Capcom 3 will launch with a roster of 36 playable characters split evenly between the two companies. The comics company will be represented by characters like Spider-Man, Captain America, MODOK, and Deadpool, while gaming favorites like Ryu, Dante, Amaterasu, and Wesker will fly the Capcom flag. In addition to the standard arcade and online versus modes, the game will feature technique challenges for each character and issue players a "license card" that will reflect their particular play styles.

For more on the game, check out GameSpot's previous coverage.

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"Marvel vs. Capcom 3 gets limited Fight Stick" was posted by Brendan Sinclair on Tue, 01 Feb 2011 13:41:25 -0800