God that Peter Brown is HOT!!! The handheld looks cool as well. Neo Geo will always hold a special place in the heart of those Genesis and SNES fans like myself who couldnt afford a system and played Magician Lord in the arcade with tears in our eyes that such beauty was out of our reach lol.
IGN could be going up for auction, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal.
The paper reported that News Corp. is working with investment bank Allen & Co. on an auction to sell IGN's network of video game and entertainment sites, following a year of failed efforts to produce a sales deal.
According to the report, News Corp. publicly stated its intention to sell IGN Entertainment after news that it was preparing to restructure its internal publishing and journalism assets, separating them from its media and entertainment businesses.
News Corp. bought IGN in 2005 for a price tag of $650 million (a deal that also included other sites, such as GameSpy.com and TeamXbox.com), but now hopes to sell the network of video game and entertainment sites for around $100 million.
According to the report, Break Media and SAY Media are among potential buyers for IGN, although sources close to News Corp. told the paper that other potential bidders could include private equity funds.
Sales negotiations were affected by turnover at both IGN and News Corp., with the departure of IGN chief executive Roy Bahat in August, and the resignation of News Corp.'s chief digital officer, Jon Miller.
?In Inferno at Monster Power 1 or greater, monsters in every Act will also be bumped up to level 63 and share the same high-end item drop rates,? Johnson explains. ?This means that no matter which act you're progressing through, the monsters in that act will all have the same shot at dropping items level 61-63, including crafting recipes, Legendary items, and set items. While monsters in Inferno will all be level 63 at MP 1 through MP 10, their skills, abilities, and attributes will still vary from act to act. This means that certain Acts or Chapters may still be more difficult for you than others based on what monsters and Elite packs appear in each, but -- since the rewards will be identical across the entire difficulty -- where you choose to play is ultimately up to you and your personal play style.?
Just to clarify.
Episodic adventure game specialist Telltale Games has confirmed that it will be adapting Bill Willingham's comic book series Fables, published under DC Comics' Vertigo label.
According to the studio, Telltale is partnering with both Warner Bros and DC for the game.
"Created by Bill Willingham, the Eisner award-winning and chart-topping Fables re-imagines classic characters from fairy tales and folklore spinning their stories in wild, brutally violent, mature, and often unexpected directions," Telltale wrote on its site.
The original comic series follows various fictional characters such as Snow White, Pinocchio, and the Three Bears, who have been banished and forced to live in New York City.
No details on the game's release have been given as yet.
Obsidian Entertainment's recent Kickstarter project, titled Project Eternity, is now the highest-funded video game on the crowd-source funding platform.
According to its Kickstarter page (via Polygon), it has surpassed Double Fine Adventure's Kickstarter campaign total of $3,336,371. At the time of writing, Project Eternity's total is at $3,348,171, and has 22 hours left before the project closes. The project started on September 14 and had exceeded its pledged goal of $1,100,000 within 24 hours.
Due to the goals being met, the developers will use the extra funding to possibly feature new playable races, factions, crafting systems, and a personal stronghold for players to store gear and weapons in. The developers will also attempt to enlist the aid of Neverwinter Nights 2's creative lead George Ziets. If the campaign reaches beyond $3.5 million, the developers will add a final goal, called "Big Big City", where the game will feature a giant city hub, reminiscent of Athkatla from Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn.
Project Eternity is an isometric party-based fantasy RPG that will be developed by Obsidian Entertainment, the company behind Fallout: New Vegas and the upcoming South Park: The Stick of Truth.
Back in 1987, when the NES was at the peak of its reign, the video game world was not yet ready for the open-world urban crime adventure. But today, a quarter century later, Retro City Rampage lets you experience what the genre might have been like if it had been introduced on that now-primitive platform. In terms of its gameplay, it's often not quite faithful enough to the games of the era that inspired it, and in terms of its difficulty, it's sometimes too faithful. But all in all, Retro City Rampage is an enjoyable experience in which old meets new to create something both fresh and familiar.
Can you spot all 572 references hidden in these early minutes of Retro City Rampage?
In Retro City Rampage's Story mode, you play as Player, a low-ranking henchman in a supercriminal's army. Following an introductory series of stages that references The Dark Knight, Mario Bros., Mega Man 2, Frogger, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, Super Mario Bros. 2, Back to the Future, and much more, you're set free in the city of Theftropolis to spend your time as you see fit. You can complete story missions or ignore them, and spend your time causing chaos and competing in the score-based challenges scattered all over town.
Every mission in Retro City Rampage's Story mode skewers video games, movies, or TV shows of the 80s. If you have any reverence for icons of 80s pop culture, don't be surprised if versions of those icons show up in RCR and are made to suffer some indignities. (The Ghostbusters, for instance, are spoofed here as the Go-Go Busters. Their job is even messier and nastier than catching and occasionally getting slimed by ghosts.) Too often, the game is raunchy just for the sake of being raunchy, without any cleverness to actually make its off-color gags funny. But the game throws so much at the wall that, while most of it doesn't stick, enough does to make for a good number of laughs, and there's some particularly scathing humor about indie game development and major publishers.
What with the danger of being run over as you stroll down the sidewalk or being stomped on by criminals flying around in hover suits, Theftropolis doesn't seem like a nice place to live. It is, however, a pleasure to look at, particularly if you have a soft spot in your heart for 8-bit worlds. The pixelated residents of Theftropolis are a wonderfully diverse bunch. Despite being quite tiny, they have a good deal of personality, thanks to their vibrant colors, their big hair, and jaunty hats--not to mention their expressive animations as they strut down the street, breakdance or otherwise pass the time.
The city has at least as much personality as its residents. Everywhere you look, there are references on shop signs and billboards to 80s video games and other pop culture artifacts. For that extra dose of nostalgia, an impressive assortment of color modes lets you make the game look as if it's running on a wide range of 80s gaming and computer hardware; a CGA mode, for example, severely limits the game's color palette and dominates it with blue and purple, recalling the visuals on early Apple computers. There's also a fine selection of borders that can make the game look like it's being played on an old TV, an arcade cabinet, or other setups, with optional scanlines to help sell the illusion. Regardless of your visual preference, the catchy 8-bit music is sure to please, and would have been right at home in an NES game.
Unfortunately, as alluring as the city is, getting around Theftropolis isn't always enjoyable. Player moves sluggishly until he gets a bit of momentum going, and although all the vehicles around you are yours for the taking, many of them are too slow to be much fun to drive. Still, there are some speedy little numbers to cruise around in. The two driving control schemes let you select between an option in which you use a button to accelerate and in which pushing left or right turns your vehicle to its left or right regardless of which way you're driving onscreen, and an option in which you push the thumbstick up to move up, down to move down, and so on. This second, far less realistic option allows for more responsive, turn-on-a-dime controls and more enjoyable vehicular shenanigans as a result. (On PC, you also have the option of playing with a keyboard, which works just fine.)
Back in 1987, when the NES was at the peak of its reign, the video game world was not yet ready for the open-world urban crime adventure. But today, a quarter century later, Retro City Rampage lets you experience what the genre might have been like if it had been introduced on that now-primitive platform. In terms of its gameplay, it's often not quite faithful enough to the games of the era that inspired it, and in terms of its difficulty, it's sometimes too faithful. But all in all, Retro City Rampage is an enjoyable experience in which old meets new to create something both fresh and familiar.
Niko Bellic wishes he could get his hands on a hover suit like this and stomp some civilians!
In Retro City Rampage's Story mode, you play as Player, a low-ranking henchman in a supercriminal's army. Following an introductory series of stages that references The Dark Knight, Mario Bros., Mega Man 2, Frogger, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, Super Mario Bros. 2, Back to the Future, and much more, you're set free in the city of Theftropolis to spend your time as you see fit. You can complete story missions or ignore them, and spend your time causing chaos and competing in the score-based challenges scattered all over town.
Every mission in Retro City Rampage's Story mode skewers video games, movies, or TV shows of the 80s. If you have any reverence for icons of 80s pop culture, don't be surprised if versions of those icons show up in RCR and are made to suffer some indignities. (The Ghostbusters, for instance, are spoofed here as the Go-Go Busters. Their job is even messier and nastier than catching and occasionally getting slimed by ghosts.) Too often, the game is raunchy just for the sake of being raunchy, without any cleverness to actually make its off-color gags funny. But the game throws so much at the wall that, while most of it doesn't stick, enough does to make for a good number of laughs, and there's some particularly scathing humor about indie game development and major publishers.
What with the danger of being run over as you stroll down the sidewalk or being stomped on by criminals flying around in hover suits, Theftropolis doesn't seem like a nice place to live. It is, however, a pleasure to look at, particularly if you have a soft spot in your heart for 8-bit worlds. The pixelated residents of Theftropolis are a wonderfully diverse bunch. Despite being quite tiny, they have a good deal of personality, thanks to their vibrant colors, their big hair, and jaunty hats--not to mention their expressive animations as they strut down the street, breakdance or otherwise pass the time.
The city has at least as much personality as its residents. Everywhere you look, there are references on shop signs and billboards to 80s video games and other pop culture artifacts. For that extra dose of nostalgia, an impressive assortment of color modes lets you make the game look as if it's running on a wide range of 80s gaming and computer hardware; a CGA mode, for example, severely limits the game's color palette and dominates it with blue and purple, recalling the visuals on early Apple computers. There's also a fine selection of borders that can make the game look like it's being played on an old TV, an arcade cabinet, or other setups, with optional scanlines to help sell the illusion. Regardless of your visual preference, the catchy 8-bit music is sure to please, and would have been right at home in an NES game.
Unfortunately, as alluring as the city is, getting around Theftropolis isn't always enjoyable. Player moves sluggishly until he gets a bit of momentum going, and although all the vehicles around you are yours for the taking, many of them are too slow to be much fun to drive. Still, there are some speedy little numbers to cruise around in. The two driving control schemes let you select between an option in which you use a button to accelerate and in which pushing left or right turns your vehicle to its left or right regardless of which way you're driving onscreen, and an option in which you push the thumbstick up to move up, down to move down, and so on. This second, far less realistic option allows for more responsive, turn-on-a-dime controls and more enjoyable vehicular shenanigans as a result.
ToeJam & Earl and ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron will be out as single downloads and as a bundle on PSN and XBLA.
Sega has announced that it will be re-releasing the ToeJam & Earl games on PS3 and Xbox 360 on November 6.
The two titles on the Sega Genesis, ToeJam & Earl and ToeJam &Earl in Panic on Funkotron, will be on sale on PSN and XBLA for $4.99 apiece. Sega will also release a bundle of the two games, dubbed the Sega Vintage Collection: ToeJam & Earl. This pack will be out on November 7, and will cost gamers $10 on PSN and 800 Microsoft Points on XBLA.
Both titles will feature online co-op and new achievements and trophies for their respective platforms. For more information on the last ToeJam & Earl title, check out GameSpot's coverage on ToeJam & Earl III: Mission To Earth.
Born and raised from a jungle-laden village in Sarawak, Malaysia, Jonathan Toyad has been playing games since the early 90s. He favors fighting games, RPGs, and rhythm titles above every other genre, and occasionally spaces out like Pavlov's dog to video game music on his iPod.
The action RPG from Game Arts and GungHo will come with a Mercenary edition featuring an art book and soundtrack CD.
Xseed Games has announced the final release date for the PS Vita title Ragnarok Odyssey in North America.
The game will be out on October 30, and will be sold in stores and on the PlayStation Store for $39.99. Players can also buy the Mercenary edition of the game, which comes with a 96-page art book, a soundtrack CD, and 10 monster cards. The set will cost $49.99.
The action RPG will be published in Europe by Gungho Online Entertainment America, but there is no word on a release date at this point in time. The game is already out in Japan and Asia.
For more information, check out GameSpot's preview of the game.
Born and raised from a jungle-laden village in Sarawak, Malaysia, Jonathan Toyad has been playing games since the early 90s. He favors fighting games, RPGs, and rhythm titles above every other genre, and occasionally spaces out like Pavlov's dog to video game music on his iPod.
Actually, the interesting thing about this mission is that you can follow the High Overseer and the other guy down into his private chamber, wait until the overseer's back is turned, and then simply choke him out. This essentially requires no darts in the whole area. Then, for some odd reason, the other guy unsheaths his sword, ignores you, and walks pleasantly out where he is supposed to go. Then, carry the body of the overseer up the stairs and use blink to get to the branding room. You can end up branding him without touching a single guard.
