Dreamcast Classics Returning to Consoles! June 11, 2010
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I have a good friend who readily considers the Sega Dreamcast to be the greatest console ever made. I don’t dismiss him for this opinion, even though I was never fortunate enough to own one of these consoles myself, I’m very briefed on it’s legend.
Sega has recently announced that more Sega Dreamcast games are coming to modern consoles as downloadable games. These games have been requested for years. What many seem to forget, or hesitate to point out is while Sega is saying how bold it is that they’re finally releasing these games from their beloved console, they are not by any means the first games ported from the console.
Sonic Adventure and Crazy Taxi are going to be released on the Playstation Network and Xbox Live Arcade. They will be further evidence of the legacy of this console. Currently Soul Caliber and Marvel vs Capcom 2, both ports from the Dreamcast version (considered by Soul Caliber enthusiasts to be the superior version over the classic arcade version) are already avalible for download and purchase on Xbox Live Arcade.
Many are hoping the cult classic Jet Grind Radio will be among the next set of downloads, however that has not been officially announced.
Rock Band 3 Will Have Keyboard June 11, 2010
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From the looks of the intial previews, Rock Band 3 is going to revolutionize the music gaming genre in a way not imagined. A fifth instrument will be added to the game, a 25 key midi-keyboard, as well as two new updated Fender guitar controllers. The game will also support a “pro” mode, offering the player musical notes instead of prompts, promoting the player to learn the actual way to play the song on an actual instrument.
Here’s a list of some of the songs confirmed for the game.
2000s
Combat Baby — Metric
Dead End Friends — Them Crooked Vultures
Get Free — The Vines
Lasso — Phoenix
Me Enamora — Juanes
Oh My God — Ida Maria
Portions of Foxes — Rilo Kiley
The Hardest Button to Button — The White Stripes
1990s
Been Caught Stealing — Jane’s Addiction
In the Meantime — Spacehog
Plush — Stone Temple Pilots
Walkin’ on the Sun — Smash Mouth
1980s
Crazy Train — Ozzy Osbourne
Here I Go Again — Whitesnake
I Love Rock and Roll — Joan Jett
Just Like Heaven — The Cure
Rainbow in the Dark — Dio
The Power of Love — Huey Lewis and the News
Sister Christian — Night Ranger
1960s-1970s
Bohemian Rhapsody — Queen
Break On Through — The Doors
Crosstown Traffic — Jimi Hendrix
I’m ashamed to admit I only know about eight songs on this list, but “The Power of Love” alone sold me on the game the second I saw it on the list.
Team Fortress 2 Free Weekend, Mac Users Get Earbuds June 11, 2010
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To celebrate the release of Team Fortress 2 for the Mac, Valve is offering a free weekend for everyone to play Team Fortress 2 on Steam.
After the weekend is up, users can buy Team Fortress 2 for $10 US. Mac users get free iPod/iPhone earbuds for the Team Fortress characters if you play on a Mac before the 14th of June.
New Mortal Kombat Game Announced June 11, 2010
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The word has come from Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment, the owners of Mortal Kombat, that a new Mortal Kombat game is in development for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, and will feature a whole new graphics engine. It will also feature tag team and classic 1 v 1 fighting.
The tagline is, “The Goriest Mortal Kombat Ever!”
Interesting to note that the game is expected to be on a 2D plane, harkening back to the classic perspective of the original MK games. Since the series has been in 3D, players have fought in that extra dimension, but I have to admit, the game always seemed to work best in a 2D perspective opposed to a 3D perspective.
The previous game, Mortal Kombat Vs DC Universe is considered non-canon to the MK and the DC universe, leaving Mortal Kombat Armageddon for the Xbox and PS2 the last Mortal Kombat game released. That game saw many of the franchise’s fighters killed off after the “armageddon” came, due to the fighters abusing their powers in a world that couldn’t take it. Who knows what kind of a world these fighters will find themselves in now.
Valve Completes Orange Box on Mac Tomorrow With Team Fortress 2 June 9, 2010
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Valve is expected to release Team Fortress 2, the final part of 2007’s The Orange Box, to the Mac OSX platform tomorrow. This joins Portal and Half-Life 2 (with Ep 1 and 2), which are all already up for purchase and download.
Bringing these classic games to the Mac platform has been quite benificial to PC users. When Portal was released at launch, it was given out for free to all users who wanted it for a week. When Half-Life 2 was released for the Mac, Valve updated the PC version of it and Episode 1 to support the Steam Achievements and Steamworks system, bringing it on par with the Xbox 360 release (and therefore making me play it for the tenth time!).
Team Fortress 2 Mac is expected to be compatable with it’s PC counterpart for Mac user vs PC user play.
Poets of the Fall – War June 9, 2010
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Well we now know what that Remedy live action teaser was…teasing. It’s this video! The official music video for the theme to Alan Wake, by Poets of the Fall. Enjoy!
Playstation Network is down Today June 9, 2010
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I tried signing in to my Playstation 3 so I could access some downloads I had off the Playstation Store, but my login was refused. The response was that the Playstation Network is down for some server side work today. Should be back up later.
The Explanation Behind this Mortal Kombat Movie June 9, 2010
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By now many of you have seen this movie, which hit the web and went viral yesterday.
As of one day later it currently has over a million pageviews, and that’s just from the YouTube version. It is obviously a realistic take on Mortal Kombat, in movie form, and it features easily recognized Hollywood actors like Jeri Ryan and Michael Jai White. Likely without the star power, most would’ve filed this under fanfilm, but with the star power, many considered this to be an in progress look at a new, unannounced Mortal Kombat movie.
Through several gaming news blogs contacting the easily recognizable actors, and my own questioning of a Hollywood insider, we have determined what this video is.
It is not a teaser or a trailer for an upcomming Mortal Kombat movie, it is a pitch, an offer to the movie studios, for funding. Likely due to the high traffic of the video (and the fact that most movie studios will throw millions of dollars at anything) this will probably get funding.
If any new developments on the film comes up, I’ll be sure to post it here.
Max Payne 3 Delayed, Good June 9, 2010
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Take 2 Interactive announced in their confrence call that Max Payne 3, a game which previously had a solid release date, will not see release this fiscal year.
This is probably due to the fact that the game design was so terribly bad and completely unlike what a Max Payne game should’ve been, when the intial previews came out, everyone so universally hated it the company must’ve stepped in and stopped the game developers from destroying their valuable property.
Something pretty similar to this happened in 2007 when the inital previews came out for what became Splinter Cell Conviction, which saw a major overhaul and shift of design focus. Even Remedy admitted Alan Wake saw something like it during the five year game development of that game.
So they probably dropped the game from the release schedule to give the developers time to make it good. I appreciate that Take 2. However, I would prefer to suggest that now that Remedy, the company that made Max Payne in the first place (and made it the classic that it is today I might add), is no longer working on Alan Wake, maybe you should trash your game and beg them to make Max Payne 3 now.
Portal 2 Delayed June 9, 2010
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From the “it’s not fair mommy!” catagory: Valve Software has always been known to miss their initial release dates, delaying their major game releases. Well, looks like that reputation will continue to remain, as Portal 2, originally expected for Holiday 2010, has been delayed until 2011. When asked about this Valve responded, “Making games is hard!”
Portal 2 will still have an E3 2010 showing, and Valve wants to remind everyone that this is NOT the suprise they teased for the show.
