Well, today EA announced the track listing for the upcoming Wii game Boogie SuperStar, with the revelation that their secret international superstar is none other than Natasha Bedingfield. Eh. If anything, that's gonna put me off the game, because I really don't need to hear "Pocketful of Sunshine" again. Ever.
"Boogie SuperStar brings to life all the fun and excitement of performing," said Bedingfield. "Being on stage is such a thrill and it's great to be a part of an EA video game that lets girls experience how much fun it is to express themselves and explore their own creativity by performing."
You know, boys are probably going to play this game too, Natasha. The sequel to Boogie has players singing and dancing along with the songs, and the motion sensors in the controllers will actually map your dance moves to your on-screen character. If they can pull it off, it could be super fun, but I'm honestly not wild about the track list. It's a little too modern for my taste. Where's the classic Motown and disco? God, I'm old. (Although I love me some Rihanna!)
It's also long, so I'll put it after the break. Heck, since you guys are so awesome, I'll even include the international tracks!
Starting this week, with the release of EA's Tiger Woods PGA Tour '09, Amazon.com is promising that videogames will be delivered to customers on the same day that they hit stores. This, they hope, will help to take some sales away from retail stores like GameStop and Wal-Mart. I know I always used to love it when my DVDs would arrive at my stoop on the actual release date.
"Amazon has always strived to deliver pre-ordered products to our customers as close as possible to the release date, if not on the release date," company spokeswoman Tammy Hovey said. "Customers have been asking for this option."
Well of course people want this option. Who wants to wait to play the game all their friends picked up at the store days ago? Not all videogames are going to be guaranteed for delivery on the release date, but the list of titles does include heavy-hitters like Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, Fable 2 and Gears of War 2. Oh, and the privilege does come at a cost. $5.98 shipping, to be exact. And don't forget — if you want to give this a shot, why not shop through the GayGamer.net store?
Amazon To Provide Game Titles On Release Date [Video Business]
I am totally psyched for Valve's Left 4 Dead. The idea of playing co-op online with a few friends against hordes of zombies just sounds so fantastically awesome it's hard to put into words. I guess you could say it's like Resident Evil Online done right, and judging from this trailer, on speed. And steroids. Yeah, I'm not so sure I like that 'roided out Resident Evil reject running around. I kind of just wanted to shoot zombies. Not zombie Hulks. Still, while this trailer doesn't give you much of an idea of what actually playing the game will be like, it sure doesn't skimp on the frenetic action! Man, that's a lot of zombies!
It doesn't make me all warm and tingly, but I bet there's quite a few of you boys out there who might be interested in sneaking a peek at the box art for the upcoming Halo Wars game. Honestly, I never really got the whole big fuss about Halo, but I think that's because I never really play a lot of multiplayer. Single player, it's just a decent FPS. But I'm almost allergic to strategy games, so I'm probably going to be giving Halo Wars a wide berth. At the same time, knowing that Halo was originally conceived as an RTS, it's nice to know that it's finally finding its way back to its roots. And I have no doubt it's going to be a kick-ass RTS. I'm just not so sure I want to have it kick my ass!
Well, the Games Convention 2008 in Leipzig is over now, and they've announced the sixth annual "Best of GC" awards in nine categories. All of 29 exhibitors submitted 122 hardware items and software titles for the award. So who walked away with the honors?
Best PC Game: Spore
Best Xbox 360 Game: Mirror's Edge
Best PSP Game: Resistance: Retribution
Best PS3 Game: Little Big Planet
Best Wii Game: Skate It
Best DS Game: Sonic Chronicles
Best Mobile Game: PES 2009
Best Online Game: Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning
Best Hardware: Play TV
There was also a category for best PS2 game, but unfortunately there were too few entries for that category, so no award was given. Probably the last time they offer that category, I'd expect. EA did alright for itself there, with three wins, but Sony tied them with three of their own. Not too shabby. Hard to argue with these picks, although I wish Nintendo had some AAA title that could've taken it away from Skate It. Nothing against the game — I haven't played it — but it seems the odd man out.
Once again, if you happen to live in or near the New York City area, the Nintendo World Store in Rockefeller center was the place to get the newest Nintendo game a couple days before it hits stores in the rest of the country. And this Sunday, August 24, Nintendo had itself a little launch event for the debut of Mario Super Sluggers for the Wii. And even though this was a Mario game, it wasn't as big a launch as some of their other parties. Although if you bought a copy of the game, you could get in the massively long line that stretched all along the upper floor to meet Charles Martinet, the voice of Mario. (Which I never thought was that big a deal because Mario doesn't really talk that much.) Oh, and they were also giving out peanuts and Cracker Jacks as well as Mario baseball cards (that even came with gum!).
I'm not a big baseball fan, so I didn't actually buy the game, but I did give it a shot, once the two boys ahead of me finally decided that it wasn't exactly polite to try and play a whole five inning game while there was a line forming behind them. Like all the Mario sports games, the controls are extra-easy, using only the Wiimote. Like Wii Sports baseball, you flick the Wiimote overhand to pitch, then swing it to hit. And when you hit, you waggle it back and forth to sprint to the base. So it all amounts to a whole lot of waggling around looking like a fool. And naturally, it wasn't that difficult, and I very quickly started getting base hits. So if you're looking for a serious sports sim, Super Mario Sluggers is clearly not the game for you. But hey, the kids seemed to get really into it! (I predict another upswing in stories of Wiimotes flying into TV screens...)
Fruit Brute's post revealing that Ulala would be appearing with a bunch of other SEGA characters in the upcoming Wii version of Samba De Amigo thrilled me to no end. (Like I wasn't already going to buy the game anyway, even though it's going to subject me to "Hot Hot Hot" and "Mambo No. 5" again...) It made me all nostalgic for the classic Space Channel 5, and after finding this new episode of ScrewAttack's Video Game Vault fondly recalling the Dreamcast classic, it makes me want to go dust off my old console and give it another go. It also makes me wonder why they couldn't do this on the Virtual Console or something. Of course, the real prize would be if SEGA decided to do a whole new Space Channel 5 for the Wii. Imagine the Wiimote controls! Or using the Balance Board? Ten shades of awesome right there! Who's with me?
It was with great anticipation that I awaited the demo of The Force Unleashed to download over Xbox LIVE. After enjoying Knights of the Old Republic more than any of the three recent Star Wars movies, I was hoping for another Star Wars game to keep the legend alive. And though the demo is 99% combat, the story sequence to introduce it gave me chills as Vader delivered my instructions and sent me on my mission. (Even if the guy doing Vader's voice isn't quite as deep and rumbly as James Earl Jones...) The rest of the sound effects and music are dead-on accurate for Star Wars, and as expected, the graphics are stellar. That was never in question. The question is: How does it play?
Alright, boys — I've got the fifth chapter in the ongoing saga of The Legend of Neil. I'm a little concerned that it's starting to lose some steam, but there's apparently only a couple of chapters left, so maybe they're holding the really good stuff for the end. At least Old Man's back. Well, his brother, Old Man. And he's got tourettes. But at least he can read maps!
Well, this is a new one, but I've gotta admit, I'm surprised it took this long for someone to think of it. Microsoft and Rock the Vote have teamed up to give Xbox 360 owners the chance to register to vote via Xbox LIVE starting on Monday, August 25, which happens to coincide with the very first day of the Democratic National Convention. (That's what's known as synergy) Xbox will also have a presence at both the Democratic and Republican conventions, promoting Rock The Vote and educating about creating safer, parentally-controlled gaming environments.
"Xbox is a natural partner to help us reach out to youth voters," said Heather Smith, executive director, Rock the Vote. "To realize our goal of registering 2 million young Americans by this fall, we need to go where young Americans are, and there's no doubt in our minds that many are on Xbox 360 and Xbox LIVE."
Via Xbox LIVE, 360 owners will be able to register to vote (if they haven't already — and if not, why not?), voice their opinions to the candidates through an exclusive forum and participate in polls. This is a really great way to reach out to an audience that might not bother registering to vote and get them interested in picking our next president. Of course, having to enter all that information on a gamepad would totally suck!
Oh dear. There's a new SingStar game coming for the PlayStation 2 this fall, and it's a little more specific than the earlier ones. Like, very specific. SingStar Singalong With Disney will feature animation and songs from the studio's classic works from The Jungle Book to Toy Story. More tracks will be confirmed soon, but so far they've announced "A Whole New World" from Aladdin, "The Bare Necessities" from The Jungle Book, "You Got A Friend In Me" from Toy Story, "Under The Sea" from The Little Mermaid, and "When You Wish Upon A Star" from Pinocchio. And the videos will simply be the clips from the movie.
The kids are going to eat this up with a candy-coated spoon, and I think some of us here in the castle would really enjoy exploring their inner Disney princess. And the game also includes the classic SingStar modes of solo, duet and battle. Unfortunately, SingStar Singalong With Disney is so far exclusive to PAL territories. But hopefully they can work out whatever music rights they have to in order to release it here in the US, too!
The public finally got its first look at actual gameplay from the highly-anticipated (and potentially over-hyped)Heavy Rain, and boy — Quantic Dream just jumped headfirst into that uncanny valley and never looked back, eh? The graphics are stunning to behold, and the more realistic look almost makes it creepier than the overt bizarreness of Silent Hill. Unfortunately, the action gameplay is pretty much just button-pressing quick time events, as we've seen a bunch of times before.
However, the press release gives me hope that these "action" sequences won't make up the bulk of the game. Promising a game that is based around story, emotion and character interaction instead of high scores and combat, Heavy Rain will either prove to be a groundbreaking work of genius, or a complete disaster. And there's still no details about the actual storyline aside from describing it as an "adult thriller with a complex plot" and tackling "subject matter and themes rarely touched upon in videogames, making it a genuinely mature game for a new world of adult gamers." We'll see. If they can pull this off, I think I may just have found a reason to finally finish my trifecta of current-gen gaming consoles by splurging on a PS3!
I've got a gallery of screenshots below and a full press release that doesn't really tell you anything you don't already know after the jump!
• electrobear on Amazon Promises Release Day Delivery: Double extra awesomeness: it's free for Amazon Prime members. Too bad Spore isn't on the list. Though I've never understood...
• CJG on Weekly XBLA Update - 08/27/08: Gah... that'll teach me to do research before ranting. There seems to be local co-op for Castle Crashers too. Two...
• CJG on Weekly XBLA Update - 08/27/08: Is castle crashers *just* online co-op and not in-person co-op? I'm really tired of there being next-to-nothing for me and...
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