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Two DSiWare shooters were on show at Nintendo’s Q1 Media Summit — X-Scape (left) and Metal Torrent (right). Both hail from different dimensions (of gameplay and graphics). I played them both, and you’ll find my impressions beyond the break.

Continue reading DSiWare First Look: X-Scape and Metal Torrent

DSiWare First Look: X-Scape and Metal Torrent originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 25 Feb 2010 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Though music game pioneer RedOctane may have all but evaporated in the recent round of Activision layoffs, it seems that the driving force behind it, founders Kai and Charles Huang, will remain with the publisher, according to a report from Develop.

Though they’re not fleeing, we’ve been given no hints as to what the Huangs will be doing now at Activision. Ever the optimists, we breathlessly (and no doubt foolishly) await a console follow-up to In the Groove.

Report: RedOctane founders staying with Activision originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 23 Feb 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Immediately after I file this I’ll be engaged in an epic beer pong duel, but we hit the ball with paddles, like a man. Not like all you “Beirut” playing weenises who have to throw it in the cup.

We also play with a rule modification that I hope catches on. We call it “The Rip Cord.” Take a Dora the Explorer wax cup about half the diameter of a standard red Solo cup. Fill it with beer, and place it a quarter of the way up the right sideline. Any properly struck ball landing in that cup instantly wins the game, regardless of score. So in extreme emergency, you can always reach for the rip cord. A knock-down drag-out best of 13 series on Monday night concluded this way. Tonight, my side is thirsty for revenge.

With that in mind, here’s your official off-topic thread for the evening, with a few headlines to stoke the discussion.

• Burger King Explores Beer Sales – The fast food spot is looking at serving adult beverages, starting with a test location in Miami Beach. Because they need more drunk hipsters lounging about wearing paper crowns.
• Last Call for Conan O’Brien – Tonight is the end of Conan O’Brien’s seven months helming The Tonight Show, making him the George Lazenby of that franchise. Which makes Leno, what, Roger Moore? But Johnny, Johnny will always be Sean Connery.
• Bargain Hunting for a Sheepskin – Kiplinger has released its annual list of the best values in public education among U.S. universities. The University of North Carolina is no surprise at No. 1. The University of Crecente is No. 8; Owen Good State U. is No. 10. Only one university not in a state bordering the Atlantic ocean is in the top 10, and that’s the University of Washington.

After the endless speculation, it has finally been confirmed that movie streaming service Netflix is coming to the Wii. Nintendo’s system will now join the Xbox 360 and the PS3 in offering instant-access movies and television shows in HD … oh, wait, not in HD. 

Like the PS3, the Wii’s Netflix service will require a free software disc in order to run the service. The Wii, of course, has no HD capabilities so it won’t be able to compete with the Netflix services already provided by the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Still, since the majority of Wii owners are idiots, this version of Netflix will probably be amazing new technology to them. 

There you have it, Netflix has finally come to the Wii and it will look slightly rubbish. At least we can finally stop hearing about this one.

Nintendo Wii to Add Netflix Service for Streaming Video [New York Times]

Think of the original Guitar Hero, and two names pop immediately to mind: Harmonix and Red Octane. A third name that you might not be aware of: Mad Catz. Speaking to Kotaku, Mad Catz CEO Darren Richardson has revealed that peripheral maker was originally part of the Guitar Hero project. Mad Catz was responsible for the Xbox version, but eventually decided to pull out of the project thanks to a lawsuit filed by Konami — which resulted in Guitar Hero being exclusive to PS2.

Furthermore, Mad Catz actually paid $300,000 to remove itself from the project, only to see it grow into the gigantic success it is today. Says Richardson, “Everyone else made hundreds of millions and we paid money to not be a part of it.” Ouch.

Mad Catz pulled out of Guitar Hero before it hit big originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 08 Jan 2010 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mountain Dew has long been the stereotypical gamer drink of choice (besides Bawls, I guess), but Electronic Arts has cooked up a marketing scheme to drive gamers away from Mountain Dew towards something that doesn’t taste like moose bile.

Enter Dr Pepper: between now and March 31st and again between July 1st and December 31st, each 14-, 16-, and 20-ounce bottle of Dr Pepper will come with free downloadable content for popular EA-published games. So far, content for Mass Effect 2, Spore, The Sims, Battlefield Heroes, and Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is available, although the process seems to be rather convoluted. The DLC is available for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC, and Mac games, but not so fast — there are accounts the be registered and ID numbers to be stored. You can claim your DLC from Dr Pepper’s Web site.

There’s no word on what kind of DLC is being offered in this promotion, but free is free. Right?

Starting in April, fountain drinks will get in on the action, although Cherry Chocolate and Diet Dr Pepper are excluded, which doesn’t bother me because both of those flavors taste awful.

I’m going to leave you guys with this observation: I think Southern dudes are predisposed toward the OG Dr Pepper. Every guy I know — teachers, friends, uncles, coaches — loves the stuff, yours truly included. How many of you dig on the sickly-sweet concoction? And how many of you could be convinced to drink it for free DLC?

Dr. Pepper Giving Away Free EA DLC [The Escapist]

A developer would be out of its mind to not include a competitive multiplayer component in its game now, right? This afternoon we were reminded that EA Montreal’s cooperative-focused shooter Army of Two: the 40th Day has more than one online mode. In fact, it appears as if the game will ship with four: Warzone, Team Deathmatch, Control, and Extraction.

We’re worried about the latter mode, Extraction (Horde). Four bros on one screen might generate too much Dude Power, which based on recent scientific research by some college somewhere, is known to cause universal implosion. Hold on to your butts.

What? YES! 

The ESRB has returned for another year of hilarious videogame ratings, and first up on the block is hilarious Wii game Muscle March. To celebrate the North American release of this most fabulous title, the rating board has brought back a classic phrase — flexed gluteus!

First witnessed in the ESRB’s summary of Super Street Fighter IV, the term “flexed gluteus” is the greatest term ever coined. As always, the ESRB is on hand to point out anything even vaguely sexual in Muscle March, making sure that kids won’t watch it and instantly turn into an army of 45-year-old rapists. 

Here’s what the ESRB has to say:

Bodybuilders dressed in super-tight Speedos chase down a “protein thief” through cities, villages, and space in this whimsical puzzle-action game. Pedestrians, straphangers, school teachers, farmers, police officers, and librarians are fully clothed as they go about their business; the bodybuilders — not so much. Players must perform correct poses to fit through dozens of holes-in-walls created by the fleeing thief. If players do not pose correctly while running, their muscle men (and one woman) will crash through the walls and lose their stamina. Losing stamina means collapsing to the ground face-first, buttocks-last (flexed gluteus facing the screen). It may also mean that between stages, the happy bodybuilders can dance together in space, throw rocks by the riverside, or flex their pectorales major on menu screens (the lone female bodybuilder flexes her chest muscles, too). But the running gag in the game is the odd juxtaposition of traipsing bodybuilders, scantily clad, with the fully clothed working city dwellers — librarians’ eyes agape at seeing their reference sections destroyed by the Posing Ones.

Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. Please never change a thing about these, ESRB. 

Muscle March, As Described By The ESRB [Siliconera]

You’ve probably got plenty of games from the present-receiving ceremony of your holiday of choice — unfortunately, they’re all about to get brutally neglected. Casual gaming juggernaut PopCap is offering 15 of its games for half-price; for most of these titles, that knocks the cost down to $9.95. Sadly, there won’t be any opportunities to sink time into that still-fresh copy of Dragon Age: Origins once Peggle Nights snaps its colorful, unrelenting jaws down onto you.

A whole bunch of PopCap games offered at half-price originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 27 Dec 2009 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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