MMO Clerks

Gomibako, the puzzle-game-in-a-trash-can that delighted the people who were actually able to find it at Tokyo Game Show, is coming to the U.S. under the title Trash Panic.
Sony will release the downloadable puzzle game later this spring on PlayStation 3. As we saw at TGS, it’s Tetris with trash — big, oddly-shaped pieces of garbage lower into a can, and you have to organize them properly without letting it overfill. Sometimes you get a piece of flaming garbage that you can use to burn anything that’s combustible. Sometimes there’s a piece of trash that’s not trash, and you have to place it in carefully so it can be recovered. The realistic physics make it a very different sort of falling-stuff puzzle experience.
Image courtesy Sony

Original post by Chris Kohler

Worst Kept Secrets Dept.: Rumors of a Lego-themed edition of Rock Band have been making the rounds for quite a while now, and so Tuesday’s official confirmation doesn’t feel like news as such. Just a formality.
Lego Rock Band is being co-developed by (at least) three different companies: Lego Star Wars maker TT Games, Rock Band creator Harmonix, and that ubiquitous go-to studio for outsourced development Backbone Entertainment. (Backbone is also creating Rock Band Unplugged for Harmonix.)
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment will publish Lego Rock Band in time for the holiday season on Wii, DS, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360.
Lego Rock Band, as you might imagine, is an attempt to rope a younger audience into MTV’s four-player music game experience. Thus, some of the songs that will be available on this version include:

Blur: “Song 2″
Carl Douglas: “Kung Fu Fighting”
Europe: “The Final Countdown”
Good Charlotte: “Boys and Girls”
Pink: “So What”

Warner says the Lego brand [...]

Original post by Chris Kohler

The upcoming self-described “player-friendly” strategy game Stalin Vs Martians has been delayed, though presumably not for very long.
Though it was originally scheduled for release this week, developer Mezmer games issued a statement today saying the game “has been postponed due to the long march across the Siberian tundra.” However, it also adds that the game will see release “later this month.”
This being April 20, there isn’t much left to the month, so at most you’re looking at a week and a half of waiting for the quirky $20 PC title. That is, of course, barring any further delays.
Image courtesy Mezmer Games
See Also:

Stalin Vs Martians: ‘Trashy And Absolutely Over-The-Top’
Review: Red Alert 3 Kills With Co-Op Campaigns
Poll: Sex in Games Is Worse Than Violence

Original post by Earnest Cavalli

We’ve known about Assassin’s Creed 2 for awhile — a teaser website full of Da Vinci-esque illustrations was launched last week — but as of Thursday morning publisher Ubisoft made things official.
The firm’s announcement reveals that the game, which has already been in development for over two years at Ubisoft Montreal, focuses on Ezio, a Renaissance-era Italian noble on a quest for revenge against the ruling families of the time.
Additionally, Ubisoft promises that it learned a lesson from the first game’s linearity, saying AC2 will offer “more variety in missions” as well as “surprising and engaging new gameplay elements, diverse weapons and a profound character progression.”
Hopefully Ubisoft also learned that dragging players into a bleak futurescape between missions is a perfect way to ruin the otherwise excellent atmosphere created by its Montreal Studio.
Image: Animus
See Also:

Review: Why Assassin’s Creed Fails
Assassin’s Creed 2, Splinter Cell, Ghost Recon in Next Year
5 Things [...]

Original post by Earnest Cavalli

The long-awaited demo version of Final Fantasy XIII has arrived in the Game|Life offices. I’ll be writing a full set of lengthy impressions for Friday, but here are my first thoughts after playing through (most of) the hour-long demo.
After some experimentation with the battle system in X and a massive change-up in XII, Final Fantasy XIII rolls back to the closest thing we’ve seen to the traditional turn-based battles of Final Fantasies past. You’re just choosing to fight or cast magic spells via a familiar menu. The gimmick in this version is that you have a meter that fills up in thirds, and if you let it fill up all the way before you attack (it doesn’t take long), you can chain three different attacks together.
Battles are pretty chaotic. As I said, the gauge fills up pretty quickly, so you have to constantly throw out new attacks. If an enemy [...]

Original post by Chris Kohler

World of Warcraft creator Blizzard Entertainment has brokered a deal with Chinese online game operator NetEase to operate World of Warcraft in the territory.
The newly signed deal will see NetEase assume operation of the successful massively multiplayer online game for a term of three years once Blizzard’s current arrangement with rival online game operator The9 expires.
The announcement issued jointly by NetEase and Blizzard this morning made no specific mention of why the MMO creator chose to switch to the new operator, though I wonder if the new deal has anything to do with the ongoing difficulties plaguing the Chinese launch of the game’s Wrath of the Lich King expansion.
Perhaps Blizzard hopes NetEase can convince the seemingly implacable Chinese censors that the add-on isn’t as offensive as they believe.
Image: ecavalli/Flickr
See Also:

PETA Organizes Pro-Seal World of Warcraft Event
World of Warcraft 3.1 Patch Launches Today
Q&A: World of Warcraft Lead Producer J. Allen [...]

Original post by Earnest Cavalli

Fallout 3 creator Bethesda has filed with the U.S. Securities And Exchange Commission in an effort to reacquire the rights to create an MMO based on the post-apocalyptic world, reports series fan site No Mutants Allowed.
Currently, original Fallout publisher Interplay holds the rights to create the online game. Interplay sold the rights to the Fallout series to Bethesda in 2007 during a period of legal troubles, but licensed the rights to craft an MMO based on the series.
That agreement hinged on the idea that the MMO would have entered general production within two years. Despite progress presumably being made on Interplay’s “Project V13″ — a game widely believed (but never confirmed) to be a Fallout MMO — Bethesda’s filing indicates that the firm doesn’t feel Interplay has much claim to the rights anymore.
Ultimately, unless you’re an employee of either Interplay or Bethesda, what this means is we will be waiting [...]

Original post by Earnest Cavalli

Former coach and NFL broadcasting fixture John Madden has announced plans to retire after 30 years, a decision that publisher Electronic Arts says will not affect the successful Madden NFL game series.
Despite the announcement, Madden’s eponymous gaming line, which spans more than 20 iterations dating back to 1988, will continue production with the announcer’s collaboration and name on the box for the foreseeable future.
“His retirement has no impact on EA, other than us wishing him the very best in this next stage in his life,” reads a statement from the publisher reported by Kotaku. The company “continues its strong relationship with John Madden and will continue to produce new versions EA Sports Madden NFL with John’s collaboration.”
The latest version of the series, Madden NFL 10, is scheduled to ship to retail on August 14.
Image courtesy EA
Madden announces retirement [Sports Illustrated]
See Also:

Vince Young Lands Madden 2008 Cover
Hands-On: Tecmo Bowl Brings Retro [...]

Original post by Earnest Cavalli

No sooner do we receive official confirmation of the upcoming “Cops And Robbers” downloadable add-on for Burnout Paradise than developer Criterion’s official CrashTV podcast offers a detailed look at the cars it includes.
In an effort to “please fans from around the world,” Criterion has added law enforcement vehicles from a number of countries, including Japan, France, Germany, Italy, and multiple generations of both British and American cop cars — including the classic “Blues Brothers” car most famous for facilitating the 1980 Belushi-Aykroyd destruction of a shopping mall.
Unfortunately we still have no release date, nor pricing information for the DLC pack. Hopefully that info will emerge in the next few days.
See Also:

Teaser Offers Proof of Burnout’s ‘Pursuit’ Mode
Rumor: Pursuit Mode Returns in Burnout DLC
Burnout Paradise ‘Toy Pack’ Coming Mar. 5
Criterion: Burnout Paradise Islands ‘Will All Be Free’

Original post by Earnest Cavalli

French prankster Remi Gaillard strikes again, this time bringing the dot-chomping, ghost-fleeing action of arcade classic Pac-Man to the real world, much to the confusion and shock of bystanders.
You may recall Gaillard from his previous effort to bring Mario Kart to the streets of France. Like that prank, his newest is a deceptively high-concept gag that elegantly portrays the utterly ridiculous plots and settings of the gaming industry’s most beloved titles.
While the concept is nothing new — how many of you didn’t re-enact Super Mario Bros. as children? — the effort Gaillard puts into his pitch perfect costumes and surprisingly adept recreations of Pac-Man staples is very impressive. He certainly puts Hollywood’s myriad efforts to recreate gaming classics to shame.
See Also:

Video: French Prankster Makes Mario Kart a Reality
New Pac-Man Game In The Works
Video: London Couture Designer’s Take on Pac-Man
Castlevania, Pac-Man Films Granted $200 Million Financing

Original post by Earnest Cavalli