Game music can make or break a gaming experience.

The best soundtracks, you remember forever – like just about all of the Final Fantasy music by Nobuo Uematsu. MADWORLD, Sega’s experimental game for the Wii had a pretty interesting hip hop score and now fans of the music or the game can relive their experiences while driving through rush hour traffic crammed behind the soccer mom van and the yuppie convertible.

The game features music by OX, Doujah Raze, Sick-YG, Bandy Leggz, Wordsmith, S.O.U.L. Purpose, and Optimus. The lyrics (in typical hip hop fashion) feature some suggestive and explicit lyrics befitting a game about smashing people with violent intent.

The game’s soundtrack includes 20 songs and will be available through retail or via sumthingdigital.com or Apple’s iTunes music store.

Just a quick.. ” Why have you not bought this yet? and if you were waiting.. don’t!” sort of new post regarding this week’s Steam bargain – Sega’s Empire: Total War.

I realize there are a lot of folks out there who don’t have the patience for or interest in a historical strategy title but let me leave you with one really cool detail: Empire has Ship to Ship fighting on the high seas with pixel level physics and modeling.. you can actually shoot through an opponent’s boat and hit another enemy on the far side!

Come on.. who doesn’t think that is one of the most awesome things to even get simulated in an RTS?

So don’t wait, run and pick up the Steam version of the game for 50% off this weekend. Its worth the full price but why not just save yourself some money now? Yes, for the record, this is an official endorsement.. this game rocks!

Normally, I try not to mention “gone gold” info but since we’ve been back up and running I don’t think we’ve given much coverage to the Wii for reasons other than to moan and gripe about the weird E3 presentation but I wanted to take a chance to mention that while its my least played game console it does have titles for gamers outside the preschool and septuagenarian sects.

The Conduit, a first person shooter title developed by High Voltage studios and published by SEGA, is one of the more “core gamer” (we aren’t calling ourselves “hardcore” any longer I guess) oriented titles for Nintendo’s bizzare stress relieving, heartbeat sensing exercise console. The story surrounds Secret Service Agent Michael Ford, a member of a shadow cabinet organization called The Trust which is tasked with defending America from threats even more foreign and extraterrestrial.

Again, we get to see someone take a shot at making the Wii a console for an FPS. With the additionlack of the Wii Motion Plus it looks like the dreams planted in all Wii owners by the dynamic and far oversold Metroid Wii teasers back at the console’s launch could actually come to fruition. The Conduit looks pretty good for a Wii title and if it controls well the Earth vs. secret insect invader story could be a lot of fun as a break between running in place and flapping our arms up and down playing a Nintendo mini-game.

The Conduit is scheduled to hit stores in the US around June 23rd. just for fun I’ve embedded some videos for your viewing pleasure below.

Nintendo is rolling out its E3 2009 line at noon today. Yes videogames have come up in the world of entertainment, dominating movie and music. Nintendo promises a new leap forward in game control and several new Mario adventures to go with. The Nintendo team is adding more hard core game s to it’s line-up including some developed in house. Keep up with all latest here.
Read the full article »

Courtesy of Sega Europe, a teaser trailer and hi-res screenshots of developer Rebellion’s Aliens Vs. Predator first person shooter game have been released. As the news heading suggests, these are the first public media glimpses of the game. While the press release reveals very little, we are, in fact, treated to a few morsels worthy as ‘news’.

We have confirmation that the single player will have three campaigns, each corresponding to the player’s role as the Colonial Marine, Alien, and Predator respectively. The setting and plot of the game take place on planet BG-386 where a group of mining colonists discover an ancient pyramid sealed by a mysterious race of aliens.

Being the stupidly curious type of colonists that they are, they awaken a “malevolent intelligence” that has been in dormancy for centuries. During their meddling within the pyramid, the colonists somehow trigger an alarm beacon that sends out an alert to a distant race of warriors who are “dispatched to ensure that it remains sealed at all costs”. So yeah, sounds like the plot from the movie Aliens mixed in with the first AvP movie.

Also confirmed by the press release was that three-way online multiplayer will be included.

Despite the scant info, it seems like AvP video game fans are going to get what they expect. The past AvP games followed similar suit. And given that this is the same developer who gave us those incredible experiences, I dare say a little “faith” is in order here.

Dubbed by SEGA as “the first title to be launched in SEGA’s forthcoming series of Aliens games”, AvP is scheduled for release sometime in early 2010.

You can check out a few in-game screens as well as SEGA’s AvP press release after the break.

Read the full article »

This week’s Zero Punctuation takes on Valkyria Chronicles. This classic RPG is a PS3 exclusive so some of you may be unfamiliar with it. The reference to Valkyries in the title might tip you off to the storyline if this wasn’t a Japanese RPG. Weirdly enough, you’d be on the right track. Valkyria Chronicles is a turn based JRPG filled with androgynous, angst ridden heroes in a World War II like setting.

Anyone unfamiliar with Zero Punctuation should brace themselves considering JRPGs are one of Yahtzee’s “favorite” genres.
Read the full article »

SEGA plans to dole out the nostalgia to gamers come early 2009 when they release their upcoming Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection or if you happen to live in the UK, “Sega’s Mega Drive Ultimate Collection” for the PS3 and Xbox 360. This compilation of some of the most popular first-party games from SEGA’s 16-bit Mega Drive years will contain not only classic titles for the SEGA enthusiast, but also some bonus content from its 8-bit Master System and some tubular 1980’s arcade era games.

Currently in development by Backbone Entertainment, the game disc houses over 40 games in one package revamped in HD such as:

• Alien Storm
• Columns
• Ecco the Dolphin
• Phantasy Star
• Sonic the Hedgehog 1, 2 and 3
• Space Harrier
• Streets of Rage 1, 2 and 3

Each reproduction will run well on HD televisions because they can output in 720p which will be a great change for those of us who played these games back in the day, and a good way to get the newer generations interested in just how far games have come over the years.

This is the largest collection of SEGA first party games ever put on on gaming disc, and while you can get some of the retro goodness mentioned above through Xbox Live or the Wii Virtual Console it will be cheaper in the long run if you just buy the gaming disc when it come out next year. Plus, the games mentioned here are not anywhere near close to 40 titles, and the disc will also include unlockable content in the way of acade games and interviews with the original game developers as you earn Achievements on the Xbox 360 and Trophies on the PS3.

Fans of muliplayer/co-op games will not be left out either because you can play these classics together with a friend from the same console at home.

You can view more screens of the game here on the FileFront game page.

Sega has announced the opening of its new Stormrise website. Developer Creative Assembly has also released a new developer diary on the classic real time strategy game. check into the new Stormrise website and check into the second Stormrise dev diary courtesy of FileFront.

Platinum Games and Sega have released a trailer for their upcoming graphic novel style game MadWorld. While similar to the other trailers and all of the screens we have been given over the past few months, about the only difference compared with this trailer is that some of the scenes have been “censored”.

Despite being called the Christmas Trailer, this new video has absolutely nothing to do with the holiday, other than the Christmas tree and the happy holidays tacked on to the end of it. It is only your basic trailer and more of a gentle reminder to gamers that the game is still coming. So, why not just forgo the whole “Christmas” aspect of it?

MadWorld is expected to be released for the Wii during the first part of 2009, providing the developers and the ratings board can land on the same page. Quite a few people are up in arms about such a violent game coming exclusively to such a squeaky clean console, but if Nintendo did not see the added value of such a game being made available to gamers who do not have families or children in their house–they never would have green lighted the game for their console in the first place.

The final episode of Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People debuts of this Monday’s Wii-kly Update. Strong Bad Episode 5: 8-Bit Is Enough is just one of the WiiWare titles Nintendo is offering this week. Confront Trogdor the dragon before he causes more destruction than Strong Bad.

The second title is Big Kahuna Party, a party game for up to four friends. Whether you choose competitive or cooperative play, this game will bring tikis, sea creatures and tropical sun to brighten your winter doldrums.

Weighing in for the Virtual Console offering is Enduro Racer, a classic arcade racing game translated for the SEGA Master System. For the full details on all of these games, follow the break.
Read the full article »