Radical Interactive has released a tips and tricks guide in video form for their latest release, Prototype. Hints, Tips and Stupid Helicopter Tricks may point out a few things you didn’t already come up with on your own. It also has some less useful more fun ideas for you.

Prototype is a mature rated game as you might figure since the main character eats people, so you can download the Prototype Tips & Tricks Trailer off FileFront. Mind the age gate.

After last week’s stellar review of inFamous, Zero Punctuation pits Cole McGrath and his thunder god impression against Protoype. The main character Alex Mercer is more of a “you are who you eat,” type of guy.

I thought this comparison piece of InFamous and Prototype was rather inevitable actually. Early on in their development cycles I often became confused over the two games only being able to straighten it out because one main character eats people and the other… doesn’t. What with all the government interference in the natural order of things coming back to bite them in the ass, in Prototype’s case literally, they seem very similar at first glance.

A more detailed Impression of inFamous is available on Gaming Today.

In anticipation of the upcoming PROTOTYPE launch, Activision is offering three pre-order incentive packages. Each package includes collectors items that are meant to give you a head start in the open world action game where you play Alex Mercer, a shape-shifter who takes “You are what you eat” to a new level.

Gamers can score an action figure of PROTOTYPE’s anti-hero Alex Mercer along with a hint sheet to key you into prime spots throughout New York City. The flip side is a poster for those who aren’t interested in these critical hints. There’s also a limited edition concept art book from developer Radical Entertainment featuring weapons, enemies, and locations as well as illustrations of Mercer’s shape-shifting abilities. The final offering is the PROTOTYPE Comic from Wild Storm. The story lets you step out of Mercer’s persona to view the conflict through the eyes of two of New York City’s finest.

The hard part will be to figure out who to pre-order from to get the item you crave most. PROTOTYPE is due for release June 9, 2009 for the PC, Xbox 360 and the PS3. Follow the break for details on the pre-order offers from Gamestop, Hollywood Gamecrazy, and Amazon.
Read the full article »

Spike’s VGA provided gamers with an update look at Brutal Legend. This third person action foray takes gamers into an alternate world of Heavy Metal and Norse fantasy. Metal fans will catch many references creator Tim Schafer makes to legends including Lita Ford, White Lion, Iron Maiden and Motörhead. There are also some of metal’s most well known figures involved directly with Brutal Legend listed after the break.

If you’ve seen “Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny” and enjoyed it, chances are this videogame is for you.

Read the full article »

After a renewed start we had an interruption these last few weeks but rest assured Filefront is still hosting and promoting all the great user created and hosted content contributed to us. We return with a double length post highlighting some great mods and files for quite a few outstanding games including usual suspects like Half-Life 2, the Battlefield games and of course one of my favorite series “that I am really no good at yet still enjoy” – Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War

Highlights from this week’s column include mods for:

• Doom III – Wrathchild Act I (not ROE compatible), Revised Alphalabs
• Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion – A Provost of the Nine Divines, More Nord Beards
• Battlefield 2 – Operation Peacekeeper, Allies Intent Extended
• S.T.A.L.K.E.R – Ballistics Mod
• Far Cry 2 – new maps: MP_Surf & Gold Rush

There are also links to other maps, mods and patches for many of your favorite PC modifiable games. Be sure to check it all out after the jump.

Read the full article »

Rumblings around the internet are now indicating that 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand is the latest game to get the axe as a result of Activision Blizzard’s purchase of Sierra. This was of course the sequel to the atrocious, yet successful 50 Cent: Bulletproof, which would have had ol’ Fiddy traveling to the Middle East for some hackneyed reason. The sequel actually looked like it was shaping up to be a very different affair from its predecessor, but Activision probably realized that the stench of the first game — which has been listed on numerous “Worst Games of All Time” lists — wouldn’t wash off easy. And still no word on the fate of the Ghostbusters game, which is probably the main project from Sierra that most people are curious about.

UPDATE: Aaaaaand, rumor squashed. Apparently the game is close to being finished and is still set to be released this winter. Damn you, internet rumor mill!

Via Kotaku

All modders and aspiring developers out there should pay close attention to a new article up on Blend Games. The author takes aim at RPGs calling them on their weaknesses and shortcomings while acknowledging the true greats in “Reasons Your Role-Playing Game Is Disappointing.” This of course translates to “Why your RPG sucks”.

Most of the games that come under fire are Western RPGs with only one JRPG in the mix. As you might expect, there are Bioware titles mentioned in abundance such as Neverwinter Nights 2, NwN2: Mask of the Betrayer, Mass Effect, Knights of the Old Republic and Baldur’s Gate. Arcanum, Final Fantasy VII and Fable get mentioned as well. the only Western RPG that wasn’t touched on was Planescape: Torment.

ERPG Cardinal sins including getting the story started to slowly. FF7 and Mass Effect are held out as sterling examples of what sucks players into a game right off the bat while the intro to Fable is used as an example of what not to do. NwN2 is slammed as well, but NwN2: Mask of the Betrayer is given Kudos for getting the player’s attention immediately. I’ve got to admit that waking up in a crypt hundreds of miles from home is much more interesting than going out for the prize at your local fair.

Also on the hit list is the over use of Fed Ex quests, slow travel between points of interest and unwieldy inventory systems like the one that plagues players in Mass Effect. Fable is once again sent to the corner for repetitive combat. Hopefully we won’t see these shortcomings in Fable 2. Catch the best and the worst of RPGs on Blend Games.

This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.

- T.S. Eliot “The Hollow Men”

Wow, never thought I’d actually be able to quote T.S. Eliot on this site and have it make sense (now to work on inserting “The Wasteland” somehow).

Would you like to hear a sad tale? It begins almost 30 years ago when a small video game developer named “Sierra Entertainment” was founded by a husband and wife team working out of their own home. A decade later, the company had been picked up by investors and created the groundbreaking King’s Quest, Space Quest, and Police Quest series, cementing them as leaders in the adventure game genre. By the end of the 90’s the company had grown into a full-fledged publisher of instant classics like Homeworld and Half-Life and its expansions.

Oh, but here is where our story takes a turn. For you see, Sierra fell into some hard times near the end of the decade, which were only compounded by a scandal involving some fraudulent business statements. And so the company was sold off to Vivendi, and eventually became merely a brand name instead of a video game developer. As you may know, Vivendi recently merged with Activision to form “Activision Blizzard,” and the Sierra name has all but been eradicated since.

But there’s still one depressing footnote to this tale. You see, somehow one final game slipped into manufacturing right as the merger was happening; one last game to bear the “Sierra” label. And what was that game? The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. So essentially, Sierra, one of the more revered and respected video game companies in the history of video games, just released their last title…and it was a crappy tie-in to a crappy movie.

Sad. So incredibly sad.

Via Variety

Seeing is believing in this video review of the spy thriller, The Bourne Conspiracy.

Jason Bourne was last seen diving off a building into the Thames in the hit action movie The Bourne Ultimatum.

But in this game, he’s back with a vengeance – quite literally – with a new storyline and plenty of fisticuffs and gun toting to go with. The game is based on Robert Ludlum’s books, rather than the movies, so although Bourne doesn’t look like Matt Damon, the same action mystery underpins it.

The game looks fantastic on the next-gen consoles – check out the ChannelFlip verdict in this video review.

Gaming Today submitted our own impressions of The Bourne Conspiracy.

Like my colleague, I personally disagree with her opinion on the game. In my own recent review for a different outlet I rated The Bourne Conspiracy as a C+ tops. I agree that the close quarters fighting is great, it’s like taking turns at a square dance, but once guns and ranged combat enters the picture the game starts to fall apart. The camera gets in the way and Bourne isn’t very well developed as a character.

via ChannelFlip

This is a really fun trailer for Ghostbusters: The Videogame. Sierra Entertainment has probably made one of the funnest trailers I have seen in the past two days, mainly because it not only has clips from the movie, but a side-by-side comparison of footage from the game next to the original scene from the movie. The gamplay footage looks top notch, and this is definitely (still) going to be the game to watch for this Fall.

The game is slated for an October 21st release (same day as Dead Space) and while October is “the” month as far as game releases go, I seriously believe it can hold its own because if other gamers out there are anything like I think they are, they will be buying plenty of titles that month. Also, the Activison shindig is tonight, so we might actually hear or see a bit more about the game considering Sierra is under the Activision umbrella, so check back with us.

More E3 screens for the game can be found here.