MapleStory is wooing main stream American youth with videos to air on television networks and as previews for the latest Harry Potter movie this summer. This brings MapleStory into the American public eye, the realm only pierced by  Halo 3 and World of Warcraft so far. The 2D side-scrolling MMORPG is already pretty popular enjoying a 6 million strong player base in North America alone. It’s aimed at kids 10 and up, but has a very wide age range of players, most of whom seem to take their cute super-deformed characters pretty seriously.

MapleStory is a free to play MMO with a cash shop that allows players to purchase Nexon Cash to trade for premium items. MapleStory Nexon Cash cards have been available at local retailers like Target, CVS and Best Buy for a few years. The MMO has also spawned the MapleStory card game and videogames for the Wii and DS. Still MapleStory seems to be simmering just below the surface of casual gaming culture. Perhaps these new videos can tip MapleStory into the mainstream spotlight. Look for the video shorts to start appearing on tv and in theaters later this month. Until then, you can check it out for yourself at http://maplestory.nexon.net.

You’d have to be living in a cave to not have come across the Apple iPhone its many fanatical disciples. Most people who have them seem to not be able to put them down as if their brains might cease to function if they moveed too far away. We’ve even had to introduce a “no iPhones during gaming” policy for certain hard cases. Yes you know who you are.

There are a plethora of applications for this portable Pandora’s Box. Adam Sessler has taken it upon himself to look at the extremely varied apps labeled as games. Considering that both iShoot, the miniaturized Scorched Earth, and the infamous Baby Shaker apps are both classified as games, what comes to mind for each user can be vastly different. Sessler describes the phenomena best noting, “Distinction is not an American trait.”

This week 2K Games is giving baseball fans the chance to play THE BIGS 2 before the release date. These two big community events run June 30th, 6:00 PM PST at the Wilshire Grand in LA and July 1st, 6:00 PM EST at the Hilton New York in New York City.

For those of you who want a play by play but can’t attend, keep tabs on the events on the THE BIGS 2 forums. The full details on how to get signed up for these THE BIGS 2 party events follow the jump.
Gamers can pre-order THE BIGS 2 for Xbox 360, Wii Ps2, PS3 and PSP. The game launches July 7th. Read the full article »

There’s a playable demo up for the PC version of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince game. This free Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Playable Demo will give you a taste of potion making, dueling and playing as the Captain of the Gryffindor quidditch team.

Gamers and Harry Potter fans should watch the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Quidditch Preview for four minutes of gameplay footage. The new motion capture setup for quidditch is really great. It’s more believable than ever before.

Check out the star studded Making of the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince trailer as well.

Tom Felton, better known to some many as Draco Malfoy, leads gamers into a virtual Hogwarts for the Making of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince part one. Most of your favorite actors and actresses from the movies are in the video including Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter), Bonny Wright (Jinny Weasley), and Emma Watson (Hermione Granger). You’ll get glimpses of new story elements and characters; the most fantastic of them being the castle itself.

You’ll hear from EA developers Kevin Tuite, Art Director, and Chris Roberts, Lead Designer, of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince game as well as Executive Producer Jonathan Bunney as they talk about the new virtual Hogwarts built from all the information from the books and films. Gamers will be able to fully explore the castle and the grounds for the first time. You also play seeker, mix potions, and duel other students in addition to completing the storyline.

As if two new Metal Gear titles at E3 weren’t enough, Sony’s now bringing the undisputed champ of the Metal Gear Series to PlayStation Network. Starting today, you can grab the PS1 classic, Metal Gear Solid, for $9.99. You can even get it for your PSP!

As usual, there’s a lot of other stuff in the update. Some of it is interesting, like Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter for the PSP. Some of it is mindless, like Qore (Seriously, does anyone actually watch that?).

You can also choose the demo for EA Sports’ NCAA Football 10, as well as the usual weekly song downloads for Rock Band and Guitar Hero. Rock Band gets Spinal Tap this week, something guaranteed to make people my age smile with nostalgia.

If you want to see a full list of what’s available this week, it’s available after the break.

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Guitar Hero Smash Hits brings out Guitar Hero’s Greatest Hits for your band. This one’s for the many GH: Would Tour fans of the series that have looked back at Guitar Hero, Guitar Hero II, Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s and Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock and thought man if only those tracks were out for the whole band! I’m really looking forward to my favorites from Blue Öyster Cult’s “Godzilla”, Queen’s “Killer Queen”, Heart’s “Barracuda” and Danzig’s “Mother”. Check out the full list of tracks to pick out your favorites after the jump. You can also visit the GH Smash Hits site to vote for Best Guitar Shred, Best Vocal, Best Bass Lick, Best Drum Fill and more.

While you’re out in stores grabbing GH Smash Hits make sure to pick up the new Guitar Hero On Tour: Modern Hits for your DS. There are 28 new tracks to be shared bringing the total to 75 for the GH On Tour series. Guitar Hero: never leave home without it.

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Like many other people, I was very interested in seeing the ‘official’ unveiling of the PSP Go during Sony’s E3 press conference. Of course, we’d all seen it before the conference started, but I still wanted to see the official reveal.

My first thought was that other than the size of the unit, the PSP Go really wasn’t all that different from the PSP I already own. Over the weekend, I read an interesting article on Ars Technica, where they reached a similar conclusion. I thought I’d share it, as it tracks closely with my early impressions of the system.

The bigger news, according to Ars Technica, is the news that Sony is moving all their PSP distribution to digital, as well as on UMD. However, there’s no reason to buy the new handheld to take advantage of this move to digital. After all, with the right Memory Stick, I can download all these nifty new games onto my existing PSP. So, how will the PSP Go do at retail?

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Activision is briefing players on the new Call of Duty 5: World at War Map Pack in a new video. The Shi No Numa footage will prime you for mucking through the swamp battling relentless Imperial zombies with glowing eyes and hell hounds coming at you from all sides. It also gives you a sample of the soundtrack which I’m now convinced I must have after hearing “The One”.

You can view the COD: WaW Map Pack 2 Trailer for yourself along with a guided tour of design and gameplay for Corrosion, Bonzai, Sub Pens, and Shi No Numa after the break. CoD:WaW Map Pack 2will be available for download from Xbox Live Marketplace and PlayStation Store Thursday, June 11th.
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Hideo Kojima made an appearance at Sony’s press conference to introduce a big Metal Gear Solid game for its new pocket size portable. The new PSP Go has Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker in the works. This full Solid Snake game takes place in 1974, ten years after MGS3 making it a true successor.

With E3 2009 in full swing Gaming Today is swimming in trailers for so many awesome games, you’ll forget how slow the first five months of 2009 were. I’ll try to fire off as many as I can in short bursts. Enjoy the Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker E3 trailer after the break.
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