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Thursday brings us another update from GameTap, and while no new free games were added this week, they still have 141 of them to keep you occupied and too enthralled to participate in fireworks, drunken sack races, or the inevitable overdose of Aunt Mildred’s potato salad.

However, GameTap has added the following subscription games to its ever growing library:

• Descent Freespace: The Great War: The Galactic Terran Alliance and the Vasudan Empire have been at war for nearly two decades. But the arrival of the nightmarish Shivans has forced old enemies to put aside their differences and unite against a bloodthirsty and technologically superior foe. As a fighter pilot in the GTA carrier fleet, you’re on the front lines — and facing deadly interstellar dogfighting.

• Off-road Redneck Racing: Sunday! Sunday! Sunday! See a group of ill-mannered rednecks go doorhandle to doorhandle over some of the most grueling off-road courses on Earth! Thrill to fantastic barrel rolls! Boggle at finishes so close it’ll make your razor jealous! If you miss this you’d better be dead, or in jail! And if you’re in jail…break out!

For the full list of both subscription and free titles visit the official GameTap website.

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Recently, Rockstar sent some interesting swag to Popular Mechanics to kick off their holiday sales push. This awesomely shocking bit of swag is none other than a tongue in cheek metal baseball bat complete with the GTA IV logo.

Popular Mechanics writes:

Because they couldn’t legally send us an Uzi thorough the mail, [Rockstar] sent us the 14th most deadly weapon in the blockbuster game’s new arsenal: a metal bat… It just arrived with a press release informing us “‘Tis the Season To Swing Big and Go GRAND,” promoting GTA IV as a perfect stocking-stuffer for the Christmas season.

But who needs the game when you’ve got the bat? In the spirit of giving, we can now give a GTA-style beat-down to random strangers on the street, just like our favorite Eastern European criminal thug, Niko Bellic. And when the cops catch us, we can say that we never would have done it were it not for the influence of violent video games. And for the first time, we’d be right!

Oh, Rockstar, you are just asking for it. As much as I enjoy your shenanigans and your games, this time, I think the backlash will be much more interesting that usual. While I am all for pushing the boundaries of what is acceptable behavior in society and what is frowned upon, this is just a little too extreme. Hilarious, but too extreme considering all the crap that our favorite numbskull JT has caused, one would think that the controversy surrounding the GTA IV release would be enough. I guess not, but more power to them. They have enough money to quell the backlash should something unsavory arise due to the baseball bat stunt.

That being said, what the hell do I have to do to get one, Rockstar?

Via: GamePolitics

While it’s been promised that Saints Row 2 will be a more lighthearted affair than Grand Theft Auto, the new “Storyline” trailer certainly doesn’t demonstrate that aspect. Instead, what you’ve got is a trailer filled with guns, violence, swearing and a stripper for good measure — in other words, a nice evening out on the town. I can’t embed the trailer here because of all those things I just mentioned, but it’s definitely worth checking out if you’re interested in seeing what the story is going to be all about in Saints Row 2.

If you haven’t watched it before, now would be a good time to check out the “Activities” trailer, which pokes fun at some of the more mundane tasks you partake in when playing GTA IV.

Saints Row 2 is still on track for a release this October, after it suffered a delay in May so that they could tweak co-op (i.e. because they were blown away by GTA IV and needed more development time.)

The 2,676 people who filed claims against Rockstar in the “Hot Coffee” class action lawsuit will be splitting a monetary settlement of less than $30,000, according to the New York Times.

The contents of the settlement which Jonathan reported yesterday, stated that the customers who were offended by the sexual mini-game in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas would be granted anywhere from $5 to $35 each, or a revised edition of the game. Those who were “offended” had to enter a certain code to even get to the content, so if they did it was their own fault in the first place if they were offended.

Take-Two stated that the claims amount to less than $30,000 but unfortunately the company spent $1.3 million in legal fees. Add to this the $860,000 charitable donation the company agreed to and you get a bill totaling $2.19 million plus the production cost of the altered game and the distribution of it.

However, there is still the possibility, although small, that the civil lawsuit can still go to trial. The  settlement will go before Manhattan’s Federal District Court for final approval next Wednesday, so keep your eyes peeled for more details.

Via: New York Times

Anyone who’s played GTA IV remembers that infamous rape scene in the game, which allowed to accumulate points and…what’s that? You…you don’t remember that? Oooooh, that’s right, because there wasn’t one. Well, try explaining that to Connecticut Senator, Gayle Slossberg (D). She’s apparently convinced that the rape scene is there, she just has to get far enough along in the game to access it. At a press conference last week, she stated a law requiring clearer warning labels was needed to curb the corruption of youth. She doesn’t seem to know quite what the labels should read though, considering this statement on them:

“I mean what would it say? ‘This game will make you a sociopath’?”

Yeah, they really need to label those games better to make sure parents know about all the wild and crazy scenarios that aren’t actually in the game itself. Like how in Pokemon Snap, Pikachu would sometimes sell you drugs in exchange for sexual favors. That got you bonus points from Professor Oak, as I recall.

Via New Haven Advocate

Pandemic has unveiled a new batch of screenshots for the upcoming Mercenaries 2: World in Flames. As we’ve come to expect from any new media for this game, these images feature lots and lots of huge explosions. Well that and a few new gameplay reveals, such as returning character Christopher Jacobs and the addition of motorcycles. Since the last Mercenaries game was a pretty awesome GTA clone, I wouldn’t expect any less from this sequel.

You can check out the rest of the images here.

Some people might say that walking around Liberty City is a boring affair. While I wouldn’t go that far, it would be nice if you had access to the game’s excellent selection of radio stations while on foot — it would make wandering the back alleys while looking for those blasted flying rats a bit more enjoyable. That’s been a feature I’ve wanted since the third Grand Theft Auto rocked the scene. Rockstar had the feature implemented in GTA IV until fairly late in the game’s development cycle before it was yanked, MTV Multiplayer learned last week.

“Some people on the team didn’t like the music/mobile phone idea for various reasons, but they went back and forth on the idea until the very end,” Rockstar spokesperson Darlan Monterisi explained. “This is VERY common. We do it in every game we make. We still prefer the balance of music in car and the ambient world’s noise on foot, but we are constantly reviewing this stuff.”

From the sound of what he’s saying, it seems like Rockstar would consider releasing a music player through an update if there was enough interest in it. I don’t quite understand the decision to completely omit the feature; why not just give players the option to listen to the radio while on foot, even if it isn’t by default? Hopefully they keep “reviewing” this and decide to amend their decision. (And it better be free.)

The next time you boot up GTA IV for either the Xbox 360 or PS3, you should be prompted to download a new, helpful patch from Rockstar. The new patch essentially offers a number of changes and fixes that should improve the overall experience for everyone. Some of them are minor changes like more frequent leaderboard updates, while others are major fixes like eliminating game-crashing bugs. You can check out the full list of fixes below:

• Fixed an issue where players were unable to enter or exit vehicles in GTA Race.
• Fixed an issue where scripted vehicles were causing games to unexpectedly crash.
• Improved reliability and frequency of PS3™ online leaderboard updates.
• Fixed a rare hang some players encountered when moving from a Race or GTA Race lobby into gameplay.
• Fixed a hang that would occur when players were switching teams during the countdown in the lobby.
• Fixed an issue where players were able to get ridiculously high scores from Cops ‘n Crooks matches.
• Changed GTA Race and Race so that the last player remaining always receives a reward of $250.
• Fixed an issue where spectating players would prevent the game from finishing.
• Fixed an issue where players were unable to spectate in Round 2 of Cops ‘n Crooks games.
• Changed countdown timer in lobby so that it no longer resets when new players join a game.
• Changed the kick option so that kicked players are no longer brought back to single player.\

Via Rockstar Social Club

It’s Friday, and the 1UP Show is back. This week, the gang gets together to discuss Legendary: The Box, along with the game’s producer, John Garcia-Shelton. It’s essentially an FPS that has you fighting hordes of mythical creatures after they are unleashed from Pandora’s Box. Next up is Wheelman, based on the upcoming Vin Diesel movie, which is kind of similar to GTA, but with more emphasis on driving. They also take a look at the Metal Gear Solid 4 launch event and the Korg DS-10, which turns your Nintendo DS into a lean, mean, music-making machine. As always, you can download the show from Filefront by clicking the links below.

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It looks like Pixeloo — the digital artist behind the disturbing image of a realistic Mario — is up to his old tricks again. This time, he’s, um, “realified” the protagonist of GTA IV, Niko Bellic. Actually, this is probably one of the least disturbing portraits Pixeloo has ever done, since Niko’s feature’s weren’t all that cartoonish to begin with. Still, he definitely looks like someone you wouldn’t want to mess with.

Via Pixeloo

This is a great time to be a gamer. With all of the different developers, publishers, genres, consoles, PC and handheld options we have, it is no wonder that videogames are a billion dollar industry. If you take into consideration that at least 6 out of 10 games created are going to be enjoyed by you or your household thus becoming a commercial success, those really are not bad odds. Granted, not all games are going to pull in the numbers that a Halo or GTA title will, but a good solid title can garner just as much respect and provide just as much enjoyment as a mega game such as those.

Another reason it is a great time to be a gamer, is because of the wonderful games created by Activision and Harmonix by the way of Guitar Hero and Rock Band. This is also a great time for people who love music, because while there are some who can play a musical instrument, not everyone can and these games help us live out our fantasies of being musical icons in our very own living room.

With Guitar Hero: World Tour, Rock Band 2, and Konami’s Rock Revolution all looming just over the horizon, it is indeed a great opportunity for us all. If you like the music simulation games, you basically have a nice variety now to choose from. Before, you really only had Guitar Hero I & II until Rock Band came out – now, Activison seems to make a new announcement every week regarding SOMETHING pertaining to either Guitar Hero III or and upcoming game destined to rock your socks off. Rock Band has promised us a new album every month for download, and while they have been really slow getting there, at least they are starting to make good on their promise. How “The Cars” and “The Pixies” will fare, is anyone’s guess really, but at least they are indeed releasing something.

Now comes news that Guitar Hero: World Tour and Rock Revolution will be following the footsteps of Rock Band with extra peripherals to round out your jam sessions in front of your favorite console. Many people are judging both Activison and Konami a little to harshly in my opinion, because the truth is, you have to evolve or die. Plain and simple, and that is the case with every form of entertainment. So are these games really such a bad thing? Really?

Read the full article

I’m a big fan of Boom Blox; it’s one of my favorite Wii games, and certainly the most fun I’ve had with any third-party title on the platform. The overall reaction to the game was quite positive, as the game garnered solid reviews. But according to the NPD Group (via GameDaily), the game sold only 60k copies in May, coming in at #25 for the month — surely that’s not what Electronic Arts had in mind for their Steven Spielberg-branded game had in mind, particularly in a month where sales of the system were so high at just over 675k.

Analysts have been split about what this means. Ben Schachter said, “While overall hardware and software trends for the Nintendo Wii continue to be strong, we would like to see more third-party hits on the platform,” before adding, “To-date, Guitar Hero III, Sega of America’s Mario and Sonic: Olympic Games, and TTWO’s Carnival Games are the only third-party Wii games that have sold more than 1 million units to-date according to NPD, and there are many third-party Wii exclusives that have come-and-gone with minimal reaction from the market.”

Anita Frazier disagrees and simply believes the game was caught in a month where the attention was directed to things like Wii Fit and GTA, which is the theory I personally subscribe to. “It’s still really hard for new IP to breakthrough the noise in the market, and there has been a lot of noise so far this year. Between Super Smash Bros. Brawl, GTA IV, Wii Fit, Mario Kart and the upcoming Metal Gear Solid 4 (to name a few), there have been some really high profile game releases. The game was really well reviewed so I’m suspecting the marketing just didn’t break through the clutter to the extent that they were hoping for,” she said.

Earlier this week, however, EA CEO John Riccitiello told the audience at the William Blair Investor Conference (via MTV Multiplayer) that sales were actually on target, and that it had actually “met our expectations internally.” He also remains hopeful about the game’s future, saying, “A title like this one — can it do several hundred thousand or a million or more units? Sure, it’s just gotta keep selling.”

Electronic Arts has generously extended the deadline on its offer to buyout Take Two to July 18th. The offer is an unsolicited attempt to strong arm T2 into selling that has been dragging on since February.

“Our offer price remains unchanged at $25.74 per share, which is a substantial premium to where Take-Two’s stock was trading prior to our offer,” said Owen Mahoney, Senior Vice President of EA Corporate Development. “We congratulate Rockstar on the successful launch of GTA IV but believe our offer reflects a full and fair price based on the long-term value of Take-Two’s entire operation.”

Take Two isn’t impressed and continues cross the line drawn in the sand.

“The latest extension of EA’s unsolicited, highly conditional tender offer does not alter the fact that their proposal still significantly undervalues Take-Two, a fact that is reflected in the overwhelming number of stockholders who still have not tendered their shares,” said Strauss Zelnick, Chairman of the Board of Take-Two. “Our Board of Directors remains in unanimous agreement that the proposal is contrary to the best interests of Take-Two stockholders, and the Board continues to recommend that stockholders not tender their shares to EA. The Board remains focused on the strategic process that began formally on April 30 to consider all alternatives to maximize value. We believe that these alternatives, which may include a business combination or remaining independent, will deliver greater value to stockholders than the current EA offer.”

Some companies just can’t take a hint. EA has assimilated so many different companies by now, it just can’t understand why T2 wouldn’t want to join the Collective. The whole situation is comical at this point and I find myself rooting for the underdog (not that there really is one). Obviously EA is just one of those companies that doesn’t know when to give up.

You can read the details onEA’s announcement extending the deadline, and Take Two’s response on Business Wire.

The next game from developer Realtime Worlds, the company behind Crackdown, All Points Bulletin, will be seeing an open public beta before the game’s release, reports Wired. There’s been no indication from the developer as to when we might expect either the beta or the game itself. Given that the creator of GTA, David Jones, is one of the top dogs at Realtime, you can expect they’ll be taking as much time as they need.

You might remember back in April, Realtime bought back the rights to APB so that they would have full rights over the game’s distribution throughout the world. Jones said, “By controlling the rights to APB we can ensure that gamers around the globe experience the revolutionary gameplay we envisioned when we first began creating the property.” This fueled rumors that Realtime might potentially shop the game to Rockstar, who could in turn publish the game as GTA Online. We haven’t heard anything about it since, but it’s such a juicy rumor that I don’t want to let go of it just yet.

The promise of an open beta before release seems like a good sign of things to come. It’s mutually benefitial, in that gamers can play the game early and provide feedback, and Realtime can test the game with a large number of people playing. Plus, a beta is a great way of landing some free publicity, which any company would be happy to get.

I’ve gotta think that PR and marketing folks are as envious as can be of those who work at Nintendo. At the very least, when it comes to responding to the month’s NPD numbers, it’s the easy job there can be — there’s no need to spin the numbers to make things look good. The numbers speak for themselves and with the release of Wii Fit, Nintendo dominated both the hardware and software sides of the NPDs in May.

Mario Kart Wii and Wii Fit ended up number two and three on the best selling software for month of May in North America, which Nintendo’s Cammie Dunaway attributes to the Wii Wheel and Balance Board accessories’ attractiveness to both new and veteran gamers alike.

“The Wii Wheel and Wii Balance Board accessories make game play fun for new gamers while presenting new challenges for those who have been playing a long time,” said Dunaway. “The diversity of the seven Nintendo games represented in NPD’s top 10 for May demonstrates how Nintendo has something for everyone.”

More than 5.8 million copies of Wii Play have been sold to date, according to Nintendo. I wonder what percentage of those purchased weren’t entirely for the purpose of securing a second Wiimote — could it be anything less than 99%?

One fact I found particularly interesting was that, of the top 30 best-selling games in May, 19 of them were for Nintendo platforms. That means only 11 of the remaining titles were for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, and PSP. (Without even having the numbers in my hands, I think it’s safe to assume none of the games were for the original Xbox.) Most of them can’t even begin to compare with GTA, but for there to be that many Wii and DS games selling well has got be playing a major role in future plans for developers and publishers.

Those of you who are looking for a reason to tear yourselves away from MGS4, GTA IV or Ninja Gaiden II, some of the offerings headed your way next week should give you plenty of excuses.

The following games are scheduled to be released:

June 16

• 1701 A.D. Gold Edition (PC)

June 17

• Arkanoid DS (Nintendo DS)
• Etrian Odyssey II: Heroes of Lagaard (Nintendo DS)
• Imagine Rock Star (Nintendo DS)
• Petz Dogz Fashion (Nintendo DS)
• Secret Agent Clank (PSP)
• Space Invaders Extreme (PSP)
• Space Invaders Extreme (Nintendo DS)
• Spore Creature Creator Complete (PC)
• Tamagotchi Connection Corner Shop 3 (Nintendo DS)
• Wacky Races: Crash and Dash (Wii)

All release dates are subject to availability, so some may be in stores on the day listed, the day before, or the day after so check with wherever you purchase your games because shipping times vary.

While I’m always interested in seeing each month’s NPD results, what I perhaps like even more is getting to see each hardware manufacturer’s spin on the numbers. Although, really, Nintendo doesn’t need any spin with numbers like these.

Microsoft’s spin on the May numbers hones in on the number of copies GTA IV sold on Xbox 360 versus “the other platform’s version” (Why can’t they just say PlayStation 3? It’s said a number of times throughout the rest of the release) and how much money the system is generating for third party publishers.

Higher Metacritic scores and the Nielsen report that 10-26 year olds play more on 360 than either the Wii or PS3 are also featured the Microsoft press release, so there’s actually quite a bit more variety than they had last month.

Oh, and they might mention that record-breaking attach rate. Again.

Hit the break for the full spin.

Read the full article

It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise when you consider GTA didn’t have much time to sell in April, but it was a much closer contest for the top spots in May than you might have guessed. While the 360 version of GTA IV did take the top spot with 871.3k copies sold, Mario Kart was right on its heels with 784.4k and Wii Fit not too far behind at 687.7k. The PS3 version of GTA IV came in at number four with 442.9k and then there was a significant drop off to number five, Wii Play, which sold 294.6k copies.

Wii Play’s number is actually fairly low given the number of Wii systems that were sold in the month, but it’s quite possible that many of those Wiis were sold alongside a copy of Wii Fit, which isn’t a multiplayer-happy game like so many other games in the system’s library.

The DS and Wii also took four more spots in the top ten with Smash Bros., Guitar Hero III, and the two versions of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon coming in at numbers 6, 8, 9, and 10. Iron Man on the unkillable PlayStation 2 snuck in at number 7, no doubt thanks in large part to the movie’s great success.

May 2008 Software Sales:

1. Grand Theft Auto IV (360) - 871,300
2. Mario Kart Wii w/ wheel (Wii) - 787,400
3. Wii Fit w/ balance board (Wii) - 687,700
4. Grand Theft Auto IV (PS3) - 442,900
5. Wii Play w/ remote (Wii) - 294,600
6. Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii) - 171,100
7. Iron Man (PS2) - 130,600
8. Guitar Hero III (Wii) - 116,800
9. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness (DS) - 107,000
10. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time (DS) - 102,000

Metal Gear Solid 4 is sure to come in highly with the June NPDs, and it’ll be difficult to overcome both Grand Theft Auto and a continued stream of Wii Fit copies. It’s definitely got a good shot at outselling them, though, and with those hard-to-come-by MGS4 bundles selling like crazy, the PS3 will be sure to see a nice bump in the first month of summer.

I thought the numbers might rise from April, when both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 had average months despite the release of Grand Theft Auto IV. Clearly, that wasn’t the case; the PS3 outsold the 360 in May by a little over 20,000 units, but neither system saw a dramatic boost from April. Clearly, the people who have been holding out for the release of GTA IV either already had picked up a system of their choice or is continuing to wait. Perhaps the kids are waiting until Christmas when they’ve got some cash?

Nintendo, meanwhile, continues to run circles around the competition. The Wii sold less than April, but still was more than 450,000 units ahead of Sony or Microsoft’s best effort — better than triple the PS3 or 360. The DS was up, though, and like the Wii outsold the PS3 and 360 combined. Wow.

May 2008 Hardware Sales (April numbers in parentheses):

• Nintendo Wii - 675,100 (714,200)
• Nintendo DS - 452,600 (414,800)
• PlayStation 3 - 208,700 (187,100)
• Xbox 360 - 186,600 (188,000)
• PlayStation Portable - 182,300 (192,700)

Conjuring up images of a man with a monocle (for Jonathan, at least), Janco Partners analyst Mike Hickey has criticized a recent Saints Row 2 trailer that ripped on Grand Theft Auto IV, referring to it as “pompous.”

“The trailer directly attacks Grand Theft Auto IV in game content, an unusually pompous position in our view, considering GTA IV is estimated to be the highest grossing 1st week entertainment release of all time - and is currently the highest quality scored game on both the Xbox 360 and PS3 according to Metacritic.com,” Hickey said in a note sent to clients and certain press, according to Gamasutra.

He continued, “We remain conservative on our sales expectations for Saints Row 2, in light of mediocre game previews and a delayed release in-part from quality concerns.”

That seems pretty harsh of him. The trailer (watch it here) seemed pretty tongue-in-cheek to me, and I found it absolutely hilarious. Of course, if the first game is any indication, Saints Row 2 itself will be polluted with lame, uninspired satire that’s a poor rip from the GTA games. That notwithstanding, I still believe the trailer was terrific, and I hope it’s the first of many to come.