Conquest! Medieval Realms v1.5 Patch
This patch will update your Conquest Medieval Realms installation to version 1.5.

Marvel vs Capcom Spider Man Strategy Trailer
Get a look at the strategy behind playing as Spider-Man in the upcoming Marvel vs. Capcom 2.

Marvel vs Capcom 2 Strider Strategy Trailer
In this trailer, you’ll learn the strategy behind playing as Strider in the upcoming fighter title, Marvel vs. Capcom 2.

Marvel vs Capcom 2 Episode 5 Trailer
Get a look at a number of head to head battles from Marvel vs Capcom 2, including Spider-Man vs Strider.

InFamous is an action packed trip into a familiar genre with an interesting twist. You start out as Cole McGrath, a poor schmuck who has a mysterious delivery package blow up in his face, leaving him with burgeoning electrical based powers and everyone else in a six block radius with a slight case of death. You emerge from your baptism by fire, crawl out of the blast zone and run for your life guided by your buddy Zeke as the police force hunts you down.

Once you reach the relative safety of your roof top penthouse, the game truly begins throwing you into a grand conspiracy masterminded by a clandestine mystical organization. As you unravel the mystery, you can either fight your reputation as the bringer of the apocalypse or revel in the new coolness that is you and start building your own evil empire.

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It seems we can’t go a week without God of War creator, David Jaffe, posting an raving-but-surprisingly-insightful rant on his blog. This week, the game developer aims his critical eye at anyone who’s made a Marvel game, and he’s not happy with they way they’re handling their licenses:

“As a huge comic and game fan- and as a game designer as well- I really hope Marvel stops ONLY using the HOW TO MAKE A MARVEL GAME template that seems to demand: Open City, Hero Powers, Recycled Missions ad nauseam, and a few Unique things tossed in. And I hope they stop because this template- in most cases- goes against the very thing that makes the comics so special: story.”

He goes on to argue that comic-based games would probably fare better if the story took a more linear approach, in order to focus on the plot more. To his credit, he does have a point. Almost anything based on comic books tend to go down in quality the more they deviate from the source material, whether it’s a game, a movie, or a TV show. But the real message here is clear: David Jaffe really wants to make a Marvel game. Personally, I think that would work out pretty well. Hell, take out Kratos, put in Wolverine, and you’re halfway to a game right there.

Via David Jaffe’s Blog

Back in January, Stephany reported that the white PS3 units were a confirmed rumor. It looks like more rumors have surfaced as to when retailers will start receiving these units.  If reports and speculations are correct, we should be seeing some of these white PS3s in GameStop stores in the near future.

According to QJ.net:

But the part that gets me is the part where they say the model number may change. Makes me wonder is it going to be white only? Or just a heads up the bundle has a different model number from the non-bundle.Kaizer_911, an EBGames/GameStop manager, informs us that they will also no longer be receiving the PS3 and Spider-Man 3 bundle. Instead, they will receive new 40 GB models that may or may not have a new model number. He goes on to speculate that:

Normally if there is a color change my company would make two skus, but as of right now we only have one sku in the system. It has changed from 40GB PS3 w/ SpiderMan Bundle to 40GB PS3 Sony.

While Sony is issuing no comments on the rumors that the 80GB PlayStation 3 is being phased out, Opposable Thumbs’ extremely reliable source has tipped them off that this is indeed the case. Sony will be sticking with the two SKU setup, however, as they will introduce a new high-end system that will take up the 80GB’s price point. The new system would be packed with either a 120GB or 160GB hard drive, and the new Dual Shock 3 controller.

“Sony is, in fact, phasing out the 80GB PS3. Sony is going to stay with the two-SKU approach though, and the prices look to stay the same,” the mole said.

“The Spiderman 3 pack-in will disappear as well once the 80GB unit is gone. In order to maintain a similar value proposition to the 80GB/Spiderman 3 bundle, I expect to see a storage increase to 120 or 160GB at the same price point, plus the new Dual-Shock 3 controller.”

Perfectly believable, but we’ll have to wait and see if it happens. It only seems like a natural evolution of the current SKU setup. There’s no telling exactly when this new SKU would be introduced, but it’s probably a few months away at least.

Perhaps we’ll get an announcement at GDC?

The figures are in from the NPD group and according to the Entertainment Software Association, the computer and video games industry generated $18.85 billion in sales in 2007. Software sale account for $9.5 billion of the total which is up 28% from last year. Video games are competing with other forms of entertainment. In its first day, Halo 3 outsold both the opening weekend of Spiderman 3 and opening day of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.”

“The video game industry set the pace over all others in 2007, with record-breaking sales, off-the-charts consumer demand, and innovation reaching from galactic exploration to guitar simulation,” said Michael D. Gallagher, president and CEO of the ESA, the U.S. association representing computer and video game software publishers. “On average, an astonishing 9 games were sold every second of every day of the year.” The ESA cited data showing that the industry sold over 13.4 million portable game units in 2007, easily trumping the much-hyped Apple iPhone®, which sold just 4 million units.

As much as media and politicians want to deny it, gaming is no longer a niche hobby. If it continues to grow as it has over the last few years, the games industry will be a force to be reckoned with.

via Business Wire 

For European and Japanese gamers who are wanting to add a little color to their lives, Sony is about to give them something cool, and something bright. Coming to Japan on December 13th, the new Deep Red Sony PSP will come in two different SKUs, the Deep Red Value pack and the Deep Red Seg Pack. The Value Pack includes the PSP, a cloth, hand strap and pouch with a 32MB Memory Stick Duo. The Seg Pack will include the PSP with a cloth, Seg TV tuner, strap, and stand with a 1GB Memory Stick Pro Duo.

Europeans will get their red PSP in the form of the Spider-Man 3 PSP bundle, which will include the Spider-Man 3 game and the UMD movie. No word on a release date or pricing yet, but I am sure that will surface soon.

In other PSP news for Europe, there is another PSP bundle in the works, and it The Simpsons. This bundle will include a yellow PSP along with The Simpsons Game and “The Simpsons Movie” UMD.

Hopefully North America is next in the way of cool PSP love bundles.

Marvel’s Justin Lambros, vice president of interactive media spoke with Gamasutra at Comiccon about Marvels plans for more familiar comics to make the transition to video games. Although in the past Marvel has had very inconsitant results with these morphs to games, Lambros has written and produced video games and is bringing his expertise to new titles. He talks about the new Electronic-Arts-funded fighting franchises and spills about working with SEGA to create games based on 2008’s Marvel movies.

Lambros carefully skirts talk of the original Marvel fighting game, Marvel Nemesis, focusing instead on plans for the rebirth of Marvel fighting systems.

So what this is, it’s a whole new franchise. It’s all Marvel characters, all the time, and it’s really rebooting a big franchise. But it’s keeping to the roots of what those guys do. One-on-one fighting. And that’s really the core. And that’s probably where the similarities to [Nemesis] end.

He also talks about dealing with “super comic nerd-dom” and the question of whether comics sell games or games sell comics.

With SEGA set to release games for Iron Man and the Hulk in 2008, Lambros tackles the question… “Why have there not been very many good comic book games?.” He also talks about the possibility of a first person Marvel game. Check out the full article at Gamasutra.

In the coming weeks, the onslaught of Halo 3 media coverage will undoubtedly cause an overload in our circuits. Some of us will probably reach the point of breakdown and finally snap (and many of us already have). Despite the love/hate extremes Halo 3 brings out of all of us, there is one underlying truth found here: Video Games are becoming the penchant of the entertainment industry. Thus, it is not surprising when analysts are predicting that Halo 3 will be bigger than this year’s Hollywood blockbuster, Spider Man 3:

Microsoft expects “Halo 3″ — the conclusion to the sci-fi, man-vs.-alien juggernaut, to best the $151-million opening weekend of “Spider-Man 3″ in a single day.

Let’s get one thing straight here: Halo 3 = video game ; Spider Man 3 = movie. And if you still think Halo 3 is some freak accident, then this might change your tune:

In July alone, video games accounted for $925.5 million in sales nationwide.

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Roger Ebert has yet again started rambling on about subjects he knows nothing about. Perhaps he should stick to just reviewing movies instead of talking about video games and art, two subjects he seems to know very little about. Honestly, he’s not even that great when it comes to reviewing films. Many times if I see that Ebert has given a film a bad review, I know it’s something that I probably want to see. If you have ever read his reviews, he comes across as having a closed mind and inability to relate with the every day people in this world. I raise the question, is Roger Ebert even human?

A while back, Ebert made comments in one of his typical rants that video games could not be art. Of course things have calmed down a bit and he’s back to making more really crazy statements trying to defend his uneducated and closed views on life. The well known author and video gamer Clive Barker made numerous comments concerning Ebert’s lack of knowledge. After each comment by Barker, Ebert responds with strange answers founded on nothing but thin air. I find it strange that somehow Ebert does not even realize how moronic his responses sound. He’s living in his own little world and I’d honestly like to know why anyone buys a word he says. Obviously after you finish reading the quotes below, I’m sure you will agree with me. Someone really needs to get some psychological help for Ebert and bring him back to the real world one of these days.
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