Need For Speed Rivals Launch Trailer: Fasten Your Seatbelts (And Wear Well-Padded Pants)…

 
If any studio is going to master this new hardware first, my money is on Criterion and Ghost Games and their Need For Speed games. Granted, Need For Speed Rivals is a purely arcade-like game experience and racing fans who want more in the way of total car customization and more racing viewpoints will gripe a bit about the game as they usually do with other racers. Me, I’ll just be jamming on the gas, sliding through turns and causing all sorts of mayhem while enjoying the scenery and trying to wreck as little as possible. This one’s on current and next-gen consoles (not the Wii U, though – sorry!), so pick one and GO, I say. Online or off, it’s bound to be a blast.

BandFuse Rock Legends Update: Here’s Twofer For Your Thursday (Plus One)…

 
Four days to go and the video fun is rolling out of Realta. Here are two quick and funny “Fused Thoughts” clips plus as a bonus track, it’s none other than Slash talking about his start playing guitar. All this leads up to what could be the most innovative real guitar learning experience on a console when BandFuse: Rock Legends hits PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on November 19. I’ve been working on my finger exercises, but just the lifting food to face part – I think the game will be teaching me much more useful skills, that’s for sure.

Next Car Game Update: Some Truly Smashing Alpha Gameplay…

 
Of course, I knew the team at Bugbear was going to be going all out with this new demolition racer and for pre-alpha footage, this is really impressive. Yes, that car is purposely indestructible and YES, it’s that way to show off the game’s physics and all those lovely bits flying around when stuff is struck. Anyway, the game’s Kickstarter has 16 days to go and still needs a lot of pledges to make that $350,000 target, so if you’ve got a few spare bucks you need to unload and want to support a fine developer who loves making crazy racing experiences, give a little and get a lot back, I say. Hell, I want this to succeed only so the team can maybe make another Glimmerati game for a few platforms…

Jimmy and Ice-T Put The PS4 On The Hot Spot…

Alright, it’s a given: CUTE ROBOTS SELL CONSOLES. And SUPER-cute virtual robots you can play with and/or kick around the room? When the audience goes “D’aaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!” more than five times a minute? Yeah, there’s Christmas in a box for Sony right there.

Okay, despite my occasional cranky side acting up from time to time, I’ll have to admit that Jimmy Fallon always gets me excited about gaming despite me having a longer history with them than he has. Granted, it’s his great enthusiasm for the medium and NOT his play style (that tends to lean towards the “Boy, do I suck at these games but I’m having FUN!” although he did beat Ice-T at that Pong variant) that’s hard to fake. And yep, game companies love him, Conan and anyone else they can get a console and controller to. Of course, none of them love ME, but that’s more my fault than theirs at the end of the day. Oh well, we’re workin’ on it… we’re workin’ on it. I’m thinking of writing a fake e-book (not really) called “How To Get The Respect You Deserve Without Being A Total Ass or Total Suck-Up” but we’ll say no more about that unless we want to be called a total ass. Or a total suck-up. Not too good at either of those, but I can swing both ways once I take some lessons. Is the Learning Annex still open here in NYC?