Left 4 Dead 2 Ratings Update (UK, Australian and NZ Versions)

Posted on September 25, 2009 by geelw

G’day to all my UK, Aussie and NZ readers! In case you’re wondering about the status of Left 4 Dead 2’s ratings, here you go – news directly from Valve. Let’s all hope cooler heads prevail thanks to a dose of simple common sense. Note to ratings boards around the world: It’s a GAME, folks – there are no real-life zombies and this isn’t going to inspire someone to run around looking for them with a squirrel gun.

Of course, if there’s someone out there that’s THAT far off the rails, well… there’s a pill for that, I hear. Or therapy… Anyway, off the soapbox and on with the news…

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Review: The Beatles: Rock Band

Posted on September 23, 2009 by geelw

Platform: PS3/Xbox 360/Nintendo Wii

Developer: Harmonix Music Systems

Publisher: Electronic Arts

# of Players 1 – 6 (Online: 2 – 6)

Rating: T (Teen)

Official Site

Score: A

You don’t need to be a die-hard Beatles fan, hardcore Rock Band groupie or even a blazing fast Guitar Hero to appreciate The Beatles: Rock Band. Harmonix has come up with a supremely accessible Magical Mystery Tour through some of the best of the Fab Four’s catalog and thanks to the stellar presentation, this is one Ticket to Ride that will leave you Feeling Fine up to Eight Days a Week. If you’re a Rock Band fan looking for the game to be a big step forward, you may find Something lacking. The experience isn’t quite the Revolution you’re probably expecting, but after A Hard Day’s Night of rocking, you’ll find the game has its ways of making you Twist and Shout ’til the cows come home.

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Preview: Dead Space Extraction – Bringing Cinematic Sci-Fi/Horror to the Wii

Posted on September 22, 2009 by geelw

Visceral Games in on a two-part mission with its upcoming Dead Space Extraction and it’s an important one. The first part is done: they’ve gone and created a great-looking, dynamically frightening console game designed to scare you right under the couch (while also laying the groundwork for future Dead Space titles). The second part is a bit tricky, meaning it’s all up to YOU to assist by buying the game and experiencing all that hard work put into the project for yourself.

I had the great opportunity to sit in on a live (and informative) Q & A session with a few members of the dev team, who all spoke passionately about the game while dropping a few interesting facts about developing it as a Wii exclusive.

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Dragon Age Origins: Meet Leliana

Posted on September 11, 2009 by geelw

In this week’s Dragon Age: Origins update, we’ll take a look at one of the game’s female characters, Leliana, a bard from the land of Orlais who also happens to be a selectable party member and from what I can tell a “romance” option in the game. As I can see some of you less lucky guys getting royally slugged by your real-life significant others over choosing this lovely virtual redhead as your potential partner, you may want to keep the fawning to a minimum…

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The Beatles: Rock Band Final Song List/Pricing

Posted on September 8, 2009 by geelw

“All together now:” Who’s not even the least bit curious about how this game will affect the interest level in both the music games genre and video gaming in general. With media outlets covering this as if it’s some sort of alien spacecraft making first contact and interest in the game from plenty of non-gamers who grew up listening to the Fab Four, it’ll be quite interesting to see how this translates at retail starting tomorrow.

Anyway, here’s a chunk of the press release that just landed in my inbox. Gallery to come in a separate post.

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Dead Space Extraction Goes Gold

Posted on September 3, 2009 by geelw

EA has announced that Dead Space Extraction for the Nintendo Wii has gone gold and should be in stores on September 29, 2009. Also announced was a nice bonus: pre-ordering the game at selected retailers will give gamers access to four of the game’s ten challenge modes for solo or co-op play. The Wii exclusive game is a prequel to the events of last year’s huge sci-fi/horror action hit on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, Dead Space and was developed by Eurocom with a huge assist from Visceral Games.

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Gallery: BRÜTAL LEGEND

Posted on August 28, 2009 by geelw

“Behold, the screens that left me speechless
These images don’t suck like leeches
So raise your fists and pound the reaches
of space and tiiiiiiime, YEEEAAAAHHH!”
(guitar solo)

Or something like that. That’s why I don’t write songs, folks. Anyway, if you’ve not seen all of these in one place, enjoy the visual feast…

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Dragon Age: Origins Voice Cast Revealed

Posted on August 27, 2009 by geelw

BioWare is set to give genre fans a real treat in terms of killer voice acting in its upcoming RPG, Dragon Age: Origins. The game will feature the vocal talents of Tim Curry (“The Rocky Horror Picture Show”, Broadway’s “Spamalot”), Kate Mulgrew (“Star Trek: Voyager”), Tim Russ (“Star Trek: Voyager,” “Samantha Who?”), Claudia Black (“Stargate SG-1,” “Pitch Black”) and Steve Valentine (“Estate of Panic,” “Crossing Jordan”).

Do I hear a press release (perhaps voiced by Tim Curry, pictured left)? Ah, here we go… put your ear to the monitor and listen to this…

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BRÜTAL LEGEND, I Have Not Forsaken Thee!

Posted on August 27, 2009 by geelw

Thanks for asking, really… but nope, I absolutely have not been ignoring my man Tim Schaefer, Double Fine Productions or BRÜTAL LEGEND, their Rocktober “surprise” that’s taken the game world by storm this year (cue:“Lightning Strikes Again,”Thor). I’m just sitting here cracking up on a near-daily basis at how all of a sudden everyone has finally discovered just what a group of fantastically talented creative geen-yusses he and his crew are.

I mean, I and many other editor types around the frickin’ world trumpeted the joys of the eternally awesome, amazingly funny platformer Psychonauts* until we turned blue in the head and beyond (cue: “Among the Living,” Anthrax). Nevertheless, did enough of you so-called “hard-core” guys and gals actually BUY the game and justify all the well deserved ink we spilled? Nope (cue: “Backstabber” by Hytz).

*That, and the man’s tenure over at LucasArts cleeeeeeeeearly shows he’s got more than enough proof of Legendary Status (no certificate required). So There.

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EA & BioWare Reveal Mass Effect: Pinnacle Station Content Pack

Posted on August 27, 2009 by geelw

EA and BioWare continue to generate Mass Interest in the upcoming Mass Effect 2 by adding more download content to the original game (which in turn, gives folks like me yet another fine reason to hop back into the boots of Commander Shepard for a few more hours). Mass Effect: Pinnacle Station, the latest add-on for the original game is now available as a downloadable pack for the Xbox 360 for 400 Microsoft points via the Xbox LIVE Marketplace. The PC version of the content pack will set you back $5 and can be purchased through EA’s online store. By the way, the 1.02 patch for Mass Effect is required for the installation of Pinnacle Station and is available over at BioWare’s web site. First things first and all that…