| Date Posted | Article |
| 2 hours ago | Portal 2 Co-Op trailer in HD | | Valve has released the Portal 2 Coop trailer shown at PAX in HD. You can check out the trailer above. Portal 2 is an upcoming first-person action/puzzle video game, developed by Valve Corporation. It is the sequel to the critically acclaimed 2007 video game Portal and was announced on March 5, 2010, following a week long alternate reality game based on new patches to the original game. |
|
| 5 hours ago | Halo: Reach Pre-Orders Pass Two Million Worldwide | | It was never in doubt that Halo: Reach would be one of the biggest games of the year, but with the release of the game now less than a week away, VGChartz brings you the latest pre-order figures and week one predictions.
Anybody who has been following our Americas Pre-Orders charts will have seen that total pre-orders in the Americas (USA, Canada, Latin America) has now surpassed 1.6 million units and that the pre-order pattern for Halo: Reach to date has been very similar to that of the XBox 360 version of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 released last year as shown in the comparison graph below:
Outside of the Americas, total pre-orders to date have surpassed 500,000 units with nearly half of that coming from the United Kingdom. We expect total pre-orders to hit just over 2.5 million units prior to launch, suggesting a day one of around 3 million units and a week one of around 4.25 million units (using pre-order to week one ratios for similar titles). To see how this compares with other recent mega-hits see the table below:
VGChartz expects Halo: Reach to perform very similarly to the Xbox 360 version of Modern Warfare 2 in the Americas, but going by historical trends and Reach pre-orders to date, sales in EMEAA (Europe, Middle-East, Africa and Asia) will only represent around 30% of the Americas sales compared to 50% for a typical Call of Duty title on Xbox 360 - hence why worldwide totals are predicted to fall short of Modern Warfare 2 on Xbox 360. That said, we do expect Reach to perform around 10% higher than Halo 3 did in the first week and become the fastest-selling Halo title of all time.
Halo: Reach releases on September 14th exclusively for Xbox 360. Be sure to check back after launch where VGChartz will reveal our estimates for week one figures. |
|
|
| 5 hours ago | Top Ten Disney Properties Underrepresented in Kingdom Hearts | | With the recent Kingdom Hearts games starting to concentrate mostly on either Final Fantasy characters or characters created specifically for the game, I am beginning to wonder if Square-Enix is running out of Disney material that they feel would be good to include in the game. Problem is, there are TONS of Disney films, TV Shows, and other media left un-tapped so far. I have made a list of the top ten Disney properties underrepresented in Kingdom Hearts, excluding most of their live action stuff. Not that people wouldnt love to play a level from The Parent Trap or Davey Crockett, but I figured animated stuff would be more suitable. These are in no particular order:
Gargoyles
So you thought I was going to keep this list down to simply feature films? Think again! Gargoyles was a fairly popular kids television show that ran in the mid 1990s. What set it apart from the usual Disney kids cartoon was that it specifically targeted the same audience as shows such as X-men, Batman the Animated Series, and Spider-man. The story revolved around a group of creatures referred to as gargoyles due to the fact that they turn to stone at night and resemble the grotesque statues of the same name. The show featured tons of characters and locations that could easily be pumped into a Kingdom Hearts game. Hell Id settle for a random Cameo by Goliath the shows main hero.
Ducktales / Darkwing Duck
Another show, well set of shows, Id like to see was the early nineties double hitter of Ducktales and its spinoff Darkwing Duck. Ducktales featured a cast containing most notably Scrooge McDuck, who was only seen previously in the Disney comics and a Disney themed version of A Christmas Carol called Mickeys Christmas carol. In Scrooges care was Donald Ducks nephews Huey, Duey, and Louie sent to live at his wealthy abode while Donald does a tour of the Navy. The show proved so successful that it ran for over 100 episodes and got its own feature length film and a spin-off.
The spin-off, Dark |
|
|
| 17 hours ago | The Top Ten Video Game Franchises That Should Die | | Sometimes, a video game franchise should be given the proverbial needle. It may be that they have overstayed their welcome, that they have become increasingly beshitted, or that they are just plain annoying. |
|
| 20 hours ago | Study Finds 17% of Social Gamers Identify as 'Addicted' | | Lightspeed Research has released a study that 17 percent of social gamers identify themselves as 'addicted' to the frighteningly immersive genre of gaming. The study did not precisely define the word 'addicted' however, so assuming an actual psychological dependency is a bit of a leap.
The high number may come from people merely musing they are addicted to games like FarmVille, but the study also listed 34 percent had responded to advertising for in-game rewards. That's over a one in four chance of spending real money to get upgrades for things like your Facebook farm. Maybe they're not musing after all. |
|
|
|
| 23 hours ago | Happy Birthday Dreamcast!…(pic) | | Sega Launched Dreamcast in North America September 9, 1999. My best memory, was getting to play it for the first time at E3 |
|
| 23 hours ago | 6 Game Design Schools to Watch | | In the April 2010 issue of GamePro, The Princeton Review shared their top 50 picks for game design schools in North America. We follow up with five of their picks, plus one of our own. |
|
| Yesterday | Top 10 Zombie Shooting Games of all Time | | Zombies are like Nazis, you simply can't get enough even by killing them over and over again. There aren't a ton of Zombie shooting games to choose from, but we've still managed to nitpick some of the best Zombie Shooter games released over the last 15-20 years. |
|
| Yesterday | Gallery: Final Fantasy XIV Tons of New Screenshots | | Square Enix released new screenshots todayfor Final Fantasy XIV Online. The next game in the Final Fantasy series is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game that is developed and published by Square Enix. Final Fantasy XIV Online will be available for both the PS3 and the PC.
The game is being released this month worldwide for the PC, Playstation 3 owners will have to wait until March 2011.
You can check the rest of the screenshots in our gallery: |
|
| Yesterday | Red Dead Redemption Sequel Headed Our Way? | | Red Dead Redemption has certainly changed the game for Take Two. Earning near unanimous critical acclaim, and selling in excess of seven million copies worldwide since the game’s release earlier this year in May, the game has gone to become a property that is almost as big for Rockstar as Grand Theft Auto. |
|
| Yesterday | Caption This! (September 5-11) | | Ever see a hilarious game image that, taken out of context, could be pure comedy gold? Thats what this feature is about. Check here every week for a new round of Caption This!, where we look at some potentially goofy videogame images and make fun of them. The whole thing works on a three week rotation, so on any given week you will be shown the winner from two weeks ago, vote on who won last week, and be given a new picture to make funny captions for.
There is no prize for the contest other than pure bragging rights as of right now, but it could change if this feature gets enough attention. Ill keep you guys updated on that. If you know of a funny gaming related picture please email it to me at skelley@vgchartz.com and I just may use it!
(Step 1)
WINNER'S CIRCLE
Here is the winner from two weeks ago:
Congrats to thebeststine, who is new to the list!! Here is the updated Winner's Circle:
(Step 2)
VOTING TIME
Next, Who should win for last week?
Here is the image I posted:
From: Batman Arkham City
I've decided to make this a bit easier, so just vote for the entry you think works better!
VOTE HERE (Opens a new window)
(Step 3)
This week's Image:
From: Kingdom Hearts - Birth By Sleep
TO ENTER
See that picture up there?
Think you have a funny caption or text bubble to add?
Just type what you want right here in the comments section, next week I will open voting for this picture, and a winner will be announced in 2 weeks. But remember, there are four rules for safe captioning:
1) You may enteronly once.
2) Keep it under 50 words if possible
3) Try to keep it PG-13, some language is fine, but no over-the-top entries please.
4) HAVE FUN!
Other Info
For all the weekly contests look below or check out the winners gallery
comments suggestions? click here |
|
| Yesterday | Platform Wars: PC versus Consoles | | The biggest dilemma for gamers all around the world is that which platforms they should consider for their games. With a ton of games going multiplatform, a video gamer is forced to think which platform he/she should pick the game for. The decision becomes even more difficult when a gamer has both: an amazing rig or an Xbox 360. |
|
| Yesterday | Rock Band 3: Keyboard Trailer | | The new trailer shows off Rock Band 3 keyboard gameplay from tracks by Huey Lewis and The News, Ida Maria, Tears for Fears and Them Crooked Vultures. Rock Band 3 will be released on October 26th in North America and October 29th for the rest of the world for the Xbox 360, PS3, Wii and Nintendo DS. |
|
|
| Sep 8, 2010 | Super Mario Collection Confirmed as a Port of SNES Version | | In Japan,Amazon has started taking pre-orders for Super Mario Collection Special Pack. The company posted a product description, which appears to have been removed from the listing within minutes. However, those few minutes were long enough for somebody to copy and paste the info into a story atGame Jouhou.
According to the description:
- The Wii game is a port of 1993s Super Mario Collection (Super Mario All-Stars) - No graphical overhaul - Will include a booklet that recaps the 25 year history of Mario - Booklet includes unseen development materials - Will also Include a soundtrack - Soundtrack has music from the original Super Mario Bros. through Super Mario Galaxy 2 - Limited time production- The game will probably come packed in a yellow box. |
|
|
|
| Sep 8, 2010 | PAX 2010 Hands-On: Drumskulls (with World-Exclusive Screens!) | | Remember Evan's E3 preview of Rock of the Deadfrom a few months back? Where you could strum specific note patterns to shoot zombies? The problem with that, according to Andrew Laing, creator of the new, never-seen-before-PAX title Drumskulls, is that Rock of the Deaddidn't deviate far enough from the Rock Band/Guitar Heroformula. Despite having zombies as a backdrop, it's still very much in the "music game" genre. Drumskullsis not. It's all about shootin' some zombies... with your plastic drum set.
I had a chance to try out Drumskullsat PAX, and I dug it. It's by a company that's so grassroots indie that they don't have a website yet. They don't even have a name. Andrew Laing is the man in charge, however, and you can expect some big things from him.
So, the zombies marching toward you on the screen are four different colors. To shoot a zombie of a particular color, you hit that drum (it'll be compatible with any Rock Band/Guitar Herodrumset). Despite their slow zombie pace, when a dozendifferentlycolored zombies are coming toward you at the same time, it's gets really intense. Each drum hit is one shot, and each zombie takes multiple blasts to finish off. Hitting a drum pad to shoot a zombie is very visceral; it's quite a different experience than merely using a gamepad. The bass pedal will be implemented in the final product somehow, too, but it wasn't quite ready to be used in the version I tried out at PAX.
The game is on-rails, but there are plenty of secrets to discover; one in particular I found was a red dumpster that you blow away to open a hidden path through the level. The game is still very early in development (they stayed up until 4 a.m. coding the last level, in fact - that's so indie!), and they don't even have a publisher or a platform to release the game on yet. It's situated to be a downloadable title, though, and it's looking good so far.
Check out some gameplay footage from the show floor (and don't mind the dork on the drums - that's just me):
|
|
|
| Sep 7, 2010 | 15 Cancelled PlayStation 3 games that should have never been cancelled | | It really hurts me that some of these games had so much potential and they got canned for a ton of different reasons. Here are 15 games on the PlayStation 3 that got canned. I am pretty much sure that you must have either forgotten many of these or have never heard about them. Check the list out. |
|
| Sep 7, 2010 | Valve Promises A Trio Of Surprises This Year | | We hang on every word Valve says. When you're the company behind Half-Life, Left 4 Dead and Portal, you earn that kind of attention. Well, in a recent interview, Valve head Gabe Newell said we can expect 3 big surprises over the next 12 months. |
|
|
|
| Sep 7, 2010 | Call of Duty: Black Ops – Killstreaks Revealed | | Dogs are back baby, they are just a little harder to attain this time around. These are also subject to change since the game doesn’t come out until November 9th for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC. PC version will have dedicated servers as well as having full modding capabilities. |
|
|
| Sep 7, 2010 | Bunt! (GIF) | | This is what myself and my friends would define as a "cheese move." Every sports video game had at least one. |
|
