Gadgets and Video Games

During last week’s X10 event in San Francisco, I previewed the latest build of Remedy’s third-person supernatural action-thriller, Alan Wake . The scene I played takes place later in the game (as opposed to the beginning), so any chance of getting wrapped up in the mystery of the over-arching storyline was not happening; not to mention the demo was relatively short and, oh, the fact that I was preoccupied by the axe-wielding maniac chasing me. A representative gave me a brief recap of the preceding circumstances (I won’t spoil it for you) that had landed protagonist Alan Wake in the specific location of the demo level, where the scene kicked off with a “Previously on Alan Wake … ” montage — like we’d seen before at E3 2009 — but most of it made little sense out of context

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Hands-on: Alan Wake

After pushing most of its anticipated titles from Fall 2009 into the new year (and some even further ), Ubisoft has finally revealed when Red Steel 2 will exit the saloon doors and somersault onto retail store shelves. The latest trailer — titled “Caldera” — reveals the Wii-exclusive sequel will release on March 26 in Europe, while GameSpot confirms the game lands in the US on March 23, as previously suggested . Ubisoft plans to launch Red Steel 2 in two flavors: Standalone software for $50 and bundled with the Wii Motion Plus add-on for $60. GameStop preorder customers will also get exclusive access to two in-game swords. We’re still smitten with the sequel’s new manga-esque, East-meets-West visual style and “desert-bound, high-tech metropolis” setting, but we’re also still holding our breath to see if Ubisoft can tweak the ” canned ” gameplay we experienced during our last hands-on with Red Steel 2

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Red Steel 2 launches March 23 in US, March 26 in Europe

According to a 2K Play press release we received late last night, a certain porcine pie thief and his time-altering puzzle-platformer, The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom , will be coming to Xbox Live Arcade February 17 for 800 ($10). To get an idea of whether or not this is news that you should get excited about, we suggest checking out our interview with Matt Korba , the game’s creator. Or, if reading isn’t your thing, simply watch these pretty moving pictures . Or, better yet, just read the aforementioned press release

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P. B. Winterbottom traveling through time for February 17 release

Though Japan has been enjoying the adorable bounties of Pok

Are you in the mood for some reading that’s a bit heavier than the video game news post you’re currently digesting? We suggest you check out this Random House page to read an excerpt from the first chapter of the Elder Scrolls -based novel, The Infernal City .

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Random House teases first few pages of Elder Scrolls novel

We just can’t quite figure out what to make of Wal-Mart’s new Modern Warfare 2 ad. Sure, it’s kind of funny, featuring two dudes ragging on one another . It gets across the idea that people can buy the game at Wal-Mart really fast, continuing the store’s ” fastest way to play ” campaign. It does not, however, help us decide if Modern Warfare 2 is something we want to play.

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Joystiq is undecided about Wal-Mart’s Modern Warfare 2 ad

While the Xbox 360 Sky Player apparently launched in the UK yesterday as planned, things veered away from the plan almost immediately thereafter. The service was “suspended” shortly after launch, for what must be the best possible problem in Microsoft’s eyes: too many subscribers. “Unfortunately due to the unprecedented levels of simultaneous demand,” a statement on Xbox.com reads, “we did not have the capacity to satisfy all service requests and therefore temporarily suspended all access to the service.” The service is being reinstated in phases today, presumably with some upgrades in place to deal with the demand.

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Xbox 360 Sky Player down, relaunching ‘in phases’ today

If there were any doubt left in your mind that Call of Duty is a popular franchise, a recent report from Gamasutra should firmly cement the fact in your mind. According to the NPD, Call of Duty: World at War ’s three DLC packs digitally pushed 6.5 million units between March and mid-August of 2009 across the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 consoles. As you might imagine, those kind of numbers add up to a lot of extra revenue for the mega-publisher – the piece approximates a cool $45 million . Taking that one step further, the average cost of each box of CoD: WaW sold at retail becomes $65.

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NPD says average CoD: World at War player has spent $9 on DLC

The 41,000 member group formed to boycott Left 4 Dead 2 has reached its end, following Valve’s pledge to add more content to the original game (which is already being made good on ). As of October 21st, the collective will be disbanded after succeeding in its quest “to get Valve’s attention and have them support original L4D .” Fresh from his free studio tour (courtesy of Valve), group co-founder “Agent of Chaos” wrote , “Our goal wasn’t to steer people away from L4D2 , it was to get Valve’s attention and have them support original L4D .” So, by utilizing a boycott that wasn’t intended to keep people from buying a game, you managed to force Valve to do something they certainly would have done anyway. Dear Internet: You are getting predictable. [Via HotBloodedGaming ] Left 4 Dead 2 boycott abandoned 4 demise originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 14 Oct 2009 14:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds

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Left 4 Dead 2 boycott abandoned 4 demise

Sometimes we ponder: Tetris is the Monet’s Water Lillies of gaming. God of War is the Smith & Wollensky Steakhouse of gaming. Dante’s Inferno is the Dante’s Infern …

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WRUP: [Video game] is like the [prominent work from other medium] of gaming edition