Gadgets and Video Games

Click image to embiggen 2K Games sent over some new screens from upcoming Spec Ops: The Line and, as one can imagine, the shots feature a lot of the same stuff we saw in the VGA trailer last month: sand; dilapidated buildings; and lots of bang-bang shoot-shoot . While producer (and ex-GameSpot EIC) Greg Kasavin played up the appeal of setting a game in a veritable wonderland of architecture (see: neat buildings to shoot dudes in) during a recent interview , we have to wonder if staring at all of these bieges, browns and mustards will become annoying after a while. We guess everyone will find out when the game releases later this year

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Do some recon on Spec Ops: The Line with these screens

Players on the Azphel server of Aion found quite the surprise recently, as their virtual coin pouch swelled to ridiculous proportions out of nowhere. The culprit: a glitch accidentally awarding players with 30 trillion Kinah.

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Aion glitch makes players trillionaires

Though we may not be steadfast watchers of Jimmy Fallon’s late night talkshow , we have to give the man credit for once again bringing the world of gaming into his decidedly non-gaming television show. While Robin Williams guested on Fallon’s show this week, he asked the hairy-handed comedian about his gaming habits – some of which we’ve covered in the past – and found out that not only does the man play his fair share of Call of Duty , but he also named his daughter “Zelda” after … well, the Princess Zelda

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Robin Williams plays Call of Duty, named his daughter Zelda (guess why!)

Look, if people are going to eschew their work day in favor of having a gaming tournament, we’re the first to sympathize. In the case of those in the business of protecting our lives from murderers and financial institutions though, we find it hard to offer much solace. So when eleven officials from several Florida agencies were caught on videotape playing games a couple months back and the story caught on internationally, we were hopeful that those found guilty would maybe, you know, actually receive some form of punishment. Instead, the Lakeland Ledger reports that the offending officers will suffer such retribution as … a few hours of retraining

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Wii-playing police receive slap on the wrist, strict talking to

Perhaps you’ve heard , but Demon’s Souls is a hard game. Like really hard. Like bone-crushingly, soul-scathingly hard. Speaking to Game Informer , Demon’s Souls director Hidetaka Miyazaki explains why.

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Demon’s Souls director talks difficulty, sequel possibility

God of War 3 ’s director Stig Asmussen thinks a good way to keep players involved beyond the single-player campaign is through downloadable challenge maps. Speaking with GamePro , he acknowledges the game will ship with a certain amount of challenge rooms, with a possibility of adding more, via DLC, at a later stage. He mentions a challenge in which players have to ride a Cyclops and kill a certain number of enemies in a time limit, possibly using “the Cyclops to get through a certain type of hazard or area or something like that.” Asmussen notes that creating challenge maps occurs late in the development process, but hopes that things move beyond the planning phase within “the next two months.” God of War 3 director considering downloadable challenge rooms originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 20 Oct 2009 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Read

Try as we might to remain impartial about games that are a long way away from release, we fell in love with Love the second we laid eyes on it . Imagine our joy when we learned that Eskil Steenberg’s city-building MMO had entered alpha testing , and could be played right this hot second . Having trouble imagining? Allow us to help — our joy was immeasurable

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Indie MMO ‘Love’ goes into paid alpha testing

Dubbed a “public brainstorming session” in a sorry-I-couldn’t-make-it introductory video from Microsoft’s Interactive Entertainment Business VP, Don Mattrick, the Xbox 360 Creator Discussion Panel saw three esteemed Japanese game developers share their dreams and designs for Project Natal . It was immediately noted that no ideas or concepts — erupting from Hideo Kojima ( Metal Gear Solid ), Keiji Inafune ( Mega Man, Dead Rising ) and Toshihiro Nagoshi ( Monkey Ball, Yakuza ) — should be considered actual, in-development concepts. Which is just as well, because it didn’t take long for the trio to joke about a motion-enabled female feel-’em-up (see above gesture for context). Keiji Inafune was the one to bring it up, noting that the evolution of controllers was “way behind the evolution of graphics.” According to Inafune, “Body language is part of this important evolution. With Natal we can involve ourselves.

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TGS 2009: Xbox 360 Creator Panel Discussion recap

There’s usually a nostalgia element to Bomberman games — since the core gameplay has remained basically identical over the last twenty years or so, a lot of the appeal of Bomberman lies in memories of awesome multiplayer sessions past. But there isn’t usually a ’70s nostalgia element, mostly because Bomberman didn’t exist until 1983. Hudson’s teaser for Bomberman Live: Battlefest , the new WiiWare/XBLA/PSN Bomberman party game, adds a lovely anachronistic touch not usually seen in Bomberman marketing. And also a bunch of footage of stuff exploding in cross patterns

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Bomberman Live: Battlefest trailer is unexpectedly funky

While we’d hoped Square Enix’s trademark for the title Sliding Heroes would result in a rhythm-based playground toy simulator (with the appropriate inclined peripheral), a Facebook fan page for the game revealed its true format. The game will be an iPhone real-time strategy title where players control standard fantasy archetypes (mage, warrior, cleric, etc.) by tilting their cellular device. In addition to conquering baddies, players will need to deftly avoid traps and hazards placed throughout the game board. That description (and a pair of screenshots) are all we have to go on right now.

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Square Enix announces Sliding Heroes, an iPhone RTS