Gadgets and Video Games

We’re devoted fans of the Ars Technica mole, who has nailed big stories like the PS3 Slim and the Resident Evil 5 bundle . As a result, we feel pretty comfortable getting excited about two new Xbox 360 bundles Ars highlights today.

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Ars mole: Splinter Cell: Conviction, Final Fantasy XIII getting 250GB Xbox 360 bundles

Man, if you thought the premise for Nippon Ichi’s upcoming game, a dungeon-crawler titled Zettai Hero Kaizou Keikaku (or Absolute Hero Modding Project ), was bizarre, wait until you see the trailer we’ve posted after the jump. Featured in that four-minute video is footage of the following: The player’s frequent death at the hands of various enemies The game’s beefy character customization system At least three different types of turn-based combat A cameo by Disgaea ’s Prinny Sadly, there’s no reference to a North American port of the game. Don’t stop believin’! [Via Siliconera ] Continue reading The weirdest trailer you’ll see today: Absolute Hero Modding Project The weirdest trailer you’ll see today: Absolute Hero Modding Project originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 23 Jan 2010 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Read

Click image to deck the halls with larger images This time of year is usually one of peace and safe comfort for just about everyone. The same can’t be said for the land of Quake Live , where id Software has injected some Yuletide spirit into the browser-based frag-em-up’s usual industrial surroundings. For two weeks, players can enjoy a Christmas-themed remake of Team Arena map “Distant Screams,” now named “Silent Night.” This update doesn’t add particularly festive weapons to the mix, but the fresh coat of winter wonderland paint is certainly welcome. Nothing tops off the Christmas spirit tank like a little rocket play beneath giant candy canes and a star-filled sky , after all

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Quake Live’s ‘Silent Night’ map adds festive fragging fun

Here’s a little nugget about the inner workings of Joystiq: This weekend we declare among the staff our top games of 2009 and our personal picks for “game of the year,” also known as GOTY. Each Joystiq member submits their nominations and then through math that’s way above my head, we end up with the list . In all probability, there’s going to be a big fight this year — a really big fight! This is also why we don’t share an office with each other, because some of us aren’t afraid to a cut a … well, you get the idea.

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WRUP: ‘Game of the Year’ big fight edition

It’s been four years since Uwe Boll first graced American cinemas with his game-to-film masterpiece, Alone in the Dark . Though only acting as producer (rather than his usual directorial role), he’s finally bringing the sequel to our shores this holiday with Alone in the Dark 2 . Rather than waste time with those silly theaters, Alone in the Dark 2 will be heading straight to DVD, said to be coming “this Winter.” You might be thinking to yourself, “I didn’t even know they made a second film,” like the first (and only) commenter on the movie’s IMDB page did. And after checking out that page, you might be wondering how the film’s main character (Edward Carnby) inexplicably changed from Christian Slater to Korean-American actor Rick Yune. We’re gonna chock both up to one simple answer: Movie magic .

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Alone in the Dark 2 movie heading straight to DVD this holiday

EA may be hurting , but there are still some bright spots, like when it announced Madden NFL 10 ’s sales figures during its quarterly conference call with investors. The publisher revealed that the company “sold” 3.9 million copies globally, which isn’t entirely accurate, as we’ve learned those are “sell-in” figures — a fancy way of saying “shipped.” EA’s John Schappert stated that Madden had a rough start in August, with sales down 19 percent from the prior year, but that it rallied up eight percent year-over-year in September, thanks to the PS3 price drop . The company claims that Madden 10 has sold five percent more than last year’s iteration on PS3 and Xbox 360 combined, as of the end of September

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Madden 10 has shipped 3.9 million copies

During a London event to showcase Disney Epic Mickey , developer Warren Spector revealed that his initial pitches to Disney were for two very different titles; hinting one — in many ways — may have been a spiritual successor to Deus Ex . The other title, according to The Cut Scene blog, was a “big fantasy” story the developer and his wife unsuccessfully pitched to DC Comics.

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Spector talks initial Disney pitches, hints at spiritual successor to Deus Ex

From the second our feet left the comfort of our bed in favor of the harsh, cold ground this morning, we knew it was going to be a terrible day. What we expected were little accumulative annoyances — stubbed toes, traffic, cold coffee and the like. What we got was a report from supererogatory pointing us to a terror-inducing trademark filing, which permits “Margaritaville” to be used for video game software purposes. As we see it, there’s an infinite number of ways that Jimmy Buffett’s tropically-tinted tune could manifest itself in video game form: A near-endless RPG: The Quest for the Lost Shaker of Salt A sailing simulator: Son of a Son of a Sailing Simulator A smooth rhythm game, which is sadly what it probably will be A smooth rhythm game/sailing simulator, which ..

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Margaritaville trademarked for video game use

Golgoth Studio, the French developer behind the extraordinarily unlikely HD remake of TAD Corporation’s Toki , isn’t planning to stop bringing back things you might not have even known existed. During the hunt for Toki rights, Golgoth got in touch with G-Mode, who owns most of Data East’s IP, and who offered the developer the license for a Data East property. “I can’t really say the name of the game right now,” Anthony De Sa Ferreira told Gamasutra. “We only have the new design of the principal characters. To give a little hint about this license, it’s a co-op platformer game.

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Toki remake devs planning another Data East revival

It took a great deal of deliberation for us to settle on our Halloween costume for this year, but we think we landed on a real winner: Every vampire ever . We’ll adopt the rich accent of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The keen mathematical mind of Count Chocula. Alucard’s penchant for the overdramatic. Edward Cullen’s shiny, shiny skin

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Weekly Webcomic Wrapup is pondering a spooky wardrobe