Gadgets and Video Games

Click to descend into the Lair of Screenshots If you and your friends are eager to dive into a monster-filled dungeon — and who isn’t — then Bethesda has a thrilling announcement for you: The publisher is handling a new co-op fantasy action game, Hunted: The Demon’s Forge , developed by Interplay founder Brian Fargo’s InXile Entertainment. Fargo describes Hunted as an “upcoming release that takes us back to our roots,” and the screenshots (in our gallery below) paint a pretty clear picture of what that could mean: warriors and archers putting holes in orc-looking things with sharp objects and magic .

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Bethesda & InXile announce ‘Hunted: The Demon’s Forge,’ a co-op ‘roots’ game

As part of the GamesBeat “fireside chat” series during GDC 2010 , Bungie’s Joseph Staten and BioWare’s Ray Muzyka discussed some of the challenges with maintaining big, huge franchises with Spike TV’s Geoff Keighley . Staten noted that Bungie originally “had absolutely no 10 year plan” for the Halo franchise. Now, for Bungie’s next project — the one that isn’t part of the Halo franchise — Staten said that “the responsible thing to do” is to “create something with legs,” adding that it’s easier to secure funding with a project that has long term potential for investors. Muzyka added that it’s important to create a product that keeps players emotionally engaged, so that they anticipate the next installment. When asked about how much consumer feedback, affects the development of a franchise, Muzyka pointed to the many changes that BioWare made to the various systems of Mass Effect when creating Mass Effect 2

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Bungie & BioWare discuss franchise maintenance at GDC

It was an awfully close week, with six of the seven contenders all landing within just 30 votes of one another — but the people have spoken, and elected 2P Start’s ” The Harvest of Time ” as last week’s best gaming-related webcomic . We wager it’s because it reveals a facet of Link that not many people understand: He’s an ice-cold bastard , who won’t hesitate to destroy your lawn or wreck your pottery to find a few loose Rupees. What a tremendous jerk. Second and third place went to The Great Indoors’ ” Fanboyonetta ” and Penny Arcade’s ” A Review of the Preview, ” respectively. If you’ve got a favorite strip you’d like to see in tonight’s wrapup, drop a link in the comments, or send in a tip ! Readers pick best webcomic: The Harvest of Time originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 16 Jan 2010 09:46:00 EST

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Readers pick best webcomic: The Harvest of Time

PC Watch ’s Hiroshige Goto, citing a number of unnamed sources familiar with Intel’s long-awaited Larrabee project, claims that Sony once considered using Intel’s proposed architecture in the eventual successor to the PS3, presumably named the PlayStation 4. It was rumored that Intel was pursuing a relationship with Microsoft and Nintendo for their next-generation Xbox and Wii consoles, but considering the recent downsizing of the Larrabee project, it appears Intel was unsuccessful at wooing a major partnership. According to Goto’s sources, Larrabee simply didn’t offer the sheer power Sony was looking for.

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Rumor: Sony considered Larrabee for PS4, will reconsider for PS5, PS6

click to Maximize images Everyone’s favorite episodic adventure game series about anthropomorphic detectives (we assume!) is returning in 2010! Telltale Games just put up a teaser site for something Sam and Max -related happening in 2010, featuring concept art hidden within the Sam and Max constellations (which we’ve placed in our gallery for your convenience). The reference in the audio narration to “a power-mad space gorilla pitted against a canine detective and a sociopathic bunny with psychic powers,” along with the starry-sky imagery and (most definitively) the Max spaceship suggest that Sam and Max will be in space . Impressive — it took the Leprechaun movie series four installments to make it off the Earth. The narration also mentions that “This story will be different. You will be in control.” This could be a reference to a new control scheme Telltale planned to use in Season 3.

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Telltale teases new Sam and Max in 2010

We can’t be gaming all the time, despite our best efforts, and from time to time we’ll actually take advantage of the movie-playing abilities on our gaming systems. JBO features our top picks for XBL, PSN, Netflix’s Watch Instantly and Blu-ray each week. Recommendation of the Week: Star Trek: The Original Series (Blu-ray, all three seasons, prices vary) All three seasons of Star Trek: The Original Series will be available as of December 15, which is when Season Three comes out. Besides the awesome bloopers and flubs, it also has the entire unaired original Trek pilot in the set.

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JBO: Joystiq Box Office, November 30 – December 4

They say you can find your stripper name by combining the name of your first pet with the street you grew up on. Keeping that in mind, you may someday find yourself trying to figure out how to politely decline the awkward, compulsory advances of Miss Fluffy Lara Croft. As reported in the Derby Telegraph , the hero of the Tomb Raider series in one of eight potential names for two stretches of a road in the UK city Derby, which was the home of Core Design, the original studio behind Lara. Surprisingly, Lara Croft is not our favorite option, as the idea of being badgered into buying Scruffy John Flamsteed a $13 drink is just too wonderful to imagine.

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Lara Croft may have road named in her honor

Xbox LIVE Gold Members can save 40% this week when they purchase RE5’s Versus Mode . The versus mode deal is not available in Japan, where members can purchase the Xbox LIVE Arcade title Golf: Tee It Up for 400 points (a savings of 50%.)

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Deal of the Week: RESIDENT EVIL 5 Versus Mode

One of our biggest complaints with the relatively streamlined iTunes App Store was the user’s inability to upgrade “Lite” applications to their full, paid counterparts through the demo apps themselves. This led to the App Store being cluttered with two versions of nearly every game app, which sent us into fits of obsessive-compulsive rage . Fortunately, Apple has switched its position on in-app purchases, allowing developers to include the option to purchase and unlock the full version of an app (or even DLC) through the lite version’s main menu, folding free and paid apps into one neat, orderly download.

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Lite iPhone apps now upgradable to full versions via in-app purchases

No, not to $50, though that would be an awesome way to tie up this holiday season for Nintendo. Kotaku shared this possible excerpt from a future Toys R Us ad, showing Wiis for sale for just $199, with Wii Sports , effective September 27.

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Rumor: Toys R Us ad leaks $50 Wii price cut