Gadgets and Video Games

Over the weekend, EA Sports announced a new community influencers program that it’s calling “Game Changers” — the idea is that the publisher will choose big EA sports fans who use their online community know-how “to improve the experience and overall growth of the EA SPORTS Community.” Presumably, you have to yell “EA Sports” whenever you say it, which would be why the name is in all caps. The chosen few will get early access to EA games, as well as represent the community while giving feedback on future releases. They’ve picked nine guys (no girls) so far, all of whom are active in the various EA communities and forums. They’ve also posted a video of the program’s kickoff , and while we were totally going to make fun of it for sounding like a cliched sports team (“It’s the dream of a lifetime, we just go out there to do our best” and so on), that Anton B dude actually gets a little choked up at the end after being honored with Game Changer of the Month.

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EA Sports honors ‘Game Changers’ in its online communities

Filed under: Mac , PC , Meta (about Joystiq) We’re lucky that the period between Christmas and New Year’s Day is a tad on the slow side in the news department. Quite frankly, New Years partying combined with the disassembling of holiday decorations and removal of festive trees (we usually get four or five) has us exhausted and a little melancholy. Oh, and we also wrote a whole mess of content over the last week just for you , in case you were wondering. Hit the break for news items and peep some original features below: Exclusive features 2010 Previews : We conclude our look ahead at the next year in PC games with a RPG-MMO preview and an RTS-other games preview . Plus we pick our top 10 most anticipated PC games of 2010 , give our predictions for the next year , pick some 2010 console games that should be PC games and offer up some 2010 wishes for the PC game industry .

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The Best of Big Download: December 28-January 3

Have your peripherals gotten dirty , like, just plain filthy? Well, don’t touch them! You could catch something. Instead, consider buying clean ones during Amazon’s peripheral sale

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Amazon deals: peripheral sale; $20 credit for $80 purchase

Here’s a dreary, uncomfortably true comment about the state of movie-licensed games: When we saw the average that James Cameron’s Avatar currently sports on Metacritic, our first thought was, “Wow, a 65, not bad!” Here’s how it was sized up by a few outlets: VideoGamer ( 70/100 ): ” James Cameron’s Avatar: The Game is easily one of the best movie licensed games I’ve ever played, but at the same time it’s not good enough to stand alone as a must-own title. While the presentation is great and the combat generally enjoyable, the missions leave a lot to be desired – and there’s little of the sense of wonder that the movie promises.” IGN ( 68/100 ): “There’s nothing disastrous here, and the RDA shooter side of things performs well enough to be occasionally enjoyable. The quest design, including both the main and side tasks, is about as generic as they come.

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Metareview: James Cameron’s Avatar

Activision announced this morning that, according to data garnered from the NPD, ChartTrack, GfK and internal estimates, the Call of Duty franchise has accumulated $3 billion-with-a-b in sales over its lifetime. As all but the densest among you have likely deduced, CoD was put over the top by the release of Modern Warfare 2 , which moved $550 million in its first five days on sale. For a bit of perspective, $3 billion is pretty darn close to the gross domestic product of the Kingdom of Swaziland, a comparison that’s especially appropriate when you realize that 54 percent of Swazis have a Gamerscore over 20,000. …

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Call of Duty now a $3 billion franchise

With the exception of Tetris , Blast Corps and Mischief Makers , Peggle is arguably the best game ever created. This Thursday, November 19, PS3 owners will be able to find out why, thanks to the simultaneous release of Peggle and Peggle Nights on the PlayStation Network. Sure, it’s been a long time coming, but the PS3 will have one exclusive feature to make up for the delayed release: Built-in YouTube support. With this feature, players will be able to upload and share replays directly from the PS3. If you’ve played Peggle before, you know you’re bound to have some “OMG did that really happen” moments you’ll want to save forever.

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Peggle and Peggle Nights coming to PSN on Nov. 19

Super sleuth Superannuation has uncovered a new trademark filed by Prince of Persia creator Jordan Mechner. The game-related application, which seeks to register the title “Prince of Persia The Forgotten Sands,” may concern a new entry in Ubisoft’s storied franchise.

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Jordan Mechner files ‘Prince of Persia The Forgotten Sands’ trademark

Ubisoft must have found TrackMania creator Nadeo to really be speaking its language , as the French publisher has acquired the, uh, French developer in a bid to drift into the online gaming sector. “Through Nadeo, Ubisoft will gain an expert team, one of the best online technologies around as well as a flagship multiplayer game that enjoys an unrivaled reputation among a loyal and committed community,” Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot observed. The acquisition of Nadeo comes just weeks after the developer announced a true TrackMania sequel, TrackMania 2, at the Paris Games Festival. Ubisoft acquires TrackMania dev to build online cred originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 06 Oct 2009 13:20:00 EST

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Ubisoft acquires TrackMania dev to build online cred

It would be outright unfair to spoil any of the hilarious, minute-long trailer for upcoming GTA IV expansion The Ballad of Gay Tony that we’ve dropped above. We would like to highlight its introduction of Yusuf Amir, a character who seems to be on the level of Brucie in terms of sheer personality. With any luck, we’ll get to hang out with Mr. Amir quite a bit while playing through The Ballad of Gay Tony when it’s released on October 29 . Gallery: GTA IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony Catch a gold bar from Yusuf Amir in the new Ballad of Gay Tony trailer originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 24 Sep 2009 13:58:00 EST

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Catch a gold bar from Yusuf Amir in the new Ballad of Gay Tony trailer

Everyone’s favorite wartime photojournalist and Dead Rising protagonist Frank West was just confirmed to be a contender in Capcom’s upcoming inter-franchise brawler, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom . This news comes two weeks after a number of the game’s assets , which indicated the appearance of West, Mega Man series regular Zero, and a bunch of anime characters we absolutely do not recognize, were leaked. You can check out a video demo of West’s brawling expertise after the jump. Know where he learned to fight that well

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TGS 2009: Frank West is rising to the occasion in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom