Gadgets and Video Games

Filed under: Mac , PC , Meta (about Joystiq) January 2010 ended with the release of one of the best games of the year in Mass Effect 2 . At least — we assume it’s one of the best games of the year. If they get much better than this, we’re going to be in good shape. However, PC gamers have even more goodness in store for February

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The Best of Big Download: January 25 – 31

A chronological account of how this post was written: 2:35 p.m.: Accessed Media Create’s latest sales ranking. 2:36 p.m.: Copied new Media Create data into specially-formatted Excel spreadsheet. 2:38 p.m.: Copied spreadsheet calculations into Joystiq post.

The rest is here:
Japanese hardware sales, Jan. 18 – Jan. 24: Behind the Scenes edition

GameStop’s chief operating officer says the retailer must educate customers on the benefits of downloadable content for retail games. Speaking on a panel at the Game Business Law conference , J. Paul Raines said GameStop must embrace the growing trend of DLC if it hopes to survive in the category. “Downloadable content is a good thing because it enhances and extends games,” he told the panel. While the company doesn’t have a direct line to console customers seeking additional content, it does offer retail releases of some high-profile DLC .

More here: 
GameStop COO proclaims need for educating customers about DLC

Considering the extent to which Farmville has enraptured the hearts and minds of 95 percent of the Facebook-using populace, we’re not surprised that Natsume has decided to bring yet another installment in the Harvest Moon franchise to the States. According to Siliconera , American store shelves will play host to Harvest Moon: Hero of Leaf Valley for the PSP in April. The game will task you with staving off the expansion of The Funland Corporation’s chain of amusement parks into your home town of Leaf Valley. You’ll do so in the most logical manner imaginable: By repeatedly performing various agricultural chores. Yeah, that’ll show ‘em! Harvest Moon: Hero of Leaf Valley coming stateside in April originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 31 Jan 2010 21:30:00 EST.

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Harvest Moon: Hero of Leaf Valley coming stateside in April

Tags: french-door, honor-airborne, indiana-jones, Podcast, server, speed, speed-shift, table-border

Beginning February 3, the first issue of the four-part comic series Mass Effect: Redemption will be available on the iTunes App Store. To celebrate its release, Dark Horse and EA have announced the issue will be free for a limited time. How limited is the “free digital comic” window? One day only . After February 3, the digital release is bumped up to 99 cents .

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First issue of Mass Effect iPhone comic free on launch day

Hang on a sec, are you trying to tell us that you weren’t at the Paradox Interactive Convention in Stockholm, Sweden last week when the publisher showed off its upcoming game, Lead and Gold: Gangs of the Wild West ? Lucky for you then that Paradox Interactive recently released a m

We love Nobuo Uematsu’s work on the musical accompaniment for the Final Fantasy franchise, but we often find ourselves wishing those games’ scores were infused with a touch of Jay-Z. Maybe a light smattering of Outkast. The faintest hint of Ghostface Killah

Continued here: 
Vinyl Fantasy 7 is the freshest thing you’ll hear today

As confirmed by parent company Koch Media to Develop , Cursed Mountain developer Deep Silver Vienna has apparently been closed. Citing “the overall economic situation” and noting “this decision is not easy for us,” the 20-person staff was recently cut and told they would receive pay through the end of March.

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Cursed Mountain dev Deep Silver Vienna shuttered

Toulouse, France – Independent software developer David Palmerio today is pleased to announce E-Blues 1.1, his new blues music learning tool for iPhone and iPod touch devices. Discover and learn the Blues guitar in (almost) 5 minutes. This method presents 8 pieces of progressive levels, and each lesson is explained and the difficulties analyzed. The musical notation and theory is accompanied by audio and movie recordings.

Acoustic Blues:
Lesson 1: Just takle your guitar and begin with a traditional acoustic shuffle in the key of E.
Lesson 2: Play a funky blues with more advanced rhythm pattern.
Lesson 3: You can now improve your technic with a new slow shuffle, including open chords and multi-fingering turnaround ending.

Stratocaster Blues:
Lesson 1: Discover Texas Blues played on electric guitar and understand the using of pentatonic scale.
Lesson 2: Introduction to the minor Blues in the style of BB King.
Lesson 3: Play a Texas Blues in the style of Stevie Ray Vaughan rake on strings. Concluding the piece with a boogie.

Les Paul Blues:
Lesson 1: The use of Wha Pedal for a more modern blues.
Lesson 2: Leaving the pure Blues style for a more Blues Rock lesson.

Feature Highlights:
* Automatic runs of the tabs in landscape display
* Resizables tabs in portrait mode
* How to read tabs for the beginners
* Soundings strings to tune your guitar

Device Requirements:
iPhone and iPod touch 3.1.2 or later

Pricing and Availability:
E-Blues 1.1 is $1.99 (USD) and available worldwide exclusively through the App Store in the Music category. Take your pick and spend good time with this app. E-Blues is already in the Top 25 French App Store.

E-Blues 1.1
Purchase and Download
Screenshot

Based in Toulouse, France, independent developer David Palmerio has been playing guitar for more than 20 years. Copyright (C) 2010 David Palmerio. All Rights Reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, iPhone and iPod are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries.