Gadgets and Video Games

We were busy ogling the suitable-for-framing cover art of the May issue of GamePro just posted by mag boss John Davison when we noticed a title we didn’t recognize: Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions . Considering how well-informed and handsome we all are, we were understandably stymied. Unfortunately, Activision declined to comment so we don’t know any more than you do about it at the moment, though we have to assume this is the previously-announced upcoming Spider-Man game, which supposedly won’t suck .

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Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions teased by GamePro

How many of you right now are playing games and using your plain-jane television speakers to blast the sound out? With so much focus on high-definition visuals, gamers tend to treat sound as an afterthought. Especially if you have several systems, which means a tangle of spaghetti wires held together with spit and baling wire

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Joyswag: win an Astro Gaming A30 headset for your games, music, phonecalls

We’ve read all the available info about the new Modern Warfare 2 map collection ” Stimulus Package ,” but we still didn’t have an answer to the big question on everyone’s mind: “Is that the game with a bunch of guys or the one with the beards ?” That, we still don’t know. However, we’ve gotten an answer to the second biggest question from Xbox Live’s Major Nelson : The five maps (three new, two remakes) will run you 1200 MS points or $15. As a basis for comparison, the “Variety” map pack for Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare ran 800 points ($10) for four new maps

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Modern Warfare 2 ‘Stimulus Package’ costs $15

EA’s John Schappert spoke on the sticky situation regarding Activision and Infinity Ward at GDC today, and rather than put a spin on what he said, we’ll let the man speak for himself: “I’m sure there’s two sides to that story, I’m certainly not passing judgement,” Schappert said. “On the human side, they’re two great guys.

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EA’s John Schappert comments on Activision & Infinity Ward situation

[Elisabeth Caren] Activision CEO Bobby Kotick’s speech at DICE was certainly a highlight of this year’s convention. The polarizing figure took the stage and spoke his mind — whether it was for better or worse was a topic of debate for the rest of the show. Some saw it as humanizing the demonized executive, who makes no apologies for running an efficient and profitable company (especially in this economy ), while others couldn’t believe that PR ever let him take the stage with what seemed like a fairly off-the-cuff speech. Disbarred attorney Jack Thompson took the opportunity to send California State Senator Leland Yee (and the entire press) a letter declaring “Gotcha!” to a section of Kotick’s speech. Using a piece he read on GamePolitics as a springboard, Thompson writes that Kotick’s admission that the executive would still be really into video games if it didn’t run the risk of interfering with his life and running a major publisher is an “admission [that] flies in the face of video game industry spokespersons’ false, sometimes perjured assertions, that video games do not affect the behavior of minors

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Activision CEO Bobby Kotick’s full DICE speech, Jack Thompson says ‘Gotcha!’

It seems that, once again, our anonymous tipster was right on the money. The ESRB recently rated Tecmo Bowl Throwback for the PSN and XBLA platforms, describing it as a “top-down arcade-style football game in which players compete against teams around the country to become the ‘Tecmo Bowl Champion.’” Though the game earned an “E” rating, the listing mentions “cheerleaders wearing low-cut tops” and “a 2D swimsuit model with some exposed cleavage.” How positively scandalous ! Surprisingly, the ESRB listing doesn’t mention a twelve-foot-tall, cybernetic Bo Jackson who causes every player who thinks about tackling him to explode in a fountain of gore. So, we’re guessing that feature isn’t getting ported over from the original game

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ESRB rates ‘Tecmo Bowl Throwback’ for PSN and XBLA

Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick , dressed in a zipper pullover and jeans, announced at DICE that his company will sponsor an independent video game competition. Details were practically nonexistent, and he seemed to make it sound like the idea was a whim he had on the drive from the airport, but there’s apparently $500,000 up for grabs. We’re currently following up with Activision and will get out the details out as soon as we know more. Kotick announces Activision’s half-million dollar indie games competition originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 18 Feb 2010 15:46:00 EST

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Kotick announces Activision’s half-million dollar indie games competition

I’m a big proponent of games you can play with single taps on the iPhone and, as such, I was pretty skeptical about how well Call of Duty: World at War ‘ s zombie mode would make the leap to the diminutive platform. Though I’ve played FPS games that technically worked on iPhone, they’re very rarely something I find myself returning to. Call of Duty: Zombies cleverly skirts the issue by providing so much help with aiming, you’re able to focus on what makes the mode so much fun on consoles.

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iPhone It In: Call of Duty: Zombies

The latest announcement from Aksys games includes two surprises. It doesn’t come as a shock that the company would choose to localize Kunio-kun no Chou Nekketsu Daiundokai (Kunio’s Extreme Hot-Blooded Athletic Meet) for DS — Aksys is fairly reliable about picking up everything Arc System Works releases in Japan, and it published the last new Kunio game for DS, Super Dodgeball Brawlers , in 2008. However, in addition to the multi-sporting event game (a sort of sequel to the NES game Crash ‘n the Boys: Street Challenge), it also announced a new Kunio soccer game that hasn’t even been announced in Japan.

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Aksys resurrects ‘River City’ name for DS sports games

Quick, stop reading this post and head on over to Battle.net to grab the PC beta client for StarCraft 2 ! (It appears the Mac client is not available yet). Of course, you must have previously volunteered for the beta at Blizzard’s site, so if this sentence is news to you, then … sorry.

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StarCraft 2 PC Beta client is now live [update]