Gadgets and Video Games

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: Stingray Sam ($12 HD digital download, $18 DVD, $49 deluxe) Cory McAbee is one cool character. He’s produced art, music, short films and feature films, and he’s at his best when he’s combining art and movie together. Last year at Sundance, he premiered his newest feature film, Stingray Sam

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JBO: Joystiq Box Office, February 15 – February 19, plus Joyswag!

Mega64’s latest lampooning is a bit more historical than the troupe’s other videos . Posted just after the jump is a video reenaction of the moment of Dante’s Inferno ’s inception. We’d thought that a bright-eyed and bushy-tailed Classic Literature major had planted the idea-seed in an EA executive’s mind — apparently, said gardening was actually performed by Ba’al Zeb

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: District 13: Ultimatum (800 ($10) HD, 480 ($6) SD, to rent) It’s Mirror’s Edge , the movie! Well, sort of. There’s a hell of a lot of Parkour in both, but District 13: Ultimatum has much more plot, explosions and general ass-kickery. Written and produced by Luc Besson, D13:U is set several years after the original District 13 (and no, you don’t have to have seen that to enjoy this one), and takes place within the same walled-off Parisian ghetto.

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JBO: Joystiq Box Office, February 8 – February 12

NIS America isn’t all about making niche video games. No, they’re going to be making niche anime DVDs as well. Beginning mid-2010, NIS America will roll out their new anime line, beginning with these four titles: Toradora! , Persona: Trinity Soul , PandoraHearts , and Our Home’s Fox Deity . Jack Niida confirmed that these titles will be available exclusively on DVD at first, although didn’t rule out the possibility of Blu-ray, PlayStation Network and Zune Marketplace releases in the future. These series will receive a limited print, and will be available through online specialty retailers — brick and mortar stores, like Best Buy and Walmart, will not carry these titles

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NIS America to enter US anime market with Persona: Trinity Soul

I’ve never played a game quite like tri-Crescendo’s Fragile Dreams for Wii. While, mechanically, it’s a fairly standard action-adventure game – something like one of the PS2 Silent Hills with experience points – everything about the game contributes to a distinctive mood . Fragile Dreams is an exploration of quiet — something few games ever have any room for

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Hands-on: Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon

According to gaming news site Strategy Informer , Microsoft finally dismissed the possibility of a PC port for Remedy’s upcoming episodic thriller, Alan Wake . An unnamed Microsoft representative reportedly told Informer, “some games are more suited for the intimacy of the PC, and others are best played from the couch in front of a larger TV screen. We ultimately realized that the most compelling way to experience Alan Wake was on the Xbox 360 platform, so we focused on making it an Xbox 360 exclusive.” We’ve contacted Microsoft to get our own first-hand confirmation of the report. We’ll also try to find out why Alan Wake is so afraid of being “intimate.” It’s like … just let us in , man.

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Report: Microsoft says Alan Wake skipping PC release

In an extensive interview with IGN , Sony senior VP of Marketing Peter Dille notes that it’s been the company’s philosophy not to charge for PSN, but calls the possibility “something that [Sony's] actively thinking about .” The company has no announcement to offer while it tries to figure out “the best way to approach” any potential changes. Dille also mentions that the company will stick with ad agency Deutch and keep using Kevin Butler as pitchman for its new PS3 ad campaign, which is slowly ( very slowly ) erasing our memories of the crying demon baby . Less likely to make repeat appearances are full, downloadable version of PS3 Blu-ray games (think: Burnout Paradise ).

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Sony ‘actively thinking about’ charging for PSN, not offering more Blu-ray game downloads

Fallout 3 on Xbox 360 tops Rentrak’s list as the most rented game in 2009. The company’s data reveals that the Xbox 360 “dominated” the US rental charts, holding 17 of the top 20 spots. Rentrak states that its tracking system follows “65,000 DVD, Blu-ray Disc and Video Game properties in the brick-and-mortar, online, and kiosk channels across North America .” The original Rentrak release from this morning states that the rankings were based on “spending via US brick-and-mortar rental channel.” We followed up with the group, which clarified that this was a typo and the list also includes online rental outlets, like GameFly . That’s a good thing, otherwise the list would have been: “The Top 20 game rentals by people who still go to stores to rent their games.” Not having online information in there would have made the data a bit …

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Rentrak lists top game rentals of 2009

Remember HEI$T ? No? It was a bank robbery game set in 1969, being developed for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 by Codemasters. Remember it now? Okay, now forget about it

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HEI$T gets away from Codemasters’ lineup

Capcom has inked a deal with Japanese toymaker collectibles purveyor Kotobukiya that will see the latter producing toys action figures based on the Variable Suits (i.e. power armor) featured in Lost Planet 2 .

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Lost Planet 2 action figures vs. your wallet