Gadgets and Video Games

You probably got that idea already, considering nothing but the sound of crickets and tumbleweeds have emerged from Criterion HQ since the release of the last bit of Burnout Paradise DLC, Big Surf Island . A tweet from the company account confirms our fears, stating there will be ” no more” DLC and that the company “did WAY more than everyone else.” That’s all well and good, but it doesn’t slake our need for more amazing DLC! So there you have it. The world is a colder and darker place today. If you need us, we’ll be Freeburning our troubles away online, pining for what could have been . Criterion puts the brakes on hopes for more Burnout Paradise DLC originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 20 Jan 2010 23:00:00 EST.

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Criterion puts the brakes on hopes for more Burnout Paradise DLC

You gotta give it up to Criterion Games. Throughout the lifespan of Burnout Paradise , the developers at Criterion worked their buns off to give us all kinds of juicy DLC, from a new island to explore, a new game mode , right down to motorcycles and many , many car packs. Now, the company has prepared a lengthy diatribe documenting some of the updates that never got off the ground. For one, did you know that Criterion initially planned to have motorcycles vs cars? Yep, sure was planned — and did you know that Criterion wanted to create a whole series of islands, not just the one?

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Criterion details Burnout Paradise DLC that never was

Project Natal has been the talk of the virtual town since its unveiling back at E3. A few developers have dished on the possibilities, but theoretical physicist-employing Valve has kept silent. The reason behind that silence, Destructoid reports, is because Valve is waiting to see something “compelling” before diving right it. Okay, we’ll admit that Block Breaker and Burnout Paradise looked pretty fun on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and at E3, but Valve certainly has a point. Talking with a virtual kid is kinda cool, but we can see the novelty wearing off quickly.

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Valve wants to see a ‘compelling game’ from Natal (so do we!)

Though the big boss got to talk to that weird little android kid , my time with Project Natal was limited to using Microsoft’s motion sensing technology retrofitted onto Burnout . My expectations were pretty high, as Grant came back with some pretty glowing reviews. I figured that it would work, but it wouldn’t necessarily supplant the controller as my preferred method of game interaction

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Hands-on: Project Natal: Burnout

During a William Blair Growth Stock Conference presentation, EA’s COO (John Pleasants, FYI) noted the existence of two unannounced titles — neither of them particularly surprising if you’ve been keeping up on your spurious internet rumors . The first, Battlefield 3 , is said to be in good shape and, even better, in good hands over at developer DICE . Unfortunately, it appears fans of frenzied first-person shootery will have to wait until the next fiscal year before returning to the field. According to G4TV ’s Patrick Klepek, the second title is yet another Need for Speed game , this one developed by the team behind Burnout .

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Report: Battlefield 3, Criterion-developed Need for Speed underway

Seems like somewhat inconsequential news for us to report on, right? “Magazine subscribers get cool bonus item?” Who cares? Well, we care, you probably care, and anyone who has ever picked up a video game controller should care about the poster in question — drawn by gaming obsessed artist Gary Lucken and packaged with the latest edition of Edge magazine , this pixelliustrated work of art contains references to every video game ever made . Seriously, we were going to try to list the video games referenced in the poster (visible in somewhat higher res here ), but really, it would probably be easier to list the games that aren’t . Let’s see ..

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Edge magazine subscribers receive coolest poster ever

How much will you pay for 15 new events in Burnout Paradise ? Criterion is hoping the answer is $12.99 (

Lead designer Tom French calls this world “Disneyland Paris.” That’s not exactly what came to mind as I jumped from rooftop to rooftop dodging Nazis, machine gun fire, and rockets, but French wasn’t characterizing this bleak, occupied (and dangerous) World War II-era recreation of the city. The Saboteur features a scaled down, open-world Paris with oversize landmarks splitting the skyline (like Disneyland!) that trails off into countryside connected to parts of Germany.

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Hands-on: The Saboteur

We warmly invite you to watch this first video of the upcoming Burnout Paradise DLC, Big Surf Island , in action, but please don’t try any of these stunts at home. That’s just silly. No one lives in a ginormous fun park! Now, if you’ll excuse us, we’re off in search of a colossal doughnut to launch our car through. Preferably with sprinkles

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Burnout Paradise: Big Surf Island hangs ten (and then some) in debut trailer

I recently went to an event in New York where EA Games was displaying what they feel are the ’seven hottest games of the New year.’ I can’t say I completely agree with that statement, but there are at least four titles on the list that I would say have a good chance of making EA at least partially right.

The games that were featured at the even are as follows.

• Army of Two
• Battlefield: Bad Company
• Burnout Paradise
• Command & Conquer 3: Kane’s Wrath
• Mercenaries 2
• Rail Sim

Let’s take a closer look at these seven titles and I’ll give you my impressions (at About.com’s Video Game Strategies web site) of them.