Gadgets and Video Games

Multiplayer first-person shooters are a dime a dozen lately, meaning Lead & Gold: Gangs of the Wild West has a lot to prove for itself. The gameplay is definitely fun, but it’s clear that its main selling point is the format. As a downloadable game (confirmed for PC, planned for XBLA and PSN), it’s one of the most polished multiplayer shooter experiences available in the space

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Hands-on: Lead & Gold: Gangs of the Wild West

Though Uncharted 2 may have snatched away most of the Game of the Year trophies, Assassin’s Creed 2 stands out as another of 2009’s most acclaimed and successful titles. Lead game designer Patrick Plourde candidly discussed Ubisoft Montreal’s development process at one of the final panels during this year’s Game Developers Conference and gave some surprising insight into what happens when a project’s scope is altered in the midst of development. From the outset, Assassin’s Creed 2 took aim at the commercial success of the first game, as well as its vocal group of detractors. “I’m not gonna lie about it,” Plourde said, “some people liked it, some people despised it

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GDC: Designing Assassin’s Creed 2 (or: Dodging a curveball from upper management)

We like to keep it light and fun around here, but this latest series of Dead to Rights: Retribution media is serious business — when there are terrorists involved, the joking stops . That’s the gist of the above trailer, which features Temple Tower, the latest target of terrorism in Grant City. Thankfully, Jack and Shadow are on the scene to deal with these “hostage takers.” All it takes is a good cop and his murderous, almost impossibly skillful canine companion, after all! Gallery: Dead to Rights: Retribution (3.16.2010) Dead to Rights: Retribution media terrorizes Temple Tower originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 16 Mar 2010 23:00:00 EST

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Dead to Rights: Retribution media terrorizes Temple Tower

UFC Undisputed 2010 already has a shaved kodiak bear on its cover , so what else do you want? OK, how about a video of B.J. Penn just being sweaty and angry

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UFC 2010 features exclusive fights on PS3

Square Enix is sure hoping that the recent release of its long-in-production RPG hasn’t caused you to forget about its other long-in-production RPG: The PSP-exclusive Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep . The company recently sent a jolt through the series’ dormant U.S. fan base by announcing that the title will come stateside sometime this summer. According to Squeenix’s press release announcement , the North American version of the game will include new features, such as “an extra boss and additional multiplayer options,” as well as something called “Crown Stickers.” That certainly sounds like powerful weapon in the fight against the Heartless. We hear those guys hate stickers

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Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep to be born unto the U.S. this summer

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

The Engadget Show is teaming up with Joystiq’s very own Chris Grant this Saturday in a brand new episode that features the newly unveiled PlayStation Move motion controller. Sony’s Richard Marks will take the stage, bringing some brand new tech demos that highlight what the controller is capable of. This will be the first time the general public will be able to get their hands on the device, with random members of the audience being able to play with the Move live on stage.

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Go behind the tech of PlayStation Move at the Engadget Show this Saturday

In a demo of its upcoming streaming service, OnLive president and CEO Steve Perlman confirmed something long suspected — players will not be able to adjust graphics settings. “We don’t want somebody going and changing the settings to something different for what the game is optimized for,” he told Joystiq in an interview during the 2010 Game Developers Conference . “We’ll go and scale or adjust or do whatever changes we need to make in order to make it work.” Perlman also demoed an OnLive “cloud gaming” feature which will allow players to “suspend” action at any time and retrieve the session later through any OnLive source (PC, Mac or on TV). “This is also good if something happens to your connection,” Perlman said.

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OnLive features ‘cloud’ session saves, disables graphics settings

Click to Jabba-size LucasArts and BioWare have thus far released information for their upcoming MMO, Star Wars: The Old Republic , at a painfully slow pace — the same goes for the hands-on opportunities they’ve offered us over the past year. When we finished our demo of the game at GDC, we were still left with a number of the same questions we had when we checked out the game back in December: Will there be space combat? What community features will be available? Can we build our own sentient, wise-cracking droids which secretly possess hearts of gold (and tin)? Alas, these questions remain unanswered

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Hands-on: Star Wars: The Old Republic’s Trooper class

Last week, Realtime Worlds MMO APB featured prominently during an in-booth press conference held at GDC. The game was playable (though, sadly, not by me), and the audience was treated to a live demo lead by the developer’s founder, ex-DMA and Grand Theft Auto co-creator, David Jones. Using two separate PCs hooked up to their own projection setups, Jones and another Realtime Worlds staffer hopped onto one of the game’s servers and began by giving a tour of one of three main areas, the Social District. As its name implies, this area — which reminded me more than a little of PlayStation Home — is where players can meet up, trade or sell their items, build custom music in the game’s built-in sequencer and buy a new set of wheels (or upgrade their current rides). When talking about the latter, Jones showed the vehicle customization tool, which featured not only cosmetic mods (custom designs can be sold to other players) but performance and aerodynamic tinkering, as well

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GDC Impressions: APB