I didn’t want to buy into the hype for Red Dead Redemption. Its precursor, Red Dead Revolver, was a decent rental, but forgettable – a go-to title when trying to think of games that time forgot. To associate Red Dead Redemption with it should be a sin. Rockstar could have easily slapped a cowboy-themed skin on Liberty City and called it Grand Theft Horsey, but Rockstar San Deigo did so much more. The studio made a Wild West that was fun to explore on horseback – a desert that was desolate, yet not deserted. (more…)
Super Meat Boy is an addictive platformer that can be taken in short spurts or over a long haul, with a maddeningly steep difficulty curve, especially if you want to unlock everything the game has to offer. Team Meat has stripped down the very essences of hardcore gaming into adrenaline bursts, especially when the game starts to really get rolling. And that’s before players even discover that there’s a “dark world” (read: even harder) version of everything they’ve beaten once they’ve perfected their runs through each level. (more…)
Activision’s popular shooter series is back this year with the Treyarch-developed Call of Duty: Black Ops. If the shooter fan on your list wasn’t already camped out for a midnight release of the game and doesn’t already own it, this one is essential. A brand-new single-player storyline, as well as new multiplayer levels and the return of the zombie mode from World at War will guarantee plenty of Prestige ranking, zombie killing, multiplayer fun. (more…)
The Western is a dying genre. Kids aren’t outside playing Cowboys & Indians anymore. Western films have been few and far between, and recent ones haven’t been given wide releases. Unless of course, we count the recent adaption of Jonah Hex, but that crapfest would hurt the case for the Western.
A great reflection of society’s one time love for the Wild West and current disinterest in it could be summed up with Woody’s plight in the Toy Story series. Thankfully Rockstar dug up the Red Dead Revolver franchise and crafted an amazing Western experience with it in Red Dead Redemption. (more…)
Much like KORG DS-10 Synthesizer, Beaterator isn’t really a game. Rather, it’s a collaboration between Rockstar and Timbaland to create a powerful music mixer that can be used on the go with a PSP. Beaterator gives players a solid arsenal of tools – thousands of loops and sounds with which to create songs, a “Live Play” mode with pre-arranged templates, as well as an option to import vocals, not to mention a programmable drum machine – and lets them go wild. The casual fan will get a kick out of the Live Play mode, as it has the feel of stepping into a Best Buy and simply jamming with the pre-arranged melodies on a Casio keyboard, making one feel like more a musical genius than he probably is. Those who take the time to really learn the system, though, will find an incredibly in-depth creation mode, and the option to export songs for the world to hear. Thanks to support from the PlayStation Network and the Rockstar Social Club, this option actually seems worthwhile. (more…)
Kind of a quiet week for trailer uploads, but no less exciting. We start things off with a trailer for Tecmo’s Again DS. Then it’s three more Super Street Fighter IV videos, courtesy of Capcom. First they introduce Ibuki, Makoto and Dudley, then put them in competition in the next two videos. Finally, we wrap things up for Trailer Madness 18 with Red Dead Redemption‘s “The Women” trailer.
It’s time for edition No. 11 of Trailer Madness, and this week Capcom’s Dark Void has earned the top spot with a cinematic trailer. The publisher also sent a video examining “The Void” in Dark Void. Capcom also released two new Tatsunoko vs Capcom videos, while Marvel sent another Astonishing X-Men behind-the-scenes look our way. We’ve also got a fourth developer diary for James Cameron’s Avatar game. And last, but certainly not least, we’ve embedded a video courtesy of Rockstar for Red Dead Redemption.
Title: Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony
Platform: 360
ESRB Rating: M
Publisher: Rockstar Games
Developer: Rockstar North
Review by: Dan Braun
Approximately one and a half years ago, Grand Theft Auto IV was released to almost universal praise amongst the gaming community. Despite this, some hardcore fans of the series felt that the game took itself too seriously and focused on the mundane and realistic, instead of showcasing the over-the-top (and often ridiculous) action and activities that have made the franchise so popular. For those who need the extreme, The Ballad of Gay Tony is a much lighter and more explosive foray into Liberty City that should have all GTA fanatics cheering for more. (more…)
Chris Park is acting as our correspondent in his spare time out at E3 in Los Angeles this week. After waking in San Fransisco at 1 a.m. and making the five-hour trek to the Los Angeles Convention center today, Park sat in on the Sony Computer Entertainment Press Conference. Then he did a hands-on at the Southpeak booth with two of the publisher’s upcoming titles, before a little wandering. He also took some photos of the event. Park’s report follows… (more…)
Jonathan, the winner of our Rockstar swag contest, was kind enough to send us a picture of his daughter decked out in the Chinatown Wars t-shirt, holding a Gears of War 2 soundtrack and and in front of an Onechanbara poster we sent his way. (We tossed in a couple of extra things!) That’s a lot of M-rated game products for one little girl, but she is holding a sticker of the child-friendly and very awesome Ninjatown game, so…yeah. He said he sent the photo of his 4-year-old because he isn’t exactly photogenic, which we can relate to. He also pointed out that her name, Natalia Rahne, is a reference to both Black Widow and Wolfsbane. We have a feeling Jonathan is checking out the Wolverine movie this weekend, and hopefully getting his daughter into the hobby. Thanks for sending in the photo, Jonathan.
Title: Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony
Chris Park is acting as our correspondent in his spare time out at E3 in Los Angeles this week. After waking in San Fransisco at 1 a.m. and making the five-hour trek to the Los Angeles Convention center today, Park sat in on the Sony Computer Entertainment Press Conference. Then he did a hands-on at the Southpeak booth with two of the publisher’s upcoming titles, before a little wandering. He also took some photos of the event. Park’s report follows… 
Jonathan, the winner of our Rockstar swag contest, was kind enough to send us a picture of his daughter decked out in the Chinatown Wars t-shirt, holding a Gears of War 2 soundtrack and and in front of an Onechanbara poster we sent his way. (We tossed in a couple of extra things!) That’s a lot of M-rated game products for one little girl, but she is holding a sticker of the child-friendly and very awesome Ninjatown game, so…yeah. He said he sent the photo of his 4-year-old because he isn’t exactly photogenic, which we can relate to. He also pointed out that her name, Natalia Rahne, is a reference to both Black Widow and Wolfsbane. We have a feeling Jonathan is checking out the Wolverine movie this weekend, and hopefully getting his daughter into the hobby. Thanks for sending in the photo, Jonathan.