Going Digital: Xbox Live Downloads 6/29

Another week and some more games drop on the XBL digital front. There are three Arcade titles, one demo, a whole ton of DLC, Gold member discounts, and three new Games on Demand. 


Hit the jump to find out exactly what they are.

New Video Game Releasese: 6/27 - 7/2

Welcome back to New Video Game Releases! From now on this will just highlight retail releases and digital downloads will get their own posts on their respective update. Tuesday for Playstation, Wednesday for Xbox, and Thursday for Nintendo.

 So let's get crackin'! Hit the jump for some summer gaming goodness.

Sonic The Hedgehog 20th Anniversary: Demo, App, and Discounts

Today marks the day that that chubby, speeding blur blew on to the scene and actually gave Mario a run for his money.

So how is Sega planning to celebrate? With a whole bunch of discounts on downloadable Sonic games, a free Sonic iOS app, and a demo (for a limited time) for their newest Sonic project, Sonic Generations, which will feature both Classic and Modern Sonic and levels designed from Sonic's 20 year history.

Hit the jump for all the details on the 20th celebration.

Duke Nukem Forever and Ever...

(J.P. Dozier)

 Duke Nukem Forever. A game that was 12 years in the making. Well actually it didn't take 12 years to make but just that long to finally release it. So far all the reviews I have read, makes this game seem like it was a waste of time and money to be released. Everyone that I have talked to (except one guy who never played the series before) loves the game. IGN gave the game a 5.5/10, considering it to be mediocre.  How dare they I say.  This game is anything but. I feel that most of the people putting the game down either: 

  A. Never played the game before.

  B. Because the game took sooooo long to release, fan boys expected something so majestic and got a regular Duke Nukem game (Not saying anything bad about that).  Well, here is my honest review about the game.

Going Digital: Nintendo Downloads 6/16

So with the introduction of the eShop last week, Nintendo has for some reason decided to shift their weekly digital releases to Thursdays now. So we will be here each Thursday to let you know what's new on the digital front. 

Now don't forget that your 3DS plays DSiWare as well, hence why those games prices are listed in both Points and actual dollar amount.

While there isn't a whole bunch of stuff dropping this week, there is at least one game for each part of the Nintendo downloads, so hit the jump to see if there is something that piques your fancy.

THQ Shuts Down Kaos. Homefront Still Alive.

It's always sad to hear about studio closures, no matter the developer. It means the possible death of franchises, but most importantly that some people are now without a job. 

THQ confirmed today the closing of two of its studios, one being THQ Digital Warrington located in the UK and the other being Kaos Studios, developers of Frontlines: Fuels of War and Homefront.

The only insight THQ has given into the closings is "it has made a strategic realignment within its internal studio structure..."

Apparently the employees at both studios have been notified and "will have the opportunity to interview for open positions with the company globally."

As for Homefront, THQ apparently sees the franchise as something worth keeping around and has turned the development of the franchise to it's Montreal studio. 

Say what you will about Kaos's previous efforts, but they did have some pretty neat ideas that I hope carry over into future THQ titles. Good luck to those guys in finding another studio to call home.

Source: joystiq.com

The only thing to fear is F.E.A.R. itself.

(J.P. Dozier)

With the release of F.E.A.R. 3 coming June 21st, I thought it would be great to do a review on the series. Since the release of F.E.A.R. in 2005 by Monolith Productions, the games have what true gamers love: 1. The games actually correlate with one another. Not just creating games that do not follow the storyline to the other ones (I hate when they do that). 2. There is lots of violence, blood, more violence, scenes that scare the piss out of you when you play and being able to ride around in a kick ass robot that you blow stuff up with.

Riding in the robot was one of my favorite parts of the game.

When you have all of those great features of a game, how could you not go wrong? I am thinking poor advertising. Or they have been making most of their sales on the PC. From what I have been reading about it, more people prefer it on PC than the consoles. These games have been getting scores of 8/10 or higher by many reviews but have sold under a million copies for since their release. Remember, this is for Xbox 360 and PS3, not the PC. I dunno the figures they have in sales. F.E.A.R. has sold only 930,000 since 2006 and F.E.A.R. 2 with only 810,000 since 2009. 

So lets go into what the games are about now.

L.A. Noire: Send in Your Impressions!

So by now you guys have read J.P.'s and my own review of L.A. Noire. If not, click on Review and read them over.

So you guys know what we think about the game, but now I want to know what YOU think.

I will create a post on here featuring the best impressions you guys sent in so that all of you can read what others thought of the game.

If enough people send in a response, I could see us doing it for every review we do.

Details after the jump.

Where To Watch the E3 Press Conferences

Who needs Photoshop when I have MS Paint?

What? Not going to E3? Well neither are we so there.

Unfortunately, I guess we weren't cool enough to go to E3 this year so we get to sit around and let all those 'real journalists' have all the fun.

But not all hope is lost! Thanks to the magic of both the internet and television we can still get the scoop of all the happenings of E3! Especially the press conferences.

Listings after the jump.

Tournament Update: Read if You Want Anymore

We love tournaments. The trash talking, clutch plays, and even the social interactions. So we were really sad that no one decided to show up for the Black Ops tournament we held last night.

In light of that, we are going to try some things to make sure that these things go smooth and that people actually show. It would suck if we don't do tournaments anymore because of a lack of people showing.

All the details after the jump.

Darksiders II: The Horsemen Cometh Again

So Game Informer has the scoop on the new Darksiders game as revealed on next months cover. But contrary to the above picture you won't be playing as War this time around. Which horseman will take center stage this time around?

Click the jump to find out who it is as well as the E3 trailer

Sony's 'Welcome Back' Program is Up. Get Your Free Content!

Damn Sony that was quick. I know they said they would roll it out 'soon' but I expected it to hit next week.

For those of you that don't remember, this program was Sony's way of apologizing to all PSN users for the attack on the PSN and the downtime that was caused by it.

This applies to both PS3 and PSP users who had a PSN account before April 20th. Anyone else is S.O.L. but hey, that's what you get for being an Xbot or Wiitard, granted the Wii's online never really worked in the first place.

Note: I own all the consoles so I'm allowed to make fanboy jokes about everyone. :P

Details after the jump.

A New Challenger Enters the Ring!

It seems as if fighting games are in a revival of sorts. These are just the ones off the top of my head: Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition, Blazblue Continuum Shift, Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter X Tekken, Tekken Tag Tournament 2, Tekken X Street Fighter, Marvel Vs Capcom 3, Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike Online Edition, and I'm pretty sure I've forgetten another half a dozen.

So Namco probably saw it as a good time to hop on the bandwagon and show off Soul Calibur V.

Apparently set 17 years after the events of Soul Calibur IV, looks like the tale of two swords continues on and brings in new fighters to the weapon based fighter.

Check out the E3 trailer after the jump which shows of some of the new characters and some new gameplay additions as well.

Metal Gear and Zone of the Enders Getting HD Remakes

Though Hideo Kojima said he wouldn't be at E3 and that Metal Gear Rising will be absent as well, doesn't mean that we won't still get some great news out of him.

Konami recently announced that it's bringing old Metal Gear Solid and Zone of the Enders games to both Xbox 360 and PS3 and that they are getting HD remakes.

You have the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection and the Zone of the Enders HD collection. Full details and pictures after the jump.

Crystal Ballin': E3 Predictions Part 3 - Nintendo

So less than a week away and all of us gamers will be drooling over new trailers, screenshots, and news that is to surely ooze out from E3.

Probably the biggest draw of the the show is the conferences held by the major platform holders, and this year definitely will be an interesting one for the Big Three.

Microsoft has to make up ground with core title releases and the Kinect, Sony has to regain lost ground not only with consumers but publishers, and Nintendo is easily poised to steal the show with their new console reveal.

What else might happen though? What news and huge surprises will be announced? That's where I come in. There is some for sure answers and some completely out there guesses going on here but remember, this is my take on what I believe will happen at E3.

And in case you missed our previous E3 predictions here is Part 1 focusing on Microsoft and Part 2 dealing with Sony.

Here is the conference schedule and the order in which I will do these posts:

Microsoft: June 6 12PM EST

Sony: June 6 8PM EST

Nintendo: June 7 12PM EST

And as you probably guessed, this last one will all be Nintendo. Last years E3 conference was easily the best of the three. With the announcement of the 3DS, Kirby, Metroid, and Donkey Kong, Nintendo fans had a lot to be happy about. 

Now though, games for the DS and Wii are pretty much non-existent and the 3DS definitely not meeting expectations, both in sales and consumer standards, Nintendo has a lot to of ground to make up. Will their new console pull them from this slump that plagued them through the the Gamecube's lifecycle? Or are Nintendo fans subject to a repeat of the Wii?

Hit the jump to see our predictions!

Playstation Network: Now Fully Functional!

ITS BACK!!!

Guess what ladies and gents? The Playstation Network is fully operational now that the PS Store has been restored! And that is both PSP and PS3.

So now you can do your redeem codes that some of you might be sitting on, like me and my L.A. Noire DLC, or cue up some downloads with the hundreds of pieces of new downloadable content that Sony is desperately trying to catch up on.

If you want to see the list, the US Playstation Blog has the details of every single piece of downloadable content that went live and they say that there will be another update on Friday with more updates coming next week.

As for the Welcome Back program and the free games we are due, according to the blog post it isn't live yet but they had this to say about it:

"It is currently in the final stages of testing and will be available to download soon;we’ll be sure to let you know when."

I know I personally have a ton of codes to burn up and a crap ton of Playstation Plus stuff to download considering there is 32 pieces of content just for PS + members.

Dissidia Costumes here I come!!!

And as a side note, it took 43 days from when the PSN came down to when full functionality was restored.