Starcraft 2 Might Have Pre-Paid Game Time...

I'm sure that many of you are aware that a new Starcraft 2 Beta patch came out earlier today. This new patch brought some new balance changes, a Battle.net revamp, and of course tons of bugs. While playing some 2v2 with a friend I was experiencing lots of lag, and so I decided to re-log, however, a funny thing happened. Upon entering my account info I was greeted with this message:

Now I know that Blizzard has said that Starcraft 2 is going to free to play as long as you have an internet connect, but pop-up is leading me to believe there's more to it.
This could mean a premium service that could launch right along a free to play version, something that Blizzard is currently trying with they're World of Warcraft Acution House App for the iPhone/iPod Touch.

Indie Review: VVVVVV

I have recently finished up an indie title called "VVVVVV"(the letter V six times), and I can't think of enough fantastic things to say about it! To begin, I'd have to explain that I've always had a soft spot in my heart for "indie" games which has gone as far as me contemplating to buy an Xbox 360 for just the "Indie market place". However, even though I've played so many different "indie" games, its not often that I come across one as fun, addictive, and all around genius as "VVVVVV".

"VVVVVV", like most "indie" games, has one very neat game mechanic that is extremely well tuned in order to allow the player to manipulate it various ways. In "VVVVVV" that mechanic is the ability to flip your character upside down, I'd say its like flipping gravity but your character is the only one affected by it, so take that as you will. The main idea behind it all is that you're on a space ship which has gone through some crazy time portal, and all the ships crew members have been scattered across space waiting to saved by you, the ships captain.
Ultimately, "VVVVVV" plays out like a platformer, but there's some pretty distinct differences, the main one being that you can't jump. For every ledge or gap you come across you have to "flip gravity" and attempt to get across your obstacle that way. This starts to get extremely difficult when a majority of the surface starts to become covered with spikes, cleverly shaped as V's. Each level in "VVVVVV" is contained in a large open-world type of space, which allows for the player to play any particular level in any given order. The music in "VVVVVV" was also some of the best I've heard in an "indie" game in a long long time (I even ended up buying the soundtrack entitled "PPPPPP"). With all of this put together, the fantastic gameplay, the great music, and the game's clever jokes. "VVVVVV" is defiantly on my list of favorite "indie" games of all
time.

If you'd like to experience this epic adventure for yourself, you can play the free demo here, or if you want to be super awesome, you can buy the full game at http://thelettervsixtim.es/ and its only $15 (come on, all the cool kids are doing it). All of the proceeds go directly to the amazingly talented developer Terry Cavanagh. Lastly if you're like me and you cant get enough of the 8-bit musical goodness, you should buy the soundtrack here for only $4.

Dead Space 2 Trailer Revealed

Woohoo! As many of you know, Dead Space is one of my favorite 3rd person horror games, and I've been looking forward to Dead Space 2 ever since it was first announced. Today Visceral Games and EA released the first full trailer for Dead Space 2, and let me tell you, it looks pretty cool!

Although this trailer really doesn't show any gameplay, I can't help but get excited for more necromorph stomping. The one thing I'm not to certain about however, is if Isaac will keep his "Joe every-man" personality. The new suit is defiantly making him look more like a military trooper, rather than a space engineer.

Bungie Signs A 10-Year Partnership With Activision

Stop, breath, and read that headline again. Yup, it says 'Bungie Signs A 10-Year Partnership With Activision". Bungie has written an open letter to ensure their fans that Bungie is still...well you know...Bungie.

 "Today, we’re poised to open a new chapter in Bungie’s history—one that begins with a partnership between Bungie and Activision and ends where we always knew it would, with World Domination. Our Next Big Thing now has a concrete path, leading from our studio to the platforms of our choosing. The business formalities are behind us. Our Constitution remains unchanged. We are still Bungie, still independent, and now we are free to bring our stories to an ever bigger audience...Once the smoke clears, all the pieces will finally be in place for Step 7. Don’t worry, though. We won’t let World Domination go to our heads. We’re gonna keep making kick ass games on our own terms, and since you’ve been so supportive throughout the years, we’d love to bring you along for the ride."
It's crazy to think that this is the same studio who fought so hard to get out Microsoft's contract a couple years ago is now in a new, although totally different, contract with Activision. All irony aside, once you really take it all in, it's not all that crazy. A studio as big and successful and Bungie was going to end up somewhere, and hey, Activision sure is "somewhere".

Source: G4

Another Live Action Halo Trailer In The Bag

It's that time again folks, another live action commercial for the latest Halo game.

If you feel like this trailer is missing something, don't worry, the "full" commercial will be available for Xbox Live Gold subscribers tomorrow.

Split/Second Blows More Stuff Up

I really can't enough of these Split/Second trailers, so when Disney Interactive released a new one yesterday, I just had to make a post about it.
This trailer show's the game's standard mix of fast cars, explosions, and...a power plant...

Doesn't that look fun? Well if you have an Xbox 360 and want to give a try yourself, the demo is out now. Let me know what you think of the demo, and how it stands up to the game's awesome trailers.

Sims 3 Heading Over To Consoles This Fall

Last years best-selling PC franchise is heading over to consoles later this year. The game will becoming to the Wii, PS3, Xbox 360, and the Ds, all of which are scheduled for a fall release.
 Skimming through EA's press release tells us that The Sims 3 for consoles will include all-new features make it easier than ever to mess with life as players can unlock the ultimate “Karma Powers” for instant control and unleash them on their Sims. Players can help their Sim “get lucky,” bless them with “instant beauty” or be deviant and curse them with an “epic fail.”

Now this isn't the first Sims game to make it onto consoles, but it defiantly seems like this is going to be one of the most complete "Sim experiences". Keeping with The Sim's casual appeal, the Xbox 360 and PS3 version will come with a "single-use serial code" that will allow gamers to share achievements with friends through Facebook.

New Oddworld Game On Hold While Old Games Make A Comeback

The Oddworld series has been one of the most creative, adorable, and all around fun I've ever experienced. So when news broke a couple years back that there was a new Oddworld game in production I was extremely excited.
Sadly, it seems that I'll have to wait even longer for a new Oddworld game than expected. The creator of the Oddworld series, Lorne Lanning, recently came out and explained what's going on.
"There's a lot of things the shelf right now," Lanning explained. "We had a few on the fire, and they're still on the shelf...there's a lot of shakeup going [in the gaming industry] and in that turmoil, we didn't really want to put the Oddworld brand out there in the middle of it, so we're working on some other things that we'll be announcing shortly."

Although this means a new Oddworld game won't be coming anytime soon, it's still around, and hopefully it will see the light of day "somewhat" soon.
There is some fantastic new however, the "Oddbox", a newly announced collection which includes all the Oddworld games released so far. Is scheduled to be released in the first quarter of 2010 on Windows through Steam. Having Munch's Oddysee and Stanger's Wrath in one package...I'm already getting excited just thinking about it!

Source: G4

Contest Winners: Fat Princess: Fistful Of Cake

Here's what you've all been waiting for, the winners to the Fat Princess: Fistful of Cake contest!
Ian
Sean Mcloughlin
Sam

I numbered every entry that I received and then used this random number generator to find 3 winners.

I'm going the give the winners 1 day to leave a comment with the e-mail address they want me to contact you at. If they don't I'll give their prize to another random entry.

I have all of the winner's unique Blogger profile numbers, so please don't try to make fake Blogger profiles to claim a prize you didn't win.

If you didn't win this contest, don't worry, I'm going to hold more contests very soon. Keep checking this blog for all your daily gaming news, and thank you all for entering.

Note to the winners: To make sure your e-mail address doesn't get spammed by random people, I would recommend setting up a fake account to receive your prize. As long as the account you're posting the comment with, is the same as the account that won, everything should go over smoothly.

DJ Hero Sets Out To Dominate

If you can't wait for DJ Hero 2 to come out you might want to try your hands at a new DLC pack coming later this month on April 29.

 The DJ Hero Domination Pack is going to contain 3 brand new mixes:

• Danny Byrd's "Red Mist VIP" (Beat Juggle)
• Darude's "Sandstorm" mixed with Josh Wink's "Higher State of Consciousness"
• Wolfgang Gartner's "Wolfgang's Fifth Symphony" (Beat Juggle)

There's no word on how much this pack will cost, but most other 3 song DJ Hero DLC has cost 640 Microsoft Points, so I think $8 will be a safe bet.

The Live Action Alan Wake Prequel Has Arrived

Bright Falls is a prequel to Remedy's up-coming title, Alan Wake. These first two episodes give of a very Twin Peaks meets modern thriller vibe, which is great because that's exactly what Alan Wake is going for as well.
The first episode is about 5 minutes long, and if your at all interested in Alan Wake I'd highly suggest you check it out.

if you liked that episode, you can check out the second one here, at the offical New York Times website.

New Star Wars: The Old Republic Video Shows Us How To Beat A Jedi

 When most people think of Star Wars, the two things that pop into their head are light-sabers, and Jedi. This seems to be a problem that the new BioWare and LucasArts MMO is trying to address the best it can.
In the latest video, put out by the SWtoR creators, they show how the game's combat works and why being a Jedi isn't always the best choice.

Although it seems that SWtoR is trying very hard to difrenciate itself from other MMOs, I'm having a hard time seeing major differences. The combat itself seems like a good idea, but when put into action it looks very plain and dull. It could just be that I'm kind of burned out on MMOs at the moment, or that this game really isn't as great as some hope it will be.

Modern Warfare 2 Stimulus Map Pack Comes To The PC

The biggest selling and most drama inducing game of all time, Modern Warfare 2, is getting some more maps. Although the Stimulus Package has been out on the Xbox 360 for some time now, Steam confirmed earlier this week that PC gamers (along with PS3 gamers) will also get to pay for over priced content.

Although it seems that Steam is being a little nicer to folks who are pre-ordering the map pack, as they will save all of $1.50.
My advice however, is to stay clear from this extremely over-priced piece of DLC...but that's just me...

Alpha Protocol Shows Off Its Dialogue System

It seems Bioware games won't be the only ones on the block with a full fledged dialogue system. Sega and Obsidian's new game, Alpha Protocol, will also allow you to decide what your character does or doesn't say.

Alpha Protocol's Dialogue Stance System, or DSS, looks very familiar to that of Mass Effect but with an added "time bar". There hasn't been too much info released about Alpha Protocol, but comparisons to Mass Effect 1 and 2 are often made.
Once again, We'll have to wait until E3 for more info to come our way.

Smooth Talking Narrator Explains The Red Dead Redemption Multiplayer

I really can't enough of these Red Dead Redemption videos that Rockstar is putting out. This latest one goes over the game's multiplayer, which is starting to look pretty appealing.

Although the multiplayer isn't what I'm most excited about with Red Dead Redemption, Rockstar is sure making it look more than decent. I like the "Mexican Stand-off" at the beginning of matches, as it's something I don't think any other game has done before. What, if at all, are you most looking forward to with Rockstar's next title?

Side Scrolling Goodness In Super Mario Galaxy 2

Nintendo has just released a marketing video for Super Mario Galaxy 2, but there's a little twist with this one.
The video is entitled Transmission 2, which seems to be a part of multiple different transmission videos uploaded to YouTube by Nintendo.

You can click on the "Prev Feed" and "Next Feed" buttons, and you'll be directed to a another Super Mario Galaxy 2 clip. Although it seems that the next video in the "Transmission" series will be posted April 25.
Every time I see something new about Super Mario Galaxy 2 I get more excited for the game's release next month. I'm pretty sure that Super Mario Galaxy 2 will end up in my top 10 games of 2010 list, but I don't want to jump to any conclusions just yet.
If you just as excited about Super Mario Galaxy 2 as me, I'd suggest you pre-order it here at Amazon.com. You'll not only get the game shipped to you on release date, but you'll also get $20 credit to any game you purchase from Amazon after Super Mario Galaxy 2!

Starcraft 2 Won't Launch With Cross-Sever Support

If you're afraid that you'll get stomped by pro Starcraft players from South Korea when Starcraft 2 launches, don't worry.
It seems that Blizzard's next big game won't come with cross-server support right out of the box. The main reason for this decision was becuase of server stability. Blizzard doesn't want their players to be tossed into a match half-way across the world, and then experience intense amounts of lag.

Although Blizzard assures it's fans that after the new battle.net and match-making system has been up and running for a while, they will happily look into cross-server support.
Although this does lower the amount of players you're going to be playing with, I'm sure Sc2 will pull such huge numbers that you won't ever think of that being a problem.

About Last Night: Fat Princess: Fistful of Cake Event

You might be wondering what I did last night at Sony's Fat Princess: Fistful of Cake event, well, that's what I'm here to tell you!

The event was in the top floor of a bar/restaurant in San Fransisco called Orson. There were multiple PSP's set up each with their own game. Some games were older such as Echoshift, Patchwork Heroes, and Eye of Judgment Legends. However, there were also a few unreleased PSP games to check out, such as ModNation Racers PSP, Invizimals, Hot Shots Tennis: Get a Grip, and Fat Princess: Fistful of Cake. I was able to play almost every game there aside from Hot Shots Tennis, which had some technical difficulties throughout the night.

I'll start with ModNation Racers PSP becuase it was the first game I played last night. Right from the start ModNation PSP ModNation PSP experience is that it's an extremely well done "port" of the PS3 version. looks exactly like it's "older brother" on the PS3, which is defiantly a good thing. Actually, the best way I can describe the entire

I'm not fully aware if it is an actual 100% port, although I can imagine the track creator must be tweaked a bit differently for a single analog control scheme. One thing about the single analog controls is that I felt your racer would "over-turn" very easily, and so I used the D-pad for most of my racing, which worked out great. Overall I'd say its a very well put together game, but I'd have to play with the track editor first to really see how good or bad it's put together.

After playing with ModNation for a bit I played with Invizimals, which is already out in Europe, and it will be coming to North America later this year. Invizimals is a really interesting "augmented reality" game that uses the PSP's camera attachment so that you can see "invisible monsters" around your house. The gameplay is very similar to Pokemon in the sense that you take turns attacking each other, and after fights your monster can level-up/evolve. There's also various monsters you can catch during different times of day, and each monster has their own type of weakness.

The battle system is turn based, but disguised very cleverly with lots of action on the screen all the time. You'll have to keep an eye on stamina and health bars, while also trying to time defensive and offensives moves in order to max/min as much as possible. The premise of the game seems to work best when put into the hands of an 8-14 year old who doesn't  fully understand how augmented reality works. Once you try to look "behind the curtain" of how these monsters are generated, it takes a lot of the game's "magic" away.

I played several other games throughout the night, some of which I will write about later, but for now I think this leaves you with a pretty good idea...About last night.

P.S. I'm deciding whether or not I should write one of these "About last night" features every time I go an event or expo. If you hated or liked it, I'd love for you!

Tony Hawk: SHRED Is Now Official

What? Activision is putting out another Tony Hawk game? It's almost like they've annualized the series...oh wait...
Earlier this week Tony Hawk tweeted "'Tony Hawk: SHRED.' There, I said it. Actually, I named it. Somewhere a PR team is reeling." Later The Birdman removed this tweet, but game journalists all over wanted to find out more.

Joystiq, came out on top with a response from Activision saying that "We can confirm we've given a name to the next  Tony Hawk game - Tony Hawk: SHRED, and more details will be revealed in the coming months."
There's no word on wheather or not this is the new name for Robomodo's RIDE 2, or if this game will even use the RIDE skate deck.

Steam Leaked Onto The Mac

Although having condensed water vapor on your computer is usually a bad thing, this time, it's great news!
Valve is working on releasing a Mac version of their popular digital distribution client, Steam, which should be out very soon.
However, what kind of tech announcement would this be without a good old fashion video leak?

As you can see the client looks pretty much the exact same as it does on a PC, which is by no means a bad thing. Apart from having this awesome client to download tons of great games, Mac users who participate in the client beta will also get a free copy of Portal, one of my favorite games!

Contest: Fat Princess: Fistful Of Cake

Last night I was unable to write my daily set of blog posts becuase I was at Sony's Fat Princess: Fistful of Cake event. Although you had to to miss out on a day of blog posts, there is a good side to this story, and that is free games!

This time I'll be giving away 3 codes to download Fat Princess: Fistful of Cake for the PSP. On top of this being a free game, you'll also be able to download the game a week before it's actual release!
The rules are pretty simple:
*Every follower gets 1 entry
*Every insightful comment on a post gets you 1 entry (multiple comments on one post won't count)
That's it!
The contest will run from now until Sunday at 12:01am PST

Mega MAn 8 Gets An Unofficial Remake

Remember Mega Man 8? Of course you do, but you don't want to remember it. To many of us Mega Man 8 is a game that we all wish to forget ever happened. It wasn't absolutely terrible, but it defiantly wasn't on the same level of quality as Mega Man 1-6 (lets not talk about 7...).

well instead of just complaining about it, a group of dedicated Mega Man fans decided to "remake" Mega Man 8, the way it was supposed to be.
This version of the game goes back to basics with 8-bit NES style sprites, and it's hard as hell, the way a Mega Man game should be.
You can download this amazing project here, just click the download button on the right side of the screen.

Marvel vs Capcom 3: Fate Of Two Worlds Debut Trailer

Hell yeah! That was my first reaction when I woke up to a Marvel vs Capcom 3 trailer this morning.
Marvel vs Capcom 2 is still one of the only arcade machines I play whenever I come across one, so a sequel sounds amazing.

There's supposed to be 30 characters, but only the ones in the trailer have been revealed yet.
I'm sure E3 will have more MvC3 news for all of us, so make sure to stay tuned!

The Starcraft 2 Beta Launches In The Galaxy

Yesterday Shacknews reported that, "Blizzard revealed the next beta patch should be launching this week along with the much-anticipated Galaxy Editor, which will allow gamers to create their own maps and script their own scenarios."

The Galaxy editor will be a full map editor allowing users to create custom maps, and even brand new game types. However, players won't be upload their creations to Blizzard's cloud servers just yet, that will have to wait til Sc2 launches at retail.
As well as this new patch, a Mac version of the Starcraft 2 Beta should launch later week as well.

Monsters, Hunters, And Loot Oh My!

It's time for North America to fall to yet another craze from Japan, this time it's Monster Hunter Tri.
Monster Hunter is a very cool mix between MMORPGs like World of Warcraft, and loot based games like Diablo and Torchlight.
As the title suggests, you hunt many different types of monsters throughout the world in order to complete quests and get tons of cool loot.

I'm very excited to go try this game out, especially to see how Capcom has handled the Wii's online multiplayer. Apart from that I always enjoy a good loot-whoring game, so Monster Hunter Tri is right down my alley.

No Content Sucks More Than Reading

I tried, I failed, but I sure as hell haven't given up!
For the past couple of weeks I have been  only posting videos, and write about them, instead of your average news stories and such.
It seemed like a great idea at the time, but as it turns out, it's a lot harder to find a bunch of interesting videos about games every day, than it is to write posts about gaming.
Apart from me having to put in more work, I was also unable to give all you (the reader/watcher) any type of news in video form.
So after a couple weeks of trying this video thing out, I've decided to also post news write-ups.
If you liked the videos however, don't worry, I'll post those too. I've now realized that this blog will be best off with a mixture of write-ups, videos, and some jokes.
The only down side to this is that I don't always have enough time in one day to post everything I want, but, this is where you guys come in.
If any of you want to be a contributor to this blog, be it writing a post once a week, twice a day, or what ever you want, I'm all for it.
If your really interested in joining TeamTwie, e-mail me at TeamTwie@gmail.com.

The Making Of Split/Second

If Blur didn't satisfy your high-speed/arcade racing needs, then don't worry, becuase Split/Second is on its way.

One of my favorite parts of this game is defiantly the game's HUD, or lack there of. Aside from that however, the game seems to be very good at giving you the feeling of ridiculously high speeds. However, there have been multiple reports that Split/Second is currently not running at a smooth 60 frames per second, which is vital to a high speed game such as this.

Yet Another Creative Platformer Coming To The Wii

The Wii has defiantly been picking up speed with its WiiWare releases, and it doesn't plan on stopping anytime soon.
Dream Box Games just showed off its first trailer for their game, RoBox.

I'm really digging the game's art style, it seems like a mix of Machinarium and Braid, both of which are fantastic games. Apart from RoBox's art, the gameplay also looks like a ton of fun. I'm glad to see that developers are finally getting to put more quality games on Nintendo's WiiWare channel, and I hope that it's going to keep going like this for a while.

TeamTwie Gets A Little Artsy

So last night I came across a big bucket of Perler Beads from way back when. I decided to try and make some simple pixel art, but keep in mind, this was around 3am.
I decided to go with the 3 classic Space Invaders, so here's what came out of that idea.

To my surprise they didn't come out all too bad, but an even bigger surprise was how much fun I had making them. I strongly encourage everyone who's interested to give this a go, especially when it's so easy to get started.
Here's all you're going to need:
* A bucket of Beads (you can buy them at any arts/crafts store, or Online)

* A peg board
* Some Ironing Paper
 *An Electric Iron
If any of you happen to make any cool pixel art, send me a picture at TeamTwie@gmail.com and I might make a post about it.

The Characters Of Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker

Last week Konami and Kojima Productions released a trailer for their upcoming game, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. This PSP exclusive will be hitting stores April 28 in Japan, June 8 in North America, and June 17 in Europe. To feed your Metal Gear Solid need however, here's a new trailer to keep you busy.

I really like how this trailer not only introduces each individual game character, but it also gives the voice actors a bit a of the spotlight. Most people know that it takes an entire team to make a game, not just one producer, and so I'm always happy to see people get credit for their hard work in more than just the game's ending credits list.

Gears of War 3 Now Offically Announced With A Trailer

Cliff Bleszinski appeared on Jimmy Fallon's late night show, earlier today. Although, Cliff wasn't there just for laughs, he brought a pretty big announcement with him.
Gears of War 3 was announced, and along with it, a trailer entitled "Ashes to Ashes" was shown.

Aside from showing the trailer, Cliff also said that the games release date will "probably be around April 8th [2011]."
I'm not a huge Gears of War fan myself, but I can sure appreciate the series none the less. I'm a little disappointed that the trailer doesn't show any actual in-game footage, but if anyone can squeeze every last drop out of the Unreal engine, its the guys at Epic Games.
If you want more info on Gears of War 3 you're probably going to have to wait until E3, where I'm sure Microsoft's press conference will have some more Gears info.

Some Interesting Lost In Shadow Gameplay

Hudson Entertainment is currently working on a new Wii game called, Lost In Shadow. The game's main character isn't an actual person, but more so a person's shadow. From the little information that's currently out there, it seems that your body got taken by evil beings, but your shadow has escaped them and it's trying to defeat these evil beings.

The gameplay seems pretty straight forward at this point, but I can only imagine what kind of crazy platforming puzzle's Lost in Shadows will through out there. It reminds me a little of Echochrome with the camera changes, but we'll have to wait to see what this is really all about.

Fatshark Makes Great Games And Videos

Fatshark is a Swedish developer located in Stockholm, who has just released their first game, Lead and Gold.
The guys at Fatshark are pretty awesome for a couple reasons, one being that they made a great game, second being that they made this great video documenting their travels through the US. If you've ever been interested in video game journalism, what their offices look like, or how they play games to review, I'd highly recommend you watch this video bellow.

If your into good western style multiplayer games, and you have $15 to spare, be sure to check out Lead and Gold here.

F.3.A.R. Trailer Isn't What I was Expecting

The F.3.A.R. debut trailer has just been released, and it isn't at all what I was expecting.'

Seeing as I never finished F.E.A.R 2, I don't fully understand what is going on from a story persective, but as far as gameplay goes, I think I have a pretty good idea.
My guess is that the long-haired guy, presumably the Point Man, gets taken over by some evil spirit (that glowing red guy) which turns him into a half-man/half-evil being. My guess is that a Prince of Persia: Warrior Within style of gameplay is to be expected, but then with guns and crazy paranormal powers.
As you can probably tell this trailer didn't really get me too excited for F.3.A.R.'s release, but then again I'm a bit bias after being disappointed by F.E.A.R. 2. I hope to be proven wrong about F.3.A.R. when it comes out, but so far, my hopes are low.

The Tech Side Of Crysis 2

Crytek is known for blowing everyone's expectations out of the water when it comes to their CryEngine.
The latest and greatest in the CryEngine line is the "CryEngine 3", which is being used to develop Crysis 2.

As you can see, Crytek is still on top of their game when it comes to video game tech. You can experience Crysis 2 yourself later this year, with its current release date of Q4 of 2010.

Sam & Max Now On The iPad

"iPad Gaming" isn't a phrase that's ever taken seriously. Sure there's some games for it, but in no way is it classified as a gaming system/platfrom. Although, all of that could change very soon.
TellTale Games has just released a trailer for their first iPad title, Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse. The crazy thing about this is that it's not a crappy port that's missing a bunch of content, or a cleverly designed iPad only game. This is the exact Sam & Max game that's launching on the PS3, and PC later this month.

Sam & Max were first seen in comic strips in 1987, they then traveled into the video game world with Sam & Max being developed my LucasArts. In 2004 TellTale Games was founded by a group of former LucasArts  employees who had been working on Sam & Max: Freelance Police, the sequel to Sam & Max: Hit the Road. TellTale Games is now known primarily for their episodic adventure games such as Tales of Monkey Island and their Sam & Max seasons.

Alan Wake Gets Pitched To Us Gamers

Have you ever been at a board-meeting of a multi-billion dollar company and sat through numerous pitches of video game ideas. Wait, you haven't?.. Well now's your chance to see what that "might" be like.
Here's the newest piece of marketing for Remedy's latest game, Alan Wake.

Saying this was a pitch to a big publishing company might have been a bit much, but come on, that narrator sure knew how to spin it.
As you might know, I'm a big fan of 3rd-person horror games, and so Alan Wake is right up my alley. I can't wait to see more of this game, and how it's going to handle its episodic DLC when it launches later in May.

A New Mass Effect 2 Squad Member Is Now Up For Rectruitment

Ready for another space mission? No? Well too bad, because Bioware and EA have just launched their first new party member DLC for Mass Effect 2.
Kasumi - Stolen Memory includes a new squad member, mission, weapon, research upgrade, casual outfit, and new achievements.

I'm not quite ready to go back into Mass Effect 2, although I do see myself jumping back in for another play-through right before Mass Effect 3 comes out. A fully loaded party with a bunch of DLC characters does sound like a good time.

Its A Dog Eat Dog World

You might have heard of Dead to Rights, a franchise that currently contains 4 games. A new game called, Dead to Rights: Retribution, is coming out soon and its going to be a completely fresh start for the franchise. Re-booting an old franchise seems to be a pretty common thing these days, but Dead to Rights: Retribution defiantly has something new going on.

That has got to be one of, if not, the most violent dog in any video game today. As far as standing out, I think Dead to Rights: Retribution will do an alright job. Although I do think those graphics could use something extra...

TeamTwie Podcast Might Be Underway

So I realize that trying to put more video coverage in my posts, is slowly turning my blog into a video game trailer site, I don't want this to be the case. Like many of you I care not only about games, but also about the people who make them, and the news stories that go along with them.
I've been trying to think of a good way to still keep my "Reading Sucks" idea going, while still sharing a bunch of this crazy video game industry news.

I've looked at various other websites such as Destructoid, Giantbomb, Joystiq, Kotaku, Shacknews, and many others. As you can see, the one thing they all have in-common is that they all host their own podcast.
I also feel that the best way to stand out amongst this giant crowd of video game writers/journalists, is through my own personality, which I can do through an audio podcast.
I'm still trying to think this idea over, but I wanted to let you all know that I'm not forgetting about the news aspect of video game blogging.
If you have any other ideas please drop a comment bellow, or feel free to send me an e-mail at TeamTwie@gmail.com

Plain Sight Launches With A Bang

Here we go again, TeamTwie's love for silly indie games is back. Although when it comes to space-robot-ninjas jumping around a low gravity playing field, I don't see how anyone couldn't like this.
Plain Sight launches today on various different digital distribution platforms, the most popular of which is probably Steam.

At a price of only $9.99 I don't really see any reason not to jump in and enjoy the madness. Although if you have 3 other friends you could jump in and buy a 4-pack which will save you and your friends a couple bucks.

Red Dead Redemption Shows You Around Town

Cowboys, and horses, and guns, oh my! It seems that Rockstar's sequel to the 2004 title, Red Dead Revolver, is coming along quite nicely. There have been a couple of trailers revealing some of the game's characters, but this one shows some actual gameplay, which is looking pretty good.

You should start to ready your horses, because Red Dead Redemption will be hitting stores May 18, 2010.

Spider-Man Is Going Into Some Other Dimensions

Do you remember the world of video games before Batman: Arkham Asylum? Every super hero game was crap, and the few that were decent got over looked because no one cared about super hero games any more. Then Batman: Arkham Asylum came along and changed all of that.
It's no wonder that other studios are trying to join into Rock Steady's success, and so Activision has released their first trailer for Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions.

I'm not saying that this Spider-Man game looks like a direct rip-off from Arkham Asylum, but I think its very reasonable for people to look at the way Rock Steady dealt with a super hero game, and to try and learn from them.
With all that said, I'm really excited to see how this game will turn out, and to see what the other 2 dimensions will be.

Split/Second Turns Downtown Upside Down

Fast cars, big explosions, massive destruction, and great looks. What more could you want from an arcade style racing game? Every time I see a new trailer for Split/Second this game just keeps looking better and better. To be fair, these are just trailers so we'll have to see how the actual game holds up with its frame rate and all when it ships later in May, but until then, enjoy this great new trailer.

TeamTwie Is Going To Change Things Up A Bit

I've decided to try something different with this blog for a little while. I thought about it for a little while, about 6 seconds, and I realized that reading sucks. Why read if you can watch? Video is the way of the future folks, and so I'm going to try and have a video in each of my new posts.

This idea might fail terribly, in which case I'll just go back to the "old" TeamTwie. Before that happens however, enjoy the new TeamTwie and all the awesome videos that will start going up soon.

The Best Game Related April Fools Pranks

 I'm sure some of you have encountered numerous April Fools jokes today, but searching for the funny ones is rather time-consuming. So I decided to make a list of some of the best April Fools jokes around, enjoy 'em while you can!


SC2 Pro Mod  -New way to play Starcraft 2
Sega's Blog -Ecco: Water Wars 2
Think Geek  -iPad arcade cabinet
VG 247  -Assassin's Creed and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker mix.
1Up -Pokemon Kart
File Planet -Duke Nukem Forever Demo
Blizzard Store -Battle.net Neural Interface
Blizzard Entertainment -X-Treme Gamer Blanket
Blizzard Entertainment -Deckard Cain GPS
Blizzard Entertainment -New Mobile Games
Battle.net -Match making service
Razer -Razer Venom
Alan Wake -Alan Wake Wars
IGN - Halo Movie Trailer
Kotaku -Koticku
Destructiod -Video comments
Bungie -Halo: Reach ViDoc
Bioware -New Star Wars: The Old Republic Class
Valve -Law Abiding Engineer
Bioware- Cerberus Daily News
Destructoid -Deadly Premonition Collectors Edition
TellTale Games -Monkey Island goes virtual

Thanks to Neogaf for making this list a lot easier to make. I hope you all enjoy these jokes as much as I did. :)

2010 Is The Year Of "Hardcore" Wii Games

Slowly by surely, the Wii has been getting less attention from gamers all over, due to the fact that most believe it has become a pure "casual" gaming console. Sure there have been a couple games like Zelda, Smash Bros, Mario Galaxy, and The Conduit which have scratched the "hardcore" itch. It's no secret however, that the Wii is marketed more towards the "casual" crowd, rather than the "hardcore".
However, Miyamoto says that 2010 to be a totally different story.

                                                                         I'm sure he'll be happy
"I really want many households to be able to have a hands-on experience of Mario Galaxy 2. I didn't have any involvement in Metroid Other M, but it is on its way. And also we are working on the New Legend of Zelda for Wii. So from this year to the next, I hope that the hardcore-type gamers are really looking forward to the multiple Nintendo titles on Wii. And also, we are working on the [new] Pikmin."

I'm glad to see that Nintendo is looking to deliver some great new games to their "hardcore" audiance, as it's something most gamer's have been looking forward to for while.

Dead Space 2 Demo Is Coming

When Visceral Games launched Dead Space in 2008 it was one of the biggest sleeper hits of the year. It was sure one of my favorites of 2008 due to the fact that I love scary 3rd-person shooters, but sadly, many people didn't even realize that Dead Space existed in 2008.
With Dead Space 2 however, EA and Visceral Games is going about their marketing a little differently.

“Last time, I just heard a lot of comments like ‘The demo was way too hard,’ or ‘It kind of came out after the fact.’ We’re really putting an emphasis on making sure that we have something there so that new people can check it out,” said Executive Producer Steve Papoutsis. “There’s a lot of people that seem interested and we just want to give them an opportunity to check it out and get into it.”
I'm excited to see that I could start playing  Dead Space 2 demo in the near future, but I'm even more excited that people will actually realize how much fun Dead Space is! Look forward to a bit of Dead Space 2 coverage as it draws closer to release later this year.

Linkin Park 8-Bit Rebellion iPhone/iPod Touch Game

It's pretty common these days for a major band to have iPhone/iPod Touch apps in order to promote their music and overall popularity. It's not common however, for a band to have a full original iPhone/iPod Touch game released on the App Store and have it actually look "good".
Linkin Park has just released a trailer for their iPhone/iPod Touch game, Linkin Park: 8-Bit Rebellion.


As you can see, the trailer looks pretty decent, the gameplay looks like fun and its built from the ground up for an iPhone/iPod Touch so the controlls shouldn't be too bad either.
I'm not really into Linkin Park, although some of their older stuff is alright, and so I probably won't be getting this game anytime soon. If you're a Linkin Park fan however, this game seems like a pretty bundle.

More Rumors That Resistance 3 Is In Development

Last year in October, a picture of a Resistance 3 billboard hit the web. The billboard was supposedly placed for an advertisement in a movie shoot for, Battle: Los Angeles, scheduled to come 18 February 2011.

Its been a while since that picture, and the Resistance 3 rumors have died down a bit...until now. Sony recently sent a pretty strange survey to it's PlayStation fans, one that "hypothetically" brings up Resistance 3.
 "Do you think that there is a future version of Resistance, Resistance 3 being developed?" was one of the questions, the second asked, how likely the reader would be to purchase this hypothetical game.
It's a bit strange for Sony to ask for this kind of information, as I don't see any real benefits to it. If it's already in development, which it probably is, then it seems a bit late to see if people actually want one.
I guess this kind of info could be used to see how much money Sony should put into the marketing for this game, but something like that might be better judged after a trailer of some sorts.

In any case, when you look at Insomniac's track record of releasing a Resistance game one holiday season and a Ratchet and Clank game the next holiday season, I think its pretty certain that we'll see Resistance 3 later this year.

New World Map Replaces The Super Mario Galaxy Hub World

Throughout Mario's life, he has traveled all over different world, into other dimensions, and even into outer space. During his adventure Mario usually has a "hub world", or some other type of over-world map which is used to travel to and from different levels. Super Mario Galaxy 2 however, is going to try and change things up a bit.
Game Informer met with Shigeru Miyamoto to talk to him about Super Mario Galaxy 2, and how this new map will help the player travel in and out of different galaxies.

"We want players to focus on the joy of the action instead of getting to each game course," he said. "We wanted to make it as accessible as possible and as easy as possible for the players. Also, because we're going to incorporate a number of different stars, and conquering all the stars is going to be one of the most challenging missions for the player," Miyamoto added, "we want [players] to understand as easy as possible where they should go next and which places they should go back to in order to get access to the remaining stars."
It makes sense that Super Mario Galaxy 2 is going to try and streamline certain parts of its game, in order to allow a more casual feel. Miyamoto made sure to say however, that Super Mario Galaxy 2 will not be an easy game, the hardcore fans will still have a long adventure in front of them to collect all of the stars.

Rock Band 3 Will Have Vocal Harmonies

Apology
 First, I would like to say that I'm extremely sorry for not posting anything for the past two days. I have had a very busy week with my school's finals, and so blogging kept getting pushed back. Although, now I'm done with school! Which means I'll have more gaming news to read,write, and laugh about. Thanks to everyone who stuck around, now lets get back into the action.

Real Post
I'm sure you're all well aware that PAXEast, Penny Arcade Expo East, took place earlier this week and a lot of great news came out of it. One piece of news that was discovered at the panel "An Awkward Hour" however, wasn't supposed to be unveiled yet.
At this panel five Rock Band designers answered questions from fans, with one rule, no questions about the recently announced Rock Band 3.

Everything went to plan until someone asked whether Green Day: Rock Band songs would still have harmonies when imported into Rock Band 2. Chris Foster, Harmonix Project Lead, said this, ""We've said Rock Band 3 would have harmonies already, right?" A noisy "no" was heard throughout the auditorium, and all Chris said afterward was "It's been nice working at Harmonix."

Since The Beatles: Rock Band had harmony support, it makes sense to think that any new Rock Band from then on will also have harmony support, but it's nice to get some actual confirmation. As for the answer to the earlier question about harmony support in Rock Band 2, well Chris didn't say anything about that, he must have forgotten after his little slip-up.

Half Life 2 Episode 3 Should Scare You

Recently Edge magazine had the opportunity to talk to Valve's founder and president, Gabe Newell, who had some interesting things to say about Valve's next steps.
When Gabe was asked "if the Half-Life series deliberately matured with its audience as part of a special look at the franchise", he replied:
"I feel like we've gotten away from genuinely scaring the player more than I'd like, and it's something we need to think about, in addition to broadening the emotional palette we can draw on."
After that, Gabe was asked  "what scares [Valve gamers] the most" he had a pretty intense response,"the death of their children. The fading of their own abilities."

 I never saw Valve as a studio who's into making scary games, but after I thought about it for a couple of seconds I realized that all the way back in Ravenholm from Half-Life 2, Valve has included some "scary" thing in their games (TF2 had a special Halloween patch). I'm always one to enjoy a good scare in video games, so I fully embrace Gabe's vision, and I'm sure many others will too.
On a side note:
I gotta say, Gabe is always spot on with his humor to the point where you can't tell if he's joking or not, and I love it!

3D Dot Game Heroes Full Trailer

Do you like comedy? Are you into Retro games? Do you love the original Zelda? Then here's your new favorite game: 3D Dot Game Heroes!
Atlus and From Software have been promoting bits of this game for a while, and now they have released the game's full trailer.


I can't wait to get my hands on 3D Dot Game Heroes, the game just looks like pure fun. It doesn't seem to try too hard with inventing new battle systems, or complicated ways to level, and that's something you don't see very often any more.

3D Dot Game Heroes will be out on Sony's PS3 May 11.

Blizzcon 2010 Announced

Its not a huge surprise that there will be another Blizzcon this year, although there was some mixed info on where it would be held. Earlier this year reports starting rolling in saying that Blizzcon 2010 would be held in Las Vegas, but it turns out that's false.

Blizzard released their official Blizzcon report today, and what do you know, Blizzcon 2010 will be October 22-23 at the Anaheim Convention Center as usual.
I've been able to attend the last two Blizzcons ('08 and '09), each of which have been a blast! If your at all interested in Blizzard and their games, I'd highly suggest you look into going this year. More info will be released as we draw closer to the event's date, but until then, might I suggest some Diablo 2 to cure you're Blizzard fever.

F.3.A.R. Is A Stupid Name

This news surfaced yesterday on a popular video game forum, NeoGaf. A "Spanish magazine" is apparently getting the first scoop on the next title in the F.E.A.R. series, but what makes stand out, is the name. F.3.A.R. as some people might think, is a clever way to number a sequel, but in this case, its pretty stupid. F.E.A.R. stands for "First Encounter Assault Recon", but with the number thrown in the middle, that acronym no longer makes any sense.

Well alright, I might be over reacting on the game's name a little too much considering the real news here is that F.E.A.R. 3 is on it way.
I really like the first F.E.A.R. and its expansion "Extraction Point". After those 2 titles however, I found the F.E.A.R. series kind of lost its magical balance between scary and great gun play. I'm sure this had a lot to do with the split of Monolith Studios and Sierra Entertainment, but I hope that Monolith (the studio who now has the rights to the F.E.A.R. series) can bring back some of the first game's excitement.
We'll have to wait and see if this is actually the game's title, but I'm sure we'll hear soon enough, as the next month's issue of this "Spanish magazine" is supposed to have a lot more info.

The Witcher 2: Assassins Of KingsTrailer

In 2007 a small but very talented developer, CD Projeckt, hit the scene with a not so small game called "The Witcher". The Witcher was overall very well received by critics and consumers alike, it offered a great style of RPG game-play, along with a good story, and a great atmosphere.
Ever since the release of The Witcher, CD Projekt has been pretty silent about their next "projekt", but now we can see what it is.

The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings is their next game, and from the launch trailer, it looks very promising. I really enjoyed The Witcher when I played it earlier last year, even though it was a 2007 game I still feel that it stands up to games being released today. If you haven't checked out The Witcher, but are into RPGs, I highly suggest you check it out.

Nintendo Announces Next DS System: "3DS"

This was really unexpected. I was about to go to sleep when sudden announcement of Nintendo's next DS system hit the web. The "3DS" will give the user 3D visual effects without  the need for 3D glasses, while still being compatible with DS and DSi games.

Furthermore, this new device will be shown at this years E3, and we can expect a release date between April 2010 to March 2011.
The question isn't whether its do-able, the tech is readily available, but I think the better question is: Do we want this? I really don't know why Nintendo would want to make the leap into the 3D hand-held market, but I guess someone had to do it. Right?

On top of all this news, you shouldn't forget that today many top journalists/video game bloggers got their review copies of the DSi XL. The DSi XL isn't even out for the general public, but Nintendo is already deep into development of a newer DS.                                                      

Picture from Kotaku

I'm a bit shocked, but like I said in an earlier post, big companies need to think ahead of the current market in order to stay competitive.
If you want to read more, I have linked bellow the Japanese, and the English documents revealing the 3DS.
Japanese Info
English Info

Diablo 2 Patch 1.13 + Ladder Restart Tomorrow

Okay, the truth finally comes out. I am a Diablo fan-boy, there, I said it. Diablo(1) was the first game that I really got into at a young age. I can still remember being in 4th grade and staying up all night with my friends on Battle.net playing Diablo, while being on a 5+ hour conference call with our home phones because Ventrillo didn't exist yet. Good times were had by all, and naturally when Diablo 2 came out, it became my new favorite game of all time. I've sunk an absurd amount of time into the Diablo series at this point, and I'm not gonna stop now.

                                                                   Hopefully this won't happen again... 

Today the announcement for the long awaited patch 1.13 was released, a patch that has taken over a year to arrive. The patch notes can be found here and as you can see, some pretty dramatic changes have been made.

I've always been a fan of Blizzard (being a Diablo fan-boy and all), so to see that their putting out serious patch for a game that came out in the year 2000, makes me love them even more. I could go and talk about the patch notes for hours and hours, but I feel that I've already bored you guys enough with this silly news most won't even care about.
If you're planning on playing in the new ladder season, post your Realm/Character name in a comment bellow, and maybe we can do some Baal runs together!

New Zelda Might Use Nintendo's Vitality Sensor

Last at E3 Nintendo showed their newest Wii accessory, the Wii Vitality Sensor. Everyone's reaction was pretty much the same, just a big "WTF?!?!". At the BAFTA video game awards last week, Shigeru Miyamoto, said that it's very possible for the newest Zelda to use this Vitality Sensor.

“Whenever we are going to use any new device it is possible to expand the appeal to those who are new to the videogaming world. At the same time, however, it is also fun to think of ways in which we might apply that new technology to existing forms of gameplay,” he said, “just like the way we are working on the new Legend of Zelda together with Wii Motion Plus.”

I'm not sure how I feel about all this vitality sensor stuff, I need to get some hands-on experience with this thing to really form a good opinion. I'm sure we'll hear more about the Wii Vitality Sensor at E3 later this year, until then, I'm going to keep trying to think of ways this thing could actually make games better.

Mass Effect 2 Kasumi DLC Gets A Price

Up until the Alternate Appearance Pack, all of the Mass Effect 2 DLC, had been free for Cerberus members. Now the first DLC pack to add a new member to Shepard's crew will also cost you more than a Cerberus "membership fee".

"Cerberus has procured the service of Kasumi Goto, the galaxy's most enigmatic master thief. In return for her help, Kasumi has asked Shepard's help on a dangerous heist to infiltrate the vault of a deadly master criminal named Donovan Hock. Gain Kasumi's loyalty on the planet Bekenstein, where Hock is throwing a party for some of the galaxy's richest and most deranged criminal minds to recover data of great importance to Kasumi... and to the galaxy at large. Includes a new squad member, mission, weapon, research upgrade, casual outfit, and achievement."

The new DLC pack is entitled "Kasumi - Stolen Memory" and it will cost you 560 Microsoft points on the Xbox 360, 560 BioWare points on the PC, and it will come out later in April.

So far I feel that EA/BioWare have been very fair with their DLC strategy, giving enough free DLC for Cerberus members and not over charging for premium DLC, so I'll defiantly be picking this one up.

Natal Successor Already In The Works

Even though Project Natal is still 8 months away, Microsoft is already working on the next motion sensor. Research Asia department director Hsiao-Wuen Hon spoke to The Sydney Morning Herald (via Spong) that they are already thinking of a new version.
“When we invent something first like Natal, while we have a researcher working with the product group for the first version we already have a researcher thinking about the second version down the road,” said Hon. “We certainly hope we will continue to be holding that technology.”

Now don't get worried. This doesn't mean that Microsoft is planning to "annualized" releases of Project Natal, or that they think the first one sucks so they're making a new one. This is just big companies think way into the future in order to stay competitive with everyone else. Chances are that we might never see Natal 2.0 hit retail stores, although I find that to be pretty unlikely.

This sure does say something about people's belief in motion control however, many developers think that motion control is just some type of fad rolling through the games industry at the moment. When companies like Microsoft keep investing into newer/better motion control, it might be something that's here to stay, even though some don't want it.

 
I'll keep you guys posted on more Natal 2.0 info, but don't expect more anytime soon. We still have to go through Microsoft's Natal heavy E3 keynote, sometime between June 15-17.