Technabob » Video Games

Simpsons Arcade Game Hits Xbox LIVE Doh!

Conner Flynn — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 22:00:33 +0000

You probably wasted way too many quarters at your local arcade playing the Simpsons Arcade Game back in the day. I know i did. This side-scrolling arcade game was a must play and if you missed out, never fear, the Simpsons Arcade Game is now available on Xbox LIVE.

That means that you can experience this Simpsons fun on your XBox 360 for 800 Microsoft points. At least you won’t be popping in a quarter every time you play. Up to four players can play at once and it should be just as fun now as it was back then.

The idea is that you are chasing Smithers and Mr. Burns to save Maggie as you battle through eight familiar Springfield locations. Are you guys going to buy this one? Let us know in the comments.

[via Major Nelson]

Zelda: the Lost Oracle: Fan-Made Trailer for the Game We Wish Nintendo Would Make

Conner Flynn — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 20:00:24 +0000

It’s no secret that I have not been a fan of Nintendo for a few years now. It started with the Wii. No, it was the Gamecube. The Mario and Zelda and Metroid games that I have seen over the last several years have even disappointed me. They seem to be rehashing the same predictable games in different packaging (or 3D) and they don’t take seem to take many chances on anything but hardware these days. So, I’m going to pretend that Nintendo made this Legend of Zelda teaser and that the game will arrive with the Wii U. Which it will not.

Joel Furtado’s Zelda: The Lost Oracle animated trailer is just phenomenal. If Nintendo put half of the passion into their next Zelda game that is in this teaser video, they would be in their prime once more, raking in the dough.

Brilliant animation there, Joel. Now if only Nintendo would make this into a game…

[via Destructoid]

Modern Warfare 3 DLC Gets First Teaser

Conner Flynn — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 22:00:25 +0000

If you have been waiting for the first DLC to arrive for Modern Warfare 3 (of course you have) - then we have some good news. A new video teaser and tour of the first MW3 DLC package is here. It will be launched on January 24th on Xbox Live.

Eric Hirshberg CEO of Activision Publishing, again spoke of their commitment to the Call Of Duty community:

“The mammoth launch of Modern Warfare 3 and the breakout success of Call of Duty Elite were just the beginning. Call of Duty Elite provides an ‛always-on’ connection to our fanbase, and the MW3 Content Season is the ultimate way to demonstrate our ongoing commitment to the Call of Duty community and provide tremendous value to Call of Duty Elite premium members.With the Call of Duty: MW3 Content Season for Call of Duty Elite we are delivering on our promise of more new content, more often, and with more variety than ever.”

The new content will be available to Call of Duty Elite premium members first. New content will continue to be released until September of 2012.

[via Joystiq]

Sly Cube Portable Gamecube: Pay Attention Nintendo

Conner Flynn — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 13:00:25 +0000

The Nintendo Gamecube is probably my least favorite console ever, but this portable mod improves upon it so much that I actually want to play. With the Sly Cube, you can take your Gamecube action to go since it is now more portable.

The design is really nice on this mod and it comes to us from a modder named Slipstream. Measuring in at about 11″ (w) x 5.75″ (d) x 1.75″ (h), it’s more like a netbook than a handheld though. The Sly Cube features a nice big 7″ LCD flip screen, a built-in 7.2v 6000mAh lithium-ion battery that’s good for 3-4 hours of game time, a built-in controller and ports for still extra controllers. Oh and it has built-in rumble, memory card slots, and a charge jack.

Nintendo needs to take heed of this awesome mod. If they released something like this themselves they could have mega-sales – especially if they updated it with modern hardware. I know I would buy one.

[Bacteria Forums via Ubergizmo]

Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO Launches Worldwide

Conner Flynn — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 22:00:03 +0000

The time has finally come to choose either the light side or the dark side. Today is the day that Star Wars fans have been waiting for, with the launch of the new Star Wars: The Old Republic game.

Over 2 million gamers signed on during the beta and now it’s time for the real deal. Star Wars: The Old Republic takes place thousands of years before Luke, Vader and the Ewoks, focusing on the war between the Old Republic and the Sith Empire.

BioWare claims that this is just the beginning of this amazing Star Wars journey and they are confident that it has been worth the wait. Judging by the footage I’ve seen, I would have to agree. It looks like a solid Star Wars game, though I haven’t yet had a chance to play yet. Let us know what you think about it in the comments below.

[via Tech Radar]

Xbox 360 and PS3 Controller Rings for Geeky Fingers

Conner Flynn — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 22:38:51 +0000

Show your allegiance to your favorite game console with these PS3 and XBox 360 rings. They will deck your digits in tiny replica controllers, upping your geek gaming cred and proclaiming your side in the console wars.

They come from Etsy seller egyptianruin and the XBox 360 version comes in Pink, Blue, Red (as in “Red Ring”), Green and Halo Green. The PS3 version comes in White, Black, Pink, Blue, Red and Green. They are made from polymer clay and are hand-sculpted.

They are just $10(USD) plus shipping each. Outfit one hand in PS3 controllers and one hand in XBox controllers if you can’t decide. They would make cute little gifts for your geek friends this Christmas too if you don’t want one for yourself.

[via Geek Crafts via Slashgear]

Diablo III Release Date May be February 17th, 2012

Conner Flynn — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 21:00:37 +0000

We recently told you about some disappointing news regarding Diablo III‘s game play. And that didn’t even take into account the fact that we have been waiting for this game for what seems like forever! The game was originally supposed to be released by the end of 2011, but has been delayed a few times.

The delays were due to working out the bugs, and generally making sure that the game met Blizzard’s high standards. So it was pushed to 2012. And now there is light at the end of the treasure- and demon- filled tunnel.

Rumor has it that the release might be in the beginning of the new year. Amazon France now has the game listed as arriving on the February 17, 2012 and it can be pre-ordered from their website for €49.90 ($66 USD). Of course, if you don’t live in Europe, you’ll want to order a local copy to make sure you get the correct region. Hopefully, this is accurate as we are all sick and tired of waiting.

[via Ubergizmo]

6,000 Copies of CoD: Modern Warfare 3 Stolen

Conner Flynn — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 18:00:40 +0000

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 comes out tomorrow, but it looks like someone couldn’t wait. A band of theives stole 6,000 copies of the game, which is kinda stupid since it is about to arrive and it’s not like they can get away with selling them or giving them to 6,000 friends.

It happened in France, where someone robbed a truck full of video games. It was Saturday morning in Créteil, in the south of Paris, when two masked men pulled off the heist. They hit the truck with a car first and then actually used tear gas to neutralize the drivers and make off with the truck, as if it were a scene from a bad movie.

The shipment was apparently worth appx. $550,363(USD). The truck held approximately 6,000 copies of the game, which have likely made their way onto the black market by now.

[via Computerandvideogames]

Battlefield 3 is Now EA’s Fastest Selling Game, Sells 5 Million Units in First Week

Conner Flynn — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 19:00:21 +0000

We knew that Battlefield 3 was pretty impressive while we were waiting for it to arrive, but now we have some numbers regarding the first week’s sales. The latest game in the franchise hit retailers last week, and has moved 5 million units in one week’s time.

This makes Battlefield 3 the fastest selling title in EA’s history. That’s a 29 year history mind you. They did a great job marketing this one to hardcore gamers with some amazing videos, so by the time E3 came in June, everyone already knew the game and couldn’t wait.

After that they just pressed on, showing more and people were playing the Beta. All the while, we were just waiting for the release. And now it is a phenomenon. Other companies need to pay attention. This is how you market a game. I can’t wait to see where these numbers go from here.

[via Techcrunch]

Onlive Fills Your Game Bag with Free Games for Halloween

Conner Flynn — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 21:05:37 +0000

Too old to dress up and get free candy this Halloween? Well, you can always steal candy from your kid’s bag. If you use OnLive, the cloud video game service has a special treat for you this Halloween weekend if you are staying at home.

The service is giving away four games this weekend, until Monday. The games include Amnesia: The Dark Descent, F.E.A.R. 3, Metro 2033 and Orcs Must Die. Not sure about the rest, but F.E.A.R. 3 looks like it is worth it alone.

Just sign up, install the OnLive app, pick your free game, Select “Get Game” and a 3-Day Rental for the price of $0.00 (USD). Then when you are finished with those games, on October 31st you can get another game for free if you’re a fan of OnLive’s Facebook page. The title has not been announced yet though. This is a great Halloween treat from the company. Looks like a lot of people will be inside playing games this year.

[via Ubergizmo]

Another Battlefield 3 Multiplayer Trailer Shows Up, Still Looks Awesome

Conner Flynn — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 18:00:14 +0000

The more I see, the more I can’t wait for this game. Battlefield 3 Multiplayer looks frakkin’ amazing and crazy. The game is still a week away from the official release, so EA and DICE thought it would be a good time to give us another look and get us drooling while we wait.

Below is a new trailer for the game that shows off some more of the gameplay across all of the game’s multiplayer maps. I can’t emphasize enough just how beautiful this game looks. The last trailer we showed you had so much intense and crazy fast action that it was hard to follow. This one is slower and so shows off more of what you are in for.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

It’s got tanks, jets, robots, jumping out of planes, close combat with helicopters and more bullets flying than an A-Team mission to rescue B.A. Baracus.

[via EA]

Build-A-Bear Workshop Offers Kinectimals Enabled Bears

Shane McGlaun — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 12:30:17 +0000

Last Christmas my daughter wanted the Kinect along with the Kinectimals game that has the tiger stuffed toy inside. Naturally, Santa bought the Kinect and the game to her and it turned out she didn’t want the game, just the tiger inside the box. If your kid actually likes to play Kinectimals and you can leave Build-a-Bear Workshop with your financial future intact, they now offer some new Kinectimals enabled bears.

There are four bears now that will work with the game, including Champ- A Champion Fur Kids, Colorful Hearts Bear, Endless Hearts Teddy, and Peace & Hearts Bear. Each of them has a special tag on it that you can scan with the Kinect sensor. Once scanned the bear your kid has will be available as a playable character inside the Kinectimals game. A few select Build-a-Bear Workshop locations will have a Kinect and the game in stores for kids to check out.

Along with this, the game is now called Kinectimals – Now with Bears, which is a crap title for sure – but the ultimate in truth-in-advertising. Prices aren’t offered on the bears themselves, but I would suspect they’ll be in the $20 to $30 range each. The updated game and the bears will be out on October 11th.

The Dark Knight Fails: Battman Xbox Bundle with PS1 Controllers

Conner Flynn — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 17:00:56 +0000

Would you look at this abomination. This is a knockoff/ripoff “Battman” console whose origins are unknown, though it’s clear from the “Made in China” sticker that it came from somewhere in that part of the world.

It’s almost as bad as that 1990s disaster of a movie on it’s cover. Inside you will find a Christmas colored (fake) original Xbox (I guess it matches the boy wonder’s colors), two PS1-style controllers and a cheap-ass gun accessory.

And here I thought that nothing could be worse than George Clooney as Batman. I’m sure that a bunch of Microsoft lawyers are probably already all over this thing. To top it all off, the company name on the box is “Unique”. There’s nothing unique about throwing an Xbox and some PS1 controllers together in a box.

[via Reddit via Geeksaresexy]

Battlefield 3 Pre-orders Surpass 1.5 Million

Conner Flynn — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 15:00:53 +0000

We have about a month left before Battlefield 3 launches and now we are seeing reports that suggest that pre-orders have already exceeded 1.5 million copies. This makes the new Battlefield 3 game one of the biggest games of the year already. Should Activision and the others be worried?

The numbers come from Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia. The question is, will it surpass Modern Warfare 3? CoD: Black Ops sales numbers are nothing to sneeze at either, having reached over 20 million in just under a year after release.

One thing is for sure, Battlefield 3 will steal a healthy chunk of Activision’s market share and that is great for gamers. Competition means they duke it out and try to outdo each other and we benefit by getting kick-ass games. Battlefield 3 will release on October 25th. Do you think it will beat the competition?

[via TFTS]

NES Bed: Push Start to Sleep

Conner Flynn — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 14:00:14 +0000

This Nintendo NES bed is pretty awesome. In this case NES might stand for Nintendo Entertainment Sleep or Not Ever Sleeping, because it’s so cool. Sadly the reset button doesn’t make the bed for you and the power button doesn’t make the bed shake.

Sadly you can’t buy this one in any store. It was made by rpaxton for his brother, which makes him the best bro in the world. And if my own brother is reading this, I hope he gets the hint.

Can’t get to sleep? It’s like not being able to get a game cartridge to play on this system, so do what you have to do. Instead of removing and blowing on the cartridge, just open your window behind the bed and lift the covers so it gets a good breeze going into this soft console. That should do it.

Gears of War 3 Xbox 360 Controller from Evil Controllers Ready to Take on The Horde

Conner Flynn — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 11:40:59 +0000

Gears of War fans are going to love this new Gears themed controller from Evil Controllers. Are those bullet buttons? Why yes they are. I love how the skulls on red background look nice and dimensional as well. You’re ready to buy it right now aren’t you? Me too.

Evil Controller’s latest modded Xbox 360 controller goes along with the Gears of War games perfectly. We still have to wait until September 20th for the new game, so you might as well be prepared and have this controller ready and waiting.

The ABXY buttons are designed to look like bullets and you also get Red LEDs on the home button, non-slip thumbsticks and Evil Controllers’ Evil D-Pad which is said to be an improvement over an axis or disc based D-Pad. These are all great features, but I just want it because it looks amazing. It will cost you $79.99 (USD) from Evil Controllers.

[via Chip Chick]

Battlefield 3 Multiplayer Trailer: Jets, Tanks, Robots and More

Conner Flynn — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 19:50:07 +0000

I finally stopped playing Call of Duty: Black Ops awhile ago and have been waiting for a suitable multiplayer war game that really packs a punch. After one look at the multiplayer trailer for Battlefield 3, I think I have found my next major game purchase.

First let me just try to collect myself as I point out that this 64 player multiplayer combat game has jets! Yes jets. But that’s not all. They have thrown everything but the kitchen sink into this one.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

One of the coolest things that you’ll notice in the trailer is the inclusion of military robots, which i am psyched about, because before Black Ops came out I was hoping that some robots would be in that game. Of course sadly they were not. In this game we have tanks, helicopters, robots, jets and enough explosions to make Michael Bay wet his pants and subsequently dry them with wads of money.

[via Joystiq]

Redbox to Start Renting Games June 17

Shane McGlaun — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 12:00:35 +0000

Once we got a few Redbox kiosks in my area, I stopped going to the regular movie store to rent flicks. I grew tired of the late fees and having to wait in lines behind idiots while idiots at the counter tried to check them out. It was very irritating. I started using Redbox as did a bunch of people, and it wasn’t long before all the rental stores in my city went out of business except one.

One of the things that I didn’t like about Redbox was that until not long ago they had no Blu-ray titles, and they still have no video game rentals either. The video game rental issue is getting fixed, and come June 17 you will be able to rent some games from Redbox at a price of $2 per day. That is a lot of money, it’s easy to watch a flick in a day for $1 or $1.50 depending on the format you get, but games won’t often be returned the next day and you’ll quickly rack up big charges for multi-day rentals, making normal rental stores cheaper if you have them in your area.

Redbox notes that right now 21,000 of its kiosks are slated to start carrying video games. The games will be for Wii, Xbox 360, and PS3 consoles. I can see people getting the wrong version for sure. I wonder if Redbox will offer a refund if someone rents a game for a family member and gets the wrong format.

[via Joystiq]

Video Game Controller Alarm Clocks: Get Your Time On

Lambert Varias — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 13:16:40 +0000

I just knew that controller evolution chart was missing some species. Thanks to artist Roger Ibars, my suspicions have been confirmed. His “Hard-wired devices” collection consists of 100 video game controllers, starting from the Atari 2600 Joystick and ending with a Guitar Hero guitar peripheral.

Ibars modded each device, and they now serve as alarm clock controllers, a collection “in which two cultures of interface blend: the computer gaming culture and the home appliance culture.” But I think Ibars’ collection also gives us a good, albeit incomplete look at how controllers have evolved over the years. I’m quite surprised at the number of controllers which are essentially minor revisions to the Atari joystick.

Just like with the chart, Ibars also excluded the computer keyboard, and I understand why – it wasn’t primarily meant for gaming after all. Nonetheless, it has proven to be one of the most versatile video game controllers we’ve ever seen. The thing is, I think the keyboard could substitute for the Ibars’ whole collection. We don’t really need to attach an alarm clock to a keyboard either, because it already straddles that line between a practical device and one that’s used for entertainment. Check out Ibars’ website to get more info on each of the controllers.

[via Retro Thing]

Video Game Controller Evolutionary Tree Has a Missing Link to the Keyboard

Lambert Varias — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 13:01:56 +0000

We’ve seen video game controllers cataloged periodic table-style, but I always thought an evolutionary tree would be more appropriate, especially since most controllers are just derivatives of a few classic designs. Finally, someone has come up with such a chart:

Actually this poster isn’t an original idea; the artists who made this were inspired by this online chart, which could very well be the first attempt at making an evolutionary tree of controllers. The chart tracks 82 controllers under 9 classifications – analog knob, joystick, number pad, analog stick, control pad, pad, motion capture, gun, instrument. Which begs the question – where’s the keyboard?

As you can see, the chart claims that the Adam of all controllers is the Magnavox Odyssey, a claim that I can’t dispute because I don’t really know what the right answer is. But if you’re willing to accept this Darwinian account of our much-loved devices, then rejoice, because you can get this poster now from Pop Chart Labs for a mere $30 (USD). It’s actual size is 24″ x 36″, with each copy numbered and signed by the artists who made it. It’s printed in “rich indigo ink” using “100 lb archival recycled stock certified by The Forest Stewardship Council”. I don’t know what that last one meant but it sure sounded fancy. Cheapskates like me can view the high-res picture of the poster here.

[via Rampaged Reality]