Section: News, Consoles, PS3, Genres, 3D, Action, Updates, Playstation-Store

On November 6, 2008,Pain, the Playstation Network (PSN) downloadable title that lets you injure people to pulps, will be getting a movie-themed expansion pack that will finally allow players to do the one thing everyone tells us not to: hassle the Hoff.

That’s right kids, David Hasslehoff will be one of many characters placing their life er, destruction of life at your hands, reports People magazine. But don’t think the Hoff is going to let players off that easy.

As a bonus in game track players will be able forced to listen to his rendition of Culture Club’s “Do You Really Want To Hurt Me?”

The new movie-themed expansion has been dubbed “Movie Studio” and includes a few more features:

• More than one launcher location (There are three that you can dynamically switch to)
• Single-Player Fun with Explosives
• New Cratetastic Mode
• Unlockable FREE Character
• HORSE Mode
• Bowling Mode (With all new distractions)

As of yet, there is no price info. Wait, is he flying in that illustration?

Read [People] Via [Joystiq] Also [PlayStation Blog]

Full Story » | Written by Kris Rosado for Gamertell. | Comment on this Article »

Section: News, Exclusives, Originals, Features, Interviews, Opinions, Podcasts, Consoles, Xbox, Xbox-360, Consoles-Other

When I last spoke with Zach Wigal, founder of Gamers Outreach Foundation, he was just finishing up a Halo 3 tournament in January to raise funds for his community.

I caught up with Wigala few weeks ago and learned he has just earned the Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional) award.

Wigal said he only became aware of the program a few months ago after doing an interview with Chris Erickson of 360StyleCast podcast and added that Erickson has been an MVP for a while, this year being Erickson’s third award.

“He was really the person who introduced me to the award,” Wigal said. “Prior to meeting Chris (Erickson) I hadn’t heard of it. Roughly 2 to 3 months ago, Chris told me he wanted to nominate me for the MVP award. I still only had a very basic understanding of the award, so I more or less went about my business without saying much to any of my friends. Sure enough, I got a few e-mails from Microsoft, and on October 1, (2008), they welcomed me to the MVP program. Now, I’m very familiar with what the award is.”

I contacted Michael Fosmire, MVP Lead, to find out more about this MVP award.

Read More

Section: Reviews, Exclusives, Originals, PCs, Windows, Game-Companies, Developers, Publishers, Genres, 3D, Sim

Title: Sims 2 Apartment Life

Price: $19.99

System(s): Windows PC

Release Date: August 28, 2008

Publisher (Developer): EA (EA)

ESRB Rating: “Teen” for crude humor, sexual themes and violence

Pros: Witch character class/lifestyle, reputation system, apartments, new items/clothing/decor and a new neighborhood.

Cons: Adding this to the other expansions can slow down your game a bit, custom content you’ve downloaded may not be compatible

Overall Score: One thumb up, one sideways; 88/100; B+; *** and 1/2 out of 5

The Sims 2 Apartment Life is a memorable expansion pack for the Sims 2. It features a slew of new gameplay additions, lots of extra items, a witch/wizard character class/lifestyle and the ability to have multiple households in a single home. In short, the expansion gives fans of the game a lot of things they’ve wanted, all in a single package. Read More

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Full Story » | Written by Adam Berger for Gamertell. | Comment on this Article »

Section: Reviews, Originals, Features, Opinions, Handhelds, DS, Gear, Comics-and-Graphic-Novels, Figures & Toys, Genres, 3D, Action, Adventure

Title: Lego Batman: The Videogame

Price: $29.99

System(s): DS (PSP, PS2, PS3, Xbox 360, PC, Wii)

Release Date: September 23, 2008

Publisher (Developer): Warner Home Video Games

ESRB Rating: “Everyone 10+” for mild cartoon violence.

Pros: More fun the longer you play, plenty of collectibles, multiplayer mode, well-executed 3D environments and cute story.

Cons: Does not follow the plot of any Batman movie, a bit slow in the beginning, repetitive puzzles and a fatal revival glitch in Free Play Mode.

Overall Score: One thumb up, one thumb sideways; 81/100; B-; * * * out of five.

Taking a huge hint from the success of the Lego Star Wars and Lego Indiana Jones games, Warner Bros. has converted yet another an iconic character book hero into colored pegs to star in a video game.

Like its predecessors, Lego Batman has plenty of puzzles and pegs to collect but it takes a while before the action kicks in. Otherwise, it’s the familiar peg-collecting, object destroying extravaganza we’ve come to enjoy from a Lego action game. Read More

Hardcore gamers who scoffed at Nintendo’s hilariously bad demo for Wii Music at E3 are probably going to get a kick out of this. Apparently, the launch party for Wii Music didn’t have the turnout that Nintendo expected. 1Up reported that the event was pretty dead, and compared it to the frenzy of the Super Mario Galaxy launch party. It seems that Nintendo has either missed the boat with casual crowds (this would be a first) or that perhaps it was just a bad time for a party. The extreme cynic in me wonders whether this could be a sign of waning interest in this sort of wacky casual Wii title, but it’s far, far to early to tell that.

I almost feel a little bit bad about this, considering that the game has actually received some very positive reviews – it looks like a very fun little casual game. I wonder where the Big N went wrong with this one.

Read [1Up]

Full Story » | Written by Danielle Riendeau for Gamertell. | Comment on this Article »

Section: News, Consoles, PS3, Handhelds, PSP

How does Sony say thank you for your awesome productivity and quality of digital downloads? By giving you your own storefront on the Playstation Store.

That’s what Sony has recently granted Capcom, publishers of the highly praised Mega Man 9 and Bionic Commando: Rearmed. The storefront will go online in November 2008 and will catalog all of Capcom’s downloads in the one place.

“Out of all of the third-party companies making use of the digital space, [Sony] recognizes Capcom is one of the best partners for content,” said John Diamonon, product manager on all Capcom digital titles told Edge.

Christian Svensson, VP of business development and strategic planning for Capcom added that “…Sony’s taking advantage of, in a very real way, one of the benefits of digital, in that there are multiple ways to sort, search and put things in front of people. In a physical store, that physical object can only exist in one physical space. With digital, that object can be highlighted in about 20 different ways.”

This is only the first of what Sony is hoping to be many “publisher portals” that will allow users to find downloads easier by simply picking the publisher or developer. Users already have the option to search content by: Top Downloads, Genres, and New Releases. These “publisher portals” will allow shoppers to more easily find quality titles by visiting that publisher’s store where that publishers games will be allocated. As of now there is no announcement for price changes on titles.

On the subject of Microsoft’s Xbox Live Arcade giving the same treatment to publishers, Svennsson added: “As far as Microsoft goes – how can I say this diplomatically – there are things I think they’d like to do to promote content in multiple ways, and I think they’ll get there eventually… but they’re not there yet.”

Read [Edge] Via [Joystiq]

Full Story » | Written by Kris Rosado for Gamertell. | Comment on this Article »