General Discussion

Can you imagine fighting locusts with COG members in Gears of War alongside Halo‘s most recognizable character, Master Chief? It almost happened. Cliff Blezinski spoke to Complex about what could been. ”I actually approached Microsoft on getting Master Chief into the game, but those guys are kind of squeamish. One of Halo’s successes is that it’s a soft M [rating]. Gears pushes it further. I’m creatively comfortable with that, though it can limit what you do. If you had to break it down, I’d say that Gears is like Mortal Kombat and Halo is like Street Fighter. But if we were to get Master Chief, we’d get his model, put him in a COG suit, make it blow up, and do some…

The deals keep rolling out at Steam during their “EA Week” promotion. Today’s deals are on The Sims games. Sims 3 is 40% off, all of The Sims 3 DLC is 50% off, and 75% off of Sim City 4 Deluxe. via Steam Tweet This Post View the full article

Microsoft has added a Military State billing address that now allows soldiers and their families in the Armed Forces of America, Armed Forces of Europe, and Armed Forces Pacific to play on Xbox Live . “We hope this makes it easier for the men and women in the United States Armed Forces to stay connected to the Xbox Live community,” – Xbox Live’s Major Nelson via Major Nelson Tweet This Post View the full article

The fine folks at Zen Studios are holding a tournament for fabulous prize packs going to the top 3 scorers on the new Mars table for Pinball FX2. There will also be random entrants for prizes like Mars candy bars, DVDs, and game codes. Take a look at the full press release below and go check out the new table. Be sure to let us know what you think of the table in the forums. Also, be on the lookout for our forthcoming reviews of Zen Studios games. Pinball FX2 Mars Tournament April 29 – May 13 Finding life a little lonely on Mars? The Red Planet is about to get invaded by pinball wizards seeking a SuperScoreRocketBoost and Martian themed prizes. Download the Mars tab…

It has been 50 years since Marvel introduced everyone to the world of the Fantastic Four and to celebrate Marvel Entertainment and Zen Studios are releasing a Fantastic Four DLC pinball table on Pinball FX for the Xbox Live Arcade and Marvel Pinball for the Playstation Network. The brightly colored table that features all four members of the superhero team will release on May 17 on the Playstation Network and on May 18 on the Xbox Live Arcade. The table will also contain new Achievements and Trophies for those of you looking to add to your collection. via Zen Studios Tweet This Post View the full article

Developed by: Ice-pick Lodge Published by: bitComposer Games, Viva Media Platform: PC Players: 1 Rated T by the ESRB Cargo takes place in a vibrant world where a well meaning but incompetent group of mechanical gods have flooded the planet and broken gravity. This has resulted in humanity being on the verge of extinction, and has left a random assortment of their objects orbiting the earth. The very Gods responsible for humanity’s demise have decided to replace us, and all our rubbish, with a new form of life called ‘Buddies’ . Buddies only have one purpose and that is to have fun. This is where you come in. You are piloting a blimp searching for salvage when you…

News from Sony is not good this morning after they admit to losing credit card numbers and detail the extent of how many accounts may have been effected by another revelation that the security breach extends beyond the Playstation Network and out to Sony Online Entertainment. Approximately 12,700 non-US credit and debit card information was stolen from outdated databases in 2007, along with 10,700 debit records in other countries such as Australia and Germany. “The information from the outdated database that may have been stolen includes approximately 12,700 non-U.S. credit or debit card numbers and expiration dates (but not credit card security codes), and about 10,700…

After the new Assassin Creed reveal many were left trying to figure out the quick flashes and somewhat blurred image that appeared to be Altair’s blade from the original Assassin’s Creed. Ubisoft has released yet another fuzzy reveal that has further complicated the minds of many, however thanks to one quick thinking Turkish website, the locale for the new Assassin’s Creed game may have been figured out. Oyungezer analyzed the flashing photos down to the numbers and images in the background and discovered that one image appears to be the historic Hagia Sofia, another image that flashes briefly across the screen highly resembles the Ottoman Tughra which the official seal …

No you did not read that headline wrong. In case you missed it at the end of April, there is free (YES FREE) DLC for WWE All Stars for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. The “Compatibility Pack 1″ includes the Honkey Tonk Man. via Marketplace Tweet This Post View the full article

Nintendo is dropping the price of the Wii to $149.99 as of May 15th. The black or white colored console will now come bundled with Mario Kart Wii and the Wii wheel accessory instead of Wii Sports and Wii Sports Resort. The Wii wheel accessory can purchased seperately for $9.99. Also announced is the “Nintendo Selects” lineup of games that include Animal Crossing: City Folks, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, and Mario Super Sluggers. These games will be priced at $19.99 and will feature a red cover with a gold seal in the upper left corner. via Nintendo Press Release Tweet This Post View the full article

If you are a fan of Castlevania, make sure to stock up on the discounted items that are being offered during XBL’s Deal of the Week this week. This week’s discounts feature all Castlevania content. Castlevania: Harmony of Despair 1200 MS points 600 MS points Extra Stage: Lord of Flies 320 MS points 160 MS points Extra Stage: The Legend of Fuma 240 MS points 120 MS points Extra Stage: The One Who is Many 320 MS points 160 MS points Extra Stage: Origins 240 MS points 120 MS points Extra Stage: Beauty, Desire, Situation Dire 400 MS points 200 MS points Castlevania: Symphony of the Night 800 MS points 400 MS points via Major Nelson Tweet This Post View th…

EA Week continues on Steam with today’s discounts being Need for Speed related. Need For Speed Hot Pursuit - $29.99, $14.99Need For Speed Shift - $19.99, $6.80Need For Speed Undercover – 9.99, $2.50via Steam Tweet This Post View the full article

In an attempt to win back their user’s trust who are outraged that their personal information was compromised during the recent Playstation Network security breach, Sony issued a public apology and is offering a “Welcome Back” program. “We deeply apologize for the inconvenience we have caused,” – Kazuo Hirai, Chief of Sony’s Video Game Unit This apology made by Hirai also accompanied by an admittance on their part that they did not do enough to ensure that their users personal data including credit card numbers and birthdays were protected and that they knew about the attacks on April 17, however according to Fox News he denied that Sony purposedly delayed the announcem…

“We have had to take the SOE service down temporarily. In the course of our investigation into the intrusion into our systems we have discovered an issue that warrants enough concern for us to take the service down effective immediately. We will provide an update later today (Monday). We apologize for any inconvenience and greatly appreciate your patience.” – Sony Online Entertainment Home This statement can be found on the home page of Sony Online Entertainment’s website making many question what is truly going on behind the scenes at Sony’s camp, because according to Shack News Sony originally reported that SOE’s servers were safe as they were kept seperate from the Pla…

Ubisoft has took to Facebook to announce the newest game in the Assassin’s Creed lineup. However it is up to you if you want to look at the reveal. Ubisoft teases the reveal on the offical Facebook page for Assassin’s Creed and only offers to show it if you hit the “like” button. Upon hitting the like button you are shown images that appear to be a very familiar assassin’s blade. Tweet This Post View the full article

If you are participating in the Gears of War 3 Beta then listen up. You have the chance to earn up to five “Buddy Tokens” that you can give out to your friends to join you in playing the beta. You have until May 4th to complete one of the following taks or if you are a true Gears fanatic then all five: Purchase Gears of War content on the MarketplacePlay the Gears of War 3 beta for 20+ hoursPurchase a 12 month Xbox Live subscriptionPlay 100 hours of any Gears titlePlayed one game of Gears of War 3 in the betaIf you complete any or all of these tasks, you will receive your tokens via email on May 8th that you can give out to your eager Gears of War friends. The tokens …

If you are planning on playing Fallout New Vegas on the Xbox 360, do not accept the new update that it asks you to. Today, Bethesda released a patch to fix some problems with New Vegas that gamers have been experiencing. Turns out that this patch needs a patch of it’s own. Gamers have been complaining on the Fallout New Vegas forum over at Bethesda about the update not letting them use their save files and refuses to recognize any DLC. Bethesda took to their Twitter today to annouce that they are working on a fix for the buggy patch. “We’re aware some folks are having New Vegas save issues . We’re working with Microsoft on this and should have more information soon.”…

In a statement made late last week, Chief Executive of Nintendo Satoru Iwata explained one of the regrets that Nintendo is coming forth about with the once considered landmark console, the Nintendo Wii. “I now regret that we didn’t tie up with someone outside the company to market the Wii. If we had done that, the fate of the Wii might have been different. Now I am aware that we should not rely too much on ourselves. You will see what I mean by this when we market the 3DS and the Wii in the future.” – Satoru Iwata, Nintendo’s Chief Executive Hopefully these regrets will turn their newly announced console that will be on hand at this year’s E3 into a machine that their …

According to Peter Kafka, writer for All Things Digital plans were finalized over the weekend for a merger between website behemoth IGN and the smaller UGO to form one company. No news on how or if this will have any effect on IGN’s other smaller websites like GameSpy and UGO’s 1up or if there will be any job cuts. via The Escapist Tweet This Post View the full article

If you have yet to pick up Mortal Kombat for the Xbox 360 or PS3, you might want to head over to Amazon to check out their amazing deal that will save you $20.00. As of yesterday, Amazon discounted both versions of Mortal Kombat from $59.99 to $39.99. No news on if this game deal is temporary or a permanent price slash. via Amazon Tweet This Post View the full article

What was speculation has now been confirmed by Major Nelson. Hulu Plus will launch tomorrow on Xbox 360 and for one week (Through May 6th), it will be free for all US Xbox Live users. That’s right, thanks to Jack’s Links beef jerky, everyone (Gold and Silver) will get to try it out for free. Now go mess with Sasquatch while watching SNL and The Simpsons. Source: Major Nelson’s Blog Tweet This Post View the full article

http://www.irwebcasting.com/live/110501/02/293c6325f4/index.html

Valve’s Gabe Newell is most likely doing one of two things at the moment. He’s either swimming in a huge pile of money received from piling $80+ of Day 1 DLC onto the widely anticipated release of Portal 2, or yelling at his computer monitor as he reads the hundreds of negative reviews currently being posted on Metacritic about it. PC players have flooded the user reviews of Metacritic with anger and confusion, delivering what is essentially a digital bitchslap that drove down the average review score for the game currently to a stellar 5.8! For comparison at the moment, Homefront which is a game considered to be a failure at launch and drove stocks in THQ crashing …

Starting June 17th the kiosk based movie rental provider, Redbox, will finally move in to the games market at all it’s locations. With over 21,000+ locations nationwide, the $2 per day rental fee seems like a pretty decent price point. Selections will include select games for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and the Wii. The service has been tested in over 5,000 locations and must have done fairly well, with the full launch coming soon. Check out the full press release: GAME ON! REDBOX ANNOUNCES IT WILL OFFER VIDEO GAME RENTALS NATIONWIDE THIS JUNE April 28, 2011 –Redbox, America’s movie rental destination, today announced it will offer video game rentals at more than 2…

News has broke this morning that the possible first case of credit card theft from the Playstation Network security breach that happened last week may have been reported. Rory Spreckley from Australia told ABC News that he logged in to check his bank account and noticed that there were $2,000 worth of new charges billed to his account that he did not make. “I logged into my bank account just to check everything was OK and I found out there was some just over $2,000 in charges which I didn’t personally accrue,” Sony has not made an official comment regarding this or another report that Playstation hacking site PSX-Scene is claiming that an underground website is trying …