Left 4 Dead Maps Resurrected in Left 4 Dead 2 Over Forty New Final Fantasy XIII Screens Just In Time For The Weekend PlayStation Network Plans To Implement Premium Content Subscription-Based Model Microsoft Game Studios Hiring Epic Liason/Producer For Gears of War & Shadow Complex Madden NFL Arcade Game Changers Video Toys“R”Us Goes Game Stop, Geoffrey the Giraffe Now Accepting Used Console Trade-Ins

Don’t wait for the apocalypse.

You may remember Vault-Tec as the company that built all of the underground vaults in the Fallout game series, which takes place in a post-apocalyptic world. The recently released Fallout 3 trailer tells us to reserve our vaults by calling 1-888-4VAULT-TEC, so I did just that. Read more…

Sega isn’t one of the top four mobile developers, but they did have this early iPhone hit.

Mobile gaming is a growing industry. Better phones, better developers, and better quality games are contributing to an upward spiral of quality cell phone gaming. And according to media analyst Screen Digest, the top four developers of mobile phone games are tightening their grip on the market.

EA Mobile, Gameloft, Glu and THQ Wireless saw their collective shares of the global market double from 11 percent to 22 percent in 2007, and the figure is rising steadily. Read more…

When high profile corporations merge, the innocent are often caught in the crossfire. Unsuspecting developers and PR ninjas can sometimes feel like they have no place to turn. There is one man however, who specializes in the impossible — that man is none other than Kotaku’s Editor-in-Chief, Brian Crecente.

Word hit the street several days ago that Activision’s once proudly touted Ghostbusters title was being dropped by the publisher. Looking to set the record straight, one PR rep (codename: Evil PR Ninja Monkey) decided to take matters into his own hands and send a preview copy (with no embargo date) to Crecente.

We believe that there was also a cassette recording featuring the faint voices of several developers being tortured in the distance, however that cassette likely self-destructed within seconds of Brian listening to it.

Ghostbusters preview code with no embargo date? Clearly Brian’s mission, should he choose to accept it, is to preview the game. Do the right thing BC — the gaming world is counting on you.

Source: Kotaku

SoulCalibur IV’s character creation system is, to say the least, pretty potent. It allows for the production of some pretty diverse personalities, though all of the chicks have huge tits and the dudes are all ripped. Regardless, here’s a video of some classic videogame characters and a few comic icons that were recreated using the in-game tools. Some of them are pretty awesome — some look dead-on, and some are cool re-imaginings. Be warned, however — Superman looks like shit. And the music… yeah. Read more…

Apparently it means no worries…for the rest of your days. Well Sony, we are worried!  We still don’t know if Hakuna Matata is coming to the US and Europe! Read more…

Not content with the plastic miniature guitar you’re forced to use when you pretend rock out? Well, if you’re a PS2 or 3 owner with an extra $180 lying around, you can pick up this new wooden guitar that works with Rock Band and all of the Guitar Hero games. Read more…

If you thought that there was nowhere on Earth the monolithic, life-stealing MMO World of Warcraft hadn’t reached, then you were wrong. “Were” being the key word, as now it seems WoW’s world domination is complete with its newest translation: Russian. Read more…

BioShock was a game of the year for a lot of people last year, but a common criticism (and praise, in some circles) was its focus on the single player story, with the game having no multiplayer options. All that could change for BioShock 2. 2K Boston (the makers of BioShock) have started looking for a “Lead Multiplayer Designer”. Read more…

EA’s latest addition to its ongoing soccer franchise, FIFA 09, has finally been slapped with a release date, with the game to hit all major console on October 9.

With the ongoing battle with Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer to see which is the best soccer game on the market, FIFA 09 is said to be even better than last year’s iteration and is expected to prove once and for all that it’s the number one soccer game.

“We’ve made over 250 improvements from last year and we wanted to give the team the time they needed to make the best FIFA game possible,” said the game’s senior product manager Trevor Uzice. “We’re continuing to build on the solid foundation from last year which saw us create the most successful FIFA both in terms of sales and quality.”

Some of the game improvements include a 20-player online mode, more responsive controls, more realistic player AI and improved dribbling.

Look out for FIFA 09 when it hits the Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PC, PS2, DS, PSP and moblie platforms on October 9.

Source: mcvuk.com

Playable demos for Madden NFL 09 and Facebreaker have hit Xbox Live and the Playstation Network today.

Madden NFL 09 is due to hit stores on August 12 and Facebreaker just a few weeks later on September 5.

Check out our hands-on previews of Madden NFL 09 and Facebreaker from E3 to see how impressed we were by both EA Sport Titles.

Source: Majornelson.com and Playstation.Blog

Nintendo has claimed that they now rule seven seas, working with law enforcement agencies in a number of countries to squash piracy in the form of the R4 memory card. The R4 card allows for unofficial programs to be played on the Nintendo DS, including emulators and pirated games.

According to Nintendo, they’ve now seized 30,000 copyright-infringing piracy devices. Now that’s a lot of booty! Check out the full statement from Nintendo after the jump. Read more…

Check out this funny Dark Knight trailer spoof created by Evil Iguana Productions. Five minutes of your time well spent. The last 10 seconds may be a slight spoiler for anyone who hasn’t seen the movie yet, although we are pretty sure that everyone on earth has seen it at least twice by now. Enjoy. Read more…

Have you ever seen the commercial where the guy goes for an interview with a stain on his shirt, and no matter what he says to his prospective employer, all you can hear is the voice of the stain on his shirt? Well, this is nothing like that, but there’s something about a porn star taking her clothes off while she talks about in-game “co-op” that make it hard to focus on gaming.

In the following video, Tera Patrick, Saints Row 2’s “Special Producer”, loosens a few buttons on her blouse, as she spreads the world for her upcoming developer diaries. Prepare yourself for some vicious head on a plane, a beefy wiener,  and loads upon loads of … cutaways. Read more…

From the “perpetual next-gen” department comes this totally expected tidbit. The old news: Nintendo’s working on a follow-up to the Wii. The new news: Confirmation comes directly from President “It print money!” Iwata.

Iwata told Forbes magazine, “We are always preparing for the next hardware. We are under development. But the hardware is a kind of box that consumers reluctantly buy in order to play our games.” Read more…

What would Google be without its innovative perspective? While everyone else is simply considering in-game advertising, Google is yet again one (or several) steps ahead.

Sources close to the project reveal that Google has been working on an in-game advertising platform that will actually allow for the game’s characters to introduce the ads themselves. The company has supposedly been working on the idea since 2007. When asked about why they have yet to release it, the source stated:

“I don’t know what’s taking them so long … They could move into this market very quickly, given what they have shown off.”

Some believe that Google is waiting for the market to get bigger, however maybe, just maybe, a few of the big wigs are fans of unobtrusive gaming. Even so, with a predicted market value of $971.3 million by 2011, the love of gaming won’t hold them off forever.

Not sure about the rest of you, but the last thing I want to see happen right before I take someone’s head off, is the character turn to me and say “Hey [username], hold that thought, and have a look at this lovely new product from Tampax.” Yea, not so much.

Source: venturebeat.com

Summer is a slow time. And I don’t mean just for video games. Summer is also that special time of year when nothing exciting happens in sports. Ever. Screw baseball, it’s slow and monotonous, even if you do happen to like the sport. And NASCAR is just a contest to see who can turn left the most. Lame.

So when there is any news in the sports world during the summer, everyone jumps on it like the last cupcake and at overeater’s anonymous convention, which is why anyone who follows sports knows that Brett Favre is the story of the summer; especially EA, who put the then-retired legend on the front of Madden 09.

Now, they’re trying to figure out where the former MVP will do best the only way they know how: in a simulation. Read more…

Nothing says hardcore hip-hop like the Nintendo DS (snicker!) but Ignition Entertainment is now serving up a web demo of their upcoming Breakdancing game for the DS, Red Bull BC One. It plays like Elite Beat Agents, only instead of tapping in time to the music, you’re playing connect-the-dots against the clock.

From this demo, it seems like the music is the best part of the game– the dots on the bottom screen aren’t terribly exciting, and it’s impossible to focus on the dancing on the top screen while you’re playing.

Before you go running back to your “conventional” Nintendo games, why not give this oddball a quick try? Just be sure to use Internet Explorer and download the 3d plugin. If you’re into the hippity-hop or whatever the damn kids are doing these days, you might actually enjoy it.

Source: Red Bull BC One website

A group of individuals with strong negative feelings towards Microsoft’s latest operating system, WIndows Vista, were allowed to share their feedback with the company, and then offered what they believed to be a glimpse at Microsoft’s next big OS — “Mojave”.

After watching a presentation outlining the robust features of the new Mojave OS, the individuals are asked for their immediate feedback. The responses given by all are overwhelmingly positive, with the highlight being one woman, who had initially given Vista a zero, giving Mojave an astounding ten!

Of course Microsoft then tells the group, one by one, that “Mojave” is in fact Windows Vista, and the rest of the video plays out as if it was a Folgers Coffee commercial.

What a load of horseshit. Anyone who ever suffered at the hand of Windows Vista on a PC would have concrete reasons to hate the application. The individuals shown in the “Mojave Experiment” video are likely uninformed fools.

What I would love to see are individuals that responded with “WTF is this Mojave shit? It looks just like that Vista piece of crap I came here to bitch about.” Unfortunately, I am sure none of those responses made it past the editing room floor.

Maybe Microsoft will consider conducting a part two to this experiment, whereby they do everything exactly as they did in the first part, however at the end, instead of revealing Vista, they throw on a pair of Ray-Bans, pull out one of those little memory erase things from Men in Black, and fry the brains of all their haters. That would be more believable.

Source: mojaveexperiment.com

If you ever wondered what would happen if all of Bowser’s minions got together, questioned his authority, formed a union, and refused to operate by his rules any longer, then this video is for you. Enjoy. Read more…

Keeping your hands to yourself is not usually a problem during an interview, however Silicon Knights President, Denis Dyack, was being scantily interrogated by two extremely attractive “lingerie-clad” Penthouse Pets of the Year, in Heather Vandeven (2007) and Jaime Lynn (2006).

Regardless, Double D was his usual self, waxing philosophically about mythology, technology, and its overall effects on society, as he answered questions about his company’s upcoming title, Too Human. You gotta hand it to the guy, whether he’s on the 1UP Yours podcast or in bed with the Penthouse Pets, he’s always on message and appropriate. Mrs. Dyack would be proud.

A note to our friends over at Dasgamer — if everyone at E3 had a chance to take part in an interview like this, it would almost make up for the lack of booth babes. Hint hint.

Denis Dyack in bed with the Pets, Part 1

Denis Dyack in bed with the Pets, Part 2