PAX 08 is rocking gamers with plenty of hands-on demos on the show floor, as Fall’s big-name titles make the rounds for their adoring public. Gamers queued up to get their greedy claws on Gears 2, Left 4 Dead, StarCraft II, and many others.

But one of the surprising hits of the floor was Red Faction: Guerrilla. It doesn’t take long to realize why the game has been in development for four-and-a-half years: the destructibility of the environments is complete. Read more…

Think of electioneering as a real-time strategy game. You make your moves at the same time as your opponent, and in the end whoever has the most points (votes) wins. While politicos may scratch their heads at the pick of relatively inexperienced Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as McCain’s running mate, gamers will know that there is no better ally on your side than a bear-hunting, gun-toting babe in a fur-lined parka. Read more…

Kotaku is reporting the great news that Street Fighter IV has finally hit North American arcades. If you’re lucky enough, you’ll be able to find an arcade and if you’re even luckier you’ll find one with Street Fighter IV. Read more…

Joystiq’s Dustin Burg is reporting that lead Gears of War 2 scribe, Josh Ortega, promises that the highly anticipated sequel will have “a fulfilling ending.”

The apparent concern voiced by Joystiq was whether or not the game would follow in the footsteps of Halo 2 (not sure why they thought it would but lets go with it), and the answer they received from Ortega was essentially no. He stated that the game would “get nice closure”, but was quick to add that it would not get “too much [closure]” in the event they wanted to “expand” on the franchise yet again.

So it seems that the guys behind Gears are confident that we will like their ending. I am not this is really shocking news, but at least it gives us a set of feet we can hold to the fire in the event we hate it.

Source: Joystiq

PAX has begun, and with it has stirred the communal gamer vibe that continues to make it the gamer event of the year. The Washington Convention Center is crawling with gamers of every stripe and every developer worth a toss has shown up to show off.

The gaming press was allowed early entry into the exhibition hall and we quickly devolved into a heaving pack of sibilant monkeys as we ran from booth to booth. With so much to look at, we were afflicted, if momentarily, by a communal form of ADD. Read more…

Square Enix has confirmed it has approached Tecmo’s board to make a friendly takeover – and it’s doing it for the good of Japan, by the sound of the official spiel.

The JPY 22.3 billion (USD 205 million) offer comes off the back of Itagaki’s departure and president Yoshimi Yashuda’s resignation, which Square Enix believes have left the company rather vulnerable. Apart from all the usual guff about how brilliant and beneficial the move would be, their statement included the following: Read more…

When Activision and Blizzard merged not too long ago, certain games were in danger of being canned. One of these games was Terminal Reality’s upcoming Ghostbusters game, which Sierra - who is owned by Activision - was set to publish prior to the merger. With its fate now uncertain, Gamestop has started informing customers that they’re canceling all Ghostbusters pre-orders. Read more…

I know that when my 360 hits me it’s only because I provoked it.

These stories are getting a bit stale, aren’t they?  Not stale enough, apparently, or maybe it’s just not important for Microsoft to fix their shit.  You see, my latest Xbox 360 is dead.  I purchased a new Arcade version in January after my then current 360 was assassinated.  I’ve been using it since then until it started freezing, at which time I moved it to the other television and used it solely for movie-watching.  Less than eight months later, it does nothing but blink red and laugh at me. Read more…

Of all the new fighting games being released this year, SoulCalibur IV represents, like, half of them. Considering it doesn’t have much competition, SoulCalibur really didn’t need to try very hard to pillage the average fighting game fan’s cash. Instead of just phoning it in like some series do (*cough, Madden, *cough), Namco Bandai Games has hand-delivered a game that makes Street Fighter 3 Turbo Alpha Pro Edition look like Street Fighter 2 Championship Hyper Tournament Edition. Read more…

Gears of War 2 hits shelves in a little over two months now. With the release date quickly approaching, the full achievement list has now been revealed, as well as the rewards for the previously revealed linked achievements.

Check them out after the break. Read more…

Matt LaBoone, inspired the Giant NES coffee table (created by Kyle Downes), assembled a four-foot long fully functional SNES controller. Matt’s passion for the Super Nintendo stems in part to the fact he grew up playing the console. In addition to that, I am going to guess that he spent his non gaming time building really cool things.

Way to go Matt’gyver! Check out a few more images of this oversized retro gaming peripheral after the jump. Read more…

EA and Pandemic Studios announced today, that from 6am this morning til whenever “the pumps run dry”, they will fit the bill to pump your car full of gas — if you can make it to 8489 Beverly Blvd, Los Angeles CA before the deal goes up in flames.

Seriously, who thought mixing flames, gas, and mean looking dudes covered in tattoos together for a real life promotion would be a good idea? Because it is fucking brilliant. Give that person a raise.

A word of caution. If you are one of those people who never tips the full serve gas guy, you may want to bend the rules a bit this time. I’m guessing this is more of side job for the guys shown above, as their full time gig probably involves crushing people’s skulls with their bare hands. Just a suggestion.

Full press release with details as well as a live feed of the event after the jump. Read more…

EA has announced today that their upcoming sci-fi/survival horror game Dead Space is launching a week earlier than planned. The 360 and PS3 versions were originally set for an October 31st launch, but will instead be dropping on the 21st in North America and on the 24th in Europe. The PC version will still be coming out on Halloween.

EA says they just finished earlier than expected, which is a great sign that the game is ready to scare the shit out of us!

Check out the E3 2008 video below for a quick peak at the game: Read more…

A few days ago, a long time friend of mine called to let me know that he had some positive video game related news for me, and I said “ok shoot.”

He told me that his brother had gotten his COD4 disk stuck in his recently purchased PS3, and that the system would not eject it. So he decided to give a ring to Sony’s customer service line. He explained the situation to a supervisor and was told that it would all be taken care of immediately. What Sony did next was pretty amazing. Read more…

In an interview with MTV News, director Brett Ratner, expressed his interest in making a film based on Activision’s extremely successful Guitar Hero franchise.

“I love Guitar Hero and I think it’s a part of pop culture … I would love to do a Guitar Hero movie, if Activision would ever let me. I’m trying to convince them, but why would you have a movie screw up such a huge franchise? Not that I would make a bad movie. So that would be cool, to do a Guitar Hero movie.”

“It could be about a kid from a small town who dreams of being a rock star and he wins the Guitar Hero competition … One of those dreams-[come-true] kind of concepts.”

Shall I barf now or later? Do we really need another “dream come true” film, and how on earth is wanting to become a rock star and ending up holding a fucking plastic guitar a dream come true? That’s like a girl heading to Hollywood to become an actress and ending up a fluff girl on a porno set.

Afterthought: What do you think? Should Activision give him the green light on this? Maybe they should allow him to film two movies back to back — one for the full version, and then another based on a different kid from a small town who has a dream to play the harmonica. That kid can end up winning a Guitar Hero DS competition. Feel good story of the year material right there. I am holding back the tears.

Source: multiplayerblog.mtv.com (via: escapistmagazine.com)

While you can’t have Michael Phelps’ eight gold medals, you can get the same VIP treatment extended to him by Activision during his visit on CBS’ Early Show yesterday.

The host of the show handed Phelps what was thought to be a copy of Call of Duty: World At War on air and stated that she was doing so on behalf of Activision. However, MTV’s Multiplayer Blog contacted their PR department and learned that the box did not contain a game. Instead, it housed an I.O.U note.

Have at the video of Phelps on the Early Show after the jump. Read more…

While Wade, John, and Justin are enjoying PAX in Seattle, I am stuck happy to be in Boston this weekend for a wedding.

The good even better news is that, according to Joystiq, the Penny Arcade Expo will be making its way to Boston in 2010. This marks the first time in the shows five year stint that it will be held on east coast.

Source: Joystiq

Street Fighter IV’s certainly a contender for fighting game of the year, but it won’t be if it’s online play is hampered by the same kind of lag that the Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix beta has been. That game’s not pushing netcode nearly as hard as SFIV will, presumably, and it’s been decidedly problem-ridden. But, according to SFIV executive producer Yoshinori Ono, Capcom is “working on it”.

In order to prevent the lag we’re thinking about trying to balance it up at user interface level and input timing by using joystick or something like that. We still haven’t got a complete plan as yet. We’re still working on it. That’s all we can say at the moment.

Getting fighting games working online seems to be a precise game of deterrence; there’s no way to get rid of lag, just ways of fighting it off, through backdoor shenanigans and programming tricks. Hopefully Capcom can get the job done, because I’m itching to put the hurt on foes worldwide.

Source: OXM via Game|Life

Rumors sprouted earlier this week than GTA IV’s 360-exclusive downloadable content would be ready for release this November, but now the ever-churning rumor mill is telling us that it won’t be ready until January or Feburary next year.

Citing a “source close to Rockstar,” VG247 is reporting that Microsoft is “wrong” to expect anything before winter next year. Their source reportedly said:

It’ll be in January or February

Snow might be falling when we finally get our hands on any new adventures in Liberty City.

Source: VG247

Baseball has Barry Bonds and his Giant head (and ego) under the scrutiny of the senate. Cycling has a long list of riders banned for doping. The Olympics have stripped athletes of their medals for taking steroids.

Competitive gamers have bong rips before frag fests. But so far testing positive carries no negative.

Hit the jump (and the bong) for more on the smoky underbelly of competitive gaming. Read more…