If you are new to the web series titles “Legend of Neil”, it is based off of exactly what you think it is based off of — The Legend of Zelda. This version however, is something that would never get the Nintendo family seal of approval.

Neil’s journey to the videogame world of Hyrule begins when he decides to get himself off while playing a drunk game of Zelda. He wraps the controller cord around his neck (for added stimulation of course) and blacks out in the process. When Neil wakes he finds that he is no longer at home on his couch.

The series is well produced and very entertaining. Have at episode five as well as links to the four previous episodes after the jump. Read more…

Little known fact; I play the drums. Another little know fact: I play the drums poorly.

As sure as I am that playing Rock Band as often as I can won’t help improve my drum skills, Harmonix intends to prove me wrong by adding a new ‘Drum Trainer’ mode to Rock Band 2, for those of you who are sick of hearing “GO PLAY REAL DRUMS” and not being able to do so.

The mode in Rock Band 2 is intended to help you improve your actual drumming skills by introducing you to basic drumming vernacular, intermediate drumming skills, and some of the more complicated repetitions of beats you’d be playing in an actual band. Hit the jump for the full details on Rock Band 2’s Drum Trainer mode, as well as some videos of the mode in action. Read more…

The more I see, the more I believe. When I spoke to an EA/Tiburon employee at this years E3, he told me that the company was really trying to change the way they interact with their community. Well, it seems they are putting their money were their mouth is, and doing just that.

It wasn’t long ago that Levinator25, a Tiger Woods 2008 gamer, uploaded a glitch he had found in the game to Youtube. The bug allowed his virtual Tiger Woods to make a shot as he hovered over a body of water.

In a hilarious response from EA Sports, the following video claims that the “feature” was not a glitch, and calls on the real life Woods to prove it. Read more…

If ever you wanted proof that Brett Favre was considered a God in GreenBay, this has got to be it. What seemed like a lock to break the Madden cover curse, has turned into one of the ugliest aftermaths yet.

Sure Farve may not be suffering the effects of any on the field physical damage (at least not yet), but the pounding he has been taking from the GreenBay faithful hurts in its own right. The latest outcry comes courtesy of a Wisconsin based church.

The sign in front (shown above) compares the former Packers QB to God and reads “God Will Never Leave You For The Jets!” I had no idea God played pro football.

Source: ireport.com

Prior to Midway’s Leipzeig conference, Midway released a bunch of new screenshots that showed the Green Lantern and the Joker in action. After the Leipzeig conference, people noticed 4 new characters that hadn’t yet been announced, but were shown briefly in a Midway slideshow- Kano & Raiden from Mortal Kombat, as well as Wonder Woman and Deathstroke from DC Comics.

Previously announced characters also showed up in new screenshots that Midway released to the press earlier today. You can see the gallery of images below, including an image of The Joker smiling sadistically as he gets the ever living shit beat out of him. Fantastic. Read more…

When most people get stuck with something they don’t like, they just sit in their own filth and complain about it. Some people, however, like this guy over at eDrums.info, take matters into their own hands.

Not everyone likes the Rock Band drums, understandably. This guy really didn’t like them, so instead of just posting “Harmonix are full of lose” on a forum, he decided to MacGyver it and whip up his own set of RB drums with some everyday materials and a whole lot of ingenuity. He uses lots of wood, some cut up buckets, window mesh, and guts the Harmonix drums to make his own kit - and the end result seems responsive, a lot quieter, and looks like a whole lot of fun. They’ll even double as the real thing if you hook them up to a drum module.

Check them out in action, playing “I Think I’m Paranoid,” in a video after the jump. Read more…

I have been a big fan of NaturalMotion and their animation technology ever since rumor’s surfaced about the company’s possible involvement with 2K Sports on their All Pro Football title. Those rumors proved to be untrue, but Natrual Motion’s products have since been used in many well known games such as Star Wars: Force Unleashed and Grand Theft Auto IV.

The latest version of their Morpheme platform, to be shown at the NVISION 08 convention in San Jose, boasts several enhancements that should prove beneficial to animators.

In addition to Morpheme, the puffy blue football tackle animations we once assumed were part of a top secret Madden or All Pro Football integration, proved to be early footage of NaturalMotion’s own American Football game titled “BackBreaker”.

I had a chance to talk with NaturalMotion representatives briefly regarding the game at GDC a few months ago, but to the best of my knowledge, NVISION 08 (taking place between August 25-27) will mark the first time the game will be shown in public.

The full press release is available after the jump. Read more…

The Socom Confrontation booth at E3 consisted of — well, it didn’t exist. It was a single kiosk surrounded by several others running various Sony games.

At Liepzig however, those looking to play SOCOM won’t have the luxury of standing at a kiosk, in fact, they won’t be able to stand at all.

If you want to play the game, you will have to hit the ground, shimmy your way onto a sandbag, and duck under a low lying wooden structure covered in camouflage. Creative? Yes. Comfortable? Not so much.

Source: Kotaku

Outside of video games, I have one other geek fetish, and that is comic books. Joe Haywood over at Aeropause stumbled upon this gem from 1996 while checking out Shawn Elliott’s Twitter feed.

I haven’t purchased a comic book in a few years now, but looking at the page by page break down of this beauty at bamkapow.com makes me want to run over to my local comic book store right now.

Speaking of comics, we got some Halo figures in the mail today that were made by a company named after a very popular comic book artist in the 1990s. Stay tuned for a chance to win them as soon as we devise a worthy contest.

This well done cinematic is a prime example of what sets Blizzard apart from all others in the highly lucrative MMO space.

Yes, the three minute plus clip features stunning CGI visuals, but the most impactful aspect of the presentation is the narrative. The voice you hear throughout the piece is that of the former King Terenas Menethil II, slain by his own son Arthas — better known now as The Lich King.

The father speaks as if he is reciting a loving letter written to his son prior to his death, and you get the feeling that his words have been ringing over and over in his son’s head as he sat frozen on his throne.

“My son, I watched with pride as you grew into a weapon - of righteousness.”

The camera pans in close to his face, and his eyes light up as if to say “enough”, as he awakens from his frozen slumber. As the trailer unfolds, The Lich King contradicts each positive said about him by his father leading to a very clever ending.

Have at the trailer below, and feel free to share your thoughts. Read more…

The 2008 Pokémon World Championships took place this past weekend, along with the first-ever Video Game Showdown. Over 400 players from nearly 30 countries qualified for and competed in the Championships, but the United States swept first place in all three divisions of the Trading Card Game (TCG) finals. Additionally, the U.S. won the Junior Video Game Showdown title, while a kid from Hiroshima, Japan, won the Senior division (though I’m not sure if it was revenge-driven or if his mutated genes gave him an edge). Read more…

If you are a hockey fan, and you own a PS3, you can boot up right now and download the EA Sports NHL 09 demo. Xbox 360 owners will looking to lace up will have to wait until early September to hit the virtual ice.

Our very own Emily Balistrieri had a chance to check out the game at the EA Studio Showcase a few days ago, and had this to say:

Dave McCarthy gave us the lowdown on what’s new this year for NHL 09. They’ve made further improvements even since last year’s award-gilded installment, adding the EA Sports Hockey League mode. Players can create their own character, level up, and play on fully human teams–six on six–with other hockey fans online.

The career tracking is pretty in-depth, and you can be scouted by other players or scout for new talent for your own team. During the game, you get feedback on how well you’re keeping position (also shown in real time as an arrow, if you’re not quite in the right spot), as well as various other attributes, so you’ll know what to work on to become a better team member. NHL 09 will be available September 9th.

Sounds like the game is worth a download, but if it’s as short as the Madden demo was, XBL owners won’t be missing out on much.

Just a heads up for you Star Wars fans, the demo for LucasArts latest Jedi combat game, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, is up on Xbox Live now (and PSN later today) for those who want to try the game out.

The demo isn’t very long, weighing in at 904mb, but shows off plenty of force powers and fast combat. Go ahead and start your download now!

Source: Gamersreports.com

Nintendo just keeps getting tapped with patent troubles, with its highly successful Wii now the target of a patent lawsuit from Hillcrest Labs.

Hillcrest claims that its patent for “a handheld three-dimensional pointing device” and a vague description of a “navigation interface display system that graphically organizes content for display on a television” apparently predates Nintendo’s Wiimote.

On Wednesday, Maryland-based Hillcrest Labs announced that it has filed a patent infringement with the U.S. International Trade Commission, as well as another patent infringement suit in a U.S. District Court in Maryland regarding Nintendo’s Wiimote.

Hillcrest Labs does have a product based on this technology, called The Loop remote (pictured above), based on what the company calls “Freespace” motion control technology. It seems clear that The Loop remote is much different from the Wiimote, and its hard to believe that something so vague as “a 3D pointing device” could actually best Nintendo in a court of law. Read more…

For those of you who aren’t really into the whole Hip-Hop scene, it wasn’t long ago that rappers Ice-T and Soulja Boy had a series of back-and-forth trash talking sessions about the state of hip-hop using YoutTube as their platform of choice.

Why am I telling you this? Because that backstory is necessary to understand the parody of the Giant Bomb video retort done in response to Kevin Pereira’s Too Human defense force video blog. Read more…

Here’s another Kratos crossover for God of War fans. A few weeks ago, we found out that Kratos was being worked into LittleBigPlanet in SackBoy form, and now Sony’s Official PlayStation Blog confirms the rumors that he will be in Hot Shots Golf: Out of Bounds as well.

Clap Hanz, the developers of the game, worked closely with the God of War team and T.C. Carson, the voice of Kratos, to bring the mythical character to life. One of the coolest details is that his golf club, the “Club of Chaos”, is a driver attached by chain links to a grip he holds in his hands.

I’m not a really big fan of golf, video game or the real thing, but if I could swing that ball and chain club of his at a few country club boys, it might be enough to get me to have a change of heart.

You can download Kratos via the PSN this Thursday. Check out the rest of the in-game screens after the jump. Read more…

A tech blogger named the “technivator” brings us this unboxing of Samsung’s new Omnia PocketPC, and the world’s largest electronics company may have gone completely overboard this time around. Read more…

Let the countdown begin.

Bethesda’s long-awaited Fallout 3 is coming out on October 28, the studio announced today. The release will be “one of the biggest launches of any game this year,” boasts Bethesda president Vlatko Andonov, and will hit all platforms simultaneously. The game will be available in Europe three days later, on Halloween. Which begs the question: Do they even celebrate Halloween in Europe?

Full press release after the jump. Read more…

“What do you think would be best to celebrate 30 years of Space Invaders? Oh I know, let’s go to Leipzig and parody the destruction of the World Trade Center!”

How I would love to have sat in on that meeting when Taito decided that this was a good idea, let alone a fitting tribute to a classic title. But they did, and according to Kotaku you can see a non-interactive display of typical Taito invaders zapping the Twin Towers at Leipzig right now, apparently replete with leapers in all their 8-bit glory.

Yet it’s not meant to be a game – it’s an art exhibit.

It’s the work of French-American artist Douglas Edric Stanley, who sees Space Invaders as a “social tale that can be related to historical tales without losing its poetic power.”

Actually, I wish I was making this up. Taito have yet to comment. More on Stanley here.

Earlier this year, Platinum Games and Sega announced MadWorld, a grisly Wii game with a focus on vehement, outlandish violence, and beating your enemies to a pulp that would make of Tropicana jealous. Today at GC, Platinum Games has brought us some new details on the game, as well as a trailer showcasing the sadist ways of the game’s main protagonist.

Like all bad asses, you play as Jack, a guy with a generic name and a motorcycle, complete with flames riding out of the back, because its not a motorcycle without outlandish flames tapering down the backside.

Like the best protagonists, he wears goggles on his head that you’ll probably never see him wear, he’s had one of his limbs (specifically his right arm) replaced with a chainsaw, making it pretty damn hard to write with anything other than his enemies’ blood, and of course he’s built like a fucking brick house.

Chances are, he’s got a spitfire mouth full of witty insults about your mother and a lexicon that would surprise even Kevin Smith. Marcus Fenix, eat your heart out. Read more…