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

Created in 2002 by Tommy Tallarico and Jack Wall, Video Games Live has become an unique aspect attached to the interactive entertainment industry. With growing demand, VGL has announced 45 new tour dates for the 2009 schedule.

Read more…

So here’s the plot of the latest City of Heroes mission: Samantha is really upset–so upset she has a blue emo tear stain–because her cousin Jimmy died last year and the crew of same whack-job TV show called Voices from Beyond claims he has a message for her. Your job is to go to the studio offices and get to the bottom of things. Sure enough **spoilers!!!!11!!!1!!** the Grips and Supposed Psychics are holding the ghost of Cousin Jimmy hostage so they can make big bucks shelling out secrets of the departed.  Free Jimmy so he can RIP, take out the Producer of the show, Roger Hackleby, and you have effectively saved the day.

Does that sound totally lame or what? Yeah it does, and I’ll tell you why—I wrote it. Read more…

Star Ocean 4 released on the Xbox 360 in Japan has hit the list of one of the best selling games for the system in Japan.  Sitting high with Blue Dragon and Tales of Vespia.  It seems as though Japanese RPG’s are the way to 360 sales in Japan.

Read more…

I’ve never been a RTS fan, especially when the genre tries to break into the console market.  At best there is a distinct sense of a lack of control in the game, and at worst it’s unplayable.  Obviously, any excitement for Halo Wars was lost on me.  Recently, however, I got to reminiscing about the entire Halo franchise and how substantially things have changed over the course of it’s history, many of them in part due to the franchise’s own innovations.

Part of what got me to thinking about all of this was that it’s pretty much the same way I felt about first-person shooters on consoles before I played Halo.  A controller would never hold a candle to a mouse and keyboard.  There is more accuracy with a mouse than a game pad and getting weapons and items would always be quicker on a keyboard when you can just press one button for whatever weapon you needed.  Hell, at that time I was very much not an Xbox fan. Read more…

The Call of Duty: World at War patch that was released today for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 added a new daytime version of the “Makin” multiplayer map, along with other new features and bug fixes.

The patch adds the re-lit map for free, which is fabulous and completely fair seeing that the PC version got the patch and the new map earlier this month. The map is included in the PS3 patch, but 360 owners will have to download it separately from the Xbox Live Marketplace. Hit the jump for the full list of patch features. Read more…

Shacknews reports that Telltale’s excellent Sam & Max series will be heading to Xbox Live Arcade as full-season packs. Season one is entitled “Sam & Max Save the World”, and the second season is entitled “Sam & Max- Beyond Time and Space”. Two promo posters have been released: one for season one and one for season two.

Sam & Max are, sadly, the only truly great point-and-click games out there at the moment. Having played most of season one on the PC, it’s great to see that even more people will be able to experience these games. Fans of laughing will most likely enjoy Sam & Max as much as I did, as it’s possibly one of the best written game series out there, and certainly one of the funniest.

Nintendo today released a list of new games and release dates for both the Wii and DS to hit North American shores by the end of July. Headliners include Punch-Out Wii, which will hit stores on May 18, and Excitebots: Trick Racing, an Excitebike-style racing game that uses the Wii Wheel, coming out on April 20. Hit the jump to see the full list of games and releases dates announced by Nintendo. Read more…

Unlike some other websites (we won’t name names, but let’s just say it’s all of them), the best time to proclaim the game of the year is not at the end of the year. How can you adequately compare all of 2008’s games when they kept releasing right up to the end of December? How can you publish a ‘Game of the Year’ article before the year is even over? Obviously, the best time to talk about the game of the year is in the last week of February. Obviously…
Read more…

Square Enix’s latest in the Dragon Quest series (coming to the DS on March 28th in Japan), is all the talk.  Pre-orders are rampant at local 7-11’s and you see more and more people with slime toys every day.  A new feature that is being added uses the Nintendo WiFi technology to let you discuss the game with other people and gloat through your DS.

Read more…

Ripten Radio returns once again with the latest and greatest in all things called “the Ripcast”. Yes, that means Episode 11 is about to wiggle its way through your ear canal and infect your brain with lots of penis talk– err, I mean games. Game talk.

Join host Jonathan Zungre (who sounds different this time, much manlier) as he discusses the goings on in the world of videogames over the past week… or three. With him always are Dan Landis and Beau Rosser, and returning from last episode we have John Landis (no relation). We also diversify our all-American jerk squad with some British sophistication courtesy of Sam Naylor.

Listen now, or the terrorists will win. Read more…

The page has updated for the last time today; the update has been released. Yesterday’s poll saw that the “Force-a-Nature” will be unlocked first, followed by the Sandman, and finally the energy drink. There have been a few other changes, including something I have been wanting for a long time- the ability to change the weapon that your disguised class is holding when playing as Spy. This means that we’ll need to start Spy-checking everyone, rather than just those with their primary weapon out. See the full release notes after the jump.
Read more…

Microsoft has announced a new red colored Xbox 360 to accompany the upcoming release of Resident Evil 5 in a limited edition bundle.

The sexy red Xbox 360 Elite bundle will come packed with a copy of Resident Evil 5, a red wireless controller, a black Xbox 360 wired headset, a 120GB hard drive, an exclusive Resident Evil theme, a copy of Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix and HDTV-ready component HD AV, HDMI and Ethernet cables.

The bundle will be available on March 13 for the release of Resident Evil 5 and will be priced at $399.

Source: Shacknews

Day 5 on the update page, and today it’s the Scout’s final weapon, the “Force-a-Nature”. This gun reloads slower and has a smaller clip, but knocks back enemies and, when fired while airborne, propels the user higher. Also today is a brand new TF2 T-Shirt, the “Force – a – nature t-shirt“- featuring none other than the Scout. Lastly, there’s a poll at the bottom of the page that Steam users can vote on- which order will the weapons be unlocked in? The way the results of the poll go is how it’ll happen.

Looks like Ripten readers love them some PS3 exclusives, because Metal Gear Solid 4 put down Little Big Planet by a razor thin margin to win The Ripten Readers Game of 2008. Thank you all for your well thought out and fun comments, you guys really did do us proud and just reassured us that we have the best readers on the entire internets.

Congrats to you, Cody Segraves for winning our best comment contest for your well thought out explanation of your admiration for Valve’s Left 4 Dead, you’ve won a 60 buck game of your choice.  Also, congrats to DavidGX for coming in second place, and yes, I know we were only supposed to pick one prize winner, but we liked your impassioned comment about Gears 2’s chainsaw bayonet so much we decided to pull together and send you a used copy of The History Channel Presents: Civil War: A Nation Divided for the Xbox 360.  Thousands of bayonets for a bayonet aficionado!

Cody Segraves and DavidGX, email your mailing addresses to Jzungre@ripten.com to collect your games.

A whole bunch of new goodies this Monday for the WiiWare and especially for the Virtual Console as Nintendo launches the introduction of Commodore 64 titles to the channel, with three games already added. Hit the jump for the full description of each game added today and how many Wii Points they’ll cost you. Read more…

Capcom’s insanely popular Street Fighter IV is, well, insanely popular with already two million units shipped worldwide. After an 11 year drought, the series seems to be back on top of the gaming scene with all new characters and online play to give anyone around the world a shoryuken. Look out for are review of Street Fighter IV sometime this week to find out our thoughts of Capcom’s money making title.

Source: Joystiq

Starting today, Xbox LIVE is awarding it’s Gold members by offering a number of discounts that range from 25 to 50 percent off Arcade titles, DLC, Xbox Originals and other XBL material.

Now at a 33 percent discount, this week’s deal is the XBL Arcade title, Braid, for 800 Microsoft points, down from it’s original 1200 points. Remember, this deal is good for only one week, but Microsoft is expected to give out discounts to Gold members on Ninja Gaiden II DLC, Project Gotham 4 DLC and the Xbox Original, Fable, later this month. Get it while it’s on the low!

Source: Kotaku

A few days ago, Range posted that Capcom would be revealing a new game on the Xbox Marketplace today. Well, that game has turned out to be Lost Planet 2. The teaser can be found here, or directly on your 360.

Gamezine have dug up a lot of information on the new game; the new game will feature new environments including melting snow and jungles, and is likely to have many co-op features- mechs with passenger seats, anyone? Plus, the story will feature perspectives from different factions this time around, and Jun Takeuchi, the producer of Resident Evil 5, will be helping out with the game. All I can say is, Capcom are doing a good job of earning our money this year.

If you, like me, have ever caught yourself thinking that you may prefer eating Doritos and drinking an ice cold Mountain Dew: Code Red to a nicely grilled Fillet Mignon and glass of wine, you need to watch this video.

Not since Triumph The Insult Comic Dog lampooned Star Wars fans for the Conan O’Brien show has anyone so affectionately poked fun at nerds as The Middle Show’s David Price has in this clip. Enjoy!
Read more…

Look’s like we got another pretty decent week of new game releases with Killzone 2, Star Ocean: The Last Hope, Puzzle Quest: Galactrix and 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand, among others. Oh by the way, I was only joking about 50’s new game. If it’s as whack as his no good, talentless raps, I wouldn’t want shit to do with it. Hit the jump for my pick of the week (obviously not Blood on the Sand) and the full list of game releases for the week. Read more…