Deadliest Warrior is one of Spike’s top new shows, with ratings averaging 1.7 million viewers per episode, and one of the most downloaded TV shows on Xbox Live. And how could it not be? Each show answers the questions that burn deep within the heart of every man, such as, “who would win in a fight, a ninja or a Spartan?”

Max Geiger is part of the team that determines who wins the title of deadliest warrior for each show by collecting data from tests done on the warriors weapons and inserting it into a program which simulates the fight between the two combatants and determines a winner. Max took some time to tell us about some of his most exhilarating and horrifying moments while filming the show and gave us some clues on how the program chooses its winner. Read more…

Fight Night Round 4 is the first game in over 21 years to feature Mike Tyson, and let me answer your first question right now: No, you can’t bite someone’s ear off.  EA goes to great lengths to capture the devastating power of the late 80’s-early 90’s Tyson rather than the hot mess that was ear-biting, post-prison Tyson.  The roster of over 40 boxers is also the first in 17 years to feature “Big” George Foreman, again, not the smiley grill salesman but the cinderblock-fisted monster who almost ended Joe Frazier’s career in the 70’s. I recently got my hands on the newest entry in EA’s successful franchise to see exactly how the skull busting will be going down.  Read more…

Warrior Epic is the first RPG to reward players for letting their created characters die.  Having your created character bite the dust brings one of two benefits: you can either infuse the dead character’s soul into a weapon or one of your living characters can carry their spirit and use it as a powerful spell.  You don’t have to find your body and you don’t lose experience or progress.  It’s Warrior Epic’s way to turn a negative into a positive.   Read more…

Manny “Pac Man” Pacquiao and Ricky “The Hitman” Hatton are set to clash tonight on pay per view, but Fight Night Round 4 already knows who’s going to win.  EA’s hyper-realistic boxing franchise predicts Ring Magazine’s 2 time Fighter of Year Manny Pacquiao to knock out the tough as nails Englishman in the 11th round.

Here’s how its going down:

According to the simulation, an aggressive attempt by Hatton to limit Pacquiao’s movement early on was unsuccessful. Pacquiao’s used his speed and control of the ring to take advantage of Hatton’s aggression, picking his punches and keeping out of range. The tide turned in Hatton’s favor in Round 4 when he found some success trapping Pacquiao in the corner. With little room to work with, Pacquiao was forced to trade blows on Hatton’s terms. This relentless exchange proved to be too much for Pacquiao who went down to a powerful left hook at the end of Round 6.  The later rounds saw the revival of the quick moving Pacquiao, who outpaced and out boxed Hatton yet again. Lightning fast left jabs wreaked havoc on Hatton through Rounds 7, 8 and 9 before a commanding right hand brought him to the mat in Round 10. Badly hurt and looking sluggish, Hatton was unable to beat the count after falling to another deadly right hook from Pacquiao in Round 11.

Wow, good fight. I hope the real thing’s just as good. The simulation was done with Fight Night Round 4’s new AI, dubbed R.E.A.L. (Record, Evaluate, Adapt, Learn) which determines that each fighter will fight as their real life counterpart but may switch tactics mid-fight based on their success or failure. That means that fighters like Mike Tyson are going to close the distance and throw big hooks and uppercuts and Muhammad Ali’s going to keep his distance and snap that jab, but if their strategies aren’t working they’ll try to think up some other way to beat you. Look for the demo in late May, the game in late June and the Pacquiao v. Hatton fight tonight!

We just previewed Madden 10 and it seems like the team has been hard at work scrapping elements that haven’t worked for the series and creating new features in order to produce the most realistic feeling hard-nosed Sunday football game to date.  Let’s blitz through the top ten changes Madden 10 makes to famed Madden formula.

1.  Madden 10 lets players “Feel The Pressure” in the pocket and avoid It.  Since the beginning of time, Madden players have played passing offense the same way:  Running 20 yards or more into the backfield, away from the pocket, and firing a huge bomb to a downfield receiver.  They either complete that miracle pass or they’re sacked for an absurd loss.  Real NFL quarterbacks don’t do this, by the way, they stay protected in the pocket created by the offensive line.  The developers of Madden 10 found that when players were looking downfield for a receiver, the pocket didn’t feel safe because they couldn’t sense when the defense was rushing them, hence the running into the backfield.

One of Madden 10’s goals is to make the pocket feel safe again.  When looking downfield for a receiver to pass to, the controller will rumble when the quarterback is under pressure.  A quick flick of the right stick lets the quarterback execute an avoidance move to shrug away a potential sack and give the player an extra moment to complete a pass.  The avoidance moves will work better with elusive quaterbacks, like Big Ben, but even then they won’t work all the time.

Read more…

They’re not calling themselves a “Halo Killer” but it seems that many of the main features in Section 8 were created in response to what annoyed them, and probably annoy you, about established FPS franchises like Halo and Battlefield.

Let’s go through 3 problems even the best first person shooters have and the ways Section 8 provides a solution. Read more…

Hey, my ugly mug is back and ready to tell you about why Dragon Age: Origins is looking better than ever. All the videos are (almost) under two minutes and I brought a basket full of screenshots this time! Yowza!
Read more…

Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk

Emily Balistrieri and I had the rare opportunity to interview the founders of BioWare, Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk, the minds behind Baldur’s Gate, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Jade Empire and Mass Effect about BioWare’s upcoming titles, as well as experience the almost tangible passion and curiosity that they have for making games, discussing the future of narrative and even their opinions on characters that break the fourth wall such as Psycho Manits.  It’s a unique look into the thought process of two visionaries, so if you’re into BioWare or ever want to create a game yourself, please read and enjoy.

Read more…

Ok, do you see this picture? You see how I’m holding this print out in front of my webcam? Do the same on the Assassin’s Creed 2 Teaser website and something pretty sweet will happen. After the video, get the print out by clicking on the symbol in the center of the page and get to the video section by clicking on the triangle icon on the left of the screen.

Do it! It’s a pretty neat Easter egg.

Every week, on CD 101 Columbus, Ohio’s premier Alternative Rock station, I pick which new game release people should buy, and which one they should stay the heck away from.

Guitar Hero Metallica is on the show today, but is it the Winner of the Week or the Loser? Click the link to find out if Metal heads will be eternally pissed off at me

Read more…

Black20 is known for making great movie trailer spoofs for games like Tetris and Contra by pointing out film cliche’s that we all know and love. Their newest romantic comedy based on Killzone 2 is hilarious and oddly…heartwarming?

Read more…

Chuck Liddell makes an appearance on Spike TV’s newest show, Deadliest Warrior, which uses a scientific approach to determine who the deadliest warriors of all time were. Each Show pits one warrior type against another and ends with CGI simulated fight with match ups including:

Pirate vs. Knight, Taliban vs. IRA, Yakuza vs. Mafia, Viking vs. Samurai, Green Beret vs. Spetznaz, Maori vs. Shaolin Monks, William Wallace vs. Shaka Zulu and Ninja vs. Spartan.

In this clip, the show tries to find modern day equivalents of ancient warriors in order to collect data on how each would fight. Former UFC champ Chuck Liddell drops by to represent modern day gladiators and there’s an especially cool trash talking bit between him and the Apache Warrior’s representative at the end of the clip. Click to enjoy, fighters.

Read more…

These videos may help explain why I’m interested in Majesty 2. Who wants to be a wandering hero collecting meager amounts of gold for bounties when you can be the King who has all the gold and can pay heroes whatever you want to do the bounties you assign?
Read more…

Hey, Jonathan Zungre here, reporting to you (not so) Live from GDC 09 and I’ve got two games that you may not know about but you really should. Mount and Blade and Majesty 2 are two games that really need to be on your gaming radar. Listen to my video preview so I can tell you why giving quests may be cooler than going on them.

Game: League of Legends: Clash of Fates

Why you should care: Riot Games has come up with a tremendously quirky fun and varied cast of Champions for you to do battle with. You can choose from a tormented Minotaur that still wears the chains of his enslavement, a happy little girl that can turn her teddy into a ferocious shadow bear, and a little grinch-like person who throws snowballs at range and rides a yeti for strong melee attacks. Read more…

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…

Fanboys, they approach leisure activities with religious zeal and defend their console of choice with dogmatic ferocity.  Fanboys have had “gentlemanly discussions” with some of the writers here at Ripten, more or less, but no one fought it out with them like X-play’s Adam Sessler. I caught up with Adam to discuss Killzone 2, gaming journalism, and the fanboy plague that corrupts message boards and comment sections like The Flood.  Oops, Halo reference, here they come… Read more…

Adam Sessler gets his prophet on in this weeks 2009 Prediction edition of Sessler’s Soapbox. As per usual, Sessler has an El Dorado’s worth of insight at the center of a jungle of rant and quirkiness. Click the jump for the synopsis and video. Read more…

High Voltage is the game developer behind The Conduit, the first person shooter many are hailing as the Wii’s salvation for hardcore gamers.  But before they shock Wii users out of low graphical standards and poor first person shooter controls, they’re going to revolutionize they way people look at WiiWare with Evasive Space, releasing in January. Read more…

Spike TV’s Video Game Awards are tomorrow night at 9 pm and ready to reveal more world premiers than, um, E3.  GTA: The Lost and Damned, God of War III, Watchmen… I can’t count the number of games I’m dying see on one hand, plus there’s going to be a “special” Gears of War 2 announcement.  Hmmmm… Read more…