Anarchy Arcadium

Do You Take Requests? A Wishlist for This Year’s Music Games

If you hadn’t heard, Harmonix officially announced Rock Band 3 earlier today. And after plenty of deliberation, I decided it was a good time to rattle off a wishlist of gameplay elements I’d love to see make the cut in both Harmonix’s new game and the inevitable Guitar Hero 6. To me, tracklisting worries have become progressively less relevant as the music industry clamors to revitalize itself through these games. It’s more important to focus on the ease of use at this point. After all, a few seconds of menu fidgeting can bring down the buzz at a house party very quickly. Although everyone’s casting a gloomy forecast for music and rhythm games in 2010, I’m looking forward to both efforts -- after all, it’s not like I played every band-branded Guitar Hero game -- and sincerely hope that we’ll see some of the following features implemented: Personalized Playlists -- Look, my wife hates AC/DC. It’s claws on a blackboard to me when she wants to play The Cranberries. It’s only going to hurt more when Rock Band Network gives us new songs out the wazoo. Personalized playlists are a great workaround for this. I’m sick of yelling “shut up and sing, dammit” every time “War Pigs” randomly shows up during Career Mode in Rock Band 2. Yes, I’m a terrible husband, I admit it, but that's beside the point. Not Just Custom Playlists, the Ability to Toggle Tracks -- I want the option to toggle songs on/off of playlists, but not my hard drive. I don’t want to delete songs, I just want more control over what a “random setlist” defines. (read: no Fallout Boy, ever). And yes, this ties into Career Mode, since it’s pretty annoying to randomly encounter some song that’s utterly repulsive or is “Say It Ain’t So.” Read More?

Xbox 360 | Toy Soldiers Review

This beautifully presented WWI-themed tower defense game will have you coming back again and again.

Score: 8.5 / great

Get the full article at GameSpot

"Xbox 360 | Toy Soldiers Review" was posted by Justin Calvert on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 17:53:29 -0800

PC | Dawn of Discovery: Venice Review

This modest add-on to a great game is aimed at players who fancy some multiplayer competition.

Score: 7.0 / good

Get the full article at GameSpot

"PC | Dawn of Discovery: Venice Review" was posted by Carolyn Petit on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 17:50:27 -0800

Modern Warfare 2 DLC Deploys March 30

Despite the recent shake up at Infinity Ward, Modern Warfare 2 fans should be pleased to know that the game’s developers are working hard on the first batch of downloadable content for their massively successful military shooter. And thanks to a recent Twitter post by IW community manager Robert Bowling, we now know exactly when said DLC will be released: March 30. But rather than just come out and confirm the release date, IW set up a site designed to raise awareness of a condition known as "Mapathy," which is defined as a "state of indifference to old maps one has been playing for the last several months." Clever fellows. Mapathy sufferers will be pleased to know that the “cure” will arrive in two weeks time. Hopefully, you can hold on until then.

Videos: Get An Inside Look At God of War III With Game Director Stig Asmussen

If you're anything like us, you can't get enough God of War III. Well, we've got a couple videos that are perfect for someone like you: Inside Look at God of War 3 with Stig Asmussen : Stig Asmussen is God of War III's game director, so when he takes you inside God of War III, you're going way in there, buddy. Breaking Down God of War 3’s Epic Opening Scene: The first two God of War games had huge opening scenes, and the third game goes even bigger. Click the video to see game director Stig Asmussen going ridiculously in-depth about God of War III's insanely epic opening level.

Sony Motion Controller Includes Nunchuk Add-On?

Sony is expected to reveal new information about its motion controller at some point during this week’s Game Developers Conference. However, in classic Sony form, a few details have already slipped out, on the eve of Sony’s big press conference (which will be streamed live right here tomorrow at 7PM ET). According to a source close to Develop, Sony’s motion controller will include a Wii Nunchuk-ish add-on in addition to the standard wand controller. This isn’t terribly surprising given that the duel-wielded controls lets developers add an entirely separate layer of movement and control to their games. Plus, thanks to the Wii, developers have had a few years of practice with this kind of control scheme, so making the transition to the PlayStation 3 should prove relatively painless. At this point though, nothing has been officially announced, so don’t put all of your money in Arc-nunchuk futures just yet. Hopefully, Sony will make everything perfectly clear in the coming days. Source: Develop

GDC 2010 — Day One Photo Gallery

GDC 2010 is officially underway, and so far, things have been kind of slow. However, this is just your typical calm before the massive games event storm, and you can expect plenty of content to come rolling in with force shortly. In the meantime, check out our day one photo gallery from the GDC trenches in San Francisco to get a feel for what's going on at the center of the gaming world at this very moment.

Wii | Major League Baseball 2K10 Review

This bare-bones baseball game doesn't do nearly enough to improve upon its predecessor.

Score: 5.0 / mediocre

Get the full article at GameSpot

"Wii | Major League Baseball 2K10 Review" was posted by Brett Todd on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:24:36 -0800

X-Play Video — God of War: The Story So Far

To get you psyched for next week's release of God of War III, please enjoy the video below, in which X-Play takes a look at the God of War story up to the third game. Think of it as a cheat-sheet for people who didn't play the first two games. Watch Larger Version | Watch HD Version

A GDC Panel About Unreal Engine 3 On The iPhone Sounds Interesting, Right?*

* If you're a programmer. As someone who doesn't actually make games, attending GDC panels can at times be a gamble. The description for the panel might sound really interesting, but if you've failed to note that it's targeted at people who understand the code that makes games works, that's a problem. I made that mistake today with the Epic Games panel discussing Unreal Engine 3 on the iPhone. The picture above is just a small snippet of a 30-minute presentation that consisted of slide after slide of code, references to code and jokes about code. Code, code, code, code, code. My brain just melted. Have something to share? Sitting on a news tip? E-mail me. You can also follow me on Twitter.