Weekly News Roundup: 12/20/2009

Games

Bacteria Mario will give you the plumber sickness.

• Bacteria has been genetically engineered to create one of the most iconic gaming icons ever. Team Osaka made Mario in a Petri dish for the 2009 international Genetically Engineered Machine competition. Yep, scientists are videogame nerds and it's cool.

• IDW has been creating audio commentary for PSP comics, mainly Wormwood for the moment. If anything would make me buy a digital version of a comic I already own it would be audio commentary. Great idea, whoever came up with this.

• The Left 4 Dead 2 characters will meet the Left 4 Dead 1 characters in L4D2's downloadable episode "The Passing." I really hope the episode doesn't end with the deaths of the L4D1 characters.

• Criterion has revealed some secret modes they were planning or thinking about adding to Burnout Paradise. Planes, helicopters, the Moon, motorcycles Vs. cars, time travel, underground tunnels, and boats. The Moon was actually modeled and drivable. The moon would have been crazy, but underground tunnels would have been very cool.

• Lunar: Silver Star Story is being re-released once again. While it will already have re-done graphics, the PSP limited edition includes a soundtrack CD and cards featuring the girls of Lunar. Cards? Really? What a step back from Working Designs awesome special editions.

• The Xbox 360 version of Sonic & Sega All Stars Racing will have Rare's Banjo (of Banjo and Kazooie fame) as a playable character. It's neat if you're into the Banjo games, but I've never played one so I have no care that he's included. You can also play as your Avatars which is reason enough to not buy this game on the Xbox 360.

• These two live-action shorts for The Saboteur are pretty cool.

• Xbox 360 RPG fans have another reason to be angry as the PS3 version of Star Ocean: The Last Hope will have more characters than the Xbox 360 version.

• Modern Warfare 2 Mythbusters busts the myths of Modern Warfare 2.

- Shawn - 12/20/09

Weekly News Roundup: 12/13/2009

Games

Fans need clear images on these redesigned Generation 1 Transformers stat. This scan shows what may be Ironhide, Soundwave, and possibly Blitzwing.

• Transformers: War for Cybertron looks like it will be the game Transformers fans have been waiting for. The story will be based on Cybertron before first contact with Earth. The Transformers will have pre-Generation 1 designs somewhat similar to Dream Wave's War Within comic series, and be a squad-based third person shooter. Above all, this Transformers game will not be a tie-in to the awful movies. Check out the teaser trailer. More images can be seen in the newest issue of Game Informer.

• There will be two special editions of Aliens Vs. Predator. The Survivor Edition will have a Steelbook case and exclusive DLC. The Hunter Edition includes the Steelbook case, DLC, Weyland-Yutani patch, a 3D lenticular card, and a face hugger almost big enough to wrap around your face. Lance Henriksen will also be reprising his role as Bishop in the game.

• New teaser trailers have arrived for: Batman: Arkham Asylum 2 (hopefully it will actually be called something else), Halo: Reach, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2, and Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands.

• There's another new Mega Man game besides Mega Man 10. Mega Man: Rush Marine for cell phones has Mega Man piloting Rush in his submarine form to battle ten robot masters. It's on some phones now and more in 2010.

• Resident Evil 5: Gold Edition will have a couple extra costumes for Chris and Sheva. Sheva's new costume is of a slutty Red-Riding hood, while Chris looks like a henchman from the Mad Max movies.

• Mass Effect 2 will have a star-studded cast of sci-fi actors. Lending their voices to the game are Martin Sheen, Seth Green, Adam Baldwin, Michael Dorn, Keith David, Tricia Helfer, Michael Hogan, Carrie-Ann Moss, Shohreh Aghdashloo, and Yvonne Strahovski.

• Borderlands second DLC pack will be Mad Moxi's Underdome Riot which brings a horde-mode-esque mode to the cel-shaded FPS. Every game needs some kind of horde mode.

• Yoshitaka Amano has drawn the Final Fantasy XIII characters in his own style in the latest issue of Famitsu. This is awesome because Amano had made tons of art for past Final Fantasy games, so now we see the characters is he designed them.

• The PSP Queen's Blade: Spiral Chaos game has some ridiculously huge boobs in it. It also has a panic button mode where is you're in public and don't want others to see what a perv you are, you can hit Start and Select simultaneously to display an innocent and boring looking RPG screen.

• Naughty Bear is a game about a teddy bear that goes on a rampage because he wasn't invited to a teddy bear party. Oh those teddy bears are always having parties and never invite everyone. They deserve what's coming to 'em.

• Konami will be releasing two lackluster compilation discs for the Xbox 360. The first will have Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Super Contra, and Frogger. The seconds will have Contra, Rush N' Attack, and Track and Field. SotN is always good, but why the hell are these being released as two separate discs? All these games should be one disc.

• It's only been a couple days since Mega Man 10 was announced, but Sheep Man fan-art has been flowing into Capcom.

- Shawn - 12/13/09

Weekly News Roundup: 12/6/2009

Games

Is she is making her summon shoot by "shooting" with her fingers? Awesome. I hope she says, "Bang! Bang!" while she does it.

• Here's what the new ad campaign for Final Fantasy XII should be: "Final Fantasy XIII - Take time off from life." That is essentially what this commercial for Final Fantasy XIII in Japan is. A teacher tells his students that he will be taking some time off. A little girl asks him why and he starts thinking about the game and how he's waited three years for it. Play FFXIII instead of teaching? His priorities are exactly where they should be. Some new screenshots for Final Fantasy XIII show off Cid and red head Oerba's summon, Hecatoncheir. Is Oerba really pointing her fingers as guns to make Hecatoncheir shoot? That's freaking fantastic. FFXIII is said to be 50-60 hours for experienced players. Supposedly that's only counting the story, not any side quests.

• The salamander boss form Lost Planet 2 now has an official name, but it's not the name Sir Om-Nom-Nom we've all come to love. It's name is Gordiant. Or it's a Gordiant creature, one of the two. He'll remain Sir Om-Nom-Nom to me forever, though.

• This super cool Pac-Man Pellet-Time watch features Pac-Man traveling around the face as the second hand and is limited to 500 pieces.

• Muscle March has been out in Japan for a few months, but now North America will soon get to play the manliest game since Cho-Aniki via WiiWare.

• Sega is trying to fix up Bayonetta on the PS3 to get it at least on-par with the Xbox 360 version before it's North American release. Oh, and the U.K. also gets Bayonetta's pink gun pre-order bonus, but the U.S. is still out of luck.

• Two booth babes at NCSoft's Blade & Soul booth were booted out of Korea's GStar 2009 game show because they were too revealing. Compared to other booth babes I've seen over the years, they aren't that revealing.

• Some Japanese gamers are not happy with the Japanese version of Modern Warfare 2 because of cheaply dubbed voice-overs, no English audio option, and a few miss-translations. I guess that native language thing goes both ways.

• A new Prince of Persia game will release alongside the movie with Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands. Hopefully it's a story of the Prince from Sands of Time. The real game one, not the movie version.

• Those that bought the Dragon Age: Origins Collector's Edition for the PS3 have probably realized that they can't access the soundtrack files from the Blu-ray. If you shoot an email to EA, they will hook you up with the soundtrack.

• Mass Effect 2 will be on 2 discs with a carefully placed disc-swap section.

• White Knight Chronicles will be released in North America as an International Edition. It includes bonus quests, voice chat, and the ability to build your own village.

• Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker will be available in North America on May 25th, 2010.

• Capcom has partnered with Hollywood Inc and Savage Cycles to make the Resident Evil Chopper. It's custom made to slice through the zombie hordes.

- Shawn - 12/6/09