Two Free Games On Gog.com!

I already talked about Good Old Games a few months back (see here). It is a very noble endeavor by Polish CDProjekt to propose old games for $5-10 that are entirely compatible with XP and Vista and DRM-free.

That being said they just released two old school point ‘n’ click for download, entirely for free!
These two games are Beneath a Steel Sky and the infamous Lure of the Temptress, both developed by Revolution Software.

In order to enjoy these classics just head over to Good Old Games (see the link on my sidebar) and download the games.

X-Blades Collector Edition Details

So far we don’t know much about X-Blades except that it features a scantily-clad heroin in search of treasure… and no! it’s not Lara Croft.
The design is cell-shaded and very colorful so if the gameplay deliver it could be a pretty nice game.

To add to this TopWare released details about their amazing Collector Edition which will contain an 8″ statue of the heroin, an artbook, a poster of the map of the game, a soundtrack CD, a strategy guide and finally for PC users, a mouse pad!

You have to recognize that this is jolly sweet!
The game is set to be released on 360, PlayStation 3 and PC on January 14 so be sure to check it out.

Holy @%#&! Frostmourne Replica!

I recently came up on this gorgeous, amazing replica made by Epic Weapons. The infamous cursed sword (no not Stormbringer) which corrupted the good Arthas and made him “succeed” his father and betray all humans….and more.

The gorgeous piece is officially licensed by Blizzard and comes at a nice 47″ and 16lbs. The blade is made of stainless steel (sadly it doesn’t have a blueish hue around it) and the grip is wrapped in leather.
Of course such quality comes at a price, namely $379.00 through Weapon Masters.

Right on time for Christmas right?

2008 Video Game Awards Winners

Another year, another VGA.
I started watching the show last year and wasn’t too impressed. This year, while better, is still disappointing (keep in mind this is all very subjective).
The intro with Jack Black was hilarious! and overall I thought Jack Black was a better host that Samuel L. Jackson last year.
The musical acts were pretty good. LL Cool J rocked and “don’t call it a comeback!”, Weezer was cool. On the other hand 50 Cent was O.K. musically but i had the distinct feeling he was lip-synching.
The in-between skits with Black were so-so, mostly overplayed and barely funny.

But all this is just added stuff because most of us watch the Video GAME Awards for…..*drum roll* the games! and in this I guess you could say it’s not too bad.
Several World Exclusives from highlights GTA IV – The Lost and Damned, God of War III and freaking Mafia II!! to disappointments (mostly one) in Watchmen: The End Is Nigh.
Another worthy discovery was Dante’s Inferno which you can check out on my news here.

Mostly the things that annoys me most with these awards is that they feel empty and over the top. The tone is half childish and half condescending at times. What I mean is that they have to show hot women who come up on stage and actually say “yes I’m here cause I’m hot and you’re lucky to look at me” and the first reaction i had was something between shame, annoyance at our portrayal and wanting to tell her to just “f*ck off”.
To add insult to injury these women pretend in a semi-convincing voice that they “loooooove” video games. I mean come on!
I guess the show is made for prepubescent teens ans it shows.

It is worth mentioning that the best speech of them all was Will Wright. Thank you!

Anyhow I could go on for a while and I’d be happy to discuss it with whomever feels like it but for now let’s move on the the list of winners. BTW while I may not agree with some of these I can respect most BUT how the hell can you have GTA IV as Game of the Year and Best Action Adventure Game but not Best Game on 360????

Game of the Year: Grand Theft Auto IV

Studio of the Year: Media Molecule

Best PC Game: Left 4 Dead

Best PS3 Game: LittleBigPlanet

Best Wii Game: Boom Blox

Best Xbox 360 Game: Gears of War 2

Best Handheld Game: Professor Layton and the Curious Village

Best RPG: Fallout 3

Best Shooter: Gears of War 2

Best Fighting Game: Soul Calibur IV

Best Action Adventure Game: Grand Theft Auto IV

Best Driving Game: Burnout Paradise

Best Team Sports Game: NHL 09

Best Individual Sports Game: Shaun White Snowboarding

Best Game Based on a Movie or TV Show: Lego Indiana Jones

Best Multiplayer Game: Left 4 Dead

Best Music Game: Rock Band 2

Best Independent Game Fueled By Dew: World of Goo

Best Graphics: Metal Gear Solid 4

Best Original Score: Metal Gear Solid 4

Best Soundtrack: Rock Band 2

Best Performance by a Human Male: Michael Hollick – Grand Theft Auto IV

Best Performance by a Human Female: Debbie Mae West – Metal Gear Solid 4

Big Name in the Game – Male: Kiefer Sutherland – Call of Duty: World at War

Big Name in the Game – Female: Jenny McCarthy – C&C: Red Alert 3

for more details and access to the world exclusive footage, head over to GameTrailers.

EA Unveals Dante’s Inferno

The world premiere of the trailer aired during the 2008 Video Game Awards which showed us that the game will be based on the famous first part of the Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri.

In the game the player will go through the 9 circles of Hell which are limbo, lust, gluttony, greed, wrath, heresy, violence, fraud, and treachery. Not much else has been revealed by now but the game is being developed by EA Redwood Shores, the studio who created Dead Space.

This is a great period for Electronic Arts which reminds me of 2001 when the studio released a lot of great new IPs such as American McGee’s Alice and Clive Barker’s Undying.

Be sure to check out the creepy trailer here.

Dragon Quest X for the Wii

After a very successful episode on the PlayStation 2 the series took a somewhat unexpected turn. Dragon Quest Swords came out as an O.K. fun little game on the Wii but supringly the next big episode was announced for the Nintendo DS.

So SquareEnix have announced the tenth episode of the series, Dragon Quest X, will come out on the Wii. Not much else regarding details or release date has ben released but the game will surely be closely watched in the coming months.

Meanwhile Dragon Quest IX for the DS has been confirmed to come out on March 28 in Japan along with a new trailer.

Star Wars: The Old Republic First Video Documentary

Here is the post from the official website.

“LucasArts and BioWare today announced that the first video documentary for Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ will be posted on the game’s official website on Friday, December 12. The video gives an overview of the upcoming story-driven massively multiplayer online PC game set in the timeframe of the Star Wars™: Knights of the Old Republic™ franchise and provides the public with its first look at in-game footage“

Be sure to check it out tomorrow.

New Chronicles of Riddick Screens, Trailer and Details

When Activision and Blizzard merged for a short period the remake of the highly acclaimed Riddick game, Escape from Butcher Bay, was left hanging but thankfully Atari came to the rescue Assault on Dark Athena and announced they would release the game which was “just about done”.

We now have a few more screens and a shiny new trailer to wet our appetites until March 2009. The Multiplayer mode is also getting details.
Aside from the classics Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch and Capture the Flag there are going to be two more modes.

• Pitch Black: one player plays Riddick in a ‘pitch black’ room. He obviously has his night vision and the other players are armed to the teeth with a simple flashlight in order to kill him. The lucky one to kill the Furyan will in turn become Riddick and so on.
• Butcher Bay Riot: involves three groups of four people. The inmates, guards and mercenaries who will all have to reach a generator. The mode will have a Counter Strike system which will allow you to buy weapons, ammo and more.

Be sure to check out the HD trailer here.

Nintendo Wii Sells 800,000 in One Week!

One has to wonder when it’s going to stop…
I bought my Wii last year right after Mario Galaxy launched and I had to go on a hunt worthy of Samus Aran and Lara Croft put together to find one.
A year later not much has changed, the console is still very hard to come by and over the Thanksgiving week end and Black Friday it has sold 800,000 units!

Analysts predict the unit will sell as much as 1.4 Million units in november adding up to about 37 Million units sold worldwide.

Atari Acquires Cryptic Studios

When Phil Harrison took over as head of Atari he announced that he had plans to take the firm towards the MMO space.

Today it was announced that they bought Cryptic Studios to develop online games for the French company and will keep its 150-odd employees as well as their current projects. In the past Cryptic Studios created the successful City of Heroes and City of Villains which was subsequently bought by NCsoft.

As a result the three current projects, Champions Online, Star Trek Online and a yet unknown game will be released under the Atari banner in 2009, 2010 and 2011 respectively.
Atari seems to be going through some major restructuring this year. After being on the verge of bankruptcy they acquired the rights for the Ghostbusters game and the remake of Chronicles of Riddick which were orphaned after the Activison Blizzard merger.
They also announced a desire to revive their big licenses like Baldur’s Gate and Dungeons & Dragons.