The original Way of the Samurai title was released on the Playstation 2 back in 2002. It was set in 19th Century Japan, where you would take on the role of a ronin who wanders into a remote village and becomes involved in a conflict between rival clans. One of the best features about this game was the branching storylines that offered some very solid replay value while at the same time offering enough in the way of varying weapons and side content to really constitute different gameplay experiences. Although the story in the first game follows one overall framing narrative, the actual events that the you would engage in really depend on the decisions you make. Some decisions, while seeming small, could affect who lived and died at the end of the story. Read More...

Finally some closure. After a very long and grueling process, Activision and Double Fine Studios have come to some even ground and we do not have to worry about Brütal Legend being delayed in all it's rocking glory. According to the Associated Press and the New York Times, the Lawyers for Activision told court officials that they had finally come to a settlement with Double Fine Studios on Wednesday. For a brief recap see my previous article Activision tells EA to Back off The Los Angeles Superior Court spokeswoman said that Activision settled with Double Fine and a hearing, that was supposed to occur this fine Thursday morning, was canceled. What was heard last week was that the Superior Court Judge Craig Karlan had told Activision's lawyers that the request was probably going to get denied and the game was going to get released on time anyways. Read More...

Just yesterday Activision announced a limited time collector’s edition for the upcoming Bakugan Battle Brawlers set for release on the Nintendo DS on October 20th, 2009. The collector’s edition will feature an exclusive Bakugan collector’s ball however the ball will only be produced in a limited quantity. Based on the anime of the same name, Bakugan Battle Brawlers is the story of 8 friends who come into possession of metallic cards that have fallen from the sky. Their adventures help them to learn more about the cards and the Bakugan battle creatures that stem from them. Read More...

Wii owners have often gotten the short stick when it comes to Mature rated shooters. The “kiddy” system has hosted just a handful of M rated games and most of them fail to find a broad audience (think MadWorld and Manhunt 2). However Wii owners yearning for more will finally get a shot in the arm on Nov 10th, when Call of Duty 4, aka Modern Warfare 1, aka the best selling shooter of all time, comes out for the Wii. Coincidentally it is the same day its sequel comes out for the 360, PS3, and PC. The port will be handled by Treyarch, who had previously developed World at War (for all systems, including the Wii). Read More...

XBox Live Summer Update Puts A World Of Entertainment At Your Fingertips Holy Hells there is a lot coming to XBox Live. All with in a week from today (August 5th, 2009). Not just minor updates either, but massive ones. Some of which teased about at E3 this year. Not to mention an "On Demand" type service for some the consoles games. You could pick and choose from the presser below what you think is awesome, but that might take too much time for you. That being said, let me sum up some of the larger additions and updates for the service here. Read More...

Gameloft, never one to rest on its laurels when it comes to the mobile gaming market, has released what might be one of the most ambitious iPhone titles to date.  NFL 2010 takes the thrill and excitement of the NFL license and goes mobile; allowing you to transport your favorite players and teams anywhere. From the site: "Experience real football and play for the Super Bowl against the Cardinals, Steelers and the rest of the NFL on your cell phone. Every 2010 player and over 100 plays make this a complete sports game. Read More...

Left4Dead gets a new expansion this September with "Crash Course", a whole new campaign that connects the end of No Mercy with the beginning of Death Toll. Of all the endings, No Mercy was perhaps the most ambiguous, as how far and where would the helicopter would land. The beginning to Death Toll, which is just as ambiguous, finds our four survivors before a collapsed bridge and a tunnel chock-full-o'-zombies. While it may not give as much story as Left4Dead 2, it certainly hints at the fact that Valve isn't willing to drop development of it's first iteration. Along with the campaign will be a versus version and several survival maps full of glitches waiting to be exploited. Read More...

EVE Online Summer Buddy Program Wow, this contest seemed to slip through the general populaces cracks for a whole month. Probably because the hardcore fans of EVE Online wanted to have a better chance at winning. But where is the fun of no competition? Am I right? So I'm going to try and even the odds of information for the gaming world. Entering this contest is kind of easy, and you still have about a month to get in on this. Well if you are or are planning on becoming a player of EVE Online and have a buddy who wants to join up too, then you are half way there. Read More...

Today, Treyarch, the makers of Call of Duty: World at War, announced and released a free iPhone application. With this new app, players will be able to track statistics like kill-to-death ratios and weapon usage by simply connecting their gamer tag to their account on www.codwaw.com. They'll also be able to link up with your friends' statistics to compare if you link accounts at www.codwaw.com and get community news and blog updates from www. Read More...

Now you can take your sims on an exotic vacation! EA and The Sims 3 has announced, via twitter, the new Sims 3 expansion pack known as World Adventures. For those players that are still addicted to this fine long time running game, and have wanted there Sims to fall off a Pyramid/Eiffel Tower/Great Wall, *hee hee* now you can! From the sims3.com: The Adventure is Near… Take your Sims on the adventure of their lives with The Sims 3 World Adventures. Read More...

If there’s one thing comic books have taught me, it’s that billionaires with martial arts skills work. It probably the combination of deadly skills and giant piles of money, but they rock. Bruce Wayne/Batman is a humanitarian and one of the scariest heroes on the planet. T’Challa/Black Panther is the king of Wakanda, a prosperous and technologically advanced African nation. But along with everyone else you could possibly think of, Danny Rand as Iron Fist is easily one of the coolest and he’s finally getting the exposure he deserves. Danny Rand was born in New York City to Wendell and Heather Rand. Read More...

There have been more open world, sandbox style adventures in recent memory than ever before. Non-linear gameplay is fully embraced and every videogame genre has felt its influence at one point or another. The ability to turn off, or flat out ignore mission objectives is a must in today's titles and the unlimited access to a living, breathing game world is embraced without reservation. How often, however, have we allowed that freedom to take the place of a well crafted and well explored story? Grand Theft Auto is usually quoted as a landmark franchise for the ability to blend an open and emergent gameplay with a dedicated and evolving storyline. Read More...

Two words that should never belong to each other: Movie Game. Let's face it, except for a select few (and let's keep in mind that GoldenEye 007 came out 2 years after the movie did), very few licensed games of a film have been even halfway decent, and yet more and more are coming out. Games from series like Harry Potter and Ice Age have been hits with kids that liked the films, but movie based games have failed to find a home with more mature audiences. Games like Resident Evil, Max Payne and Tomb Raider have spawned successful (Box office wise) movies, yet very few mature movies have spawned successful games. Perhaps it's due to the inherent fact that while in video games, players often feel like they have the freedom to make a choice that will affect how the game turns out. Read More...

Saturday: Heroes, Zombies, and Tron. Oh My! Reaching the mid-way point in the who convention, you would think that some of the best stuff would have already been done and shown. This is when things would start dying down and the end of it all starts to settle in. This couldn't be further from the truth on this day. A day where we were invited to check out what Activision and Capcom were showing off to the world. Some behind closed doors. Read More...

It only took two days for Sid Meier’s Civilization Revolution to sink its hooks into me. I became addicted like no other game I’ve played before. But as much as I love Civ Rev, there are so many little things that could make it so much better. Before I get to the suggestions though I should mention, I’ve never really played any of the Civilization games that preceded Revolution so it’s entirely possible that the features I want to see were part of the formula prior to the franchise’s makeover. However having said that I found a lot of similarities between Civ Rev and a far less known PC game called Starships Unlimited. They are essentially the same game except where Civ Rev is focused on Earth and using historic civilizations, Starships Unlimited is set in a fictional universe and utilizes a variety of alien races along with humanity. Read More...