Zero Punctuation reviews Ghostbusters: The Video Game

This week, Zero Punctuation takes on Ghostbusters: The Video Game.  I was not expecting him to heap praise on this game, since movie crossover/tie-ins usually suck.  There was no surprise.  As usual, this is very NSFW (even more than usual).

Yahtzee is a British-born, currently Australian-based writer and gamer with a sweet hat and a chip on his shoulder. When he isn't talking very fast into a headset mic he also designs freeware adventure games and writes the back page column for PC Gamer, who are too important to mention us. His personal site is www.fullyramblomatic.com.

'Max Payne' Movie Trailer, Not Sure Bout This One

'Max Payne' Theatrical Trailer @ Yahoo! Video

I absolutely loved the "Max Payne" games for the PC, which is why I threw up a little in my mouth when I heard they were making a live active movie from it. It's safe to say that most video game movies usually bite ass, and this one could as well.

But I have to say that the trailer looks pretty cool.

I just don't remember in either game fighting Valkyries.......... Oh, boy!!!

It might suck after all.

[Yahoo movies via Aintitcool.com]

'Spiderman: Web of Shadows' Trailer

This new Spiderman game looks like an ass kicker out of the gate. It honestly looks like a great movie idea, if done right. Spiderman: Web of Shadows drops on October 21st, 2008 for every major console on the market.

[Crunchgear]

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Official Trailer

The more that I see of this game, the more I think that it's going to be awesome. One thing is for sure, LucasArts knows how to put a trailer together.

[G4TV]

Gears Of War 2 Info

Anyone looking for Gears of War 2 info has come to the right place. Thanks to the folks at Game Informer and G4TV, here is some of the cool stuff we can expect from the next installment due out in November:

New characters:

• Tai Kaliso, "a spiritual and meditative warrior from a tradition of honor-bound fighters."
• Chairman Prescott: "an almost dictatorial military leader who nonetheless has made the hard choices necessary to keep humanity alive through decades of warfare. As Gears 2 opens, this leader of the COG forces will deliver a speech to the troops before sending them reeling into the suicidal mission ahead."
• Dizzy: "Dives the massive Derrick on which Delta Squad ascends into the mountains. With a trademark drawl and an insistence on calling his truck "Betty", he's a colorful new addition to the cast.
• Maria Santiago: Dominic's wife. A major part of Gears 2's plot revolves around trying to rescue Maria.

New Features:

• New character lighting: More cinematic and less realistic.
• Use of cover has been changed. It will be harder to get hit while protected, as the character will rest a little further back from the corners.
• Chainsaw Duels: "Expand that gruesome combat mechanic to deliver even more excitement."
• Bigger Boss Battles: More fun and epic in scale. Cliffy B. says: "We have creatures that make the Brumak look like a baby panda bear."
• Drop-In and Out Co-op: Come and go as you please.
• Multiple save files
• Differing difficulty levels in Co-op: So player one can be Casual and player two Hardcore. When players split up, the difficulty levels will as well.
• Easier-than-Casual difficulty level: For the true-newb.
• COG Centaur tank. Takes the best parts of a monster truck and a military tank and mixes 'em up.
• Locust Kantus enemies: Featuring humming, sonic attacks.
• "Shut-Up" Button: During cut-scenes, you'll have the option of hitting this button to skip everything and get to the next level of shooting.
• Journal system: allows you to track findable stuff and progress toward achievements.

Thanks to G4TV for this info.

Top 50 Games of the 1980s

If you're like me, you grew up in the 80's playing some of the best video games ever. Well, looks like the people at Next Generation are just like me. They just published a great article titled The Best 50 Games of the 1980s. And I have to say that they had a great list. I remember playing a great deal of these games. I just want to know, where is Karateka. That game rocked.

Check out the article here, and let me know what you think.

The 15 Most Annoying Video Game Characters (From Otherwise Great Games)

In video games, just like life, there's a certain percentage of people who just need a good punching. The percentage may even be higher in video games, if that's possible.

What makes the offenders on this list even worse is that they reared their ugly heads in what are otherwise some of the best games ever made, making the whole experience just a little worse each time.

This is a great list from Cracked.com

Grand Theft Auto IV Will Be Multiplayer

One of the most anticipated games this year Grand Theft Auto 4 will be multiplayer on every platform. So for Xbox Live and Playstation home will have GTA IV players will get a chance to beat up, car jack, rob, and shoot one another. No word on the level that the multiplayer will have, but with this being a first for GTA, I'm sure that it will be great.

Rockstar: GTA IV has multiplayer capabilities in all versions [Joystiq via Crunchgear]

No Lightsaber Wii-Mote For Star Wars Game

To the dismay of many Wii owners, there will not be a Wii-mote lightsaber peripheral for the rumored Star Wars lightsaber game. According to wiinintendo.net "Nintendo won’t let anyone, Lucasarts included, make any type of ‘bat-like’ peripherals for the Wiimote." It seems like Nintendo doesn’t want people smashing each other in the face with "bat-like" peripherals. Of course they don’t mind you flapping around like a moron with the little goofy controllers.

Don’t expect an officially licensed lightsaber peripheral for the Wii. [wiinintendo.net via G4TV]

Goldeneye Coming To Xbox Live?

In what is sure to come as welcome news to Goldeneye fans, Xbox Evolved is reporting that the popular game is coming to Xbox Live Arcade. The game will be given a make over, and the graphics will be updated for the Xbox. It also will feature a multi-player mode for the Xbox Live.

Rareware is Revisiting 007 [Xbox Evolved via G4TV]

First Street Fighter IV Footage

The first ever footage of Street Fighter 4.

It's 20 minutes long, so sit back and enjoy!

Pac-Man Christmas Tree

Merry Christmas geeks!!!

Take a look at this giant Pac-Man Christmas tree in downtown Madrid. Why they did it, we don't know, but it's cool.

[G4TV]

Impressive Wii Mod

I've seen some pretty incredible PC and game console mods, but the guy who put this Wii mod together has out done himself. The modder who calls himself Kypes used a black face and stand, clear sides and LED lights to bring it to life. Unlike most modders who just put neon in their system, this guy angled the LED lights in such a way to highlight the disk drive and fan. Kypes also added a SD card slot and a Game Cube memory card.

Now if the games looked as good as the mod, I might be interested.

[Acid Mods via Gizmodo]

Government Goes After Manhunt 2: Bedamned Real Violence

One of the things that I absolutely love about politicizations is how they go after the small and meaning less battles. Case in point presidential hopeful Senators Hillary Clinton (D-NY ), along with Joe Lieberman (independent), Evan Bayh (D-IN) and Republican Senator Sam Brownback, took the time to write a letter to the ESRB rating board. In the letter they're suggesting that it might be in their best interest to reconsider their rating system. The politicizations stated that "it may be desirable to revise or enhance the current ESRB rating system."

It seems that they're not happy about the re-rating of Manhunt 2, in which ESRB gave the game a M for Mature rating instead of the original AO Adults Only rating.

Way to go Hillary!!!

Instead of concerning yourself with making REAL streets safe, you and the other morons have chosen the easy path of going after a video game rating company. It would be nice if you would concern yourself about REAL violence instead of video game ratings. Where is that letter to law officials about how our streets are not safe, and what you plan on doing about it? Or are you worried that going after those groups may cost you votes?

'Team Fortress 2' Beta Video

If you're a fan of Counter Strike and all the on-line ass kick'n, you might want to take a look at this. Team Fortress 2 beta is in testing, and there is a little footage for you. I have to say, some of the screams, calls for medics, remind me of some old retro games I use to play.

Check it out.

Courtesy of G4TV.

'World in Conflict': Game Preview

Were you a fan of the '80's when the cold war was in full swing? What if the Berlin Wall didn't get torn down, and the cold war went hot? Well 'World In Conflict' is the game that explores the 'what if' side of the cold war.

What if we had gone to war with the Soviet Union?

Take a look....

'Kane and Lynch: Dead Men' Trailer

Lately this has become game trailer central, but I'm not going to apologize because there are a lot of ass kickin games coming out. Such is the case with 'Kane and Lynch: Dead Men', which has a style similar to the movie 'Heat'. It looks like it will be out for the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360, sorry Wii.

Check it out courtesy of G4TV.

Jack Thompson Angry About 'BioShock' Ad

Looks like our favorite anti-game violence attorney Jack Thompson is back at it again. This time he's pissed because the makers of 'BioShock' advertised during the WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment). Thompson feels that this is a 'teen intensive' time slot, and a violent game shouldn't be advertised during the WWE time slot.

Huh?

"Take-Two… is aggressively marketing its newest Mature-rated video game to kids under 17 years of age...The video game industry running ads for games like BioShock on teen-intensive television programs while at the same time its industry-captured 'watchdog,' the ESRB, is running a self-congratulatory ad campaign to assure parents that the video game ratings system is working and that the industry can be trusted not to target their kids with these Mature-rated games. It is all a lie, as the BioShock ads prove.sing an M rated game during Friday night's Friday Night War wrestling show was "

Guess wrestling fans can't handle all that pretend violence. And on top of that, it's 2K who made 'BioShock' not Take-Two you moron!!!! If you're going to write a letter complaining about a company, at least get the right company.

Jack Thompson Shocked by Bioshock TV Ads [Gamepolitics via G4TV]

Analysts: PS3 Will Out Sell Xbox 360 By July

Might be brighter days ahead for the PS3, or so says analysts Michael Pachte from Wedbush Morgan Securities and SimExchange's Jesse Divnich. Both believe that the PS3 will out sell the Xbox 360 by July of next year, due to the price drop of the PS3 and the hardware issues that the Xbox 360 is facing.

Both Analysts think that when the NPD Group's sales numbers are released on Thursday, it'll show PS3 sales at 160,000 (Pachter) and 165,000 (Divnich). They predict the Xbox 360, will sell between 115,000 and 142,000.

Of course both systems will be crushed by the Wii, but we don't count that as a real game system. That's a joke Wii heads!!!!

Analysts predict bounce in July NPD figures [Gamespot via G4TV]

No End In Site For Wii Shortage

In the never ending argument of which next-gen console is better than the other, in terms of sales there is an already clear winner- the Nintendo Wii. Sales are through the roof and even now it's hard to find the unit in any stores. And the drought is likely to continue:

From Digitimes: "Due to the tight supply of components such as IC chips and PCBs, Nintendo's plans to expand production of its Wii games console, originally set for June, have been delayed, according to Taiwan-based component makers,"

So expect long lines this holiday season and for the Wii's price on ebay to continue to be high. Most likely this will again be the must have, but hard to find gift.

Nintendo delays Wii expansion plans [Digitimes via G4TV]