Joystiq [Xbox]

Conan O' Brien thinks Avatar: The Game was rushed

by Griffin McElroy { 3 hours ago }

There's a good reason why we never went into late-night comedy: We really didn't want to compete against lanky comic genius Conan O' Brien. We thought writing about (and, more often than not, making fun of) video games would be a career path where we'd never have to compete with the gargantuan Irish host -- unfortunately, in a recent episode of Late Night, Conan managed to encroach on our territory, making a joke at the expense of the recently released (and tepidly received) Avatar: The Game.

Check out the video of Conan's gag after the jump while we consider another career choice -- one that will definitely be devoid of Conan competition. (We're thinking about horse whispering. Seems pretty safe, right?)

[Via Kotaku]

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Fight Night Round 4 DLC pulled due to freezing issues

by Griffin McElroy { 4 hours ago }

Boxing fans who were hoping to enhance their sweet, sweet scientific exploits in Fight Night Round 4 for the Xbox 360 were recently stricken with disappointment -- the game's latest DLC, the "Champions Pack 2," hit the Xbox Live Marketplace with a fairly problematic issue which caused the system to freeze up while downloading the content. This is doubly troubling, because as we understand it, downloading is actually a pretty important step in the DLC process.

EA Sports commented on the error on its official forums, stating that the DLC has been pulled from the Marketplace until a non-glitched version can be rolled out, hopefully "before the Christmas holidays." People who managed to download the DLC without freezing can still play the game, but won't be able to access the pack's locked content until the revised DLC is released. People who managed to download half of the DLC pack before freezing can play as Evander Holyfield's torso.

Capcom employee recreates Fable II's Fortune's Tower pub game

by Griffin McElroy { 6 hours ago }

This has to be the most endearing display of cross-developer love we've seen during our games writing careers. Capcom's Shawn Baxter (a.k.a. "Snow,") recently posted on the company's community blog about his latest D.I.Y. project -- a real-life version of Fortune's Tower, one of the pub games featured in Fable II. Oh, and in Fable II Pub Games, though you probably didn't need us to tell you that.

Words can't really describe this two-month, $400 project as well as pictures, so hop on over to Capcom's blog and check out the delectable fruits of Baxter's labor. If you're of a crafty ilk, the post also contains a few blueprints you can follow to make your own Fortune's Tower set. We probably won't post about yours, though. This is a one-time thing.

Tim Schafer talks Brutal Legend, critical response, and DLC

by Ben Gilbert { 1 day ago }

Brütal Legend may have had a smaller-than-expected impact during the game's first month on shelves, but Double Fine head Tim Schafer remains nonplussed. In fact, he hasn't even seen the numbers yet, instead choosing to wait "'til after Christmas," he recently told GamePro. "I like to give it time, you know? I think many people look too soon but a lot of games I've worked on have succeeded based on word of mouth," he explained. And despite somewhat disappointed responses from critics, Schafer said he was happy "for the most part" with how the game was received.

While he's still not talking specifics, the idea of more downloadable content is clearly one Schafer's interested in. "We definitely want to do more DLC for both single-player and multiplayer, as well as some tuning patches," he said, and added that the developers are still watching multiplayer online to see what needs fixing. We're betting it won't be too long before we hear what the folks at Double Fine have in mind.

Gallery: Brutal Legend (10-13-09)

More Green Day headed to Rock Band

by Richard Mitchell { 1 day ago }

In simple terms, Green Day and Rock Band are friends. There have already been several Green Day tracks released for Harmonix's musically inclined baby and it was announced today that even more are on their way later this month. Starting December 15 on the Wii and Xbox 360 – and December 17 on the Playstation 3 – players will be able to grab three new Green Day tracks from the band's 21st Century Breakdown album: "Christian's Inferno," "Last of the American Girls," and "¡Viva La Gloria!". The tracks will be available individually for $1.99 / 160

/ 200 Wii points. The full track pack will be available on PS3 and Xbox 360 for $5.49 / 440

PSA: Halo Legends delivers third free episode, titled 'The Package'

by Ben Gilbert { 1 day ago }

Another Saturday has arrived, and with it another free episode of Halo Legends on the Xbox Live Marketplace. For 24 hours only (of course it won't be on the internet afterward!), you can catch an anime'd up Master Chief delivering "The Package" with four "specially selected Spartans."

Today's episode is the first half of a two-parter (concluding on December 12), so be sure to catch it or be left lonely and confused when next week arrives. Or you could always just wait until the whole shebang arrives on Blu-ray this February 9.

Scivelation dev explains title, story motivations

by Ben Gilbert { 1 day ago }

Ever since we first picked up word about TopWare Interactive's upcoming shooter Scivelation, we've been puzzled on how to speak about the game. Sure, we didn't know a ton about Scivelation itself other than a scant few words on the game's premise and a vague release window of Q3 2010, but we were much more troubled by the fact that we couldn't actually pronounce the title. So we asked TopWare Interactive managing director James Seaman to clarify the title's pronunciation, as well as to tell us a bit more about the game itself.

"Scivelation (Sigh-vuh-ley-shun) is a contraction of two words; Science and Revelation. Thus, Scivelation deals with a Scientific Revelation within the universe that we've created," Seaman told Joystiq. And while the setting (a "post-Apocalyptic" world) has been done a few times recently, he promised us a different take on the backdrop with Scivelation, and even cited Phillip K. Dick and Robert Heinlein as inspiration. "Though Scivelation deals with issues of societal breakdown and the world in chaos, humanity has reached the pinnacle of technological advancements. This combination of science fiction and dystopian society comes from our great love of many classic literary works." It remains to be seen whether or not TopWare Interactive's upcoming game will impress us, but at least now we know how to say its name correctly. Read Seaman's whole explanation of Scivelation after the break.

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JBO: Joystiq Box Office, November 30 - December 4

by Kevin Kelly { 2 days ago }

We can't be gaming all the time, despite our best efforts, and from time to time we'll actually take advantage of the movie-playing abilities on our gaming systems. JBO features our top picks for XBL, PSN, Netflix's Watch Instantly and Blu-ray each week.

Recommendation of the Week:

Star Trek: The Original Series (Blu-ray, all three seasons, prices vary)
All three seasons of Star Trek: The Original Series will be available as of December 15, which is when Season Three comes out. Besides the awesome bloopers and flubs, it also has the entire unaired original Trek pilot in the set. Bizarrely, this was the original opening monologue: "Enterprise log, Captain James Kirk commanding. We are leaving that vast cloud of stars and planets which we call our galaxy. Behind us, Earth, Mars, Venus, even our sun are specks of dust. A question: What is out there in the black void beyond? Until now, our mission has been that of space law regulation, contact with Earth colonies and investigation of alien life. But now, a new task. A probe out into where no man has gone before." Seems like a good thing they changed it. "A probe out into" is a bit much. Trek has never, ever looked or sounded (there's a new 7.1 mix!) better, and you can pick this up in a box set, or get the individual seasons. Beam us up.

Read on for the rest of the recommendations, and as usual, we'll see you at the popcorn sta -- well, actually, we won't see you at all. But you catch our drift. Plus, be sure to tell us what you'll be watching, or what you've seen recently that bowled you over.

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8 million played Modern Warfare 2 in its first week

by Richard Mitchell { 2 days ago }

There's not really much more to say, is there? Publisher Activision notes that the 8 million folks dabbled in Modern Warfare 2 during its first week of release, which outnumbers basically every major organized army on the planet, Activision gloats. Obviously, the publisher forgot to factor in Antarctica's Grand Army of the Penguins' Republic, currently numbering in the tens of millions but, in the interest of celebration, we're willing to overlook this oversight.

On a side note, this is good news for Electronic Arts, because there's obviously a market for these newfangled war games.

THQ already planning Homefront 2

by Justin McElroy { 2 days ago }

We have a hard enough time remembering which FPS Homefront is (it's the one that is basically Red Dawn, if you're curious) and THQ is apparently already thinking about the followup. According to Gamespot, THQ's core gaming chief Danny Bilson told the FBR Capital Markets 2009 Fall Investor Conference "It's the beginning of a story. We're going to tell this like a serial, with cliff-hangers. And then we intend to continue the story in [downloadable content], until we go to Homefront 2."

The question that will remain unanswered until Homefront ships is, of course, will we be willing to go with them?

Gallery: Homefront

Rumor: Assassin's Creed 2 glitch breaks the game

by David Hinkle { 2 days ago }

Now that Assassin's Creed II has been out amongst the crowds, slinking its way into millions of consoles, gamers are stumbling upon some of its secrets. While you may be stuck tracking down those last few feathers, others are discovering ancient beasts and, according to CVG, game-breaking glitches.

Some gamers apparently found themselves stuck controlling Desmond in the Hideout after DNA Sequence 11, a direct result of shutting off their system after the game autosaved. When they later booted the game back up, they were unable to return to the Animus and continue Ezio's 15th century adventure. CVG didn't comment on whether this was affecting Xbox 360 or PS3 gamers, or both.

We've contacted Ubisoft to see if this is the first it's heard of the issue and also urge you to contact us if you've encountered it.

Mass Effect 2 goes for challenge and sophistication, not pampering

by Xav de Matos { 2 days ago }

Mass Effect 2 producer Adrien Cho thinks developers are pampering players, making games much easier now than in previous generations. "It goes back to that learning mechanism of "Well, I tried this – it didn't work. I'm going to try something different." And I think that's going to be something in Mass Effect 2, we don't want it to be a cakewalk, you want a challenge," he told Video Games Daily.

Using the brutally difficult From Software title Demon's Souls as an example, Cho says hardcore players today want to earn progress in games. "I think gamers want a more sophisticated game, they don't want a breezy game where you see all the cinematics and just put in your hours and play it through." According to Cho, Mass Effect 2 aims to give players a healthy dose of challenge and sophistication when it launches early next year. We're all for hard work and challenge, but our idea of sophistication doesn't include the ancient mechanic of trial and error.

Charity XBLA game Chime's gameplay explained in latest trailer

by Griffin McElroy { 2 days ago }

What's the only thing more satisfying than aligning colorful blocks on a rectangular grid while simultaneously recreating pleasant ambient tunes from musical artists such as Moby? Simple -- doing so while simultaneously donating to charity. That's the package that OneBigGame and Zoe Mode will offer on XBLA at some point this winter, when their music/puzzle game Chime lands on the XBLA.

Though we've known about this non-profit puzzler for a month now, we've yet to see the title in action. Fortunately, OneBigGame dropped a gameplay demonstration video earlier today, which we've posted above. Yeah, sure, it's got a few aesthetic similarities to Lumines, but considering all the proceeds from the game go to Save the Children and Starlight Children's foundation, we're not going to raise a stink about it. We think saving children is like, the coolest thing you can possibly do.

No More Heroes: Heroes' Paradise footage is light on gameplay, heavy on badassery

by David Hinkle { 2 days ago }

Japanese publisher Marvelous just uploaded a quite lengthy and quite new trailer for the Xbox 360 and PS3 port of No More Heroes. It's all in Japanese, but it speaks the universal languages of crazy bosses and near-naked-babe quite well.

Aside from that, it also shows how much better the game looks compared to its Wii counterpart -- all of those Ps really make a difference. Be sure to check out the last few seconds of the trailer, which show us the Japanese version of the game just may not be censored after all. The original censored Wii game certainly didn't have that much blood in it!

Rock Band Weekly: Slipknot, Simon & Garfunkel, Lights Resolve

by Ben Gilbert { 2 days ago }

Harmonix and MTV Games are dropping a couple of classic Simon & Garfunkel tracks alongside the first Slipknot track pack this coming week as DLC, appealing to that very specific crossover niche of people who like 30-year-old folk music yet like to go blackout partying on the weekends. Take out your terrifying masks and acoustic guitars, folks. It's going to be a weird one. Check out all the tracks for the upcoming week after the break.

Select a platform below to view complete DLC listing: