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To the gaming community: Japan needs our help

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We know that gaming is about more than just playing a character, following a storyline, and shooting zombies. A part of the beauty in gaming is in the community spirit. Whether it’s online gaming, walking into your local retailer, or tweeting/Facebooking developers and publishers, the gaming community is by far one of the most friendly out there.

We help fellow gamers when they’re stuck in a game and we help confused players with technical difficulties. Now the gaming community faces one of the biggest challenges a community can face: it’s time for us to help an entire country.

Japan has given us games such as Pokemon and Final Fantasy and fuelled much development across all areas of technology. The country and its people have faced a great crisis, and need support to rebuild and repair the damages to homes, companies, and lives. Even if you can only spare a few dollars, it’s still worth it knowing you have given back a little bit to a nation that has given us so much.

Every cent of donation will go to a nation that is in great need of help and support. Let them know that the gaming community cares.

Donate at one of these organisations:

Australian Red Cross

Mercy Corps

Medical Teams International

Medecins Sans Frontieres

If you donate, send us an email with how much you donate (receipt proof required) to [email protected] and you will earn extra cube points to be spent on awesome rewards here.

Main Donate Page here

DJ Hero 2 – Indie Hip Hop Mix Pack

Do you enjoy pretending to be a DJ? Need more songs to mix? Activision has released 3 brand new mixes for DJ Hero 2 in the Indie Hip Hop Mix Pack. So pick up your turntable peripherals and get scratching!

Indie Hip Hop Mix Pack (available now):

  • ā€œMy World Premiereā€ by Charizma & Peanut Butter Wolf Mixed With ā€œThe Red (Instrumental)ā€ by Jaylib
  • ā€œParty Hardā€ by The Perceptionists ft. Guru & Camu TaoĀ  Mixed With ā€œGhostwriterā€ by RJD2
  • ā€œThe Best Dayā€ by Atmosphere (Remix by FSG)

 

The Indie Hip Hop Mix Pack is available on Xbox LIVE Marketplace for Microsoft for 640 Microsoft Points and on the PlayStation network for around $8.
All of the tracks will be released as downloadable singles for Wii for 300 Wii Points each.

Latest Dead Island screenshots show a devistated paradise

After years of releasing absolutely zero information about the game and then that amazingly memorable trailer, Techland’s Dead Island is looking better than ever. Deep Silver released a few more screenshots today that show off the picturesque island setting that the game will take place on.

Of course it would be picturesque if it wasn’t for all of the blood on the ground there by those lounge chairs. Also it looks like the beach has seen better days. But wait a second… is that a giant zombie looking thing in a straitjacket and wearing some sort of mask on its face? Yes… that is exactly what it looks like. It seems there is much more than normal zombies to deal with on Dead Island.


FEZ finally to see release in 2011

As anyone can tell you, the two things I love are platformers and retro games. You can imagine then how excited I have been the last few years about the impending release of FEZ. It may seem like a lifetime ago that FEZ first came on the scene, and some may have given up waiting for it all together. Today, however, it was announced that POLYTRON, the independent studio that created FEZ, and Trapdoor, an independent Montreal based developer, will be partnering up to bring FEZ to the Xbox Live Arcade in 2011.

After three years of anticipation since its debut at the 2008 Independent Games Festival, where FEZ won the Excellence in Visual Art award, we may finally get a chance to play this game. Described as a quirky combination between Super Paper Mario and Echochrome, FEZ is a rather unique platformer with a fantastically charming retro style. Hopefully there won’t be any hiccups with Microsoft’s often rather stringent protocols for its downloadable service, and if all goes according to plan we should have our hands on FEZ before the comingĀ apocalypse!

Shadows of the Damned boxart revealed

With a release date set its apparently time to show off what the box will look like so that way when Shadows of the Damned comes out in stores you know what you will be looking for. Today EA and Grasshopper Manufacture have released the boxart for the game, with the PS3 version and the Xbox 360 version sharing the same image.

As you can see to the right the image contains protagonist Garcia Hotspur in a purple leather jacket and pointing his skull-headed gun towards you. With Shadows of the damned being the latest creation of developer Suda 51 and Grasshopper it certianly looks like the game will be one to enjoy this summer when it comes out on June 7th.

Homefront sells 375k in first day; online servers being buffed up

THQ may not be having a good time on the stock market right now with a stock price still down from where it was before Homefront’s release but apparently sales of their most pre-ordered game ever are good enough for them. THQ is claiming “robust” first day sales in the U.S. and have stated that they have sold around 375,000 units.

While two million units is still far away it is a relatively good start that for the game. THQ VP Danny Bilson stated that “Due to the strong and growing demand for Homefront’s multiplayer, we continue to add dedicated server capacity,” which means that you may be able to find a multiplayer match even easier. Brian Farrell also stated that: “We are delighted with first day sales for Homefront and are already fulfilling re-orders for the game from multiple retailers.” My money is that those retailers are Walmart and Amazon.

Swarm Coming Next Week to XBLA and PSN

Swarm has gone gold and given a definitive release date in both Europe and the US for both the PS3 and Xbox360. Swarm will be comingĀ  on March 23 on XBLA and March 22 on PSN in North America. Sadly, Europeans will have to wait until March 30 to get it on PSN. You can take control of the blue swarmites for the cost of 1200 Microsoft Points on Xbox and $14.99 on PSN. If you are a PlayStation Plus member you can get it for the reduced amount of $12.99.

At first glance it may seem like a Pikmin type game where you have to use the Swarm to complete tasks, but it is actually more of a platformer. A platformer where you get bonus points for getting to the next checkpoint with the least amount of Swarmites ALIVE, MUHAHAHAHA!

Stay tuned for our review of the game very soon.

Bungie Cares initiative offers aid to Japan


In the wake of the recent trifecta of disasters Japan has been facing in the last week, several companies and organizations have made attempts to lend a helping hand in one way or another. Bungie, creators of Halo, Marathon, and Myth, have stepped up once again to do their part. Similar to their relief campaigns for the Haitian earthquake and Hurricane Katrina victims, Bungie will be attempting to raise money for the people of Japan.

The Bungie Store will be selling specially designed wristbands for 5 USD, all of the proceeds from which will be donated directly to the Japan relief effort. They will also be donating all of the profits from their online store to the relief effort from now until April 30th of this year. That means that any money you spend on awesome Bungie swag in the next 6 weeks will go straight to helping out those in need in the Land of the Rising Sun.

The bracelets, as shown above, are in light blue and have both English and Japanese embossed letters on the front and back. The Japanese characters on the front read “Ganbare Nippon!”, a popular expression used to cheer someone on or to lift one’s spirit (roughly translated as “Hang in there, Japan”, although very roughly). Bungie has also ensured that these bands can be purchased by international supporters, so no matter where you live, feel free to head on over to the Bungie Store and pick one up.

Wipeout in the Zone announced for Kinect this summer

The popular ABC channel game show Wipeout will be getting a game outside of the Wii this time. Activision has acquired a licensing partnership with ABC and the show’s producer Endemol to bring us Wipeout In the Zone for Kinect. Wipeout is a widely popular obstacle course game show where contestants must navigate the course with the fastest time in order to advance.

The game will feature the “infamous ‘Big Balls'” that the original show is known for and often jokes about as well as 30 different obstacles that make Kinect users have to dive, dip, duck, dodge, and run through every obstacle that they come across. Unfortunately from the looks of the first screenshots released for the game it bears a striking resemblance to the previously released free XBLA game Doritos Crash Course… just with Kinect use added in.

Homefront price drops to $42 at Walmart, Amazon; THQ stock down 25%

Well this is not good news for THQ considering they have stated previously that Homefront must ship 2 million copies to break even. Just one day after Homefront was released in stores in the United States Walmart has decided to “roll back” prices on the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game. This isn’t a simple $5 or $10 price drop either but a full drop down to $41.96.

In an effort to keep their prices as competitive as they can with the competition Amazon.com has also dropped down copies of the game for those two consoles to the price of only $41.96. The cost has never been cheaper to fight for your homeland. Of course day after release price drops are never a good sign for publishers and THQ’s stock has fallen by nearly 26% at the time of writing this since the game’s release. This news comes as a surprise considering it was also previously said that Homefront was THQ’s most pre-ordered game ever.