http://bigblog.com/video_games.html The latest in Video Games http://www.totalvideogames.com/news/Pitfall_Harry_Swings_Onto_Wii_13208_7556_0.htm Marking a return to one of its older brands, Activision today announced Pitfall: The Big Adventure exclusively for Wii. http://www.videogamer.com/news/12-05-2008-8203.html Ever since Nintendo tore up the gaming rule book with the Wii and the DS, scores of traditionally hardcore game publishers have tried to tap into this succulent, juicy new market with its own casual gaming offering. Now, finally, Electronic Arts, one of gaming's giants, has jumped on the money train with its EA Casual label. VideoGamer.com caught up with Russell Arons, EA Casual's marketing VP, to talk Boom Blox, the hardcore versus casual divide and why casual gaming may one day become EA's main focus. http://play.tm/story/18079 Pitfall: The Big Adventure has this afternoon been announced by Activision, the publisher promising a Wii title developed by Edge of Reality. http://play.tm/story/18078 The network is the brainchild of Shawn Fanning, we hear, and EA have invested a whopping 30 million USD to acquire the website. http://www.gamesradar.com/ps3/playstation-3/news/mmos-to-be-a-selling-point-for-ps3-says-sony/a-20080512114833478089/g-20060314115917309058 Sony has declared its intentions to feature online games at the forefront of its PlayStation 3 strategy in the future. http://www.gamesradar.com/pc/pc/news/intels-price-cuts-are-hidden-treasure-to-gamers/a-20080512113854269067/g-2006032219817514003 The PC Gamer reader mail bag - well, I wish it was still a bag, like the kind rock stars used to get from their fans and People magazine would photograph them waist-deep in letters addressed by hand and covered in stickers and lipstick prints - is still overflowing with anxious letters from readers who are feeling a little, you know, inadequate in the processor department. Some of them want to know if they should go from AMD to Intel or Intel to AMD; some want to know if they should go from dual-core to quad-core; and in extreme cases, some want to know if they should go from single-core to multi-core. http://www.gamesradar.com/ds/skate-it/news/skate-spin-off-coming-to-ds-wii-skate-2-confirmed/a-20080512125459415099/g-2008051212628741021 Electronic Arts is set to bring a spin-off from Skate for both Wii and DS, tentatively titled Skate It. http://www.gamesradar.com/wii/wii/news/miyamoto-us-best-at-creating-unique-products/a-2008051211531186076/g-20060308165433320026 Shigeru Miyamoto has given the US some love, saying that American indie developers are better than those in his native country of Japan. http://uk.videogames.games.yahoo.com/10/news/xbox-360-major-news-leaked-a6fb10.html Microsoft is rumoured to unveil a motion-sensing controller for Xbox 360 at a US press event this week, alongside these Viva Piata and Banjo Kazooie sequels. http://www.totalgaming.co.uk/games/story.php?id=1532 Total Gaming Home | Gaming News | Gaming Features | Game Reviews | Game Previews | Gaming Tips and Cheats | Gaming Forum | Arcade Games http://play.tm/story/18076 Jump Back Into the Action With Assault Heroes 2, Exploding Onto Xbox LIVE Arcade This Wednesday http://play.tm/story/18077 Jump Back Into the Action With Assault Heroes 2, Exploding Onto Xbox LIVE Arcade This Wednesday http://www.totalvideogames.com/news/Blizzard_Unveils_BlizzCon_2008_13207_5447_0.htm Blizzard Entertainment today confirmed the third BlizzCon gaming convention, scheduled to take place between October 10th and 11th at the Anaheim Convention Center in California. http://www.gamesradar.com/ps3/metal-gear-solid-4-guns-of-the-patriots/news/metal-gear-solid-4-the-first-review-is-out/a-20080512143146234035/g-20051216153655522074 Metal Gear Solid 4. Looks like it's going to be good, doesn't it? But just how good, exactly? Just "Hmmm, this is fun, I'm glad I did buy a PS3 now" good? Or perhaps "There you go Hideo. My first-born child in recompense for this audio-visual wonder you have kindly bestowed upon my life" good? http://uk.videogames.games.yahoo.com/6a/news/metal-gear-4-pre-order-promos-revealed-27f76a.html There was a time when it looked like all wed ever see of Metal Gear Solid 4 was the occasional trailer that may or may not have included actual gameplay footage. However, those days are gone, happily MGS4 looks every bit as good as wed hoped and the games preparing to land on UK shelves on June 12th. Better still Konamis just announced a couple of cool retail-type initiatives. http://uk.videogames.games.yahoo.com/70/news/bioshock-traps-pirates-of-the-caribbean-director-749470.html Gore Verbinski will direct and produce the movie of blockbuster FPS BioShock while the services of The Aviator are being secured. http://www.avault.com/?p=2494 Since its 1992 debut in arcades, Midways Mortal Kombat has been acclaimed by players and denounced by livid parents. The super violent fatalities and finishing moves put it front and center as a must-play arcade game, but those same moves also fueled parent groups, which used what they deemed as a growing out-of-control level of violence in videogames to help form a formal ratings system. http://www.mygamer.com/index.php?page=globalnews&mode=viewnews&id=2905 Any self respecting Xbox 360 gamer knows and loves the Epic Games shooter Gears of War. And with this knowledge, every 360 gamer should also know that Gears of War's "epic" sequel is due out this November. So to keep everyone's appetite for all things Gears related healthy, a new trailer demoing the Gears of War 2 gameplay is now available on Xbox Live Marketplace. http://www.totalvideogames.com/news/SKATE_Sequel_Confirmed_With_Wii_Balance_Board_Features_13205_7554_0.htm EA Games confirms development of a sequel is underway and making an appearance on Wii and DS this time... http://www.totalvideogames.com/news/echochrome_UMD_Demo_Giveaway_13204_6840_0.htm TVG has teamed up with Sony Computer Entertainment Europe to giveaway 2000 UMD demo copies of the utterly innovative and genuinely brilliant echochrome. http://www.mygamer.com/index.php?page=globalnews&mode=viewnews&id=2906 DICE, a studio of Electronic Arts recently announced that a demo for Battlefield: Bad Company will be available on Xbox LIVE Marketplace and Playstation Store on June 5th. In the demo "Players will land on the battlefield as part of the B or Bad Company, a wayward band of soldiers more interested in the pursuit of gold and personal financial gain than following the rules. Gamers will get a sneak peek at how tactical destruction changes the way shooters are played, both offline and online in the single player and multiplayer demo." Gamers can play the demo early by pre-ordering the game through participating retailers. http://www.totalvideogames.com/news/EA_Secures_1B_Additional_Funding_13199_0_0.htm Filings with the SEC revealed late last week that EA has secured an additional $1billion of funding from Morgan Stanley Senior Funding, Inc., Morgan Stanley Bank, BNP Paribas, BNP Paribas Securities Corp., The Bank of Nova Scotia and KeyBank National Association. http://www.avault.com/?p=2489 Everyday Shooter, the independent musical shooter developed by Jonathan Mak, made its worldwide PC debut Friday via Steam. Winner of numerous Independent Game Festival Awards including Design Innovation, Everyday Shooter is everything but what its name implies. Drawing upon a mixture of arcade shooter gameplay styles, Everyday Shooter offers both a wide variety of challenges and an all-guitar soundtrack, including procedurally generated guitar riffs that it employs instead of traditional game sound effects. http://www.mpogd.com/news/?ID=3665 Over the past year, we've been keeping a rather large secret. We have been working on a complete graphical rework of RuneScape, which is looking truly spectacular. There's no need to take our word for it: look at the images below and see for yourself. http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3167761 Welcome to This Week in WTF?! Remember those insane Japanese Arnold Schwarzenegger commercials for some sort of crazy energy drink? Imagine that madness distilled into videogame news form, and you'll have some idea of what I have to deal with every week.