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Plants vs. Zombies

If there’s anything that scares me more that the Conservative government, it’s zombies.  Vampires, werewolves, poltergeists, Brian Mulroney - those things I can deal with.  But zombies?  Man, I can watch zombie movies in the middle of the day, with the sun shining and children laughing and playing outside, and I’m still going to be up until the very wee hours planning my escape route and how I’m going to survive if/when the zombies come.

That wouldn’t be the case if they were all as easy to kill as the zombies in PopCap Games’ popular iPod game, Plants vs. Zombies.  In fact, they’re so easy to take out, you can do it with nothing more than a well-stocked garden.

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Posted in Mac, PC, Reviews, Xbox 360, iPhone, iPod Touch | No Comments »

Video
Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands

Let’s say you love Prince of Persia but just can’t stomach any more soft-focused publicity images of Chesty Jake. Good news! Ubisoft has your PoP fix sans Gyllenhaal.

Check out this gameplay trailer (complete with developer commentary) and prepare to be enthralled by the Prince yet again. What’s not to love about parkour mixed with elemental control and lots of baddies?

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Posted in Awesome, DS, DSi, Microsoft, News Bytes, PSP, PlayStation 3, Videos, Wii, Xbox 360 | 2 Comments »

In ʘur Sights
Sniper: Ghost Warrior

Anyone has ever listened to one of our Thumbscasts would know that I am a big fan of snipers. In almost every war-like FPS-type game that allows you to choose a class, I will be hanging back in the bushes or the trees picking off clueless people with abandon thanks to a very powerful rifle.

So what is the first thought that enters my mind when I find out that City Interactive is releasing a game in which the main character is a sniper? Hell yes!

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Posted in Microsoft, PC, Previews, Xbox 360 | No Comments »

Late to the Party
Assassin’s Creed

As many of our readers know, I’m late to the party for a lot of things. Assassin’s Creed by Ubisoft was one of those games that I was never interested in; whether the marketing didn’t reach me, or I wasn’t really looking for it, I never bothered to pick it up. What little I saw of it showed a hooded man running around the Middle-East, parkour style, murdering people. As a concept, that did not appeal to me.

Of course, I was completely wrong. Drawn into the display at the 2009 Sony Holiday Preview Event, I got to watch Assassin’s Creed II. Not only was it spectacular to behold, it also included an actual plot! Of course, after this I did some reading and realize that there was far, far more to this franchise than I initially thought. My timing could not have been more perfect to purchase the game, too, as it had just attained Greatest Hits status.

While my overall feelings about this game are positive (I would recommend it to anyone that enjoyed a good story), the experience did have moments that were trying, and I will deal with those up front so that I can end on the note that I ended on when I finally finished the game.

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Posted in PC, PlayStation 3, Reviews, Xbox 360 | 2 Comments »

Mega Man 10
Weapons Revealed

When Mega Man defeats the eight robot masters in Mega Man 10, he’ll be able to power up and use the following weapons: Chill Spike, Commando Bomb (shown above), Rebound Striker, Solar Blaze, Thunder Wool, Triple Blade, Water Shield, and Wheel Cutter. You can see all the artwork in our Mega Man 10 gallery.

Whether or not most gamers will be able to make it through all the bosses is another question. I’m guessing a lot of people may eventually resort to the Easy mode to avoid too much frustration. The game will be released on WiiWare first March 1, followed by its PSN release March 11 before releasing on Xbox LIVE Arcade March 31.

Posted in Gallery, News Bytes, PlayStation 3, WiiWare, Xbox 360 | No Comments »

PEW! PEW! PEW!
LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars Announced

Good news for Star Wars fans: Today LucasArts and TT Games announced that LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars is in development and scheduled to hit all platforms this fall. Awesome.

I’ve been a fan of the console LEGO games since picking up the prequel-based LEGO Star Wars for the GameCube years ago. The human characters actually had yellow faces back then, much like real minifigs! I wonder what happened.

While I’ve only played the LEGO Star Wars games and LEGO Batman, I have the utmost confidence that they’re well-designed console platformers. I can’t speak well for the DS counterparts since LEGO Star Wars II was by far the worst DS game I’ve ever tried to play.

That negativity aside, I’m especially stoked about seeing what TT does with The Clone Wars franchise. I still can’t figure out when this new animated series is supposed to take place, considering the fact that the original 2D highly-stylized Clone Wars cartoon spanned from the end of the film Attack of the Clones right up to the beginning of Revenge of the Sith. Does Lucasfilm wish to ignore the first series as it wishes to ignore the amazing Droids and Ewoks cartoons?

TT Games is promising that this will be the most action-packed LEGO game to date. It’ll feature all the characters from the show’s first two seasons (it’s currently in season two) as well as other characters from elsewhere in the saga. The game’s also said to contain new modes of play, including a battle mode allowing for head-to-head fighting, a level builder, and an interesting-sounding feature called “Lightsabre slicing.”

If you can’t wait till the fall to get some LEGO Clone Wars action, check out this cute Unity-based online game where you play as Anakin on a rescue mission to find R2-D2.

Posted in Awesome, DS, DSi, News Bytes, PC, PSP, PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360 | No Comments »

Halo Legends
Clip from “The Babysitter”

Warner Home Video is kicking up the promotion of Halo Legends, the upcoming seven-story animated anthology that explores the origin historical events of the Halo universe. Today Warner released the opening clip from the episode titled “The Babysitter,” which was animated by Studio 4oC, directed by Toshiyuki Kanno, and produced by Eiko Tanaka.

Halo Legends was produced by Microsoft Game Studios’ 343 Industries subdivision. It will be released on DVD and Blu-Ray February 16, 2010. In other Halo Legends news, Warner is running a fancy sweepstakes where fans can enter to win a trip to 343 Industries, among many other cool prizes.

Watch the clip »

Posted in Art, Awesome, Cartoons, Microsoft | No Comments »

Sega Reveals Sonic The Hedgehog 4
Thankfully it doesn’t have Genesis Graphics

Big news this morning: Sega’s formerly-mysterious Project Needlemouse is indeed Sonic the Hedgehog 4. The side-scrolling adventure will be available as a digital download and will be released as a series of episodes. The first episode will be available this summer via PlayStation Network, Xbox Live Arcade, and WiiWare.

The game is said to pick up the storyline from Sonic & Knuckles, with Sonic being capable of performing his classic move set. The Wii and PS3 versions of the game will also feature tilt controls.

Via 4 Color Rebellion

Posted in Awesome, News Bytes, PSN, Sega, WiiWare, Xbox 360 | 2 Comments »

Box Art
Mega Man 10

Mega Man 10 will be a digital download title for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Wii. But in the tradition of its predecessor, Capcom has released some retro-styled box art for the game. We’ve seen a take on this a while back when the game’s announcement was in Nintendo Power, but here’s the full thing. Pretty cool!

Want a super high resolution version? Here you go.

Posted in Art, Awesome, PlayStation 3, WiiWare, Xbox 360 | 2 Comments »

Super Street Fighter IV
Box Art and Release Date

Is it too early to start lining up outside my favourite game store? Super Street Fighter IV will be released on April 27, 2010 for both Xbox 360 and PS3. The updated game includes new characters, new costumes, new stages, new ultra combos, and new ways to be defeated in mere seconds online. I think I’ll stick with Blanka and Ken, but I’m still looking forward to getting my hands on the game.

Posted in Art, Awesome, News Bytes, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 | No Comments »