With the goal of being totally truthful to you, our faithful readers, I will readily admit that I did not spend a lot of time playing the current version of the game I am about to review. There are several reasons for this: 1. It’s really, really simple and short. There’s not a lot to it. Honestly. 2. It’s repetitive, but in a good way, because it’s so damn addicting. And finally, 3. I spent so much time playing these games when I was little that I knew exactly what was going on as soon as I turned on my DS.

Blast from the past

You want to talk old school? How about pre-DS, pre-Gameboy, pre-NE-frickin-S for that matter! The Game & Watch Collection - a Club Nintendo Exclusive for the Nintendo DS - brings three games that were released in 1982 back for your present-day enjoyment. You may be wondering, “How were these games released, though, if there weren’t any platforms on which to play them?” Well, firstly, thanks for asking that, and second, read your history books, junior.

It’s on like… well, you get the idea.
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Summary: A deeply immersive sci-fi survival horror game about kicking major undead arse in space. Dead space.

Setting: The USG Ishimura, a giant mining space vessel.

Systems: PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3.

Genre: Survival Horror.

Mood: From-inside-the-coffin-dark.

Read the full review by Max.

Nintendo President Satoru Iwata held his keynote address at the Game Developers Conference today, and damn does this guy know how to make his fans happy.

As reported on 1up (via their cool liveblog and subsequent articles), Iwata made two surprising revelations at the address: a Wii storage solution, and a new Zelda game.

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Thanks to the folks over at 1up.com - and some snitches at a Target store - word is circulating about a new Playstation 3 bundle pack set to release on March 29. The new set features the same ol’ 80 GB (non-backwards-compatible) model you’ll find on shelves now, but with the added bonus of the original Resistance: Fall of Man and Motorstorm games included.

And I thought Microsoft were the ones getting bitched at for having too many versions of their console.

For those of us who still don’t have a PS3, this does seem like a pretty decent deal, getting $60 worth of freebies in the box - and from what I hear, a couple of good games, too (no Kung Fu Panda here, folks). We’ll keep you posted as to whether other retailers are getting the bundle and if there may be more in Sony’s future.

Thanks to 1up.com for the pic.

Summary: Prince of Persia without a prince or time control powers… and I don’t think it’s ever officially confirmed to be Persia either.

Setting: Supposedly Persia; deserts and old palaces for the most part.

Systems: PS3(reviewed), Xbox 360

Genre: Action Adventure

Mood: Spectating. A good game to watch your friend play.

Read the full review by Ben.

According to GameInformer online, Tecmo recently announced that one of their new titles will be “the greatest ______ game ever.” Apparently the blank is a curse, and not a mention to a pie-eating game or something like that.

Pretentious, much? No? What do you think the game might be? It’ll be announced at the Game Developers Conference at the end of this month, so we’ll have to wait a few more weeks to see. As GI wrote:

According to Tecmo, the game is a new installment in an existing series, leading to much speculation as to what it could be. Many are hopeful it’s another sequel to Ninja Gaiden while others suspect it’s a new Fatal Frame, Rygar or Tecmo Bowl. Let’s just hope we’re not joining the Dead or Alive girls to gamble and play some volleyball again.

Any suggestions, ideas, or hopes from you guys?

Are you impressed by the great storytelling and new, fantastic ideas that have permeated the video game worlds in which we all love to spend so much of our time? Yeah, we didn’t think so. Merion is here to attempt to figure out where the crapstorm of bad video game writing originated and how it has progressed - for better and worse - over the last few years. Check out the article here.

Misters, PLEASE! That skinny bitch ain’t NOBODY’s big ANYTHING! Bitch had to take a knee just from carrying around a scrawny little girl! When I was in high school, I had bitches like that hiding from me in plastic straws so I don’t SNAP their skinny-ass legs!

Now bring back ma Big Daddy, you hear?!

Ok, everyone who follows us knows about my, well, obsession with Lara Croft [see here, here, etc.] but today we’ve come across a feature for the ladies in the audience - pics of Jake Gyllenhaal as the title character in the upcoming movie adaptation of Prince of Persia. Oh, and he’s not wearing a shirt.

You’re welcome.

Thanks to 1up.com for the story and pics (via Huffington Post, apparently).

If you’ve spent  anytime recently on Xbox Live, Play Station Network or Nintendo’s Virtual Network (does anyone really use that?) you’ll notice that more and more there is a whole lot more game content making its way to gamers than there used to be. In fact in the past year gamers have been witness to everything from new map packs, weapons and cars to full fledged story missions. In the case of Rockstar’s The Lost and the Damned, it’s practically a whole new game housed in the same landscape and setting of the original GTA IV.  Additionally you have the consoles offering up old games to download direct to your hard drive. All this in addition to stuff we’ve come to expect like demos and other media like trailers, TV shows, movies, and music videos.

The console it would seem is finally making strides toward offering what PC gamers have had for years. But what does this mean for game retailers like Gamestop when it comes to the once popular method of trading in old games for new? Now that many of these games will offer up new content periodically, there’s no reason to get rid of them. Adding more wrinkles to the trade-in troubles is the fact that trades aren’t worth what they used to be, and now with things like exclusive download codes only for new games (that can’t be ported or reused) the motivation to trade your game is not as great. And not just for the person who bought the game but for the person who buys a used copy only to realize they won’t enjoy the benefit of that download code in the box.

So Long Trades, Hello Downloads

Let’s be clear, complete games (in the box) still have some shelf life. The saving grace right now for game retailers is that not everyone owns or has upgraded their consoles to larger hard drives so dumping a bunch of full games on your PS3 or 360 isn’t something anyone wants to do.  And then there’s the chance of your machine breaking and suddenly you have no games at all.  Memory is still memory and if you don’t have a lot of space then you tend to get pickier about what you want on your hard drive. But while the future of full games is still intact (you’ll still need them to use the DLC), the trade-in business might as well hitch a ride on the Black Freighter.

Think about it … would you rather trade in your $60 game for $20 or $25 ( if it’s still deemed worth that trade in value by the retailer) or would you rather hang on to that game and drop $20 for some new content of a game you already love? Granted games like Kane & Lynch or Grabbed by the Ghoulies are not going to be good enough to even merit DLC but there are plenty A and B list games that will provoke a need for more content.

Get Ready For The DLC Flood

Keep in mind just because there’s downloadable content doesn’t mean you have to buy it but if you’re dealing with something like a map pack for a multiplayer mode and you don’t get it, then you miss out on that multiplayer fun.  Ultimately it’s still money you have to spend but it’s less money for something you know you’re going to like or are still enjoying.  Trading in your game means you get a fraction of what you paid for your game and not half enough to get another new game. So you end up using your trade to get something cheaper or bring in two or three games so you can get enough trade credit to get one new game. You don’t need to be a math wiz to figure out that DLC is a better deal.

It’s not just a better deal for gamers though. For developers and publishers they now get to improve upon popular titles with the new content rather than having to try and come up with title after title. Additionally no boxes or discs need to be made and shipped so big props to reducing the videogame industry’s carbon footprint.

It would seem that 2009 is really going to take monster leaps in DLC offerings so for the gaming glut that will happen in the fall, you can look forward to having stuff come out months later that will extend their lifespan well beyond what you could get for trading them in. And if  less game are getting traded in, then what happens to gamers who typically wait to buy a used copy? Well, thanks to the internet marketplace there are other options like, Craig’s List and EBay that could possibly offer you a chance to buy a relatively newer game at a lower cost. Eventually though, the notion of game trading that was a useful way  to save on games a few years ago will give way to DLC, downloadable older games and a game library that takes on the qualities of a giant loose-leaf binder with space to add more pages.