The Xbox 360 Project Natal Cirque Du Soleil presentation of the new Xbox 360 Kinect! What put it over the top? The giant fake gorilla? The costumes straight from a Ukrainian ice dancer’s reject pile? The weird yuppie family, flying overhead on Archie Bunker’s couch? The giant real elephant? The voice-over stolen straight from your local planetarium? All that and more…and in the end the “OMG how totally fucking amazing!” that our last glimpse of Natal promised was replaced with an extravacheesta for a glorified Wii.

Well, now that I’ve thunk on it. The dance game looked fun because you actually have to dance, not wave a controller around. But I’m a hard core Star Wars freak and while I was watching the guy mowing down bitches with his lightsaber, all I kept thinking was, “that looks exhausting.” And when Darth Vader came out, I thought “Oh shit! I gotta fight Vader, too? I better hit the gym.”

Last year, rumors and pictures began to spread about an interesting game in the works: a steampunk Disney project called “Epic Mickey”.  Based on the somewhat creepy concept art, nobody would have guessed that this game was a real possibility.  However, the game has been officially announced and a spread about it will be placed in GameInformer magazine. 

The game is a platformer slated to come out for the Wii and involves ”painting” and “erasing” levels.  The most interesting part is the plot, which is said to revolve around the “lesser” Disney characters rising up to dethrone the main mouse. 

Being a former Disney employee myself, I find this news incredibly dumbfounding.  I’m curious to see how this project turns out, and if it can truly go the distance with a dystopian vibe.  What say you?

Thanks to Kotaku for the pics

… which is a new MMO being developed by Funcom - but much more importantly, by Ragnar Tornquist, the designed of The Longest Journey and Dreamfall. Enjoy.

If the video grabbed your attention, here are some more goodies:

First images: Here
Latest info on the game: Here
Latest interview with Ragnar: Here

Today is the 10th anniversary of the Sega Dreamcast, can you believe it? Although I never owned one myself, I still enjoyed sneaking into my local Funcoland to play the Sonic Adventure demo. And of course, no one can forget the infamously addicting Chu Chu Rocket game that was somehow still amusing at 4 in the morning (although, isn’t everything?). Share some of your beloved (or not so beloved) memories of the Dreamcast here!

Dreamcast timeline

http://www.technologyreview.com/printer_friendly_article.aspx?id=23336&channel=business&section

Apparently, gratuitous violence makes us remember things better - violence that we are involved in, that is. In this rather curious study, scientists found that ads embedded in violent games were generally more well-recalled by players than ads in peaceful games. What’s most interesting is that the trend is opposite to what is found in movies - a non-interactive medium - where on-screen violence tends to draw the viewer’s attention away from the ads. What can I say - us gamers are a truly sick breed, I guess.;)

An iPhone game that just may make you better at your job

Wow. TechChrunch is trying to spin the job angle (booo-ring!) but the obvious question in my mind is: did we gamers really degrade this much? I am sorry, but games really don’t get any dumber (oh, sorry, I meant “simpler”!) than this. Training manual for trained monkeys in training, that’s what this is. Truly, our addiction to instanct gratification has reached new highs. What’s next, iPhones printing dollar bills directly?

Walmart’s latest print ad - with sales beginning Sunday, August 30 - confirms the rumors surrounding the Xbox 360 Elite price drop that have been making their way around the interwebs for weeks now. Apparently by the end of this week, you’ll be able to pick up the 120 GB system for a mere $299. Does this mean that either the Arcade or Pro models will be discontinued?

Odds are we’ll see a price drop on one (or maybe both?) of the others in order to make room for the newly packaged, cheaper Elites, but what that new price will be remains anyone’s guess at this point. We’ll keep you posted when we get more information.

Summary: A blood soaked adrenaline rush of a game.

Setting: Zombies and the military fight it out in New York City.

Systems: PC, Xbox 360, Playstation 3.

Genre: Third person action-adventure (zombie killer helicopter hijacker) game.

Mood: Homicidal!

Read the full review by Max.

Well, it’s finally happened. This price cut has been nothing but a rumor for so long that I’ve started to think it as likely to actually take place as universal health care reform, but here we go. Good to know SOMETHING still happens in this world. Anyway, the 80G version is now $299, effective immediately, and Sony also announced that they will be coming out with a PS3 slim at the same price point in early September.

Question is, did they wait too long - I don’t know about you, but this economic recession has sure tightened up my personal budget. I guess we’ll find out soon enough.

More pics here.

If you were like me and, well, I guess only several hundred other people in the U.S. at the time, you may have been hooked to your TurboGrafx 16. The console that helped make the jump to 16-bit graphics - and later had a huge influence on the way we play games today by introducing disc-based titles - has hit its 20th birthday, and in honor of that milestone of sorts, 1up.com has provided an intriguing retrospective on the system and its follow-ups.

I still have my TG16 hooked up, and even pop in some Blazing Lazers or R-Type from time to time. Heck, I’ve even got the TurboExpress, which was - and still is, in my mind - pretty damn awesome for being the only portable device at the time that could play the same game cartridges as the home console. Never mind the fact that the sucker ate 6 AA batteries at a time like they were margaritas at happy hour on Cinco de Mayo; it was still fun to bring World Class Baseball and Bonk’s Adventure with you on long car rides.

Anyone else out there have stories of the good ol’ TG16, TurboExpress, or TurboDuo? We’d love to hear them!