Infamous 2 Roasts Game Titles

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Infamous 2 has a beta right now for its level creation tools, and a closer look at some of the environments shows developer Sucker Punch lampooning other game franchises. The ribbing also includes a couple of Sony game franchises.

Call of Booty – Call of Duty
From Croatia With Uncharted Love – Mix of From Russia With Love and Uncharted
Assassin’s Need (Love Too) – Assassin’s Creed
Hey, Low Reach – Halo Reach
No Need For Speed – Need For Speed
Epic Hickey – Epic Mickey
Little Big Unit – LittleBigPlanet
Latch It And Skank – Ratchet & Clank
Sly – Sly Cooper

Source: iGo Gaming Blog

Honda Civic – To Each Their Own

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Honda has launched a series of ads for the 2012 Civic to emphasize how there’s a version for everyone, and it works quite well. We’re partial to the ninja ad, if only because it includes a glimpse at the classic Shinobi arcade game!

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The Electric Company Is Looking For New Members!

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This month on PBS Kids Go!, the Prankster Planet initiative begins at the end of each full Electric Company TV episode. 12 multi-level online quests, 60 mini-games, an avatar creator, rewards system and a magazine will live in a new area on the show s website. A progress tracker will launch this summer that will allow parents and teachers to follow kids learning status. Electric Company members Jessica and Marcus appear at the end of each episode as comic book heroes and discover that pranksters are sucking up all the words on earth. They enlist the help of fans to end this total word domination. Each animated episode ends in a cliffhanger that offers a direct hand-off from story to the transmedia game. When a player completes all 12 online missions, he or she becomes an official member of The Electric Company. The Lost Guide to Prankster Planet magazine will round off the experience by extending the math concepts and vocabulary featured online and in the animated TV segments. The magazine, distributed to PBS and other Electric Company partners, contains secret Prankster Planet information the reader can use to collect hidden words. The Adventures of The Electric Company on Prankster Planet will air starting May 2 with the online component going live the same day.

Ready… Set… TWEEEEEEEEEEET!!!!!

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Tweeters, start your engines! Starting now until the launch of Fast Five on April 29, fans can compete in one of nine Twitter races. Participants will have a chance to win awesome prizes like IMAX tickets to see the film and cash cards. Start by following @FastFurious on Twitter to know when it s time to get to the starting line and when the post time begins. Fans must first qualify by responding to the #F5READY or #F5SET tweets from this account. A trivia question will be tweeted and fans must answer with the #F5GO tweet correctly to complete each race for a chance to win $50. Five randomly selected participants in each race will also win a pair of tickets to see Fast Five in IMAX.

American McGee Looks To Free-To-Play

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American McGee and his studio Spicy Horse are gearing up to finish Alice: Madness Returns some time in 2011. He reveals, however, that the siren call of free-to-play and mobile development might lure him away from large console releases afterward.

“I think the handheld market in general, and especially the Android environment, is a real boon to the industry and to developers and consumers and I think it’s going to open up a lot more possibility for very creative, exploratory ideas around gaming and around social platforms and the mobile platforms all linked together,” said McGee. “I think it’s really awesome. It’s actually where we’re pushing our studio to go next. PC online, you know, multiplayer games and also mobile as a function of that.”

“Alice may be the last retail box product that we do for some time but for the next couple of years we’re going to focus very exclusively on free-to-play PC downloadable games and then also push those other mobile platforms,” he added.

Source: CVG

Super Mario 3DS Details

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Super Mario 3DS is one of the most anticipated games for the system, but details on it have been fairly illusive. Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto, however, insists that its a completely new game and not a remake of an older Super Mario title.

“It’s a combination of Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario on N64,” explained Miyamoto. “It won’t convey the message if I talk to you today, but if you play it at E3 that will give you more understanding of what I’m talking about.”

The 3D effect will be used to help judge distances better, and Miyamoto also commented on the raccoon tail on the game’s logo. “It’s what you think it is,” said Miyamoto. “You probably know what’s going to happen using that character.”

Source: Edge {link no longer active}

Portal 2 Developer Would ‘Love’ PS3 Steam Game Downloads

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Portal 2 has released, and it is the first of its sort to feature cross platform-play between the PS3 and PC. Valve programmer Jeep Barnett thinks this gives players a level of convenience not seen in gaming before.

“Some people who have PS3s… I’m not going to say all, but I’m going to say a majority, also play PC,” he said. “So the people who play on PC who have a Steam account will be able to play with PS3 friends and PC friends. [The connection between PS3 and PC] gives people the freedom to play on the hardware that’s not only of their preference, but also their convenience. What were two separate universes is now one big happy family.”

When asked if he’d like to see full Steam games available on the PS3 in the future, he said, “I’d love to see that. Maybe I’m answering these too personally. I think it’s a great idea and it’s going to become much more common. Having downloadable games is another one of those inevitabilities, like it was with the music industry. It’s on the way.”

Source: CVG

iPhone Location Tracking May Be About Ads

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Apple has gotten some heat from politicians and privacy experts when it was revealed that the iPad and iPhone have been tracking users locations. The main reason data is being collected might be to supply relevant ads via Apple’s iAd application.

“Information is transmitted securely to the Apple iAd server via a cellular network connection or Wi-Fi Internet connection,” wrote Apple to U.S. Rep. Edward Marke. “The latitude/longitude coordinates are converted immediately by the server to a five-digit ZIP code. Apple then uses the ZIP code to select a relevant ad for the customer.

Google Android phones are also said to collect location data, which might also be shared with their mobile-advertising provider AdMob. According to Iain Gillott, president of wireless industry analysis firm iGR, this practice is neither new nor insidious.

“I don’t think there’s anything too sinister going on,” said Gillott. “The iPhone forever and a day has tracked location and stored it on the phone. It puts it in a locked file that’s buried within the operating system. That s not new. It’s done that for years.

The likely goal of all this from Google and Apple is to breach the $2.9 billion location-based services market, expected to rise to $8.3 billion in 2014. Combining location with customer data could help them create a dedicated profile for their users.

“Just because you know I’m in Austin doesn’t tell you anything about me,” Gilliott said. But pull all the other activity and everything else I do and you can build a really good profile of me. Location is an enabler. It makes information about you hugely more useful.

Source: Fox News