Joystiq and TeamXbox both popped off the news from Sierra Entertainment  that they would be releasing Robert Ludlum’s the Bourne Conspiracy for the  Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.  High Moon Studios will be at the helm of this project.  They made DarkWatch.  You know, DarkWatch! Anyway, true, this has all the sounds and smells of a crappy game and a rip off of the much loved and revered Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell series.  However, Sam Fisher has been getting old, in game play and in appearance.  I love the series, but it hasn’t been fresh sense Chaos Theory (which I hold as the gold standard). And remember gamers, everyone thought Splinter Cell was ripping off Metal Gear Solid, so let’s give the fellas a chance. If Sierra believes it can counter Tom Clancy with some CIA moves by Ludlum, I hope they are ready for a tough fight.  No body does sniping quite like Clancy.  The games website has only a picture and the promise that “I’m the perfect weapon.”  But the Bourne music, that creepy violin? Yes, it made my heart race.  Can a guy get excited about a game based solely on the promise of more of that music?  I’m saying, yes.  I’m saying, yes he can. A game trailer will be bouncing arould on July 11 and anouncements are expected at E3.

Jayslacks

I know that starting a post with that was probably not the nicest thing to do. To tell you the truth I personally can’t offer you the StarCraft 2 beta. However, I do believe that you might be able to acquire one if you have cash to blow and some free time on your hands.

According to WoW Insider all attendees to BlizzCon will receive a beta code for an upcoming Blizzard release.  While there is nothing more specific known than this, it is pretty safe to say that it is probably for StarCraft 2.  That is, unless Blizzard is going to bring Warcraft Adventures or StarCraft:  Ghost back from the dead.

I guess what it comes down to is whether or not the 100$ admission fee and travel expenses are worth the chance of playing the StarCraft 2 beta.  Personally I don’t think it is.  But then again, I also suffer from shittycomputeritus.

Chufmoney

[via Joystiq]

Could Sony be working out all the kinks in a download service for the PSP?  And if they are how would it connect, through the USB cable or through the store on the PS3?

(more…)

If you’ve been visiting the site lately (and there have been quite a few more than usual lately, so welcome and thanks to our new and recurring visitors), it’s probably becoming clear that we have aren’t just interested in what games are coming out, what games are delayed, and what’s selling; we love Gaming as a hobby and as a culture, and we care about it. We hope that in some way, we can contribute to the evolution of our sub-culture forward into a more relevant, or at least valued place than it perhaps sits in now. This is why we’ve been posting stories so heavy on commentary lately, and it’s going to continue, because it’s what interests us.

This is going somewhere, I promise.

Anyway, there has been an increasing trend for the last few months for the gaming blogs like Joystiq and Kotaku, as well as the lesser known sites, to publish stories that seem increasingly tangential and fluff based, and less motivated by any sort of interesting news development. First, I understand some of the reasons behind this: both of those blogs are ventures that depend on traffic for monetary returns, and this year signals a first for the gaming blogs: March leading all the way through May was typically a snowballing news cycle leading up to E3, the biggest news extravaganza of the year, where there would be enough reveals and announcements to come through for the duration of the spring and summer release droughts until the big games dropped starting in September, and continuing through to January. You could tell that things were different in the aftermath of E3’s essential dissolution when every gaming news site has been focusing on every show that involves the video games industry as a possible “next E3″, and paying much more attention to events that used to be good for a day or two of news at most in previous years. These sites are desperate for a replacement to fill their news schedules in the way that pre-E3 and post-E3 coverage used to, and unfortunately, it would seem they’re going the tabloid route to do it.

(more…)