You can count the number of good superhero videogames on one hand, even if that hand happened to be horribly mutilated after a run-in with a murderous crocodile. So suffice to say, when Batman Arkham Asylum was first announced over a year ago, gamers barely batted an eyelid.
So now that it’s finally been released, how has the Dark Knight faired?
Already have a PSP and UMDs? Wondering what to do if you upgrade to a PSPGo? Well, Sony have an answer, well, not really. Not if you have more than 3 UMDs, and those 3 UMDs don’t happen to be on their list of potential free games. But hey, free’s free right?
Instructions on how to claim your 3 free games after the break, though you’ll require a working original PSP/PSP Slim & Lite and a UMD to be eligible.
After weeks of speculation fuelled by leaked retailer advertisements for an imminent price drop in the US, Nintendo have finally confirmed a Nintendo Wii price drop. From September 27th the Wii will have an MSRP of $199.99, let’s hope the price drop crosses the Atlantic.
Press release and some info on forthcoming releases and a new ‘World of Nintendo’ event after the break.
Whilst on a drug raid, Florida law enforcement officers just couldn’t resist getting a few frames of Wii Sports bowling during their ‘downtime’. All 9 hours of it.
It seems Wii Sports bowling is still as popular as ever, though the news report doesn’t clarify whether it was original Wii Sports or Wii Sports Resort, which is sloppy journalism quite frankly.
My sister recently got me one of these cute little Takara Tomy remote control cars in the shape of everyone’s favourite King of Koopas whilst on a recent trip to Hong Kong. Even though they’re pretty darn small, they’re actually rather fun. So since then I picked up a second, for some ‘multiplayer’. Just like you’d expect if Pikachu for whatever reason showed up in Mario Kart, he (she?) is much nimbler than the heavy Bowser. I’m not sure why that amuses me so. They each run on 4 x LR44 batteries, 2 in the car and 2 in the remote control. The remote controls also come with a ‘boost’ shoulder button, for when you need that extra juice. You can pick them up on the ‘bay for around £13-15, which is quite pricey.
Anyway, on to dissecting the photo. I put them in a home-made light tent made out of white poster foam board stuck together to make a box with a side missing. Canon 580ex on a wireless trigger bounced into the roof of the box. Doing this bounces the light off all the edges of the box, filling in all the shadows and creating a white backdrop. I could’ve gotten a purer white background in post, but I actually like the gradient. You can use more than one flash bounced into both sides of the box to better fill in the background if you want. I set the 580ex to Manual, lowered the output to 1/16 power and fired a few test shots at various apertures, stopping down until F/14 at which point the flash wasn’t nuking the subjects into a pure white photograph. Boosted the shadows in Photoshop to give it some contrast and that was pretty much it.
Mad Catz have announced yet more Street Fighter IV pads and sticks labelled ‘Round 2′. If you weren’t happy with the first roster of character emblazoned pads, you can now choose from M. Bison, Cammy, Guile, Sagat, C. Viper and Zangief giving us his best ‘O-face’. There’s also a new version of the Tournament Edition fight stick. Here’s hoping there’s enough to go round after the last debacle.
Press release and photos after the break.
Even though every single person on the planet likely already owns a DS or twenty, Nintendo are looking to add a few more hues into the mix. October 23rd sees the release of 3 new colours; Metallic Blue, Light Blue and Red. Nintendo’s creative team clearly ran out of ideas on that last one. I’ll unofficially dub it ‘Blood of Our Competitors Red’.
These new DSis will also come with Facebook and Flipnote Studio pre-installed, which is useful for the ‘socially’ OCD of you. The latter is certainly more interesting for the creative types, allowing for note taking and creating custom animations and ‘mini-movies’, limited only by your imagination and dementedness.
On top of all that, if you connect to the Nintendo Wifi Connection with your brand spanking new DSi before March 31st 2010, you’ll get 1,000 free Nintendo Points to spend how you see fit.
Batman Arkham Asylum has now shipped over 2.5 million copies worldwide since its initial release on consoles, with these numbers being bolstered by the recent release for PC. If any game deserves this degree of success this year, it’s certainly Arkham Asylum, which has been the surprise hit of the Summer. You can expect to read my views on the PC version real soon (hint: they’re positively glowing).
Big block of PR gushing after the break.
After months of neglect, it was about time I showed this place some much needed attention.
As you can probably tell, the website’s having a new lick of paint done, so don’t be alarmed that your socks have been blown off by its awesomeness. If the site at any time explodes, please take up the fetal position and begin praying.
For those of you with more money than sense, Best Buy in the US will come to your house, plug in your PS3, turn it on as well as other numerous services outlined on their advertisement, and all for just $129. Now, I on the other hand, would happily do it for free, because I imagine if you have $129 to throw away on a service that takes no more than a low-level, circus-trained chimp, that you have a rather nice house and you’ll be a pretty cool guy to hang out with (read: sponge off).
So please, contact me instead. Or take that $129 and shred it into pretty confetti. Did I mention $129. Yes, one-hundred-and-twenty-nine-US-dollars.
Edit – I forgot the additional 99 cents.