I should really know better than to get excited about a video game based on anime, but Lupin is one of those characters and shows I have an endless supply of affection for. Look Inspector Zenigata is playable!

I should really grow my sideburns out again.

A skillfully done video edit, if I may say so. National Lampoon, which hasn’t been funny since Chevy Chase was, is apparently responsible.

In the early days of the PS1, the Twisted Metal series was to players what Halo pretty much is to Xbox players these days. It was an intense and bizzare car combat game that was filled with bizzare characters with equally bizzare vehicles blowing each other up with bizzare weapons. The first two editions were developed by developer Singletrac. The second game in the series, World Tour, was at the time considered by most to be the best in the series. However, the games took a dip in sales with Twisted Metal 3,when most of the developers had left after a contractual dispute with Sony and joined with GT Interactive. Sony’s in-house development team 989 studios handled the production, rewriting the code for the artificial intellegence and driving physics. These changes attracted new players while turning off longtime fans of the series. Twisted Metal 4 had corrected many of the faults from 3 and had even added a 4-player mode, but by then players had already moved on. Sony wanted to revive it’s flagship vehicular car-combat series for the Playstation 2. Enter Twisted Metal Black.

[Read the rest of this entry…]

The Game Developers Conference is right around the corner, and with it the industry’s awards ceremony. Unlike embarassing Spike and G4 Productions, the GDCA’s academy is made up only of developers and not 13 year olds with access to the internet.

With that in mind, a lot of the same names are still garnering praise, with Okami and Oblivion each earning 4 nominations, including best game. Gears Of War, Twilight Princess, and Wii Sports round out the list. Tim Schafer, the mad genius behind Psychonauts, will host the event along with performances from MC Chris and Mega 64. Why can’t they televise this show?

Visit the GDCA site for the full list of nominees. The awards will be presented on March 7th at the Game Developers Conference in San Fransisco’s Moscone Convention Center.