Less than 3 weeks away from release, Epic Games has released a final trailer for the final game in the Gears Of War trilogy.

Just as they did with the “Mad World” and “Last Day” trailers, we have some very somber and calming music over a chaotic back drop. The song here is “Into Dust” by Mazzy Star.

Gearheads will finally get to play out Delta Squad’s last mission on September 20. If for some reason you did not play the previous games, you have wasted the last 5 years of you life. But its not too late, since Epic has released a “triple pack” that includes the first two games and all the expansion packs and maps for $30.

This is why I love arcade games from the 85 – 95 period. One look at a cabinet like this, and it isn’t hard to see what inspired this game. Modeled after buddy cop flicks like Tango and Cash, Starsky and Hutch, and Miami Vice, Lucky and Wild is an on-rails shooter/racing hybrid. You set out to catch a series of drug dealers by driving and shooting at them. The cabinet has a steering wheel and two guns attached. The idea is that player one uses the wheel and first gun while player 2 uses the second gun. Of course there are several unofficial ways to play the game as well, either increasing or decreasing the difficulty. Player two can use player one’s gun (thus saving quarters), player two can use both guns (thus freeing player one for driving), or a player can use player two’s gun while player two uses player one’s gun. It’s not the end-all of arcade games, but it was a pretty clever concept, one that could use a revisit in this age of motion capture gameplay.

The new titles (in bold), alongside the five titles already known, will be available in both Japan and North America:

• Balloon Fight
• Donkey Kong Jr.
• Ice Climber
• Super Mario Bros.
• Mario Open Golf (JP) / NES Open Tournament Golf (NA)
• Metroid
• Wrecking Crew
• Yoshi’s Egg (JP) / Yoshi (NA)
• The Legend of Zelda
• Zelda II: The Adventure of Link

At least there’s no Urban Champion in there. Whew!

These titles will be made available for download by all Ambassadors on September 1st. (Go to Nintendo.com to find out if you’re qualified.)

Still waiting on the GBA list!

[via TinyCartridge]

Franchise director Frank O’Conner says every comic, book, and additional content released around Halo over the last 4 years has been building up to this.

“Reclaimer” is a term used by 343 Guily Spark in the original game, “Halo: Combat Evolved.” Master Chief John 117 was charged with activating the Halo super weapon, but its vague use in the series may imply John specifically or any human or Forerunner who manipulated a Halo, The Ark, or a Shield World. This might sound all like gibberish to anyone who didn’t play Halo, and I can assure you its almost gibberish to me, and I’ve played all the games multiple times.

In any case, the concepts seen in the teaser seem to imply a lot more Forerunner structures and new planets will be explored in the new trilogy. Hopefully we’ve seen the last of the Flood, though. And the last of the Brutes. I could do without Skirmishers as well. You know what, lets just halo Halo 4 with all Hunters and Grunts! Yeah!

Below, hear some of the creators at 343 Industries talk about taking Halo into future. [Read the rest of this entry…]

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. That’s what 2k Interactive (standing in for Irrational) must have been thinking when making this follow up to one of 2007’s most beloved new IPs. Bioshock 2 is more of the same, but when the original was as good as it was, fans won’t mind.
[Read the rest of this entry…]

Looks like Square-Enix and Gamestop have a hard time communicating with each other.

Square-Enix, the developer for Deus Ex: Human Revolution, had originally offered a third-party coupon in the boxed PC edition of the game for the On Live cloud-computing gam streaminge service. However, they neglected to inform major game retailer Gamestop of the coupon’s inclusion, spurring Gamestop to remove the coupon for customer redemption completely.

From Gaintbomb’s original coverage:

GameStop dominated the conversation today, based on reports the retailer was opening copies of Deus Ex: Human Revolution on PC, removing the coupon for a copy of the game through OnLive, sealing the games back up and selling them as “new.”

Gamestop reported that they removed the coupon, as they have been developing their own streaming game service and they did not want to promote the competition. As of the backlash Gamestop received for the action of removing the coupon, Gamestop has since pulled all copies of Deus Ex for the PC and stored them for recall. Square-Enix has publicly apologized to Gamestop for the lack of prior knowledge of the coupons.

No coupons for you.

Time Crisis was, and is still a trendsetter in the Arcades. Along with it’s polygonal graphics (which were pretty cutting edge at the time and still hold up well even to this day), the game also added a key innovation to the light-gun genre: the Duck Pedal. When you pressed the pedal, you popped out from under cover ready to take on enemies. When the pedal was depressed, you hid behind a nearby object where you could reload. However, each section was on a strict time limit, so you couldn’t hide underneath forever. When you played the game with another person in the game’s sequel, they played on another screen that was hooked up to the arcade cabinet, and they saw the action from a slightly different viewpoint. This was in contrast to two people looking at the same screen and being forced to take every bullet shot at them like other light gun games have done for years. Time Crisis Project Titan was a PlayStation-exclusive entry in the series. Playing as Richard Miller of the V.S.S.E, you fight to clear your name for the attempted assassination of Cuba’s President. The game contains the series’ signature duck and hide action, and you can even hide in different places by shooting the yellow arrows while the player is hiding. Oh yeah, and if you didn’t get it with the original PlayStation port of Time Crisis, TCPJ comes with a guncon for PS1. Of course it’s painted in a day-glow orange color so police won’t recognize it as a real weapon. Although TCPJ’s graphics were a bit dated at the time compared to the rest of the series, the game is still a fun light gun shooter with a gimmick that’s still clever even today.

CollegeHumor has taken a stab at writing a song for a third Portal game. Its pretty great. Easily something I could see coming from The Lonely Island. Check it out.