It’s been raining Castlevania these days it would seem. Two games, Order of Ecclesia and Judgment, will be released within the next few months; an arcade game is being released in Japan; the manga to Curse of Darkness is being translated and released here in the states – not to mention the live-action movie and the animated Dracula’s Curse OVA that are in production. You’d think this would all be enough!

It would seem series frontman Koji Igrashi begs to differ. He announced at the Tokyo Game Show that they have yet another Castlevania game in production to be released in the future for the Xbox 360 and the PS3. Iga dropped the bigger bomb when he said that this new game would be a direct sequel to series highpoint, Symphony of the Night.
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“Shackler’s Revenge” from Rock Band 2

The unbelievable and unreal is about the occur. Guns N Roses will release their first album of new material since 1991 on November 23, 2008, exclusive to Best Buy. The only original member is Axl Rose, with fellow founding members Slash and Duff Mckagan moving to other projects long ago. Those hoping for the retro lineup should grab their debut album “Appetite For Destruction” when its re-released on vinyl LP on October 28.
Read more at Billboard, or on the ridiculously long Chinese Democracy Wiki

It’s been nearly a full decade since the former video game development giant SEGA has released hardware of any kind into the market. The last console was the Dreamcast, which despite being a strong system with good games, was beat into the ground by Sony’s Playstation 2 a year after the Dreamcast was released. Sadly, the console was discontinued a few years later, and SEGA has since survived merely as a third-party publisher for software and games.

Now it seems SEGA’s renewed strength as a software publisher has given it enough of a confidence boost to try and test the waters of hardware production yet again. SEGA announced the release of a new portable media player called the Vision PMP.

The new handheld will actually be less of a portable game player, and more of a multimedia device. It will only be able to play Java-based games, but will also function as a TV tuner, a movie and music player, a video camera and recording device, as well as an eBook reader. Sounds too good to be true, right? Well, it very well may be. The design of the Vision is bulkier than both the PSP and Nintendo DS, and looks more like it’s failed handheld elder brother, the SEGA Nomad. We also have not heard about a price tag to go along with the portable player, and I can tell you that many people probably won’t bother with it unless the price is right.

Regardless, 2009 does mark a significant date for SEGA as its return to the hardware industry after being in the proverbial darkened corner of the video game scene for so long. Will it be a taste of things to come, or a complete bust?

Old school gamers rejoice, for Mega Man has returned. Not Mega Man ZX, Mega Man Zero, Mega Man.exe, or even Mega Man X. No, it isn’t any of these poseurs. It’s the original blue bomber, in all his 8-bit glory. Keeping up with it’s retro revivals (see Street Fighter IV and Bionic Commando), Capcom had the ingenious idea of creating a new 8-bit Mega Man game and releasing it for all three consoles via their respective download services. The result is a classic throwback that caters strictly to longtime series fans while introducing the Mega Man series to a new generation.

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Set 20 years before “Halo: Combat Evolved” this is the opening cinematic for “Halo Wars”

GameTrailersTV has a longer look at the game, footage of gameplay, and words from developers Ensemble Studios.

And in a move that surprises no-one, Microsoft confirmed earlier this week that former Gearbox director of Technology Corrine Yu has joined one of the Halo Teams. Gearbox developed Halo CE for PC as well as Brothers in Arms. Former Bungie writer Frank O’Conner is also working at Microsoft on Halo. Oh and Ryan Payton, the Metal Gear Solid 4 producer who helped bring Hideo Kojima’s wacky world to life? He’s also leading a Halo team, quite possibly Halo 4. None of these people are working on Peter Jackson’s Halo project, which means there may be as many as 4 new titles in development. Get ready for Halo 4… as well as Halo Kart, Halo Party, and Halo Tennis

This is not to say Halo creators Bungie Software aren’t staying busy because they just released this clip last week… [Read the rest of this entry…]

This is the latest in Powet Editor Zac Shipley’s series on video game culture in Madison, WI for TheDailyPage.

Rock Band 2 retains title as the Golden God of music games
Music and video games have been naturally complimentary since the latter became complex enough to emit more than a single beep. Rhythm games have allowed players to experience music by tapping out beats on controllers, using dance pads, or even shaking maracas. But there has been no game as successful at simulating the truly American art form of rock ‘n’ roll as Rock Band. >More

The long-rumored new Nintendo DS was announced at the Nintendo Fall Press Conference last night. As was recently reported by Nikkei Net, the new Nintendo DSi contains both a music player and a camera (two cameras actually). It also features a larger screen, improved web browser, SD Card slot, and access to the Nintendo Store. It does not, however, have a Game Boy Advance slot anymore. So be prepared to download all those GBA cartridges you’ve held on to. We’ve got some more pictures after the jump.
(Thanks to 1up for the info.) [Read the rest of this entry…]

Variety is reporting that when CW finally swings the axe on Smallville (oh, please let it be this season), they’re going to fill its place with an equally uninteresting pre-super hero show called “The Graysons.” This will follow the travelling circus lives of Dick Grayson and his parents before they fell to an untimely end and Dick was recruited into the world of the goddamn Batman.
Well, I guess I shouldn’t say its a totally bad idea. The execution might be excellent, and if it fit into the Dark Knight or even the Smallville mythos it would instantly gain a huge numbers of fans. Still, the last time WB tried to dip Batman’s sidekicks into a show, we got Birds Of Prey. Given the way WB and DC want Batman handled, its highly unlikely he’ll even appear in the show (much in the same way Smallville has no cape for Superboy, even if its beyond reason that he doesn’t by now). And though young Clark or even young Bruce had compelling backstories before being expanded (in Smallville and in Batman Begins), I have my doubts that Dick Grayson can be a character worth watching without changing him.
McG will produce the show and Dick will be called “DJ Grayson” and I think I can pretty much stop this story right here. I’ll leave you with a quote from Iron Man director Jon Favreau on Why Superhero Movies Sometimes Fail and let you draw your own conclusions.