Game Curmudgeons

Penny-Arcade Adventures:On the Rain-slick Precipice of Darkness:Episode 1, known to the common man as “That Penny-Arcade game”, is out for PC and Xbox Live.

It is, in a word, pulpy.

In two words, thick pulp.

In yet more words, this is hyperfruit, a juiceless, rindless orange, composed entirely of flavorful flesh, magically held together by forces unknown, the essence of pulp.

It’s a good thing.

Moar! »

If you haven’t played Beyond Good and Evil, download it RIGHT NOW off of Xbox Live Arcade, it’s in the originals. Or get it for 20 dollars some other way, it’s on every last gen platform, plus PC via Steam for 10 dollars. 10 dollars! Just make sure you have a proper control pad, it’s how the game works best.

For those who have played it, here are three shots from Ubidays, lifted from Gamersyde

Here’s the HD trailer.

What is, in my opinion, the greatest multiplayer game of all time is coming to Live Arcade.

Fucking WARLORDS. Warlords will be available for 400 points on May 28th, 1 am PST. Here’s hoping the devs figured out a good way to make it work without a paddle controller(say, using the analog stick to simply point at the place you need a shield).

Review to come ASAP, though it will likely be “THIS IS STILL AWESOME” or “THEY FUCKED IT UP.”

And that, in a nutshell, is Galactic Civilizations II:Twilight of the Arnor. You’ll get it, you’ll start playing at 6pm, you’ll realize it’s 5 am, you REALLY need to pee, and you’re pretty thirsty. And your drink went flat HOURS ago.

Moar! »

Sometimes, you just have to copy and paste. This is one of those times.

Universal Pictures to develop movie based on hit video game from 2K Games

Gore Verbinski, Director of Pirates of the Caribbean, to Direct/Produce

New York, NY – May 9, 2008 – 2K Games announced today that it has reached an agreement for BioShock®, the universally acclaimed smash-hit video game, to be developed as a feature film by Universal Pictures. 2K Games, whose 2K Boston and 2K Australia studios developed BioShock, is a video game publishing label of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTWO).

The prospect of bringing this blockbuster game to life has attracted not only a major studio, but top Hollywood talent. Gore Verbinski, director of the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, is slated to direct and produce the BioShock movie. John Logan, Academy Award-nominated writer of Gladiator, The Aviator and Sweeney Todd, is in talks to do the screenplay.

The expected release date and terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

An original property developed by 2K Games, BioShock is one of the most successful new interactive entertainment franchises to launch in recent years. A critical and consumer hit, BioShock has sold more than 2 million units worldwide since its release in August 2007. A sequel to the game, BioShock 2, is planned for a release in 2009.

“We are excited that 2K Games’ vision for BioShock will be carried forward in a new medium,” said Strauss Zelnick, Chairman of Take-Two. “BioShock has been hailed as one of the most highly cinematic and richly plotted titles in interactive entertainment, making it extremely well-suited to film. In partnering with Universal and Gore Verbinski, we have assembled a team that respects the uniqueness of BioShock and will translate it into a powerful movie experience.”

Mr. Zelnick added, “Our ability to attract a major studio and unparalleled creative team speaks volumes about the strength of our BioShock franchise. It also demonstrates how Take-Two is delivering value based on our strategy of creating and owning our industry’s most powerful intellectual property.”

Christoph Hartmann, President of 2K Games, noted, “BioShock fans appreciate the depth and complexity of the game, and our partnership with Gore Verbinski will introduce the world of Rapture to an even wider audience. In addition to his impressive body of work, Gore is an avid video gamer and true fan of BioShock. That was extremely important to us in deciding to move forward with this project.”

So here’s some stats from Microsoft regarding Grand Theft Auto IV. You can’t be surprised by any of them, can you? The game doesn’t even need reviewed, you just need to buy it. Even if you weren’t that into the last ones, like myself, this is a whole new level of gaming, and definitely raises several bars. All of these come straight from the Gamerscore team at MS, so when you find out it’s a lie, don’t blame me!

• Actual MS sales data from last week shows Xbox 360 console sales at retail went up 54% week-over-week as a result of GTA’s success
• According to retailers more than 60% of all GTA games sold in the first week were the Xbox 360 version
• Retailers are telling us that the game is attaching strongly to new console sales, with roughly 40% of new consoles selling with a copy of Grand Theft Auto IV
• In the first week, more than 2.3 million people played Grand Theft Auto IV on Xbox LIVE
• GTA IV is now the number one played game on Xbox LIVE
• Over the weekend, we saw the Xbox LIVE service reach 1 million concurrent users
• Gamers have unlocked more than 12 million achievements worth over 100 million gamerscore points in GTA
• Grand Theft Auto IV set a new record for time played, with the average gamer spending more than four hours playing the game on LIVE in the first week alone