Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period.
Let's face it -- one of the main things that has set Mortal Kombat apart from its contemporaries throughout the years has been its inclusion of flagrant acts of grisly violence. When Ed Boon explained that the upcoming Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe would explore the softer side of the series with Teen-rated acts of pugilistic carnage, many fans were upset, as it seemed their thirst for evisceration would go unslaked. The latest salvo of screenshots for the brawler from Midway might confirm or ease your fears of a censored MK title -- no, there's no evidence of any impromptu spine-removal procedures, but there's pummeling and arm-breaking aplenty. Does the latest entry in the toasty franchise look gruesome enough for your sinister bloodlust?
In our interview with Diablo 3 lead designer Jay Wilson, it was explained that there were no plans to bring the long-awaited title to any platform other than PC and Mac. However, in the six days that have passed since said interview, a couple of Blizzard higher-ups weren't quite as dismissive of the possibility of the dungeon crawler making an appearance on our primitive gameboxes -- though the language used to describe this possibility hasn't exactly given us high-apple-pie-in-the-sky hopes.
When asked about a console rendition of the third entry in the Lord of Terror-slaying franchise, Blizzard COO Paul Sams gave an inconclusive "I don't know yet," though Vice President of Game Design Rob Pardo suggested a console port was "theoretically possible," as out of all of Blizzard's franchises, Diablo would be the most console-friendly. We guess a theoretical "yes" is better than an actual "no", or a metaphorical "maybe", but we're still not holding our bated breath for a non-compy version of Diablo the Third.
Given the subject matter of this week's Zero Punctuation, we thought we'd throw Yahtzee into the webcomic poll to see how he fares. Also, we're looking for the best gaming webcomic (strip, not series), so let us know your all-time favorite in the comments below.
Here are our picks for the week's best game-related webcomic. Polling after the break; be sure to vote for your favorite!
Those who enjoyed the economics-meets-explosions gameplay of Pandemic Studios' Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction will no doubt get a kick out of the latest trailer for the title's upcoming sequel. The three ExOps personalities we came to know and love in the first Mercs are making a comeback, and in the above video, Mercenaries 2: World in Flames lead designer Scott Warner gives us a sneak peek at how these well-trained operatives, you know, operate.
The gameplay looks solid, but for those of us too busy to watch a five-minute video on a Saturday afternoon, we'll briefly break it down using A-Team archetypes: Jennifer Mui is Templeton "Faceman" Peck, Mattias Nilsson is "Howling Mad" Murdock, and Christopher Jacobs is an amalgam of John "Hannibal" Smith and B.A. Baracus -- only he doesn't pity fools. He hastily shuffles them off this mortal coil using their own grenades.
This may have been a holiday week but we were extremely busy anyway with tons of original content and features along with some great new downloads. Here's a look at the highlights.
Exclusive Features
Hands-On Space Siege: We get to play with a late build of the sci-fi action-RPG from Gas Powered Games and Sega
Hands-On Bionic Commando: We swing to new heights with this preview of the third person action game revival from GRIN and Capcom
Guide to TF2 Pyro Achievements Part 6: We have the final part of our series of articles looking at the new achievements for the Pyro class in Team Fortress 2.
Big Ideas: Our new weekly column on gaming's major themes takes a look at story in games.
Freeware Friday: Our weekly look at free games talks about the scrolling shooter rRootage
Big Iron: Our hardware column takes a look at the new 4800 series of Radeon graphics chips from AMD/ATI
Mac Monday: Our regular look at Mac gaming takes a look at the Mac exclusive arcade game Neon Tango
BigCast: Members of Big Download chat about the week of PC games in our latest podcast.
Many of us could write entire volumes of songs and bands we'd like to see in one or both of the reigning emperors of the rhythm genre, Rock Band and Guitar Hero -- we'd wager that included in everyone's wishlist is a track or twelve from the legendary early 70s rock outfit Led Zeppelin. Unfortunately, Zeppelin front man Jimmy Page recently hung a definitive "No Stairway" sign on the genre, citing his hesitance to lend game developers the band's valuable master tracks.
The reasons behind Page's apprehension are unknown -- perhaps it has to do with the recent news of the easily misplaceable nature of master recordings. We hope the group's co-founder can be persuaded to part with the recordings before the siren call of "Immigrant Song" swoons the games' developers, forcing them to include earnest but unsatisfying covers of Zeppelin's bigger tracks. Discerning ears know -- there really is no rock-scream like a Robert Plant rock-scream.
Porting the game to Arabic was a no-brainer, according to THQ's Export Sales and Marketing Manager Luke Keighran. "There are only few games that would suit the Middle East's morals more than WALL●E," he told PC Magazine Middle and Near East. "The game depicts family virtues through a fun and adventurous story line." We guess that means WWE Smackdown Vs. Raw 2009 won't be seeing an Arabic port any time soon, huh?
We were starting to think that the new camo patterns available for download via Metal Gear Solid 4's "Extras" screen were going to be fairly mundane. Silly us! This is Hideo Kojima we're talking about here, and behind his stoic stare the guy has quite the sense of humor.
Case in point: the two new OctoCamo patterns available today. Called "Laughing Camo" and "Raging Camo," they cover Snake in text when equipped (which doesn't exactly sound like the best thing for, you know, stealth gameplay). These patterns aren't about hiding from enemies, though ... their effects are actually seen when you get near them. They cause PMC soldiers and other foes to break out into laughter and howling on sight, rendering them temporaily stunned. (Making the new camo settings something you'll want to use only on your second, third, fourth, or fith play-through, lest you ruin a "pure" first-time experience.)
Taking on The Patriots and getting kooky with Kojima? That's what we call a fun way to spend the Fourth.
Reviews? Original content? Weird and wacky spins on DS news? We've got it all, and this week, we've even got extras. Don't fight, fanboys -- there's plenty to go around, and these are happy times. It's a holiday, we're looking at Chrono Trigger ... things are good.
Here at Joystiq, we've been prettyconsistentinourhatred of useless plastic attachments for the Wii Remote. We might have to break our streak, though, as we're uncharacteristically excited about the maraca attachments that were recently shown as part of the leaked box art for the Wii version of Samba de Amigo. There's just something about the weight and sound of those vibrating plastic beads that helped make the maraca shaking on the Dreamcast a transcendent experience, and one we're glad we'll now be able to relive on the Wii. We're not changing our minds on the Wii Wheel, though. We have to keep our hater-rating up somehow ...
Oh yes, we got to play Spore. The entire thing. With Will Wright providing backseat commentary. We also got some time with the Wrath of the Lich King's Death Knight, and DS Fanboy decided to play Homie Rollerz (so you don't have to). Check out all of our impressions and reviews from the Joystiq Network this week:
It's not often (in fact it's never) that you see a game tagline line this: "Make music with a disc of 510 067 420 km² = the Earth." But that's what Oterp, a hombrew PSP app by Antonin Fourneau does.
Oterp uses the PSP GPS add-on to track your relative position on the planet and alters music in real time based on your movements. Its developer has also hard-coded numerous "collection" spots around the globe into the software. Travelling to these locations will unlock new music and effects, similar to unlocking characters via GPS in the Japanese release of Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops. Sounds pretty cool, huh? More videos of it in action can be found at the Oterp site.
Rock star and noted media violence expert Noel Gallagher used a recent public appearance to speak out against the influence of violent video games, according to the BBC. While accepting an award at London's Silver Clef Music Awards, Professor Emeritus Gallagher mentioned games as one possible cause for the prevalence of youth-oriented knife violence throughout England.
"People say it's through violent video games and I guess that's got something to do with it," said Gallagher, whose wide-ranging, cross-cultural sociological studies on the relationship between media exposure and real-world violence have changed the way we all look at this complex problem. "If kids are sitting up all night smoking super skunk [cannabis] and they come so desensitised [sic] to crime because they're playing these video games, it's really, really scary," he added while adjusting the Amalfi Prize hanging around his neck.
Gallagher is the best-selling author of Burning the Razor's Edge: How Super-Skunk Smoking and Our Knife-Obsessed Media Landscape are Turning Our Kids to Crime.
You might not recognize him, but that's Captain America saving the world from what looks like cast of WALL-E. With Commodore 64 graphics, you have to use your imagination to fill in quite a few missing pieces.
A happy 4th of July to all our readers (even if you're not American, just have a happy day, k?). Here's what we'll be playing this weekend. Be sure to let us know what games will be occupying your time!
Alexander Sliwinski: Metal. Gear. Solid 4. And Ticket to Ride, which is strangely addictive.
Andrew Yoon: Ludwig's coming over! YAY!
Chris Grant: Having finished Metal Gear Solid 4 (finally!), I've taken up arms with Battlefield: Bad Company. I find the destructive elements vaguely cathartic and, though I'm not very far yet, the storytelling well done. How's multiplayer? I totally skipped the beta.
Kevin Kelly:I'm out of town, and it's all board game action for me: Ticket to Ride, Zombies!!!, and the new Risk: Revised Edition.
Kyle Orland:Finally going to dive into Metal Gear Solid 4 in the serious way it deserves.
James Ransom-Wiley:In lieu of playing I'll be watching another friend take his walk down the aisle. And then I'll try out that game McElroy suggested a few weeks back: drinking.
Jason Dobson: I've recently had an itch to play games of the tabletop variety, and with family all gathering to set off small explosives in celebration of our nation's birthday, we'll all be dabbling with the dark arts (and stabing each other in the back) playing Betrayal at House on the Hill.
Ludwig Kietzmann: I'll be on a plane for most of my Friday, so I'm stuck with playing portable games. Which is just as well, since I have gems like The World Ends with You, Contra 4, Castlevania: Dracula X Chronicles and Mega Man: Powered Up to keep me busy.
Randy Nelson: Since my PS3 still works, I figured I'd take the opportunity to unlock all of the Trophies in Super Stardust HD. Then I think I'll go back and find all the secrets (and get all gold stars) for the first three episodes of American McGee's Grimm. I just can't resist a game that implores me to "make it nasty!"
Ross Miller: Drums – real drums, that is. And some guitar, piano and mandolin at a 4th of July concert tonight in downtown Athens (woo-hoo!). Otherwise, I'm planning to go crazy on Diablo 2 and FIFA 08.
