Justin McElroy
- http://www.joystiq.com/bloggers/justin-mcelroy/
Reviews editor Justin McElroy has been writing about video games since he started reviewing them for The Herald-Dispatch when he was 12 years old. Besides Joystiq, his work has appeared in Computer Games Magazine, GamePro, Official Xbox Magazine, PlayStation: The Official Magazine, PC Gamer, The Escapist, Gamezebo, Gamers With Jobs and GameDaily.
by Justin McElroy { 1 day ago } 
Though this is a short version of the show that lacks Chris Grant and Ludwig Kietzmann, we've made up for it with Joystiq's Ben Gilbert and Jem Alexander and super special guest Wombat of
Cheap Ass Gamer fame.
We're talking
The Conduit,
Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood and a load of other stuff. Enjoy it and have a happy 4th! Oh, and thanks to TV's Alan Black for the photoshop.
Get the podcast:[
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MP3] Download the MP3 directly
Hosts: Jem Alexander, Ben Gilbert, Wombat of CAG Fame and Justin McElroy
Music: "
Gravity (Don't Let Me Go)" by
Jon Black, "The Problem With America" by The Vitamen
For fans: Joystiq Podcast Facebook groupSee all of this week's links after the jump.by Justin McElroy { 2 days ago } 
So this is kinda confusing, try to roll with us. Developer Reality Pump
announced that it's working on
Two Worlds II, due this winter. Only ... it had already announced a sequel to
Oblivion-esque FPS RPG called
Two Worlds: The Temptation. We're pretty sure the team just decided to go with the number instead of the subtitle, but we guess we'll
never know. (Yeah, we've emailed them.)
Set two years after the original,
TW II promises "completely overhauled AI and balancing standards, experienced authors, [an] active combat system and the brand-new engine." Here's hoping the changes can make the sequel not so ... you know ... wretched?
[Via
Eurogamer]
by Justin McElroy { 2 days ago }
In other news, Joystiq Publishing trademarked "Just STOP."
by Justin McElroy { 2 days ago }
To be clear, Frozenbyte spokesman Joel Kinnunen wasn't saying that the company's fantasy action platformer
itself is a mess, but everything surrounding it -- like
price point disparity between regions and territories -- has become quite the kerfuffle.
The problem, apparently, is that
Trine started life as PC game before migrating to PSN and (
maybe) XBLA. While that may be good for getting the game to as many people as possible, it's not ideal for a game launch.
"
Trine as a project is a big mess," Kinnunen said, "as opposed to
Trine as a game, which is pretty sweet. Ultimately it's the game part that really matters and helps us sleep at night, though."
by Justin McElroy { 2 days ago }
Though you might think they'd welcome a break from shoot-'em-ups, members of the military are known to be a rich breeding ground for hardcore gamers. Now, just in time for Independence Day, they have their very own space in which to catch each other in the friendliest of fire: The Military Online Gaming program, a Global Gaming League-powered service that kicks off on the 4th with a
Call of Duty: World at War tournament.
Though support will start with the 360, a rep from the group responsible, Pro vs. GI Joe, told
Shacknews that our fighting men and women will soon be able to blast one another on PC and PS3 too.
by Justin McElroy { 3 days ago }
You really have no excuse for not owning
Fallout 3 at this point. Not only is it a really excellent game, it's packing tons of value with all the different DLC available. And let's not forget the indescribable pleasure of having Danny Kaye songs endlessly stuck in your head.
Now that the game's been slashed to $24.99 for the weekend on Steam, you have less than no excuse. It's like ... negative excuse, which we believe means you're legally obligated to buy a copy, even if you already own one.
by Justin McElroy { 3 days ago }
With just the simple image you see above, developer Polytron announced that its dimensional-shifting platformer
Fez would arrive on the Xbox Live Arcade platform at some point next year. Though we've seen a date of 2009 in a previous trailer, the teaser image is the best indication we've had so far in terms of a concrete platform for the game.
Though we can't say it's a huge surprise (we spotted an Xbox "A" button in the game
back in March), it's nice to have it officially official.
by Justin McElroy { 3 days ago } 
We're just gonna come right out and say it: July 2009 may be the worst month for new retail releases ever. Unless you like 2D fighters that is, because in
that case, it's awesome. Or games about movies about hamsters, those two groups are being really well serviced.
If you haven't fully prepared yourself for the horror, we'd suggest you gird your mind with all the reason and clarity you can muster before
continuing on.
by Justin McElroy { 3 days ago }
Our problem isn't that we're waffling on whether or not to buy
one of these gorgeous, felt, PlayStation One-shaped iPhone cases. Our problem is that we can't
stop buying them. Every time we confirm our order we think of yet another reason we need one. What if we lose the first one in a house fire? What if the second one goes through the wash? What if we want our iPhone to have a different yet identical outfit for every day of the week like
Doug Funnie?
We hope you understand our predicament. We also hope you understand why they seem to be
temporarily sold out.
[Via
Gizmodo]
by Justin McElroy { 3 days ago }
Just when we were starting to get all excited about
Silverlight-powered ads for Mountain Dew and Axe Body Spray littering the Xbox Dashboard, Xbox Live spokesman Major Nelson rains on our parade, telling readers that they don't need to sweat.
The Major recently posted, "One of our core principles is to enhance, not interfere with the gaming experience, and we work directly with our partners to only deliver experiences that are relevant to the LIVE community. Silverlight will help make those ads a more organic part of the dashboard, like we've done with some of the NXE slots in the past."
Aww, come on. Maybe just one "Get Totally Crunchatized With Doritos" ad? Something?
by Justin McElroy { 4 days ago }
JAKKS is more than happy to reenter into its WWE licensing deal with THQ, but the gaming company
isn't so sure it's ready to make a commitment. After JAKKS signed on the dotted line to extend its gaming agreement with the wrestling group for five years, THQ sued the toymaker, saying it wasn't ready to make a decision and that JAKKS had no right to sign the agreement without THQ's consent.
There were some reportedly
shady dealings when JAKKS originally got the contract -- perhaps THQ wants to get the whole pie for itself. Who knows? Either way, the two companies have entered into arbitration, so hopefully the tiff won't have an impact on releases.
by Justin McElroy { 4 days ago }
We can't tell you the number of times we've been on a train or bus and thought, "Wow, I really wish I was playing (insert your favorite PSX game here, though we're going to assume it's
Pepsiman because
of course it is)." Engadget reports that super hacker ZodTTD has heard our silent prayer and brought PlayStation 1 emulation to the Palm Pre.
It's not quite perfect yet (and not just because you have to play the thing with a keyboard), but at least we know our dream of bringing refreshing Pepsi-Cola to the children of the world on the go is just a bit closer to fruition.
by Justin McElroy { 4 days ago }
You can say that we're getting old, but
this petition, created by
StarCraft II fans that want to see
LAN support included in the game, is actually making us a little nostalgic. The air is once more thick with with slight, reedy voices crying fruitlessly out for ultimately inconsequential change! It's intoxicating!
But we have to admit that their opener, "We, your most loyal fans, implore you to reconsider adding LAN as a network feature to
StarCraft II," is a little soft for our taste. C'mon guys, when this totally doesn't work at all, you need to feel like you gave it your best shot.
[Via
Eurogamer]
by Justin McElroy { 5 days ago }
You know, for a game that was supposed to be dead, Steven Spielberg's codenamed project "
LMNO" sure has been generating a lot of heat lately. First, the aforementioned
near cancellation and subsequent resurrection, and now we get word from
superannuation that the game may have been renamed "Eve."
The title (apparently derived from the game's AI-controlled female lead) was spotted on
the resume of Melissa Garza, who assisted with mo-cap on the game. Sure, it's probably just a working title, but we really want LMNO to be released, so we're doing what we can to keep the story alive.
by Justin McElroy { 5 days ago }
Like trying to watch a foreign language film on a tiny TV, it seems that our buddies at
Engadget can't figure out if they've got problems with the Wii MotionPlus technology, or just the way it's being used. The site recently did an exhaustive hands-on with Nintendo's new add-on, the fruits of which you
can see here.
The best implementation/demonstration for the super-sensitive tech seems to be manipulating an e-frisbee in 3D space, which is almost too precious and appropriate for our brains to comprehend.
