Joystiq

Microsoft released its Kodu Game Lab yesterday, giving gamers everywhere the opportunity to create their very own games. Just for you, we snapped up the tool and set to work creating the Next BIg Thing in video gaming. Well, either that or we created a dinky little 2D shooter. Still, it's hard not to feel some pride after creating a real, honest-to-goodness, functioning game. And we did it all without laying a finger on a standard keyboard.

Check out our video tour and see what created.

Add the trial version of Kodu Game Lab to your Xbox 360 download queue

You know Techland, right? No no, not that weird Discovery Zone ripoff your Dad used to take you to when you were a little kid -- the Polish developer! You know, the comany that makes Call of Juarez and ... ummm ... not much else. Anyway, while speaking recently with G4TV, the company's international brand manager, Blazej Krakowiak, confirmed a second title from the developer, albeit one announced way back in 2007, named Dead Island.

Unfortunately, the game's website tells us little to nothing about the game's current status. So, we emailed Techland this afternoon and Krakowiak told us, "As far as Dead Island goes, nothing has changed regarding our media silence .... the game's worldwide publisher is still waiting for their best moment to strike and reveal the awesome stuff we're preparing for zombie fans and gamers." He also confirmed to us the game's still in-development status, saying, "The game's still alive (or better yet, still Dead) and doing great."

As G4TV rightly points out, when the game was shown last it was without a publisher, so if anything, this means good things for Techland's zombie game. After all, we're still wondering what happened to the company's open-world FPS game, Warhound ...

If anyone belongs in a game called DJ Hero, it's Grandmaster Flash. The legendary musician has been at the forefront of hip-hop for basically forever, and is credited with inventing the art of messing with records to create noise, upon which the entire game is based.

In addition to appearing in-game, Flash contributed his own mixes to the soundtrack. In the video above, you can hear a segment of his mashup of Herbie Hancock's "Rockit" and N.E.R.D.'s "Lapdance." After the break, we've embedded a clip of the game featuring a mashup of his own "Here Comes My DJ" and Gary Numan's new wave anthem to isolation, "Cars."

MTV recorded footage of Flash trying the game for the first time, and let's just say his performance in the game is much more impressive than his performance of the game. For a more thorough writeup of Mr. Flash's thoughts on the game, check out GameDaily's writeup here.

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Atari's slow collapse continues with the loss of the company's most lucrative franchise. No, not Ghostbusters -- it's Dragon Ball, which has produced approximately a billion video games so far. The franchise will now go back to Namco Bandai, the original Japanese publisher of the series. According to a statement by Namco Bandai, the agreement will run for five years beginning in January 2010 and will supersede any existing publishing rights. In addition, Namco Bandai will publish the upcoming Dragon Ball: Raging Blast game for Xbox 360 and PS3, Dragon Ball: Revenge of King Piccolo for Wii, and Dragon Ball Z: Attack of the Saiyans for DS all this year.

The loss of the Dragon Ball franchise is perhaps the greatest evidence of the financial challenges that face Atari. Earlier this year, the company pulled out of E3, sold its European publishing division, and even sold exclusivity rights for Ghostbusters, all presumably for a small cash influx. With Phil Harrison recently stepping down from his position at the company, it's clear that Atari will see even more troubled times ahead.

So, in case it wasn't made absolutely clear by the box art, here's what Obsidian Entertainment's head-slammin' Alpha Protocol isn't:

• The Overwrought Fantasy RPG
• The Contemplative Neo-Classical RPG
• The Effervescent Dating RPG
• The Number One Best Selling RPG
• An Espionage RPG
• That Other Game About The Secret Agent and Stuff

Joking aside, it's quite likely that we're simply oblivious to the subtitle's significance to the plot -- the one involving a sneaky rocket-propelled grenade that taps your phone and then blows off your ear. See if you can spot it in the developer diary embedded after the break.

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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.

Next week's Rock Band Weekly brings the announced three-pack from Green Day's 21st Century Breakdown album. The tracks are apparently the first offerings from an "exclusive partnership" between Harmonix and Warner Music to bring the band's songs to the platform. Green Day isn't even the angriest band this week ...

Green Day Pack (440 / $5.50/ 200 Wii Points apiece)

• "21 Guns" (160 / $2)
• "East Jesus Nowhere" (160 / $2)
• "Know Your Enemy" (160 / $2)

Mayhem Pack (1080 / $13.50/ 200 Wii Points apiece)

• "Conquer All" -- Behemoth (160 / $2)
• "What a Horrible Night to Have a Curse" -- Black Dahlia Murder (160 / $2)
• "Hammer Smashed Face" -- Cannibal Corpse (160 / $2)
• "Empire of the Gun" -- God Forbid (160 / $2)
• "Embedded" -- Job for a Cowboy (160 / $2)
• "Disposable Teens" -- Marilyn Manson (160 / $2)
• "Black Magic" -- Slayer (160 / $2)
• "This Is Exile" -- Whitechapel (160 / $2)

All tracks are original masters and are available for download next Tuesday on Xbox 360 and Wii. They make their way over to PS3 on Thursday.

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]

Awesome news for No More Heroes fans: creator Suda 51 told Edge that he wants to continue the series. "I really want to make NMH a big franchise," he said, "and with this second episode have bigger success."

Slightly less awesome news for certain No More Heroes fans: if the series does continue past Desperate Struggle, it probably won't be on the Wii. "I think this is the last NMH that is going to be developed on Wii," Suda said. "To expand NMH to new possibilities, we need a new platform. Wii is a great platform, but we've done everything we can with it now."

Recent comments from Suda suggest that he's looking toward the Natal-enhanced Xbox 360 for at least one future project -- and No More Heroes was originally planned as a 360 game. Perhaps he's realized that charging Travis Touchdown's beam saber could be made even more embarrassing without a Wiimote prop.

In any case, it may be a bummer for Wii-only gamers, but at least if No More Heroes comes out on one of the other consoles, the "hardcore" types will be able to admit it's wonderful without having to say something nice about the Wii.

Trine is a game with a lot of buzz surrounding it, and for good reason. It's an ambitious title, to say the least, and we're glad to report that the game will be available on Steam today for your downloading pleasure. The game's a bit on the pricier side ($29.99), but provides plenty of bang for those bucks, including three different playable characters, 15 different levels, and co-op for up to three players. Oh, and if you pre-ordered, don't forget about your free copy of Shadowgrounds.

Just do us one favor before you download: Make sure you put on your robe and wizard hat. Thanks.

According to Shock Till You Drop, the Resident Evil movies are getting a fourth installment in Resident Evil: Afterlife. A supposed internal memo at Sony Pictures seems to point to a September 17, 2010 release. Of course, this isn't the first time we've heard about a fourth Resident Evil movie, so we're considering this rumor fairly credible.

Do we really want another Resident Evil movie, though? Hasn't Milla Jovovich beaten up enough zombified dogs and dudes in rubber suits?

[Via Coming Soon]

Following up on earlier reports that Valve won't leave Left 4 Dead to die an early death, the company stated today that there should be an L4D DLC announcement before the end of summer. A company spokesperson also told CVG that about eight or nine months from now, when L4D2 has released and people see the continued support for L4D, they may finally understand the method to the madness.

We're all eagerly awaiting the epiphany.

The fate of Heroes over Europe was in question when the agreement between publisher Red Mile and developer Transmission Games dissipated, due to an unfortunate lack of money on Red Mile's part.

Ubisoft is now the hero of every prospective Heroes of Europe player, having just announced that it will publish the World War II flight simulator on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. The Heroes Over the Pacific sequel, which features online play for up to 16 players, is currently scheduled for a worldwide release this September. You can check out new screens, only one of which includes a blimp, in our gallery.

Here in the States, we've grown accustomed to certain luxuries: subsidized gasoline for our free Hummers (hey, gotta stimulate that economy!); a complimentary 72oz soda with every purchase (just buy anything!); a lifetime supply of type 2 diabetes; and, of course, monthly updates from NPD charting the sales numbers of the major video game consoles. Our friends in the UK aren't so fortunate. So when we get a peek behind that curtain, we look to share it with you.

And here, courtesy of UK retailer GAME's first-half fiscal statement, we find data from GfK Chart-Track for sales up to June 27th, 2009. Unsurprisingly, Nintendo is in the lead with the DS, having sold 2.7m in the past year, bringing its total up to 9.1m units (that includes 300,000 DSi units sold since launch). The Wii is in second place with 5.4m, up 2.3 from last year. And then we get to the main attraction: 360 and PS3 sales.

You'll recall that in February, Microsoft claimed the 360 bested the PS3 in overall European sales by 1m units, citing GfK Chart-Track data again. In the UK, the Xbox is siting pretty with 3.9m units, up 1.7 from last year, while the PS3 is at 2.2m, up 900k from last year (and, coincidentally, right where Microsoft would've been a year ago). In between the "big boys" is the PSP, with 3.3m consoles sold, up 500k from last year.

It's weird: despite their genetic differences (three stomachs? gross!) the video game shopping trends of UK citizens sound an awful lot like those in the States.