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BlizzCon 2009: Ozzy Osbourne closes show down, injures no bats

by Kevin Kelly { Aug 23rd 2009 at 4:30PM }

Blizzard fittingly chose Ozzy Osbourne to close down BlizzCon last night, since he's been in a fairly funny World of Warcraft commercial arguing about who is the true Prince of Darkness. He put on a fairly deafening, rocktastic show -- some of his setlist was appropriately composed of tracks off his 1980 "Blizzard of Ozz" album -- though he did stumble a bit through the words to "Iron Man." However, he made up for that by maniacally turning a hose on the audience, and I kid you not -- some women actually threw their panties on stage.

Opening up for him was Level 80 Elite Tauren Chieftain, although they've now changed their name in protest over their own name changes to a familiar Prince-esque symbol, or The Artists Formerly Known As Level 80 Elite Tauren Chieftain (TAFKAL80ETC). They put on a good show as well, although they really need to write some new songs.

Browse the Ozzrific gallery below, and you can also check out one of Ozzy's classics below without the need for earplugs and a raincoat. Even though the show is over, we'll have more BlizzCon news soon. All aboard!

Gallery: BlizzCon 2009: Ozzy Osbourne and L80ETC

Impressions: Iron Man 2

by Andrew Yoon { Aug 19th 2009 at 6:00PM }

Last year's summer blockbuster, Iron Man, was a surprising hit. The game? Not so much.

The next film in the franchise isn't due for another year, meaning Sega's internal San Francisco studio has a lot of time left to work on Iron Man 2. Already six months into development, Iron Man 2 will have nearly two years of development by the time it releases, benefiting from some recycled tech and assets from the first game. Certainly, the team should have a much easier road for the sequel than the first -- but will it produce a good game? We're not entirely sure.

There are certainly some good ideas being worked into the sequel. For example, the game now features indoor environments, something that was apparently absent in the first game (seriously?). Sega's also adding on-rails flying sections to the game. In one scene, we saw the titular hero flying out of (what else?) an exploding factory. Finally, Sega's promising some ridiculously large bosses. A "mini-boss" that we saw was about the size of a small warehouse. The main bosses, we're told, will tower above that.

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Marvel not doing 'crappy' movie games anymore, says exec

by Alexander Sliwinski { Aug 19th 2009 at 7:00AM }

Marvel Executive Vice President of Global Digital Media Group (wow, long title) Ira Rubenstein tells Joystiq that Marvel is done making "crappy" movie-based games. The executive told us that while the company would like to have games tied to the release of movies, each character should stick to their own worlds. He used the recent X-Men Origins: Wolverine game as an example of what the company is looking to do. The M-rated Wolverine game was clearly not based around the PG-13 escapade in theaters.

"We are not doing movie-based games anymore," Rubenstein said following yesterday's announcement of Digital Comics for PSN at Sony's GamesCom press conference. "Actually, wait ... we are not doing crappy movie-based games anymore. You can quote me on that." Oh, we did.

Rubenstein tells us that work on Iron Man 2 has been in process since the first game wrapped. He wasn't involved in the first one, so he asked us not to blame him for that wreck. However, he swears the second one is going to be good. He's also really excited about the Thor game and seems proud with the team working on it. If Wolverine is any indication of future Marvel games, it seems that Rubenstein is doing his best to make sure fans of the comics won't be served watered-down Hollywood entertainment.

Adorable Marvel superheroes coming to LittleBigPlanet

by Griffin McElroy { Jul 26th 2009 at 9:30PM }

What does the future of Marvel video games hold? According to the aptly titled "The Next Generation of Marvel Video Games" panel at San Diego Comic Con, the future holds ... LittleBigPlanet costumes! Kotaku nabbed pictures of concept art for three different superheroic costumes that were previewed: Captain America, who is pictured above, and Wolverine and Iron Man, who can be viewed after the jump.

Marvel was non-committal about when the costume pack would be released, or even whether these three heroes would be the ones that would receive the DLC treatment. We've contacted Media Molecule to try and discern some concrete details. Personally, we've got our stuffed burlap fingers crossed for an appearance by Howard the Duck.

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Here's your first look at Iron Man 2 in action

by Justin McElroy { Jul 22nd 2009 at 4:15PM }

There, that was the first trailer for Iron Man 2. Now, here's a brief history lesson, courtesy of "Iron Man's new trailer looks unexpectedly awesome":

"We know, we know, it's just a video clip. And yes, we know that we've been burned by sexy trailers for mediocre licensed games before. But this new trailer for Iron Man (shown during last night's Spike VGAs) is just so freaking good, we're finding it hard to keep our cynical composure.
How about when Iron Man throws a fighter jet, or when it grabs a missile and redirects it? How about the original gray armor? Awesome. Everything here is."

Never, ever forget this lesson: You can believe what we're saying 99.9% of the time. But when it comes to pretending to be a man in a robot suit, we are frail, weak, and, above all, not to be trusted.

Songbird takes flight in Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2

by Ben Gilbert { Mar 19th 2009 at 1:05AM }

It's been quite some time since we last heard anything on the Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 front, aside from a trailer loosed at last month's NY Comic Con. Today, however, Marvel has revealed a new character in "Songbird," an ex-female wrestler turned supervillain turned superheroine, whose main superpower is -- and we're not kidding -- "enhanced vocal cords."

Pictured above, Songbird "fuses" with Iron Man to produce ... what precisely, we're not sure ... though Marvel's Steve Nelson assures us that "fusions are BIG," (his caps, not ours). Mr. Nelson continues on the Marvel website, saying, "Songbird solidifies sound waves into objects, which she can use for a number of purposes on the battlefield ... one of our concept artists, Dave Phillips, came up with a really stunning piece of art for her 'wings,' and we ended up basing the look of her powers largely on that." Looks as though Songbird will not only be able to solidify sound waves and toss 'em at foes but also do so while flying high above their heads. Who knew strong vocal cords could do so much?

For more on MUA2, check out our (limited, we know) gallery below and the most recent trailer, after the break.

Gallery: Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2

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Paramount searching for new games pimp

by Xav de Matos { Dec 16th 2008 at 5:45PM }

Dear Mr. Paramount,
Recently it has come to my attention that Paramount is looking for a new executive to lead its gaming initiative. Although I assume that holding the lucrative Saturday Night Fever and Mean Girls gaming licenses means you've received a countless amount of quality resumes, the chance to work with Lindsay Lohan was too great an opportunity to pass up -- we actually almost worked together once, as I regularly volunteer at various rehab facilities throughout the Bay Area but she had supposedly "got all better" and checked out by the time I started at three of the nine centers she has "visited" in the last four months -- but, I digress. I humbly throw my hat into the ring of "exciting executive possibilities."

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Ohio library now loaning video games

by Ludwig Kietzmann { Jul 1st 2008 at 7:55PM }

Eager bookworms visiting the Washington-Centerville Public Library in Centerville, Ohio, will face exposure to the new-fangled "video game" entertainment medium, as the library will now be loaning PS2, PS3, Wii and Xbox 360 games. According to the Dayton Daily News, the library will carry two categories of games: Titles aimed at families, and ones aimed at players aged 10 and up (sans adult-only games). Each game will be available for one-week loan with the option of one renewal.

You can check for yourself which games are available in the library's online catalog, though the Dayton Daily News has gone and confirmed the presence of Guitar Hero, Kung-Fu Panda, Madden NFL 08 and, err, Iron Man. That one's probably meant to frighten the kids into reading books again.

[Via Shacknews]

Summer movies raise demand for associated classic games

by Kyle Orland { Jun 10th 2008 at 2:55PM }

Summer blockbusters aren't just good for propping up the sales of crappy new movie-based games ... it turns out they're also good for pumping up the prices of crappy old games based on the same characters. For proof, look no further than the always interesting Video Game Price Charts blog, which shows a distinct and recent uptick in the selling prices for older games based on the Speed Racer, Iron Man and Indiana Jones franchises. Never mind that these games aren't directly related to the new movies, or that the games are universally awful (well, almost) -- once that old clunker of a game gets attached to a hot new movie, the asking price can get inflated by up to 170%.

We can almost see the logic behind the increased demand, from the average consumer's perspective. After all, why waste $50 on the crappy new Iron Man game that junior is begging for when you can pick up a crappy old Iron Man game for half the price (even after accounting for the recent uptick). The little punk won't know the difference anyway, and the game will get him out of your hair so you can get back to having an affair with the pool boy. It's win-win!

Nintendo Channel: New week, new demos

by Alisha Karabinus { May 12th 2008 at 11:45AM }

Will the line-up of DS demos available on the Wii's Nintendo Channel change every week? We're not sure, but it's starting to look like it; at least, some of the demos available have been rotated out in favor of fresh meat. If you were looking for something that was previously available, it might just be gone. Lesson? Download quickly rather than putting it off, because the demo you want may just disappear!

Peek past the break for the current list of available demos -- you may be surprised at what you'll find!

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Counting Rupees: GTA IV vs. Iron Man

by Jeff Engel { May 9th 2008 at 11:56AM }

Each week Jeff Engel and Geoff Brooks contribute Counting Rupees, a column on the business behind gaming:

According to several "analysts" last week, the successful launch of Grand Theft Auto IV threatened to sink the box office returns for Iron Man. The thinking went that since the game and the movie both target primarily the same demographic (males 18-29), that demographic would stay home and play the game instead of going to see the movie. While it's impossible to declare with complete certainty, as Variety did, that GTA IV had absolutely no effect on Iron Man's opening (with $104.2M in domestic receipts, $201M worldwide, and a release date for a sequel already announced), whatever effect it may have had was clearly not enough to significantly impact the movie. But clearly, many had predicted that the game could adversely affect box office receipts. It makes me wonder -- have we ever seen this sort of effect before?

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Buy Iron Man, score a free gift card

by Dustin Burg { May 5th 2008 at 5:30PM }

Thanks to Iron Man cleaning up at the box office this weekend (an estimated $100 million weekend), we're sure sales of the Iron Man video game will also be rather high. And even though we can't guarantee the game will equal that of the movies' enjoyment, we can guarantee your Iron Man video game purchase will score you a free gift card.

Over at Circuit City and Best Buy, you can score a $10 gift card with the purchase of Iron Man for the Xbox 360. Not too shabby of a deal, especially if you are or know someone who is a gamer hell bent on owning everything Iron Man after experiencing Iron Man excitement at the box office. Just be careful with your purchase.

Read - $10 Gift Card at Best Buy
Read - $10 Gift Card at Circuit City

No GTA IV effect on Iron Man opening

by Alexander Sliwinski { May 5th 2008 at 1:25PM }

Talk of Grand Theft Auto IV possibly hurting Iron Man's opening was clearly wrong. According to Variety, the movie made $104.2 million during its opening weekend, proving Paramount's Rob Moore right when he said that young males can carve out two hours to see Iron Man.

Variety did explore GTA IV's impact on the home video market recently, which showed no major releases targeted at the young male demo for the week. Probably the best comparison would be to see how the Iron Man video game did in sales when NPD comes out next month, and we know we're going out on a limb on this one, but we're pretty sure GTA IV won that battle.

WRUP: Is it Iron Man? edition

by David Hinkle { May 2nd 2008 at 12:00PM }

Uh, no post title, it is in fact not Iron Man (although, we should say the prospect of seeing the film this weekend sounds nice). What we're all going to be playing, no doubt, is Mario Kart Wii. With its multitude of tracks, online play and plethora of control schemes available (got to love that wheel!), it looks like it's a shoe-in for this weekend's down time. What about you all?

Will you be racing it up in Mario Kart Wii, or are you playing something else? Maybe you're still chipping away at Okami? What are you playing?

Gallery: Mario Kart Wii

What are you Playing? is a weekly feature where we ask what it is that you're, well ... playing! Every Friday, look for a new topic and a new chance to converse with the community about what games you're enjoying and which games are disappointing. So tell us already!

Shipping this week: good luck Iron Man edition

by Richard Mitchell { Apr 28th 2008 at 1:00PM }

Remember when an analysts predicted that the release of Grand Theft Auto IV could derail the ticket sales of the Iron Man movie that releases this week? While the idea that big video game launches hindering movie releases is nothing new -- they said the same thing about Halo 3 -- we have one more prediction to make about the launch of Grand Theft Auto IV: it's going to put a serious damper on sales of the Iron Man video game. You see, they both come out this week. Sure, a game might steal money from a film, but a big game will definitely steal money from a smaller game. They will be competing for the same shelf space after all.

Well, competing might be too kind a word.

[Via Joystiq]