There’s some games out there that go right to the heart of who we are, and play on our deepest fantasies. No matter what the rest of the game looks like you’re into it cause it lets you play out some scenario you’ve always wanted to play. The first Star Wars game that let me take down an AT-AT comes to mind, or being able to create your own movie in “The Movies”. A few years back there was a game that I knew I would buy on day one. A game where I could care less what scores it got, I knew I had to have it. A game where I could be a stunt driver. The game was Stuntman.

Basicially, you’re thrown onto a movie set, and have to perform a series of actions (Pass close on the right, jump flaming barrels, flip car onto spot, corkscrew jump over river, etc). The game then puts you in a scene and the director yells out the directions over your headset. There’s alot of different stunts in alot of different vehicles in a lof of different movies. But is it enough?

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We all scoffed when it was announced that the MTV bash-your-skull-in-because-it’s-funny-and-little-stupid-kids-will-do-it show Jackass is coming to us in video game form. Here’s the part where I admit that I loved the show and saw both movies in theaters…on opening day.

Three new gameplay videos hit gamevideos.com today and I must say…I’m totally down with this game now. They managed to capture the look and feel of the show, which really isn’t that hard to do but now that I see it, it’s pretty damn cool. However there is one big problem…the sack physics on Party Boy is nowhere near as good as the boob physics on the DoA girls.

Two more videos after the jump.

Party Boy:

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As one of the few decent titles present at the PS2’s launch (Orphen wasn’t exactly winning awards, people) Smuggler’s Run found it’s way into the hearts and disc drives of many a gamer.

The concept was simple: you work for a group of smuggler’s and complete a variety of missions that usually involve picking up or dropping off contraband. Missions vary from standard ho-hum races to team-based scrambles to pick up more cargo than the competition, with the real highlight of the game being the cat and mouse missions against the police.

Attempting to evade your pursuers can be exhilarating at times, and the games physics were solid enough to make driving down the side of a mountain to lose the fuzz an absolute hoot. Your dune buggy can run circles around the border patrol’s SUV’s and hitting a bump can send you soaring over their heads at just the right moment. It’s a white trash driving title at it’s finest. Continue Reading »

Manhunt 2 just garnered the “kiss of death” rating of Adults-Only (AO), instead of the expected M for Mature. What’s this mean? Most retailers won’t carry the game (EB, Gamestop, Best Buy, Target, WalMart to name a few) which pretty much renders it non-existent in the retail world. Naturally this leaves it no chance of commercial success.

It’s the video game verison of the NC-17 movie rating, and in some people’s eyes…. censorship.

Rockstar has a few options, such as protesting the ruling to an appeals board or changing the content to get the rating down, but one has to wonder what in the hell this game has that the 1st Manhunt didn’t. Is it reall a matter of the Wii’s controls? Should it be regulated any differently because of the control mechanism of the game?

A company spokesman had the following to say:

“This is completely unexpected to the whole team. We love the horror genre. We thought we could do something interesting and entertaining with it in the video game medium. When we had this first Manhunt game, there wasn’t this reaction. We thought (Manhunt 2) was consistent with a mature rating.”

[Kotaku]

I admit I’m no student of 80’s music, but I’ve never even heard of most of these songs.

It’s clear now what’s happening with this title, it’s a place to put the also-rans and nobody-cares-abouts. Any good tracks they’ve managed to license will be used for the main Guitar Hero games.

• Hold On Loosely (as made famous by .38 Special)
• No One Like You (as made famous by Scorpions)
• Only a Lad (as made famous by Oingo Boingo)
• Radar Love (as made famous by White Lion)
• Ballroom Blitz (as made famous by Krokus)
• The Warrior (by Scandal)
• What I Like About You (as made famous by The Romantics)
• Wrath Child (as made famous by Iron Maiden)

Full Press release after the jump… Continue Reading »

With every new video clip or piece of information about the Guitar Hero 2 PS2 only 80’s edition game, I get less and less interested.

The song list is lackluster to say the least, and this trailer of new features doesn’t do a damn thing to change my mind about this one. I LOVE me some Guitar Hero but I think this 80’s version is a turd-in-waiting.

Few interesting things, the video states new venues, though all the venues in the clip look familiar from other games. The song “I Wanna Rock” is performed by Twisted Sister, but this is not the original 80’s recording… and there’s a quick shot of the character selection screen and it looks like they only included a few characters to choose from…. and gave them 80’s clothes to wear.

Please impress me by doing the following:
1. Include better songs.
2. Announce downloadable version for 360 that won’t cost an arm and a leg.

We’re all still hoping for better songs to be announced, cause as of now there’s just not enough good track included in this Guitar Hero Encore: Rock’s the 80’s game. Not to say there aren’t ANY good songs, just not enough.

Not to mention the fact that it’s still only announced for the PS2. Cmon guys, announce some better songs and 360 support dagnabbit!

Twisted Sister: I Wanna Rock

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