Ryan Adams: Video Game Blogger
Keeping up with Ryan Adams has always been a bit of an adventure. Be it following his rumor-mill dating life and eventual marriage to former pop-queen Mandy Moore , his on and off-stage dramatics and, of course, his desire to consistently release music, the ride of being a die-hard Ryan Adams fan is more of a wooden rollercoaster than a carousel. Recently, Adams threw a new and arguably exciting turn in his career trajectory: video game blogger. Sort of.... read more
Rock Band Network Provides Platform for Lesser-Known Musicians
If there is anyone left in the gaming community who doesn't agree that Rock Band at least looks like an outlet of face-melting fun, the next addition to the game should might help convince them.... read more
28 Weeks Later Director in Talks for Bioshock Film
Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, the director of the well-liked sequel 28 Weeks Later, is in talks to replace Gore Verbinski as the director of the video-game adaptation Bioshock.... read more
Best of What's Next 2009: Daniel Benmergui [Game Developer]
Hometown: Buenos Aires, Argentina Games: Today I Die, Storytelling, I Wish I Were the Moon For Fans Of: Atari 2600, Magnetic Poetry, Jason Rohrer... read more
Best of What's Next 2009: Jani Kahrama (Secret Exit) [Game Developer]
Hometown: Helsinki, Finland Game: Zen Bound For Fans Of: Yoga, Finnish electronica, Origami... read more
Best of What's Next 2009: Tim Schafer (Double Fine) [Game Developer]
Hometown: San FranciscoGames: Brütal Legend, Grim Fandango, PsychonautsFor Fans of: Mötorhead, Erik Wolpaw, Evil Dead 2... read more
Elliott Smith, TV On The Radio, Band of Horses Added to Guitar Hero 5
In May, we told you of the extensive and eclectic Guitar Hero 5 tracklist, which was to feature 83 bands from The White Stripes and Vampire Weekend to Bob Dylan and The Rolling Stones. Now that the list of artists has been confirmed, it's gotten even weirder: GH5 boasts Elliott Smith's "LA," TV On the Radio's "Wolf Like Me," My Morning Jacket's "One Big Holiday," and Band of Horses' "Cigarettes, Wedding Bands," among other alternately rocking and puzzling jewels.... read more
Dethklok to Appear in Metalocalypse Video Game, Release Dethalbum II
Just because their mostly-fictional television home is on hold until the fall doesn't mean that Dethklok is taking a break. With an upcoming new album and a soon-to-be-announced video game, the bone-crushing cartoon metal band seem to be moving on from simple world domination to total universe tyranny.... read more
Universal Snags Movie Rights to Atari's Asteroids
The video game movie didn't exactly have a glorious beginning, but they're permanent fixtures in Hollywood these days as studios race to to snap up the film rights to video game properties, enticed by the allure of big box-office returns. It was inevitable that this exuberance would eventually go overboard, and we may have arrived at the genre's shark-jumping moment: Universal Pictures has emerged from a bidding war as the buyer of the rights to the Asteroids movie.... read more
Prototype (Xbox 360)
Developer: Radical EntertainmentPublisher: ActivisionPlatforms: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC Genetically alien spike appendages and the misanthropic antiheroes who use them for their only logical purposeIn the mind-numbingly passé world we inhabit, genetics companies spend all their time researching cures for Alzheimer’s and developing drought-resistant crops. One of these days they’ll take a cue from their far more interesting videogame counterparts—Prototype’s GENTEK, for instance—and finally get around to creating a human weapon capable of hurling taxis at passing assault helicopters, agilely sprinting up the sides of skyscrapers and morphing limbs instantly into any number of razor-sharp, certifiably lethal monstrosities.... read more
Terminator Salvation (Xbox 360)
Developer: GRINPublishers: Equity Games, Evolved GamesPlatforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PCOf bad machines and even worse videogamesHow is it possible to make a game that offers players the tantalizing fantasy of a 100% traffic-free downtown Los Angeles and have the experience fall this miserably flat? Granted, it’s year 2013 and the apocalyptic war between sentient machines and a human resistance movement has demolished the City of Angels—cars, roads, signal lights, not to mention the poor human populace now glaringly absent.... read more
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars (Nintendo DS)
Publisher: Rockstar GamesDeveloper: Rockstar LeedsPlatform: Nintendo DSSeminal carjacking series makes its Nintendo DS debut You know how it goes: You’re out stealing cars and wantonly running down hapless pedestrians, and you think, “Man, this is fun! I should go home and play some Grand Theft Auto.” The devilishly addictive crime franchise has been wowing players with its sardonic humor, cartoonish violence, and huge environments for over a decade. Chinatown Wars is GTA’s debut on the Nintendo DS, and Rockstar Games has managed to stuff a fully-featured installment into the tiny hardware. The top-down view from the series’ early days replaces... read more
Column: Fallout 3's Broken Steel DLC and the Power of Prayer
While the vast majority of critics and fans heaped kudos upon Bethesda’s post-apocalyptic epic Fallout 3 when it was released, many players took to blogs and online message boards decrying its abrupt ending. When you completed the game’s central quest narrative, the onscreen action lapsed into a brief sepia-toned slideshow of images from the Capital Wasteland with some epilogue-ish voiceover remarks. Then bam, credits, game over, menu screen. It felt like going out on a romantic date that seemed to be going incredibly well, only to have it culminate in a brief peck on the forehead and a door being... read more
New Xbox Console Rumor Stirred Up by Natal Hype
With the introduction of Microsoft's Project Natal, a camera that tracks motion and recognizes voice and facial expressions, comes the obligatory gossip and hype that sets in whenever a technology giant makes a giant leap in technology. The latest talk toys with a rumored new, refined Xbox 360 console that might be released along with the Natal camera system.... read more
10 Most Exciting Games Showing at E3 2009
Following the Electronic Entertainment Expo’s decision a couple years ago to morph into a kindler, gentler “media & business summit,” throngs of voices in the gaming press began lamenting the departure of the glitz, fog machines, neon tubing, theatrics, etc. Those tear-choked pleas were answered this year as event organizers promised gamers a return to the more-is-more days of yore.Due to such assurances of divine bombast, there was an enormous amount of pressure on this year’s E3 to deliver at least a pound of gooseflesh to attendees and liveblog-watching gamers around the globe. Granted, nobody expected any console announcements (the... read more
Microsoft Wows E3 Conference With Myriad XBox 360 Plans
If you've ever felt the urge to update your Twitter or stream radio while playing your favorite video game, now you're in luck. On Monday, Microsoft announced at the E3 conference that XBox 360 will now offer gamers the ability to stream music from Last.fm, check and update their Twitter and Facebook accounts and stream more movies and television shows faster from Netflix. Finally, we can stalk our friends on Facebook while waiting for Madden to load.... read more
The Beatles: Rock Band Details Announced
It seems like everyone is taking the virtual leap into the karaoke, play-along worlds of Rock Band and Guitar Hero. Sir Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, along with Yoko Ono Lennon and Olivia Harrison, announced yesterday that on Sept. 9, fans will be able sing and play along with the Fab Four, in a five-button sort of way.... read more
Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony on the Way
Uh oh. In this age of renewed Prop. 8 outrage and rigged upsets for gay American Idol contestants, Rockstar Games has announced that the latest downloadable episode for Grand Theft Auto IV will be The Ballad of Gay Tony, which will follow “legendary nightclub impresario Tony Prince (aka 'Gay Tony')" and his dutiful thug assistant.... read more
Bionic Commando (Xbox 360)
Developer: GRINPublisher: CapcomPlatforms: Xbox 360, PS3, PCARM-AGEDDONCan't remember the last time I've had this much fun with a severely flawed game According to Capcom’s newest installment in the Bionic Commando franchise, the apocalypse is worse than anyone feared. Case in point: the only soda machines in Ascension City to survive a catastrophic WMD blast all sport glowing Pepsi logos (and not even the slick, newly reimagined Pepsi logo, which you’d expect to find inhabiting the game’s supposedly futuristic setting). Unfortunately this innocuous bit of soft-drink product placement offers the perfect beverage metaphor for the Bionic Commando experience. It’ll quench your... read more
Guitar Hero 5 Lineup includes White Stripes, Vampire Weekend, Johnny Cash, Many More
In the ongoing Battle of the Band Games between Guitar Hero and Rock Band, the former has once again scored big. According to NeoSeeker.com, there will be no less than 85 bands contributing to Guitar Hero 5.... read more
The 20 Best Gadgets of the Decade…
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Gregory Alan Isakov - The Moon Song
Kim Taylor - Days Like this
Fanfarlo - I’m A Pilot
Blind Pilot - The Story I Heard
Punch Brothers - Punch Brothers at CMJ
David Bazan - Hard To Be
Anya Marina - Whatever You Like
