Guitar Hero World Tour (Xbox 360)
Developer: NeversoftPublisher: ActivisionPlatforms: Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, Wii Helping kids appreciate music, one "Jessie's Girl" download at a timeThe Guitar Hero franchise has secured enormous bragging rights for its publisher Activision. The company announced in January of 2008 that Guitar Hero is the first franchise to crack $1 billion dollars in sales. Then it was just announced yesterday that Guitar Hero III is the first single game to break $1 billion in sales. That’s real money, like the kind you buy stuff with.... read more
Ghostbusters video game gets a release date
If you've played the first Ghostbusters game on the original NES, you may recall driving around in a white box meant to represent the Ghostbusters' Ecto-1, and disappointment that the game didn't live up to the movie. The news that Ghostbusters: The Video Game has made it out of production limbo, and is solidly slated for release on June 16 for all major systems might finally make up for that.... read more
The Paste 7 - February 09
Our favorite entertaining bits of whatever.... read more
Grey's Anatomy video game on the way
You can imagine two things happening with Ubisoft’s recent announcement that Grey’s Anatomy: The Video Game will be released in early 2009 for the Wii, Nintendo DS and PC: sales of Wii consoles to soccer moms (swooning for McDreamy, natch) will rise and serious gamers will grumble.... read more
Mirror's Edge (Xbox 360)
Developer: EA Digital Illusions (DICE)Publisher: Electronic ArtsPlatforms: Xbox 360, PS3, PCKILL THE MESSENGERThings get dangerous when the government decides you just might be a terroristAt the 2008 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, designer Ken Levine stood in front of a packed convention hall and delivered a presentation on the art of storytelling in video games. He’d earned the right. His award-winning game Bioshock, released in 2007, delivered one of the most engrossing narratives in the history of interactive entertainment—the harrowing tale of an underwater city called Rapture, founded on utopian ideals, only to spiral into chaos as rampant genetic... read more
Paste celebrates 10 years
On Dec. 3, 1998, Josh Jackson, Nick Purdy and Jordan Feibus launched PasteMusic.com... read more
Tomb Raider Underworld (PC)
Developer: Crystal DynamicsPublisher: EidosPlatforms: Xbox 360, PC, Wii, PS3, PS2Welcome (back) to the jungleThe eighth game in the Tomb Raider series feels perhaps a bit too familiar. As usual, Lara Croft—whose boobs can’t possibly be real (on a number of different levels)—sets off on yet another globe-spanning adventure in search of yet another artifact. This time it’s Thor’s Hammer. Underworld gets off to a snappy start, with Croft, alone, exploring the Mediterranean depths, and eventually stumbling upon a huge octopus, which seems content to sit still and groan while Croft clambers about its lair, solving the puzzle that will eventually... read more
Signs of Life 2008: Best Games
Check out Paste's top 10 video games of 2008... read more
The Best Music, Movies, TV Shows, Books and Games of 2008
Let’s be frank: any best-of list says more about the people who assembled it than it does about a particular year... read more
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
Publisher: LucasArtsPlatforms: Xbox 360, Ps3, Ps2, Wii, DS, PSP, iPhoneEmbracing your Dork Side can be loads of funHardcore Star Wars fans are well aware of what happened during The Clone Wars and after the Emperor died. But in casting you as Darth Vader’s Secret Apprentice, who’s tasked with hunting missing Jedi, this third-person action-packed game is one of the few adventures set between the fall of the Republic and the rise of the Rebellion.... read more
Dead Space
Publisher: EA GamesPlatforms: Xbox 360, PS3, PCAverting disaster, once again, requires plenty of goreZombie-like aliens overtake an abandoned ship floating through space, and it’s your job—as the none-too-subtly-named Isaac Clarke—to traverse the corpse of the ship while running a series of mostly forgettable errands. That’s right: It’s Shinji Mikami’s Resident Evil 4 meets Ridley Scott’s Alien. Even the over-the-right-shoulder viewpoint is lifted straight from RE 4. And like Alien, the game’s most unnerving moments are found between encounters. Listening to the sound of something scuttling in the overhead ducts is far more goosebump-inducing than finally seeing whatever horror emerges.... read more
Rise of the Argonauts
Publisher: Codemasters Platforms: PS3, Xbox 360Tracking the Golden Fleece is (mostly) a pleasure cruiseThe cultural obsession with superheroes is not a contemporary phenomenon. Thousands of years before Batman and Spider-Man saved Gotham and New York—and a few decades later, Hollywood—human beings were fascinated with superhuman do-gooders. Don’t forget: The Christian faith begins with an ordinary-seeming guy who reluctantly unveils miraculous powers in his crusade against injustice and an unfathomably sinister arch-nemesis. (Sounds like a Stan Lee creation, no?) The ancient Greeks had their own superheroes—some divine, some mortal. In a world filled with such wearying complexity, we yearn for tales... read more
Life, the Universe and Everything: Spore Walks a Tightrope Between Creationism and Evolution
Will Wright makes God games—simulations that give players the power to create the world in their own... read more
Army of Two film on the way
It's a bit of a surprise to hear of a new game adaptation being announced so soon after Max Payne flopped both critically and commercially. On the other hand, game-to-film adaptations are becoming so numerous these days it's becoming almost noteworthy when a gaming company tries to maintain its integrity and not attempt a transition to the big screen. Latest on the slate is Electronic Arts' Army of Two, which, by all reports, isn't all that great in the first place. However, the game has sold more than two million copies.... read more
Gears of War 2 (Xbox 360)
Developer: Epic GamesPublisher: Microsoft Game StudiosPlatform: Xbox 360Attention-deficit narrative shows marvelous attention to detailThe action in Gears of War 2 isn’t all that different from the violent cartoon doodles of a nine-year-old boy—all toothsome monsters, tanks jumping ramps and lots and lots of explosions. The game treads unabashedly in the pyrotechnic realm of Michael Bay. But where the Transformers director cheats his way through set pieces with choppy editing, Gears 2 keeps its focus on the details clear-eyed and razor sharp. The game’s stop-and-pop, cover-based combat remains near flawless, providing a dollop of strategy and reserve to the balls-out action.... read more
Takehiro Ando Gives Music a Fighting Chance
If you need advice on how to get paid for obsessing over the things you love most in the world, you might start by consulting with Japanese video-game designer Takehiro Ando... read more
LittleBigPlanet (PS3)
Developer: Media MoleculePublisher: Sony Computer Entertainment EuropePlatform: PlayStation 3Arts-and-crafts time meets Super Mario BrothersMost games are made out of action figures and explosions. LittleBigPlanet is made out of Popsicle sticks and Elmer’s glue. Taking its cues from craft fairs and the DIY maker movement, this endearing descendant of Super Mario Bros. creates a world out of knitted fabrics and rubber bands, construction paper and tape. You (and up to three friends) explore this planet via adorable, personalized sock puppets, hopping around handmade dioramas full of makeshift obstacles and cardboard-cutout dangers. This homespun look telegraphs the game’s greatest strength, a set... read more
Universal wins rights to adapt film from unreleased game
The video game hasn’t even been announced yet, but several Hollywood studios have already burned through a bidding war for rights to make a movie from a new EA project with the working title Dante’s Inferno. Universal Pictures snapped up rights, beating out major bids from Paramount, MGM and others.... read more
MTV snags Beatles for new, non-Rock Band music game
Just days after Activision officially announced Guitar Hero: Metallica, MTV Games announced an even bigger coup of its own: its Rock Band developer Harmonix is working on a title built around The Beatles' entire music catalogue, and it's slated to hit in time for next Christmas.... read more
Guitar Hero: Metallica officially announced
Guitar Hero: Metallica has been a pretty poorly kept secret, ever since an earnings report from Activision revealed that the company was planning a title akin to Guitar Hero: Aerosmith for the thrash wizards. Waiting is the hardest part though, so Guitar Hero junkies got a quick fix with the opportunity to shred some Death Magnetic while they waited for the big score.... read more
The 20 Best Gadgets of the Decade…
The 17 Best Romantic Comedies This Decade
The 50 Best Albums of the Decade…
The 25 Best Movie Performances of the…
Blind Pilot - The Story I Heard
Kim Taylor - Days Like this
B.O.B. - Put Me On
Gregory Alan Isakov - The Moon Song
Punch Brothers - Punch Brothers at CMJ
Anya Marina - Whatever You Like
David Bazan - Hard To Be
