The Gaming Vault » Shawn Collier

Own Your Own Gaming Publication for $42,000

Shawn Collier — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 03:01:45 +0000

File this one under the bizarre pile…

Hardcore Gamer, a gaming publication headed by DoubleJump Publishing is offering a lucky bidder via eBay (as long as you have at least $42,000 to spend) rights to the entire brand, magazine and all. You’ll get the distribution chains, the staff (if you want to keep them), and all of the back issues currently in stock.

The auction can be found here.

Metal Gear Solid…Touch!?

Shawn Collier — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 15:24:07 +0000

Remember the teaser site Konami put up recently for Metal Gear Solid? After a Famitsu scan was leaked onto the internet that showed the beloved franchise on the screen of an iPhone, Konami told reporters that the scan was, in fact, real. It will be entitled: Metal Gear Solid Touch.

Not only that, they also released some information about the game as well. It’s set in the Metal Gear Solid 4 universe, with initially eight stages (more promised to be added at a later date). It’s controlled by the touchpad, and for sniping, it’s similar to the zoom-in text editing function on the iPhone.

For the fanatics of the series, you will be able to accrue bonus points, which are redeemable for items such as Metal Gear Solid-themed wallpapers. The game is set for a worldwide Spring 2009 release.

Club Nintendo launches with(out) a hitch

Shawn Collier — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 13:50:26 +0000

In Nintendo’s October press conference, the company revealed that Club Nintendo, which in Japan has given away rare collectibles such as a SNES Wii Classic Controller and a real-life Mario cap, would be coming to North America “soon”.

It officially launched yesterday, but not without some issues.

UPDATE: It seems that most of the kinks, especially regarding surveys, are fixed now, according to various reports.

Some users had issues importing their My Nintendo accounts into Club Nintendo. Some people were successful, but kept getting logged out every time they went to a new page. For a while, users who had previously registered games couldn’t fill out surveys to obtain points, although this issue was fixed midway through the day.

The likely cause of these issues was the sheer number of users who tried accessing the service at once, which would have bogged down the servers.

For those who can access the service, there’s some nice bonuses. You can buy an exclusive Game & Watch Collection Nintendo DS game, playing cards of various styles, Nintendo DS cases, a holder for your Wiimotes, just as a few examples.

Nintendo of America has stated that the North American program will be getting a mix of original merchandise and what the Japanese have gotten, and that it is modelled after the Japanese program, not the European program (which has more digital rewards than physical).

There’s still some lag in logging into one’s account this morning, but things seem to be working fine once you’re logged in. If you live in North America, comment and let The Gaming Vault know how you’re fairing!

Namco-Bandai launches new videogame label “Surge”

Shawn Collier — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 12:54:01 +0000

Namco-Bandai is getting ready to launch a new game label, called Surge, designed particularly to appeal to Western gamers, which are becoming a key target for many worldwide-publishing Japanese developers. This also means that a new Western studio specifically for this new brand will be created.

Afro Samurai, based off of the animated series of the same name, will be the first game to be published under “Surge”.

Andrew Lelchuk, the executive in charge of the label, stated that Surge “personifies our commitment to deliver compelling content for the discriminating player who is looking for games that are not only groundbreaking but also push the envelope. […] Surge will complement our portfolio of established franchises and intellectual property while positioning the company as a creative force”.

It is currently unknown what other titles will be published under this new brand.

PETA Strikes Again!

Shawn Collier — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 22:38:11 +0000

Peta has released a spoof of the popular Nintendo DS/Wii series Cooking Mama, which has you performing minigames to prepare for a Thanksgiving feast. Of course, all of these minigames are aimed to turn people away from eating meat, using tactics such as a bloody, lifeless turkey.

PETA has been known to mock other games in the past, such as Nintendo’s Mario series.

Random Posts

GTA and PSP’s Sighted in Las Vegas

Shawn Collier — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 20:27:17 +0000

A week ago I took a trip to Las Vegas for the weekend. But let’s just say I ran across some well-known gaming icons…

This Grand Theft Auto IV ad was plastered on one of the local buses in Las Vegas, The Deuce. Video game, as well as electronics ads, are popular in big cities like Las Vegas or Chicago (where Apple displayed ads for the MacBook Air).

This giant PSP was on the side of one of the buildings in The Las Vegas Strip. From what I saw over a few minutes, it looped through advertisments for recent PSP and PS3 ads, including Echochrome, PlayStation Home, God of War: Chains of Olympus, and LittleBigPlanet, among others.

More photos of the giant PSP (the bus moved too fast to get any other clearer images of the GTA IV ad) can be found here.

Mysterious new “Bahamut” countdown site launches on Square Enix’s website

Shawn Collier — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 01:53:25 +0000

A mysterious new teaser site with a countdown clock has launched on Square Enix’s Japanese server. The company did register the trademark “Blood of Bahamut”, which some believed would be the name for a new Final Fantasy XI expansion.

However, the music does seem eerily Tacitcs-like. Bahamut Lagoon, a Super Famicom game that was released only in Japan, was seen by many as a precursor to the Final Fantasy Tactics series of games, so some are believeing there will be either a remake or a brand new game in the series. The last time they did a countdown, Chrono Trigger DS was revealed. Of course, once Monday rolls around (and the countdown clock ends), we will be covering all of the information on TGV.

The Gaming Vault also has an exclusive for you all. We have the background from the teaser site ripped. This is a large image (1024 x 1510), so with some tweaking, it would be great as a wallpaper. It is given via a TinyPic link due to the size of the image (which is currently too big for the Gallery).

Click the link below to view it.

http://i37.tinypic.com/67tifq.png

Obama & Palin To Appear in Upcomming Mercenaries 2 Patch

Shawn Collier — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 23:47:24 +0000

http://www.g4tv.com/thepile/videos/34590/Barack_Obama_and_Sarah_Palin_in_Mercenaries_2.html

In an…unorthodox patch for Mercenaries 2, Sarah Palin and Barack Obama will be playable characters. If you’ve ever wanted to shoot a missle launcher with Palin, or take over a tank with Obama, here’s your chance. Video is below.

Sonic To Star In His Own Short Animated Movie

Shawn Collier — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 22:11:51 +0000

http://www.sega.com/sonicunleashed/notw/us/

In an effort to build up hype for Sonic Unleashed (Winter 2008 in North America), Sega is making a short animated movie that appears will be released closer to the release of the game. A preview trailer can be seen on the site linked to above.

Maybe this will tie into why the werehog transformation takes places in Unleashed?

Embarass yourself in public by dancing — win Mother 3 swag!

Shawn Collier — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 02:47:29 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsxmXMTbL9U

Fangamer.com & Starmen.net are setting up a contest to commemerate the release of the Mother 3 fan translation by hosting a contest to win some pretty awsome Mother 3 swag. How to enter, you ask…

In the game, there’s a infamous dance that takes place to open a door. Your mission is to peform that dance in public, showing your support for the series and embarassing yourself at the same time. Then you upload the video and enter into the contest (where to enter it to come later, since at the time of this article being published, they just put up the video on YouTube).

Are you a bad enough dude to show your pride while embarassing youself in public? Check the video link above and find out.

Random Posts

Microsoft awarded patent for real-time swear filtering…for Xbox 360?

Shawn Collier — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 01:10:08 +0000

Microsoft has been awarded a patent which filters out swears in real-time. It works by analysing the phonemes (sound syllables) which make up the words. They can block out combinations that create the swears.

It can either be stored, or done in real-time.

It isn’t clear if this would be used on Xbox 360, but this could be used either as a way to have a non-swear version of a game (instead of having to record two different versions of the entire conversation), or be used on Xbox Live to censor some of the more “foul”-mouthed players.

Capcom to be rewarded with first ever branded store on PSN

Shawn Collier — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 11:46:29 +0000

Due to the rampant success of Mega Man 9 and Bionic Commando Rearmed this fall, Sony is giving Capcom the first-ever branded storefront in the PlayStation Store.

Sony is in talks with other high-profile publishers to have their own branded store-fronts up in the future.

Capcom’s storefront will launch sometime in November, to coincide with the release of Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix.

Marvel vs. Capcom 2 to be released on Xbox Live / PSN

Shawn Collier — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 21:28:55 +0000

The ESRB has officially listed that the arcade hit (which was released on the Dreamcast, PlayStation2, and the original Xbox) will be gracing Xbox Live and the PlayStation Store sometime in the near future .

Since the ESRB lists games only when they’re near release, due to the debacle when EarthBound for the Wii’s Virtual Console was listed earlier this year, this can be taken as pretty solid proof.

More information when the game is “officially” announced by Capcom.

TGS 2008: No More Heroes: Possibly two versions for Europe

Shawn Collier — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 16:43:08 +0000

When No More Heroes was released in Europe, it was criticized for the lack of blood that was included in the North American release in some circles, instead using the “black ash” that the Japanese version used.

Suda51 has announced that he will be releasing two different versions in Europe for the sequel: a blood and bloodless version. This will allow buyers to have a choice, as well as escape the game getting banned by European game rating agencies because there is now a choice for the buyers.

TGS 2008: Flower, Sun, and Rain & Arc Rise Fantaisa Getting NA Release

Shawn Collier — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 00:53:56 +0000

Marvelous Entertainment USA & XSEED Games have announced that their partnership is including both Suda51′s Flower, Sun, and Rain DS (Nintendo DS) and Arc Rise Fantasia (Wii).

Flower, Sun, and Rain DS is an updated version of the PlayStation2 game, which was never released outside of Japan. It was a quirky mystery game that was heralded for it’s uniqueness. The DS version will include touch screen functionality and 50 new puzzles.

Arc Rise Fantasia is a RPG being developed from the team who brought us Luminous Arc (Image Epoch). It will be an exclusive for the Wii.

Both games have a tentative 2009 release date.

The Gaming Vault » Shawn Collier

Own Your Own Gaming Publication for $42,000

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