MTV Multiplayer ›

Last week we reported that Electronic Arts was offering a special pre-order bonus for "Dragon Age 2": Get your order in before January 12 and you'd get a free download code for "The Exiled Prince" DLC, which will also be available at launch for $7. The deadline for that offer is passed as of today, but fortunately you've got some other options if you're looking to get some free stuff along with your purchase.

Read more...

Tags bioware, Dragon Age, dragon age 2, electronic arts

"Pong." At the dawn of time for video games, before there were motion controls and infrared sensors, open worlds and micromanagement, there were two paddles -- rendered as straight, blocky lines -- sending a square ball back and forth across a screen. Virtual ping-pong, hence the title. Now, in a recent interview, "Pong" creator and Atari co-founder Al Alcorn is challenging present-day game developers to "take risks and do new things."

Read more...

Tags al alcorn, pong

Last night Blizzard released a beefy new patch for "StarCraft 2," 80MB worth of fixes and tweaks in all. The list of changes is fairly staggering (and available after the jump), but the major bullet points include: a re-tooled editing suite, an "extreme" graphics mode, Battle.net chat channels, a Master League representing the "highest tier of players" and more balancing tweaks than you can shake a broken Zerg corpse at. Check out the mammoth list of changes after the jump... or just boot up the game and try them out for yourself!

Read more...

Tags blizzard, starcraft, starcraft 2

When Microsoft announced that they would be selling certain Xbox 360 games digitally through Xbox Live, it hinted at the writing on the wall for game retailers like GameStop. At a certain point, publishers would get closer and closer to releasing new games digitally right at launch, cutting out the retailer middleman. More evidence of the impending doom of video game retailers came today as BioWare announced that they would be releasing "Mass Effect 2" for PS3 both in stores and as a digital download over PSN. Both versions would be released right on launch day.

Read more...

Tags bioware, mass effect, mass effect 2

It's always a difficult decision when you're a game publisher forced to consider the unpleasant prospect of delaying a game's release. Especially in the case of franchise titles. Established fanbases gather round to crow with anticipation about what's to come only to have their hopes dashed when the grim reality of waiting another bunch of months (if not more) sets in. Well "FEAR" fans, prepare yourselves... "FEAR 3" isn't hitting stores when you expected.

The latest entry in the horror-driven FPS franchise was originally supposed to come out late last year, but the release got pushed back to March 25. Now WBIE is delaying the game once more, so that some additional polish can be applied. And squash any issues with the game that they wouldn't want to talk about now.

There's certainly precedent for game release dates being pushed back and the end result likely benefiting from the added development time. One that immediately comes to mind is "Batman: Arkham Asylum" -- another WBIE game, incidentally -- which was supposed to have been a late-spring/early-summer 2009 release. It ended up hitting stores in August and, as anyone who has played it knows, proved to be one of the best games of the year and is largely thought to be the best "Batman" game ever made.

Little is known about the coming sequel, though it is confirmed that is will sport co-op play and a new cover system. I'd wager it'll be pretty scary too. You'll have to wait until May to find out for yourself, but take this as a good sign. More time doesn't guarantee a better game, but it can only help.

Tags fear 3, warner bros interactive entertainment, wbie

In the aftermath of the Saturday shooting in Tuscon, AZ, authorities and observers alike are still trying to grasp exactly what would lead Jared Lee Loughner, 22, to kill six people and wound 13 others during his attempted assassination of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. Efforts to understand the troubled young man have now led to the gaming sphere.

Read more...

Tags earth empires, jared loughner

The original "Dead Space" gave players a lot of ways to dispatch enemies. Plasma cutters, sci-fi assault rifles, spinning blades of death, you name it. It also gave players something called "stasis." Basically, it's a beam you can fire that slows enemies to a crawl for a few seconds. Despite that sounding handy, stasis is something I never used outside of the few puzzles which required it. But just a few chapters into "Dead Space 2," I find that it's an invaluable asset. Why? What changed?

Read more...

Tags dead space, dead space 2, ea, visceral games

You might have read last week about the Fling, a detachable analog joystick of sorts made especially for the iPad. Held onto the device with the power of suction cups and love (mostly the former), it offers a welcome, if somewhat inelegant, solution for those who can't make do with in-game virtual controls. Now there's another option coming from ThinkGeek (the folks who brought you the iCade), a stylish add-on that is meant to summon up memories of bygone days spent in front of arcade cabinets: the JOYSTICK-IT Arcade Stick.

Read more...

Tags joystick-it

With Nintendo's 3DS handheld almost here, we're getting more glimpses of the soon-to-be-released device every day. The wait is pretty agonizing-- this is glasses-free 3-D we're talking about here, people. Even reports of a 3-5 hour battery life for games played in 3-D mode aren't enough to derail the excitement. Which is a good thing, since a crapton of photos have popped up online showcasing the delicate innards of a leaked 3DS.

Read more...

Tags nintendo, nintendo 3DS

While 2009's film "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" left fans feeling queasy and disinterested, the tie-in video game served up a fun mix of action, destruction and excessive gore in the vein of "God of War" and its ilk. Even with a different developer crafting the next X-Men game -- "Too Human" dev Silicon Knights -- excitement for more interactive outings with Professor X's mutants is at a high. Settle in then, as we've got the first details from "X-Men: Destiny" to share with you today.

Read more...

Tags Silicon Knights, x-men: destiny