To be as forthright as possible, Enslaved: Odyssey to the West was not on my radar when it was announced last year. Apart from a handful of pretty screens, it subsequently managed to slip by me in the madness of the 2010 summer trade show season. Having now spent several hours with the first half of the game, it's impossible to think I could have missed it. Based on what I've played so far, Enslaved deserves a spot on everyone's radar, offering polished gameplay, interesting characters and a gorgeous world to explore.

Continue reading Enslaved preview: The apocalypse goes green

Enslaved preview: The apocalypse goes green originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 06 Sep 2010 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Develop reports that bankrupt studio Realtime Worlds has seen its Project MyWorld IP bought up by an "anonymous American company." It's currently unclear what this means for the 23 developers who were working on the project at the studio's location in Dundee, Scotland. One of the more optimistic scenarios is that the American outfit will create a satellite studio nearby and hire the current staff to finish the (allegedly almost done) project.

This means that Realtime's APB IP, which at last count had about 130,000 players, is still up for grabs from Begbies Traynor, the company handling the bankruptcy. Okay, Begbies, we've got $5 and some gummi bears in our pocket -- what do you say?

Develop: US firm acquires Realtime World's Project MyWorld originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 06 Sep 2010 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Gameplay footage of inFamous 2's new "Ravager" enemy has burrowed itself into the bottom this post. If you're keen to see Cole's new melee attacks in this souped-up sequel -- or just the return of his original design -- just click the play icon and you'll zap right to it.

Continue reading Video: InFamous 2 'Ravager' gameplay

Video: InFamous 2 'Ravager' gameplay originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 06 Sep 2010 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

On September 11, 2010, the extremist evangelical Dove World Church ? whose pastor, Terry Jones, has written a book called ?Islam Is Of The Devil? ? plans to host ?International Burn a Quran Day,? when it will burn Islam’s sacred text and encourage others across the world to do so as well. Church member Wayne Sapp has even posted an instructional video that explains how and why to burn the Quran.

But today the Wall Street Journal reports that Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, said the planned burning of Qurans “could put the lives of American troops in danger and damage the war effort“:

Petraeus said the Taliban would exploit the demonstration for propaganda purposes, drumming up anger toward the U.S. and making it harder for allied troops to carry out their mission of protecting Afghan civilians.

“It could endanger troops and it could endanger the overall effort,” Gen. Petraeus said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. “It is precisely the kind of action the Taliban uses and could cause significant problems. Not just here [in Afghanistan], but everywhere in the world we are engaged with the Islamic community.”

When Insomniac announced the co-op focused Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One at Gamescom last month, we were all thinking the same thing: How did the series with the clever titles - Going Commando; Up Your Arsenal; Size Matters; Quest for Booty - miss out on the most obvious title here?

4play. Duh.

It turns out the guys at Insomniac didn't miss it, they just decided not to use it. "At the end of the day, I think we didn't want to scare off the parents who might be buying the game for their kid," series writer TJ Fixman told an audience at PAX this weekend. "So we went with 'All 4 One.'" Better still, they had other names, four of which they shared with us last night and, since we heart you, we'll share with you here.

• Multiple Organisms
• Bros b4 Foes (Community Manager James Stevenson clarified the 'b4' spelling)
• Fiends with Benefits

Even better, we were later told there's a spreadsheet with over a hundred possible titles on it but, without that in our possession (send it to us, Insomniac!) we've got to do the next best thing. We're asking for your contributions in the comments below. But before you get to that, we're going to ask you to vote for your favorite title in the poll below. Our guess: "All 4 One" isn't going to make the top spot.

View Poll

Four other Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One titles Insomniac considered originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 06 Sep 2010 03:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Fresh off its victory over Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), the Tea Party Express is setting its sights on taking down Rep. Mike Castle (R-DE) in Delaware’s Republican Senate primary. Castle, regarded as the moderate in the race, is facing a spirited challenge from Tea Party candidate Christine O’Donnell. A new poll shows the race within single digits and the Tea Party Express is committing over $250,000 on O’Donnell’s behalf.

As with Tea Party candidates Pat Toomey in Pennsylvania, Mike Lee in Utah, Rand Paul in Kentucky, Ken Buck in Colorado, Joe Miller in Alaska, and Marco Rubio in Florida, the Republican establishment is trying to fend off O’Donnell’s primary candidacy. However, rather than learn from these defeats and take a more muted approach in future contested primaries, the Republican establishment is doubling down on its anti-Tea Party strategy.

Yesterday, the Republican Party of Delaware released a statement, calling O’Donnell “reckless,” “hypocritical,” and “dishonest”:

As the facts continue to emerge regarding perennial candidate Christine O?Donnell?s reckless and hypocritical behavior, I wanted to highlight some of the key media coverage her dishonest campaign has received over the last 24 hours?

Days earlier, Delaware GOP Chairman Tom Ross derided O’Donnell as a “troubled perennial candidate” who is “not electable in Delaware or anywhere else for that matter”:

Ross noted ‘while it is disappointing that the Tea Party Express has not done any due diligence on troubled perennial candidate Christine O?Donnell, it is our hope that they will investigate her half-truths and outright lies before squandering tens of thousands of dollars on a candidate who is not electable in Delaware or anywhere else for that matter.’

Indeed, the Delaware GOP doesn’t even list O’Donnell as a candidate on its website.

As Dave Weigel notes, these statements are “some swipe from the GOP.” If O’Donnell wins next Tuesday’s primary, will the Delaware GOP even support a candidate they view as dishonest and unelectable?

The new labor report released this morning finds that unemployment rose last month to 9.6 percent. Still, the economy added a better-than-expected 67,000 private sector jobs in August. ?Since its most recent low in December 2009, private-sector employment has risen by 763,000.?

“Republicans have declared 2010 their ‘Year of the Woman,’ but come January, the Senate GOP will be without a female on its leadership team for the first time in nearly a decade.” With the defeat of Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Senate Republicans are left with just three female senators, but none of them “appear likely to lobby” for Murkowski’s leadership spot.

Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) said the explosion aboard a Mariner Energy rig in the Gulf of Mexico yesterday ?is further proof that offshore drilling is an inherently dangerous practice.? Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) added, ?much is left to be done to keep America?s workers and waters safe from those risks.?

Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin issued a new attack on the media yesterday in the wake of lengthy and critical profiles published in Vanity Fair and New York magazine. “Impotent, limp and gutless reporters take anonymous sources and cite them as being factual references,” she said. “It just slays me because it’s so absolutely clear what the state of yellow journalism is today.”

A new poll released by the New York Times finds that two-thirds of New Yorkers oppose the construction of the Park 51 Islamic community center two blocks from Ground Zero. Opposition is lowest in the Manhattan borough, where 41 percent oppose its construction.

President Obama will hold a press conference in the Rose Garden next week to discuss the steps his administration has taken to fix the economy. The Sept. 10 press conference will come after Obama visits Wisconsin and Ohio for economic events during the week.

Knocking down a report in the Washington Post, Obama administration aides said they are not considering a second stimulus package to jump-start the economy. The administration is considering “more federal spending on infrastructure projects and tax cuts popular with the business community,” and a $55 billion package that would cut small business taxes.

A new report from the Kaiser Family Foundation finds that there was a 14 percent jump in the cost of the average “employer-sponsored family healthcare coverage” plan from last year. “The average worker is now paying roughly $4,000,” annually to purchase such coverage.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas pledged yesterday “to keep meeting at regular intervals, aiming to nail down a framework for overcoming deep disputes and achieving lasting peace within a year.” “You each have taken an important step toward freeing your peoples from the shackles of a history we cannot change,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said.

And finally: Walker Texas Ranger star Chuck Norris is raising his political profile, cutting a new web ad for the NRA, to ?trigger? the vote. “In the spot Norris visits a local tea party (complete with chalkboard!) and ?triggers? them to vote.”

ThinkProgress is hiring! Details here.

Fox News contributor and former Bush White House Press Secretary Dana Perino has an interesting column up on FoxNews.com today. Perino appears to be very concerned about President Obama’s “relationship” with America. Looking back to the early days of Obama’s presidency — when “America was excited about its new relationship” with the country’s first African-American president — Perino digs deep into her vault of keen-eyed political analysis, looks at where Obama is today, and likens his relationship with the American people to her single friends’ bad romances with their boyfriends:

The coverage of the growing disconnect between President Obama and America reminds me of some of my single friends lamenting the distance they feel with their boyfriends. For some of them, there?s a pattern — intense excitement at the promise of a new relationship, followed by bewilderment and anger as it starts to unravel, and ending in broken hearts and healing mantras of, ?He just wasn?t right for me.” [...]

But hope sprang eternal ? until another few months passed, and America started feeling jilted. ?He just doesn?t understand me. He just doesn?t GET me. And, what?s worse, he doesn?t seem to care that he doesn?t. Lately I feel like he?s just saying what he thinks I want to hear. It?s like he?s just going through the motions.?.

But lucky for the President, the former Bush flack has some relationship advice. The President should “show us he cares,” Perino says:

In some relationships, couples seek counseling to work it out. The man might promise to try to pay more attention to the woman, to actually listen rather than just pretend to, and to show more emotion. She might agree to give him more space, support him more and nag him less. This can go on for a while, and sometimes people are able to work it out ? if both parties are willing.

However, Perino doesn’t think Obama is going to work it out with the American people. “In the relationship between America and the president, it?s not clear that either party is willing to do what it takes to make it work,” she says, predicting that after the mid-terms, “many people are going to decide that it?s time they started seeing other people.” Let’s face it Mr. President, according to Perino, the American people are just not that into you.

You know how we told you about DLC for the iPhone and iPad versions of Bit.Trip Beat a few days back? During an appointment with developer Gaijin Games here at PAX, Alex Nouse confirmed the exact nature of the DLC tracks: they're Bit.Trip Void songs!

He informed Joystiq that the tracks weren't actually being developed by Gaijin Games, but rather at Namco. He's looking forward to trying the new tracks, as you'd imagine -- it's not every day you have an opportunity to be stumped by your own game, you know?

Bit.Trip Beat DLC on iPhone/iPad will be Bit.Trip Void tracks originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 05 Sep 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Other than a teaser image and a fall release window, we've heard little to nothing on the next Bit.Trip title from Gaijin Games, Fate. That all changed this past week with the reveal of the game's premise and its first gameplay trailer on the developer's website.

Fate will have players guiding CommanderVideo on a guided path (in 2D), aiming and firing his various weapons by pointing the Wiimote at the screen. The game also features "appearances from Super Meat Boy and Mr. Robotube," as well as a kickin' dubstep soundtrack that, frankly, we've been jamming too since we first found out about. Bit.Trip Fate may not be out until sometime this fall, but you can pick up its jams right now.

Continue reading Bit.Trip Fate is an on-rails shmup, Super Meat Boy to make guest appearance

Bit.Trip Fate is an on-rails shmup, Super Meat Boy to make guest appearance originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 05 Sep 2010 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments