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Announced in December last year, devoted Elder Scrolls and RPG fans have been patiently waiting for the release of Bethesda’s The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. While November 11 isn’t really that far off, Bethesda graciously thrown gamers a bone by releasing a 20 minute video (in three parts) that pretty much shows the game world’s detail and vastness, in addition to glimpses of the gameplay, weapons, spellcasting… and dragons! Let’s not forget the dragons.

Gamers have already started arguing about the gameplay, the animation, the graphics, and skill trees, among other game deets, but pretty much all agree that the game looks gorgeous. Anyway, here are the three videos for your viewing pleasure. They should tide you over until The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC) hits the stores in 11-11-11.

If you’ve been keeping up with your video game trailers, you’d have heard about Techland’s Dead Island by now. If you have been a resident of the underside of a rock the past few months, we’ll throw you a bone: the announcement trailer detailed how a happy and wholesome family vacation to a tropical island can spiral out of control via zombie infestation. So anyway, Dead Island was just released in the US (to be released everywhere else on September 9) for PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

As the zombie-infested original trailer suggests, you’re basically stuck in an island with a whole bunch of zombies and a ragtag group of survivors ill-equipped for a zombie apocalypse. In the following video, you’ll be able to grab a sneak peek of the first 15 minutes of the Dead Island featuring zombies in bikinis and Hawaiian shirts, the player character’s first confused moments when the attack hits, and the supporting characters with varied exotic accents. Go on, press play.

Sadly, Converse is launching Super Mario Bros All Star only in Japan.

According to reports, the Super Mario Bros All Star Converse will showcase the oldschool Famicom Mario character. Leaked pictures show white and black versions of the special All Star model with the same printed character. Reports say that Converse worked closely with Nintendo for Mario’s 25th anniversary. The price as well as the release date has yet to be announced, so for the time being, feast your eyes on these pics:

Via Akihabara News

Urban legends develop and mutate over time, though they’re usually about events that have (or haven’t) happened in real life. There are urban legends for stuff ranging from serial killers and killer cars to corpses stuffed under hotel mattresses and the like. Well, apparently, videogames can also have creepy urban legends.

Let’s take for example the shadow people in Super Mario Galaxy 2. For those who haven’t heard of this one, here’s a briefer: There’s a level in the videogame where you can see shadowy figures in the horizon. Here they are:

Some say that this is a variation of the Slender Man legend – a legend of a creature with elongated limbs that takes children. But what is that kind of horror doing in a non-horror videogame you ask? Nobody’s actually sure.

Here’s another Mario-related urban legend: In Luigi’s Mansion for GameCube, you can go to a certain room and wait for lightning to strike. Then you see a Luigi’s shadow on the wall. Nothing creepy about that? Well, it kind of looks like Luigi’s done a hangman. Not creepy at all, eh?

Anyway, if you’re looking to see more creepy videogame urban legends, you can check out the link below to read more.

via [ Cracked ]

Piracy is not only the movie and music industries’ problem; even the video gaming industry feels the effects of piracy. Leaked or cracked versions of games are easily found and downloaded from various websites, so it’s no surprise that many people get pirated video games. Free stuff is always good, right? However, game developers don’t agree with this – after all, pirates are downloading stuff developers have spent countless hours making. In an attempt to curb piracy (and pwn pirates), some game developers have taken it to the mattresses, so to speak.

Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2

Electronic Art’s RTS game mainly requires the player to build and protect his bases while he destroys the bases of his enemies to gain new territory. Now, this is pretty easy if the gamer has played real-time strategy games before; however, if he’s playing a pirated copy of the game, then it’s going to be a monumental and nearly impossible task to accomplish. Why? Because 30 seconds after staring his campaign using a pirated copy of Red Alert 2, his bases and all his units will explode for seemingly no reason at all – except for the fact that game devs designed it that way to curb piracy by preventing the pirate to play.

Cross Days

If you don’t know what Cross Days is… well, get real. Of course you know it’s an “erotic visual novel” a.k.a. porn game for the PC. Now, it’s not something one would openly admit to playing, but it’s something a lot of people do play. Because it was hot commodity when it came out, the game devs knew someone would be sharing the game for free online and that some people would download the cracked version (everybody loves free stuff). Unfortunately for the poor pirates, the devs included a hidden Trojan virus that was disguised as the game installer. It would prompt the gamer to fill out a survey asking for personal information before it would “install” the game. However, what the virus did was post the pirate’s personal information online along with a screenie of the player’s desktop.

In order to remove the gamer’s personal info (like name and phone number) from the site, he has to admit that he pirated the game.

Arkham Asylum

The extra code devs put into Arkham Asylum has perhaps produced the most amazing “pirate pwnd” moment in the fight against videogame piracy ever. A cracked version of the game plays the same except for one thing: Batman’s glider cape becomes unusable. This might not be such a big deal if only there wasn’t a part in the game where the player will have to use the glider cape unless he wants to get stuck and die in the room filled with poisonous gas.

Now, here comes the pwnd moment. A gamer that was apparently using a cracked version of the game had become stuck at that point. Thinking it was a glitch, he took to the official Eidos boards and asked what was wrong with his Arkham Asylum game. Keep in mind that this was BEFORE the game was officially released. One user told the pirate to “buy the game” instead, but it was the Eidos board admin, Keir, who told him what was really wrong:

“The problem you have encountered is a hook in the copy protection, to catch out people who try and download cracked versions of the game for free.

It’s not a bug in the game’s code, it’s a bug in your moral code.”

So there, pirate pwnd.

Via Cracked

Sony finally unveiled its next-generation PlayStation Portable at today’s live event. Codenamed NGP, the handheld is shown to be packed with cutting-edge features such as the 5-inch touchscreen OLED display with 960 x 544 resolution, GPS, WiFi, 3G, motion sensors, cameras on the front and rear, an electronic compass, and front and rear touchpads. Completing this feature is the CPU which has been described by Sony as “the most advanced” in its class.

From what’s been shown so far of the next-gen PSP, games will not be on UMDs anymore but will be on a “new media”. (If you ask me, the flash memory looks somewhat like the DS cartridge. Just saying.) Sony says that the NGP will revolved around the five following concepts: Social Connectivity, Location-based Entertainment, Revolutionary User Interface, Converging Real and Virtual (augmented) Reality.

Other features of the Sony NGP include dual analog stick combo (not a nub), the touch panel at the back which is the same size as the OLED display on the front, and the new UI which will be called LiveArea. The new user interface will allow the player to jump between the LiveArea and games without losing progress.

The PSP2 is scheduled to be released this holiday season. So, guys, you have an entire year to speculate on the other features and games for the new handheld, as well as to save up.

Via Engadget

I’m a casual gamer. I don’t like investing time and effort on role-playing games or adventure games that have epic plots and over-emotional characters. I like my games short and sweet. LocoRoco, Bejeweled, Super Collapse, homebrew PSP game Callisto, Taiko no Tatsujin, and Street Fighter, Puzzle Fighter are just some of my favorite casual games. They’re pick-up-and-play games but I usually end up playing these for several hours because they’re just so addictive. Casual games are aimed at “casual gamers” who are people that have limited time or interest in playing games. Such games are made with simple rules and have easy game play so that people can readily pick up and play these games regardless of their age or skill level.

A couple of years ago, I found a site that features casual and pick-up-and-play games that I – with my gaming skills – can actually play and enjoy. Another good thing about these games I found is that you don’t need a gaming platform like a Nintendo DS or a PSP to play them. The site, Orisinal, has 60 Flash games that you can try out. The most addictive one I play is called WinterBells. The aim of the game is to see how high your bunny can reach while jumping on falling bells. It sounds simple because it is. Try it.

WinterBells via Orisinal

We’ve all probably woken up one morning hung over from the previous night’s debauchery to find ourselves slumped on the host’s couch, in the bathroom floor, or in your own bedroom in your pajamas (and you wondered how you managed to change after that drunken stupor). But have you ever woken up in an unfamiliar room with red walls and you find yourself locked – from inside? You realize that the only possible exit is the lone door in the room, but it’s locked and you can’t break it down, try as you might.

This is the situation that one of Toshimitsu Takagi’s creations places you in. The Crimson Room is a room escape adventure game that challenges you to find a way to get out of the locked room. This is also a point-and-click game in which you will need to click at items inside the mysterious room to interact with them and add them to your inventory. The unusual items in the room are important in getting you out of the room.

The Crimson Room was released in 2004, but it’s still one of the most addicting browser games out there. Other room escape games created by Toshimitsu Takagi are Viridian Room, Blue Chamber and White Chamber.

Crimson Room