Modern Warfare 2 is the Most Pirated Game of 2009

Activision’s Modern Warfare 2 and Nintendo’s New Super Mario Bros. Wii are the recipients of a most dubious honor.

According to TorrentFreak, these two are the most pirated games of the year 2009, with Modern Warfare 2 taking the top spot for the PC and Xbox 360, while Mario sitting as king of Pirate Hill on the Wii. For whatever reason, the site does not have PlayStation 3 games tallied.

How Not to Play Virtua Fighter 5 (If You Value Your Health)

There are all sorts of legitimate yet often-despised tactics and strategies across a wide variety of games: snaking, camping, wavedashing… and it seems that Virtua Fighter 5 has one of its own as well:

Video Games | | How not to play Virtua FighterXBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

Sure, they got the win, but at 1:05 in, you’ll see why this was a bad idea. For one thing, this was played on the arcade version…

Rumor: Half-Life 2, Geometry Wars Running on Project Natal?

Microsoft has made it known that in addition to whatever it may have in store to compete with the likes of Wii Sports, it is also going after the core crowd with its Project Natal offerings. To that end, two allegedly leaked videos seem to have surfaced, each demonstrating some more traditional types of gaming performed with their motion-sensing camera peripheral. The first shows what is reportedly Half-Life 2:

Gizmodo points out that the source is unconfirmed, “but everything about the system is reminiscent to Natal to us—we should say, Natal running a title in early beta. The control scheme seems simultaneously intuitive and awkward in what we’re assuming is a proof-of-concept, the user repositioning their view by moving the screen with their hand.”

Ramones, McCartney, Blink 182 Coming To Rock Band

Next week is a big one for downloadable Rock Band and Rock Band 2 tracks. On tap: The Ramones (who are the greatest rock band ever), some live Paul McCartney, a Blink 182 three-fer, and even a couple tunes from underrated 1980s rockers The Psychedelic Furs.

Here’s the full list:

• Paul McCartney – “Band on the Run (Live)”
• Paul McCartney – “Jet (Live)”
• Paul McCartney – “Sing the Changes (Live)”
• Blink-182 – “Adam’s Song”
• Blink-182 – “First Date”
• Blink-182 – “I Miss You”
• The Psychedelic Furs – “Love My Way”
• The Psychedelic Furs – “Sister Europe”
• The Ramones – “Rock ‘n’ Roll High School”

You’ll be able to download these songs for the 360 and Wii on Tuesday, and for the the PS3 on Thursday. The usual 2 bucks per track price applies, but the McCartney and Blink packs, purchased whole, will only cost $5.49.

The inclusion of The Psychedelic Furs is indicative of what I like about Rock Band’s downloads. They’re hardly a chart-topping group these days, but if you’re a fan, you can still pick them up. Thumbs up for DLC! Any obscure (or semi-obscure) band you’d like to see in Rock Band?

TenYears: The best console games of the decade

It’s almost January 1st, 2010 and we’ve been mulling over our favorites of 2009 – and the previous decade. Here we present another installment in our “Of the Decade” lists.

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Winner: Resident Evil 4 (GameCube, 2004)

This decade saw a lot of “big” games, but how many of those games were any good? How many do you think you’ll even consider replaying in five or 10 years? If there’s one, and only one, game of the decade it has to be Resident Evil 4. The game resurrected a waning franchise, justified your purchase of a GameCube, and was actually fun to play. How rare. The lackluster Resident Evil 5 only reinforced how well made Resident Evil 4 was: perfect controls, probably the best graphics ever to grace the GameCube, and, yes, the best single-player mode of the decade make this the game of the decade. It’s pretty much non-stop fun, which is really all you can ask a video game to do.

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Runners Up

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (PS2, 2003)

You can almost consider Grand Theft Auto III, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas to be the same game three times, but Vice City wins because it’s our favorite setting of the series so far. Is it fun to go around and blowing up anything that moves? Yes, but it’s actually more fun to appreciate the time and effort Rockstar put into crafting a pretty enjoyable cast of characters and reasonably OK story for our entertainment. Plus, how many game in the 2000s have completely ripped off the GTA franchise?

Guitar Hero (PS2/PS3/Xbox 360, 2005)

Our original game here was Super Smash Bros. Melee because it was, and I quote, “the ultimate party game.” Upon further reflection, that title actually belongs to Guitar Hero if only because you couldn’t attend a party attended by non-gamers between the game’s release and today without running into people banging on the strumming a plastic guitar. This is especially true if you visited certain gentrified sections of Brooklyn. The game was everywhere, so clearly it must have done something right. Publishers may have since shot themselves in the foot by releasing 800 versions of the game in a two-year window, but you can’t blame the game itself for publishers’ greed. It’s fun, and it represents the peak of the music game genre that, in a very real sense, defined the decade in gaming.

Shadow of the Colossus (PS2, 2005)

This is our arthouse pick, yes, but for all the hullabaloo of “please re-make Final Fantasy VII for the PS3,” we say: no! Instead, re-make Shadow of the Colossus for it pushed the PS2 as far as the little guy could go. The game was like playing art. Rarely has a sense of scale been so raw in as it was here. A terrific soundtrack, a unique setting, and an unmatched sense of “oh man, we’re going on an adventure” means that youre sure to impress your “games as art” buddies .

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Our Take

Devin: I want to throw Final Fantasy XII on here. A lot of people dismissed it because of its cipher of a main character and weird MMO-style combat. But the fact is it was a hugely deep, very interesting, and strikingly beautiful game. I loved it from start to finish, although the final boss was a bit corny.

Matt: You can’t tell me that any of these games above are more fun — I mean LOL, smile-on-your-face, gets-better-as-you-drink fun — than Super Smash Bros. Melee. Yet it probably isn’t the best game from the last 10 years. But it’s still damn fun.

Greg: I’m going to pull a Nicholas here and proclaim that this is all a bunch of nonsense. It’s impossible to claim that any one game of this decade was the most definitive (especially not RE4, dumb dumbs), considering how many games changed the horizon. Guitar Hero and Smash Bros made busting out a video game at a party okay. The Lego Star Wars/Indie/etc. series proved to girlfriends around the world that gaming with your boyfriend can be a fun experience. GTA taught the world to hate linear gameplay. Call Of Duty and Halo taught millions of console gamers the joys and frustrations of well made competitive first-person-shooters whilst simultaneously increasing the average weight of adolescents around the world. WoW brought MMOs into the mainstream. Shadow of the Colossus destroyed our sense of scale, while Katamari Damacy proved that games can be abstract and still sell well. There is no one answer to this question, because the games of this decade were simply too good.

Doug: Wii Sports — hear me out! As most people’s introduction to the Wii, the bundled Wii Sports game serves as the ambassador to a new way of thinking about video games. How many video games from the past ten years will you find people of all generations playing? Nobody’s really playing Halo in nursing homes or senior centers. The simple control scheme and 1:1 movement in Wii Sports made Nintendo’s latest console a hit with people outside the core demographic of gamers, something Sony and Microsoft are still scrambling to replicate.

David Diaz: I think Halo: Combat Evolved should have made this list. It became the benchmark for all console FPS and sparked the beginning of one of the most dominant franchises in console history.

Opinion: Indie Game Design Do-s and Don’t-s: A Manifesto

[Veteran indie game creator Edmund McMillen, known for his work on 2005 IGF Grand Prize winner Gish, Time Fcuk, and Super Meat Boy for WiiWare, shares his opinions and manifesto on making indie games, with 24 clear do-s and don't-s to make your art thrive.] One of the most common questions I’m asked in interviews is, “Do you have any advice for independent game developers who are new to the scene, or tips for developers …

Gamasutra Debuts ‘Top 12 Games Of Decade’

Gamasutra has announced its readers’ Top 12 picks for Game Of The Decade vote, after yesterday’s Honorable Mentions, with titles like Wii Sports and The Sims battling for the top spot for the last ten years. To divine the top titles, readers responded to this question of naming a game released this decade for any console, handheld, PC or online platform, and why they believe it outdid any other: “Gamasutra is asking its users to …

Wiiwaa is the greatest Wii game ever made, we assume

Wiiwaa is a forthcoming Wii game which involves you cramming your Wiimote into the mouth of the bizarre stuffed animal you see… oh just watch the video after the break.

Continue reading Wiiwaa is the greatest Wii game ever made, we assume

Wiiwaa is the greatest Wii game ever made, we assume originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 30 Dec 2009 10:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Modern Warfare 2 reigns over UK charts for seventh week

Source — Call of Duty is in 7th heaven [Chart Track]
Source — All formats chart [Chart Track]

Modern Warfare 2 reigns over UK charts for seventh week originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 30 Dec 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Fast Draw Showdown shows up on WiiWare Jan. 5

Do you hate mid-90s FMV game actors? Do you love light gun games? You’re going to be thrilled about this upcoming WiiWare release from Digital Leisure. This Monday, you’ll be able to shoot several of those actors in Fast Draw Showdown on WiiWare.

Originally released to arcades in 1994, Fast Draw Showdown is a series of — what else? — showdowns against various Old West stereotypes, culminating in a match against real-life quick draw expert Wes Flowers. There’s a trailer after the break — if you pretend to shoot at everyone on the screen, it’ll be just like playing the game!

Continue reading Fast Draw Showdown shows up on WiiWare Jan. 5

Fast Draw Showdown shows up on WiiWare Jan. 5 originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 29 Dec 2009 22:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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