TIME, a name America trusts. Especially when it comes to video games.

Today, TIME gave the world their Top 10 Everything of 2009, a sprawling list of everything from pop culture to movies, books, and even video games. How nice of them. Check out the list below:

1. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
2. Batman: Arkham Asylum
3. DJ Hero
4. Borderlands
5. New Super Mario Bros. Wii
6. Geo-defense Swarm
7. Scribblenauts
8. Halo 3: ODST
9. Assassin’s Creed 2
10. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

What to do you think? Any glaring omissions? Me, I’m going to ignore my inner fanboy and attempt to stay professional.

…

Demon’s Souls…

ANYWAY, check out the full descriptions over here.

Are you a Playstation 3 owner looking forward to next year’s ModNation Racers, the next title to take up LittleBigPlanet’s “Play. Create. Share.” mantra? Get a head-start against everyone else with by taking part in the beta program starting December 18th! The beta runs until January 5th, giving you plenty of time to test some of the track-building and kart-racing that this little gem looks to offer.

How do you get in, you ask?

1. Buy the GOTY edition of LittleBigPlanet.
2. Subscribe to Qore, Playstation 3’s monthly interactive magazine.
3. Try and win one at the Playstation Blog.

Check checking our site or follow us on Twitter as we will keep you date on any news regarding the entry process.

Check out the video after the jump for more details regarding the beta:

Continue reading Date Announced For ModNation Racers Beta! Mark ya Calenders!

I CAN FEEL IT COMING OVER ME!

In an interview with CBR, writer Jim Zubkavich describes the four-part series as “a teen action-dramedy in the vein of ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and says “It’s fun, energetic and filled with snappy banter, coupled with the best artwork of Omar Dogan’s career.”

So it’s nothing like the horrible anime section’s in Street Fighter IV? Cool. Check out the whole lengthy interview over here.

The Sega Europe Blog announced earlier today that Aliens, Alien3, and AVP film veteran Lance Henriksen will reprise his role as Charles Bishop Weyland in the forthcoming Alien Vs Predator game. Mr. Henriksen seems to be very pleased with his digitally rendered self (courtesy of Rebellion, the game’s developer) stating, “I might score from this game!”

Gross.

Check out Lance Henriksen in all of his digital glory after the jump:

Continue reading Lance Henriksen to Appear in latest Aliens Vs. Predator Game

For the uninformed and the uninitiated, Modern Warfare 2’s competitive multiplayer game has recently run into a problem involving players exploiting a glitch that allows them to FUCKING EXPLODE AND DECIMATE ANYONE STANDING WITHIN A 50 FOOT RADIUS OF THEIR DYING BODY. The glitch works like this: Equip a javelin missile launcher, “do” the glitch (Google it. It’s disgustingly easy.), run into a group of players, DIE, they rack up the points as you immediately take them down with you, you cheap-ass, son-of-a-bitch.

If you’re finding out about this now, I’m sure that you think that the glitch is hilarious. You’re right, it is. It’s especially funny when two “glitchers” cross paths. It turns into this absolutely hilarious staring match of two idiots trying to figure out the best way to handle this impossible situation. If one stabs the other, the other explodes. Is one, measly kill worth the trouble? Anyway, the initial hilarity fades quickly when every game you enter is nothing more than a series of exploding retards.

Infinity Ward says the fix will be out soon. According to Mr. Robert Bowling, the PS3 fix is “in the pipeline” and the Xbox 360 patch is currently in Microsoft certification. A warning note to all you crazy, ’splosion men: Microsoft is threatening exploit-abusers with a 24 hour ban, but I’d say you probably have a better chance at getting struck by lightning, so bombs away.

So what are all of the honest gamers left to do until this game-breaking situation is resolved? Try playing a different game mode. “Search and Destroy” seems fine whenever I have tried it. If the suicide bombers find you there, play Left 4 Dead 2!

ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?

I’m not against marketing towards young girls (that’s the holy grail in the gaming industry these days). What I AM against is using the stereotype that girls only enjoy giggling, ponies, “lilac” things, and speak in txtspeak all the time. I am also against bundling a handheld (which may catch the interest of even older females) with a game that I highly doubt would convince anyone over the age of 14 to scream ‘OMG MOM I NEED THIS, LIKE NOW!” What about us girls that are beyond the age range and just want a cool-colored handheld. I didn’t need to pay for a Hannah Montana bundle to get my awesome blue Nintendo DSi! Sony, you need to broaden your range with the female demographic!

And don’t even get me started on that ‘OMG PSP’ nonsense. I’d like to think that Sony hopes that the young girls they are targeting do not see right through this stereotype-boundary-crossing marketing campaign. Then again, they better hope that the parents that are paying for it don’t see right through it either.

I’m no hardcore gamer like Forcedtodrive and Bobdert. I like doing my computer programming, playing some classic Sonic the Hedgehog games, collecting math textbooks, and toting around my Nintendo DSi. Every Monday I check to see what the latest DSiWare game is available, and I’m usually mildly disappointed. Most of the releases are cutesy clocks and calculators that I do not care to waste precious Nintendo points on, being that I am not four-years-old anymore. This Monday, though, marked the release of Sudoku Master!

Finally, something from Nintendo that doesn’t make me feel like a toddler riding a unicorn on a road paved in rainbows!

I absolutely love number puzzles, especially Sudoku, and this download does not disappoint. With 150 puzzles in multiple levels, ranging from beginner to expert, you can be sure that the 500 points to get this game will keep you busy for quite some time.

If you’ve never played Sudoku before, a guy that looks like Gallagher with pink hair (actually, it’s the president of the company that created the Sudoku puzzles for the game) has plenty of tips and tutorials to show you how to play.

Some cool features of this game include guidelines that make it clear what numbers are on the board, and – best of all – “temp numbers.” The “temp numbers” feature lets you fill a square with 4 temporary numbers when you’re not completely sure which one is the right answer. The plus of playing Sudoku on the DS is that, with temp numbers, you’re not erasing and ruining your newspaper or Sudoku book – just tap ‘erase’ and keep on going.

Along with the large number of puzzles and the pink-haired helper (and I can’t NOT mention the incredibly inspiring music), this is a DSiWare game worth using half of those free 1000 points you got when you bought the DSi (if you don’t have one, you can still get your free points if you buy the DSi before October 5th).

Hopefully the next batch of DSiWare caters to older gamers, too. Any more clocks or calculators, and I might start vomiting rainbows and unicorns.

With the announcement of the upcoming Project Natal, everyone is looking forward to being able to play games without the use of a keyboard and mouse. Just like the iPhone revolutionized touchscreen phones, Project Natal will revolutionize motion-sensor gaming. All of the research going into these touch and motion technologies fall into the realm of Human Computer Interaction (or HCI for short). You can find students and hobbyists researching and creating all different kinds of HCI technologies all over the world.

Forcedtodrive talked about a guy using a Theremin to play Super Mario Bros. Here is a cool video of an HCI project where researchers use a light projector and their own shadows to draw, play Pong, and click and drag objects:

This environment is cheap (only using a light projector and a notebook computer), and shows the potential for manipulating the computer with peripherals beyond those you find in the common household. And since the video has been around for over a year, you can see that Microsoft wasn’t the first to think of using our bodies alone to play games.

My coworker showed me her new phone (a Sanyo SCP 2700 from Sprint, shown left) and I noticed a button with a smiley face on it. I asked her what that button was for and she told me it’s for easy access to emoticons.

To me, that’s like putting a button on a baby’s rattle that releases balls of flames.

One of the concepts I love to hate when it comes to text messaging and typing on the Web is the emoticon. I used to teach a computer/technology applications course at a local university and I covered a wide variety of topics, ranging from binary code to computer generated imagery. One topic that always brought upon a big discussion was “netiquette,” or etiquette on the Web.

One major rule that I teach the students is that you should NEVER use emoticons and abbreviations in formal emails, and you should ALWAYS spell and grammar check. Although this seems like common sense, even my college students tend to ignore the rules by emailing me like they’d text message their BFF. With the excess of abbreviations and emoticons, they say it’s only natural for all of it to spill onto formal communication.

Could you imagine a world where all smart phones and laptops had a key/button for emoticons or common abbreviations like LOL or BRB? Imagine your boss letting you go with text message instead of a formal pink slip: “s2s got 2 let u go ”

You can learn more about the importance of netiquette from these hot moms:

REVIEW BREAKDOWN
type: Game review
platform: Nintendo DS
+: a must for fans of Suda 51
+: incredible story
+: interesting cast of characters
+: a truly original experience
+: half funny/half disturbing atmosphere
-: frustrating to no end, though self aware
-: linear to a t
-: “puzzles”, for lack of a better word, consist of simply finding a number in a manual
-: most gamers will hate this game
gamer appeal: fans of Suda 51 and weird s*** in general. Just picture a game version David Lynch’s “Inland Empire”
comparisons: Killer 7, and… Nothing else, really

gameESC score:


Continue reading REVIEW: Flower, Sun, and Rain (Nintendo DS)