From the same folks who brought us Bricks Of War, comes the Lego trailer for Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. You can check out the video below, as well as the behind-the-scenes featurette at the end.
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 By LeRon Dawkins on November 24, 2011 at 12:36 pm Electronics Arts and owners of Battlefield 3 on PlayStation 3 have been fighting some serious battles (in every sense of the word) lately and now, following the recent class action lawsuit launched against the publisher, the missing Battlefield 1943 game promised to players back at E3 has become one serious elephant in the room. Following all of the developments since the October 25th launch of Battlefield 3, EA has confirmed it will give PS3 Battlefield 3 customers the promised copy of Battlefield 1943 after all and has conveyed their thoughts over the “misunderstandings around Battlefield 1943 and Battlefield 3” on a webpage that explains how to get your free copy of the game. Over on the webpage, a timeline has been given for when the content is going live. Be sure to follow the instructions!  By Shelly Jackson on November 23, 2011 at 3:16 pm  
Ever wonder what might happen if some of your favorite car movies such Driver, Bullitt or Gone in Sixty Seconds and put zero limits on how over the top the stunts could get? That’s right, what you’d end up with is the last Fast and Furious movie. And although this game – Need for Speed: The Run – is as ridiculous as Fast Five, they have one thing in common. They both fall short being good and settle for mediocrity. 
Despite me calling NFSTR mediocre, there are many things this game excels at. To start, there’s the premise of the game itself: taking the speed and carnage of the NFS franchise and going Gumball Rally with it. The Run takes things coast to coast in a race to see not only who makes it first but to see who manages to cross the finish line it at all. Some truly shady and nefarious characters are encountered along the way and the game’s protagonist is potrayed well enough, if a bit cocky and over confident, for his predicament. Throw in a plethora of cars that range from the most extravagant imaginable to the most nostalgically recollected. 
Things went from cool to batshit crazy as I raced down the side of a mountain in a 280Z when a Sprinter Trueno makes a pass on me. In lot of ways, The Run simply oozes ‘cool for car guys’ out of more orifices than a Thai restaurant dish from a pissed off chef. Looking back, this is probably why other aspects disappointed me so much… The beginning of the downers for me was the unremarkable visuals. Though I have to admit that taken as a whole, things weren’t offensive to the eye but as I focused in on details in specific I was unimpressed. When compared to other NFS titles such Shift 2, I never had a true sense of speed and once even lost myself in the visuals to simply observe. Which brings me to the second disconnect in my mind, the controls. While the game controls adequately, cars seemed to feel both slow and sluggish. In a title where obstacles in the road can (and often do) end your race, responsiveness is key. 
My final nitpick is the lack of raw horsepower that comes from the sound presentation. The engines don’t seem to roar and scream like they should. Tire squeals don’t sound like violent shifts in weight that break traction. And once again, that’s even compared to other NFS titles. The motors do sound authentic and accurate, just emotionless. And there in lies the balancing act that can make things solid but unremarkable. The Run has moments of being enjoyable filled with too many long gaps of being mundane. I wanted to like this game but couldn’t get past the feeling of simply playing to progress versus playing for the experience. Amidst so many other holiday season releases that suck you in to the point of not realizing where the time has gone, The Run doesn’t compete strongly enough to take you away. Machinina’s successful comedy series, Sonic For Hire, returns for its third season, opening with Sonic and Tails trying (and failing) to break into the protection racket. By LeRon Dawkins on November 21, 2011 at 6:16 pm 
Capcom keeps releasing some of the most exciting news for their upcoming collaboration with Namco Bandai, Street Fighter X Tekken. Things just get more and more zany in the world where Street Fighter and Tekken characters unite and the newest development for the most anticipated project yet is the unveiling of SFxT Swap Costumes. 
Swap Costumes takes character customization to a whole new level allowing you to dress up Street Fighter characters in Tekken get-ups and vice versa for the Tekken side of the house. The level of customization involved seems to have been inspired by Tekken’s customization mode, but does not appear to go as deep. Players will be able to customize their character’s looks to include hair, skin tones, costume and accessories. Costumes will also be available as DLC and will feature costumes that crossover between the franchises. This is where it gets cool: This means that characters will be able to dress up as characters of the opposing franchise! Pictured above, King is sporting duds from Street Fighter III‘s Alex while Guile is pimped out in armored gear that’s completely Jack-6. It gets pretty fantastic when you see Chun Li dressed as Panda (so darn cute, btw), Julia Chang is dressed as Chun Li, Steve Fox sporting Charlie’s hairdo and vest and Ibuki decked out as Tekken 2‘s missing in action Kunimitsu. Other crossovers include Hwoarang as Deejay and Cammy as King. Street Fighter X Tekken is expected to be released in March of 2012. Enjoy the upcoming gallery and leave comments on your favorite outfit!
A little bit of interesting (and possibly bad) news on the way for fans of Namco Bandai’s Tales of series. Namco Bandai has announced on their official corporate website that they will be dissolving its Namco Tales Studio subsidiary in the upcoming months following a transaction which will take effect on January 1 following a board approval on November 29. Namco Tales Studio is a wholly owned subsidiary of Namco Bandai that’s responsible for the Tales of series of games. Founded on March 20, 2003, the company has 109 employees (as of this past April). There wasn’t any reason given by Namco Bandai for the move, but with Tales of Xillia‘s recent success and the prospect of a Tales of Xillia (possible) animation, there is a possibility that this move is likely aimed at bringing the subsidiary under the full wing of Namco Bandai with the prospect that the company will continue to develop Tales games, no longer as a public company. By LeRon Dawkins on November 20, 2011 at 3:30 pm 
Things just got a little more interesting in the Battlefield 1943 debacle surrounding the PS3 version of Battlefield 3. Going back to this summer’s Sony Press Conference at E3, it was announced by SCEA President Jack Tretton that through partnership with EA, Battlefield 3 would include exclusive content only available for the PlayStation 3 version — a free copy of Battlefield 1943. Battlefield 3 was one of 3 different EA titles that was announced to be coming with exclusive content only for PS3. The announcement was well received and was probably the greatest catalyst for purchases of DICE’s hit title on the PS3. Tretton stated that through the use of the extra storage space on Blu-ray discs, one of the most popular PSN games would be bundled with BF3. Sadly, when October 25th came, there was no free game included. Edelson McGuire, LLC (a legal firm focusing on consumer class actions, political and legal consulting, and entertainment law) has filed a class-action lawsuit against EA on behalf of the consumers who purchased the PS3 for the free copy of Battlefield 1943 because, let’s just face it, it was a real incentive to purchase the PS3 version of Battlefield 3. 
The lawsuit states the chief complaint is not about the renege on the offer for the free game to PS3 owners, but ultimately that the offer had been reneged after consumers already made purchases of BF3 with the expectation of receiving BF1943. While customers were scratching their heads and trying to get answers about the missing content from their purchases, EA announced the change to the deal on Twitter instead of a formal venue — a move that resulted in a large group of consumers not even aware an announcement was made. The suit also explains that the replacement deal of handing out BF3 expansions “early to PS3 customers” as pacifier does not compensate with the loss of a full video game. Furthermore, the suit practically spells out that the BF1943 offer enticed thousands of consumers to purchase the PS3 version over a PC or 360 copy and EA “misled and profited from thousands of their customers by making a promise that they could not, and never intended, to keep.” Kotaku spoke with lawyers of the firm that reports that those they represent are only after “compensatory relief”. Translation: they only want their copy of Battlefield 1943 as was originally intended. We’ll keep you posted as more developments take place. By LeRon Dawkins on November 19, 2011 at 1:32 pm 
If you haven’t been able to tell, we love us some machinima around here! Next up is a tribute so Assassin’s Creed: Revelations (out now on PS3, 360 and PC) from the guys at Counter656 Productions titled Assassin VS. Ninja. For more great machinima, head over to the Machinima YouTube channel and subscribe (if you haven’t already). By LeRon Dawkins on November 17, 2011 at 8:29 pm A video game console is only as good as its selection of games. Whether it be first-party titles, console exclusives or highly anticipated multi-platform behemoths, if you don’t have the games, you don’t have the customers. As part of the 5 year retrospective of the PS3, it’s only fitting that we have a listing of the top 10 titles that helped the PS3 out along the way. The next 5 years of coming games should prove to be just as exciting, if not even more…
Chris Redfield, a former STARS member and now part of the Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance (BSAA), is dispatched to Kijuju, Africa to work with Sheva Alomar to apprehend Ricardo Irving before he can sell a bio-organic weapon (BOW) on the black market. Upon arriving, they discover the locals have been converted by parasites into Majini, and that the members of the BSAA’s Alpha team have been killed. Chris and Sheva are rescued by BSAA’s Delta team, whose membership includes Sheva’s mentor Josh Stone. In the data provided by Josh, Chris sees a photograph of Jill Valentine, his old partner, presumed dead after a confrontation with Albert Wesker. Chris, Sheva, and Delta team close in on Irving, but he manages to escape with the help of a hooded figure, leaving behind documents that lead Chris and Sheva to oil fields in the marshlands where Irving’s deal is to occur. They soon discover this was a diversion created by Irving to allow the deal to take place. Chris and Sheva attempt to regroup with Delta team, but at the rendezvous, find the team slaughtered by a BOW; Sheva cannot find Josh among the bodies. Chris refuses to report to headquarters, revealing his determination to learn if Jill is still alive. The chickens literally come home to roost in the next major story arc for the Resident Evil series. Capcom reunites gamers with fan favorite characters Chris Redfield, Jill Valentine and Albert Wesker and put on a damn good show in the process.
Ethan Mars is a father who is trying to save his son from being the next victim, while investigative journalist Madison Paige, FBI profiler Norman Jayden, and private detective Scott Shelby are each trying to track down clues to the Origami Killer’s identity. The player interacts with the game by performing actions highlighted on screen related to motions on the controller, and in some cases, performing a series of quick time events during fast-paced action sequences. The player’s decisions and actions during the game will affect the narrative; the main characters can be killed, and certain actions may lead to different scenes and endings. Gaming gets a true moviegoer interactive experience from Quantic Dream’s follow up to Indigo Prophecy. Not only do you become Ethan Mars, you also control the fate of not 1, but 5 different characters and get plugged in to one of the best mystery games on any console.
In the midst of working on a hoverbike on the planet Kerwan in Metropolis, Ratchet and Clank receive a desperate call for help from Captain Quark, which they respond to. They find that a large army of robotic commandos have laid a full-scale assault on the capital city, led by Emperor Tachyon, crown prince of the Cragmites. Tachyon reveals that he is after Ratchet, the last Lombax in the galaxy; outnumbered and overpowered, Ratchet and Clank flee. The two decide they must learn more about Tachyon and begin to search the Polaris galaxy for answers. During their investigation, Clank is visited by small robots called the Zoni that only he can see; the Zoni upgrade Clank and tell him that he is special, and that he must help Ratchet make a difficult choice in their current adventure. The duo also acquire the aid of Talwyn Apogee, the daughter of Max Apogee, a famous explorer who collected artifacts from the Lombax culture before he mysteriously disappeared. Tools of Destruction is single-handedly one of PS3′s most underrated titles. Carrying over the strong legacy established by the PS2 releases in the series, it is still among one of the strongest titles in the PS3 library.
Assassin’s Creed II begins immediately after the events of the first game in 2012; Desmond Miles is still trapped by Abstergo Industries (the modern-day face of the Knights Templar) after being forced to use the Animus device to revisit genetic memories of the Assassin Altaïr Ibn-La’Ahad, and has discovered prophetic warnings from Subject 16 (a previous captive) describing the end of the world. He is soon rescued by Lucy Stillman, a mole for the Assassins within Abstergo, who takes him to meet two other Assassins, historian Shaun Hastings and computer expert Rebecca Crane. They request that Desmond use their version of the Animus, the Animus 2.0, to relive memories of another Assassin, Ezio Auditore da Firenze, to train Desmond in the ways of the Assassins through the “Bleeding Effect” of the Animus. During his exposure, Desmond finds himself briefly struck by a puzzling memory of Altaïr and his lover, a former Templar named Maria who became pregnant with his child. It is also revealed that apart from training Desmond as an Assassin, the Assassins also wish to find out more information about the foretold Vault. Desmond also finds various glyphs left by Subject 16 in the Animus, which, when decoded and assembled, form a brief video of a man and woman, “Adam” and “Eve”, running through a futuristic setting called “Eden”. The video ends with the binary for “Eden”. It’s arguable that sequels are never as good as the originals but with Assassin’s Creed II, it was better. Ubisoft Montreal went back to the drawing board and freed the series from a lot of the tediousness that made a lot of gamers cry out how boring Assassin’s Creed was.
Developer Infinity Ward returns with its third full installment in the Call of Duty series with Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Eschewing the traditional WWII setting that has been the hallmark of the series, Call of Duty 4 takes on the more nebulous world of modern warfare. Nazi storm troopers and kamikaze pilots have been replaced by a patchwork group of terrorists and insurgents, and traditional WWII weapons have been jettisoned in favor of more than 70 modern armaments. Though the story is a departure from the previous games, Call of Duty 4 still features intense mission-based first-person shooter gameplay that should be familiar to fans. The face of war on consoles received a true revision when Infinity Ward stepped up and brought it to the here and now. In the process of doing so, they grabbed the attention of gamers everywhere that hated first-person shooters based on historic battles and looking form something more streamlined, more intuitive, more modern.
Kratos wants to do one thing: kill Zeus. It’s the only goal that the “Ghost of Sparta” has in the entirety of God of War III, and everything from the epic beginning moments to the final credits serves to make that happen. This is how it ends! Kratos grew to become a legend in video gaming history and Santa Monica Studio delivers one hell of closing to the series.
To a racing gamer it comes down to one of 2 things: simulation or arcade. If you are of the former group, then you probably bought your PS3 just to get Gran Turismo 5. The game is pure perfection!
Little Big Planet is a world full of creations made by the eight Creator Curators. However, the eighth Creator, a rogue Creator called “the Collector” is stealing the other Creators’ creations and not sharing them with the world (sharing is one of the core elements of LittleBigPlanet), and later, the Creators themselves. Literally the closest thing PS3 has to an actual Super Mario title, Little Big Planet is platforming genius on both a big and small scale. It also introduced the world to Sackboy, the cutest mascot in all of gamedom.
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is the story of Nathan Drake, a fortune-hunter with a shady reputation and an even shadier past who is lured back into the treacherous world of thieves and mercenary treasure-seekers. The tenth game by premier Playstation 3 developer Naughty Dog, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves allows players to take control of Drake and embark on a journey that will push him to his physical, emotional and intellectual limits to discover the real truth behind the lost fleet of Marco Polo and the legendary Himalayan valley of Shambhala. With a tradition for taking the best features from different genres of gaming, Naughty Dog pushed so many boundaries and set the bar so high forUncharted 2, that what you had in you system was one thing: perfection.
Set in 2014, nine years after the plot of Metal Gear Solid and five years after Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. The world economy relies on continuous war, fought by PMCs, which outnumber government military forces. PMC soldiers are outfitted with nanomachines that enhance their abilities on the battlefield. The control network created through these nanomachines is called Sons of the Patriots (SOP), and Liquid Ocelot is preparing to hijack the system. Snake, meanwhile, is experiencing accelerated aging due to his status as a clone, and has less than a year to live. When his former commanding officer Roy Campbell approaches him with one last mission – to terminate Liquid – Snake accepts and is dropped into the Middle Eastern war zone where Liquid is believed to be hiding. MGS4 literally sold systems worldwide. Marking the end (!) of the Sons of Big Boss story, we finally get to see how decades of conspiracies and counter-intelligence culminates into a masterpiece that’ll not soon be forgotten. There’s quite a few more games deserving to be on this list, but we could only list 10. Feel like a game you love should have been on this list? Leave a comment below and let’s talk it over. 
Launched in North America on November 17, 2006, the PlayStation 3 hits the 5 year mark today. It doesn’t seem like it’s really been half a decade since people were admittedly shelling out $600 for Sony’s newest entry into the console business but here we have it, the PS3 has proved itself as a solid system and is still picking up steam as it continues with it’s prescribed 10-year plan. Thinking back on it, the PS3 had one of the slowest and rockiest starts in the industry. The systems were hard to find and the price tag for the console at launch made even the most ambitious of early-adopters pretty shaky. The Xbox 360 was already out the gates and had a yearlong head start (along with an impressive games library behind it) while Nintendo’s newest console (the Wii) was coming out in roughly 2 weeks after the launch of the PlayStation 3 and carried with it a very attractive price tag of $250. You could say there was some very heavy guns aimed its way. 
In the five years since launch, Sony and their favored console has seen some of the biggest ups and downs this generation but at the end of the day, no one can say that the PS3 isn’t the sum of it’s parts. Having pioneered Blu-ray and beaten out Microsoft’s HD-DVD, Blu-ray has become a household name and was thrust into the forefront of digital entertainment. PS3 systems showed up everywhere triumphantly beside high-powered television and home entertainment rigs changing how movies (and television) would be watched. A vast catalog of features such as a built-in web browser, multimedia (music/video/photo) services, built-in Wi-Fi and out-the-box HDMI-readiness have helped to make the PS3 what it calls itself — a Computer Entertainment System. Sony’s high priced demon was a force to be reckoned with, but the company did it at a considerable financial loss after manufacturing costs came into play. It took over 3 years for Sony to start making a profit on each unit sold — happening in early 2010. Hardware revisions helped to get Sony an upper hand as the system to this day has seen 10 different models (6 original and 4 slimline) each featuring less and less features — the biggest hit being the removal of PS2 backwards compatibility. Price cuts happened making the PS3 more appealing to the consumer and with a stellar lineup of first-party exclusives to run alongside regular console releases, entertainment is the name of the game. The PlayStation Network, which is still free-to-use, keeps getting better and better offering an ever-expanding catalog of diverse gaming and movie options. The PlayStation Store is not the only face of PlayStation Network, as services like Netflix, Hulu Plus, Music and Video Unlimited offer more multimedia options to the system besides just gaming. PSN also loans its services admirably to enhancing the experience with Life with PlayStation (formerly Folding@Home) and the gamer lobby hub PlayStation Home. With all the triumphs of the PlayStation 3, there have been a few fumbles along the way. Litigation over the patents for PlayStation’s trademark DualShock technology saw the system releasing in 2006 without a rumble controller. The Sixaxis controller (which bore the same shape and simliar design of Sony’s featured controller from the PS1 and PS2 eras) had to stand on its own for almost two years before seeing the reintegration of rumble to the controller. Sixaxis wasn’t a bad feature, but a lot of people were left at a disadvantage behind the fact that they had to manually manipulate the controller for enhancements to their games. While the PS3 is built a lot sterner than its rival the Xbox 360, Sony would soon have to deal with similar nightmares as a result of product wear and tear when reports started showing up on forums and blogs about the dreaded Y(ellow)L(ight)o(f)D(eath). As with the RRoD, the YLoD basically signalled it’s time to spend more money and either replace your system or call Sony for repair (sometimes at a cost). PlayStation Network took over 2 years to get a lot of the kinks straightened out and many a consumer felt that even with the service being free, the headaches sometimes didn’t justify all the hype. To make matters worse, PSN would suffer a critical blow to its viability after intrusions to the infrastructure resulted in a serious breach of private and financial information to Sony customers (PSN, Qriocity and SOE) and services on the PSN had to be halted temporarily. Sony managed to bounced back and through use of the Welcome Back Program, were able to not only regain the trust of the consumer, but to also bring in more and more customers. With Sony’s vested interest in its current flagship console, the future is starting to look good and it’s definitely a good time to be a gamer — a PS3 gamer. Sony’s commitment to a 10-year strategy for the system means simply, more hard work and devotion for the consumers over the next 5 years. PlayStation Home has already received a facelift and Sony has started working on making PS2 games playable on the non-backwards compatible consoles via the PlayStation 2 Classics on PSN service. Sony has also made a better commitment to 3D and the PS Move which a lot of modern gamers/consumers view as little more than gimmicks. Standing behind the slogan “It only does everything,” the PS3 is taking the spotlight at being the centerpiece of every living room. 
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