XboxSold.com BLOG

Previously on the Destructoid Comic:

CyberneticTigerZ bravely steps out of the broom closet that he, Jim, RetroforceGO! and the Failcast crew were holed up in to check that the coast is clear. Suddenly, the roof caves in. Looking up he sees the glowing red eyes of the Destructor-toid staring down, it’s huge metal hand reaching toward him. The hand comes crashing down appearing to crush CTZ. Luckily, CTZ’s armour is designed to withstand such pressure and he survives, though much of his Cyber Organic Tiger Shark suit is damaged. CTZ is less than pleased. Jim, RetroforceGO! and the Failcast believe CTZ to have been killed.

The comment that pushed the story along this time was Necros!

Shit just got real.

My thoughts:

Topher’s Ikaruga is still crucial to stopping the giant menace, but it still needs that Dreamcast from Goodwill. However, the robot has found the underground safehouse because of Ashley’s reckless playing, so the Dtoid crew is in trouble. Hamza and Jim break off to fight the Destructor-toid head-on so that RetroforceGO! can proceed to Goodwill. The Failcast crew stays behind at the safehouse to fend off the zombies so that they are not followed.

Kind of dry, but it’ll move the story along (resolving RFGO’s goal from several months ago), and it also works with other suggestions for Hamza that are far more descriptive and imaginative than mine.

I thought it was best to re-aim everyone towards the goal of the Dreamcast, before we forget what’s happening.

THE RULES:
1. You have 24 hours from the time this blog was posted to suggest what happens next.

2. Try to keep it relatively SFW.

3. You can only make a suggestion once per week.

4. Your suggestion has to fit on one page (although I will occasionally stretch it to two pages).

How will Niero escape from the clutches of Tom Jackson? Will Anthony realise that his sister is playing an actual murder simulator? Will CTZ be okay as he faces the Destructor-toid alone?

Cover
Page #1: When it rains, it pours
Page #2: Enter … THE SHARK!
Page #3: The plot thickens!
Page #4: Annnnnnd welcome!
Page #5: Revenge of the Red Rings
Page #6: Time to formulate a plan
Page #7 + #8: The Long Way Round
Page #9 + #10: Compulsory underground level
Page #11 + #12: Run or shoot?
Page #13: HAWP to it
Page #14 + #15: Mandatory monologue
Page #16 + #17 + #18: Face to face

Yesterday, a super-secret project that I have been working on little by little over the past month finally came to fruition — the Once Upon a Pixel episode of HAWP. This was one of the biggest projects I have ever worked on as an artist, game-related or not, and one that I am super proud of. Now, by popular demand, I bring you an exclusive gallery featuring the art of Once Upon a Pixel, which depicted The Tale of the Metal Gear.

Below lies the full sized versions of each drawing, a few of the original sketches, and photographs of the details on the Once Upon a Pixel storybook used in the video (which has some chocolate icing smudged on it in places, unfortunately). My favorites of the bunch are Snake attempting to shut down Metal Gear REX and the fight scene with him and Grey Fox. How about you? Which ones do you like?

And yes, I know I spelled "soldier" wrong on the first page of the book, I cut off the wrong hand on Ocelot, and I left Decoy Octopus out of the Foxhound group picture (Not on purpose! You can actually see him wearing a Snake mask in the sketch version of the image). Cut me a break! I got the codec number right at least!

Credit goes to deathfetish, who created the great paper texture used to give the final versions of the drawings the "old storybook" look.

Shatter is like a sexier, more realized version of Arkanoid that you want to download, even if you don’t know it yet. And how could you not? The PlayStation Network exclusive has looked and sounded fantastic in every trailer released so far (all two of them).

New Zealand-based developer Sidhe says its retro-inspired brick breaker will debut on July 23 for a very reasonable $7.99. Managing Director Mario Wynand expects all of us to "find Shatter to be a fun title with a deep, inspired soundtrack that makes you want to keep playing long after you should be in bed."

The number one cause for my lack of sleep is videogames, for better or for worse, but I see what he’s getting at. Our previous coverage of Shatter resulted in a lot of happy faces. Do you guys still feel the same way?

Decisions, decisions. Some of us have to worry about which bills need to be paid off first, whether or not we can afford to move house, or what we’re doing next with our lives. At BioWare, they have the most crucial and life-altering decision of all — whether or not to put boobs in Dragon Age: Origins.

The cheeky muckworms at BioWare seem to be making a habit of including sexy sauce in its videogames, and Dragon Age will be the next game feature some steamy encounters. However, the team is currently deciding how much we get to see. 

"I don’t think we’ve worked that out yet, because we can adjust that whenever we want, right?," reveals BioWare VP Greg Zeschuk. "On Mass Effect we worked extensively to figure out, how do we want to portray it? It’s not oodling pixels [laughs] — sad but probably titillating, too. I think for us it’s more just making sure it fits the context of what we’re trying to create."

I’m not going to pretend that I’m above enjoying sexy shenanigans in videogames, so I’ll be the first to pledge my full support to BioWare in its endeavors. Sign me up for more sexy boobtime in videogames, and I’ll even go one step further than BioWare — the less it fits the game’s context, and the more inappropriate it is, the better!

Two giant 15 ton metal cranes were made by some people and to spice things up a little, they made it so the arms could be controlled with a Wiimote. The metal arms motions are controlled with the Wiimote motions and oddly, it looks like a ton of fun controlling gigantic arms of doom with some waggling.

As awesome as this is, I can’t help but feel super paranoid if I was to make a mod like this. I mean, what happens if you forget to shut off the arm and go play a game on the Wii? You would end up destroying your backyard by playing Wii Sports! Oh the humanity!

Hit the break to check out the mod for yourselves! 

[Via The Awesomer]

Infinity Ward’s community manager Robert “fourzertwo” Bowling just tweeted a picture of Modern Warfare 2’s retail boxes. According to Bowling, these pups just came off the press and apparently, ‘s–t just got real.’

But wait a second … is that a Call of Duty we see above the Modern Warfare 2 logo? We’ve seen a lot of waffling from Activision about adding and subtracting the Call of Duty brand from Modern Warfare. Looks like we may have our final answer: Modern Warefare 2 is Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

Electronic Arts DICE’s Battlefield 1943 has had a rough start. Since the downloadable title’s release, we’ve heard people talking about all sorts of nasty things: vicious latency issues and random disconnections are among the worst complaints. If you’ve hopped on this morning, you may have noticed a difference. DICE has been adding servers and burning the Swedish variant of midnight oil in order to kill the issues related to their over capacity servers. (The price has also dropped from 90,000 Microsoft Points to the standard price.)

“Good news,” EA DICE’s Gordan Van Dyke said via the game’s official forum yesterday afternoon (spotted by Edge), “the game is incredibly successful beyond even my expectations. We have reached server capacity, but the bad news about this now [is that] some people can’t join unless someone leaves. But don’t worry,” Van Dyke continued, “we are adding more servers ASAP to Xbox and in preparation [for the] PS3 that should start going up ASAP with priority on Xbox 360.”

So, there you go. It’s being fixed and from what we’ve heard, the issues are slowly going away. If you’re looking to keep track of what’s going on, go ahead and follow that message board thread. EA DICE is being responsible about all of this.

[via Joystiq -- Thanks pizzapartyandurmomshosting]

This may be the "Northern California liberal hippie" talking in me, but sometimes I really question whether the energy I use to play videogames is worth the entertainment. I mean, you don’t have to have gone to the same high school as Jerry Garcia, in a town run by the Green Party, followed by living in Berkeley (like I have) to realize that your Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii eat up a lot of energy while in use. Costs add up, but even more startling, so does our gamer-impact on the environment. Captain Planet is not pleased.

What’s scary is that even when our consoles are on standby, they still use electricity. According to green gadget maker TrickleStar, the PS3 will burn off the equivalent of $250 over a year spent in standby, with the 360 doing only slightly better. The Wii, thankfully, uses ten times less than the PS3, which is great for Nintendo, when they are not ranking last on Greenpeace’s Guide to Greener Electronics.

Ultimately, one option is to just unplug the console in question when not in use, but as someone who has tried this method, I can vouch that it just doesn’t work. I plainly forget each day, and the hassle of reaching around the TV to plug and unplug my 360, for example, is as obnoxious as ELF members on a street corner asking for "only $15 a month to help save our planet".

That’s why TrickleStar announced this weird little device, the TV TrickleSaver. Designed with game consoles in mind (but usable for any device with an electrical plug), this stupidly-named adapter acts as an electrical barrier to your game consoles when your TV is turned off. Sure, it’s expensive at 35 bucks, and it means that all passive actions your console performs (downloads, recharging controllers, etc.) cannot be done without the TV on, but it’s one price you can pay if you want to be a greener gamer. Or you can just unplug the damn thing each night.

[via Gizmodo]

When I first heard about Tornado Outbreak, I was hoping it would be some awesome realistic game of destruction. Turns out it’s a kid’s game. Dang.

So, you’re some kind of creature that can turn into a tornado. With those powers, you’ll be saving the planet from evil as you go around cities sucking things into your destructive suckage. Never mind the fact that you’re also destroying towns in the process while saving the planet. Whoops!

I don’t know, after watching the trailer (after the jump), this game could be fun. Guess we’ll find out when Tornado Outbreak comes out this September on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii.