Shaun speaks with Iain Smith, Associate Producer for Codemasters Racing, about Dirt Showdown.

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Check out the latest trailer for Mass Effect 3, now complete with multiplayer footage.

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If you pick up Soulcalibur 5 next week, and find that your custom character just isn’t looking right without, say, a bikini, wings, and face paint, Namco’s got you covered (in bikinis, wings, and face paint). The publisher has announced three DLC packs for Europe, each running 160 Microsoft Points or €1.99, and each loaded with basically insane things to put on your characters. As a nice bonus, they all include in-game music tracks from previous Caliburs, which can also be purchased individually.

On February 3, you can buy the aforementioned bikinis, wings, and face paints as part of a bundle of “nine exotic customization items.” This comes with music from Soul Blade and Soul Calibur. February 14 includes “fearsome” items like “breast plate, kimono, and animal heads.” Animal heads. This set is bundled with SC2 and 3 music. Finally, on February 28, you can get nine more items, including “mask, face paint, camouflage and skull.” Along with your download, you get music from Soulcalibur IV and Soulcalibur Broken Destiny.

No announcement has been made for a North American release, but we’re confident Namco will let you buy that kimono and skull soon enough.

Continue reading Soulcalibur 5 DLC lets you buy bikinis and animal heads in Feb.

Soulcalibur 5 DLC lets you buy bikinis and animal heads in Feb. originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 27 Jan 2012 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The prominent PlayStation PixelJunk franchise went to Facebook with PixelJunk Monsters Online, and now the series’ acrobatic trip-tastic platformer, PixelJunk Eden, is coming to Steam.

Available next week, on February 2, the main game will include the “Encore” DLC expansion, and the full chemically augmented soundtrack by Baiyon will be sold separately [Ed. note: Finally!]. The regular price will be $10 for the game and $6 for the (17 song) soundtrack, but both items will be discounted 20 percent for a limited time after launch.

“Lots of stuff is new – the main cool feature is that your Grimp (the little character you control) now has the ability to warp back to his last resting position!” Q-Games’ Dylan Cuthbert said of added features in the Steam version. “It uses a little bit of your energy but if you’re careful you no longer have to worry about missing an important jump – fall too far, just hit space and warp back.”

“Also, rather than having to collect all the Spectra (these are the objects that let you grow your main garden) repeatedly we now save your progress in each garden, so you can just start from the last Spectra you grabbed when you go back in.”

Hurray for Eden taking away its buzzkill elements! It’s all about the flow, man.

Continue reading PixelJunk Eden leaps to Steam with Encore included

PixelJunk Eden leaps to Steam with Encore included originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 27 Jan 2012 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Feature

Why Final Fantasy IV Remains a Masterpiece After All These Years

While time has dulled its innovations, the first 16-bit Final Fantasy made its mark in big ways.

By: Jeremy Parish
January 27, 2012

Final Fantasy IV has become so ubiquitous, so overly repackaged, so frequently and redundantly remade, that it can be difficult for one to put the game in its proper perspective and remember exactly how big a deal it was 20 years ago. The fourth chapter in the Final Fantasy series was a significant departure from its predecessors — not to mention the greater role-playing genre as it existed in 1991 — and not simply because it leapt ahead to the powerful Super NES. FFIV wasn’t as much as game of firsts as it’s sometimes treated in glowing retrospectives, but that shouldn’t be seen as a lack of innovation. Other games certainly paved the way for FFIV; Phantasy Star II blazed a 16-bit trail, while Dragon Quest IV broke new ground by recontextualizing the grand, sweeping quests common to RPGs into a character-driven linear odyssey. What made FFIV so engrossing is that it rounded up the best ideas put forth by its competition, reworked them into a new whole, and in doing so owned those concepts.

From the opening moments of the game — literally, as a cart with no save files on it will boot immediately into the introductory cinematic — FFIV has a story to tell, and it isn’t shy about showing off a little as it presents that tale. Ominous music plays as a fleet of airships (not the single airships of previous Final Fantasy games, a whole flotilla of them!) advances in formation. The landscape speeds past below. The scene shifts to the player’s avatar, Cecil Harvey, captain of the Red Wing air fleet, pride of the Kingdom of Baron. Right away, this sets the tale apart: Cecil isn’t a young kid, a nameless nobody, or a feeble amateur. He’s a leader, an elite soldier who’s risen through the ranks as a Dark Knight to take command of an entire nation’s military powerhouse. Neither is Cecil a blank slate; he’s conflicted about his actions, torn between duty and morality.

"It’s not just a game, it’s a dance".
EA has sent over a new FIFA Street trailer packed with mad skills.

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