Redbox Renting Games

post from MonsterVine on 28 April 2011 11:54:35 PM. © MonsterVine

Redbox offical announced today that they will begin offering game rentals at 21,000 loacations starting June 17, 2011. Rentals will cost $2, in comparsion to $1 for their DVD’s, and $1.50 for their Blu-ray movies. “Redbox will increase consumers’ access to video game rentals by leveraging our incredible technology and business model to keep rental [...]

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Fallen Shadows Walkthrough (PC)

post from Gamezebo: Casual Game Reviews, Previews, Cheats, Tips, Forums, Free Games, and More on 28 April 2011 11:52:11 PM. © Gamezebo: Casual Game Reviews, Previews, Cheats, Tips, Forums, Free Games, and More

Welcome to the Fallen Shadows walkthrough on Gamezebo. Fallen Shadows is a Hidden Object game played on the PC and Mac created by Happy Muffin Top. This walkthrough includes tips and tricks, helpful hints, and a strategy guide on how to complete Fallen Shadows.

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Driver: San Francisco Sees August Release

post from MonsterVine on 28 April 2011 11:33:19 PM. © MonsterVine

Ubisoft Reflections Driver: San Francisco will see a release at the end of summer, the publisher announced today. The game makes a media reappearance after uncertainty of a release in 2010, then a delay in 2011 after missing its projected window. Driver San: Francisco will release August 30, 2011 for Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Mac, [...]

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The First Templar Relanches Official Website

post from MonsterVine on 28 April 2011 11:15:51 PM. © MonsterVine

Kalypso Media, publisher of The First Templar, has announced that its relaunched the official website for the game today. The official website includes trailers, screenshots, story background, wallpapers, online store, and even an official forum. The First Templar releases May 10, 2011 for PC and Xbox 360, be sure to check out our preview on [...]

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Is it OK for game distributors to have your
credit card

post from Destructoid on 28 April 2011 11:07:26 PM. © Destructoid

Is it OK for game distributors to have your credit card? screenshot

[Every so often, you may see some of these mini-features appear on the front page. They are just short editorial thoughts meant to start an interesting conversation in the comments and c-blogs. Enjoy! Now get to discussing!]

Would you ever give your credit card number to your local department store to hold onto? How about your favorite restaurant, or gas station?. It might make the check out process faster, but would that be worth it to take that risk? Would it be worth it to trust your financial security to relative strangers just to save a few minutes every time you buy some snacks or fill up the gas tank?

I'm guessing that for most of you, the answer is no. However, I'm also guessing that most of you are OK with the equivalent online practice. Registering your credit card with digital videogame distributors like Steam, PSN and XBLA is common place amongst gamers today. Most of us just take it for granted. That's just the way games are sold online, with our credit card info entrusted to people that we've never even seen in real life.

Why are we so willing to take these risks when it comes to our online transactions? Is it because we're slaves to convenience, or something worse?

I first started to notice that many gamers were in love with giving their credit card information out to strangers back when Bit.Trip BEAT first hit WiiWare in 2009. I was quick to spread the word about how much I loved the game, and urged everyone I knew with a Wii to give it a shot. Though a few friends picked up the game right away, the large majority said "WiiWare? I'll pass".

That really puzzled me. Did they think the game wouldn't be fun just because it was on WiiWare, or was it because they didn't have space on their Wii hard drive, or was there something else I was missing? It's not like they could complain about navigating the Wii Shop channel (not in this instance anyway). They knew exactly what game they were getting, so the need for navigation was at a minimum. As it turned out, the hard drive space issues wasn't really am issue either, as few of them had ever bought a WiiWare game. No, more often than not, the reason they wouldn't pick up Bit.Trip BEAT was because they were just too lazy. "I'd rather just get a game on Steam or XBLA" they'd say. "I don't want to have to deal with entering my credit card information over and over again. It's just easier to get a game on another service".

Now that every PSN member has had their all account information compromised, I wonder if they still think that small convenience is worth it?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to slam PSN here. They aren't the first service of this type to get hacked, and I'm sure they wont be the last. However, I do blame gamers for creating a sales climate where laziness wins over safety. PSN could have given us the option for a WiiWare-style sales system where you have to enter your credit card information each time you make a purchase, but they didn't, because some particularly vocal gamers wouldn't have inevitably been dicks about it. They would have complained about the hassle, bad mouthed the service for it, and PSN's reputation would have inevitably suffered as a result. Maybe not as much as its reputation is suffering now, but that's debatable.

Overall, I'm hoping this whole PSN disaster causes gamers to change their attitude about towards the "fast and fun shopping vs. identity theft protection" argument. Just as the the best way to stay safe from STDs is to never store your genitals against someone else's genitals, the best way to safely purchase goods online is to never store your credit/debit card info on someone's else's online data base. It's just that simple. If Sony does give us the option in the future to buy games from PSN without registering our credit cards, I hope gamers support it. Same goes for Steam and XBLA. It may not be quite as fun, but it's worth the piece of mind to keep our junk, and our credit card numbers, in our pants.

Worst analogy ever? Worse still, am I overreacting? What do you think, internet? Is it worth the time and energy saved to register your credit cards numbers with the various digital videogame distributors of the modern day, or would you rather keep that info safely encrypted in your wallet?

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Drunk Game Review: Mortal Kombat

post from Destructoid on 28 April 2011 11:07:26 PM. © Destructoid

Drunk Game Review: Mortal Kombat screenshot

Can't see the video? Click here

If you follow me on Twitter, you might recall my tweets last Thursday about getting hammered in Oakland and playing Mortal Kombat. This was, in fact, for work. Viking warlord Blake Morse asked me to be his new drinking buddy/co-host for Game Revolution's semi-regular Drunk Game Review.

For this special occasion, we made a drink called a Fatality, which tasted like eating a handful of Skittles and then vomiting while being punched in your mouth. I don't recommend it. Unless you're a professional computer games journalism guy like me.

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Amazing Adventures: The Forgotten Dynasty

post from Escape Games 24 on 28 April 2011 10:06:21 PM. © Escape Games 24

Amazing Adventures: The Forgotten Dynasty is another great sequel of Amazing Adventures point and click adventure type downloadable hidden object games series released at Download Games 24. Rumors of an unknown dynasty surfaced when ancient tiles turned up on the black market. Your mission is to explore China and search for clues to uncover the secret of The Forgotten Dynasty. Explore exotic

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Zen Studios hosting Pinball FX2 Mars tournament

post from Destructoid on 28 April 2011 10:06:14 PM. © Destructoid

Zen Studios hosting Pinball FX2 Mars tournament screenshot

If you're a pinball wizard and want to win some accolades and prizes, get your ass to Mars. Zen Studios has announced a new tournament for Pinball FX2 centered around their new Mars table. The tournament starts tomorrow, April 29th, and you can enter your score until May 13th.

The top three scores in the competition will win prize packs including Microsoft points, DVDs of movies based around Mars and download codes for some future Zen Studios releases. In addition, Zen will be giving away more prizes to random entrants.

I need to spend more time with that Mars board. Oh, sure, when Nick Chester sent me a message over Xbox Live the other day to celebrate his beating my score, it was no trouble at all to defeat him. But if I'm going to enter into this tournament, I'm going to need to really dig in. Any other challengers amongst us?

Check out the full list of prizes:

1st Place

4,000 MS Points
Choice of Mars Attacks!, Martian Chronicles, or Total Recall Special Edition
Codes to future games from ZEN Studios

2nd and 3rd Place

1600 MS Points
Choice of Mars Attacks!, Martian Chronicles, or Total Recall Special Edition
Codes to future games from ZEN Studios

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Guild Wars celebrates its sixth anniversary

Guild Wars celebrates its sixth anniversary screenshot

Has it really been six years since Guild Wars launched? Oh, it has! NCsoft and ArenaNet are kicking off the festivities with more than just a pat on the back -- expect sales, contests, and an update to the game.

Through June 9, weekly sales on costume packs, character slots, mission packs, and other things of that nature can be found at the NCsoft store, with price reductions going as high as fifty percent off.

Perhaps most important of all is the update itself, which follows the Halloween storyline with the Mad King. PvP will be affected by a new Flux system, in addition to high-resolution textures in outposts, Hard mode quests, a mutual friends list, and 30+ birthday tonics all being added.

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Ratings board says Fruit Ninja is coming to
Kinect

Ratings board says Fruit Ninja is coming to Kinect screenshot

Do ratings boards just not care about leaking unannounced games, or what? Siliconera recently spotted a rating for Fruit Ninja Kinect on Korea's Game Rating Board. That's about it, really.

The mobile version was a runaway success, so it'd make sense that Halfbrick would want to continue bringing Fruit Ninja to further platforms. I could see it being a great fit for Kinect as well, which is always a plus. At this point, it's nice to see developers acknowledging the device, period -- even if it is indirectly.

Fruit Ninja Kinect Sliced for Xbox 360 [Siliconera]

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