Silicon Knights and Microsoft Game Studios have announced that the third-person Norse action game, Too Human will raise all Ragnarok on August 19th in North America and later in August for Europe.  Too Human is a modern re-imaging of Norse mythology wrapped in a promised deep RPG (role playing game) storyline.  You play as Baldur  who must defending humanity from a monstrous threat.  Using melee and firearms you must thwart this great evil either alone or co-operatively via Xbox Live.  As you progress through the game you can customize Baldur’s skills and weapons to combat the deadly war machine.  Too Human is rated T for Teen.

Kelly Brown

Today, Nintendo launched WiiWare for North American consoles.  Wii owners with an internet connection will be able to download new games by a wide variety of publishers.  Nintendo is marketing WiiWare as sort of independent gaming available to internet connect Wii owners.  Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America’s executive Vice-President of Sales & Marketing remarked that, "WiiWare is to the video game industry what independent films are to Hollywood. WiiWare lets developers experiment with new ideas and experiences. Combined with our collection of classic Virtual Console games, Wii provides one-stop shopping for the greatest games of the past - and the future."

To download WiiWare games, just head WiiWare section of the Wii Shop Channel.  From there you can browse the various games, download Wii points, and start downloading.  Nintendo has said that every Monday there will be new content added to WiiWare.  So in addition to stocking up on Wii points, it may be time to find a bigger SDK memory card. 

Today’s WiiWare launch titles include:

* Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life As A King from Square Enix.  This single player game is rated E for Everyone and is available for 1,500 Wii points.

* LostWinds from Frontier Development is a one or two player game.  It is rated E for Everyone and is available for 1,000 Wii points.

* Defend Your Castle from XGen Studios can have up to 4 players and is rated E for Everyone.  The game is available for 500 Wii points.

* Pop from Nnooo can have up to 4 players and is rated E for Everyone.  The game is available for 700 Wii points.

* V.I.P. Casino: Blackjack from High Voltage Software Inc. can have up to 4 players and is rated T for Teen.  The game is available for 700 Wii points.

* TV Show King from Gameloft can have up to 4 players and is rated E for Everyone.  The game is available for 1,000 Wii points.

-Chris "Lefty" Brown

Epic has released an HD gameplay trailer for Gears of War 2. It’s pretty impressive, showing some new features of the game. You will now be able to grab an enemy and use him as a meat shield, execute the meat shield at any time, flip your lancer over and deliver a chainsaw killing blow (similar to what was seen in the initial teaser trailer), and engage in a chainsaw battle (a button-mashing exercise). You’ll also see some of the new enemies and vehicles. I don’t usually get too excited about upcoming games, but this one looks hawt! Introduction by Cliffy B.

By: Mommy DX

The movie Speed Racer is coming out in theatres this weekend and CandyTracks.com has created five, new Speed Racer games just for kids. Children can immediately play in demo mode, where they can choose a car and speed down their choice of five different tracks. Alternatively, if parents set up an account, children can compete for prizes that include a Speed Racer game for the Wii, or a trip for four to the Bank of America 500 race in Charlotte, NC.

Thinking about picking up Rock Band for the Wii, but we’re afraid of not having your fill of downloadable content?  You can continue your journey to Rock God stardom long past the initial Rock Band tracks on a series of Rock Band Track Pack Discs.  Harmonix and MTV Games announced that "Rock Band Track Pack Volume 1" will be touring store shelves on July 15th, for the Nintendo Wii and Sony Playstation 2.  Volume 1 will include 20 master tracks that have been found as downloadable content on the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. The game disc will retail for $29.99.  If you downloaded the songs on competing consoles, you would have spent around $38 comparably.  The "Rock Band Track Pack Volume 1" includes:

30 Seconds to Mars The Kill
All American Rejects Move Along
Blink – 182 All the Small Things
Boston More Than a Feeling
David Bowie Moonage Daydream
Faith No More We Care A Lot
Grateful Dead Truckin’
The Hives Die, All Right!
KISS Calling Dr. Love
Lynyrd Skynyrd Gimme’ Three Steps
Nine Inch Nails March of the Pigs
Oasis Live Forever
Paramore Crushcrushcrush
The Police Synchronicity II
Queens of the Stone Age Little Sister
Ramones Teenage Lobotomy
Smashing Pumpkins Siva
Stone Temple Pilots Interstate Love Song
Weezer Buddy Holly
Wolfmother Joker & the Thief

No word how frequently future volumes of these track pack discs will be produced, or if the price will be standard or flexible depending on number of tracks.

Rock Band is rated "T for Teen"

-Chris "Lefty" Brown

Today’s Virtual Console games for the Nintendo Wii are Pokémon Puzzle League and Renegade. 

Pokémon Puzzle League was originally on the Nintendo 64, and is available on the Wii Shop Channel for 1000 Wii Point.  Pokémon Puzzle League features six different play modes as you compete for the title of Pokémon Puzzle Master.  The game can have up to two players. 

The other addition to the Virtual Console library is the classic beat ‘em up, Renegade.  Renegade was originally on the NES game system.  You play a vigilante who must fight different gangs to bring peace to the city.  Renegade is available on the Wii Shop Channel for 500 Wii points. The game can have up to two players. 

-Chris "Lefty" Brown

Show notes: Our special guests are Alfred, Scott, Sam, and Allen from Gamer Husbands Radio. Our main topic is how to get along with your non-gaming partner. This episode we discuss also casual games and their possible beneficial abilities, and Aerosmith being exclusive to Guitar Hero and what that may mean in the future. Our regular features include our currently playing, listener mailbag, our Weekly Challange, and our For Better of For Worse for the week.

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This Summer players can ’swim with da fishes’ in a good natured game the whole family can enjoy.  Sierra Online announced that Sea Life Safari will be coming to the Xbox Live Arcade.  In Sea Life Safari, gamers will find gainful employment as an underwater photographer trying to capture the aquatic wildlife from clownfish to the mythical Kraken sea monster.  You must entice your subject and try to take that perfect picture for high scores.  Player’s photos are judged by size, orientation, centering, and interaction with various fish.  Sea Life Safari will feature 60 animated creatures in 5 different underwater environments.

Sea Life Safari is rated E for Everyone

-Chris “Lefty” Brown

No song pack this week for Rock Band players, but they can pick up two master tracks by The Mother Hips and one master track by the Smashing Pumpkins.  Available for download now on the Xbox Live Marketplace and Thursday for the Playstation Store are the following tracks:

"Red Tandy" by The Mother Hips

"Time-Sick Son of a Grizzly Bear" by the Mother Hips

"Zero" by Smashing Pumpkins

The individual tracks are available for $1.99 on the Playstation Store or 160 Microsoft Points on Xbox Live Marketplace.

-Chris "Lefty" Brown

There is only one Virtual Console release this Monday, but it’s an NES classic.  Double Dragon is now available on the Wii Shop Channel for 500 Wii Points.  The side-scroller classic is 1 or 2 players.   Help Billy rescue his girlfriend , Marian, from the nefarious gang the Black Warriors.  Double Dragon is rated E for Everyone.

-Chris "Lefty"Brown

…I don’t want to be right!

Mommy DX here - fresh from a week long Disney ‘vacation.’ I say ‘vacation’, because I hardly call walking a kajillion miles, waiting on line for hours, and weaving through hordes of crowds a REAL vacation. However, even with the Grizwold-esque events of the past week, we still managed to get in a little sun and have a ton of fun.

Surprisingly, I thought it would be nice to get away from the gaming for a while, but something shocking and completely unexpected happened. And please - don’t tell my 360, but I actually experienced another gaming device.

Oh yes - Daddio DX, my husband, borrowed a Playstation Portable (PSP) for our son, Knucklehead, to enjoy on the car ride down. Now, I have to admit, I totally balked at the idea of having a gaming device in the car. Call me old-fashioned, but I used to do trips in the family truckster without any form of electronic entertainment, so I knew he could also do without.

However, after I saw that slick, solid device switch on before me - I saw stars AND heard angels from Heaven above. Oh, yes - that PSP is AWESOME.

First of all, the device itself is very heavy duty. For the PSP being a handheld, it is totally solid and doesn’t feel like it’s going to break the first time it gets dropped, or…sat on…or covered in kool-aid. (Not that i’d recommend doing that, of course.) The glossy finish is beautiful and the flat, wide LCD screen make graphics look so crisp, so fresh, and so clean, it pulls you straight into the game and makes you never want to come back.

What’s even more incredible about the PSP, is that this little booger does all kinds of wicked stuff, like play music and movies, hook up with other players online, surf the .Net, stores photos, even talks to your Tivo, so you can catch up on all those shows you’ve been missing while gaming. How cool is that?

Now, don’t worry - I am still an Xbox’er at heart, but there’s something that Playstation has that Microsoft does not: Daxter. Knucklehead <3’s that little guy! Before the 360 stole us away from the PS2, our family was a HUGE fan of the Jak and Daxter series. In fact, Knucklehead reminisces quite often about the days that Naughty Dog ruled our gaming world and the PS2 was the only console being played in our household. Those good ‘ol days may be gone, but just being able to see the funnier (and fuzzier) half of the J & D duo made us very, very happy.

Now, is the PSP worth the $199-ish price tag? With the amount of stuff this handheld piece of Godliness can do? I think so, and with Daxter included in the package, that’s one shopping trip I may have to take.

by Chris Brown

Next week, Harmonix and MTV Games will release their first full album downloadable content…and it’s not what anyone expected!  Judas Priest’s 1982 classic metal album, "Screaming for Vengeance" will be released Tuesday, April 22nd,  on the Xbox Live Marketplace and Thursday, April 24th, on the Playstation Store.  The whole album, featuring all 10 Master Tracks, will be available for $14.99 (1200 MSP for Xbox Live).  Gamers can download individual tracks for $1.99 a track (160 MSP for Xbox Live)

Tracks for Judas Priest’s "Screaming for Vengeance" include:

“The Hellion”
“Electric Eye”
“Riding on the Wind”
“Bloodstone”
“(Take These) Chains”
“Pain and Pleasure”
“Screaming for Vengeance”
“You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’”
“Fever”
“Devil’s Child”

No word yet on when the long rumored "Who’s Next" by The Who, and Nirvana’s "Nevermind" will be available.  In May, Harmonix and MTV Games will release the self-titled first album by The Cars, followed by in June by "Doolittle" by The Pixies.

Most of you are probably thinking, “What do you mean fix the achievement system? It’s not broken.”

After the constant hoopla I read about how great achievements are, it’s interesting to read an article that takes some off the rose-colored glasses. A recently article on Gametap, Sin & Resolution: Xbox Achievements, takes a stab at identifying some of the shortcomings of the achievement system and how to fix them.
…read full article…

Show notes: Lefty reviews Super Smash Brothers Brawl for the Wii. What games need to be brought into the Next Gen? We discuss news on our radar, what we are playing, dip into our mailbag, and of course the Weekly Challenge.

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After several weeks of there being nothing to offend me, this has really been a breakthrough week.

The most recent incident is the results of a poll conducted at WhatTheyPlay.com. This is a site that bills itself as “the parents guide to video games”, so one can make a reasonable assumption that most of the poll respondents are parents. Before getting to the point of this article, one should always take internet polls with a grain of salt because we don’t know if a bunch of people ganged up to ‘game’ the results a certain way, or whether the respondents truly were parents or just a bunch of kids trying to have fun.
…read full article…

On Friday, April 11th, the Gameplay Network will be hosting a community game night. The festivities would start around 8:00pm Eastern time which is 5:00pm Pacific or 1:00am GMT-1. Everybody is invited, everybody who listens to the shows, posts and/or lurks on their respective forums, everybody who enjoys gaming.

We will have servers on Rainbow Six Vegas 2, Halo 3, Call of Duty 4, etc and everybody is welcome to jump from game to game. If you would like to host a room for an Xbox 360 _title_, send an Xbox Live friend request to GameplayNetwork. If you want to open a room for a game that is on the PS3 or Nintendo Wii, send Death Vanquished an email at iankylewallace@gmail.com.This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Since there will be five communities coming together for this game night, here are some simple rules/guidelines that you should follow to guarantee a good experience.
1. Be civil. – No racial slurs, no gay bashing, etc.
2. Keep Cussing to a Minimum. – If you do yell an obscenity, make sure that it is NOT towards anybody.
3. No Boosting – We are not here to get you achievements, do that on your own time.
4. No Random Kicks – If you are hosting, do not kick somebody so that a friend can enter the room, have them go to another room instead.
5. Casual Matches Only – This is a game night with everybody on the Gameplay Network, it is not The Gameplay Network vs. the world.
6. No Glitching – This goes to the people who stand next to a wall for 5 minutes, trying to leave a level.
7. No Cheating – I don’t know why anybody would stand-by in a casual match, but just in case you do, you will be breaking a rule.

To join in on the Xbox 360 fun, send a Friend Request to GameplayNetwork and choose the game you want to play.

By: Mommy DX

Welcome to the second installment of Spring Break Savers. Today, we’re showing you another place where your child can have a little kid-friendly and parent-worry free fun on the Web.

Webkinz - The Webkinz phenomenon began in 2005, yet three years later, their website is still a hot spot for elementary-age children who love computer games. These cute, little critters are not your average stuffed animal - each one comes with their own secret Internet code that can be used to unlock a website full of virtual goodies.

At the Webkinz website, children can name their animal, print an adoption certificate, and are given their own virtual room. There, children can earn ’Kinzcash’ by performing ‘jobs,’ which are simply games that include delivering mail, or completing other virtual challenges. There’s also an arcade, a grocery store and a clothes boutique where children can dress and feed their virtual pets, as well as decorate their own, personal room with a myriad of housewares.

Additionally, each Webkinz character has a meter that shows when it’s happy, healthy, or hungry, so children know when their virtual pet needs feeding, or when it needs to see Webkinz’ resident medical professional, ‘Dr. Quack.’ And as with many online games, there is an option to chat and ‘buddy-up’ with other Webkinz friends online. However, the feature is completely parent-controlled and the folks at Webkinz even have an area just for parents, in case they have questions about site safety.

Incidentally, Webkinz run at about $10.00 ea. and can be found at most Toys R Us stores, or at Toys R Us.com. However, each Webkinz code is equal to a year’s paid membership, and with all the Webkinz site has to offer, children get a lot of online game play with the purchase of one, little critter.

Yesterday I wrote about a bill that had been passed by the Arizona House of Representatives last month that would have made creators of material financially responsible if someone committed a felony or act of terrorism because of it.

It looks like the Senate Judiciary Committee of Arizona has more common sense than the Arizona State House. They struck down the bill by a vote of 4-2. The only reason it got two votes was because at the last minute an amendment was tacked onto the bill that would have restricted it to obscene materials.

According to one news report:

The bill’s sponsor said the proposal was designed to punish those who publish, produce or disseminate underground pornography that depicts actual rape.

Then why didn’t he write the bill that way, instead of with the extremely broad brush strokes he used?

Read more:
The Arizona Daily Star
The Arizona Republic

Before you follow the link to this article, be aware that the f-word appears a few times. If that offends you, or you are in a location where someone else might see (e.g. work), please don’t follow the link.

In a recent article posted on Gamasutra, Bill Fulton discusses why some people behave like such idiots online and potentially what the game designers can do about it. Fulton was responsible for the online matchmaking system, UI and the social aspects of play on Shadowrun.

One thing that is interesting about the article is that he is really calling on the gaming industry to make games more socially acceptable. Why? Because it hurts sales and the overall health of the industry if every new player is scared off online gaming due to the idiots.
…read full article…

Show notes: Our special guest Pherlonzo joins Mrs Leftybrown and Leftybrown as we discuss Kids and Gaming. Lefty reviews Rocketman: Axis of Evil from Capcom for the XBLA and Playstation Network. We discuss Madden 09 MIA from PC, Ubisoft gets Steamed, and a boycott of Battlefield Bad Company. We announce our winner of the Halo 3 picture contest. As always we dip into our mailbag, and discuss next week’s Weekly Challenge.

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