Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Fa La La La Foo Fighters

Hey, Dude, want to win Guitar Hero on Tour: Decades for the DS?

Get your Mom (heh, we said your Mom) to enter this contest over at one of our editor, Viv's, other blogs:


Oh, and have her check out the whole review--it's full of stuff you know you want anyway.

That's what we're here for, to help you score more loot this X-Mas.


Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Warning: Lame Game

Even little dudes want cool games for Christmas.

So, here's a heads-up: if you're looking for something for lil bro, keep looking.

According to our editor, Viv, you'll want to steer clear of the famous penguins' latest lame-duck effort. Read her review here:

Madagascar: Back 2 Africa

Short story: The movie had some laughs, and the animation stands up in the Wii version--but monotonous gameplay and less than intuitive controls makes this endeavor a frustrating failure.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Neopets Puzzle Adventure Demo!

Removed by request (auto-playing audio). Our bad--this is an Entrecard no-no. Color us red with embarrassment.

Visit Capcom's site to play the Neopets Puzzle Adventure Demo instead.

Monday, October 27, 2008

Baddest of the Bands from Telltale Press

Baddest of the Bands Demo!

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Hot off the presses: Little Red Riding Hood's Zombie BBQ Goes Gold!



Are You Ready for the Zombie Invasion?

Little Red Riding Hood’s Zombie BBQ for Nintendo DS™ Goes Gold!

The armies of the undead are about to hit Fairy Tale Land! Destineer and publishing partner Gammick Entertainment are proud to announce that Little Red Riding Hood’s Zombie BBQ for Nintendo DS™ has gone gold and is shambling into stores this Halloween!

It’s up to Little Red Riding Hood to defeat twisted versions of fairy tale characters in this fast-paced, action-packed shooter from developer Enjoy Up! Team up with legendary Japanese hero Momotaro to mow down hordes of the undead with a wicked arsenal and lethal Touch Screen controls! Can you save Fairy Tale Land or are you headed for an unhappy-ever-afterlife?

Features:

Fast-Paced Action: Defeat waves of zombies, ghosts, and more with simple Touch Screen controls! Move, shoot, bomb, duck and dodge, all with the Nintendo DS Stylus!

A Freaky Fairy Tale: Journey through twisted takes on classic fairy tale settings, from gingerbread houses to the Big Bad Wolf’s forest. Take on undead versions of the Three Little Pigs, Pinocchio, Santa Claus, and more!

Two Playable Characters: Choose from Little Red Riding Hood or legendary Japanese hero Momataro, each with unique special weapons!

Wicked Weapons: Red is no damsel in distress! Take down horrible creatures with machine guns, shotguns, bombs and more. Tackle your enemies in Story, Survival and Boss Attack Modes in three blistering difficulty levels!

Little Red Riding Hood’s Zombie BBQ is scheduled for release on October 31 from Destineer and developer Enjoy Up!

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Soul Calibur IV: This One's for Your Permanent Collection


What's within your soul?

If you're a fan of the first three Soul Calibur versions (and who isn't?) and you're ready for another action-packed fighting game with glorious visuals, new attacks and customizable characters, you'll want to add this infinitely re-playable game to your collection. (You can, by the way, chose an easy or tough road through the bosses in single-mode play, so there is a campaign challenge for those who want it.)

For those familiar with the earlier versions of Soul Calibur, you won't be disappointed. New in this latest edition to the winning franchise: in addition to the standard I-fight-because-I-have-something-to-prove characters with their built-in storylines, you can also play, in the Xbox 360 version, as Yoda of Star Wars fame. Get the game for PS3, and instead of Yoda you'll fight as the Dark Lord himself, Darth Vader. Playing under arcade mode as either of the two lets you earn the right to unlock "The Apprentice," a sith-in-training who uses Force Lightning to shock his opponents in battle.

As fun as the fighting in the game in, let's face it, the best part of fighting games is facing off against online opponents and kicking some serious butt. Once you've worked your way through the bosses in Soul Calibur IV, you can start making your own guys (and girls), customizing their looks and choosing their style of attacks until at last you have created the perfect fighting machine, thus effectively smashing your enemies into a bloody pulp.

In theory.

In practice, it's not so easy to create one winning fighter. In online battle, it's not uncommon for a player who loses pathetically in one match to then find supreme victory in his very next fight. And more than one match is won by a judicious use of a grapple for a surprising Ring Out just when the battle seems lost.

In fact, that's where the real fun comes in. It's not all about brawn. Winning takes some brains, or at least some strategy. Designing your own army of characters with vastly different fighting tactics and then matching them appropriately to your opponent's fighter is the key to emerging triumphant in fight after fight.

Or you can be cheap, choose Cervantes or Algol and just teleport all over the place.

Your call.

Check this Out

If you haven't seen Spippo's deviantART Gallery, you'll want to give it a look.

We love his modded "My Little Ponies" like the one below.

Our faves?

"My Little Cthulhu" and "My Little Alien".

Pictured, obviously, "My Little Joker." Love the 'do.

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Fuel the Rebellion Wordle Word Cloud

Monday, September 8, 2008

PAX-The worst of times


We here at Fuel the Rebellion touched briefly on the best of PAX.

Now here's the worst, without question:

Waiting in the interminable lines.


And there were miles of 'em.

First, there was the long long long long long (did we mention long?) line to get into the Expo hall at the beginning of the day on Friday. As members of the media, we were allowed in two hours early to conduct interviews, but we still stopped by to talk to some of you who were waiting in line to get your thoughts on the huge "waiting area". Milling about in long queues, with chained-off lines running about the length of a football field, some gamers couldn't help but make the comparison to a herd unwittingly on its way to the slaughter ("You see people coming in, but you never really see anyone coming out." "They can fit more in there if they grind them up real small...").

We asked one gamer, camped out on the floor near the front of the line for the Expo hall and playing board games with friends while passing the time, why he chose to get to the Expo so early, well before the Expo hall was open, and wait in line for hours just for the moment he could walk through the door.

His response, simply: "I've never been here before, and my friends said this is the way to do it."

Though arguably some events were worth the wait, some who spent as much as an hour in line still didn't make it into major events, like the keynote address on Friday, the Fallout 3 play-through, or the discussion on Sex in Videogames. Note to PAX organizers: why was this last in a tiny conference room? Did you seriously think that SEX IN VIDEOGAMES wasn't going to get any comers? (excuse the pun).

To their credit, even those who waited patiently and still didn't make it into the above talks didn't whine and complain much. Other than an understandable, "I waited here when I could have been playing something inside!", the gamers we talked to not only took it in stride but were very positive about the entire PAX experience. Gamers, quick to become enraged and decapitate an opponent over the merest slight in the virtual world, are an amazingly gracious bunch in real life.

In fact, the only time I ever heard anyone even threaten violence was when one little weasel in a pony-tail (you know who you are!) snaked his way up towards the front of the line, butting in front of several patiently waiting gamers, who were heard to remark to one another, "I will give you good money to yank him back here by that pony tail."

The easy-going nature and acceptance of the gamers (many of whom were younger and not yet hardened into jaded cynicism like yours truly) may have lulled the organizers of PAX into keeping the status quo.

But we hope not.

So, PAX guys, thoughts for making PAX even better next year:

Consider having more than one showing of the talks you just know are going to be most popular. For that matter, why not have monitors set up in the waiting area so that people who couldn't make it into the room could still watch the show on the screens?

This is PAX, after all.

Surely* we have the technology.

*Yeah, yeah, we know, don't call you Shirley.

Friday, September 5, 2008

PAX Highlights: Costumes!







Thursday, September 4, 2008

Resistance 2 Release Date! Straight from Insomniac Games


Here's the notice as it came to us: Insomniac has announced a release date for Resistance!

Mark your calendars: November 4th is Resistance 2 day!

Pre-order it from Gamestop and join in the online beta later this month, or choose a special skin when you get the game from Amazon. Circuit City will give you a ten dollar giftcard with pre-order.

The Collector's Edition, complete with mini Chimeran, will run you $79.99 and is loaded with extras, including artwork and an additional "making of" DVD.

Monday, September 1, 2008

PAX Highlights: Videos



Rayman Dance Video


They were doing this for the chance to win a prize, given out by the fabulous Frag Dolls, so we award these guys major points for courage for their improv dance routine.


Gears of War II Gameplay


Sunday, August 31, 2008

PAX 2008: It Was the Best of Times...

We're recovering from two full days of PAX 2008, and now that we've safely secured our loot in a Secret Hidden Location away from the mad crowds, we'll take a moment to give you a quick, overall impressions of the Big Bash, with specifics to follow once we've had time to decompress. We need to chew on it, ruminate a bit, digest and then...regurgitate all that stuff back up. Frankly, we're just not ready to re-enter the real world yet.

So, without further ado, here's our take on the Best, and the Worst, PAX had to offer this year.
We'll start out with the highlights.

THE BEST

Best Exhibit in the Expo Hall: Hands down, Bethesda Softworks Fallout 3 booth wins this one. From the shiny happy family milling contentedly around the old camping trailer to the twisted, desiccated ruin it becomes and the Protectron robot guarding its charred remains, this booth was the one to beat. Swag available at the booth included a vault-dwellers guide complete with helpful tips from Vault Guy, pure retro genius.


Best Forum:
Again, and we don't mean to sound sycophantic and obsequious (thought a little smarminess is certainly in keeping), the guys from Bethesda rocked PAX with their highlight play-through of Fallout 3.

Though we weren't allowed to film it, here are some of the features worth mentioning from the Fallout 3 Play-Through:

  • Malcolm McDowell lends his voice to the character of the US President, while Cole Porter's music was licensed to create that authentic 40's ambiance.
  • Many many many character customization options, including lots o' hair styles, even facial hairstyles with eerily appropriate though out-of-the-ordinary names, courtesy of three-in-the-morning-crazy-exhaustion-genius (Emperor Chen muttonstache, anyone?).
  • Drugs make you smarter! Note: Fallout 3 is no longer banned in Australia.
  • VAX system lets you pause time, isolate body parts and demolish your enimies, though it takes a serious toll in action points.
  • Focus on deeper, richer, more three-dimensional NPC's makes you at least a little sorry when you inevitably screw them over.
  • Water, though thirst-quenching and healing in the short-term, will eventually cause radiation sickness, which is deadly (though meds are available to slow its progress).
  • Slick weapons now include pneumatic gloves to pulverize your opponent's face, or rail guns that rip through his heart and may even pin it to the wall behind him.
  • Vault Protectron robots, once activated, make helpful assistants. Sometimes.
  • Take on stealth mode and pick locks or pockets to take other character's loot. Or, for extra-special evilness, try leaving a live frag grenade behind.
In addition to the fun play-by-play, the Fallout 3 guys came through on a promise to present lots of swag for the PAX crowd.

Cards were distributed with various attributes: intelligence, stamina, endurance, etc., with corresponding swag for each attribute. Intelligence, for example, earned the recipient a nifty Vault Guy hand puppet. One (there can be only one) lucky attendee with the corresponding Luck attribute card was awarded, *in addition* to a t-shirt, hand puppet, signed poster and "viewmaster" style player loaded with Fallout 3 screenshots (all the other swag combined): 5 years of Xbox Live Gold membership, the Survivor's Edition of Fallout 3 (including the metal lunchbox, artbook, Vault Boy bobblehead and Pip Boy 3000 alarm clock), and 16,000 Xbox Marketplace points. Oh, yeah, and an Xbox Elite.

Nice.

Left 4 Dead was SO crowded we never even got close to playing the game, but word at the convention was that it is rivalling Starcraft 2 and Fallout 3 as one of the top most-anticipated games by those that DID get a chance at it.

Raffles offered PAX attendees who didn't make it in to the keynote or the Fallout 3 play-through or other EXTREMELY popular venues (check out our WORST report for more on that) a chance to win uber-cool stuff like hard drives and gaming headphones (or, more likely, a Prince of Persia t-shirt).

Gunnar optical wear for gamers, designers and developers are going to be HUGE. Designed to cut down on ambient glare from your monitor, keep your eyes from drying out and reduce eye strain, they let even those who work on computers all day long come home to a night of gaming free of headaches and overload. These guys are going to make millions. You heard it here first.

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Tennis, Anyone?

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

We're Stoked for Destineer's Latest Offering


If your dream is to become the world's next Snowboarding phenom, thne Destineer's got you covered this fall with their latest offering for the Xbox 360, Stoked, and open-world dynamic snowboarding title that promises lots of bang for your buck.

Destineer set out to do Stoked right, partnering with developer Bongfish and snowboarding movie creator Absinthe Films in an effort to really capture the maverick spirit of the pro backcountry boarders, with always changing, never predictable dynamic backcountry backdrops. Says Patrick ("Brusti") Ambruster, co-founder of Absinthe, "Developing a snowboard video game has always been a dream of mine. There are endless synergies between a snowboard film production and a game developer that were just waiting to be activated. Bongfish and Destineer have realized this potential, and have shown a real passion for snowboarding, and together we’ve worked to bring snowboarding luminaries from across the planet together for this project."

And just who are these "luminaries? The sport's top professional snowboarders, including Travis Rice, Nicolas Mueller, Wolle Nyvelt, Annie Boulanger, Romain de Marchi, Tadashi Fuse, Gigi Ruef, and Bjorn Leines.

And that's not all, Stoked has also lined up 30 of the sport's authentic sponsors, familiar names like Burton, Dragon, Arcus, Von Zipper, Eleven, 686, Billabong, DaKine, Electric, LibTech, Nitro, Northwave, Oakley, Quiksilver, Ride, Hart, Rome, Salomon, TechNine, Vans, Volcom, and more.

Stoked promises a game that relies "more on style and finesse" than button mashing, allowing you to customize your own style while riding five famous mountains and ove4 45 square miles of open terrain in each location. You can discover new drop points by helicopter, be challenged by ever-evolving weather conditions, and track conditions tha suit your own individual taste.

Team up with friends for cooperative and competitive plays, then head to Xbox LIVE to face other riders in sponsored events to boost your fame. Own trick spots, show up rivals, and build your reputation. Take pictures of friends and capture video of your best moves to win the kind of attention that lands you on the cover of a snowboarding magazine.

With all that Stoked has to offer, the attention to detail, key names in the industry and dynamic backcountry environment, Destineer's latest offering, expected on shelves in November, promises to be a hell of a ride.

Trailer Released for Natsume's New Princess Debut!


Natsume, the group who brought you Harvest Moon, have released the trailer to their latest endeavor, Princess Debut, for the Nintendo DS. You can find the trailer here in Quicktime format.

Princess Debut is like an anime version of Cinderella: players (naturally, the game is geared towards young girls) have 30 days to prepare for the big ball where they will meet not one but six handsome Princes (this is apparently a multi-nation ball) and win him over. Because of course that is the dream of every young girl, right?

How to 'prepare for the ball'? Master your dance moves, of course! You can practice for the dance and, "meet and woo the princes through the game's large, branching storyline and exciting event system." So, no one-size-fits-only-the-perfect-girl glass slipper required, and fortunately you don't have to slave away for a cruel stepmother and stepsisters while you are waiting.

Once the player convinces a prince to be their dancing partner (this is a family game, so I'm assuming there's no hanky-panky involved), it's time to go out on the dance floor!

This is a really neat feature of the game: utilizing the Touch Screen on the DS lets you guide your character gracefully across the dance floor in time with their partner's rhythm. And the dance moves are real, taken from moves the professional dancers use. According to Natsume, this makes the game as much fun to watch as it is to play, like watching your friends trying to keep up with Guitar Hero or Rock Band.

And there are 18 dance styles to choose from (including Tango, Latin, Waltz, etc.) as well as a myriad of costume choices for your aspiring Princess.

Princess Debut is scheduled for release sometime this fall.

Thursday, August 14, 2008

New Game Announcements

More details on the upcoming PC first-person shooter Crysis Warhead, including the release date and multiplayer options.


The stand-alone Crysis Warhead, a first-person shooter from EA and Crytek, ships to stores September 16 in the US (Euros will get a September 12 release). The game retails for just 29.99. Pre-Order online through EA and you will pay only $24.99. The latest version of Crysis will include a new multiplayer mode , "TeamInstantAction." Also included are 21 maps, 6 of which feature InstantAction/TeamInstantAction play, and a new PowerStruggle map.


PC strategy game publisher Paradox Interactive announces, "Elven Legacy," a new Fantasy Strategy game scheduled for release during the first quarter of 2009.

From the press release, "Elven Legacy delivers a world filled with magic...a thrilling nonlinear storyline... Through an epic quest to restore the former glory of the Elven race, this fantasy strategy game offers both depth and scope, all in colorful and inspirational settings."

Players can choose between an elf or human character in the two primary campaigns, while
bonus missions include gameplay as Orcs. Players can also use the accompanying tools to create their own missions and campaigns and then share them through multiplayer play.
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Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Play ball! Madden NFL '09 is Out


The long wait is over. Maden NFL '09 hits the shelves today.

That's right, Brett Favre is back, dominating the field like a general commanding his troops in battle.

Except, you know, without the hacked-off limbs and decapitated heads.

Unless of course you wanna really play Madden-style football.

And you know what's really cool about EA? How quickly they reacted to the whole Favre situation. Because although you can still play as Favre with the Packers if you want, or download EA's extra content to put him in his new Jets uniform.

Madden NFL '09 is out on the shelves today, and here are some of the innovations that make this version even better than its predecessors:

  • Play in online leagues with up to 31 of your closest friends (sucks to be you, player #33)
  • Create winning strategies with new combination plays
  • Play against AI opponents that learn adapt to your strengths and weaknesses
Madden NFL '09 is available for (deep breath): Xbox 36o, PSP, PS2, PS3, Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS.

Coming soon: A special 20th Anniversary Collector's Edition (Xbox 360 and PS3 only).

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

It's HERE!





Tuesday, July 15, 2008

TOPSPIN 3


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Thursday, June 26, 2008

Worldwide Call of Duty 5 Reveal Trailer!

Check out this awesome Reveal Trailer for Call of Duty 5!

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Hitler Gets Banned (His Ultimate Downfall)

No more Xbox Live for Hitler!

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