Buttonbasher

The first trailer for Call of Duty: World at War has been released. It shows some of the new features of the game such as flamethrowers, and some hand to hand combat. The game will center around the Pacific theater of World War II. Also new is a 4 player co-op (both split-screen and online).

Call of Duty: World at War will be released before the end of Activision’s 2009 fiscal year.

KLind

While not the first of it’s kind, three friends have embarked on a journey through the Mushroom Kingdom this weekend. The goal is to complete 7 Mario games (Super Mario Bros, Super Mario Bros 2, Super Mario Bros 3, Super Mario World, Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine, and Super Mario Galaxy), within 3 days. It started up on Friday June 27th at 3PM. You can check their progress here

The main goal is to raise money for Child’s Play, a charity that provides games for children’s hospitals.

Will they succeed? Will they fail? Pull up a Toadstool, and watch!

UPDATE: They finished all 7 games on time, and raised a total of around 10,000 dollars for Child’s Play. Great job guys!

KLind

According to the new Game Informer article, the successor of Guitar Hero 3 will include:

- Create a song. Although these exclude vocals due to storage and possible copyright issues.
- You’ll be able to name your song as well as create album art. After you’ve done all that you can upload it to GH Tunes where anyone can download it.
- You’ll be limited to 5 songs at first. But depending on the ratings you get you’ll possibly be able to upload 10 or more.
- The song sharing mode will be in the Wii and PS2 versions also, but GI says it’s unlikely that it’ll be as robust as the PS3 and 360 versions.
- Drums, bass, vocals guitar
- Create a rocker
- Create a guitar and drums
- All songs will be master tracks
- They don’t want to discuss specifics on track listing out of fear of being scooped by the competition. However they confirmed 4 bands: Van Halen, The Eagles, Linkin Park and Sublime.
- A new guitar designed by Red Octane that includes a new input mechanic that’ll “impact the way you play GH in the future”.
- GI saw see through notes while playing that Neversoft said was the new input mechanic and that they were trying to patent.

Whoa, I didn’t expect a create-a-song option. The instruments were expected but all master tracks? That’s impressive.

Source

It’s a friday night, and you’re really bored of the games you have. You get in the car and drive over to Blockbuster, only to find that all of the games you would be interested in getting have all been rented out.

Well Blockbuster aims to change that with their new gaming initiative. The games section at Blockbusters across America is being expanded, with new options for getting your games. Not only will the stores be stocked with the latest game releases to rent, but the store will begin selling these games new as well. In addition to Wii, PS3, and Xbox 360 games, Blockbuster will soon be adding Nintendo DS to the list of games you’ll be able to take out. As if that wasn’t convenient enough, you’ll be able to purchase consoles too. The store will have a special Playstation 3 bundle which will include:A 40 GB Sony PS3

• A PS3 Media Remote
• HDMI cables
• Spiderman 3 on Blu-Ray
• Transformers Game
• A 12 Week PS3/Blu-Ray rental card (one week free rental a week for 12 weeks)

This next trick requires a volunteer from the audience. I want you to think of a number between 1 and 3. Is it 2? It is?! No, no my good man; I’m not a professional. I learned all I know about magic from the Masters of Illusion!

Masters of Illusion is a unique game for the Nintendo DS, that acts as your “lovely assistant” for preforming magic tricks. It’s a strange game where most of the action takes place when you’re not even holding the DS. The game uses all of the systems features in cool ways. As the title indicates the “Illusions” are taught to you before you preform them. While it is against the Magicians code for me to reveal how each trick works, I can reveal that some tricks use the DS Microphone, while others use secret button presses. If you don’t have an audience to preform tricks to, fear not! You can still don a Magicians tophat with single player tricks.

The game comes with a deck of cards which are used for certain tricks (both for Magic Show’s and Single Player tricks). The cards hold secrets of their own, which add’s another level to the magic. By performing tricks you gain magic points which are used to unlock more tricks.

I’ve enjoyed showing the tricks to people, and I’ve started taking my DS with me to places I normally wouldn’t should the chance to do some magic present itself. This game really shows how social a game (on a handheld no less) can be. I recommend checking it out if you want a reason to show your Nintendo DS off to people, or of course if you believe in magic in a young girls heart.

Check the Masters of Illusion’s site for more information!

KLind

The first of April is a day I usually dread. A plethora of stupidly false news stories pop up in hopes to fool people. This year there have been some truly fantastic offerings.

First up there’s a trailer for a proposed Zelda movie from IGN. It’s production value is surprisingly quite good.

You can check out their post about it here

Next up we have what appears to be a collaboration between Ubisoft and Konami:

The game itself is Metal Gear Solid 4, but the costume is that of Altair from Assassins Creed. It really shows off MGS4, which I am now in full hype mode for.

For more check out Joystiq’s list of the day’s events.

KLind

While the exact terms are a bit sketchy, some very interesting material has “leaked” in regards to the next Sonic game. A few weeks ago, Sega trademarked Sonic Unleashed, which brought with it the usual “Should the franchise be put to an end” talk. Many gamers view the 3D Sonic games as bad, and think that Sonic should go back to 2D gameplay.

Shortly after the trademark scene, a whole boatload of images appeared online claiming to be from a new Sonic game (presumably Unleashed). They were said to have been found on a Sega FTP, but it’s still unclear where they truly originate from. Gamers response from the screens were mixed. But that all came to a screeching halt when a video showed up, showing off potentially the answers to gamers prayers:

It appears that the game may be rooted in 2D game play in a 3D world, aside from some 3D sections.

I enjoyed Sonic Adventure, but Adventure 2 didn’t quite do it for me. Sonic the Hedgehog (360/PS3) was what I thought I wanted, but there were a few to many flaws to get me sucked in. Sonic and the Secret Rings was a fun diversion, but this really seems the best route for the Sonic games. I’ve been a huge fan of the franchise as a whole (going so far as to owning many a copy of the comic books), and really think the future is looking up with this game, and the Sonic DS RPG. I eagerly await the official announcement which is expected at an upcoming Sega Gamers Day in May.

KLind

It’s no secret that we here at Buttonbasher love Rock Band. Eventually after the 360/PS3/PS2 releases, EA confirmed the development of the Wii version of Rock Band. Just today, Harmonix issued  has issued a press release confirming the release date and features of the game.

The Special Edition Rock Band Bundle for Wii will be landing in retail on June 22, with separate instruments available on the same day.

Having a solid release date is very nice, but what about the core game? That’s a concern for some people.

They add in another post that the Wii version will be almost identical to the PS2 version and will contain 5 extras songs.

If that’s the case, that means the Wii version will have:

- No Custom Characters

- No Band World Tour

- No Online

- No Downloadable Content

Which would be disappointing since I know many Wii owners who would love to purchase it. They love the idea of creating their own characters and progressing cooperatively in Band World Tour.

So what future can we expect with the Wii Version? My money is on expansion discs.

The full press release can be found here

DGRP

Guitar Hero is making it’s way to the handheld market, with Guitar Hero On Tour. Instead of using a full on plastic guitar, a more DS friendly fret board attachment plugs into the GBA Expansion slot. You use a guitar pick stylus to strum on the touch screen.

The game is set to feature over 20 songs (80% of which will be master tracks).  The game is set to come out this Summer, but no price was announced.

Source

KLind

Vegetarians rejoice, your food is now a viable entertainment delivery method!

More tasty jams available here

KLind