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Weekly Webcomic Wrapup is failing

It's mid-February, and I have a confession: I'm failing at my own Four in February challenge. That's right, I've yet to complete a single game of the four I picked for the month. To be fair, it turned out to be a busier month than I anticipated, but that's not why I've found failure in my quest to beat four games.

Rather, I blame it entirely on Assassin's Creed. I just can't play this game anymore, so I'm moving on to something much more fun: Portal 2. Fill us in on your #4iF achievements, then check out last week's webcomics and vote for your favorite after the break!

Dope 'Em If You Got 'Em (Nerd Rage)
Videogame franchises are your family (Dorkly)
Let down easy cards (GG-Guys)
Semiotic Effrontery (Virtual Shackles)
The Secret (Brawl in the Family)

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Metal Gear Rising gets Metal Gear Solid 4 armor DLC


Raiden's cybernetic digs from Metal Gear Solid 4 will be available as a day-one dose of downloadable nostalgic costume content for both Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, Konami has announced. The suit, originally revealed as a Japanese promotional/pre-order bonus early last month, will cost $1.99 when the game launches this Tuesday, February 19.

Costumes based on the Metal Gear mythos are becoming somewhat of a theme, as a Grey Fox/Cyborg Ninja costume is also available to those who pre-order Rising at GameStop. Personally, we think the game could benefit from the addition of Raiden's Metal Gear Solid 2 suits, both "Sneaking" and "Birthday."

Sony offers up a PlayStation retrospective video


If your calendars aren't already marked for Sony's February 20 PlayStation 2013 event, Sony added a new video to its event page to remind you. The video teases next week's big announcement with a retrospective on the company's first console, the PlayStation.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the PS4 will be announced at the event, will launch this year and include Gaikai streaming support for PS3 games.

Team Meat teases cat fighting, full Mew-Genics announcement next week

Team Meat teases MewGenics cat fighting, big announcement next week
This may come as a shock to some of you, but Team Meat's mysterious, feline-focused project Mew-Genics will feature cat-on-cat combat as a heavily integral part of the game's design, Edmund McMillen has revealed. Who ever would have guessed? Team Meat's games are usually so nonviolent.

Furthermore, McMillen stated that he has been "using faked graphics for all the cats" in his weekly updates about Mew-Genics, meaning that everything we've seen so far has essentially been concept art. Next week, however, Team Meat will "finally announce what this damn game is," according to its official blog.

Monsters Ate My Birthday Cake hits funding goal, gets Android support

With its Kickstarter deadline passing today, SleepNinja Games' Monsters Ate My Birthday Cake surpassed its $15,000 funding goal, tallying up $26,091 in support.

The environmental puzzler will appear on Android right next to its originally-intended PC/Mac and iOS versions, as the funding initiative achieved its $20,000 stretch goal. Funding for the project fell $4,000 short of its "maximum polish" stretch goal. SleepNinja has an August 13 release date planned for the game, according to its latest update.

PSA: Amazon video game Gold Box Event coming Tuesday

PSA Amazon video game Gold Box Event coming TuesdayLike a stealthy jungle cat patiently waiting for its tired, limping prey to drop its guard, so too does Amazon's devious sales engine stalk the emaciated husk of our post-December wallet. Its latest attempt at snaring our monetary entrails, an all-games Gold Box Event, will begin at 3 a.m. Eastern time on the morning of Tuesday, February 19.

We won't know exactly what said Gold Box Event's Lightning Deals or Deal of the Day will consist of until Tuesday. In the meantime, Amazon has also marked down a sizable number of games and accessories as part of its Winter Deals sale, which includes Halo 4 and a year of Xbox Live Gold for about $40 each.

Join God of War: Ascension social challenge, get the single player demo early

While we knew a single player demo for God of War: Ascension was coming in late February, we didn't know that February 26 would be the exact date of its arrival. What's more, those that participate in the Rise of the Warrior "social challenge" have the opportunity to gain early access to that demo on February 20.

The social challenge has players picking sides between the Spartans and Trojans, teaming up to net 10 million points first as a team when perusing through an online graphic novel that details the events leading up to the game's story. By completing the riddles contained in the challenge, players also unlock weapon and armor DLC for the game. God of War: Ascension will launch March 12 on PS3.

Sony patents 'Eyepad,' a Move-enabled PS3 tablet controller

Sony patents 'Eyepad,' a Moveenabled PS3 tablet controller
It's important to remember, especially in situations like this, that the existence of a patent does not necessarily correlate to the existence of a product, or even a company's desire to build what it has patented. So, with that in mind, let's take a look at Sony's ridiculously named PlayStation 3 tablet controller patent.

The device Sony refers to as an "EyePad" in its patent application, seen in the sketch above, would theoretically come equipped with the usual trappings you'd expect from a PS3 controller: D-Pad, buttons, analog stick, SIXAXIS motion sensors, etc. The more interesting bits, however, are a bit harder to pick out from the drawing.

First of all, those shaded stripes on the edge are not a creamy nougat center, as we had originally surmised, but rather illuminated strips of LEDs or comparable light source. This would allow the EyePad, in conjunction with an EyeToy camera, to function as a PlayStation Move controller.

Secondly, those dots on either corner of the apparent display (which could actually be a normal display, touchscreen or Vita-esque touchpad, according to the filing) are paired stereoscopic cameras. The cameras are arranged in such as way that their respective fields of vision provide a full, 360-degree view of any object placed onto the surface of the EyePad's screen, allowing for objects to be fully scanned in three dimensions and then rendered in game. Theoretically the player could also place their face within this field, allowing for face mapping in character customization applications, for instance.

Again, we doubt this patent represents anything more than a combination of day-dreaming and butt-covering on the parts of Sony's engineers and legal department, respectively, but the ideas presented here are definitely interesting.

Operation: Heartbreaker brings the Banshees in Mass Effect 3 this weekend

We have two problems with this weekend's special multiplayer event for Mass Effect 3. First, players have to cope with an abundance of Banshees, the game's most hated villain that doesn't have the last name "Shields." The individual goal this weekend is to earn at least 20,000 points from killing Banshees, netting players a Commendation Pack.

Next, the name of the mission is Operation: Heartbreaker, but there is no Shawn Michaels in sight to superkick said Banshees in the mouth. Our Commander Shepard refers to himself as the "Heart Break Kid," but it's just not the same.

Resident Evil: Revelations' Raid Mode features quite the Hunk

Image Capcom streamed 40 minutes or so of Resident Evil: Revelations Xbox 360 gameplay on Valentine's Day - that's a teaser above, and you can find the rest here. The Raid Mode demonstrations featured Jill Valentine and everyone's favorite emotionless operative, Hunk. ... Continue Reading

Rock Band Weekly: Barenaked Ladies, Collective Soul, Fall Out Boy

Image The Rock Band Blitz tracks keep flowing over to the Rock Band music store, with next week's individual tracks featuring Barenaked Ladies, Collective Soul and Fall Out Boy. Refresher: All 25 tracks from the $15 Rock Band Blitz are compatible with Rock Band. ... Continue Reading

Pokémon Rumble U screens feature a whole bunch of Pikachu

Image These are the first screens of Pokémon Rumble U, which was announced earlier this week as coming to Japan's Wii U eShop this spring. The Umbrella-developed brawler for up to four players lets 100 toy monsters face off at once, and the best way to showcase that is with plenty-o-Pika. ... Continue Reading

WRUP: Bushnell digs for E.T. cartridges

WRUP Bushnell digs for ET cartridges
Here's Atari founder Nolan Bushnell digging for the lost E.T. cartridges in the desert, which were part of the great Atari game burial of 1983.

Reality: The image is Bushnell, but was taken in Dubai by Video Games Live CEO/Executive Producer Tommy Tallarico. The dump site for the Atari burial was a landfill in New Mexico.

What's everyone playing this weekend?

[Photo Credit: T. Tallarico - Video Games Live]

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Patapon 3 comes to Vita next week

Patapon 3 will become a PS Vita-compatible game next week. The news comes via the latest PlayStation Blogcast, episode number 62, wherein social media manager Sid Shuman and crew confirm the new PS Vita compatibility will be available alongside next week's PSN update.

Predecessors Patapon and Patapon 2 are both compatible with PS Vita. A multiplayer demo for Patapon 3 was issued ahead of its launch a few years back, though our quick check on PSN shows that free demo is no longer available.

WSJ: New PlayStation to stream PS3 games

The next PlayStation will be able to stream PlayStation 3 games, according to unnamed sources "familiar" with Sony's plans. The claim comes from a new report published by the Wall Street Journal, and suggests that online streaming of current PS3 games will be paired with new games sold on optical media through regular channels.

Sony's cloud service hinges on its $380 million acquisition of streaming company Gaikai, which was announced last year. If the PlayStation 4 houses architecture different enough from the PS3 to preclude effective backwards compatibility, streaming may be pitched as a solution.

Sony's official word on the matter is expected during the PlayStation event next week on February 20.

Buy both Monster Hunter 3 Ultimates, get $20 off

Purchasing both the Wii U and 3DS versions of Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate would normally set the devoted huntsman back a smooth hundred zingers, but Capcom has announced that purchasing both together through Amazon will result in a $20 discount. Or, in outdated gold-rush vernacular, two sawbucks, which is enough for a new sifting pan and some chew from the General Store.

Both versions of the game must be purchased during the same Amazon transaction for the $20 discount to be applied, so anyone that has already pre-ordered either version of the game needs to first cancel their existing pre-order for everything to work properly.

As we first learned when the North American versions of this game were announced back in September, Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate is capable of sharing save files between the Wii U and 3DS, allowing for continuous progression across both platforms. Additionally, the 3DS version can be locally linked with the Wii U version for couch multiplayer fun times.

Why hooligans have a place in Need for Speed: Most Wanted


Need for Speed: Most Wanted's online play is equal parts chaos and confusion, going against the normal regimented competitions and controlled environments found in other racing games. Criterion Games creative director Alex Ward says this design is part of the studio's "philosophy" for online play.

In Most Wanted online, players are called to a meeting area before an event starts, without much warning or information. Unless you've played the particular event before, you have no idea what to do and – as mentioned in Joystiq's review – there's nothing stopping other players from foiling each other before the event starts.

"The philosophy there is that we know people are utter degenerate hooligans online," Ward says – and the actions of these "hooligans," as he calls them, is a "valid" part of the overall online experience.

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Dev shares prototype footage of never-made Star Wars fighting game

Tsui shares pitch footage of nevermade Star Wars fighting game
Josh Tsui, current president of Robomodo and veteran game developer on titles like Mortal Kombat 4, Fight Night Round 3, and Tony Hawk Shred, has shared some video on Twitter of an old prototype for a Star Wars-based fighting game.

The footage, which you can watch in full below, features Anakin Skywalker and Darth Maul going at it with lightsabers, hacking away and using the force for throws until one of them is able to skewer the other.

As the description on the video says, the footage is fairly "repetitive," but it was simply designed to show off all of the potential moves a game like this could make. There was a presentation paired with the video as well, and Tsui says it was part of a pitch for a new game back when he was working at Studio Gigante in Chicago. We'd say his team might want to return to the idea for the upcoming Star Wars: Episode VII, but perhaps it's better if the Jedi knights stay away from fighting games in general.

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MarionetteBot is a frightening fusion of Kinect and mannequin


Japan has found new heights (depths?) of creepiness today with the United Arrow Marionettebot, a custom Kinect hack pairing Microsoft's motion-tracking camera with display mannequins.

The mannequins of United Arrow's clothing store mimic the poses and movements of passersby. It's billed as a marketing effort in the video above, despite being the stuff of nightmares.

Jetpack Joyride sells over a million copies on PSN


Fruit Ninja developer Halfbrick announced today that its other baby, Jetpack Joyride, has been downloaded over a million times on PlayStation 3 and PS Vita. The portable PlayStation version of the game has also recently received an update that integrates Twitter support and "performance upgrades."

Jetpack Joyride is currently available on... wait, let's try this another way. Jetpack Joyride is currently not available on Xbox 360, Nintendo systems and most brands of toasters.

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What's In A Name

http://www.joystiq.com/2012/10/31/whats-in-a-name-red-barrels/

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I'm not afraid of any topic or I wouldn't walk away from any topic because it was controversial. And I wouldn't run towards any topic because it was controversial. There's a story I want to tell.

— Irrational Games (BioShock Infinite) creative director Ken Levine on tackling social issues in games.

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