Just when you thought it was safe to go back underwater… Read the rest of this entry »

Arm chair capitalists and slumlords rejoice, Google and Hasbro have teamed up to build a world sized game of monopoly called Monopoly City Streets. The game board is nothing other than Google maps itself! That’s right you compete against players around using the world as your board. You can start by buying your own street (as long as you grab it before your Flanders).

This is all to promote the new monopoly board game, Monopoly City Edition.

From MonopolyCityStreets.com…

The goal is simple: Play to beat your friends and the world by
becoming the richest property magnate in existence by 31 January 2010

Begin with 3 million in the bank
Start your property empire by buying any street in the world
Construct amazing buildings on the streets you own to collect rent
Use Chance Cards and sabotage your mates by building Hazards on their streets

Santa says, “Sorry kids Starcraft 2 won’t be in your stockings this year.”

ShackNews.com reports…

In the long battle between Blizzard’s standards and the calendar year, the calendar again came out the loser today with the announcement that the studio’s anticipated RTS sequel StarCraft II has been delayed into the first half of 2010.

Just a few weeks ago I was lamenting to a friend that there should be more gaming diversity, particularily where’s the mysteries? Well today I stumbled on the trailer for Rockstar Games up and coming L.A. Nore which has me salivating on the prospect of an L.A. Confidential Grand Theft Auto mash up.

Here’s the trailer…

But what had me lamenting was a remembrance of games past, Scoop, in this case. I can’t say I know anyone else that played this game. It’s way old DOS, 1988, CGA graphics. You play a reporter investigating a murder. What made the game unique though was that all the events at various locations were scheduled and progressed with or without you. You were able to travel from place to place looking for clues and talking to witnesses, etc. It was the kind of game you had to take notes while playing. If you missed important clues you would run out of time and lose. But by giving you the freedom to miss things and to have to chose what to attend and what to skip it felt less on rails and more real in its four color glory than the big budget HD Dolby surround games today. I’d love to see a new version.

Take Two announced with their quarterly financials they plan to push BioShock 2 to next year.

From the press release…

Take-Two is reducing its fiscal 2009 guidance to reflect several factors, most significant of which is the movement of the launch of BioShock 2 from the fourth quarter of fiscal 2009 to fiscal 2010, in order to provide additional development time for the title. Additionally, Take-Two is updating third quarter and fourth quarter fiscal 2009 guidance to reflect reduced sales of catalog products and lower than anticipated initial retailer orders of new releases, due to a retail environment that is proving even more challenging than the Company’s previous expectations.

Fallout 3 begins with a unique character creation sequence where you start life in the game as a baby to choose your stats then quickly grow up. Some people with way too much time on their hands have found it’s possible to escape the Vault as a baby and crawl Capital Wasteland…

From WSJ.com…

According to a report from the NPD Group, sales of game software in the U.S. fell 17% during the month, compared to the same period the previous year. Wall Street analysts had largely been expecting sales to remain flat for the period.

Game hardware shared a similar fate, with sales falling 18% for the month. Accessories fell 15% during the period.

And Yahoo’s reporting cracks in the Wii fad…

Kinks in the system’s shiny white armor starting showing last month. Despite steady success in Japan, the Wii fell into second place in March as the underdog Playstation 3 clambered atop the region’s sales charts for the first time in 16 months. That was enough to garner some uncharacteristically somber comments from Nintendo President Satoru Iwata, who deemed the climate in Japan “unhealthy” for the Wii.

Aren’t all those laid off workers supposed to be home with nothing to do but play games? Let’s reach deep and help the poor console mega corps. Buy a Wii, Xbox 360 or PS3 today!