Sick of looking at video game-themed pastry that you can’t eat, well here’s another one for your ravenous gamer eyes. I’m not sure who the rightful owner is of this one, but I’m going to take an educated guess and say that he or she turned 25. Simply Googling “NES Cakes” resulted in more variations than I wanted to document, but here’s just a few cakes:

A bit messy but tasty looking cake on Gizmodo
No points for artistic ability, but for sheer size on Geekstir
Another on MyWii
A tiny and dark looking NES controller here (focus your attention on the cake)
A brown NES Controller (because it’s chocolate) here
Finally a more up to date controller for the Wii on Nintendo Wii Fanboy.

With a bit of work, you can create your own levels using your favorite songs and videos. Naturally, you can exchange levels with other osu! players. Browsing the download section, I see user-submitted “beatmaps” for songs from John Mayer, James Taylor, Weird Al Yankovic, They Might Be Giants… even other game series like id@lmaster, Pokemon, Taiko Drum Master and Smash Brawl. So it’s not all j-pop, although the osu! creators clearly seem to favor the Ouendan half of the East/West equation. (Me too!)

Dear Nintendo: approve this project immediately. Make this WiiWare.

With our good friend CliffyB. It’s hard to deny the epic feeling to this trailer. Enjoy!

Source: Gamevideos

Not much else was said in the way of a release date, but Criterion did let everyone know that the PC version of the game will not focus on the release schedule of new content for the console versions of the game.

It is nice to see developers bring more games to the PC.  They may be late, but at least they get there.  It is strange that they would pick this version of Burnout to come to the PC.  Maybe it will port over easier, considering it is on the 360.

via gamespot

Anthony let us know that the Top Spin franchise has become the number one rated tennis game among fans and that it was only natural to continue the series.

2K Sports took the franchise back to the drawing board looking at the changes that needed to be made to make Top Spin 3 stand out among its competitors.  This time around the development team would be focusing on the shot mechanics, service mechanics as well as the graphics for the game. 

After this brief introduction to the changes and the statistics of the franchise, the questions were read by the moderator of the session. 

One of the first questions dealt with how close has the game come to modeling realistic tennis, to which Anthony talked about the the nuiances of the game that have been captured to show off the detail and realism of Top Spin 3.  Some of the examples that he put forth were the accuracy of the environments, the motions of the player and the physics of the ball.

When asked about the biggest challenges to the developers of a multiplatform title, The talk was how they broke up the development into two versions.  The Wii version would have lesser graphics then the PS3 and 360, but would have a family fun focus about it.  The game is defintely more friendly on the Wii over the other two consoles.  The 360 and PS3 version are focused on the gameplay and mechanics of tennis, as well as providing top notch visuals.

One of the questions I asked was about cooperation from the pro players, since there is no actual league license that you negotiate.  Anthony mentioned that they had great cooperation from all the players that they approached, as they did nave to sign agreements with each of them.  They were happy with some of the legends that they got for the game as well.

When asked about the DS version of the game, we were told that the shots and servicing would be done by the stylus.  There was no mention of the orientation of the screen, but I could see one court being on the upper screen and the other side on the bottom, but this was not explained, so it is just speculation.

Anthony was asked if the 360 Vision camera or PS3 camera attachments would be used in a way similar to games like Burnout or for face mapping like the Rainbow Six Vegas games.  Alas, there will be no camera support, so no pictures of people or other parts that shall remain unmentioned.

When asked about unlockables in the game, the development team was originally going to have some characters locked, but in the end, they will allow for all characters to be used from the start of the game.  However, new animations, clothing, equipment and venues are unlockable.

The single player mode offers an exhibition mode as well as a career mode.  In career mode, you start on local tennis courts with second rate equipment, and work your way up to the top of the tennis world, playing in the major tournaments like the French Open, US Open and Wimbeldon.  There is also the Top Spin school, which works like a training mode, but you get what amounts to focused tennis lessons.  You will learn with everything from service mechanics to shot selection.

Looking to make the play experience unique with each character, the development team introduced the new Signature Style modes for each game character.  What this does is allow a Federer to play differently than a Sampras or Nadal.  With this new mode, you should be able to somewhat recognize a player by the style that they use on the court.

All the major venues that the pro tennis tour visits will be in the game.  Wimbeldon, Roland Garros and Arthur Ashe Stadium are just some of the stadiums that they got the rights to recreate, but Top Spin 3 will also have some custom designed stadiums for the game as well.  Weather effects will be available on all of these courses as well, which will affect play.  Overcast, rain, cloudy or darkness are just some of the elements that can affect your play on the court.

While the sound effects on the court have been beefed up to add to the realism factor, the developers decided that a color commentator would not add to the experience.  One problem is picking a person, but the other is having the commentary keep up with the play on the court.  There is music that plays at times, although it was not specified whether the music is playing while you are playing.

The controls for the 360 and PS3 have been changed a bit to add to the tennis experience.  Now, your service is controlled by the right analog stick.  If my understanding is correct, you will pull back to throw the ball up and then push forward to make contact as it comes down.  The speed of the forward push will give the power behind the ball.  If you are a bit initimidated by this control mode, the old button press service mode is there, but it is not the default mode. 

Taking the game online will have you playing in two mentioned modes.  One is the simple exhibition mode, where you pick up a player and play a game, but the developers and 2K Sports have developed a whole new mode for the game called World Tournament.  Every two weeks, a World Tournament will be started.  You then can enter to try and get to the top of the tournament.  At the end, a champion is crowned and they move on to the next tournament.  There are several online achievements that will be linked to this mode as well on the 360 version of the game.

In the final moments of the call, there were a few last minute questions that got answered.  Dual Shock support for the PS3 is built in, no patches needed.  The 360 will see a dearth of downloadable content in the form of new equipment, clothing and even some new legend.

As you can see with some of these pictures, Top Spin 3 is shaping up to look great, and if it delivers on all the promises that 2K Sports talked about today, Top Spin 3 could be a huge seller at retail.

The demo encompasses two levels, that are in the game.  The first level based on the embassy level that is in the first movie and the second is based on a past mission that I do not remember from the movies, but I could be wrong. 

The action moves fast and you always feel like you are on the move.  The fighting is quick and well paced, but the character animations are repetitive.  Also, while it sounds like you can perform lots of combos, they never seem to differ from the five or six that I saw in the game.  During attacks you can build up a power meter that will allow you to unleash a super combo, which takes down most enemies.  Gunplay is average at best, but always just seemed a bit off.  I never felt I could make the clean hits that I needed with the controls.

The biggest problem is the hot button sections.  there are moments in the game where you have to push or repetitively tap a button on the controller to perform an action.  The problem here is that their is no real pause or warning that it is about to happen, so I am clicking on the controller like crazy and then this hot buttom pops up in the middle of an action sequence, and I end up clicking the wrong button, because I am so in the moment.

The other thing is that the game is missing Matt Damon.  We make fun of the guy, but he added a lot to the movies, and to see this role without his likeness or voice just takes away from what I am expecting in the game.

I would suggest trying the demo, but as of now, Sierra is going to have to put in some post production work if they are going to get this game to sell.  As it stands, the full game will probably go from a purchase for me, to a rental, unless they straighten out the controls for the PC version.

The Spiderwick Chronicles takes the story from the movie and translates it into game form, but unless you are a younger gamer, you will find nothing more than an average movie to game cash grab.

The Spiderwick Chroinicles focuses on the three Grace children, Jared, Simon and Mallory.  They have moved to a new house out in the country that was owned by their Uncle, Arthur Spiderwick.  Not much is said about why they moved here, but it seemed to have something to do with the parents separating.  While staying at the house, the children, starting with Jared, are introduced to a new fantasy world that exists in their reality, invisible to those that do not have The Sight, or The Seeing Stone.  The only way to stop the creatures and save the world is to unlock the secrets of Arthur Spiderwick’s diary.

The game uses a fetch based quest system.  The puzzles are rather simple, employing the player to find one or several items to make something or gain access to a place.  None of the quests are overly hard and will never tax the player for a solution.  The quests will be based on the skills of the player.  Jarod uses more physical attacks, via a bat and slingshot.  Simon is a braniac that will use items to create weapons, like a squirt gun that can poison the bad guys.  Mallory is an expert swordswoman that puts her into situations where dueling will be required.

Enemies are rather generic and never seem to have any challenge to them.  Normally, they come straight at you and use simple attacks.  A lot of times, you will be swarmed, which makes combat more frustrating, than difficult.  A couple of enemies will employ you to escape them or use some sort of mechanism to get past them, i.e. luring other bad guys to them, or escaping them via a chase sequence.  None of these really do much to add to the experience, and tend to get tedious at times, due to the endless spawning of enemies to an area.

The graphics are decent and serviceable, but do not tax the system in anyway.  You never see the power of the 360 being used.   Characters never seem to have any life or expression to them in any way.  Backgrounds are mostly static and never have any sense of immersion.   Voice work is equally horrendous, making you want to find anything else to listen to over listening to the dialog.  There is no sense of emotion of care in the characters.  Not sure if anyone from the movie did the voice work for the game, but if they did, it is a total phone in.

One mechanic that is pretty cool is capturing fairies.  Fairies give you special powers, but you have to capture them with a net and paint their picture to unlock the power.  To paint the fairies, you run the cursor over a canvas, revealing the fairy in question.  You only have so much time to uncover the fairy, so you have to be quick, but accurate.  It is fun and makes you work to find the best way to reveal the picture of the fairy.  The only drawback is that there are only about nine or ten fairy types, so you start to know the patterns after a short time.

The game suffers from a dilemma, in that it is directed at children, but it may be difficult for some of them to complete the puzzles.  Adults will quickly tire from the tedious nature of the game, and the voice work will make them stop playing all together.  It is not a bad game, but it is just uninspired outside of the fairy painting sequences.  It does not help that the movie did not succeed at the movie theaters.  Sad thing is that this was the last hurrah of Stormfront Studios, which is not the way you would want to go out.

While the game offers some fun, The Spiderwick Chronicles is more of the same, a quick money grab on an average at best movie license.  Rent it for the achievements if you are desperate for points, but otherwise, I would avoid the game.  The Spiderwick Chronicles gets 2 out of 5 Aeropausonauts.