A report released by The NPD Group shows that videogames have attracted a larger female audience in 2009. The Gamer Segmentation 2009 report shows that the number of female gamers is on the rise in 2009, significantly among console gamers.

The number of female console gamers in the US has increased by 5%, up from 23% last year to 28% in 2009. NPD attributed this increase to the Nintendo Wii because it’s clear that more females are using console systems, especially the Wii. In fact the usage of the Wii has increased by 19% across the board from last year.

Post continues, click to read more…

In case you missed it, Sony posted a few very interesting facts and figures about their popular open-world, free-roaming game of superpower discovery inFAMOUS.

The Sucker Punch development team revealed a number of fun facts in the July issue of Game Informer and, lucky for us, the folks over at SCEA’s PlayStation Blog decided to share a few of the funnier ones with us.

Let’s start with the fact that “in addition to the kitchen espresso, the inFAMOUS team traveled to Starbucks approximately 18,200 times. Two groups of 10 people per day, five days a week.” How about the fact that “the inFAMOUS team consumed 17,472 cans of diet Coke and 13,104 cans of diet Pepsi during development.”

Post continues, click to read more…

If you are looking forward to Naughty Dog’s upcoming action adventure game Uncharted 2, then you won’t want to miss the chance to chat live with the publisher today.

Naughty Dog will be answering questions via live Q and A on SCEA’s PlayStation Blog today at 2PM Pacific. Creative Director Amy Hennig and Game Director Bruce Straley will be fielding questions so be sure to head over there later with your questions and tune back later for a summary of the live chat.

Source: SCEA PlayStaton Blog

Major Nelson has confirmed that this week’s XBLA Deal of the Week is the Knothole Island game add-on for Fable II. Normally 800 Points, Xbox Live gold members can now download the DLC for 560 Microsoft Points until the 6th of July.

From Xbox.com:

“Discover new quests, locations, characters and more in the premium Knothole Island download. Meet Gordon the submariner in the Bowerstone docks, where you’ll be showered with unique gifts to entice you to the mysterious island. There you will embark on new adventures, fight new creatures and find Albion’s rarest weapons, clothes and potions.”

Post continues, click to read more…

SCEA’s PlayStation Blog recently enabled a new functionality by becoming mobile compatible.

If you browse the blog on a PSP, Blackberry or iPhone, you can visit a “specially formatted, easy to read (and load!) version of the blog.” You will also be able to leave comments via your mobile.

To try it out head over to the normal http://blog.us.playstation.com address.

Source: SCEA PlayStation Blog

The DS Lite is a versatile portable gaming device and is complemented with the addition of the TekCase. The TekCase is a lightweight and durable polycarbonate shell which the DS Lite fits inside. It is a snug fit and you can be assured that it does a decent job of protecting the unit. So as not to clash with the glossy finish of the DS Lite, the TekCase features the same finish and attracts just as many fingerprint smudges.

The shell contains a built in battery which boosts the already impressive battery life by 2.5 times. Every bit helps when you are out and about without access to a power point. Your charging options are further increased by the use of a standard USB interface to charge the battery in the shell. The TekCase comes with a convenient USB wall charger with a detachable USB carge cable. So at any point you can charge the unit from any USB device and also can reuse the TekCase USB charger to charge other devices. Once you have fitted the DS Lite into the TekCase and connected a charger it charges both the shell battery and the DS Lite battery simultaneously.

Continue reading El33tonline’s review of the TeknoCreations DS Lite Tekcase.

The last few weeks have seen the release of a veritable bounty of free-roaming, open-world games that have each brought their own unique hook or feature to a genre mostly dominated by the Grand Theft Auto series. In Red Faction: Guerrilla, we get a game that is no less of an open-world experience than that time-honoured franchise, only with the opportunity to make it ‘more open,’ imbued with the ability to destroy absolutely anything you can see down to rubble and debris (except, sadly, for the ground and natural rock formations).

Gone are the old Red Faction days of only being able to demolish what the developers ‘allowed’ you to, as players of Guerrilla will be able to take a sledgehammer, explosives or heavy gunfire to an object, building, vehicle or structure and methodically (or messily) remove chunks of it, piece by piece, opening up brand new ways of approaching traditional ‘videogame’ missions, at times even being encouraged to think outside the box and take advantage of your newly acquired abilities.

Everything about Red Faction: Guerrilla, the game, is solid and functional, and the developers have done a great job of unleashing you into a world that you can carve holes in as you please. As any other game, though, there are problems and glitches, the worst offender being the lack of mission variety and poor mission pacing, but when the world is only intact because you’ve decided to leave it intact, it’s difficult to sweat the small stuff.

Continue reading El33tonline’s review of Red Faction: Guerrilla for the PS3.

After a sale and bid procedures motion was filed by Midway in late May, which served to notify potentially interested third-parties that a sale to Warner Bros. (a subsidiary of Time Warner, Inc.) was imminent, giving those third-parties an opportunity to put in their own bid for Midway and its assets, it appears as though Warner Bros. has emerged as the sole bidder before the deadline for new bids recently expired.

Now, with a bid of $33 million, Warner Bros. stand to secure ownership of a vast majority of Midway’s assets, including the Mortal Kombat, Spy Hunter, Joust and Wheelman franchises, as well Midway’s development studios in Chicago and Seattle.

The fate of Midway’s Newcastle and San Diego offices, which are not included in the deal, remains unclear at this time.

Before Warner Bros. can officially claim ownership of the agreed upon assets, however, several creditor complaints will need to be resolved, including one by Threshold Entertainment’s Larry Kasanoff, who produced two Mortal Kombat films and still claims possession of the franchise’s big-screen and TV distribution rights, and another complaint by the Vin Diesel-owned Tigon Studios, which claims it is owed $200 000 for Diesel’s work in Wheelman.

And just like that, the release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince in videogame form is upon us.

Promising to provide an authentic Harry Potter experience, with adventures in and around the Hogwarts school of magic, Quidditch matches and the original cast of characters, as well as the ability to learn new magic skills and brew your own potions, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince releases tomorrow (June 30th) in the US and on Friday (July 3rd) in Europe on basically every gaming platform available.

Watch the launch trailer for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince below:

Post continues, click to read more…

After rumours regarding the ill fate of the Obsidian developed Aliens RPG had settled, a member of the developer has posted a message on the official forums confirming that the game is no longer being worked on. From the post:

“Unfortunately, it is true that we are no longer working on the game, and we wanted to finally announce that officially to everyone who has been following its development.

“We’re going to keep this forum up for another week for archival purposes and to allow you guys to finish up any open threads, and then we will shut it down since it is no longer a product that is in development.”

The post then goes on to remind everyone that they should check out Obsidian’s current game in development, Alpha Protocol, a new role-playing game by the team who created Knights of the Old Republic 2 and Neverwinter Nights 2.

It’s always something of a surprise when a time-honoured (or well-known at the very least) videogame franchise, usually able to deliver an overall solid and enjoyable experience, fails to elicit a favourable reaction with its latest edition, but this is the case with Virtua Tennis 2009.

Despite the provision of all the features you would expect in a tennis game, as well as a bevy of creative mini-games and multiplayer modes to mix up the offering, Virtua Tennis 2009 seems stuck in a transitory state, trying to provide both an arcade-like, slimmed down simulation of the game of tennis, while at the same time attempting to present a realistic take on the game, simultaneously providing neither, but rather a jumbled, non-celebratory sports game that simply goes through the motions.

Continue reading El33tonline’s review of Virtua Tennis 2009 for the PS3.

Thought to be releasing today after a reveal via Marvel Entertainment’s quarter one financial report, it’s now been confirmed that today is indeed not the day that Marvel VS Capcom 2 releases, although a few new screenshots have been released in its stead.

The much admired 2D fighter, featuring characters from the lineage of Capcom games, as well as fan-favourites from the Marvel universe, is set to release on Xbox LIVE Arcade and the PlayStation Network around the end of July, give or take, according to a Twitter tweet by Capcom by Capcom:

“MvC2 is not actually coming out on June 29, sorry guys. Not sure where that rumor came from, but it’s going to be closer to the end of July.”

In the meantime, though, you may as well enjoy some new screenshots from the game, below:

Post continues, click to read more…

The smash hit tower defence Flash game, Desktop Tower Defense, which released in 2007 for free on the web, has made the logical transition to the world of handheld gaming, with a release on the Nintendo DS.

Releasing a little earlier this year, the DS iteration brings with it the obvious addition of touch screen controls, while you’re also able to create your own maps, ally units and enemy units, which is pretty cool.

Watch the latest Desktop Tower Defense trailer for the DS below:

Post continues, click to read more…

Fight Night Round 4, a title that debuted on the UK Software Sales Chart last week, has managed to punch its way to the No. 1 spot on the listing this week, which marks the first time a boxing game has ever reached this position in the UK.

As a result, Prototype has had to step down to No. 2 from No. 1 last week, as The Sims 3 is also forced to take a knock down to No. 3 this week from No. 2. Wii Fit, still hanging tough, also only has to take a small walk, this week down to No. 4 from No. 3 last week.

Post continues, click to read more…

G.I. JOE The Rise of Cobra, the upcoming third person action arcade shooter from EA, will be releasing in August 2009 alongside the live-action movie from Paramount Picture and Spyglass Entertainment. The game will be available for the Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PS2, Nintendo DS and PSP.

EA recently announced that the game will ship with exclusive unlockable features including a behind the scenes look at the game’s production as well as unlockable concept art and character renders.

Post continues, click to read more…