Worried that you're only gonna get one legendary game developer speaking at this year's GDC? Well quit it, because it turns out that March's pontification festival will also feature the likes of Double Fine's Tim Schafer, Lionhead/MGS Europe head Peter Molyneux, Square Enix FFXIII director Motomu Toriyama, a couple of "Pixar notables," and fantasy wordsmith R.A. Salvatore.

According to Gamasutra's announcement of the speakers, the gentlemen will join "almost 350 other lectures, keynotes, and panels" taking place at the early March event, giving speeches on everything from comedy in gaming (Schafer, of course) to intuitive game design (Molyneux), and even a sneak peek (the first, actually, if we're not mistaken) of 38 Studios' upcoming MMO (with R.A. Salvatore). For all you zipper and chain-clad folks, Toriyama's speech on creating "The Crystal Mythos" might be more up your alley. If none of that sounds exciting to you, then there's always the other 345 or so folks at the event or ... umm ... a bar down the street maybe? Listen, are you alright?

Pixar, Molyneux and Schafer also giving talks at GDC 2010 originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 02 Feb 2010 22:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The $99 special edition for Bioshock 2 is a stylish little bundle, replete with art deco flyers and a record containing the game's atmospheric soundtrack. The video after the jump features an all-inclusive unboxing of the package, courtesy of 2K -- however, it also includes the world-exclusive reveal of the game's "Uber Edition," which costs $14,999, and only includes a copy of the undersea action title, and a real life Big Daddy.

We're still trying to make sense of this whole thing. Why would 2K expect anyone to pay 15 grand for a single game? Is it even legal to sell an actual sentient being in this manner? What are the ramifica ... what's that? It's a joke? Oh, yeah, that makes a lot more sense. Thank goodness.

Continue reading 2K unboxes the extremely rare $15,000 version of Bioshock 2

2K unboxes the extremely rare $15,000 version of Bioshock 2 originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 02 Feb 2010 22:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Who is the real Caressa Cameron? Winner of this past weekend's 2010 Miss America pageant, this 22-year-old Virginia native was, at one point, one of us (Exhibit A: high school yearbook photo circa 2002; pictured left). But, somehow, through some unfortunate series of events, she changed -- she became an outsider (Exhibit B: Miss America; pictured right).

Newly crowned, Cameron took to the pulpit spewing her outdoorsy blasphemy onto an unsuspecting audience, disturbed from their relaxed seated positions within a temperature-controlled climate. She shouted, "take away the video games, set some standards for our children!" and construed a preposterous account of the mid-90s when kids were "playing imaginary games with sticks in the street like I did when I was little."

Lies! Admit it, Cameron. You were playing PlayStation. And when you weren't doing that, you were playing Nintendo 64! And when you weren't doing that, you were probably begging daddy to get you a Sega Saturn (perhaps his heartless "No!" signaled the beginning of your innocent forays out of the den?).

Poor child, what ill-gotten desire led you from the indoors? Alas, Cameron may be lost to us, but she has unwittingly strengthened our numbers by providing us with an addictive new game concept sure to keep kids inside for years to come:

Joystiq Publishing is pleased to announce the multiplatform game on the year, Stick to the Streetz, for Nintendo Wii, Sony Playstation 3 PlayStation Motion Controller, and Microsoft Xbox 360 Project Natal. Grab your "stick" and wave it in 1:1 real-time, motion-capture accuracy as you imagine a brilliant game perfectly recreated in your living room television display. Take that Miss America!

Wise old Miss America says kids should go back to playing with sticks originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 02 Feb 2010 21:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Activision's Guitar Hero business unit has a new boss, who's not the same as the old boss -- former COO Dan Haddad is taking over the post after CEO Dan Rosensweig left the company. Haddad was the head of Vivendi's Sierra Online division back in the day, but started working with the Guitar Hero group after Activision merged with Viviendi back in 2007.

Rosensweig is off to join Chegg.com, a company that specializes in online textbook rentals and has recently put together more than $160 million in investor funding. There's a rumor going around that Rosensweig got fired (presumably for the recent decline in the genre's sales), but Activision's Dan Amrich says that's simply not true, and that the move was completely voluntary. Either way, there's a new sheriff in plastic guitar town, and we'll see how he deals with any bandits that come a-ridin' through.

Activision's Guitar Hero CEO replaced originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 02 Feb 2010 21:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Although she plays the morose and disaffected April Ludgate on Parks and Recreation, Aubrey Plaza is actually one of the most fun and gregarious people I've encountered in a while. Believe me when I say that watching her do her comedic thing makes you want to smile. Take a look at these behind-the-scenes pictures of her appearance on today's show and see what I'm talking about.

Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia says that Sony is in for a good 2010 -- he expects the PlayStation 3 to experience its largest year-over-year growth from last month's sales among all consoles, and for Sony to beat its own record from the month before for the console's best sales ever. The PS3 appears to be on a roll, and January sales are expected to continue the trend.

Bhatia also says that the Wii's sales are being hurt by "meaningful shortages," and points out that just 28% of the stores NPD checked in January had Nintendo's console in stock. Bhatia also suggests that Xbox 360 sales would be up slightly, due to a big GameStop promotion, and that software sales would be down in general. Not unexpected, given that January almost never matches up to the frenzy of the holiday season, but 2010 has already started off with a bang in terms of quality releases. NPD's official info, released soon, will let us know if there were sales to match.

Analyst: PS3 continues to set records, Wii and software sales down originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 02 Feb 2010 20:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Like, for serious this time! We know the game initially snuck into the App Store, only to evade our attempts to download by vanishing into the night almost as quickly as it came, but now it's back for good. Ubisoft has announced that iPhone and iPod Touch users can now download Assassin's Creed II: Discovery for $9.99 -- around twice the cost of hiring a pack of 15th-century prostitutes to distract some guards for you. Nowadays, you don't even want to know how much that costs. Thanks, inflation!

Download Assassin's Creed II: Discovery - $9.99

Assassin's Creed II: Discovery back on iPhone originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 02 Feb 2010 20:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In the run-up to the expansion's March 16 date with store shelves, BioWare has begun to make formal introductions of the new characters who'll be joining your Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening quest. First up: Anders, a Chantry mage and ... "born troublemaker." In fact, BioWare makes him sound more like Han Solo than a robed magic user, what with his lust for "freedom, a good meal and a pretty girl on his arm."

We'd like to point out that there is not a single screenshot in the gallery below in which Anders doesn't have his arms raised to some degree.

Meet Anders, your new party member in Dragon Age 'Awakening' expansion originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 02 Feb 2010 19:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It seems EA's Visceral Games team loved high school literature. With Dante's Inferno completed, Visceral's executive producer, Jonathan Knight, revealed his desire to do yet another video game adaptation of a literary classic. "Macbeth the game is something I've been thinking about for years," Knight told IndustryGamers. "But now, I think the emotional quality that games are achieving and the value level of the acting and the sound work makes it possible."

Knight seems to believe that a game adaptation of William Shakespeare's Macbeth would require a bit more deft than what we've seen out of Dante's Inferno thus far. "Dante's is more of a violent interpretation of the poem for example," Knight explained. "Macbeth would be great, though; there are witches and a supernatural experience along with plenty of intrigue and murder."

Unfortunately, it seems we won't be see a Visceral interpretation of Macbeth any time soon. The team is admittedly busy on Dead Space 2, and who knows -- by the time they have some free time, fashion designer Marc Ecko's "completely re-imagined" Macbeth game may become a reality.

Visceral producer has been thinking about Macbeth game 'for years' originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 02 Feb 2010 19:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Paramount Digital Entertainment and Piranha Games are bringing Days of Thunder to the Xbox 360 and PS3 this summer (with the support of NASCAR) and it has a major actor attached. It's not Tom Cruise, Cary Elwes, Robert Duval, Randy Quaid or even John C. Reilly from the film of the same name, though. Nope, it's Michael Rooker? "Who?," you might be asking? Remember the guy who got stinkpalmed in Mallrats? Yes, that's him. Rowdy Burns himself. He'll play your crew chief in this downloadable title, until he gets back in a race car and challenges you on the track.

Days of Thunder plays like an extremely scaled down version of EA's NASCAR series, meaning you hold down the accelerator and rarely use the brake. You can draft other cars to "Drop the Hammer" and slingshot around them and spend points on one of four categories to improve the three different car types.

Check out screenshots and photos from the first-look event below, then read more details and watch some gameplay video after the break.

Continue reading Hands-on: Days of Thunder (XBLA/PSN)

Hands-on: Days of Thunder (XBLA/PSN) originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 02 Feb 2010 18:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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