Newly remasted, LucasArts' Monkey Island 2 Special Edition: LeChuck's Revenge has charted a course for Xbox Live Arcade, where it will arrive alongside Blacklight: Tango Down tomorrow, July 7. LeChuck's Revenge plan hasn't deviated since it was finalized a week ago, but the scheduled Blacklight drop zone was called into question last week when the game's publisher, Ignition Entertainment, could not confirm the date.

Today, Ignition formally announced the multiplayer shooter's deployment on XBLA for tomorrow, adding that the PSN and PC versions will arrive in "the coming weeks." BlackLight: Tango Down will be available for 1200 Microsoft Points ($15).

Monkey Island 2 Special Edition: LeChuck's Revenge can be had for 800 MSP ($10).

This Wednesday: Monkey Island 2, Blacklight tango on XBLA originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 06 Jul 2010 22:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Epic vice president Mark Rein talked to Rock, Paper, Shotgun recently and, when confronted with the allegation that the company has abandoned its PC roots, came out shooting. Rein says that a little console success with Gears of War doesn't mean that Epic has moved on from the platform that spawned Unreal and Unreal Tournament. "Don't confuse Gears of War with everything we do," he said. "Bulletstorm is PC, PS3 and Xbox 360, and you'll see when it comes out, it will be a full-blown, oh-my-god amazing PC game."

Of course, Rein admits that the PC isn't all -- in the rest of the interview, he maintains that mobile platforms like Apple's iOS and Android are going to be very important for gaming in the future, and that getting the Unreal engine running on those is a big priority with Epic. While PC is still the foundation, Epic is "going to make a game for mobile and tablet," Rein says. "We haven't announced anything yet, but it's due."

Mark Rein: Epic is committed to PC, also making a game 'for mobile and tablet' originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 06 Jul 2010 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Craig Zinkievich, executive producer for Star Trek Online and certified lorekeeper for all things Roddenberrian, recently announced on the game's official blog that he's leaving Cryptic Studios after seven years. His shoes will be filled by producer Daniel Stahl, whom he promises shares his own enthusiasm for the Prime Directive.

So, what's the scandalous reason for Zinkievich's departure? Perhaps there was some inter-departmental drama? Maybe he's going to work for one of Cryptic's competitors? Actually, he explains he's going to "focus on other things, like hanging out with my kids over the summer, walking my goat more and taking care of my bees." Well, that's not all that shocking, but we wish Zinkievich the best all the same.

Star Trek Online executive producer leaves Cryptic originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 06 Jul 2010 21:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Celebrate Bungie Day with Red vs. Blue!

Being a giant, beloved video game site has its downsides. For example, we sometimes neglect to give independent developers our coverage love (or loverage, if you will) as we get caught up in AAA, AAAA or the rare quintuple-A titles. To remedy that, we're giving indies the chance to create their own loverage and sell you, the fans, on their studios and products. This week we talk Lunar Giant Studio's Adam Eidukas (Lead Developer) and Neil Wickman (Creative Director / Lead Artist) about how Adam FULLY beat Final Fantasy with just the thief. ... Oh, also they made a game.) How did Lunar Giant get started?

Neil: In the future of the planet Earth arose a world of unthinking, unfeeling machines. A world without fun, a world without games. A world without heroes. But not without the memory of them, or those few left who could resist the robots. And like unto heroes did they arm themselves, and set upon their quest, bringing joy to a world that knew only the grip of steel. A great battle was fought, and though it was awesome, the machines were too strong, too numerous to be defeated. At that very moment before humanity's final defeat, two Men and one Stig escaped through time and space.

Returning to the year 2008, Lunar Giant was formed. A company with one purpose: to save the world.

Continue reading The Joystiq Indie Pitch: Delve Deeper

The Joystiq Indie Pitch: Delve Deeper originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 06 Jul 2010 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A study conducted by EEDAR and SMU's Guildhall found trusted media outlets do affect consumers' perception of video games and their willingness to purchase. Joystiq received an advanced copy of the study (releasing publicly next week), that involved 165 qualified participants split into three groups, who were then exposed to high, low and no review scores for Plants vs. Zombies before playing the game. After the 20-minute session, the subjects were offered either a copy of the game or $10. A result of the study was that participants exposed to higher review scores were 100 percent more likely than those exposed to low scores to take a copy of Plants vs. Zombies over the $10 and "85 percent more likely to take the game than the control group." The study concludes that "because nearly twice as many participants in the high review group took the copy ... that the relationship between video game sales and professional review scores are not correlative but causal."

Plants vs. Zombies was chosen because it's "regarded by the gaming community and by critics as a high quality title of broad appeal." The mock reviews used in the study were from five well-known media outlets and participants were told that the aggregate review score they were given was "comprised of 51 professional" outlets. All participants "played the same game, on the same type of computer, in the same environment, for the same amount of time."

Continue reading EEDAR/SMU study: review scores affect perceived quality, purchase intent

EEDAR/SMU study: review scores affect perceived quality, purchase intent originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 06 Jul 2010 20:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We asked 100 people to name a new game worth purchasing on PSN this week. Top three answers are on the board. SURVEY SAYS!

*ding*

Monkey Island Special Edition 2: Lechuck's Revenge received 80 votes. Family Feud received 17... and three people answered "Liquid Soap" -- your guess is as good as ours.

Check out the full PSN update after the break.

Continue reading PSN Tuesday: Monkey Island 2: Lechuck's Revenge, Family Feud

PSN Tuesday: Monkey Island 2: Lechuck's Revenge, Family Feud originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 06 Jul 2010 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Reviewing an MMO is a famously tough thing to do. The things that make a good massively multiplayer game (a strong update schedule, a solid community, and a mechanic that supports gameplay across a wide audience) are tough to quantify in a one-shot writeup. Many outlets avoid the task completely, leaving the judgment of newly-released MMOs to their own communities. If an online game floats, it's good, goes the conventional wisdom. If it sinks, it wasn't any good anyway.

But reviewing a game can shine a harsh light on its weaknesses, put a spotlight on its best features and help bring attention to lesser-known yet still deserving titles. Despite its differences from more traditional boxed products, don't MMOs deserve the same treatment?

So, in that spirit, we're presenting a review for All Points Bulletin, the latest game and first MMO from developer Dave Jones and his Realtime Worlds. MMOs are an evolving investment in both time and money, so rather than a simple writeup, I'll have a few posts over this week to look at all of the different aspects of the game critically. Today, I'll install the game and create my character. Tomorrow, I'll talk about the actual grind and how it works. Thursday will cover the game's community and customization options, and Friday will feature APB's current state and Realtime Worlds' future plans for the title, along with final impressions and the overall review score.

Continue reading Review: APB (Day 1: Welcome to San Paro)

Review: APB (Day 1: Welcome to San Paro) originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 06 Jul 2010 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Mortal Kombat reboot had to have been one of the more interesting surprises around E3. We certainly enjoyed what we saw at the show, which seemed to depict a game very much back to its roots -- you can't get more "MK" than splitting a guy in two with a metal hat, after all. And in speaking with Gamasutra, Ed Boon confirms that he's really gunning for the hardcore players with this latest installment.

"Oddly enough, this [new Mortal Kombat] is the first one in a while that we've really made a conscious effort that we are going to focus hard on the hardcore player," he said. While Boon concedes that there are far more casual players out there than hardcore, he values the "opinionated" fans who go online and make their voices heard.

Despite the existence of those passionate individuals, Boon thinks it's tough to sell a fighting game nowadays. "While I certainly think there is an audience for that, there's not a very huge audience for the really complex [fighting] games. Unfortunately, the sales numbers kind of demonstrate that," he added. While we certainly understand what he's saying, we'd be hard-pressed to agree.

What about games like Street Fighter IV and Tekken 6? How about newcomers like BlazBlue? And that's not even taking into account the success of digitally distributed titles like Marvel vs. Capcom 2 -- so while we'd concede that fighting games can sometimes have a steep learning curve, we'd say now is a wonderful time of resurgence for the genre. Embrace the love, Boon!

Mortal Kombat creator says complexity of fighting games hurts sales originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 06 Jul 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Long a source of rampant trolling and epic flamewars, Blizzard's official World of Warcraft forums will soon be a lot less anonymous. The company announced today that it will be using the Real ID system, which was recently implemented into Battle.net, on its forums. Once Real ID is in place, each catty remark and witty comeback on Blizzard's forums will have the poster's real first and last name attached to it. (Previously, posters could hide behind their in-game character names.)

Real ID will be rolled into WoW's forums by the release of the Cataclysm expansion later this year. Additionally, the system will be added to the StarCraft 2 forums before the game's July 27 launch.

Blizzard's eating its own dog food, too -- its community representatives, previously known only by aliases, will also be posting under their real names. Additionally, forum posts will be subject to a new ranking system, replies to forum threads will be grouped, and Blizzard posters will be able to "broadcast" messages out to everyone on the game's forums. Blizzard says its goal with these changes is to form "a new and different kind of online gaming environment -- one that's highly social, and which provides an ideal place for gamers to form long-lasting, meaningful relationships."

Your real name to appear on Blizzard's official forums originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 06 Jul 2010 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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