So you just spent $600 on an iPad. How better to show off the capabilities of your state-of-the-art gadget than with ... Space Invaders? Taito released an iPad version (for $5) of its iPhone Space Invaders app worldwide -- and thanks to common iPad naming conventions, Taito thought it was a good idea to call it Space Invaders HD.

The iPad game offers, of course, a larger-scale presentation of both the 1978 game and Space Invaders Part II, as well as some promotional flyers and other vintage artifacts. It also has a rather cool new feature: a two-player mode that flips the screen so that players sitting across from one another can take turns. It's modeled on the classic cocktail-style arcade machines, and Taito even went so far as to demonstrate the game on iPads sitting on those arcade machines at an event in Japan.

Space Invaders landing on iPad today originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 16 Jul 2010 22:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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PlayStation Plus is set to bear some exclusive fruit next week, with the arrival of a demo for Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days. The demo will be available exclusively to PlayStation Plus subscribers from July 20 until July 27, at which time it will be made available to all PSN users. The PlayStation Blog reminds PS+ users that the demo will be delivered automatically to those who have set up the automatic delivery function. Of course, if you'd rather just open up the PS Store and download the demo the old fashioned way, that's okay too.

The demo itself will contain a portion of the single-player game as well as the "Fragile Alliance" online multiplayer mode.

Kane and Lynch 2 demo for PS+ users on July 20 originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 16 Jul 2010 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Between the May and June NPDs -- along with the UK weekly sales -- it's quite clear that Take-Two CEO Ben Feder wasn't exaggerating when he said Red Dead Redemption "sucked the oxygen out of the room" at retail since its release. Alan Wake, along with several high-profile racing games, were just a few of the obvious victims. If you've got names of other games that were casualties of RDR's collateral damage, and you think they deserve some sales love, drop their names in the comments below.

What's everyone playing this weekend?

Continue reading WRUP: Giving air to some other games edition

WRUP: Giving air to some other games edition originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 16 Jul 2010 21:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Super Mario Galaxy 2 was the best-selling non-cowboy game in the United States last month. The 548,000 copies sold during June put the spacefaring platformer above the one-million mark in US sales, as proclaimed by Nintendo in a triumphant announcement. In kind of a bummer of a month in terms of general software sales, Super Mario Galaxy 2 was one of the few success stories for June.

While one million copies in two months (41 days of NPD reporting time) is impressive, it doesn't approach the level of success enjoyed by the first Super Mario Galaxy, which broke a million in its first month on the market, only 12 days of which counted for NPD. (The fact that its first month was November may have had something to do with that strong start.)

Nintendo also announced that DS hardware sales have reached "nearly 42 million," with Wii sales "closing in on a cumulative milestone of 30 million units sold in the United States alone." Both systems enjoyed sales spikes last month.

Super Mario Galaxy 2 passes 1 million sold in US originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 16 Jul 2010 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The NPD figures for June show that Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 didn't have a debut comparable to the previous year's game. In fact, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 only managed to unload 32% of the copies sold during Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10's initial launch month, Venturebeat offers. We contacted the NPD, who told us the same thing: "The new Tiger Woods release sold only 32 percent of what last year's release sold in its introductory month at retail. That said, last year's game saw a huge sales increase over previous versions, but still, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 did not break into the top 10 games for the month."

Of course, the first thing that comes to mind is Tiger's promiscuity -- a likely factor behind Tiger's waning popularity. But, EA's Rob Semsey contributed that the slowing Wii market and Tiger's performance on the course as of late are also contributors to the dip in sales. Now the real question is: with the drop in sales, will EA still stand by its man?

NPD: Tiger Woods 11 sales way down compared to Tiger 10 originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 16 Jul 2010 20:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It's pretty much a Wii version of Uncharted 2.

Okay, that's a bit of a stretch. However, one of the levels of Namco Bandai's Active Life Explorer has you running down a train, jumping from car to car, as you try to make your way to the front. Along the way, you'll be dodging overhead lights, in a frantic rush to stop the train from meeting a fiery end. But, unlike Naughty Dog's PS3 game, you're not shooting your way through. Instead, you use a DDR-esque mat to literally run through the game.

The Wii is no stranger to fitness games (the Active Life franchise already has multiple iterations on Nintendo's console). However, what makes Explorer so charming is that it actually feels like a game. The game's Treasure Adventure mode features a world map and story, and has you traveling through the map, talking to NPCs and activating challenges to progress in a quest to find treasures. Although simplistic, the narrative does a good enough job of giving some context to the various mini-games you play.

Continue reading Preview: Active Life Explorer

Preview: Active Life Explorer originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 16 Jul 2010 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Rare has officially opened its new studio in Birmingham, England. Watch the video below to learn about the new studio, as well as Rare's evolving game development philosophy. Be sure to keep an eye out for the testing area, in which Rare appears to be banging away on Kinect Sports table tennis.

Continue reading Video: Rare gives a tour of its Birmingham studio

Video: Rare gives a tour of its Birmingham studio originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 16 Jul 2010 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This week's words of advice: when you're around Jay Baruchel from The Sorcerer's Apprentice and She's Out of My League, be friendly and nice. He's a nerd with a weapon obsession and he's now best friends with Nic Cage...meaning, he's one guy you don't want to mess with.

We caught up with Jay behind the scenes on Attack of the Show to learn more about being geeks with Nic Cage, his own nerdy interests (swords) and his answer for a special question from a fan on Facebook.

Gamers sometimes criticize games for playing too much like movies. But as Ninja Theory Designer Tameem Antonaides explained at a Develop Conference session this week, bringing in screenwriting veteran Alex Garland to consult on their upcoming game Enslaved: Odyssey to the West made their game more movie-like is some very beneficial ways.

As the writer behind movies like Sunshine and 28 Days Later, Garland had a feel for how to get the most drama out of Enslaved's story scenes, Antonaides said. Garland would write scenes with very simple, reductive dialogue that looked thin on the page, Antonaides said, but gained more "meat" with an actor's performance behind them.

Indeed, the short story clips shown at the conference were notable for how much they relied on body language and vocal cues to convey information without words. Antonaides said they ended up cutting the game's cutscenes down from two hours of dialogue to a lean 80 minutes, with less focus on exposition and more on drama. "If you have too much dialogue, it doesn't work," Antonaides said. "Alex changed my view of what writing meant," Antonaides said. "I felt like a schoolboy so many times talking to Alex."

Continue reading Develop: How a movie screenwriter helped save Enslaved's story

Develop: How a movie screenwriter helped save Enslaved's story originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 16 Jul 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Armor, Holograms, a Canyon and LOTS of words inside.