Yeah, that's right: This is what the third cover for the Kane & Lynch comic, coming this October from DC Comics' Wildstorm imprint, looks like. Got a problem with that? No? Good. Drawn by Ben Templesmith (30 Days of Night) it can be seen in full after the break.

Continue reading This is the third Kane & Lynch comic cover

This is the third Kane & Lynch comic cover originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 28 Jul 2010 22:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Some people forked over a sawbuck for Mass Effect Galaxy because they wanted to experience the backstory of characters appearing in Mass Effect 2. Some people downloaded Galaxy for the promise of in-game goods in Mass Effect 2. No matter what folks signed up for, most seem to agree that what they got could've been better -- even BioWare's Dr. Greg Zeschuk.

"Oh, I think it was very worth attempting," he told Videogamer. "Even when something's not as successful as you'd like, you can take some lessons away and apply them, right? For us, that's kind of where humility comes in, to eat the humble pie on the Mass iPhone game [laughs] and go, 'Yeeeaaah, we made a big mistake,' in the sense that we thought story could carry it." He immediately corrected himself, saying that it might not have been a mistake, but "as much as we took a guess, our guess was wrong, and we learned something in the process." The lesson? That the important part of designing for iPhone is building the game around the interface. "Unless your game is utterly designed about tactile gameplay, you shouldn't release it. That was good information for us to have."

Despite Galaxy's failing, Dr. Zeschuk isn't entirely willing to write off the potential of the iPhone just yet. "We'll explore stuff," Zeschuk said. "For us, it may be things that link into other games. It's the cross-platform nature of the potential platform, like an iPhone app able to somehow access one of the other games' universes, or something. That would be really cool."

BioWare's Zeschuk on Mass Effect Galaxy: 'Our guess was wrong' originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 28 Jul 2010 22:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Analysts were generally unimpressed with the $150 price tag put on the Kinect hardware -- the consensus has been that Microsoft set the price too high and sales will suffer as a result. But Microsoft group marketing manager Brett Siddons disagrees. Speaking at an Amazon event in the UK, he said that once you "do the maths," Kinect is "very competitively priced."

His argument is that $150 gets you support for two players (six non-active players) and the full Kinect Adventures game, with no other accessories needed. This is compared to PlayStation Move, which comprises the main controller and a demo disc for $50. The "Navigation Controller" is $30 more, and if you want to expand the system to two players, you'll be paying even more. When you look at it that way, according to Siddons, Kinect is priced about the same given the functionality.

Still, even if that $150 buys an experience similar to what's on other consoles, there remains the question of whether or not gamers will want to write that larger check in the first place.

Microsoft defends Kinect pricing originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 28 Jul 2010 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Psychonauts's Raz is back!*

*In this special comic drawn by Double Fine's Scott Campbell in honor of the studio's tenth anniversary. What did you think we meant?

... Oh, yeah, that would have been cool too. Anyway, the strip features not only existing Double Fine characters and mascots, but some that didn't make the cut!

Double Fine: Ten years, two heads, one comic strip originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 28 Jul 2010 21:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Electronic Arts recently announced that the Grammy award-winning rock band Linkin Park will headline the in-game soundtrack for Medal of Honor with the lead song to their new album A Thousand Suns (releasing on September 14). The song, entitled “The Catalyst,” will be featured in an exclusive trailer directed by the band’s Joe Hahn. The trailer will be released exclusively on August 1 at www.medalofhonor.com/linkinpark, one day before the song is released to radio.

We have a preview trailer for the song embedded above, and will have the full version soon after it becomes available.

“Medal of Honor marks the beginning of an innovative new relationship between EA and Linkin Park,” said Steve Schnur, Worldwide Executive, Music and Music Marketing, EA. “I’ve personally known the band since 1999, and they have always been an intensely creative group who understand the power of videogames and have wanted to explore and expand the medium’s possibilities. ‘The Catalyst’ is one of the most anticipated tracks of the year, and the combination of this new song and Joe Hahn’s distinctive visual dynamic re-sets the bar in our commitment to bringing together landmark EA games with artists whose talents go far beyond music.”

Medal of Honor launches on October 12, 2010 in North America and October 15 in Europe.

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Felicia Day was one of the biggest gamer stars at this year's Comic-Con -- she premiered the trailer for her Syfy movie Red, sat on a panel about "Girls Gone Geek" and made two announcements to the packed room during The Guild panel on Saturday afternoon: First, the gang has put together its second music video, dubbed "Game On" (which you can watch online or on Xbox Live); and second, Microsoft (which posts The Guild videos in HD on Xbox Live every Tuesday) will be releasing Guild-related Avatar skins this fall, so you can dress up your Xbox Live Avatar as your favorite Guild member.

In between her busy schedule of panels and signings, I caught up with Day to chat about what she's been playing, the new music video and about whether or not The Guild webseries, currently in its third season, has outgrown its gamer roots. Find our conversation posted after the break.

[Image credit: YGX]

Continue reading Felicia Day premieres The Guild music video and Xbox Live Avatar items at Comic-Con

Felicia Day premieres The Guild music video and Xbox Live Avatar items at Comic-Con originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 28 Jul 2010 21:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It's time to kick the tires and light the fires! Actually, September 7 is when you'll be kicking and lighting. That's the release date for Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. 2 on Xbox 360, PC, and PS3. Wii owners, unfortunately, are grounded until November 7.

Continue reading HAWX 2 spreads its wings September 7

HAWX 2 spreads its wings September 7 originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 28 Jul 2010 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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"Next year you'll see another new extension [of the WWE license]," Bilson told CVG, "that's just as exciting as All Stars, but a little different. We're not talking about that yet." He said that the plan was to release a WWE game every six months (presumably for many years to come), alternating between Smackdown vs. Raw, All Stars and this new series -- the latter two being "more friendly, easier and less simmy than Smackdown vs. Raw." There's a fourth franchise too, WWE Smackdown Vs. Raw Online, but that's intended solely for the Asian market.

If you're thinking that the "new" series will feature WWE wrestlers driving in cars and shooting at each other -- THQ tried that one already. Our wild guess: the new game's gonna really Kinect players to the Moves.

THQ spinning off another WWE series originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 28 Jul 2010 20:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Though some might consider Blizzard's quickly retracted decision to adopt the "Real ID" system (which would require forum users to identify themselves using their real names) to be a failure, Blizzard exec Michael Ryder disagrees. "We were able to take that feedback, reconsider, consider all the factors, of which feedback was one," Ryder explained to Eurogamer. "Ultimately we decided we would not go in that direction for the time being, and see if there were other ways we could address the objective we had, which was to improve the forums generally."

Ryder later added, "So, all in all, the process worked. We put the word out. We got the feedback. We reconsidered. We made a change." We know exactly what he's talking about. Just the other day, we were planning on pressing our hand onto our sizzling-hot griddle, and then we told our friends about it, and then we put our hand really close to it, and then our friends were like "no, don't do it, you'll burn yourself terribly," so we didn't do it, and our hand didn't get burned. That's a victory in our books, as well.

Blizzard chalks up Real ID kerfuffle as a learning experience originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 28 Jul 2010 20:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dutch publisher Playlogic (Fairytale Fights, Obscure: The Aftermath) has notified the US Securities and Exchange Commission that it has entered into "surseance van betaling," which is closely equivalent to the States' Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The company claims in the filing that "Tough market conditions, late payments by large customers and the delays in projects have forced the company to seek protection under the Dutch bankruptcy laws."
According to GI.biz, Playlogic is suing distribution partner Koch Media for €1.7 million ($2.2M) in unpaid bills as it continues hemorrhaging money, after recording a $20 million loss in its previous fiscal year. For a company that stated just yesterday that it wasn't bankrupt, it's amazing what a difference a day makes.

Playlogic asks for mercy from court against creditors originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 28 Jul 2010 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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