game retailer scandal!

What an incendiary headline, right? Anyway, here is an interesting article regarding a situation with a policy at a certain video game retailer. All I can say is... no comment!

The alleged practice of GameStop lending new copies of games to employees at their stores and then later selling those games as new, unused copies, may be a violation of federal law.

GameStop's "check-out" policy, confirmed to Kotaku by a number of the chain's managers and employees, could fall under scrutiny of the Federal Trade Commission.

GameStop Sells Played Games As New, Sources Say, Practice Could Be Illegal

gaming's best easter eggs

We all love Easter Eggs - no, not the delicious chocolate variety but the kind left behind in video games by developers or programmers as inside jokes or shoutouts to players exploring the game or taking advantage of glitches. In the spirit of Easter this Sunday, IGN has assembled their list of the top ten Easter Eggs in video games. My favorite is the first listed, where a bad guy in Metal Gear Solid would scan your memory card for Konami saved games and comment on the games you've played. Love it!

the dsi is selling well

The Nintendo DSi sold 600,000 units over this past weekend between the American and European markets. Considering how many people in the world already own or have owned a DS original or DS Lite, and the current lack of DSi specific games other than downloadable applications, those are pretty huge numbers. Not surprising though, as Nintendo has been marketing the DSi all over the place and has a good formula for making their products must-haves.

Nintendo Sold 600,000 DSi Handheld in Europe, US at Launch

30 adventure games worth playing

One of my favorite genres of games is the adventure game, which is generally characterized by an open environment you can explore, items to find, use and combine, puzzles to solve, and a deeper plot and character development than you get with most games these days. I personally prefer the point-and-click variety that don't demand real-time action or fighting but I've played quite a few adventure titles in my day and they definitely offer a more all-encompassing gaming experience than your average shooter or beat-em-up. This list doesn't include my all-time favorite adventure franchise, the Gabriel Knight series, but then again those are old. Still, this is a pretty comprehensive list of the adventure genre with a lot of great suggestions, some of which I have already tracked down and plan on trying out.

30 Adventure Games You Need to Play

eternal darkness is cool

We've been using our Wii more and more to enjoy classic GameCube games lately. Backwards compatibility is a wonderful thing. Thank you, Nintendo! Anyway we just picked up Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem the other day and it seems like a very cool, very promising adventure game. This one gets an awesome 9.6 on IGN's review and though I don't usually like adventure games that also make you fight stuff in real time, this one works it into the game in a well thought-out way that makes it less of a hindrance than I expected. You are constantly learning as you play and adapting to make better decisions, like how to kill guys and whatnot. There is an element of "insanity" that causes hallucinations and other weird things to happen if you don't manage it properly. The main character is a girl whose family history is the focus of the game's plot. You also get to play 12 different characters over thousands of years, and there are three intertwined plots that all need to be completed to view the ultimate ending. I'm looking forward to delving further into this GameCube game, which looks great on the Wii despite last generation graphics. Definitely one to check out if you like epic adventures or are a fan of the GameCube.

re5 dlc not so huge, already on disc?

Rumors are flying on the internet that the Resident Evil 5 downloadable content, which adds achievements, objects and new online modes to the game on the 360 and PS3, may have been packaged with the game all along, despite Capcom's claims that it was beyond their development scope for the initial launch. The downloads are suspiciously tiny (1.8 MB on the 360 and only 351 KB on the PS3), indicating that it's just a key that unlocks content already on the game disc. Sooo, it's a little bunk to be charged $5 for this content after paying $60 for the game. Still, I'm sure it's going to sell like hotcakes, with the popularity of the game and of online multiplayer modes in general.

fatal frame 4 won't come to america

If you haven't heard of Fatal Frame IV: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse, it sounds awesome - it's an adventure game where your only weapon against ghosts in a haunted mansion is a soul-capturing camera. Sick, right? Unfortunately it will never see daylight in North America, according to Tecmo, whose spokespeople said that Nintendo North America predicted the game wouldn't do well commercially and thus didn't warrant a release. Boo! Not fair. Maybe someday down the road they will change their minds. Until then we can only hope for more cool survival horror-style games for the Wii to come out this year.

ds games to come in 2009

Now that the DSi has finally launched you can bet we will be seeing more and more titles coming out for the Nintendo DS/DSi in the coming year. Granted, there's a ton of crap coming out, much of it aimed at little girls (Girl Time? Imagine: Makeup Artist? Barf.) but still, there are quite a few titles that have already piqued my interest. Here are three of them:

Sherlock Holmes: The Mystery of the Mummy (ships 5/26/09). Sounds like another hopefully good point-and-click mystery adventure surrounding a murder most foul. The plot involves archaeology and a mummy and claims to have many challenging riddles and puzzles to solve.

Miami Law (ships 6/9/09). Another adventure game although this one is a little more action-y as well. IGN calls it somewhat Phoenix Wright-like in its graphic novel format which sounds like my cup of tea, plus it just looks kind of cool!

Flower Sun and Rain (ships 6/16/09). From Killer 7 and No More Heroes creator Suda51, this is actually a remake of a PS2 game. The plot follows the main character as he experiences the same day - and terrorist attack - over and over at a hotel and must figure out why. This one's getting a lot of hype and hopefully will incorporate some creative touch-screen functions into the game along with many new puzzles that have been added from the PS2 version.

Check out more Coming Soon DS titles here.

wii emulator in 720p

Everyone knows the Wii is limited to games in 480p resolution, but now there's a Wii emulator called Dolphin that will run Wii games from a (high-performance) PC in HD. Videos on YouTube have shown what Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King would look like in 720p HD. Pretty cool stuff.

Wii Emulator Allows Games to Run in 720p HD