G4TV

Here's what happened today in video games, popular culture and technology.

• DIRECT-FEED WALKTHROUGH: Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles
• Highlights of Black Friday sales deals.
• VIDEO: Bayonetta Finishes Her Fights With Torturous Execution
• Nintendo has released a new trailer for The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks for the Nintendo DS.
• Microsoft is working on letting parent control access to Facebook.
• So many games, the Feedback team couldn't limit it to just one. This week's episode features The Ballad of Gay Tony, DH Hero, and Tek
• VIDEO/SCREENS: Skate 3 Reveals First Look At Team-Based Gameplay
• Patrick Klepek tracked down the man with the most achievement points -- he has 384,155 points and aims for 1,000,000.

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A new Open Source post from G4 President Neal Tiles is live... check it out here.

This month, Neal talks about the G4's awesome October, how to request G4 in HD, and promises a shout-out to your college if you manage to get them to add G4 to your programming package.

Remember to submit your questions to Neal because he'll be back for another round of Open Source in December.

X-Play's Abbie Heppe recently got to visit Valve Software to get her hands-on Left 4 Dead 2, bringing you some amazing interviews and gameplay walkthroughs. While she was there, she also got a guided tour of Valve's offices from Left 4 Dead 2 writer Chet Faliszek. She was kind enough to bring a camera crew so you could go on your own little virtual tour of the offices.

Won't you go on that virtual tour with me?

 

 

As every gamer patiently waits for the chance to play Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 as we rapidly approach its release date next Tuesday, I'll actually be taking the time to catch up on some games that have slipped through the cracks so far. After wrapping up Brutal Legend last night (thought I do want to dive back in and find all the guitar solos eventually), I'm moving on to Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony. With any luck, I'll manage to see that adventure to the end on Sunday.

That's just me, though. What are you playing this weekend?

Call this an Afternoon Hangover after a Friday beer lunch (man, I miss those)...

Obviously this is spurred by Modern Warfare 2's release next week, but it's a question applicable to any game with multiplayer. When you boot up a new game for the first time, what takes priority...playing through the story, or hopping online and getting a jump on your stats?

Personally, I can't do anything multiplayer until I play through a significant portion of the single-player campaign. This is for a couple of reasons:

• I'm a little sensitive when it comes to story spoilers, even in bad games. (And bad movies, and bad books, and bad TV...)  Better to get through the experience myself before co-workers casually mention that character/event/location either died/happened/exploded. I've heard enough chatter about MW2 already, and the game's not even out yet.
• I need to get familiar with the basic control scheme of a game before I embarass myself in the public arena. Movement speed, aiming sensitivity, weapon familiarity...I need to know the particulars of all of these things so I can properly blame them for finishing second-to-last in the round.
• I always forget to recharge my headset, so I need a few hours alone anyway.

So this Tuesday...perks or plot? Render thine opinions!

When I met with OneBigGame charity co-founder Martin de Ronde, formerly of Guerrilla Games, the last project I expected him to announce was an adventure game based on Minesweeper.

Yes, Minesweeper, the point 'n click freeware game bundled with your copy of Windows.

Minesweeper is currently in development at Revolution Software by adventure mastermind Charles Cecil, who previously developed the Broken Sword series and collaborated with Watchmen artist Dave Gibbons on Beneath A Steel Sky (recently released on iPhone).

"He's [Cecil] come up with a back story for as to why the mines are there, he's come up with characters," laughed de Ronde. "It's turning out to be a really, really cool game in terms of mechanics and also in terms of the setting and the universe..."

Who knows how this will turn out, but the concept alone is insane enough for me to sign up.

Meet the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1, one of the smallest and lightest camera systems available. With 12.1 megapixel pictures from a camera half the size of normal DSLRs, Kevin Pereira and Olivia Munn find out if its Intelligent Auto Mode, 720p video recording option and built-in flash make this camera worth $900.

Check out the full Attack of the Show review after the cut.

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It's time once again for our weekly round-up of downloadable content for all of your favorite music games. The first thing you'll probably notice about this week's list is that it's noticeably light. Rock Band fans are the big winners this week with track packs from the Foo Fighters and Nirvana, and a track from Joan Jett and the Blackhearts. Rock Band Unplugged users can go mobile with a track each from Bullet for My Valentine and System of a Down, while Lips belts out songs from Bananarama, Juice Newton and The Supremes.

No new releases

Click through to see new tracks for Rock Band, Rock Band Unplugged, SingStar and Lips.

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Fresh Ink Online host Blair Butler gives the rundown on this week’s latest and greatest comics, including Secret Six, Age of Reptiles, Stumptown, Cinderella, Lobo: Highway to Hell, and others. Which one will take Pick of the Week? Tune in and find out.

Plus, make sure to check out Blair’s gore-tastic and hilarious animated short series Slasher School at www.g4tv.com/slasherschool. You shall not be disappointed. We promise.

Make sure to visit us on Twitter, Facebook and MySpace.

Subscribe to G4's Fresh Ink Podcast by clicking your preferred service:

Rockers and/or rollers get ready: The White Stripes are headed to Rock Band and Rock Band 2 next week.

The duo, known for primitive drum lines, fuzzed out blues riffs and its lack of a bass player, is dropping the following tracks on listeners/gamers:

• Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground
• Girl, You Have No Faith in Medicine
• Icky Thump

For (slightly) more traditional music, there's also The Damned (goth-punks from before you were born) bringing their song "Smash It Up (Part II)" to the games and Kasabian is offering "Club Foot" as well. The tracks will be available on the Xbox 360 and Wii  on November 10 and the PlayStation 3 on November 12.

I'm going to download The White Stripes' tracks because I'm curious how Rock Band can possibly make them fun. While Jack White is an interesting guitarist and a great songwriter, Meg White's drumming is among the simplest ever recorded, and there is no bass... so how's it all going to work? In other words, how do you take music made by two artists and make it fun for four fans to play?

I like The White Stripes, but a lot of people don't. They tend to polarize. For example, The White Stripes opened for G4 producer Frank Meyer's band The Streetwalkin' Cheetahs back in the day. This was before The Stripes "sold out," when they were playing at the height of their indie glory, and Frank says he was "not impressed." What do you think? Are you a Stripes fan?

Gearbox Software head Randy Pitchford has a long history with the folks at Valve, which is probably why he’s able to speak with just candor when it comes to what he believes are serious missteps on behalf of the acclaimed developer.

Coming off a series of comments criticizing Valve over their digital delivery platform Steam, Pitchford recently told the UK gaming publication OPM that Valve’s avoidance of PlayStation 3 support bears similarities to the kinds of “childish and narrow minded” attitudes that fanboys are famously known for having for or against a particular console, AnalogHype (via Develop) reports.

"I noticed something on the net not too long ago. Doug Lombardi (Valve's VP Marketing) had to take a swipe at the PS3 again, and I thought it was foolish. I read it the same way I read fanboys. Like there's a guy who brought the Sony platform and he's a Sony guy, so he decides he's going to spend a certain percentage of his time bashing Microsoft. And there's a guy on Microsoft doing the same thing,” Pitchford explained.

As for his own stance on the PS3, Pitchford said, “The PS3 is awesome. I think Valve...I don't know why they are doing that. It's weird. But yeah, the PlayStation platform's really cool. It's different to others and it's certainly a challenge to be able to develop software for. But that's where the fun is, right?"

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I stopped playing Madden after I left the confines of college housing, as I was no longer forced to provide human competition to my addicted roommates. And even then, using the term "competition" was a stretch. Even though I love watching the sport and I know how the game works, the deeper strategy of football play-calling has always eluded me, which is why I was one of those guys who always called a fake punt on 4th and 12. It usually didn't take longer than halftime for me to be excused back to my room and Unreal Tournament. I bring this up because I had to endure last Sunday's Packers/Vikings rematch, and watching Aaron Rodgers (whom I still kind of believe in, kind of) go down sack-after-sack reminded me of my own struggles on the gridiron. Slamming my fists repeatedly on the table wasn't a show of frustration, no…it was me frantically pressing the A button to get him to throw the damn ball already. I mean, how could he not see that Driver was wide open? What camera angle is he playing with?! And shame on Mike McCarthy for not attempting a 73-yard field goal. You can't win if you don't score.

In that spirit, let's get started with this week's Reply to All, which has absolutely nothing to do with the story I just told.

*   *   *

Sex in video games has become much more prevalent (especially in BioWare games). I've been reading reviews for Dragon Age: Origins and most of them mention awkward sex scenes, which I felt was awkward in Mass Effect. My question, I guess, would be do you feel sex in video games really contributes to the story telling aspect of the game or is it just there to bring about some notoriety or attention to the game? -- usemeup

How much or to what effect a sex scene contributes to a story, regardless of the medium, is entirely dependent on the skill of the writers, directors, and actors involved. If done properly, it can contribute quite a lot...the ultimate expression of human love is indeed a powerful thing, but its meaning and impact is heavily dependent on the relationship of the participants. That's why it's much more challenging to get right in video games, where action frequently trumps meaningful character development, and it can easily come across as awkward or done simply for the shock value.

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The first Resident Evil was a landmark game for a multitude of reasons, chief among them was that it got a new generation of young people to finally start taking the possibility of a zombie outbreak seriously. With each successive game in the series, we learned more and more about what to do: how to heal ourselves in the case of a bite, what the proper zombie combat attire is, how to navigate through complex building layouts, and how to avoid eccentric rich families...the list goes on. All of this is highly practical information that will...aw, screw it. Resident Evil is RIDICULOUS. Here are Five Reasons Why.

Number Five:  Herbal Essence

Video game healing mechanisms are easy targets for us practitioners of logic, as serious medical emergencies require treatments above and beyond gourmet mushrooms, hiker-level first aid kits, and simply "walking off" multiple gunshot wounds. In almost all cases, we accept the "it's just a game" argument and enjoy ourselves. Resident Evil's herb system, iconic as it has become, deserves a spot in the upper echelon of gaming quackery.

Defined no further than "green herb" and "red herb," these little miracle plants are responsible for keeping you alive during a zombie outbreak. But is there real science to it? The Internet site eMedicinal.com believes there might be, offering herbal remedies for the following undead-related conditions:

•     Skin Troubles, Acne, Eczema, and Bad Complexion
•     For Dropsy (swelling of soft tissue as a result of pooling fluid from maintaining an upright position)
•     To Calm Nerves
•     Prevention of Nightmares
•     Carinative (relief of gas and bloat)

Missing from this list are "profuse bleeding from the leg" and "missing chunks of neck," which, sadly, no amount of juniper berries or German chamomile can heal. Unless perhaps they're in a spray form.

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Will Lost and new Star Trek mastermind, J.J. Abrams be trying his hand at reviving an old-school toy line with an updated movie? Possibly. It is being reported that Abrams is in talks to produce a film adaptation of late 70's, early 80's toy line, turned Marvel Comics title, Micronauts.

While one does not typically think of The Wall Street Journal as a regular source for breaking news in the entertainment biz, they may have (and I'll stress "may have") done just that. The Journal ran a piece today about the continuing trend of toy franchises being transformed into major blockbuster films. However, in an almost passive way, they briefly drop the bombshell:

"J.J. Abrams, who created the TV show 'Lost' and directed this summer's 'Star Trek' film, is in discussions to produce a movie about Japanese toy line Micronauts, which Hasbro just acquired."

Unless this tidbit is some kind of serious typo that will be retracted at the bottom of tomorrow's edition, this will be a major project. Abrams would actually have quite a bit of raw material to work with. Micronauts was, ironically enough, a rather deep comic title for something that was essentially a monthly commercial for a toy line. (Although the same could be said of Larry Hama's tenure on G.I. Joe.) However, other than Gen-X'ers, I'm sure there are quite a few other generations of people thinking of a rather obvious question: What the hell is Micronauts?

It's time for a Cliff Notes-like history lesson:

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You work hard and you play hard, but how often do you laugh hard? If it's not often then you really need to watch more ATN. It's a constant parade of clumsy skaters, crazy show hosts, money hungry cyborgs and wild French comedians that will tickle your funny bone vigorously and leave you rolling on the floor laughing.

Find the direct video links from Around the Net on Attack of the Show after the jump.

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