Picks Mano’s legitimacy gets even shadier once you look at the other apps under its name. Some are just collections of pictures that you can save to the iOS camera roll for $0.99. It’s a classic example of doing little to no work and hoping someone will pay for it. Picks Mano’s website is also bare of anything but an email address and phone number.

We’re not sure how this blatant ripoff slipped past Apple, but we do have a good idea of where Picks Mano acquired the Canabalt code. Semi Secret, the developers of Canabalt, open sourced the code in January 2011 as a thank you to those who helped raise over $25,000 for the Child’s Play charity. There are restrictions to using the code, and profiting from Canabalt‘s assets is one such restriction.

“This game’s Content is proprietary and protected by national and internation copyright and trademark laws, and may not be publicly distributed for free or for profit by anyone but the copyright owner. “Content” includes but is not limited to the art, sound effects, music, and anything covered by national and internation copyright and trademark laws.” – Excerpt from Canabalt game license

 

 

Apple should take this game down immediately.

Read [The Verge]

Memorial Day weekend is known for good food and good sales. If you don’t mind taking on the heat sometime between now and May 31, head to Blockbuster and take part in its Memorial Day sale. It’s offering three used games for only $20. To clarify, that’s $20 for all three games combined. 

There’s a bit of mystery to this sale. No Blockbuster is guaranteed to have a certain game in stock. You’ll just have to go into the store and see what they have. Nevertheless, here are some games that you may see in your local Blockbuster store:

• Enslaved: Odyssey to the West
• Bulletstorm
• Dragon Age 2
• Mindjack
• Medal of Honor
• Spiderman: Shattered Dimensions
• Uncharted 2
• Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood
• Splatterhouse
• Dead Space 2
• Fable 3

Via [Blockbuster]

There’s still hope for us. Well, there’s still hope for people who own PS3s. That’s a region-free system. That’s important, because it means you could always import a copy of Anarchy Reigns from Japan and play it on your own system. Since the Japanese version is almost like an international edition, with all languages available, you’ll have no problem understanding what’s going.

I am seriously disappointed. I was really looking forward to a good multiplayer beat’em up and Anarchy Reigns seemed like it’d be the perfect fit. Let’s hope it’s still at Sega’s E3 2012 booth this year and is out before Christmas!

Read [Platinum Games]

Demon’s Souls is a brutally difficult action RPG and the precursor to the multiplatform game Dark Souls. It’s primarily a single player experience, but there are some bonuses if you play while connected to the internet. For example, a random player could come in to help you fight through dungeons. Or, someone could break into your game to try and hunt you down. Also, players can leave messages for other random players online, offering tips for dungeon crawling. Finally, there’s the death replay. If you’re online and in a dangerous areas, you can see the ghostly replays of other players’ deaths. It’s really helpful as it can warn you about the difficulty level of the area you’re exploring.

Read [Gamasutra]

Anyways, the extra love put into it won’t delay it. Jet Set Radio will appear on the PS3, Xbox 360, Windows PC and Vita in Summer 2012. Also, the Vita version will be at Sega’s booth at E3 2012 for attendees to test out. We’ll try and make sure one of us stops by to see how it looks!

Read [CVG]

A trailer from THQ’s latest entry of WWE games has been leaked onto YouTube today. The trailer stars WWE Champion CM Punk as he talks about creating a revolution while revolution-appropriate footage splashes on the screen. The trailer also shows footage of Punk’s own revolution that he incited in the WWE in June of 2011.

The brief moments of gameplay in the trailer show non-active WWE superstars Mankind and “Stone Cold” Steve Austin going at it outside the ring. We also see glimpses of The Undertaker (with long hair), Chris Jericho, Mark Henry, The Big Show, Jerry “The King” Lawler, Michael Cole and Sheamus. The end of the trailer shows a release date of November 1, 2012 with releases on PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii.

Since this trailer is leaked, there’s a chance it contains gameplay footage that isn’t indicative of the final game. I thought the graphics and character movements looked pretty bland, and were a step back from WWE 12. I would also expect WWE 13 to feature The Undertaker with his shaved head. I’m willing to bet this trailer was never meant to be seen publicly. We’ll post it for you to watch below, but don’t expect it to be around for very long.

Read [Joystiq]

E3 2012 is almost here. It’ll sneak up on us before you know it. We’ll be there wearing out our shoes as we try to gather as much coverage as humanly possible. One of the rare moments in which we’ll be getting off our feet is during Sony’s E3 2012 press conference. We’ll be putting on a live blog during the event. Go ahead and bookmark this page now, and come back on Monday, June 4 at 6pm Pacific to get in on the festivities. 

Now that the Vita is out, Sony most likely isn’t going to have any new hardware to show. We expect Sony’s attention to be focused on the Vita and exclusive titles for the PS3. I get the feeling a PS3 price drop will also be thrown in there somewhere.

Other than that, Sony’s plans remain a mystery. Let’s hope that translates to lots of surprises.

Read [GamerTell @ E3 2012]

Sony Mobile has decided to keep the Xperia Play on Gingerbread. Sony Mobile wrote a blog post that says the gaming experience on the Xperia Play became too diminished on Ice Cream Sandwich. Instead of pushing out an update that would have negative effects on the core feature of the Xperia Play, Sony Mobile is going keep the phone the way it is.

“This decision was also verified when we received similar feedback from the developer community; both experienced developers and advanced users, along with game content providers following our ICS beta ROM for unlocked Xperia PLAY smartphones,” the post reads.

That about does it for the Xperia Play folks. It was already a somewhat underpowered device when it launched, and the gap has expanded even more at this point. The Android world is slowly but surely moving beyond Gingerbread. Maybe Sony Mobile will make a successor to the Xperia Play that has greater longevity.

Via [Sony Mobile]

The idea behind feed gaming is to reduce the steps a player has to go through to start a game. Since the game can be played instantly, users won’t have to perform a series of clicks to get started. This goes along with the idea that suggests the more people have to click, the less likely they are to engage in any one thing on the web.

After the demo ends, players will have the option of installing the full game. Chances are if they liked the instant demo, they’ll be willing to hand over some data for the privilege of continuing the game.

Angry Birds, Bubble Witch Saga and Idle Worship are using feed gaming right now. Expect more developers to follow suit in the near future.

Via [Facebook]

In the video Franchitti explains how he was impressed with the quick turnaround in the production process. He was able to drive the new DW-12 on the race tracks one day and then be able to work alongside Nico Rondet, head of racing physics, the next day to iron out and fix issues that could ruin any realistic driving experiences of the game.

“Nico and I worked step by step with the guys back in Italy making modifications,” he said. “… to me, that’s the difference between other companies and SimRaceway …it’s the attention to details that’s going to make a difference in the product.”

Franchitti explained that while overseeing the development of the game he wants to make the simulation as real as possible for gamers who want to enjoy the racing experience.

“The situation I am in here today, I am not here to try and adapt to the simulation game … I’m trying to make it feel like a real world car,” he said in the video. “(I’m trying) to tailor the simulation to the real world.”

While the release date for the game has yet to be announced, the game will including access to all the teams and tracks from the current and future IZOD IndyCar series and the Firestone Indy Lights races in live, full-size recreations of each season.

Players can also look forward to experience authentic vehicle physics to the millimeter-perfect tracks produced highly by accurate laser-scanning techniques and real-time player skill quantification technology and competitive online racing experiences with a range of IndyCar content to include the new DW12.

Ignite stated in its press release that the game will be powered by its brand-new, proprietary “Skillquant” technology. Apparently it is the world’s first 100 percent accurate, real-time player skill quantification system, able to precisely match players in order to give them competitive online racing experiences, regardless of whether they are beginners used to playing arcade games or hardcore enthusiasts regularly driving sim racing titles.

Video Interview: