Can you imagine playing Modern Warfare 2 and suddenly an alien invasion happens and after you count the dead, they start rise from their grave? Sure it sounds ridiculous, but when Infinity Ward was first writing the script for the sixth installment of Call of Duty — stuff like this was considered. Thankfully it never made it in the final product, but one of the writers discussed the idea of a possible sci-fi COD.

“In the beginning we talked about having things in Modern Warfare 2 like outbreaks, viruses, chemical warfare, and even outlandish things such as aliens and the living dead,” says Jesse Stern. ” We worked our way through it before we finally ended up with a more grounded version of the real world as it’s depicted in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. And as we were kicking around scenarios for conflict, we kept stumbling into things that were happening in real life, which was honestly unintentional.”

This might sound far-fetch, but if you remember some rumors that started to emerge back in 2008, it starts to make sense. Sites were reporting that Infinity Ward was actually making an unnamed sci-fi title. The news supposedly came from an insider from the studio. “We are currently working on a new sci-fi title, we cannot release any more information as of yet, we may or may not announce it at E3,” said the anonymous source. Of course E3 came and went, and nothing was ever mentioned. One and a half years later, Infinity Ward released one of the most successful games of all time — and didn’t include zombies.

GameStop is trying everything to entice potential customers to buy videogames at the chain’s website and after a month, trade the discs in. Siliconera spotted the “deal” on the retailers website for both The New Super Mario Bros. Wii, where customers get a $30 credit and Left 4 Dead 2, where they get $40 instead — as long as they trade the titles within 30 days after the purchase.

I put the word deal in quotation marks because when you actually think about it, it’s just a $20 rental (not including tax) and not this great promotion the retailer is offering. Now if you think of it that way, you could easily find a better ‘deal.’ For instance, if you head over to the online videogame rental website Gamefly, you can spend about $20 and rent two games and keep them out for as long as you want. AND you’re not just limited to the games they hand pick.

Think about when you’re playing an online game of Modern Warfare 2; chances are you’re unaware of the impending doom that could happen to you at any point. For the most part you are glued to your TV, unable to get any information that could save your life. Of course this actually happening is fairly low, but it is realistic enough that New York state officials are figuring out ways to send an Emergency Broadcast straight to your videogame console.

We’ve all seen it, either it’s a weather alert or just the station testing the signal to make sure everything is okay in the event of emergency. The idea is to “reach younger residents who spend more time on the Xbox, PlayStation, or Wii than with television or radio.” Believe it or not, the concept makes sense and I was actually thinking the other day on how the government could warn me about the end of the world, if I was playing a game of Mario.

The only real way this could work would be if the console was hooked to the internet. From there, if something were to happen — a message could alert the gamer that nuke has been released by Russian terrorist. Of course, you probably think it was just part of the game and continue on as your friends and family prepare.

via: Gizmodo

BioShock 2 multiplayer footage has made its way online today, and I embedded it up top. Since I heard that 2K Marin was planning on having some sort of online mode, I was curious to see what they had up their sleeve. In the first-person shooter genre, the original BioShock was actually revolutionary — in the sense it didn’t rely on big guns and explosions. It was a very subtle game, that focused more on the storytelling and atmosphere, unlike other first-person shooters. But that is what it made it work so well, and breath of fresh air.

Sadly, after seeing some of the multiplayer portion of the game, I think 2K Marin is taking the sequel in the wrong direction. I don’t think it is going to be a bad game by any means; however, it doesn’t have that feeling of uneasiness that the first installment did so well.

If you check out the video up top, it doesn’t look like the online action is going to define itself — like what the first game did for single player.

Eiji Aonuma, the producer of the next Zelda game for the Wii, chatted with ONM and the topic was that very next installment of the legendary adventure series. He told the publication that he wants to take the franchise in a whole new direction. If you ever played the Zelda consistently, you would know every game is generally a must own; however, the formula has always stayed the same. Each game displayed was at a different point/time of the Hyrule Kingdom, though the way linked learned about his journey was for the most part, the same.

According to Aonuma, this next version of Zelda will have a complete overhaul and change how we play the game. “It is something we used to talk about with Mr Miyamoto, and he and I agree that if we are following the same structure again and again, we might not be able to give long time Zelda fans a fresh surprise,” said Aonuma.  “So we have been trying something new in terms of the structure of the Wii version of the new Zelda game this time. I am really hopeful that people will be surprised with the changes we have implemented for this Wii version.”

While he didn’t go into detail about what changes we should expect, he did say more information should be forthcoming and E3 could be the time we see the next big reveal. “I hope that we can show you something at the E3 show next year and it is something we are hopeful will be surprising,” he teased.

I absolutely love the Zelda formula. Not only has it lasted for 20+ years, it has inspired countless other franchise — which is a basic hero’s journey. On one hand I’m really excited to see how Nintendo plans on changing it up, but the last time I think they might have done something similar was with Majora’s Mask for the Nintendo 64. While still a great game, it might have been the worst Zelda title on a console.

The LA Times is reporting that Activision has already picked a third development team to create another Call of Duty game. Right now, Infinity Ward has just released the sixth installment of the famous first-person shooter and Treyarch, who has developed two COD’s of their own, is set to bring another game into the series sometime in 2010.

According to a source, this third team is looking into avenues to bring a new experience to the Call of Duty universe and even considering a massively multiplayer online game. Which kind of makes sense when you think about the revenue Activision has personally seen since they merged with Bilzzard, who receives millions of dollars per-month, thanks to the monthly subscription in order to play the popular World of Warcraft game.

Now, I understand Activision is a company who is known for milking franchises, just look at the Guitar Hero series. In 2009 alone, we have seen a total of NINE “Hero” titles, counting every device they have been available on. I understand why they did it, I think the publisher felt the genre is nothing more than a fad, and while some people disagree — it made sense. If the company is proven to be correct in the future, they wanted to capitalize as much as they could, and not let the competition be extremely profitable in the years to come. It was almost like they would rather kill the popularity of the rhythm genre, instead of a rival company like Electronic Arts to be profitable over the next ten years because of their Rock Band franchise. It sounds like their thinking is to bust out as many installments as they can, and have people become sick of music titles, so the other companies won’t profit from their own games. That way, Activision becomes the leader of the music genre.

However, I don’t understand this new move, besides being profitable for the short term. We can now accept the Call of Duty franchise as a house-hold name; Modern Warfare 2 has officially solidified that. But the first-person shooter genre is not going anywhere. Unlike Guitar Hero, FPSs have been around for almost 20 years. If it has lasted this long, and the genre has seen thousands of titles, some good and some bad, its not some fad. So the only thing they would destroy is the “Call of Duty” name, and the series could become stale relatively fast, if we see a couple every year.

I understand it’s only a third team and as of now, they don’t have nine different Call of Duty’s planned for 2010; however, I wouldn’t put it past the publisher to do something like that in just a few years.

It should be noted that key leaders of Infinity Ward used to work for 2015, and they were the team behind Medal of Honor: Allied Assault — which was a title very similar to the original World War II Call of Duty games. If those same guys feel their hard work to develop one of the top franchises in gaming today, then don’t be surprised if they wanted to leave Activision because they feel their work is nothing more than a company trying to milk it.

via: ripten

The sales numbers for the first five days of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 have been released by Activision. According to the publisher, the hit first person shooter is the largest opening for any form of entertainment and made $550 million, beating the worldwide release of Harry Potter And the Half-Blood Prince, which made $394 million.

Before Modern Warfare 2 hit store shelves, analysts knew it was going to be huge and some even thought it would make about $500 million, but in the first week — not in the first five days. On top of that, it made $50 million extra than expected.

“In just five days of sell through Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has become the largest entertainment launch in history and a pop culture phenomenon,” said Robert Kotick, CEO, Activision Blizzard, Inc. “The title’s success redefines entertainment as millions of consumers have chosen to play Modern Warfare 2 at unprecedented levels rather than engage in other forms of media.”

After the jump, check out some stats that the company revealed about what the popular videogame did, when compared to other forms of entertainment in the first few days. Although, you should keep in mind that this game average cost of each consumer who bought the title, paid a lot than any other piece of media listed after the break. Sure, it made the money — but more people are NOT experiencing it.

–  The largest reported five-day opening worldwide box office gross figures, held by Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince ($394 million)

According to the latest issue of the Japanese publication Famitsu, the cult game No More Heroes is making its way to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Not only will the remake obviously look better, but also include new modes that are not yet known and Japanese voiceovers — unlike the old version which had english only. Of course, not like that means anything to us people who don’t speak the native tongue in the Land of the Rising Son. When it game hits in late February, it will sell for 5,040 yen ($56).

While I wasn’t a fan of the game when it was released back in 2007 in Japan, I was amazed how the team, Grasshopper, was able to push the Wii to the limits unlike what other companies have been incapable of doing. So even if I don’t want to play this updated version of No More Heros, I am excited to see how it looks on two systems that are indeed more powerful than the Wii.

Sadly, there was no mention on when or if we’ll see hit stateside.

Up top are scans of the actual game, thanks to siliconera and after the jump check out the rest.

Following the day after Xbox 360 allowed access to Facebook on the system’s dashboard, Sony is ready to add the site as well. The company’s Eric Lempel confirmed that the social networking site is available to PlayStation 3 owners right now. The 3.10 firmware update, which also fixes the PS3’s friends list, will also allow gamers’ friends on Facbook to see which trophies they have, what was purchased on PSN and in-game progress.

While it sounds like a cool concept at first, underneath I’m not that all excited for it. While fiddling around with the Xbox 360’s version of Facebook — I was asking myself when would I ever use it. The answer was pretty clear. Probably never. Sure its neat to have, but is it something to go gaga over? No, not really.

When I think of death metal, I obviously think of the castle theme from Super Mario Bros., Rock on!

[Thanks Kenny]