NBA 2K11 demo set to drop this week

A few months back, I wrote a friendly e-mail to the folks at 2K to ask them if they would be addressing some of the bugs and glitches found in last year’s NBA 2K10. They never got back to me with a direct answer, but this morning, they did send me an e-mail saying this:

“… If you are worried about NBA 2K11 then I recommend you try the demo due out this week.”

I think this kind of confirms the demo will be out this week. So when it does, be sure to lace up those Space Jam XIs and put Halo: Reach away for a few minutes to check out what looks like another great basketball sim from the folks at Vicarious Visions.

Dead or Alive? $150,000 decides Carmine’s fate

You may remember before our little hiatus that Epic Games was leaving it up to gamers to decide if the third Carmine brother, Clayton, will live to see the credits or die a horrific death like his older brothers, Anthony and Benjamin.

The votes are in… but we’re going to have to wait to see the outcome in Gears of War 3, according to Epic’s Cliff Bleszinski.

In the meantime, no matter what Carmine’s fate is, all $150,000 raised by this contest will be donated to Child’s Play, so someone’s life will still be saved at the final end of this.

[Via 1up]

Review: Metroid Other M has solid gameplay, poor story

It’s been a long time since Samus Aran last explored the caves of planet Zebes way back on the Super Nintendo in 1994. Since then, the galactic heroine has taken players on romps through her eyes of several alien worlds in Retro Studio’s Metroid Prime trilogy.

Through a cooperative between Nintendo in Metroid Fusion head honcho Yoshio Sakamoto and Team Ninja of Ninja Gaiden fame, Metroid: Other M combined 2D platforming the series is renowned for and incorporated 3D similarly to the Prime series, producing an interesting hybrid of first and third person perspectives in a game using only a Wii Remote tilted on its side.

But is it enough to meet the high standards Retro Studios set with the Prime games or Nintendo with fan favorites Super Metroid and Gameboy Advance’s Metroid: Zero Mission?

Valve apologizes for mass bannings, gives gifts

Not long ago, we ran a story about Valve’s Anti-Cheat system causing mass bans on users in the PC version of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 whether a person had knowingly cheated or not. Valve took a harsh stance of zero tolerance to anyone who complained about the ban being unfair.

Valve’s decision caused affected users to form groups (one particular group reaching 500 members) in protest of the decision.

Enter Valve president Gabe Newell.

Comic Con 2010: Street Fighter and Tekken crossovers announced

Also at the “Street Fighter IV and Beyond” panel, while Street Fighter IV producer Yoshinori Ono was wrapping up discussions, Tekken‘s producer Katsuhiro Harada from Namco took the stage with Ono to announce that Capcom and Namco are teaming up to create two new games, Street Fighter X Namco and Namco X Street Fighter for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

While this isn’t the first time the two companies have teamed up to create a game, the first being and SRPG called Namco X Capcom, the two fighting games will each be sporting their own flares.

In the Capcom developed Street Fighter X Tekken (the X is pronounced cross), the game will use Street Fighter IV‘s 2.5D styled mechanics, with Ono demonstrating a video of Street Fighter‘s Ryu fighting Tekken‘s Kazuya Mishima, the two firing off special attacks.

Ono and Harada played a live demo Ono brought in on a Blu-ray disc with Ono using Ryu and Chun-Li and Harama using Kazuya Mishima and Nina Williams. Within the match, Ryu deployed his trademark Hadouken fireball Ultra move, with Kazuya later following that up with a spinning electrified uppercut.

In Tekken X Street Fighter, being developed by Namco,the fighting system is expected to be based off Tekken’s, meaning bouts will be fought in a 3D arena. No footage was shown of this build of the game, though.

Ono said the games won’t be out “for a while” but that fighting game fans should enjoy Marvel vs. Capcom 3 in the meantime. For the full trailer, look down below.

Comic Con 2010: SF3 Third Strike Online Edition announced

Earlier today at Street Fighter producer Yoshinori Ono’s panel titled “Street Fighter IV and Beyond”, Ono told attendees that he and his team “haven’t forget about Street Fighter III.” To demonstrate proof, he announced Street Fighter 3: Third Strike Online Edition.

While the game has only just entered production, Ono wants fans of the game to be very vocal for things the development team can use to improve the existing game.

“We’re just starting to work on it,” Ono said of the new version of Street Fighter III. “It won’t be out in the immediate future.”

UPDATE: Now six more Marvel vs. Capcom 3 characters announced

UPDATE: On top of the four new characters shown by Capcom, Marvel.com released photos that quietly announced two more in the thunder god Thor for Marvel and Capcom’s Amaterasu from Okami.

While Super Street Fighter 4 may be teasing more characters coming to its roster, Capcom has unveiled four more characters for Marvel vs. Capcom 3 in the battle of the fate between two worlds just in time for Comic-Con.

On the Marvel side, Dr. Doom and Super Skrull join to beat down Capcom’s forces, now featuring Street Fighter‘s Chun-Li and the newcomer lightning wielding and rapid pistol firing  Trish from Devil May Cry.

Capcom has released a trailer showing the four characters in action as well as teased that many more characters are on their way.

Super Street Fighter 4 arcade ad teases more characters

Ten new characters introduced in Super Street Fighter 4 may not have been enough in Capcom’s eyes, if an ad for the arcade version of the popular fighting game is any indication.

Since the ad already includes the likes of Dudley, Makoto and Adon, it’s safe to say the “Here comes new challengers?!” blurb on the bottom means even more characters may be joining the fray for the arcade version.

Will they remain exclusive to that version? Likely not, as rumors have been swirling since the game’s development of even more characters being added through downloadable content.

Street Fighter IV producer Yoshinori Ono has also expressed in the past that doing such a thing is possible on a technological standpoint, as well.

Which characters would you like to see join the fight? I’m leaning towards Sean, Q, and Remi.

[Via Event Hubs]

Save children by helping Carmine die in Gears 3

In the Gears of War games, whoever wears a helmet and has the last name Carmine is pretty much doomed to a horrific end. With Anthony Carmine in Gears 1 and Benjamin Carmine in Gears 2 now dead, it’s now Clayton Carmine’s turn. Or is it?

Starting today, players can vote on Xbox Live to determine Clayton’s fate in Gears of War 3 by purchasing Avatar shirts that say “Save Carmine” or “Carmine Must Die.”

Regardless of Carmine’s ultimate fate, the proceeds of every shirt sold will be donated to Penny Arcade’s Child’s Play charity.

Valve brings down the hammer on Modern Warfare 2 cheaters

A situation is brewing over on Valve’s forums. After several months of people using cheats, knowingly or not, Valve’s Anti-Cheat system kicked in and hundreds, possibly thousands, of players found themselves from playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and possibly many more of their games.

On Steam,  a VAC ban on an account means that account is no longer allowed to play any game running off an engine. For example, being banned in a game with the Source engine like Team Fortress 2 will prevent playing other games like Half-Life 2 online on VAC secured servers.

A more serious ban will prevent registering brand new games and immediately ban any new product codes used, requiring users to make a brand new Steam account.

Needless to say, there are a lot of angry people flooding in the forums trying to get the ban lifted from their accounts, but Valve is hearing nothing of it.

“We will not un-ban your account regardless of the reason,” said an FAQ regarding the banning on the Steam forums. “It doesn’t matter if someone else used your account, you didn’t know what you were doing was wrong, your brother or sister downloaded a cheat you didn’t know about, etc. Use of your Steam account is your responsibility.”

Problems with hackers on Modern Warfare 2 also exist on the Xbox 360, but users there are unaffected by this wave of bans.

It’s unfortunate for the people that were unknowingly caught up in the ban wave, as some game mods that simply change textures for a player might come with a plug-in that could trigger the VAC system to ban the account.

[Via Steam forums]