The peripheral formerly speculated as "Gem" or "Arc" was today officially unveiled as "PlayStation Move." There was no clear indication of price except that it would be under $100.

From my years of experience following consumer unveils and "target price points," a $99 price for Sony's entry into motion gaming seems likely.

During today's GDC press conference, Sony presented the possibility of three different configurations for Move purchasers this fall: standalone, bundled with PlayStation Eye, and included as a part of a future PS3 bundle.

An official release date and launch lineup should be forthcoming when E3 rolls around in June.

[Pic via Morgan Webb's Twitter feed.]

Portal 2, as a full-fledged retail product, was officially announced by Valve last week and today we have more juicy rumoring about the game.

Co-op gaming is interesting enough but Shacknews is also thinking it may include a level painting hook.

Reason? The latest issue of Game Informer, with Portal 2 on the cover, made mention of "using special paint that gives unique physical properties to surfaces (eg rocket jumping, speed bursts, etc)," commented Shacknews forum member Masem.

Sounds very similar to what the DigiPen team behind Tag: The Power of Paint was working on...

Yeah, yeah. When the I N T E R N E T refers to portable touch gaming, they say "iPhone gaming," but I figured the iPod Touch does pretty much the same thing and deserves some attention after putting up with excessive amounts of neglect. Plus! Matches the title you read above.

Ah, but I digress. The above image popped up recently on teaser site Sam's New Mission that points directly to Apple headquarter's location.

Any ideas on what would make a good touch-based Splinter Cell game? Shout outs are welcome below.

Gamefly Top Queued!

For the week of March 3, 2010, Heavy Rain remains at the top of the cross-platform Gamefly 'Most Queued' list.  Battlefield Bad Company 2 tops the Xbox 360 list, while New Super Mario Bros. remains on top for the Nintendo Wii.    

Queue up the complete Gamefly Top 10 most requested lists:

Most Popular Games Cross-Platform:

Xbox 360 Most Popular Games:

PlayStation 3 Most Popular Games:

Nintendo Wii Most Popular Games:

And we thought the scares of the Y2K bug were behind us! Apparently, our fancy next-gen George Foreman grills are susceptible (????) to the same world-ending system errors. From 4pm Sunday to 4pm earlier today, the PlayStation Network took a nosedive. What happened?

"We are aware that the internal clock functionality in the PS3 units other than the slim model, recognized the year 2010 as a leap year. Having the internal clock date change from February 29 to March 1 (both GMT), we have verified that the symptoms are now resolved and that users are able to use their PS3 normally," said Senior Director of Corporate Communications & Social Media for SCEA, Patrick Seybold, on the company's blog.

So "leap year" bug, eh? Sounds like the SYSTEM'S plan to take over the world was foiled once again! You can listen in on more of our thoughts on tomorrow's GDP (GamerDeals Podcast).

[Pic Source]

Welcome to New Releases for the Week!

Highlights this week include Battlefield Bad Company 2, MLB10 The Show, MLB 2K10, Lunar Silver Star Harmony and Supreme Commander 2.

Check out the full list of new video game releases (USA) for the week of March 1, 2010 on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii, Sony PSP, Nintendo DS, and PC!  As always, release dates are subject to change, slip, slide, and be fairly unpredictable.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2

MLB 2K10

Lips: Party Classics

Battlefield: Bad Company 2

MLB 10 The Show

MLB 2K10

MLB 2K10

Alice in Wonderland

Project Runway

Spongebob Boating Bash

MLB 2K10

Lunar: Silver Star Harmony

Dante's Inferno

MLB 2K10

Alice in Wonderland

Sonic Classic Collection

Deca Sports

Spongebob Boating Bash

Battlefield: Bad Company 2

Supreme Commander 2

Alice in Wonderland

Silent Hunter: Battle of the Atlantic

Plenty has been said about what games can be and how far the medium has come in its 40-year-plus history. Quantic Dream is the latest to put its foot forward on the matter with Heavy Rain, a fully produced triple-A title that hopes to accomplish what's been solely the realm of the -- yes, sometimes pretentious -- indie game art scene. Did they succeed?

In many ways, HR is everything games have been striving for since they went 3D: The ability to relate to the characters we play as instead of just portraying our command presses as violent avatars is there. And there are even moments in the game that may not exactly be fun (i.e. crawling over glass in a vent labyrinth) but it pushes the fact that video games are interactive entertainment and the possibility to treat them as such. Not just as play toys with a high score.

Short of redefining the Shenmue-advanced genre, of course, Heavy Rain mostly succeeds in telling a narrative filled with believable characters going through a depressing spell and the hunt for a serial killer on the loose. Hardly original, I know, but never before have you been able to feel the story as is the case in Quantic Dream's latest.

You'll be put through the wringer when characters die; experience child responsibilities and the joys of playing with them; and, before the credits roll, struggle with mature themes of love and betrayal.

And those are just the themes made obvious through playing HR. What's left up to the player to discover of everyone's motivations and background through subtle dialogue is incredibly gratifying -- devoid of the overwrought exposition most other games are guilty of. Quantic Dream took the best bits of story telling and matched it to the gameplay seamlessly.

Pressing L2 takes you into each character's mindset and gives you further context as to what you're next goal in the environment is, not a gold arrow guiding the way. Multiple quick-time event choices give you the option to cheat when counting, kill or not kill, and augment sequences of emotional burden.

 

For that last one, think to the end of MGS4 where Old Snake struggles to get from one side of a hallway to the other. Heavy Rain takes that concept and expands on it ten-fold with the added gravity that you may fail and the story would continue -- with or without you.

That said, HR's "gameplay" is not perfect and definitely not for everyone. While the action scenes are some of the more intense moments in gaming history, sometimes I wished I was more in control of what was happening. Pressing left, right, square, triangle, whatever at the right time is handled well enough in the game, but I couldn't help to imagine what could've been if it was playable in real-time.

Other small gripes with the game include audio glitches and, even, the audio itself. For the most part, the game is well acted and voiced but certain moments -- especially all of the banter between Norman Jayden and Lt. Blake -- fall flat to the point where they come off as comical. Also, the trials you go through bring in an unwelcome "Saw" feeling to the, otherwise, excellent story, I thought.

 

Taking it as a whole, though, HR exceeds past its flaws to present a memorable package with lasting appeal that, surely, games will come to incorporate in the future. It is mature past the presumed M-rated status of other games that usually fall in the adult immaturity end of the category. And it has a daring save system that, while arduous for those of us into trophy hunting, gives you no easy way out once you've dug your own grave, so to speak.

How the game doesn't fit nicely in the aspects of a review -- i.e. visuals, gameplay -- and can, instead, be judged mostly on its cohesive whole is part of the brilliance of its design. Should it be considered a "game?" Doesn't matter.

HR is an interactive experience just as the developer proposed it to be as it is not always fun to play, but always engaging. An example of the culmination of what's come before in gaming and the maturation of the industry that's allowed this piece to be possible.

Closing Thoughts:

With Heavy Rain, Quantic Dream goes for not just redefining a genre but what a "game" is, in general. They tell a story of four different characters' interacting with a world that's failed them and how they progress through it. The choices you make -- some times in the blink of an eye -- carry over in hours of game play and creates dread and a sense of uneasiness made possible only by your direct impact on it. The controls can hinder that feeling at times but the overarching story in this effective "interactive drama" more than delivers on its lofty and innovative setup. It's one giant quick-time event, but one worth exploring.

Rating: A

While it hurts me to divulge easy Gold trophies of any kind...I'm here for you: the reader. And, as such is my responsibility, I'm letting you know that before you go suffering through multiple playthroughs in Heavy Rain for two, degrading Gold trophies, you can do that in Frogger Returns instead.

It's cheap ($5), easy, and will net you 3 Gold, 1 Silver trophies in under an hour. First, from the main menu, hit up "Free Play" and simply beat the four levels of the game.

Done. Playing through this way may destroy the challenge of the game, but meh, you're in this for the trophy gain, right? Just please don't tell @DarthMazza. We're competing and he seriously doesn't need the tip...

A new trailer for the upcoming Red Dead Redemption featuring 'The Women' has been released by Rockstar.

Red Dead Redemption is set to release on April 27, 2010.