Why All This Gearbox Halo 4 Talk? Here's Why... (Maybe)

Earlier we posted that Gearbox Software (Brothers In Arms, Borderlands) was rumored to be working on Halo 4. With Bungie out of the picture, Gearbox does seem like a logical fit — the developer did do the PC version of Halo: Combat Evolved.

What's more, Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford stated in February: "I've started a new project. It's big. It's, like, look-at-our-line-up-and-imagine-something-even-bigger kind of big. I'm Directing it myself. I can't mention it publicly yet. When you find out what this is, you'll likely agree that I can't oversell this one." But that doesn't necessarily mean Gearbox is doing Halo 4. The "big" project Pitchford is talking about could be something else entirely. And Halo 4 hasn't even been announced. (Though, Microsoft would be silly not to do it.)

So, why all this talk about Gearbox and Halo 4?

Ah, the game of golf. Some consider the sport to be nothing more than badly dressed men walking through the park with sticks, but for hundreds of thousands of gamers it's actually about controlling badly dressed men walking through the park with sticks. I've actually always been attracted to the sport, but my particular build doesn't lend itself well to putting my hands together in front of my body and then moving them with any sort of grace, so video games are all I have. For years now EA's Tiger Woods series has been the go-to franchise for realistic golf, and now that the 2009 version of the game is upon us it's time for the critics to chime in on Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09. Is it a hole in one, or does it get lost in the deep rough? Softly whispered verdicts after the jump.

So last week, I was taking a crap. Bear with me! And often as I do while taking said crap, I was reading, in this instance a comic. It was the latest trade paperback of DMZ, a series by Brian Wood and Riccardo Burchielli, which tells the story of a near-future US Civil War, where the red states rise up against the blue ones, and the war’s frontline sees New York City split in two.

It’s a great series, made great not only by the characters and storylines, but the world itself. The bullet-point summary I just gave doesn’t do it justice. It’s a believable world filled with real, fallible people, who are caught in the middle of a war that nobody really understands and nobody really wants to be a part of.

Anyway, the whole time I’ve been reading this series, and thinking of the world that Wood and Burchielli have crafted, all I can think of is: there would be a great videogame in this.

Rock Band 2 Lead Designer Calls Us Out

Harmonix's Dan Teasdale wants to make sure that folks attend the "History of Harmonix" panel at PAX this weekend so badly that he's narrowly avoided calling down a world of hurt upon himself in the process. He's issued challenges to various members of the media, the development community, and his game's chief rivals in an attempt to drum up some attendance.

I challenge Kotaku's Mike Fahey, Wired's Chris Kohler, and Destructoid's Nick Chester to an arm wrestle. Mike is allowed to substitute for Cresente if he can't make it, but in that case I'm allowed to take my elbow off the table and Brian isn't - Crescente looks like he works out, so I need any advantage I can get.

Obviously Mr. Teasdale has never seen a group shot of the Kotaku crew, or he'd know exactly how relieved he should be that Crecente is attending PAX and not me. Not only am I huge, but I own a copy of "Over The Top" on DVD. Check out his blog post for the rest of the challenges, including a manly hug between rhythm game developers, as well as details on Rock Band 2's new Tour Challenges.

PAX and Tour Challenges [Rock Band Blogs - Thanks Smidget!]

FACT: When playing this game, your phone automatically puts 911 on speed dial.

This Chuck Norris box art could be so bad-ass that it actually off-sets the fact that Chuck Norris Bring On the Pain is coming to a cell phone. Oh, did I mention that the chief bad guys are Fidel Castro and Kim Jong-il? That's right you better go out and buy a replacement phone now, because this one is going to KILL your current phone.

After sitting down with Microsoft's state government affairs folks to talk politics and gaming, I started asking them if they've been trying to get Barack Obama into games.

Obama made a splash with gamers earlier this month when he said in an interview that the last game he played was Pong. Did Microsoft shoot a 360 straight out to him the second they read that, I asked.

No, not that anyone knows of.

What about here in Denver. Did they set up a console in his hotel to give him something to relax with.

No.

But, it turns out Microsoft did gift someone. Actually a lot of someones. A bunch of the nearly 4,500 delegates in Denver each got their own Democratic National Convention branded. The idea is that attendees will eventually be able to download speeches and political videos. The Zunes are also pre-loaded with content including, I'm told, one game.

And the RNC folks are getting one too Gizmodo discovered.

Over Ten Million PSPs Sold, Top Five Games Are...

"Absolutely No Final Fantasy Xbox 360 For Japan"

An issue of Dengeki PlayStation that goes on sale August 29th in Japan, Final Fantasy XIII director and writer Motomu Toriyama and FFXIII Versus director Tetsuya Nomura talk about the possibility of Japan getting a Final Fantasy XIII Xbox 360 version. Nomura says that he himself was "surprised" at the FFXIII Xbox 360 Asia version news, saying that Microsoft's comment ("It would be nice if the game came out") was taken to mean that it was actually confirmed for Asia. More interesting than that clusterfuck is Toriyama's comment about whether or not Final Fantasy XIII will be released in Japan on the Xbox 360 platform:

No, Microsoft didn't manage to have an Xbox 360 snuck into Barack Obama's room.

The Clinton's didn't spend their pre-speech prep early this week playing team deathmatch Call of Duty 4.

Delegates didn't forego Joe Biden's rowdy all-nighter (I hear some of the Black-Eyed Peas and Snoop Dog were there) to catch some time with Gears of War 2.

Gaming amidst one of the biggest political gatherings of the year is a little more staid, make that a lot more staid.

It probably wasn’t coincidence that Shane Murphy returned my call just after I’d thrown my third interception in NCAA ‘09 and punched off the machine in full perfectionist disgust. Murphy, a professor and researcher of psychology at Western Connecticut State, would later explain that I exhibited classic high-ego, low-task gamer behavior. That is, I am fixated on being seen as a winner, and not the process of becoming one.

Murphy approaches video gaming as a sports psychologist, with 30 years of experience in that field. The American Psychological Association’s annual convention this month already discussed research showing the benefits video games deliver in learning and problem solving. Also at the convention, Murphy gave a presentation advocating for the study of competitive and cooperative behavior in gamers.

I had called him out of curiosity about my own approach to video games, whether it was shared in great numbers by others, and what that may say about the gaming community. We ended up talking more about competitive behavior and performance psychology, how it can help define gamers, and be deepened by studying them.

Ryan Payton (hats, in tow) has left Kojima Productions. The Assistant Producer spearheaded a more Western approach to controls for Metal Gear Solid 4, making the game far more approachable and much tighter than the previous installment. He also helped warm the MGS4 team up to more Western developed games like Gears of War as well. Why did he leave and what's next? His answers after the jump.

PAX Road Trip: T-Minus Two Days

Penny Arcade Expo 2008 kicks off in just four days and we'll be there to cover it live. As I've mentioned numerous times, I'll be road tripping it from Denver to Seattle. We're going to be leaving about 7 a.m. Wednesday morning. While I've had a couple of people say they'd like to try to meet up for the tail end of the drive, no one appears to be leaving from Denver.

If you are passing through here or want to meet up on the route, hit the jump for my driving plans and then get ahold of me so we can try to set something up.

While waiting for my turn to click-click through an all too brief taste of StarCraft II, I asked Blizzard reps the inevitable "Since Diablo III isn't here, I assume will it be playable at BlizzCon?" After all, when the sequel to StarCraft was announced, it was publicly playable just four months later at BlizzCon 2007. Surely, we'll be getting our hands on the Barbarian and Witch Doctor in October... right?

We got one of those non-answers that was very telling. "We haven't announced anything about what will be playable at Blizzcon," a Blizzard rep told us. Inconclusive, yes, but delivered with one of those smiles that one frustratingly can't print.

It sure sounds like Blizzard is working to bring a playable copy of Diablo III to BlizzCon this year, but we realize that things can change at the last minute. However, if you're going to the 'Con in Anaheim this year, don't be surprised if you're knee deep in hellspawn and rainbows all weekend.

SFIV Hits NYC Arcade, Other Cities, Too

There have been sightings of Street Fighter IV arcade cabinets popping up over the last week in North American cities. We received a few tips from people claiming the Chinatown Fair arcade in Manhattan got their very own cabinet, too. So since I never have anything to do on the weekend, I figured I’d take a stroll over there to see for myself. Well, sure enough, they did! It certainly wasn’t official looking, but nonetheless, it works and I got a chance to sit down and get a few rounds in. So how does it play? Let’s just say it’ll make your eyes orgasm.

Games As Art, But At What Cost?

We'd like to see games as art. Even those of us who'd personally rather just shoot stuff, thank you very much, realize in general that "games as art" might be a simple way to vault them into the sphere of mainstream relevance, earn them appreciation and understanding from an audience that currently, unjustly, looks down on them.

We love, of course, when games have themes and messages, when they offer the player a choice - this equates to more complexity, we feel, this places a game on level with other media that aim to make us feel. There's an entire segment of the audience that devotes itself to finding the emotional moments in games; we write essays, post blogs and have forum discussions about Little Sisters, about holding hands with Yorda or getting rid of GLaDOS.

And many of us have even accepted, to some extent, that games are currently a little bit self-referential and insular. They often tread dangerously in the direction of comic books, which by giving comic book fans only and exactly what they wanted, ended up being of interest only to comic book fans and no one else. We see that games, as an interactive medium, have much greater potential than this.

But what happens when a game doesn't create the message from inside its fictional world, but uses a message that already exists?

What if "games as art" in the real world actually looks like something we really, really don't like?

Let's talk about Invaders!.

Blizzard's set up at Games Convention this year was identical to the last — one half dedicated to World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, the other to StarCraft II. What had changed, rather dramatically, was how StarCraft II played, with massively rebalanced Terran and Protoss forces, as well as the inclusion of a playable Zerg.

Having spent considerable time with the Terran and Protoss at BlizzCon last year — and no access to the Zerg at Blizzard's Worldwide Invitational — I thought it might be fun to take out my old favorite class for a spin.

It's been a year since we first went hands on with Wipeout HD, the (eventual) PlayStation Network release that acts as a sort of remastered greatest hits comp from the series' past decade. The SCEE developed racer may have looked pretty sharp the last time we saw it, but it looks light years beyond that now.

So, happy anniversary Wipeout HD! We got you the traditional gift — hands-on impressions!

Star Wars: Clone Wars - Saber Rattling

By the time I got done playing Star Wars: Clone Wars for the Nintendo Wii against an obnoxious, spikey-haired little German kid I was ready to cut out the middle man, knock him unconscious with the Wii remote and be done with it. Luckily my sense of decorum along with an overabundance of witnesses staid my hand, but I am telling you that little punk had it coming, spending the entire round making suggestive gestures with his controller and still winning.

Clone Wars is of course the new lightsaber fighting game for the Nintendo Wii, heading our way this holiday season. It follows the story and adapts the art style of the major motion picture and television series, with a plethora of animated Jedi ready to smack eachother with glowy sticks. It's what they do.