What we consider to be the very best gaming magazine; is officially no more. The 20-year-old Electronic Gaming Monthly has printed its last issue. If you own the January 2009 EGM, you might want to keep it as a collectors item because you will never see it again on newsstands. The word comes from Ziff Davis who owned the publication. Ziff Davis also announced the sale of the 1UP Digital Network to UGO, which includes 1UP.com, MyCheats.com, GameVideos.com and Gametap.com.

The fate of the sites are still remain unclear, however major layoffs have already begun. More than 30 employees have been terminated, including many of the people who ran GameVideos.com. Ryan O’Donnell, who created the 1UP Show podcast, as well as the producer Matt Chandronait announced on their twitter feeds that the show will no longer continue.

UGO CEO Moses, confirmed that 1Up will still remain in the San Francisco bay area as well maintain under the 1UP brand name.

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In the video game world, the Ace Combat series is the king of the fighter jet genre. However, that has not stopped Ubisoft and Tom Clancy releasing their own version titled: H.A.W.X. for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. We had a chance to sit down and play the flight game at this year’s E3 and we can honestly say; it has the potential of knocking off Ace Combat. Of course it was an early version, but it already felt like a finished product.

Konami better watch out, because they are not the only one that will have a good flight combat game on the market. Check out the new trailer above.

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After missing the school bus, a 6-year-old boy from Virginia decided that he didn’t want to miss school. So, like any other responsible kid, he took his parents’ sedan and drove himself while they were asleep. The Associated Press reports the boy, whose name was not released, made two 90-degree turns, passed a few cars and ran off the road until he hit an “embankment,” near the school.

After thw crash, the boy (who we named Awesome) got out of the vehicle and proceed to walk into the school building.

“He was very intent on getting to school,” said Northumberland County Sheriff Chuck Wilkins. “When he got out of the car, he started walking to school. He did not want to miss breakfast and PE.”

“Awesome” told the police he learned his driving ability by playing Grand Theft Auto and Monster Truck Jam. Now, we haven’t play ‘Truck Jam,’ but the way he drove is exactly how we drive in Grand Theft Auto — so we believe him!

His parents are both being charged with ‘child endangerment.’ However, it’s not clear if the charges brought to them because he was driving the car or because he played GTA. We all know people go crazy when they find children playing a rated ‘M’ game; especially when it is Grand Theft Auto.

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When Peter Molyneux envisioned Fable II, do you think he thought about receiving a prestigious award from PETA? Probably not, but he now has the “distinct honor” of owning a ‘Proggy Award‘ — straight from PETA!

Apparently, PETA gives away these yearly awards to recognize “companies, people and products for innovative and animal-friendly achievements.” The animal rights organization, explains why the role-playing game deserved the award:

“In the virtual fight between good and evil, characters powered by tofu are just as powerful as their meat-eating counterparts—and are more fit and attractive to boot. Featuring a strong pro-vegetarian theme, eating a plant-based diet helps you rack up “purity” points, whereas eating meat makes your character fat and evil. It’s a fun and innovative game, that’s also an effective tool that teaches gamers the real-life benefits of a vegetarian diet.”

Over the last few months or so, PETA has been paying close attention to the video game industry. Just recently the company pressured Sega to remove a Samba De Amigo advertisement because it involved a real-life monkey. They also attacked Cooking Mama and made a parody flash-game where the character was an obsessed animal killer.

At least this time they’re honoring a game as opposed to taking action against it. Click here if you are interested in seeing other winners from PETA.

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Probably the most underrated racer, Forza Motorsport for the Xbox, looks like its going to have a third installment soon. CVG found out that a design company called Kaarbo Designs accidentally released some images on their website for a Forza 3 game. The images are some art promoting the game. What is particularly interesting is the same design company also worked on identical projects for the previous Forza games.

I hope during CES Microsoft can shed some light on these leaks — like an announcement maybe? When we hear more, we will make sure to post it. Click here to check out some more work from Kaarbo.

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We unfortunately bring to you yet another story of mindless violence over video game hardware. On December 29th, a pair of total morons made their way into an apartment and continued to attack and threaten a family. And for what? Video game drums. (not that the violent theft of anything is acceptable).

One of the two teens, Thomas Joy, age 17, faces some pretty steep (and deserving) charges in the matter…

One first-degree assault charge alleges he struck the man living in the apartment in the face with a baseball bat, causing “visible cuts” to his mouth, according to court documents. A second-degree assault charge alleges he then kicked the man in the face and torso multiple times “under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life,…”

It was even reported that there were children at the scene who witnessed one of the teens put a blade to one of the victims throat.

It kills me to read news articles of this sort. What people do to just to get their hands on something so trivial. Heck, if I knew it was this easy to get myself some drums for my Xbox 360, I wouldn’t have gone to college and started earning a decent wage to legally purchase my hardware.

Source and full story from Fosters.com

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Microsoft recently revealed a few lists of games showing the most played titles online in 2008 via the Xbox 360. I’m sure you’ll find it interesting that there are two games prior to 2008 that beat out one of the biggest games of the year, Grand Theft Auto IV.

Its also great to see some classic games are still making a move in the gaming industry through Xbox Live Arcade, such as Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 and Doom.

Check out the full lists after the jump!

Continue Reading…

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Nintendo has tapped into a market that some thought was impossible — women. If you haven’t noticed, almost every commercial that Nintendo airs on TV includes a woman on the screen. They understand that a lot of their success has to do with that gender.

Now, gaming retail giant, GameStop is trying to entice woman to buy one of the many ‘fitness’ games for the Wii in one of their retail stores. According to a press release, if someone buys one of the 40 “fitness-oriented titles,” they automatically qualify for a 12-month free subscription to either Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, Redbook, Good Housekeeping, or O Magazine.

Vice President of marketing Mike Hogan made a statement regarding their new ploy:

We know that getting in shape is one of the toughest New Year’s resolutions to stick with, especially for busy moms who often don’t have time to spare for exercise. Today’s moms are looking for ways to incorporate exercise into their lifestyle. Active video games are a terrific way to reach your fitness goals, and as an added bonus, they can be enjoyed with your whole family.

It seems kind of far fetched that women will even know this promotion is going on at their local GameStop. In fact, I’m not even sure if these women even know GameStop exists.

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This generation has been pretty good to Microsoft and the news keeps on getting better. According to the computer giant, the Xbox 360 has sold 28 million systems worldwide since it launched back in 2005. Now, for all those people who are keeping score — that is about 4 million more systems the 360 has sold over its predecessor. If you think about it, it’s a pretty amazing feat.

Microsoft also mentioned that this past year, the Xbox 360 had its strongest year to date in — even with the economic struggle. The corporation also believes the system’s lead over the PS3 has grown after the Christmas season and theorized they are ahead by about 5 million units.

Of course, both Microsoft and Sony both trail the Nintendo Wii, which has sold over 35 Million units since it debuted a year after the 360 in 2006. And we don’t think anyone will ever catch up…

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People have been going nuts and recording their creations in the LittleBigPlanet community. However, this clip is probably one of the more original videos we have seen so far. USCmachinima on youtube, has uploaded a video reenacting Michael Jackson and two of his music videos, “Beat it” and “Thriller.” Obviously since we are writing about LittleBigPlanet, Michael Jackson is played by none other than SackBoy himself.

What is creepy about the video is that SackBoy kinda looks like ‘The King of Pop,’ in a weird Sack puppet kind of way.

Source: Kotaku

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What do you get when you hook up and combine a couple of Nintendo DS’s using KORG, an iPhone running the app Boom, iPod Touch running Mokugyo, and a KAOSSILATOR connected to Belkin Rockstar? You get this song that jetdaisuke from youtube did.

Sorry Sony, your PSP was left out.

via: tinycartridge

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In a press release issued today, Capcom announced their first quarter 2009 plans for North America and Europe and it’s going to be a big year for the Japanese publisher. The document confirmed that Resident Evil, Bionic Commando, Street Fighter IV and Dead Rising for the Wii will be made available in stores by the first half of this year…in fact most will be on sale by March.

Not a bad lineup, but what does Capcom have in store for the Holidays? It seems they are trying to release their big gun before everyone else. Unless they have some huge plans at E3, their Christmas lineup could be stale. We think it probably would have been a better idea to span out the games over the course of the year.

North American dates:

Early 2009 - Flock (XBLA/PSN)
February 17 - Street Fighter IV (X360/PS3)
February 27 - Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop (Wii)
March 13 - Resident Evil 5 (X360/PS3)
Mid-March - MotoGP (Wii)
Mid-2009 - Bionic Commando (X360/PS3)

European Dates:

February TBA - Flock (XBLA/PSN)
February 20 - Street Fighter IV (X360/PS3)
February 27- Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop (Wii)
February 27- Neopets Puzzle Adventure (Wii/DS/PC)
March 13 - Resident Evil 5 (X360/PS3)
March TBA - MotoGP (Wii)
March TBA - Bionic Commando (X360/PS3)

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Quantic Dream has released some new screens for their upcoming thriller game Heavy Rain: The Origami Killer. As of now, info about the game or how it even plays remains for the most part, a mystery. There are only a few things we know…

It’s an exclusive PlayStation 3 game, it’s coming out sometime this year, it’s going to have an unique control scheme and it’ll easily be nominated for best looking game of the year. Don’t believe me? After the jump, check out some new screens and remember to pick up your jaw on the way out.

Most of the screens are environment shots, but they do prove that the story includes are others parts of the city. In addition to the house we saw in the trailer earlier in the year, the game looks to feature a train station as well an underpass below a highway. We’re guessing as time goes by and more information is released, there will be a lot more areas to explore.

Continue Reading…

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In a recent press release, it has been announced that a six pack of rock legend Roy Orbison’s tracks will hit the Rock Band DLC library on Jan. 6th, 2009! (All original recordings)

The track list is as follows:
1. “Claudette”
2. “In Dreams”
3. “Mean Woman Blues”
4. “Oh, Pretty Woman”
5. “Ooby Dooby”
6. “You Got It”

Each track will cost $1.99 (160 MS Points) per song, or purchase all six for $9.99 (800 MS Points).

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/film received the movie poster for Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li. As /film mentions, the poster looks like complete ass. When Peter Sciretta first received the image yesterday, he was not even sure if the poster was fan made or the actual design for the movie. After doing a little research, he believes it’s legit. Anytime a site receives info about marketing plans and they are not sure if it’s real or not — that is generally NOT a good thing.

Oddly enough, a few days ago we got word that Capcom about the box art to Street Fighter IV changing. Although it’s not exactly like the movie poster; Ken and Ryu are in a pose similar to the movie poster. Was that on purpose!?

Back to the poster — it’s so pathetic looking, Peter actually went lengths to try to improve it — did he succeed? Sadly, we think so! Head over there now to check it out.

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