Author: Christopher Bowen

  • Review: Faery: Legends of Avalon (Sony PlayStation 3)

    Faery: Legends of Avalon Developer: Focus Home Interactive Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment America Genre: Role Playing Game Release Date: 1/4/2011 The PlayStation Network, for all the wonderful things it has going for it, tends to be light on certain genres, the most notable of those being role playing games. I love a lot of the…

  • Diehard GameFAN Hall of Fame Nomination: Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love

    Sakura Wars finally hit US shores last year, and knocked us over. We’ve lavished the game with praise. But does it have enough to make our Hall of Fame?

  • Adieu, PlayStation 2 – Christopher Bowen

    A look at each staffer’s ten favorite PlayStation 2 video games. Today – Christopher Bowen

  • Diehard GameFAN Hall of Shame: Bubsy 3D

    Bubsy 3D is a universally reviled piece of software. Did enough people suffer through it to put it into our Hall of Shame?

  • Two Rockstar Executives Resign

    It has been learned that the head of Rockstar London, Mark Washbrook, resigned earlier this month. Also leaving the company was Mark Lloyd, the head of Rockstar Lincoln. Mr. Washbrook’s most notable work with Rockstar was 2007 release Manhunt 2. He is also credited on Nintendo’s Batallion Wars as well as Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior…

  • Sony Wins Temporary Restraining Order Against PlayStation Hacker

    In another round of what will undoubtedly be a long legal struggle, Sony has won a restraining order against George “Geohot” Hotz which prevents him from assisting in any way the hacking or “jailbreaking” of their PlayStation 3 console. According to papers obtained by Engadget, the temporary order prevents Mr. Hotz or anyone working in…

  • Sony Releases Firmware 3.56. It, Too, Is Useless

    On their blog, Sony has stated that the PlayStation 3 would be getting firmware 3.56. At this time, it is currently out. The firmware adds a “security patch”. There is no change log when installing the patch, and the PlayStation Blog doesn’t go into any further detail. If this sounds suspiciously like the absolutely useless…

  • Federal Games Warning Label Law Introduced To Congress

    Yesterday, U.S. Representatives Joe Baca (D-CA) and Frank Wolf (R-VA) introduced a bill called the Video Game Health Labeling Act that would federally mandate warning labels on a large subsection of video games. Should H.R. 400 be passed, it would mandate that any game that is given a rating of Teen (T) or above by…

  • Devil Survivor Overclocked Announced For 3DS

    Atlus put out a press release today announcing that Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor Overclocked will be released in North America sometime in September for the 3DS. The new version of the game is set to expand upon the original with voice acting for the entire narrative as well as additional, eighth chapter that serves…

  • Unbranding the Sheep: The Perils Of What We Call “Journalism”

    Over the past eight years, I have made the move from someone who occasionally writes about video games on my personal blog, to someone who’s run a large-scale fan site, to someone who wrote for a decent site, to someone who helped build up another site, to someone who is now paid to write about…

  • Gaming Group To Report Activision To U.K. Authorities Over PS3, PC Black Ops Issues

    A British consumer lobby group by the name of Gamers’ Voice has promised to report Activision to “the relevant authorities” over what they deem the “unfinished” versions of Call of Duty: Black Ops that were released for the PC and PlayStation 3. The group, which was founded in 2009 by MP Tom Watson to combat…

  • Sony Begins “11 For 11” PlayStation Network Sale Today

    In a post on their company blog, Sony announced that they will have 11 of their best games on the service on sale for a week, beginning on the Tuesday PSN update and ending on the 31st of January. The details of the sale are below: Costume Quest – $7.49 sale price; $14.99 regular price…

  • Disney Interactive Conducts “Significant” Layoffs

    CNBC reports that Disney Interactive has become the victim of a large amount – possibly half of the division’s 700 employees – of layoffs. The company confirmed to

  • Nintendo 3DS: The Facts About The Launch

    The Nintendo 3DS has officially been dated. Here is all of the information, confirmations and double talk from the past few days since Nintendo’s dual press conferences.

  • Facebook Game Developers Will Have To Use Facebook Credits

    TechCrunch reported, and then later confirmed via Facebook, that the social network who’s platform has been responsible for a shift in how casual games are played and developed will officially be making their Facebook Credits currency mandatory for all games on the service as of July 1st. As it currently stands, some games use Facebook…

  • Zynga, Blingville In Legal Row Over “-ville” Trademark

    Casual game developers Blingville LLC, who have a game of the same name in development, have fired back at three Cease and Desist letters sent by Zynga over the former’s use of the term “ville” in their game name, suing the company and asking for a declaratory judgement against them. Zynga had sent Cease and…

  • Nintendo Confirms 3DS Region Lock

    There have been reports for about a week on the NeoGAF forums about an email from Nintendo support stating that the 3DS would be region locked. Today, it’s been confirmed by Nintendo that these rumours are true. In a statement to Eurogamer, Nintendo stated that the reason was largely due to network services tailored for…

  • Valve Lists Portal 2 Goodies: Cross-Platform Play, Steam Play For PS3 Buyers

    Valve has announced that the PlayStation 3 version of Portal 2 will have two huge additions. The first big deal is that Portal 2 will be the first PS3 game to use Steam on the system. In practise, this means that PS3 gamers can play across platforms with gamers using the PC and Mac OS/X…

  • Apple CEO Steve Jobs Takes Leave Of Absence

    Apple’s iconic CEO Steve Jobs has taken a medical leave of absence, according to an email sent to staff at Apple and confirmed on their website. The media advisory has a copy of the email Mr. Jobs sent to his employees: Apple CEO Steve Jobs today sent the following email to all Apple employees: Team,…

  • IP Ownership At Heart Of Respawn Entertainment/THQ Non-Signing

    In an interview with Wired, THQ’s Vice President of Core Games Danny Bilson stated that his company almost signed Respawn Entertainment, but there was one point that neither side would budge on: the ownership of the intellectual property (IP) that Respawn would create. In the interview, Bilson stated that his “responsibility to (their) stockholders and…