Dust off the eye patch and peg-leg!

Microsoft’s E3 press event has come and gone, and while the conference’s potency may be up for debate, I don’t see any sweet Ricochet kick serves in my near future. Fortunately, LucasArts was able to serve up the perfect chaser for two hours of waning interest. Hopping onto the internet washed away the haunting visage of Yoko Ono and replaced it with the happy-go-lucky grin of would-be pirate extraordinaire Guybrush Threepwood.

It’s been nearly a decade since the last iteration of the Monkey Island series, but now we can look forward to a handful (you can put them in a basket if you’ve got a hook instead) of releases. LucasArts themselves will be developing The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition for the PC and Xbox Live Arcade, which is a remake of the series’ 1990 debut game. In concert, Telltale Games, which is heavily comprised of former LucasArts employees, has been charged with developing Tales of Monkey Island for the PC and WiiWare. The former game sports familiar 2D artwork, a re-mastered soundtrack, full voice overs, and an optional hint system. Tales, on the other hand, is fully 3D and stylistically in-line with what you might expect from a WiiWare-level sequel. Since there’s only so much swashbuckling a person can handle in any given month, this game will be released in five episodic installments. Five times the fun, or simply five times the cost? My fingers are crossed.

If you missed the pirate boat the first time around, there should be no excuse not to plunder this booty (no actual plundering, please – you can purchase them graciously this summer.) It’s enough to get excited about, and with any luck LucasArts will bring more of their adventure classics into the new millennium. May I suggest Full Throttle and the Nintendo DS, guys?

GamesRadar offers tips on how to be a true sport.

One round wins. Endless battles against Ken. Sandbagging. These are just a small sample of the things casual players openly complain amongst their peers in Street Fighter IV. It appears that one GamesRadar editor shares your pain and was inspired to compile a short list of tips directed towards players who come across as jerks/pricks/unsportsmanlike online.

I agreed with all the points the editor outlines on the first page, but the article started losing my support toward when I reached the latter parts. Asking players not to throw is pointless and I hate to break it to you, it’s NOT cheap. Oh, I agree — getting hit by a series of jab/short attacks followed by a throw can be aggravating, but it’s outrageous to dismiss the other player as lacking skill. The point about using a player icon/title is also silly and the editor should not assume that everyone does this as a means to “bait” people with the notion they’re clueless how to play. This element is OPTIONAL.

The best advice I can give can be summarized in one sentence: play to have fun and remember it’s just a game.

David Sirlin reveals issues with getting HD Remix properly off the ground.

I hope a lot of you appreciate all the hard work and sweat that went into making Super SF2 II Turbo HD a reality. It was the type of project that was truly developed out of a labor of love, and if not for one talented David Sirlin, the powers that be would have kept the dream on the cutting board. Sirlin introduced several significant alterations in the game including new moves, easier command motions and various gameplay. Coupled with the new HD-visuals, old-school fighting vets and casual players alike had an all-new reason to hop on Xbox 360 and PS3 this holiday season.

By now, the diehard fighting game enthusiasts (and well, not so diehard) have become well aware of his departure from Backbone Entertainment. Naturally this posed a lot of questions amongst his friends and supporters as to the reasoning. Sirlin was recently approached by Videogamer.com where the actual truth behind HD Remix (among some other surprises) reveals what was truly going on behind the scenes. Can you believe that they wanted him NOT to rebalance the game? For those of you who’ve actually come to cherish all the extensive changes, could you imagine if they were non-existent? I can’t… I LOVE Chun’s new changes and it’s hard to imagine going back to the classic style aside from has a nostalgic moment.

This is just the first part in an extensive interview which already has me wanting to throw stones at Backbone for being so well… bullish in their decision-making process and creating such an awkward hardship in getting one of Capcom’s most anticipate releases this year. It’s the sort of thing that really makes you wonder how some companies can claim to have a connection with their audience but are obviously viewing the outside world with beer goggles.

I rather not give anything away, but be sure to pay a visit over to Videogamer.com, bookmark the site and keep your eyes glued for the forthcoming updates. And keep your head up Dave, there’s a whole community out there who totally appreciate all your efforts for making this game possible for us. (Oh, and our review is coming — I am just having a hard time getting time away from the game.)

Xbox shakedown, Eidos shenanigans, and more.

Monday: Do you enjoy Fallout 3, but sometimes find yourself a bit overwhelmed by the sheer largeness of it all?  Frustrated by the absolute uselessness of the in-game map system?  Planet Fallout is here to help.  Using Google Maps technology, these kind souls have put together a tool that should serve you quite well as you see the Good Fight through to the end.  A very similar setup was seen earlier this year with Grand Theft Auto IV, so if you’ve used that, you know what to expect. (more…)

Fallout 3, Wii Music, and more.

Monday: A couple weeks ago, Bethesda requested that any and all Fallout 3 trailers be pulled, with the implication that pressure from the ESRB was the concern.  Said trailers created quite a stir due to their depiction of several Washington landmarks as they might appear after a nuclear attack.  While the images were certainly intense, they were far from gratuitous, and certainly appropriate for a game that, well, takes place in Washington after a nuclear attack.  In their most recent roundtable, the gentlemen at GameTrailers share their rather colorful thoughts on the matter.  You have to skip to the last few minutes of the clip, but their accusations of the organization’s heavy-handedness are absolutely worth a listen. (more…)