With the upcoming release of DJ Hero 2, Activision is beefing up this sequel by allowing you to play as many legendary DJs and this release sees Bobby Digital himself join the ranks. Along with being a playable character, The RZA will have two exclusive mixes as playable tracks in the game. These tracks mix LL Cool Js “I Can’t Live Without My Radio” with Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five “The Message” and mixes Damian Marleys “Welcome To Jamrock” with Walter Murphy “A Fifth of Beethoven.

EA and MTV games are not about to be upstaged with the news of a Hip-Hop legend joining their competition. Today they announced that Snoop Dogg will have his own track pack released for the Rock Band series. Now I can understand the lyrics working well, but I’m curious as to how guitar and drums will work (I guess they would just convert the beat, but you can see what I’m getting at). Either way Snoops track pack will be available on September 7th for $13.99 or $1.99 for the individual tracks which include:

- “Beautiful”

- “Drop It Like It’s Hot”

- “Ridin’ In My Chevy”

- “Sensual Seduction”

- “Snoop’s Upside Ya Head”

- “Tha Shiznit”

- “That’s Tha Homie” *

- “Who Am I (What’s My Name)?”

Source: Kotaku & IGN

One of the coolest Nerd events of the fall has to be IndieCade, the independent video game festival taking place October 8-10, in Culver City, California.

Featuring an award show hosted by Star Trek superstar/reading fanatic LeVar Burton, the fest celebrates the spirit of indie game development.

With an opportunity for gamers, investors, and creators to rub elbows, this is a chance to see the future of gaming…now. Ranging from artsy to innovative to just plain weird, this is sure to be a badass time. Plus, LeVar Burton is there! Nominated games include:

Bit.Trip Runner:

Cargo Delivery:

LIMBO:

Monsters Stole My Princess (Probably):

See all the nominees, learn all about IndieCade, and get tickets here.

Follow LeVar Burton on twitter here.

Capcom has released a brief look at the upcoming Mega Man Universe game which is set to be on display at this weekends PAX event in Seattle. The video still doesn’t give us an idea of what the game actually is but the look is fantastic, with what I’d describe as Mega Man 2.5D.

Yesterday saw the release of Metroid: Other M for the Nintendo Wii. With this game being one of the most highly anticipated releases for the Wii this year, I had high hopes for a fun experience. Luckily I wasn’t disappointed by what I got. I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve never beaten a Metroid game in the past and I wasn’t that big of a fan of the Prime series, but I love 2D style gameplay and classic Nintendo properties so this seemed like a good fit.

The gameplay is fantastic, holding the Wiimote sideways like a classic NES controller makes you feel like you’re playing the original NES or SNES titles. All the buttons are laid out perfectly for the control system and switching from 3rd to 1st person is much smoother and responsive than I thought it would be. The only downside is while in 1st person view you can not move around, so doing this while in a fight can definitely disorient you at first when you are begin attacked by aliens and you can’t see them.

While playing as Samus you will automatically lock on to enemies so that you aren’t just randomly shooting around, if you aim in their direction you’ll probably end up shooting your target. On top of that morphing into a ball is a very smooth transaction and handles quite well on the D-Pad. The D-Pad can get frustrating on some of the platform elements as you feel restricted by the size of the D-pad and it can make navigating certain platforms tricky. Outside of that I really had no complaints with the control or set up for the game.

Currently I only have two issues with the game. The first is that you are limited to you weapons and what you can use at the beginning of the game. You are equipped with everything you’d need, but the army you are working with only authorizes use of certain items at certain stages of the game. This is consistant though with other Metroid games as you would have to find upgrades to your suit before being able to use said weapons, but starting off with them and waiting for someone to tell you it is ok to use is a little frusturating especially when you see a puzzle you would like to solve but can’t due to authorization restrictions. Outside of that extremely minor complaint the only other issue I have with the game is that there are way too many cut scenes in the game. The cut scenes are important as they really flesh out Samus’ past and connects Super Metroid to this game, but you can not skip them at all you have to sit through them. This is quite the downfall as it seems that after about 15mins of gameplay you are subjected to another 5+mins of cinema. Within the first hour of playing, I was only controlling Samus for about 25 of the 60mins, the rest were cut scenes. I’m hoping this gets better as I go through the game, but based off of other reviews it doesn’t seem this will happen. So far after being only a few hours into the game I can honestly recommend this to any Wii owner and you should enjoy the game. It’s not as good as Mario Galaxy 2 or some other titles but it is a definite own for any Nintendo fan. I’d say all in all I’d give it a 7 out of 10.

Thanks to Gametrailers for the preview video.

Usually I’m not a huge fan of video game marketing.  Sure, the occasional ARG (Alternate Reality Game, like “I Love Bees”) is interesting, but I usually glaze over whenever I’m asked to invest time to be sold to.  However, With Dead Rising 2 around the corner, Capcom has not only released Demo/Prequel DR2: Case Zero (for a measly 5 bucks) today, but they’ve also created a loose tie-in film Zombrex Dead Rising Sun. The  film was broken up into eight installments, the last of which will be released tomorrow on both XBox and on DeadRisingSun.com.

Since I am currently waiting for my X-Box to finish downloading Case Zero, I did want to point out that if you are a fan of cheesy horror films at all, especially cheesy Japanese horror films, you’ve got to see Zombrex Dead Rising Sun.  Is it a good film? Not really.  In fact, I’m kind of chuckling at myself for calling it a film at all.  There are moments where I expect the silhouette of the three guys from Mystery Science Theater 3000 to start tossing verbal jabs from the bottom of my LCD.  That being said, the flick can be quite enjoyable, especially after you get past the slow setup of the first episode.

The flick starts out with the protagonists George, a spoiled, self-loathing, paraplegic, and his tough-guy older brother Shin being held captive in a warehouse during a zombie outbreak in Tokyo.  We learn through a series of flash backs that the boys have been turned away from various safe houses and were desperate for a place to stay when they found their way into this warehouse full of goods.  Ultimately, the guys controlling the warehouse don’t like this, rob the boys, and beat them up.  Did I mention that all the present tense moments are shot from George’s point of view, First Person Shooter style, a la Uwe Boll’s Doom?

The other reason to see it is for the voice dubs.  George sounds like a pre-pubescent David Cross.  The antagonists sound like they’re taking their verbal cues from Grease 2.  The zombies all have pretty much the same moan.  It is good times, and best of all, free laughs.

Finally, if you’re still on the fence, here’s what I learned from Zombrex Dead Rising Sun:

Guys who wear Ed Hardy shirts in Japan are douche bags too.

If you’re a fat guy and you live in Japan, your name is automatically “Fatty.”

Nurses still call paraplegics “handicapped.”

It doesn’t matter how many zombies bite you, if you’re really really really really don’t want to be a zombie, you won’t turn into a zombie for a really long time.

The Fonz is a major influence to the hair of the Japanese criminal element.

Paraplegics LOVE chips.

No work bench is complete without a blowtorch or a chainsaw.

So bit of slow news day on the video game front this morning, so I decieded to treat you all to every fatality from Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat II and Ultimate Mortal Kombat. Sit back and enjoy kids.

According to series top designer, Kazunori Yamauchi, Gran Turismo will have an optional 10GB HDD install to allow for the “smoothest” gameplay possible. This announcement was done during a Q&A so there was not much detail as to what the difference between the optional 10GB HDD install is compared to the smalled 256MB one so hopefully we’ll get more information on that soon. But for those of you that don’t want to deal with load times, it might be a good time to start cleaning up your hard drive on your system.

Gran Turismo 5 will be released exclusively for the PS3 on November 2nd.

Source: Kotaku

This Friday, August 27th, should be a great time at the NEW Rotofugi Gallery. That’s right, Rotofugi is kicking off the schedule of shows at their sweet new location with Playboy Redux: Contemporary Artists Interpret the Iconic Playboy Bunny. It should be a great time and will feature an overabundance of amazing artists, including the one and only Steve Seeley!

From Rotofugi:

Playboy Redux
Contemporary Artists Interpret the Iconic Playboy Bunny

August 27 – September 12, 2010
Opening Reception
Friday, August 27, 2010, 7-10PM
At our new gallery location: 2780 N Lincoln Ave, Chicago
About The Exhibit

Playboy Enterprises in collaboration with The Warhol Museum (Pittsburgh) invited over 20 contemporary and street artists to reinterpret the iconic Playboy Bunny in celebration of the opening of the first Playboy Club in Chicago 50 years ago in 1960. Known at that time for her satin bunny suit, cotton tail and rabbit ears, the Playboy Bunny served cocktails and glamour in equal doses. Many luminaries once worked as Bunnies, including Deborah Harry, Gloria Steinem and Lauren Hutton. For Playboy Redux: Contemporary Artists Interpret the Iconic Playboy Bunny, artists were asked to create a new look for the Bunny, a veritable makeover to create the Bunny of the future. The selected artists have presented a number of new takes on this iconic image, and works ranges range in medium including photography, painting, sculpture, drawing and video.

Playboy Redux was originally shown at The Warhol Museum in March-June, 2010. Rotofugi Gallery is proud to now exhibit and sell these works along with some new additions.

This project is part of Playboy’s year-long 50th Anniversary celebration of the Playboy Cluband Playboy Bunny. The exhibit is curated by Aaron Baker, Ned West and Rotofugi Gallery.
Participating Artists

Featuring Josh ‘Shag’ Agle, Jennybird Alcantara, Scott Anderson, Glenn Barr, Gary Baseman, Tim Biskup, R. Black, Ain Cocke, Brian Ewing, Brendan Fernandes, Rod Filbrandt, Jeremy Fish, Mike Giant, Ludovica Gioscia, Ken Keirns, Jeremiah Ketner, Jeremy Kost, Frank Kozik, Travis Lampe, Bob Masse, Tara McPherson, Hiroki Otsuka, Lisa Petrucci, Mark ‘Atomos’ Pilon, Bonni Reid, Isabel Samaras, Seth Scriver, Andrew Schoultz, Steve Seeley, Jeremy Tinder, Michelle Valigura, Saya Woolfalk and O Zhang.

For all of the latest on all things Rotofugi, please check out their site here.

And, be sure to go here to get on their official gallery preview list.

I hope you’re not getting tired of these Marvel vs Capcom 3 updates, because frankly they will not be stopping anytime soon. And for those of you who can’t get enough about this game like myself, enjoy Capcoms two new gameplay videos showing off Dormammu, Viewtiful Joe, The Super Skrull and others. After seeing The Super Skrulls level 3 hyper special, he will definitely be one of my new fighters.

With the launch of Metroid: Other M next week we are starting to see a nice influx of new videos detailing the gameplay that we can expect. Thanks to IGN and Gamespot for providing the video of these mini-boss/boss fights. Metroid: Other M will be released exclusivly for the Wii on August 31st.