SideQuesting

Trick or Treat?  We’ll take the treat in the form of another sweet OverClocked ReMix album, this time focusing on the music of Xenogears — you know, the best PS1 RPG that we all love to hate and hate to love.  Humans + Gears: Xenogears ReMixed began as a collective project in 2006, bringing together some 20+ artists to “reimagine the game in a sonic format”.  In other words, this isn’t just a remix album, but a re-envisioning of the game’s themes through its soundtrack, originally by the great Yasunori Mitsuda.

Divided into two “discs” named “Humans” and “Gears”, the distinct themes for the music are those of natural elements and unnatural fear and destruction, respectively.  Containing 35 tracks and from some of the more well-experienced names in the gaming remix world, fans of the game and OCR’s work are sure to choose “treat”.

Available via torrent from the OCR website.

This week, Nintendo announced the 2010 release of the DSi XL (LL in Japan).  As if by clockwork, the hardcore gaming blogosphere replied with a “Two Snaps Up” and “Hated it”.  Apparently, any news that is not about a gaming system getting smaller and with better graphics and processors is a great catastrophe unto our gaming world.

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Wii-exclusive title Epic Mickey appears to have been originally conceived as a PS3/PC/360 game, according to an interview with developer Warren Spector by Official Nintendo Magazine.

In the interview, Spector noted his desire to publish for one platform instead of several.  Disney Interactive’s boss Graham Hopper offered up the Wii as a unique option, and Spector excitedly agreed.

While this may set another ember onto Ps3/360/Wii flame war, the opportunity to develop a unique motion control scheme and design the game around it is pushing Spector to create a “Mario, Zelda… Ratchet & Clank” level game.

The image you see above is a jigsaw-like creation combining all of the dungeon maps of the Legend of Zelda onto one… map.  And as you can see, said map fits together pretty damn well.  It’s as if Shigeru Miyemoto foresaw that 20-odd years after its release some fans would scour the internet for Zelda maps and combine them into one masterpiece.

[via imgur]

Fresh off of the YouTubes comes the Assassin’s Creed 2 prequel films — wait… wouldn’t that just be Assassin’s Creed?  Whatever.  The video is an epic 14 minutes in length, detailing the assassin-filled setting of the Renaissance era.  Apparently, murdering in secret was all the rage back then.

The video itself is actually extremely well put together, as the effects and acting add up for a good all around package.

This Tuesday (27 October) on #gamechat: We’ll discuss the big games of November!  Assassin’s Creed 2, Modern Warfare 2, L4D2, New Super Mario Bros… What games are you looking forward to most this month?

Join us and discuss!

#gamechat begins on Twitter at 9PM EST every Tuesday.

Want to know how to get included in #gamechat? Read here to find out!

Welcome to the SideQuest, your semi-weekly podcast devoted to gaming, culture, and gaming culture, with the occasional tangent.

Episode 119.  Mike Wehner makes his triumphant return as the podcast derails from the get-go.  NPDs are discussed, as well as SideQuest Babiez, Mike’s iPhone creations, and a lot of nothingness.  Yes, a lot.

Hosts:
Yaniv Pereyaslavsky, Mike Wehner, Dali Dimovski, Ryan Gan

 

 The SideQuest Episode #119 - Old Porn Edition [91:13m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (1527)

The rumors of NetFlix coming to another home device are now true, as yesterday both NetFlix and Sony announced that the uber-cool rental service is going to be streaming to the PS3 sometime soon (November?).

The service will be available for free to all current NetFlix subscribers, unlike with Microsoft’s XBox where a Gold Membership is needed — up to $50/year.  Needed to access the service will be a disk inserted into the Blu Ray drive.  Whether this includes software to install or the disk needed to be in to stream is still uncertain.

With a recent major price cut, Uncharted 2, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 the PS3 suddenly looks like it is a gaming force this Holiday season.  How can Microsoft counter?  Well, achievements for watching bad 80’s movies would be a start.

[Via Sony and Netflix]

Here’s a left-fielder for you on a Monday morning: Rumors have popped up from “sources in the know” about a possible Valve gobble-up by publisher/developer Bethesda Softworks.

Eurogamer reports that Zenimax Media, owners of Bethesda, are still on the acquisition trail after having picked up ID software earlier this Summer.

What could this mean for the makers of Half Life?  Elder Scrolls V: Freeman Edition? And more importantly, what could this mean for Steam?

While the rumors thus far are unsubstantiated — we’re expecting a solid “No Comment” or an “Ain’t gonna happen” from either company — they do present the current craze in the ever-shifting gaming landscape: if you can’t beat’em, eat’em up.

[Eurogamer via GameZine]

Fans of the recently released Uncharted 2 will appreciate the news out of Sony that the first episode of the 4-part Uncharted motion comic is now available in the PSN… for free!  The events in the motion comic take place a few months before those in the original game, showing what Nathan Drake was doing to earn his treasure-hunter cred.  Future episodes, Sony states, will contain added bonuses for those who download them.

Uncharted: The Eye of Indra – Episode 1 is available now on the PlayStation Network

Via Playstation.blog