I love when publishers make excuses for games that don't do very well. THQ tries its hand at the blame game this week, claiming that its mixed martial arts fighting game would have done better at retail if not for Rockstar's mega-hit Red Dead Redemption.

In a recent discussion with MCV, UK marketing director Jon Rooke blamed lagging sales of UFC Undisputed 2010 on Rockstar's wild west shooter: "That's largely down to Red Dead Redemption," he explained.

Even though Undisputed 2010 managed to move 2.6 million units, Rooke wanted more. The company says that the title hasn't "delivered the broader sales yet." Here's more:

"Rockstar have probably taken a fair amount of our market share. They shipped 5m units, taking a lot of consumer dollars."

On a related note, lagging ticket sales of Sex in the City 2 were blamed on MTV's The Hills..

  Read More

If you haven't had a chance to check out Limbo from the XBL Marketplace, you might not get the humor in this image right away. But I've spent a few hours playing Limbo and can totally relate to this - the water in the game is a damn nuisance sometimes. The guys from Virtual Shackles obviously understand this and wanted to do something about it - in their own unique way!

Via Virtual Shackles

Joystiq has some fab photos of Blizzard's StarCraft II action figures that were on display at Comic-con last week. The action figures are being manufactured by DC Unlimited and will be available in Spring 2011. StarCraft addicts wish they'd come out sooner, but they'll wait just the same.

The action figures include a Terran Space Marine, the Protoss heavyweight Zeratul and StarCraft protagonist Jim Raynor. So very pretty. StarCraft II is in stores tomorrow. I have my copy sitting on my desk!

Speaking of sales (see previous post) Xbox Live gold members can score the Borderlands add-ons for 50 percent off this week. This is a pretty sweet deal if you don't already own these add-ons - for those of us that paid full price a tad bit bittersweet.. The add-ons are available for 400 MS Points each and include Secret Armory, The Underdome and Zombie Island.

If you own the game but don't have these add-ons they are a must buy; they add so much more extra content to the game. If you don't own this game already, well you're missing out on one of the best action RPGs on the Xbox 360. 'Nuff said.

If I had to choose a fighting game to play it would probably be a tough choice between Streetfighter and Tekken. I've owned titles from both of these franchises and I've really enjoyed them. So when the announcement was made at the San Diego Comic-con that there is going to be a crossover of characters from these games, you can imagine how excited the fans were.

Above is a clip taken from YouTube showing the fight sequence between Ryu and Chun Li versus Kazuya and Nina. There's no denying the excitement in the crowd at Comic-con. Who would you be rooting for?

Via Kotaku

It was a good weekend for my son who managed to beat The Maw and Deathspank - mostly by himself. That's a pretty big accomplishment for a 9 year old, and my input was mostly negligible. As a father I’m proud of all my son's accomplishments, but as a gamer I’m particularly proud that my son's genetic code is close to mine when it comes to gaming. He loves games as much as I do!

One thing I find fascinating with children is that they are willing to give particularly sub-standard game expewreinces a chance that adults just won't put up with. For example, my son wants to play Marvel Super Hero Squad - a game that by most accounts is just plain horrible in every way. Maybe that has more to do with cartoon tie-ins and marketing, but I have seen plenty of other children and teens defend games that most of us are quick to write off. These youngsters are better known as "fan boys." Read More

At just about any convention related to games or comic books, you will come across the creative (and occasional slightly warped) individuals that like to dress up as their favorite characters. The folks over at Destructoid wandered the San Diego Comic Con to get a rather large image gallery of some of the best and worst costumes at the show.

Some of the costumes are incredibly good, while others should not be viewed after having eaten.

We usually don't give too much credibility to anything we read in tabloids. And some of the press in the United Kingdom can make the U.S. tabloids look tame in comparison. However, the UK tabloid newspaper Daily Star has apologized to Rockstar Games for a story it published about a new Grand Theft Auto game in the works.

The original story, published last week, said that Rockstar was working on a game called Grand Theft Auto Rothbury, which was supposedly inspired by murderer Raoul Moat. The paper even went so far for their story as mocking up a cover for the game and talking to the grandmother of Moat's girlfriend.

From the Daily Star: Read More

The Wall Street Journal has issued a correction from a July 16th story saying that the upcoming RTS StarCraft II cost more than $100 million to make. We covered the original story around that time.

The correction, posted on July 24, states:

“Activision Blizzard Inc. hasn't disclosed development costs for its Starcraft II videogame. A July 16 Technology article about the Starcraft sequel incorrectly said the company spent more than $100 million to develop the game; that figure referred to its World of Warcraft game.”

StarCraft II is hitting store shelves tomorrow.

The San Diego Comic Con was this past weekend and among the crowds of dressed up conventioneers and booths hawking wares was the announcement that the hammer-wielding Thor and the emerald garbed Green Lantern were going to be getting video games to go with the movies being developed.

Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters in being developed by Double Helix and will be out next summer. According to an article in Digital Trends: Read More

As I eagerly await the arrival of my copy of StarCraft II tomorrow, I thought it would be fitting to post the latest trailer for the new game. This is the StarCraft 2: Ghosts of the Past trailer. I hope you're all looking forward to getting your copies as much as I am - hard to believe it has been 10 years since the last game was released but it's finally here!

Via Machinima

Epic Games recently announced that Clay Carmine, one of the surviving members of the Carmine family in Gears of War will feature as a character in Gears of War 3. Clayton Carmine survives his younger brothers Benjamin and Anthony, who were both killed in the previous games. Unlike his brothers though, Clayton's future will be determined by the fans. Gears fans can purchase a "Save Carmine" or "Carmine Must Die" t-shirt for their avatars on the Xbox Live Marketplace to decide Clay's fate. All proceeds from the event will go to the Child's Play charity.

And I dunno about you but Clayton Carmine looks seriously bad ass! If you want to see more of him in Gears 3, head on over to the Marketplace and buy your t-shirt!

Via GearsofWarWikia

This gaming fan decided to recreate the Mortal Kombat fatalities using nothing more than a bit of animated video and paper! Another awesome find from the world of gaming.

Via YouTube

 Being a personal friend of Curt's, I am just THRILLED to see his fledgling studio getting their time in the limelight.  These guys deserve a bunch of success, and the new game looks promising to say the least!

Kevin Butler, VP of International Diplomacy at Sony Computer Entertainment America, has responded via his blog regarding the issue of copycat video clips showing up on TV3, one of New Zealand's primary television stations.

The image used for this post above is the original PlayStation 3 YouTube clip while TV3 created their own clip which you can view here. Mr. Butler had this to say about the situation from his blog: Read More