We’ve known for a few months now that GameStop has been planning to upgrade the Edge card program into a fleshed-out rewards program, but it has only been in a testing phase in a few areas within Ohio, Tennessee, and Minnesota until now. I was told by some clerks at the local GameStop that they would be switching people over to the PowerUp Rewards program tonight during the midnight launch of Madden NFL 11, which I can confirm when I ..read more

We always like to see developers reward their fans with free things, even before their latest game has even come out. Shank developer Klei Entertainment spread word earlier today that they would release the soundtrack for their upcoming XBLA and PSN brawler once the amount of fans on their Facebook page surpassed 1500 fans. The only problem is that Klei underestimated the response they would get, so the soundtrack was not ready for release when they passed 1500 fans. While you ..read more

I can easily say that ModNation Racers is a very good kart racing game that offers great user-creation tools that are easy to use and the actual racing mechanics are fun with a lot of stuff to do both offline and online, so when we saw the lengthy load times that came with it, it was kind of like having a delicious cake with icing that is extremely thick and too sweet. To give you an idea of ..read more

The buzz about Kinect since E3 has not been about the potential of this new technology nor the games, but the price and what it can’t do. Microsoft has confirmed today on Major Nelson’s blog that Kinect will retail for $149.99 that will include Kinect Adventures with it to confirm what many of the retailers, and even the Microsoft Store, have been saying since E3. They also formally announced the new Arcade that will retail for $199.99 and ..read more

Microsoft announced last week that Destination Arcade would be released for everyone in the US to download when Summer of Arcade started next week, but Major Nelson has announced today that it would only be available to until Summer of Arcade ends on August 18. We really don’t understand this either.

Destination Arcade is the newest app for the Xbox 360 dashboard that was supposed to make the growing library of Xbox Live Arcade games a lot easier to ..read more

Amidst all the hype surrounding E3 2010 are huge first party announcements.  At Microsoft, we have the Kinect along with the new and improved Xbox 360.  With Sony, we have their interesting PlayStation Move, insane exclusive content, and their new premium online service.  And with Nintendo, we got the 3DS.

But while Iwata seemed to go on and on about all the support the 3DS is getting, he didn’t seem to get in-depth with the games worth mentioning, so feast your ..read more

This year’s E3 may be the most important since the 2006 E3 before the launch of the PS3 and Wii since we have a number of hardware announcements that will affect these platforms for the next few years. Sony and Microsoft have new motion control peripherals that are seeking to bring a new audience to the PS3 and Xbox 360. Nintendo and Sony have successors to their current handhelds to announce and/or reveal. Then there are the third ..read more

Sort of. In a fascinating article entitled “Hooked on Gadgets, and Paying a Mental Price,” The New York Times takes an in-depth look at the effects of multi-tasking and digital addiction on mental capacity. While not all of the finding are positive, among the most interesting are these two points:

Technology use can benefit the brain in some ways, researchers say. Imaging studies show the brains of Internet users become more efficient at finding information. And players of some video games ..read more

It looks like there is hope for this godforsaken industry after all. For years we had to deal with crappy licensed games and sequels. And in the middle of a recession where companies are cutting corners as often as employees (though that’s been slowly changing), EA recently announced that they “beat their revenue expectations for the fourth quarter.” Why should you care? Because EA did so after making a point to improve the quality of their games.

During the ..read more

Since PlayStation Minis in North America aren’t usually widely marketed outside of the occasional posts on the PlayStation Blog, the ESRB’s site is one of the better ways to find out when new Minis are headed our way. This latest batch includes some new games and a few games that we’ve been waiting to hear word of when they would make their way to North America. Cubixx is a  Qix-style puzzle game where you now have the six sides of a ..read more

We reported not too long ago about a possible exodus of employees from Infinity Ward, and now it appears our prophecy has been proved accurate.

Lead Designer Mackey McCandish departed the company on Tuesday and this morning we discovered that four more employees have also jumped ship: lead artist Chris Cherubini, programmer Rayme Vinson, and lead designers Zied Reike and Steve Fukuda.

Where are they all going? We’d wager a guess on Respawn Entertainment, created by departed Infinity Ward heads ..read more

Following the dismissal of president Jason West and CEO Vince Zampella of Infinity Ward (developer of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2), both of which had eight years or more experience with the company, Kotaku is reporting that two more big names have jumped ship.

Todd Alderman, Lead Designer and Francesco Gigliotti, Lead Software Engineer have also bailed from Infinity Ward. Official reasons for their resignations are unknown at this time, but it’s a pretty probable bet that they ..read more

Do you love God of War as much as we do? Ten times as much you say?! Well in that case, you may want in on a chance to win a free strategy guide from BradyGames. We know you’re good enough to not need it, but winning it in this contest proves your zealous devotion unmatched. Here’s the official press release:

To honor the release of one of this year’s biggest titles - God of War III on PlayStation ..read more

Taking a jab at Modern Warfare 2’s controversial Fight Against Grenade Spam video, Dice has released this PSA for Battlefield: Bad Company 2 about random grenade spam. Starring in the video is New York Yankees pitcher C.C. Sabathia and Private Terrence Sweetwater, one of the stars of the Bad Company series, as they continue to slam Modern Warfare 2 with this great parody video. You can find the video after the jump. The video itself features C.C. warning players against random ..read more

Welcome to the first entry of PadSmashing, a feature on SmashPad that features our staff heading to release parties and gaming conferences across the United States for one thing and one thing only–getting down with the get down.

Our first event?  The Final Fantasy XIII Release Party at the Regency Center in San Francisco!

Just a little while ago, the highly anticipated Final Fantasy XIII arrived in western shores.  Developed and published by the RPG masters at Square Enix, the game is ..read more

We are just hours away from the release of what is probably the biggest RPG this year.  RPG enthusiasts are expecting Final Fantasy XIII to revolutionize the genre for this era.  But while reviews, including our very own, are still coming in, the fact remains that hype for this title is high.

The hype is so high that Square Enix Public Relations officials have been doing as much as they can to feed off this attention… literally.

You may have seen it ..read more

Since we are not in San Francisco for the big Nintendo Media Summit event that is going on right now, we will at least try to give you a quick summary of all of the news that is coming out of the event so you can better grasp why your spring and summer just got a lot busier.

Let’s start with third party news, shall we?

Capcom’s Monster Hunter Tri will be coming out for the Wii on April 20 ..read more