Telltale Games recently announced that Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People will be released for PlayStation 3 in North America on December 21. A Mac version will be released "shortly thereafter." The episodic series is based on Mike and Matt Chapman's comedic web cartoons.

Developed in partnership with HomeStarRunner.com creators Mike and Matt Chapman, Telltale's Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People (SBCG4AP) delivers all of the comedy and irreverence of the web cartoons that its legions of fans have come to love. SBCG4AP is a story-driven 5 episode series with a comic spin that's undeniably Strong Bad. The player uncovers each episode's comedic plot through character interaction, dialogue-based puzzles, and the use (and abuse) of inventory items. The storylines run the gamut from political struggles to rock 'n roll to the world of video games (of course). In addition, each episode is crammed with time-wasters to keep players poking around in the world, including Strong Bad emails to check, prank phone calls to place, and mini-games styled after the arcade games on the Homestarrunner.com website. SBCG4AP features the cast of characters and locations from the Homestarrunner.com cartoons, and the games are fully voice acted by Matt Ch apman and the rest of the original cast.

Telltale Games

Strong Bad's Cool Game For Attractive People

Worthplaying has posted a new review of PopCap Games' recently released Bejeweled 3 gem matching sequel. The game features eight game modes, 65 achievement badgees to collect, a variety of new powerups to discover, and improved graphics. Worthplaying gave the game a score of 8.5 out of 10.

From the review:

The first thing you're going to notice about Bejeweled 3 is that it's a bit heftier than its predecessor. This isn't necessarily a bad thing; after all, fancy graphics and spiffy sounds take up space, but you'll need a somewhat up-to-date computer if you expect to run it. When PopCap says you need a gig of RAM for the game, they mean it. If you meet the minimum spec (Intel Core Duo CPU, 1GB RAM) or better, Bejeweled 3 looks fantastic.

Every single aspect of the visuals has gotten a complete overhaul. Blocks, backgrounds, menu screens, animations: It's all been redone in extra crisp high definition. Assuming you have the screen for it, Bejeweled 3 supports a resolution of 1920x1200. That's a bit better than 1080p. To borrow a phrase from the announcer, it's quite excellent.

Audio has gotten a similar rework, with the music providing fitting atmosphere yet never being overpowering. The tunes range from upbeat synthesized classical during classic mode to soothing electronica that sounds almost Wendy Carlos-inspired in Zen mode. Zen mode also has the option of playing ambient background noise, such as rain or a forest. PopCap has even included some binaural beats to help you concentrate. The scientific community hasn't made any sort of judgment on the effectiveness, but it's there if you want to give it a try.

Worthplaying: Bejeweled 3 Review

PopCap Games

Bejeweled 3

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TopWare Interactive recently announced that Two Worlds II will be coming to North America, Ireland, and the UK on January 25. Two Worlds II will send players to the unexplored land of Eastern Antaloor and will feature detailed graphics, an active combat system, and a complex storyline

We're proud to announce that Two Worlds II, the major turnaround sequel of the year, has recently broken the one million unit sales mark in Europe after just three weeks on the store shelves. And, the momentum doesn't appear to be slowing. More than sixty magazines have awarded or reviewed the game as being exceptional, and player feedback has been tremendous as well.

As many know, the North American, Irish and UK release of the next installment in the Two Worlds franchise has been pushed back to January 25th, 2011. Contrary to an earlier December press release in Europe by TopWare's publishing partner: South Peak Games, has relinquished distribution rights in Ireland and the UK to TopWare in order to focus on their North American marketing campaign. The rights were not purchased back by TopWare, as was previously reported.

TopWare Interactive’s, managing director, James Seaman, had this to say: "Both TopWare and South Peak want our game to get the attention it deserves. South Peak wants to give the North American market 100% of their attention, and we're happy we were able to take some of the weight off their shoulders. Two Worlds II really is a labor of love, and after seeing how far the game has come, the fans are going to be blown away in January!"

TopWare also plans to open a UK office within the next six months that will support the press and all of the retail community in a positive and comprehensive fashion.

Two Worlds II

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GamePro has posted a retrospective review of World of Warcraft from Blizzard Entertainment. The review focuses on the changes wrought upon the game world by the recently released Cataclysm expansion, noting how the new player experience has been improved.

Anyone now buying the first World of Warcraft game will not be able to play the original game old WoW players grew up with. They will instead play the new, redesigned World of Warcraft experience: a post-Cataclysm world where questlines have been redesigned and tightened. Where the leveling structure is intuitive and much more logical. Where new players are led through the game in a way that makes it much, much more enjoyable and fun. And where there is a lot less wandering around getting lost, or becoming frustrated, or running halfway across the world to deliver an item that then yields a tiny amount of experience for the effort involved.

The new WoW delivers its story in a much more successful way, and makes the player feel more involved. Questlines are tighter. The presentation is improved. There’s virtually no "grinding" -- your character develops and evolves naturally and progressively. And best of all, leveling up is much, much faster. Where it took initial WoW players months to get to 60, now it takes a few weeks – even if playing casually, and if you know what you’re doing, much less time than that. Overall, post-Cataclysm WoW is a much, much better experience for beginners, and as a consequence, a much, much better game.

GamePro: World of Warcraft Review

Blizzard Entertainment

World of Warcraft

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