Disney's Guilty Party is a family game for the Wii that features clue gathering and mini games to help you determine who committed such heinous crimes as "Who Ate My Pudding?" Grab your trusty magnifying glass and check out Eric Eckstein's preview of the game from GDC 2010.

"There's a party on my Wii and everybody's invited!  The party in this case is Disney's Guilty Party, a new family-friendly mystery-infused game for the Wii.  This is the first title by Wideload Games post-acquisition by Disney, and immediately, you can see how in sync the project is with Disney's vision.  Individual characters look and feel like Disney mainstays which are accessible, fun and inoffensive, while the game itself offers plenty of fun “crime” solving mini-games for kids of all ages."

Check out some screenshots from the game here.

Click here for the entire preview, and don't forget to visit our treasure trove of GDC 2010 information to get the scoop on all of the goings-on from San Francisco.

Split/Second is one of those games that you just can’t help but want to see more of, because what it brings to the table is so inherently appealing that it’s impossible to resist (Fast cars. Explosions. Come on!). But don’t take my word for it. Andrew Pfister took the game for a bridge-collapsing spin during GDC 2010, and here’s what he had to say:

"The races in Split/Second are extremely tense – in my demo race, at least, the pack stayed together throughout most of the course, trading paint and destructive Power Play attacks (smaller explosions that you can set off after accruing enough power)."

Andrew's full preview can be viewed right here. More GDC info can be found at our GDC 2010 content mothership.

When it was unveiled at last year's Game Developers Conference, OnLive made big waves and had everyone talking. After 12 months of speculation about the service, MCV revealed details on the service's release date and subscription model. According to the report, the service will launch on PCs and Macs on June 17th with a monthly subscription fee of $14.95. EA, Ubisoft, Take-Two, THQ, and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment will support OnLive with titles from their library of games. The details were also made available during an event at GDC earlier this morning.

OnLive COO Mike McGarvey (no relation to yours truly, but nice name!) provided some details on what you can expect regarding game access, saying, "Individual titles will be available for purchase or rental on an a la carte basis. Specific game pricing, including rentals,purchases and loyalty programs, will be announced prior to the consumer launch event at E3. We’ll also be announcing additional loyalty and discount programs for consumers in the coming months."

MCV also indicated that more details on game titles and pricing for purchase will become available closer to the June launch. For now, the article states that McGarvey confirmed that Assassin's Creed II, Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands, and Metro 2033 will launch with OnLive.

So, there you have it. I find the prospect of OnLive intriguing, and it's telling that in light of Ubisoft's controversial DRM practices on PC, they're throwing a lot of weight behing the service. If you can play games on your PC without lag or concern for download times, will you give OnLive a spin?

Source: MCV

We lost one of the biggest icons of the late 80's early this morning. Former teen idol, Corey Haim has succumbed to a long battle with addiction. After an apparent accidental overdose, he was found unresponsive in his Los Angeles apartment and passed-away in a nearby hospital in Burbank. He was 38 years-old.



Besides achieving fame in his own right in such films as Stephen King's Silver Bullet and classic feel-good film, Lucas, Haim was also one-half of the duo of "Two Corey's" along with fellow child star, Corey Feldman. Together, they lit-up, not only the tabloids, but the box-office. Of course, they gave great performances in the still-awesome update of the vampire genre, The Lost Boys, and appeared together in some disposable romp comedies like License to Drive and the Dream A Little Dream films.



There's a weird dynamic that goes with teen idols. I was a just a kid when the Two Corey's were tearing it up. It was a time when teen-idoldom was surging with the New Kids on the Block phenom, and even at my young age, I felt "too cool for school" in regards to the Coreys' role in the world. (And justifiably so.) However, one still can't help but look back at those days and concede that teen idols are an important part of the spirit of a particular era. (For better or worse.) So, while you won't catch me going out to Wal-Mart to fill a cart with Jonas Brothers posters and CD's, I think I can objectively look back at Corey Haim's contribution to pop culture and give him his due respect.

RIP: Corey Haim

Source: E! Online

GameStop is on its way out, according to NinjaBee art director Brent Fox. All retail establishments whose primary sales are driven by boxed video games are on their way out, actually.

"I think GameStop is not going to be around shortly," said Fox during a presentation at the Game Developers Conference discussing NinjaBee's biggest lessons making downloadable games.

NinjaBee is probably best known for A Kingdom for Keflings and Cloning Clyde.

Fox pointed to the moves that Electronic Arts is making as primary evidence, as EA recently shuttered Pandemic Studios while spending $300 million on acquiring social-oriented developer Playfish.

"I think the change [to digital] is happening rapidly, where I think GameStop is not going to be around shortly," he said. "I started talking about this six months ago. I was saying 'oh, five years.' ... I've revised my particular prediction to three years and I still think that's talking too long. My [business] partner's original prediction was a little over two years and I think he's going to win."

Do you want to take him up on that bet?

Have something to share? Sitting on a news tip? E-mail me. You can also follow me on Twitter.

Hardcore Final Fantasy fans have most likely already snatched up their copy of Square Enix’s long awaited Final Fantasy XIII by now (I mean, it’s been on sale for an entire day!). Still, there are probably a few curious gamers out there wondering just what all the hype is about, so we figured we’d give you a little taste of what awaits you should you decide to embark on this massive and gorgeous adventure in our latest First 15 installment. When it’s your turn, hit play.

     

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Motion controller? New game titles? PlayStation 4? Time machine? The possibilities are endless when it comes to the big Sony press conference at GDC 2010. Kevin Pereira and Olivia Munn will be bringing you a live feed from San Francisco, featuring the latest announcements from Sony on Attack of the Show. Tune in to G4 tonight at 7:00pm ET to watch what happens!

No one will tell you game development is an easy process. As a medium that's still finding its way, developers are constantly learning about new ways to manage their teams and create a more efficient development process, while still maintaining freedom for creativity. That doesn't always happen, which has lead to the very real problem that game developers burn out quickly and leave the industry.

thatgamecompany (aka the indie studio behind Flower and flOw) producer Robin Hunicke directly addressed this issue during a panel at the Game Developers Conference today.

"It is not just the long hours that burn us out," said Hunicke. "It is the anxiety ... and the feeling that we're failing every day that makes us feel exhausted when we go home the end of the week and drives us into work on a Saturday or Sunday because we lost an argument, because we're not making that progress, because we're afraid of that conversation. We're driving ourselves extra hard and every time we do that, we're sapping ourselves of energy."

Hunicke's talk focused on ways to help game developers get along better, which thatgamecompany theorized leads to better games and developers who will be around longer to make more games.

"It's not just the hours," she reiterated. "It's our attitude about our jobs that makes it hard."

thatgamecompany is currently working on an unannounced new project for PlayStation 3.

Have something to share? Sitting on a news tip? E-mail me. You can also follow me on Twitter.

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Funny that as I wrote yesterday's article about what I want to see in this year's crop of upcoming music games, I forgot about the DJ Hero sequel. But I suppose that's banter for another day. In the meantime, Activision announced the third DLC pack for its mash-up menagerie. Just in case you couldn't get enough of the Jay-Z vs. Eminem content on the disc (I, for one, enjoyed the "My Name Is vs. H (to the Izzo)" mash-up), there's another downloadable pack featuring more mash-up fun. Starting next Thursday, you'll be able to download the Jay-Z vs. Eminem Pack for 640 Microsoft Points ($7.99 in the PlayStation Store) or 300 Wii Points per track. Here's what you can expect to see on the pack:

   
• “Shake That” by Eminem Mixed  With “Show Me What You Got” by Jay-Z

   
• “Without Me” by Eminem Mixed  With “Encore” by Jay-Z

   
• “Can I Get A…” by Jay-Z Mixed  With “Lose Yourself” by Eminem

Happy with the pack? If not, what would you want out of the next DJ Hero track pack? I'd take, say, Bowie and Queen's "Under Pressure" vs. Justice's "DVNO." Let me know what kind of crazy mash-ups you can think of!

PC gamers have been waiting for many, many years for Blizzard to finally unleash StarCraft II, and the wait is almost over. Fortunately, the beta is currently keeping anticipations at a manageable level (or it could be making the wait for the final version even more painful. Hard to say.).

The point is, Blizzard has some work to do before the game is ready to ship, so to find out how the process is coming along, and what the team envisions for the new Battle.net system, X-Play recently sat down with Blizzard for an all access preview….Oh, and here it is:

     

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Fantasy-magic game Magicka promises lots of spell-casting, monsters and magic missiles. Put on your robe and wizard hat and check out Eric Eckstein's GDC 2010 preview of this upcoming downloadable title:

"I admit it, I mocked Magicka sight unseen. The name alone conjured an image of a bad third person action adventure game, and I walked into my hands-on session with Paradox Interactive pre-disposed. I didn't expect to be pleasantly surprised by its innovative nature, nor to walk out of that demo still thinking about it and dying to play it again!"

Click here for the full preview, and visit our GDC 2010 headquarters for all the previews, videos, news and more from Game Developers Conference 2010.

One of the most impressive Independent Games Festival finalists at Game Developers Conference is Super Meat Boy, a 2D platformer from none other than the aptly-titled Team Meat. A hilarious Super Meat Boy comic was bundled with a bag of goodies handed out to most GDC 2010 attendees and it included a line that made me laugh out loud -- a reference to how many times players have killed Meat Boy in the original flash version of the game that's become Super Meat Boy.

So, just how many times have gamers killed Super Meat Boy? 400 million times.

Iif you haven't played the original Meat Boy, that number might sound absolutely insane, but Meat Boy is a hardcore platformer that's encouraging you to die. You die in Super Meat Boy in order to learn the right path through the level, so when the flash version of the game's been played 10 million times, 400 million deaths sounds about right.

It's also possible that Team Meat completely made that number up and I look like a jerk now.

Super Meat Boy will be released later this year on Xbox Live Arcade, WiiWare and PC.

Have something to share? Sitting on a news tip? E-mail me. You can also follow me on Twitter.

Capcom hosted a community-oriented party for Super Street Fighter IV last night in San Francisco during the Game Developers Conference, in order to unveil the last secret character for Super Street Fighter IV and celebrate the launch of the iPhone version of the game. As part of that celebration, Capcom had also lined up a series of Street Fighter-themed drinks.

Want to see 'em? You might have to squint a bit, but...

Have something to share? Sitting on a news tip? E-mail me. You can also follow me on Twitter.

Free-to-play MMOs are quite the popular genre these days, and True Games aims to keep the popularity ball rolling with their upcoming mythology-based game Mytheon. G4’s Eric Eckstein had a chance to check out the intriguing title at GDC 2010, and here’s a snippet of what he saw:

“Like Diablo, players create a character of different classes: the tank Warcaster who can control many different types of creatures, the wizard-like Elementalist who wields more elemental magic-based attacks, and the supporting Eidolon, which acts as a priest, healing and resurrecting players.”

To find out more, be sure to read Eric’s full preview. And then check out our GDC 2010 hub for even more event coverage.

Adam Sessler meets up with United Front Games' Executive Producer Stephen Van Der Mescht to talk about True Crime, the reinvention of the True Crime series, at GDC 2010.

Get all the details of the reboot with the video below!

     

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Last night at GDC 2010, the final character in Super Street Fighter IV was revealed: His name is Hakan, and he's... odd. Hakan is a orange-bodied, blue-haired Turkish wrestler who enjoys applying oil to his body and sliding opponents all over the place before slamming them into the ground and murderizing them. It's pretty weird.

"In the history of Street Fighter, there's always been a lot of wacky and unusual characters," Super Street Fighter IV producer Yoshinori Ono told us. "We settled on Turkish wrestling because these guys literally douse themselves in oil, grappling with each other. It's such a unique and relatively unknown fighting style."

Super Street Fighter IV  will be released on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 systems April 27, 2010, so stock up on the baby oil!  And check out our Hakan gallery. There's a trailer of the man in action below:

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Sure, Crackdown 2 is filled with epic mayhem, but what fun would that be if you didn’t have a slew of slick new abilities (aka Skills for Kills) to make wrecking that mayhem varied and even more satisfying than it was in the first game? Glad you asked, because X-Play has an all access look at some of the new abilities at your disposal in Ruffian Games’ sandbox-on-roids action title. Get your drool cups ready:

     

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Hexes have never been as sexy as they are in Sid Meier's Civilization 5. The game comes out this summer for the PC, and when it does, gamers everywhere will have their lives taken over by strategy, conquest and ceaseless war. Our own Andrew Pfister put the turn-based strategy game through its paces at GDC 2010, and here's what he had to say about it...

"They had me at the pretty shimmering water.

Truthfully, they had me at the announcement of a new Civilization game, the latest in the  classic turn-based strategy series of barbarian taunting, cow pastures, settling Elvis Presley in the bustling metropolis of “Awesometown” for a culture bonus, and if you’re interested, complete global domination.

But Civilization V has some really pretty water."

For the rest of Pfister's preview, check out this link. And for more GDC news, photos, videos and awesomeness, check out our GDC 2010 headquarters.

G4 got its hands on organized crime simulator Mafia II at this year's Game Developer Conference, and the period-perfect game is looking pretty amazing. Here's what our own Eric Eckstein had to say about the title:

"I have played a ton of open world games, virtually all within this console  generation, and have had Mafia II on my radar for a while.  It's a game  I really wanted to play to see if they got it right, so thankfully I was able to  go hands-on with the game recently.  It's not all the way there yet, but it's  certainly on the right road."

For the rest of the preview, click the link. We'll be bringing you tons more game previews from GDC 2010 today, tomorrow, and all through the week. Check out our GDC headquarters for all the developments.