Week two and WallE and JC are back at it again to give you the top news in the video game world with The Flickcast’s only podcast dedicated to the world of video games, the Bitcast.

This week, the dynamic duo of Pokemon decimation bring talk about Rockstar Games’ announcement of Grand Theft Auto 5 and speculate on what we might find out when the first trailer comes later this week. Where the game will take place and just what the sales of this massive title might be are just two of the points they discuss.

In their Topic of the Week, WallE and JC talk super hero video games. The good. The bad. The ugly. And everything in between. From the original X-Men game on the NES to the most recent releases, WallE and JC have no problem letting their opinions known.

And in this week’s “Now Playing” session, the two talk about their most recent super hero gaming addictions caused by this week’s Topic of the Week.

So, what are you waiting for? Click through to listen to this week’s episode!

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The open world feel of Grand Theft Auto along with the crime solving motif of CSI and add in the most realistic facial and character animations ever in a video game along with cameos of dozens of well known actors? Yes please. Sign us up.

Saying that L.A. Noire has a lot of hype to live up to would be an understatement. Luckily Team Bondi lived up to the Rockstar seal of quality to deliver a unique experience unlike anything seen in this or any previous generation of gaming.

Gameplay:

Being a detective in 1940s LA isn’t an easy task. Players need to search for clues, interrogate suspects and witnesses, chase down criminals both on foot and by car, mix it up with some good old fashioned fisticuffs and engage in the run of the mill shoot out on the streets. There is definitely some variety to keep your 40 forty hour experience in L.A. Noire from getting stale.

Investigations are the easiest aspect of the game as players comb the scene picking up on audio clues and vibrations from their controller to find evidence that could pertain to a case. To prevent players from missing out on evidence on a crime scene, the game will continue to play a specific piece of background music until all items have been found. While there isn’t much challenge to this aspect, it does give some credibility to the time that must be spent by detectives walking over every inch of a crime scene.

Rockstar is a name within the video game industry that, to say the least, carries a lot of weight. First and foremost is the credit that must be given to Rockstar for the Grand Theft Auto series, one of the most popular franchises in the past two console generations.

Alongside that comes Red Dead Redemption, the blockbuster old west open world game of this past year. But Rockstar isn’t limited to only open world action as they have shown us with their work on the “film noir love story” Max Payne 2. These hits alongside other critical and commercial darlings like Oni, Bully and Midnight Club have all put Rockstar in the forefront of the gaming market.

Now, Rockstar has revealed the newest installment to their family of blockbusters with L.A. Noire. In the trailer below, this game looks to keep a serious and gritty tone without the somewhat stereotypical Rockstar satire. Knowing how Rockstar handles character building and story, this seems like a great opportunity for them to tackle the much underused Noire genre.

From what we can see, the animation and voice acting are already top notch, especially from Aaron Staton of Mad Men fame who is lending his voice to lead character Cole Phelps.

Take a peek below at the first trailer for L.A. Noire which is coming to both the XBox 360 and PlayStation 3 in the first half of 2011.

So E3 starts tomorrow officially while today is the Microsoft Press conference. As you have already seen, we have gotten some advanced notice on some of the happenings going on at the event.  A few changes will be happening with our coverage of the event compared to last year.

This year we won’t be giving a fully detailed recap of the BIG 3 Press Conferences from Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo as a formal post. We will, however, be posting our thoughts and coverage on the big announcements and trailers as well as give a full indepth discussion with Matt Raub, Chris Ulrich and myself on this week’s episode of the podcast.

We have also gotten official word from various industry sources on what companies will be showing at the event. These have come from various press releases, other industry insiders and various leaks from the LA Convention Center itself regarding the event.

There has also been tremendous speculation around the event. Some of those rumors will be examined below as well. Finally, some of my own personal E3 2010 theories and predictions will be put out there too.

Continue Reading →

Take-Two Interactive has a lot to be happy about. They were pleased to report that BioShock 2 has already surpassed the 3 million unit sales mark since its February 9th release. At its current pace, it already looks like it will break the 4 million in sales the original game did. Some of the success is likely attributed to simultaneous releases of BioShock 2 on XBox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC as opposed to the staggered releases of the original.

Take-Two also reported their latest epic selling release, Grand Theft Auto IV, has topped the 15 million mark across all platforms. This doesn’t even include the downloadable content or Episodes from Liberty City disc pack sales. It’d be no surprise if this year at E3, a new GTA title was announced whether its GTA 5 or a Vice City or San Andreas update.

In Wii and DS news, Take-Two was proud to say that their Carnival Games series has exceeded the 6 million mark and continues to sell steadily. Like many games on the Wii and DS, Carnival Games is experiencing a longer than usual life cycle which lets Take-Two executives sit back with their feet up and not even have to bother planning a sequel just yet.

Grand Theft Auto is without a doubt one of the most infamous names in video games today. Ever since the debut of Grand Theft Auto III where players could pick up a prostitute and then get a “refund” by killing her, it has been at the top of the media by pushing the envelope further and further. With Grand Theft Auto IV as one of the most popular games of 2008, Microsoft saw the opportunity to further their lead in the console war with Sony by commissioning two exclusive episodes of downloadable content for the game for a hefty price tag.

The first, “The Lost and the Damned” reintroduced players to a minor character from Nico’s Grand Theft Auto IV campaign as he fought his way to the top of the food chain to become leader of The Lost biker gang. With the changes in gameplay and the engrossing story, many people felt “The Lost and the Damned” was better than the core GTA IV experience. Now, Rockstar and Take-Two Interactive hopes to catch lightning in the bottle a second time with “The Ballad of Gay Tony”, the second and final exclusive episode for the XBox 360.

“The Ballad of Gay Tony” revolves around, shocker, a character named Gay Tony who is the owner of the most popular straight club and gay club in Liberty City and what he has to do to keep that from being taken away from him. As far as pushing the envelope further, it’s pretty safe to say that anything could be on the table for this episode as “The Lost and the Damned” featured a full frontal shot in it (and no, it wasn’t female.) With virtually no limits to what they can’t do and an epic landscape like Liberty City, take a look at the first trailer of Grand Theft Auto “The Ballad of Gay Tony” after the jump.