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Welcome to QSF5's U.S. NPD Sales Watch 2008 feature. Using numbers provided by the NPD Group, this feature will provide a quick glance of the U.S. videogame hardware situation throughout the 2008 year

The NPD Group, Inc. (formerly National Purchase Diary) is a leading global market research company providing consumer and retail information to manufacturers and retailers. Using actual sales data from retailers and distributors as well as consumer-reported purchasing behavior, NPD offers consumer panel and retail sales tracking services, special reports, modeling and analytics, and custom research.

Which company moved the most hardware? Is the PS3 gaining ground in the U.S.? How many months did Nintendo top the charts?

These and many other simple questions regarding videogame hardware units sold in the U.S. will be answered via easy to read charts. No long winded writeups, just cut... More »  


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Old-school fans of the Blue Bomber are in for a special treat come this week, as Capcom associate producer David Crislip announced that Mega Man will hit the Wii Virtual Console on August 4.

Yes, the 1987 original that started it all.

Additionally, Crislip confirmed that the retro-styled Mega Man 9 will debut in September, along with a re-release of NES classic Mega Man 2, which is often heralded by many as the finest installment in the series.

To quote: To prepare all you Mega Man fans for the release of Mega Man 9 in September, we're going to offer you the opportunity to play the game that started it all. The orginal Mega Man game returns on the Virtual Console this Monday, August 4, 2008. Yes, that's right. Brush up on your old school skills and prepare for some cool contests we have in store. We also plan to re-release Mega Man 2 in early September as well.

David Crislip, one of our talented Assitant Producers and the per... More »  


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Last year you’ll have no arguments that Microsoft’s better games line up prevailed over Sony’s. You could forgiven Sony and its developers for not having enough time to get used to the new hardware or it could have been that Microsoft just crammed all their five star quality titles into a few months.

Whatever the reason, it leaves 2008 to be more important. With now both Sony and Microsoft preparing great looking line ups for the end of the year. We take a look to find out who’s line up looks better on paper.

Sony’s heavy hitters are Killzone 2, Resistance 2 & Little Big Planet and to be honest that sounds like enough to fight off anything Microsoft have as Sony are releasing what should be 3 fantastic games.

Although Microsoft will be serving up some Gears of War 2, Fable 2 & Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise to combat Sony’s onslaught. At the recent industry press events we got a truck load of information about what both company’s... More »  


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Namco Bandai has released a new video gameplay for there upcoming game DragonBall Z: Burst Limit. There isn't much I can't tell you (other than the fact its the final fight between Goku vs Frieza), you're just going to check out the video for yourself.

Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit is complete with online battles, 3D graphic, enhanced playable characters, realistic battle stages, and much more. The story takes place from beginning of the Saiyan Saga to the end of the Cell Saga.

The video game based off the popular anime show Dragon Ball Z, the game is releasing for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

Video is below, courtesy of YouTube- enjoy:




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Firstly, this is not for the 60GB PlayStation 3's, some of which freeze up at the beginning of the game. This is for those with a 40GB console whose game often freeze up, particularly during missions.

Yesterday I connected my PlayStation Network ID to the Rockstar Social Club, ever since then my console often started with a temporary 2 - 3 second freeze when I load up my game, then luckily the game continues. But when I started with missions today my console constantly froze up at certain points, specifically at the start or end of missions.

I reset my console multiple times, yet the problem still continued. I read that others were having a similar problem, so I knew I wasn't alone. Then I thought about signing out the PlayStation Network, and for hours of playing after that the game has not frozen up once!

I then scouted the message boards and found that this particular solution completely works ... More »  


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With the Byron Report still in mainstream newspapers' minds, it's inevitable that crosshairs are going to be targeted on Rockstar's latest GTA sequel eventually... with the aim being controversy.

It's up for debate whether it'd be anywhere near as good without the violence, sexual inuendo or ability to rundown a park full of pedestrians (we know which side we'd take). But here's the targets critics are going to gun for anyway...

Ladies of the night
Goes without saying this one; the digital prossies in Rockstar's Euphoria sandbox are even more realistic and full-on than before - which means the newspaper press are likely to get riled up all over again. In GTA IV you're offered three tiers of 'service', each as we're sure you can imagine resulting in a different sexual activity. You can't see what's going on, but it's more than enough to get the middle-aged mothers shouting.

Euphoria Horror
Screaming a car down the pavement through pedes... More »  


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Those clever hackers have done it again! Hacker group VladsBoys’ analysis of the pirated copy of GTA IV for the 360 (leaked days before retail release) has reeled in a big one. The cyber-sleuths knew they were on the trail of something big and yes, you guessed it, they found another never-intended-for-retail-consumption chunk of code in a GTA game.

What the hackers found seems to be an abandoned mission that Rockstar at some point intended on including in the game. We have no idea how far into the process this mission got before it was pulled, but we’re pretty sure they knew what they were doing by the mission name… that name was Hot Coughing.

Hacker R*Fan4Lyfe noted in a forum post that while the audio files for the mission were not included in the disc image (and presumably are not on the retail disc either,) the subtitles for the mission dialogue were still present. The mission involves Niko going to the hospital after pulling a groin muscle in... More »  


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Grand Theft Auto IV has been out for a whopping four days and we here at The Exploding Barrel are already officially addicted to Niko and Liberty City. Borrowing a page from the redneck comedian Jeff Foxworthy, we’ve compiled a list of 30 ways to tell if you are addicted to GTA IV.

Ready? “You might be a GTA IV addict if...”

- You adopted an awkward Eastern European accent because it makes you feel like a badass.

- You’ve pretended to carjack your own car that was sitting in your driveway.

- You made your girlfriend stand on the corner just so you could drive up and honk your horn.

- You drive around town aimlessly with nothing but the GTA IV soundtrack blaring from
your car.

- You blow through every single red light you encounter, but still take it easy around the fuzz.

- You’ve taken a sudden interest in local Russian vaudeville shows.

- You spend more time plannin... More »  


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