The Rundown: April 14, 2009

We’re busting it out Twitter-style (check out my twitter feed or Crispy Gamer’s for regular updates):

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Barrons chatters lightly about a renewed rumor of a Take-Two take-over. Not much info but interesting.

TOMY brings Party Fun Pirate to WiiWare. Based on the Pop-Up Pirate toy, up to four players, Mii support, and lots of mini-games.

Blazblue composer and Guilty Gear series creator Daisuke Ishiwatari will be at the Anime Expo in July. It takes place in Los Angeles in July.

Tetris Online announces Tetris Party Tournament No. 4 with Tetris Party for WiiWare. Register at TetrisParty.com to win a bunch of Wii Points.

Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG SHONEN JUMP Championships announced. It will begin in late April. $20 to enter, five booster packs free. Register here.

Atlus reveals Droplitz for XBLA, PSN, PC, and iPhone. This is the company’s first puzzler for digital download. Details here.

EYA Interactive’s MMORPG Titan Online will go open beta on April 28.

Legacy: World Adventure is released. International adventure across 30 locales, world facts, 3 different game types? Check.

MTV Networks’ Entertainment Group promotes Shane Satterfield to vice president, content, Spike digital entertainment. Grats.

Direct2Drive.com is now offering digital downloads of Assault on Dark Athena and Godfather II.

Tuesday Releases: The Godfather II, Riddick and More

Tuesday is release day and that means new games to play and enjoy! Today The Godfather II, The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Athena Bay, Elven Legacy, and Flock are on my short list.

The Godfather II is an action game with strategic elements where you take control of the Corleone family under the direction of the former don Michael Corleone. The game features a strategic system where players gain bonuses for controlling crime rings comprised of various businesses and control a small army thugs to get the job done. The game is available for the PS3 and Xbox 360.

Flock! is a digital download, which means you can get it online for PC at Impulse and other digital distribution platforms - as well as on PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Marketplace. The Windows PC version launches today, the Xbox LIVE Arcade version for the Xbox 360 launches tomorrow, and the PlayStation Network version launches on Thursday.

Flock! is a puzzle-platformer developed by Proper Games, whose team is best known for their previous work on Lemmings, Crackdown, and Battlefield 2: Modern Combat. In Flock players take control of an alien UFO that’s been given the task of herding animals to its mothership through a variety of interactive levels. The game is published by Capcom.

Paradox Interactive’s Elven Legacy is a fantasy strategy PC title developed by In-Co. The game is available at retail as well as through Impulse and GamersGate. Elven Legacy Ships will be available in Europe on Thursday.

Elven Legacy unfolds in a magical world where players try to restore the Elven race to its former glory. Play as elves, humans, dwarves and sorcerers in a 3D environment. The game feature a non-linear storyline and in-game tools that enable the player to create their own missions to share online in multiplayer mode.

Finally there’s The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Athena Bay, a new chapter in the popular action game series featuring the video game likeness of Vin Diesel’s popular Riddick role. The game builds on the Butcher Bay game with an all new story, new ways to shoot and sneak your way out of trouble and a brand new set of locales that help build an all new adventure. The game is available for the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 and a demo is available for all platforms as well.

The Godfather II Pushed to April

If you were looking to pick up The Godfather II this month, you’re out of luck. As you probably already know EA said earlier this month that it planned to shift the game’s release date to later in the year. Today it revealed that the new release date would be April 7th in North America and April 10th in Europe.

Developed at the EA Redwood Stores studio, The Godfather II will be coming to the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC and will be rated “M”. One would assume that this extra time will be spent further polishing the game - and if we’re lucky - adding new content.

Puzo Estate Settles The Godfather Game Lawsuit

Mario Puzo’s Estate has settled a lawsuit filed in June 2008 related to unpaid residuals from EA’s The Godfather games. The lawsuit had alleged that Paramount Pictures owed the surviving members of the Puzo family over $1 million is estimated residuals from the “sale and rental” of video games based on The Godfather films and books - developed and published by EA.

“We think it’s a terrific settlement,” Bert Fields, Puzo estate attorney, told the Associated Press. “This involved one of the most admired films of all time.”

The amount of the settlement was not disclosed. The original contention was that video games - in addition to films and books - were covered under an existing agreement between Mario Puzo with Paramount (signed in 1992).

EA is currently working on The Godfather II video game, so having this legal trouble dealt with is probably in the best interest of all involved.

The Rundown: Jan. 14, 2009

Today’s Rundown offers lots of entertaining news bits, but I wanted to show off my City of Heroes Tanker, Back Hair Brawler. This big, hairy oaf uses willpower and super strength to fight crime when he’s not tending to his shiny gingery coat. His only weaknesses? Duct tape and razors. Now onto today’s news…

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The Rundown: Jan. 9, 2009

Afro Samurai development is done, Hudson has a new line-up of mobile games, a game character gets his own Facebook page, fighting in COD4 can help the National Guard, Atlus wants to give you a beat down, Crayon Physics Deluxe gets a demo, Rock Band gets some new tracks. All this and more in the latest edition of The Rundown.

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EA’s Games Convention Line-Up

Like many other publishers, Electronic Arts is show its goods at the Leipzig Games Convention this week in Leipzig, Germany this week.

At its press conference scheduled tomorrow, EA plans to give presentations on FIFA 09, The Sims 3, SimAnimals, Boogie SuperStar, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Littlest Pet Shop, Monopoly, Command & Conquer Red Alert 3, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, Dragon Age: Origins, Need For Speed Undercover, and a sneak peak at RAGE from EA Partner, id Software.

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