boxart
Latest
GTA IV: Episodes from Liberty City gets box arted
Though we'd love to spend our precious time poring over the just-released cover of upcoming Grand Theft Auto IV DLC retail pack, Episodes from Liberty City, we're not entirely certain of what to pick apart. The usual sexified lady and mean-looking gentlemen are present and accounted for, as is another helicopter to remind us of The Ballad of Gay Tony's apparent vehicle of choice. A few friends from the The Lost & Damned also make an appearance, but there isn't much else to ogle. We still don't have a release date for the expansion or much more than a handful of screenshots, so we really hope you enjoy this box art until the first trailer hits tomorrow afternoon. %Gallery-68537%
We see dead people: Mass Effect 2 cover revealed
click for massive enlargement effect Mass Effect 2 may not be ready to save the galaxy until next year, but its cover art is all set to sell some pre-orders. The box features what may be Wrex (but, all Krogans look alike. Racist!), what appears to be a sexy version of Ashley (or Miranda Lawson... or Dead Space Girl) and the same dude from the original Mass Effect cover. We have NO IDEA who this guy is! He never appears in the game, but EA and BioWare keep insisting on putting him on the box and in the commercials. Maybe his identity will be revealed in the third installment.As we all know, Commander Shepard (not present on the cover) is a beautiful black woman with striking green eyes.%Gallery-69092%
Capcom reveals the outside packaging for Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles
The North American box art for Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles, as posted on Capcom-Unity today, is very blue. We suspect its overwhelming, vivid blueness will draw attention from retail shoppers. Once they focus more on the luminous blue object on the shelf, they'll see Leon Kennedy (last seen holding a gun in a somewhat different position on the RE4 Wii Edition box) and Claire Redfield in the front, and Code Veronica's Steve Burnside (who may as well be Leon) and ... some guy in the background. Also, zombies.See the full box art after the break!%Gallery-47570%
Black Wii system comes in a black Wii box
The black Wii hardware launches in Japan on August 1. Amazon.co.jp's listing for the item features the box that it comes in, which is, naturally, similar to the existing Wii hardware packaging, but in black instead of white. Like the hardware itself and the controllers (particularly the Nunchuk) the change in color scheme makes the box look so much more interesting.After the break, we've posted the original white box for comparison. Is this new system worth the double-dip now that it also includes a display-worthy box? Still no, but it sure is nice to look at on the internet. The only downside for this new color scheme is that it'll be even more prone to the "dust" jokes that console warriors like to throw around, since it will actually show dust.[Via NeoGAF]
Microsoft rolls out Windows 7 packaging
We could swear we've seen this before, but nonetheless, Microsoft's Windows blog has unveiled what it's calling the official Windows 7's packaging -- as in, this it what we'll be seeing in stores when it launches this fall. It's apparently 37 percent lighter and has a 50 percent better econometrics score over the Vista box, which we can't help but draw mental parallels to the platform's overall performance and mindshare improvements. See it for yourself in the gallery below -- couldn't hurt to get a peek now at what you'll be picking up come October 22nd.
Guitar Hero: Greatest Hits' smashing new title
Activision must have been under tremendous pressure to develop an empirical method of determining the greatest songs in the Guitar Hero series for Guitar Hero: Greatest Hits. It would be difficult to pick the determining factors: fan votes? Number of notes? Length? Sales as DLC? Sales of the original record? Some kind of measure of volunteers' brain activity while playing? It's a big question. And what if songs came out after the release of the collection that were even greater than the Greatest Hits? Then the title would be a lie!Activision's solution: change the title to Guitar Hero: Smash Hits. That's safe from potential inaccuracy, because it doesn't really mean anything! That "The best of Guitar Hero music" line at the bottom kind of ruins our theory about the name change. Ignore that part.%Gallery-46942%[Via GoNintendo]
Star Trek: TOS and Trilogy gets US box art, release date
We already saw these delightful pieces of Blu-ray magic unveiled in Norway, but TheDigitalBits has confirmed that Star Trek: The Original Series - Season One, Star Trek: Original Motion Picture Collection and Star Trek: Motion Picture Trilogy will all ship here in America, with the former shipping on April 28th and the latter two on May 12th. The details about each collection are far too lengthy to cover in this space, but you can head down to the read link if you're even remotely interested in dropping $118, $104.99 or $29.99 (in order of mention).[Via The Blu-ray Blog]
New jacket, same game: Fancy up your copy of Resistance 2
That copy of Resistance 2 looking a little dated? Fancy it up with some new digs, and by that we mean insert art, courtesy of the PlayStation Blog. Three covers are available to download from the blog's official Flickr page to redress Nathan Hale's latest adventure: the original North American box art (not pictured), the Ying-and-yang art from Europe (pictured left) and an extreme close-up design that would make Wayne Campbell proud. We're all for changing it up, but something tells us PlayStation fans are more eager to swap out their Resistance 2 discs for something a little more intense.
Avert your eyes! Stormrise box art revealed, hideous
Stormrise is an upcoming console RTS from The Creative Assembly, developer of the Total War series. Among the standard promise of intuitive console controls, Creative Assembly is introducing "verticality" to console RTS players. Units can be deployed in the air, on rooftops, at ground level, or below the planet's surface. Okay. So far, so good ... Uh-oh, wait a minute. Stormrise's box art looks like the class project of a paint-by-numbers after school program. Sure, it's the game inside that matters -- and we're excited for it -- but imagine if, instead of saying Stormrise on the cover, the box read RoboCop vs. Zombies. This art would still totally work, and probably be twice as rad.
Rumor: Rhythm Heaven to be late, expensive
Amazon has updated their listing for Rhythm Heaven with some new boxart, along with a terrible new release date and terrible new price: November 30 and $40, respectively. We are hoping against hope that these are both just placeholders, because while we will wait that long and pay that much, we really, really don't want to. The game is out in Japan! It was shown off at E3 2008! It's done! All we know for sure is that Rhythm Heaven is not coming out in the first quarter of this year. Nintendo's press site still has it scheduled for "1st half 2009." However, the fact that Gamestop has no listing at all for it does suggest that it's fairly far off.%Gallery-26615%[Via GoNintendo]
Two bonuses for Tenchu 4: Better boxart and bandana
The Tenchu 4 (or, rather, Tenchu: Shadow Assassins) boxart we spotted on Ubisoft's site didn't really meet with the Internet's approval. While the image on the official site has yet to change, retailer GameCrazy is displaying a different boxart, which is quite likely to be a newer revision of Tenchu's North American box image.We happen to think it looks better, though there's an odd mixture of art styles on display here due to the combination of art from the other American box and Japanese character art -- Rikimaru is a lot more realistic-looking than Ayame. After the break, have a look at the preorder bonus being given away at Gamestop. It's pretty nice, for a video game-related bandana.%Gallery-25071%
New Play Control! New-ish boxart!
The packages for the Japanese Play on Wii series feature the original boxarts for the GameCube games framed in a new white border, with a blue bar at the bottom explaining that the games have new Wii Remote-based controls. According to teensy preview images found on GameStop.com, the North American New Play Control! versions of Pikmin and Mario Power Tennis, officially announced just yesterday, will employ the same strategy. As in, exactly the same. The only difference (aside from the language stuff and the fact that the North American boxart images are used) is that the Play on Wii boxes feature a curved top border in the blue area. If we're lucky, the covers will be reversible like the Japanese ones. We probably won't be that lucky!We have yet to see the box designs for the European NEW PLAY CONTROL! series. We'll keep you updated, because we love pointing out that the European title for the series seems to officially be NEW PLAY CONTROL! in all caps.Source: PikminSource: Mario Power Tennis
Another character, enchanting boxart added to the Fragile mix
Namco Bandai's Fragile isn't short on interesting characters. The latest is Shin, a brilliant (but socially weak) scientist and the latest addition to the game's ragtag cast. He'll be voiced by Toshio Furukawa (all of the game's dialog will be spoken), former voice star of Dragon Ball Z, Gundam, Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops, and Jann Lee of Dead or Alive fame.Though Fragile still can't match the oddball quotient of No More Heroes, it's encouraging to see Namco Bandai isn't falling back on stock RPG characters. We were going to mention how Shin might be the oddest-looking Fragile cast member yet, but then we remembered this guy. Join us past the break for a look at the game's eye-catching Japanese boxart, and catch 14 new screens in the gallery.%Gallery-26285%
THQ and Activision kiss and make up
Well, not literally, but it would seem that THQ has thrown out its lawsuit against Activision over the boxart for Baja 1000: Score International. Activision has altered the boxart for their game (catch the image past the break), but, seeing as how the game has been available for a short while now, what of the copies that have already reached store shelves? THQ isn't too concerned about that, apparently.[Via Joystiq]
Tatsunoko vs. Capcom boxart will look fantastic on no American store shelves
Capcom has released new character art by Shinkiro for the newly-announced characters in Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom: Cross Generation of Heroes. Despite Shinkiro's history, Viewtiful Joe, Ippatsuman, and Saki bear little facial resemblance to George Clooney at all.They also released the above image, which will be used as the boxart for the Wii release of the 2.5D fighter. It's totally classic Shinkiro, semi-realistic, detailed, and -- yes, vaguely reminiscent of the star of Ocean's Eleven. We like how it's cleverly laid out to fit the Wii box: Viewtiful Joe, standing atop the PTX-40A, fills the narrower part of the white "Wii" band that will go at the top of the box.%Gallery-32421%
Animal Crossing/WiiSpeak bundle box revealed, price worries continue
A Portuguese Nintendo fansite happened to notice the appearance on Amazon of the Animal Crossing: City Folk/WiiSpeak microphone bundle. Only just now after looking at it have we realized what Nintendo has done here: they've guaranteed City Folk's bestseller status by making it yet another first-party Wii game with a bundled peripheral. It now joins Wii Play, Mario Kart Wii, and Wii Fit. People really love big boxes!Amazon's price for the bundle is a cause for concern. Either they never bothered to update to the $59.99 price or the price is back up to $69.99. We'd like to make an official announcement at this time: Wii Fanboy endorses the lower price this November. We think it's the right decision for this county.%Gallery-27704%[Via FNintendo]
THQ vs. Activision in a legal Baja boxart battle
One of this week's releases might have flown under the radar, if not for the fact that the publisher is being sued over the boxart. It may not even end up being one of this week's releases! THQ has filed suit against Activision, claiming that the boxart for Activision's PS3/360/Wii SCORE International Baja 1000 infringes upon THQ's copyright, in that it looks too similar to THQ's PS3/360 Baja Edge of Control. According to THQ, both the front and the back of the boxart are "virtually identical," but we think THQ's seeing patterns where there are none. Sure, both games feature red trucks displayed in a distorted perspective with their right front tires coming into the camera kicking up rocks while the passenger holds on to a bar on the front with his right hand; and both feature blue and white trucks behind them and to their left, descending from a jump; and both feature cacti on the right side in roughly the same position; and they both just happen to have yellow-on-black distressed "Baja" logos tilted up ten degrees. But that's all. Through this lawsuit, THQ hopes to delay the release of Activision's game until they can produce some different artwork.[Via Gamasutra]
MadWorld boxart is simply awesome
Click for hi-res image Even before the boxart for MadWorld was unveiled, we found ourselves to be in love with the game. When we got our eyes on it back at E3, we entertained thoughts of pushing our way to the front of the crowd of journalists there to see the game, ripping the controller out of Atsushi Inaba's hands, and playing it for as long as we could before security came down to the area Platinum Games demoed the title for us and forcefully ejected us from the premises. The game just looks that good.What do you think of the boxart? Hate it? Love it? Indifferent?%Gallery-22964%[Via Go Nintendo]
Philosony: Where's my box art?
This is a two-part column on digital distribution and its effect on the psychology of your average gamer. In part one we look at the change from the aesthetic of a well-stocked gaming shelf to a digital software library and what is lost or gained by it. Next week we will look at the they way smaller, quick-fix digital game downloads may change our gaming habits.Sorry for the brief hiatus, Inconstant Readers, but I was too busy making repeated trips to the store to pick up more Dramamine and an extra Dual Shock 3 after the PSN update last week. Let's just say that what Wipeout HD lacks as an epileptic stimulant it makes up for with motion sickness at 60fps. Mega Man 9 should also carry a warning about possible "controller malfunction" - here's a tip kiddos: the original Sixaxis is slightly lighter than the Dual Shock 3 and thus has a smaller chance of cracking televisions and denting walls when thrown. Still, I wouldn't have traded this weekend's gaming experiences for anything short of an LBP beta key. Generally after some frantic gaming and letting my house devolve itself into a special level of disarray I rather savor picking up the pieces - smoothing out the crumbled instruction manuals and reinserting them into their cases while finding the perfect organizational spot on the shelf for the box art (alphabetically? by genre? producer?). Imagine my lament when come Monday morning I realized I had nothing but broken controller pieces to pick up. The game's I'd spent my weekend with were all digital downloads!
The Dark Knight storming onto Blu-ray on December 9th
You knew there was no way Warner Home Video was letting its crown jewel release of 2008 slip until after the holiday season, right? As expected, the studio has just revealed that the latest tale in Batman's life on the silver screen will be outed on BD this December 9th. It's also expected that the film will be available in a standard edition and two-disc limited edition box that comes with a Bat-Pod display case. The film in each set will be presented in 1080p with a 5.1 Dolby TrueHD soundtrack, and a few swank HD extras should be wrapped in as well. No price is given just yet, but c'mon, you're buying this.
