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EA secures $1 billion to acquire Take-Two

Late last week, Electronic Arts announced they've secured an additional $1 billion for continual efforts to buyout publisher Take-Two Interactive. The months are ticking down because EA only has till January 2009 to make the acquisition happen.

EA said that "approximately $2.1 billion would be required to purchase all Shares pursuant to the Offer and the Merger and to pay related fees and expenses," in a recent financial filing statement.

Back in February, EA tried and failed to buyout Take-Two Interactive with $2 billion. Despite being rejected, EA remained keen on acquiring the publisher with many analysts and critics citing the bidding move as aggressive and hostile.

With the immense success of GTA IV, which sold 6 million copies earning $500 million in its first week of release, Take-Two ...

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OWR: Tony Hawk's Pro Skater

Welcome to One Word Review, GamerNode's unique take on videogame critique. Every Sunday, we will present a single game, reviewed with but a single word from each of a handful of reviewers. You may not always find our words in your standard dictionary, but we have faith that you will catch our meaning, nonetheless. Videogames are so often rated, reviewed, and discussed to exhaustion, so while some may call OWR a creative way to be lazy, we call it succinct, sincere...and fun. We love reader input at GN, so be sure to throw your own OWRs in the comments section, too.

Before getting down to business, GamerNode would first like to thank everyone for participating in the first edition of OWR last week, and we hope you are ready for more unique and fun content of a similar nature in the future. ...

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Daily Q: How many hours a week do you game?

I don't know about the rest of you but my days are pretty hectic. Aside from writing for the good old GamerNode I also hold a regular old 40 hour a week job. It's not necessarily 9-5 but it is still 40 hours every week. Pile on top of that the additional 8-10 I do at the third job I have and, well, I kind of run out of time to do things.

On average how many hours a week do you spend playing videogames?

I can say whole-heartedly I spend 30 minutes on my lunch break playing my DS, so that's a measly 2.5 hours a week. Sometimes that's it for the whole week. I try to get in an hour or two of console gaming on a nightly basis, but it usually works out to every other night.

So I'd say I spend about 7 hours a week gaming on average. Man, getting old sucks. I used to spend 7 hours a day gaming ...

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DS Downloads a no go if sharing is disabled

At times it's amazing that Nintendo has done so well with the Wii. For starters, it has sold millions of units in today's gaming market despite the underpowered graphics and terrible online environment Nintendo crafted. It's almost as if Nintendo is mad they didn't think of Xbox Live first, so instead of just copying Microsoft and reaping the benefits they're purposefully making the online experience a living hell.

The latest culprit for Nintendo's poor online choices is the Wii-to-DS experience. Should the user decide that he or she doesn't want Nintendo accessing the download data on their Wii, then the user loses the ability to access downloads for their DS. Why this is so important to Nintendo that they would make it so their most successful handheld doesn't work to its full potential,...

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Daily Q: What was the worst game you ever played?

Let's face it. We all have gone to the "bargain bin" to fish out some questionable games because they were cheap or on sale. Other times, we make a impulse buy on a game without really knowing too much about it. But regardless, we all have played a game that literally makes our lives less enjoyable and shortened our life spans by a couple of precious hours.

For me, my Alamo for games was IHRA Racing 2 for the PS2 several years ago. Now the strangest part of all of this was that this game was in its second edition. If the second edition was an improvement over the first one, I can only imagine how bad the first one was. Interestingly enough, the game was developed by none other than Bethesda Softworks. I'm glad they dropped racing games and concentrated on little games you might have heard o...

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Gears of War 2 debut gameplay video

If you've played Gears of War, then you are probably looking forward to Gears of War 2, which hits store shelves this November. Epic has released the sequel's first gameplay footage in an excerpt from a level entitled "Assault." It looks like there are going to be some very intense action scenes in this game - something fans will be happy to partake in. Check it out:

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The Holy Grail: Another name for GTAIV?

I don't often read game reviews. One reason I try to stay away from them is to maintain the integrity of my own critiques. Reviewing videogames is an important part of my job description, and I want my words to be as original and truthful as they can be.

The other reason I avoid reviews is because sometimes I think reviewers are living in a different friggin' reality than the one that I'm experiencing. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy getting a bit of a different perspective on things, but some of what people say about certain games makes me want to hand out awards for being dumb...or drugged.

Such is the case with Grand Theft Auto 4 reviews. Click through to see my stance on the game and what I feel about its reception thus far.

The Holy Grail?

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Top Spin 3. The details and the goodies

I was able to join in on a conference call with Anthony DeLuca, producer for Top Spin 3 this week along with other gaming journalists. We picked Anthony's brain about the new upcoming tennis title and got a feel for what this new version is all about.

DeLuca said this latest edition was his favorite. "We're most proud of Top Spin 3. We wanted to bring it up a notch instead of the game being a back and forth version of "Pong"...[in other words] more realistic control in the game. It has something for everybody...hardcore and beginner."

I asked about unlockables and special content and it looks like there will be a ton of them to keep virtual tennis fans out there occupied. Some of the things you can expect to see are special equipment, clothing, animations, brands, racquets, shoes and "lots o...

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Indie Game Highlight: I Wanna Be the Guy

Welcome to the second Indie Game Highlight. Our last Highlight focused on Noitu Love 2 and now we are going to talk about what is quite possibly the hardest game ever created: I Wanna be the Guy.

Yeah forget those Super Mario Bros. hacks that you have all seen. IWBTG is hands-down the hardest game I've played and trust me because that's saying a lot. The game is a 2D side-scroller shooter much like Mega Man, only your character has the ability to double jump. Oddly enough though, there are hardly any enemies.

You control a seemingly immortal fifteen year-old boy who wants to be The Guy. Don't ask me what that means because I have no clue.

Since there are very few enemies in the game, the developer has to rely on smart and fiendish level design. Indeed, the level design and creativity is off...

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Surfer Girl -- Exit stage right

Within the game industry there is a person whose presence has been usually tolerated or looked up to, depending on your viewpoint. Longtime blogger and rumor rat, SurferGirl, has given her share of tips, gossip and viewpoints about the game industry for a while but has evidently called it quits according to her last blog.

The site Surfer Girl Reviewed Star Wars, was an insider source of information and commentary on the world of video gaming. Her views and style--both appreciated and criticized by the gaming community, was none-the-less, a favorite of game journalists.

In her last post she exited the world of video game blogging in what some would say, by sounding just a bit bitter about the state of games, as she referred to a video she posted to explain her feelings.

What I'm saying above ...

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Daily Q: What is your favorite fighting franchise?...

Fighting games seem cyclical in nature, rising and falling in popularity by an invisible schedule.

In the early 90s Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat reigned supreme (with King of Fighters and Virtua Fighter on the up and up), then other games took over, then Mortal Kombat came back, then it left, then Virtua Fighter got popular again, etc. But no matter how good (or bad) recent titles in a series are, all gamers have that one fighting series that they value above all others.

What is your favorite fighting franchise?

There are many to choose from. Do you enjoy the over-the-top fatalities of Mortal Kombat? Do you like the licensing of Marvel vs Capcom? Are you a technical purist giggling with joy when you play Virtua Fighter? Are you one of those people who considers Smash Bros. a fighting g...

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Another videogame movie to ignore: Street Fighter

I don't trust videogame movies and there are more than a few examples not to. So when news breaks about the new Street Fighter movie, titled Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, I usually ignore it. But it is my duty to report my findings on the internet, so I will indulge you this time readers... this time.

Justin Marks the writer of such classic films as Unbroken and Fast Forward recently discussed why Chun-Li (played by Kristen Kreuk) was the focus and made a point to say "I've never seen a successful action movie (in my mind) that blatantly sexualised [sic] its female lead and succeeded for its audience; Catwoman, Elektra, the list goes on and on."

"Then I think back to The Terminator, or possibly my all-time favourite movie, Aliens, and I think of how Ripley is depicted in that film...

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