A while back people starting making hacked Mario World levels that could be completed without ever touching the controller, just by letting Mario get guided around by the environment. Naturally that's not good enough, so now we need an 11 minute level that doesn't have to be touched and plays along to music. There are a number of songs in there, unfortunately most of them are themes from one anime or another.

Continue reading "The Error Macro Video Gallery - Tuning" »

Posted by Bill at 11:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Insert Credit points out SuperPCEngineGrafx.com's collection of PC Engine system card warning screens -- screens that would appear if you attempted to play a CD game without the proper system card. It's somewhat remarkable to see the number of times developers went through the trouble of creating original art, sometimes even animated, for what amounts to a simple error message.

Industry and multi-console news

• Pirates of the Caribbean director Gore Verbinski has been confirmed as director of the BioShock movie. "We're prepared to make it an R-rated movie. I don’t intuitively see it as PG-13. The content and the graphic nature of the story itself is smarter than that. It's not for young kids."
• Activision has announced Call of Duty 5 for fiscal 2009. They add that this game will take place in "a new military theater."
• Activision claims they are two weeks away from revealing a "significant leap forward in innovation " for the Guitar Hero franchise. Gee, I wonder what it could be.
• Next Generation has the new European sales charts and GTA4 is on top of all of them.
• Not a day after reports that Sony was in danger of losing it, it's been announced that Codemasters has secured the Formula 1 license.
• Atari has been delisted by Nasdaq.
• A game based on the new James Bond film Quantum of Solace is in the works, using Call of Duty 4's engine.
• A Battlefield Bad Company demo is coming June 5.
• Eurogamer cites a "credible industry source" in reporting that Realtime Worlds bought back the rights to their upcoming MMO All Points Bulletin so they could try to sell it to Rockstar as GTA Online. Realtime Worlds was founded by David Jones, who helped create the GTA series.
• Next week's Rock Band tracks come from Blondie, the Clash, and Sonic Youth. The latter track, Kool Thing, was previously seen in Guitar Hero III.
• Gamasutra summarizes Neils Clark's talk on game addiction from the recent Games for Health conference.
• MSNBC's list of the top 5 hardest levels in video games is adorable. I kept clicking through expecting the obligatory Battletoads Turbo Tunnel mention, and instead it ends on Clubhouse Games.
• Game Politics has an interview with Nebraska congressman Lee Terry, who is a co-sponsor of the new bill that would require retailers to check IDs for M and AO rated games.
• FASA founder Jordan Weisman talks about the need for game developers to practice "planned parenthood" with their creations. "They don't adequately prepare for the baby they're about to give birth to. So they make a single thing. They make a movie, they make a game, and they don't know any more about their world and what's in that world than what's in the game. Then in the happy circumstance the game becomes enormously popular, all of a sudden they're going to be making a lot more. And they're caught behind the eight ball, frantically trying to write into a background of what's already there."
• GameFly has opened a new distribution center in Austin, Texas.

PC and mobile news

• After carefully considering the input from everyone in the whole world who told them their SecuROM plan was retarded, BioWare has changed the way authentication will work with Mass Effect. The game will now authenticate once and will only require another connection if the player downloads new game content.
• Burnout Paradise is coming to the PC.
• EA Mythic says that Warhammer Online has been designed for five years of content. "What you don't want is when you launch the game you've got 40 levels - and it takes however long it takes to get to level 40. You then launch an expansion and it now takes two weeks to get to level 40 because now we need everyone to spend six months to get from level 40 to 50."
• Tech Report talks to Ubisoft about the recent issue involving Assassin's Creed and DX10.1 -- namely, that DX10.1 in the game was found to improve performance, but then Ubisoft announced their new patch would take it out.
• Rock, Paper, Shotgun talks to the developers of Stalin vs. Martians. "The dullest people are Russian publishers, who have no sense of humour at all and invest money in serious WWII titles, worn-out IPs and cheap adventure games. It is a very hopeless situation and I think that the Jews are involved somehow."
• The embargo has lifted, so lots of new WoW: Wrath of the Lich King information and previews have been released, along with several videos.

Nintendo news

• The DS will get an exclusive Tony Hawk game in 2008 as part of a "reinvention" of the franchise. Haven't the last two or three games been reboots?
• GameCyte talks to the creators of Homestar Runner about Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People.
• Guitar Hero On Tour will be available bundled with a DS.
• Kombo believes they have their hands on concept art from the new Kid Icarus game. I'm not so sure.
• Reef Entertainment has announced Rogue Trooper: The Quartz Zone Massacre for the Wii.
• GameFly's "coming soon" database mentions two games not yet confirmed for the US: Exit DS and Legend of Kage 2.
• The newest Iwata Asks column reveals some odd information from Shigeru Miyamoto, including his surprising support of the FPS genre. "At first when we were developing The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, I even proposed using a first-person perspective. I thought that the FPS system would be the best way of enabling players to take in the vast terrain of the Hyrule Field." Iwata also suggests that perhaps westerners take to FPS games better than the Japanese because "people who were traditionally hunters would have a better understanding of using space, whereas people who were traditionally farmers might not."
• Amazon's deal of the day is Driver: Parallel Lines for $9.99.

Sony news

New media: Killzone 2 trailer

• The Gran Turismo series has shipped over 50 million units worldwide.
• Sony Computer Entertainment Europe president David Reeves, who apparently just can't stop being honest lately, admits he'd like to see more games on the PSP.
• Valhalla Knights 2 has been announced for a fall release.
• In addition to their still ongoing Star Wars retrospectives, GameTrailers has now released part one of their Metal Gear retrospective.
• A new ESRB entry suggests Suikoden is coming to the Playstation Store.

Microsoft news

New media: Ninja Gaiden II screenshots
New content: Timeshift map pack

• New information on Banjo Kazooie 3 is coming next week.
• Remember that the first footage of Gears of War 2 goes up at 1up tonight at 10:30 PM PST, and it will be on the Live Marketplace a half hour later.
• A plane ticket found on the Rockstar Social Club website has sparked a rumor that GTA4 DLC will involve going to San Andreas.
• Bizarre has no plans for future PGR4 content.
• Amazon has Devil May Cry 4 for $49.99.

Posted by Bill at 6:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

We haven't been given the rights to use this Resident Evil art to hock our gun peripheral. But it would look so good.. Wait! I know how we can use it and never get caught -- slightly longer hair! Perfect.

Industry and multi-console news

New media: Saints Row 2 trailer

• An FTC study found that only 20% of under-17 kids were able to buy M-rated games. Game Politics has reactions to the report from the usual people.
• New game announcements: Pandemic's The Lord of the Rings: Conquest, Sierra's The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, and THQ with an unnamed game based on the Marvel Super Hero Squad.
• New legislation in Congress proposes that retailers check IDs for anyone attempting to buy an M or AO rated game.
• JoBlo has an interview with the wrtier for the Street Fighter movie. It's a good read and answers a number of questions (from "why not focus on Ryu" to "will this one have a shower scene") and it threatens to make me actually interested in this movie.
• GTA4 has been delayed in India due to global shortages.
• Eidos has confirmed new Hitman and Tomb Raider games.
• Someone on the Age of Conan official forums has started a petition for the option to turn nudity off (in a game full of horrible violence), because we needed a more crystalline example of America's bizarre double standards of decency. Even better: The post is signed "Thanks & God Bless."
• Ed Boon says that Mortal Kombat vs. DC will still having finishing moves, they just won't be the ultraviolent fatalities the series is known for.
• Gameplayer looks at the issue of drug use in professional gaming.
• Rockstar has released a GTA4 multiplayer guide.
• A writer at the Arizona Daily Star questions a member of the Parents Television Council about claims that GTA4 gives you points for driving drunk.
• Vinny Caravella is leaving Gamespot. I don't know that you can fit this in with the Gerstmann thing by this point.
• Infendo has an interview with Tommy Tallarico about the Video Games Live concert series.
• Racketboy has collected a gallery of the best Samurai Shodown fanart.
• MST3K's Bill Corbett links to a series of Still Alive videos. Nothing you haven't seen a million times before, it's just so odd that Bill Corbett is the one doing it. Worlds are colliding.
• GameDaily tells you how to dress like Niko Bellic.
• Best Buy has a coupon for $10 off when you buy $75 worth of video games or game accessories.

PC and mobile news

New GameTap titles: Alpha Prime, Chameleon Games, Flip Words 2
New content: The Lost Cases of Sherlock Holmes demo, Battlefield 2142 beta 1.50 patch

• Gizmodo compares the Razer and SteelSeries sets of gaming gear to see if they can improve one's scores.
• Spacetime Studios has acquired the rights to their MMO Blackstar from NCSoft. NCSoft cancelled plans to publish the game earlier this year, so now Spacetime has the game to themselves and can look for a new publisher.
• The release of the Witcher: Duelmail has been delayed by a few days.
• Ars Technica talks about Blizzard's case against the Glider World of Warcraft bot, and why it's bad for copyright law. "The issue is whether or not Glider is breaking any laws, and Blizzard is hoping that by stretching the boundaries of what constitutes copyright infringement, it can get MDY shut down. If Blizzard succeeds, it could set a very dangerous precedent."
• You can now install homebrew games on your Zune.
• Everyday Shooter is now available on Steam.
• EVE Online players are getting a surprise gift to celebrate the game's fifth anniversary.

Nintendo news

• Former Nintendo president and certified crazy old man Hiroshi Yamauchi has become the wealthiest man in Japan.
• Shacknews summarizes the history of American fan support for the Earthbound series and Nintendo's insistence on ignoring all of it.
• A GameSetWatch article focuses on what pretty much everyone else ignored about Mario Galaxy: Rosalina's storybook and what it means for storytelling in games.
• IGN's Matt Casamassina seems really convinced that Kid Icarus is coming to the Wii.
• A Top Chef game is in the works for the Wii.
• EA is making a Wii fitness game that will focus on more "western" cardio-vascular workouts instead of "eastern holistic fitness."
• It was inevitable: A Haruhi Suzimiya dancing game is coming to the Wii in Japan. If you don't know what that means, count your blessings and keep on walking.

Sony news

New game: Rocketmen: Axis of Evil
New content: PixelJunk Monsters Encore expansion, Rock Band tracks, Guitar Hero III tracks
New demos: Haze, GRID, The Bourne Conspiracy, SOCOM: Fireteam Bravo 2

• Next Generation has an interview with the developer of MotorStorm Pacific Rift.
• Sony is now selling a headset with remote control for the PSP for use with Skype.
• SCEE president David Reeves admits that Home was too ambitious with non-gaming applications, and that's what has caused the game's delays.
• He also mentions why Europe gets games after the US: Companies don't have incentive to translate beyond English during the development process. "You're absolutely right, we should do it at the beginning. But they look at it like, 'How much can I get for a Dutch version of the game?'"
• LittleBigPlanet is definitely not getting an open beta.
• Destructoid lists the 10 most anticipated PS3 games of 2008.
• Vampire Rain has been confirmed for the PS3. It was released on the 360 last year to, uh.. rave reviews.
• There's a rumor that Daxter and Wipeout Pulse will be ported to the PS2, which would surprise no one.
• The Playstation Blog is doing Free Card Friday for Eye of Judgment again.
• PS3 owners will also be getting the cheap Rock Band tracks previously mentioned for the 360.
• TG Daily reports the rumor that Sony is in a dispute with Formula 1 over the cost of renewing the Formula 1 license.
• Amazon's deal of the day is High School Musical: Sing it! Bundle for $19.99. They also have Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow for $23.39.

Microsoft news

New content: GRID demo

• Microsoft claims that sales of the 360 rose 54% due to GTA4.
• GameVideos will have exclusive Gears of War 2 gameplay footage this Friday at 10:30 PM PST.
• Costume packs for Ninja Gaiden II will be coming in July for 200 points each.
• Erotic game TimeLeap is getting ported to the 360 in Japan, minus the erotic bits.

Posted by Bill at 7:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Cross Edge is an upcoming PS3 RPG made with the collaboration of Nippon Ichi, Gust, Namco Bandai, Idea Factory, and Capcom. The game will feature characters from Darkstalkers, Disgaea, Ar Tonelico and more. God only knows if we'll ever see it.

Industry and multi-console news

New media: Far Cry 2 introductory trailer, Incredible Hulk screenshots, Lego Batman trailer and screenshots featuring Two Face

• id Software has announced that they are developing Doom 4.
• Take Two has called the launch of GTA4 the "largest launch in the history of interactive entertainment" with 3.6 million units sold worldwide in the first day and six million total going in the first week.
• The new Australian and UK sales charts are out, and imagine that, GTA4 is on top of both of them.
• Take Two chairman Strauss Zelnick was on CNBC and said that there were no glitches in the game. Except, y'know, the ones people are complaining about.
• EA Sports has launched the Freestyle sub-brand, focusing on more casual sports games.
• Next Generation has excerpts from interview with Fallout 3 lead designer and lead writer Emil Pagliarulo. The full interview can be heard in this Game Theory podcast.
• Bethesda has hired Inon Zur to compose the Fallout 3 soundtrack. In addition to sounding like a supervillain, Zur has previously worked soundtracks for games like Crysis and Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones.
• Mike Tyson is returning to video games as one of the fighters alongside Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard in Fight Night Round 4.
• THQ is cutting 200 jobs, most of them people working on last gen platforms.
• Gamasutra has an article on the value of texture in video games. Not meaning "those pictures you put on polygons."
• THQ has signed a deal to make a game based on DreamWorks Animation's Master Mind, a movie that isn't coming out until November 2010.
• They've also announced WWE Legends of WrestleMania for the 360 and PS3.
• Anascape has filed patent-infringement suits against Nintendo and Microsoft for various patents involving analog pressure sensors.
• Square Enix is releasing Final Fantasy XI 2008 Edition for the PC and 360 on May 23. The pack contains the core game and all the expansions.
• Game Politics has some analysis of why Activision left the ESA.
• Three Rock Band tracks will be included with copies of the 11th season of South Park on DVD.
• The Japanmanship blog answers questions about working in the Japanese game industry.
• Stride Gum is offering a coupon for a free pack of gum to everyone who signs the StopUweBoll.org petition if it reaches one million signatures by May 14. This is one of the odder marketing moves I've seen.
• Mirrors Edge, the trailer for which debuted yesterday, will be powered by Unreal Engine 3.
• PSM3 has revived the Beyond Good and Evil 2 rumor with no real evidence or source to back it up.
• Some guy was calling around SNK USA trying to get Card Fighter DS replaced, and ended up leaving a message on company president Ben Herman's machine. Herman responded and did offer to help resolve the issue, but didn't exactly do himself any favors by also saying "As far as customer service, we have a very small sales office here. We don't pride ourselves in customer service."
• Brian Crecente writes about his 70-year old father getting into GTA4.

PC and mobile news

New content: Nvidia 175.16 beta drivers, Sango 2 demo

• Nvidia has plans to simplify its gaming product range.
• I didn't mention it yesterday, but Spore will also be using the Internet check anti-piracy protection that Mass Effect has.
• FileFront is giving away 50,000 copies of SAGA.
• The Lord of the Rings Online is having a Welcome Back Weekend, when old players are given the opportunity to come back on and play with their old characters for free.
• Osu! is a free PC game based on Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan! aka Elite Beat Agents. The game includes a built-in editor so people can create their own beatmaps.

Nintendo news

• The Nintendo Channel has been launched and is available for download now. The service offers videos of upcoming games along with downloadable demos for the DS. It's a little silly that you have to agree to share your usage data to access the demos.
• This week's Zero Punctuation video is a response to all the hate mail he got from the Brawl review.
• If the Pay to Play logo on the box is correct, Samba de Amigo could be getting downloadable content.
• Majesco has announced Zoo Hospital for the Wii.
• Dr. Mario Online Rx is the official name of Dr. Mario on WiiWare, and the price has been set at $10.
• USA Today talks to Steven Spielberg about Boom Blox. "There is a continental divide in my own house between what I play and the kind of games my kids play. I wanted something that would bring the family together in the same room, standing shoulder to shoulder with four different controllers."
• Peter Moore really could've used a better analogy to describe EA's Wii game brand All Play. "It's like how swimming pools have a deep end and a shallow end. EA Sports has really only built a swimming pool with a deep end. It's intimidating for a lot of people to jump right in the deep end. With All-Play, we're building a shallow end."

Sony news

New media: Secret Agent Clank opening cinematic, Killzone 2 screenshots

• A PS3 ad from British retailer PC World has been found to be misleading because it claimed that the PS3 could play all PS2 games.
• Rockstar has released a patch for GTA4.
• A demo for Haze is coming tomorrow, and so is PixelJunk Monsters.
• GameFly has a listing for a PS2 fighting game called Shining Dragon, leading Siliconera to wonder if "battle damage" fighter Ikki Tousen: Shining Dragon could be coming to America.
• The US and Japan are getting DualShock 3s with their MGS4 console bundles; Europe is stuck with the Sixaxis in theirs.
• SCEE President David Reeves thinks you will "probably see" downloadable content for GTA4 on the PS3.
• Sony has trademarked the name Qore in reference to an "interactive online magazine and entertainment in the field of video games."
• Siren: Blood Curse is an episodic game series coming to the PS3 starting this summer. And to think I cashed in my menstruation joke ticket for yesterday's newspost.
• Amazon has Call of Duty 3 (PS3) for $29.99.

Microsoft news

New Live Arcade title: Wits & Wagers

• Two million GTA4 achievements were unlocked in the game's first 24 hours of availability.
• MTV Multiplayer breaks down the cost of the 360's 120 gig hard drive.
• The guy who did the music for Omega Five says that the situation for music in Live Arcade games is getting better. "When the service first started, we either had to limit the number of the tracks or use built-in synth to play each tune in order to accommodate the capacity restrictions. I think that most of these technical problems can be solved now because of recent improvements in the technology."
• Amazon's deal of the day is Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom for $25.99.

Posted by Bill at 6:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

The Street Fighter movie blog has the first photo of Detective Maya Sunee, a new character created specifically for the film. She's played by actress Moon Bloodgood, a name that could only be chosen because Menses McLunadruid was already taken.

In unrelated news, a note to Game Politics. Yes, Glenn Beck called video game bloggers "losers." Since you seem to be unfamiliar, this is a tactic known as "trolling." Trolling, much like junk mail, is broad, unfocused, substanceless and only effective when responded to, and thus best left discarded, unexamined. I know that regular appearance on TV can be confused with merit, but remind yourself that this is a man who describes Hilary Clinton as "Stalin in a pantsuit" and, even more damning, hosts the lead-in program to Nancy Grace.

Industry and multi-console news

New media: Mirror's Edge trailer

• Grand Theft Auto IV sold 926,000 units in its first week in the UK, with 631,000 of those going in the first 24 hours.
• Take Two is suing the Chicago Transit Authority over their decision to pull ads for GTA4.
• Gamasutra features all over the place: lessons learned from four grad students who made over 50 games in one semester, Ask the Experts tells you how to practice game design on the cheap, and Design Lesson 101: Crysis teaches that once you give the player the power to choose, you shouldn't take it away.
• Uwe Boll is suing Billy Zane, claiming Zane did not hold up his end of a deal that was supposed to put Bloodrayne in 2,000 theaters (it ended up opening in 950).
• GameCareerGuide has an article on the history of physics in mass market games.
• Decision Problem wonders if games can create meaning.
• Trivia question for your next cocktail party: Which Pulitzer Prize-winning novel contains Street Fighter and RPG references?
• 1up talks to various game designers about how they handle death in games.

PC and mobile news

New content: Audiosurf update

• Warcraft III, the Frozen Throne expansion, and Starcraft Anthology are now being sold as downloads from Blizzard's online store.
• Postal III will be coming to Linux.
• The people who made the 2D web game Portal: The Flash Version are now offering a Portal map pack with all the stages from the Flash game made into real Portal maps.
• There's a lengthy thread on the Mass Effect forums concerning the kind of copy protection the game will use. Good: The game doesn't require the disc to be in the drive when playing. Bad: Instead, the game has to connect to the Internet every 10 days.
• The Harvard Business Review talks about how people are honing their leadership skills in MMOs.
• Illinois Congressman Mark Kirk warns that Second Life is a danger to children.

Nintendo news

• The ESRB has rated Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen for the DS, confirming the remake's full title.
• A group of fans are working on an unofficial Pokemon MMO that will no doubt be shut down very soon.
• GameSniped points out a number of incredibly rare Nintendo items up for sale on Ebay right now, including the only known copy of the PowerFest ‘94 Competition Super Nintendo.
• Amazon has sold out of its Wii Fit pre-orders, with approximately 2.5 units going every minute.
• Ubisoft is bringing 3D top-down vertical scrolling shooter Protöthea to WiiWare.
• At least one person has already complained that Wii Fit called her daughter overweight. "She is 92lbs and 4ft9" tall and there is not an inch of fat on her. She is solidly built but not fat."
• Amazon's deal of the day is New York Times Crosswords for $9.99.

Sony news

New media: Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm screenshots, Motorstorm 2 screenshots

• The official name for Motorstorm's sequel is Motorstorm 2: Pacific Rift, set on an island inspired by Hawaii.
• Killzone 2 has been delayed to February 2009, while LittleBigPlanet has been pushed back to October.
• Secret Agent Clank has been dated for June 17.
• Kaz Hirai admits that the PS3's first year wasn't great. "There were some teething problems, success from our competitors, and our customers were a little underwhelmed by the range of titles that were available."
• Sony says they have sold more PS3s than Microsoft has sold 360s in Europe.
• Gamasutra looks at the positives and negatives of the Playstation Network as it stands now.
• An industry source has claimed that Uncharted has been optioned for a movie adaptation. Keep in mind that "optioned" just means that they could make a movie out of it sometime in the future.
• Sony Computer Entertainment Europe and Nissan have announced the GT Academy competition, which will put two Gran Turismo 5 Prologue players in a real race.
• Resistance 2 will feature eight-player co-op and 60-player multiplayer.

Microsoft news

New content: Rock Band tracks

• Gameplayer has a preview/interview for Halo Wars.
• Each week until June 1st, two Rock Band tracks will drop to 80 points each.
• A patch is in the works for Mr. Driller Online.
• GTA4 is at the top of the newest Live activity charts, to the surprise of no one.
• The Consumerist offers advice on the fastest way to get help with a broken 360.
• NZGamer has some up-close photos of Weta's full-scale Warthog.

Posted by Bill at 7:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

Feel nostalgic and/or old as you celebrate the anniversary of Wolfenstein 3-D, first released on May 5, 1992. Minimum specs: A 286 with DOS 3.0 and 640k of RAM.

As a point of interest, Insert Credit notes that Sega made a sort-of first person shooter called Last Survivor in 1988.

Industry and multi-console news

• Prototype has been pushed back to 2009, and Hail to the Chimp has been delayed to mid-June.
• Rock Band DLC tracks are coming to the Wii and PS2 via a retail expansion disc called The Rock Band Track Pack Volume 1. It will contains 20 tracks and sell for $29.99.
• Gamasutra has an interview with flOw creator Jenova Chen about his studio Thatgamecompany and why he left the Spore DS development team.
• They also have an interview with Street Fighter II creator Yoshiki Okamoto. "I've graduated. You know, from the school of fighting games. I've got no desire to make them right now, so I haven't been keeping up with them at all."
• That answers that: GTA4 had no discernible effect on Iron Man's opening weekend, with the film taking in over $100 million.
• On the subject of learning curves, N'Gai Croal asks what's the equivalent of three frets for Madden? Or Call of Duty or GTA or whatever. "Three frets" being a reference to Guitar Hero/Rock Band's easy mode.
• Pixel Park makes a simple but interesting point on the difficulties in adding details to games. "It's obvious that it is much more expensive to add even a small element to a game compared to a book, or even a movie. The manhours necessary to add something as simple as a woman on rollerblades to a game is staggering."
• When Rockstar and Amazon signed a deal to let people buy songs they hear on the radio in GTA4, Amazon didn't even have 40% of the soundtrack in their inventory. This is largely due to obscurity -- for instance, Rockstar had to hire a private investigator to find the people who had the rights to Walk the Night by the Skatt Bros. so they could use it in the game.
• EA has responded to comments made by the head of Activision, who said that EA sucks the souls from the studios it acquires.
• As a counter to Jack Thompson's appearance, the authors of Grand Theft Childhood will be on Glenn Beck tonight at 7:00 PM EST.
• The municipality of Bekasi in Indonesia is banning TV and video games for students between the hours of 7 and 9 PM, as that is time for students to "study and do their homework or face legal consequences."
• New Zealand chief censor Bill Hastings says that parents aren't allowed to buy GTA4 for their children. "If a game is R18 it's R18 for a reason and it's illegal to make it available to anyone under that age."
• If you wonder why THQ makes all those Nickelodeon games, it's because it's made them over a billion dollars.
• A Japanese company has made a charger bracelet that can power the PSP, DS, or a number of other portable devices.
• OXM reports the rumor that 2K Boston is working on a new X-Com.
• Stephen Totilo notes 8 things GTA4 gets wrong about New York City. "No sensible New Yorker uses a car as their primary means of transportation in the city, unless — maybe — they commute from the suburbs."

PC and mobile news

• Rock, Paper, Shotgun has a retrospective on Kingpin: Life of Crime.
• Funcom has laid out their initial ideas for rules for the role-playing servers in Age of Conan. "'I’m just roleplaying a homicidal maniac' is not an excuse for harassing, griefing, etc., other players."
• Lego Universe has a story, apparently. And not just any story, but an "overarching epic storyline about the origins of LEGO Universe and the minifigs that inhabit it."

Nintendo news

New Virtual Console titles: Pokemon Puzzle League and Renegade

• In a refreshing change from all the "GTA4 ruins lives" articles currently going around, the Daily Mail runs a column from a mother of four who blames the Nintendo DS for turning her children into monsters.

Sony news

• The Guardian takes a look inside Sony's London studio.
• Valve says there are no plans to bring Left 4 Dead to the PS3.
• Amazon's deal of the day is The Simpsons Game (PS2) for $17.99. They also have Dark Sector for $39.99, dropping a full $20 just 5 weeks after release.

Microsoft news

New content: The Bourne Conspiracy demo

• This week's Live Arcade title will be Wits & Wagers.
• OXM names the best Live Arcade games you're not playing.
• The developers of Vigilante 8 Arcade say they're shooting for early June.

Posted by Bill at 6:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

• Boom Blox (Wii) - Steven Spielberg's latest blockbuster. OH HO HO $49.79 at Amazon.
• R-Type Command (PSP) - The side-scrolling shooter series follows the natural progression to turn-based strategy. $39.99 at Amazon.
• Speed Racer (Wii, DS) - Based on the movie, of course -- if you want a game based on the original show, go find this. $49.99 on the Wii, $29.99 on the DS.
• Crosswords DS (DS) - Crosswords, anagrams and word search! Be still my heart! Despite sounding like yet another crap shovelware title, this is actually first-party Nintendo, part of the Touch Generations line. $19.79 at Amazon.

And it goes further downhill from there, into Dog Island and Baseball Mogul 2009 territory. A thin week over all, but it could be worse -- Japan has no releases at all, as this is Golden Week. See the full release list at Gamasutra.

Posted by Bill at 1:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Goddamn, you really can't get any more off-model than that.

Destructoid has a great feature on bizarre tracks on video game arranged albums, with streaming audio so you can hear them for yourselves. The damage ranges from the amusingly goofy Blanka Has Come To Town (with lyrics set to Blanka's stage music), to the unbelievably bad idea of a rap about Super Mario Land ("Folks out there might think that I'm crazy / But I got to rescue Daisy").

As Dale North notes, the entire Street Fighter II Vocal Album is great in a silly way, and you can get the whole thing here. Get it and you too can punch your way on through the world.

Industry and multi-console news

New media: World in Conflict: Soviet Assault trailer

• Rock Band has exceeded 3 million bundles shipped, and ten million songs downloaded.
• Rocketmen: It Came From Uranus is due out on Live Arcade May 14 and PSN a day later.
• GameSetWatch has an interview with one of the guys behind the recently completed Card Fighters Clash 2 translation project.
• 8-bit Rocket examines the possibility that Atari may have made a version of Missile Command for the military.
• Best Buy is offering two free Rock Band tracks from Disturbed when you pre-order it online through them. Imagine if they were for a band that didn't suck!
• New York Magazine talks to Dan Houser about how Rockstar made their version of New York City. "We ended up with 660 speaking parts. 80,000 lines of dialogue, it's ridiculous."
• A disgruntled young man has set up a YouTube channel solely to showcase videos of GTA4 freezing on the 360 and PS3. "this is page is here simply to chronicle the freezing epidemic and let naysayers see that this epidemic is very real and very universal. people have lost not only 70 dollars on a game but their entire systems" OH NO
• I'd avoided this because it's a rather blatant attempt at advertising Postal, but just so you can keep tabs on the crazy little German man: Uwe Boll claims he's going to box Michael Bay. Bay says he never agreed to anything.
• Rock, Paper, Shotgun has an interview with EA's Rod Humble about the Sims. He seems to enjoy Sim-deaths as much as players do. "We have a lot of fun with it, so every expansion pack we come to the point where we’re adding in some new death states. ... It shouldn’t be funny. But oh my goodness, it is."
• Someone at the GameTrailers forum is a little concerned that he has turned into a zombie in Rockstar-branded yellow underwear in GTA4 multiplayer.
• The Guardian has an interview with Will Wright.
• The Australian Defence Force is using Flash games on their website as a recruiting tool. I, for one, am greatly disturbed to learn that Australia has an Air Force.
• It's possible that Boom Blox could go to other consoles.
• Craig Ferguson also did a bit on GTA4. Additionally, it provides video evidence that Tim Meadows is still alive.

PC and mobile news

• Valve has cut prices on a number of their games.
• 1up has a history of PC game packaging which sounds like a duller idea than it actually is.
• GameSetWatch has a guide to leveling quickly in World of Warcraft.
• Microsoft's Popfly team has launched the Popfly Game Creator.

Nintendo news

New media: Star Wars: Force Unleashed footage -- G4 coverage showing off Duel Mode
New PAL Virtual Console titles: Final Soldier, Columns III, Gradius II -- part of a second Hanabi Festival that will later include games like Puyo Puyo 2 and Cho Aniki

• Valve would like to develop kids games for the Wii, but there's nothing currently in the works.
• A homebrew group has ported a demo of Snatcher to the DS, just for the hell of it, I guess.
• Capcom has a website where you can create your own Ace Attorney stories, putting text to images that then play out in a little video.
• Westin Hotels have added Wiis with Wii Fit to their exercise rooms.
• MTV Multiplayer talks to Peekabo Pole Dancing about why they want to make a poledancing game on the Wii.
• Ubisoft is considering a Wii version of Prince of Persia, but it wouldn't be a straight port.

Sony news

• The official Playstation blog has details on the next Eye of Judgment update as well as information on Free Card Friday.

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Capcom has released new Lost Planet Colonies screenshots, including a special appearance by Frank West preparing to experience the worst shrinkage of his life.

God do we still need a separate section for GTA4:

• Microsoft claims that GTA4 on the 360 is outselling the PS3 version 2 to 1, but Sony says that ratio "doesn't line up" with what they've heard from retailers.
• Take Two has suggested an elaborate series of steps to fix the GTA4 freezing issue on the PS3.
• Wired brings in its review of GTA4. "Rockstar's choice of Eastern European mobsters for this game, actually, adds a nice frisson, because this is the one criminal class left in America that hasn't been glamorized: They're simply scary as shit, in real life as in the game."
• Rockstar North says that Scotland doesn't give them respect. "There is this weird thing where people think Scotland is so innovative, but if you do anything truly innovative, you get beaten down."
• Do you want to see Jack Thompson on Glenn Beck? Of course you don't.
• Thompson also called into NPR while Adam Sessler was doing a segment on the game.
• Conan O'Brien did a bit on GTA4.
• More real life clothes have been spotted in GTA4.

Industry and multi-console news

New media: Lego Indiana Jones gameplay footage, Project Origin screenshots and gameplay footage

• Activision and Vivendi have chosen not to renew their membership in the ESA, and don't plan on appearing at E3 this year.
• And even though they're the only ones leaving the ESA, other developers are skipping E3, with some blaming ESA president Mike Gallagher.
• Gamespot has a Q&A with the developers of Dark Sector.
• Mario Kart Wii has debuted at the top of the new Australian sales chart.
• Kotaku has a feature on bringing western games to Japan.
• Gamasutra asks how can a game be subversive?
• A Muse track pack is on the way for Guitar Hero.
• And next week's Rock Band tracks make up a Scene Pack featuring Fall Out Boy, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Angels & Airwaves.
• 1up has a series of essays asking Are We What We Play? Jeff Green wonders why he always feels the need to play the good guy in games, and Sean Malloy talks about unwittingly using The Sims as a mirror for his own life.
• Joystiq examines how Activision and Harmonix are facing the prisoner's dilemma with regard to their Guitar Hero and Rock Band franchises.
• GameDaily talks to IGN about criticism over their exclusive review of GTA4. (That the game is GTA is not really relevant, which is why this isn't GTA news). "If you want something to be seen and the higher you want it to be seen, we want the exclusive out of it. That's pretty much how we got the review. It's not that the review wouldn't have been topped if we put it up on Sunday with everybody else, but it was more that we were going to give them a lot of exposure leading into the review."
• Forget that goofy vote-in "Your Time 100" list that Miyamoto was on the top of. The real Time 100, put together by the magazine staff, includes Alex Rigopolous and Eran Egozy from Harmonix.

PC and mobile news

New content: Evochron Renegades 1.788 patch

• Ryan Lambie plays some old Spectrum games and finds that the idea of a golden age of games is a myth.

Nintendo news

• Earthbound has been rated by the ESRB for the Wii. oooohhhh shhhhiiiiiittttttt
• Game Republic founder and Street Fighter II creator Yoshiki Okamoto warns that the DS market is at risk for an "Atari crash."
• WalMart.com is pushing the sale of Wii Fit for Mother's Day. Customers who pre-order before May 11 will get a $10 online gift card to use for a future order from the site.
• Nintendo has announced the first of several Mario Kart Wii tournaments. This one is a competition for the fastest time on Mario Circuit.
• Stephen Totilo has more details on the new Tecmo Bowl game. It will be 2D and won't include any NFL teams or players due to EA's exclusivity.
• Amazon's deal of the day is Mx Vs ATV Untamed for $29.99.

Sony news

• Sony reports that the PS3 has sold more in its first year in Australia than the PS2 did in its first year.
• The PSP continues to be the best selling console in Japan, with this past week seeing a higher number of units sold than the Wii and DS combined.
• A Super Stardust HD multiplayer add-on is in the works.
• New MGS4 gameplay footage airs tonight on X-Play.
• MGS4 will feature playable flashbacks to MGS1, an example of which can be seen in this trailer.
• Kotaku points out what Konami has changed in newly released MGS4 footage that is actually just an older trailer using new assets. It's much less bloomy and hazy, and I don't know that that's a good thing.
• Tycho explains that Penny Arcade Adventures isn't on PSN because the game is only appearing on platforms that support Torque.
• Amazon sales: Dawn of Mana for $19.49, The Simpsons Game (PS3) for $29.99, and The Darkness for $19.79.

Microsoft news

New content: Conflict: Denied Ops Eagle pack, plus something for Superstar but only in Korea and I can't read what it says

• Actiga has announced plans to produce a full-sized wireless skateboard peripheral for the 360.
• A Chinese newspaper is reporting that a 360 with a Blu-ray drive is being created for release in Q4 2008.
• Remember that this weekend is a Halo 3 double XP weekend.
• 7-11 is doing a Guitar Hero promotion with Slurpees in which you can win a copy of Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, an Xbox 360, or Microsoft Points.
• 1up looks at just how damned expensive Ace Combat 6 DLC is. The cost of the game plus all the planes made available so far adds up to $181.82.

Posted by Bill at 6:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

Lookin' old, Jack. Thompson will be on Glenn Beck tonight at 7 PM EST, and the show will be repeated at 9. I wonder what he'll be talking about.

GTA news can't stop, won't stop:

• Kotaku has a feature on the appeal of GTA4 to those really living in New York City's ghettos. "Dragon says customers have shared plans to form gangs online, and pressed him for details about the specific types of crimes they'll be able to commit in the game. It's not that these people want to be criminals, though — 'It's a ghetto thing,' Dragon says. 'They just want to take their anger out... people are upset right now.'"
• Slate has a piece on "the surprising narrative richness of Grand Theft Auto IV."
• In a Gamasutra opinion piece, Simon Parkin argues against claims that GTA4 stereotypes illegal immigrants. "Indeed, my experience of the game has been to find that Niko’s level-headedness, character and sense of justice (a skewed but consistent moral standard that reminds me of that of Anton Chigurh in the Coen Borthers’ latest, No Country For Old Men) has influenced the way I’ve been playing the game."
• Man, even Obama is talking about GTA4.
• Oh, and the Daily Show did a bit on the game too.
• IGN has a map of Liberty City powered by Google Maps, with everything marked from restaurants to vehicles to points of interest.
• The characters of Little Jacob and Real Badman are wearing real clothes created by Rockers NYC.

Industry and multi-console news

New media: Splatterhouse first screenshots, Guitar Hero: Aerosmith trailer

• Gamer TV is ending production after five years.
• Gamasutra has a Q&A on the state of Fallout 3.
• Infogrames has paid $11 million to acquire the rest of Atari.
• The newest Japanese sales charts have Mario Kart Wii holding on to the top spot again.
• 1up has a more detailed summary of the Joypad Prince of Persia article.
• A few new Guitar Hero: Aerosmith tracks have been revealed, along with the news that Boston's Orpheum Theatre will be recreated for the game.
• Play has an interview with Doug Lombardi about Left 4 Dead.
• The BBFC insists they will be able to cope with the volume of work involved in rating video games.
• A Connecticut man has been sentenced to 30 months in prison for acting as the operator, equipment supplier and scripter for a number of warez sites.
• But don't get caught, and you can go places. Tony Krvaric, now head of San Diego’s GOP committee, was the co-founder of the Fairlight warez group that formed in 1987.
• ComputerWorld suggests a possible solution for gaming seasickness.
• Sega apparently has a Rambo light gun shooter currently being tested in Japan.
• Penny Arcade Adventures has gone gold and is due out later this quarter.
• The CEO of Activision believes that the slowing US economy could cause a console price drop.
• Matt Damon apparently wanted the Bourne Conspiracy game to be a Myst-type title, "to play with his amnesia or his memory." The developer weren't interested, and so he didn't get involved with the making of the game.

PC and mobile news

New content: Two Worlds add-on

• Remeber Diablo3.com's countdown to a big announcement? It turns out to be one of those things that either hints at something big or may not mean anything at all: Blizzard has acquired the Diablo3.com domain. The fansite has been moved to DiabloFans.com.
• Gamasutra has an interview with CD Projekt's VP of PR & Marketing about the Witcher.
• Edge magazine checks in with the people behind Tabula Rasa, now that the initial buzz is over.
• You can get a free copy of Frontlines: Fuel of War when buying a qualifying GeForce card from PNY, Newegg or TigerDirect.
• A while back there was a story about using Microsoft Excel as a 3D engine. Insert Credit points out that this has actually been known for years, and links to several games running entirely on Excel.

Nintendo news

New media: Deca Sports screens and trailer

• You can see brief glimpses of Sonic Chronicles footage in these two videos about Bioware and their work on the game. Everyone's talking in French, though.
• The Game Factory has announced Rubik's World for the DS and Wii.
• Tecmo has officially announced Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff for the DS.
• Konami is making a Lost in Blue Wii game, but it hasn't been announced for North America yet.
• You can pick up a free Wii Fit promo DVD and booklet at certain retailers.
• GameFunk uses GameRankings stats to show that there's a higher percentage of crap on the Wii than on the PS3 or 360.
• Conflicting reports continue over whether brain training helps you or not.
• The director of the original PS2 version of Okami has expressed his disappointment that the end-game staff roll was cut from the Wii version of Okami. Capcom claims that the reason was that the credits contain the Clover logo, which they couldn't use, but the roll was in FMV and they didn't have the source file to cut the logo out. This project has really just been aces all around.
• Shigeru Miyamoto was voted to the top of Time's "Your Time 100" list of the most influential people of the year. Influencing nerds to spamvote a meaningless Internet poll, maybe. Miyamoto is followed by Korean pop singer Rain at #2 and Stephen Colbert at #3.
• Nintendo is looking at solutions for the Wii's limited memory problem. Satoru Iwata says: "Statistically speaking, it is true that there are a small number of customers who feel that the flash memory is too small, while many others find that they have plenty of memory. However, because this small number of people are none other than the most avid players, we know we have to review the best possible solution to eliminate their inconvenience."
• Amazon's deal of the day is Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door for $11.99.

Sony news

New game: Echochrome
New content: Rock Band tracks, American Idol Encore tracks
New demo: Dark Sector

• A new survey finds that the number of consumers using the PS3 to watch Blu-ray movies is increasing.
• PS3 Fanboy has the US Singstar launch song line-up.
• Daniel Primed tells you why you should buy the original Metal Gear Solid instead of the Gamecube remake.
• Burnout Paradise players with the Bogart update can have their save game analyzed on criteriongames.com. The site will then generate a map of all incomplete discoverables.

Microsoft news

New content: Kung Fu Panda demo, Ace Combat plane, Chessmaster Live Rayman Raving Rabbids -- synergistic!

• Famitsu Xbox 360 revealed more details on Infinite Undiscovery.

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