I'm sure his thought process was "Super Macho Man? C'mon, they had to have made that up."

Industry and multi-console news

New media: Tomb Raider: Underworld screenshots, Faith and a .45 trailer, Devil May Cry 4 trailer with music from L'Arc~en~Ciel

• Next Generation has the newest Japanese sales chart.
• Mercenaries 2 has been delayed again to sometime in the next fiscal year (beginning in April).
• EA's annual game of Madden to emulate the Superbowl has predicted a winner for the Patriots. ArmchairGM has run their own simulation in Super Tecmo Bowl.
• Internet service provider Tiscali has denied it is intentionally blocking customers from playing online games.
• Filming on the Max Payne movie is set to get underway in March. No word yet on who's playing Little Mac.
• The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences has announced the Dr. Randy Pausch Scholarship Fund.
• EA's CEO says that under certain conditions they still need more development time on the PS3 than 360. "In circumstances where we either led with the Xbox 360 or ran parallel production, for the most part, we're still experiencing some delay on the PS3."
• Climax has clarified reports of one of their studios closing, saying it was simply a matter of vacating office space and that "the only people affected are a receptionist and an IT guy."
• Company president Yoichi Wada says that ""Acquisitions and alliances will be the cornerstone" of SquareEnix's growth strategy in the coming year.
• GameDaily reports that the merger between Activision and Vivendi almost fell through during the year-long negotiation.
• EA says that Skate outsold Tony Hawk's Proving Ground nearly 2 to 1 on current gen systems.
• The price on the special 99 cent Rock Band tracks has gone up to the usual $1.99.
• GameDaily has an interview with Ricardo Torres about his new position as Gamespot editor-in-chief post-Gerstmann.
• The president of LucasArts has left the company for "personal reasons."
• The New York Times examines the "clear evidence of a sea change" in 2007's top selling games. Namely, the fact that the chart is covered with party-type games (like Guitar Hero) and multiplayer titles. It all indicates a desire for a social element, you see.

PC and mobile news

New content: Empires in Arms 1.01 patch

• The CABAL Online open beta is now underway.
• EA has plans to sell the games of the Orange Box separately at retail.
• Crysis has managed to sell one million units worldwide since its launch in November.
• Speaking with Next Generation, Stardock's Brad Wardell talks about fighting the consolization of strategy games.

Nintendo news

New PAL Virtual Console title: Adventures of Lolo 2

• The cobalt blue DS is coming to America on February 10.
• Rock Band has been confirmed for the Wii, though a release date is unknown.
• The ELSPA has distanced itself from quotes reported yesterday saying that 90% of American DS owners play pirated games. They say "[John] didn't quote The Sunday Post on any figures whatsoever" and they wouldn't make claims about America anyway (it's a UK group).
• Some minor changes have been made to the Check Mii Out channel.
• Nintendo says recent complaints in Japan of Wiis unable to read the Smash Bros. disc or skippy video playback is due to dirty laser lenses. They claim Brawl is more sensitive to it because it uses a dual-layer disc. Bizarrely, they're even offering the clean the Wiis for customers for free.
• According to a Japanese retail blog, Brawl sold a half million units in its first day.
• Gamasura has an opinion piece up called Punk's Not Dead - Why No More Heroes Matters.
• David Sirlin takes a break from working on Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix to to write about "why is Mario Galaxy so good and what can we learn from it?"
• RetroJunk lists the top ten hardest NES games.

Sony news

New content: Folklore add-ons, Rock Band tracks, Conflict: Denied Ops demo
New media: Home screenshots, Arcana Heart trailer and gameplay footage

• The Buzz! quiz game series is coming to the PSP.
• Insiders at Gamestop have lent credence to the 120 gig PS3 rumor.
• Gadget magazine T3 says that there is a slimmer and lighter PS3 on the way.
• Star Ocean 2 on the PSP has been dated for April 2 in Japan.
• The official Playstation blog takes a look at the new advanced shot mode in Hot Shots Golf: Out of Bounds.
• PSP firmware 3.90 has already been cracked.
• Much like what was done with the Wii remote, someone has thrown together a working head tracking system for the PS3 using the Playstation Eye.

Microsoft news

New content: Conflict: Denied Ops demo

• As you would expect, that story about the guy e-mailing Bill Gates to get a replacement for his red ringed 360 has led Microsoft to remind everyone that "Bill Gates or Microsoft executives are not an appropriate escalation point for customer service issues."
• Amazon's deal of the day is... holy hell, Halo 3 Legendary Edition for $59.99.