Video game apparel is often uninspired (oh look something else with Pac Man on it), but this is neat.

Industry and multi-console news

New media: Incredible Hulk trailer, Call of Duty 4 gameplay footage from the new Broadcast map

• Gearbox president Randy Pitchford defends their recent in-game ad deal with Double Fusion. The "improved authenticity" argument is interesting (one of the Hell's Highway missions takes place in a circa-1944 Philips factory), but I don't think you need an ad contract for that.
• Gamestop is continuing its expansion into Europe by acquiring 49 stores in Norway.
• Victorian Deputy Premier Rob Hulls argues that Australia is "out of step" with the rest of the world due to its lack of an R18+ rating for video games.
• 1up suggests that the Def Leppard songs mentioned last week as coming to Guitar Hero 4 might actually be coming to GH3 as downloadable content.
• Capcom has announced plans to acquire Tenchu Z developer K2.
• Ian Bogost wonders if Spore is truly "for everyone", noting the reactions of people who have never heard of the game before.
• Still Alive is coming free to Rock Band on April 1 for the 360 and April 17 for the PS3.
• A teaser site for the next Mortal Kombat is up with a countdown on the main page that has 17 days to go. Does anyone still care enough about Mortal Kombat for this to be effective?
• A British newspaper is offering cash for game violence stories. "‘Write a few lines about how computer games turned you to crime and if it's something we like, we'll call you straight back."
• Having continued trouble in their amusement business, Sega Sammy has closed their Korean branch and canceled plans for a Yokohama amusement center.
• 1up fires off a quick list of the top 5 racist video games. And they're all console games, so none of that Ethnic Cleansing silliness.
• GamePolitics has the final part of the coverage of Jack Thompson's Bar trial, in which they recap the series and how it came about.
• Newsweek's Level Up blog has a guest columnist named Justin Blankenship who was a former lawyer for the Federal Trade Commission. He wonders if the FTC might reject the EA/Take-Two merger on antitrust grounds.
• GameTrailers has put up part two of their Star Wars games retrospective.
• Capcom has dumped their Gamers Day event in exchange for a different event called CAPTIVATE08. Five members of Capcom Unity will get the chance the chance to attend.
• The planned Onimusha movie has been put on indefinite hold. How will I go on.
• GameDaily looks at forgotten mascots that should stay forgotten.

PC and mobile news

• A "confidential source" tells Tech ARP that ray-tracing will debut in DirectX 11 and that it will launch with Vista Service Pack 2. Normally I'd say to regard this as a rumor, but given that the article contains a total of four smileys, I have doubts as to whether even the site I'm reading it on actually exists.
• Some Montana Child Support Enforcement Division employees were annoyed to find that the games were missing from their new work PCs when other divisions still had them, so they complained until the games were added back. Then an anonymous tipster wrote to the newspaper saying that government employees should not be goofing off, so the state removed all games from everyone's computers in every division.
• I don't know how you go about ranking one above another, but Cnet has listed the top ten obsolete ports. Not games from other systems, literal ports you plug stuff into.
• Amazon is still dumping Tabular Rasa for $9.99, but they've also got the Tabula Rasa Collector's Edition for $19.99. That's fifty bucks off.

Nintendo news

New Virtual Console titles: Wonder Boy and Cruis'n USA

• The very Metal Slug-ish Commando: Steel Disaster is coming to the DS in the third quarter of this year.
• Ubisoft has announced open-world rescue game Emergency Heroes for the Wii.
• Slate has an article on the Wii's "pitiful online gaming service."
• In the fitness center at Manhattan's Le Parker Meridien hotel, you can work out with a trainer in Wii Sports for $120 an hour or play by yourself for the bargain price of $50 an hour.
• Modders doing odd things with the Wii continues: One man creates the full-body Wiimote music controller suit.
• In case you were worried, the Guitar Hero: On Tour peripheral works with the original DS.
• The plastic wheel shell packed in with Mario Kart Wii is also being sold separately for $14.99.
• Hudson has announced a WiiWare Karaoke game in Japan.
• Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon has been confirmed for a July 8 US release.
• According to GameFly, a Guinness Book of World Records video game is coming to the Wii and DS.

Sony news

• The Playstation Store will be getting a redesign in mid-April. Current content will still be available while work is being done, but there won't be any new content updates for the next two weeks.
• Metal Gear Saga Vol. 2, the bonus DVD for pre-ordering MGS4 is now shipping to retailers with Metal Gear Online beta keys.
• GameSetWatch talks to artist Neil McFarland about his contribution to the Wipeout Pure Omega Pack.
• Someone claims to have gotten a "hello world" app running on a PS3, and has a shaky, dark YouTube video to prove it. Well, show it, at any rate.
• Amazon's deal of the day is Major League Baseball 2K8 for $39.99.
• While I'm looking at Amazon, I notice that Karaoke Revolution Country is out of stock and only being sold by a few third parties -- the one used copy is $109, while the new copies range between $130 and $160. How the hell did that game get rare?

Microsoft news

New content: Football Manager 2008 demo -- Not available in Austria, Asia, Germany and North America

• This week's Live Arcade title is Mr. Driller Online.
• Next Generation has an interview with Bungie's CJ Cowan about the production of Halo 3 and what they're doing now.
• Infinity Ward says that 1.3 million people play Call of Duty 4 every day on the 360 alone.
• A number of original shows are coming to the Xbox Live Video Marketplace. Gizmodo notes that the company Microsoft has signed the deal with is headed by Peter Safran, producer on such classics as Meet the Spartans, Rocketman, and Jiminy Glick in Lalawood.
• The list of Grand Theft Auto IV achievements has leaked.
• The Gears of War movie is aiming at a summer 2010 release date.

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• Call of Duty 4: Game of the Year Edition (360) - The same game as before, but now it includes a token to download the Variety Map Pack. Why it doesn't just contain the map pack is unknown. The PS3 version comes next month. $59.99 at Amazon.
• Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revis (PS2) - The latest entry in Japan's long-running Atelier RPG series. $39.79 at Amazon.
• Toy Shop (DS) - Make toys and manage inventory, if you think you can handle it. $18.99 at Amazon.
• Civil War Mysteries (PC) - I have no idea what this is but I can only hope it's hosted by Robert Stack. $19.99 at Amazon.

Only two console games and one handheld game this week, and one of them is a re-release. The PC games are pretty much all on the level of Civil War Mysteries, with titles like Great War Nations: The Spartans and Women's Murder Club rounding out the list. The full release list can be seen here.

Posted by Bill at 12:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

You might recall Dead Fantasy from last year -- it was a lengthy, ludicrous fan video featuring some of the Dead or Alive girls fighting Yuna and Rikku in their FFX-2 gear, culminating in Tifa showing up to the fight with a "to be continued" message. Now they're back in part two, in which the creator proves the old adage of "more is not more enough" by piling on increasingly ridiculous situations until the file itself threatens to snap under the strain. Believe it or not, he has "at least 5 more episodes" of this in the works.

WARNING: This may be too much rock for you to handle.

"Most surprisingly, Hunter Watson's performance is Mick Jagger cool despite a refreshing absence of explicit lyrics. But what really makes the song stay on replay in the listener's mind is the catchy pop-style melody, with it's wry references to a diverse group of artists, from Dylan and the Monkees to the Black-Eyed Peas."

This blog post in February introduced the world to the pirate remake of Final Fantasy VII for the Famicom. Now, here's video of the game in action.

What better anthem for the MGS series could there be than this. That's all it is when you get down to it -- a succession of people messing with Snake's couch.

A remake of the Legend of Zelda from the beginning of the game to the end of the first dungeon, done in the N+ level editor.

People have made a lot of interesting, lengthy and well constructed Line Rider tracks, but I'm pretty sure this obliterates them all.

Then of course there's always this.

Posted by Bill at 3:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

New screenshots for Soul Calibur IV show off Amy, Zasalamel, Cervantes and Cervantes' eye hat.

Industry and multi-console news

New media: Guitar Hero Aerosmith trailer, Alone in the Dark trailer, Prototype screenshots

• GameIndustry.biz and Next Generation both have interviews with Dr. Tanya Byron, author of the UK government's Byron Report about the effect of video games on children.
• On a related note, Ireland says they plan to continue using PEGI ratings despite the reports suggestion of a hybrid system.
• EA has extended the deadline on their offer to Take-Two. You guys sure you don't want this? It's prettttty gooooddd...
• Along with the reveal of a new trailer, it's been announced that GTA4 will have an in-game music purchasing feature. Not to buy more music for the game, but rather to allow you to buy mp3s of music you hear on the radio.
• Rainbow Six Vegas 2 tops the newest Australian sales chart.
• Despite recent court cases between THQ, WWE and Jakks, WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009 is still a go.
• Rock Band and Lego Star Wars keynotes have been announced for the Nordic Game conference in May.
• EA has announced that NFL Head Coach 09 will only be available bundled with the Madden NFL 09 20th Anniversary Collector's Edition.
• The first Aerosmith songs announced for their upcoming Guitar Hero game include Draw the Line, No Surprize, and Sweet Emotion.
• Studio officials confirm that Paramount is expanding its game division and will directly oversee and finance future games based on their movies, both new and old.
• The former head of Xbox Europe thinks consoles and handhelds will die out in the next five to ten years.
• The Daily Mail has called upon mother and former breakfast TV host Anne Diamond to review some violent games for them. I can only hope they did this for laughs. "I stopped playing when I was set on fire and something splattered blood all over my visor."
• CNet lists the 30 dumbest game titles ever. Many of these are the usual "Ninja Golf oh how wacky" but far and away the best title is Extreme Sports with the Berenstain Bears.
• Gamespot's PressSpotting column covers the top ten game journalism cliches. Number 10 is "top ten lists." Fun fact: PressSpotting is written by the Ouroboros.
• Multiplayer has been dropped from upcoming open world game Prototype.
• Joe Kucan, who plays Kane in the Command & Conquer series, says games aren't culturally influential yet. "We're half-way there. The only thing that's culturally influential now is the genre itself. There's nothing specific about any of the games that are worming their way into the psyche of the world."
• In Australia, the topic of violent video games can even get porn and Christian lobbyists to agree with each other.
• Kung Fu Cinema has an updated cast list for the Tekken movie.
• GamesRadar lists the best unofficial fan games based on existing game series.
• The April issue of the International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction contains a series of articles on the topic of video game addiction.
• 50 Cent talks to MTV about the inspiration for his new game and his own gaming habits. Or lack thereof.
• Naughty Dog co-founder Jason Rubin got a mention in Star Magazine, and all it took was being seen dating Australian singer Sophie Monk.

PC and mobile news

New content: Sherlock Holmes: Nemesis demo, Evochron Renegades 1.508 patch, AVENCAST: Rise of the Mage 1.03 patch, CSI 4: Hard Evidence 1.1 patch

• NeoGAF has details on Dawn of War 2 from a PCGameplay magazine preview.
• Internal Microsoft e-mails released as part of an ongoing lawsuit show that there was a real problem with buggy Nvidia drivers for Vista in 2007.
• System requirements and pricing have been revealed for Penny Arcade Adventures: Episode One.
• No sooner were blogs praising Target for selling those Experimental Gameplay t-shirts than they stopped selling them. The distributors are going to move on to places like Hot Topic and Urban Outfitters to see if they do better there.

Nintendo news

New PAL Virtual Console titles: Cruis'n USA, Uridium, International Karate -- the latter two being the first Commodore 64 titles on the service

• Atlus has announced a Etrian Odyssey II: Heroes of Lagaard for the DS coming this June.
• EA has announced a DS-exclusive rhythm-action game called Zubo.
• Nintendo has announced the Japanese Virtual Console line-up for April, including the original PC Engine version of Dracula X.
• Seemingly dead game Project HAMMER has shown up in Gamestop's database again. But why?
• Hudson plans to release a new Alien Crush for WiiWare.
• GameSetWatch has a column about the recently released for the DS Shiren the Wanderer, both introducing the game to new players (while defending it from some of the negative reviews it's received) and providing tips. "Meanwhile, Shiren the Wanderer is a game in a more fundamental sense, the sense that you can actually lose at it, and probably will many times before you earn your first win. While it is not real-time, it is still much like a classic arcade game, where games nearly always end by losing."

Sony news

New demos: R-Type Command demo
New content: Turok maps, High Stakes: Poker Edition camera add-on, Unreal Tournament 3 maps, Rock Band tracks, Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol Encore tracks

• Sony's Playstation blog has a trailer and more details on Operation: Broken Mirror, the Warhawk expansion.
• PS3 owners seem to be having audio problems with Condemned 2.
• Team Xecuter has announced a handy device that fits in the UMD slot of the PSP and holds four memory sticks.
• The online manual for the PSP contains a brief, tenuous reference to A 3000 model of PSP, suggesting that another revision could be possible down the line.
• After a short delay, Gran Turismo 5 Prologue is now available on the European Playstation Store.
• PSP Fanboy lists the 20 Final Fantasy supporting characters they want to see in Dissidia.
• Sony says they had plans for Facebook and YouTube-like sites centered around the PS1 and PS2 respectively, but the projects never came to fruition.
• Amazon's deal of the day is MLB 07 The Show, in three flavors: $14.99 on the PS2, $14.99 on the PSP, or $25.99 on the PS3. Collect and trade with your friends.

Microsoft news

New content: Turok maps, Chessmaster chess sets

• Xbox Japan's site lists an April 2 release for Mr. Driller Online. The date has been officially announced for America yet, so it's not exactly confirmed.
• They also list an April 9 release for Ikaruga.
• For people with replacement 360s whose content no longer works outside of their own Gamertag (a common problem), it looks like it is fixable.
• Pricing for Penny Arcade Adventues: Episode One has been set at $20, which will make it the most expensive game on Live Arcade so far.
• Cave reveals that the reason DoDonPachi: Dai-ou-jou and Ketsui X are coming to the 360 on disc is because Microsoft rejected them for Live Arcade. "We secured these licenses, and finally talked with Microsoft. There they rejected all of our proposals saying, 'We are going to cut down faithful arcade ports.'"
• At Xbox 360 Fanboy you can watch video of Castle Crashers maps being painted.
• An Army of Two demo is coming April 1.

Posted by Bill at 6:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The idea of "hygienic panties for female dogs" is odd enough without having to wonder why it has part of a Compatible With Gameboy Color logo on it.

Industry and multi-console news

• The UK government has published the Bryon Review, a six month long review of the effects of video games and the Internet on children. The report calls for the industry to better educate parents on game ratings and how to use family settings, and finds "the arousal brought on during some game play may have the same impact on children as high levels as stress," although "there is no clear evidence of desensitization [to violence] in children." In the future, the BBFC will rate all games for those 12 and older, with PEGI remaining to rate games for children. In addition, retailers could now face criminal sanctions for selling inappropriate games to minors.
• As long as we're Over There, Next Generation has the newest European sales chart. Gamasutra has the Japanese chart.
• Atari has received yet another delisting warning from Nasdaq.
• The new map and weapons for Team Fortress 2 are coming in the week of April 20.
• The next 50 Cent game is officially known as 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand, and will follow the story of Fiddy getting his first period during a beach party.
• Developers The Collective and Shiny Entertainment have merged to form Double Helix.
• InfoAddict has a list of top ten things that suck about Rock Band, though it's really more like things that suck about online multiplayer Rock Band.
• Next Generation talks to Peter Moore about implementing change in the EA Sports brand. “We’ve got to bring more people in. We’ve got to grow the sports business…you know, the interface on our games is just too complicated for [non-gamers] and we have to change that, and we’re doing a lot of work to do that without dumbing down the games.”
• Elsewhere, EA audio director Aubrey Hodges mentions "We are making a change in the Madden commentators."
• Be ye forewarned: Take Two officially considers BioShock and Civilization MMOs to be "potential untapped opportunities."
• Def Leppard guitarist Phil Collen has reportedly confirmed that three of the band's songs are appearing in Guitar Hero IV, those three being Photograph, Rock of Ages and Animal.
• MTV talks to Christian Svensson about how Capcom predicts game sales and determines how many copies of a game to produce.
• Similarly, they talk to Atlus about the need to remain conservative when producing niche games (which is why their titles are so often hard to find).
• Gameplayer talks to the people at Traveller's Tales about their past and future Lego games.
• GamePolitics' coverage of the Jack Thompson Bar trial begins to wrap up with Jack's closing statement. "I have a right - in fact, I have duty, as Jesus did, the confront the Pharisees and say: 'You are hypocrites. You are liars. You are whited sepulchers. You’re in a den of thieves,' and so forth…"
• Millions of Us talks about the experience of creating an Alternate Reality Game for the Sarah Connor Chronicles.
• Midway has revealed the full roster of players in NBA Ballers: Chosen One.
• The console version of World in Conflict has been re-titled World in Conflict: Soviet Assault, and will contain a new campaign and multiplayer maps.
• Rockstar has announced the Rockstar Social Club, a leaderboard website combined with "performance-based competitions and awards."
• I hate to have to phrase it this way, but another teenager has been killed over whose turn it was to play a video game.
• Collider has an interview with Mike De Luca in which he talks a bit about the Metal Gear Solid movie. "When you’re in your theatre seat, you’re stuck with these subjective versions of the story and the game from a director or the writer’s point of view. You can’t interact with what’s going on so whatever turns you on about the game, you’re immediately disadvantaged in the theatre because you’re not feeling anything which I think ups the ante for how good the story has to be and how good the movie has to be because we’re going in at a disadvantage that you’re not going to get the excitement or the adrenalin rush of doing it yourself, so we have to do it for you in a way that makes up for that."

PC and mobile news

New GameTap titles: Baseball Mogul, Daemonica , Hot Dog King
New content: Unreal Tournament 3 map pack, The Settlers: Rise of an Empire 1.5 patch
New media: Sam & Max Episode 205: What's New, Beelzebub? trailer

• S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky has been given an Augst 29 worldwide release date.
• Stardock has announced The Political Machine 2008, a game in which you go through the 2008 US elections as campaign manager for any of the major candidates or make one of your own.

Nintendo news

New media: Deca Sports trailer, Super Dodgeball Brawlers gameplay footage

• This weekend, Best Buy locations will be hosting a Wii for Women event.
• Gamasutra has a Games Demystified feature looking at how Super Mario Galaxy's gravity works.
• GameTrailers has a video preview of Mario Kart Wii.
• Animal Boxing is a DS game you play with the system upside down so you can use the stylus on the upper screen (where your opponent's face is).
• Japanese Club Nintendo members get an SD card filled with Nintendo game music. Everybody else gets nothing.
• OMG Nintendo looks at seven Game Boy games that deserved better. Which is to say, could've been more if they hadn't been confined to the Game Boy.
• Amazon's deal of the day is Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity for $29.99. They also have Crash of the Titans for $22.05.

Sony news

• Marking the third anniversary of the system, IGN talks to Sony's John Koller about the past, present and future of the PSP.
• Sony will soon be adding video support for High Stakes on the Vegas Strip: Poker Edition.
• Despite being "confirmed" by SCEE, Guerrilla Games warns that the September release date for Killzone 2 "is not gospel."
• Sony has announced a September 16 release date for SOCOM: Confrontation. In addition, the game's community site is up now.
• Haze is coming sometime in May, they just can't figure out when.
• Likely spurred on by the success of Persona 3, a fan translation of Persona 2: Innocent Sin is in the works. The Persona 2 that was released in America was Persona 2: Eternal Punishment, an alternate universe story made afterwards.
• Amazon's deal of the day is Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity for $25.00.

Microsoft news

New content: UEFA EURO 2008 demo, Forza 2 car, Ace Combat 6 planes, Chessmaster Live Egypt Chess Set
New media: Operation Darkness trailers -- it's the game about Nazis and vampires and werewolves. Yeah, that one

• A Ninja Gaiden 2 demo has been confirmed for May.
• Rare says Banjo Kazooie 3 is still on track for a holiday 2008 release.
• In response to the people at Metanet complaining about the low quality of Live Arcade games, Klei Entertainment argues that bad games aren't the problem, it's a matter of "control and visibility."
• The people at Metanet themselves are trying to avoid continuing negativity - "which apparently only works if you’re a fast-talking British bloke" - by talking about the positives of developing for Live Arcade.
• Gaming Nexus offers suggestions on how to make the achievements system better.
• Xbox 360 Fanboy has a walkthrough of the redesigned Xbox.com.
• Microsoft's lawyers have no problem with the Master Chief character mod recently made by fans for Unreal Tournament 3 on the PS3. "It's a great thing for us and a great thing for the gaming community."

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This is one image from a leaked set of the first screenshots of multiplayer in Grand Theft Auto IV. Rockstar had them pulled from the site that originally put them up, which lends an air of authenticity.

Elsewhere, there are photos of what is claimed to be the street map for Liberty City that comes packaged with GTA4.

Industry and multi-console news

New media: Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian trailer

• Take Two's board of directors has formally rejected EA's bid for the company. I know they already rejected it once, but this is a different rejection. They have said, however, that they will explore alternatives like a "business combination with third parties or with EA."
• Cnet says that both companies should stop using the press in their deal wrangling. I don't think Cnet's quite in the position to make bold claims of holy purity in the relationships between the press and game companies.
• The newest UK sales charts have Rainbow Six Vegas 2 on top.
• The new footage of Resident Evil 5 from that Capcom 25th Anniversary DVD has been uploaded to GameVideos.
• Gearbox has entered into a deal to add in-game ads to upcoming games. Which games aren't known.
• Another new Soul Calibur IV character has been revealed. This one has spiky nipples. Yep.
• Free speech advocate Adam Thierer talks to MTV about AO rated games. “Whether any of us care to admit it, the fact that AO-rated games are currently kept off the major consoles and off the shelves at some major retailers (ex: Wal-Mart and Target) is probably the most important thing holding back a full-on legislative assault on video games.”
• The guy who wrote that opinion piece on why you don't need writers in the game industry spoke specifically about his experience working with the writer on the upcoming Dirty Harry game. Now said writer has written a response of his own.
• A former game industry exec is involved in the Hollywood wiretapping trial of private eye Anthony Pellicano.
• Developer Signature Devices says they are putting the finishing touches on a four-player arcade game starring "several well known comic book and television superheroes." Television heroes? Oh man, come on M.A.N.T.I.S.!
• IGN talks to Robin Walker about the upcoming Team Fortress 2 updates like new weapons and the Goldrush map.
• GamePolitics has part 7 of the Bar trial against Jack Thompson and I really start to wonder how long this is going to go on.
• Illinois Auditor General William Holland wants to know why the Illinois Public Health Department was billed for 14% of the legal fees resulting from the state's attempt to pass (and then defend) a 2005 video game law.
• Gamestop is running a contest to promote GTA4 with a grand prize of $10,000.
• Capcom has debunked rumors of PS3 and 360 versions of Resident Evil 4.
• Far Cry 2 has been confirmed for autumn of this year.
• Two opinion pieces on the subject of perspective in rating games: Leigh Alexander talks about objectivity in game reviews, while Infendo takes a more philosophical approach.
• Five new Turok multiplayer maps are due for the 360 and PS3 tomorrow.
• Video Game Price Charts makes the observation that a new copy of Chrono Trigger on its day of release was a better investment than Apple or Microsoft shares. I was hoping this was tongue-in-cheek, but given the guide to "buying video games as an investment" afterwards, I guess not.

PC and mobile news

New content: Enemy Engaged 1.02 patch, Space Empires V 1.71 patch, Harpoon 3 3.90 patch, Pacific Storm: Allies 1.52 UK patch

• EA's Red Alert 3 beta registration page is now online.
• CVG asks whether unreasonably high system specs on new games are "forcing PC game sales on a downward spiral."
• Events have been announced for The Matrix Online's third anniversary. I'm sure the five guys who play it will be pleased. Alternately: Turd anniversary?
• GameSetWatch's new World of Warcraft Exposed column examines why World of Warcraft made it big.
• Warhammer Online has been delayed until fall.

Nintendo news

• Master System games will be $4 on the Virtual Console, with the first two announced titles being Wonder Boy and Fantasy Zone.
• Gammick Entertainment has announced Zombie BBQ for the DS.
• This week's Zero Punctuation review is for Zack & Wiki.
• Booster packs for Japanese WiiWare game Lonpos have been delayed. They were going to be the first available DLC for a WiiWare title.
• Game Melody Oratorio is a homebrew DS game that teaches simple game melodies via a virtual piano.
• The WiiWare version of Dr. Mario allows someone with the full version of the game to send a link to a demo version to their friends. The demo allows them to play multiplayer matches against anyone on their friends list.
• A new Square Enix adventure RPG called Sigma Harmonics is coming to the DS.
• The US Army is looking at the Wii controller as a simple way to control military robots.
• Amazon's deal of the day is Warhammer 40k: Squad Command for $17.99. They also have Pokemon Ranger for $16.16.

Sony news

• You can now watch video of Linger in Shadows (where the screenshots yesterday came from) and try to figure out for yourself what the hell it is.
• Encouraging people to buy Gran Turismo 5 Prologue and not wait for the full game, Sony says that "GT5 is still about a year away."
• Sega has confirmed a European release for Yakuza 2.
• Gemaga points out instructions on how to sign up for the Metal Gear Online beta. The instructions are actually in Korean, but they have pictures so hopefully you can piece it together.
• Killzone 2, Resistance 2 and LittleBigPlanet have been dated for Europe.
• The Playstation Store was briefly compromised by hackers. "Although unlikely, it is possible that the passwords of a small percentage of PLAYSTATION Network users may have been changed through unauthorized access, making it possible to view users' personal information and/or use the Wallet for the PLAYSTATION Store."
• Amazon has the PS3 Rock Band Special Edition for $147.99.

Microsoft news

New Live Arcade title: TiQal

• Bungie has revealed the third map in the Legendary Map Pack: Blackout, a remake of the Halo 2 map Lockout.
• Introversion has confirmed that Darwinia and its multiplayer update Multiwinia are coming to Live Arcade as a single package.
• Major Nelson is giving away Battlefield Bad Company beta codes on his blog.
• Reuters confirms reports from last month that Netflix is surveying members about the possibility of streaming movies on Xbox Live.
• The Gears of War 2 tech demo videos shown at GDC are now available online at the link and on Live Marketplace.
• The recent patch for the 360 version of Bully reportedly causes more problems than it fixes.
• Supreme Commander has been delayed from its April release date to "later this spring or early summer."
• Amazon has Forza Motorsport 2 for $29.99 and Rock Band Special Edition for $147.99.

Posted by Bill at 4:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I can tell you these are screenshots from Linger In Shadows for the PS3. Beyond that is where things get shaky. It's being produced by demosceners and will be released to the public, but may just be a graphical showcase and not a game in the traditional sense. And it's got basset hounds and cats for some reason.

Industry and multi-console news

• Chinese actress Josie Ho has joined the cast of the new Street Fighter movie in an unspecified role.
• Gamasutra has an interview with Valve's Kim Swift And Erik Wolpaw about Portal.
• The UK's National Union of Teachers argue that an increasing number of children are behaving badly at school because they're being spoiled at home. Oh, and they play violent video games too.
• Although two new studies find no link between violent video games and violent behavior.
• GameCareerGuide has advice for game designers on developing your fun instinct.
• The new issue of Game Informer has new details on Guitar Hero: Aerosmith. Not only is Neversoft mo-capping the band, but they're also recreating in-game the high school in which they played their first show. In addition, some other songs appearing in the game have been revealed, including Joan Jett's Hate Myself for Loving You and Cheap Trick's Dream Police.
• Popular Mechanics has an article on the realism, or lackthereof, of FPS guns. "A shotgun firing buckshot, for example, has significantly more penetration in RSV2 than it should. Why? 'People associate shotguns with powerful, close-range weapons,' Theiren says. So a shotgun blast will punch through walls and armor just fine, even though buckshot is known for its lack of penetration in the real world."
• Next Generation pulls out the charts to examine the DLC download figures for Rock Band and Guitar Hero.
• Music 4 Games has an interview with Nobuo Uematsu about the third Black Mages album.
• Capcom says they believe in Monster Hunter and are planning to push the brand in the US "in a big way." They say that "with some serious outreach and marketing muscle that we can make this series almost as big here in North America as it is in Japan."
• GamesRadar lists the Top 7 Stereotypical Gamers We Hate.
• GamePolitics has part six of their excerpts from the Bar trial of Jack Thompson.
• The cover of the next issue of EGM mentions a preview of 50 Cent II. Oh.. boy.
• An erotic game shop in Akihabara has a help wanted sign in the window with the only message a downtrodden geek needs to hear: "No sexual experience necessary."

PC and mobile news

New content: World of Warcraft 2.4 patch, Maximum Football 2.0 v2.2 patch, Savage 2 content update

• Vista SP1 is available now.
• NCSoft has licensed Unreal Engine 3 for two new MMOs they're working on.
• Infinity Ward says "logistics are being worked out" on how to bring DLC to Call of Duty 4. Um.. You upload the file and people download it?
• Amazon's deal of the day is Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa for Richard Garriott's Ten Bux.

Nintendo news

New media: Sonic Chronicles screenshots

• WiiWare has debuted in Japan to a mixed response. Joystiq has a round-up of coverage and impressions from around the Internet.
• As part of the coverage of the service's debut, we've learned that Square Enix will charge you for the other races in Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King. There will also be separately priced downloadable costumes.
• But WiiWare can't be all bad: There's a game coming for it about a food critic on a plane fighting vampires.
• Majesco has plans to bring old Humongous point-and-click character games to the Wii, like Freddi Fish in Kelp Seed Mystery, Pajama Sam in Don't Fear the Dark and Spy Fox in Dry Cereal.
• Harmonix has answered some questions about the upcoming Rock Band Wii release.

Sony news

• Sony has announced the North American soundtrack for Gran Turismo 5 Prologue.
• The official Playstation blog has a video walkthrough of the features of PS3 firmware 2.20.
• Meanwhile Sony's European blog has preview of an expansion for Warhawk called Operation: Broken Mirror.
• The Eye of Judgment expansion pack has been delayed in the US.
• Kotaku has a collection of Persona 3 FES webisodes that Atlus has been releasing to promote the release of FES.
• 30 randomly selected gamers who bought the MGS4 bundle in Japan from Konami's online store got a set of MGS-themed MDR-DS7000 headphones. I question how headphones can deliver 7.1 sound, but whatever.

Microsoft news

New content: Rock Band tracks, Raiden Fighters Aces demo (Japan only)

• Remember that the Halo 3 Heroic Map Pack is now free.
• Sierra is bringing the card game Lost Cities to Live Arcade.
• Anyone caught cheating on Live will have their Gamerscore reduced to zero (with no way to re-earn past achievements) and will be publicly branded a cheater.
• The Blue Dragon soundtrack is available now if you can find a store that carries this sort of thing.
• One Kotaku reader sent in a picture of an endcap at Target piled high with copies of Crackdown, priced at $15 a piece. No store should have that many copies of a single game that isn't even new.

Posted by Bill at 5:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The newest Sonic Unleashed screenshot reveals a glimpse of the "become Minimum Wage Sonic" feature.

Industry and multi-console news

• Capcom has announced a Capcom 25th Anniversary Special DVD to be included with the next issue of Weekly Famitsu. Among other things, it will contain new footage of Resident Evil 5.
• Valve's store has been restocked with plushie companion cubes, so you'd better get one quick if you want one.
• Adam Maxwell of the IGDA Game Writers' Special Interest Group has offered a rebuttal to the op-ed piece from last week claiming that game writers weren't important.
• Gamasutra has a postmortem entitled How Puzzle Quest Saved Infinite Interactive.
• At GameCareerGuide's Ask the Experts column, someone writes in to ask about the options for indie development on consoles.
• Gameplayer has an interview with one of the developers of Prototype.
• DJ Paul Oakenfold will be putting on a private performance of the soundtrack to the upcoming Bourne game in Miami tomorrow. You can watch a stream of the event through Yahoo.
• Activision wants people to send in videos of themselves rocking out and generally making fools of themselves as part of their Rock Icon contest. The videos will be judged by Lemmy from Motorhead, and the winner will get to appear in a new Guitar Hero game.
• EA has responded to concerns about buyable weapons in Battlefield: Bad Company.
• Todd Howard mentioned in a recent Xbox podcast that Fallout 3 will have over 200 endings. I'm assuming what he's referring to is similar to how past Fallouts worked, where each separate plot thread in the game had its own ending (out of several possibilities), and you saw a series of them based on how you played.
• Advertisements have started appearing for a Lego vehicle and figures from The Force Unleashed.
• Paul Robertson, the guy who created Pirate Baby's Cabana Battle Street Fight, has released his newest work, Kings of Power 4 Billion %.

PC and mobile news

• Yet another casual gaming start-up has gone live, this one called Mytopia.
• Gamasutra has an interview with Joe Ybarra of Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment about the MMOs they are working on.
• Blizzard and the creator of the World of Warcraft bot program Glider have both filed new motions in court to have themselves declared victorious without an actual trial.
• 1up has plans to upload all of the old Tom vs. Bruce articles from Computer Gaming World to their site. They don't seem to have a dedicated page where they will all be listed, but I know that the first two are up, anyway.

Nintendo news

New Virtual Console titles: King's Knight and Powerball

• Rock Band is coming to the Wii on June 22. Unfortunately, a Harmonix rep says "the feature-set is a lot closer to the PS2 version of Rock Band."
• A Miyamoto-signed Super Famicom has gone up for auction on Ebay.
• There are three completely different chicken-related DS games on the way and I have no idea why.
• GameStop is pricing WiiFit at $90, with pre-orders starting at $10.
• Amazon has WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2008 for $25.00.

Sony news

New media: Persona 4 screenshots

• PSP Fanboy looks back at three years of the PSP.
• Amazon has WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2008 for $29.99.

Microsoft news

New Xbox Original title: Dreamfall: The Longest Journey

• This week's Live Arcade title is puzzle title TiQal, along with a Switchball update.
• Iraqi tribal chieftain Ali Hatem al-Suleiman apparently likes to play Black Hawk Down on his Xbox.
• GameDaily has an interview with Microsoft's Chris Satchell about XNA game development and the Zune as a game platform.
• The people behind N+ who recently caused a stir by talking about the low quality of games on Live Arcade have defended their comments. "We don’t expect everyone to be perfect. We’ve made some crap games ourselves. Making a game that sucks shouldn’t be a big deal — it happens, you learn from it. What is inexcuseable is when you make an utterly crap game, and then RELEASE IT ANYWAY."
• Amazon has WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2008 for $29.99.

Posted by Bill at 6:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

• Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII (PSP) - A Final Fantasy VII spin-off game that people actually seem to like. $39.99 at Amazon.
• Command & Conquer: Kane's Wrath (PC) - The first expansion pack for Command and Conquer 3. $29.99 at Amazon.
• Naruto: Ultimate Ninja 3 (PS2) - Players can now "live through and be a part of all the major events that defined Story Arc 1 in Heroes History mode." Ah, Story Arc 1, good times. $39.99 at Amazon.
• Viking: Battle for Asgard (360, PS3) - An action game from the people behind the Total War series. $59.99 for the 360 and PS3.
• Dark Sector (360, PS3) - A third-person sci-fi shooter in which the main character has a spinning bladed weapon that grows out of his arm. Where else would it come from. $59.99 for the 360 and PS3.
• Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword (DS) - The modern Ninja Gaiden series makes the leap to portables. Well, a portable. $34.99 at Amazon.
• Universe at War: Earth Assault (360) - The 360 version of a real-time strategy game that came out on the PC in December. $59.99 at Amazon.
• Opoona (Wii) - A cutesy sci-fi RPG that is controlled entirely with the nunchuck. $49.99 at Amazon.
• Harvest Moon DS Cute (DS) - Plant crops, raise livestock and look for a husband all while collecting Harvest Sprites to save the Harvest Goddess. Two testicles at Amazon.

Elsewhere on the list is Warriors Orochi, Obscure: The Aftermath, and Australia Zoo Quest. See the full international release list at Gamasutra.

Posted by Bill at 1:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Screenshots and a short trailer for a new Sonic game that is apparently called Sonic Unleashed have hit the Internet. It's only right to regard any new Sonic game with an enormous dose of skepticism, but the fact that it's played primarily on a 2D plane is enough to garner my (very minute, very cautious) interest.

Sega magazine briefly had an official announcement about the game, but it was quickly removed and is now back to being called a rumor. Unfortunately, said announcement made mention of becoming "Wolf Sonic", which takes my fleeting interest and pisses on it.

Meanwhile, apparently not the least bit hopeful about this new venture, Destructoid's Jim Sterling argues how to save Sonic the Hedgehog.

Industry and multi-console news

New media: King of Fighters XII screenshots

• The crazy person at Gibson who told them to sue Activision over Guitar Hero for patent infringement has gibbered some other incomprehensible raving, so now they're suing Harmonix and MTV over Rock Band too.
• Next Generation proves that they love lists by rolling out the 50 best games of the 1980s.
• CrispyGamer has an interview with Ken Levine, but he can't talk about BioShock 2 yet.
• Gamespot's new PressSpotting column has an interview with Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw, the guy behind Zero Punctuation.
• TheGameConsole.com is a simple site listing every major game console (and most of the minor) along with brief descriptions of each one. Not full historical analysis, but could still be handy as a reference guide.
• A supposedly leaked video of GTA4's intro is likely a fake.
• IGN has begun its own retro games podcast.
• ECA president Hal Halpin says that End User License Agreements are "out of control" and need to be standardized. "These contracts have become so unwieldy that they regularly infringe on consumer rights. Many would likely be unenforceable in a court of law. Others, consumers would be shocked to find out what all of that fine print actually meant."
• After the lengthy Manhunt 2 rating debacle, the British Board of Film Classification's credibility is in question.
• GamePolitics has parts four and five of their excerpts from the Bar trial against Jack Thompson.
• Arcade Renaissance takes a deeper look at what's going on with Tekken 6 and US arcades.

PC and mobile news

New content: Sins of a Solar Empire demo

• Valve and Nunchuck Games are bringing Ninja Reflex to Steam.
• 1up lists the top five botched PC game launches.
• Scientists have already studied World of Warcraft as a microcosm of how diseases spread, but now they're looking at it to understand terrorist tactics. "Warcraft has a history of in-game terrorist activity. Early on, players found a curse in a high-level dungeon that would turn them into living bombs. They would then teleport to major cities and detonate themselves, killing nearby players."

Nintendo news

New media: Sky Crawlers first screenshots, Mario Kart Wii Japanese intro video

• Activision is apologizing to the people who had to get disc replacements due to the mono sound issue in Guitar Hero III by sending them each a free faceplate.
• EGM claims that new Tecmo Bowl games are in the works, with a "classic" version coming to the DS and a modern remake going to the Wii.
• Just in case you see them elsewhere, know that the supposed WiiWare Wario's Woods screenshots floating around are fake.
• It looks like the downloadable puzzles for Professor Layton aren't downloaded at all, but are on the cartridge from the beginning. You're just unlocking them, as dumb as that is. There's a site with screenshots of all of them, but it's currently down.

Sony news

New media: Crisis Core trailer, Star Ocean: Second Evolution trailer

• The U.S. International Trade Commission is reportedly looking into patent infringement allegations regarding Blu-ray players.
• EGM's rumor column claims a downloadable Ratchet & Clank sequel is coming to the Playstation Network.
• PCWorld reports that the newest PS3 firmware update will add the Portable Copy feature that allows users to copy a standard-definition version of a Blu-ray movie to a PSP.
• A number of PS3 players are having problems with online play in Rainbow Six Vegas 2.
• Someone has made Master Chief and Gears of War Unreal Tournament III character mods that you can download and try out yourself. Spawn and Cloud are in there too, for some reason.
• Subaru created a sit-down Gran Turismo 5 Prologue controller for this year's New York Auto Show.

Microsoft news

• Bungie has announced that Halo 3's Heroic Map Pack will become free this Tuesday.
• Though Bungie already sent a care package of a sort to that guy who had his multiple-autographed 360 scrubbed clean, Microsoft has chipped in too with a new 360 covered in even more signatures, including a faceplate signed by Bill Gates. He writes cursive the way a third-grader does.
• I haven't actually been linking all of these, but the official Capcom blog is up to part eight of their series on rebalancing Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix. This segment concentrates on Sagat.
• The German games rating board has revealed a Live Arcade version of the board game Ticket to Ride.

Posted by Bill at 10:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

(Image taken from NeoGAF's Brawl screenshot thread)

Brawl has been out for two weeks and that's far too long to still be talking about something on the Internet, but I was waiting to finish unlocking all the major elements before putting this up. Blame the last character that took way too long to show up.

At any rate, this is a short list of annoyances and disappointments as I see them in the otherwise incredible Super Smash Bros. Brawl. None of it is game-breaking and I don't want to come across as one of those people who complains about every minute little detail, but at the same time one doesn't want to lavish a game entirely with praise without acknowledging that even the best work has faults.

As you might guess, the following post contains references to unlockable characters and stages if you're still waiting for your copy of the game to be shipped from Bolivia (or you're unfortunate enough to live in a PAL territory).

Subspace Enemies - The biggest missed opportunity in the game comes from the Subspace Emissary mode. Why make up a whole set of new, strangely Kingdom Hearts-esque enemies when you have an entire pantheon to draw from, sourced from multiple series? We do get goombas and koopas, but why not octoroks and moblins and waddle dees? If you're making a game based on nostalgia, what's the point of throwing in all sorts of new (rather generic looking) creatures that no one cares about?

Tabuu - And as long as I'm complaining about the opposing force in Subspace, why not go after the biggest one of them all. After it was revealed that Nintendo brought on Final Fantasy VII writer Kazushige Nojima to pen the "story" in Brawl, inevitable jokes followed that the game would end with fighting some ethereal, angelic creature with big magical wings. And then that is exactly what happened.

I realize my above complaint about using existing characters can't apply here, because Nintendo wouldn't want to pick one particular game's main bad guy as the head bad guy in Smash Bros. That's what they made Master Hand for. But they could have made up pretty much anything else and had it be better than Generic RPG God Figure #02603. His appearance has no build up or explanation (at least the Hands play into the overarching theme of each character being a trophy in a kid's toybox), and with his random teleportation and bag of stupidly overpowered attacks, he's not even any fun to fight.

Old and New - While Smash Bros. is known for being a celebration of Nintendo's history, they seem a little preoccupied with the far ends of the spectrum. Characters, stages and assist trophies are mostly either from recent history or the very early days, without much representation of the middle bits. Mid-90s series like Pilotwings, Waverace, Mario Paint, Battle Clash and Stunt Race FX are all but forgotten in favor of stages from the newest versions of Zelda and Fire Emblem and Pokemon along with a few retro throwbacks. I don't expect them to dedicate prime real estate to titles lost in obscurity (I gather that's what they made stickers for), but would it really be that tough to drop yet another Flat Zone stage in favor of, say, a stage set on Holiday Island from Pilotwings 64? And when you're really ready to kick it up a notch, you can push aside Mr. Resetti for the ultimate annoyance assist trophy: Make everything look like Red Alarm.

Clones - It's hard to complain about clones without sounding like one of those GameFAQs kids who gets angry that Megaman wasn't in the roster. But did we need Fox, Falco and Wolf? And if we did, couldn't there at least be more than one final smash between the three? The same goes for Ness and Lucas, who are at an almost Mario/Dr. Mario level of sameness.

Monkey Chicks - Seriously, two trophies of female Donkey Kong characters in hip huggers and little shorts is two too many.

Play This Masterpi--whoops you're done - Despite the fact that I've played most of these games within the last few years on an emulator, there is something special and extra nostalgic about playing them on a real TV in your living room. A shame then that the Masterpieces section of Brawl often limits you to less than a minute of playtime for each. I realize Nintendo doesn't want to cut into Virtual Console profits, as unfortunate as that is -- a selection of full versions of old games a la Animal Crossing would have been Goddamn fantastic -- but you're not going to lose any sales by letting people finish the first level. Hell, F-Zero cuts off just after you make one lap -- they feel that going around the same track a second time is giving too much away for free.

They also took Earthbound out for the American version, which is just silly.

Stickers - I like that they use the original art from various games over the years instead of just sticking to each character's current look. But unless I missed an instruction somewhere, there's no way to get a better look at each sticker short of buying a bigger TV.

And for as cool as I thought the idea of stickers was when I first learned about their stat-boosting power for Subspace, it turned out I never actually bothered to use them. They're only really helpful later on once you can start regularly picking the same characters over and over, but even then they seemed like more of a hassle than they were worth. Their only real usefulness is in going through again on harder difficulties or in making a grinding character to go back and get the stuff you missed.

And yet even that has limited appeal. In fact, Subspace In General could be listed as a disappointment. It seems like a large chunk of the disc for what is not a large chunk of the fun. There are good moments, like the Ridley boss fights, some old school platforming sections, and barrel blasting that is the closest we'll ever come to new Donkey Kong Country sequel. And of course, let us never forget the landmark scene involving Peach casually strolling along the deck of the Halberd as explosions go off and lasers fire all around her, the clarion moment in which it is finally revealed that she is functionally retarded.

But there is also a lot of dead space; too many times where the screen scrolling locks so you can stop and fight two dozen of the same boring enemies. There's also the Great Maze, which I didn't hate like some people but still exists mostly to make Subspace last longer. The mode is basically a jumble of different shades of gameplay -- some good, some not -- that doesn't add up to anything substantial.

They might as well have taken the Kingdom Hearts vibe to its fullest extent and made individual worlds representing various games (more akin to the Adventure mode levels in Melee) rather than Subspace levels that are just Metroid-ish or Mario-esque. I'm circling back to the first point now, but again it leads me to wonder why they went through the trouble of making so much original stuff for a game that's all about existing content. Especially when that original stuff is rather bland on its own.

Posted by Bill at 8:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I wish I had a good excuse for using a motivational poster here -- well, it came from Capcom's official blog, so blame them.

Industry and multi-console news

New media: Dark Sector trailer, Grand Theft Auto IV screenshots

• Now Gibson is filing suit against various retailers for selling what they claim are patent-infringing Guitar Hero products.
• Now that Ubisoft has completely devoured the Tom Clancy name, they've begun work on a Tom Clancy MMO.
• EA has announced an animated movie prequel to their upcoming game Dead Space.
• Next Generation has an interview with NCsoft North America president Chris Chung.
• Gamasutra has an opinion piece looking at why there isn't a Japanese indie development scene the way there is in the west.
• A new Doom novel, set in the Doom 3 universe, went on sale late last month.
• Next week's Rock Band tracks is a six-pack of Boston. Hey Boston! Keep on rocking!
• IGN lays out Lost Planet: Colonies' new single-player modes, as well as a first-person view.
• Contrary to everyone talking about the dire state of PC gaming, Extreme Tech has an interview with the CEO of WildTangent in which he suggests consoles are the ones on their way out.
• 1up lists the various special forces groups available in SOCOM Confrontation.
• Racketboy has collected a gallery of the best Metal Slug fan art.
• GamesRadar has a comparison video that shows Street Fighter II combos that work the same in Street Fighter IV.
• GameSetWatch talks to the makers of Bus Driver about.. well, making a game about driving a bus.
• GamePolitics soldiers on with part 3 of their excerpts from the Bar trial against Jack Thompson.
• An award-winning University of Calgary professor has spoken out against game violence by citing America's Army and Custer's Revenge.
• Actors from the Iron Man movie, including Robert Downey Jr. and Terrence Howard, will be lending their voices to the Iron Man video game.
• The Pentagon has put a request for information on displays and read-outs on contact lenses. "This information might be command-and-control information, not unlike information provided to players of first-person, shooter-type videogames or synthetic entities and effects in a live training environment."
• VH1's Game Break blog is closing down.

PC and mobile news

New content: Team Fortress 2 update

• The CEO of Stardock argues that game developers should ignore pirates.
• RealNetworks' Chris Houtzer calls casual gaming "the new daytime TV."
• Acer has denied recent rumors, saying they have no plans to make a game machine. They were simply talking about a high-end PC targeted at hardcore gamers.

Nintendo news

New media: Defend Your Castle trailer

• Atari UK has announced Driving Theory Training, a DS title that teaches you "driving theory" and highway laws.
• The guy who wrote about that pirate version of Final Fantasy VII for the Famicom is back with a review of the equally pirate Titanic 1912, also on the Famicom.
• Some people have argued that No More Heroes is the video game equivolent of punk, while others say it's not. "No More Heroes is not the title to overturn genre conventions and raise its fist at the authorities. But it comes close. In fact, No More Heroes is an effigy. It is jest and parody."
• That Videogame Blog offers evidence to counter the claim that third party games never do well on the Wii by listing third party Wii games that have sold more than one million copies.

Sony news

New content: Unreal Tournament 3 patch

• Rumormonger Surfer Girl claims that Sony is no longer funding LA Noire. That hasn't stopped development, though.
• Details have finally been released on what that mysterious Orange Box patch yesterday actually does. The answer is not much.

Microsoft news

New content: Need for Speed ProStreet tracks and cars

• In a Gamasutra interview, the makers of N+ rant about the lack of quality on Xbox Live Arcade. "Those decisions that are ruining Live Arcade... it's like, who greenlit Word Puzzle? Who green-lit that hoverboard game that's just shit?"
• Reports from the Battlefield: Bad Company beta say that individual weapons are available for sale on the Marketplace.
• Lionhead has released their fifth Fable 2 developer diary.
• Bully has been patched, but it's not clear whether it actually fixes the issues some people had with the game.
• Bungie is auctioning off a signed Halo 3 Mountain Dew machine that's been sitting in their office. And it was never used, zing.

Posted by Bill at 5:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)