Shine get!

Capcom's official blog has the first screenshots of Balrog, Vega, Sagat and Bison from Street Fighter IV.

Blargh Grand Theft Auto Everybody Buy Murder Simulator Eat Babies Made Of Money Yeargh news

• GTA4 has set day-one sales records in the UK, and Gamestop's early estimates for the US put it "neck-and-neck with Halo 3 and Madden 08." They'll be compiling more official sales figures at the end of the week.
• Rockstar estimates the cost of making GTA4 was in the range of $100 million.
• Mothers Against Drunk Driving wants GTA4 to be rated Adults Only because there's drunk driving in it.
• New Zealand MP Gordon Copeland has called for a ban of GTA4.
• The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transit Authority plans to keep the GTA4 ads on their buses despite controversy.
• A Philadelphia Police Union official recently spoke out against GTA4 to a local news affiliate. The crew filming for the report noted four different Philly cops coming into Gamestop to buy the game for themselves.
• You wouldn't expect GTA's media influence to extend to a site called Serious Eats, and yet they have an article comparing GTA4 restaurants to their real-world inspirations.
• IGN has pulled a GTA4 gameplay video they worked up that consisted of nothing but getting lapdances and killing hookers. "We crossed a line in how we portrayed some aspects of the game and we’ve taken this video down.” Stay classy, IGN!
• That stabbing at a GTA4 midnight launch may have had nothing to do with the game. They just like stabbing.
• Kotaku explains how to get to GTA4's easter egg.

Industry and multi-console news

New media: Champions Online screenshots, Madden NFL 09 screenshots, Soul Calibur IV screenshots featuring Yoshimitsu, Talim and Rock

• Crytek is abandoning PC exclusivity for their games due to piracy.
• Edge magazine talks to a guy who recently spent $15,000 to buy one game -- a 1990 Nintendo World Championships gold cartridge, of which there were only 26 ever made.
• A pair of stately Gamasutra features: The State of Indie Gaming and The State of Game Magazines in Japan.
• They also have an opinion piece on Why Microsoft Loses MMOs.
• The Guinness Book of World Records gives Mega Man the award for Most Number of Games in a Single Series.
• Activision is hosting a Guitar Hero III charity challenge.
• Those unreleased Atari ROMs found at a flea market recently have been dumped, so now we have screenshots as well as the ROM files themselves to download.
• CVG has a short interview with Gearbox to get some new details on Aliens: Colonial Marines.
• Two Joe Satriani songs will be making an appearance in either the Guitar Hero or Rock Band series... It's just not clear which.
• Terminal Reality president Mark Randel claims Ghostbusters would be better as a PS3 exclusive. "The PlayStation 3 has seven processors and the 360 only has three, so seven versus three means you can do a lot more on the PS3."
• Activision demonstrates their uncanny ability to make Guitar Hero suck with this Guitar Hero widget that allows you to play three songs of varying difficulty in Flash, using number keys as frets and the enter key to strum.

PC and mobile news

• The Team Fortress 2 Goldrush update is now available, offering the new Goldrush map and Payload game mode, along with new Medic weapons and achievements. Why in God's name would you choose now to do this.
• For those of you who have not made the plunge, Valve will also be offering a Team Fortress 2 free weekend in which anyone with a Steam account can play the game from May 2 to 4.
• GamesIndustry.biz has an interview with Valve's Doug Lombardi, who says that Microsoft and Yahoo rejected offers to help build Steam. "We went around to everybody and asked 'Are you guys doing anything like this?' And everyone was like 'That's a million miles in the future...We can't help you.'"
• PopCap Games will be donating 30% of sales of all their games through Mother's Day to Susan G. Komen for the Cure.
• EA Land is closing in August, because the Sims Online game that didn't do well six years ago rebranded with a less recognizable and more generic name somehow failed to capture the imagination of many people.
• Peter Moore talks about the state of PC gaming and why they chose not to bring Madden to the PC this year. "I know I pissed off a lot of people."
• Amazon's deal of the day is the World of Warcraft Battlechest for $27.99.

Nintendo news

New media: Boom Blox trailer

• New tracks have been revealed for Guitar Hero: On Tour.
• Majesco has announced Rollin' Rascals for the DS. Sadly, it doesn't seem to involve using stunt ramps to barrel roll Rascal mobility scooters.
• Nintendo has revealed the May Virtual Console line-up for Japan.
• The Wii version of Ghostbusters can use the DS as a PKE meter.
• Konami is localizing DS title Time Hollow for American release in August.
• A version of ScummVM is now available for the Wii.
• Nintendo Power is teasing their July issue with a picture of a moon and the hint: "We may even have a surprise or two. Can you find the clues we've hidden in the moon?" Guesses range from the actual game Moon on the DS, to Harvest Moon (since it's red), to something involving Factor 5 (due to what is possibly "F5" on its surface).
• Nintendo Wii Fanboy has an interview with Johnny Lee, the guy who does all that neat Wii remote homebrew stuff like head tracking. They talk briefly about EA's recent decision to remove the head tracking easter egg from Boom Blox: "I have been in touch with Louis Castle, who was involved in that decision, and it's actually a pretty complicated decision, and I don't know if I'm at liberty to explain exactly why, but I understand why they decided to take it out."
• Amazon has No More Heroes for $29.99.

Sony news

• SCEA will be adjusting prices in the Canadian Playstation Store on May 1, as a result of the strengthening Canadian dollar.
• Certain game retailers will be giving away an R-Type figurine along with R-Type Command next week.
• This week's Zero Punctuation review is for God of War: Chains of Olympus.
• The official Playstation blog has PixelJunk Monsters Encore details and an interview with developer Dylan Cuthbert.

Microsoft news

New content: American Idol Encore tracks

• Members of the Fatal Inertia team say they "really regret" the game's 360 demo.
• Amazon has Blue Dragon for $19.99.

Posted by Will at 8:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

This screenshot is from a series of scans of a Joypad magazine article about the new Prince of Persia game. The people at NeoGAF attempted a translation of the French -- take that for whatever it's worth.

The Grand Theft Auto News Network

• The New York Times reviews GTA4.
• Game Politics compares stats on assaults and deaths of police officers to see if they line up with GTA releases (hint: they don't).
• Next Generation calls around to various retailers to find that GTA4 supply is good right now, though "it'll be complete mayhem after work gets out."
• GamesRadar talks to other game developers about their thoughts on GTA4. The ever-quotable David Jaffe: "As a developer, I am crapping in my pants."
• GTA4 runs at 630p on the PS3 versus 720p on the 360, and no that has no real appreciable effect on anything.
• You can't have a major midnight launch without a stabbing and mugging.
• There are reports of the PS3 version of GTA4 locking up, with the solution being to erase the installation and game saves and start over.
• Jack Thompson demands indictments against Take Two, Sony, Microsoft, Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Bob Costas, the guy who gave him the wrong coffee at Starbucks, the color teal, and the fierce urgency of now because of the release of GTA4. He points to a sex montage video helpfully offered by IGN as proof that "This is clearly an Adults Only game. It's not even close." Thanks, IGN! Looking forward to seeing this on Fox News!

Industry and multi-console news

• EA chief creative officer William "Bing" Gordon is leaving the company. Gordon joined EA in 1982 when they were still a start-up.
• UK retailer Currys has plans to introduce its own ratings system, using a customer panel to rate games on fun, challenge and suitability.
• Gamasutra held a "kid-infested" focus group to determine how to make games more appealing to families. It exposes problems that more hardcore gamers might not really consider, such as: "Most games took only a few misguided presses to dump the player unceremoniously back to the title screen. Our gamers all seemed able to hit these combinations with surprising regularity."
• The Into the Pixel art exhibit is looking for submissions.
• It's been confirmed that Aerosmith songs are now going to be exclusive to Guitar Hero beyond the one song that's already in Rock Band. This could get messy.
• Gamasutra's Design Lesson 101 looks at GTA3 and learns that "the ability for landmarks to sufficiently guide the player around the game world dramatically decreases as the size of the world increases."
• The Shifted Librarian looks at whether library gaming programs really promote reading.
• Matt Damon supposedly declined to lend his voice and likeness to the Bourne Conspiracy game due to its violence.
• A Legend of Spyro CGI movie is in the works.
• MTV Multiplayer has photos from an Age of Conan mocap session in which they motion captured a live horse. Yes, that means a horse with ping pong balls on it.
• The Ghostbusters game will not only feature the voices of the original stars, but they're recording new lines -- even Bill Murray, who's notoriously hard to get ahold of.
• Sonic Team Producer Yoshihisa Hashimoto is stressing that Sonic Unleashed will address the issues of the past. "We understand the problem areas of past Sonic games, as well as the issues in the development process in the past, and are working to overcome them." He also confirms that SIlver won't be anywhere in the game.

PC and mobile news

New content: Conquest of the Aegean 3.4.151 patch, UFO: Alien Invasion 2.2.1 patch

• Matrix Games has announced Gary Grigsby’s War Between the States. It's a Civil War game, though upon reflection it would be much more entertaining if it was just about a guy named Gary Grigsby who's kind of a dick and goes around starting wars.
• JoWood Productions is soliciting independent developers to develop an action RPG based on an unnamed IP.
• Gamasutra has a postmortem on Sins of a Solar Empire.
• NCSoft is celebrating the fourth anniversary of City of Heroes by releasing a game calendar and announcing a new mission creator.
• IGN has Battlefield Heroes beta details.
• The BBC is offering a free to play online version of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy text adventure on their website.

Nintendo news

New media: World Destruction screenshots, Top Spin 3 DS screenshots

• Nintendo has recalled 71,000 lapel pins due to risk of lead exposure.
• A teaser video from Ubisoft suggests that the next Raving Rabbids game could use the Wii Fit board.
• One of the devices that has come about as the result of NES patents expiring is the FC Mobile, a portable NES that plays actual NES cartridges.
• Amazon has Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 for $29.99, as well as Sega Superstars Tennis for $19.99. Holy hell that was quick.

Sony news

• Fatal Inertia EX is coming to PSN in late May.

Microsoft news

New content: Rock Band tracks

• The 360 has received price cuts in four Asian markets -- Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan.

Posted by Will at 6:40 PM | Permalink

(screenshot borrowed from MobyGames)

I've finally reached a point where I've started skipping a number of stories about GTA4's violent and/or sexual content. It's always the same crap (and the same thing that's been said for years about any previous GTA). Take for instance the story of this Christian mutual fund group which has issued a press release loudly announcing they will not invest in Take Two because of all the bad stuff they make. People you've never heard of and don't give two shits about come out of nowhere to complain about Grand Theft Auto in the hopes that someone will pay attention to them. It used to at least be a source of mild bemusement to see who would pop out of the woodwork to have their say next (like the protest by sex workers, that was an interesting turn), but now it's pretty much pure noise.

I doubt you care about these things any more than I do, I'm just stating for the record that if you want absolutely every detail on who's whining about GTA today, this ain't the place. I'm sure Game Politics will probably cover every bit of it, though. (Proof: New story that a UK immigration advocate calls the main character of GTA4 an unfair stereotype.)

Industry and multi-console news

New media: Sonic Unleashed screenshots, Prototype gameplay footage, huge Grand Theft Auto IV video dump

• Kotaku has a comparison between the 360 and PS3 versions of GTA4. The only strong difference seems to be what you'd expect: the PS3 loads a bit better due to the hard drive install. They've also got an FAQ on everything you want to know about GTA4.
• A number of UPS workers have gotten caught stealing copies of GTA4 from shipments bound for retailers. They're not terribly bright. "In most cases, the bust is as easy as finding the last person who scanned the box as full and interviewing them."
• New Zealand will be getting Australia's censored version of GTA4, even though they have an R18 rating.
• Rock, Talim and Yoshimitsu are all making a return in GTA4. Wait, I mean Soul Calibur IV.
• Ubisoft has announced a new chapter in the Prince of Persia series due in holiday 2008, though they didn't confirm a subtitle.
• SCi rejected an acquisition offer from Infogrames, and has instead signed a deal to get a $170 million cash infusion from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment. According to 1up's sources, "Eidos's entire PR, marketing, and sales department has been laid off as part of the deal."
• Bethesda parent company ZeniMax Media has opened a publishing office in Japan.
• The people developing Prototype say they've had multiple meetings with Germany's ratings board to ensure they can get an edited version of the game to market in Germany and Australia.
• CRPG.ru talks to the CEO of Reality Pump about Two Worlds: The Temptation.
• Gamespot talks to people around the industry about why small studios are closing at the same time the game market is booming.
• Blockbuster stores will soon be selling games and hardware as part of an increased focus on the video game market.
• The new Australian sales chart sees Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games actually jumping up to reclaim the top spot, while Gran Turismo 5 Prologue falls out of the top ten entirely. Meanwhile, Wii Fit has debuted at number one on the UK chart.
• The New York Times has an article on the fading pinball industry, focusing on manufacturer Stern Pinball Inc., which they claim is "the last of its kind in the world."
• Sierra Entertainment has announced new titles in the Crash Bandicoot and Spyro series. Joystiq has impressions of these and other games from Sierra's Spring Event, including Ghostbusters and Prototype.
• A North American gang crime expert says the controversy over violent games is over-hyped. “If you actually go out and talk to young gang members about the top 10 reasons why they joined a gang, you will never hear them talk about the influences of hip hop, videogames or media."
• Gamespot's PressSpotting feature has an interview with the new editor-in-chief of Play about the magazine and their decision to do away with review scores.
• A East Carolina University’s Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies report finds that casual games relieve stress and improve mood. Of course, the study was underwritten by PopCap, so...
• Gamasutra has an opinion piece on why more games need subtext, with examples ranging from Bioshock to Full Throttle.
• Racketboy looks at the state of Saturn homebrew, as well as a newly-formed fan project to make an HD remix of Sonic 2.
• A Minnesota man has been accused of running a video game scam in which he bought games, replaced the disc with a fake-label blank, resealed the package, then returned the box to the store while selling the real disc on Ebay.
• PBS' Mediashift blog discusses Gawker's pay-per-page-view system -- Gawker Media being the parent company of Kotaku, among other blogs. This goes a way to explaining the recent series of posts about that Japanese woman showing her butt.
• Leigh Alexander laments the current state of journalist/executive relations. "All companies -- not just in the games industry, mind you -- need to decide on a consistent message to put out to the press. Their public relations teams are tasked with staying on top of the current issues in their given industry and preparing that consistent message on every issue under the sun. In other words, executives are largely scripted and have been prepped ahead of time when talking to the press."
• Elsewhere in games journalism, Variety's Cut Scene blog calls exclusive reviews "ethically troubling."
• The fourth part of GameTrailers' Star Wars games retrospective is up, covering the X-Wing and Tie Fighter titles.

PC and mobile news

New media: Battlefield Heroes character customization trailer

• Futuremark has released 3Dmark Vantage, their newest benchmarking tool.
• Dell has plans to continue selling XP past June using a loophole in Microsoft's licensing agreement. "In essence, the user is buying a Vista license that it can apply to XP, and Microsoft can still claim a Vista sale."
• The people at Shacknews have seen Duke Nukem Forever.

Nintendo news

New Virtual Console title: Double Dragon
New media: Alone in the Dark Wii controls demonstration

• Summon Night: Twin Age is coming to the DS June 3.
• The Times has an interview with Shigeru Miyamoto about Wii Fit. “Spending too long, staying in and playing any video game is not good. I always tell my children to get out on a sunny day and I, myself, went jogging in Central Park yesterday. But I do my stretching on Wii Fit. They work together.”
• Next Generation has analysis of worldwide Wii sales.
• Turns out the IGN watermark is on the Okami strategy guide too. You might think that they just copied the game box art, but the watermark is actually in a different spot.
• Joystiq has a walkthrough of Mario Kart Wii's online multiplayer.
• A GoNintendo source claims that an entry appeared in a retailer database for something called Metroid Prime Triology on the Wii. Nintendo, naturally, called it rumor and speculation, which doesn't help any. Of course it's a rumor.
• Capcom says that Bionic Commando isn't coming to Virtual Console. They've tried to make it happen, but Nintendo doesn't want it for whatever reason.

Sony news

• The Metal Gear Online beta has been updated with a new map and game mode.
• The SingStar series has sold over 12 million units in PAL territories.
• The Ant Commandos' PS2 to PS3 adapter for guitar and game controllers is now available.
• Amazon has Assassin's Creed for $29.99.

Microsoft news

New content: Chessmaster Live "Fork My Fruit" -- an "original mini-game" that, I guess, involves fruit forking

• This week's Live Arcade title is Not A Damned Thing. They're taking a week off to avoid the GTA4 mess.
• Assault Heroes 2 is coming to Live Arcade May 14.
• Valve's Doug Lombardi says that they offered to put Portal on Live Arcade, but "the platform holders aren't doing that right now. There's a size limit and all kinds of other things."
• You can now check out the list of GTA4 achievements in preparation for tonight's release.
• Spectral Force 3 has been given a July 29 release date.
• Amazon has Assassin's Creed for $29.99.

Posted by Will at 7:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

• Grand Theft Auto IV (PS3, 360) - Something about driving a car? I dunno. Out of 13 reviews currently up on Game Rankings, 10 of them are 100%. $59.99 for PS3 or 360.
• Mario Kart Wii (Wii) - It's a good week if you like driving things, I suppose. And hurting others? $49.99 at Amazon. Additional wheels are $9.99, by the way.
• Iron Man (360, PS3, PSP, PS2, Wii, DS) - This isn't being released until Friday, to coincide with the release of the movie. Maybe they don't want people being spoiled on the plot before then. $59.99 on the 360 and PS3, $49.99 on the Wii, and $29.99 on the PSP, DS and PS2.
• SNK Arcade Classics Volume 1 (PS2, PSP) - Contains Art of Fighting, Baseball Stars 2, Burning Fight, Fatal Fury, and King of Fighters '94. $29.99 on the PSP, $14.99 on the PS2.

And there's also Baseball Mogul 2009 on the PC and some DS games for your mother like Let's Yoga! It's hard to imagine, but apparently most companies didn't want to put anything on the same docket as two of the most anticipated titles in years. What is here -- even Mario Kart -- is all counter-programming for GTA4, trying to pick up on the people too young (Mario Kart), too retro (SNK), or too casual (Let's Jazzercize) to be interested in shooting at police. Well, I'm sure the young people would like to shoot at police, but that clerk at Wal-Mart is just so damned wily with his age checks. The only exception is Iron Man, which has the misfortune of being required to debut this week because of the movie. Some people asked whether GTA4 would eat into Iron Man box office numbers, but I think the people who made the game probably have a bigger worry on their hands.

The full release list can be found at Gamasutra.

Posted by Will at 12:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

What was it like being a tester for the Playstation in the mid-'90s? Apparently, it was a haze of overtime and bad hair. This video from one of the Playstation Underground CDs features conversations with some of SCEA's testers as well as Warhawk and Twisted Metal producer Mike Giam. Appearances by Jet Moto 2, Final Fantasy VII and Armored Core put this at somewhere around fall of 1997.

On the subject of Twisted Metal, Playstation Underground also has video of an interview with David Jaffe from 1996, talking about TM2 and looking very young.

Did you know that even someone as hapless and ignorant as yourself can fix a seemingly broken NES? It's true! Most of the time the problem is nothing more complex than an old 72-pin connector with some bent pins. In this video, Chris Kohler from Wired's Game|Life and his brother Dan show you how to replace the connector with a new one you can get for a couple bucks off Ebay. All it takes is five hours of unscrewing.

Mr. Owl, how long does it take to quit out of the PC version of Assassin's Creed? Hint: If it's longer than 10 seconds, the answer is Too Long.

Brawl videos are really old by now, but I don't give a damn. Here's a collection of replays demonstrating different ways to goof off with custom stages, including a riveting performance by the Game & Watch Band.

This is actually a Melee video, but I still don't give a damn. It should be written into law that any all-Falcon fight is required to be played this way.

Meanwhile, on the 360, the temporary love affair with Halo 3 suicide videos has given way to the new and exciting realm of Halo 3 weird chance betrayal videos.

While not a betrayal, it's the same concept (but presumably more satisfying): A weird chance triple kill.

During a routine shopping trip, Link runs up against the number one obstacle facing all silent protagonists.

Finally, the debut episode of BBC2's The Net, from April 1994. Covers a range of topics from Neo Nazi BBSes to Thomas Dolby discussing dynamic game music (a forward-thinking idea, but he seemed to fall under the delusion of a lot of mainstream types that Double Switch kinds of FMV games were the future). There's also a segment on how one connects to the Internet, utilizing the blazing power of British ISP CIX and a 14.4 modem.

Posted by Will at 7:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Look at this man. This man has keyboard pants. Don't be this man.

Industry and multi-console news

New media: Mafia II screenshots, Silent Hill: Homecoming screenshots, BattleFantasia trailers -- a 2D fighting game with 3D characters from Guilty Gear developer Arc System Works

• Codemasters is buying Sega Racing Studio after Sega announced they were closing it down.
• Brett Favre has been confirmed for the cover of Madden NFL 09.
• Valve says there will be no new Portal for 2008.
• Gamasutra has an interview with Ken Levine about BioShock and game narratives.
• Blockbuster will begin putting new games on the new releases wall starting with Grand Theft Auto IV. That's a pretty remarkable sign of changing times, although, as Variety notes, "not nearly as big a deal as it would have been a decade ago."
• Next week's Rock Band tracks are Zero by the Smashing Pumpkins and two tracks from the Mother Hips.
• EGM is rumoring that Rock Band 2 is coming this fall.
• The makers of a Max Payne fanfilm have gotten a cease & desist notice from Fox, who is doing the real Max Payne film.
• IGN has a hands-on preview of Bionic Commando: Rearmed's multiplayer, and 1up has several videos of the mode in action.
• Grand Theft Auto will eat your babies round-up: California senator Leland Yee warns parents that GTA4 is not for kids, the ESRB and National Institute for Media and the Family do the same, and a spokesman for the Calgary police calls the game "a grave concern".
• Gamestop has released a list of every Gamestop location doing a midnight launch for GTA4.
• Sardius writes about the metagame that has evolved out of Rock Band: changing how well you play to keep people from quitting. "Playing Rock Band online is less about rhythm and more about psychoanalyzing XxDragonWolfxX and wondering if he'd be less willing to quit on you if you dressed your character up in leopard-print pants."
• Newsweek's Level Up blog muses on why society sees games and porn in the same light. "[The porn industry's] biggest star is celebrated for her ability to shed the stigma of her origins and move on from the business relatively unscathed. We are not a hell of a lot different in games. Too often, we measure our self-worth by validation from industries other than our own."
• Uwe Boll says he got conned by the French regarding a Metal Gear Solid movie. "Two French guys wrote a script, said they are from Konami hired to write the script, said ‘You wanna direct it?’ I read the script, I liked the script. I said, ‘Yes, I can do it.’”

PC and mobile news

• The Spore Creature Creator will be available worldwide starting June 17.
• Sign-ups for the Stargate Worlds beta test have begun.
• Real time strategy game Stalin vs. Martians has been announced. It's pretty much what you would think.
• PC World has a series of scans covering the world of celebrity endorsements in old computer ads. The cast of MASH loves the IBM PS/2, though you'd have to imagine any PC would be pretty impressive to people in the middle of the Korean War.
• ExtremeTech suggests how to fix PC gaming. Their advice for the ongoing piracy problem is "fix the piracy problem or shut up about it." Helpful!
• Amazon has Sid Meier's Civilization IV for $14.99.

Nintendo news

New media: Boom Blox walkthrough, Moon first footage

• Satoru Iwata says there are no plans for Wii or DS price cuts this year.
• The Line Rider game for the DS is being considered a sequel, as evidenced by its new official name, Line Rider 2: Unbound.
• Get ready, America: The North American version of Wii Fit adds the ability to weigh your pets.
• Joystiq has a Mario Kart retrospective to get you in the mood for Mario Kart Wii.
• ThinkGeek is selling a glowing invincibility star from the Mario series that sits on your desk. ThinkGeek is not responsible for damages incurred by individuals grabbing the star and then attempting to walk against traffic while punching at oncoming cars.
• Siliconera has English menu translations for Taiko no Tatsujin DS 7-tsu no Shima no Daibouken.
• Joystiq has a short video of the Mario cab ride PR thing in New York. He walks around feebly and often has to be guided by his handler, lending the distinct impression that Mario is actually an old blind man.
• Amazon's deal of the day is Advance Wars: Days of Ruin for $16.99. Also, all the Gold Box lightning deals today are for DS games -- currently on sale is Transformers - Autobot for $9.99, with another deal starting at 9:00 EST.

Sony news

New media: SOCOM Confrontation gameplay footage
New PS1 game: R-Types
New content: Hot Shots Golf features, Eye of Judgment: Biolith Rebellion 2, Call of Duty 4 Variety map pack, Rock Band tracks, Guitar Hero III tracks, Army of Two SSC Challenge map pack, Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol Encore tracks
New demos: Echochrome, Iron Man
New sensation: Got a hold on you

• A new PS3 heatsink that will reduce weight and improve efficiency is in the works.
• The Metal Gear Online beta has been patched and is now live in all territories.
• Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Islamic Affairs has warned the country's imams about the dangers of the Playstation. "They have a negative influence on the personality of children, and thus from an Islamic point of view, it is not acceptable to waste time in this manner."

Microsoft news

New content: Lost Odyssey Triple Bonus Pack, Army of Two SSC Challenge map pack

• Atari is bringing Smash Court Tennis 3 to the US.
• 1up has an Afterthoughts article on Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom.
• Microsoft talks up how they're preparing for GTA4's onslaught on their servers. "The biggest step we've taken is to add in more server hardware, which will expand the service's capacity. We have actually doubled our capacity for concurrent users over the last 2 months."
• EGM's resident rumormonger claims a Halo spin-off project is in the works at Bungie, which will be a "third-person action/adventure shooter hybrid that takes place before the original Halo."
• GamesRadar has a couple of videos of Bungie environment artists playing Halo 3.
• Amazon has Sega Rally Revo for $21.94.

Posted by Will at 6:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

1up has the first look at the 3D reinvention of Splatterhouse's hero. Veiny, tiny head and skin like a potato, that's what I think when I think of Rick.

Industry and multi-console news

• Assassin's Creed has sold six million units worldwide.
• The U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency is using three specially-created video games to train spies. Though their names sound more suited to a series of porn films: Rapid Onset, Vital Passage and Sudden Thrust.
• Gamasutra has an interview with Gamestop's divisional vice president of corporate communications.
• China has surpassed the United States to have the world's largest Internet-using population.
• Gamasutra has the new Japanese sales chart, which hasn't changed much from last week.
• GamesDaily lists the games that defined the '70s, to remind you young folk that there were games in the '70s.
• Gamasutra lists 20 underutilized licenses they think would make for good games.
• Free Radical boss Dave Doak said in an issue of PSM that if enough fan support was shown, they'd make Time Splitters 2 HD. So CVG is looking to assemble just that.
• In light of the Okami IGN watermark goof, Desert Hat talks about the need for a better system of preserving game assets and sharing them between studios.
• Will Ferrell's comedy website Funny or Die is getting a video game themed spin-off.
• A third person Call of Duty title was in the works at Activision, but it was canceled because it was "a mess."
• GamesRadar has a GTA hooker beauty contest. Naturally, the real point of this exercise is to be reminded how butt ugly the character models in previous GTAs were.
• 1up has a feature on how message boards influence game makers. It seems primarily focused on licking NeoGAFs balls.
• Swiss representative Roland Näf wants to ban violent video games completely.
• A new survey finds that 18% of people bought an HDTV for gaming.
• MSNBC asks what makes video games addictive?
• Days after it was discovered that Jordan Mechner had trademarked the name, now Ubisoft has registered PrinceOfPersiaProdigy.com.
• GameSetWatch's Design Lesson 101 feature looks at Condemned: Criminal Origins, which teaches that combat in an action game should complement the atmosphere.
• A new study published in the Journal of Experimental and Social Psychology attempted to measure the effect of the amount of blood in a game on "aggression, hostility and arousal." They did this by having people play Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance with different gore levels. It's pretty crap overall; participants were told that using weapons dealt more damage, so using their weapon more often was taken to mean higher aggression.
• Kotaku has a lengthy essay on gaming and maturity -- in a deeper way, not about violence or sex or prepubescent children on Live. "A game doesn't have to be full of belabored Gnostic or Objectivist overtones to be 'smart' or 'deep,' and aiming for 'smart' or 'deep' doesn't have to mean an end product that isn't any fun. Throwing games off the deep end does us — and them — a disservice, but so does ignoring the subtle potential for just a little bit more."

PC and mobile news

New GameTap titles: Darkstar One, Great Journey
New content: Shadowgrounds Survivor update, Hellgate: London 1.2 patch
New media: S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky trailer

• NASA has explained that whole "make our MMO for free" thing. Basically, by not paying the developer, they bypass rules against getting paid by both the government and consumers. So NASA doesn't pay you, but you're then free to sell the resulting MMO at retailers.
• XSReviews doles out advice on how to silence your PC.
• Joystiq has an interview with Stardock CEO Brad Wardell and Gas Powered Games founder Chris Taylor about Demigod.

Nintendo news

• Nintendo has announced record sales for the past fiscal year.
• Capcom has set up a site to order a free Okami box cover to replace the one with the IGN watermark on it. "I can honestly say that my worst day at Capcom was this Monday."
• Super Smash Bros. Brawl has been given a European date of June 27, with WiiWare arriving May 20.
• Toys R Us will be getting a big shipment of Wiis this Sunday.
• American releases for the DS remakes of Dragon Quest IV and V are looking very likely. In fact, the ESRB has already rated Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen.
• Three key people behind the Metroid Prime series have left Retro Studios.
• Sega has announced an RPG called World Destruction for the DS that reunites scenarist Masato Kato, character designer Kunihiko Tanaka, and composer Yasunori Mitsuda, all three of whom worked together on Xenogears. The game also has Grandia's design director, but that didn't fit the theme.
• Less interesting new game announcements include Cocoto Kart Racer for the Wii and Journey To The Center Of The Earth 3-D for the DS.
• Gamasutra analyzes why the correlation between game scores and sales doesn't apply as much to the Wii.
• Japanese and European loyalty program Club Nintendo is coming to Australia.
• The Nintendo Channel is coming to America alongside WiIWare next month. The channel will include WiiWare game reviews by users and DS demos.
• Amazon's deal of the day is Sega Bass Fishing for $19.99.

Sony news

New media: Metal Gear Solid 4 trailer

• Sony's Go!View video download service for the PSP will be launching across Europe this summer.
• Analysts are warning movie studios that the picture for Blu-ray isn't all rosy. 85% of the Blu-ray players in the market are PS3s, and it's growing increasingly likely that people are actually using them for games.
• The US senior producer for GT5 says that the Gran Turismo series "could become the MySpace or Facebook for auto enthusiasts."
• Eye of Judgment Set 2 cards have made it to stores earlier than expected.
• A YouTube user has video of apparent cheating in Call of Duty 4 where he repeatedly gets shot by invisible flying people.

Microsoft news

New content: Operation Darkness demo, Def Leppard track pack

• This week's Famitsu details three characters from Square's 360 RPG Infinite Undiscovery.
• Rainbow Six Vegas 2 has gotten an update implementing a number of improvements and fixes, including faster respawning and weapon switching.
• The first American content pack for Lost Odyssey will be available tomorrow.
• Mark Rein is trying to bring mods to Unreal Tournament III on the 360.
• Konami side scrolling shooter Otomedius G is coming to the 360.
• Microsoft is looking into early GTA4 players, though nobody knows what, if anything, will be done about it yet. Some people are already showing up with achievments for the game.
• Casting has begun for one of the original TV series coming to the Live Video Marketplace. The show is described as the "wacky adventures of a group of friends" and includes illustrious roles like "Girl in Bikini" who, it is important to note, must be "super-hot, good with comedy" and "must look great in bikini". This is going to be so awful.

Posted by Will at 4:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)

UK Resistance has photos (but sadly not scans) of the book Where's Sonic?, a Where's Waldo for the hedgehog set.

Industry and multi-console news

New media: Ed Boon talks about Mortal Kombat vs. DC -- apparently there will be finishing moves of a sort, they're just not fatal

• SCi has rejected a takeover offer from a mystery suitor.
• EA is working on a game based on Monopoly Here & Now: The World Edition for the 360, Wii, PS2, mobile phones and Pogo.com. Here & Now is an updated version of the board game with modern properties and tokens.
• On top of the news that the original game is coming to Virtual Console, Interplay is also planning a new Earthworm Jim game, cartoon, and film. I'm a little confused as to how an EJ cartoon today is supposed to succeed when the old EJ cartoon released when the series was still relevant couldn't last more than 23 episodes.
• Gamasutra has an article on China's forgotten gamers. "In China, we track game players by subscriber or registration numbers, or by the amount of money they spend giving companies revenue. If they don’t register or pay money, they are somewhat invisible to the industry or, from the business viewpoint, irrelevant."
• Next Generation looks at the current world of QA testing, where staff are "generally treated like the red-headed stepchildren of the development process."
• Volition senior designer Alvan Monje has an opinion piece in which he argues that the vast majority of games owe something to Dungeons and Dragons.
• Pirated copies of GTA4 have hit the Internet.
• 1up has an interview with Sam Houser about GTA4.
• The New Gamer writes about the problems with Lost: Via Domus.
• Mortal Kombat creator Ed Boon hopes Street Fighter IV has enough new stuff in it. "I think that's why fighting series don't hold peoples interest that long. Because people realise that they've played, for example, Heihachi from Tekken in four or five different versions, and don't want to carry on doing that."
• The Bowery Boys blog looks at the history of New York City in video games.
• Burnout Paradise will be getting motorcycles later this year, along with a nighttime environment.
• Joystiq has a list of Best Buy locations doing midnight launches for GTA4.
• Namco Bandai has explained that the "tournament kit" contained in the Soul Calibur IV premium edition is a tournament bracket card.
• MTV talks to the director of Soul Calibur IV about online play and Yoda.
• A Take Two executive convicted of stock options backdating is starting a new game publishing company. The publisher's CEO isn't concerned. "He will not--and he's not allowed to-- be on the board. He's not an officer of the company. We'll deal with any particular issues that come up from an SEC perspective as we go forward, but we're fairly confident that they will be non-issues given the role that he'll play in the company."
• Disney Interactive has announced that two unique Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian film scenes were shot specifically for the video game.
• The Parents Television Council has done its obligatory squawking about the upcoming GTA4 release. Among other things, they say "retailers must be reassured, in writing, that the rating given the game is accurate and that there is no hidden or modifiable content in the game."
• A Singapore gay and lesbian rights group is protesting the country's new game ratings because the system lumps homosexuality in with crime in the Adult Theme category.
• The South Carolina House of Representatives is voting on legislation that exempts video games that give prize tickets from a law intended to ban video poker. Otherwise, games at Chuck E. Cheese would technically be illegal.
• Japanmanship writes about the Japanese approach to emotional game design. "And whether it is because of this or due to some cultural bent, visual design is approached rather differently here. In meetings and design sessions the focus is not on beauty and realism, in the technical sense of the word, but much more about the feelings it should evoke in the player."
• Jack Thompson's latest stunt is to write a letter to the mother of Take Two chairman Strauss Zelnick. "Happy Mother's Day, Mrs. Zelnick, which this year is May 11, two weeks after your son unleashes porn and violence upon other mothers' boys. I'm sure you're very proud."

PC and mobile news

New content: Worldshift demo, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 5.2 unofficial patch, Frontlines: Fuel of War 1.02 server hotfix

• Romance of the Three Kingdoms XI is coming to the PC.
• The pricing for Age of Conan has been announced: $59.99 for the game, then $14.99 a month.
• Rainbow Six Vegas 2 can apparently create logfiles in excess of 800 megs in size if and when the game crashes.
• Adventure Classic Gaming looks at the history of remaking King's Quest.
• Three classic Digital Eel games are now available for free: Plasmaworm, Big Box of Blox, and Dr. Blob's Organism.
• Nokia has released a teaser image for Project White Rock, their upcoming first-party mobile game. It's not really clear what kind of game this will be, but 1up believes the teaser depicts parody versions of classic game characters like Mario and Lara Croft.
• Devil May Cry 4 on the PC will include new features like a high-speed Turbo mode and a Legendary Dark Knight mode that will load the screen with enemies (if your rig can handle it).
• CNet Australia talks about the less than ideal situation for digital distribution for people outside the US.
• Casual games publisher PlayFirst is celebrating its fourth anniversary. What's interesting, as GameSetWatch pointed out, is that they mention they made $10 million in revenue in 2007, and yet they are "not yet profitable."

Nintendo news

• Activision has announced Little League World Series 2008 for the Wii and DS.
• There's a rumor based on a job posting that Stray Bullet could be working on a Wii MMO. It's hard to imagine.
• The Wall Street Journal got a preview of one of the print ads that will be running for Wii Fit.
• Reggie Fils-Aime says that the WiiWare release schedule in America will be more staggered than the one in Japan. He also mentioned that the average Wii sits on the shelf for only an hour before being purchased.
• Order Up!, another in what has somehow become a genre of food games, is coming for the Wii July 22.
• Jason Priestly will be appearing at the Nintendo World Store on Saturday to promote Mario Kart Wii. He's apparently become a race guy since leaving 90210.
• This week's Zero Punctuation review is for Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
• A trailer has been released for fangame Metroid SR388 which will be a completely original game.
• Siliconera has screenshots from the pirate Harry Potter sidescrolling shooter for the Famicom.
• Amazon has High School Musical: Sing It for $18.99.

Sony news

New media: Metal Gear Online gameplay footage

• Sony has confirmed that a GTA4 PS3 bundle is coming to Europe.
• Gamespot has a Q&A regarding the new Playstation Store interface.
• Next Generation has an interview with the creative director of Haze about the game.
• Speaking of which, Korn's newest single Haze, inspired by the game (or rather by bags of money given to them by the people who make the game), is now available for purchase on online music sites. Or you can just watch the music video. Or you could avoid it altogether.
• A LittleBigPlanet keynote has been announced for the Paris GDC.
• PSP and PS3 Echochrome demos will be available tomorrow on the Playstation Store.
• The BBFC's ratings page for MGS4 briefly contained a reference to "implied child rape". Kojima Productions' Ryan Payton says there's no mention of rape in the game, and the BBFC may have been confused by mention of "child trauma."

Microsoft news

New Live Arcade game: Lost Cities

• Microsoft has partnered with the Companions in Courage Foundation to put hundreds of 360 kiosks in the playrooms of children's hospitals.
• The Bogart update for Burnout Paradise is reportedly causing framerate issues.
• Microsoft has started hiring for its Peter Jackson Halo project.
• Sam Houser has expressed concern about the limitations of 360 storage media. "One of the problems with the 360, and it affects games like Grand Theft Auto if you think about how much content we put in the actual machine, is the fact that they don't have a significantly larger storage medium than the previous systems. It's a slightly bigger DVD disc."
• Xbox Live is having trouble. Again.

Posted by Will at 8:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

A French modder has created the Fami-Card -- a fully functioning NES fit into a Super Mario Bros. cartridge.

Industry and multi-console news

New media: Project Origin screenshots, 1942 Joint Strike screenshots

• The CEO of Activision says that more instruments and vocals would be coming to future installments of the Guitar Hero franchise.
• Next Generation has analysis of the March NPD numbers, as well as the new UK sales chart.
• Dan Houser doesn't seem very interested in the idea of a GTA movie. "You lose a lot of what makes it what it is if you move it into being, say, a movie. It just never seemed interesting creatively."
• Although previously announced as a pack-in with the collector's edition of Madden only, EA has now revealed that NFL Head Coach 09 will get its own standalone release for $49.99 on the 360 and PS3.
• The next issue of EGM reveals that the Splatterhouse series is making a return.
• Another unreleased Atari 2600 game has been uncovered at a flea market.
• Rock, Paper, Shotgun has an article on interpreting Hitman: Blood Money as a puzzle game.
• IGN has an interview with Bethesda's Pete Hines about -- what else -- Fallout 3.
• The first photo from the Street Fighter movie has been released, showing Robin Shou as Gen.
• Newsweek's N'Gai Croal looks at the idea of video game monogamy -- that is, buying one game and playing it extensively -- and how developers can cater to it.
• Upper Deck has announced a Call of Duty "real time" collectible card game. Yes, real time, meaning no turns.
• Gamasutra talks to Capcom's Kraig Kujawa about their recent franchise updates like Commando and 1942.
• IGN has a look at the level of detail in GTA4. And GamesRadar has a gallery of user videos from past GTA games.
• MTV Multiplayer talks to three underage gamers about how they get ahold of GTA games. “In my defense, I feel that going to high school has prepared me for the content in M-rated games.”
• The European Union says game makers and retailers have two years to come up with an industry code of conduct to better protect children from violent images.
• Prince of Persia creator Jordan Mechner has filed for a trademark called Prince of Persia Prodigy.
• A ruling in the Jack Thompson Bar trial may not come until late August, mostly due to the work required to sort through dozens of exhibits and thousands of pages of transcripts, along with 400 “pleadings, e-mails, letters and missives (including pictorials)” filed by Thompson since the trial ended in December.
• If you have a weak heart, you may wish to look away lest the shock overwhelm you: A game based on the upcoming Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince movie has been announced.
• Game Daily has an interview with BioWare about narrative, the mainstream press and more.
• Codemasters' upcoming racing game GRID will use the Ebay Motors marketplace in-game as the method by which players buy and sell their cars.
• Alone in the Dark is getting a limited edition box, though it's currently only confirmed for Europe.
• Wal-Mart has begun instructing its employees on how the GTA4 launch will be handled at their stores.
• OXM has an interview with Reality Pump in which they ask why Two Worlds was poorly received. " I can't say for sure, but I suspect that it was unfairly compared to Oblivion."
• Stephen Totilo makes the case that "it's just a game" isn't a valid argument anymore.

PC and mobile news

New media: Wrath of the Lich King leaked screenshots
New content: Galactic Command: Echo Squad SE content, Penumbra: Overture and Black Plague demos for Mac and Linux, UFO: Afterlight 1.6 patch

• 38 Studios has appointed former Everquest lead designer Travis McGeathy as the systems design lead for their upcoming MMO Copernicus.
• Pollux Gamelab has suspended operations due to financial troubles, leaving support for their game Lost Empire: Immortals up in the air. "The support mail is being read but at the moment we cannot guarantee a 100% response rate nor response time."
• Diablo3.com has issued a short explanation of what their countdown is not. "We have made no claims and expect fans to not get caught up with the wave of speculations and rumors in the forums and the web to the point to believe them." Boy, the announcement must be something really crap if they're already backpedaling on their own hype machine.
• Voxelstein 3D is a free Wolfenstein-inspired game in voxels, with fully destructible levels.
• NASA is still looking for someone to develop their educational MMORPG, but apparently they want it done for free.
• A Japanese man has created a free clone of Capcom's Gundam arcade games, complete with online play. There is an English installer available.
• Gameloft has announced Hulkamania Wrestling for mobile phones.
• A group of fans have released Zak McKracken: Between Time and Space, a free adventure game seven years in the making. Unfortunately, right now it's only available in German.

Nintendo news

New media: Summon Night: Twin Age screenshots

• Interplay plans on bringing Earthworm Jim and Clayfighter to Virtual Console, among others. Yes guys, the key to your return to profitability lies in giving people the chance to play Boogerman again.
• Aksys Games will be publishing multiplayer action RPG From The Abyss on the DS in Q4 2008.
• To celebrate the release of Mario Kart Wii, Mario will be in New York on Thursday treating people to free cab rides.
• Baseball fans who bring a Nintendo DS to Safeco Field can log on to the Nintendo Fan Network and access various baseball related content.
• Topless Robot lists the best 10 NES games no one played.
• Square Enix has announced more downloadable content for My Life As A King. There's a newly available 300 point dungeon pack, along with future packs that will include a library and the Infinite Tower. And a pack with a bikini in it.
• Sit and ponder for a moment who would want or need Wii remote cufflinks.
• Amazon's deal of the day is Bleach: The Blade of Fate for $18.99.

Sony news

New media: Metal Gear Online character creation footage

• Sony has extended the closed beta for Home, with the open beta now set for fall.
• Banpresto has announced Super Robot Wars Z for the PS2 in Japan.
• The Konami ID registration site is up again after being hammered by high traffic.
• Mark Rein says not to expect a split-screen patch for Unreal Tournament III, and that PS3 gamers "should be happy" the game has mod support.
• The Escapist has an interview with David Jaffe about his cancelled game Heartland -- the one he was working on before Calling All Cars that was supposed to make people cry.
• Amazon has Resistance: Fall of Man for $49.99 and After Burner: Black Falcon for $11.29.

Microsoft news

New content: Rock Band Judas Priest full album

• Foundation 9 has put Harker on indefinite hiatus. "The best way to put it is that the Harker team rolled into the Silent Hill V team."
• Gamasutra has an interview with Ray Nakazato about Lost Odyssey.
• The first in-game footage of Gears of War 2 will debut May 9.
• A member of the NeoGAF forums claims Rare recently showed Banjo Kazooie 3 to the gaming press and the embargo lifts May 13.
• Best Buy is offering a free $50 gift card for anyone who buys a 360 and a copy of GTA4. Uh.. for the 360, obviously.

Posted by Will at 6:47 PM | Permalink

A note to Joystiq and Kotaku: I must insist that you cease in this attempt to render my summary of you last year obsolete. Joystiq has been surprisingly reasonable as of late, while Kotaku has persisted in a series of posts about a woman in Japan who shows her butt. I looked past the Idolm@ster posts because at least that was a video game; this, on the other hand, is embarrassingly retarded. If you're that desperate for hits, you could take the GamesRadar route and cook up labored top 10 lists -- at least that would be sticking to the theme. Or, you could demonstrate a modicum of integrity. Y'know, whichever.

A note to Destructoid: You are still terrible.

Industry and multi-console news

• Midnight Club: Los Angeles is coming to the 360 and PS3 on September 9, along with Midnight Club: LA Remix on the PSP.
• The trademark dispute between broadcaster ABC and TimeGate Studios has been resolved. ABC has agreed not to use the name Section 8 for an upcoming sci-fi TV show, as it's already the name of an in-development TimeGate FPS.
• The ESRB and PTA are partnering for a new campaign to raise parental awareness of game ratings.
• Realtime Worlds has bought back the global distribution rights for their upcoming MMO All Points Bulletin.
• The next Silent Hill game has been officially titled Silent Hill: Homecoming and dated for September 2008.
• The Stella Atari 2600 emulator has updated to version 2.5.1.
• EA has revealed the hoops you have to jump through to get the DLC Battlefield: Bad Company weapons.
• Cracked -- yeah, the magazine that's not Mad -- lists 10 highly anticipated games you'll never get to play.
• GTA4 bus ads are being pulled in Chicago after questioning from a local news station. If this seems familiar, it's because there's been similar debate over GTA ads on public transit in the past in Boston, Portland and Denver.
• Bethesda has no plans for a Fallout 3 demo. "When you build it as one thing, there's no way to portion off a section and have it stand on its own without putting the whole game in the demo, which we're just not going to do."
• CVG has an interview with Ed Boon about Mortal Kombat vs. DC. He mentions there were times in the past when they would "get really close" to agreeing on an MK vs. Street Fighter game, but it never panned out.

PC and mobile news

New content: Commander: Europe at War demo,

• System specs have been announced for Age of Conan.
• Blizzard has denied Uwe Boll's request to direct a film version of World of Warcraft.
• NCSoft says they have no plans to implement their micro-transaction NCcoin system in Guild Wars.
• In light of the article on Infocom's Milliways at Waxy.org linked last night, Simon Wistow takes issue with the way it was handled. Specifically, the lack of any attempt to get in contact with the people who wrote the internal e-mails that were now being excerpted for all to see. "I know that's the thing you do - you check your sources. You get corroboration and comment. For a start that just plain polite - you know, the sort of thing a decent human being does."

Nintendo news

New Virtual Console titles: River City Ransom, Phantasy Star III Generations of Doom

• The president of Epic is not a fan of the Wii. "I haven't played anything that I really wished hadn't been on another platform sadly enough."
• Video Gamer has two videos comparing Mario Kart 64 and Double Dash tracks to what they look like in Mario Kart Wii.
• Solid Snake makes an appearance as a playable character in New International Track & Field on the DS.
• Miyamoto isn't sure of the role family will play in the success of Wii Fit in America, as American families are split up more often than in Japan. I was going to say something about Japanese nuclear families, but then it just felt weird.
• The New York Times looks at the big but stingy audience for the Wii. "These new gamers are content with the games they have, often going no further than the Wii Sports game that comes with the machine. They don’t buy new games with the fervor of a traditional gamer who is constantly seeking new stimulation."
• For the anniversary of Mother 3's release in Japan, the Mother 3 fan translation project has released a video showing their progress.

Sony news

• Konami has postponed the Metal Gear Online beta while they sort out server issues. The new start date is tentatively set for April 25. This is going swimmingly so far!
• Edge has a preview of Metal Gear Solid 4 from this weird mountain getaway press playthrough Konami put together.
• The LA Times reports that a PS3 video service could be available by summer.
• Sony is targeting the Indian market with a PS2 game featuring Hanuman, a figure in Indian mythology. "We have chosen the Hanuman game as our first title specifically developed for the Indian market as the theme is an ever-popular one across the country."
• There's a rumor that an alternate reality game for Resistance 2 is in the works.
• There are also rumors that the PS3 will break even in August, and that Sony will offer a slimline PS3 in fall. This rumor comes by way of analysts, which means it's guaranteed to be wrong.
• Gran Turismo creator Kazunori Yamauchi lists what cars he personally drives. "In terms of body design, I think the Ford GT is the best in the history of automobiles."
• Amazon's deal of the day is Eye of Judgment for $42.99.

Microsoft news

New Xbox Originals: Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, Metal Arms

• This week's Live Arcade game will be Lost Cities.
• GameSpy has Gears of War 2 details from Comic Con.
• Instructables teaches you how to get on Xbox Live with dial-up. First step is to jump off a bridge.
• Amazon has Sega Rally Revo for $23.10.

Posted by Will at 4:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

• The World Ends With You (DS) - An urban (like Tokyo urban, not gangsta urban) RPG from the Kingdom Hearts team. $39.99 at Amazon.
• NBA Ballers: Chosen One (360, PS3) - A "fantasy basketball entertainment experience" featuring 65 of the NBA's top superstar athletes. $59.79 for the 360 and PS3.
• Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness (DS) - Yet another in the Mystery Dungeon randomly generated dungeon crawler series, released alongside Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time. $34.99 for either one.
• Persona 3: FES (PS2) - Consists of an "enhanced version" of the original Persona 3 along with the FES expansion which adds 30 more hours of gameplay. $29.99 at Amazon.
• Battle of the Bands (Wii) - A rhythm game featuring 30 licensed songs each performed in five different styles, in which two players battle to have their version take the spotlight. Look, it's got Feel Good Inc. performed by a mariachi band, that's all you need to know. $49.79 at Amazon.
• River King: Mystic Valley (DS) - A fishing game from Harvest Moon publisher Natsume, so expect little SD anime kids and magical creatures. $29.99 at Amazon.

That's all fine and dandy, but I didn't mention this week's biggest release -- we're finally getting Target: Terror, the Lethal Enforcers-esque shooter known the world over as the worst looking Wii game ever. See the full release list at Gamasutra.

Posted by Will at 12:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

1up took time out this weekend to ponder what's up with Chun Li's thumb. I wouldn't mind knowing myself.

Industry and multi-console news

New media: TNA Impact gameplay videos, Hellboy: The Science of Evil trailer, Alone in the Dark trailer

• Activision has confirmed they are closing down Underground Development. The studio was formerly known as Z-Axis and responsible for Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX and the Aggressive Inline series.
• For the first time, all three console makers showed up on BusinessWeek's list of the 50 Most Innovative Companies. Microsoft came in at #5, versus Nintendo's #7 and Sony's #9.
• Variety has an interview with Dan Houser about GTA4, and GTA DJ Lazlow Jones recently talked about the game on Opie & Anthony.
• TNA iMPACT! has been delayed until September.
• Top Cow Entertainment has hinted at a sequel to The Darkness. “We can’t say ‘darkness’ and ‘videogame sequel’ in the same sentence, so ‘darkness.’ Wink. ‘Sequel.’” I hope it stars Crazy Abdul.
• Racketboy has a PDF of the first issue of EGM.
• Write the Game looks at what you need to get hired as a game writer, taking as an example a recent job posting at Blizzard.
• A man named Don Hodges has made a patch for the arcade version of Pac-Man to fix a bug on the 256th board in which the screen garbles (likely because no one was supposed to play long enough to get that far).
• Sarcastic Gamer talks to the "top bloggers" for their picks for the top 10 games for under $10. There are several Live Arcade and PSN games and then suddenly... Bloody Roar.
• Michael Abbott at the Brainy Gamer is working on creating a syllabus for a one-semester seminar course devoted to the history of RPGs, and he's looking for suggestions on what games should be included.

PC and mobile news

• Waxy.org has come into possession of a backup of Infocom's shared network drive from 1989. The drive contains design documents, e-mail archives, sales figures, and most importantly, an archive of the source code and game files for every released and unreleased game Infocom made. The article I've linked to in particular focuses on Milliways: The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, an unreleased sequel to their Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy game.
• Music puzzle game Lumines is now available on Steam.
• Next Generation has an interview with Games for Windows' Kevin Unangst, who says PC gaming's biggest roadblock is convincing people it's not dead.
• The Witcher: Enhanced Edition has been delayed.
• A New Zealand man could be facing trouble from the law after he modded his copy of GTA to include official New Zealand police insignias. Apparently the cops are looking in to this as "unauthorised use of a police uniform."
• Rock, Paper, Shotgun revisits an older interview on the making of Trackmania, conducted in the lead up to Trackmania Sunrise.
• Paradox Interactive has announced Majesty 2: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim for release in the first quarter of 2009.
• This is rather niche, but may be of interest to anyone who likes computer history, old technology and particularly the demoscene: The Internet Archive has video of a presentation by Jim Leonard on the preservation of demos. "To stay ahead of the curve, demos have always used hardware to the fullest extent available, sometimes in unorthodox and unauthorized ways. But when that hardware becomes yesterday's news, it is those very tricks that cause such demos to become lost to history." He and the Hornet group have been working on a series of DVDs that reproduce demos the best they can.

Nintendo news

• On May 31 and June 1, you can get a Darkrai Pokemon at Toys R Us.
• The Okami Wii box art contains an IGN watermark from where some knuckleknob used game art taken from IGN's site rather than from Capcom's own assets (which you would think they'd have access to). It kind of looks like Amaterasu is trying to eat it.

Sony news

• The official Playstation blog has an Eye of Judgment theme deck preview.

Microsoft news

New media: Operation Darkness screenshots

• Epic says they don't plan on offering a Gears of War 2 demo prior to the game's launch.
• An Xbox 360 power supply is being blamed for a house fire in Arkansas. Fire officials say that the power supply was likely crammed in a tight space, leaving it unable to adequately dissipate heat.
• The Consumerist has another story of trouble with Microsoft and 360 repairs, this time a woman who can't get her system back because Microsoft thinks she stole it.
• Xbox Live is going to be down Monday morning for about eight hours.

Posted by Will at 10:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Only about twenty years after Meet the Demoman was released, Valve celebrates the unbundled version of Team Fortress 2 now in stores with Meet the Scout. Be sure to notice the cap point color.

And if the scout video has inspired you to jump back into TF2, maybe you can try this while you're there. You don't need to take any crap from some train.

A group from Igromania magazine plays for Hideo Kojima a song written by Russian classical composer Georgy Sviridov in 1974, noting that it bears a strong resemblance to the Metal Gear Solid theme. According to the Metal Gear Wiki:

Since then the Theme Motif was removed from the Portable Ops Main theme (the original, with the Motif, appeared in an E3 Trailer, and the version with no Motif played after "Calling To The Night" during the games ending credits, and appears on the Portable Ops OST as the track "Show Time") and was even removed from the Snake Eater Version of the theme on the Metal Gear 20th Anniversary Music Collection (it was replaced with "The World Needs Only One Big Boss!" from Metal Gear Solid 2). With this in mind, the Motif is not likely to appear in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns Of The Patriots.

What better way to celebrate the bound to be terrible Mortal Kombat vs. DC than with a montage of clips from the confirmed to be terrible Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm cartoon. Fair warning: Watching this will hurt.

The person who put together this video also made a montage from the Darkstalkers cartoon, and it somehow manages to be worse. The show's creators went for more of an action/comedy spin there, and while I guess I should applaud them for recognizing the limitations of the material, when you're not actually capable of being funny you're not really doing yourself any favors by making your show even goofier than it was inherently.

I can't make a post featuring bad video game cartoons without paying respects to the king.

"What if this old game was turned into a movie lol" is an old gag, but this video imagining a trailer for Tetris: The Movie is pretty much pitch-perfect. The main characters as pilots of Tetris pieces is a great angle.

You know what's not a great angle? Everything in this video. All you really need to know is that this came about as a result of something called the Anime Songwriting Workshop and it will make you want to die.

goddamn why does anyone watch stargate atlantis

Or Sci-Fi at all for that matter.

People continue to find odd ways to kill themselves and others in Halo 3. Here, again, one must examine the replay just to figure out how one was betrayed. I always knew that big fan was a bad idea.

The only thing more popular on the Internet than videos of Halo 3 deaths are videos of people playing the Mario theme in weird ways. This certainly ranks up there -- an RC car ringing a row of wine bottles as it races by. At least they can get drunk afterwards.

Posted by Will at 4:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

This is the winner of Gamestop's Smash Bros. Brawl nationwide tournament. He won a TV, a Wii with the entire system library, accessories and $5,000 cash. And, apparently, a fat little man.

Industry and multi-console news

New media: Lego Batman trailer, Saints Row 2 trailer, Facebreaker trailer, Wheelman trailer, Backbreaker trailer demonstrating NaturalMotion's more realistic football player animation

• Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe has been announced for the 360 and PS3, and I'm not kidding. The game won't be rated M, which makes one question what the point is. Games Radar has a brief teaser trailer with even briefer gameplay footage.
• The first downloadable album for Rock Band will be Judas Priest's Screaming for Vengeance, priced at $15. Kotaku asks Harmonix the questions you're probably wondering, like "what took so long" and "what happened to the Who."
• Grand Theft Auto IV has gone gold and is already in transit to retailers. Take Two has already seen some of the early reviews, and "to a one, they are perfect scores. My mom couldn’t write better reviews…"
• Next Generation has new European sales charts and imagine that, Mario Kart Wii is on top of all of them.
• Meanwhile, the March NPD numbers for American hardware and software sales are out.
• At the company's annual shareholder meeting, Take Two again rejected EA's buyout offer. EA responded by extending the deadline and dropping the amount offered (from $26 per share to $25.74), and they rejected that too.
• The Rockstar Games Social Club is now open for pre-registration.
• Soul Calibur IV has been dated for July 31 in Australia.
• The Army of Two SSC Challenge pack is coming April 24.
• Gamasutra looks at the issue of making balanced MMO classes via the exciting world of economics. "Every time a character benefits from what another character does, they're participating in trade with that character. When a tank holds the dragon's attention so that it doesn't attack a teammate, the tank is trading their production of tanky-ness to the other character."
• Kim Pallister writes on his experience of speaking at a middle school about working in the game industry.
• Patricia Vance has clarified the ESRB's stance on downloadable content, saying that if the DLC isn't the same as the core product, it has to be re-rated. But the original game's rating won't change "unless the new downloadable content is part of a required patch."
• Afghanistan is considering a total ban on all video games.
• Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo doesn't get Guitar Hero. "I’ve never played it. I don’t get those games at all. I mean, I haven’t tried them. But they must be fun because people love them. But, to me, it seems like if you’re going to put that much effort into playing something, you should just play a real instrument."
• The big screen in Times Square at 47th and Broadway now has its own video game program that airs trailers, interviews and previews.
• Koffdrop writes about Kotaku playing to the lowest common denominator, who end up being the people who comment on their stories. "Perhaps if Kotaku exercised greater maturity and stronger discipline in how ran its stories or baited its readers it wouldn’t find itself asking how its kids grew up to be such poorly undisciplined tearaways." He has a point -- to a point -- but you should really know better than to read the comments on a major site anyway. There are plenty of sites that do no sensationalizing and still end up with retards vomiting all over the comment box.

PC and mobile news

• Diablo3.com and Blizzplanet (neither of which are official Blizzard sites) both have a countdown on their front pages, currently sitting at 13 days from now. Diablo3.com labels it as "The number of days until half the web links to Diablo3.com. But why???" Best guess: The launch of their wacky new Diablo-themed webcomic.
• The Bring Down the Sky expansion for Mass Effect will be available on the PC for free.
• Microsoft has filed a patent application on a wearable mouse. That conjures up images of somebody in a bizarre suit, but this is a thing that slips onto your hand.
• Monte Christo has announced Cities XL, a game in which you'll be able to build cities on persistent online planets populated by other players.
• TweakGuides has a tweak guide for Assassin's Creed. Hey, that's like their name!
• Business Week hotlinked the zip file for indie game You Found The Grappling Hook (somebody doesn't know their Internet etiquette), so the game's creator changed the link to a special "pro edition" in which the game is changed to involve finding terrorists inside Business Week's offices and throwing them out a window.

Nintendo news

New PAL Virtual Console title: Phantasy Star III
New media: SPOGS Racers trailer -- for those days when you've just got to have a game that looks like it came on a free CD packed with a box of Cookie Crisp

• Resident Evil 0 for the Wii has been dated for July 10 in Japan.
• IGN has a first look at The Conduit, a Wii-exclusive first person shooter.
• 1up talks to Miyamoto about Wii Fit, including the possibility of DS connectivity and the process of localization. "Early on in developing the balance board we found a rather large American named Reggie to help determine whether the prototypes were big enough for his feet and make changes based on that. Beyond that, there was changing kilograms in Japan to pounds in America. And in fact in the UK, they use 'stone,' which was very strange to me."
• Amazon has the Gamecube version of Twilight Princess for $25.99. They also have Super Paper Mario for $39.99.

Sony news

New media: Siren: New Translation trailer

• The official Playstation blog answers Metal Gear Online beta questions. "We have been getting reports that some of you are receiving partial digit UPVC’s Metal Gear Online Beta on the 'Metal Gear Saga Vol. 2' DVD inserts. We are aware of this issue and are working hard to remedy."
• Hideo Kojima is already saying that MGS4 doesn't live up to his original vision in some aspects. "Game-wise, it's pretty close to the original vision ... But the graphic, side things like motion-blending and the size of the map, totally was not accomplished to my original vision - to my satisfaction."
• PSU has an interview with the people bringing Enemy Territory: Quake Wars to the PS3.
• Gamestop and Gamefly both have Yakuza 2 listed for a September American release.
• The upcoming Cagney update will add custom soundtracks to the PS3 version of Burnout Paradise.

Microsoft news

New media: Spectral Force screenshots -- a strategy RPG published here in May by Atlus
New content: Condemned 2 demo, Iron Man demo

• Call of Duty 4 Variety map pack sales have already exceeded one million after nine days of availability, setting a new record for Live.
• DC and Epic are working on a Gears of War comic book.
• Reminder: The Call of Duty 4 Live Fire Weekend is now underway.
• Nerve designer Greg Stone talks about bringing Enemy Territory: Quake Wars to the 360.

Posted by Will at 6:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

In Japan, Club Nintendo members get a Super Famicom classic controller for their Wiis. Once again, you get nothing.

Industry and multi-console news

New media: Team Fortress 2 Goldrush screenshots and video, NCAA Football 09 trailer, NFL Head Coach 09 screenshots and video

• The FTC has again requested information from EA regarding their buyout offer for Take Two.
• The video game BAFTAs are skipping a year, and will next be held on March 10, 2009. One of the reasons for losing the awards this year is "to improve the judging process to make sure these are the best and most democratic recognising the UK games industry."
• Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway has been given an August 2008 release date. There's a trailer at the link.
• A man in prison for wire fraud is seeking a restraining order against Activision, Atari, and Take-Two Interactive for making games that "offends me and contributed to my identity theft." He also expresses concern about "imminent danger from violent inmates who played Grand Theft Auto who will knock me out and take my gold Jesus cross." Bear in mind this man has previously sued Christian Slater, St. Patrick's Day, and the 9-11 Commission Report.
• Both Gamasutra and Next Generation have interviews with Pandemic's Cameron Brown about Mercenaries 2.
• The new Japanese sales charts have Mario Kart Wii debuting in first place with 594,000 units sold in its first week, while the Australian charts show GT5 Prologue holding on to first place.
• The ESRB has declared that downloadable content can't go out of the bounds of the original game's rating.
• Namco will be releasing top-down shooter PowerUp Forever on Live Arcade and Playstation Network.
• The Ace Combat series has surpassed 10 million units sold worldwide.
• Ricky Gervais has revealed he has a cameo in Grand Theft Auto IV.
• Activision has announced Spider-Man: Web of Shadows for all major systems.I think a web of shadows is what emo Peter from Spider-Man 3 shoots.
• The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children limit total screen time to two hours a day. Also, boys should take at least 11,000 steps a day; for girls, 13,000. You know what fights obesity? Obsessive-compulsive disorder.
• Variety's Cut Scene blog talks to people in the game and movie industries about the recent "games don't need writers" debate. "As a film producer I have drawn and quartered many a writer so usually I leap at the chance to jump on any bandwagon that is founded on lynching the writing community. Unfortunately this retard doesn't know his ass from his elbow."
• Game Politics notes that the episode of Tanya Byron's show about game addiction that people are up in arms about was recorded before she started work on the Byron report, so it doesn't really represent a change in stance. Not negatively, anyway.
• The authors of Grand Theft Childhood say that there is "absolutely no evidence" that playing violent games leads to real-life violence.
• The American Library Association have declared tomorrow Gaming & Your Library Day.
• 1up looks back at the worst console launch games ever. Blue Storm gets too much hate.
• All Game Crazy locations will be having a midnight launch for GTA4, but 10 stores will also be hosting "Extreme GTA IV Experience" events.
• Ryan Davis over at Jeff Gerstmann's new site Giant Bomb plans to "watch and assess every video-game movie ever made."
• GameTrailers has uploaded part 3 of their Star Wars game retrospective.

PC and mobile news

New GameTap titles: Alien Shooter Vengeance, Dark Matter, Dracula Twins
New content: Kung Fu Panda demo, Savage 2 1.47 patch, Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath and Tiberium Wars unofficial Windows 2000 patches

• An update to the Folding@home GPU client has been released.
• Following the news that several of the game's servers are being shut down, the CEO of Flying Lab talks about what went wrong with Pirates of the Burning Sea.
• GameSetWatch looks at the backgrounds of the five Alliance races in World of Warcraft.
• Square Enix has announced a new RPG for mobile phones in Japan called Ellark.
• TokyoPop will be publishing 22 new Warcraft and Starcraft manga. That isn't manga you jackasses.

Nintendo news

• A Build-A-Bear Workshop game is coming to the Wii, containing all the fun of building a bear without all the.. getting a bear at the end.
• This is really pointless by now, but just for the record, Enterbrain says their president never claimed a new DS model was in the works to begin with.
• Ignition Entertainment and SNK will be co-publishing Metal Slug 7 in America.
• Namco has announced We Cheer for the Wii, a cheerleading game featuring "30 smash-hit master recordings" from the likes of Hilary Duff and Natasha Bedingfield.
• 4 color rebellion points out the movie that helped inspire Giygas from Earthbound, a Japanese film called The Military Policeman and the Dismembered Beauty. "When I was a kid, I accidentally saw the wrong movie at a theater. ... After I saw it, I went back home and was silent and just really out of it. I had received such a big shock that I worried my parents."
• Miyamoto sez: Cheer up, hardcore gamers, Nintendo hasn't dumped you. "Rather than the core gamer being concerned that we're abandoning them, I hope they'll realize that really what we're trying to do is to create a better environment for their hobby. ... For me, I'm trying to entertain as many people as I can, creating games that the widest number of people can enjoy. Of course, that being said, we do have the existing teams at Nintendo working on the kinds of products we've always made over the years. The Zelda team is forming again to work on new games! But to me, it's about finding these new interactive experiences and bringing them to people."
• Amazon's deal of the day is Trauma Center: New Blood for $32.99. There's also House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return for $19.99.

Sony news

New game: Gran Turismo 5 Prologue
New demo: UEFA EURO 2008
New content: Warhawk Broken Mirror pack and Booster combo, Rock Band tracks

• Despite a government ban of the game, United Arab Emirates has still had to crack down on distribution of God of War.
• Some people are reporting their Metal Gear Online beta keys are missing letters, so they can't get in.
• PS3 Call of Duty 4 will be getting the Variety map pack along with a Double XP Weekend next week.
• Amazon has Unreal Tournament III for $39.99 and Hot Shots Tennis for $11.88.

Microsoft news

New content: Kane and Lynch - The Dope Bag (free)

• The Dreamcast version of the first Soul Calibur is coming to Live Arcade this summer. Just a guess here, but I don't think that's going to be under 150 megs.
• The recent console price cut has doubled 360 sales in Europe.
• Microsoft's marketing push for GTA4 in Europe will match what they spent on Halo 3.
• A demo for Iron Man should be coming tomorrow.
• Tales of Vesperia will be the first Tales title with a theme song sung in English and Japanese by the same artist -- in this case, J-pop singer Bonnie Pink.
• Major Nelson has put up a few top 10 charts for Video Marketplace content around the world.
• CVG seems to think that the DLC for GTA4 could be whole cities.
• The official Capcom blog provides an update on changes to characters in Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix.
• The 360 version of Unreal Tournament 3 will include five new maps, two new characters and two-player splitscreen.
• A top rated Ikaruga player calls the Live Arcade version of Ikaruga "horrible". Basically because they changed the enemy patterns (that he no doubt wasted countless days memorizing) in a few places.
• Amazon has the Darkness for $24.31.

Posted by Will at 6:16 PM | Permalink