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

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

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

Industry and multi-console news

New media: World in Conflict: Soviet Assault trailer

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

PC and mobile news

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

Nintendo news

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

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

Sony news

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

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

God do we still need a separate section for GTA4:

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

Industry and multi-console news

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

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

PC and mobile news

New content: Evochron Renegades 1.788 patch

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

Nintendo news

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

Sony news

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

Microsoft news

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

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

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

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

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

Industry and multi-console news

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

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

PC and mobile news

New content: Two Worlds add-on

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

Nintendo news

New media: Deca Sports screens and trailer

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

Sony news

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

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

Microsoft news

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

• Famitsu Xbox 360 revealed more details on Infinite Undiscovery.

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.

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.

(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.