New Doom 3 For Xbox 360 And PlayStation 3 Supports Head-Mounted Displays 
Far Cry 3 And The Stranger In A Strange Land 
Why Robin Makes Batman Better 
Resistance: Burning Skies: The Kotaku Review 
Harley Quinn's Revenge Is Batman: Arkham City's Bad New Ending 
High Scores And Egos: There's Always A Bigger Doodle Ars Technica’s Microsoft mole, who’s been largely on-point in previous rumours, has another bad case of the whispers, telling the site that the 360′s HD-DVD player is – for some reason – in line for a rather hefty price-cut. He reckons that the add-on movie player will be slashed to $US 50. Cheap, sure, but while $US 50 wasted is less than $US 130 wasted…it’s still money wasted. Only thing I’m wondering about is the fact it was meant to start today: any of you lot able to verify this? Mole report: Xbox 360 HD DVD drive for $US 49.99 [Opposable Thumbs]
That’s right, it’s let’s-make-art-by-pretending-to-be-dead time! Boing Boing tv checks out artist Brody Condon’s work “Performance Modification” at the Machine Project in LA. As we previously posted, his piece has ten performers in armor performing slo-mo movements based on computer game death animations. Love the chain metal! Death Knights in Slow Motion [Boing Boing TV]
Phil Harrison? Not happy. Back when he was boss at SCE Europe, he oversaw the transformation of the PS2 from a gamer’s console into a mainstream entertainment device, thanks to SCEE titles like SingStar and Buzz! Because of those titles (and the millions of PS2s they helped sell), the inroads made by the Wii don’t seem as revolutionary in Europe and Australia as they do elsewhere, because we’ve seen girls and families gaming together on a PS2 for years. So why, he wonders, didn’t Sony Japan do the same thing?
We’ve got a buncha new fighters coming out: SNK’s The King of Fighters XII, Capcom’s Street Fighter IV and Namco’s Soul Calibur. We are totally! Whot does SNK think its biggest competitor is? Says Masaaki Kukino, King of Fighters XII producer: Street Fighter IV… I saw it at the AOU 2008 show… I was impressed. It’s very similar to King of Fighters in that we’re trying to do something new with the franchise.
Right on. Anyone who likes fighters should be very, very happy right now. Tickled pink, even! KoFXII Interview [1UP]
Rockstar have released two new trailers for their upcoming Grand Theft Auto IV. One introduces us to Phil Bell, who’s seen ten too many Scorcese flicks and is all the more awesome for it. The other, after the jump, is for the game’s take on the Toyota Prius, the far more appropriately-labelled Karin Dilettante.
Super Smash Bros. Brawl creator Masahiro Sakurai had the best intentions, really. Like, when he started making SSBB, he thought it would be great if the online battles between friends had voice chat and possibly even keyboard chat. Hey, that sounds pretty great! What the hell happened? But there are all sorts of rules and regulations regarding communication on the Wii platform and so it was apparent to me that it just wouldn’t come together, we weren’t going to be able to do it, so we decided to cancel that feature. I’m very sorry about that. But if you’re really desperate for it, you could set up Skype by your game station and go at it with a friend if you like.
Eh? No, thanks. We’ll stick to talking loudly at the television. Sure, Nintendo has said in the past that it hopes to make online pleasant for those not used to it — meaning, they didn’t want people to get their feelings hurt. Fair, enough! But, why no online SSBB ranking? “It can also be kind of trying and painful for some people who want to be at the top and think that they’re really good at Smash and they look at their online ranking and they’re the one-hundred-thousandth best Smash Bros. player”, Sakurai says. Wow, just wow. After you’ve figured that one out, hit the jump for Sakurai’s say on future franchise installments:
Speaking to Bloomberg, NoA talisman Reggie Fils-Aime reckons that the 360′s lead over the Wii in North America will disappear this year. And not just “this year”, but by June. Which is not too far away! He reckons the launch of Super Smash Bros will be a big factor in this, and while I can’t see the logic in that – surely the people who freaked out over every pointless Dojo update already have a Wii – the overall prediction seems watertight to anyone who’s been looking at sales charts for the past 12 months. Nintendo Advance [Bloomberg]
Skip 2/3 of this G4 interview if you feel like it, just don’t skip all the way to the end. Because just before the end you’ll hear Kim Swift, Portal’s lead designer, say that Valve’s Doug Lombardi has just announced Portal 2. Well, we haven’t heard squat from Doug, but hey, your word’s just as good!
With the recent university shooting in the States, mainstream media once again has something to throw in the face of gaming, specifically the link between violent behaviour and electronic entertainment. Does it matter if the analyses are tainted with half-truths? Nope!
With all this controversy humming in the air, Atomic decided to have a word with Dr Guy Porter, a real-live professional in the matters of research, science and game violence.
From the article:
Large and well-designed studies have shown that childhood exposure to TV / film violence predicts subsequent aggressive behaviour in adulthood … These studies are widely regarded as the most convincing form of evidence for establishing a link between media violence and aggression. However, such studies do not yet exist for video games.
The interview goes on to cover Jack Thompson and game addiction. While recently we’ve heard much on the former, the latter seems to have dropped down a few rungs on the ladder of important issues.
