To: Crecente From: Ashcraft
A friend of mine from high school landed in the country yesterday. (Hi, David!) He’s in Kyoto now, and my schedule, being as insane as it is, I won’t get to see him until Sunday. SOME FRIEND I AM.
Okay, quick! I live in Osaka, yeah, but I don’t get out of the house much. Heh. I have a rough idea of places to go, but I wanted to check: any recommendations for must-see places in Kansai? Any places that any of you readers dug?
What you missed last night Racism in Tokyo Sony taking action against The Drake’s airgun Game consoles have dangerous things inside them Nintendo complaining about six-year old fine New DS colours for Europe? More Metal Gear MGS4 bundle ordering clusterfuck E3 floorplan
The Wii’s been out since 2006. It has, since then, moved a ton of units in its native Japan. But what about the games? Which titles have rocked the Wii’s world more than other titles which may have rocked it less, if at all? These six have, and according to Media Create they’re the top-selling games on the system (in Japan). All have sold over a million, all are developed by Nintendo, none of them are Super Mario Galaxy.
Oh man. Oh man. Words cannot express this, whatever this is. Just watch. No, on second thought. Don’t, just don’t.
Time to wheel out mainstream media’s default boogieman: VIOLENT VIDEO GAMES. In this today’s thrilling episode, Arizona’s KTVK-TV warns parents of “meat shields.” Citing Yahoo!Games, KTVK 3TV writes:
A popular video game for the Xbox 360 is getting a sequel this year – and it seems to be raising eyebrows with its level of gore and detail… The game certainly attracted attention for its realistic visuals and battle scenes, but caused some pause when game designers showed off a new attack players can use in the game.
See anything familiar, British readers? I bet you do. Because if you looked at last week’s charts, popped out for a bit to do some shopping, then came home to read this week’s charts, you’d be hard pressed to spot the difference. Indeed, if Pro Evo on the Wii hadn’t displaced Cooking Mama 2 at the foot of the top 10 we’d be looking at the exact same ten games as we were this time last week.
It’s game related. Or rather, otaku related. Somewhat.
Hit the jump for a totally non-game related clip from YouTuber tokyocooney. A totally brilliant non-game related one.
Not technically a Hot Flash since you need to download it, but it’s only 2MB, so it’s close enough. The name of the game’s Execution, it was made by Jesse Venbrux, and it’s worth the 3.5 minutes of your life both downloading and playing it will cost you. Know that while it’s a tiny, short game, there’s also a charmingly simple punch to it all. Be sure to play it twice to get the full experience.
Yeah, that Uncharted airgun? Totally not official. And not being official (and trying to make money off the official product) tends to piss folks off. A Sony mouthpiece says this about the King of Swords gun:
The Drake’s Gun is not licensed or in any way sanctioned by SCE and one we certainly do not condone… We are investigating the source of this product and will proceed with the most appropriate action.
Like telling King of Swords to put the newer blond lady sidekick in its ad? Sony To Take Action [Games Industry]
Oh, don’t look so surprised. You just had to know this news was coming. Konami have confirmed with GameSpot that while the vanilla MGS4 bundle will be making its way to Europe, not a single gunmetal PS3 will be offered for sale in the UK. And if it’s not going on sale in the UK, well, the chances of an exclusive Belgian or Danish launch seems remote, so that probably goes for the rest of Europe as well.
Konami: No MGS4 hardware bundle for UK [GameSpot]
According to the most recent Xbox World 360 magazine, Ubisoft has taken Splinter Cell Conviction “back to the drawing board.” While Ubisoft has yet to comment, this could mean that the game won’t be ready until 2010. The future! Conviction has been in development hell for a while now and its crowd stealth mechanic could have been rendered outdated by another Ubisoft title, Assassin’s Creed. Stay tuned for next week’s UbiDays where Ubisoft will or won’t announce something about the game. Back To The Drawing Board [CVG][Pic]
Update: Ubisoft says, “There is no official comment on this story, which is based on a purely speculative news piece.”
