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 While we’re treated to precise sales figures from Japan, and decent approximates from the US market, it can be a difficult thing to nail down European sales figures. And by difficult, I mean largely impossible. Not only is the continent split across dozens of nations and languages, but there have long been two companies collecting sales data for the region: GfK, who handled most of continental Europe, and ChartTrack, who were largely responsible for the British market. Well, as of yesterday, GfK now own a controlling interest in ChartTrack, bringing the companies together under the new name GfK ChartTrack Limited. Fingers crossed this means we can start getting not only some decent European sales numbers, but also regular pan-European sales charts as well.
GfK acquires ChartTrack [MCV]
With all this talk about Star Wars characters in your SoulCalibur IV, it’s easy to forget that, yes, you can play as other SC on the Star Wars stages. Like, here Mitsurugi and Siegfried battle it out on the PS3 Darth Vader’s stage. Neato stuff happening in the background.
Soul Calibre IV’s Starwars Stage [Aeropause]
That DS redesign concept in the Disgaea DS ad sure is nice, isn’t it? But is it real? Who knows. We have our doubts. Redesigning the exterior of a DS is an “easy” thing, but adding widescreen would create a 16:9/4:3 gulf in DS gaming that we just can’t see Nintendo going for. As for the official word, Nintendo are saying it’s “purely rumour and speculation”. Which, hey, we knew already.
Nintendo dismisses widescreen DS claims [Eurogamer]
While the 2.40 PS3 firmware was eagerly anticipated, it didn’t go as smoothly as Sony would’ve liked. Sony actually had to take 2.40 down due to issues a few users were having while installing the update. And as we previously mentioned, the 2.41 firmware should fix any problems 2.40 had. Over at the PlayStation.Blog, PSN director Eric Lempel blogs:
Have a listen of the Afrika soundtrack, scored by composer Wataru Hokoyama. His website notes the composer’s background in film and TV composing. While the music does make us want to march around Kotaku Tower, we do imagine that playing something as exciting as this while safari picture takin’ would frighten the wild critters.
First Look (Listen) To The Music of PS3 Afrika [MTV Multi-Player]
If you missed out on the limited edition of Metal Gear Solid 4 thanks to EB Games’ silly exclusive, GAME appears to have packs for sale. Well, that’s what its website says in any case.
Too good to be true? It’s not, as long as you’re comfortable unloading $169.95 from your purse/wallet/man servant. I can’t imagine this will stay available for long, so if you’re super-keen, you better be super-quick.
Update: Well, that went faster than I expected; the product has disappeared from GAME’s website!
More characters join the Tatsunoko vs. Capcom fray! Previously, it was announced that the Capcom side was getting Street Fighter III‘s Alex and the Tatsunoko side was getting Gan-chan from anime Yatterman. The latest brawlers in this gaming characters versus anime character fight: Darkstalkers‘ Morrigan Aensland, Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams‘ Soki, Hurricane Polymar and Golden Warrior Gold Lightan. As game site Arcade Renaissance points out, the game’s button layout seems similar to the Sengoku Basara X one. Something to keep in mind as Japanese arcade location tests kick off this weekend! That, and the possibility of even more new characters.
Capcom VS Tatsunoko features Gold Lightan [ToyboxDX Thanks, Matt!]
Battlefield 2142 for $10? It sounds crazy, but that’s how much it’s going for in Dick Smith’s massive sale. If this wasn’t reason enough to grab your wallet, pack some sandwiches and head down to your local DSE, the retailer had many other quality titles discounted by 50% or more.
However, according to EcoGamer, DSE has been less than consistent with its pricing:
At the same time as pleasing many bargain hunters I believe Dick Smith has also angered a lot of gamers by not keeping their prices consistent during the sale period. I believe it’s the first time a store has changed prices on their games on a daily basis in several instances. Take Conan for example, it was just $25 at one point but then suddenly jumped to $50 shortly after, and now rests at $70.
A huge swing indeed, but it seems to me someone just got their new and old titles mixed up and simply made a correction… to the chagrin of bargain hunters.
Even with the discount confusion, I’m sure plenty of gamers got their fill of great games at even better prices.
Great bargains or great disaster? [EcoGamer, thanks Fredi]
Yes, another nutty lawsuit. This one gets the “nutty” tag because of the timeframes involved. A Mr. John R. Martin, from Illinois, claims that the Nintendo DS infringes upon a patent he holds for “touch screen and pointing device gaming technology”, filed in August, 2005 (pictured). Only problem? The DS was released in 2004. Bonus problem? While his patent applies to a touch-screen gaming device, it’s for a gambling device, one more concerned with GPS and gambling laws than with male cheerleading or phantom hourglasses.
Nintendo Faces Patent Lawsuit, Apparently Over DS Touch Screen [GamePolitics]
While not running uWink restaurants or heading up an in-game ad firm, Atari founder Nolan Bushnell (pictured) likes to talk up the state of the game industry. Bushnell’s been around, so his insights are often insightful! In an interview with game site Gamasutra, Bushnell talks about how the hardware wars are “probably over”, saying that “it’s ridiculous to talk about how my photorealism is better than your photorealism”. He also offers on the modern incarnation of Atari:
