Three Words I Said To The Man I Defeated In Gears Of War That I'll Never Say Again 
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 Midway sure aren’t what they used to be. The same company that once laughed their way to the bank off the back of games like Mortal Kombat and NBA Jam is now a broken, broke-arse company, reduced to – get this – borrowing $40 million from their owner’s other assets just to cover the manufacturing costs for their holiday 08 games lineup. Needless to say, if those games – MK v DC, TNA Impact and Blitz II – fail, the future prospects for the company won’t exactly be looking rosy.
Midway borrows more money from the Redstones to stay alive [Variety]
Do you know what day it is? Tuesday! But not just any Tuesday — it’s iPhone erotic game Tuesday. The shame! Here are two embarrassing fan-made games that feature natto-eating 14 year-old Yoshika from manga/anime Strike Witches and main heroine Yuno from Hidamari Sketch x 365. The NSFW Strike Witches one is above, and the very (yes, very) NSFW Hidamari Sketch x 365 is after the jump. There’s rubbing, it’s somewhat censored, but still rather suggestive. You’ve been warned.
Two hot-looking, upcoming games, two bold art styles, one place you can play them both: San Francisco. This Friday, you’ll be able to play Sega’s tactical RPG Valkyria Chronicles at a Sony event at the Metreon PlayStation Store, with producer Ryutaro Nonaka in attendance. As for Street Fighter IV, GameSpot are hosting a tournament at CBS Interactive’s HQ next Tuesday, with a few thousand bucks cash on offer for the winners. You’ll find full details at the links below.
GameSpot hosts Street Fighter Showdown [GameSpot] Go Hands-on with Valkyria Chronicles this week! [PlayStation.Blog]
Xbox Japan, for Xbox Japan, is on a bit of a roll of late. The console was either the top selling or number two selling home console in the weekly sales depending on which sales data you go buy. Microsoft has secured a slew of RPGs like Tales of Vesperia, Infinite Undiscovery and Star Ocean 4 — joining Xbox 360 RPG titles like Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey. As Xbox Japan honcho Takashi Sensui explains:
Sales have been in an upward trend in Japan recently and we intend to work hard to push this momentum forward moving into the holiday sales season… As an initial milestone, we would like to hit the one million mark as soon as possible, and are continuing to work hard to get to this milestone and go beyond… The recent launch of Infinite Undiscovery on September 11 saw sales of over 90,000 units in the week of September 8-14 according to data from Media Create, placing it the third-highest selling game in Japan in that period… We have similar high hopes for the upcoming launch of other RPGs such as The Last Remnant, Star Ocean 4: The Last Hope and Fable II. However, we have no plans to launch Final Fantasy XIII in Japan.
Wait, wait, wait. “We” have no plans to launch Final Fantasy XIII in Japan? Don’t you mean Square Enix has no plans to launch FFXIII in Japan? Ah, yes, hello semantics, how have you been?
Xbox in Japan: A New Dawn? [EDGE]
Windows 7 – the successor to Vista – is already out there in the hands of testers. And while it’s early, early days (ie it still looks exactly like Vista), a few additions/changes have already surfaced. Most pressing of those for you, video game enthusiast, is that if this screen is to be believed, it looks like the new OS will give you the option of letting Windows handle your game updates/patches. Handy (if it can be trusted).
Windows 7 M3 Build 6780: Pictures and Videos(soon) [thinknext, via Shacknews]
Ensemble boss Bruce Shelley has broken the company’s silence on their recent closure by owners Microsoft, and while he’s largely diplomatic on the issue, he’s also honest enough to let us know that it was a shock, that it sucks, and offers a few extra reasons as to why the studio was shut down. Everyone at our studio was shocked, and I think remains very disappointed that this is going to happen. I believe we thought we were immune to shut-down talk because our published games have done so well and have been so profitable. Plus we felt we had built a really stable (low-turnover), talented, hard-working, and creative team, which is not easy to do. We thought we were among the best studios in the world, and that may be true, but we don’t fit in the future plans of MGS as an internal studio so we’re out.
Shelley also reveals that Ensemble was, per capita, the most expensive first-party studio Microsoft were running, and that the studio’s plans for a new office building perhaps played a small part in the decision to shutter them as well. Most interesting/sad, however, is the revelation by the long-time PC gaming God that while the majority of the Ensemble brains trust will be forming a new studio once work is done on Halo Wars, Shelley says “I do not expect to be part of the new company formed after ES is shut down”.
Ensemble Studios Closing [Ensemble, thanks Dave!]
Polls, polls, polls. Forget for a moment how the candidates are doing in Gallup polls, how are they doing on Xbox LIVE? Microsoft has released the results of its LIVE poll, and the results are:
Obama/Biden: 43 percent McCain/Palin: 31 percent Undecided: 13 percent Other: 13 percent
According to Microsoft, almost 100,000 LIVE Americans participated in this LIVE survey, making it larger than combined samples from Gallup or NBC polls. Take that for whatever it’s worth.
[Pic]
You may remember that the star of NBC’s The Biggest Loser, Jillian Michaels, issued an ultimatum to gamers earlier this year. With Majesco’s Jillian Michaels’ Fitness Ultimatum 2009 the fitness guru has given you two options: whip your sorry arse into shape or, you know, don’t. It’s up to you. After seeing Ms. Michaels’ gloriously toned midriff, however, you may be shamed into leaning toward “whip arse into shape,” even if the graphics look clunky as hell and monkeybar climbing with a Wii-remote looks decidedly lame. Still, the debut trailer for the game is worth it for the camera’s attention on Jillian’s ab-region. We don’t mind being pandered to.
Jillian Michaels’ Fitness Ultimatum 2009 [GameTrailers]
Slightly disappointing! Rockstar and Microsoft have today announced that the PC version of Grand Theft Auto IV will be running exclusively under the Games for Windows banner. So, yeah, if you want to play multiplayer, the fact Microsoft throw the word “exclusively” around suggests you’ll have to use GFW Live’s sub-par system. Granted, GTA IV’s release will coincide with a range of updates for GFW Live, including a new interface and the yet-to-be-named marketplace, but you’ll excuse us if we take a minute to stare at the “G” section of the Steam games list, think of what could have been and sigh, just a little.
Super agent Sam Fisher’s brownest, most grizzled adventure is still alive and kicking. Sure, it’s been delayed into 2009, but Splinter Cell: Conviction — or as it’s known at Ubisoft corporate Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Conviction — will be “worth the wait” according to community development manager Chris Easton.
While Easton toes the company line that Conviction‘s “gameplay has evolved,” don’t expect it to look much different. He tells VG247 that “the visual direction is simply much better than what you’ve seen.” Hopefully that means a higher whisker-count in Sam’s gloriously rendered beard.
Splinter Cell: Conviction’s new “visual direction is simply much better” [VG247]
