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 No whining about a lack of content this week. Mainly because there are four demos are now available for PAL users to download. Four. And they’re mostly good ones to boot, including Mirror’s Edge, Endwar and the better-late-than-never Metal Gear Solid 4. Which is nice, really, and free, but the highlight for the week doesn’t actually come in the form of free, high definition sample offerings. It comes in the form of Bullfrog’s classic Theme Park.
Above, a demonstration by Mgestyk Technologies, showing off their webcam-based gesture control system on a bunch of games like Far Cry and Halo. While we admire the effort, all we’re left thinking after watching this is: just because you can do something, doesn’t always mean you should. Laggy controls that force you to use strange hand gestures won’t be replacing WASD and a mouse just yet.
Shopping in Akihabara? Fun. Shopping in Akihabara with a role-playing maid? Funner. Maid establishment Ecri offers discerning Japanese otaku the chance to hire a maid to “role play” video game or anime characters while hanging out, grabbing lunch or shopping with your maid companion. The Akihabara-only service is ¥6,000 ($91), and there are three options for your companion’s outfit: maid, cosplay and civilian clothes.
What’s the best way to counteract constant accusations that you’re the most greedy, soulless and creatively bankrupt publisher in gaming today? That’s right, you announce a massive charity deal! Activision have today pledged to donate “$US100,000 worth” (so, around 1000 copies) of Guitar Hero III to the United Service Organizations, or USO as you may know them as. The games are destined for USO lounges at US military installations across the world, and, while Activision’s motives are certainly cynical, the end result is still a good one, as the games should provide a welcome distraction for US troops no doubt engaged in activities nowhere near as fun as playing Guitar Hero.
Activision Supports The USO, Gives Guitar Hero to The Troops [Shacknews]
Low risk, high return. Companies like Square Enix have been remaking their back catalogues, much to the delight of a generation of gamers who missed them the first time around (or those who like buying things with a fresh coat of polish). Square Enix, however, has been releasing new IPs like the upcoming Last Remnant.
The Tokyo Game Show is long over. It ended last month, which in internet time is a decade ago. The latest issue of Famitsu has fascinating TGS 2008 data for us to look at and mull over. The publication surveyed 1,000 visitors, 79 percent of TGS attendees were male, 21 percent female. Here’s the data:
Halo set Microsoft up in this business. It sold a ton of Xbox games, and more importantly, it sold a ton of Xbox consoles. Halo 2 did the same thing, Halo 3 did the same thing again, except this time for the 360. Everybody knows that. And if everybody knows that, you can bet Bungie know it, and community lead Brian Jarrard isn’t shy about asking “Could you imagine the Xbox or Xbox 360 without Bungie’s Halo?”:
Game development for Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto is all about his team working “very diligently” and then having him come in to suggest adding silly things. Miyamoto’s latest game, Wii Music, is different — he didn’t have to go in and tell the team to add goofiness like the cheerleader. “I just turned the game on one day and all of a sudden there was a cheerleader,” Miyamoto told Rolling Stone. “From that sense I would say that Wii Music was a relatively easy development project for me.” We like it better when game development is difficult for Miyamoto.
A console’s attach rate – or tie rate, whatever you want to call it – is an interesting statistic. It basically shows how many games, on average, are owned by each person that owns a particular console. That data can be interpreted any number of ways, but from where I’m sitting, it generally shows how much you’re getting out of your console. If you’re buying a ton of games, you’re getting good use out of it. if you’re not, it’s probably sitting in a closet somewhere. So, let’s take a look! Above is a chart, compiled by Gamasutra, showing not only each console’s attach/tie rate, but also the break-down between first-party and third-party releases.
Exclusive: PS3, Xbox 360, Wii First/Third Party Game Attach Rate Exposed [Gamasutra]
Last we saw of Chun Li actress Kristin Kreuk, she’s turned her brown eyes blue. Good news, her brown eyes are back in this latest promo poster for upcoming Hollywood flick Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li. Bad news: The movie’s Legend of Chun Li circle logo is meh, and the poster looks like she’s at the helm of a gondola or about to pole-vault. Not that there’s anything wrong with gondolas or pole-vaulting, just sayin’. Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li hits theatres early 2009.
AFM ’08: Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li Photo! [ComingSoon.net Thanks, shaunomacx!]
