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My Face Friggin' Hurts
Posted by Brian Ashcraft at 11:40 PM on August 10, 2007
To: Crecente
From: Ashcraft
Pain. Severe pain. Today I got something like five shots. Three of them were with the dentist's painless electric needle. Two of them were not. Those friggin hurt. All yesterday, my wife has been saying the dentist told her that the next time is going to be painful. Know this about my wife: She likes to joke around and fuck with me. So, I worried all day, and right before I get in the dentist's chair, Mrs. Bashcraft tells me she was joking and that the dentist never said it was going to hurt. She then giggled.
Then the dentist started drilling, and it hurt BAD. He said the cavity was too close to my nerve. So he gave me shots. It still hurt. More shots. Still ouchy. He then put some "desensitiser" on my tooth and said to come back in a week or so. Then it won't hurt. After that, I have to go back again to have the filling put in. Fun!
Somehow I think this has something to do with all the people I banned. Instant karma baby! :)
What you missed last night:
Think the British Board of Film Classification care about Rockstar and Take-Two's release schedule? They couldn't give two shits. MCV "understand" that Rockstar's appeal to have the game's British ban overturned, which was submitted last week, is now being heard by the board. Thing is, they also "understand" the process could take months, meaning that if the game ever does ship, we'll all have gotten over it by then. Maybe even completely forgotten about it, and you have to resort to making things up so you sound like you know what you're talking about. "Manhunt 2? Ah, yes, the one with the magic penguins and little orphaned babies. No thanks, heard it was a bit crap. $10 for downloadable babies was a bit much".
Anyone excited about Oppona? I am! Well, I'm not excited... call me mildly enthused. If you're anywhere between those two emotions, and were looking forward to its release on September 27, I'm sorry. It's been delayed. To November 1. Why? Game needed a little bit more polish it seems, Koei preferring to wait a little while and get a better game onto the market. Tough news, I know, but you can manage. Not like there's a shortage of games worth playing over the next six months.
Heads up! Head over to the Wii Ware section on the Shopping Channel and download a totally free Metroid Prime 3: Corruption preview. After downloading, it becomes its own Wii Menu channel. It's not a demo, but has trailers and other vids from the game. This kicks off a "Month of Metroid" for Nintendo with Metroid (available for 400 points) and Super Metroid (800 points) getting Virtual Console releases on August 13 and August 20th respectively. MP3: Corruption drops August 27th. Finally a reason to use the Wii again. 
Just got a press release directly from Running With Scissors CEO Vince Desi (above). It mentions that the company's game Postal is mentioned in the latest Bourne novel The Bourne Betrayal, written by 
Get out your hairgel! To mark ten years of Final Fantasy VII, Square Enix is rolling out a special exhibition for all to gape at. Take note Tokyo readers, the FINAL FANTSY VII 10th ANNIVERSARY Gallery will run from August 31 to September 2nd at Aoyama's 
OK, no messing around now. It's official. The Wii and Japan have broken up. It's finished. Over the past month sales have gone from 109,854 a week to 61,498. Sure, most other consoles have seen a slight dip over the same time (except the PS3), but that's a biiiiig drop-off. What has the Wii done to you, Japan, to deserve the cold shoulder? All it ever offered you was love. Guess all you ever really wanted was a few more decent games.
Electronics retailer Circuit City has served CAG Productions with a subpoena. CAG Productions is responsible for popular video game shopping community CheapAssGamer.com, which has 100,000 registered members. The retail giant wants CAG to turn over all personal information about registered forum member Speedy1961, who has been posting weekly CC ads prior to their release on the site. Speedy has also posted them on DVDtalk.com, and that site appears to have received legal action as well. The subpoena mentions one CheapAssGamer thread in particular, which prior to E3 revealed that the PS3 would get a price drop as well as pricing for games at Circuit City as well as game prices at Target and Best Buy. In that subpoena mentioned thread, here's what Speedy wrote:
In Australia, I see GAME as triumphant liberators, freeing us from the specialist retailer near-monopoly of EB Games. But in the UK? They ARE the monopoly, and now they're in trouble over it. In May GAME gobbled up its main competitor, Gamestation, leaving the country with only a single, major specialist seller of gaming products. Which doesn't sit too well with Britain's Office of Fair Trading, who have referred the takeover to the Competitions Commission. See, they like to keep things fair in 'ol blighty. "That's just not cricket!", etc etc. John Fingleton, OFT chief executive: 
So did you watch the G-Phoria awards? No? I didn't either. I instead relied on news to filter down from people who had, letting us know who won what. And while much will be made of Gears of War winning six awards, the real star of the night was Dead or Alive stalwart and Kotaku favourite Kasumi, who won "Hottest Babe". List of other, lesser winners follows.
Label fun time! The good people over at Insert Credit bring word of the Atari 2600 Label Maker. It generates customised "authentic looking Atari 2600 'Picture Labels' using your own image and title. Check out the hilarity Brandon Sheffield from IC created. Non-stop giggle factory, this. 
So Sega have a new brain training game on the way. While I'm sure it'll be a hit with the brain training set, it's name's could do with some work. In its native native tongue it reads äº¬éƒ½å¤§å¦ é˜¿è¾»å“²æ¬¡æ•™æŽˆç›£ä¿®è²¡å›£æ³•äººæ—¥æœ¬æ¼¢å—能力検定å”会å”力漢å—トレーナー ãƒãƒ¼ã‚¿ãƒ–ル, which translates roughly to Kyoto University's Professor Atsuji Tetsuji Foundation's Japanese Kanji Ability Official Certification (in collaboration with) The Kanji Association Trainer Portable. Not so catchy! Then again, they're just following precedent. 
Hrm. We'd all been working under the assumption that Auran's upcoming MMO brawler Fury would be free to play. Mainly because, well, they told us it'd be free to play. And it still is, but today they've announced that there'll also be a USD$10 a month subscription "option", which grants you a whole lot of stuff you won't get if you're playing for free. Pay your $10 a month and you get stuff like (and this is lifted straight from their email):
Sure, loads of British people aren't happy with the PS3's price. They get fucked badly enough on console prices as it is, let alone staring a £425 (USD$860) price-tag in the face. Time for some British retailers and publishers to speak out. First up is Duncan Cross, who runs the games section for giant supermarket chain Asda: 
Sometimes (actually, all the time), it pays to be a savvy consumer. Example: Guy by the name of AlteredBeast, a reader over at Kotaku blood-brothers The Consumerist, was having Xbox 360 troubles. Like, he was on his sixth unit after things like the red rings of death and poorly-handled refurb units (they'd arrive having been broken in the mail). When he called MS support to complain, he was bumped all the way to the top of the customer service chain, at which point he was told there was nothing he could do. Oh, wait, there was something he could do. He could email Steve Ballmer. So he did, and two days later got a new, working 360. Let's hear it for the little guy!
Earlier this summer, we posted that the Sofmap in Akihabara had moved Nintendo goods to the first floor and Sony products up to the third floor. For over ten years, the PlayStation brand had dominated the store's ground floor, an area that obviously draws the most foot traffic. This isn't that big of a deal, really, but retail can be really telling on just how the demand has shifted. Fliers decorating the store list the Wii and the DS as "popular." What about in-store PlayStation fliers? That, dear reader, after the jump.
Lippy game creator David Jaffe (above with CliffyB's old hairdo) may now be independent with his own studio and not work for Sony anymore, but that doesn't mean he doesn't like Sony anymore. No, he loves Sony. In an interview with game site GamePro, Jaffe tells folks not to worry — he's not jumping the Sony ship to go make exclusives for Nintendo or Microsoft. Cut Jaffe, and he bleeds Sony! He says:
Gamasutra have posted a fairly fascinating look into the relationship between publishers and the gaming press. It's a good read regardless, but the highlight has got to be a bunch of quotes from journo Todd Zuniga, who did a stint at Rockstar working in PR. Between Jeff's blog posts and now this, it doesn't seem like the nicest place to work. Here's a highlights package of Zuniga's experiences: 
OK, time to kick off discussion number two for Mr. Robot. Hit up the link below to join in the campfire. Remember this time around we are discussing the game up to the end of the cryo room. MTV's Stephen Totilo was kind enough to drop by to help in the discussion. So get your questions ready and hop on the link. If the room is full please follow along here, I'll be keeping an eye on the discussion and trying to post questions from here into the room.
Welcome back to Kotaku Square Garden, where we join the match between Epic and Silicon Knights, already in progress. The action has been fast and furious today, ladies and gentlemen. As you may remember, the match started with Silicon Knights serving a suit to Epic, claiming they were provided a gimp version of the Unreal Engine 3. Then earlier today Epic volleyed back 
We're not sure why you'd need the Halo 3 Missile Pack, but we're getting pretty darn close to sure that we're dizzy from all the Halo 3-related crap one is now able to buy. The spec sheet is mighty light, but based on the photo of this Gamestop exclusive(!), it looks like it can hold up to five discs, a single Xbox 360 controller and a headset.
According to Chinese state run media, some 13 percent of Chinese internet users are qualified as addicts—they're simply unable to cut the cord between themselves and internet porn, cybersex and, deadliest of all, online video games. While the American Medical Association appears to still be on the fence about classifying heavy players as addicts, China has no such qualms, initiating a program for those who need their electronic fix and need it bad.
While it seems to me there have been no end of BioShock trailers, 2K Games has one last trailer for their spooky underwater adventure in store for us. The catch? We have to tune in to Spike TV on the night of Sunday the 12th to see it. All I can say is this had better be a damn fine piece of video game commercial film for me to want to take time out of my busy Sunday schedule of sitting around on my ass to flip the channel to Spike at 9PM Eastern to watch for 60 seconds. They'd need something like a surprise announcement from Game Head's Geoff Keighley for that to happen.
During our many, many phone calls to Best Buy locations throughout the United States yesterday, we noticed a common thread. Not one store was carrying the Xbox 360 Core Pack. A surprising number of department heads also volunteered the following information, "And it doesn't look like we're getting any more in. Ever."
After the recent filing of Silicon Knights' lawsuit against Epic, Epic has launched a counterclaim against Silicon Knights, arguing that Silicon Knights is guilty of copyright infringement, breach of contract, and misappropriation of trade secrets. Here are all the notable claims from the filing:
OK, now we're confused. Amazon's US site has reduced the Xbox 360 Premium down to $US329. It's a bit odd since Amazon sells consoles for retail, and Microsoft just dropped the price to $350. 
We're not sure exactly when we'll see Stranglehold for PS3, but it's been pushed back from a soft date of September 17th to ??? within 2007. 
Dear EA,
Producing AAA games is not a gruelling marathon, it's a multi-year Ironman tournament. And at the end, the "winners" often feel less like partying than puking up a bit of blood and lying down to take a nap. That's why Bioshock's Ken Levine has this to say about releases:
In conjunction with US Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch, the ESRB is launching a new ratings awareness campaign aimed at getting parents to actually read those rating labels that are so painstakingly placed on games. The radio and television PSAs will feature Lynch and his two children in what sounds a lot like a middle America political ad, offering general information about the ESRB's categories. 
We actually didn't cover the original story, knowing it would just get our readers' hopes up for nothing, but Best Buy had posted the Rock Band Bundle for $US60—you know, that same one going for $US200 other places on the Internet. To those who placed preorders before Best Buy quickly caught the mistake, the company has issued this statement:
Have you ever dreamed of entering a fantastical world filled with adventure, danger, and 
Yesterday I was in GameStop picking up a copy of Boogie, when the question of reserving a game came up, as it always does. "What the hell, lemme put $5 down on Halo 3." Today, Microsoft announces that preorders in North America for Halo 3 have exceeded the 1 million mark, making it the fastest selling game pre-ordered video game in history, and it was all me, baby. Okay, it might possibly have something to do with the fact that you can pre-order Halo 3 just about everywhere, from Best Buy to 7-Eleven to your local 'massage' parlour, or so I've been told. It also helps that many companies are partnering with Microsoft to make sure no one is safe from Halo 3 propaganda. Burger King will offer exclusive content codes, Pontiac will be hosting events, Comcast is offering exclusive video content, and 7-Eleven will have three limited-edition Halo 3 Slurpee cups. Slurpee cups! Georgia doesn't have 7-Eleven, so I might have to schedule my annual Slurpee pilgrimage a bit early this year. Hit the jump for a more detailed list of promotions along with the round of back-patting.