To: Crecente
From: Ashcraft
RE: S of F

That Solider of Fortune founder sounds like a bad ass. Cannot wait to read your feature.

I'm trying to be more organised — like be more things down in a timely manner. I think I'm already well organised. (I have to be!) But, I really want to stretch every second out of the day to get the most done possible. I've been using a free software programs to help me schedule stuff and list things by priority, set deadlines, blah, blah, blah. And, yes, your favourite Google Calendar is also immensely helpful. Was wondering if you knew of anything else that helped with organization? Tips, tricks, programs, books, etc. If so, lemme know.

What you missed last night
Church finally forgives Sony
Polyphony Digital brings us GT-R goodness
SFHD is purdy
Buy Zack & Wiki
Carmen humping a guitar

Death, taxes and the British Isle's undying love for the Football Manager series. Life's three constants. And really, who can blame them - there was a while during the late 90s I was hooked on the thing, back when it was Champ Manager, and it nearly cost me everything I hold dear. You think Pokemon's got crack-like tendencies, you know nothing until you get sucked into Football Manager.

1) Football Manager
2) FIFA 08
3) The Orange Box
4) Phantom Hourglass
5) Halo 3
6) PGR4
7) Ratatouille
8) Tiger Woods 08
9) Resistance
10) Crash of the Titans

Holy mackeral!! WHAT IS THAT?! That, dear reader, is GeeQzilla's entry. He writes:

I thought to myself, if I unroll 24 rolls of TP on myself, and lose the contest, I have to buy the game AND more toilet paper. So I figured this way not only will I be one of a kind, but I'll be able to actually use the stuff later too. Heh.

Of course, 2 of them are half useless after I walked into my ceiling fan.

Love it! Here's what's going on: We're giving away a copy of DS scary game Dementium: The Ward in our cosplay contest. But not just any old cosplay contest! Oh no. We're doing a bandage cosplay contest. Meaning? If you have toilet paper, you can enter. If you have band-aids, you can enter. Just cover yourself in bandage, and you are good to go. YES, IT'S THAT SIMPLE. The deadline for the contest is October 24th. Yes, today is the last day to enter! You have until midnight PST tonight! Send your entries to kotakucontestATgmailDOTcom. And remember, you aren't just playing for a DS game. Oh, no. You are playing for INTERNET FAME. Entries outside North America more than welcomed.
Dementium [Official Site]

By no means is the first Pokémon car, and by no means is it the last. However, it is better than this one. Way better. It's from one of the Pokémon Centers in Japan. There seems to be a whole fleet of them Pokécars. But those Pika-cheeks? Darling. Wheel covers? Fab. And those lights? Adore them.
Pikamobile [OhayouwwwOmaerawwwwwwwww]

Animal Crossing, the MMO? Would be a perfect fit philosophically for the Wii, if not technically. Edge magazine seem to think it'll happen, its latest issue containing the following:

A Japanese source has confirmed to Edge that the upcoming Wii iteration of Animal Crossing is set to be a social networking MMO.

For the record, Edge normally aren't the types to dip their toes in the rumour pool unless the water's great. So, a social networking MMO? If true (and remember, the Wii's current online capabilities are working against it), we're down with that, so long as you're indebted up to your eyeballs from the get-go and there's plenty of fish in the river.

Animal Crossing goes MMO [Edge, via CVG]

After first getting pissed, demanding that Resistance be pulled from stores, asking Japan to join the fight, threatening a lawsuit and insisting that Resistance not be nominated for a British Academy Video Game Award, the Anglican Church has finally forgiven Sony. Keep in mind, this is after Sony apologised to the Church of England and the people of Manchester for using Manchester Cathedral without permission — something that Sony was legally able to do. The Dean of Manchester Cathedral, the Very Reverend Rogers Govender has this very snide comment:

I think some important lessons have been learnt. So we do forgive Sony for what they have done, even though they still believe they have done nothing wrong. In an industry that is breaking new frontiers, it is important that long held traditions of film and television are maintained. These traditions include having courtesy, respecting the dignity of your subject, and admitting when mistakes have been made. In so many ways Sony have failed to live up to these standards by disrespecting people of faith and the victims of gun crime here in Manchester.

Lessons learned? Like what, not accepting apologies and beating a dead horse? In an odd way, Manchester Cathedral even has benefited somewhat from the brouhaha, since visitors to Manchester Cathedral have increased. Church Accepts Apology [BBC, Thanks SPni!]

Here's how Sony's EyeCreate software actually works. Predictably clean interface, nice big buttons, handy pop-up instructions, even what looks like simple drop-in sound effects/music. You, too, can be creating awful promo videos in no time flat! Click on the pic for a larger version, there's another after the jump.

At the Tokyo Auto Show, Nissan honcho Carlos Ghosn unveiled the GT-R. The car, which hits the US next Spring, features a multifunction dash display that was developed in conjunction with Gran Turismo Polyphony Digital. The display can monitor oil pressure, oil temp, engine coolant temp, transmission oil pressure, turbocharger boost pressure, throttle position, torque split, steering angle and lateral G-froce. The Polyphony Digital display can also log data that helps improve driving technique and can help with fuel economy. In other Polyphony Digital news, the GT-R has already popped up on Gran Turismo Prologue. There's more! Polyphony has also struck a deal with the BBC to offer episodes of car show Top Gear for download via Gran Turismo TV. Nice to see that the developer responsible for the "World's Most Realistic Driving Simulator" isn't kinda serious about cars, but DEAD SERIOUS about them. Warms the heart, don't it?

BBC Deal [Hexus, Thanks Silent_Shark!]
First Look GT-R [Edmunds, Thanks Daniel!]
GT-R [Famitsu]

After the less-than-awesome reaction to the really-quite-shit first vid of the game, Capcom have posted a couple of screens for SSFIITHD (which we're now officially just calling SFHD) over at the game's developer blog. Screens they go out of their way to throw disclaimers on, saying that their screen-cap machine is broken, that they're not indicative of the game's final, full resolution, etc etc. I don't know. They look pretty fantastic to me. Imagine they'll look even better at the proper resolution, whenever Capcom get their do-hickey contraption working again.

SFHD First (Work-In-Progress) Screenshots [Capcom]

We Love Golf, Capcom's punny Wii golf title from developer Camelot, has been dated for Japan. That date is December 13th, and the title will retail for ¥6090 ($US 53). We got hands-on with the game at TGS and all agreed: The putting sucks. Really, really sucks. If Camelot fixed that, I might pick up this one. If not, forget it. Oh, and that up there? That's the box art.
We Love Golf Dated [Famitsu]

As part of their latest financial report, Ubisoft announced that four of their upcoming games are being delayed until the next financial year, which doesn't start until April 2008. Which games, then? Oh, wouldn't you like to know. That's where the mystery comes in! See, they're keeping them a secret, only saying that one is an existing franchise and the other three are from "new brands". Why the secrecy? None of the games have even been announced yet. I know big-game delays are getting more and more common, but delays on unannounced games? Things are getting out of control.
Ubisoft beats sales targets, delays four games [GameSpot]

Geddit? Look closer, it's there. That's Daniel's entry. If you still don't see it, let's have Daniel explain:

Title: Aces combat Sixes

Here's what is happening: We're doing a paper airplane contest for Ace Combat 6. We've got a bundle of goodies that includes Ace Combat 6, glossy, photo-quality screenshots autographed by the game's producer and director, Ace Combat 6 Xbox 360 faceplates and the AC6 Flightstick set. To win this bundle you've gotta fold, cut, glue bits of paper together in hopes of creating a truly gnarly paper jet plane. They don't have to actually fly, but hey, if they do, that's a major plus. Be sure to snap a pic of your creation with something that says "Kotaku" and send it to kotakucontestATgmailDOTcom. Add "Ace Combat 6 Contest" to your subject line. Deadline is October 25th.

Lucasarts may not hear your cries, DS-owning adventure game lovers, but Focus Home Interactive do. They're bringing classy-looking adventure game Runaway, The Dream of the Turtle to North America sometime early next year. Never played it myself, but it promises to be a standard point-n-click affair (it's a port of a PC game), and the cel-shaded graphics come up looking pretty OK on the DS.

The BBFC (British Board of Film Classification, formerly the British Board of Film Censors) nixed Manhunt 2 and would not certify the game's PS2 and Wii versions. This happened not once, but twice. The re-cut version got approved in the U.S., but not in the U.K. What kind of organisation is the BBFC? Clive Barker offers Newsweek's N'Gai Croal this non-gaming example about how the BBFC thinks:

Well, the BBFC is a British organization; and therefore, prone to inconsistencies. One of my first lady friends was a Liverpool lass who became a member of the BBFC, and she would tell me the kind of things that they would debate at their meetings. At what point was a penis actually erect? If it flopped around still in a sort of half-dead fish kind of way, could it possibly be removable?

Yes, the BBFC talks about boners. While it does not ban showing male genitalia, it does not classify anything with tent that has been pitched, so to speak. Apparently, the board has an actual degree measure so that it can differentiate between wet noodles and stiffies. If you are keeping score that means flaccid weenies are kosher for movies, hard-ons ain't and don't expect this type of bureaucratic organisation to give a friendlier Manhunt 2 U.K. classification anytime soon.
Clive Interview Part II [Level Up]

Shinning Wind fans, respected figure maker Kotobukiya is giving you two very special reasons to pick up this Clalaclan Philias figurine. From the SEGA published PS2 games, Clalaclan's the Tower of the Sun Priestess! The figurine is 8 inches tall and comes with a removable shield. You can see up her skirt, too, and she has huge jubblies. That's about it, people! Hit "more" to see the full figurine.

More Pics [AkibaOS]

These clips come from reader Matthew. Hate him. They show him playing through Super Mario Galaxy two weeks before the game is released in North America. Matthew writes:

This is me playing the full game of super mario galaxy on wii 2 weeks of it's release date, I'm playing it at my local gamecrazy and they got a shipment of just the game, nothing else but the game in a zip lock bag. I plan on beating the game before the game actually releases.

As another tipster, VideoGamerJ, pointed out, Nintendo sent the full game to GameStop and GameCrazy retailers like the company did with Metroid. So we take that back: Don't hate reader Matthew. Rather, thank him for the heads up, because you too can play the full version of Super Mario Galaxy weeks before it goes on sale. Run, don't walk, to your nearest game retailer and start hogging that Wii kiosk. You've got a game to beat, dammit!

More clips after the jump.

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There's twelve months in a year. Count em if you want! One two three four five, six seven eight nine ten, eleeeeven twee-eelve. We're all capable of playing games during any of them, and we're all capable of buying games during any of them, but publishers don't know that. They think we only buy games between October and December, and boy does it make life hard. Nintendo are one of the biggest offenders when it comes to crapping on our end-of-year free time, but if you can believe Perrin Kaplan (and hey, she's already checked out, so you may not) they might be coming around:

Sunday is actually a really good launch day of the week for products. And I think we're actually starting to look at the annual calendar differently. The first two quarters of the year tend to be more quiet. But now we've seen some evidence of sales in that period. Other than the holiday quarter, I think the traditional way of viewing it is not necessarily a slam dunk. I think a really good product can be a slam dunk any time of the year.

What a wonderful world that would be. A world where I'd get a new Zelda game on the DS and actually have the time to enjoy it would be swell.
Nintendo's Perrin Kaplan [MTV]

Looks fun enough, in a Wii Sports 2 kind of way, but that music will drive people to murder.

More non-games for your DS! Swell. That's a Shibuya billboard for DS Bungaku Zenshuu, a title crammed with a hundred books for folks to read. The game is made by Dragon Quest Swords dev Genius Sonority and even lets readers download abridged versions of modern literature via Nintendo WiFi. Game site Siliconera points out that Nintendo is devoting more effort in promoting this game than, say, ASH: Archaic Sealed Heat. And we all know what happened to that game...
DS Book Reader [Siliconera]

We know, it's October, there are a ton of games vying for your time and money right now. But this goes beyond just you. See, Zack & Wiki is pretty awesome. But because it looks a little childish, because the concept's a little hard to explain concisely and because it's coming out at this time of year (tomorrow), there's a good chance it may be forgotten. Totally overlooked. Don't you dare let that happen. If you've got a Wii and will be up tomorrow, get off your arse and go buy a copy. We don't want to be writing about this game in 2-3 years time, listening to you all bitch about how much sealed copies cost and how bad you want to play it. Now's your chance.

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Guess who's playing Guitar Hero III instead of you? Carmen Electra, that's who. The Beverly Hills-based model, actress, author, Def Jam: Fight for New York character, singer and one-time boner source has added Guitar Hero Party Hostess to her curriculum vitae, rocking out against various Dallas Cowboys team members, specifically Tony Romo, over Xbox Live.

That's someone named Chris Balish in the pic above, not, Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo, who happens to be on the receiving end of a Guitar Hero thrashing from Carmen, warranting some victorious knucks, apparently. Funny, one of these private parties seems to be occurring mere miles from my house, yet I've seen not a single e-mail invite from Ms. Electra in my work inbox. Does that seem strange to anyone else?

If you'd like to see a photograph of Carmen humping a Guitar Hero III controller, it's right after the jump.

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Words? Words are for losers. So are numbers. Pictures are where it's at, and amongst pictures, graphs are King. So when it comes to looking at the month's NPD figures, words are useless. As are numbers. The only way you can really get a handle on all those sales are by charting them, using bright colours then hoisting them up for all the internet to see. That's what Next-Gen have done. So let's look, shall we? Above are the monthly sales of the three current-gen home consoles, with handheld sales and total lifetime home console sales available from the link.
What September's Numbers Mean [Next-Gen]

The gaming BAFTAs just wound up in London. Full list of winners are after the jump, so for now, we're just going to generalise. List the big winners, the big losers. Wii Sports, it was a big winner, cleaning up in six categories. Okami, it won too, nabbing two awards. Which is also how many God of War II took home. BioShock only won a single award, so lucky it was for Best Game. And the losers? Well, the PS3 didn't win squat. Neither did the handhelds. Not even the DS.

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That's right, the slammer! Back in June, we reported that crime was up in Tokyo gaming nerd Mecca Akihabara. Called "otaku hunting", Akiba geeks were getting mugged. A pair of brother and sister bandits arrested for targeted Akihabara dorks will get jail time for their actions. Their ploy: The 20 year-old siblings would bump into unsuspecting nerds and extorted "apology money" with threats. A Tokyo District Court has sentenced them to over a year in prison. The judge said, "The crime was systematically taking money from Akihabara otaku. We cannot ignore the criminal liability of this." The kicker: The younger sister was jobless, but the elder brother was a college student. What was he majoring in? Why, law.
Otaku Hunters Get Jail [Mainichi via Alafista]

Previous coverage:
Atomic Live 07: The Cars
Atomic Live 07: The Star Wars

Although you'll find it hard to believe, Novus Ordo did have an ulterior motive for attending Atomic Live 2007. Along with the cars, stands and booth babes (which we'll get to soon), was a cosplay competition, sponsored by DVD/movie distributor Madman and hosted, in part, by Dr Karl Kruszelnicki.

With wookies, storm troopers, anime characters and even Arwen from Lord of the Rings, the comp had an extraordinarily good turnout. Voting was executed using the tried and true "Applause" method. This system culled the group to three - Kitty Nakajima, Stormtrooper Girl and the Wookie.

Each competitor received a DVD, while the three winners bagged themselves a luscious DVD pack from Madman.

Hit the jump for a few more pics.

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For your eyes only, the official trailer for the upcoming Soldier of Fortune: Payback shooter. Hell of a kicker. The Activision folks told me today that the game will be hitting the PC, Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 and that it won't be a "Value" title in either spirit or price.

Tomorrow Activision launches the site, which has the above trailer, the below screens and some more details. Hit the jump for a quick description of the plot.

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In case you're oblivious to what's going on with those other colours of the popular culture rainbow, Hollywood's in a spot of bother at the moment. Al those writers who write movies for Hollywood are about to go on strike. Which gets us two things, both of which are good. One is that the torrent of forgettable romantic comedies and rubbish psychological thrillers may just dry up! The other is that a bunch of movies already in the pipeline are being rushed through, hopefully with disastrous results. One of those is the Castlevania movie. Producer Paul W.S. Anderson:

[I'm] hoping to get a script for it in two or three weeks. And I'm hoping it's great. Sylvain White is directing it, and we're hoping to kind of make it a pre-strike movie. So it kind of shoots in the next couple months.

Gaming adaptations are bad enough, but a rushed one? This should be good. Good as in bad. Bad as in hilarious.
Castlevania Gears Up Pre-Strike [Sci-Fi Wire, thanks Dobby!]

To: Ash
From: Crecente
Re: And the Kotakuites Open Up...

I was gone most of today. I drove first down to Denver to spend some time playing the upcoming release of Soldier of Fortune: Payback. Then we drove down to Boulder to meet with the founder of the magazine, to hang out and talk guns, mercenaries and why he never has and never will play a video game. It was tons of fun. I didn't get to shoot any guns, because he didn't have the time to arrange time on the shooting range, but he invited me to stop by anytime I want to going shooting with him. Fun times! I'll be writing up my impressions and the visit in a feature tomorrow.

What you and I missed:
Portal is for Lesbians?
Joust 3D Canceled, And Other "Secrets"
Hollywood Sob Story, Lots of AI Games Were Canned
Iraq Vet Writes Of His Return Home, Return To Gaming
Psychonauts Sequel Not Happening (Tear)

We've been on a bit of a pumpkin tear lately and someone at the Microsoft corporation noticed. They've passed on their own approved designs for your festive fall gourd artistry. If you're a Halloween celebrating gamer who's got carver's block, these helpful Xbox themed Jack O' Lantern stencils will do right by you when showing your console allegiance. The only thing to keep in mind when displaying your J O' Lantern(TM) is to ensure that you fill them with glow sticks of the green variety. Front porches decorated with red (or orange) rings of death is nothing short of a PR disaster.

TriX and Treats [Xbox]

The New York Times has been running a series of opinion pieces under the "Home Fires" banner, in which U.S. military veterans of the Iraq War write of returning to their lives after serving overseas. While some lean toward the intense, including contributions from a soldier blinded in a roadside bomb attack and one from a vet who responded to a bloody police station bombing, the most recent from former Marine Jeffrey D. Barnett writes simply of his love of gaming. It's not filled with earth-shattering revelations or the unique insight that only a Marine hardened by battle can provide, it's simply a thoughtful, down to earth op-ed from a rational gamer, one who just happens to be a foreign war vet.

Best quote? Barnett's conclusion that "steak knives and swimming pools pose a greater threat to children, but nobody is trying to restrict adult access to those tools". Simply a nice, articulate response that attempts to address a "grossly outdated" American view on the evils of gaming.

Way Beyond Pong [New York Times]

The "loss" of Bungie and the closing of FASA Studio, paired with the third-party snatching up of Bizarre Creations and Bioware-Pandemic led Newsweek blogger N'Gai Croal to key his editorial on a Microsoft "shell shocked" by losses, writing that the aforementioned development houses slipping through Microsoft Game Studios' fingers "strongly suggest that the house that Shane Kim built may rest on quicksand." Sure, some may say that's leaning toward internet-appropriate melodrama, but it certainly didn't appear to be a corporate "win-win", Microsoft's description of the Bungie deal. One group that doesn't see it as a Big Deal is the beloved analyst population.

Instead, expert analyzers like David Cole of DFC Intelligence and (wait for it...) Michael Pachter of Wedbush Morgan focus on the meaning of the departures, closings and acquisitions in regard to how seemingly unimportant they are in the big picture.

Pachter told GameDaily BIZ that "I'm not sure that MGS is any worse off" highlighting the still in-house teams at Lionhead and Rare, adding that the company has a solid track record of securing exclusive and "there is no reason to believe that they won't be able to manage several more exclusives going forward."

Todd Greenwald of Nollenberger Capital Partners deems the question practically moot, responding "I think the better question is - why isn't Sony doing more to acquire 1st party studios, or at least secure more 3rd party exclusives? They're the ones who need to be doing this, not Microsoft."

More stinging analysis at GameDaily BIZ.

Microsoft Game Studios' Foundation Resting on Quicksand? [GameDaily BIZ]

Microsoft has just added over 100 new episodes of "family content" to their LIVE movie service. Looney Tunes is probably the pièce de résistance for most of us, with 50 classic episodes available for HD download. Other content includes the first season of Blue's Clues and some other Nickelodeon content, including XBLA title SpongeBob SquarePants: Underpants Slam, which sounds just delightful.

There's a little more content in the press release we'll put after the jump for you family folks, but I for one am going to hop on Live and waste money on content I'm sure that I could find for free somewhere. Actually, the only bummer is that the release doesn't specify that the content can be rented, only "purchased." And that catch decreases the "walletability" about 1000% in my eyes. Does anyone out there actually "buy" movies for download?

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One of Rock Band's most attractive features, the ability to play Bon Jovi's "Wanted Dead Or Alive" alongside other virtual musicians over the internet in the fake band of your own design, may be more limited than originally thought. The deep adventure mode-style Band World Tour feature, one that allows for the formation of a band that tours dozens of venues for cash and in-game prizes, will be a strictly offline affair. According to a posting on the official Rock Band forums, uncovered by the team at Shacknews, was cut due to time restrictions.

The only good news to come from this heartbreaking confirmation is that the online World Tour option is "something [Harmonix] are totally working for in the future" according to the company's community manager Sean Baptiste. He adds that band quick play and other competitive modes will still take advantage of online play.

When asked whether the feature would be included in a planned sequel or simply an update to the first edition of Rock Band, Baptiste responded "I don't know."

Yes, I'm quite crestfallen that my planned virtual band, The Wet Look, will not be rocking out over the internet tubes. I'm starting a crossed fingers vigil that will last until the feature returns to the game, something that will make typing and toy guitar playing a challenge.

Uh Oh... [Rock Band Forums via Shacknews]

McWhertor and I got quite a bit of hands-on with Sega Rally Revo at Leipzig after the crowds had died and Crecente decided to hog Universe At War for, quite literally, hours. Unfortunately, neither of us was skilled enough to write up a decent impression of the game. But they had very nice sandwiches, refreshments and a really sweet racing seat setup for the game. Sorry you couldn't be there, but here's a solid technical demo that will give you a better feel for the experience than our hungover, Germanish accents ever could have.

P.S. I destroyed Crecente's most powerful weapon by accident and found it couldn't be rebuilt without starting the game over. He was less than happy.

This November, Xbox 360 owners will be waist deep in games to play. But when picking up your copy of Mass Effect, Assassin's Creed or Scene It? Movie Edition at your local Gamestop, don't forget to bring an extra Lincoln with you. If you drop a fiver on a pre-order for the reimagined Turok, you'll walk out with a demo of the game and a Turok t-shirt that will either be too big, too tight or too hideous for public display. IGN says that those unwilling to set foot in a Gamestop can always cool their jets until December, when Best Buy will get its own copies of the Turok demo.

I was quite taken with the game at E3, despite soaking in first-person shooters for half the week. Luke found it quite grassy. You'll obviously have your own opinion and determine if its worth spending sixty bucks on come February.

Turok Blowout [IGN]

Derwent Howard's Gameplayer.com.au has a nice "Who's who" article up, covering the more prominent folk in the Oz games development scene.

From the piece:

Our purpose here is simple; to highlight the best developers that the country has to offer. We couldn’t be more pleased with our first batch of inductees. Among this list of 10 you will find industry heavyweights, award-winning veterans and emerging talents.

Names included in the feature are Andrew Edelsten (Auran), Ken Turner (Creative Assembly) and the almost unspellable without Google, Steve Stamatiadis (Krome).

According to the piece, it's the first in what will be a yearly gig, so be sure to visit Gameplayer at least once a year - you know, so you'll be able to pick these fine people out of a crowd at your next house party.

Who’s Who in Australian Gaming 2007 [Gameplayer.com.au]

We've had a few questions come in regarding the Assassin's Creed faceplate comp I put up yesterday, so here's a mini-FAQ to answer said queries:

Q: Can I enter more than once?

A: Sure! Try and put all your quirky lines in the one email though, if you can.

Q: Should I include my address with my entry?

A: No, but you can if you want. We'll contact the winners next Wednesday and ask for this information anyway.

See, I told you it was mini!

We've had heaps of entries so far, and there's only 10 to give away, so make sure your witty line is sharper than Orson Scott Card with his head against a grindstone before you email it to tips@kotaku.com.au.

Again, thanks to Ubisoft for its generosity!

Australian gamers can now keep close tabs on the release dates of their favourite games with the Videogame Upcoming Release Program website, or "VURP" for short.

The site is being run by AustraliaGamer.com crew, so it should be sharp and up-to-date. Apparently they plan to improve the site with additional features over the next few months.

It's an excellent development for Oz gamers, so props to the AG guys for their hard work. The only sad part of it all is that we won't be needing Sweet Releases any more. Mind you, VURP looks like it'll be getting release dates from retailers rather than publishers, so if you're chasing a date that isn't on VURP, email the tips address and I'll see what I can do.

Press release after the jump.

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If you're looking for intelligent debate about the extreme levels of violence in the Mature rated Manhunt 2 and how its release should be handled at retail or cogent discussion on the ESRB's ratings policies, look somewhere other than this Fox News clip from a segment known as "Cashin' In". The news channel for simpletons brings us a moronic shouting match between some lawyer we've never heard of with a gift for hyperbole and crazy conspiracy theories and some libertarian yokel named Jonathan Hoenig.

To further enhance your enjoyment of the low brow antics of Fox News' reporting style, don't miss this earlier report on Manhunt 2, in which Dr. Ted Baehr of the Christian Film and Television Commission invokes Columbine and Seung-Hui Cho just before declaring that the video game ratings system "never works".

Toshiba Kind Of Denies HD-DVD 360
A flimsy response from Toshiba means a HD-DVD 360 could be in the works.

Portal is for Lesbians?
I'm a lesbian. Can I be in Portal too?

360 Bundles Announced For Aussie Christmas
And with prices like this, it'll be a very merry Christmas indeed.

Supreme Commander Heading To Single-Screened Consoles
I have yet to see an RTS make the transition to console and remain fun, so all the best to Chris Taylor.

Okami Wii "Exact PS2 Port"
So don't worry about its purity being compromised.

Despite how we may have gotten your hopes up about Tim Schafer's potential exciting new Psychonauts project, according to the man himself, Double Fine is not ready to announce a new Psychonauts project...yet.

Man, who knew how much excitement a little darkness could bring? The truth is we are just putting together a new page about "The Excellent Game Psychonauts". We're not announcing any new games or anything. Sorry if we confused anybody!

Mr. Schafer, a storyteller as powerful as yourself should understand the mystique of darkness. You could put a donut in silhouette and half the Internet would be speculating glazed or powdered.

Psychonauts Sequel Rumors Shot Down [nextgen]

Sony has added the promised EyeCreate video editing software to the North American PlayStation Store today, a small 9MB download that will allow users to capture video, audio and photos, edit them, use special