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Geoff's Last Day As Kotaku Guest Czar
Posted by Brian Ashcraft at 11:40 PM on November 9, 2007
To: Geoff
From: Ashcraft
RE: A Day of Rock
Wow. Has it been a week? Already? Shucks. Time does fly.
Your last day roaming the halls of Kotaku Tower! Geoff, we really appreciate you're coming by, breaking news and taking on the Guest Editor role while Crecente wanders the streets Down Under, picking fights with small children and old ladies. Enjoy your last day, don't steal any office supplies and hope you'll stop by again!
Oh, and Fahey's really looking forward to hosting your show while your gone. :)
What you missed last night
Japan not excited for Monster Hunter 3 Wii?
World's most expensive games
Contest cheater replies
Create custom PS3 themes
Don't forget! We are totally giving away a BlackSite: Area 51 gaming PC from Alienware. The winner will also get an Area 51 T-shirt, an "eyeblack" patch, a copy of Midway's Stranglehold PC and a copy of BlackSite: Area 51. Previously, we were just giving away the Area 51 machine, but now you get the game, too! Consider this deal sweetened. The computer is a $US 3,000 dollar machine, making this one of the most expensive things we've given away, so any bitching about the TOTALLY FREE AND AMAZING PRIZE will be met with the blunt end of the Ban Hammer.
Bandai Namco subsidiary Banpresto will be gobbled up. Starting April 1, 2008, Banpresto will be completely merged into the merged BNG megalopolis. Banpresto is best known for publishing Super Robot Wars , the Lupin The Third games and the upcoming Haruhi Suzumiya PS2 title (well, that's how I know them). Starting next spring, it will focus on making prize games for machines, something the company currently does. Banpresto's subsidiaries Pleasure Cast and Hanayashiki will become subsidiaries of Namco. There is an explanation for all this: Bandai Namco is merging subsidiary crazy!
Garry's Mod, which basically allows you to interact with the Source engine to muck around with HL2 (and other game objects), was/is great. From machinima to 
Warner Brothers have been getting snappy since their return to the gaming market. One of Fox's biggest IPs, The Simpsons, is selling pretty well right now. So what are Fox studios thinking of doing? Following Warner's lead and re-entering the games market, that's what. Or at least, that's what nearly every industry pundit in the UK reckons, with a government report finding that amongst the top 15 publishers and developers in Britain, most are convinced Fox are about to get straight back into the business, which they've been absent from for a few years now. We're guessing they all know something we don't. Best of luck to them! Lord knows the world needs more Croc games.
With Orcs and Elves, Doom creator John Carmack has made a DS game. Good for him. How did he like working on the DS? He loved it so so much. In his own words:
Guess the game's done, with SCEE announcing through official blog Threespeech that SingStar for the PS3 will be launching in Europe on December 7. Just in time to sell a few hundred thousand PS3s before Christmas! To celebrate the whole money-printing, unit-shifting affair, SCEE have commissioned the worst box art in the history of mankind. What is this, 1997? Are Embrace making a comeback? Jesus. They'll also be running a "studio" session at the O2 Arena in London, where you can go book a studio, play some SingStar and get dressed up like the pop sensation only you and your bathroom mirror think you are.
Action RPG The Witcher is saucy. And has the censored dialogue to prove it! The English version is way toned down to the Polish original. Writer Sande Chen conceedes, saying "My writing partner and I worked on the English adaptatioin of the script (based on the translation from the Polish script). It was edited down considerably, not because of censorship, though." Then why? Oh right, for shits and giggles. TTLG Forums have compared the translated Polish to the watered down English. The differences are striking. That, after the j-u-m-p. 
Cave Story fans, this could be as close to a DVD "making of" special you'll probably get. Pixel, Cave Story's creator, has released a whole ton of early screens and concept art for the game. Background art, character design, enemy ideas, early level design, the works. Some are interesting, others informative, some even adorable. Check out some if below, the rest is at the link underneath. Good stuff all round.
Yup, more Halo toys. But this one's special. See, while it looks like just another Spartan, this one's actually raw steel. Presumably because he's fresh off the factory floor, for that new-Spartan smell. Anyways, you can also remove some of his bits (helmet, chest plate, shoulder plates) and stick them on other McFarlane Halo figures, in case some need some extra coverage. Or to mix-and-match accessories before the big UNSC ball. He'll be available from GameStop in March 2008.
Last year was all about the Brain Age. That title took Japan by storm and drove DS sales in the region. Consumers wanted to exercise their brains. Math problems and saying the word "blue" seemed like the answer. Or is it? An opinion piece over in The New York Times points out that those types of games are "inspired by science" and not actually proven by it. Brain Age and the like train users to be go at very specific tasks. Instead, brain power is actually improved by exercise. From the article:
Goodbye Halo 3. You did good, kid, but it's someone else's time to shine. Like Crash Bandicoot, who Australian kids just cannot get enough of. As for the rest, well, SingStar, DS games, blah blah blah, you know how the Aussie charts go, you've seen enough of them by now to know how we roll down here. 
What a better way for the Atari 2600 to celebrate its birthday than induction into the 
It was assumed that Monster Hunter 3 was going to be a PS3 title. Then something happened, and the eagerly awaited game ended up as a Wii title. That we know. Kotaku reader and Kotaku Tokyo Party attendee Matt points out something interesting: MH 3 was ranked higher on Famitsu's Most Wanted charts as a PS3 title. (The "Most Wanted" chart tracks upcoming games that are, well, wanted by gamers.) The PS3 version was listed as the sixth most desirable upcoming game. This data was collected between September 4th and October 4th. The Wii version was announced and for the next two issues, Monster Hunter 3 was not charted. The game then popped up again based on data collected between October 19th and October 25th. MH3 for the Wii came in at twenty-first place. But don't worry! Monster Hunter will totally do great on the Wii. The question is: Would it have done better on the PS3? 
And here you were thinking $US 60 was expensive. The delightful Rare Video Game Auctions have a list up of what they (and they should know) reckon are the ten most expensive videogames, at auction, in the world. The cheapest, Blockbuster World Video Game Championships II on the Genesis/Mega Drive, starts at $US 2000. Things only get pricier from there.
Unreal Tournament III? Can't wait. The PC version is out this month, while the Xbox 360 version hits next year. And the PS3 version? That was slated for the holidays, but 
Seems Sony slipped a little something into the latest PS3 firmware update. Prior to v2.0, if you tried to browse through stored videos, you'd only ever be able to see vids in a format supported by the PS3. Now? Well in this crazy post v2.0 world, the PS3 can suddenly not only detect unsupported file formats, it gives you a thumbnail, running time and even the proper filename. Example: last week, only two vids in the movies folder on my PC turned up in the PS3's browser (both were mpegs). Now? The Xvid and DivX vids are showing up as well. Course they don't actually play, you'll just get a "corrupted" message if you try, but Sony wouldn't have increased the compatibility in there for shits and giggles. Would they?
What's worse than cheating? Cheaters. Earlier this week, we 
There's a big maybe on it though. Both Sony and Naughty Dog are fully aware of the situation, and our cries of anguish have not gone unheard. Sam Thompson, the producer on Uncharted, posted the following on the 
Since upgrading to firmware 2.0 on our PlayStation 3s, we've been enjoying swapping themes in and out. Earlier this morning, it was "Classy Pink". After having our coffee, we felt a bit more "Pixels". After an exhausting sprint to the post office, we relaxed with a bit of "Nature". Look, the Uncharted: Drake's Fortune demo takes a long time to download, so we had to keep ourselves occupied. Thankfully, we're never going to be at a loss for themes, as Sony has released a theme editor for the PlayStation 3 that will let you customise your wallpaper and XMB.
Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices Division (ie the Xbox and Zune kids) are moving house! Gone are the days spent toiling away in their Redmond salt mines: on the horizon, a move to a 42-acre site (still at Redmond HQ, mind) that will include a four-building complex with 1.1 million square feet of office space. It'll also include a health-care clinic (for when J falls off his bike) and a bar (for when J needs time to unwind after a hard day of being awesome).
What a difference a week can make. While sales of the Wii were bumped unimpressively by about 10,000 from last week on the release of Super Mario Galaxy in Japan, it's Ace Combat 6 that had the impact of a sonic boom on hardware. Last week's Xbox 360 sales were fairly high (in the upper 3,000s) but this week, sales of Microsoft's gaijin console are in the stratosphere. Relatively, that is. Ace Combat 6's debut, alongside a handful of new budget priced games, pushed Xbox 360 sales past the PlayStation 3's, selling 17,673 consoles from October 29 to November 4. That's a 475% increase! It looks like Microsoft Japan may have a winner.
We've received a few tips from readers today who have been contacted by their local Gamestop drones bringing them bad news—The Elder Scrolls Travels: Oblivion has been cancelled for the PSP. Rumors about the game's cancellation have been swirling since... well, since it didn't ship in the Spring of 2007 as previously planned. However, 
You may remember Hong Kong lifestyle mag Milk from its recent 
If you didn't see it the first time round, 
No More Heroes fan Ed Palumbo created one of the best post-Halloween costumes we've seen with his homage to game star Travis Touchdown. He even went the extra mile, fashioning himself a fabulous real-life version of Touchdown's Blood Berry beam katana, possibly with the help of Aunty Gina. Star Wars fans ought to look away, for the project required the gutting of a light saber replica for maximum accuracy. Everyone else, enjoy the hard work Mr. Palumbo put not only into the beam katana, but that fabulous anime hair. Kudos!
Nerd love is a beautiful, often creative thing. Take for example Xbox Live user Moviesign's unique marriage proposal to longtime girlfriend and fellow gamer Furtive Penguin. He built a custom map in the Halo 3 map editor Forge to ask his Spartan partner if she'd like to spend the rest of her natural life with him. After probably thinking "What's 'Arry E' mean?" she agreed to the idea of wedded bliss with Moviesign. Makes the cockles burn, doesn't it?
The new issue of Develop Magazine has a great interview with Bungie Studio manager Harold Ryan on the split with Microsoft. In it Harold admits that Bungie has a new IP in development - a game that was prototyped by 20 employees alongside the development of Halo 3. He also has this choice quote on why Bungie is better than "other developers that publish with Microsoft"
If you're in the PAL or Asian territories, you may have discovered that your 1.2GB download of the brand new Uncharted: Drake's Fortune demo won't @!#?@!ing play on your PlayStation 3. It's not a bug, despite it's somewhat awkward behavior. It's intentional. Yes, the Uncharted demo is sadly region specific and won't play on anything but a North American PS3. It's the kind of slap in the face that hurts so much worse after a 1200MB wait in line.
Today the Discovery Channel announced that it's going to air a five-hour prime time documentary entitled "Rise of the Videogame". It covers the entire history of the industry and has interviews with the likes of Ralph Baer, David Jaffe, Will Wright, Peter Molyneux and even some now-obscure names like Ken and Roberta Williams, the founders of Sierra Online. I should disclose that I wrote the treatment for this show and served as a producer on it alongside World of Wonder (the company behind Inside Deep Throat). 
Take-Two Interactive just issued a release featuring details on the preliminary settlement of the consumer class action lawsuit filed against it and Rockstar Games over the "sexually explicit" content in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. That content, unlockable via the "Hot Coffee" mod, caused the game to be re-rated by the ESRB, pulled from store shelves, and acted as the grounds for a suit filed in July of 2005 claiming violation of consumer protection laws.
The latest issue of the Official Xbox Magazine features not only a gushing review of Harmonix and MTV Games' Rock Band, it also provides zipper tearing details on the game's upcoming downloadable content. We've known for some time that tracks from 
We've assumed that the Jerry Bruckheimer-backed Hollywood production of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time would be replete with EXPLOSIONS. Exploding sand, exploding horses, exploding fruit carts, maybe the occasional exploding turban were just assumed to make appearances. Given that Bruckheimer and Disney are now apparently talking to director Mike Newell, says Variety, we may have been off. Way off. It may have much more of a romantic comedy bent to it and could, quite possibly, find some role for Julia Roberts—possibly as a creepy lizardwoman with a constant hideous death-grin. No prosthetics required!
This week's PlayStation Store update comes a bit early in the day, bringing with it the promised demo for Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, a 1.2GB download. It's joined by 2K Sports' College Hoops 2K8 which weighs in at 579MB. On the downloadable content front, the pair of Guitar Hero III packs featuring The Foo Fighters and Velvet Revolver have arrived for PlayStation 3 owners, each at a price-matching $US 6.25. As mentioned earlier, the MotorStorm Devil's Weekend add-on is now ready for purchase at $US 5.99.