To: Simon
From: Bashcraft
RE: Morrissey Or Corgan? The Eternal Question

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you are enjoying the festive day. While Japan has caught on to Halloween somewhat recently, Thanksgiving is a big mystery. A really, really big mystery.

Last year for Thanksgiving, I went to Subway and got a turkey sandwich. That was depressing. This year, I ate spaghetti. Anyway! Luke and I have put up a couple posts, so if you are around, feel free to do the same. Otherwise, eat some turkey and pumpkin pie for me.

Oh, and to answer your eternal question: Ian Brown.

What you missed last night
Game Wish List
AC6 hate
Super Mario sisters
"Get creative"

You all remember. Genji, "historical accuracy", giant crabs, massive damage. We all had a chuckle (some even a chortle) at Sony's expense. But what if giant crabs were real? And not "giant" as in "oh, my, it's as big as your head", giant as in "run, before it eats you and your fleshy human babies". This BBC story, about the discovery of the fossil of an 8-foot scorpion, reports that the team researching the find claims:

The size of the beast suggests that spiders, insects, crabs and similar creatures were much larger in the past than previously thought.

Crabs! And crabs are a lot bigger than scorpions, so if we had an 8-foot scorpion, that's one...massive crab. Sorry.

Man-sized sea scorpion claw found [BBC, via The Gaming Fascist] [Image]

Over at GoNintendo, they're running a two-week long feature called "Casual v. Hardcore: Opinions of the Gaming Industry." The question put forth was: "Is casual gaming a threat to hardcore gaming or will it help it in the long run?" My response:

What does hardcore gaming mean? Do we have a similar term for books? Do people say, "He's a hardcore reader"? I guess they'd say so-and-so is a bookworm. But "hardcore"? It's such a severe term. If games are going to be a truly dominate form of entertainment, they need to be approachable. Approachable doesn't mean a lesser game experience in any way, but rather, a streamlined one. That should actually help gaming!

I think what people are worried about is dumbed down gaming. Like that casual players will need some pandering. If developers are smart, they'll make things more intuitive, rather than dumber. That way they can appease new and experienced players.

Blah, blah, blah. That's my nickel and dime opinion. What's yours? Hit us up in the comments section. That's what it's there for, you know.

Casual Vs. Hardcore [Go Nintendo]

Famed mecha designer Shimada Fumikane is fucking pissed. He's posted a photo of the Ace Combat 6 disc snapped in half along with this note, which says something like:

I played it from the PS1 branding up to the PSP one, but this thing I'm giving up on. Until this, I'd clear the game on "expert."

Know it's not because of THE iDOLM@STER airplane.

M'kay. Hooray for people with too much money and not enough sense!

AC6 Hate [digital bs tuners blog, Thanks Rick!]

Those new DS bundles sure are nice. Especially the Zelda one. It's especially nice. All the more pity, then, that Nintendo fans and DS collectors in the UK and Australia will be forced to import them, with both Nintendo branches stating they have no plans to introduce the consoles. Yeah, there's always the chance those plans may come later, but PAL gaming breeds nothing if not pessimism.

Companies file for trademarks all the time. Sometimes it's to genuinely trademark a product, sometimes it's to stop others from trademarking a product, and sometimes it's just in case. This is a "just in case" filing. Just in case Nintendo went mascot mad. On February 27, 1990, the company filed a trademark application for an electronic game program called "SUPER MARIO SISTERS". What ever could it have been? We can only guess, because the company decided to abandon any and all plans for an inaugural female spin-off/gender-confused platformer/Giana Sisters-beater a year later, in December 1991. Still...interesting! For those further interested, there's a grab of the filing after the jump.

United States PTO [thanks Collin!] [Image]

Just because Singapore is strict doesn't mean its dull and conservative. Take Mass Effect, for example. The country's Media Development Authority banned Mass Effect for alien lesbian sex, but then the MDA retracted its ban. See, they're open minded! But what kind of governing body is the MDA? Is it a bunch of stiff, dull Singaporeans in business suits. Yes. Yes, it is. However! They are stiff, dull folks who enjoy making rap videos about how creative they are. Click on the above 4 minute clip and listen closely. That sound you hear is our collective jaw hitting the floor.

MDA Is So Cool [GameAxis, Thanks Aaron!]

Sure, Japan's DS TV Tuner looks nice enough, and sounds just as nice. Portable TV, a screen you can scribble dicks and moustaches on, it's all good. Doesn't explain why Japan went bonkers for them, though. This, however, does: it turns out when you get the package, you don't just get a TV tuner, you get Game & Watch's Fire along with it. As a bonus, you can play it on the bottom screen while you're watching and listening to TV on the top screen.

ニンテンドーDSがワンセグ対応 [PC Watch]

Please. Cover your eyes. Duck and cover. Whatever. Just...try not to look at these charts any longer than is absolutely necessary. While Crysis, Guitar Hero III and Call of Duty all make respectable showings, the remainder of the charts are...forgettable. Regrettable, even. Australia, this week you have covered yourself in naught but shame.

1) Smackdown v Raw 2008 (PS2)
2) The Simpsons Game (PS2)
3) The Simpsons Game (DS)
4) Big Brain Academy (Wii)
5) Guitar Hero III (PS2)
6) High School Musical (PS2)
7) Call of Duty 4 (360)
8) High School Musical (DS)
9) Call of Duty 4 (PS3)
10) Crysis (PC)

[charts courtesy of GfK]

Sam & Max creator Steve Purcell's day job? Story writer at Pixar. Purcell created the characters as a youth and went on to draw a comic strip and create a Sam & Max graphic novel. A LucasArts adventure game followed as did an animated series. Then things went south: The comics went out of print, the cartoon was canceled and LucasArts ditched the adventure game. Fast forward to the present day, where Sam & Max is experiencing a revival thanks to episodic point & click games. It's getting to the point where the games are now outshining the original comic. Says Purcell:

I still find that when people bump into me at conventions, they saw the game before they ever saw a comic.

And that's not necessarily at bad thing. Not a bad thing at all.

Sam & Max Piece [Wired]

Don't be ashamed. We know there are still some of you who play PSU. It's OK! We're not judging you, or your niche online gaming habits. We're just letting you know that Ambition of the Illuminus is now out on 360 (1600 points), PS2 and PC (both $US 40). It adds a bunch of stuff like new cities, new weapons and new bad guys, as well as increased character customisation. 360 players will need a copy of the original PSU, while PS2 and PC owners can make do without, as for them it's a standalone expansion.

It was big news when we heard Mario Galaxy had overtaken Ocarina of Time as the #1-rated game of ALL TIME over at Gamerankings. That was a record that had stood for a long, long time. And, unless you want to be a prick about it, is still standing: Ocarina of Time has reclaimed the top position. Seems not everyone was done reviewing Mario Galaxy, and when a couple more scores trickled through the gates that weren't up to the other's standards, it dropped Mario to #2. I know that was enough to cancel my pre-order (Aus release date: Nov 29). Who wants the second-best game of all time? Not me, that's for sure.

Nintendo Wars: Ocarina of Time Strikes Back [Go Nintendo]

Good news! Mario Party DS' success probably means there will be future Mario Party games! Thanks, God. We appreciate you answering our prayers. What didn't hold up as expected was Shin Sangoku Musou 5, also known as Dynasty Warriors 6, which certainly didn't sell as well as Mario Party and Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles. Still, it's a fairly solid week for the underdog PlayStation 3, which charted with the aforementioned, Hot Shots Golf 5, Ratchet & Clank Future, and newcomer Heavenly Sword. Plus, folks bought Game Center CX. Good for them!

The following stuff sold pretty well in Japan for the week of November 12th to the 18th.

01. Mario Party DS (DS) - 116,000 / 350,000
02. Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles (Wii) - 83,000 / NEW
03. Shin Sangoku Musou 5 (PS3) - 76,000 / 264,000
04. Pro Yakyuu Famista DS DS (DS) - 49,000 / NEW
05. Game Center CX (DS) - 46,000 / NEW
06. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii) - 40,000 / 365,000
07. Heavenly Sword (PS3) - 15,000 / NEW
08. Final Fantasy Tactics A2 (DS) - 14,000 / 230,000
09. Wii Sports (Wii) - 13,000 / 2,211,000
10. Soukou Kihei Votoms (PS2) - 12,000 / NEW

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For a few weeks now, we've been getting emails and hearing complaints about Guitar Hero III on Wii. Namely, that its sound only outputs in mono. Mono. Hey, Activision, the 1950s just called, they want their sound format back. While many obviously either don't notice or don't care, those who have and do should know that Activision are...looking into the problem:

We are already looking into the issue, and rest assured, are working to offer a possible solution to our fans.

Course, they haven't found one yet, but hey, I'm sure the same guys who let a game ship in mono sound will be able to speedily resolve the issue. No sweat.

Activision Aware of Guitar Hero 3 Wii's 'Mono' Music [1UP]

Fatal Inertia was at one time a PS3 exclusive. Not it's not! Heck, the Xbox 360 version of the Unreal Engine 3-fuelled racer has been out for over a month. So when's the PS3 version going to hit? Koei won't give a formal release date for it, but said it would be out sometime in Spring 2008. No word whether that version will have extra content. Previously, the game was delayed "indefinitely," but Koei has since decided to keep the dream alive. But, man, these companies and their floating release dates. Who can keep up?!

Fatal Inertia [1Up]

That's not just some music box. It's a Gradius music box! This early 90's promotional item wasn't available in Japanese stores, but only from King Records Japan by sending in application tickets from three King Records Gradius CDs. It plays a 15 snippet of "Farewell," the ending tune from Gradius 2. You can listen to that right here. Yes, this music box is awesome to the core!

Gradius Music Box [Game Sniped via Wii Fanboy]

Yes, we know, Guitar Hero III helped spur sales of DragonForce and Slipknot CDs. Horrible news! But what about other bands featured in the game? Ars Technica got hold of some Soundscan sales figures and took a look, finding that it's not just shitty metal bands seeing a sales increase: in these heady post-Guitar Hero III days, bands like Sonic Youth are doing as good a job shifting CDs as they are of...well, avoiding the grave.

Songs included in Guitar Hero 3 see a dramatic leap in digital sales [Ars Technica]

They grow up so fast, don't they? One minute they're drawing giggles, amazement and doubt from onlookers, the next they're being briskly sold to every man, woman and child in the developed world. Why the teary-eyed sentiment? Today, November 21, was the day the Nintendo DS launched in the US market, all the way back in 2004. No need to recap on its achievements, we'll instead use this time to just say "happy birthday, little friend", before going back to a heated bout of Advance Wars.

Gabe Newell made millions at Microsoft, but cashed out and co-founded Valve and developed Half-Life. A guy that like sounds like he has a vision, like he's an auteur. Nope! Newell explains:

There's not an auteur, not the fiction that movie people tell themselves about the movie occurring in the director's head, and it being your job as someone who's witnessing that on the screen to connect with that vision. That's a terrible way to think about videogames, because they're a collaboration. You've got this lead actor and they don't have a copy of the script, but if they're not having a great time then it doesn't matter what you thought you were doing. All that matters is your ability to engage with him. You have to focus on collaboration, you have to focus on this sharing of authoring the performance with gamers.

So true, so true. And like that, Gabe Newell explains why game movie adaptations just don't work.

Interview [Rock, Paper, Shotgun]

The National Institute of Media and Family and its partners have released a portion of their findings from a study of 60 U.S. retailers, showing that 46% of minors who attempted to purchase an M-rated game were successful doing so. Gamespot writes that the organisation's annual report card on its Annual Sting Operation findings is due next month, a report I'm sure at least one of our commenters is looking forward to.

The findings from the NIMF report preview were similar to the Federal Trade Commission's report from earlier this year, showing that some 42% percent of underage buyers were able to get their hands on a Mature-rated game. That report showed a decrease from 69% from 2003, part of a downward trend, but clearly illustrative of a program that needs a great deal of improvement.

Violent, pro-drug games reportedly sold to minors [San Diego Union-Tribune - via Gamespot]

UMD's? So 2005. This is 2007! They never really caught on as a movie format, and with the new PSP Store offering full-game downloads, they've been relegated to the second-best way to play games on the system. So can we finally proclaim a time of death, end the format's misery? Sadly, no.

The UMD business is still good for us and our publishers. It's still a burgeoning market, and we're still selling a large number of PSPs on a weekly basis, so there are a large number of new people coming into the market.

That was SCEE's Darren Cairns. SCEE's Darren Cairns also says that, when games formerly available on UMD are made available on the PSP Store, they won't always include everything they did in disc format. Hopefully he's talking about agonising load times, and not things like cinematics or extra features.

PC Store won't kill off UMD, says Sony [GI.biz]

Mid last month, we heard the news that Activision had pushed the Australian release of Soldier of Fortune: Payback to 2008.

Then, a mere four days later, the OFLC refused the title classification, effectively preventing its sale in the country.

Today, Activision has let us know that a reworked version submitted to the OFLC has been granted a perfectly alright MA 15+ rating. Which means it should be on track for its release next year.

According to the publisher, the tweaked version has reduced ragdoll physics and blood effects, and no dismemberment.

You can read the whole shebang after the jump.

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You may remember some time ago that Australian developer Perception was working on a game based on the Stargate SG-1 franchise. The title was to be published by JoWood.

However, in late 2005, JoWood decided to pull the plug. According to the publisher, it was unhappy with both the quality and speed of Perception's work. Perception quickly filed charges of defamation against Albert Seidl, the company's CEO. As far as I'm aware, those proceedings are ongoing.

Now Perception is after damages, in the order of €8 million. Going by the official statement from Perception, if it wins the case, the payout could destroy JoWood.

Press release after the jump.

Perception [Official site, via Sumea]

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To: Ash
From: Simon
RE: Don't Eat At Empty Sushi Restaurants

Oh dear - the "Sushi Incident of 2007" sounds unfortunate, but it might just be your imagination, and you didn't really eat any improperly prepared fugu. Or are your lips getting numb? I kid, of course.

As with most of the rest of the Kotaku editors, my day has been spent trying to get work done and not play Rock Band - something I've managed fairly well. However, when creating my first character for the game last night, I ran into some interesting style decisions over the insanely dynamic Rock Band character maker.

My first attempt at a guitarist was guided by my wife, who ended up picking a dark-colored pompadour hairstyle and a cleanshaven, rock-styled look. Add to that the requisite clothing, and 'Hol' ended up looking a bit like Morrissey - or at least one of his bequiffed backing band.

I was OK with that, but most of the songs in the game require a bit more scuzz than that, so after she wandered away, I switched 'Hol' to shaven-headed, and switched out the lip coloring to darker - hey presto, an instant Smashing Pumpkins look. Cooler? Nah, just different, and so easy to change, too. I wonder what bands our dutiful Kotaku readers are styling their characters after?

What you missed today:
Frankenreview, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune (PS3)
Kill The Silent Protagonist?
Ten Years Ago: Lionhead's Peter Molyneux, Demis Hassabis
Unreal Tournament III PS3 Goes Gold, Saves Christmas

Valve just let us know that a demo for Half-Life 2: Episode Two will be available via Xbox Live tomorrow, November 22. The developer also specifies that it's the first demo to be available from The Orange Box, hinting that those with a lack of orange in their library may have an opportunity to get hands-on with demos for Portal and Team Fortress 2. Hope those without the game enjoy it, but how much more convincing do you need that this is one of the best releases of the year? Seriously!

Pandemic's Tony Albrecht decided to invent a new unit of measurement to compare the processing grunt of the major consoles, in an effort to simplify the concept during Game Connect's "Great Debate".

It's called the "Tony". Yes, he made it up.

Before the fanboys get themselves worked up, the debate was an exercise in humour.

Well, mostly. Although many of the points brought up during the verbal sparring were legitimate, they were often exaggerated or stretched. Mind you, Tantalus' David Hewitt did an excellent job of combing the real with the funny as he defended the Wii, and it came as no surprise when he won the debate.

But back to Albrecht:

The 360 has three cores and two hardware threads on each ... so you have six units of Tony power. The PS3 [has SPUs] ... you can port your code across onto the SPU and it's around four times the speed - six of those for you to play around with, so you have around 14 Tony units.

How about Nintendo's effort, Tony?

The Wii has about .2 Tony units.

It should be noted that Albrecht doesn't own a 360 or PS3. But he does have a Wii.

Can we please have the Tony added to the metric system? It'd make writing all those technical articles on the consoles so much easier.

The gang at Sony and Sony Ericsson are almost definitely working on some sort of PlayStation branded phone. It might even be announced in February. At least, that's what we've been led to believe, despite SCEE boss David Reeves smokescreen denial of its existence. Now, Sony Computer Entertainment co-COO Jim Ryan is telling the Economic Times that it's "definitely plausible", indicating that the company is pursuing the idea actively. He calls a console phone convergence "hugely intellectually seductive."

Ryan curiously says "PlayStation almost enjoys cult status" amongst the 200 million-plus who have purchase PlayStation consoles, envisioning a product that is primarily a gaming device and secondarily a phone.

Sony to introduce Playstation phone [Economic Times via CVG]

How does the Guitar Hero III X-plorer guitar controller fare when faced with the whirring blades of the BlendTec Total Blender? I won't spoil it, but know that it doesn't hold up too well to a Pete Townshending. For a blender that costs as much as a PlayStation 3 it had better fuck this thing up.

The third of my Guest Editor-impelled picks for great indie games you might have missed, following Venture Arctic and Deadly Rooms Of Death, is for Grubby Games' indie/casual puzzle title Professor Fizzwizzle and the Molten Mystery.

Created by the small Canadian-based studio, the puzzle-based 2D platform game was recently reviewed on indie site GameTunnel, who explain handily of the gameplay: "Your goal is simply to guide the kindly professor and inventor through levels from one teleporter to another teleporter. Along the way you'll need to ensure that the Professor can cross all manner of gaps and blockades and dangerous bat-bots that bar his passage."

So it's logic puzzles in a cute family-friendly manner? Yep, and you just don't see this kind of thing from the mainstream any more - also worth noting there's a prequel and the Katamari vs. Breakout fun of Fizzball also in the company's line-up - neet.

Professor Fizzwizzle and the Molten Mystery [Grubby Games]

The eagle eyes of tipster Lev Arris picked up on the fact that Activision's Call of Duty 4 offering on Steam close to doubled in price last night, from $US 49.95 to $US 88.50.

For comparison, here's the US version of Steam's CoD 4 page with the original deal.

According to a local Activision representative, the $US 49.95 price for our region was an error on Steam's part, not Activision's, and should never have been listed as such, as it was essentially undercutting Oz retailers. The increase is therefore a correction rather than a planned mark-up. Regardless, it still smarts.

Props to those who noticed the deal during the 11 or so days it lasted.

Steam - Call of Duty® 4: Modern Warfare™ [Steam Powered]

Oh, goodie. I've yet to take my Rock Band gear out of the box, but plenty of you have and are now experiencing hardware problems with the included Fender Stratocaster controller. The majority of the problems reported on the official Rock Band community forums indicate that the controller's "down strum" simply won't register or will double register notes after a few hours of playing. Some are reporting bad hardware right out of the box, but general user feedback indicates a progressive issue.

Official response on the forums has been that users experiencing hardware problems should recheck their connections and restart the game. If Rock Band hardware is still failing, users are being directed to EA's warranty page, to request a replacement controller. Good luck and godspeed, replacement guitars.

The OFFICIAL "One of my Instruments is Already Broken" Thread [Rock Band Forums - thanks, All!]
Rock Band Warranty [EA]

The Xavier Gens-directed film adaptation of the Hitman series opens nationwide today in the U.S. and it's already being assassinated by film critics. The movie sees series star Agent 47—played by Timothy Olyphant—as an orphan raised by a secret organisation to shoot at things. Things are shot at and there is conflict. And boobs, apparently. Variety calls it a "Eurotrashy... knockoff that misses its target by a mile" but the New York Times writes "there's no story to speak of, no decent acting, no wit, no point" Hmmm. Who to trust?!

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Apparently the Gamestop corporation believes that the recently announced Nintendo DS bundles, featuring fancy new colour schemes and packing-in of Nintendogs and Phantom Hourglass, will be in short supply. To wit, they've bundled in a bunch of things you probably aren't going to want when looking for a rose coloured DS. For example, three copies of essentially the exact same game, plus one attempted bite of the other three with poorer production values.

For the low price of $US 249.96, you can walk away with three copies of Nintendogs and single copy of Petz Dogs 2. With sucker production rates now at one per minute, it's sure to find at least one rube with enough room on the credit card. Warn friends and family who won't know any better!

Nintendo DS Lite Nintendogs Bundle [Gamestop - thanks, Jeff!]

Rock band The Romantics have filed suit against Harmonix, Red Octane and Wavegroup Sound for the cover version of "What I Like About You", included in Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s, reports Billboard. The suit claims that the re-recording of the group's 1980 hit is "virtually indistinguishable from the authentic version" and that consumers may become confused into believing the original recording was used.

This would, I assume, lead to many disoriented gamers who might simply go mad from attempting to process the information and cause injury.

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UK journalist and Edge columnist Steven Poole has released his book Trigger Happy as a free PDF download, under Creative Commons. I'm not 100% sure why Poole's done this, but I think it's to help promote Unspeak, his latest work.

So, what's Trigger Happy then? Steven Poole is glad you asked:

Trigger Happy is a book about the aesthetics of videogames - what they share with cinema, the history of painting, or literature; and what makes them different, in terms of form, psychology and semiotics. It was first published in 2000.

Poole mentions on his blog that the offer is for a limited time only, although he's unsure exactly how long "limited" is.

Trigger Happier [stevenpoole.net, thanks Bjorn]

Over at his GamesLOL site, blogger and designer Marek Bronstring has been remarking that not only is the adventure game not dead, but there's a new digital store which is _just_ for PC adventure games:

"Just wanted to quickly point out that AdventureGamers.com now runs a partnership with Lezard Electronic to offer digital downloads of many popular adventure games. It’s called Adventure Shop and it launched with a catalog of 23 titles. New games will be added regularly going forward... It already has some titles that are hard to find elsewhere. Sherlock Holmes vs. Arsène Lupin won’t be in stores until sometime in 2008, but it can already be downloaded from the Adventure Shop."

Holmes vs. Lupin? Forget about Sonic Vs. Mario, this is the matchup to watch for this holiday season.

Digital downloads of adventure games [GamesLOL]

Epic Games' Mark Rein writes on the developer's official forums that the PlayStation 3 version of Unreal Tournament III has finally gone gold and will make it to retailers in time for a 2007 release. While a solid release date most likely won't be confirmed until the expected formal announcement, Rein estimates that "Midway will start shipping the title to North American retailers on Monday December 10th and it could show up in stores as early as December 11th but more likely toward the middle of that week."

Those driven to the brink of insanity by warnings of the UTIII's delay to 2008, which were later semi-scuttled by Rein himself can finally join the rest of us with full mental faculties intact. Welcome back. And yay!

Unreal Tournament 3 for PS3 has gone gold for North America! [Epic]

Like Mark, my copy of Rock Band, acquired yesterday at Best Buy, remains mint-in-box, unopened due to a tight schedule involving pie making, surprise hosting duties, and soul-crushing amounts of work. At least the falling tears make for a satisfying moderate rock beat as they splash upon my MacBook. Tomorrow, however, I'll break the seal on my copy of Rock Band, set it up, play, download some Metallica, break it down, transport it across town and attempt to work off thousands of calories with the Thanksgiving band. I'll also squeeze in a bit more time with Link's Crossbow Training, as several platinum medals still elude me, plus time with Medal of Honor Heroes 2.

For those not celebrating our lovely American holiday, feel free to let us know what's on your plate whenever you have a spare moment.

Firstly in the 'Ten Years Ago' series looking at old game interviews, we checked Valve's Marc Laidlaw, and after that we tried 3D Realms' Scott Miller.

Thus, our third instalment of "how did their predictions turn out, ten years later" picks out Lionhead's Peter Molyneux and Demis Hassabis, from an interview originally conducted by me in 1998 for Videogamedesign.com. What did they say? Does it still make sense, almost a decade later? Time to find out...

[Thanks to Way Of The Rodent's 'Peter Molyneux Presents...' article for the very useful picture of the duo!]

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This Thursday, November 22nd, Microsoft, Neversoft, Bungie, Activision and Red Octane will give thanks to Guitar Hero III owners with a bonus freebie song, the Halo theme (MJOLNIR Mix), via Xbox Live Marketplace. The song, penned and performed by Martin O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori, features a guitar track perform on a three or four-necked guitar, I assume, by rocker Steve Vai.

Guess that rumour about the Halo theme appearing in Guitar Hero II as downloadable content wasn't wrong, just a tad premature. Hit the jump for the news release.

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I bet you took one look at the screenshot above and thought: "When did 16-bit Windows games become popular again?".

They didn't. We're still living in a 32-bit world. But someone finally found the stones to make a new Harpoon game, and Harpoon has always been about strategy and realism over graphics.

Released today, the new game is called Larry Bond's Harpoon - Commander's Edition, and you can buy it, along with Advanced Naval Warfare, for $US 69.98.

For the younger players out there, take Introversion's Defcon, turn it into a good game, and you have Harpoon.

Full release after the jump.

LARRY BOND'S HARPOON - COMMANDER'S EDITION [Matrix Games, via Blue's News]

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Not one, but two reviews for you this morning. The first has been hacked together from other reviews, but hey, I don't think you'll mind.

Frankenreview, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune (PS3)
A guy version of Tomb Raider that's better than Lara Croft's effort. You gotta see this.

Soaking In Trauma Center's New Blood
Theme Hospital fans unite, your saviour is here. And it's on Wii!

PCs Are "Always Better"
Damn right they are. And PCs are only ex