To: Crecente
From: Ashcraft

Welcome back! We're glad to have you back around Kotaku Tower. It's been too long.

I've had a super rough weekend. Starting late last week, Mini-Bash started tossing his cookies everywhere. Friday was literally spent cleaning up after him and trying to keep the apartment from stinking. He couldn't keep anything down and was put on a strict diet of rice and rice. Yummy!

Then on Saturday night, I got a fever of around 38 degrees, which has dropped but carried over to today. Yesterday, I couldn't even sit up! I forced myself to write today, thinking it might make me better. It did. A little.

Oh, I also banned the crap out of a lot of people on a Friday post. I don't get it. Don't people who comment on this site know our M.O. by now? I'm sometimes baffled!

What you missed last night
Play Famicom carts on your DS
PSP Slim ships a million in Japan
Wii furniture for your living room
Is SFIV 2D or 3D?

Animal Crossing? Fun. Unless you neglect it and leave it for a few months and let weeds grow all over your town and cockroaches crawl all over your stuff. Then it sucks. It sucks so bad not even the Benny Hill tune and the knowledge that someone who's not you is doing this to a town that's not yours can make it seem any better than scouring your balls off with a rusty scourer.

Rule of thumb: Japanese in-store displays are great. Just look at that Another Century's Episode 3 promotion. Makes us so excited! From Software/Banpresto actually gave awards to stores with the best displays. Those awards include: Variable Impact award, Good Layout award, The Final award, Emotional Vocal award and Another Century's Display award (winner above). We so approve of rewarding stores like this in hopes that it pushes the in-store display bar further. Bravo!
ACE Awards [Official Page via Insert Credit]

Ninja Gaiden II isn't about difficulty. It's not about timing, it's not about precision, it's not about the controls. Well, it might be all those things, but they're not the star attraction. No, that role looks like going to the game's BLOOD. The buckets and buckets and buckets of BLOOD. Oh, so, so much BLOOD. Why the capitalisation? Look at that screenshot up there. "Blood" just doesn't cut it anymore.

[via Famitsu]

What could be better than a toy car? A toy car with Haruhi Suzumiya painted all over it. Japanese hobby maker Aoshima will produce a 1/24 scale Mazada RX-7 covered with Haruhi. It's an "itasha," which is what those nerdmobiles decked in geeky stickers and paint jobs are called. The Haruhi car is the first in an itasha series and will go on sale this January. Vroom vroom!
Custom Toy [Hobby Blog]

Take all the random crap you can stuff into your DS's GBA slot. Nintendo-related or otherwise. Now pile them all into a hill. Because this King needs a hill to be King of. This is the CYBER Familator Lite. You plug it into your GBA slot, you plug in a Famicom cartridge, and you can play Famicom games on it. No need for wires, no need for Ben Heck, it all just works. Thing's even got a TV-out port, so your whole family can watch you stumble through Japanese Famicom games with little/no idea of what the hell's going on.
CYBER・ファミレータLite（DS Lite専用 [CyberGadget, via DS Fanboy]

If you really love a game, you often want to find others who share your love. You know, so you can play together, talk about the game and have good times. That's precisely what two Akihabara gamers did when they set up a make-shift Monster Hunter Portable 2nd in front of a construction site. The name of this event? Monster Hunter Portable 2nd Street Real Meeting Place. That meeting consisted of a vinyl tarp. Akiba Blog happened upon this even at 5pm, but doesn't know when it started. By 6pm, it was finished. Our memory of it will never end!

Monster Hunter Event [Akiba Blog]

Sony have announced that the redesigned PSP-2000 has now sold (well...they've shipped to retail, but it's not like they're gathering dust) over one million units in Japan since its launch there on September 20. That beats the previous record for a Sony handheld, which was held by the previous, more rotund PlayStation Portable, which took two weeks longer to reach the same milestone. That number doesn't include the 77,777 Crisis Core PSPs which went on sale a week before the official launch, so feel free to bump that figure up to less catchy 1,077,777.
[PlayStation Japan]

Microsoft were kind enough to send me a copy of Mass Effect last week. I was kind enough to play it non-stop for the past five days. And while the load times and mechanics of the game are a little disappointing (still too many long, empty corridors, still that shitty BioWare inventory system), in the end, who cares? The combat's great, the new dialogue system is great, the cinematic presentation is great. Best of all? It's a big, soapy space opera. The kind that only comes from people who know, and love, their sci-fi. The kind you only dreamed games could drop you in when you were a kid. Time to start living that dream.

Ubisoft promised. Ubisoft delivered. The Japanese language track for Naruto: Rise of the Ninja popped up on Xbox LIVE late last week. The English version doesn't feature all the original dub actors, meaning that the character has different voices between cut scenes and in-game audio. The Japanese track is apparently consistent. What's more, Ubisoft is making this language track available free of charge, filling us with warm fuzzy feelings. Hugs all around!
Japanese Audio [Siliconera]

"Official" Wii cabinets are...OK. We guess. After all, you get that safe, fuzzy feeling that only comes from the knowledge that Nintendo's marketeers have wholeheartedly endorsed the product. What you don't get is the kind of feeling that comes from owning one of these suckers. Sure, it's "unofficial", having been crafted by the owner's dad. Unofficial in Nintendo's eyes. But our hearts are more than happy to award it their own seal of quality.

GoNintendo reader Craig's Wii cabinet [Go Nintendo]

So we're all super excited for Street Fighter IV, but what's really got our interest is whether the fighter is 2D or 3D. Gametrailers.com broke down the SFIV trailer looking for clues. Us? We're pulling for 2.5D or, heck, 2.6D.

Piss Screen, of which we've spoken previously, has been shut down at a games show by Belgian police (a little while ago, yes, but news from the urinal gaming scene travels slowly). The game showed up for display at Belgium's GamePower Expo, in Gent, but once there police believed the game to be "indecent" and had it removed. Despite the whole point of the thing being to discourage/prevent people from drink-driving. Ah well. Looks like it's back to care-free games of "don't cross the streams!" for the men of Belgium, then.
Urinal game banned by killjoy Belgium police [Engadget, via GamePolitics]

Japanese game centres are always a good time. But this, this is just shameful. Called "During Working Hours at the Game Centre Hard Lez," this adult picture features three women doing everything but playing video games in a Shibuya game centre apparently in front of customers and everything. It stars Sakura Sakurada, Arisa Chiba and Miyu Naruse. Totally embarrassing.

Click over for the NSFW box art. School of pink Pointing Fish abound!

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Don't know who Al Lowe is? This is a compulsory history lesson. Kick your shoes off, fix yourself a stiff drink and enjoy this interview with the man who introduced you to cheesy, interactive, heavily-pixellated innuendo. Seems like a super-nice guy!
[via Independent Gaming]

In what should come as no surprise whatsoever, Dragon Quest IV is selling out pretty much everywhere. Before going on sale, some retailers warned of short supply. Even days after going on sale, it's difficult to locate the game at some retailers. The game apparently sold 360,000 on its first day, proving that once again Japan is not sick of the Dragon Quest remakes. So Square Enix, if you've got them, bring 'em on! Japan is so buying.

DQIV Fever [Akiba Blog]

It's called the R4, and it's here to rain on Nintendo's parade. The R4 fits right into the DS's cartridge slot. Data is stored on a Micro SD and downloaded via a flash drive. The R4 has a small slot that the Micro SD card goes into. The China-made piracy device is available all over Akihabara, where retailers advertise it vaguely: "New R4 shipment has finally arrived! You know what it does! Absolutely no questions will be answered concerning this product..." or "Guaranteed for one week only! Of course we can't explain what the R4 will do..." Says a Nintendo spokesperson:

We are keeping a close eye on the products and studying them. But we cannot smash all of them.

With DS games appearing on the internet within days of release, the R4 is certainly be a very real threat. And something Nintendo should be keeping a closer eye on.
The R4 Chip is Small [Times Online, Thanks Philip!]

Saber Entertainment's TimeShift turned out to be better than the critics expected. True, Valve has nothing to worry about and neither does Infinity Ward, but the temporal mechanics of pausing and reversing time energised my flux capacitor (what, you don't have one)?

Sierra sends word today that the fourth dimension-bending FPS will be coming to Sony's Playstation 3 console on December 6. That's an Australian date folks, so if you're Xbox 360 and PC deprived, and this title has had you polishing your DeLorean several times a day, it can be yours in a week's time. And it comes free with a $99.95 price tag!

Release after the jump.

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Retailer Gamerz Bunker put on a nice spread of old-school consoles during Melbourne's eGames.

It had been a while since I last saw a Sega Master System, and having my cockles warmed by the sight of my first games machine (ignoring my Amiga 500) was extremely pleasant. Technically, it wasn't the exact same one I'd owned, but it was close (and crusty) enough to trigger memories long bashed into oblivion by the likes of Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo.

Actually, I had to pretend the Mega Drive was the Master System. It kind of worked.

Take a squiz at the photos after the jump, and you'll see everything from the Atari 2600 to the (ugh) N-Gage.

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To: Ash & Luke
From: Flynn
Subject: San Francisco or Bust

Hello, gentlemen! So, the time has finally come. After months of living out of suitcases and being essentially homeless, I am at last heading back to my beloved San Francisco. I have been gone for seven years and been through quite a lot including a five year stint in New Orleans, losing most of my life to Hurricane Katrina and a two year stop gap in Atlanta. It feels good to be going back into the waiting arms of my friends that I left so long ago. I am driving across the country with all my stuff and making some stops along they way. I'll be seeing Graceland and Vegas and hopefully some other roadside attractions that will make the long drive seem a little less excruciating. This being the case, I will be taking off for the next two weeks, returning to my weekend duties around the 15th. I will still be doing a few articles along the way, so I won't be completely absent and I'll be covering the Spike VGA's in Vegas on the 7th, so you'll definitely hear from me then.

Some things you might have missed this weekend:

Subotron is offering a great opportunity for a gaming female artist in Vienna

I met this guy with a mini arcade in his basement.

This Zelda website is obviously a fake... or is it?!?!

Well, I hope you guys have a great next few weeks. Tomorrow I start the process of packing up my things and preparing for my move which shouldn't be too bad since I packed most of it up before I left Atlanta three months ago. So the next weekend note you get from we will be from the sunny shores of the west coast and I couldn't be happier. Cheers!

All good things must come to an end, and this week apparently marks the end of the amazing flood of great titles we've had over the last month. This week's offerings (with a few exceptions) are a bit lacklustre which is probably fine by most people's bank accounts. Due to a long trip, I'll be concentrating on some overdue handheld action and I'm plenty thankful that there is nothing this week that is just begging to be purchased.

Shadowgrounds Survivor (PC)
Fight against aliens for control of the planet.

Geometry Wars: Galaxies (DS)
Now smaller and with multiplayer!

Boogie (DS)
Dance the night away on your DS.

Omega Five (XBLA)
A new sidescrolling shooter on LIVE.

Cruis'n (WII)
Racing to the Wii.

Cranium Kabookii (WII)
The board game in video game form.

Master of Illusion (DS)
Learn magic tricks. Fun at parties, fool your friends.

Speedball 2 - Tournament (PC)
Future sports hurt.

Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords (WII)
The insanely addictive RPG puzzle game continues its system wide dominance.

Disney Princess: Enchanted Journey (PC)
You know you want it.

From Tubbypaws who brought you such memorable paper models as The Cutest Portal Papercraft, comes the Cutest Silent Hill Papercraft. It features Officer Cybil Bennet about to have a run in with one Silent Hill's ubiquitous nurses. The artist describes it as:

A blocky 3D paper fun model tribute to the foggy fog game, the second one, the one with the pillow.

I love this model (especially the flashlight light on the floor...genius touch) and will be putting it together for my desk, but if Tubbypaws would create a little blocky Pyramid Head add-on (sold separately), this would be about the greatest papercraft ever made.

Silent Hill papercraft [Tubbypaws]

Currently up for auction on eBay is this rather fine recreation of the Kingdom Hearts Ultima Keyblade. It is made out of wood and embellished with metallic paint weighing in at about fifteen pounds. 35% of the profits from the sale will go to benefit Child's Play. Be sure to check out the bottom of the auction page for a great video of various AMA 2007 cosplayers taking the Keyblade for a spin.

Ultima Keyblade from Kingdom Hearts [eBay]

That's right folks. I need audience participation for this one.

To be eligible, you must meet the following criteria:
1) Own a laptop that uses Intel's mobile 965 chipset
2) Have 2GB of RAM
3) Be running Windows Vista

If you have three out of three, the next step is to download the latest drivers for Intel's integrated graphics for the 965 chipset. Should be version 15.6.1.

Okay, now you're ready to run the test. You can download it by clicking here.

If the test craps out with errors almost the moment it starts, drop a comment here and let me know. Once there are a few results to go on, I'll let you know the next part.

I've just been going through some of my old photos from BlizzCon 2005. Back then, I was still playing World of Warcraft in a fairly hardcore capacity, so mentally separating the fanboy from the professional during the event was a constant battle for me.

I managed, though.

Well, almost. During the first day the fanboy did take over, briefly, and I snapped about 100 shots of the three guys above. They're Blizzard developers, obviously, but do you know who they are?

You'll find their names after the jump, but see if you can guess without using the Google.

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During my foray to my home town of Baltimore, MD for Thanksgiving, I was able to hang out with Nick Chester and Topher Cantler of Destructoid. They are a great couple of guys and we had an awesome day of playing Rock Band and Mass Effect which was a nice break from what can often be an uneventful holiday. One evening we headed out for a couple of drinks and I was fortunate enough to be introduced to their friend Don Koenig, a local radio DJ for 98Rocks, a gamer and all around nice guy. We got to talking about games and arcades and he invited all of us over to his place to check out his basement arcade where he had collected seven different old arcade machines. Of course we jumped at the opportunity and a few days later we showed up at his doorstep, eager to get a taste of that old arcade magic.

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Four New Fallout 3 Screens Climb to the Surface
Bethesda's take on the Fallout universe creeps ever closer. While it takes its time getting here, feel free to indulge yourself on these happy snaps.

Kotaku Originals: From Looks Back To Gift Guides
Another massive lot of original posts from your favourite gaming blog.

Super Mario Galaxy vs. Super Mario Sunshine
We know the Wii has never been about the graphics... but at the very least could the games from generation to generation look just a little bit better?

Assassin's Creed Multiplayer Bug
Hold your horses... it's not really multiplayer. Just cloning. Or duping, for those Diablo players out there. Except, instead of items, you're copying people.

I've been catching up on my backlog of unrelated-but-kinda-academic gaming articles from the past two weeks, and this one from Gamasutra caught my eye - the topic is game design, but a very nuts and bolts description of the two basic approaches to designing games (that usually get blended to some degree or another). From concept to core to verbs and back again, via mechanics and context (wheeee!), it's a nice explanation of the various stages of design and how the relate to each other. Despite liberal use of the prefix 'meta-,' it's really an interesting article on putting it all together that's not particularly inaccessible - I always like to see the theories behind (actual) game design and structure, since it usually bears an uncanny resemblance to things I'm much more familiar with:

Examining complex processes is never an easy task; thus, approaches that try to divide such complexity into smaller parts that can be more easily understood are necessary. This is called analysis. Analyzing the game design cognition process is a critical part of developing a deeper understanding about how such process works.

Therefore, we propose [a] layered view as a breakdown of the game design cognitive process, where each layer corresponds to a generalization or abstraction of the layers below it, and a specialization or concretization of the layers above it.

It's shortish and well worth a read through if you have the time and inclination.

Game Design Cognition: The Bottom-Up And Top-Down Approaches [Gamasutra]

Brother None of Fallout 3 fan site No Mutants Allowed wrote in to let us know that Czech gaming site tiscali.games hs gotten their hands on some new Fallout 3 screenshots. There's only four and they aren't of the greatest quality, but if you are eager to see more Fallout 3, these screens should fit the bill. You can see them on tiscali.games here or if you would like to read the descriptions in English, you can see them here at No Mutants Allowed.

Despite plenty of good news for NCsoft in the past couple of weeks (acquiring new IP and Tabula Rasa finally going live for all the non pre-order people), some of the higher ups are expressing doubt over the future of NCsoft in the gaming world: The Korea Times reports on one of NCsoft's new directions, and while it's still in the virtual realm, it's a definite shift away from gaming, moving towards social networking and the like. The reasons? A quickly declining stock price, a plateau in the Korean game market (and a declining subscriber base for the Lineage games), and somewhat lukewarm response to their other gaming ventures:

Korea's largest game company this year has released a series of social-networking services from Openmaru, an in-house software studio, with strong support from its CEO Kim Taek-jin. Meanwhile, its stock price almost halved over the past two months, as investors raised doubt about the prospect of its online games business.

CEO Kim said Wednesday that the firm will increase investment in the online services sector, which is dominated by big portal operators such as Naver, Daum and SK Communications.

"After games, the Internet has become my new dream,'' he said during a special lecture to students of Seoul National University ....

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It was a great retro gaming weekend for me (more on that later) and part of involved being given a disc with a bunch of old Nintendo commercials on it. I saw quite a few that I had posted here previously and some that I had not. After seeing the above video on the disc I knew I had to post it and figured the fine fellows over at RetroGameVideos must have it up on their site and lo and behold, they did.

There are just two things that bother me about this clip: the guy's dreadful "Cajun" accent and the odd construction of the beginning of the video. I mean, what the hell are we supposed to think that guy is doing with his hands? Oh... wrestling a gator... I see...

Terra Nova has a thought provoking little piece up on the liberation (?) of virtual worlds - rather, are they liberating? Or are they just another method for dominant ideologies to be reinforced? Just a new arena for old social superstructures to be played out on a new stage? The notion of "liberation" in some sort of all-encompassing way makes me skittish in most contexts, but there are some interesting points contained within:

In general virtual worlds seem often to replicate structures of labour and production - they even support a class hierarchies based on geography, contextual knowledge, time in the given community etc.

At the same time virtual worlds offer the promise of liberating us. Not quite in the old utopian ideal of freeing us fully from pre-existing notions of self but at least opening up new opportunities for self-exploration. What's more should you have access to a virtual world the barrier between roles of consumption and production seems to have been lowered such that both within the context of a virtual space e.g. as a crafter or builder in second life; or outside it, say as a fan fic creator, many can participate in a mixed traditional, amateur and / or gift economy.

The long (loooong) comments section is good to settle down with and read through, and not one mention of Foucault so far in 100+ comments! Bonus points for that.

Do virtual worlds liberate us? [Terra Nova]

From the awesome Subotron Shop, a retro gaming museum/store in Vienna, Austria comes word that they are currently looking for female applicants for their spring 2008 artist in residence program. The chosen entrant will receive free studio space at the museum and money to cover their expenses. The topic of this year's residency is Gender & Gaming and all applications must be turned in by December 14th. Past alumni include indie game designer Januz, street artist Space Invader, character designer Ryoskuke Tei, gameboy-sequencer Oliver Wittchow and that irrepressible troubadour, Jonathan Mann aka Game Jew.

Sounds like an amazing artistic opportunity and a chance to see some beautiful country to boot. To get all the skinny on requirements and such, check out the Subotron website which is presented in both English and German.