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Time Crisis 4 Supports Multiplayer, But You Can't Buy Seperate Guncons
Posted by Luke Plunkett at 11:29 PM on December 6, 2007
Namco Bandai's upcoming lightgun extravaganza Time Crisis 4 supports 2-player, splitscreen play. Yay! Oh, wait...belay that yay. Rather than let you enjoy some good times with your friends, Namco Bandai would instead like to hold a knife to your throat. See, instead of allowing consumers to purchase a second, individual Guncon - for multiplayer, as a replacement, whatever - they've decided the only way you can get additional guns is to...buy additional copies of Time Crisis 4. At $US 60 a pop. Way to screw over your loyal fanbase, Namco Bandai. Real smart.
Game cakes? Regular occurrence. But game underwear, now that's special. And personal. Longtime reader Scazza gave us an intimate look at what covers his, erm, stuff. Scazza writes:
How do you promote Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 in Japan? You put a girl in bunny ears and heels apparently. Meh! That's kind of stuff is so old and trite. Though, Ubisoft did do something very cool for Japan: There's a rhythm mini-game in the playable demo that's to the tune of Puffy's 
There's a great excerpt up over at Gamasutra from Iain Simons' book "Inside Game Design", which focuses (the excerpt, not the whole book) on Harmonix and in particular the history of the Guitar Hero franchise. All of it's interesting stuff, but none more so than this, which should please embittered Guitar Freaks fans upset the Guitar Hero games have stolen their thunder: 
Sick of those Dragon Quest remakes? Square Enix isn't! Mark your calendars because Dragon Quest V: Tenkuu no Hanayome will go on sale in Japan Spring 2008. The game was originally released for the Super Famicom back in 1992 and got a PS2 remake back in 2004. The game follows over twenty years in the life of the main character. Interesting innovation: Monsters could join the main character's party. So, if you missed the Super Famicom or the PS2, Square Enix has you covered with this DS remake! That's sure kind of them. 
Think Capcom would pass up the chance to throw some licensed characters into We Love Golf? Like hell they would. These mag scans show some of the Capcom characters that will be making guest appearances in the cartoonish golf game, including Arthur, Jill Valentine, Chun Li and that new attorney bloke who's not Phoenix Wright. Aren't they just so cute you could smoosh their little cheeks? Well, except Chun Li. She's wearing pants for some reason, and to be honest, it's freaking us out.
We always thought Spain celebrated Christmas with presents, then lunch, then an afternoon nap, followed by a late dinner then some boozing. Boy were we wrong. They actually celebrate with enormous, animated Pac-Man Christmas trees! This is sitting in downtown Madrid, is made up of thousands of LEDs, Pac-Man actually moves and, really, it's just the best damn Christmas tree ever.
No surprises here. A new piece of hardware is released right before Christmas, and scalpers put it up on Yahoo! Auctions. In its first two days on sale, Wii Fit sold TK units. Impressive! Retailers don't know when the next shipment will be arriving. However, there are already plenty of Wii Fit sets available via online auctions. The MSRP for Wii Fit is ¥8,800 ($US 78). Though, Wii Fit is selling below that. At the time of posting, the average price was between ¥8,000 and ¥10,000 ($US 72 ~ $US 90). This is great. And no, we're not implying that Wii Fit is some horrible failure as early numbers prove that it's a casual hit. But rather, it's always nice to see scalpers get screwed over. Perhaps customers got wise after the DS Lite, PS3 and Wii craziness of before? Perhaps they've decided to wait until they can buy it instores. Perhaps stuff like this will encourage hardware makers to do a better job of meeting demand with supply. The ironic part: Those unable to locate Wii Fit can readily find it online at nearly MSRP. 
2D or 3D? That's been The Street Fighter IV question that's been kicked around the internet. First details about the DIMPS developed fighter reveal that the graphics are polygonal, but the gameplay is apparently 2D. Game site 1Up (via EGM) reports that there will be new moves, locals and game play. Things that will be the same? The six button control scheme. Returning characters include Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li and Dhalsim. No word on who will round out the rest of the fighters, but we honestly hope that Capcom doesn't take a page out of Super Smash Bros. Brawl PR handbook and let info trickle out until release. (Though, we're actually cool with infinite Street Fighter IV spin-offs.)
There's nothing wrong with Sony's PSP Store. It's clean, it's simple, and aside from the hassle of using the PSP Downloader software and the fact your PSP has to be hardwired to your PC, it all works. Could be better, though. We could just connect wirelessly. Could be even still, and let us just connect to the store online and download games directly to our PSPs instead of through a PC. So is that something Sony are thinking about? Eric Lempel, Sony's PSN boss, speaking with MTV: 
The Ceramic White PS3 has been out for a while in Japan. Yet, we haven't see any comparisons to the other white consoles (the Wii or the Xbox 360). Perhaps that's because either: A). Not many people own all three B). Not many people give a crap. Still! This is a fascinating comparison from Facebook friend Saeed. Just look at the Ceramic White PS3. It's pearly. The Wii, on the other hand, is a standard white. And the Xbox 360? Not so pearly and looks, well, kinda grey. 
Time for Japanese retailers to look into their crystal ball and see stuff. Stuff like which games and game hardware will sell this holiday season. Japanese game mag even made a top ten list of their predictions of the the hottest products. Let's dive right in and gaze at the future:
Wii Fit was released in Japan. Did you hear? It perform... admirably. Solid (if not spectacular) sales, some might say. In its defense, surpassing a quarter of a million copies is nothing to sneeze at, it's just that some of us expected to perform ridiculously. Granted, Wii Fit faced some hefty competition from Professor Layton and Pandora's Box and SD Gundam G Generation Spirits, so we'll cut it some slack.
Even though SEGA isn't producing the Dreamcast anymore, the console lives on. Heck, tiny Japanese hobby developers still make shooters for it. The DC's legacy continues in our hearts, minds and Czech children's books. Over at UK:RESISTANCE, a reader writes:
Trinity, the latest content update for the sci-fi MMO EVE Online, is overwriting an important boot file required by Windows XP. As you can guess, the bug prevents affected systems from starting. Not only is this stopping people from playing the game, it's making it rather hard for them to do much with their PCs at all.
It may well have been, if the writers at Xbox World magazine are to be believed. They got hold of a copy just before the game was delayed a few months back, and the code they played wasn't so great. Wasn't good. Wasn't even bad. It was worse than bad! 
That's the reception area for the new Nintendo San Francisco office. (By "San Francisco", Nintendo means way out in Redwood Shores, which is an hour's drive from SF.) Keep in mind that several key Nintendo of America execs chose leaving the company over relocating from Washington to this Northern California office. Looks pretty swank with Nintendo in classy gold lettering and all. Wired's Chris Kohler scoped the place out, took pics of a kiosk room, a conference room and a half-eaten muffin. Good to know that Nintendo's not only writing its logo in gold, but leaving half-eaten food around. How decadent!
Looooong time ago, Team Ninja boss Tomonobu Itagaki was accused - of all things - 
Michael Pachter doesn't only gaze into crystal balls. Guy talks a lot of shit! Seems he's hooked on flash game Tower Defence, and is not just wasting his days trying to hit the top of the game's leaderboard, he's slapping velvet gloves in the face of both MTV's Stephen Totilo and Newsweek's N'Gai Croal. Examples follow:
You asked nicely, and so, we've delivered. To be honest, it should have been there to start with.
Greg Abbott, Texas' Attorney-General, has filed a civil complaint in federal district court against gaming site Games Radar. Citing the 1998 Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, Abbott accuses Games Radar of collecting unnecessary information from children under the age of 13, and also of having inadequate age verification processes as part of their member sign-ups, both of which "expose children to dangers on the internet". 
Sure, the Nintendo DS is doing well for now, but it can't do this well forever, can it? Course it can't. Nothing lasts forever, not even handheld gaming systems, it's one of the basic tenets of human existence. Thing is, nobody told Nintendo that. Nobody told Reggie that. 
I normally think of three things when video game companies are hard pressed to flex their marketing muscles. First, we have breasts. They never fail to draw a crowd. Second, slapping some logos and character art on an automobile. Third, alternate reality game. When these three have been either vetoed as tasteless, stale or consuming of too much manpower, they default to their rare alt—shoes. Sneakerheads will cover the cost and at least one Kotaku editor will post about their existence, ensuring the program is a success.
Anyone who's been reading this blog for the past year and has the ability to retain Kotaku editor trivia may know that I was consumed by free Flash game 
Looking for something a little more affordable for the gamer in your life? If so, or if you're in possession of a bit of walkin' around money, Amazon has slashed prices on a good portion of this season's possible underperformers. Price drops on Beautiful Katamari, Lair, Stranglehold, Viva Pinata Party Animals, Manhunt 2 and Halo 3 LE lead the list of deals. Incidentally, I just picked up Cruis'n for the Wii. Yes, I'm serious.
GameDaily tests the raw mental computing power of four top industry analysts today, gathering their collective thoughts on the possible purchase of Take-Two Interactive by mega-publisher EA. It wasn't that long ago that EA boss John Riccitiello implied that 
Looks like 
Blokus is sort of a Tetris board game, where up to four players place one of block shapes onto the board until no one can place anymore, with the winner being the one with the least amount of pieces left over at the end of the match. It's the sort of game you'd sit around and play with your family if you weren't such a video game addict. Luckily for us, Majesco has just announced Blokus Portable: Steambot Championship for the PSP, which merges the award-winning board game with characters from the Steambot Chronicles PlayStation 2 game to perhaps make the board game sound a bit more compelling. With support for 16 players in ad hoc mode or three players with game sharing, I doubt the title needed the extra boost, but a little anime charm never hurts. Blokus Portable: Steambot Championship is due in early 2008. 
The official Star Trek Online forums were host to a visual treat for fans yesterday, as Perpetual Entertainment's Mike Stemmle presented the first real screenshot of the MMO. The story lead explained, in detail, STO's Interaction System which "controls every non-combat, player-to-NPC interaction in the game." Whether you're negotiating with alien species, beaming from ship to shore or responding to distress calls, the Interaction System is where you'll be pointing and clicking your mouse. That rather mundane stuff is hard to read when one's picking about the minutiae of a screencap featuring an alien ambassador of (personally) unknown origin. Sure, it may look more Voyager than TOS, but that doesn't mean we won't have fun going where no MMO player has gone before.
Luke Smith of Bungie gives Halo 3 fans a taste of the upcoming downloadable additions to the biggest entertainment launch product of the year in today's official update. Dozens of high-res snapshots of new maps Rat's Nest, Foundry and Standoff are in our gallery below and at the official Bungie web presence. The fresh multiplayer maps will join Xbox Live next week, December 11th, for an affordable 800 Microsoft Points. Peruse your little hearts out.
The lovely chaps at Sierra have just sent word that Saber Entertainment's TimeShift for Playstation 3 is now available at retailers throughout the country. For PC and Xbox 360 owners, the news is a bit old hat, but that doesn't mean you can't give a celebratory shout-out to users of Sony's next-gen console.
If you haven't taken the time yet to fill out Kotaku AU's 
Researchers at the University of Michigan have "found that repeated exposure to violent television shows and video games have a stronger influence on aggressive behaviour than being poor, having a substance abuse or growing up with abusive parents", according to a Fox Business report on the findings. Based on over thirty years of research on a sample set of 856 third graders, the study contends that exposure to violent content has "a stronger influence on aggressive behaviour than being poor, having a substance abuse or growing up with abusive parents". Virtual violence, researchers found, has "profoundly serious implications for society".
Love him or hate him, you're stuck with David Sirlin, the man who plans to bring balance to the forces fighting in Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix. In a recent entry on the official Capcom Blog, Sir Sirlin breaks down the changes to one of the most popular, but certainly not most powerful, characters in the Street Fighter universe. Ken Masters may be a bit pedestrian, a tad obvious, but for those who think of Ken as a mid-tier choice in competitive Street Fighter play, they should give the list of changes a read. If we had our druthers, visual aides of the changes would be provided, but visualising them through text will simply have to suffice.
An alert Kotaku reader named Daniel was for some reason poking around over on Pokemon.com, where he discovered that the most voyeuristic of Pokemon games, Pokemon Snap - released just yesterday in Japan - would be coming to the North American Virtual Console this Monday, December 10th. Rejoice! I immediately got my copy of Snap for the Nintendo 64 in order to take a sexy photo of it for the article, but after I set it down for a moment I came back to find Rande had claimed it for his own, and every time I reached for it those talons would extend, as if daring me to take it from him. So instead I snapped him, which makes this story exactly the sort of snake eating its own tail, infinite mirror thing that gets my head going all dizzy. Anyway, Pokemon.com will have an exclusive wallpaper to mark the event on the 10th, so you'll have an excuse to go visit - unlike Daniel. 
The Harmonix community manager writes at the official Rock Band forums that a routine patch for the PlayStation 3 version of the game is coming soon, one that will address "a number of items related to guitar controller compatibility." The patch was expected to be released yesterday, but unspecified circumstances have delayed the software update. While not officially confirmed, it's assumed that this is in reference to adding support for Guitar Hero III Les Paul controllers. Good news for PS3 Rock Band owners who are sorely in need of a bassist, bad news for those who bought the PlayStation 2 version of Guitar Hero III because they didn't see the point in buying another guitar controller. I am, of course, referring to myself, and regretting my lack of foresight on the matter.
Soon enough, our Canadian brothers and sisters can download quality hits like Pirates of Ghost Island and Krush Groove, legally, through their Xbox 360s. Microsoft has announced that it will be bringing a slew of high-def and regular-def content to the Canadian Xbox Live Marketplace video store on December 11th. That's right, Canada, the amazingly depressing and stomach-turning Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer will be yours to enjoy in under a week!