PC gamers pirate stuff. We all know that. But just how many PC gamers pick up their games via less-legal means? An astronomical amount, if some statements by a Call of Duty 4 developer are any indication:

On another PC related note, we pulled some disturbing numbers this past week about the amount of PC players currently playing Multiplayer (which was fantastic). What wasn't fantastic was the percentage of those numbers who were playing on stolen copies of the game on stolen / cracked CD keys of pirated copies (and that was only people playing online).

Not sure if I can share the exact numbers or percentage of PC players with you, but I'll check and see; if I can I'll update with them. As the amount of people who pirate PC games is astounding. It blows me away at the amount of people willing to steal games (or anything) simply because it's not physical or it's on the safety of the internet to do.

Just look at Level 5 go! The company behind those Professor Layton games, ponied up for slapping its name on a soccer stadium for J League team Avispa Fukuoka. For $US 287,000 a year, the J League stadium will be dubbed "Level 5 Stadium." The contract is for a three year lease, starting March 1, 2008 and ending February 28, 2011. Says Fukuoka major Hiroshi Yoshida:

I'm very happy about Level 5's decision. Fukuoka's position in the gaming industry is rising every year. The involvement of the youth is increasing. The meaning of this naming rights is that Fukuoka is putting greater effort in the gaming world, and this is a symbol of that.

Some official Gears figures are on the way from toymakers NECA, but some people just cannot wait that long. Soulbrother73 is one of them, so he went ahead and forged this custom Marcus Fenix figure, complete with rifle, grenade and Jack the robot. The detail is fantastic, all the way down to Fenix's skin, realistically jaundiced by his years of hard drinking and a poor, post-apocalyptic diet.

xbox 360 gears of war customs macus fenix and jack [Figures.com, thanks John!]

We have one rule about non-game related maid content: POST. (Indulge us, it's late and After Dark!) That picture you are looking at? That's a dude. No, really. That's a maid at Akihabara maid cafe Hibaritei, where the entire staff consists of men dressed as maids. The cafe opens only a few times a month at irregular times at other established maid cafes. The reason? All the cross dressing maids are dudes with other jobs (one guy is a writer, another is a model). The owner of Hibaritei came up with the idea when some men dressed in drag when there was a shortage of female maids at a cafe he owned previously. This is the maid cafe equivalent of Guilty Gear's Bridget!

Men Maids [Sankei via Canned Dogs]

I have a dream. That one day, I can sit on the subway, and play Wind Waker on a portable Nintendo device. So this is my dream come true, right? No. This thing is not my dream come true. It is a nightmare. An abhorrence of nature, which if it were living would have been killed and eaten by its parents at birth in order to preserve the strength of their bloodline (and hide their shame).

Unskilled Modder Makes Portable Gamecube [Geekologie, via Giz]

Japanese peripheral maker Hori is releasing a mat to be used with Wii Fit. The "Wii Fit Mat" (so clever) is pretty self-explanatory: Put it on the floor, under the Wii Fit Balance Board. We guess it'll help prevent slippage, which so far hasn't been much of a problem. Haven't heard of people flailing wildly into their TVs...

This goes on sale in February for around $US 32. Pricey!
Wii Mat [Famitsu]

We've told you, twice, how you can stream PC games to your PS3, but words just don't stack up against 10:28 worth of visual demonstration. Word of warning, though: for such promising tech this vid is decidedly backyard, so you might want to let it buffer then jump through to the interesting bits.

You may think you look so cool, but Japan doesn't! Website goo Research is here to help coordinate your closet. Over a thousand goo Research members completed an online questionnaire that reveals what "regular" Japanese folks think otaku look like. Fascinating results! Hit the jump for the results on what male (and female!) otaku look like.

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Roger Avary, who were it not for the writer's strike would probably be hard at work finishing up his script for the Wolfenstein movie, is instead looking at some potential jail time after being arrested on suspicion of manslaughter. He's alleged to have been driving under the influence when, early Monday morning, he was involved in a car accident which saw his wife hospitalised and his friend, Italian Andreas Zini, killed. He's currently out on $US 50,000 bail. In a statement released this afternoon, Avery's representative says:

Roger wishes to publicly convey his heartfelt condolences to the family of the deceased. Words cannot express how sorry he is, and this tragic accident will always haunt him.

Think Uncharted is pretty? You ain't seen nothing yet! The PS3 is just getting warmed up. According to Evan Wells from developer Naughty Dog:

The PLAYSTATION 3 is a complex yet powerful system. We could not pull off the rich, seamless world of Uncharted on any other console. Because the system is so powerful, it means that tapping into that power requires great engineering efforts. We're lucky that Naughty Dog has some of the best programmers in the industry. I can also tell you that as we're finishing Uncharted, we've found new ways of optimizing our engine to take advantage of the hardware. All of which means that, as beautiful as our game is, there is a lot more in store for the PLAYSTATION 3.

What a way to start off 2008. Today, Nintendo announced that eagerly awaited Wii title Super Smash Bros. Brawl will be delayed until March 9th for North America and January 31st for Japan. The game was originally slated for a January 24th Japanese release and a February 10th North American one. Shouldn't be a surprise! This comes after rumblings we reported that retailers were beginning to move back pre-orders for the game. On the game's official US website, a note reads:

Due to delays in the completion of Super Smash Bros. Brawl, we've had to change the release date of the game to Sunday, March 9th.

I deeply apologise to the people who have looked forward to playing the game for so long and ask that you hold on just a little longer. Thank you for your patience.

At the recent AVN (think CES, but with porn), game site GameDaily quizzed a host of adult video actress about video games. Knowledge varied. Take Jenna Haze, who quipped:

Do I like nerds? I am a nerd. I have shelves full of books at home about vampires and werewolves. And I always have my PSP with me. Right now I'm playing Jeanne D'Arc, which is just awesome. Also, I've got a PS3 and I'm dying for the new Final Fantasy to come out. See? I told you I was a total nerd.

You're sick of uninspired achievements, Microsoft are sick of them, Team Ninja are (probably) sick of them too. So they're asking for the creative ones amongst you to come up with your own, and pass them along. No explicit mention is made of whether the winner/winners will actually have their suggestion included in the upcoming Ninja Gaiden II, but we'd be shocked to find that's not what the competition's trying to say. As for potential winners, we're expecting ones focused on blood may go down well. That or boobs.

Tired of Lame Achievements? Help Make Them for Ninja Gaiden 2 [Gamerscore]

Hey, the latest box office figures are in! Would you like to know how well Uwe Boll's shit-tacular Dungeon Siege flick "In the Name of the King" did? I bet you do. It did terribly. Despite costing an estimated $US 60 million to produce, and opening on 1600 screens, between January 11-13 it took in only $US 3.3 million. Or, around $US 2000 per screen. Which is bad enough, but lets break it down some more. Assuming average ticket price was $US 8 and the average # daily screenings over the period was 4, that's a measly is $US 166 per session. Or 20 people. Ouch. Commence flinging your stinging barbs, but know that, even after this, Herr Boll's skin is probably too thick to puncture. We're expecting ones focused on blood may go down well. That or boobs.

Dungeon Siege movie in box office basement [GameSpot]

THQ, they're a hungry crocodile. This is their story: after sitting silently at the bottom of the watering hole for hours, waiting, they finally saw it. Big Huge Games, treading gingerly down to the water's edge, equal parts thirsty and wary. BHG took one sip of water...nothing. Two sips...nothing. Believing the coast was clear, they took a third. Which is when THQ struck, crashing out of the water, seizing the Rise of Nations and Catan devs in its vice-like jaws and dragging them swiftly beneath the bloody surface.

THQ Acquires Rise of Nations, Catan Developer Big Huge Games [Gamasutra]

Nintendo have sent word that this Sunday (Jan 20), they'll be holding a launch party for Advance Wars: Days of Ruin at the Nintendo World Store in NYC. It kicks off at 1pm and runs til 3pm. Worst case, you line up for a bit, you get a new Advance Wars. Best case, you're one of the first 25 people in line and you get it for free! You know, for all the big AAA games that hit last year, I wasn't half as excited about them as I am this. Above is my DS. At top, you can see it's scarred, for life, by Advance Wars and it's grids. At bottom, you can see why.

To: Ash
From: Crecente
Re: What The Hell Happened to Die Hard?

Having finally gotten all of the year's traveling out of the way, last year's, and looking forward to a longish stint in my house, I decided to spend the weekend cleaning and upgrading. I cleaned out my wife's office, the lounge and our guest bedroom and then I decided to take my computer apart and fix a couple of issues I've had with it for quite sometime. I managed to get the Razer sound card working again, finally installed the AGEIA PhysX card and then moved a bunch of crap off my hard drives and onto portable drives.

Then I went downstairs and walked my son through the process of removing and replacing the Playstation 3's hard drive with a 160GB model. That's right Tristan actually did all of the work, I just helped him a bit with guidance. I can't believe how easy it is to replace the thing. You just need to make sure you backup your data first and have the right sort of hard drive. I ended up wasting way too much time trying to figure out why I couldn't get the PS3 to recognise the external drive before realising that it needed to be formated in FAT32, so annoying.

What you missed:
Major Nelson's Live Update is No More Live Updates
Rumor: 2K9 College Hoops Canned, EA Seeks NCAA Deal
Take-Two: College Hoops Canceled
Seriously Everyone, Don't Buy The 360's HD DVD Add-on
Kojima , THQ, Neversoft, NetDevil, Harmonix Invade Work and Play
Along Came An AMD Spider

Midway aren't doing so well right now. Their 2007 games lineup was 99% quality-free, and as we tread softly into 2008 we now learn two of their key executives have jumped ship. Thomas Powell, who was not only the company's Vice President but also Chief Financial Officer and treasurer has resigned, as has Senior marketing VP Steve Allison. The reasons behind the resignations weren't stated, but they do tie in neatly with something we heard last week: that last Thursday the axe was swung across the company, culminating in job losses at many of Midway's offices, including around 20 staff from their Austin studio.

Midway CFO And Senior Marketing VP Resign [Gamasutra]

Fred Savage and Nintendo Power Glove vehicle The Wizard has at least one uber die hard fan in Ain't It Cool News' Monki. The movie is due for a screening at the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, Texas next month, with director Todd Holland joining stars Fred Savage and Luke Edwards for the showing. The director was recently interviewed by AICN to get a fanboy friendly inside look at the production of the movie, including some details on Nintendo's involvement.

What may have seemed like a 90-minute commercial written by Nintendo suits may have actually been a different story. Seems that the Big N was at the movie studio's beck and call, hopping to whenever the director needed Super Mario Bros. 3 footage or a backup Power Glove. Also, I didn't know Tobey Maguire made an appearance!

You really do learn something new everyday. Unfortunately, today it's about The Wizard.

Monki talks with Todd Holland, director of The Wizard! [AICN]

The GameStop business model is built on the company's ability to sell used and, in many cases, often piss-poor condition console games. That practice is being slammed in an editorial published today by Next-Gen editor in chief Colin Campbell, who calls the process "parasitic" and writes that it costs the industry $UA 1 billion annually. It's not necessarily a new sales trend, but one that may be changing, as digital downloads via Xbox Live Marketplace, Wii Ware, Steam and the PlayStation Store ramp up.

Campbell does his best to point out to consumers that "the real losers here are publishers, developers and the non-retail game industry eco-system" otherwise known as the "part of the business that actually generates content." Is he calling for a ban on used games? Absolutely not, but the quickness with which games become new, then used, may have a big impact on profits going to the right people.

Personally, I haven't bought a current generation game in used condition, largely because I avoid Gamestop stores like the plague and saving $US 5 on a gummed up disc doesn't appeal to me. Sorry, but the place amounts to little more than a flea market to me and I'm not interested in giving the company any of my dollars.

What do you think? Is the quick turnaround and minor markdown on used games going to hurt the industry? Are high prices on console games helping to keep this industry in business?

EDITOR'S VIEW: Used Games are Damaging [Next-Gen]

Were you one of the ungrateful, stingy saps who thought that the Devil May Cry 4 Collector's Edition version wasn't worth your hard-earned $US 79.99? What, four anime episodes, a making of DVD with loads of digital content and a special Steelbook case aren't enough for you? Hmph! Hmph, I say. Well, maybe this will entice you to drop the extra twenty big ones on the limited package. According to Capcom themselves, 100 total copies of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of the action game will come personally signed by the game's producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi. Not a bad bonus, really, especially when you consider it's written in shiny, silvery ink.

And if you aren't lucky enough to be one of the hundred with a genuine Kobayashi signature on your copy of DMC4, you can always make your own. Silver Sharpies are only $US 5.19 per 4-pack at Staples!

Thinking Of You... (aka Announcing the signed DMC4 Collector's Edition "Golden Ticket") [Capcom Blogs]

Guest editor Geoff Keighley recently chatted with Harmonix's Kasson Crooker, producer of iPod game Phase. That software allows for iPod owners to import and play custom tracks, so Keighley asked if that technology could apply to Rock Band, who responded with an asterisked "Totally!" , adding "I think you'll see this kind of technology used in other Harmonix products down the road." Backing up Kasson is VP of Product Development Greg LoPiccolo, who said in a recent Monster.com-sponsored chat session that the idea was "conceivable."

"We continue to talk about this possibility. I can't commit to such a thing at this point, but would love to tackle it if we could find a way," LoPiccolo said. Phase implementation is obviously much simpler, but interpreting MP3 data into Rock Band note charts is something we'd definitely be interested in. If publisher EA and MTV Games would be interested in biting into downloadable content sales is an entirely different question.

LoPiccolo also teased future Rock Band and post-Rock Band developments in the Q&A, writing that "we're working on improvements that are obviously missing from the current version of Rock Band, as well as some crazy stuff that no one will expect, but promises to kick arse". Good, good. We like stuff that kicks arse.

That jazz plan, however. No thanks!

Greg LoPiccolo chat transcript [Boston.com via GameDaily]

According to a GoNintendo tipster, former Midway employee Patrick Goschy, seen in the video above, and possibly unnamed parties may file suit against Nintendo for patent violation related to a motion controller he and other Midway Games employees created. Those patents—Motion simulator for a video game and Video game system having a control unit with an accelerometer for controlling a video game—were filed in 1999 with the US Patent & Trademark Office. The demonstration video of Midway's "Velocity Controller" was shot in the summer of 2000, apparently when the heat got to Mr. Goschy, forcing him to break out the short pants.

For the record, we're basing this story on a GoNintendo tip based on a local television broadcast that we've yet to uncover. I implore you to take it as rumor for now, but enjoy yet another potential Nintendo lawsuit from someone looking to get a healthy paycheck from the console manufacturer.

Thanks, for the heads up tipsters!

Ex-Midway employee plans to sue Nintendo for Wiimote/Nunchuk idea [GoNintendo]

As part of my research for the STALKER mod guide, I paid a visit to thefloatingpoint.org. If you're not familiar with the site, it's home to Float32, a tasty shader modification for GSC Gameworld's shooter that increases the performance of the game noticeably, while at the same time making it look better.

According to the latest post on the site, the creator of Float32 is working on a shader mod for Crytek's Crysis. You'll have to keep that raging bulge of excitement in check for the time being, as we may be waiting a while for the goods:

Crysis is going to take a bit of time, so do not expect drastic changes and improvements for the first few releases as it's clean slate baby!

Float32 for Crysis and STALKER [thefloatingpoint.org]

If you're feeling too detached from the experience of headshotting anonymous competitor's via standard mouse, maybe Zalman's FPS Gun (FG-1000) is what you're looking for. On display at CES 2008, the FPS Gun by Zalman—winner of our Least Worst 3D Gaming Display Award—was impressive in its ability to not be as bad as expected. Perhaps it's that the wrist is positioned vertically, allowing for a wider range of motion that made playing Unreal Tournament 2004 that much more enjoyable.

On the downside, only two of the four buttons felt like they were naturally positioned, with the glowing mousewheel awkwardly out of reach. Perhaps smaller hands will have an easier time scrolling, but when you've got dainty digits like I do, it's hard to imagine the current form factor working for a wide range of players.

Verdict: A good gimmick that works for simple shooters, but not for those in need of a robust button set up.

Tipster Damiano sends word that EB Games Australia has info up on the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 Collector's Edition boxes of Devil May Cry 4. However, according to the site, it looks like Australian gamers are getting a cut down CE compared to the US.

From Amazon:

Volume 1 of ADV Film’s Devil May Cry: The Animated Series on DVD, including four complete episodes of the anime
Unique Steelbook metal case
Bonus DVD Making of Devil May Cry 4
Music from the soundtrack
Digital artbook
PC content (screen savers, wallpapers, icons)

Read More »

According to this story over at WarCry, this is indeed the case. Perpetual, now known as P2 Entertainment, appears to have handed the project over to another developer. WarCry says that this news has been verified by a number of sources. Sadly, there's no info yet as to who exactly has taken on the project, and the reasons as to why P2 has decided to drop it.

In days gone by, I was a pretty hardcore Star Trek geek. I even had my picture Photoshopped into the Original Series deck with Kirk, Spock and the rest of the crew when I was around 15. So the idea of a Star Trek MMO has always interested me. Unfortunately, when you hear this kind of news, it makes it hard to see a happy, successful future for the game.

P2 Out As Star Trek Online Developer [WarCry]

That new Hummer HX concept? Totally a Warthog rip-off, we all know it. Or is it?! Yes. Of course, it is. Even though Carl Zipfel, GM's director of exterior design for the concept ride on display at the North American International Auto Show, denies finding inspiration in Halo's staple vehicle, we believe the side-by-side comparisons of the two remove any doubt that Hummer has swiped. Did anyone else notice both have four wheels? The designer even admits to being "an Xbox guy", telling mLive that several of the vehicle's designers play Halo regularly.

We will not stand for these lies, Zipfel! Give the Bungie design team their due and all associated royalties should the car come to production. We're mad as hell and we're not going to take it any more, etcetera, etcetera.

Hummer denies Halo influence on HX concept [mLive]

Lair Developer Goes To Wii
Don't panic, it wants to make Turrican, not Lair. Maybe.

Lost Planet PS3 Gets Exclusive Character
A reason to buy the PS3 version of Capcom's third-person shooter if you already own it on PC and Xbox 360. It's the only reason though.

PSP Homebrew Catches Up To 3.80
Sony, just support homebrew on the PSP already. It'd make everyone's life a whole lot easier.

GoldenEye XBLA Shitcanning Was Nintendo's Fault?
Oh, Nintendo, why do you do this to us?

Sam & Max Headed For The Wii, Nobody Surprised
Classic adventure gaming coming to the Wii. Stop playing Wii Sports and start on a real game.

Rez HD? Whatever! Ikaruga? *yawn* You lost us at "Ikaruga." What we've been slobbering over lately is the idea of Xbox Live Arcade combined with funky bunny dances and the puzzles required to trigger them. That's why we're so pleased to learn that Boogie Bunnies is our surprise XBLA game of the week. Surprise! The Sierra Online-published, Artech Studios-developed puzzler requires the standard three-in-a-row color arrangement system, but instead of gems or blocks, you get bunnies. There's apparently some boogieing going on as well, keep that in mind. 800 Microsoft Points will do the trick when Boogie Bunnies is released this Wednesday.

Boogie Bunnies [Xbox.com]

Factor 5's Lair wasn't exactly the most well received of PlayStation 3 games, despite its often-pretty graphics. It was generally blasted for inaccurate SIXAXIS control, unreliable SIXAXIS control and craptastic SIXAXIS control, among a few other things we don't remember. According to a report from IGN, the team has decided to give game development and motion control a go on another platform, bringing an unnamed game to the Wii. F5 boss man Julian Eggebrecht told the outlet that the team is hard at work on something that's not for the Virtual Console and not running on GameCube era Star Wars Rogue Squadron tech, with IGN believing that it's not a waggle-filled PilotWings sequel.

So what is it, if it's not all that? Could it be that 3D Turrican update Eggebrecht hinted at to Gamasutra last Spring? With all those Turrican ratings popping up on the ESRB lately, we wouldn't be surprised. In fact, delighted might a good word.

Official: Factor 5 Back on Wii [IGN]

Conflicting reports of Xbox Live outages continue to roll in to Kotaku Tower and now that Larry Hryb has been officially and legally muzzled there's no way to tell what's going on or how the fix is coming. Which is odd, you'd think they could at least update their subscribers about the issues without legal ramifications. Then again, I'm no lawyer. In lieu of official comment, the next best thing is to go to the users of Live to see if they too are still experiencing issues.

Hit the jump to vote on our very unofficial poll.

Gawker Media polls require Javascript; if you're viewing this in an RSS reader, click through to view in your Javascript-enabled web browser.

PS3 owners will be rewarded for their celibate patience of Capcom releasing Lost Planet. In addition to some pretty decent but imperfect graphics, PS3 owners will get the extra playable characters from the PC version (Joe, Mega Man, and Frank West) as well as one character no one in the whole world has ever gotten to play, ever—Snow Pirate Luka.

How will Bill Gates sleep tonight knowing that Sony has scored 5 extra characters for PS3's Lost Planet? We're betting on warm milk and possibly a plate of delicious oatmeal cookies.

プレイステーション3版ではルカも使用可能に... [via 1up]

Back in late December, AMD saw fit to send me one of their new Spider systems, which combines the AMD Phenom Quad-core processor, the new ATI Radeon 3800 series of graphics cards, and AMD's 790FX chipset to create what AMD considers a complete gaming platform, with the processor, chipset, and graphics all created by AMD and designed specifically to work in conjunction with each other. Over the past several weeks I've been putting the system through it's pace, playing copious amounts of Stranglehold and Crysis - which were provided with the system - along with a selection of my own games, including World of Warcraft, The Witcher, and for some stupid reason, Second Life. Yeah - not a game, I know.

What follows is a look at what it is like using this particular system - how it feels to have one at your disposal, and ultimately if it is worth spending upwards of $US 1200+ for a similar system. What you won't find is benchmarks and technical specifications. If you're into that sort of thing, you already know where to go and most likely can look at the system specs and guess how the system is going to perform.

Speaking of which...

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Crysis' 1.1 patch was touted to improve framerates across the board, but after TechSpot ran the benchmarks, they've found the update to be a pretty large disappointment...except in the highest end. You know what we're talking about, that 1920x1200 setting that was melting computers and stuff. ATI Crossfire setups saw their framerates nearly double in this range—an amazing feat, until you realise...even after such improvements, not one tested setup is breaking the 30fps playable threshold.

Crysis 1.1 patch performance with Multi-GPU testing [techspot]