An enterprising chap by the name of drkIIRaziel has apparently gotten Sega's Naomi arcade bios running on an emulator of its parent-system, the Dreamcast. Which means that, should you be the (highly) enterprising type to be able to test this out, you'll feasibly soon be able to run the arcade versions of stuff like Marvel v Capcom 2, Ferrari F355 Challenge and Ikaruga on your PC. Good times? Good times.

SEGA NAOMI EMULATOR [Hobby Blog]

Time to go out and buy that tan-coloured trench coat you've always wanted: Capcom are looking for gamers in the Bay Area who can spare 3 hours of their time to play a new game. A top secret new game. Our guess is Bionic Commando. The deal is you play for three hours, you give feedback to Capcom, you receive a ton of swag from Capcom for your troubles. Everybody wins, really. Oh, and while you're there, if our hunch is right, tell 'em the swingy-swingy is great, but again, they really need to lose the hot dogs.

San Francisco Bay Area Gamers Needed to Fight Evil [Capcom]

Ear bleeding commence! No, no, no. It's not that bad. (It is bad, though.) If you can stomach most Japanese pop, you should be able to make your way through this list of the top 200 erotic game songs from the years between 1999 and 2007. It's about forty minutes long, but we don't think any of the images featured in it are NSFW. Not totally sure about that because our eyes did glaze over somewhere between 177 and 172.

The Wii looks pretty easy to make, huh. Folks think it's just a GameCube version 1.5 with so-so graphics. And the titles Nintendo is releasing for it, like Wii Sports and Wii Fit? Probably pretty easy to churn those out. Wrong! says Nintendo President Satoru Iwata. They are hard to make. He points out:

An astounding amount of effort was actually put into the fundamental development process of these titles [Wii Sports and Wii Fit]. We're investing our efforts in other areas besides graphics and data capacity. However, as I mentioned earlier, if all our games mirror games like Wii Sports or Wii Fit, our gamers would soon grow bored.

Next month, Street Fighter IV will be playable. Capcom has confirmed that the upcoming fighter will be on display at the AOU 2008 Amusement Expo in Japan. Capcom will also have fate/unlimited codes and Sengoku BASARA X (Cross) on display as well. Being at the same show as SFIV's playable demo debut is like arcade gaming's equivalent of going on stage after the Beatles.

Street Fighter IV [Famitsu]

Digital Urban, a project overseen by Dr Andrew Hudson-Smith from University College London, is trying to recreate the city of London. Using Crysis' mod tools. First they're using some Google apps (SketchUp, Google Earth), then with the data they can pinch from that, they're going to slowly but surely recreate the whole city. Well, probably only the middle, important bit. Last I checked London was rather sizeable.

Digital Urban [via selectbutton]

This post is so embarrassing. On January 31st, PS2 game Suzumiya Haruhi no Tomadoi goes on sale. To get everyone excited, Akihabara retailer Messe Sanoh has a life-sized Haruhi Suzumiya figurine in front of the shop. Some might get a little too excited and have the urge to shame poor Haruhi. How the store is combating that, after the jump:

Rez HD? Can't wait. The game is getting released next week on Xbox Live Arcade. What does that mean for folks who don't own an Xbox 360? Tetsuya Mizuguchi (Rez, Space Channel 5, Lumines) says:

We started on Xbox 360, but we have no reason not to provide this game to other platforms.

If I had a reason to remake Space Channel 5 on the new platforms, I will do that.

Remember that Silicon Knights vs. Epic Games hissy fit? Sure ya do! To gear up for the upcoming court battle, multiple Unreal Engine 3 licensees have been issued supoenas to obtain confidential engine contracts. This is the first time that licensees have become involved in the law suit. Companies that have licensed the Unreal Engine 3 include companies like EA, 2K, Ubisoft and the United States Army. Last July, the dispute between Silicon Knights and Epic was brought to a head when SK filed suit, making allegations of Fraud, Negligent Misrepresentation and Breach of Contract. SK claims that Epic focused more on developing Gears of War than delivering key Unreal Engine 3 features and support for licensees. This failure of Epic's part is to blame for the half-baked version of Too Human shown at E3 2006 says Silicon Knights. Expect this court case, much like Too Human's development, to drag on for years.

Companies Get Subpoenas [Shack News] [Pic]

On a Fox News clip, self-proclaimed psychologist Cooper Lawrence shot her mouth off on a game she'd never played. (And most likely a game she'd never even heard of before she got on air.) Doing so, she not only exposed her own ignorance and prejudices, but also angered publisher Electronic Arts and the gaming community. As a sort of internet vigilante justice, the Amazon page for her new book The Cult of Perfection (the irony) is getting the crap spammed out of it. As of posting there are 330 reviews. 279 of those reviews are one star reviews. Reviews include lines like:

• "I never read the book, don't know who she is, and don't really care what she's writing about."
• "If she does have as much "research" as she does for her tv spots you can expect a book full of complete lies at best. Take everything she writes with a huge grain of salt or better yet save your money."
• "Trying to encourage sexual acts in a book made available to young children is unacceptable."

What's more, her other books (Been There, Done That, Kept the Jewelry and The Fixer-upper Man) are getting spammed as well. Immature and petty, sure, but at least it's not as stupid as attacking something you know fuck all about.
Book Trashed [Aeropause via Gay Gamer]

"Release dates" from retailers are usually nothing more than hopes to pin dreams on. And since Europe (and North America for that matter) still doesn't have the Dual Shock 3, a heads up for when those elusive "Spring 2008" date just might be. UK retailer DVD.co.uk listed February 1st for the DS3 drop date, but according to Sony Europe:

We haven't had any release date confirmed at the moment. Retailers regularly make up release dates to get pre-orders and gauge interest etc.

DS3 Date? [Videogamer.com]

Sometimes you need to talk some shit about how great a Halo player you are, but you're away from home. Away from a computer that can access Bungie.net, too. Let's just say you're camping. And you own an iPhone. What do you do? You use the innovatively-named iHalostats, an iPhone app that syncs with your GamerTag and can drag up all your vital statistics. Because nothing says your priorities in life are in the right place more than showing people your Halo 3 stats on an iPhone.
You Got Halo Stats in my iPhone! [Aeropause]

Look, Nintendo, you're making money, you're selling units, we're happy for you. But what the hell is this? A sitting still contest? Sitting painfully on a small plastic brick is not fun. It's not even fit. It's bullshit.

Screw regular jigsaw puzzles. They suck. These sixty piece 3D globe puzzles are where it's at. Just look at Pikachu and Pochama and think to yourself: BIG FACE.

Hit the jump for a look at the puzzle boxes.

The Japanese manual for No More Heroes is great. Done in a vibrant manga/comic book style, it's the kind of icing that Suda's cooky, delicious cake of a game deserved. The American manual, however, is a cheap pile of crap. Black & white paper, boring instructions, it's the Bert to the Japanese version's Ernie. Was saving a buck or two on printing costs really worth the inevitable disappointment, Ubisoft?

No More Heroes...no more awesome manual [Go Nintendo]

Rez HD is coming to Xbox Live Arcade soon. Maybe, very soon. Speaking with Eurogamer, a Q Entertainment spokesperson offered this sugar-coated, snacky tease:

The game is being prepped and it's just waiting for the green light. Maybe next week?

Native English speakers often poke fun of the strange English found in Japanese advertising and whatnot. What about strange Japanese? Reader Andy was watching Resident Evil Extinction when he noticed the above sign. Those that don't read Japanese will go "meh" and move on. Those that do will open a can of WTF. Andy explains:

Note that the Kanji has absolutely nothing to do with "Tokyo Metro" or "Zatoichi Square". It looked like they picked random characters out: 夜空雪風 "Night, sky, snow, wind" and 考楽火月星 "Thought, music, fire, moon, star." If it was Tokyo Metro it would be written 東京地下鉄 or 東京メトロ. I'm not sure about Zatoichi Square, because it doesn't actually exist. But there's a series of films called Zatoichi (座頭市), a blind swordsman. So I guess it might be called 座頭市ズスクウェア.

Maybe I wasn't the only one that noticed it. But anyway, I found it hilarious, it's as if they didn't expect people who know Japanese to watch it. Idiots. Or maybe it's some post-apocalyptic Tokyo where all the characters are changed and don't make sense anymore. Congratulations, Paul W. S. Anderson and his team!

It would appear that the wait for Mercenaries 2: World In Flames may have gotten a little bit longer, as multiple retailers are listing a late August 2008 release date for the Pandemic Studios shooter. Reader Patrick pointed out that online retailer Amazon was now showing an August 25 release date for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game, with GameStop showing the same for the PlayStation 2 and PC versions. The last official word on the game's release was April, something that is now starting to look less likely. The game was originally planned for a holiday 2007 release, but pushed back in September.

It has been made readily apparent by GameStop COO Daniel DeMatteo that retailer GameStop considers the burgeoning "casual" gaming market one of the bigger opportunities for growth. But what are they planning to do about the broad customer base buying the Wii and Nintendo DS? Well, we're still not quite sure what management is up to, but analyst Colin Sebastian says the company is "making progress" in its efforts. Whether that means droning on at the start of each phone call "Thank you for calling EBgames, where you can trade in your copy of Wii Play toward Wii Fit" or something more severe we don't know, but GameStop certainly has its work cut out for it.

Maybe management could consider laying off on the aggravating tactics ingrained into current GameStop clerks who are forced to shill surcharges of questionable value. The phrase "merchandising to a broader consumer audience" could be interpreted as just about anything, but the company would probably be wise to consider making the experience a bit less sour. Any other suggestions?

GameStop Gets Casual in '08 [Next-Gen]

The latest proposal that would tax video games (and televisions) in an effort to fund other, seemingly unrelated programs has popped up in New Mexico, initiated by the Sierra Club. The environmental organization's executive director, Carl Pope, writes on the Huffington Post that tacking on a 1% tax on games and televisions would generate some $US 4 million toward pushing the "No Child Left Inside" agenda, getting chubby kids off their humps and out to national parks where they can receive an outdoor education.

We suppose that this sort of diversion of funds makes more sense than others. I just hope they don't limit the use of PSPs for these poor kids brought to tears by the prospect of experiencing "nature". And, please New Mexico, make sure these kids are well stocked on Happy Meals.

A Tax to Remember [The Huffington Post via GamePolitics]

It would appear that THQ has had its fill of Juiced and Stuntman,
as the company announced today that it had decided "not to pursue" the pair of intellectual properties. Both driving games, one of which was acquired from then bankrupt Acclaim, the other from Atari, were part of a $US 27 million hit the publisher was expected to take as part of "quality initiatives". That charge also includes the nixing of other titles, some announced, some unannounced.

The latest Stuntman in the series, known as Stuntman: Ignition was singled out as one of the company's underperforming releases of 2007, alongside Ratatouille and Conan. Rest in peace, Stuntman and Juiced. We hardly knew ye (as we didn't play your games much).

THQ Updates Fiscal 2008 Outlook [THQ]

You may have read recently that the demo of Capcom's Devil May Cry 4 will be available on Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 tomorrow.

Activision has just let us know that while the demo will hit the 360 as promised, the PS3 version won't be out until February 1. Not a major calamity, really, but I was under the impression the PS3 was the lead platform for the game and naturally, would receive stuff like this ahead of Microsoft's console.

Activision did not provide a reason for the delay, but I doubt it's anything nefarious.

Update: For our international visitors, Capcom does not have a local presence in Australia. All its PR, distribution, etc, is handled by Activision. So yes, when we say Activision, we mean Activision.

Update 2: It should go without saying that this story is relevant to Australian PS3 owners only. Not that it matters, as you can easily grab the demo off the Japanese PSN.

Like you, brother site Gizmodo was recently informed of a web site for Gizmondo Live, one that promised a rebirth of the dead as a doornail handheld from Tiger Telematics. The reason for so many folks becoming familiar with the site that promises a new Gizmondo with an "open source environment" and "exciting psychic worlds" that will "democratise gaming" may be due to the prison release of a former executive. Regardless, hints that Gizmondo will rise from the ashes are greatly exaggerated, says sister site Gizmodo.

They rumour smash the whole scenario, from bullshit quotes from former execs to poor Swedish sources to theories that the site is the work of a prankster. There's not much in the way of hard evidence, but we genuinely hope that no one sinks their money into such a poorly considered venture.

Gizmondo Is Dead, Dead, Dead. DEAD and Not Coming Back [Gizmodo AU]

With Super Smash Bros. Brawl delayed to March, we just assumed that the Smash Bros. Dojo would be running dangerously on content fumes, posting about cursor changes when one hovers over portraits or scraping the barrel bottom for alternate costume choices. We certainly never thought they'd drop the Mushroomy Kingdom on us, the best looking stage yet. It's a Wii-creation of World 1-1 from the original Super Mario Bros., a constantly side-scrolling level that only makes us long for a remake of the NES classic. We'd totally buy this sort of thing via WiiWare, Nintendo, if you're listening.

That bit on the right? It's the alternate version of the stage that appears randomly, a 3D take on World 1-2 from the same game. Who knew we'd get so turned on by a torch nestled under some polygonal bricks?

Mushroomy Kingdom [Smash Bros. Dojo]

If you were looking forward to trying out DiCE's Battlefield Heroes, the free-to-play game announced by EA earlier this week, think again. EA Australia has informed us that the game will not be available to audiences outside of the US and Europe.

Which, last time I checked the atlas, included Australia.

Considering the game will be downloadable, I'm not exactly sure how the publisher will enforce this, but I'm sure it'll find a way.

EA was unable to explain why the game won't be released outside the aforementioned territories, but the words "for the moment" were tossed around, so we may see the title eventually. Just not right now.

More news as we get it, but my guess is EA wants to trial the free-to-play model before throwing it out to the world at large.

It would appear that video game retailers wiping the PlayStation 3 version of Kaos Studios' shooter Frontlines: Fuel of War from their databases wasn't done just for giggles. It would appear that GameStop called both guys who pre-ordered the game for a reason. THQ officially cancelled the PS3 edition of the game today, previously thought to just be delayed, using the same axe to kill the release of the PlayStation 2 version of Destroy All Humans!: Big Willy Unleashed. Don't go jumping off any buildings, now, kids, despite how hard it may seem to put this terrible, terrible news behind us.

Editor's note: Seeing as the PS3 version was being developed in Australia, I'm chasing THQ's local presence for additional comment. Stay tuned.

If you think your PC has the balls to run Crysis at its very highest settings, then there's a small article over at Planet Crysis that you should read.

Okay, when I say "very highest", I'm not talking about moving all the in-game sliders to the far right. To see what pain Crytek's shooter is truly capable of dishing out on your humble PC, you'll need to dive into the game's configuration files and tweak a few settings.

The Planet Crysis article has everything you need to know, but if you're not as well endowed in the sack department as your machine is, there's a download of the altered files available from Crymod.

You may have seen similar settings floating around the Internet; these are the most up-to-date.

If you haven't already, you might want to tweak Crysis first to get it running at its best performance-wise, or if you're running Windows XP, enable those lauded Direct3D 10 "Vista-only" features.

Ultra High Quality Custom Config [Planet Crysis]

French publisher Ubisoft was rather pleased with itself for its performance for the previous quarter, raking in some $US 650 million in revenue on strong sales of Assassin's Creed and some Petz or Babyz nonsense. Whatever the cause, champagne corks were popping on news that sales were up some 44% over the same quarter the previous year. Good news for those at Ubi, but maybe not for someone looking to acquire the company.

The only bad news? Haze was pushed back. Again. Prince of Persia fans, however, have something to look forward to.

The financial results from Ubi reveal that the publisher has yet another Prince of Persia game officially in the works, planned for fiscal year 2008-09. We've heard about it before, though, as rumours of a Prince of Persia: Ghosts of the Past arrived later last year alongside supposed screen shots.

It should really be no surprise that Ubi is banking on another Prince game—it's been two years since the last console release, after all. Plus, there's a movie coming that will "synergise" nicely. We're just assuming that whatever the publisher has planned for the series, it's coming to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Maybe even the Wii. And PC. Possibly the PSP and Nintendo DS. Some calculator watches....

Ubisoft Reports 2007-08 Third Quarter Results (PDF) [Ubisoft]

Ace Attorney fans looking for fresh Nintendo DS adventures sprinkled with puzzle-solving would do well to familiarise themselves with Professor Layton, who will be arriving in the West in just a few short weeks. Brought to us by Level 5 (aka the "new Square Enix") by way of Nintendo, the series has been a smash hit in Japan, with the follow up to Professor Layton and the Curious Village hovering closer and to closer the million-sold mark overseas. Adventure games may not necessarily be my thing, but throw in some logic puzzles and you have a confirmed sale, Nintendo.

You may have noticed that the Sprite island ad on the website sometimes plays completely without warning. It also happens to loop. Oh, and it's very loud.

I know I've had to change my pants a few times.

Well, you'll be happy to know we've had a chat to the agency that supplied the ad and come up with a new, more silent one.

Kotaku Australia does have a policy against these sorts of ads. Sadly this one managed to slip through the cracks. Apologies that it took so long to be rectified - we had to wait for the new creative to come through before it could be replaced.

Hopefully, you'll be able to enjoy the site in silence. Unless you don't want to, in which case, click every Play button you see!