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Europe Gets Spore Two Days Early
Posted by Luke Plunkett at 11:30 PM on February 13, 2008
That chilly breeze I'm feeling on the back of my neck may just be hell freezing over. While Spore will be released in the US on September 7, EA have announced that the game will be released in Europe on September 5. That's all four versions - PC, Mac, Mobile & DS - as well. Hardly recompense for years of suffering, but it's nice to catch a break sometimes.
Spore release date announced [Eurogamer]
Lost Odyssey comes on four, count 'em, four discs. Which creates a packaging dilemma for the folks at Xbox HQ. In Asia, the problem was solved by releasing a slightly fatter case, which housed all four discs on two little trays. An elegant solution. But the American version? They cram three discs into a case then stick the fourth in a paper envelope. Not so elegant.
That long-in-development-hell Tekken lugs closers to the big screen. The movie version has been kicked around Hollywood since 2002 with Sony Pictures' Screen Gems now holding the distribution rights. Back in October, Variety reported that Free Willy 2 director Dwight Little (yeah, we know) would be helming the forthcoming project. Now, apparently it has at least one actor. On the official page of former boy band singer 
Boob mousepads are nothing new. We've covered that bumpy terrain numerous times before! But this, this is special. Next month, erotic game School Days is getting a boob mousepad that features the ample charms of character Kotonoha Katsura. So what makes this one standout? The knowing catch phrase used in the promotional ad. Hit the jump for that:
Remember Kosovo? Little Serbian province. NATO and Serbia had a little tussle over it in the 90s, and it's now inching nearer to full-blown independence. Which means they need a flag. An international competition to design one was held last year, in which 997 flags were submitted by people all over the world. Of that 997, only three remain in the running: an EU-style flag with a map of Kosovo in the centre, a black, whit and red tricolour and... another black, white and red tricolour. With a strange, yet familiar symbol on it. It's supposedly a Bronze Age icon from the 4th century Dardanian Kingdom. Sega fans will argue otherwise.
Next-Gen's Matt Matthews, perhaps the internet's #1 fan of game-related, coloured graphs, has dug through GameRanking's average review scores and discovered something a lot of you could probably have guessed anyways: when you add up all the Wii reviews and average them out, they're a little... awful.
Akihabara is good fun. But let's face it, visiting can be stressful if you don't know the lingo. To help, here's an English map of all the major sites and stores in Akiba. The map makes note of things like "Consumer Games", "PC Games", "Arcades" and "Doujin." While it won't help you deal with store clerks, it will at least get your foot in the door. If you are ever thinking about visiting, bookmark this page. Who knows, it may help.
Hidden the depths of EA's financial report is this: A Nerf Wii-mote gun doohickey. It doubles as both an actual Nerf gun and a Wii-mote gun peripheral. Details are scant, but it looks like it's connected to EA's in-development title Nerf N-Strike, which we brought word of 
Rez creator Tetsuya Mizuguchi and PaRappa the Rapper mastermind Masaya Matsuura are smart guys. They say smart things. This time, they're chatting up music — so essential to their games. Dig this exchange:
Wondering what that 
Best thing about the Wii: It has a GameCube in it! So players who busied themselves with the PlayStation 2 or the Xbox, have a chance to catch up and get to know the little Nintendo cube. Sure, the GC didn't sell so well in its run, but that doesn't mean the console didn't have its fair share of strong titles. Over at blog Infendo, they have a nice round-up of GameCube exclusives you might've missed. Or hey, you might've totally not missed them! They are:
Not content with telling us how the PC version of Mass Effect will differ from the 360 one, BioWare are going to show us how they differ. They've released eight screens for the upcoming port, which showcase not only the tidier graphics, but also the welcome UI changes, including the Biotic hotkeys (above, top-left) and a re-jiggered menu/inventory system.
My aching sense of disappointment at the cancellation of EA's Lord of the Rings Oblivion clone The White Council still lingers. To be replaced soon, however, with a renewed sense of hope, even if it is - pardon the quote - a fool's hope: EA revealed in an analysts report today that they've set newly-acquired developers Pandemic to work on a Lord of the Rings game. 
Earlier, I appeared on the 
Spore's certainly been a long time coming, but it seems that fans of just about every genre are overwhelmingly excited about it. It's finally coming in September, thank God. Now we just want to know: what the hell took so long? Newsweek's N'Gai Croal asked that very question of the game's designer Will Wright who reveals that it wasn't just frequent smoke breaks that led to the delay, but an ever increasingly complex set of features. And coolness.
Recent filings at the US Patent and Trademark Office may give us some insight into upcoming plans for a number of publishers. While not all filings eventually make it to actual product, there are a few interesting unknowns within. Leading the pack is Capcom's Wolf of the Battlefield which, while unannounced, may be the final name or part of the name of the company's top-down shooter Commando 3.
Wow. That
Famitsu staffers and AOU 2008 attendees won't be the only ones playing Street Fighter IV this month—we'll be playing it, too. We're now booked for a Street Fighter IV tournament, scheduled to go down next Thursday night in San Francisco. I'm personally bringing both my Dhalsim A-game and my E. Honda C-game, just to see how I fare. We'll also be sitting down with the game's producer Yoshinori Ono, chatting about all things SFIV and bringing our calipers to get an accurate measurement on Chun-Li's thighs.
We love a good Flash game, especially when it takes about .05 seconds to understand the gameplay concepts involved. To wit, I'm loving—and pulling my hair out to—Untangle by Chris Benjaminsen, which couldn't be simpler to get into. Unfortunately, I'm finding it increasingly damn hard. You may remember the creator's previous work on Multiplayer Asteroids, but if not, don't fret as they bear no relation. All one need do to win a round of Untangle is move the points around until none of the puzzle's lines intersect. It's a fun little diversion that can only be made more complete with the inclusion of a timer, a move counter and a more obvious puzzle reset button (hint hint!). Let us know how far you get.
When Activision shipped Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock for Wii 
With the Game Developers Conference just a week away, we're expecting a few megaton bombs to drop, most likely in the form of big shooter announcements and hands-on time with games previously kept away from middling press types. Amid hints from Microsoft that it has one or two reveals still up its corporate sleeve has come chatter that Resident Evil 5 may become an Xbox 360 exclusive. The source? A GameStop listing that shows the title for the 360, but not for its other announced platform, the PlayStation 3. Not much to go on, considering the game has been announced as a multi-platform title months ago, but not out of the realm of possibility.
From the Duh Files comes news that EA plans to ship "extensions" to its financially successfully Skate and Burnout series, by way of EA Games prez Frank Gibeau. He also says that a proper Mass Effect sequel is already in the works. What those extension may be wasn't defined, GameSpot reports, but could easily mean proper sequels or handheld spin-offs. And while downloadable content most likely isn't out of the question, Skate producers have gone on record in the past saying the title wasn't built with DLC in mind.
The one version of the PlayStation 3 that currently supports PlayStation 2 software—via emulation of the "Emotion Engine"—looks like it's about to go the way of the dodo. Exactly how crushed should those of us be, should we want to experience PS2 classics on our future PS3s? Oh, totally crushed for now, but the future may provide a glimmer of hope, backing us away from the ledge. PlayStation Network director Eric Lempell says there are "possibilities" the PS2 playing capabilities could come back to the gutted PS3 in the most recent issue of EGM.
The follow-up to PSP racer Wipeout Pure arrives in North America today, says the official PlayStation blog. Wipeout Pulse—aka wipEout PULSE, if you're a capitalisation fetishist—looks to not just toss out a new collection of tracks and pretty lights, it brings proper infrastructure online racing to the PSP, with the promise of downloadable content in the future. Europeans are already enjoying Wipeout Pulse DLC, meaning it can't be too far off.
Fact: Mario is the master of love. Sure, his relationship with the Princess sometimes feels more innocuous than passionate—and the whole Bowser infatuation certainly kinks up the confusing sexual undertones—but no matter what the circumstance, he always wins back the Princess against overwhelming odds. So why not celebrate Valentine's with some free Nintendo valentines? From 4 Color Rebellion, these charming notes will only cost you some colour ink or a few seconds of copy/pasting into an email. Beecause really, what potential lover can resist a good "bee" pun? 
Yesterday we 