The still-yet-to-hit-newsstands issue of this week's Famitsu also unveils a new Soul Calibur IV female fighter named Scheherazade (bottom left). Plus! The SCIV version of nunchaku-swinging pirate Maxi is revealed as well. Couple these with the new Street Fighter IV fighter, and yes, this week's Famitsu is fighting game character all-you-can-announce smorgasbord! Or something.

Thanks, jayce!

You think you're sick of World War II shooters? Spare a thought for Infinity Ward! They were sick to death of World War II shooters, which - as you could have guessed - is exactly why they went and set Call of Duty 4 in the modern world. From an interview in this month's Developer magazine:

Metal Gear Solid 4 is a big game. Big games have big expectations. How many copies does Konami president Fumiaki Tanaka think it will sell? He's aiming for a million worldwide, it seems. Certainly that's not impossible! Like we said, Metal Gear Solid 4 is a big game. Still, Konami must be worried about the install base. Will it take a long time for Konami to hit its million sold target? Says Tanaka:

Now, potential users are going, 'When that game comes out, I want to get a PS3,' and they're waiting for that title to come out. When MGS4 comes out, other companies will put out their big PS3 titles out, and then gradually won't the install number grow?

Phoenix Wright is coming back to the PC. And not just coming, but coming in many, many pieces, as it's been announced that the first three GBA titles (which have already seen limited releases on PC in Japan) of the series are to be broken up into a steady stream of episodic titles. The first one lands next week, and will be free (as will the first chapters of the second and third GBA titles), with all remaining chapters costing ¥120 (around $US 1). That's for each chapter: to buy every chapter of a whole Ace Attorney game will cost you about ¥1920 ($US 19). No idea whether, like the DS versions, these will have an English-language track, but I guess we'll find out on March 18 when the first episode's due.
Phoenix Wright trilogy diced into bite size PC morsels [Siliconera]

This is for the 360 version, in case you're wondering. Has a combination of pre-rendered stuff and actual gameplay, in case you're wondering. And yes. Yoda's in there, lightsabre and all. In case you were, you know. Wondering.

Want a job working for a Japanese game, anime or manga company? GET IN LINE!! In Akihabara, an event called "Raku-Job" gathered twenty companies in the game, manga and anime world to interview prospective applicants. Approximately two-thousand hopefuls showed up, with would-be job hunters coming from as far away as Kobe. Remember kids, it's good to show up to job interviews in suits, but with blurry faces is a definite no-no.
Job Hunting Event [Akiba Blog]

A photo of this week's pre-newsstand Famitsu shows new SFIV character "El Fuerte." Not much is known about him other than he's a Lucha Libre wrestler. Hit the jump for a closer look.

Capcom (may) have, via leaked mag scans, had the wraps taken off Lost Planet Colonies, the successor to snowy bug-killing simulator Lost Planet: Extreme Condition. What's new? There's a new playable character (that girl in snow gear) and in online play you'll get the option of playing as the bugs against the humans. That online play will feature cross-platform play between PCs and 360s. There's more weapons and more monsters to fight (including their eggs), and it'll be out in Japan on May 29. Oh, and no word of a PS3 release as of yet. Bear in mind: all this info comes courtesy of a leaked magazine scan that's been...modified to include super-awesome Xbox Japan boss Takashi Sensui, so until we get some more concrete info, take it all with a grain of salt.
[via 2ch]

Over in San Francisco, Capcom is focus testing what appears to be a new Xbox 360 game. The Capcom Flickr set has images of the focus test with the TV screens blacked out. Those bastards!

Wonder what game it is... There is Lost Planet art on the wall. Hrm.
Focus Test [Flickr via Capcom Blog via Siliconera]

Poor Europe. Long have you suffered at the hands of publishers like Nintendo, who see your multitude of languages and cultures not as a localization opportunity, but a curse. S'OK, though. Local developers and publishers will step in where the mother company fails, and release titles that are only - and could only - be pitched at the European market. Like Ma pension d'animaux 2 here, with the world's creepiest cat. Or something about unicorn love. Or a cover which features a dog making out with a fucking kitten. Other examples are below.

Naughty video actresses get excited by things other than sex and money! Take rising star Sasha Grey (who was grilled by Tyra Banks). She's not only into things like punching and puking, but also Coleco Vision! In an interview with Hustler, Sasha says:

Favorite purchase of the past year? A brand new Coleco Vision...it's still in the box.

Denis Dyack is not happy about your run-of-the-mill video game plot line. Not at all! He wants better. He wants more. Says Dyack:

Mass Effect's world was a great one. Thing is, if you weren't plowing through the main story arc, the whole thing felt a little...empty. Especially the game's cookie-cutter side-quests, of which I tried 3-4 before having to stop, for fear of death by acute boredom. But don't be angry at BioWare! They had stuff needed doing for the first game, and it's something they'll have fixed for Mass Effect 2. At least according to BioWare GM Greg Zeschuk they will:

While Kojima has already apparently moved on to other things, we haven't! Check out these new Metal Gear Solid 4 screenies. Looks like aqua green is the new brown! The game is out June 12th. Everywhere.

Kind of a prick-tease, I know, but it's Warhammer, so I'll play along. Next month's issue of PC Gamer looks like it'll be revealing the first real info on Relic's Dawn of War sequel, which was first rumoured to be in development a couple of weeks ago. Course, it doesn't out-and-out say it's Dawn of War 2, but...yeah. That's Dawn of War 2.
[via Sinatar @ NeoGAF]

This summer, Hudson's bringing Tetris to WiiWare. Hudson's hooked up with Tetris Online to make the worldwide online WiiWare version possible, complete with up-to-six players. The game will also have Wii-mote specific controls as well, apparently. Hudson's hoping that the game is a smash — to the tune of a million downloads. Yeah, we can see that, no problem.

The NPD group have released the American PC sales charts for the week Feb 24 - March 1, which is awful nice of them, since weekly sales data for the US market is a rare and precious thing. The weekly frequency of these charts is about the only surprise you're going to get, however, as half the chart's taken up by Sims and World of Warcraft titles.

It's been a week and we've had loads of entries to our Game On ticket comp. Top props to the ACMI for supplying the goods. Now it's time to pick out three winners to receive a free ticket to the exhibition. If you'd like to see who won, just hit the jump.

Don't freak out if you submitted a story and it didn't win. It's automatically eligible for the second batch of three tickets.

If you haven't sent in your tale of retro gaming woe/comedy/wrist-slashing depression, you have until this time next week to get something in. For all the relevant details, the original competition post is the place to go.

Winners after the jump!

More Guitar Hero lawsuits! Don't make that face, you know you can't get enough of them. This time around it's series creator Harmonix on the legal warpath, who have (briefly) sued current franchise holders Activision over unpaid royalties. Seems the contract signed by Harmonix and Red Octane over the original Guitar Hero contained a clause that said Harmonix would earn one of two royalty payment schemes if they ever left the series. One, a lower figure, would be paid if another dev team took over the series and made fundamental changes to the game mechanics. The other, a higher figure, would be owed if another team took over and released a game that "incorporates, uses, or is derived from Harmonix property". Guitar Hero III is definitely the latter, with minimal changes to the previous games, but Harmonix claim they're only being paid the lower royalty scheme, and are owed around $US 14.5 million worth of Guitar Hero III's profits.

Take-Two Interactive had plenty to sing about today. There was the official word on BioShock 2, even more Carnival Games for little girls and boys to enjoy and a reaffirmation of Grand Theft Auto IV's worldwide ship date of April 29. Yay! Sure, there were some delays, but all in all, not bad. The best news? The company managed to only lose 38 million US bucks in its first fiscal quarter of 2008! That's better than the Take-Two gang had expected, with Strauss Zelnick, Chairman of Take-Two, saying he was "pleased". This is how you lose money, people—with a faint hint of a smile on your face.

Weren't those Mirror's Edge screenshots something else? White buildings, blue skies...it's the FPS Sega would have made if...well, Sega still made good games. Don't have any more screenshots for you today, sorry, but what we do have is some concept art and target renders, showing what developers DICE *hope* (with fingers crossed tightly) the game will look like upon completion.

According to tipster Raze35, the Gametraders in Carillon Shopping Centre, Perth will be receiving "early" copies of Super Smash Bros. Brawl from the US, including Freeloader discs to switch regions.

While we have no exact date, it's better than what Nintendo Australia has provided. Which is nothing.

Raze35 also mentioned that the store is selling imported bundles of Rock Band for PS3, as long as you're happy to commit a chunky $399 to the purchase.

This particular Gametraders has quite a reputation for making gamers' dreams come true. Now, if only I lived in Perth...

Super Smash Bros. Brawl online is not working. Sure, you might find a good match or two during the day, or late at night, but at 9PM Eastern on a school night? Forget about it. Nintendo's forums, our tips box, and my television set are all chock full of Error Code: 85010, which kicks you back to the main menu of the game, disconnecting you from Nintendo WiFi service. It's either that, or "Your connection to other players was lost. Returning to menu". When I reviewed the game, most of my online play was in the wee hours of the morning, and I still had some issues. We contacted Nintendo for comment on the issue, and were told the issue was being looked into, but so far all they can tell is that it seems as if every Smash Bros. owner is getting online at once and the issue would slowly get better. What, as people gave up trying? Their suggestion? If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. How wise.

Was helping a small-business-owning friend out yesterday, trawling through the Australian trademark databases, when I figured I'd stop off and check some game-related ones. And whaddya know, I find this. Filed in December and approved last month, it's for an upcoming Sega title called Stormchaser, with the only other info I could find being this old rumour suggesting it's a Sega racing title. Sure, the rumour's old (from 2006), but remember, the patent application was only approved last month.
IP Australia

Looking to bulk up your collection of Wii games? Don't sacrifice your wallet/purse/treasure chest to the God of Endless Debt just yet. If you can hold out until tomorrow, Kmart is having a 20% off sale on games for Nintendo's console. This excludes games already on discount, but that's to be expected.

The sale is on until Wednesday next week, so if your schedule can't accommodate this Thursday, you have plenty of time to sneak in a hardcore buying session.

Kmart 20% Off Wii Games [Ecogamer, thanks Anthony]

Namco Bandai hasn't forgotten about you, Tekken 5 Dark Resurrection Online players. Famitsu is reporting, by way of SDTekken, that the PlayStation 3 game is due for a patch that will see a handful of nice-to-haves added. In addition to DualShock 3 vibration support, new online tweaks, including a 1-on-1 "pickup match" and some lobby interface tweaks should be included in the software patch. There's also talk of some point tweaking for your Dan ranking, but we'll wait for the English language info on the update before we go and make arses of ourselves deciphering exactly what they are.

T5DR ONLINE Update Coming Soon! [SDTekken]

Yes, it's official folks. Derwent Howard released a statement yesterday that includes the gory details. Sadly, I'm not privy to the statement itself, but IT media news site ITJourno has extracted everything we need to know. Again, I'd provide a direct link, but the site is only accessible to registered IT journalists.

According to ITJ, the split is effective immediately, which means there's just one more issue of Official Xbox 360 Magazine in the pipeline from the publisher. After that, it's unclear how the magazine will transition back to its original owners or whether it's appearance on shelves will continue uninterrupted. On the bright side, I've heard that Derwent Howard will retain OXM's staff for a new Xbox 360-themed magazine.

Keeping with the industry gossip (dominated recently by the comedic antics of the phantom of the Internet), Derwent Howard's new Nintendo games mag hit newsstands yesterday. Look out for a Lego Indiana Jones on the cover. IGN Australia also has a new Editor-in-Chief, in the form of ex-Official Playstation Magazine editor Narayan Pattison, after Bennett Ring's recent departure to the world of mobiles.

Ahhh, now there is a sight for sore eyes. Up until recently, Interplay.com looked like this. Ugly, right? I wasn't kidding about he sight for sore eyes bit. Now they're getting ready to resurrect their website just as they have resurrected their intellectual property. All of the players are in place too, making my nostalgia gland pump out extra past-testosterone over images of Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance, Earthworm Jim, Descent, Fallout, and the awesome MDK coil suit. Oh how I've missed you, Kurt Hectic. That's one damn fine lineup right there. Let's see what they do with it!

Interplay.com [Official Website - Thanks Patrick!]

Aksys is pleased to announce that they will be bringing Guilty Gear 2: Overture to to the U.S. Xbox 360 this fall. When the original Guilty Gear was released back in 1998 for the PlayStation 2, Arc System Works made me rethink what a 2D fighter could be. Blazing fast action, unique characters, and graphics of a quality I'd never seen before in the genre. Now it's a 3D tactical action game. Yay.

"Guilty Gear 2: Overture retains a lot of elements that the fighting games are known for, so it's cool to see how familiar moves like the Gun Flame make the transition to 3D," said Michael Manzanares, Project Lead, Aksys Games." Except now though, you're facing off against an entire army instead of just one character. You'll lose (badly) if you think you're a one-man army, so you definitely have to remember that you have your own army to command."