Here's some in-game footage of Codemaster's upcoming racer GRID. Looks...well, as pretty as a game's going to look through a grainy, low-res embedded web clip. It's funny, I bet if Forza creators Turn 10 inherit the PGR series in Bizarre's absence, this is exactly what the two series' bastard lovechild would look like.
[via vg247]

Pent up anger is bad. So, best way to relax and feel less angry? Take it out on video games. A new study at Middlesex University says that the 292 male and female World of Warcraft players between the ages of 12 and 83 (bwah?) felt calm and tired after playing. Says research Jane Barnett:

Even now, Company of Heroes shines as an example of a PC RTS done right. And while it's been successful in the West, THQ and Relic can smell the cash money-making potential from the Chinese market wafting in through their windows, and they're interested. Speaking with 1UP/GFW, Relic have explained that they've got a "five year plan" for China, one that involves a persistent-world RTS with the ability for players to "build their character up from private to general through new multiplayer cooperative missions, gameplay modes, and player-versus-player combat". Hope this isn't just for the Chinese market, because that sounds pretty neat. Can we have it too please?
Company of Heroes' Next Theatre of Operations [1UP]

Capcom have just announced that they've sold 6.3 million Monster Hunter games. Yeah, you can say that's tempered somewhat by the fact the series has appeared across three platforms (soon to be four, when Monster Hunter 3 launches on Wii), but you can also say that the lion's share of those sales have been in Japan. Which makes the number a lot more impressive. Should be more impressive still in the coming years, with Capcom taking the time to suggest it will (and this is very unlike Capcom) be appearing on more platforms to come:

We believe that by bringing the Monster Hunter series to multiple platforms, it will help the franchise reach an even greater number of users eager for its unique gameplay.

Who remembers our Game Club? Anyone? Yeah, no, I don't remember what happened to it either. I do remember picking up Mr. Robot for it though, and aside from a few control issues thought it was pretty great. Whereas I paid for it, you can now grab it for free, since it's turned up on GameTap's ad-supported service. You can't argue with a game called Mr. Robot, and you can't argue with free, so no arguing, OK?
[Mr. Robot @ GameTap]

No point in pussy footing around. Let's dive in. Writes Times guest contributor and book author Giles Whittell:

I hate video games, on or offline. I hate the way they suck real people into fake worlds and hold on to them for decades at a time. I hate being made to feel hateful for saying so, and I hate being told to immerse myself in them before passing judgement, because it feels like being told to immerse myself in smack and teenage pregnancy before passing judgement on them.

Maybe. Who knows! Unity Technologies, the guys behind the Unity 3D engine, which while being a regular engine is also able to be run in a web browser (see Velociraptor Safari), have announced that it's been licensed to make an appearance on the iPhone. Sure, it'll help devs who want to make cheap, good-looking games for the format, but colour me disinterested (on the move AND the iPhone) until I can pick an iPhone up and do naught but run down some feathery raptors on public transport.
Unity 3D Engine To Support iPhone [GamesonDeck]

Cops are on the look out. They don't want it to happen again. Last time, it was an embarrassing spectacle. And then the time after that, embarrassing again! That's right, Akihabara police are doing their best to prevent arse flashing. Previously, "singer" Asuka Sawamoto hitched up her skirt, splashing her tush thong all over the internet. The story snowballed and was even picked up by Japan's Yahoo! News. The following Sunday, she showed up again, ready to perform and show NSFW rear-endage again. No wonder last Sunday, when girls in maid outfits (and other costumes) sing, dance and stand in the Akiba streets and sidewalks, police were on handle to prevent any arse hattery. That's right, cops were on patrol. Butt patrol.
Police On Patrol [Akiba Blog]

Yes, technically Ubisoft are now offering games on Steam, but there's a catch: they're only available to customers in North America. Why are gamers everywhere else being given the shaft? Valve's Doug Lombardi can only shrug, point at Ubisoft and say:

It's their call. We offer worldwide coverage, and we're happy to offer the products to as many customers as the publisher/developer desires.

Moneybags who didn't flinch about shell out $US 15 for Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles can buy all the downloadable content for a mere $US 13. Still, not that pricey, considering how all DLC for Xbox 360 THE iDOLM@STER is easily over a few hundred bucks. According to Wired's Chris Kohler, here's a list of all the FF CC DLC:

GTAIV didn't just pass classification muster in Britain, it passed completely uncut. In clearing the game for release, though, the BBFC had to look at (then detail) everything the game had to offer, from the palatable stuff like just driving a car around a virtual city to the less palatable stuff. Like this:

Kotaku. What the hell does that mean? "Kotaku" is a made up word. "Ko" means small in Japanese (小), and otaku means, well, we'll get to that. Over at the always brainy Néojaponisme, they've got a look at what the word "otaku" means. While the word originally is a polite way to say "you" (something like "thou"), its nerd connotations first debuted in print back in 1983 when writer Akio Nakamori defined the subculture in his essay "The City is Full of Otaku".

Our egg contest continues! Reader DaRebel sends in this SSBB-style entry with Kirby and Meta Knight about to bust shells. Dazzling coloring skills, too! Here's what's going on: Decorate an egg (yes, an actual egg), take a pic of it with a Kotaku sign and send it to kotakucontestATgmailDOTcom. Commentland will vote for its favourite finalist. We'll kick this baby off right now, wrap it up on April 4th April 5th. Here's the loot, plus the bonus signed Fallout 3 shirt.

NPD have seen fit to release some more weekly sales data for the PC market. We must have all been nice, rather than naughty, over the past seven days, because for some reason these don't exactly turn up like clockwork. And yes, I know, it's nigh-on useless without online sales data, but nigh-on useless isn't the same as useless, so bear that in mind. And keep on bearing when you see Sins of a Solar Empire at #3!

Some Japanese gamers eat pretty healthy. Some don't and live on a steady diet of canned coffee, cup ramen and crap. For them, there are these "Game Suppli" from Japanese game peripheral company Cyber Gadget. There are two types of Game Suppli supplements: Blueberry for those who play video games for long periods of time and DHA for people who play brain games. They sound like regular supplements, just slapped with a different label. Game Suppli goes on sale April 8th in Japan.
Game Suppli [Cyber Gadget via Famitsu via Canned Dogs]

This new GameStop trailer for GTAIV is...well, it looks pretty amazing. I've no idea who Jeremy St. Ives is, but the tour he takes us on of Liberty City - and how alive it looks - is (for me at least) more informative and entertaining than almost every previous clip put together. Especially the glimpse at the game's "drunk as a maggot" mode. And the fact it's a lot less choreographed and a lot more "this is what the actual game will look like".
[thanks Ryan!]

Mark Rein is not an easy man to impress. He's very picky. That chocolate suit he's wearing, it took him years to pick that out. So, when he says he was blown away by Unreal Engine 3 licensee 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand, that means something. What, we're still not exactly sure. Says Blood on the Sand game director Julian Widdows:

Capcom reckon a game's shelf lifetime can sometimes be measured in days. A view EA don't, predictably, share. See, while Capcom are pushing games to the hardcore, whose interests are fickle and rarely likely to last more than a week, let alone a month, EA can release a game like, oh, The Sims, and sell it non-stop for years. Indeed, they're now aiming past years, and shooting straight for decades, with EA's Jeff Karp saying they're planning on "developing new content" for Spore for the next 10 years. We'll presume he means extra content, and not the game itself, because, you know. It's had long enough. This is getting to be a super-interesting feature on MTV, definitely worth checking out.
EA, Capcom Disagree On Longevity Of Individual Games — 'Spore'-Maker Cites 10 Year Plan [MTV]

Oh my. Anyone preparing to throw the Wii Wheel out with the bathwater when their copy of Mario Kart arrives may want to know this. The latest fact sheet handed to us from Nintendo contains some notes on the game's four control schemes. Here's what it says for the Classic and GameCube controls:

• Classic Controller: Mario Kart veterans can let their thumbs do the driving with the Classic Controller. However, players cannot perform certain moves with this control scheme.

• Nintendo GameCube™ Controller: Experienced Mario Kart fans may also enjoy this familiar scheme, although some manoeuvres cannot be performed.

Today, April 1st, 3D Realms released a new corporate logo plus new Duke Nukem Forever concept art. That, after the jump.

Hollywood writer Stuart Beattie, of GI Joe and Gears of War, is a huge Halo nerd. And like many Halo nerds sheds the odd tear at the sorry state the series' film adaptation hopes have found themselves in of late. His solution? Write another script, one that can get made on the cheap, then throw in a couple of extra plot outlines to round it all off and make it a trilogy. Beattie's take is based loosely on the novel Fall of Reach, and is about a six year-old kid, named John, who's kidnapped by the USC "then brutally trained to become an elite Spartan warrior known as Master Chief 117". The movie then deals with humanity's first contact with the Covenant, and the...well, fall of Reach. Subsequent sequels would then focus on the stories of Halo 1 and Halo 3. And before you ask, we're assured this isn't an April Fool's joke, for what that's worth.
Exclusive: Halo Movie Has Reach! [LatinoReview, via io9]

I'd like to say I saved the best April Fool's Day post for last, but then I'd just be fooling myself. The bad news is, all Jumpgate Evolution and LEGO Universe developers NetDevil managed to pull together for this festive day was a logo swap accompanied by a brief announcement.

Old? Painfully. We're talking 2007 here, people. Still, I'd personally never come across one of Zack Kim's dual-guitar YouTube creations, a good portion of which are video game cover tunes, so forgive this internet excavation. Above, The Legend of Zelda Overworld theme. After the break, a Chocobo ditty and Korobeiniki, which you may known better as one of the classic Tetris themes.

DICE's casual stab at Battlefield may be free, but that doesn't take away our right to complain, outlined in the gamer Constitution. Sure, Battlefield Heroes looks cute and looks to feature the same well known gameplay at zero cost, but two maps? Surely, you can't be serious. They are, as producer Ben Cousins explains to Gamasutra that in typical Battlefield development cycle "we bust our asses making 50 maps, and then within six months of the game being released, everyone's playing two maps. The two best maps. So, we just decided to make just the two best maps, and not the other kind of maps."

I suppose that makes sense. Still, we're not much for microtransactions and the ability to buy your way into experience with time-limited multipliers that cost real money. It just makes us want to wash the pain away.

EA Goes Free-To-Play: Battlefield Heroes' Producer Speaks [Gamasutra]

You all know how much I love HP Lovecraft. So you'll understand why I got super-excited when Dave over at his HPL news blog Mouldy and Shadowy and Full of Dim Rumours, posted a list of the top five games to ever sacrifice virgins to Cthulhu or paint insane pictures of Bugg-Shash. Not that there's anything wrong with virgins or crazy art, as long as you keep them to yourself.

I got into a long conversation with the manager of a Blockbuster Video store I've frequented since before the DVD era began today, regarding the company's increased focus on gaming. You see, Blockbuster Video isn't doing so well in this age of Netflix and video downloads, so they are trying to modify the business to stay competitive...it's just the competitor's have changed. Said manager claimed that Blockbuster Video would soon begin getting preorder exclusives...games that cannot be preordered anywhere but Blockbuster. You'll still be able to buy them at other stores on release day, mind you...you just won't be able to reserve a copy anywhere but BB. The news was delivered via an alleged ex-GameStop executive at a managers' meeting, where it was explained to them that GS was actually having to cancel some preorders as they could no longer guarantee copies on release. The horror!

Either there has been some impressive organisation between the hardcore Halo 3 community in the Congo, Uganda and Tanzania or the boys at Bungie are pulling a fast one on us. Considering that it's *sigh* still April 1 Pacific Time, we're guessing it's the latter. Kudos to the Halo teamsters for their subtle and cheery geek map.

Bungie Online [Bungie - thanks, Bradley!]

Screenplay's Jason Hill managed to corner Jeremy Hinton, Xbox Product Marketing Manager, for an interview about pretty much everything. There's a focus on Xbox 360 and Microsoft, as you'd expect, but Jason was able to sneak in a few general questions about the industry.

Take this gem regarding the Xbox Live Video Marketplace and its absence from our consoles: