Smash Bros Dojo is dead. Face it. To fill the void, there's this: the Konami ID Dojo. Bringing you all the latest ID clusterfuck news, today's update is quite exciting. No, it's very exciting. So many people are trying to access the portal site, that Konami's servers are buckling. The Metal Gear Online teaser site posts this message:

Japan-only Wii version of Resident Evil Zero has been dated for, well, Japan. The GameCube port will hit The Land of the Rising Sun July 10th and will retail ¥4,190 (US $TK). You know, one good thing about these Wii ports is that they're pretty cheap. Even though it's Japan-only at the moment, if it sells, you can bet your arse Capcom will release it elsewhere. Maybe in your town, too!
Biohazard Zero Dated [Famitsu]

Today, Harmonix has officially announced the first album that will hit the Rock Band store: Judas Priest's Screaming For Vengeance. Arriving April 22/24 on Xbox 360/PS3, this10-track album will cost $US 14.99 with individual tracks being offered for $US 1.99 apiece. Then in May, The Cars' self-titled record will become the second full-album release from Rock Band. The Pixies' Doolittle will follow in June.

While this is precisely the news that all Rock Band fans have been waiting to hear, it raises a ton of new questions. Is $US 14.99 the new standard album price? And how often can we expect new albums? Luckily, we had the chance to discuss the announcement with Harmonix's CEO Alex Rigopulos, who was more than happy to answer all of our fanboy questions. We posted an abridged, cleaned (sans-Mark's-question-stuttering-and-boring-parts) Q&A after the jump.

Following last night's Take-Two shareholder meeting, which Leigh was kind enough to cover, Electronic Arts has announced that they are extending the deadline on their tender offer to May 16th, 2008. The offer was originally extended from its original April 11th deadline to today in response to Take-Two's rescheduling of the annual shareholder meeting.

You know what? I hate Silent Hill. But loved the first Siren (or as it's known down here, Forbidden Siren). Don't know why. Critics may tell you otherwise, but you know better than to listen to critics. So, yeah, after watching this, am I excited about the prospect of a third time around (going straight past the much less-awesome second game), with the same old siren and blood but nice new graphics and sound? You bet I am.

Last day! Panic time! Reader painey sends long this:

Hey, PR types: CGI trailers are misleading. Screens can be, too. Fact sheets are boring, community Q&As never really tell us anything and for God's sake, no more developer diaries, OK? If you want to get reader's attention, do what Vivendi just did to start drumming up attention for their Ghostbusters game, and give the people they want. They want to see some cool shit. Like this fully-restored Ectomobile, which made an appearance at a Minnesota Best Buy solely to promote the new Ghostbusters game. Well, that and fulfil the fantasies of hundreds of grown men, all of whom wish they could have stepped right in, got down to the point and cleaned up the town. Oh yeah.
Restoration Project Finished [GB Fans, via Boing-Boing]

Musicians make music. Non-musicians stand in their living room, drinking beer in their socks, strumming on a piece of plastic. So what does Rob Zombie and that Weezer guy Rivers Cuomo think? While Zombie offered, "I don't play them, but I think it's awesome," Cuomo was a tad more critical:

I've never played it. I don't get those games at all. I mean, I haven't tried them. But they must be fun because people love them. But, to me, it seems like if you're going to put that much effort into playing something, you should just play a real instrument. [laughs]

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts have announced that there won't be a 2008 BAFTA awards night for games. Apparently the organisers have woken up to the fact that holding the awards in October excludes most of the Christmas lineup, which makes the whole thing a little pointless. Or at least, more pointless than the awards already were. Who can forget Wii Sports taking home the Strategy and Simulation award from last year? Well, most of you, actually. And I can't really blame you. The awards will instead be held in March 2009, by which time they've hopefully got their act together..
No BAFTA Games Awards for 2008 [MCV]

Those Raiders of the Lost Ark LEGO are darling. And that game? Precious. Certainly everyone involved with the film would be proud to be immortalised like that. Not Paul Freeman, who was the evil Dr. Rene Belloq! While he does acknowledge the game looks like "fun," he adds, "I will never play a game in my life." Oh. Okay! What about those adowable LEGO figures? read more »

Anyone remember Halo 3? You may have heard about it last year. There was a commercial or two, aimed at promoting the product and raising the public's general awareness of it. Oh, you did? Capital. Well, you know how much money Microsoft must have spent promoting the thing? That's how much Microsoft Europe are spending on promoting Grand Theft Auto IV. Considering it's a third-party title that's also going to be available in a hardware bundle for their console rival, that's a roll of the financial dice that must have taken some big brass balls to throw down on. Watch the clip above, imagine you're an average GTA fan who's yet to buy into the current generation of consoles, and see if you think it'll be worth it
Microsoft's GTA IV spend to match Halo 3 [GI.biz]

Let's cut to the chase:

Title: Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
Rating: M
Content: Blood, Crude Humour, Strong Language, Suggestive Themes, Violence
Platforms: PlayStation 3

High Voltage Software are trying to find a publisher for The Conduit, an FPS they've got in development for the Wii. The game looks - for a Wii game - gorgeous, but its premise - an alien invasion of Washington DC - sounds pretty terrible. But whatever, that's not even the point. In showing the game off to IGN, High Voltage also provided them with this trailer for their graphics tech, which looks a lot more promising. Yes, it's just a tech demo, and yes, it's dark, which will make it look better, but still. For the Wii, that all looks pretty good, and a damn sight better than anyone who isn't called Nintendo has managed thus far on the system.
Exclusive First Look: The Conduit [IGN]

Don't forget. Nintendo doesn't just make Wii Fit and Brain Age. It makes other games, too. Games like The Legend of Zelda. About which, Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto says:

I think we'd gotten to a point where videogames were something that everyone could no longer enjoy. As a designer, I'm always focusing on what is fun — ideas that people can enjoy. For me, I'm trying to entertain as many people as I can, creating games that the widest number of people can enjoy. Of course, that being said, we do have the existing teams at Nintendo working on the kinds of products we've always made over the years. The Zelda team is forming again to work on new games! But to me, it's about finding these new interactive experiences and bringing them to people.

Bonus NPD news! Activision & Infinity Ward have taken this month's NPD software sales and done the math on Call of Duty 4's lifetime sales data. According to them, it's sold nine million copies since November. Nine million. For a game that didn't get the marketing of, say, Halo 3, and was only released in November, those are some staggering numbers. Staggering, but for such an extraordinary game, totally deserved. They're also reporting that the 360 map packs have already been downloaded one million times, so I get the feeling some corks will be popped and some backs slapped over at Infinity Ward come Friday afternoon.
CoD4 sells over 9 million copies and breaks DLC Records [IAMfourzerotwo]

Guessing game time. The latest issue of monthly manga CoroCoro Comic has a teaser that runs a Pokémon timeline that hints at a new game going on sale this year. CoroCoro states there will be more info in the text issue. The chart lists each pair of Pokémon titles followed by the "remake." So, logic tells us it'll probably be a follow up to Diamond/Pearl Want to know went it'll go on sale? My guess is this summer in Japan, because they'll need a game to tie to the annual Pokémon anime. Kids on summer vacation need to stuff to watch and play!
Third Diamond/Pearl Game [Midnight Gaming via NeoGAF via DS Fanboy]

Wondering why DC comics would seemingly sign onto a project that would let Scorpion rip Wonder Woman's head off? You know...kill a superhero? So were we. So were you. This might explain it: a former Midway employee has contacted us and said that he worked on the game, and that Mortal Kombat v DC features "no fatalities and little-to-no blood". In other words, "MK is dead". No blood, no fatalities...if this is true, why is this game called Mortal Kombat again?
Next Mortal Kombat Is...MK v DC?

Defeated. Beaten. By boobs. While Mario Kart Wii posted healthy numbers across the country during its first week on sale, in more discerning Akihabara shops, the game was outsold by PSP erotic game title Bokudake no Kajitsu ("Only My Fruit"). The "game" is actually considered an UMD video and hasn't been approved by Sony or even been rated by CERO, Japan's ESRB. But since it uses interactive menus, Bokudake no Kajitsu can be played like a typical point-and-click PC eroge, complete with animated "event scenes." According to shop Messe Sanoh's sales chart, MK Wii was outsold by two PSP titles:

Mortal Kombat fan site Mortal Kombat Online are claiming that this image (click for bigger version), supplied to them by "a source within Midway", is the first piece of official art from the next Mortal Kombat game. And yeah, as you can guess from the miserable, hulking guy on the right, it'll be a Mortal Kombat vs DC game. Out of love for the DC universe, I'm trying to both accept this is real and be excited about it, but...firstly, there hasn't been a decent Mortal Kombat game in over ten years, and second...hey guys, Capcom did this a little while ago. With Marvel. You may have heard of it. Little late to the comics crossover party, aren't we?
Mortal Kombat 8 is Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe [Mortal Kombat Online, thanks everyone!]

Jonathan Lee Riches is a prisoner at a Williamsburg County federal corrections centre. Jonathan Lee Riches is also nuttier than a bag full of crushed nuts. The 31 year-old partly blames GTA for his stint in the slammer, and has filed a restraining order against Take-Two, Rockstar and, best of all, Grand Theft Auto itself. Why?

Wii Fit is not a game. Well, that is, unless you consider doing homework and mowing the lawn games. Don't tell that to Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto. Dude so thinks Wii Fit is a game. According to Miyamoto:

Well, yes, in my mind, I would say it is a video game.

Welcome back, PlayStation Store. Oh, how we missed you. After taking a little break while SCE's techy types worked on the shiny new shopfront window, regular service resumes this week with what may well be the biggest single update in the store's short history. From GT5 Prologue's appearance to Warhawk DLC to seven Rock Band tracks (including Still Alive), there's more than enough stuff in here to keep you busy until next Thursday. When the update will be 1/4 as big, and you'll all start complaining again, anyways.

Quitting smoking is hard! There are numerous ways to help folks kick the habit. Some of them work, some don't. For DS Fanboy reader and smoker of five years Dan, here's what's working for him:

decided that every time that I wanted a cigarette, I would turn on my DS and play some Pokémon. But the thing about going from two packs a day to cold turkey is that at first, you always want a cigarette. So the first three days, I did nothing but play Poémon non-stop. My routine was to sleep extra late (because if I'm not awake, I'm not craving a smoke), play Pokémon for about 8 hours with breaks to stretch and eat, read Pokémon walkthroughs, F.A.Q.s, strategies, and websites, and then sleep... After the initial push, it just required the willpower to keep playing Pokémon instead of smoking.

CNET.com.au has just put an article up summarising the issues with Steam, game pricing and importing in Australia. We've covered them piecemeal in the past, from Activision, to THQ, to 2K Games, but there's nothing wrong with putting the puzzle pieces together and staring at the big picture... even if it's ugly as all hell.

The article gives Ubisoft kudos for being reasonably transparent, a sentiment I agree with. It still needs to get Assassin's Creed on the AU Steam though.

While there's not a great deal of new information in the piece, it's an excellent read if you want a straight-up explanation of the local situation. Hit it up if you feel like romanticising about how often we get screwed.

Getting Steamed: digital distribution for games isn't there yet [CNET.com.au]

Ah, here's what was missing from Microsoft's post-NPD gloat: fightin' words. Speaking with Next-Gen, Xbox group product manager Aaron Greenberg has been talking all kinds of shit about how Microsoft has already won the battle for the core gamer.

I think the battle for the core user is sort of over, if you will. We're heading now well beyond 20 million in console sales.

read more »

Wouldn't it be awesome if you could have your portrait done in the art style of Grand Theft Auto? Yeah, it totally would be.

Well, New Zealand, as long as you sign up for Rockstar's Social Club before April 29, then you're in with a chance. If you live in Australia however, you're out of luck.

Tipster Dom pointed us in the direction of the custom portrait's terms & conditions. Here's what they say:

Grand Theft Auto IV has gone gold. Ben Feder, CEO of the game's publisher Take Two, confirmed that GTA IV was "in production and in trucks en route to retailers". The MA15+ rated game is out on the Xbox 360 and the PS3 April 29. There will be pandemonium. You can bet on it.
GTAIV Gold [GameSpot]

Not a bad month for MIcrosoft, all things considered. They beat the PS3, and at this stage of the console wars, that's probably all that matters to them. And yet, their NPD gloating for the month still feels...restrained. Defensive. Reliant on pointing out revenue, attach rates and supply shortages, all of which are boring.

The parts not dealing with said shortages and attach rates read less like a post-coital NPD cigarette and more like an advertisement for GTAIV, with the company crossing their hearts and hoping to die that not only will they have plenty of consoles out to retailers for the game, but that the promise of XBL multiplayer and DLC will help them shift a bucketload of 360s in April. Which is all well and good, but we're talking about March's NPDs here, Microsoft, not April's. Keep on topic, please.