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Aw Fuckles, Wife Back in Hospital
Posted by Brian Ashcraft at 11:40 PM on April 30, 2008
To: Crecente
From: Bash
Been a shitty few days. Wife took a sudden turn for the worst, lost something like 3 kilograms in two days, throwing up non-stop, back in the hospital. Brutal, brutal times. She threw up so many times today in the hospital that her throat is raw and she can't eat solids.
Good news: Doctor says baby is fine, healthy. And as of tonight, Mrs. Bashcraft is doing much better. When she was pregnant with Mini-Bash, it was like this until her 14th week. So we've got a few more weeks of morning sickness from hell before she'll return to normal.
Played soccer with Mini Bash today for about an hour. Seemed to cheer him up.
We knew it was going to be like this (was like this last time), but still, words cannot describe how stressful these past few days have been. Leaving the hospital today, Mrs. Bashcraft said this: "I'm sorry."
What you missed last night
Revenge of Capcom didn't dev SFIV
Man paid 15 grand for cart
Microsoft said no to Steam
Pikachu NSF...brains
God of War III to feature online?
Forget for a moment this is still "unconfirmed", but according to magazine EGM, Capcom's Street Fighter IV isn't being developed by Capcom — but outsourced to another Osaka developer. That's right, apparently DIMPS is working on the game. DIMPS was founded by former SNK devs and is best known for its excellent Rumble Fish fighters along with churning out run-of-the-mill Dragon Ball Z games. Another DIMPS fun fact: That FPS Gundam game they developed for the Xbox 360 wasn't really being developed by them, but apparently outsourced to a Korean dev who's did a shitty job on it. Anyway! Also, forget for a moment that Capcom USA has been saying that Street Fighter IV is being developed internally. One more thing, forget for a moment that we've been going on about DIMPS doing SFIV since, well, 
Activision released the tracklist for its DS title Guitar Hero: On Tour. It's 15 songs, though it was announced previously that there would be 25 songs. Unlockables? Downloadable? Dunno knowable! Hit the jump for the full tracklist:
Between 2004 and 2007, Nintendo were selling some small, character-adorned pins at both their Redmond HQ and Nintendo World Store. Little metal Nintendo characters, little sharp pin, you stick them on your jacket/bag/hat. Standard stuff. Oh, except for the fact they contain unsafe levels of lead. Before you plan a trip to your doctor's/lawyer's office, however, note that they're only dangerous if you swallow them, not wear them, so unless you've been snacking on lapel pins between Smash Bros rounds, you'll probably live to see the morning. If you are snacking on them, though, and would like pins less likely to cause serious health issues, Nintendo are recalling them and offering free replacements. Details below.
After parting with $US15,000, James Baker became the proud owner of one of 26 gold-coloured NES cartridges made especially for the 1990 Nintendo World Championships. Remember, it's not a gold NES cart, it's a gold-coloured NES cart. Says James:
When first trotting out the PS3 for a public look-see in 05/06, two "games" Sony showed off were Eight Days and Getaway 3. Hope you weren't expecting them any time soon (or honestly believed what you saw was real in any way), because The Guardian have been told by Sony London that Eight Days has only just entered full production, and that Getaway 3 is in pre-production, and will only kick it up a notch when Eight Days is finished. Seeing how well-received the first two Getaway games were, I don't know how they hope to keep our expectations in check for that long.
Shenmue, that was a pricey game! For the past 18 years or so, Yu Suzuki's Shenmue has been the most expensive game ever developed at $US70 million, making the game the current 
Sure, it had a rocky start to life, but Valve's Steam platform is probably the best thing PC gaming has going for it right now, and has given the company far more clout in the industry than it could muster from its games alone. But how different could things have been if Valve had looked to somebody else to build the system? Somebody like...Microsoft? Or maybe even Yahoo? Valve's Doug Lombardi tells GamesIndustry: 
So Peter Moore has long since taken the reigns over at EA Sports. He's a regular and has blended in like the carpet. But when he left Microsoft last year, did he have any reservations about going over to EA Sports. Yes, yes he did. According to Moore:
Crossover time! Characters Vyse and Aika from SEGA RPG 
Look, there's nothing wrong with McFarlane's Halo line. They're nice figures. It's just, McFarlane are known for stuff with a little more size, and a little more detail, than the wee little figures they've released thus far. Now this new stuff, it's more their style. They've just announced two new lines for the end of the year: two 12" Master Chiefs (one a Wal-Mart exclusive) and the "Legendary Collection", a series of "non-articulated large-scale" figures that includes the Chief, Arbiter and a Brute Chieftain. The 12" figures are due in September, the Legendary Collection in November.
Koei's Fatal Inertia has had a rough history: It started out as a PS3 exclusive, missed launch, became a default Xbox 360 exclusive and now is now being ported to the PS3 as Fatal Inertia EX as a PSN title. Ouch. Looking back at how things have panned out, lead designer Mike Bond says:
We haven't (yet) heard of any bricks-n-mortar retailers force bundling GTA IV. Which is a good thing! Online retailers, however, are a different story. Anyone hoping to pick up a copy of the game's standard edition from the website of European mega-retailer GAME will find they can't. Not unless they also want a Sixaxis. Or a wireless 360 pad. Or a copy of...Devil May Cry 4. Because GAME's online store will only sell you the standard edition if you buy it in one of their "fantastic GTA deals!!!", the cheapest of which is £54.98 (USD$108, for GTA IV & Kane & Lynch) and most expensive being £329.99 (USD$650, for an Elite 360, GTA IV, PGR4 and Rainbow Six Vegas 2). You stay classy, GAME!
Thought it couldn't get worst than NSFW 
A Courier Mail story, posted today, points out that at 48.5%, the Queensland has the highest percentage of game developers in the country and collects 40% of the industry's earnings, or $55 million if you happen to like dollar signs. It's all in the 
Tipster Luke sent us this shot of a Melbourne tram decorated with Wii Fit advertising. Not content with just sharing the pictures, Luke provided us with his perspective:
I mean...I knew Pokemon bred. It's a staple of the series. But, you know...I always thought it was Nintendo-style breeding, which just happens. Not real-style breeding, where...urgh. Full pic is after the jump, not because it's NSFW, just because it's NSF...brains.
PlayTV, Sony's digital television tuner/recording device for the PS3, has finally been given a release window. Speaking with Sony Australia during a techy meeting this morning, Gizmodo AU were told that the system would launch in Australia during Q4 2008, "roughly a month" after it's released in Europe. They were also told that it would retail "for less than AUD$200" ($US185). Any Americans not already aware, now's a good time to remind you that, sorry, thanks to the way your TV is broadcast, you will never ever see this in the US.
Crytek were probably the last great dev team devoted solely to making PC users feel inadequate about their system specs. No longer. In an interview with PC Play, Crytek president Cevat Yerli has said that thanks to both "huge piracy" and the small returns PC games bring in compared to console titles, the company will no longer be making games exclusively for the PC market. They'll still make games for the PC, of course, just...not only for the PC.
Eagle-eyed reader Byron has pointed us towards a 
The 
We really hope that if you were one of the bazillions who threw down a tenner on a reserved copy of Grand Theft Auto IV at your local GameStop or EBGames, that you've already acquired your prize. If not, we wish you good luck and godspeed! An employee writes to us today about what he calls "some disturbing marching orders from corporate" that basically say that your pre-order doesn't guarantee your copy won't be sold to the next walk-in customer. In fact, "we are being told to specifically disregard our reservation customers, who have payed a deposit on this game in exchange for a guarantee of availability, for walk-in customers."
Valve has just released the latest update to the PC version of Team Fortress 2, adding the new gameplay mode known as Payload—which is playable on the new map Gold Rush—plus three new weapons for the Medic and 36 new Medic-specific achievements. Steam users can get the update now.
Reader Pon Zu reminds us that there is another game with the Roman numeral IV in that we are terribly excited about by pointing us towards Famitsu, where the latest batch of screens from the game reveal two new characters, M.Bison and Balrog. Better known in the states as Balrog and Vega, these two are at completely opposite ends of the fighting spectrum, with one being all about speed and finesse and the other focused solely on brute force. M.Bison knows not how to kick, and Balrog looks like more of a woman than Chun Li. All is right with the world. 
Looks like someone was hitting the local GameStop midnight launch in his best cabana wear, as that puffiness and scruffiness is clearly indicative that the self-promoting attorney was pulling an all-nighter. Jack sent the above pic into tips, I presume, to fanboy out with us. We don't know your Gamertag, Jack, but would love to Bomb Da Base with you. PM me!
Tabula Rasa has only been up and running for six months, but they've already lost a sizeable enough chunk of folks that they'd do anything to win you back. Since release they've had 8 new content updates, introduced alien hybrids, and added respec tokens to the mix, and for the week beginning May 5th and ending May 12th players who've passed on the action can log into their accounts and see how the game has been shaping up, completely free. I played the game a bit during beta as well as a good month after launch, and it just couldn't hold my attentions, but I'll log in next week, just in case it was just a case of bad timing.
Just two months ago, 
Even if you're particular copy of Grand Theft Auto IV doesn't lock up your PlayStation 3, you may still find it a challenge to experience the online component of the game. Crecente posted earlier today that he was having connection issues, but he's not the only one. We've heard from a number of tipsters that they've been unable to connect to the Gamespy hosted servers, with a quick peek at popular online forums reflecting similar complaints.
Capcomaniax's Street Fighter B-List T&A Figures Now Pre-orderable. Just a heads up to the 22,000 or so folks who found the 
Super Street Fighter II Turbo isn't the only classic getting the "HD Remix" treatment, as an unofficial, fan-created remake of Sonic 2 is underway. A team of five superfans from the Sonic "community" have released some of the artwork and animation from the high-def update which can be gawked at SavyGamer. Early looks at Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Dr. Robotnik should give you a clear indication just how pretty this looks. Let's hope they finish it before the cease and desist departs Sega HQ.
I received my copy of Grand Theft Auto IV today from Rockstar and tucked inside the box along with the game was this pretty damn cool replica of Liberty City's Statue of Happiness. Note how well it blends in with my other bobbles?
