Corporate confusions! When Harvest Moon developer Natsume decided to found a pachinko company a few years back, it could've picked any name for the new company. Natsume didn't and instead gave the pachinko company a corporate game moniker we all know: Atari. Here's what the CEO of Atari Inc. says about the company's name on its English page:

When naming our new company, we desire to maintain these objectives. We also thought of a Japanese word, "atari", used in the expression such as: A World of Hit business is counted by "How much you earn if you hit atari"; Pachinko is a game to aim "atari"; and thus in such a world by working hard We want to come up with big atari (big hit) machine!!. So, summing all up, we decided a company name, "Atari Inc."
Participating in all the business areas and projects, our top rated development staffs are aiming to reach literally the Biggest Atari by collecting all their wisdoms and ideas.

I know the 2600 was never big in Japan, but don't these guys know? Or Care? Maybe that's a good conversation starter. "No, we're the other Atari."

Greetings [ATARI Inc via Insert Credit]

The MGS4 PR machine shifts into high gear as the Metal Gear Solid 4 World Tour 2008 kicks off today in London. As we mentioned earlier, Hideo Kojima and Yoji Shinkawa will be signing game sleeves. The most recent (and final?) Kojima Productions Report podcast reports that actress Yumi Kikuchi and MGS4 producer Ken Imaizumi will be on hand as well. For those living in the States, Hideo and co. will appear at the New York City launch, while Kojima Pro's Ryan Payton and Solid Snake voice actor David Hayter will be at the Los Angeles one. The official MGS4 has schedule info about the World Tour as well. There's a map, too. With flags.

World Tour 2008 [Konami]

Well, at least we know they're hearing the internet when it cries as one, wondering aloud why it can't buy Fate of Atlantis or Day of the Tentacle for the DS. Lucasarts' Chris Norris & Jeffrey Gullett have, speaking with Eurogamer, flirted with our hearts and minds, saying they've "looked at" bringing the company's classic PC adventure games to the DS. That's good! But then Gullett says "the cart size of the DS makes it impossible to put out ports of any of our old graphic adventures". That's bad! Gullett then says "It could still happen...We've got a lot of pride in our heritage and it's definitely something we're still leaving open". That's good! And now I need a lie down. Emotional rollercoasters like that can leave a man broken.

LucasArts could revive graphic adventures [Eurogamer]

Woah. Pulled directly from Bungie.net file, this Halo 3 screenshot is apparently unaltered. Look at the way the smoke swirls into a freaky eyeball. Nightmare inducing!

The Creepiest Halo 3 Screenshot Ever [Hawty McBloggy]

So Ubisoft held a big press day last week, and showed off everything the company had up their sleeve, good and bad. Oh, sorry, almost everything. They didn't show Splinter Cell Conviction, which got people talking. Got people worried the game mightn't be in the best of health. Especially since Ubisoft would only say they were "not ready to be more specific" about the title. But it's (probably) OK! The development team have since posted on the game's official boards, saying :

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Japan's System Soft Alpha brings humanity tactics RPG Moe Moe Niji Taisen Deluxe for the PSP/PS2. As game blog Insert Credit points out, System Soft Alpha has taken its strategy franchise Dai Senryaku and replaced tanks and planes with boobs large eyes and anime smiles. Originally, the game was intended for PC and does seem to venture into erotic game territory — though the PSP/PS2 versions will certainly be more titillating than anything else. Click through the gallery for images of things like a Nazi bikini lady rubbing sun oil on another lady's back. The game is out this fall in Japan and will be out elsewhere sometime between never and ever.

Moe Moe Niji Taisen Deluxe [Game Watch Impress via Insert Credit]

Like Ninja Gaiden II? Don't like fiddling around with a Japanese Xbox Live account just to play the demo? Me too. So...good news! Microsoft's Larry Hryb has slipped into his Twitter account a little note on the status of a Western demo for the title, writing "I am told that it will be available by the end of next week". That was written last Friday, so "next" week is actually this week. Be sure to count down the days on your calendar. In blood.

Thanks hdtv!

Heeeey, it's Jin Saotome! You remember Jin Saotome, right? Talented kid. Makes his own custom action figures, official licensing deals be damned. This is one of his latest gaming-related works, a member of Fallout's Brotherhood of Steel, circa Fallout 3. The gun's a bit too futuristic, but the guy himself? Totally nailed it.

Ubisoft just a game maker? Hilarious! The company's CEO Yves Guillemot wants to transform Ubisoft into a multimedia juggernaut. From books to a TV series, Ubisoft is moving every which way. About the CGI movie production studio Ubisoft founded, Guillemot says:

Our goal is to create a studio that will be very high quality, our goal is to try to get to the level of quality of Peter Jackson's Weta studio. We have been working to train people, to recruit highly talented people and we are in test mode at the moment. We are going to make sure that we get to the level of Weta. We have a long way to go but in getting to that level will help us to actually be one of the studios where everybody has to go.

We don't need to be always making the movie but what we have to do is make sure that what's necessary for our games is done close to us so we can reuse assets. Or we can have a specific relationship with a director who is going to do 3D imaging in such a way that we can also use them in our games. That is how we will improve the quality of our games, by giving our consumers a lot more than what we can give them today.

And hey, as movies use more and more CG and the level of game CG improves, stuff like this really makes sense.

Guillemot To Transform Ubisoft [Games Industry]

Missed the television debut of the new Street Fighter IV gameplay trailer? S'Okay. I did too. There's a good chance games, and not mixed martial arts TV shows, are your thing. So here it is, for your perusal, presented in stunning internet-o-vision.

New York City got a giant Wii Fit add. Los Angeles got a Grand Theft Auto IV hotel. Tokyo? Tokyo's Shibuya gets a couple giant Metal Gear Solid 4 billboard overlooking the insanely busy Hachiko Square. Hit the jump for a wider shot.

Pictures taken by Kotakuite Jonathan in Kichijoji.

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To recap: Konami are imposing restrictions on what publications can and cannot talk about when reviewing Metal Gear Solid 4. No mention of 90-minute cutscenes please, and while you're at it, no talky-talky about install sizes either, K? IGN are cool with that. EGM, refreshingly, are not. Due to "limitations Konami wanted to impose on our comments", the editorial team decided to refrain from giving the game a score, and in lieu of a "review" posted a lengthy roundtable discussion about the game instead. It's hardly a gloved fist on an Olympic dias, but it is nice seeing somebody do something about such an...unsavoury practice.

EGM July 2008 [via GameSetWatch]

Bionic Commando Wii? Unannounced. Lost Planet Wii? Ditto. "Or Something Like This?" Will be announced soon. Via a Q&A with Capcom's Christian Svensson. Read on:

Question: Are we going to see Bionic Commando, Lost Planet or something like this on the Wii?

Svensson: Possible... the "or something like this" part we could talk about in a couple weeks perhaps.

We cannot wait to learn about "Or Something Like This." It sounds like a fantastic game.

Capcom To Announce New Wii Game [N-Europe via Infendo]

Oh, the videos are not viewable for those logging in from Canada and the UK, so folks in those regions will just have to imagine these trailers.

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I'm starting to think running competitions is a bad idea. Not because giving stuff away is bad, but choosing just a few winners out of many, many entries makes me cry. Inside.

Our Battle of the Bands comp for $350 worth of awesome T-shirts and tour bag, which ended on Friday, was by far the most popular comp we've run on Kotaku Australia. It was also the hardest to judge, as there was only one prize pack to give away.

But choose we did.

So, congratulations to Benjamin, who sent in his suggestion of "GoldenActz" - in picture form. I think you'll agree it's rather clever... nothing like mixing music with a classic arcade title. Benjamin signed his entry with the rather heart-warming words "i might be drunk right now". Oh, you're a regular charmer Ben!

We'll be in contact soon for your mailing address. Thanks to everyone who entered, we received some very creative stuff. Also massive props to THQ for providing the goods.

Called "Connection Tour 08", Nintendo will be traversing from Westfield shopping mall to Westfield shopping mall, showing off upcoming titles on its DS and Wii consoles.

If you haven't had a chance to play Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Connection Tour 08 will give you the perfect opportunity. Otherwise it's not a terribly exciting event, though there are promises of Mario Kart Wii comps and "heaps of giveaways". Kind of hard to belittle anything that involves free stuff, so I won't try.

Hit the jump for times, dates and mentions of pokemon.

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Just because you don't live in Sydney doesn't mean you have to miss out on meeting some of machinima's biggest names.

Rooster Teeth's Burnie Burns, creator of This Spartan Life Chris Burke and Bioware's Armando Troisi, among others, will be present at the ACMI in Melbourne from June 14 to 15. They'll be talking about all-things animation, including making movies in games like Halo and World of Warcraft.

Press release with pricing and bios after the jump.

[Pic, thanks Sgt. Hartsock]

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Alone in the Dark Delayed for PS3
As long as it comes out on at least one system, I'm not fussed!

Rumour: Nov. 16 is Your Gears 2 Drop Date
Interesting news on a date for Gears of War 2. Let's see how it stands up.

Kotaku Originals: Smooth Characters Aged in Oak
More original Kotaku stories to keep you up-to-date on the world of gaming.

This week looks like the second wave of big summer-season releases, dropping Ninja Gaiden II, GRID, Lego Indiana Jones, and The Bourne Conspiracy on Tuesday, followed by The Incredible Hulk on Friday. Oh, and let's also not forget Activision payday movie tie-in Kung Fu Panda: Shovelware edition, which accompanies the animated, thinly veiled Nacho Libre redux hitting screens this week. Consistent readers of the site will know I despise two things: Yap dogs, and animated movies with a colour-by-numbers stranger-in-a-strange-land narrative. Hate them like Colbert hates bears. And a panda is a bear.

Buying/renting any of these? Hit the comments.

Monday (June 2):
Dracula: Origin (PC)
Stronghold Crusader Extreme (PC)

Tuesday (June 3):
Ninja Gaiden II (360)
GRID (PC, 360, PS3)
Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Conspiracy (360, PS3)
Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures (PSP, 360, Wii, PS3, PC, PS2, DS)
Kung Fu Panda (360, PC, PS2, Wii, PS3, DS)
Summon Night: Twin Age (DS)
Hot Shots Golf: Open Tee 2 (PSP)
Fatal Inertia EX (PS3)

Wednesday (June 4):
Roogoo (360)

Thursday (June 5):
The Incredible Hulk (360, PS2, Wii, PS3, DS)

Reader Rob H. pointed out this nice little mid-Sunday diversion: Dino Run. After you get the hang of it you realise nothing in the environment will kill you, just slow you down on your panicked quest to outrun extinction. But most importantly, it's a flash game with multiplayer across three servers, although I waited forever for a game to start up.

Still, to the designers, hat-tip for rendering it like an old 4-bit PC game. I dunno, the tone just seems to deserve that kind of treatment. And also note how your dino farts after you chow down on less fortunate sauropods. Hat-tip for that, too.

Dino Run [Pixeljam, thanks Rob]

A homebrew programmer has cooked up a version of Portal for the Nintendo DS, titled "StillAliveDS." Naturally, this game plus an editor to create your own levels is free and available for download.

You move about the map, aiming a portal gun with your stylus to finish the level and grab pieces of cake along the way (naturally.) DS Fanboy raved about the game, conceding it lacks the graphics of the original but "it definitely has the feel and charm." Hell, I love the look on its own. Has a kind of Cartoon Networky mien about it. I just want to poke that guy in his tummy with the stylus, Pillsbury Doughboy style ...

Eh, er, OK, back to news. You can download it from the programmer T4ils, and if you need a guide on how to homebrew for the DS, DS Fanboy has that as well. There's also a screenshot gallery on DS Fanboy.

StillAliveDS: Portable 2D Portal for DS [DS Fanboy]

So, if seeing Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull left you a little disappointed, and you're twiddling your thumbs until Friday's Tuesday's release of Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures, fire up your emulators, British Gaming Blog has a chronology of every video game tied to the high-adventure series.

The list details the 10 and upcoming 11th (Lego Indiana Jones on June 6) and 12th (a TBA action title later) games featuring Dr. Jones. Ahhhhh but they left one out!!! Neener-neener this is why I posted it, to make myself look smart! Midscape released "Indiana Jones in the Lost Kingdom" for Commodore 64 in 1984 -- and it deliberately did not include an instruction manual. "No one told Indiana Jones the rules. And no one will tell you."

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Eurogamer reports back from Ubidays 08 that a demonstrator let slip word that voice commands will be able to order around your fellow fighter pilots in Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X.

"Demonstrator Andrei Costin spilled the beans at the recent UbiDays event in Paris, but avoided elaborating on exactly how it will all work; we expect it will be a blend of EndWar and Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter," writes Eurogamer.

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I was gonna try to get this up yesterday but then we had our site meltdown. However, I know all of you are interested in the online civil rights of Something Awful MMO guild members, and Funcom has stepped in to assure they will not be griefally profiled now or in the future on Age of Conan.

Here is a response from someone more senior than the GM who pleaded with the Goons to play nice. According to the Funcom customer service lead, that GM "made the honest mistake of giving out his personal opinion that maybe keeping a lower profile might be handy in avoiding a negative reputation."

Like SA ever gone out of its way to avoid a negative rep.

Anyway, here's the clarified position on what is and ain't OK.

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Last night's network debut of mixed martial arts on CBS also featured the commercial airing of the Street Fighter IV gameplay trailer. Now it and a lot of other stuff is live on Capcom's official Street Fighter IV website, which launched shortly after the commercial. Not a big fan of the Faith No More track, but yes, ad people want to tout the game as "Epic" so I can connect the dots.

GameStop also is flacking an "Art of Street Fighter" book as incentive for the Xbox 360 and PS3 releases. The game is supposed to release Feb. 3, 2009.

The site contains character bios, sketches and making-of content -- some of it you may have seen elsewhere, but now it's all together under one roof.

Street Fighter IV [Capcom, via Gaming Bits]

And no word on when it will actually arrive. In an interview with VideoGamer.com, Nour Polloni of developer Eden Games says the game is "not performing as well on PS3 as we hope it is in terms of frame rate," and they're holding back the title in order to give PS3 players their money's worth.

"We didn't want it to come out and have less of an experience for the PS3 gamer," Polloni said. "We wanted to tweak that up and make sure they get the best experience on PS3 as much as possible."

Alone in the Dark for PS3 will be the same content as the 360 and PC versions but will still be "worth the wait." Those two consoles plus the PS2 and Wii versions will drop on June 24.

And, interestingly, he got real cagey about multiplayer possibilities in this franchise.

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PC Call of Duty 4 gamers can download four maps free in an NVIDIA-sponsored Variety Map Pack due to drop Thursday.

The four maps for Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare are the Broadcast, Chinatown, Killhouse and Creek maps. Furthermore, PC players will get a patch that fixes a server crash, fixes some other bugs, adds in some things and, oh yeah, enables support for the new maps.

So, PC gamers, don't say nobody never did nuthin' for ya. Xbox 360 owners had to buy this. Enjoy!

Variety Map Pack Sponsored by NVIDIA hits PC June 5th [IAMfourzerotwo]

And here's another trailer, this new one for Fracture courtesy (world exclusive of course) of Gametrailers. It gives us a look at the terrain deformation integral to Fracture's storyline and gameplay -- under a narration from, apparently, President Wayne Palmer of 24.

From what I can tell of the trailer, in the future there's basically a big East Coast-West Coast rap war with earthquake guns. These can be used against your enemy or to give yourself a terrain advantage.

Fracture is due for release in October, on the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360.

Fracture - World Exclusive Trailer [GameTrailers via Gaming Bits]

Joystiq reports that, at the Wizard World convention in Philadelphia, Lester Speight -- aka Gears of War's "Cole Train" -- gave a wink-nudge tip that Nov. 16 will be the release date for for Gears of War 2. Quoth Joystiq:

[Speight] who voiced Gears of War's "Cole Train", recently made an appearance at the TriForce panel at Wizard World to shoot the breeze about the company's line of GoW-related replicas. When asked about the sequel's release date, the TriForce crew remained tight lipped, though Rasta suggested asking him again on November 16.

Sounds specific enough to me. The tip came in via David Hinkle of DS and Wii Fanboy. They're pursuing. We will too as soon as more is known.

Rumour: Voice of 'Cole Train' suggests November 16 release for Gears of War 2 [Joystiq]