To: Crecente
From: Ashcraft

I have been up since 4 this morning and am TOTALLY BLOTTO. But! Good new, I have steak tonight, Japanese beef. Big, fat steak. We all had steaks, and they were something like $AU 31.62 a steak. The in-laws came by today and had lunch. They brought meat. Delicious meat.

What you missed last night
FFXIII still PS3 only
UT3 box talks Gears 2 exclusive stuff
Rose and Camellia are back
JT transcript
Konami cancels Akihabara MGS4 event
Microsoft 360 RPG screenshoot blowout

Meat after the jump.

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Resident Evil 5 Jun Takeuchi talks, well, Resident Evil 5 and explains why the game is set in Africa. Apparently, because of hints in Resident Evil Code: Veronica. Capcom had no choice! Takeuchi does forget to bring up the magnificent zombie moustaches. He should be ashamed.

New Resident Evil 5 Interview [Capcom Blog]

Update: We've moved the video to the jump because it was causing issues with our front page.

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Yesterday, Square Enix announced a couple games for the Xbox 360. Previously PS3-only Star Ocean 4 is indeed Xbox 360 bound. And multiplatform release The Last Remanent is getting released on the Xbox 360 first. Today, Square Enix announced it's upcoming "private party" in August that will be showcasing PS3, PSP, DS and mobile games. (No Xbox 360 titles, apparently!) Dubbed "DKΣ3713", the two-day Shinjuku event will be limited to only 2,400 attendees, picked by raffle through the Japanese Square Enix Members website. The event will have new demos and new trailers. Games that will be on hand are:

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It's been several days since tragedy hit Akihabara. While the internet is having its own grinning nerd witch hunt, the Japanese media is having its own. Standard defaults are bandied about (video games, anime). Website Canned Dogs has a handy recap:

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Charge your MS points to this and watch time and space tear themselves apart. As part of their ongoing attempts to convince Indians to part with their cash and embrace the 360, Microsoft have teamed up with local bank ICICI to offer the Xbox 360 Visa card. Besides giving fanboys the chance to show their fanboy colours to...shop assistants and waiters, it actually seems a pretty sweet deal, since signing up for the card entitles you to 360-related discounts, like discounts on games and peripherals, including 10% off controllers and 15% off...Kameo.

Xbox 360 Credit Card [Redington, via Siliconera]

"Ron" Tajima from Japan has created Pacmba, a Roomba covered with 448 yellow LEDs. "Ron" Tajima is a LED soldering, Roomba modding genius. Waka waka.

Thanks, Barts!

There's a cute feature up over at 1UP at the moment, where a bunch of noted developers have been given one wish. ONE ONLY (no secondsys). Or three, if they'd like, but not two. And those wishes can only be applied to some aspect of games development, not, you know. For their missus to get larger norgs, or to get a never-ending cookie jar or something. Warren Spector wants an engine that makes games as "easy" to make as movies. Will Wright wants better AI pathfinding. BioWare's Muzyka & Zeschuk want convincing, emotional AI. Some of the others are more interesting than that, others aren't, others cheated and are now trapped inside a brass lantern for a thousand generations.

Three Wishes [1UP]

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Way back in April, Epic exec and brown suit owner Mark Rein hinted at "a little Gears of War 2 related surprise on the disc of Unreal Tournament III". Over at retailer Game UK, Xbox 360 UTIII box art has a sticker that shows the Gears logo and reads: "Exclusive Gears of War 2 Video Content On Disc". Talk about a surprise! Holy shit, this is the biggest surprise like ever. Not like when Halo 3 beta showed up on Crackdown, that was totally not a surprise. But this, this will have us reeling in shock for days.

UTIII Box [GAME via CVG]

Unless you're a die-hard fighting game nut (and British), you probably weren't planning on popping round to the Battle of Destiny fighting game tournament next month. Shame. Because by not attending you're not only missing out on a chance to play Street Fighter II HD early, but you're missing out on a chance to play the arcade version of Street Fighter IV early as well. Oh, so you've changed your mind? Fancy that. It's on July 26 & 27, at the London Metropolitan Uni.

The Battle Of Destiny [via Capcom]

Film Beowulf was sure expensive to make! The CG-laden flick was budgeted around $AU 158.08 million — not exactly chump change. Heavenly Sword developer Ninja Theory thinks it could have done the flick cheaper. Twenty percent of the cost, actually! Oh ho ho ho. Let's hear what Ninja Theory's Tameem Antoniades has to say:

We see an entirely different area of progress: a form of independent production based on real-time game engine technology. We reckon you could do something like Beowulf for 15-20 per cent of the cost... If you are already creating hi-res assets for a game, then sharing these can bring that cost down even further... We have a lot of experience in performance capture, animation, rendering and so on. We can compete in the same way that indie films can live alongside blockbusters.

20 percent of the cost is dandy and all, Ninja Theory, but would your film have Angelina Jolie? Well.

Make Beowulf [Games Industry]

Will it blend? OLD NEWS. So 2007. This year, it's all about will it shred. That's the question SSI are asking. SSI make commercial-grade shredders. These things don't shred incriminating tax documents. They shred machines. Watch, then, as one of their units goes up against a genuine Asteroids arcade cabinet, in an effort to see which of the two will come out on top. Just...don't put your money on Asteroids walking away from this one.

Watch a commercial shredder devour an Asteroids cabinet [Boing-Boing]

Microsoft does not have a handheld device, which, you know, probably is a good thing! Why? It can put games on the Nintendo DS and get its brands out to people who may not or may never own an Xbox 360. Take Viva Piñata, which is getting DS title Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise. Microsoft-owned developer Rare has been working on the title as well as other DS games like Diddy Kong Racing DS. Says Rare's Joe Humfrey:

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How do you improve on what's probably the best game ever made? You make it bigger. Badder. More woman-slappier. Yes, Rose & Camellia is back, this time as Rose & Camellia 2, featuring all-new ladies, all new stages and all-new woman-slapping action. It's great! So great there's a catch: you've got to finish R&C1 first (the shockwave version, linked below) to gain access to it. A little harsh, perhaps, but the bigger the reward the tougher the toil.

Rose & Camellia 2 [Nigoro, via IndieGames]

Earlier this month, we reported that Jack Thompson walked out of his disciplinary hearing after saying the judge did not have the authority to hear his case. The Florida Bar is recommending that Thompson be disbarred for a minimum of ten years for professional misconduct. So! For those who was a blow-by-blow retelling of the fireworks, game site GamePolitics has the full court transcript. There's this nuttiness:

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Any of you use Google Reader for your RSS needs? I do. Mostly because I can access it from any PC, and it's super-easy to use. Anyway, enough of the free advertising! Seems somebody at Google HQ is a fan of the ol' Konami code, because it's been found that if you open up your Google Reader and punch in the code on your keyboard (with arrow keys for direction), you'll get a neat - if tough on the eyes - little treat.

Google hearts the Konami code [CrunchGear, via Boing Boing]

Metal Gear Solid 4 is a Sony product smorgasbord! The game has Snake using a SIXAXIS controller, Otacon talking up the power of Blu-ray. Not to mention the in-game Sony cell phone! Now, add the PSP to the list of Sony product cross promotion. Bet Sony thinks it's a shame Kojima Productions chose to have MGS4 include an iPod and not a Walkman. (Bet Sony thinks it's a shame nobody buys Walkmans!)

Hey, You Put A PSP [PSP Fanboy]

OK, that wooden, scrap-ey sound you hear? It's the bottom of Metal Gear's barrel being scraped. This fifth (and surely final) look back on the Metal Gear series deals with some of less noted, more (and this is a relative term) forgettable titles, like Portable Ops, card-battler AC!D and the Game Boy's wacky Ghost Babel.

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Ohhh. Infamous! For the PS3! It was announced a year ago, then promptly forgotten, because as much good will as I have towards Sucker Punch (Sly Cooper), the thought of another current-gen action game set in another current-gen world of ruins and muted colours just leaves me feeling...grey. Particularly when the story sounds like Ex Machina, only without the snappy business suits. Still, that's me being terribly judgemental based on naught but a piece of art and some setting details: the full details on the game, to be revealed in the next Game Informer, may see me doing a complete 180 on the subject!

July Issue Revealed! [Game Informer]

More balls! More Dragon Balls! Cactuargal points out that these GLOWING Dragon Balls are see-thru and pretty true to the Earth size of a Dragon Ball. To bring everyone up to speed: Make a Dragon Ball. The best damn Dragon Ball you can! It cannot be drawn or virtual -- it must be an actual three dimension Dragon Balls. Now! If you don't know what Dragon Balls look like, you can click here. While the Dragon Balls you make should look like actual Dragon Balls, feel free to get creative with what you use to make them. The contest wraps up later this month. The finalists will win either the PS3 version or Xbox 360 version of Dragon Ball Z Burst Limit. Be sure to send entries to kotakucontestATgmailDOTcom and include a Kotaku sign. Losers get INTERNET FAME.

Hit the jump for another!

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Speaking at the Piper Jaffray Consumer Conference, the square-Jawed and wonderfully-named Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick let rip on EA Sports, choosing his fight, and his words, super-carefully:

When we go head-to-head with 'Brand X' we out-rate them significantly...We outsell them when we go head-to-head. It's sort of an unheralded achievement. This is a tough business.

On one hand, he's right! 2K's basketball and hockey games are normally top-shelf, and they've got baseball to themselves. But the "head-to-head" bit...yeah, it's dancing around that elephant in the room. 2K don't have an NFL game in the US. They don't have a football game in Europe/Asia. That's like saying my 92 Corolla can take on a Ferrari head-to-head, so long as we're going off the number of wheels and doors and not, you know. Racing.

2K Sports unheralded against EA Sports, says Zelnick [GI.biz]

You read the liveblog, now look at the moving pictures! Here's Metal Gear Solid 4 we-are-finished presser held last month in Tokyo. The clip is up on the Japanese PSN and is in, well, Japanese. OH! For proof that I actually do work, there's a blink-and-you'll-miss-me at about 32 seconds in.

Thanks, Manny88!

You heard right, I said cheap! Well, Economical Gamer's Anthony said it first, and he has prices to back it up.

If you're willing to head to your closest Big W, you can grab both Ninja Gaiden II and MGS 4 for $78.84 and $94.84 respectively. Alternatively, JB Hi-Fi has the titles for $79 and $99. As for the MGS4 PS3 bundle, the cheapest offer is at Dick Smith, where it's retailing for $729.

To ring in the post-MGS4 era in a suitably festive tone, Konami had planned to hold a big launch "event" in Tokyo tomorrow, one of those meet-and-greet, get-your-sleeve-signed deals. Now, though, due to "various reasons", it's cancelled it. With no explanation given, only a notice on the game's official website that it'll instead take place sometime later in the month. It could be down to Kojima and co. being a little pooped after the worldwide promo tour for the game, but there's always the chance Konami are a little spooked following the tragic events that took place in Akihabara earlier this week.

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Last charts, Conan was popular. Conan is still popular, being the first non-Warcraft or Sims title to defend its #1 spot that my human brain can remember. It even held off a respectable debut from Mass Effect, which entered at #2. Goes to show what a conversion, and not a port, can do for sales. I'll also make cursory mention of Call of Duty 4 at #8 and Sins of a Solar Empire at #9, because the rest of the charts are, yes, Warcraft and Sims titles. BORING.

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Upper lips, listen up! Entries for our Snake 'Stache Contest keep rollin' on. Don't know what the hell is going on? Click here! All will be revealed!! Reader Christopher sends this pic, adding that his stache has a stache. Yes, he's right. It does. But wait! There's a Twin Stache. Hit the jump for that.

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I've raved about NVIDIA's 8800GT chip before. For less than $200, you can get yourself a 3D card with comparable performance to the company's top-of-the-line $400-$500 offerings. Bang, meet buck.

Hardware review site HardOCP decided to put the 8800GT, along with newer models like the 9800GTX and 9600GT, against Funcom's recently released MMO Age of Conan. The game is one of the prettier online titles available at the moment, so concerns about aging video cards is certainly warranted. If you bought a GeForce 8800GT back when supplies were low, is it a purchase you should be regretting now?

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According to tipster Jamie, this front page story for the Adelaide Advertiser hit just a few days after the launch of Grand Theft Auto IV. Yes, it's probably just a play on words to contrast stealing cars with oil companies "stealing" cash from drivers, rather than some wacky tie-in with the release fever of Rockstar's opus, but the close debut of one of the biggest and fastest selling games of the year no doubt gave the newspaper a few more readers than usual.

The dust may have settled on last night's 360 RPG shindig in Tokyo, but the post-event media blowout, well, that's only just warming up. On offer here: screenshots for Infinite Undiscovery (some new, some not), the gorgeous-looking Star Ocean 4, Last Remnant and the tastefully cel-shaded Tales of Vesperia. If you're only stumbling upon all this now, you may as well get yourself up to speed on all the announcements, save us having to repeat ourselves.

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After perusing the "Sporepedia" for a bit, you might start to wonder "Can my lowly Windows-based PC or Mac handle this much awesomeness?" Maxis responds with a thorough set of Spore minimum system requirements for the release platform of your choice. And they're not at all unreasonable! Windows gamers, you're up first, Mac gamers, you're after the jump.

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Wait, so let me get this straight. Not only is the GameTraders in Carillon, WA having a midnight launch for Metal Gear Solid 4 (yes, it's available tomorrow folks), but the store is currently selling brand-new copies of Devil May Cry 4 and Frontlines: Fuel of War on Xbox 360 for $20. $20! That's damn cheap.

As for MGS4, the midnight launch will be held at the Reading Cinema in Belmont Forum. The event kicks off at 9PM, and GT will be selling the game for $99.95 (RRP $119.95). Maybe not as cheap as an import, but probably among the cheapest prices in Australia.

[Thanks Raze35]

Microsoft has ranged from mum to cagey on the exact source of the hardware issue that has red ringed thousands upon thousands of Xbox 360s, with Robbie Bach chalking it up to a "a Microsoft design issue". While the President of the company's Entertainment & Devices Division would prefer to leave it at that, a report from the EETimes lays blame on the console's graphics chip, one made on the cheap.

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Update: Week 1's game, Wizkill, is available for download.

Above is a screenshot of Wizkill, a roguelike I started writing in the early hours of Monday morning. I often get distracted writing small games like this, with the sad part being that I either never finish them, or they sit unplayed by anyone but me, rotting in cyber oblivion.

No longer! At least for the next few weeks. Starting from this Friday (when I'll upload Wizkill), I'm going to try and code a new game every week. Depending on how popular this feature turns out to be, I'll keep going until I run out of ideas, or it breaks me.

If you'd like to hear more, or feel you can contribute, hit the jump!

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Kotaku reader and Philadelphian "daeeatsall" is not what you might call a "casual" fan of Metal Gear. This pair of Metal Gear Solid 3-inspired tattoos that have effectively eliminated him from the regular workforce are a testament to that, with a "Zombie" facepainted Snake on his right and an Eva on his left. We'll just sit back and admire tattoo artist Bird's work on his hands, keeping our opinions to ourselves. We'd hate for any misconstrued words to be misinterpreted and to be on the receiving end of those meaty fists. Yikes!

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The graphics whore within wishes that Madden NFL 09 looked like this all the time (and that a holographic John Madden could be called upon for advice at any moment, should we need to know the barbeque time on sausages or find out if Ace hardware had something in stock). We think the "Madden IQ Test" is a fantastic introduction for people who are terrible at virtual football, as I am, so that they can have a good measure of their skill level before playing. Maybe it's just so easy to place John in an AT-AT or Death Star transmission with that bluish interlaced look he's got. It's slimming!

Madden NFL 09 - IQ Test: Rushing Offence HD [GameTrailers]

Have you seen the recent Saints Row 2 trailer that makes direct comparisons to Grand Theft Auto IVto show why it's more fun? It's more tongue-in-cheek snarky than truly nasty, but apparently it prompted one analyst to counsel investors to take it with a grain of salt.

Janco Partners analyst Mike Hickey said that going toe-to-toe with GTA IV on content is "an unusually pompous position... considering GTA IV is estimated to be the highest grossing 1st week entertainment release of all time".

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Care to take a gander at the breadth and depth of Spore's creature creator? Then direct thy internet compass northward to the official Spore web site, with a freshly populated "Sporepedia" that's growing by the minute. The Spore monster manual has more variety than one could shake a stick at, with creatures that are fuzzy, tentacled, even ones that look like walking Bosch pears. Already, more than a gross of man-made beasts have been uploaded.

We're just a week away from the Spore Creature Creator going public, meaning it wouldn't hurt to brush up on the SimEverything bestiary before you get your mouse pointer on it.

Sporepedia [Spore.com]

Turok, the dinosaur hunting Native American hero, now 50-plus years in existence, is getting the silver screen treatment according to MTV's movie blog. Set to star Adam Beach as the titular dino-stabber, the movie is still a long way off, with the lead actor telling MTV Movies "We're about to set up meetings to develop a script and put it out there" with an estimated release "a couple years" from now.

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Sid Meier's not giving up on the Wii. In a recent interview with GameDaily, he said he and Firaxis think the Wii is "a fantastic platform, and have no intentions of turning our backs on it!"

He wouldn't confirm, of course, any plans for a Wii version of Civilisation Revolution but his positive response should be encouraging, at least, to Civ fans.

He was also asked about the possibility of a Civ MMO:

I'm exploring lots of exciting ideas right now. A Civ MMO is a really intriguing idea and we're spending time thinking about how we could make it the fun addictive experience Civ players expect. Beyond that I have some new ideas that are quite different from games I've made in the past - and that's all I'm able to tell you right now. Stand by for more information in the near future!

10 Questions: Firaxis' Sid Meier [GameDaily]

More Details On Portal 2's Bad Guy
Just when you thought Portal's was tres awesome.

Interview: Flagship Studios On Life After Hellgate Launch
Ah, Hellgate: London. A futuristic Diablo sounded like a good idea. Where did it go wrong?

Microsoft's Xbox 360 RPG Premiere 2008 Press Conference Round-Up
As much Xbox 360 RPG madness as you can handle.

NVIDIA Isn't Afraid Of Console Gaming
Why would it be? It designed the chip inside the PS3 and, before that, the original Xbox.

New Neverwinter Nights 2 Expansion In Development
One word: Joy.

Ninja Gaiden II Review: Swan Song or Death Knell?
Yes, but is there enough blood?

Summer blockbusters don't just line the pockets of film studio executives and actors working on a percentage of the gross, it looks like they help resellers of licenced games too. According to a bit of research from the Video Game Price Charts blog—I've used them in the past when selling my unwanted games via eBay—the time to strike when selling your copy of Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine or Iron Man / X-O Manowar in Heavy Metal is when the movie adaptations hit theatres.

Yes, there's even a market for the terrible PlayStation Speed Racer game! Plenty of interesting charts and graphs await hopeful auctioneers at VGPC. I'm off to put a spit shine on my copy of The X-Files for PSone in anticipation!

Summer Movies Increase Game Prices. Go Speed Racer! [VGPC]