To: Crecente
From: Ashcraft
RE: Sporelebrity

So! It finally happened. Metal Gear Solid 4 launched. I went out and checked the launch here in Osaka. Seems like the US launch was more successful with bigger crowds, bigger hype. For a AAA game (and hardware bundle), the Tokyo lines were surprisingly short. Like compared to how, say, Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G moved games and software in Japan with hundreds of people turning out at multiple locations across Tokyo in droves, the MGS4 launch here was way low-key. No doubt Sony is hoping MGS4 will do the same in Japan. Guess we'll find out when the official sales numbers come in.

As I mentioned in the comment section: Granted, it was raining in Tokyo (sunny in Osaka!) and there was that recent Akihabara tragedy, but from what I saw MGS4 doesn't look like it's doing gangbusters here. Maybe the actual sales figures will be different or maybe the game has legs or maybe everyone will be picking it up on the way home from work. Who knows?

Tomorrow I have the day off! I shall spend it reading a very cool looking Japanese monster book Yokai Attack! and drinking pricey Japanese beer. Tomorrow will be awesome. I can feel it.

(Oh, and creepy spider, dude.)

What you missed last night
Metal Gear Solid 4 launch delayed in Spain
Nintendo says only "geeks" want more Wii memory
Metal Gear Solid 4 San Fran launch
Kojima NYC madness
Metal Gear Solid 4 Osaka launch
Metal Gear Solid 4 Tokyo launch

Solid Snake's English voice actor David Hayter, Drebin's voice Khary Payton, Liquid Ocelot's Patric Zimmerman, MGS4 producer Ken Imaizumi, assistant producer Ryan Payton and Ryan Payton's hat were all on hand at the midnight launch signing. Thanks Kotaku reader helsinkivalo for the vid!

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It's official, Nintendo will be selling a new silver and black DS branded with the Guitar Hero logo as part of a limited-time bundle with Guitar Hero: On Tour, the company announced today.

"This one-of-a-kind bundle makes Nintendo DS even more appealing to our ever-growing audience of players", said Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America's executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. "Like Nintendo DS itself, the Guitar Hero franchise has attracted millions of new players to the world of video games".

The bundle, which hasn't been priced yet, will be available starting on June 22 when the game goes on sale.

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Disgaea 3's due in, oh, a couple of months in the US, but you wouldn't know it from how quiet everyone's been. What, no hype left for Nippon Ichi and Disgaea? No love for Stupid Hard Levels? For switching seats with classmates? Come ooooooonnnn. Maybe this English-language trailer for the game will get you in the mood for throws, and Prinnies, and combat of a tactical nature.

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Metal Gear Solid 4 has launched pretty much everywhere. Well, everywhere save for Spain. The game hasn't yet launched there because of a transportation strike against the high price of gasoline. Konami Europe isn't able to get the game to stores. Here's the statement from Konami Europe:

Konami Digital Entertainment Spain regrets to info of possible delays, through no fault of the company, may occur in the distribution of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots for PLAYSTATION 3 in the coming days.

Although the official launch globally is June 12, 2008, the product will be unavailable this week in Spain due to the transport strike.

In the continuing effort to maintain the best gaming experience for our users, Konami Digital Entertainment deeply regrets that this contingency affect the date of launch of a long-awaited title.

Will be informed shortly of the date on which the product will be available in our country.

Bummer that the launch had to be pushed back due to a transport strike. The price of gas isn't anything to be happy about, either.

Comunicado sobre la fecha de lanzamiento de Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots [Konami Thanks, Lauren!] [Pic]

Remakes are all the rage these days! Whether it's literally remaking a classic, or just putting out "reimaginings" of long-running franchises, we can't get enough of the good old stuff. By re-releasing Rez on XBLA, you'd think Q's Tetsuya Mizuguchi would be big on the idea of remaking more of his classic titles, right? Like...Space Channel 5, maybe? Sadly, he's not, telling Eurogamer there's no "really special reason to remake Space Channel 5 now". Reason being that Rez was an experience, which could be improved upon with HD graphics, 5:1, etc, while SC5 is "funny, like a comical TV show. I don't feel the need for much more resolution in that!". Oh dear. Just because YOU don't need to see Ulala in a higher resolution, Miz, doesn't man WE don't need to.

Tetsuya Mizuguchi Interview [Eurogamer] [Pic]

We would sure like more Wii memory space! That would be great and make people happy. Wait, strike that. One more time: That would be great and make geeks and otaku happy — at lease according to Nintendo of Europe. Website Next-Generation brings word of a recent Euro Nintendo event:

As is always the case with Nintendo's press events nowadays, the dirty word 'casual' was raised at its WiiWare preview, only to be dismissed in favour of a distinction between gamers and non-gamers. Playing these semantic games is fine, but when a pertinent question about the limited Wii system memory was raised, Laurent Fischer, managing director of marketing at NOE, easily slipped into talking about how "geeks and otaku" were the only people who would want this issue addressed. This is oversimplifying something that will only become increasingly important as Wii developers explore the console's online service, whether through WiiWare or DLC, and is of concern to not only a niche section of the market that wants to buy into that content.

Because we all know that soccer mums will so be all over those WiiWare games. Laurent Fischer? Marketing genius.

Nintendo's Mixed WiiWare Messages [Next-Gen]

Buried at the bottom of their self-congratulatory first birthday post (happy birthday!), SCEA's PlayStation.Blog team have a little note for their long-suffering European brothers, long without a decent blog of their own. They say they hear your pain, feel your pain, and are in talks to "bring more PlayStation news to you from that part of the world". Which I read as "we can't be arsed setting up another blog, but we'll post Euro stuff on this one". Good news, Europe! Your days of relying on the regrettable Three Speech for community info (PSN updates, release dates, etc) may soon be over.

PlayStation.Blog is a Year Old Today [PlayStation.Blog]

For upcoming Silent Hill title Silent Hill: Homecoming, Konami had Western studio Foundation 9 do the developing duties. How does the original Japanese team feel about that? Series composer and producer Akira Yamaoka states:

Silent Hill's identity is that Japanese teams create the kind of horror that takes place in the U.S. I'm not saying this in a negative way, but Japanese people creating a story taking place in the U.S. was part of Silent Hill's identity. This time we worked with a Western development team, with Japanese members also involved, so it's not just Western developers making this by themselves. We are involved, too. So it's different from the past iterations of Silent Hill, but I think it is something new and very interesting.

Yamaoka goes on to say that half the Japanese team members are really into David Lynch (pictured) movies like The Elephant Man. The other half are into other movies, it seems. Good for them.

Yamaoka Interview [Gamasutra] [Pic]

Punching! Pants! Chests! Here's the trailer for fan service PSP game Ikkitousen Eloquent Fist. "Eloquent" is a word play on "ero-quent" with "ero" short for erotic. So clever.

Note: the trailer isn't exactly work safe.

Just a scant hour ago I made the trek down to the Powell Street GameStop to take in the midnight launch of Metal Gear Solid 4. Upon arrival, I was greeted with a line that went halfway down the block and around the corner. Roughly seventy five to a hundred and people waited patiently for the doors to open so they could once again get their hands on their beloved Solid Snake. First in line was lucky Kiattikhun Ratanatharathorn, known as "Bank" to his friends (pictured after the jump) who had been waiting for his prize since 6pm. He was accompanied by his friend James Demonico who wasn't actually there for the game but he owed "Bank" money so he came along for the ride (now I guess we know why they call him "Bank").

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Metal Gear Solid 4 the game wasn't the only MGS thingy that went on sale today. Japanese clothing chain Uniqlo also put its MGS shirts up for sale. Writes reader Christian:

They didnt look as good as I'd hoped, but found two designs that I'd wear.

Better than finding two designs you wouldn't wear!

Metal Gear Solid Shirts [UT]

Having played a bit of MGS4, I'd say the most impressive thing has got to be the game's new active camo system. The above clip does a neat job of showing that off, as Snake crawls around a plaza shifting his camo to fit his surrounds, staying suitably disguised. OH. Wait, no. That's the second-most impressive thing. The most impressive thing is how, at his age, Snake can keep his buns so tight.

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In the midst of a bunch of people talking/getting excited about a Turok movie, Variety's Ben Fritz makes a very valid point: just because people are talking about it, doesn't mean it's getting made. As anyone who's followed the fortunes of, say, Watchmen, or Halo will know, turning a movie from an idea into, well, a movie, is a lot harder than it looks. As Fritz says, "only a fraction of [meetings] turn into good scripts and a fraction of those actually get made as movies". And that goes double for ones based on a Disney property that Disney have nothing to do with, as is the case with this current "project".

Disney not making Turok movie [Variety]

This was the scene outside the Metal Gear Solid 4 midnight launch at the Virgin Megastore in Times Square, New York City. The epic crowds were here to get their brand-new copy of the game signed by Hideo Kojima, who was in attendance with the lovely Yumi Kikuchi, the voice and model for the "Beauty" Raging Raven.

The real madness took place inside, of course. Hit the jump for full details.

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Compared to Tokyo's Metal Gear Solid 4 launch, the Osaka one seemed more low-key. Above is the line at the Sofmap in Den-Den Town (Osaka's version of Akihabara) a few minutes before the store opened. The line was about 13 or 14 people long. To see the other side of the truck, hit the jump.

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Yeah, as a concept, these have been done before. Most notably that still-funny Governator one. But soundboard prank calls based on videogame characters? That's new. And what better way to kick off the trend than with Shenmue's Ryo Hazuki doing what he does best: asking deadpan, stupid questions.

[Tapezilla]

This morning, Metal Gear Solid 4 launched in Tokyo, Japan. According to Famitsu, there was a line of twenty or so in front of the Yodobashi Camera in Shinjuku at 8:30 this morning. By 9:15am, the line grew to about 50 people, and swelled to around 100 thirty minutes before the store opened.

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Unless you've seen Happy Feet, you probably haven't heard of Animal Logic. The company is a digital animation studio based in Fox Studios in Sydney. It's also worked on 300, 28 Weeks Later and the Oz flick The Black Balloon. Excluding the hunk of aborted crap that was 28 Weeks, it's a excellent portfolio.

Now AL wants to do games. Games! Here's what CEO Zareh Nalbandian had to say:

"As production values for games increase exponentially, so do the opportunities at the convergence of high end digital film making and game creation. ALI is uniquely poised to lead this convergence with its commitment to visual innovation, quality, talent and great ideas".

Hey, if Ninja Theory reckons it can do decent, realistic 3D movies on the cheap, then there's nothing stopping Animal Logic from doing the same for games.

My only question: Why open the damn thing up over in LA? Oh, that's right, the government still sucks at supporting developers in Australia.

Press release after the jump.

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Nestled gently at the bottom of one of his most recent blog posts, David Jaffe has spoken a little on a topic that I've always found interesting as hell: the previous/working titles of some of his games. Something about how a different name can alter your entire perception of a title...anyways. Some of them are really interesting! Like the fact one of God of War's possible names was Ω. Just the symbol. And the fact Kratos was for a long time going to be called the much-cheesier (especially with ham and pineapple) Dominus. And that one of Twisted Metal's original names was the brilliantly evocative Cars and Rockets, which Jaffe said "nobody else" liked. Nobody? Oh Sony.

Why the do we even try? [Jaffe's Blog]

Let's take Unreal Tournament 2004. A still somewhat-popular online shooter. Now, UT2004 has two teams: red and blue. Just like a lot of other online games. If you recorded the results of 1,347 UT2004 MP matches, you'd think that, over time, the results would balance out, yes? 50% to the red team, 50% to the blue team. But no! Researchers at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark have found that red came out on top, winning 55% of the matches, tying online gaming into similar studies performed in physical sports, where it's been suggested teams/athletes wearing red enjoy an advantage over others. The reason? Because the "colour red may act as a psychological distractor for men, possibly because men flush and turn red when they're angry". Implied is that blue may also act as a psychological distractor for men, possibly because it makes them think of blue skies, fluffy clouds and lazy days at the beach instead of the bloody job at hand.

[AP] [Pic]

Mass Effect not running as well as you'd like it to? Your PC crying out in pain against the flood of polygons and normal maps? Never fear, TweakGuides has written up a couple of fancy HTML pages packed full of tips to get the most from Bioware's role-playing title. Not all of us can afford top-of-the-line gear for our systems, so it's nice to know there's someone out there looking out for the hardware-challenged.

Mass Effect is built on Epic's Unreal Engine 3, so don't be surprised if the tweaks resemble something you'd apply to Unreal Tournament III.

Mass Effect Tweak Guide [TweakGuides]

Last week, two gamers - one in Washington, one in California - filed a suit against EA in the US District Court of Northern California. Their beef? That Electronic Arts, through their exclusive ownership of the NFL licence, are engaged in "blatantly anticompetitive conduct". As such, they're seeking - wait for it - "restitution and damages for those who purchased an Electronic Arts football game since August of 2005, disgorgement of all profits made as a result of anticompetitive actions, and that the infringing agreements be declared null and void". I admire their spirit, really, and I miss the NFL2K series as much as the next guy, but there's a time when legal action is called for, and there's a time when it's kinda stupid, and will only serve to further clutter your already over-cluttered legal system. This is the latter.

Gamers sue EA over football exclusivity [GameSpot]

Distributor Red Ant has confirmed that Australia will be receiving the collector's edition of Fallout 3, the details of which we saw not so long ago. The pack is very similar to the kits given to press during last year's preview at Bethesda's HQ, minus the Vault 101 T-shirt and Nuke-a-Cola (I still haven't opened mine).

A release schedule from Red Ant places the game's arrival in October 2008. Unfortunately, the company was unable to provide a more specific date, or pricing for the CE. Stay tuned.

Update: EBGames has the PC CE going for $119.95, while the Xbox 360 and PS3 boxes are $10 more. [Thanks tsengan]

To a certain extent, copying in this industry is inevitable. It's a creative industry, built on ideas, and ideas are mostly built on ideas you like that other people had. A nicer way to describe it is the "creative process". But straight-up stealing assets? To the point where almost your entire game - architecture, UI, the works - is built upon other people's work? Less accepted.

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Early Impressions: Ghostbusters
Who ya gonna call? Probably the police, but it's fun to pretend.

Tabula Rasa Doing Just Fine, Thanks
Age of Conan might be the MMO darling at the moment, but Richard Garriott's project still has steam.

Nintendo Denies Connection to Wii Fit Arse Vid
That arse isn't connected to Nintendo. It's connected to a lady.

Square Enix Event Confirms That, Yep, FFXIII's Still PS3 Only
Time to buy a PS3 if you were holding out for a 360 release.

Marvellous just rang our doorbell, dropped off a press release that's got my day started off on the right foot. They've announced that King-simulator Little King's Story - the title formerly known as Project O - is getting a US release, and should be on shelves in time for "Spring 2008". If you need reminding, this is good news. The game was one of the most charming things I saw at last year's TGS, being a neat, avatar-driven take on The Settlers, with a deliciously quaint art style to boot. After jump's a presser with a few more details on the game, including the fact it'll (surprisingly) include some kind of combat system for conquering rival kingdoms.

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While I was at Sierra's preview event today, I got to see the latest Bandicoot title, Crash: Mind Over Mutant for Wii - it's also hitting Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, DS and PSP in the spring.

In this title, seminal antagonists Dr. Neo Cortex and N. Brio have invented some kind of technological device that has turned everyone into zombie-like obsessives, and Crash is the only one unaffected. To stop the evil scientists, Crash will have to liberate the area's mutants - not unselfishly, of course. The core mechanic relies on using the unique abilities of the beasties you save to fight other monsters, navigate areas and solve puzzles.

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At Sierra's preview event, I got a chance to take a look at an early build of the upcoming Ghostbusters game, in development by Terminal Reality and slated for a Fall release on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, PS2, DS and PC. One of the big things I learned was how involved Dan Aykroyd, who played Ray Stantz in the films, was in the game production.

Apparently it was Aykroyd who got all of the other cast members on board to do the voice-overs, and he was so enthusiastic about the game that he helped name and create specs for many of the game's weapons, to make sure they sounded and played like something that would have really been part of the franchise. In fact, Aykroyd is co-writing the entire script with fellow Ghostbusters writer Harold Ramis, so it's a game adaptation with what look to be strong ties to the original material.

The city of New York plays a major role here, too, and from what I saw and was told, the developers are aiming for a true-to-life NYC that echoes the environment in the films, from indoors to out - the city as a "character", as the reps said.

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To: Ash
From: Crecente
Re: Damn, Japanese Beef Is Tasty

So I received a copy of Spore Creator today and sat down with it to create the sort of abominations that in the real world would last only long enough to curse my creating them. It's pretty neat. Initially you feel very limited but once you get the feel for the thing you can go hog wild, though I suspect creating a person may not be possible... dammit. Anyway I spent an hour or so messing around with creatures. I have until next week to submit a creature for Spore to EA. They're going to then let the Internets decide which "Celebrity" Spore creation is the best among the 50. Other competitors? Rumour has it they include Stan Lee and David Byrne. HOT!

What you missed:
Take-Two Gets Into FTC Pissing Match
Nintendo Denies Connection to Wii Fit Arse Vid
The Incredible Hulk Review: The Beast Within
Dungeon Runner's Gold-Excreeting Bling Gnome Spotted

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Starting in June people who pick up the box copy of Dungeon Runners at a store will get an in-game Bling Gnome.

The Bling Gnome is a pet of sort that runs around in the game as you play picking up all of the gold dropped from the baddies you kill while playing the free-to-play massive game. The gnome can also be told to pick up dropped items that aren't rare and eat them. He then poops out gold as a reward... seriously.

I love this idea, it saves all of the hassle of having to go back to town and sell off the crap you horde while out in the wilds adventuring.

Hit up the jump for the full explainer as well as some more pics of the gnome in action.

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More Homestar madness!!!

The Telltale folks just sent out this gameplay video and some screens showing off Homestar Ruiner, the first episode of Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People. The first episode is scheduled for a July release on WiiWare and the PC.

Check out the screens on the jump.

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Game developers and publishers should have no trouble at all creating realistic worlds and populating them with realistic people as NaturalMotion and NVIDIA announce a partnership that pairs the former's morpheme animation engine with the latter's PhysX technology in one powerful force of realistically moving goodness.

"We're deeply impressed by NVIDIA's commitment to push physics to new levels of fidelity and performance, and their investment in development and support infrastructure across all platforms," said Torsten Reil, CEO of NaturalMotion. "NVIDIA's PhysX technology provides a robust, high-fidelity foundation for our advanced character animation algorithms and tools. Through our close collaboration, we will help game developers bring fully interactive and believable characters to a wide range of games."

It's two great tastes that taste real together! Hit the jump for more details on the partnership between physics powerhouses.

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50 Cent remains hopeful that his new game, Blood on the Sand, will be a true gaming hit and not something that rides on the coattails of his music like he did with Bulletproof.

The game's producer, Aaron Blean, told MTV that he sat through a demo of the game three times several weeks ago and was "really excited".

The producer also talked up a mysterious love interest in the game that, brace yourself, 50 Cent came up with. Oh, this is going to be a grrrrreat game.

50 Cent 'Really Excited' By 'Blood On The Sand'; Video Game's Music, Love-Interest Details Revealed [MTV]

Two more titles join the growing stable of original Xbox titles available for download on your Xbox 360 next week as The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning and Guilty Gear XX #Reload join the Xbox Live Originals program.

Guilty Gear XX #Reload is the re-release of Guilty Gear XX, the third installment of Arc System Works' 2D fighting franchise, modified to further balance high-level play.

The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning is the first game in the Legend of Spryo trilogy, rebooting the series with more action based gameplay than its predecessors.

Both titles will be available on Monday for 1200 Microsoft points a pop.

And the next two Xbox Original titles are... [Xbox Live's Major Nelson]

We've covered Donkey-Kong perfectionist documentary The King of Kong in painful detail, talking about Billy Mitchell's trash talking, the making of the movie, we've even had top-notch movie critic review The King of Kong.

But G4 managed to dig deeper, to delve into the very psychie of Mitchell, unearthing an even bigger arse than the one seen on the big screen. It's too bad they didn't get around to asking the tough questions, question like: Where did you get that tie? Does your thumb ever get tired? Do you rent out the space under the front of your hair?

Check out the full airing of Mitchell's philosophy on Friday at 9 p.m.

25 years ago today, CAPCOM Co., Ltd.was established in Hirano, Osaka for the purposes of selling software. Now it's two and a half decades later and Capcom is still going strong, with flagship franchises like Street Fighter more popular than ever, and old favourites like Bionic Commando ready to reclaim their popularity in this anniversary year. In celebration, Capcom CEO Kenzou Tsujimoto has released a special message to fans and investors (mainly investors) thanking them for their support and pledging continued success in the future, along with the image you see here.

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Now that Activision and Blizzard have a set a July date for their merger to be put up to final sharehold