To: Crecente
From: Bashcraft
RE: Happy Third!

Actually, kinda miss the 4th. Well, the way it's done in America. People pretty much set off fireworks all summer here -- like you can buy them at your local 7-11. So, they're more of a summer thing, which is nice. Not sure about the laws regarding them, but people tend to go down by a river and shoot 'em off at all hours of the night with no problems from the police.

We planned on shooting off fireworks tonight, but ran out of him. The afternoon was spent at the doctors. Going into this, Mini-Bash wanted a girl, but after a ding-dong popped up on the ultrasound, it looks like we'll be adding yet another young lad to the Ashcraft clan. Afterwards, he remarked: When the baby boy is a baby, it'll be cute. But when it grows up, it won't be cute anymore. Valid point.

Now, we just have to think of a name....... And a name that "works" in both English and Japanese and has Japanese kanji. Tricky!

What you missed last night:
Five Games That Matter In Kojima's Life
New Halo Game For E3 (Master Chief Not Included)
Dyack vs. NeoGAF, Part II
360 Rock Band Guitars Work With GH: Aerosmith [Update]
DualShock 3 And Xbox 360 Frankencontrollers
64 Percent of Those Polled Gave Up Wii Fit
Led Zeppelin Uncomfortable With Licensing Songs To Rock Band, Guitar Hero

As foretold, here are the first screens of zombie love, zombie bowling, zombie rock and roll, zombie sumo, zombie apple picking Ai sareru yori ai shitai: House of the Dead EX. The game looks more causal and more crazy. It's jammed pack with mini-games that are controlled by the gun and the foot pedal — mini games, and that's not in a pejorative sense! This series spin-off looks fun and totally fitting for arcade play. We approve, SEGA, we really do.

SEGA PRIVATE SHOW 2008 -SUMMER [IT Media]

Five games that made an impact on the life of Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima? According to the famed game designer:

• Super Mario Bros.

• Portopia Renzoku Satsujin Jiken

• Xevious

• Another World

• Metal Gear Solid

This list comes from a Yomiuri Newspaper article called "All About Kojima Hideo" dated June 11th. We haven't seen the full article (only that picture we found on a Yomiuri blog), and the English translation of Yomiuri article glosses over these five games and what they mean to him. From the pic we found, it certainly appears as though Kojima explained how they affected him.

Hide-and-seek with Hideo Kojima [Yoimuri]

Ah, and finally, the pre-E3 hype train picks up a little steam. Citing both Sarcastic Gamer and their own "sources", CVG are claiming that a new Halo game will be unveiled at E3. This Halo game might be Peter Jackson's game, it might not be, but either way, they say it won't feature the Master Chief. Chew on that for a possibility while we dream of a point-and-click "Where In The World Is Master Chief?"

New Halo game for E3 [CVG]

While it's calmed down a lot over the past decade, Northern Ireland is still a reasonably sensitive place politically. Not the kind of place you'll be dodging pub bombs anymore, granted, but still not the kind of place you want to make any cultural faux pas, either. So EA Sports understandably regret, and are very sorry, that they included the wrong national anthem for the Northern Irish team in their Euro 2008 football title. See, before each match, the anthems of both teams are played. Being a part of the United Kingdom, Northern Irelands' anthem is, of course, God Save The Queen. EA Sports, however, included The Soldiers Song. National anthem of the Republic of Ireland (or, as most people know it as, just plain old Ireland). As in, the wrong country. Sure, Northern Ireland are hardly a powerhouse on the global stage, but still, if you're going to include their anthem, you can at least get it right.

EA apologises over football anthem blunder [MCV][Pic=BBC]

WiiWare game Mega Man 9 has been dated for Japan. The game will be out this September as confirmed by this week's Famitsu. The 8-bit game hasn't yet gotten a Western release date. That's what E3 for!

famitsu 20080704 [Wii@Everyday]

Something's wrong. A straight-up, side-scrolling platformer? By Nintendo? For a home console? But this is 2008, they're selling Wii Fits and Wii Plays, they wouldn't bother with something like this, would they?

[via Go Nintendo]

By Kotaku Time, it's officially July 4th. So, happy July 4th! And to celebrate, we're giving away a copy of Civilization Revolution in a very, very easy contest. Use each of the letters that appear in the title Civilization Revolution to spell out countries names. So, for example, "Canada", "Ireland", "Vietnam"... None of the countries can repeat -- well, save for "OMAN." So put that in an email and and send it to kotakucontestATgmailDOTcom. The two hundredth and thirty-second email we get, wins a copy of the game. Winner will be announced over the weekend. Good luck!

Civilization Revolution [Official Site]

Oh, the drama. In the latest 1Up Yours podcast, Too Human creator Denis Dyack explains just why he went after the NeoGAF Too Human haters. In his own words, Denis Dyack:

I was basically calling out people who had no way of assessing the game... All I wanted to point out to people is that this is so ridiculous... I went through all of this for two reasons.... If you're going to look at the NeoGAF forum as a non-profit organisation, if it does not reform itself, it's eventually going to crumble. There's going to be a point where they step over the line where someone's going to shut them down. That would be a loss for everyone.... The question I have to ask the moderators of GAF: Are you going to follow your own rules? With people making GIFs of myself that are, I would say, attacking me.... Why haven't 180 people been banned now? If I wanted to move in and shut that place down, do I have grounds under their own forum policy?

There's more. Oh, yes. More. Hit the jump for more excitement!

Not that this will matter to any of you on a practical level, since we pray you won't actually pick up a copy of Guitar Hero Aerosmith, but it's good news on principle. Seems that Rock Band controllers will work with Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, with the G4TV team testing the 360 version and finding that all functions - including the whammy bar and star power - are up and running. Seeing as the problem was always at Activision's end (GH controllers would work with Harmonix's Rock Band), have they swallowed their pride and opened up the music controller market? Appears so, at least for 360 owners. Let's just hope this carries on into Guitar Hero World Tour, where it might actually matter.

'Rock Band' Guitar Work With 'GH: Aerosmith' [G4TV]

UPDATE - Thanks to all the readers who let us know, after testing, that this only applies to the 360 version. Sorry PS3 owners.

The Xbox 360 DualShock? The PS3 Xbox 360 Controller? Over at Xbox-Scene Forums, moderator RDC has modded an Xbox 360 controller into a PS3 controller, writing: "The D-pad, Select, PS, Start, Square, Triangle, Circle, Cross, L1/R1 and L3/R3 buttons are all wired up right now and working, as are the LEDs for showing which controller it is". So, yes, this Frankencontroller will work with a PS3. And if that wasn't enough, RDC did the same in reverse by modding a DualShock 3 into an Xbox 360 controller. Take a look after the jump.

For a game built upon endless repetition, Brain Training's certainly making an impression on some people, because years on from release, the two games are still selling like fancy, heated cakes. So Nintendo are surely working on more, yes? Itprintsmoney.gif and all that? No. Having most likely noticed the fact people can't tell the two games apart, and still buy more of the original than the sequel, it's been announced by Nintendo (grain of salt notice: Nintendo Europe) that two will do, and they'll just keep on selling them for millennia until our sun expands, killing us all in a blinding flash of white.

More Brain Training from Dr Kawashima [TVG, via Go Nintendo]

The more people buy PS3s, the more people sign up to the the PSN. The more people sign up to the PSN, the more it costs Sony to keep the thing running. So will there come a time when Sony start charging you for the use of the PSN? Maybe! You can never rule that kinda thing out. But if they are, they're not doing it soon, with PSN boss (and man of the moment) Eric Lempel saying:

We're happy with what we're doing right now and we're going to stick with it. I think being free is always an advantage. The fact that it's free is nice for consumers who want to try out the online experience, those who may be new to it and may not be ready to commit to spending dollars, and that's a really good message for us.

Course, Eric then says that leaves you with money free for game subscriptions (and he doesn't mention Qore), but his basic point remains valid! Free stuff is nice.

INTERVIEW: Sony on PSN's "Big Leap Forward" [Next-Gen]

According to a Nintendo Australia, we've apparently been spared the problems US gamers faced after the original release of Super Smash Bros. Brawl. The company did admit the dual-layer nature of the game disc had caused issues in the past, but that it hasn't had any reports from Australian users.

The thing is, this statement contradicts comments from Kotaku AU readers who have had SSBB give them less than their money's worth. I can't say I've copped any grief from my review copy, but I might just be lucky.

Regardless, Nintendo Oz recommends you call its support hotline (1300 362 746) if you are experiencing problems, and it'll do its best to fix you up.

Who's Having Problems With Super Smash Bros. Brawl? [Kotaku AU]

How many Tales games are already on their way? Dunno. We've lost count. Especially now that we know there are two more coming, one for the PSP, one for the DS. The PSP one's called Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology 2, which will feature the same main character as the upcoming Tales of Vesperia for the 360. The DS one's called Tales of The Heart (pictured). Both will be out in Japan by the end of the year, no word yet on Western dates.

[via Shonen Jump]

Wii Fit has done big business in Japan — and pretty much everywhere, for that matter. The peripheral and game went on sale late last year in The Land of the Rising Sun, and Japanese website IT Media poses the question: Do Wii Fit owners actually still play Wii Fit everyday? Short answer: Nope. According to the thousand IT Media readers polled (for whatever that's worth), the majority of them do not play their copies of Wii Fit (ditto). Here's the breakdown:

Nintendo says the ad will appear starting from tonight, so consider this a sneak peek. We like those, we do.

Just because Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G sales are waning (finally) doesn't mean that the urge to buy PSP hardware is becoming any less intense. And even though the PSP doesn't have any software showing in the top ten for the week doesn't mean that it can't continue to rule the roost on the Media Create weekly sales charts. Nintendo hardware continues to nip at its lead and we imagine fortunes will change soon.

Somewhat more surprising is the big boost that the Xbox 360 got during the week of June 23 to 29. The release of Mobile Suit Gundam: Operation: Troy certainly seems to have helped Microsoft move some hardware. They really should just rebrand the thing the Xbox RX-78-2 locally. Can't hurt.

Vivendi made it clear back in mid-January that another Leisure Suit Larry game was in development. If the news didn't grab your attention, I can't blame you - Larry's previous outing, Magna Cum Laude was refused classification by the OFLC in September of 2004. Not a point in Box Office Bust's favour, as I'm sure you'll agree.

Despite Magna Cum Laude's fate, and the fact Box Office Bust has yet to be rated, EB Games Australia has preorders going for the new title. While this isn't unusual - many retailers make unrated games available for preorder - until the OFLC passes judgement, my hopes remain subdued.

Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust [EB Games Australia, thanks Michael]

Well, would you? Seriously. Reason we're asking is that last week Atari sought to have their name trademarked in association with "internet protocol phones" and "residential telephone apparatus composing telephones and telephone connecting units". Before you ask, yes, that's the gaming Atari doing the trademarking, not some random, other Atari. This would be the part where we try and find a good reason the company would be bothering with this, but really, there's no salvation to be found amongst the thought of an Atari phone.

Atari [Trademork]

Start your Wii, check out Wiiware, and you'll find Pop waiting for you. The title, developed by Aussie studio Nnooo, was delayed slightly while localisation issues were sorted out.

Well, the wait is over! If you'd like to grab the bubble-bursting game, it will set you back 700 Wii points ($10.50).

Press release after the jump.

Update: This rumour is now confirmed - Fallout 3 has been refused classification.

Fallout 3 has its fair share of dismemberment and decapitation. If the Office of Film and Literature Classification was going to have an issue with anything, I thought it would be the blood and gore.

Apparently not. It seems the board has deemed the game too extreme for Australian gamers, according to a post on the Gamespot AU forums - but it has nothing to do with popping skulls with rifle rounds:

Apparently the game includes the use of Morphine by your character. (I assume as some sort of "healthpack" or "stimpack"). By all accounts this did not sit well with the Board as the portrayal of the unregulated use of proscribed substances is a bit of a no no and will damage the fragile minds of Australia's game-playing populace.

Please note that a post on a forum is hardly proof. Red Ant has been contacted, but has failed to provide a comment. We'll just have to wait for the OFLC to add Fallout 3 to the classification database.

If it does turn out to be true, it will be the second RC in the space of a month. Really makes you wonder what's happening with that R18+ rating...

Fallout 3 Banned In Australia! [Gamespot AU forums]

If you care to remember, Jim Cameron has said that the game adaptation of his upcoming sci-fi flick - Avatar - is already running in 3D, and running in 3D on a 360. Ubisoft are the guys behind that game, but they're not the only ones looking at the tech. XNA boss Chris Satchell has said Microsoft have also been "experimenting" with stereoscopic gaming, although he's quick to stress that, as it stands, the requirement that gamers wear glasses makes the technology's widespread acceptance a thing of the future, not the present.

Microsoft has experimented with 3D games, reveals Satchell [GI.biz]

Wrath Of The Lich King Beta Sign-Ups Open
Has your class been buffed? Nerfed? Here's the best way to find out.

Behind the WGA Nominees: Where Were Portal, BioShock?
Writing: not only is it entertaining, it can win you awards!

Battlefield: Bad Company Review: Going For The Gold
The good, the bad and the shiny of EA DiCE's latest shooter for consoles.

WoW Tyrael Pet In The Polygonial Flesh
Oooooooh... pretty white wings...

Dark Sector Devs Helping With Bioshock PS3
Who thought optimising for the PS3 would be so hard?

New Gears Of War 2 Singleplayer Shots
And by shots, we mean screenshots.

This Monday, July 7 is Bungie Day on Xbox Live Marketplace. What does that mean to you? Free stuff! The kind of free stuff that absolutely requires an exclamation point. While free gamerpics and a gratis theme will be available that day and that day only, it's the new map, Cold Storage, that will probably put the biggest strain on Live's servers.

The Bungie Weekly Update also points out that the Legendary Map Pack will see prices slashed, with the regularly 800 MS Points pack dropping to 600 MS Points. Community tough guy Luke Smith has all the details on what's goin' down this manic Monday, so do check out the newest update... and the "viddoc" above.

Bungie Weekly Update: 7/03/08 [Bungie.net]

UK retailer GAME told MCV that while it might not be planning a huge pipeline of holiday titles, it plans to selectively use its distribution channels to publish undiscovered titles under its own brand name.

GAME was quick to reiterate it planned no threat to game publishers at all, and would instead seek out smaller-scale opportunities that were good fits:

"If it works commercially for GAME and helps a smaller publisher get off the ground by GAME sharing some of the risk, then we would look at it - we have a distribution channel and we can offer a service.

There's little doubt that the artist line-up for Rock Band 2 is shaping up nicely. Guitar Hero is getting some nice exclusives as well. With Journey, Boston, Metallica, The Who and other top tier acts lending their tunes to the dominant rhythm games, there aren't many superstars left to cross off the list.

One of the artists that continues to elude both Activision and Harmonix is Led Zeppelin. It's been chalked up to a lengthy licensing process, but a recent write-up from the Wall Street Journal helps shed more light on the British band's absence.

According to their management, the band isn't "comfortable" giving up access to its master tapes, the very thing required to edit these things down to Rock Band and Guitar Hero ready formats.

"It ain't about the money", says Peter Mensch of Q Prime Management who handles Led Zep's interests.

In better news, the Wall Street Journal writes that hold outs like Van Halen, Steely Dan and Guns N' Roses all have "deals in the works to bring more music to gamers. In far, far worse news, so are the Eagles.

Aerosmith Stars In Guitar Hero Videogame [WSJ - thanks again, Max!]

Zombie romance, zombie bowling, zombie rock and roll -- all key components of the next The House of the Dead. At least, that's what we can glean from Sega's whacked out promo flyer for The House of the Dead EX, a more comedic, more casual spin-off for the light gun series that brings with a foot pedal a la Time Crisis and a whole mess of crazy. Looks like some of the games in The House of the Dead EX will require just the gun, with others, like bat-thing riding requiring the use of the pedal.

Honestly, we have no idea what's going on here yet, but we like Sega has tossed on an off-kilter anime style to the whole thing. We actually liked the cel-shaded The House of the Dead III and were crushed when Sega nixed it for a more photorealistic look.

Sega is showing off the new arcade light-gun shooter at the Sega Private Show in Japan and we're anxiously awaiting more details.

House of the Dead EX [AM-net]

I feel, as a culture, we've gotten really joyfully achievement-obsessed. We check our point scores as compulsively as we do our bank accounts, we demand to know what achievements will be available in games that aren't even out yet, and we have anticipated the launch of PS3 trophies with fervour. Fervour, I tell you.

A big part of this is so that we can show our play habits and our performance off to our buddies; seeing a My Gamercard on someone's website is like an instant badge of recognition. So it's unsurprising that a company called Playfire has rushed to be the first to create a Gamercard service for PS3 trophies (hopefully 2.4 squares away soon). It's currently in beta, and here it is!

The... trophycards? support themes, too letting you skin the cards with Killzone 2, Metal Gear Solid 4, LittleBigPlanet or SuperStardust HD.