To: Crecente
From: Bashcraft

Man, it's Monday! And a pretty quiet Monday, post holiday. Went to my kid's soccer practice, where another little kid crapped in his pants and had to be taken off the field by the coach. Ah, yes, youth.

Been listening to a lot of Bowie recently, a lot -- well, up to Scary Monsters, after which he seemed to lose the plot for a while (warm fuzzy Labyrinth soundtrack memories aside). Heroes just might be in my top five albums of all time...

I always seem to go in phases where I begin listening to one artist or genre, listen to that to death and then move on..........

What's on your playlist? Gonna need some Tunes to listen to on the plane.

What you missed last night
2.40 Fix Coming "Midweek"
David Hayter Begged Konami To Change MGS4 Stuff
Let's Watch The First Mega Man 9 Footage
New Prince Of Persia Screens
Japan Presents Foreign Dignitaries With...A DS Lite

Some SIlent Hill Homecoming gameplay footage. To head your whining off at the pass: yes, the graphics look like a PS2 on a bad day, but this is supposedly taken from very early code. Yes, there's a narrator. Guy's from a Russian mag, Igromania. So he's speaking Russian. Just enjoy the fact you get double the subtitles and hear the game called "Saileent Heeeeeeeeeeeeaall" and you'll get through the next 13:29 just fine.

If Arab gamers want to play Western games, they'd have to play them in something other than their native Arabic. That's unfortunate! Well, that's going to change -- THQ is localizing multiplatform based-on-the-movie WALL-E game for the Middle East. This is a first! According to THQ export sales manager Luke Keighran:

We are delighted to be part of this, launching an Arabic game is every Arab gamers' wish. This is a great opportunity for us to grow further in promising territories like Saudi Arabia and Egypt, and a solid demonstration of our commitment to the Middle East market...we hope it will be the first of a long line up for Arabic titles in the future... There are only few games that would suit the Middle East's morals more than WALL.E. The game depicts family virtues in a fun adventurous story line immersing the players in a world of passionate pursuit for adventure.

You've seen the Chrono Trigger DS trailer. Now look at the first screens of the Super-Nintendo-game-turned-DS-game. And yes, it looks pretty much like the SNES version, but the DS version will make use of the Touch Screen. Hit the jump for another two smallish screens.

You know Infinity Ward for their work on Call of Duty, you love Infinity Ward for their work on Call of Duty. But nobody, not even Infinity Ward, can make Call of Duty games forever. It'd get boring. So it's nice to hear that, fresh off a re-up of its publishing deal with Activision, Infinity Ward has quietly announced that it's not only started on its "future project" (future? Like, sci-fi future?), but that it will also give the company the chance to build a "unique new IP by Infinity Ward, that we'll have complete control over". Exciting! For Infinity Ward, that is. Sure the words "complete control" don't look quite so good to the "port it to everything!" crowd at Activision HQ.

The Future of Infinity Ward [IW]

It's coming from the Daily Mail, so make what you will of that, but the British tabloid is claiming that Microsoft is setting aside £500 million - which is just shy of $US 1 billion - to help cover the costs of an increasing number of faulty Xbox 360 Elite units. They'll also apparently be offering a three-year extended warranty for Elite owners. Both the value and warranty are the same as those offered last year, when Microsoft was forced to pay up and extend the warranties for owners of original 360s. The Elites, however, were meant to be improved consoles, nowhere near as susceptible to the red rings of death as their off-white cousins. We'll update when we hear something a little more...official, because really, we find it hard to believe they've sold that many Elites.

£500m bill for Xbox red ring of death [Daily Mail]

New Nintendo hardware? Or just a Photoshop goof? Pictured is an ad for upcoming Disgaea DS from the latest Nintendo Power which features a DS Lite with a wide screen. We're betting on Photoshop goof, but a widescreen DS Lite would make sense.

Read-a-long with Nintendo Power #231 [Aeropause]

The Group of Eight - ie the cool, popular kids of the developed world - just had a meet-up in Kyoto, Japan. Seemed to go swimmingly enough. To mark the occasion, the hosts presented all visiting politicians with some gifts unique to Japan, like some manga-style caricatures and that very snazzy-looking DS Lite console. They're double-lacquered to give the consoles a glossy finish, and each was topped off with a print depicting a pagoda and some cherry blossoms. Needless to say, these are probably now the most valuable/expensive DS Lites in the world, and needless to say, you will never own one. Unless you get lucky and spy Condy or Gordon Brown hocking theirs on Craigslist for a quick quid.

Fans of Namco's Xbox 360-exclusive, J-pop idol sim THE iDOLM@STER are rich, it seems. Tickets for the iDOLM@STER event "THE iDOLM@STER 3rd Anniversary Live later this month have been going bananas. Auction prices have hit as high as ¥138,000 or $US 1,292 (starting at ¥6,500 or $US 61) and fetching about $US 470 on average. The event will have the full iDOLM@STER voice cast in attendance, so perhaps these prices are understandable.

No, no they are not.

アイドルマスターライブ [my game news flash via Sankaku Complex]

Sony's big 2.40 update for the PS3 has been down since the middle of last week, following some issues a few users had while trying to install the firmware. When, then, can we expect a fix? Around the same time this week, if Sony's customer support are to be believed. They say that firmware 2.41 - which will fix the busted 2.40 - will be out "midweek". Unless they're making that up, an official announcement from Sony on the matter should turn up later today.

PS3 firmware 2.41 out "midweek", says Sony [CVG]

We've previously seen how Halo 3's Forge can be used as a canvas by the artistically included. And while the above image is certainly not the first "erotic" images made with Forge level editor by a damn sight. (Hey, give the plebs the ability to create, and you betcha, they'll whip up naughty bits!) But these are the first MAXIMUM RISKY Japanese anime-style ones we've seen -- then again, we haven't exactly been looking. They, of course, were made by lining up weapons.

HALO3」、武器を並べてエロアートを作る職人 [Hatimaki]

Three new screens for the upcoming Prince of Persia reboot. Enjoy. We're still digging the tasteful use of cel-shading, still looking forward to seeing how it all pans out, still wondering how (what looks a lot like) Yorda grew up so fast, and why she still thinks it's a good idea to go adventuring without a decent pair of shoes.

Mega Man 9 [Go Nintendo]

Been a lot of talk about the 360's user interface of late, whether in ways it's showing its shortcomings or in ways it might be going all science-fiction. Today, let's take another tack, somewhere between the two. Let's look at how it might be improved upon, without the need to go all Minority Report. Mik at Platform Nation has assessed the current "blades" system, thinks (rightly) that there's too much wasted space, and has redesigned how the 360's menu system would look were he the one designing it. I must say, it's a definite improvement.

David Hayter isn't just some voice guy. He's a voice guy who's also a Hollywood screenwriter and has penned some big movies like X-Men. While Hayter did offer praise for Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima by saying he's "certainly learned things from him, especially about ambiguity and telling a story without giving all the answers", Hayter also pointed out creative run-ins he's had with the game designer. As far back as the original Metal Gear Solid, Hayter didn't always agree with Kojima's choices. What did Hayter think of Metal Gear Solid 4's ending? Hit the jump for his opinion of where it went wrong -- SPOILERS ahead!

No chance for Dark Sector in Australia? Not quite the case. Local distributor AFA Interactive appears to have finally gotten its hands on the toned-down build for the Japanese market (or a custom one from developer Digital Extremes) and coaxed an MA 15+ rating from the Office of Film and Literature Classification.

AFA has yet to announce a release date, but it's fair to say we can expect Dark Sector to hit Australian shelves shortly.

Dark Sector Game (Multi Platform) [OFLC]

Who's the guy in the tiny picture on the left? It's Tom Crago of course, president of the Game Developers' Association of Australia and CEO of (the rather successful) Tantalus.

The GDAA has been very active of late, its most recent move an alliance with the Interactive Entertainment Association of Australia on the issues of classification and tax consessions.

But that's not all the organisation has been up to, so I threw a few questions Crago's way. He was more than happy to fill in the blanks, and on a few occasions, colour the blanks with green and pink highlighter.

While you wait for Stargate Worlds, the MMO based on the movie-turned-hit-TV-show, you might want to give StargateTC 2 a whirl. It's a multiplayer mod for Half-Life 2 featuring the Tauris (humans) against the Goa'uld. Along with classic weapons such as the P90 and Beretta, players can wield energy staves and coujafs (Goa'uld knives, I believe).

Worth a look-see if Team Fortress 2 or Counter-Strike is getting all boring and whatnot. I know I stopped playing them ages ago.

StargateTC 2 [Official site, via Blue's News]

You guys remember the sad story of Zak Touilii, the disabled Australian teen who was recently robbed of his Playstation 3? Well, it seems a fellow by the name of Daniel Alvarado has set up a donation site to raise money for a new console.

Currently, the total sits at $333. Surely we can get this to $700 and above, so poor Zak can get a few games to go with his PS3. Even if you can only afford a couple of bucks, I'm sure it'll be appreciated.

Update: Sony may have already replaced the console. As such, I've removed the donation link for the time being.

NZGamer sends word that Rockstar's Manhunt 2 has been refused classification by NZ's ratings board. Like Australia, this means the game cannot be legally sold in, or imported into, the country.

However, unlike Australia, the NZ OFLC has a detailed breakdown of exactly why the game didn't meet its standards for an M or R rating:

The computer game Manhunt 2 was classified on 12 June 2008 by the Office of Film and Literature Classification as objectionable due to the manner in which it depicts and deals with matters of sex, horror, cruelty and violence.

I have to ask: why can't the Australian OFLC have info like this accessible to the public? I know our classification system is backward-arse, but the NZ OFLC makes the Oz one look lazy, half-arsed and just plain shit.

Manhunt 2 [Office of Film and Literature Classification NZ, via NZGamer]

Yes, This Is The Chrono Trigger DS Trailer
Hopefully the US release isn't too far removed from the Australian one.

Kotaku Originals: We Hold These Truths to Be Self-Evident
Original stories from the great beyond. And by great beyond, I mean Kotaku.

Yes, A Console Diablo III Is (Theoretically) Possible
I would still have a PC ready to go if you're keen on Blizzard's RPG hack'n'slash.

PAL PlayStation Store Update: July 4 Was Just Another Day
Goodies from Sony, to you.

Wonder if Beijing 2008 will feature photorealistic smog effects or take incorporate the stupefying algae bloom in the nautical events. Still, pretty ambitious of Sega to put out a sports game featuring events that even sports fans don't follow except for two weeks out of a four year span (and dropping it less than a week before NCAA Football 09). If the spirit of brotherhood and competition isn't your thang, Unreal Tournament 3 comes to 360 this week also. Or maybe you prefer Sports Party on the Wii. Or Purr Pals. Let us know what you're buying/renting in the jump.

Well, we've seen a Kill Bill Guitar Hero guitar before, so a 360 casemod is not all that surprising. But this one is very well done and, furthermore, was accomplished by Kotakuite Chu Boi, who shows his work on his blog. It's got some great touches, such as the blood spatter across the faceplate, and the stenciled movie quote on the underside.

Ron Gilbert is probably best known for his work at LucasArts, where he worked on such favourites as Maniac Mansion, The Secret of Monkey Island, and Day Of The Tentacle. Most recently, he's worked on Penny Arcade Adventures and has a forthcoming title called DeathSpank. Gamasutra sat down for a somewhat lengthy interview, discussing the episodic model, working within the current industry framework, and moving outside the current studio framework into a more 'Hollywood' type model. On this aspect (shifting to a more 'team' based approach where people come together to work on specific projects), he's got this to say:

Atlus has announced that Persona 4, the sequel to its well regarded RPG/turn-based combat/dating sim Persona 3, will hit North America for the Playstation 2 on Dec. 9. (Japan release is still July 10). The date comes at the end of the trailer above. If you have played the game and are familiar with the series, this should make sense to you. If you haven't, it won't. There's just no other way to put it.

The term 'melodrama' is a somewhat loaded term -- ask a few people if X media counts as melodrama, and you're likely to get a variety of answers. Michael Abbott discusses melodrama in one accepted context (a definition that I would quibble with based on my own background dealing with 'melodramatic representation') in reference to games. Yes, we do do melodrama -- everything from GTA to Metal Gear to Final Fantasy plays with at least one interpretation of melodrama:

There are differing leaks out there regarding the track list for Rock Band 2. Both are unattributed, one to a friend of a friend who got a look at an email from Harmonix to MTV or something. But in the interest of rumourmongering, we'll repeat both with the caveat that there is no way of knowing if this stuff is for real or not. But if, combined, they're half right then this could be one hell of a track list, possibly the best of any rhythm game.

Also, an IGN Insider interview (transcript provided by reader Max) let slip that buyers of Rock Band 2 will have access to all of the songs off the original Rock Band disc, available as free DLC. Full details on both after the jump.

A few months ago, Kieron Gillen sat down with Paul Barnett, EA Mythic's Creative Director, and has been posting bits and pieces of that interview session ever since; this week, we were treated to one of the best cynical descriptions of GDC ever. Barnett explains why, despite being asked to go, he declined the chance to go to GDC and went to the LIFT futurism festival instead:

Hi everybody. Lots of you tipped us off to the countdown at Chrono Trigger's Japanese website. Technical difficulties over here, compounded by the short weekend, meant I couldn't get advance word out to you in time. But there's the screenshot above, with two seconds left, to prove I was watching!!!

The site has now transitioned to a flash movie introducing the various characters in the game. FYI, the North American Chrono Trigger DS site still has the clock ticking, but no countdown yet.

Chrono Trigger [Square Enix]