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Posted by Brian Ashcraft at 4:00 PM on August 23, 2008
Japan Is TOTALLY Sold Out of Xbox 360s (New Shipment Next Month!)
Comment by: wild homes loves you but chooses...
Nominated by: 天
Nice to see Microsoft making some strong sales in Japan, but no one had the forethought, with all the work they've put into Japanese-friendly software partnerships this year, to a least divert some consoles from other territories to Japan just in case their moves paid off? They work hard to get Last Remnant, Tales, Star Ocean IV, XIII, and Infinite Undiscovery on the 360 and then don't adequately prepare for the possibility these plans could work? That's a little strange. Usually I don't plan on my strategies failing— I understand the possibility, but I don't take a course of action unless I believe it will work. Apparently I've been doing it wrong.
Phil Harrison didn't just work at Sony, the dude was Sony. Cut him and he'd bleed PlayStation. So when he upped and left for Atari earlier this year, there's no way all he was going to get was a pat on the back and a "thanks for your time". No, he was due something nice. Nicer than a gold watch, even. Something like this snazzy PlayStation-themed plaque, which SCE commissioned for him so he could hang it on his wall at Atari and remember the good old days, when he got to talk about games people actually gave a hoot about.
Calling all flash game devs! E4.com is sponsoring the Golden Joysticks web games thingy and is looking for flash game entries from around the globe. Maybe your entry. Who knows? The game doesn't have to be developed specifically for the competition, but it has to be developed by you. Yes, you. The winner gets £5,000 and the first Flash Game Developer Golden Joystick. We're pretty sure that the Golden Joystick isn't real gold, but we haven't bitten it so we don't know. Though, £5,000? That's pretty good — especially with the crummy US exchange rate. Full details in the link below. Click on it. 
How many times do Sony need to say it? 
The Nintendo Wii is joining the For Dummies series of books. Written by Joystiq's Kyle Orland, Wii For Dummies is all about getting the most for your Wii. The book runs through the entire Wii experience, covering things like how to hook the Wii up to the internets, game tips and advice on which games are best for parties. There's also info about the five best Wii-browser specific websites. It's out in late September, sounds helpful and Amazon's got it for 
Artist Douglas Stanley has asked the organisers of the Leipzig Games Convention to "simply turn off" his art installation, which features a mash-up of the attack on the World Trade Centre and Space Invaders, at the show.
This won't go down well with the Qore-hating brigade. Especially if you're also a MotorStorm fan. It's been revealed that as part of the upcoming fourth episode of Sony's paid-for PS3 "editorial" program, both annual subscribers and individual purchasers of the episode will be given access to the MotorStorm 2 demo a month before anyone else. If you were ever worried that Qore would be Sony's way of easing the PSN into a premium service divide like that which separates Xbox Live, now's the time to start worrying a little more.
As a PAL consumer, one of the best things about the PS3 is the fact that, as a games machine, it's 100% region-free. Even down to the demos on the various international PlayStation Stores. So this news has me all kinds of bummed out. Seems that all user-generated content created within LittleBigPlanet will be region-locked. As in, Americans can't access Japanese levels, and the Japanese can't access European stuff, etc. Leaving me, as an Australian, totally fucked. This is due to each region having their own servers for the game. As a small consolation Media Molecule say that they can move levels around between them - presumably they'll share the best ones - but if all you want is access to your intercontinental buddy's cock-shaped spaceship level, you're straight outta luck.
The Xbox 360's Japanese 
Nintendo has snagged the top spot for another week, with Rhythm Tengoku Gold — Rhythm Heaven in my neck of the woods — beating out a host of back catalog releases, including Sega's unsurprisingly popular Phantasy Star Portable. It debuted at #2, dropped to #3, then leapfrogged to #1. That's Nintendo software for you. Older titles creep higher up the charts in this slow week, as Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G threatens to return to the top ten.
Dungeons & Dragons-mongers Wizards of the Coast have come up with an uber-casual version of the venerable role playing game that just might make it worthwhile signing up for privacy-siphoning office time-sink that is Facebook.
What we'd seen of Left 4 Dead at Games Convention, we'd mostly seen before. Just prior to E3, we played through the entirety of the game's first scenario, a sprint to the roof of a hospital through a cluster of zombies, where the four survivors await evacuation by helicopter. And, should you be too lazy to check out 
Okay, so Runes of Magic bears a passing resemblance to World of Warcraft. The original Taiwanese creators of the game were big fans of Blizzard's MMO, so it makes sense that there would be some similar elements. Yes, the graphics, fonts, and interface all channel the wildly successful MMO, and sure, some of the character classes and abilities are very much like those you'd find on Azeroth. And yes, perhaps the first monster I saw taken down in the demo I attended this morning was a minotaur creature called a Tauren Patrolman. While at times it stretches the very limit of the word homage, Runes of Magic isn't a WoW clone. If anything, it's a game that seeks to harness the best elements of all MMORPG games into one, adding a few innovative new elements in the hopes of becoming one of the most compelling free-to-play online RPGs in existence.
What do you buy for the Wii owner who has everything?
The XBLA port of Duke Nukem 3D is to include some new features intended to spice up the classic run 'n' gun 'n' make-sexist-pun gameplay.
Actually, there may have been several unofficial records set at the Games Convention - most teutonic booth babes, most embarrassing erection at a major trade show, etc.
Sega wanted to clear something up about MadWorld at Games Convention. You won't just be cruising the black and white streets of Mad City, tossing scores of chumps into meat grinders, slicing them in half with Dumpster lids and beheading them in style with daggers akimbo. There's more to it than that.
So I was sitting outside this afternoon, enjoying a cart-bought sausage in a bun between Games Convention appointments, when this car / boat thing comes pulling round the bend, filled with hooting, whistling, scantily clad women. It was like the world's most tawdry ice cream truck, only they gave out coupons for a local strip club instead of ice cream, and as you can see in the photo above, the kids don't seem all that interested. The expression on the blue-shirt guy's face is just priceless. He cares not for your booty, shaken, stirred, or otherwise. Not that most of the pics I snapped were from the back, because I simply refuse to be the guy running through the parking lot chasing a boat full of half-dressed females - mainly because it involves running. At least it wasn't as personal as last year. 
After one of the world's best Final Fantasy XI guilds had to throw in the towel after a marathon 18 hour plus battle left them exhausted, physically ill and — most importantly — non-victorious, 
We thought that last Max Payne 
In what is hopefully not just an oblique way of saying that Gears Of War 2 will a bit on the short side, Cliff Bleszinski has revealed that the first GoW2 downloadable content will arrive shortly after the game's release.
Quantic Dream's David Cage walked us through a playable version of the developer's shrouded in mystery PlayStation 3 game Heavy Rain at Games Convention. The roughly twenty minute demo featured scenes shown in the teaser trailer from SCEE's keynote. But before we actually got to take a look at the game, Cage prepped us on the team's design philosophy. Heavy Rain, he told us, was an adventure game devoid of traditional "interactivity" — shooting, driving, fighting — with a story driven by a player's actions. Those choices, he said, would have a tangible impact on the outcome.
Too Human is neither as good nor as bad as many have made it out to be. The action role-playing game, nearly ten years in the making, built up quite a storm of controversy and expectations as it tumbled its way to completion and release. The game tackles a retelling of Norse mythology with a cyber twist and works to reinvent the way people play button mashers. In the game the most loved god in Norse mythos, Baldur must contend with enemies on all sides and balance his desire for revenge with thoughts of the greater good.
Dead Rising: Chop Til You Drop for the Nintendo Wii is not a game for members of the press. It's nearly impossible for us to look at the game objectively after spending countless hours playing the highly superior Xbox 360 original. It's like reading War and Peace and then trying to fully appreciate the Cliff Notes version. It can't begin to approach the level of polish, complexity, and the overall experience of the original, plus your friends might laugh at you if they catch you buying it. As I sat in on a hands on session with the title, I could see by the expressions on my peers' faces that no one seemed to be all that impressed.
Taito today said they are considering legal action against artist Douglas Edric Stanley and his "Invaders!" exhibition at the Games Convention and that it was produced entirely without their knowledge.