The top eight spots are all games for Nintendo platforms. Again. BORING. So this week, figured I'd try something different. Let's talk about the other end of the chart. The end that has literal shovelware, like "42 All-Time Classics" on the DS, propping the whole thing up. That and Imagine : Babies, which actually moved up a spot from last week, from 39 to 38. Actually, this end's just as uninteresting as the top end. Sorry.

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Ubisoft's Patrick Redding, Far Cry 2's narrative designer, confirms that the next Far Cry game will take place in Africa — just like Far Cry 2! Keep in mind that the team is still in the "preliminary stages", but does have a "commitment to the African setting". Redding says:

For us Africa still has a huge amount of promise... There are still things we want to do with the African setting, and I think it's safe to say we'll continue to explore it... That said, we might find something new and compelling about the Antarctic setting that wants us to make the next game there, but honestly, we're still at the preliminary stages.

If we wanted to make the next game set in the... forest of South America, we could do it.

But I think to save time, for us, one of the reasons we chose to use the African setting is because we felt that in order to retain the Far Cry brand value, of an exotic, dangerous environment, a place that maybe people haven't had a chance to see themselves, or have seen extensively in film, television and other games, we wanted to choose Africa.

Let's face it, jungle islands are probably less exciting as they were four years ago.

But a slowly melting Antarctica? Man, sign me up for that game.

Third Far Cry game confirmed, dev team has "commitment to the African setting" [VG247]

Shooter speciality developer Cave is bringing its Gothic Lolita arcade shmup Death Smiles to the Xbox 360. The game is a scrolling horizontal shooter — something of a rarity for developer Cave. While not as insane as other Cave offerings, the game does put a nice spin on the horizontal shooter by having players shooting objects that are coming in from the right and the left. Cave is currently 60 percent finished with development of the Xbox 360 version, and the game is slated for a Spring 2009 release in Japan.

Thanks for the tip, Weils!

Today EA announces that Wii title Boogie SuperStar has a superstar of its own: Pop singer Natasha Bedingfield has signed on to be the game's official spokesperson. What's more, she's lending tunes "Angel", "Love Like This" and the title song from her new album Pocketful of Sunshine. Says the songstress:

Boogie SuperStar brings to life all the fun and excitement of performing. Being on stage is such a thrill and it's great to be a part of an EA video game that lets girls experience how much fun it is to express themselves and explore their own creativity by performing.

The North American and international version are packed with tons of pop songs. Hit the jump for the rundown and screens:

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I know. Anything Hideo Kojima ever says publicly gets over-exposed and over-analysed, all to satisfy the insatiable hunger of raving-mad Metal Gear fanboys. You're probably getting sick of reading about the guy. But you know what? This is genuinely interesting, so it's going up. When asked by Eurogamer what he thought about the recent industry trend in moving away from epic, big-budget, "hardcore" games, Kojima responds:

I still think that there are gamers who love these epic games or hardcore games...Now, as long as these gamers exist I feel a responsibility that someone has to do it, to create these games, so I'm not really worried. Besides if I, or someone else, keep bringing out these epic games, it might change the flow of the industry; people might realise that these are really fun games. And time ever changes, and the flow or demand will change, but if you just look at the current trend, and you see it shrinking and you just stop, it will just become zero, so I don't think that is a wise decision to make.

There's a huge user difference. I could back this up with GTA IV, which is a smash hit, and Call of Duty 4 was a smash hit and this season, Gears of War 2 will also probably be a smash hit, so that is proof that there are still gamers out there waiting for these epic games, and I think that will continue. I'm not saying casual gaming is bad, I think that casual games will continue as well as a trend, which is also good. But I think these will coexist.

Exactly!

Konami's Hideo Kojima [Eurogamer] [Image]

British people, hello! Apparently lots of you own Brain Age. Like a lot a lot. According to compilers Chart-Track, the game has spent 80 weeks in the UK's top ten. 80. Eighty. 8. 0. The grey matter DS title has now surpassed the original Tomb Raider's benchmark.

Perhaps British folks keep losing their copies of Brain Age and keep buying replacements? Perhaps they're just crazy for brain games? Perhaps.

Sales Figures [Chart Track via Eurogamer]

Australian Gamer is reporting that Pandemic's sandbox Batman game (sssh, it's a secret) may have been given the flick. Never a good thing, especially for a title that hasn't been announced yet... and by the looks of things, never will.

From the AG post:

The word is that their game has been cancelled by the higher ups due to it running behind schedule, which means there's going to be a whole bunch of people either moving to the Pandemic LA offices, or looking for work elsewhere later this week.

As soon as we know more, you will too.

Why so serious Pandemic? [Australian Gamer]

This ain't no monopoly. It's a duopoly. A Screen Digest report has found that for the year's third quarter, which runs from July to September, around 75% of all games released come from two publishers. Can you guess which two? If you said Atlus and Taito, sorry, you won't be taking any prizes home with you after the show. No, it's EA and Activision, the glut prompted by EA's packed sports game release calendar, which sees 21 games - and all major sports series barring FIFA - released during the quarter. Activision, for what it's worth, could only manage 19.

EA, Activision Responsible For 75 Percent Of Q3 Console Releases [Gamasutra]

In the upcoming issue of Famitsu, SEGA announced that it's making a PSP game starring Hatune Miku. Hatune Miku is a character for Vocaloid2 Character Vocal Series software, but has gone on to appear in manga, anime and even get a cameo in a DS game! Here, you can listen to her sing the Portal song in Japanese!

Anyway, about the PSP game, it's a rhythm game which lets players win stuff and decorate Miku's room. Beside rhythm games, you can watch her walk around. Oh, and it's called Hatsune Mikue -Project Diva-. Thrilling title.
Hatsune Miku on PSP [Canned Dogs]

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Sony let us know today what that mysterious Savage Moon game is all about. Sadly, it isn't a game based on Cassie Edward's frontier romance novel. It is based on something though: Starship Troopers. Not officially, but come on. Look at it. It's basically a tower defence title, where you have to protect bases from hordes of alien bugs. Savage Moon is a PSN title, and will be released sometime in spring.

Savage Moon - Coming this US Fall to PSN [PlayStation.Blog]

That Koei/Bandai marketing wet dream Gundam Musou (think Dynasty Warriors with Gundam) is back. Gundam Musou 2 has been announced for PS3, PS2 and Xbox 360. The game will be out December 4th in Japan and will feature new mechas, like mobile armours, on the roser — Char's Counterattack is getting added as well!

Gundam Musou 2, GvG announced [Gunota Headlines] [Pic]

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If you work at a publisher, box art can be such a tricky, subjective thing. You can love it, but if the fans hate it, then you've got a conundrum on your hands. Easiest way to avoid that sticky situation? Throw up three alternate covers and let the fans choose! No, wait. There's an even better way. Especially if you're working on Resistance 2. You throw up two absolutely awful, dummy covers for the game's collectors edition, put them next to the actual cover (ie the one on the right, ie the one that took longer than three minutes to throw together) for the collectors edition, let the fans vote for the actual cover and then start with the high-fiving as your community involvement quotas for the month aren't just hit, they're exceeded! Embiggened versions after the jump.

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According to several industry sources outside of Nintendo, the company is working on an updated Nintendo DS. The screens are supposedly slightly bigger, but the biggest change is that the new DS will apparently have two touch screens — so it's like a dual touch DS. That way, players can interact via the stylus with game play on both screens. Here's the kicker: Word has it that this announcement, if true, won't hit until early next year.

Makes sense for Nintendo as the company stated at E3 that it didn't have any more announcements this year. Though does it make sense for anyone who buys a DS during the holidays? No, no it doesn't.

[Pic]

Hmmm. I first see this news, I get excited. After all, Red Baron - despite being 18 years old - is still the best damn World War 1 game around. But then I start asking myself questions. Like, aren't Sierra dead? Wasn't the whole point of the original Red Baron the fact is was steeped in historical accuracy? Why is this now an arcade shooter for the PlayStation Network where 17 bullets cause a battleship to explode?

Can't afford your own logo, or can't think of one awesome enough? Why not just take someone else's? Reader Grant noticed that a UK tracked vehicle company, called IJ Access, has lifted Lionhead Studios' emblem for use on its site. If you look above, you'll see the IJ Access logo is on the left, LHS' is on the right.

Now, I thought at first it might just be a coincidence... until I found a newer version of the site. If you visit the original page, Galaxylift.co.uk, the logo is out in force. However, if you jump to Lionlift.co.uk, which is almost identical, the logo has been scrubbed from the page header and the crane in the picture as well! Very naughty.

In case it all disappears, I've included screen caps of both sites after the jump.

IJ Access [Thanks Grant]

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Total PSP hardware and software sales figures for Japan have been announced. The console itself has shifted over ten million units in the period from December 12, 2004 and August 24, 2008. Software sales-wise, Capcom's Monster Hunter juggernaut is leading the charge. Here's the totals for the top selling PSP games so far in Japan:

1. Monster Hunter 2nd G (Capcom) March 27, 2008 Release: 2,396,642 copies sold
2. Monster Hunter 2nd (Capcom) February 22, 2007 Release: 1,706,387 copies sold
3. Crisis Core - Final Fantasy VII (Square Enix) September 13, 2007: 790,705 copies sold
4. Monster Hunter Portable (Capcom) December 1, 2005: 668,964 copies sold
5. Phantasy Star Portable (SEGA) July 31, 2008: 545,242 copies sold

The PSP seems to have really taken off in the last two years here in Japan.

PSPの国内累計販売台数が1000万台を突破 [Famitsu] [Pic]

Six. Or 6, if you prefer numerals. THQ plans to release six CEs, two for each platform. Which platforms? The PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 of course.

While the main CEs will be available at most retailers, the "Initiation" packs are exclusive to EB Games. The release says these are "extremely limited", and are contained in a pizza box from an in-game fast food chained called "Freckle Bitches". Neat.

Prices range from $110 (PC CE) to $150 (PS3 and 360 Initiation packs). All the details, including bigger pictures, can be found after the jump.

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An issue of Dengeki PlayStation that goes on sale August 29th in Japan, Final Fantasy XIII director and writer Motomu Toriyama and FFXIII Versus director Tetsuya Nomura talk about the possibility of Japan getting a Final Fantasy XIII Xbox 360 version. Nomura says that he himself was "surprised" at the FFXIII Xbox 360 Asia version news, saying that Microsoft's comment ("It would be nice if the game came out") was taken to mean that it was actually confirmed for Asia. More interesting than that clusterfuck is Toriyama's comment about whether or not Final Fantasy XIII will be released in Japan on the Xbox 360 platform:

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Once was a day rappers could settle their fueds with bullets. That or lyrics. But that would be asking a little too much of Bow Wow & The Game, who are instead settling their beef (prompted by The Game's boast he was the world's best Madden player) via a game of...Madden 09. A game of Madden 09 which will be thrown straight up on YouTube, and which will see the loser donate $US 100,000 to the winner's charity of choice. Charity? Good deeds? This rap game's changed, yo.

BOW WOW AND THE GAME GAMBLE $US 100,000 IN HEAD-TO-HEAD [contactmusic, via GameArena]

Movie director Guillermo del Toro says he's a gamer. No, really. While other Hollywood types fake their way through (see Don Cheadle), Hobbit director Guillermo actually sounds like he does play video games and likes them. Just listen to him rattle off what he's into:

I absolutely loved BioShock. I loved the world, the design, the lighting, the beautiful art direction and cinematography. I'm a fan of Silent Hill, Resident Evil and Devil May Cry. I love them all. The first Silent Hill was so beautiful, almost like a Lynch, Polanski or Romero type of horror experience...

I love the engine of GTA IV. I'm not a big fan of the actual game: I'm not into break-ins or running people over, but the engine is incredibly beautiful, and the sandbox is very complete. The same goes for Medal of Honour Airborne, Call of Duty 4 or Army of Two. There are only two games I consider masterpieces: Ico and Shadow of the Colossus... I have a 12-year-old daughter and we play together, but unfortunately she's more into Sonic and Kirby.

Sure seems to know his shit!

Hellboy Director Talks Gaming [Edge via Dtoid] [Pic]

New month, new issue of EGM, new round of Quartermann rumours. This time around, the two juiciest involve Rockstar. First up, that they've got an internal team working on Max Payne 3, what with original devs Remedy taking their sweet time on Alan Wake. That Rockstar team is the same one that worked on The Warriors. And second up, that Rockstar North - the GTA team - are working on an all-new game. One that's a PS3 exclusive. Of course these are totally unsubstantiated, so do with them what you do with any rumour you come along on the internet, and believe it/dismiss it as you see fit.

Quartermann: Max Payne 3 and New PS3 Exclusive Coming From Rockstar? [1UP]

Those looking to pick up the Xbox 360 port of arcade shooter Raiden IV on September 11th in Japan, bad news. The release date has been pushed back to October 2nd so developer Moss can increase the Xbox 360 version's quality. And that's not necessarily a bad thing! Just a time consuming one.

『Xbox 360 雷電Ⅳ』発売延期のお知らせ [Moss via INH's Raiden IV Blog via Siliconera]

You manage to look beyond the 360 price stuff on that Best Buy catalogue screen? You'll have noticed that the same page also manages to spill the beans on the metallic silver DS that was rumoured to hit the US a while back. It's got the standard $US 129.99 price, and with the catalogue due to appear on September 7, willl obviously be going on sale next month.

Yes, there are Street Fighter IV cabinets in America. Intern Jim even checked them out in the Chinatown Fair arcade in Manhattan. That's not the only place as a handful of arcades across the country have them, too — places like Arcade UFO in Austin. Does that mean the arcade version has been officially released in America? No. Then how the heck are these machines ending up on American arcade soil? According to game blog Multiplayer:

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You'll no doubt be familiar with the name Immersion. They're the rumble guys. Microsoft had to pay them to get rumble in the 360 pad, while Sony refused, resulting in the rumble-free Sixaxis. When Sony eventually did cough up the money, though, that led to more dramas, as part of Microsoft's deal with Immersion was a clause that said they would have to pay MS $US 15 million should Sony swallow their pride and pay for the use of rumble. Which they did. And it was a fee Immersion, in a delicious irony, refused to pay.That led to a legal tussle between Immersion and Microsoft, which has today been settled, with the rumble dudes agreeing to cough up $US 20.75 million. Phew. Hopefully that's the last time we need to write the words "Immersion" and "legal" in the same story.

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More Nintendo back-tracking! Fresh off their post-E3 apologies, the company have told Edge (in the latest mag, not the website) that "core" games are coming. And they're based on existing IP. Only problem is, they're not coming anytime soon.

We have never neglected our core gamers. We still have developers working on popular core gaming franchises but we need longer to complete these games, approximately two to three years...These games are not ready to launch in early 2009 but are being worked on by all development teams.

So if they take 2-3 years to make...where are the ones you started working on 2-3 years ago?

Edge - October 2008 [via Eurogamer]

Wii owners looking for a baseball game with as little actual baseball as possible might be in luck with the upcoming release of MLB Superstars.

Rather than the boring old 'actual baseball' stance taken by so many baseball games, MLB Superstars is a series of mini games featuring Wii-ified versions of Major League players and teams.

The 'over half a dozen' (which I assume means 'seven') minigames include Baseball Pachinko, Baseball Golf and rhythm game Mascot Dance — featuring team mascots, er, dancing.

MLB Superstars will be out later this Fall from 2K games.

MLB Superstars Announced For Nintendo Wii [Yahoo! Games]

There were tons of people running to get into Games Convention in Leipzig, no literally, tons of em'. Right as they opened the doors hoards of people stampeded through the halls hoping to be the first to get hands on time with the exhibits. James Bonti, Associate Producer for Activision Blizzard took this video footage and was nearly trampled himself. You can also see Crash Bandicoot leading the pack. For your courage, we salute you!

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Gamers - the next time the game you want is sold out, rest assured that Target has got your back.

With their highly experienced games experts in combination with a multi-million dollar expert system derived from US Military AI tech, the retail giant is able to calculate the exact alternative to scratch your gaming itch.

Or not. It seems that at least one store is convinced that if you can't partake of massively multiplayer online action roleplaying in darkest Azeroth via the World of Warcraft Battlechest then the next best things is.. er, looking after sick virtual pets in Paws & Claws Pet Vet 2: Healing Hands.

Sure, its funny this way around, but wait until you see what happens when an old lady goes in to buy Animal Crossing for her six year old granddaughter and ends up coming home with Dead Space...

[Thanks to: Bobby the Best Buy Guy]

Have you ever looked at the artwork and graphics for a game and known right then and there that you had to have it, no matter what the game was about? I didn't know anything about the DJ Max series before publisher PM Studios passed on this collection of artwork for the game. Hell, I had even missed Luke's post announcing that DJ Max Fever, a combination of Korean bestselling music rhythm games DJ Max Portable and DJ Max 2 was coming to the states this November. I suppose I could just download these screens to my PSP and just use them as wallpaper, but what the hell, I'll give the game a chance too.

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Remember that user-created-content for City of Heroes and City of Villains that I got so excited about back in April? The innovative feature that allows players to create and share their own in-game missions is officially on its way in Issue 13: Architect. Players will be able to pick the map, location, villains, objective, and then write your own fiction for the mission, and your peers will be able to rate your creations, with rewards for the highest rated creations.

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For those of you eagerly awaiting SPORE, you don't have to wait much longer to make your own (NSFW) creature abominations. In this new trailer Producer Kip Katsarelis and Software Engineer Soren Johnsen both take us through what it's like to build and destroy civilisations in the game.

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Pro tip - if you ever meet Hideo Kojima, do NOT ask him when Metal Gear Solid 4 will be out for the 360, the DS, the Super Famicom or ANY OTHER platform.

He will not be happy.

Poor Hideo has revealed to Eurogamer that he wants to stop having to explain his platform choices and just get back to thinking about the games.

"What kind of disturbs me sometimes, because a lot of people ask me about this PS3/360 question, is that it's not about the hardware - I want people to look at the game itself. Sometimes I even feel like it should be on a PC so that people don't ask me about hardware and platforms", said Kojima

Hey, so does this mean you are going to switch to the PC now, Hideo? Hideo?

Come back! HIDEO, WAIT!

Kojima wishes people would stop asking about MGS4 on 360 [Eurogamer]

When I got those Socom: Confrontation screens yesterday I knew something wasn't right. In fact, I had to look to make sure the game wasn't also coming out on PSP. Turns out we received some older images accidentally from Sony. Today we got the real new ones and boy does the game look good! This is the high resolution texture goodness I was expecting from the next generation Socom. More images after the jump.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that Stephen Fry is Best at everything. Actor, writer, director, comedian, poet, documentary maker, blogger, etc. etc. and bloody etc. again. In the UK we consider him a national treasure on a par with Excalibur, the Koh-i-noor Diamond and Queen Victoria's secret pr0n stash.

He has even lent his considerable vocal talent to Fable 2 — talk about renaissance man. Beat that, Leonardo, you big fraud.

Having recently begun an 87th career as a gadget blogger (via his Guardian newspaper column Dork Talk) the boy Fry has revealed his affection for the Nintendo DS and — true to form — offers a spot-on dissection of what is great about the handheld.

At the moment his interests seem to lie in the casual end of the gaming spectrum. Other games writers beware, though — if someone gives him a stack of Square RPGs we will all be out of a job by Christmas.

Dork Talk [The Guardian]

Fahey told you yesterday how he had waited a year to get his hands on sacred 2 only to find out the demo at Leipzig was in German. Today we have a new trailer so you guys can take a look at the game. The video is filled with costume changes, beach environments and lots of magic. The game will be released on Xbox 360, PS3, and PC in time for the holidays.

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The ZeeMote JS1 is a nunchuk-like Bluetooth analogue controller that we first covered back in October last year.

It was a nice idea, hampered slightly by the fact that games had to be rewritten to add support for the thing. Now Nokia has decided to embrace the ZeeMote by releasing downloadable software to let the controller work with almost any S60 app or N-Gage game.

The ZeeKey app is available for free download from the Nokia website and the mobile manufacturer has promised to bundle the app with selected handsets (presumably its more entertainment focused N-Series models).

Zeekey app for Zeemote available for Nokia phones [Pocket Lint]

No, Microsoft didn't manage to have an Xbox 360 snuck into Barack Obama's room.

The Clinton's didn't spend their pre-speech prep early this week playing team deathmatch Call of Duty 4.

Delegates didn't forego Joe Biden's rowdy all-nighter (I hear some of the Black-Eyed Peas and Snoop Dog were there) to catch some time with Gears of War 2.

Gaming amidst one of the biggest political gatherings of the year is a little more staid, make that a lot more staid.

One of the only public appearance by the monolithic video game industry at the week-long Democratic National Convention in Denver this week was by Microsoft and its Xbox 360.

Microsoft's State Government Affairs folks set up shop in a back bleacher section of the Rocky's Coors Field during Tuesday's A Day at Coors Field. Their demonstration area was packed with flat screen televisions, Xbox 360s, copies of MLB 2K8 and of course one large couch.

"Where better to talk about families and games then in the living room", Fred Humphries told me as I sat down to chat with him. Humphries, managing director of state government affairs for Microsoft's US Legal Corporate Affairs, flew into Denver to help oversee Microsoft, and the Xbox's, showing at the week-long convention.

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