Jerry Bruckheimer's making a Prince of Persia movie. Jake Gyllenhaal's starring, and he certainly looks the part. But what about the sets? Don't sweat it, fans, the sets look the part as well. Here's your first look at them, courtesy of film site Korben. The trick is to imagine that there are less trucks sitting around, more shirtless Jake Gyllenhaals strolling around.
Prince of Persia le film : Les premières photos du décor [Korben, via CVG]

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On Thursday, you would have seen Michael Phelps, still basking in the glow of his olympic triumphs, presented with a copy of Call of Duty: World At War. A game that's months from completion. Turns out Phelps didn't receive the game at all; what he got instead was a box of lies. An Activision PR rep has confirmed that Phelps was presented with an empty box and a promise that, when the full game's, you know, actually finished, he can have a copy. Who knows where this exciting new trend - of giving celebrities things that don't yet exist - will lead us.

Michael Phelps Didn't Really Get New 'Call Of Duty' Early [MTV]

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Sony think LittleBigPlanet will be a system-seller. And what better way to find out than with this European market LittleBigPlanet/PS3 bundle, spotted on the website of French retailer Fnac. It includes an 80GB PS3, a copy of LittleBigPlanet and a DualShock 3, and is going for €400 ($680). Fantastic box art free of charge.

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Microsoft & From Software unveiled their new action game - Ninja Blade - at today's Fall Press Conference. When we say "unveiled", we mean they showed a brief, brief trailer, which you can watch here. Should trailers not be your thing, there's some screens (from the trailer) below. Not ideal (we have GAMEPLAY QUESTIONS!!) but still, it's better than trying to imagine what it would look like for a ninja to jump off a helicopter, kill some dragons then run down the side of a building, no?

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A big gripe for some Western players about Resident Evil 5 is that the game uses RE4's controls. Those feel, critics say, dated in all the recent advancements in how players interact with gamers. No wonder, while at E3, Capcom producer Jun Takeuchi hinted that Resident Evil 5 would be getting a revamped control scheme, going as far to say: "So don't be surprised if at the Tokyo Game Show, the controls are different... I'm not confirming or denying anything, but we like to surprise people." After the Microsoft Media Briefing, Takeuchi confirmed that RE5's new controls will be on the TGS showroom floor. While he didn't go into any great detail about the changes, he did refer to them as "Gears-like" controls.

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Microsoft's fall Xbox Japan press conference is about to kick off here in Tokyo! We ("we" being "me") have touched down and will be blogging the dealio. While Microsoft's already announced the across the board price cuts, does it have any more surprises in store? Who knows!

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Remember that amazing Fallout 3 Airstream that I just won't shut up about? The one that was parked dead-centre in the middle of Bethesda's Fallout 3 booth?

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Raving Rabbids TV Party is, apparently, crack for kids.

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Right now, there aren't many/any 360s in Japan. Place went bananas for Tales of Vesperia, they're practically sold out, and won't be getting any more in for a while. When they do come back in, there'll be a slight change: they'll be cheaper. A lot cheaper. Microsoft Japan have announced that - as was rumoured last week when Bic Camera accidentally jumped the gun - the 360's due for some price cuts. The Arcade 360 will have its price slashed by ¥8,000 to ¥19,800 ($214), which makes it significantly cheaper than the ¥25,000 Wii. The Pro and Elite will also be reduced, by ¥5,000 (from ¥34,800 to ¥29,800/$325) and ¥8,000 (from ¥47,800 to ¥39,800/$434) respectively.

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The Brother's in Arms: Hell's Highway booth at Penny Arcade Expo this year was turned into a bootcamp barbershop. If you got your head shaved and had "Hell" spraypainted on the back of your skull, Ubisoft would send you a free copy of the game.

A free haircut and video game apparently seemed like a sweet deal to a lot of people, even if it did turn them into walking billboards. There was a line. A long, long line. For this.

Just for the record, readers, I'm here as a Plebeian (and I heart that word) - with a normal three-day pass I paid for with my own hard-earned money. I'm also hanging out with three friends and am subject to what they want to do, not what I want to cover. I have not once pulled rank as a Kotaku correspondent to score free shit or get into crowded events (okay, maybe once, but that was for The Conduit, which you can read about tomorrow).

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Iron Chef America is unapologetically similar to Cooking Mama and Destineer is totally OK with that.

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There is a hilarious article up on the Escapist on one MMO player's experience with Mabinogi, the Nexon free-to-play MMO that was released in North America earlier this year. I had to laugh because I'm not an MMO player and I've been having a culture shock experience of my own adjusting to a Western-style MMO. John Funk of WarCry admits that he's turned a blind eye to MMO offerings coming out of Asia, so a week in Mabinogi offered a lot of culture shock and total confusion:

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One of my most anticipated games for this year is Left 4 Dead, Valve's Zombie Apocalypse game that's all about cooperative play. The thing is I haven't been able to try, and until this week no one has, is the Xbox 360 version of the game.

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Pascal Luben has an interesting article — soon to be part of a set of articles — on the 'megatrends' of gaming. Some of it is obvious ('multiplayer to the rescue!'), but the discussion of what all this means for game design and games of the (near) future. Luben has written about three 'megatrends' - increasing the commercial life of games, the emergence of 'fast gaming,' and increasingly believable universes - in this article, with at least two more subheadings coming in a future piece. He is quick to explain he's not simply ruminating on what may happen in the future, but is discussing trends that are already underway or quickly gaining steam:

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During my interview yesterday Lionhead Studio's Sam Van Tilburgh was pretty mum about the gold-churning glitch that was discovered in Fable 2's pre-release mini Pub Games.

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It's such a familiar, yet timeless story, Sackboy meets Sackgirl, he helps her in a tough time in her life, they go out on a date -- Sackgirl gets electrocuted and incinerated by lava, but Sackboy's charming laughter wins her over. Here's a look at the better half of Little Big Planet's power couple. As if you don't know already, the game drops in October, and it's PS3 only.

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