Comic book fans! Did you know there was an even more pretentious way to refer to comics than 'graphic novel'? Thanks to our friends the French Bande Dessinée can be your go-to phrase when you want to compare The Punisher to Infinite Jest.

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That's right, after a particularly good run I've had another Xbox 360 die on me. This time a debug unit.

While the instances of Xbox 360 red rings have certainly dropped, I do still hear stories about the console's DVD player giving up the ghost. That's what happened to me in July last year when my last 360 died and that seems to be the case this time around. I was playing the end of LEGO Batman The Videogame when the game paused and a "dirty disc" error popped up on the screen. A few more runs at playing the game allowed me to get a few minutes in before the console crapped out on me again.

Just last month my brother had his Xbox 360's DVD drive die on him as well. He recently went out and purchased a replacement Xbox 360 Arcade.

For those keeping track I've now had a total of ten Xbox 360s die on me since the launch of the console. (That's counting debug units and retail consoles). Of those eight died with a Red Ring error and two died with perpetual dirty disc errors.

Those of you who missed Udon's excellent Street Fighter series in comic book form have another chance to catch the series next February as Eagle One Media and Capcom team up to present a DVD version of the comic in animated form. Street Fighter: Round One - FIGHT!, due out February 9th, just in time for the release of Street Fighter: Legend of Chun-Li on February 27 - not only reprints issues 0-6 of the Udon series, it animates the comic, adding movement, music, special-effects, and even voice overs to the comic book dialogue If you ask me it's a complete and utter bastardization of the comic book as an art form, but that's just the sort of thing you'd expect from a big old comic book geek like myself.
Street Fighter Animated Comic DVD [Eagle One Media]

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Uwe Boll's epic masterpiece Postal has now been released on the unsuspecting DVD purchasing public, complete with a Uwe commentary, deleted scenes, special features, and a copy of Postal 2 for the PC. The news is so unexciting that even bombastic Running With Scissors boss Vince Desi can barely muster a crude joke about it.

"Own a piece of history! Only buying the DVD will get you the full complete outrageous movie and game, sadly the rental version is edited down and doesn't include the infamous Postal games-so don't get beat renting it." explained Vince Desi. "The Postal Movie on DVD means EVERYONE will have the opportunity to see it, even Usama Bin-Laden from his cave won't want to miss this".

The DVD version carries an MSRP of $US 26.99, with the Blu-ray version at $US 34.99, but Amazon has the DVD for $US 22.99 and the Blu-ray at an extremely cheap $US 19.99, plus you get the benefit of not having to show your face in a store.

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Nintendo has been far too busy printing money and dreaming up strange new controllers to actually finish that DVD-on-Wii thing it has been promising for the last couple of years.

Happily, the homebrew community has stepped up and put together a Wii channel that will read a DVD disc and pipe it through the open source MPlayer media player.

It's not quite ready for prime time — the audio can sometimes get out of sync, although this is more a 'feature' of MPlayer than the fault of the hack, we suspect. Worth checking out, though, and it might just save Nintendo the bother of building something that nobody has really been crying out for but would be nice to have for free.

Homebrew Enables DVD Playback On Wii [Gemaga.com]

As Luke pointed out early this morning, the report that U.S. games sales had surpassed DVD sales was bound to be misconstrued. And it was. In fact it's just plain wrong.

The folks over at Entertainment Merchants Association wrote to let us know that the $US 18 billion for "game sales" includes software, hardware and even accessories. While the DVD sales include, you got it, only the DVDs. The actual apples-to-apples comparison has DVD sales at $US 16 billion and video game sales clocking in at a meekly $US 8.64 billion. Even if you add that $US 503 million in sales the industry is no where near toppling DVD sales from its mighty high roost.

One day video games will be bigger business than music and hollywood, mark my words, but that day hasn't come yet.

That's it, our Disgaea DVD competition is over! We've had a look at all the wonderful haikus that were sent in over the last week and, with great difficulty, selected five to receive a copy of the Disgaea Collection. Don't feel bad if you missed out - the pack is available from today for $49.95.

Special props again to Madman, who made the competition possible. If your name appears after the jump, watch your inbox as we'll be in touch soon to get your mailing address.

Now, for the winning entries!

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Five copies of the Disgaea Collection are waiting to be won. They sit in their corner, crying, night after night, desperate for owners. I don't know how much longer I can take it.

If you'd like to help, keep writing those Disgaea-themed Haikus and sending them to tips(AT)kotaku(DOT)com(DOT)au. Make sure you put "Disgaea DVD comp" in the subject line. For more details, head over to the original post.

You have until Tuesday next week, so get scribing!

Image © 2003 NIPPON ICHI SOFTWARE INC. / DARK ASSEMBLY

Competitions, we love them. You can't hug or kiss them, but you sure can go all sexy-like on the prizes they result in. But you probably shouldn't, because they tend to be valuable.

Alright then - who's in the mood to win one of five Disgaea Collection DVD packs? Each is valued at $49.95, and they're packed with Disgaea goodness... as you'd expect. Want to know more? I'll let the Madman website do the talking:

The King of the Netherworld has died and various demons are now building their own empires in an effort to take control. However, the late King's son has arrived and is out to reclaim his rightful place as ruler of the Netherworld! Along to help him is his vassal, Etna, with her Prinny squad, and Flonne, an angel-in-training originally sent to assassinate the king only to find that he has already died. Join our three intrepid - and somewhat eccentric - heroes as they initiate their plan to conquer the Netherworld, Heaven and Earth!

Even if you don't win, the pack will be available from Madman, starting May 14.

Thanks heaps to Madman for providing us with the goods. Full terms & conditions incoming!

[Terms and Conditions]

Image © 2003 NIPPON ICHI SOFTWARE INC. / DARK ASSEMBLY