RPGs: Stop Making Bad First Impressions 
Is Hitman's Next Target Assassin's Creed? 
Why Kotaku Australia Should Never Work With Children... Or Robots 
Three Words I Said To The Man I Defeated In Gears Of War That I'll Never Say Again 
New Doom 3 For Xbox 360 And PlayStation 3 Supports Head-Mounted Displays 
Far Cry 3 And The Stranger In A Strange Land Forget 4D, we’ll settle with 3D. At a recent U.S. press event, Mitsubishi demoed its fancy 3D googles (above). The tech works with DLP TVs and projectors, but not with plasma and LCD displays. The company is even developing a Blu-ray player that can convert 2D movies into 3D on the fly, which *might* be available as early as next year. The kicker? According to CNET’s Crave: Mitsubishi hinted that it was in discussions with one game console manufacturer to integrate the 3D technology into the system. The Wii’s not capable of such feats and Microsoft’s in the HD DVD camp, so one would have to assume it’s Sony and the PS3.
Plus Nintendo’s probably not eager to get back into 3D. People still have Virtual Boy headaches. 3D Mitsubishi [Crave via Gizmodo]
It’s coming. Obviously. Later this year, Xbox 360s outfitted with 65-nm chips should be hitting store shelves according to The Xbox 360 Uncloaked author Dean Takahashi. Dubbed “Falcon,” these chips are smaller than the current 90-nm processors and should use less energy. And that *should* lead to fewer Red Rings of Death. Well, theoretically! We won’t know until these consoles are out in the wild, performing under real world conditions. However, Takahashi has confirmed that the chips are in the first batch of consoles currently being made, meaning that they could be there by fall. But Microsoft isn’t going to disclose to customers which consoles have what.
Real or fake? A sample of Halo 3 manual images has surfaced. The manual doesn’t the Covenant’s Needler as a weapon that can also be wielded by Master Chief. Odd, because it’s been dual-wieldable since the last Halo. Stuff like that and the fact only a sample of pages are floating about makes me think these are scans from an early proof copy or totally and utterly bogus. We’ll find out when the game’s released this September. Hey, that’s soon!
Halo 3 Instruction Manual? [FileFront via POWET.TV, Thanks Marcus!]
Hardware launches mean one thing: Hardware shortages. This September’s PSP Slim launch looks to be no different. Amazon Japan pre-orders for the PSP Slim (PSP-2000CW) have already closed, and the Sofmap in Akihabara is posting signs mentioning that because of shortages, customers can reserve only one PSP Slim. It also seems like they’re not letting customers pick which colour they want. Also! Sofmap is allowing one 1seg PSP tuner per person. Whenever new hardware launches, I can’t help but thinking some of the demand is created through forced shortages. Call me jaded. PSP Slim Registration Starts [Akiba Blog]
Last week, Gamestop pics surfaced, showing Sonic on a Super Smash Bros. Brawl mock-up cover. This week? Kotakuite Cody sends up an ad from a Canadian Best Buy that shows Sonic standing between Wario, Samus, Kirby and Link. Is this a marketing foul-up? Is Nintendo sitting on a big announcement and totally forgot to check their fliers? Got me! Though, with Sonic and Mario now making games together, I wouldn’t rule this out just yet — especially with Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto and Smash Bros. Masahiro Sakurai saying that Sonic was the character fans want most.
Eds Note: PhotoShop time stamp is ours.
The bastards. They killed the Dreamcast and now Shenmue apparently. Shortly after Shenmue II hit the DC, there were rumblings that a sequel was in the works. We’re still waiting. Then, back in early 2006, the game’s producer and director Yu Suzuki stated at event China Joy 2006 that Shenmue Online was *still* in development. (The game was originally announced back in 2004!) This year’s China Joy turned up no Shenmue Online, and according to Adam Doree from game site Kikizo site, fat chance on seeing Shenmue III: As for Shenmue, I would have to say at this stage, it is worth forgetting about… Suzuki’s status is, once again, up in the air, which counts Shenmue III totally out of the picture right now. This is confirmed, it seems.
SEGA has yet to provide an official statement on the game. Shame to see the rot set in. Really.
No More Shenmue [VGB]
