The quote on the cover of the 2010 version of the Guinness World Records Gamer’s Edition actually comes from a post Crecente wrote earlier this year on the 2009 version of the book. The full quote is “With entries for professional gaming, top selling games in history, the history of hardware and Guitar Hero, the Guinness World Records 2009 Gamer’s Edition looks to be a must have for fans of gaming.”

And it did look to be such, before they started making up records like ‘Most Critically Acclaimed Superhero Game Ever.’ Still, the book does feature a number of more tangible and less marketing-focused records, so it’s still the perfect bathroom reading book for gamers.

Let’s see them use that quote.

The book will be out in North America on January 4th, and the UK on January 21st.

Community guru Major Nelson tweeted the news today, with operations manager Eric (“e”) Neustadter following with word of his own soon after.

No specific reason was given for the record traffic but it’s unimaginable Modern Warfare 2 is not a strong factor in this. No word on what the previous record was.

Xbox Live Breaks Records [Hot Blooded Gaming]

EA is rolling out the review scores and posting big numbers as it celebrates the success of FIFA 10 in Europe, calling it the fastest selling sports game of all time. Italy’s Official Xbox Magazine calls it “the best football game ever”. ConsolPlus Germany is calling it “the best football game the world has ever seen”. Our own Luke Plunkett said it “comes close (damn close) to both feeling—and, for spectators, looking—like the real thing.” While our US readers try to figure out why they keep calling it a football game, we turn to EA Sports president Peter Moore.

“We were confident that FIFA 10 would be a hit, and this week fans across Europe have shown just how much they love this game,” said Peter Moore, President of EA SPORTS. “We are incredibly proud of FIFA 10 and this kick-off for great, authentic football competition.”

Since the game launched, more than 10 million sessions have been played online, with more than 155,000 players online simultaneously during peak hours. Quite impressive!

FIFA 10 hits North America on October 20, with sales numbers that are sure to be far less impressive.

The first perfect Pac-Man score was achieved by hot sauce mogul Billy Mitchell in 1999, and once the perfect score was achieved, there was no way to top it, unless you did it faster. Until recently, the top speed record was held by Chris Ayra, who completed the game in three hours, 42 minutes, and four seconds back in 2000. Now Ayra slips to the number two position, as the suspiciously-named David Race has been confirmed as the world’s fastest, with a time of three hours, 41 minutes, and 22 seconds, only 42 seconds faster than the previous record.

Achieving a perfect Pac-Man score requires the gamer to eat every dot, bonus fruit, and blue ghost possible across 256 levels, after which the game glitches out. The fact that people are still trying to beat records for doing this never ceases to amaze me.

Can you top 105 in Archery on expert difficulty? How about 999 on the Table Tennis return challenge? Probably not, but if you’ve got a bit of free time you might want to check out the official Wii Sports Resort records, as you can never really tell if you’re just average at a game or some sort of supernatural freak without official scores to compare yourself to. I personally think I might have a chance at the expert Wakeboarding title, as long as no one has to actually see me doing it to qualify.

Check out a selection of the scores below, or head over to http://www.twingalaxies.com to see how you rank in thousands of other games. Your next obsession could be waiting just around the corner. Next stop, your own hot sauce.

Selected Wii Sports Resort Records and Rankings as of 9/2/09:

Archery (Expert Difficulty)
1. 105 points – Brandon Skar, Snoqualmie, WA
2. 80 points – Nick Manns, Huntington, WV
3. 68 points – Lance Eustache, Arverne, NY

Table Tennis (Return Challenge)
1. 999 – Brandon Skar, Snoqualmie, WA
2. 271 – Marc Cohen, Henderson, NV
3. 204 – Lance Eustache, Arverne, NY

Bowling (100 Pin Game)
1. 2,098 – Marc Cohen, Henderson, NV
2. 1,682 – Julie Mee, Rhyl, United Kingdom
3. 1,182 – Ronald Loch, Garland, TX

Basketball (3 point challenge)
1. 26 – Lance Eustache, Arverne, NY
2. 25 – Brandon Skar, Snoqualmie, WA
3. 24 – Clabe Anglin, Krum, TX

Wakeboarding (Expert Difficulty)
1. 1,581 – Brandon Skar, Snoqualmie, WA
2. 1,266 – Lance Eustache, Arverne, NY
3. 820 – Ginger Stowe, Grand Rapids, MI

We loved Shadow Complex, and so did you folks apparently, with stellar review scores and one-week sales so spectacular that Microsoft had to issue a celebratory press release. Multiplayer titles dominate Xbox Live Arcade, and single-player games generally don’t perform nearly as well, but Chair seems to have knocked this one out of the park.

“Congratulations to Chair Entertainment and Epic Games for creating an outstanding game,” said Scott Austin, director of digitally distributed games at Microsoft. “As the capstone title of the second annual Summer of Arcade program, “Shadow Complex” has raised the bar for downloadable games. We’re proud to offer such high-quality content on Xbox LIVE Arcade.”

I found the game to be one of the most complete game offerings ever made available on Xbox Live Arcade. I would have easily paid full price for it, which makes the 1200 Microsoft point ($15) so much sweeter. If you’ve not yet played it, it comes highly recommended.

Last year’s big German games show, the Games Convention in the city of Leipzig, attracted 203,000 people over the course of the show. This year’s big German games show, Gamescom, attracted more, with organisers claiming 245,000 visitors popped into the show last week.

That’s more than the Tokyo Game Show can manage. Making this the biggest gaming show on the planet. So: success!

There were also 17,000 trade visitors, along with a whopping 4000 people strutting around wearing “MEDIA” badges.

The download only game, developed by DICE, launched on July 8 for $US15 and included a map and mode that had to be unlocked through the communal effort of everyone playing the game.

“We are honoured by the reception that the game has received so far,” says Gordon Van Dyke, producer on Battlefield 1943. “Watching and participating in this non-stop multiplayer action has been a real treat for us and we can’t believe how fast our fans reached 43 million kills. We can now truly say that we have set a new standard for what can be done in the downloadable games category and gamers recognise the endless value that Battlefield 1943 provides for just $US15.”

The worldwide community challenge to unlock the Coral Sea map began on Friday, July 10 at 19:43 CET. The Xbox LIVE community reached the goal of 43 million kills in just 5 days, with the PlayStation community hitting the mark in 8 days.

Van Dyke told Kotaku that the popularity of the community unlock has him pondering including something similar in Bad Company 2.

Nintendo is trumpeting the DS as the fastest-selling “console” in Australian history. The handheld has just passed the two million unit milestone, becoming only the second console after the PlayStation 2 to hit that mark.

What makes it the fastest is that it sold two million in 221 weeks since launch. The PS2 took longer. How much longer? We don’t know. We asked Sony to confirm how long it took the PS2 and also how many units their console’s sold since launch, but they have yet to respond.

So, there you go, the DS is pretty damn fast.

With 5, 560 square miles of accessible in-game terrain, Codemasters’ Fuel is the biggest console game of all time, and they’ve got the Guinness World Records certificate to prove it.

The award for largest playable area in a console game was awarded to Fuel developer Asobo Studios. Guinness World Records presented the developer with a certificate to commemorate the achievement, which will be included in the next printing of the Guinness World Records Gamers Edition.

“Largest playable area in a console game: The largest playable environment in a console game is 5,560 square miles (14,400 km²), and is featured in FUEL (Codemasters, 2009). The area features rivers, deserts, forests and mountains and was demonstrated at the offices of Guinness World Records, London, UK, on 20 May 2009.”

Watch the video to see Asobo co-founders David Dedeine and Sebastian Wloch discuss the technology behind their record-setting game, and check out the photo below to see the team standing around holding a certificate.