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Kotaku Tokyo Party: The Important Details
For those keen on attending, here is the info you've been waiting for! We'll be having the Kotaku Tokyo shindig at "Mother" (fitting, no?) in town. The event will kick off at around 8pm and end when they turn off the alcohol. To get your free drinks, we'll be stamping hands. So bring clean hands! Here's the bar's website, which has a map. Directions? Here are directions: Take the Odakyu line from Shinjuku or the Inokashira line from Shibuya and get off at Shimokitazawa. Take the south exit from the station, and go straight down the main street keeping McDonalds on your left. Walk for about 2 minutes (Mr Donuts is halfway there) until the road opens out wider. About 20 meters after that (and just before you get to Osho chinese restaurant) there is a very small intersection. Turn right and Mother is the first building on the right with the mosaic wall outside. If you plan on attending, let us know so we don't drink all your booze.

Week In Games: Week in Games: Eternal Sonata Edition
There's a little something for everyone this week from the gorgeous Eternal Sonata and the uber cute MySims to the gritty World In Conflict and action packed Stranglehold. As I will be spending the next two weeks abroad I won't be playing much of anything until I return but Eternal Sonata is definitely my pick for this week. Anything you'll be picking up?Eternal Sonata (X360)Life inside the colorful dreams of a dying composerWorld in Conflict (PC)Soviet Russia lives in this RTSSonic Rush Adventure (DS)Sonic and Tails vs PiratesMySims (WII, DS)The Sims get a cutesy-poo faceliftCoded Arms: Contagion (PSP)The next chapter in the PSPs first FPSStranglehold (PS3, PC)John Woo brings his action magic to the PS3 and PCWarriors Orochi (X360, PS2)Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors fight to the deathJuiced 2: Hot Import Nights (X360, PS2, DS)This new racing game even tracks your DNA... creepy.Digimon World Data Squad (PS2)Use your Digimon to fight the Seven Demon KingsGrowlanser: Heritage...

Piracy: China's Gaming Companies Trying To Combat Piracy
In a move that seems like it will be about as effective as trying to herd cats, China's CDC Games has announced the formation of Online Games Alliance Against Piracy (OGAAP) to attempt to stem the tide of Chinese piracy. Considering we're talking about China, where it's frequently harder to find legitimate merchandise than it is to find bootlegs and big companies have been involved in large-scale IP suits, they have their work cut out for them. Other founding members of the alliance include "CCP, the Iceland-based developer of EVE Online; Ons On Soft Co. Ltd., the Korea-based developer of Shine; Sonokong Co. Ltd., the Korea-based developer of Shaiya, and Come on Baby; T3 entertainment, the Korea-based developer of Audition online game; and Wemade Entertainment, the Korea-based developer of Legend of Mir II and MIR III online games." Full release after the jump, and we'll see how well this winds up working.CDC Games and Leading Game Developers Form Alliance to Protect Online...

: Keiichi Yano on the Elite Beat, XBLA, and the East-West Divide
We mentioned Keiichi Yano earlier this week with the announcement that iNiS is working on a 360 title, but Gamasutra has an interesting interview up with him touching on topics ranging from the success of Elite Beat Agents, to the advantages of the Live Arcade format, to the East-West divide (or lack thereof). A sampling on his thoughts on the flow between East and West in terms of game design:There needs to be more insight from a technical vantage, and just more of a game design sampling, I think. I know that Western developers are interested in Japanese thinking in terms of game design, so that's why I think a lot of game designers are called to GDC this year, including myself. I think it's really several things, but those two are probably the major reasons, I think. Hopefully, that'll continue to grow and Japanese developers come to the States or Europe more to gain information that we wouldn't be able to gain just being in Japan.It's an interesting interview with some...

Academics: 'Metanomics' - A New Series on the Metaverse and ... Stuff
If you're interested in the issues surrounding the metaverse (especially in terms of economics and policy), Metaversed is pairing up with the Cornell Johnson School of Management to offer a series of speakers and a website to discuss issues within the metaverse: economics, law, policy, technology .... Robert Bloomfield explains the goal and scope of the series over at Terra Nova:Thie series is open to anyone who wants to hear from--and engage with--academics, industry leaders, regulators and influential virtual-world residents ....... Events are only the grain of sand in the oyster. We hope to get pearls from constructing a way for people interested in metanomics to engage with the speaker and with each other in serious discusion before and after the session, and create an archive that future can serve as essential reading for future metanomicists (ok, that word doesn't work so well. Metanomists?). We plan to accomplish this by having suggested readings before each session,...

Clips: Ninja Gaiden II Gameplay
Wow, it seems like only a few days ago we had no idea that Ninja Gaiden II was going to be announced, and now GameVideos has not one, but two clips of actual gameplay up for your viewing pleasure. Maybe it's just the small size of the vids, but I'm not exactly feeling a lot of excitement for the title. I guess after playing the first game three times across two different systems jaded me a little. Hit the jump for the second clip. Okay, so clip 2 is a little more exciting. The ninja magic is impressive as hell, and the soldier that leaps over Ryu's head, then steps on it and shoots him in the head is my new hero. What do I know anyway? I'm not even supposed to be here today.

Now That's A Fan: The Weird World of FFVII Roleplayers
Leigh Alexander has a interesting/terrifying history of Final Fantasy VII roleplayers up over at The Escapist. She describes it as "the story of a tragic love affair a group of enormously devoted fans had with a game they couldn't let go of (sob) .... It's a story of open-source gaming in practice, and how the kind of fanatics who love a story enough to make it their own are also the kind who will probably completely ruin it for everyone else." In a gaming landscape that pushes user-driven and -created content more and more, Alexander points out that this sort of stuff is nothing new: there's a whole legion of people who "didn't need Advent Children to tell them what happened after the end of the game; they were light years ahead already." And maybe a little behind on normal life skills:When the son of Sephiroth broke up with his redheaded barmaid girlfriend, the real-life girl tracked down the other player's telephone number and phoned him at night, weeping. They ended...

Timewasters: Timewaster(s) of the Day: Grow Games
Not that I don't have enough to do setting up in a new city, but I've been cheerfully clicking away at the various Grow Games over at Eyemaze all morning - the games are ridiculously cute, but not in an irritating way, and wonderfully simple and frustratingly complex at the same time. You are given a handful of panels, and you have to select which order to click them in - they will grow or change in relation to/with each other, and the point is to grow each panel to its max. The games are reminiscent of a lot of the game design theory of Danc over at Lost Garden, though they lack the feedback he so frequently discusses. Still, a great waste of half an hour ... or an hour ... or a few hours .... [via Rock, Paper, Shotgun]

New And Shiny: VastPark Is Coming
In case you've tired of your virtual self in Second Life, VastPark is coming (for some people, at least - the first new users will be given access soon): it promises "a virtual content platform featuring free tools, revolutionary distributed content syndication and enables you to deploy your own virtual world or online game within seconds royalty free." Metaversed explains: It's free to use and purchasing a "Pro Creator account" allowing 1Gb of storage and bandwidth will be US$19 for 2 years. One can still publish using a free "Basic Creator account" allowing you to try it out, and they were giving away three year Pro accounts if you were among the first 250 people to publish content.Once you've created your world, you can open portals to worlds other users have created. Content creation tools include basic 3D building functions and texture mappers, as well as scripting tools. There's also a built-in syndication system where content developpers can allow some things to be...

Clip: Ninja Gaiden DS TGS 07 Trailer
The TGS trailers are already rolling in and the event has barely even started. This clip for Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword for the DS looks great and actually has me interested in cheking the game. It shows off a lot of the fighting moves that you will be controlling with the stylus. I'm really pleased to see that publishers are finding more ways to take advantage of the stylus control other than just point and tap. It also looks like you'll be holding your DS sideways for this one which is always fun for a little change.

Dance Dance Revolution: British Schoolkids Stave Off Obesity With DDR
There have been a number of new stories about US schools using Dance Dance Revolution as a way to get kids who aren't into competitive sports or their required PE classes moving - now the Brits are getting in on the act. Despite the fact that the BBC couldn't be bothered to fact-check the name of the game title, they have a short piece on the use of DDR in Bedfordshire schools - they've just done trials, targeting it's use towards girls who aren't interested in traditional sports:Mellone Cutts is the head of PE at Lea Manor High School which took part in the trials."There is a number of students who we don't reach with competitive sports," she said."With more and more children becoming obese, one way we can help is by increasing participation in sport and this does that."And who says video games have no redeeming value? Computer dance gets pupils active [BBC News, thanks Daniel!]

Oldie But A Goodie: Konami Code Unlocks Hidden Jam Sessions Songs
Some things just never go out of style. Hidden tracks on Ubisoft's Jam Sessions, previously only available through purchase of the game at Best Buy, are actually unlockable on any version using a truncated version of the good old Konami code. Pushing in Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, and Right during Free mode will net you three new songs: Brad Paisley - "I'm Gonna Miss Her" Jimi Hendrix - "Wild Thing" Tom Petty - "Needles and Pins"For those of you set up with left handed controls you can use X, X, B, B, Y, A, Y, and A on the letter pads instead. I have tested this out myself and it work just fine so go and enjoy yourself two great new songs and one rather questionable one. (I'll let you decide which one that is for yourself.)Konami codes and secret messages in Jam Sessions [DS Fanboy]