Home / kotaku.com rss archive / September-23-2007


You Don't Say: Game In College, Have Poor Time Management, Watch Grades Drop
While I'm all for the academic study of gaming, a lot of the 'scientific' studies just kill me - if you spend too much time [insert time waster of your choice here] in college, your grades could drop? Really? And people actually get funding for this kind of stuff? The paper is being published by the National Bureau of Economic Research and was conducted at Berea College, where certain conditions meant that typical college time wasters weren't present. Video games, however, were - and they found that people who brought along video games to college (or had roommates who did) spent less time studying (and had a lower GPA) than people who didn't:... The study needed an external factor that influenced study time. It found it in video games, specifically by dividing the students based on whether their roommates had brought gaming rigs to school. About half of the males and a quarter of the females fell into this group. But the impact of access to gaming didn't depend on the students'...

Fallout: Original Fallout Concept Art
In celebration of Fallout's upcoming 10th anniversary, the people at No Mutants Allowed have been putting up information every two days since 17 September. Today's nostalgic treat? Four pieces of concept art from the original. You can check out the other three here and can keep an eye on their other offerings at their 10th anniversary page. [Thanks 'Brother None']

Gods & Heroes: Gods & Heroes: Rome Rising Delayed (Again)
Gamasutra reports that Perpetual Entertainment has announced God & Heroes: Rome Rising is being delayed again, this time citing the need for more beta testing. In the same interview, Perpetual CEO Chris McKibbin said that Perpetual will be laying off 30-40 employees (the last delay of Rome Rising coincided with more layoffs) and clarified the company's relationship with SOE. As reported back in August, sources cited a changing relationship with SOE (with SOE moving from a co-publisher to a purely marketing role), but McKibbin clarified what he termed a 'non-story':Asked about reports that Sony Online had shifted from co-publisher to solely a marketing role with Gods and Heroes, representing a backing-off the project by Sony, McKibbin called it a "non-story that people spun a little." He clarified: "There was no change in our relationship with Sony... part of the confusion comes from the difference between online games and packaged goods games. Perpetual has always been...

Case Mods: Elaborate Halo Case Mod
'Brooza' sent us a link to this pretty amazing Halo case mod. Me? Not a Halo person, but wow. The original post at Maxconsole says in part: "The creator is mentioned to be from the UK and is called 'Craget' with the following unit taking him 2 months to complete in his spare time. There are no internal modifications apart from the base cooler that he fitted with some LED's used to light up the case. The creator will soon put his creation up on eBay too." This is the sort of mod I'd love to see some step-by-step pictures of.

Nice Idea But: Textfyre - the Comeback of the Text Adventure?
Interactive fiction is a hot hot hot subject these days (at least in some circles), and plenty of independent takes have cropped up relatively recently. But David Cornelson, CEO of Textfyre, Inc., is setting out to see that interactive fiction gets a commercial resurgence, and has goals like getting a license for Harry Potter IF game (hey, it would probably be better than the Wii version of the last game). Targeting reading-aged kids with an episodic format, Cornelson says to Gamasutra:I think I will be able to sell hundreds of thousands of games in a year and we're going to expand into educational, subject-matter, library, and other markets and we will be the market leader in high quality text-based interactive educational entertainment.I have to wonder how successful text-based games are going to be when aimed at a generation raised on CGI, but stranger things have happened (though it's certainly 'an eyebrow-raising prospect,' as GameSetWatch says). It's an interesting...

Only In China: Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters
Shanda Entertainment - one of Mainland China's heavy hitters in the gaming industry - announced that their subsidiary, Aurora Technology, has frozen accounts of male players who have elected to play as female characters in the King of the World MMORPG. Apparently there are no bans on women playing male characters, but women (and men-wanting-to-play-as-women) will be required to prove their gender via webcam. How exactly is this all going to work? And is it going to last? Who knows - but it certainly seems very odd and not prone to lasting long:Shanda (Nasdaq: SNDA) subsidiary Aurora Technology has frozen game accounts of male players who chose to play female in-game characters in its in-house developed MMORPG King of the World, reports 17173. Aurora stipulates that only female gamers can play female characters in the game, and it requires gamers who chose female characters to prove their biological sex with a webcam, according to the report.PlayNoEvil's commentary points...

: Nintendo Contractor Fired For Blogging
In case anyone needed a reminder that nothing's ever anonymous on the internet, and yes, your ass can get fired for stuff you put in your personal blog ... or MySpace page ... or Facebook page ... comes the sad tale of Jessica Zenner, a 23 year old employee of Nintendo, was fired for her personal blog (allegedly). Of course, there's a she said, company said element here, and while Zenner says higher ups never informed her of any Nintendo policy on blogging, a spokeswoman for the company said "[Zenner] was expressly discouraged from doing what she did. I've seen everything that she's written and it's really not work appropriate."One post on Zenner's blog--titled "The Daily Weed"--begins with her disputing her friends' perception that she is a pothead. She digresses into a wry tirade against one of her bosses: "One plus about working with [a] hormonal, facial-hair-growing, frumpy [woman] is that I have found a new excuse to drink heavily," Zenner writes. "My gut tells me that...

Books: New Anthology On Video Games: Space Time Play
A new anthology on gaming - on design, architecture (both of the virtual and actual varieties), urbanism, and lots of other interesting and academic-sounding things - will be coming out next month (or November, for those of us in the US). Entitled Space Time Play: Computer Games, Architecture, and Urbanism: the Next Level, the volume brings together an impressive number of authors with a variety of backgrounds, and everything from game reviews to essays to interviews:The richly illustrated texts in "Space Time Play" cover a wide range of gamespaces: from milestone video and computer games to virtual metropolises to digitally-overlaid physical spaces. As a comprehensive and interdisciplinary compendium, "Space Time Play" explores the architectural history of computer games and the future of ludic space. More than 140 experts from game studies and the game industry, from architecture and urban planning, have contributed essays, game reviews and interviews. The games examined...

Lol: Halo Car Red Rings, Wii Car Takes Third in Race
With the release of Halo 3 just days away the ultimate faceoff went down over the weekend at the Dover Speedway: Halo 3 took on the Wii in the form of a NASCAR racing pitting Greg Biffle versus David Stremme.Exactly 306 laps into the 440 lap race Stremme's number 40 car blew its engine and sidelined the racer. No, I'm not making that up: The Halo car got a red ring of death.Meanwhile Biffle's Wii mobile landed a respectable fourth place. Ouch.Dover 440

Sloppy Seconds: Turok Hands-On Impressions
One of the most-ignored of the major titles on the showroom floor was the new Turok title, which found itself nestled at the back of Sega's impressively large presence. FPS shooters were going to struggle at the best of times at TGS, but this one isn't doing itself any favours. Mainly because the demo consisted of grass. Lots of grass. And very little else. It was here, it was there, you could run through it, crawl through it, bad guys would pop out of it and you'd get yourself lost amongst it. Sure, it shakes in the wind, which is nice, as is the trample effect you get as you walk through it, but it's also BORING, and is literally all you notice about the demo. In an attempt to break up the grass walking there were some dinosaur bones, some gun-wielding soldier types and even some actual dinosaurs in there somewhere, but you could only sort of make them out amongst the, you know. Grass. On the bright side the dinosaurs were well done, and fighting them was a lot more entertaining...

Grading: The Halo 3 CliffsNotes Review: AKA The Score
I noticed that some of you were hoping to avoid having to read my sorta lengthy review of Halo 3 and just wanted a single score. I don't have a huge issue with providing scores to my reviews when I write for print publications, but I don't usually use them here on Kotaku because I don't think they do anything other than provide a hook for people to hang complaints on.A review is a synthesis of a person's thoughts about a thing. A score is a synthesis of a person's review. So you miss out on a lot. But, I have a pretty specific idea of what I think Halo 3 deserves. When I reviewed it for the Rocky Mountain News (that review runs on Friday) I believe I gave it a B+, though I'd probably give the game a B to B+. So for the sake of specificity, I hereby declare that Halo 3 is a 87.5 percent game. And for the record, it didn't live up to the hype, but nothing could have. Halo 3 Review

Gallery: Project O Screenshot Gallery
Marvellous Entertainment weren't going to let us leave TGS without a parting gift: these screens for upcoming Wii Strategy/RPG/thing Project O. Enjoy them at your own pace at home, on the go, alone or with friends. There's 12 in all, so hit the gallery for the rest.galleryPost('projectosreens', 4, 'Project O Screens');

Spore: An Assessment of Spore
Only a Game has an interesting analysis of the potential impact of Will Wright's Spore. Some predictions and thoughts thrown out: Spore will move about 8 million units, has a poor hook outside more dedicated gaming populations, the game has swallowed up some of the industry's brightest talent, and has made EA rethink their strategy of relying on endless sports franchises. And what about changing the face of the industry?A final problem with Spore is perhaps an unfair criticism. The games industry is in desperate need of innovation - new directions to explore. Spore doesn't really give us that. It's going to be an amazing piece of software, and no doubt an engaging play experience. But beyond that, it seems like a dead end. If it proves to be more successful than I predict, it won't help the industry because no-one other than Wright's team could afford to make a project of this nature. And if it proves to be less successful than I predict, will that make it even harder than...

Roundup: Frankenreview, Halo 3 (Xbox 360)
Halo 3. It's Microsoft's trump card. Their ultimate attack. Their nuclear fusion kamehameha. And it's everywhere. More than any game that's come before, Halo 3 has transcended the cult borders of simple videogame launch to a full-fledged popular culture entertainment monster attack. But is the hype the fair response to Bungie's sweat or the product of Microsoft's mega-funded PR machine?Hit the jump for our Frankenreview on Halo 3: you know, finish the reading. TeamXboxPerhaps more than anything, we were particularly blown away by the scope and scale of the environments. The Halo series has always been known for its grand scale, and Halo 3 only makes things that much bigger and better. You won't be spending hours exploring underground complexes or anything here, as the development team decided to focus their attention on creating rich, immersive worlds...we're happy to report that Halo 3 is not only the best game of the series, it's the best Xbox 360 game to date.EurogamerIt's...

Swag: Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops Plus Menu Screen Impressions
This was meant to be a review of the game, but is not. Why? Can't get out of the menu screens. See, Konami gave a few of us Japanese copies of Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops Plus. Which was awful nice of them, aside for the fact that none of us that got one are Japanese. Can't read it, can't speak it. First menu screen was probably the highlight (it's in English), but subsequent menu screens tend to clutter the game, resulting in a tedious, frustrating experience dogged by unintuitive controls and an over-reliance on text.

Contest: Win Our TGS Schwag
Contest time! We're giving away a Japan-only Adventure Island t-shirt signed by Takahashi Meijin and (yes, and) a Japan Halo 3 shirt as well as other stuff we stole were given. The contest is easy. Like, too easy. Here's the deal: Pick your favorite TGS post and write one paragraph why you like it. Be sure to include the post's URL! Send emails to kotakucontest@gmail.com with "fave" in the subject line.. We will then pick the finalists, while Kotakuland picks the winner.

Tgs07: Super Swing Golf: Season 2
I got a little private room session with Kohei Shibata, producer of Super Swing Golf: Season 2. I had a great time with the first Super Swing Golf although I did find it rather hard. I had hoped they would do something to improve on it and my prayers were answered when the first thing he said was that they had made the game easier to use. They've taken the opportunity since the first game to brush up and simplify the controls and interface based on user's input about the first game. They made a point of reading blogs and reviews to see exactly what players were looking for as far as improvements.One of the first things you'll notice is that there are four characters unlocked from the beginning instead of just one. New costumes have been added and the interface has been made much simpler. The camera controls no longer require wild gesticulation with the Wii remote and can all be done using the d-pad to move around and the plus and minus buttons to move in and out. As far as...

Tgs07: Even Dante Has to Wait to Play Devil May Cry 4
With monumental wait times for most games, TGS looks a bit like a Japanese theme park on its busiest day of the summer. I spotted these awesome Devil May Cry cosplayers waiting in a three hour line to play, what else, Devil May Cry 4. Poor kids, you'd think they'd let them to the front of the line...

Ubisoft: Ubisoft Announces Q3 Holiday '07 Lineup
Because what the world really needs is another Naruto game, Ubisoft has announced their 2007-2008 holiday lineup. And what a lineup it is: there's quite a spread from chess to Beowulf to Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 (and, of course, Naruto). Full press release - and lineup - after the jump.UBISOFT ANNOUNCES ALL-STAR HOLIDAY 2007 LINEUPQ3 2007-2008 Lineup Showcases Some of the Industry's Most Anticipated GamesSAN FRANCISCO - September 21, 2007 - Today Ubisoft, one of the world's largest video game publishers, announced that its holiday 2007 lineup will feature an exceptional selection of titles. Covering all segments of video games - from hardcore to family titles, as well as games based on some of the most popular films and television series - the rich offering also includes some of this year's most anticipated new brands along with exciting new games from Ubisoft's multimillion-unit selling brands: Assassin's Creed(TM) - One of the most anticipated video games of the year...

Tgs07: Resident Evil 5 Is Totally (Maybe) Set In Haiti (We Think)
After hearing from [NAME REMOVED] that Resident Evil 5 was set in Haiti, something we've been wondering about since the game's trailer appeared at Microsoft's E3 press conference, we wanted to check with Capcom on their home turf to see if we could confirm it. For the record, we really don't care where it's final location is—could be Raccoon Island for all we care—but we want to know why it's apparently some big secret. So we asked Resident Evil 4 producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi about it, assuming he probably runs into RE5 producer Jun Takeuchi now and then.So, Kobayashi, is it Haiti? Because two online articles that fired up fanboy shields and cries of racism said it appeared to be set in Africa. The initial response was simply "Who told you that?" And after laughing off a rumored alternate location ("What? Uganda?"), we finally got Kobayashi's response from the translator.Kobayashi's answer was "I'm not working on Biohazard 5. I can't answer this question....

Sega: Shadow the Hedgehog Can Cook
Mark G. sent along a link to the Sega-themed episode of his show Geek Eats!. I laughed (it's been a long week), though I have to wonder if some people don't have too much time on their hands; still, it's a better way to spend a few minutes than watching 95% of the current offerings on Food Network. You can catch more episodes over at his Geek Eats website.

Gallery: Halo 3 Super Duper Mega Gallery For The Ages (Part 2)
If our last Halo 3 gallery was ultra anatomical "ultraporn," our other gallery is more your stereotypical airbrushed shower scene. Every single in-game shot from Microsoft's 5GB asset disc is in the gallery below. Short of calling in a favor and having Master Chief show up at each and every one of your houses and performing fellatio on-call, this is the best gift we can give our Halo 3 loving readership. galleryPost('Halo3MegaGallery2', 8, 'More Halo 3 Porn');

Original: Halo 3 Forge, Co-Op Impressions
Halo 3's single player campaign wasn't the only thing impressive about the game, it also has some pretty amazing multiplayer modes going for it.I had initially blown off the need to play multiplayer during my trip to Bungie because I had played the game online with everyone else during the beta. But once they reminded me about their four player co-op mode and the Forge which allows you to edit multiplayer maps on the fly my interest returned.Co-Op will probably be the main reason I play the retail version of the game at my house once it officially launches. I've already beaten it on my own, so I don't really feel a burning need to do that again, but I would love to go through the game in Legendary mode co-op.While the game allows you to choose between playing as the Master Cheif, Arbiter and elites N'tho 'Sraom and Usze Taham it doesn't really change the experience as much as you would think it would. It isn't, for instance, like choosing different classes. I was surprised to...

Gamer Porn: Halo 3 Super Duper Mega Gallery For The Ages
We've been having some fun with the Microsoft asset disc, a treasure trove of beautiful Halo 3 renders. Spanning what looks to be the complete canon of Halo 3 artifacts, we expect many fanboys to be browsing through one-handed while admiring Master Chief, a Warthog or Brute Shot in full anatomical precision. galleryPost('Halo3MegaGallery', 8, 'Halo 3 Porn');

Feature: Halo 3 Review
I wasn't exactly thrilled when I heard that the only way I could play Halo 3 in time to meet my various deadlines was by flying out to Seattle and spending two days at Bungie's Kirland studio.It wasn't that I didn't want to play Halo 3, or that I didn't watch to check out Bungie, I just didn't want to spend a big chunk of the week doing it.The plan was to have a bunch of journalists fly to New York and Seattle and spend the next couple of days playing through the entire game on their own. The first day, I was told, was dedicated to the single player campaign. I would have time to play through the entire campaign by myself and then through a chunk of it with other gamers in co-op mode.On the second day I was supposed to play around with Forge, Halo 3's robust map editing tools, and do some online multiplayer gaming.I bummed a ride from an X-Play guy from the hotel that first morning, arriving at the studios about 9 a.m. We didn't get started until about 10:30 a.m. and I didn't...

Tgs07: Dragon Quest Conditioning Children For TGS Of The Future
Kids have gotta learn. And if there's one thing they need to learn about TGS more than any other, it's how to take lecherous photos of booth bots cope with waits of up to 2-3 hours just to play some game for 15 minutes. Best way to learn something? Experience it. This is the wait for Dragon Quest at the TGS Kid's Corner. 150 minutes, and that's just from where that sign is. So the total wait is around three and a bit hours. Pretty brutal for a six year-old, even if they get two free DQ cards for their trouble.

Tgs07: Ikaruga For Xbox Live Arcade Hands-On Impressions
A four-kiosk attack of Xbox Live Arcade games was nestled in the middle of Microsoft's Xbox 360 booth at TGS, showing off dozens of titles old and new. Only one contained the XBLA remake of Treasure's black and white shmup Ikaruga in playable demo form. Featuring the first level of the game, the demo station at Tokyo Game Show may not have shown the remake in the best light. While Ikaruga for XBLA looks spectacular in screenshots—and according to Flynn, "really sharp" on a 42" HDTV—seeing it in non-tate mode on a 22" LCD doesn't show off the game's graphical upgrades in the proper light.As for the gameplay, it's identical as Ikaruga's appearances on the Dreamcast and Gamecube. We were limited to single player only, so there were no opportunities to try the new online co-op mode. For those who aren't familiar with how the game plays, the vertical shooter uses a black and white polarity system. Your ship and its surrounding field can be switched at any point....

Tgs07: Docomo Cellphone Bowling
newVideoPlayer("DocomoBowling_gawker.flv", 475, 376);Wireless provider Docomo publishes a series of motion controlled games (using accelerometers and cameras) that our own Luke Plunkett got to test for your enjoyment. Here he tries bowling, with the phone's screen transmitted to the television so we can see it. Luke's two-word review: "terrifyingly realistic."

Tgs07: TGS Kids Corner Totally Suitable For Kids
The main section of TGS? Kinda seedy. There's hundreds of women walking around in naught but a sliver of PVC, there's an overpowering stench you could cut through with a spoon and the heat and crowds get most people a little on the surly side. In short, not a nice place for kids. Luckily, then, there's a spacious Kid's Corner at the end of the show, with plenty of ventilation, lots of suitably-attired, patient booth persons ready to help the little tykes out and a fuckton of pint-sized Pokemon and Dragon Quest demo units.galleryPost('tgskidscorner', 8, 'TGS Kids Corner');

Tgs07: Resident Evil 4 Resurrected On Mobile Phones
We don't feel that Resident Evil 4 director Shinji Mikami should have gone through with his threatened self-decapitation just because the Gamecube game got the PlayStation 2 port treatment, but someone simply must answer for Resident Evil 4 Mobile Edition. In all seriousness, the game looks pretty respectable for a 3D mobile port of the most attractive Resident Evil to date, but anyone expecting something better than a PSone-level appearance will be disappointed.The demo on hand for Resident Evil 4 Mobile Edition was super brief, but the trailer running on the perimeter of the booth indicated that the game was very much in-depth. Boss fights, Ashley escorting, loads of shooting poverty stricken villagers in the face—it's all here. A bit rough around the edges and features extremely purple "zombies" but not a bad effort. Just don't expect a Gamecube in your pocket.

Blood Orgy: Scary Pikachu, I Choose You!
During my travels through Akihabara I happened upon this absolutely terrifying and rather disturbing set of Pikachu shirts. McWhertor will be returning there tomorrow to hunt this bad boy down as long as they have it in an extra extra small. Yeah, that's how he rolls.

Tgs07: Schooled in Metal Gear Online
Before getting a chance to go hands on with Metal Gear Online on one of the dozen Playstation 3s hooked up on in the booth, attendees had to attend an impromptu Metal Gear Online school. The booth handlers escorted the group, divided into two groups of six, into a back room where a woman dressed in camouflage short-shorts (a gun slyly tucked into the shorts at the small of her back) presented the game's controls to us using an overhead projector. Then she showed us a map and talked about what tactics to use in the upcoming battle, emphasizing the positions we should take up with the help of a long riding crop. Unfortunately, the whole thing was in Japanese, so I wasn't exactly a team player when the match started, but more on that later.galleryPost('mgson', 8, 'Metal Gear Online');

Tgs07: TGS Attendance Drops Like A Rock
Nintendo may be expanding the video game market in Japan, but their refusal to attend the biggest gaming expo in their homeland is doing nothing to help out this year's numbers for Tokyo Game Show. In 2006, TGS pulled in some 192,411 attendees over the course of three days. The first public day last year saw some 84,823 gamers stink up the halls of the Makuhari Messe. This year? Only 64,795. We won't know the final figure for Sunday for a while, but based on the feeling that it's much more manageable to walk the show floor, expect less than yesterday's figure.Granted, last year saw the opportunity for a nation to get their hands on PLAYSTATION 3 and Wii games for the first time, so a drop from last year isn't shocking. But we hope that Nintendo will come to TGS 2008 and make next year's show a more disgusting sea of putrid otaku.

Only In Japan: Kotaku Jobs: Capcom Desperately Seeking Programmers
Sorry, game enthusiasts seeking the glamorous life of a video games blogger, we're not hiring. But Capcom of Japan is! The company is seeking game engineers who want to work on its "MT Framework", the cross platform engine that powers Devil May Cry 4, Dead Rising and Lost Planet. I suspect that a working knowledge of the Japanese language and solid typing skills are a must, as is a love of making sequels.Capcom must be doing okay for themselves, as they're running these ads in Tokyo Station in search of new talent. Good luck, future applicants!

Tgs07: Justify Your MGS4 Cosplay
newVideoPlayer("JustifyCosplayNew_gawker.flv", 475, 376);Cosplay. We see it everyday. OK, we pretty much just see it at trade shows, but TGS is like the cosplay Superbowl. So if it can be justified anywhere in the world, it's here in Tokyo...conveniently by a Kotaku reader who speaks perfect English (saving me the hours of subtitling).

Tgs07: Metal Gear Solid Online Impressions
I probably spent more time hearing about Metal Gear Solid Online and having Metal Gear Solid Online tactics spoon-fed to me then I spent actually playing the game. But the single 6v6 match I did participate in was enough to give me a sense of whether I would like it or not: I sorta liked it.The graphics are the best thing about the game, and I don't say that as some sort of backhanded compliment. The graphics really are quite good. The feel of the game was also well tuned. The movement and aiming, typical to most shooters, was tight but not too tight. It was a little weird aiming in a third-person view, especially without a reticule, but once I turned that on, it was fine. In fact, it wasn't something that I even noticed, which is the best thing you can say about controls, they should never get in the way of the experience.In the match I played each team of six started at opposite ends of a town. Not knowing the exact control set up, I wasn't sure how to do a couple of things,...

Tgs07: Schooled in Metal Gear Solid Online
Before getting a chance to go hands on with Metal Gear Solid online on one of the dozen Playstation 3s hooked up on in the booth attendees had to intend an impromptu Metal Gear Solid Online school. The booth handlers escorted the group, divided into two groups of six, into a back room where a woman dressed in camouflage short-shorts ( a gun slyly tucked into the shorts, at the small of her back) presented the game's controls to us using an overhead projecto. Then she showed us a map and talked about what tactics to use in the upcoming battle, emphasizing the positions we should take up with the help of a long riding crop. Unfortunately, the whole thing was in Japanese, so I wasn't exactly a team player when the match started, but more on that later.galleryPost('mgson', 8);

Fighter: King of Fighters XII Confirmed for PS3 and Xbox 360
Back in 2006, SNK's Overseas Marketing Manager Yoshihito Koyama told me that the Osaka-based developer thought a "good time" to release a PS3 game was 2009-10. SNK confirmed that King of Fighters XII would be hitting North America on the PLAYSTATION 3 and the Xbox 360 in early 2009. The last non-spinoff entry in the series was KOF XI in 2005, and the upcoming game is a 3D fighter that is shaded to look 2D. Koyama described it as "3D mixed with 2D." Before that, the title will be rolled in its Japanese arcade version in late 2009. Looking forward to seeing how SNK combines this.

Tgs07: Enix Prodigy On Ninja, Samurai and the DS
Outside of japan, and hardcore game importers, the name Koichi Nakamura probably doesn't ring a bell.The unassuming Nakamura hit the limelight in the early 80s when as a high schooler he won Enix's national programming contest with Door Door. In 1984 he founded Chunsoft. While probably best known for the Fushigi no Dungeon series and their work on the first five installments of the Dragon Quest series, the company also worked on Pokemon games.Now for the first time since the creation of the Fushigi no Dungeon series, one of the titles is coming to North America, published by Sega.I had a chance to sit down with Nakamura recently to talk about it. He told me that if Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer does well in the U.S. when it hits next year, they will start looking into making a Wii version of the game. They may also start digging through their 13-year-old library of Mysterious Dungeon games looking for other titles worth updating and bringing over.I asked Nakamura if it...

Tgs07: TGS Throngs Obsessed With Jubblies
These gentlemen are not taking this lightly. This is a human feeding frenzy. They're taking snaps of a QR (Quick Response) Code, an advanced type of barcode found all over the place in Japan. Why the snaps? The QR Code can carry data, so as soon as they take this pic, their phone will read it and be sent a new wallpaper image. Of the lady with the enormous norgs to their right. And it's been that busy all day, every day.

Tgs07: Duel Love: Scrub That Boy!
Despite rumors to the contrary, being the resident gay dude I do not enjoy wiping the sweat off of high school boys. But when I heard there was a game where you could do such a thing I had to go try it out, mostly because I just had to see what is was about and also because no one else wanted to.The game is called Duel Love and is actually made for girls to play on their DSs. The demo was extremely short but from what I could gather, the story involves you being a female transfer student who discovers a secret fight club for boys. The boys (who are surprisingly skinny) engage n various matches that cause them to start sweating. Some dialog is exchanged to the effect of "Boy I sure am tired and sweaty after all that working out." You're then taken to another screen showing the close up shot of the shirtless, skinny, hairless (and nipple-less) young man who appears to be fully naked although the picture crops off just above crotch. Some music plays and beads of sweat begin forming...

Tgs07: Callous Booth Babe Moment: What They Really Think Of You
Don't believe me? Make the jump...

Easy: Hudson Going After the Casual Gamers
Takahashi Meijin taps the table. We're backstage at the Hudson booth. He's been on stage all afternoon, doing calestenics for upcoming Wii fitness game DECASPORTA. He taps the table as if pressing a button. Tap, tap, tap. Takahashi Meijin is Hudson's quick button pushing human mascot and has been since the Sapporo-based company entered the gaming industry when it began writing code for the Famicom back in the early 1980's. Takahashi Meijin has achieved an iconic status in Japan for the gaming industry. He writes a popular blog and designs t-shirts for games like Adventure Island — a side-scroller in which Takahashi appeared in with the localized language moniker "Master Higgins." Like Nintendo, Hudson, Takahashi says, is focusing on game play more more than graphics. "Graphics," Takahashi points out, "depend on the game — realistic graphics work well with driving and flying games. Hudson doesn't have games that kill people. That's why we use cartoon-like...