Hey guys, so i was rummaging around the back dock of my work .... ok i was checking out what gaming stock came in *shooshh* and to my surprises there were several titles entitled The lucasarts classics. Taking a closer look the titles were Sam & Max Hit the Road, Full Throttle, Grim  Fandango, Curse of the Monkey Island, Jedi Knight Dark Forces II & Expansion, The Dig, SW Galactic Battleground + Expansion and SW Episode One Racer. I honestly didn't think they were gonna release them again, they are retailing at $9.95 Aus which is pretty awesome. So any classic gamer fans go out and grabs these cause they will go fast, i know i bought all of them except racer.

Note: Has been released in UK since 1 Dec 2006

I figured this was worth mentioning.  Dominic Nguyen, Megatokyo editor and freelance writer for a number of tech and nerd magazines and websites, has written up a review of the Japanese arcade sensation The iDOLM@STER.  A sort of managerial sim-slash-minigame-slash-teen fetish arcade game where players try to make Japanese teen idol stars out of high school girls.  His account gives a fair appraisal of what I suspect wil be an XBOX 360 hit, but I think the fact that every photo of the game during play features a middle-aged man in control tells me more.

Some of the readers from the UK (there has to be one other than me), and even some from across the pond, may have heard of MP Keith Vaz, outspoken critic of violent video-games, and, crucially, politician. He is essentially the UK's Tank Flompson, minus the outright lunacy, and plus the traits that usually come with politicians.

MP Keith Vaz's name will now be humorously changed to prevent him gaining any ill-deserved credibility

MCV has 'obtained details' from a meeting that the Rt Hon Vazmobile has had the displeasure of sitting through, regarding game legislation, and how bleeding well the industry is regulating itself within the (rather loose) confines of the UK's PEGI ratings system.

It has long been the opinion of Sir Keith Vazbury III that the ratings system over here don't do enough to "protect children". You have to keep in mind that it is illegal to sell somebody underaged an 18 (or 15, or even 12) rated game, punishable by the full force of the law, and that finding out this helpful nugget of information would have taken little more than a click of the mouse (or in the case of His Majesty Pope Vazzington IV, a click of the fingers to hail a researcher) to the PEGI's website, this one right here.

In the meeting, both the Minister for Trade and the Minister for Creative Industry, Margret Hodge and Shaun Woodward respectively, stated that they "respected the steps the industry and PEGI had already made", and that "the games industry had been very successful on the matter".

In what may have been the final, crushing blow to Vazwang, President of Sealand, a spokesperson is reported to have said "that a change in Government policy couldn’t come about because of one MP’s concerns". Having studied British Government and Politics for just 9 months, I'm almost afraid to say that this would be a little obvious, and for King Vazpin, an embarrasing wake-up call.

In all, it was a remarkable step in the right direction for British government, which for all too long has been stuck in the Mary Whitehouse, BAN THIS SICK FILTH, Sensationalist phase.

Well, scratch that last part.  But Ryan Payton's blog is real, and he is a real developer at The House That Snake Built.  Swimming amongst a sea of Japanese script, Ryan's blog shows perhaps that even unexpected parties are starting to warm up to the idea of fan interaction in the vein of Major Nelson and David Jaffe (who until recently had his own public blog).

Unabashedly an attempt to put a familiar American face on a very Japanese company, Ryan's first entry claims that he will address primarily issues such as life at the studio and other topics of interest like the Seattle Seahawks, life in Japan, and the general minutae of working for one of the most fmous game studios in Japan.

So much stuff.

Weeks like this, the hardest part isn't finding the news, it's elevating the cool from the merely exciting.  Major announcements left and right, gargantuan displays of corporate might, spectacular screwups.

More after the break...

Better late than never, right.

Originally, Sony said that it would open online registration for PS3 accounts in Europe on the day the console released in the United States.

That didn't happen.

Now, some weeks later, according to DigitalBattle.com, Sony has finally announced that the process is open to Europeans who want to get their PS3 accounts up and running before they actually buy them.

Of course, you won't be able to use those accounts until you get your PS3, which will be, oooohh, I'm guessing sometimes in May, given past events. That's just a guess on my part.

No word on when or if such pre-purchase registration will be available for other regions, including the United States.

But if you live on the eastern side of the Atlantic Ocean, you can click here to register your as-yet-to-be-purchased PS3.

[From DigitalBattle.com]

Really now.

It seems more and more like Sony just can't make up its mind about Europe. In the past year, we've seen release dates slip, lawsuits filed to prevent grey-market import, waffling on when the "true" release date is (might not be March now), and now this.

GA's buddy in the UK, Dante of Smeg, sent in this photo of a playable PS3 at Computer Exchange in London.

Anybody out there think that this sort of thing will motivate people to put down their money again? I think I'd go bat-shit crazy in a situation like this if I knew I wasn't ALLOWED to buy it for another five months.

In the red corner, wearing aquamarine and white, the Wii.

In the blue corner, wearing black and.. uh, sometimes silver or occasionally white... and horfing down fistfulls of sour grapes, the PS3.

Actually, the fight is already over. Gaming site Spong noted this afternoon that the Wii has officially become the UK's fastest selling gaming console in history, with 100,000 units finding new homes over launch weekend.

This beats out the previous record holder, Microsoft, which sold 70,000 XBox 360 in its debut last year. And Sony with the amazing, phenominal, earth-shattering, mind-blowing, all-powerful PS3?

(Cue: The sound of crickets)

But why is this fight between Wii and the PS3?

Because despite the fact that the Wii is handing Sony a can of retail whoop-ass by selling nearly two times as many consoles in Europe than Sony, that Wiis are actually increasing in price on EBay, and that some PS3 owners on Craigslist saying they'll gladly trade their unopened PS3s for Wiis, Sony execs say they're not worried about Nintendo.

Why? Because the Wii -- according to Sony spokesman Dave Karraker -- is not a serious gaming console.

"We feel very confident that the PlayStation fan is going to wait until they can get a PlayStation 3...If they do pick up a Wii, it's as more of a novelty."

Wow. Does Sony provide the wheelbarrows necessary for its spokespeople to carry around their massive balls or do they have to buy their own?

Normally, if a huge, multi-national electronics firm offered such a passive-agressive statement about a smaller competing firm, I might consider it a sign of confidence.

But fact is -- Sony's getting its ass handed to them by this "novelty." Which means that isn't confidence that's talking: It's either abject fear or supreme ignorance.

Is Sony trying to act like the fat chick in that Apple spoof video or is it just a weird coincidence?

I'm not sure.

What do you think?

Sega: Satisfying two, two, TWO needs at once!

Via 1up.com, Sega announced the Japanese launch date of Virtua Fighter 5, perhaps the most anticipated fighter on any platform for 2007, save Smash Bros. Brawl on Wii.  Included with the game launch are details on Sega's new arcade stick to be released alongside the game.

The game will ship with an on-disk copy of the first Virtua Fighter game, similar to the bonus content in Virtual Fighter 4: Evolution.

VF4 was arguably the most balanced and (for my money) fun 3-D fighter from the last generation, and news that the sequel would be PS3-exclusive was a definite determining factor in my original decision to purchase the console.

VF5 introduces several new characters and with the entire cast of VF 4.  No word on whether characters like the Sumo wrestler from VF3 will return, but the new characters will reporteldy represent different fighting styles like "lucha libre" and "monkey-style kung fu" to compliment the detailed real-world martial-arts styles of characters like Goh (judo and jujitsu), the Bryant twins (Bruce Lee's world-famous martial arts hybrid, jeet kun do), and Vanesa (vale tudo).

Featuring craftsmanship of Sega's arcade-quality components, the stick will reportedly release a week after the game.  A picture of the stick (which looks quite sturdy, if a bit garish) can be seen at the official Japanese VF5 website.

How funny that these two stories should come across the wires on the same day.

First, on the homefront (of GamerAndy if not you), two of the most vocal and politically powerful critics of the game industry have finally removed their heads from their backsides and allowed oxygen to their brains.

According to GamePolitics.com, at 3 p.m. ET today, Sens. Hillary Rodham-Clinton and Joseph Lieberman will join with ESA president Doug Lowenstein and ESRB president Patricia Vance to launch a new informational campaign for parents. Their message: Read the ratings on your kids' video games.

This is a welcome moment of detente after both Rodham-Clinton and Lieberman have spent the last couple years blaming the video-game industry for everything from Columbine to West Nile virus.

But even as these two legislators are recovering from AssHat disease, the entire nation of Germany has started showing early signs it has caught the bug.

A hilarious rollick into the minds of insane Germans after the jump...

Quick one here. guys. So I was sitting eating breakfast getting ready for work when the news announced that Australia will now be considering banning Rule of the Rose, at which point I spat my coffee across my breakfast.

The game hasn't been officially banned but will be under review, but with the way previous games with such sexual innuendo as GTA:SA or, better yet, they plain violence Reservoir Dogs depicts, it is looking bad for a release of Rule. My hope to play Rule of the Rose have been shattered. Rule is being reviewed as to having sexually inappropriate content towards minors with abuse and molestation, as the news reporter said.

At that point I was very angry. Take previously released games like the Silent Hil franchise. How much sexual innuendo is in that game? I pretty much remember a scene in Silent Hill 2 where two monsters were in position to have a threesome with Pyramid Head (Judgment).

Personally, I have been waiting pretty much all year for this game, and at the moment I'm pretty disappointed. I might go harass some customers at work to make myself feel better. Updates as they come, guys.

Hey all. I just got an email from my buddy Jay in the UK, who dropped me the following note:

I have just completed a BrainJuicer server for Sony. One of the questions asked you to read the folowing statement and comment of how giddy it made you (paraphrase):

Imagine you own a PlayStation 3 console system that connects to an online gaming service. This service has a store where you can buy downloadable content such as short games and additional content (new maps, cars, characters. Some of this content is free and some of it you have to pay for with a credit card or game-cards purchased in retail stores (Game, HMV, Gamestation etc). Imagine that you could buy and download some of your favorite PlayStation 1 games. You would be able to choose from a wide variety of these games. You would purchase these games via the online store on the PlayStation 3 online gaming service and have them whenever you wanted. You could play these games on both your PlayStation 3 gaming system and your PSP.

Forgive me if I'm wrong, but this sounds a lot like Xbox Marketplace! They then asked if you would be prepared to pay £7.99, £4.99 and finally £2.99 for classic PS1 games. ($15.25, $9.50 and $5.70 in round American dollars).

Recently there has been a big fuss with the Australian branch of the Toys 'R Us corporation and the gaming community. When Nintendo announced to the public the release date for the Wii a few months ago, Toys 'R Us was the first to come out with preorder bundle to entice customers to shop there.

The original promotion was that if you preordered at Toys 'R Us you would receive a free game of your choice. Several months later Toys 'R Us turned around and said that it will not be a game of your choice but a copy of Open Season.

After outrage by customers and gamers at the change Toys 'R Us then announced that it will now offer the choice of one of two games, Open Season or Need for Speed Carbon.

Now a week or so later, the company has pulled the offer completely for any new customers, only offering preorders for Wii consoles. Yes, the customers who purchased the original preorder will still be receiving their preorder with the offer of Carbon or Open Season.

Unfortunately no one knows what is really going on with Toys' R Us, as different web sites have been reporting different information, so this could be subject to change. That said, customers should be outraged. No, honestly, if you preordered from Toys 'R Us knowing that there were the terms of agreement and that was the deal that you wanted, you should demand your free game of whatever your choice when go to pick up your console.

That said, I have not got a preorder receipt or seen one, but if you do or have any preorders, take a good look at the subtext under your purchase -- the terms and agreements. Unfortunately this might have been were Toys 'R Us or the company you have preordered with has legally covered themselves. A while ago there was a debacle with a PS3 preorder where most people lost their deposit when the store pulled the deal and because of there terms and agreements the store in question was very much able to do so and keep the customers' money.

What you are looking for is if the preorder can be subject to change by the company at any time or any language about what will happen to your depsosti if the order is pulled. I will update if the situation does change but it just looks like Toys 'R Us is fence-sitting at the moment even with Christmas fast approaching.

After the death of Lik-Sang, the import site that had Sony worried about safety, it appears that "grey importing" is still alive and kicking off the faces of unwitting consumers.

I was coming home from Manchester earlier tonight, and on the way home I passed a billboard advetising the PS3. It was very, very poorly done. It was either the work of a monkey with a PS3 picture, some glue, and enough money to begin advertising, or it was shady goings-on. I'm not the only person to see this, though.

Straight from www.theregister.co.uk:

A man in Manchester, England has been convicted of using an MP3 player to hack cash machines. Maxwell Parsons, 41, spent £200,000 of other people's money after using the machine to read card details.

Parsons plugged his MP3 player into the back of free standing cash machines and was able to use it to read data about customers' cards. That data could then be used to "clone" cards and use them for bogus purchases.

Police uncovered the scam almost by accident when they stopped Parsons for making an illegal U-turn in a car in London. They found a fake bank card in his possession and searched his home in Manchester, where they found the evidence with which to prosecute.

Anybody fishing for Gameplay footage of that new Wii thingy? (he said jokingly)   Today we've got some recent footage from a spanish Wii event... Doesn't look too crowded so either it wasn't very well promoted, or it was pretty exclusive.   Worth watching for the gameplay footage + what-it-looks-like-while-your-playing footage of pretty much every game i've heard announced for the console.  Wii Sports to Red Steel and Raymans Raving Rabbids, iz all there.

Be aware though, there are supposedly Zelda spoilers at about 7.5 minutes in.

via GoNintendo

A lot of people like to give to the needy around the holidays, and I felt it appropriate to inform Gamer Andy readers about two gaming-centric charities that you might consider donating to this coming holday season.

Get Well Gamers and Child's Play both take donated toys, videogames, and consoles to give to children's hospitals around the world.  In many of these hospitals, most or all other donations are in the form of medical research funds and so there is very little for children to do in an effort to take their mind off the illnesses and injuries they may be suffering, especially during long-term care.

Both of these charities make toys and games available to ill and injured children so that they and their families can have a fun and relaxing time during a stressful situation.

More after the jump

Via QJ.net

Whoops! Sony releases PS3 firmware 1.10 a day after launch to enable its own online service, which was promised to users on day one. But more goodies do appear to be in store.

More after the jump...

Looks like Sony is at it again.  Popular importer of all things related to video games, Lik-Sang, will be shutting down soon.  According to the news on Lik-Sang:

Sony claimed that Lik-Sang infringed its trade marks, copyright and registered design rights by selling Sony PSP consoles from Asia to European customers, and have recently obtained a judgment in the High Court of London (England) rendering Lik-Sang's sales of PSP consoles unlawful.

Hey Guys, In my last DU Report I mentioned that on Australian TV they will be showing some new television programs about gaming, well one of them is the Good Game. Shown on the ABC 2 Network the show is hosted by Michael Makowski and Jeremy Ray, the show while at first it had some issues with a puppet as it progressed it really showed that it had the potential to be a better show.

More about it after the jump.....

When the suits say Easter, they mean Easter.
As many of you already know, the PS3 is said to arrive in Europe, the biggest videogaming market in the world, next year. After the furore over eBay sales of little printed receipts, you'd have thought Sony would know better to deprive people of the things they most desire - but oh no.
The haven of people like me has, for the past few years, been Lik-Sang, a "grey import" site which allows people to import their videogaming wares from abroad, usually Japan. I was one of the lucky ones who got a few 360 games (region free of course) for about £20. It won't be so for the PS3. Sony has explicitly banned all "grey importing" of Sony hardware into Europe. Europe only. Nowhere is it mentioned that you can't import into the US. Hell, you can send it to an island in the south pacific, but god forbid we in Europe get one!

In a Recent Interview with The Age, Michael Ephraim, Managing Director of Sony Computer Entertainment Australia, was discussing Sony's Plans for this Christmas but more importantly his views and opinons on Nintendo, Xbox and Handhelds and their affect on the current market.



More After The Jump........

Next-Gen reports:

"Microsoft's policy seems to be, loosely, to put out original games with beautiful graphics and sparkling concepts, with simple enough play and big enough budgets to qualify as entertainment first, videogames second. The queue of "Japan-friendly" games soon to release is now quite formidable: Lost Planet, Dead Rising, Project Sylph, Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey, Cry On (Mist Walker and cavia's positively brilliant-sounding action/adventure/RPG with Katamari / Shadow of the Colossus-esque elements), and the Gundam FPS by Dimps all look like spectacular games with texture and value. Trusty Bell, Namco and tri-Crescendo's RPG about the composer Chopin, will likely be very interesting as well, at the very least."

The full story is a good read for 360 fans, or anyone interested in the international gaming scene. My take is that the 360 won't see it's full potential (for failure or success) until the PS3 has its time in Japan. This isn't to say that Japanese gamers aren't buying the 360 because they're waiting to compare the consoles, but the launch titles and pricetag for the PS3 may be nothing compared to the discounted price of a 360 and the great Japanese titles out by that time. I honestly don't hold out any hope that the 360 will come out on top, or even in second, this generation in Japan, but I do think that Microsoft is starting to learn their lesson and their marketshare will get bigger in Japan, but it might just take the Xbox 720 before Microsoft's Japanese library of games catches up to the competitors'.

Game ON! (All over the globe!)
-Matt

How would you like to talk to people in games like World of Warcraft and Counter Strike? I’m not talking Text chat based format that you normally do or the walkie talkie audio that’s available, I’m talking about free immersed talking with fellow players. A world where talking takes on day to day basis of the real life communication, say if you walked into one of the various cities in WoW would it impress you to hear the hum of brisk community, to have various conversations taking place in this virtual world as it would be like in the real world.