Kotaku

We're sure the EA booth companions at Tokyo Game Show had great personalities. Lovely girls, the kind you could take home to mother. But those outfits! Unless they were designed by John Madden himself, the horrible pastiche of red, green, yellow, cyan and camouflage is inexcusable. It looked like Piet Mondrian had puked on a gaggle of aspiring Japanese models wearing potato sacks. This is not how a multi-billion dollar publisher should attempt to lure TGS attendees into playing Mirror's Edge. Tsk tsk.

With something like a billion versions of Q Entertainment's Lumines published on various platforms, we won't fault you for having but a single grain of enthusiasm for the PlayStation 3 version. We dredged up enough on your behalf, waiting a full thirty seconds in line to go hands on with Lumines Supernova. Unfortunately, the things that make Supernova stand out from the Lumines pack were nowhere to be seen.

No access to the new "Dig Down" mode, no access to the enhanced Synthesizer features, and too little time to survey new skins make for a very 2005 experience. The fact sheet notes that Lumines Supernova has offline only play and no Trophy support, so we're thinking what we've played at TGS will be what we'll have played forever.

As the clock struck 5pm on Sunday evening, the 2008 Tokyo Game Show drew to a close. But as the public streamed out of the place, booth companions kicked off their heels and PR types breathed a long, deep sigh of relief, the worker bees got to work. Why? Because a trade show never ends. Someone has to end it. Click below if you want to see how it's done.

Getting My Arse Kicked At Pro Evo 2009

TGS Booth Babe March, Brought to you By Microsoft

Every night as the 5 p.m. hour winds around and the show begins to wrap up, the speakers begin to pump out an orchestral version of Auld Lang Syne. Each booth gathers its companions to parade them around their booth for a final goodbye to the show's attendees. Some marches feature mascots, some feature bows, but all of them feature oodles of companions.

Weekend Note: Sony Guts! Pt. II

To: Luke? Bash? Crecente? Oh, God — Fahey?
From: Owen

I have no idea to whom I am handing off this shift. Half of Kotaku is posting from the future, thanks to TGS. The rest, well, we're making it up as we go along. We really could use some advice. Me in particular. Not about the editorial stuff, I mean personal things.

Some might remember two weeks ago that I threw down a grand on the CEO's desk to take a 47-inch flat panel TV and a 20GB PS3 off my company's hands. Well, he came back on Friday and said they need $1,250. Bear in mind, this is a startup, I love my job, everyone's friends with everyone else, and considering subprime lenders are going belly up before they can foreclose on debtors living in refrigerator boxes under an overpass, I'd rather not jeopardize my job security there. But, real negotiation begins at the counter-offer, I always say. First, the highlights:

Super Big Let's TGS Round-Up
This Is What Those Guys Were Watching
'Next-Gen Audio Square-Off': PS3 versus 360
Invade Stormwind? You and What Arm— oh, That One
Cosplay Alley: The Other Side Of The Lens
Hands On With Diablo III: Everything Old Is New Again
Street Fighter IV Booth Punches The Competition In The Face
Gaffer's Gears 2 Leak Pics Include Free (sur)prize

Dead Space and Saints Row 2 are this week's highly anticipated AAA-drops, coming out on Tuesday. Age of Booty for XBLA (Wednesday) and Thursday (PSN) is the DLC highlight. Sports fans get Blitz: The League II on Monday and FIFA Soccer 09 on five platforms on Tuesday. I've gotta be a little more strategic about my rentals, so I might take a peek at Saints Row 2; Dead Space I may not buy this week just for the backlog, but it'll definitely be on my screen sometime soon. What about yours? Full list on the jump.

Those Tecmo girls? Sure, they were easy on the eye, but flashing skin is so cheap. And cheap is something Konami are just not interested in. At least when it comes to booth companions. Instead, the company that wishes they could release Metal Gear Solid 4 every year kept things a little classier, opting for this classic number that sits somewhere between naughty nurse and 50's flight attendant.

Insidious Tuna sent this along. I swear I've seen it somewhere before, but apparently not on Kotaku. This game has a very simple premise and a very difficult opponent — your own patience. My only advice to you is that, after you click to start the level, any movement of your mouse, click, or key strike fires the gun. This game should be used at business leadership conferences, because it would definitely show who was the hypercompetitive, win-everything-at-all-costs guy in the crowd. I got to level 7 before I just had to fool with it and kill the puppy. But I'm thinking I could beat this game if I had a good book to read in the meantime.

Sorry about the lame screengrab. I couldn't get actual gameplay, for reasons that will become obvious.

Don't Shoot the Puppy [rrrrthats5rs.com]