Kotaku

High Voltage Announces WiiWare Racer

Still not having a publisher for The Conduit doesn't mean High Voltage can't work on other things, such as the above High Voltage Hot Rod Show a WiiWare title due out sometime before the end of the year. Crazy action, don't-give-a-shit physics and a Dukes of Hazzard air horn make this look good for a few laughs among friends. You can have up to four races simultaneous in split-screen mode. Let's see Mr. 36-Man Warcraft dude take on that.

High Voltage Announces New WiiWare Racer [Nintendo Wii Fanboy]

Back in May, news that Microsoft would de-list low-selling, underperforming XBLA titles caused a bit of a stir. Well now that delisting might be put off or even canceled, according to Microsoft VP John Schappert.

Schappert told IGN that the original reports laying out how games would be targeted for deletion were, of course, taken out of context. Actually, I kind of buy his explanation. He said that the standards for delisting — a MetaCritic score of less than 65 and a trial conversion rate below 6 percent — were meant as parameters only, not absolute triggers for the XBLA axe. And that's good. Because Fable II: Pub Games is presently scoring a 55 on MetaCritic.

But ultimately, the new Xbox Live dashboard (not "experience") that goes live Nov. 19 might make delisting unnecessary. Originally, the idea was to reduce clutter in the marketplace. New sorting options in the new experience (ah, shit!) dash should make navigating the titles easier.

XBLA De-Listing Deferred [IGN via Gamasutra]

'Picture Imperfect': Issues of Video Game Cameras

That's Ben Kingsley on the set of Prince of Persia. I think he's pointing out the production assistant who didn't peel the grapes for his trailer's fruit and cheese plates like he'd asked. Or he's getting into character to fuck some shit up as Nizam, the "villanous nobleman" who is the antagonist in the PoP movie due in 2010. Sista site Defamer got that up on Friday, but tipster rayk2099 pointed it out to us just now. Sir Ben's played some heavy-gravity roles in his day. If you want to call this a paycheck role, fine, but my guess is he's working about five times as hard as he did playing Vice President Nance in Dave.

Not getting enough game-movie goodness? Tipster Christian S. has alerted us to the first two Max Payne reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, from Australian site Urban Cinefile. The count so far is two green splats, no ripe-and-reds.

Ben Kingsley Loves You and You [Defamer, thanks rayk2099]

'Next-Gen Audio Square-Off': PS3 versus 360

Game designer Richard "Lord British" Garriott and his "immortality drive" — containing Crecente's genetic material — is officially in orbit now. Sorry I missed this earlier, but Garriott rode the candle out of Baikonur early Sunday, and his Soyuz craft will dock with the International Space Station on Tuesday to begin a 10-day span of experiments.

Not sure if there's any experimenting on the "immortality drive" to be done or not, but that was the keystone of his pre-flight hype. The drive contains the digitized DNA sequences of a bunch of earth types — our editor included, along with Stephen Colbert and Stephen Hawking. It'll stay aboard the space station in case life on earth is wiped out or something.

Garriott reportedly paid $30 million for his flight but said he was able to recoup "a significant slice" of that beforehand. He gets back to earth Oct. 24.

US Game Designer Blasts Into Space with DNA Cargo [Associated Press via Wired, AP Photo]

On The Possibility Of 2D, HD, XBLA & PSN Sonic Games

On Games, Music, and Meaning

I think the Law of Obsolete Console Modding should say something like, "It's not really cool until the console that replaced the obsolete console is itself obsolete." Of course, then it would be called "retro-cool" and I know how much you guys hate that term.

Here we go anyway. Trumpet fanfare for the Xbox Slim. No, not the Xbox 360 Slim, although we'll never kill that rumor. This is a casemod that shaves 60 percent of the volume and half the weight off the original Xbox console. The secret is in its super-duper cooling fans. The mod also packs in emulators for three other consoles.

Pretty nifty. Definitely a conversation piece. But see me in about four years when every current 360 configuration has melted down and been replaced and backwards compatibility is no more. Then we'll slap the "do want" label on it. Three other stills and a movie on the jump.