Second Life Celebrates Five Years

Linden Labs is celebrating the five year anniversary of the launch of their virtual world Second Life, and you're all invited, even if most of you won't come! In honor of this milestone, the Lindens will be holding a two-week long Virtual World Fair, complete with parties, roundtable discussions, and exhibits that highlight the genitalia perversion creativity of the world's residents.

Things kick off June 23rd with a keynote speech from Linden Founder and Chairman Philip Rosedale and newly appointed CEO Mark Kingdon, both of whom better have some pretty kick-ass avatars. If they don't have at least jet packs and glowing eyes I'm laughing them off the stage. Cue my character's temporary ban in 3...2...1.

Hit the jump for details on some of the milestones that SL will be celebrating, or visit the official site for a schedule of events.

Happy 25th Anniversary Capcom!

25 years ago today, CAPCOM Co., Ltd.was established in Hirano, Osaka for the purposes of selling software. Now it's two and a half decades later and Capcom is still going strong, with flagship franchises like Street Fighter more popular than ever, and old favorites like Bionic Commando ready to reclaim their popularity in this anniversary year. In celebration, Capcom CEO Kenzou Tsujimoto has released a special message to fans and investors (mainly investors) thanking them for their support and pledging continued success in the future, along with the image you see here.

If you squint and suddenly gain the ability to read Japanese you'll notice the in the bottom right hand of the image they list the Clock Tower movie for a 2009 release and the Onimusha movie for 2011, joining Street Fighter: the Legend of Chun-Li as part of some freaky Capcom movie triple-play.

Either way, Happy Birthday, Capcom! Meet you back here in another 25 for the release of Street Fighter VI!

Happy Birthday to Us! [Capcom Community Blog]

Dance Dance Revolution is celebrating ten years of people making dancing fools of themselves in public with the launch of three new DDR titles, each for a different console. Dance Dance Revolution X for the PS2, Dance Dance Revolution Universe 3 for the Xbox 360 and Dance Dance Revolution Hottest Party 2 for Wii are all expected to launch in fall of this year and will provide DDR aficionados with even more songs to with which to get funky fresh on the dance pad.

If you are a PS2 owner you'll be able to link up to four PS2 up with LAN cables and provide a dance party for up to eight people. With that kind of set up you better have a huge living room and no neighbors if you wish to avoid arrest for disturbing the peace. You can also plug in your EyeToy camera and become part of the game.

Xbox 360 players will be treated to sixty five songs, Xbox LIVE compatibility and the ability to customize their own dancer. Also included are two new modes; DJ Mode where you can create your own tracks and set lists and City Mode where you can compete against various bosses to rule the dance floor.

Wii owners will get four player multiplayer, Wii remote and nunchuck support, new modes and an all new soundtrack. The new modes consist of the Dance n' Defend Battle Mode, a head to head dance off using the Wii remote, Course Mode and Groove Arena Mode. You'll also be able to use your Mii in the game!

Make the jump to check out the full press release and all the swinging details!

Get Your Hands on Lara Croft For (Almost) Free

Lara Croft is ten years old today (doesn't that make you feel dirty?), and to celebrate, Eidos is letting you play Tomb Raider Anniversary for free.

Of course, nothing in life is truly free, is it? You can access the game through TrialPay, an alternative payment service, but only after you sign up to try or buy an offer from one of their blue-chip advertisers. To sign up for your free subscription to Tomb Raider Anniversary, go to the TrialPay sign-up page.

See? Lara's a classy broad. She wouldn't be givin' it away for nothin'! Her momma raised her better than that!

IGN Turns 10, Goes Retro

This week is not only notable for the Christmas holiday but (possibly even more importantly) this week also happens to be the 20th Anniversary of MegaMan (aka RockMan). Website Platformers.net has taken a little look back at the long running franchise. It's a nice medium length retrospective that will be perfect for holiday reading if you want to learn a little bit more about the man in blue and all his various games.

Happy Anniversary, MegaMan. May you see twenty more without becoming boring and repetitive.

Japan Focus| Happy Birthday Rockman! [Platformers.net]
The Official MegaMan Website [Capcom]
[Thanks, Graham]

Going Postal: The Postal 10th Anniversary Collector's Edition

After a somewhat confusing reveal of Eidos' plans for Tomb Raider Anniversary on the Xbox 360, it appears that the remake of Lara Croft's original adventure has been nailed down. What was originally scheduled first as an Xbox Live Arcade release, one that requires ownership of Tomb Raider Legend, will come first as a standard retail release. Eidos will release Tomb Raider Anniversary for the 360 next week, October 23 in the U.S. and October 26th in Europe.

A pair of downloadable releases, still with the same Tomb Raider Legend requirement, will follow in November. Got it?

Happy Birthday, Dreamcast!

Command & Conquer Gold Free For Download

Week in Games: Boogie Edition

This week's new release list is looking rather anemic with half the list being populated by Mega Man titles. I am, however, looking forward to playing Boogie as it was one of my favorite games I played at E3. It was fun, simple and made me laugh a lot. Anybody else going to check it out?

Boogie (WII)
Sing, dance and create your own videos with a great songlist.

Mega Man Star Force: Dragon (DS)
Mega Man goes the Pokemon route, releasing three slightly different versions of the same game. Dragon is exclusive to Gamestop/EB Games.

Mega Man Star Force: Leo
(DS)
Mega Man goes the Pokemon route, releasing three slightly different versions of the same game. This one is Liony.

Mega Man Star Force: Pegasus (DS)
Mega Man goes the Pokemon route, releasing three slightly different versions of the same game. This one is Pegasusy.

Tomb Raider: Anniversary (PSP)
Ms. Croft's redesigned first adventure comes to the PSP

Crazy Taxi: Fare Wars (PSP)
Crazy Taxi 1 & 2 speed on to the PSP with new co-op modes and other cool stuff

Week in Games: Guitar Hero Rock The Eighties Edition

Looks like some good titles coming out this week, so here's a smattering of the best ones! Guitar Hero 80's is a sure fire sale for me, but unfortunately my game budget is rather small so that's all I'll be able to afford. there's actually several other games I'd like to pick up like Persona 3 and Alien Syndrome. I'm even slightly intrigued by Escape From Bug Island despite my earlier suspicions that it will suck. Anything on here look like it will end up in your console for days on end?

Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s (PS2)
Oh my god, dude! It's like totally tubular! It's Guitar Hero 80's!

Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword (PC)
Expansion pack number two includes ten new civilizations.

NASCAR 08 (X360, PS3, PS2)
The power of NASCAR on your next gen and one last gen console.

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 (PS2)
High school and the occult. No it's not Harry Potter, it's Persona 3!

Alien Syndrome (PSP, WII)
Blast off into space and battle aliens in this action RPG.

Escape from Bug Island (WII)
Giant bugs block your escape from an island. Will you make it out alive?

Final Fantasy II Anniversary Edition (PSP)
The Square Enix classic is revamped for the PSP.

Dynasty Warriors DS: Fighter's Battle (DS)
The popular and seemingly never ending series comes to the DS.

Combat Mission: Shock Force (PC)
Help restore order in Syria after a coup.

What Are You Playing This Weekend?

Lara Croft Raids Women's Only Beach With Sexy Results

"Major Flop"

So all in all, it was a flop. A MAJOR flop. I love you Squeenix, but I think you have a problem with the word celebration. Remember the party you held for the Japanese? Yeah, that's something that we Americans (who apparently love everything big) would have loved. But no, you give us a picture, old FMV footage and 6 PSP demo stations after waiting in the windy city of the west for well over two hours (even more than that for the people who got there first). Sure it was a launch party for the PSP version of Final Fantasy, but if you're going to use the 20th Anniversary Celebration in the title of the event, then I for one think that there should have been a little more than goofy Playstation store employees jumping over each other in front of a green screen.

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