After taking on La Bamba, Coolio was peer-pressured into taking a stab at Beat It and Gamer captured the whole thing on video. Wow, he really can't hit those Michael Jackson high notes. But he does trash talk the game after eeking by on medium.

FEATURE: Coolio vs Guitar Hero: Who will win?

So it was nice to hear the other day that DJ Hero, which certainly sounds to have potential, got an unofficial thumbs-up from celebrity DJ Paul Oakenfold who apparently loved the game.

While he isn't officially involved, I wouldn't be surprised if and when the game hits that he gets involved in some way, even if it's to just help promote it.

First DJ Hero Details Turntable Controller, Mash-Ups, Guitar Coop [Kotaku]

The annual GameStop eXpo has quickly become a great way for folks to leak tons of video game details to us each year.

This year around the retailer-only show will give folks their hands on time with Guitar Hero: World Tour, Rock Band 2, Wii Music, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, Spore, Call of Duty: World at War, Animal Crossing and, I'm told, a first ever chance to check out Halo Wars.

All of the big publishers will be on hand as well as a gaggle of GameStop execs and an impressive line-up of celebrities including Todd McFarlane, Ozzy Osbourne, Mark McGrath, Travis Barker, Shaun White and "other surprise guests."

If you're attending you know our email address, that's all I'm saying.

He has even lent his considerable vocal talent to Fable 2 — talk about renaissance man. Beat that, Leonardo, you big fraud.

Having recently begun an 87th career as a gadget blogger (via his Guardian newspaper column Dork Talk) the boy Fry has revealed his affection for the Nintendo DS and — true to form — offers a spot-on dissection of what is great about the handheld.

At the moment his interests seem to lie in the casual end of the gaming spectrum. Other games writers beware, though — if someone gives him a stack of Square RPGs we will all be out of a job by Christmas.

Dork Talk [The Guardian]

Last night famously famous folks like Carmen Electra, Paris Hilton, Benjia Madden and Danny Masterson descended on the T-Mobile Sidekick Tone-Def After Party during the Coacehella Festival in Southern California to drink (a lot) and play SingStar on the Playstation 3 (a little). The place was, I'd bet, pressure washed afterwards with a mix of bleach and acid. Still won't do any good, but they do try.

[Photos by Amy Graves/Getty Images/WireImage]

Today's media scum don't write for newspapers, or magazines, or tabloids, they don't even write for blogs or websites, no they just create one-off, single page tablogs that feature a prominent Digg button and morbidly titillating content.

Take for instance this site: When Is Britney going to Die? Sure, they don't know how to use capitalization in a headline, and their design is essentially a picture, a graph and a form, but hey, they're giving away a Playstation 3 if you can predict the exact time of Britney Spears' death, down to the minute. Classy.

It's one thing to cheat at blogging, but quite another to cheat at Halo 3.

While we're not certain Gilbert Arenas is cheating to up his in-game stats, it certainly looks that way and a whole bunch of Bungie forum-goers agree.

Look at all his games that he gets 1st place in. He joins up with a friend and has his other account quit out so he gets 1st place every time. How can this be allowed?

Checking out his stat page you can see that he does play an awful lot of Social Doubles and always ends in first place. Oh and that the lifespan of many of his "matches" is under five seconds.

Hey Arenas, I hate to break it to you, but matching and dumping just pumps up your experience, it doesn't do a thing for your Rank. To boost that you're going to have to actually play a game. Hit me up at Gamertag Crecente anytime so I can show you what a teabag is.

NBA player Gilbert Arenas cheating at Halo 3 [Bungie Halo 3 Forums]

Update: The Washington Post got Arenas to fess up.

It's a glitch," he explained. "It's a glitch in the game. I seen some kids that were like 600s, they won 600 Halo games and we only had that game for two weeks. And all the kids go to school. So I'm like, 'What the hell you all doing?' And they said that's what they doing, two-on-two."

And Bungie has released this official statement to Kotaku:

"As Gilbert Arenas himself admitted, his EXP is suspect. What isn't suspect, however, is his skill level, a far better gauge of a player's ability than the grinding of EXP. He is a level 42, which is pretty exceptional, especially considering all of the time he's likely putting into grinding."

Skill level? One word Arenas: Teabag

One of the big draw backs of Games Convention is that it is virtually impossible to get a direct flight here. To get to the Leipzig airport you pretty much have to fly to either Munich or Frankfurt. I flew into Frankfurt and then had a leisurely seven hour lay-over that I killed by blowing ungodly amounts of money on robotic roulette, reading and posting on the site.

When I finally hopped over to the gate for my flight to Leipzig I discovered a virtual whose who of game developers waiting to catch the same flight. Standing in the line were folks from the Call of Duty 4 development team; Dave Doak, Free Radical's director; and Castlevania producer Koji Igarashi. They were all sort of milling about in front of the ticket counter waiting to board the plane. A few minutes later I spotted Hideo Kojima sitting off by himself in the business lounge waiting for the call to board. I wasn't able to quite grab a recognizable picture of him with my cell, though I got one later as he stood in line in front of me. He had on some very cool Ducati shoes.

I couldn't help but think that if the plane went down it would sort of be like The Day the Music Died for gaming... and I wouldn't be around to write about it.

I was only able to catch a chunk of it, but the audience seemed to love checking out the day's top videos while getting a chance to be on live MTV. At some point the host brought Tony Hawk up onto the stage to talk about video games and his propensity to injure himself. The segment was short, but in it we learned that Tony Hawk has four sons, that they love video games. They can kick Hawk's ass at Guitar Hero but not at his namesake video game. He also said that only one of his sons seem to display the same blatant disregard for self-preservation that helped propel Hawk's career to superstardom. That son, Hawk said, needs to have be watched closely.

Hawk ended the segment by hopping up on a skateboard and propelling himself off the stage and through the crowd, a small crowd of body guards running in his wake. About ten feet away from the stage Hawk popped off the board, talked to a fan and walked from the hall.

I thought there were an awful lot of really tall, really big guys playing during last night's Halo 3 premiere event in San Francisco's Foreign Cinema on Mission Street. Turns out they were a bunch of players from the 49ers football team.

I actually spent a good half hour or so playing with a player I suspect was Vernon Davis on a split-screen in some friendly Team Slayer without even realizing it. Had I known, I would have taken a picture of the guy. He was a friendly, kinda newb player, but really wasn't much worse at the game then I was.

Moments early, one of the split-screen spots on the same television was taken up by Justin Kan of Justin TV fame. Hopping on the game after him, I was rewarded with a flood of invites and messages from his legion of fans how had been watching him play the game live through his hat-mounted cam.

Last night was an interesting mix of hardcore gamers, game journalists, analysts, Msoft execs (Shane Kim was there) and other sorts of celebs.

I had a chance to sit down and speak with Brian Jarrard, community lead of Bungie.net, about the game (check back Monday for that feature) and what they expect to come from the beta. I was going to talk with Shane Kim (the handlers tell me Peter Moore reads Kotaku daily, so I think I was a shoe in), but he had an endless line of interviews to do and I decided to leave the event about 11 p.m.

As I walked out the party was still going strong, with nearly all of the screens still filled with gamers and two hours left before they started hustling people out of the restaurant. Brian Crecente

For a tech news site, this seems a little late in coming, but Cnet.com is currently hosting a gallery of celebrity Mii images culled from around the web. Some of these I had seen before, but others were new to me and the majority of them are dead on. Some celebrities of note include Chuck Norris, Laurel & Hardy, Jack Black, Peter Jackson and Woody Allen. Also featured is Dave Curry's prize winning Zach Braff Mii (pictured) which took the grand prize in Kottke.org's Celebrity Mii contest. Curry was awarded with a little statue of his winning Mii which is also featured in the gallery.

So, if you are one of those folks that only recently got their hands on a Wii and are still exploring the wonderful world of Mii's, this little gallery is a great guide for getting some celebs to brighten up your Mii Parade.

I'm still waiting for some Mii DLC so I can finally make one that actually looks like me. Unfortunately for me, they don't have a mutton chop sideburn feature and that's a damn shame. Flynn De Marco

Wii creates celebrity Mii's [Cnet]

Noisy and sometimes prone to overheating, Russell Crowe is the perfect actor to adorn the Xbox 360. Once you've seen either of them perform you can almost forgive them for the occasional punch in the face.

The auction is currently at AU $1,005 (roughly US $811), and it ends in just four short hours, so act quickly. Check out the seller's other auctions for 360s customized and signed by other famous Australians / New Zealanders, like Peter Jackson and several people I've never heard of. Michael Fahey

Russell Crowe autographed Xbox 360 console
[eBay Australia, via The Xbox Domain]

Be A Real Guitar Hero [GayGamer]

The only thing sadder than Britney Spears shaving her head in some misguided attempt at regaining, I don't know, something, are the hundreds of Sims created to gimmick the new, balder Britney.

Searching the Sims 2 returns more than 200 Sims created to look like Ms. Baldy, including this one. So, very, sad. And don't get me started on the Anna Nicole Sims.Brian Crecente

My sources tell me the company will be hanging at the AT&T PRO-Am Tournament closing night celebrity party tomorrow night getting celebrities, pro-golfers and other A-listers to check out Wii Golf. I'm told Nintendo will have two Wiis on site for gamers and non-gamers to check out Wii Sports.

I wonder if they can cajole Bill Murray to check it out... afterall, it doesn't have any gophers. Brian Crecente

Pebble Beach Golf

Color me jealous. Not only did N'Gai Croal get to hang with a Playboy Playmate but it appears he made his way into Sony's Playstation Oasis at the Raleigh Hotel in Miami's South Beach.

It was up there that the likes of Ludacris, Tom Brady, Gabrielle Union, Mario Williams, John Legend, Terrence Howard and Serena Williams hung and were gifted with some Sony Xtreme swag like thos nifty Sony kicks and personalized PS3s. They even laser etched stuff for them. Sweet, but why no Bedazzler? Brian Crecente

Double Life: Inside the Playstation Oasis, Where Sony Is Redefining the Gift Bag, Part I [Level Up]

Game Daily put together a silly little look at the woman of World of Warcraft. Specifically, they grabbed shots of all of the females from the game's different races and matched them up with lookalike celebrities.

Some of them are so close that you start to wonder if the developers may have done the same thing when they were in the design stages of the game. Of course, must celebrities ooze a sort of generic beauty that would make them look like any sort of pretty computer model. Brian Crecente

Women of WoW [Game Daily]

The guys at Game Videos are back with part two of their celebrity Mii creation video. This time around we get such illustrious personalities as Osama Bin Laden, Hulk Hogan, Charlie Brown, Satan, Ugly Betty, Chuck Norris, The Beatles and even Sony superstars Parappa the Rappa and Un-Jammer Lammy.

Truth be told, this version is a little more show and tell than actual tutorial, but you can still figure out how to make them on your own with a simple press of the pause button. Flynn De Marco

Mii Celebrity How To: Part One [Kotaku]

ASAP Staff writer Ryan Pearson just shot me a link to his excellent write-up of last night's Video Game Awards show on Spike TV.

I think he hit the nail right on the head. The reason these shows don't work, he concludes, is because in video games the gamers are the center of attention, but in the shows, the celebrities are.

And more to the point, many of the ones who show up at award shows don't give a damn about the games, even if they're in them.

Case in point:

So it's odd that famous people are front-and-center at the Video Game Awards, where innovative game producers went slinking down the red carpet unnoticed as everyone from Xzibit to MySpace vixen Tila Tequila — neither of whom seemed much interested in their own games — hogged camera time.

Ms. Tequila appears in "Street Racing Syndicate." You can win her as a prize, at which point she rides with you and tells you that "You suck." Asked if she gives any productive tips to the player, she responded, "Not really. I just distract."

Xzibit, so charismatic as host of the "Pimp My Ride" TV show, appears in its just-released game iteration. He explains it thusly: "Basically it's a racing game, driving game, whatever. You get to do something to the cars. I had to be involved because I didn't want them to portray me in a light I don't want to be portrayed in." He appeared not to have played the game.

Sure, Pearson points out, some of the stars who made the show were into gaming.

For instance Daniel Dae Kim is a big Guitar Hero fan, but then again who isn't. And Both Masi Oka and Brandon Routh are huge World of Warcraft fans. They were even talking about starting up a celebrity guild on a server. That would be fantastic, getting pwned by a crew of multi-millionaire movie stars. Dammit, they're rich and famous in the real world, leave the virtual one to us noobs. Brian Crecente

In gaming, YOU are the star. Aren't you? AP]

Kottke is having a little celebrity Mii contest.

To enter just make your Mii with the official Nintendo Wii editor, don't cheat, and email your little abomination to Jason over on the site by Dec. 11 at 11:59 p.m. ET.

You can enter up to two Miis and the prize has yet to be announced. I'm suspicious it might be one of those take-Jason-out-to-dinner prizes. Brian Crecente

Celebrity Mii Contest [Kottke, via Cathode Tan]

The genie is out of the bottle and I'm liking what I'm seeing. Brian Crecente

Hit the jump for plenty more courtesy of FourZeroTwo.

I've been playing a lot of Rainbow Six: Vegas lately. Mostly because it just plain-out kicks ass. But what initially drew me to the game was the cool little face-mapping feature it has built into it.

If you want, you can use the Xbox 360's Vision Camera to map your real face onto a character in 3D for all to see during multiplayer matches.

After doing two or three face grabs and coming up with a frighteningly realistic Brian, I started thinking about the process. All it does is take a head on shot of you and a profile and them use some magic and math to turn it into a very realistic 3D face.

Couldn't you just get sharp pictures of people, one head on, one profile, and use that to create faces.

Fortunately, when I was babbling about this I happened to be in the middle of a series of matches and one of the gamers, a reader named Will, decided to test out my theory.

The result was amazing. He took two pictures of James Gandolfini (Sopranos) and turned it into a fairly realistic 3D face map. Oh, the possibilities. First up? Paris Hilton, that is if I can find any pictures that aren't of her turned slightly to the side.

Washington Wizards' Gilbert Arenas was depressed to discover that neither Sony nor Nintendo thought to gift him with a PS3 or Wii, despite his not asking for either.

"Man, I couldn't get it. I stood outside no hours and got nothing. That's when you sit in your room and try to use your celebrityism. I didn't get nothing. I knew I should have called and said I was D-Wade. 'Um, hello, this is D-Wade - This is LeBron - Can I come over there and get one of them?' Then I would have had one."

Apparently, he sat at home thinking really hard about the two systems but no one gave him one. Newsweek's N'gai Croal points out that the point guard is quite an avid gamer, he even sponsors a Halo team.

Don't feel bad Arenas, not even a potential presidential candidate was able to swing a free PS3. Hey, if you were in Denver I'd let you come play, but I guess I'll just have to settle for Melo. Brian Crecente

Double Life: Brother, Can You Spare A PS3? [Double Life]

Pudding pop loving Scrubs co-star Zach Braff (that totally has to be a fake name), is a die-hard Sims fan. A co-worker pointed me to his self-named blog. Skimming through posts about Mel Gibson hating jews and Fletch making his nipples hurt I came across a this item about Braff's sim, Arnold.

As you can see, my Sim Arnold has his mind on one thing and one thing only: a paramedic named Randy. Randy ended up crashing the party I chose not to invite him to. Made everyone stop dancing and then started a chess tournament. This guy Randy is the WORST!

I would envy Braff and his amusing repartee if I wasn't convinced that he has an intern chained in the basement of his mansion pumping out the witticisms for him. I mean, come on, "Braff" says he doesn't have air conditioning. How believable is that? I know he's comfortably ensconced in the smog-induced perfect weather of LA and all, but he's rich and we all know that rich people have air conditioning. It's just a fact.

And this has nothing to do with my jealousy of his hair. Braff might have the cool name and the best situation comedy on air right now, but does he have his own little sim skin? I think not. Brian Crecente

Zach Braff

Error Macro takes a look at the one consistent feature that showed up in every issue of Nintendo Power without fail: The contests.

As the site points out, the magazine started with lameo game give-aways, but quickly realized that gamers could just run to the store to get those, so they started branching out.

Over the years the magazine has given away the Robocop car, Bill and Ted's phone booth and a chance to meet stars. These grand give-aways didn't always come off without a hitch. The Total Recall contest, which gave gamers a chance to meet Arnie, took six months to happen and by then the meeting turned into a quick handshake. What are some of your favorite retro contests? Brian Crecente

The Saturday Scan [Error Macro]

Nutjob Tom Cruise has banned his two older children from playing computer games and watching television.

His 11 and 13-year-old children can watch movies, because you can never have enough Mission Impossible spin-offs crammed into your head. Oh and Cruise is also having his kids home schooled by the Church of Scientology.

Yeah, they're gonna be well-rounded when he releases them on the world in another decade or so. —Brian Crecente

50 Cent hit up E3 with not a single G-Unit in sight, but he did bring his own booth babes. It looks like he's wearing one of those swag medallions from last year's show.

AP snagged a photo of The Panic Channel's Dave Navarro, Steve Isaacs, Stephen Perkins and Chris Chaney playing a little 360 during the big show last week.

When last we saw Steven Spielberg he was huffing through West Hall headed toward the Wii with a phalanx of bulky bodyguards spearheading his charge.

Well, according to these AP photos he made it through the throngs and got some playtime in with Shigeru Miyamoto.

Nintendo was on hand at Sundance in Utah to shmooze with the hot and famous. The developer set up their kit at Motorola's Moto on Main Celebrity Lounge and let the photogenic peeps play around with the DS, Micro and GameCube.

Lounge visitors included Good Charlotte, Rob Lowe, Jessica Biel, the Beastie Boys, Lance Bass, Shannon Elizabeth, John Malkovich, Kristen Bell, Lucy Liu, William H. Macy, Minnie Driver, Dennis Quaid, Chris Masterson, Joe Pantoliano, Adrian Grenier, Michael Rapaport, Nick Nolte, Daryl Hannah and Giancarlo Esposito and Tommy Lee. (I believe his penis was also on hand.)

Need I say that Paris Hilton was on hand as well. I think they've started to pack her with the celebrity lounge furniture. They get to the show, let her out of the box and throw some $100 bills on the floor to keep her busy. Maybe fill her coke trough back up, freshen up her Martini bucket.

What was I talking about again?

Oh right, celebrities like free stuff and this time around the free stuff was from Nintendo. Score.

What did Shigeru Miyamoto doodle while being bored out of his mind at DIEC?

Yesterday's Rock & Republic fashion show in Los Angeles was the "must-attend" event for LA's elite. The show featured a bunch of underfed people showing off clothes no one can afford to wear, but more importantly Nintendo's oh-so-chic portable, the Micro, was on hand and in hands to distract from the starvation on parade event.

I landed five shots of the famous fondling Micros, but the hottest by far is the one vixen Kristan Cavalleri taunting the camera with her I-got-one-and-you-can't-have-it look.

Serena Williams and Mena Suvari were on hand to act out the different stages of excitatude about the Micro.

Is Mena actually calling someone to tell them she just landed a Micro?

Paris Hilton looks like she modeling the damn thing. (It's a handheld Paris, not a purse or yippy dog.)

And is it just me or does Jesse Metcalfe look like he's trying to figure out how to call someone on his?

Everyone assumed Dave Chappelle's midnight flight from the U.S. to a South African rehab center was a crack-induced plea for help because, you know, crack's a powerful drug. But maybe the addiction Chappelle was trying to flea was World of Warcraft. GameSpot's Tor Thorsen has word that Chappelle talked up the massively multiplayer game at one of his recent San Francisco gigs.

Chappelle, a long time gamer, told the audience that he's been playing a lot of WoW recently and that he's even run into a few in-game alter-egos, like a rogue named I'm Rick James, Bitch.

Ok Chappelle, this is an intervention: Get off your ass, step away from Azeroth and start producing some more episodes of Chappelle's Show. I need something to watch when I get home from work, bitch!

Dave Chappelle Loves World of Warcraft [GameSpot]

The celebrities just keep on coming. I've gotten so many pictures in the past couple of hours that I'm just gonna do a round up. Gear Live's Moblog has pictures of Gary Coleman hanging with two honies who were carrying around children at play signs and the Wayans brothers pushing their cell phone game. AC from the RedAssedBaboon also sent along a picture of Stacy Kiebler from the WWE keeping her distance from all of those smelly gamers. I also got a picture of Little Richard, but he was at LAX, so I'm not gonna include it.

Richard Dean Anderson [PC Games]

Turns out that Sinbad is gamings far, far, far less attractive (and talented) Paris Hilton. A tipster tells me the once back-up comedian used to hound Electronic Arts, swinging by to pick up free games and swag whenever he could. He even harassed the company at E3, pounding his unlucky escorts with a stream of tired jokes and odd ramblings. Good to know some things never change.

Wait, maybe he's screaming after seeing the trailer for the Fantastic Four movie...zing! (Thanks Pack Rat Show for the joke.)

Bilder fra E3-messens dag 2 [Dagbladet, thanks Snorre]

It's probably a stretch to put this post in the celebrity category, but I thought I'd give Sinbad a break. Alkaiser over at Netjak spotted the once bit player lurking around the SquareEnix booth trying to score a seat for the developer's demos.

I guess it could have been worse, he could have been one of the guys hanging out in the gutters around the convention center.

Her experiences can be heard on NPR's Day to Day. There's a link and pic or two over on BB.

Xeni Tech on NPR [Boing Boing]

Check out the jump for a picture of Steven Spielberg with his stalker friend.

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