Oh man, Street Fighter IV at an arcade? I am so bitter. I wish we had an arcade here in the U.S. with the forethought or buying power to get the machine imported. As it stands the only places you're going to be able to play the game outside of a console are at specialty stores that just pay cash to import the thing themselves. Worse still, they aren't yet selling the board on its own, so it's going to be a bundle to do that.

I hope you popped a few coins down on the machine and had a go.

What you missed:
Mortal Kombat 9 Planned As A Mature Return To Form
Game Club: Beyond Good & Evil The Final Assignment
Porn Starlet Tera Patrick Joins Saint's Row 2
Sega Can't Find The Source Code For Your Favorite Old School Arcade Games
First 4 Figures Does Ryu Hayabusa Right
Spider-Man: Web Of Shadows Impressions
NECA Pimps Gaming Toy Line Up At Comic-Con
Green Lantern, Joker Join MK Vs. DC Universe Line Up
Michael Ironside's Splinter Cell Role, Game's Script Still Up In the Air
Prince Of Persia Creator "Delighted" By Film Casting

Trish and I were walking the dogs this morning when we saw our son riding his bike down the path toward us. As he zipped by us I heard the unmistakable flapping of a baseball card striking the spokes of a back tire. How funny, I thought, I remember doing that when I was a kid. Then I got a closer look: It was a Pokemon card. Don't worry, it was just an Energy card!

What you missed:
E308 Sega Can't Bring Back or Make Sequels to Previous Platinum/Clover Games
Splinter Cell: Conviction Delayed
EA, DC Bring Mirror's Edge To Comic Books
Hasbro Sues Over Scrabulous Facebook Game
Is This Guitar Hero: World Tour's Setlist?
Spore E-Card Creator Goes Live, Makes You An E-Card God
Geometry Wars Retro Evolved 2 Hits This Month
Liveblogging Will Wright Discussing His Inner Otaku At Comic-Con
Insomniac: There Are Many Ways to Get Into Resistance 2 Beta
What happened to Fatal Frame 4 At E3?
Metal Gear Online Tournament Hits Comic-Con, Kojima Signs Stuff

Yesterday I ran out mid-morning to pick up a coffee and some allergy medicine. Somehow in the process of buying coffee I ended up with two volumes of The Super Mario Bros Super Show in my hand. I'm not quite sure how it even happened. One second I was milling about waiting for a hazelnut breve, the next, bam, bad 80s Mario cartoons. At least they were $12 for two.

So I'm checking out with my bundle of stuff and when I go to scan the two DVDs and alert comes up telling the cashier that she has to ID me... for Super Mario Bros cartoons. I make a joke about how they must now be IDing for horrible animation and bad acting, but she continued to give me the stink eye as she checked my ID and glared at what I suspect she thought was kiddie porn. Good times!

What you missed:
EA Signs Up Talent Agency To Bring Franchises To Movies, TV
Itagaki and Tecmo Go At it In Court, Alien Love-Child Suspected
Midnight Club: Los Angeles Hands-On
Namco-Bandai Rescuing Hellgate From Sinking Flagship?
Xbox Live Makes Horror Funny This Fall
Frankenreview: Final Fantasy IV DS
E308 Simon Jeffery, "We're Saving Aliens For Something Special"
Penny Arcade Adventures Coming To PS3
"Major" PS3 Exclusive To Be Announced In August?

I think we've all managed to return to our respective homes after nearly a week of E3-ing. Hope your trip home was uneventful and you had a nice day off. I spent the weekend recuperating up in the mountains. Today was all about churning out most of the rest of our coverage from the show. We have another half-days coverage or so and then we're officially done with E3 2008. Just in time too. San Diego Comic Con and all of it's video game exuberance kicks off Wednesday and rolls on through the weekend. We're actually sending McWhertor out to hit up the show and report back on all things video games. Of course, for those also interested in the comic and movie stuff coming out of the show, our Science Fiction site I09 will be there in full force, knocking it out of the ballpark daily, I suspect.

Oh, and don't forget. Game Club Beyond Good & Evil Meeting Two is tomorrow.

What you missed today:
E308 Justify Your Game: Fallout 3
Sonic And The Black Knight Isn't A Bad Dream
Fallout 3: No Two Hands-On Alike
Killing A Dead Space Boss
The Shane Kim Interviews
Rise Of The Argonauts: Not Mything A Beat
Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Hot Lightsaber Action
Getting My Batarang On With LEGO Batman: The Videogame
Namco Bandai Roundup - Digimon, Naruto, And The Game That Never Ends
Using The Force In Soul Calibur IV
Rock Revolution: The Rubber Drum Brigade
Fracture: Here Is Fracture
Silent Hill: Homecoming Hands On With The Pipemaster
Infinite Undiscovery: Jogging For A Long, Long Time

BioShock PS3 Getting Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum Trophies

I'm back, safely ensconced in my home once again. As can be expected after spending a week working, drinking, but not really sleeping or eating, amidst Los Angeles banks of smog, I am nursing a mild fever and very achy body. I've spent the morning going over what everyone still has on their plate from the show and there is quite a bit, including some more Justify Your Games, video interviews, the premiere of our Exec Pop Quiz and of course oodles of impressions and hands-on.

Oh, I mentioned that I met former ACDC drummer Chris Slade after The Who concert. He actually asked me to text his manager with the address for Ubisoft's party because he was looking for somewhere to hang out. Pretty cool, Slade is like a Crecente groupie. Shhhhh, don't tell him I said that, he'd totally kick my ass.

What you missed:
E3 Roundup Day 4
Alpha Protocol - Mass Effect For The Solo Spy Set
How Power Outages and WTO Protests Influenced inFamous
Miyamoto Caught on Film Checking Out Killzone 2
Silent Hill: Homecoming Gets Pyramid Head, PC Version
Playing to Perfection in Mirror's Edge
MadWorld - Black, White, And Red All Over
Another Mario Sonic Collaboration in the Works?
Portal Still Alive Will Include New Puzzles, But No New Plot
Damnation - One To Watch
Bionic Commando Has Control Issues

Alas, E3 is on the verge of ending. Already Adam and I have departed for airports to return to Colorado, while you and the rest of the crew hustle to wrap-up our coverage of the show. It's been quite a bit of time, sorry we didn't have more time to talk. There never seems to be time to do that these days.

While I think Harmonix' Rock Band 2 party last night probably made E3 history, I still think that the show itself is suffering from a serious identity crisis. If the ESA and its members don't take a step back and reevaluate where things are headed I think we could be seeing an end to the show.

Of course there was still plenty of news, but it was no more interesting than the news that comes out of the events that stretch out for weeks and months leading up to and away from e3.

But at least we had The Who. Speaking of which, I noticed last night while updating my Facebook page with Who comments about gaming that N'Gai Croal, who was sitting a scant four or five rows behind me with Geoff Keighley had spent much of the concert twittering about the back of my head and its lack of movement during the show. I never did, as he asked, rock out and throw the horns. I got close with Pinball Wizard, but didn't quite hit my full rock-out mode.

Ironically, Croal's constant twittering of my inability to get my rock on apparently prevented him from getting his own rock on at the show. Hit the jump for the hard evidence. Scandalous!

This is all in good fun of course, Croal is a great guy. I do like how you can almost see Geoff thinking about his Blackberry (not present) in the picture. I wonder if this would count for the e3 scavenger hunt?

Oi vey! Remind me not to try to make hundreds upon hundreds of t-shirts the week before E3. This week was as hellish as it can probably get for a blogger/small time business man, as we tackled an insane amount of Meat Bun work (for us, anyway) in preparation for E3 and Comic Con. That's in addition to prepping for E3 and Comic Con for Kotaku!

After shipping off hundreds of tees on Wednesday and picking up another big batch today, we got another big order from a company I probably shouldn't yet disclose. Good news, to be sure, but I'm starting to understand what supply chain management is all about and why it's a Big Deal. On the fun side, I'm bringin' new shirts to E3! Woo!

I'll see your non-mullet this Sunday. For the record, I haven't had a haircut since February! Yikes!

What You Missed Today
Is This Xbox 360's Motion Controller in Action?
Wii Getting Animal Crossing AND Punch-Out?
Body Types: Why Ivy's Boobs Are Such A Big, Big Deal
The PC At E3 - The Keyboard And Mouse Brigade
First Look At 'Lips', iNiS' Xbox 360 Karaoke Game, And Its Bedazzling Microphone

It's been quiet around her this week. We shipped Tristan off to the folks in Texas on Sunday. He's been enjoying the hospitable people and inhospitable weather all week. Friday I'm planning on driving up to Breckenridge with Trish so we can do some biking and relaxing before the big show. I suspect the relaxation will be worn off by Monday morning.

When do you leave for Cali?

What you missed:
Wario Land, PixelJunk Eden Dated (For Japan)
Majesco's E3 Lineup - AWAY With Major Minor
New Unleashed Trailer Drops Plot Points, Shows Carnage
Leaked Screens Of Duke Nukem 3D XBLA
Kotaku's E3 2008 Predictions
Thompson: Judge Recommends Permanent Disbarment
Frankenreview: Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution
Nintendo's E3 Lineup - Oh, So Quiet
Inside The 169-Page Thompson Report: Judge Recommends $43k Fine Also
The E3 2008 Kotaku Fantasy Betting Pool
Kotaku's Pre-E3 Party
Microsoft Denies Motion Control Revealed Via Banjo Kazooie Preview
Dead Rising 2 Set in Vegas ?

What you missed:
EA Clears FTC Hurdle In Take-Two Bid
Capcom Wants To See You At E3
GameStop's Leaked Xbox 360 Price Drop Info
Thompson Calls Judge "Raving Wild Woman", "Unhinged"
Konami Confirms Elebits 2 DS
What's Coming From Microsoft At E3?
Activision Blizzard Merger Official
SCEE Explains Firmware 2.40 Problems, Says Everything OK Now
Gears of War 2 Cryptically Dated By Epic
Lost Planet The Movie By Solid Snake Is Just Shy Of Confirmed
Animal Crossing Wii At E3 Already Confirmed?
EA's Steve Schnur Explains The Hype Behind The Madden Soundtrack
Beer Pong For WiiWare Gets Neutered, Complaints

Now? Nothing, not a damn thing, but the sound of keyboard pounding. I actually don't usually listen to music while I'm working, mostly because my office is in a loft and I'd need to wear headphones so as to not get divorced. I did just update my iPhone in preparations for E3, got rid of a lot of the mellow stuff, like Cannonball and Miles, to make room for some more AC/DC, Butthole Surfers and ABBA. Yes, I have freakishly eclectic taste in music. I do go on musician binges, but that usually results in me dropping the band for a really long time. I prefer shuffling all of my songs.

I put a break down of the artists on my iPhone on the break, check it out, maybe you'll find something worth grabbing before you visit for E3. Be warned, even though it's just artist names, it's a really, really long list. REALLY!

What you missed:
Bonus Round Talks E3 Nintendo with Croal, Totilo and Crecente
The Magical Disappearing Battlefield: Bad Company Stats
Game Club Meets Tonight
Hands-On The Force Unleashed Impressions
First Easy Xbox 360 Question
E3: Dud or a Blast?
Marvel MMO: Gorgeous, Fantastic, Still Very Dead
The Five Finalists For Kotaku's New Comment Czar
"More" Dragon Age Revealed This Wednesday

ABBA
AC/DC
Alicia Bridges
Amil Stewart
Amy Winehouse
Barry White
Beach Boys
Beyonce Knowles
Big Blue Missile
Bobby Darin
Bob Dylan
Bon Jovi
The Brand New Heavies
Buena Vista Social Club
Butthole Surfers
Carrie Undewood
The Chemical Brothers
Christinia Aguilera
Coldplay
Copycat
Corinne Bailey Rae
Daughtry
David Bowie
Dexter Gordon
Donna Summer
Duran Duran
The Eagles
Earworm
Edwyn Collins
Eels
Elvis Costello
Enya
Feist
The Flaming Lips
Foo Fighters
Foreigner
The Gibson Brothers
Gipsy Kings
Gloria Gaynor
Grateful Dead
Green Dead
Herbie Hancock
Iron Butterfly
Isaac Hayes
Jan & Dean
Janet Jackson
Janis Joplin
Journey
Juice Newton
Justin Timberlake
KC & The Sunshine Band
k.d. Lang
Kool & the Gang
Led Zeppelin
Lenny Kravitz
Lipps
Madonna
Maroon 5
Marvin Gaye
Moby
My Chemical Romance
Nelly Furtado
Nickelback
Norah Jones
Ozzy Osbourne
Party Ben
Paul McCartney
Paul Simon
Pink Martini
Plane White T's
Pink
The Police
Prince
The Prodigy
Quincy Jones
REM
Robin Williams
Santana
Seu Jorge
Sex Pistols
The Shins
Simon & Garfunkel
Stan Getz
Stevie Wonder
Sting
The Surfaris
Teena Maria
U2
Vampire Weekend
Village People
Vince Gil
The White Stripes
The Who
Yvonne Elliman
The 5th Dimension
8 1/2 Souvenirs

Have you ever wondered how holiday's creep? Like the Fourth of July isn't until tomorrow, of course, but people tend to try and leave a bit early from work the day before. Some people don't go in at all. Stores close early. I keep expecting that one day all of the holidays are going to meld together and no one will ever have to work again... until we run out of, like, everything.

Do you ever celebrate the Fourth in Japan? Like freak out the neighbors by setting off firecrackers on a seemingly random day, calling up all of the stories in the region asking for watermelon. Trying to find a place to roast marshmallows? Me? I've never been a big fan of the Fourth. Fireworks just don't do it for me and I the only good watermelon is a dead watermelon in my book. We are going up to the cabin for a long weekend to get away from the heat. While my house is a bt more than a mile above sea level, my parent's cabin is more than 9,000 feet above sea level! Crazy. Even though I'm adjusted to high altitude living I still tend to get headaches for the first day or so. Must be the lack of oxygen.

What you missed:
Call of Duty: World at War Figures Show Off U.S., Brit Might
GH: On Tour Activision's Largest DS Launch Ever
Come Party With Kotaku
Dark Sector Devs Helping With Bioshock PS3
Sony: 2.40 Firmware Problems Not Widespread
Once a Labor of Love, Sales of Football Rosters Now Inflame Passions
Battlefield: Bad Company Review: Going For The Gold
Can You Really Win A Wii As A Carnival Prize?

Wow it's been a crazy day. I've spent much of it trying to finalize our E3 plans, which includes that reader party we've been talking about. The appointments are mostly booked for the show. I just have a few companies left to finalize with. Even though there are less attendees this time around, the fact that there really is only two days to see stuff (Tuesday is packed with press conferences) makes fitting all 40 or so companies a real task.

As for the party. I just got off the phone with the bar and we've got everything locked down. The party is going to be at the Golden Gopher in Los Angeles on the Sunday night before E3. I even managed to squeeze Gawker Media up for a little open bar monies. This one will be like the ones we've held in New York and Tokyo. A low-key affair that gives us a chance to hang with all of the people who make our jobs possible.

I'll be posting the official announcement tomorrow sometime. Can't wait!

What you missed:
Resistance 2's Leviathan Unveiled
Blizzard WWI WoW Pet Revealed
Square Enix Confirms Chrono Trigger DS
Infogrames-Controlled Atari Gets 49 Percent Of Publishing Revenues From DBZ
Frankenreview: Battlefield: Bad Company (Xbox 360)
American McGee Gives Gamers Free Grimm
Alpha Protocol Aims Ambitiously For RPG, FPS Fans
Sony Pulls PS3 2.40 Firmware After Reported Problems
One "Mortal Kombat Killer" Avoids Prison Term

I'm back! Actually, I've been back since Sunday night, but I was so swamped with emails and busy work yesterday that I wasn't able to write up a proper day note. Glad to see that Totilo took to the Tower so well and I was happy to see just how well he was treated by the readers.

My week long vacation was spent on a cruise ship as it made its way from Haiti to Jamaica to Grand Cayman to Mexico. One of the reasons I like to go on vacations like this is because it's harder and more expensive for me to access the internet, so I end up cutting lose from the tubes. The trip was fairly relaxing. Tristan and I spent an inordinate amount of on board time playing in the ship's arcade. I managed to loose a lot of money on Stacker only to see a kid win a Wii a few minutes after my last attempt.

The on board kid's club had a whole day that was Nintendo themed, which basically meant they took a bunch of typical games like tag and such and gave them Nintendo names, like Rescue Princess Peach. L-A-M-E.

At one point during our cruise, while anchored off of Haiti, one of the mammoth ship's lines broke and the boat, the largest cruise ship in the world, started tilting. It tilted so much that the water from the pools rushed out and flooded the nearby decks. At which point I suggested we make our way down to something closer to an exit point. They ended up righting the ship pretty quickly, but never said a word to anyone about it.

Turns out one of our readers was honeymooning on the ship. He emailed me yesterday to say he spotted me hanging out by the pool, reading, I suspect. Kinda hope I had my gut sucked in or at least I wasn't scratching anything when he saw me.

While bad weather and crappy kid club times nixed our hopes of kayaking in Haiti, I did get a chance to wear my Clank cuff links with my tux during a dinner. How geeky is that? Suitably obnoxious pic on the jump.

What you missed:
Work for Kotaku (In Comments)
Playing Spore: A Lesson in Teabagging
Sporelebrity Contest Kicks Off
Capcom Wants Bay-Area Gamers For Secret Game Test
Blizzard Worldwide Invitational Wrap-Up
GameTap: Myst Pass-Back Benefits Fans
Konami Whips Up Castlevania Judgment, An Online 3D Fighter For Wii
Xbox 360 Getting a 3D Dashboard Make-Over?
Game Club Beyond Good & Evil: The First Assignment

Well, this was a fun week. And a hard one.

Juggling a day job and Crecente's shoes isn't easy. (Oh, but the smell — wow!) A fan of Kotaku and my MTV blog said the past week was like the Jetsons Meet The Flintstones. That was a good cross-over, right?

I enjoyed my time posting for the readers here and rubbing elbows with the fine Kotaku editorial staff. You're all an impressive bunch and terrific group to write for. I always try to do work that I'd like to read — that is interesting, respects people's intelligence, and, when suitable, enjoyable. I'm glad it seemed to hit the mark here.

I hope all you Kotaku readers out there will never lose sight of the influence you wield. Your decisions about what you consider important and worth reading direct the reporters and bloggers who ultimately serve you. Go with your gut and please keep helping the coverage of games improve, as I think it has, year after year.

And, if you didn't do so already, please drop by MTV Multiplayer blog next week and beyond to see what we're up to over there. I won't even force you to take a quiz or read about Jimmy Olsen.

See you in the comments section.

What you may have missed

New Details On DC Universe Online
My Game Collection Is This Small
Was There A Better Way To Pitch A Lego: Transformers Game?
Yes, I Really Did Watch A Guy Play Boogie Superstar
I Beat Harry Potter's Executive Producer In A Wand Duel
This Samsung Xbox 360 TV Looks Fake (But It's Not A Bad Idea)

I'm sure that if my computer didn't refuse to play audio from YouTube clips I'd have loved your friends show. Sorry.

Now I know the PSP is all the rage again in Japan. And the DS trucks along too. But I find myself with less and less to play on my handhelds. I went to L.A. last week and didn't pack any portable gaming machine. That hadn't happened in years.

It seems like just last year, and certainly the year before that, when the DS-PSP were locking horns and providing us quite a lot of good games. Now the releases seem to have slowed quite a bit. Maybe it's the summer? Or maybe the big companies are focusing on the consoles more again. I don't even have a backlog anymore, even though I do on consoles. Just Space Invaders Extreme and then... nothing I'm excited about.

Are you playing your DS and PSP less? Did a golden age of handheld games just pass us by?

What you missed

Variety Troubled By Sid Meier's Next Game
This Is How You Make A Lara Croft Action Figure
Old School Mega Man 9 Coming To WiiWare
Retailer Ad Shows Xbox 360 Price Drop Hits Before E3
Sony's Stringer Foresees Profitability This Year

P.S. Did you hear that? That's Jimmy Olsen mutating once again, below the jump. Hey, the people demanded it.

Image from the DC Comics collection "The Amazing Transformations of Jimmy Olsen"

Sorry to read that your wife's still having a rough go of it. My wife and I don't have kids, but I did dream last night that we have two boys. In my dream we let my brother name them, and he gave one the Japanese name Mako. There's some sort of connection there between me and you, though tenuous. (As tenuous, perhaps, as the connection between Yoshi's Island and Yoshi's Story).

Give me your two cents on this conundrum:

Imagine you're the guest-editor at a major gaming blog and you've been hearing people complain that game companies aren't creative enough. You've got this scan of one of the most creative things you've seen in a while. It's an old Jimmy Olsen comic you stumbled across. Really wacky stuff. You consider showing it to the readers in a post. But you fear they would say you were reaching and tell you to go back to the major media conglomerate you came from. So what do you do?

What you missed:
Frankenreview: Alone In The Dark (Xbox 360)
Can Too Much Hype For Good Games Kill The Buzz?
New York Assembly, Senate Pass Video Game Bill
Microsoft's Open Letter To PC Gamers, Full Of Good News
Blizzard Splashwatch - Day Three

P.S. Oh, I can't help myself. Below the jump... it's Superman's pal!

Image from the DC Comics collection "The Amazing Transformations of Jimmy Olsen" And, yes, every page is that insane. Highly recommended.

When I was a kid, I ate all my beans before I ate my carrots, all my fish before I ate all my corn. These days, I eat all my fries before I eat my burger and I finish any console game I'm enjoying before I start the next one.

So if you are enjoying GTAIV and are as close to the end as you say you are, then forge on ahead and complete it. Remember, the next game you're going to play is a Metal Gear game, and, in order to understand one of those epics, you need to give it your full attention. One game at a time.

By the way, I think one of the hamsters that powers the Kotaku engine sprained a leg today or something. If you have a replacement rodent, you might want to send him scurrying in.

What you missed:
My Brief Surprise Visit To Sony's PS3 Home Beta
Skate It Wii May Get Skateboard Frame for Balance Board
ESA Responds To Crave Departure
Sporepedia A Million Strong And Growing

'Metal Gear Solid 4' And The Lack Of Sad Games

Why did you all warn me that Kotaku commenters might be mean to me? They've been so nice. And classy. They clearly don't mind that I work for The Man. That I'm the reason they can no longer watch music videos on TV. That I am clearly biased toward one of the major consoles (the one that's skinner than it is long).

These Kotaku readers are nice, decent people.

And decent people deserve answers.

Herewith, the answers to the Kotaku Aptitude Test:

1. True
2. Moore = Anti-Americanism, Ketchup Lady = Gamer Anticipation, Horse = Xbox Chip, Crying Baby = PS3 Too Complex, Corn Nuts = Online Ads
3. C
4. All are fake (three are from Joystiq; one's made up)
5. I don't know... green?
6. 1
7. Circle
8. LA
9. 3SnakeEater
10. Totilo. Is. Too Damn Hot.

I think anyone who got a perfect score should be eligible for either guest-editing or an asylum.

What you (and the dude on the cruise) missed:

Sony Lost Over $3 Billion To PS3 Cost, Pricing Imbalance
Gabe Newell: Left 4 Dead is All About Directing Action
Nintendo Channel Reveals Hard Truths About Wii Play, Boom Blox, More
Industry Apologetics: It's Not Just A Game

It's Friday night and I'm spending it waiting to board a plane back to Denver from Los Angeles. It was a pretty exciting week spent looking at the offerings that will be shown at this year's E3 next month. It may not quite be the same caliber of games that were shown last year, because, well last year was insane. But we've got some very interesting triple-As headed our way.

Tomorrow morning I fly with the family to Miami and then Sunday we board a ship to cruise around the Caribbean for a week. I've sweet-talked MTV's Stephen Totilo to guest edit on the site during my one-week vacation. Despite his insane schedule, he was kind enough to agree to fill in for me as I sleep... lots. I left the key for Kotaku Tower under that flower box next to the shed in case he asks. Oh and I think the ban hammer maybe under my bed... or in the laundry basket. Feel free to swing it around a bit when I'm oot and aboot.

Have fun, talk to you in a week!

Ps. I'll say hi to the pirates for you.

What you missed:
Take-Two Settles FTC Compliance Issues In EA Bid
Clone Wars Games Slated For Holidays, Trailers Hitting Spike TV Friday
WoW Getting Level 30 Mounts
Sega Creates Robotic Girlfriend
Little Big Planet Rolls Out With PlayStation Experience Truck
MGS 4: The Big Boss Of Japanese Sales
EA: Best Of Luck To Former EALA Head Young In Amicable Parting

When I first read your Night Note I got this lovely mental picture of your actual dwelling being dipped in molten bronze. Don't worry, you all escaped in time.

I finally recieved a my PlayStation 3 back from Sony today, finally repaired after crappy out shortly after my birthday last month. I've missed my shiny black Foreman grill-looking friend, and after clearing out the games I had been storing in the empty space left by it in my entertainment center I slowly eased my Sony buddy back into place, took a step back, and sighed a contented little sigh. The family is all togehter again, and all is right with the world. I might still have no games for it, but playing Mana Khemia on my PS2 just didn't feel right. Not only that, my blu-ray movies look much better on the PS3 than they did sitting in little tear-soaked piles on the floor.

Perhaps I'll try out this newfangled Metal Gear Solid 4 everybody is on about. I hear it's the bee's knees.

What you missed:
Take-Two Settles FTC Compliance Issues In EA Bid
Clone Wars Games Slated For Holidays, Trailers Hitting Spike TV Friday
WoW Getting Level 30 Mounts
Sega Creates Robotic Girlfriend
Little Big Planet Rolls Out With PlayStation Experience Truck
MGS 4: The Big Boss Of Japanese Sales
EA: Best Of Luck To Former EALA Head Young In Amicable Parting

You're totally right, GTA IV's ending did sort of fizzle on some level, though I don't know if I'd agree that the last third was bad. I'd say more like the last hour was flat. Here's the problem as I see it. I think game designers and developers are following the tradition story-telling model set by books. There's a beginning, a middle and an end, or to be a little more specific an intro, rising climax, the climax, falling climax and then the denouement.

The problem is that while video game storytellers totally knock the first four out of the ball park, often delivering amazing hooks in their stories that get your wrapped up in the rising action and climax of the story, the stories fall apart after the climax. It's as if the idea of providing some sort of gradual step down from the over-the-top, thrilling story of a typical action game is wrong and the concept of wrapping things up in a neat little package of resolved issues is almost blasphemous.

I can see two reasons this happens. Among some developers I'm sure their is a desire to pad a story and make the game longer. This gives many games, like GTA IV, what I'm going to call a false climax. You have a point in the story where you feel like it should be over, but instead you're hit with more rising action and another, much less powerful climax and absolutely no resolution.

Other developers, I think want to leave the door open for a sequel and, like in Bioshock, feel like they need to walk readers down that path before the story ends, even though they've already accomplished everything they need to to deliver a powerful story. The end result, of course, just waters down the entire experience.

My two cents at least.

What you missed:
Spore's Organic Fruit Fucker in Motion
Three New Screens From Fable II
Fitness Instructor Reviews Wii Fit
Return of the Game Club
Rumor: Details On Sony's Motion Controls, No "Break-Apart"
Frankenreview Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns Of The Patriots
No Place For Hideo: MGS 4's Hidden Themes
Lunchtime With The Brothers Chap: Strong Bad's Creators Speak And Eat

You may recall that my dad, who recently turned 70, was drawn back to gaming after watching me play Grand Theft Auto IV. At the time he expressed some interest in picking up a Playstation 3 because he "had already tried the Xbox." This morning he did just that.

Not only did he buy the Metal Gear Solid 4 Playstation 3 bundle, but he actually stood in line for it. I kid you not. He was the only one standing in line at the Moultire, Georgia GameStop, but he at least he did it.

While it was great to hear that he's jumped back into modern day gaming, I had forgotten the inevitable sea of questions he was going to hit me up with once he got plugged in. We spent five minutes alone trouble-shooting his controller over the phone before we realized the thing I had turned off automatically. Gah!

What you missed:
Old Snake Says Don't Litter, Smoking is Bad For You
Seizure-Inducing DS Game May Change Testing Laws in UK
MGS4 Midnight Launch Goes Hollywood
Our Metal Gear Solid 4 Review In Beta, Pushed Back
Nightwing, Bane And Clayface Revealed For LEGO Batman
Jeff Bell Departs Microsoft, Shane Kim Gets Promotion
Stan Lee, Ellijah Wood, Carlos Santana... and Crecente Duke it Out With Spore's Creature Creator
Spore's Fruit Fucker, Or Why I Love the Creature Creator

What you missed:
Take-Two Gets Into FTC Pissing Match
Nintendo Denies Connection to Wii Fit Ass Vid
The Incredible Hulk Review: The Beast Within
Become Kotaku's Next King of Comments
Dungeon Runner's Gold-Excreeting Bling Gnome Spotted

How's things? In a complete oddity, I managed to somehow finish all of my work of the day at like 3:30 p.m. It was a moment so stunning that I went outside and sat in the bench in our backyard for a good ten minutes, staring out across the field of grass and wildflowers.... then I came back in and found more work to do. Moment killed.

Oh, in case you missed it. Here is the comment I left in your Indy night note question:

I thought it was fine, and that it fit nicely into the canon. Not as good as the first two, but better than the third. Why all of the hate? Here's my theory:

A lot of people are comparing the latest movie to their memories or the overheard nostalgia of the first three movies. The fact is that the Indiana Jones movies, which I love, are all a bit over the top, silly and nonsensical. But when I, for one, watched them starting when I was 12 or so, I was in awe of what I saw. Watching through them a second time with Tristan recently, not so much. I still loved them, but they were much better in my memories.

What you missed:
APB Full Public Beta Coming, New Art Here
IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey Coming To Consoles
Ninja Gaiden II Review: Swan Song or Death Knell?
Hands On With Eternity's Child
Interview: Flagship Studios On Life After Hellgate Launch
Impressions: My Pokemon Ranch
Interview: Turbine Confirms Console Project, Talks Future Plans
More Details On Portal 2's Bad Guy
Zelnick: Take-Two Experimenting With Microtransactions

I don't know about you, but after a crazy hectic week like the one we just had I can't wait to knock off for the weekend, drink Mojitos and relax. By relax I mean yard work. Yes, I'm one of those crazy people who enjoy the relatively brainless, physical-intense process of keeping a heavily landscaped yard up to snuff. I also plan on cooking meat and faux meat on the grill. Do you miss having a yard in Japan? I don't know how I would deal with that if I lived somewhere where land was such a premium.

What you missed:
Amazon Snags Exclusive Fallout 3 Survival Edition
Soulcalibur's Secret Apprentice In Action
LucasArts Confirms Layoffs, Says The Dev Is Still Healthy
The Olympic Gamers
Analyst: LucasArts Layoffs About EA, Studio Politics
In Memoriam: Remembering Volition's Chris Allen
Turnin' Around: Highlights From THQ's Press Event

Wow, this had to be one of the newsiest days we've seen in a long time. It started with your post about Kojima Productions responding to the Metal Gear Solid 4 NDA bruhaha, and then slowed enough for me to post an Indie review before all hell broke loose in the afternoon thanks to a biggish THQ hands-on event and Take-Two's news filled financials call which saw discussion of GTA DLC and a Bioshock movie set to hit around Bioshock 3. Yes THREE, not two. Also we got our first glimpse of Duke Nuke Em Forever, which quite frankly, I'm totally over. Oh and I was able to post my exclusive interview with the ESA's Michael Gallagher about all of the trouble that's been brewing around the organization lately.

Tiring day, time to go decapitate some ninjas.

What you missed:
Kojima Productions Responds to MGS4 NDA Complaints
PS3 Red Alert On Hold
So What's Our Metal Gear Solid 4 Surprise?
Impressions: Lock's Quest Mixes Old-School With Innovative Ideas
LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures Review: Whip it, Whip it Good
Rainbow Connection: Hands On With De Blob
ESA Talks Problems, Perceptions, Promises
GTA IV Sold 8.5 Million, Shipped 11 Million So Far
Take-Two Surges In Second Quarter, Spent $5.3 Million Fighting EA
Breaking: First GTA IV Episodic DLC To Come To Xbox 360 In Q1 09
First Duke Nukem Forever Gameplay Video
Zelnick: Expect BioShock Film Alongside BioShock 3
Strong Bad's Cool Game Slips To July

Yeah, actually not being much of a fish eater myself I'm a big fan of the non-"sushi" sushi. Trish is a vegetarian, so of course she is too. Too bad we don't ever go to sushi places anymore. I'm going to have to hunt one up. I used to go to this place near the house that was a sushi bar and made Asian Fusion food. I loved it, but they went out of business.

What you missed:
Insomniac Games Expands to North Carolina
Eight Days And Getaway 3 No Longer Going Concerns
Time Warner Hitches Its Star To Turbine With $40 Million Investment
TECMO: Itagaki's Last Day is July 1, Team NINJA Still Developing
Crysis Warhead Is Certainly Something
Frankenreview, Lego Indiana Jones (Xbox 360)
EA, FTC Agree On Take-Two Bid Deadline, Another Extension Likely
Interview: How Cloud Computing Changes Trion's Game
Jack Thompson Walks Out On Hearing, Court Recommends Enhanced Disbarment
Nintendo Handing Out Free DS at UK Teaching Conference

So you think straw hats are bad? Get this.

Over the past few months the mother of one of Tristan's schoolmates has decided that despite what their teacher says, Tristan is to blame for all of their trouble the child gets into. Back in February the teacher had to get directly involved after the mother starting emailing my wife to berate her about it.

Yesterday this woman decided it would be a good idea to email all of the parents in his class and tell them that Tristan is now stealing from her son and beating him up. Of course we checked with the teacher and it's not true. This seems to be the latest form of grade school bullying: Parents picking up the mantel and picking on 6 and 7-year-olds themselves.

I spent a chunk of my already packed day meeting with the school to make sure we were all on the same page and to see what we could do about protecting our son. Not much it turns out, though they were very good about addressing our concerns. Fortunately the woman is taking her child out of the school in three weeks, so this shouldn't be an issue anymore next month.

I wish I could say kids will be kids, but it looks like parents will be kids too sometimes.

What you missed:

First Resident Evil 5 Gameplay Impressions
New Details On Street Fighter IV's Home Versions
Capcom Announces Spyborgs For Wii
Bionic Commando Hands-On Impressions
Street Fighter IV Trailer Features New, Classic Characters, Grating Voice Over
Dark Void Gameplay Impressions
Hands-On With Street Fighter IV: The Final Arcade Version
Penny Arcade Adventures: On The Rain-Slick Precipice Of Darkness Review
Capcom Giving Neopets The Puzzle Quest Treatment
Win Free Copy of Ninja Gaiden 2
Microsoft Thanks Itagaki For Years of Support
Street Fighter IV's Sandy Summer Fun Trailer
Interview: Halo Designer Leaves Bungie For Academia
About Kotaku Reviews
In "Creatively Dead" Industry, Change Comes From The Outside

But his movies aren't... seriously.

Just received your manuscript in the mail. Looks pretty damn cool. I'll read it over the weekend and get to writing on Monday. Man, I really need to get off my ass and get to work on the book idea I have.

"He had destroyed his talent by not using it, by betrayals of himself and what he believed in, by drinking so much that he blunted the edge of his perceptions, by laziness, by sloth, and by snobbery, by pride and by prejudice, by hook and by crook."

It haunts me.

What you missed:
Raving Prince, Assassin and Fischer Rabbids
Picture Yourself In Fable 2
Fingers On With Guitar Hero: On Tour
Intelligence Group Mistakes Fallout 3 Screens For Terrorist Propaganda
Wii Fit Review: An Identity Crisis
SITE Refutes Fallout 3 Goof, Is Not "Red-Faced"
Rumor: Reviewers Can't Talk About MGS4 Cutscenes, Install?

Thinning The Herd: Good Idea, Bad Idea?

I spent a chunk of the day planning out our E3 coverage and how we will be handling the rest of the year's upcoming events. It looks like we may be hosting a party the weekend before E3 in Los Angles for readers. Something similar to our Kotaku Party at Tokyo's Mother and Brooklyn's Barcade. I'm SUPER PSYCHED as you can tell by the caps and the following exclamation points!!!

I also spoke with a bunch of the writers about upcoming projects and such. While speaking with Adam about his and Owen's awesome GTA DUI video, I happened to mention how unnecessary I thought the (spoiler) final vomit scene was. I knew it was faked with green dye and a can of soup, aka a green version of the Big Red One, but I still thought it was a bit too much. Not so, said Adam. In fact, the fake vomit, when turned in to him, was far too green to use, so he digitized the whole thing. That's right: Digital vomit. It's like our own Jar Jar Binks.

Gotta run, we just received a copy of LEGO Indiana Jones and Tristan is downstairs humming the Indie theme song while rhythmically stomping out the song's bass on bubble wrap. I'm afraid he's going to sink into some joy-enduced coma if I don't go rescue him.

What you missed:
Tecmo Bowl Coming to Wii
Ubidays the Final Round-Up
Ubisoft Specifically Vague On Splinter Cell: Conviction
More On "Faking Quality" And Metacritic
Sandra Day O'Connor, Henry Jenkins Back Socially-Conscious Gaming At Games For Change

Today was... exciting, I think exciting is a nice way to put it without using any "sentence enhancers." The Ubisoft embargo lifted at 11 a.m. and there was a nary an asset to be seen. To make matters worse the hamsters that keep things chugging along all decided to keel over at the same time so all of those stories, all of that work, got temporarily lost in cyberspace as our techies hurried to the corner pet shop to upgrade from Chinese Dwarf Hamsters to Dwarf Hamsters. I better stop with the hamster analogy, Tristan's real hamster is giving me the stink eye. Anyway in the middle of all of this — stories vanishing, writers virtually running around like chickens with their virtual heads cut off, images and videos missing —- my nose starts to bleed... profusely. It was as if the Internet decided now would be a fantastic time to sucker punch me.

Yeah, today was a barrel of laughs. Tomorrow though, tomorrow should be much better. Mike McWhertor, who managed to escape the bedlam by claiming he had a "plane to catch", should be arriving in Vegas tonight in time for tomorrow's media storm by Capcom. I'm not totally clear yet on when the embargo lifts, but if it's not tomorrow, it should be soon after.

What you missed, besides the... well you know:
Ubidays 08
Spore's Creature Phase
Good Reviews First Please
BioShock PS3 Super Official Now
Turner's GameTap Shutters Editorial, Boots Staff

I spent the day riding shotgun as my wife drove Tristan, the dogs and I back home from El Paso, Texas. This time the uneventful, no rain, no high winds, no hail. Thanks to a cell card I spent the day posting, talking to folks and carrying on with business as usually mostly. I got into a short, though interesting discussion with MTV's Stephen Totilo about my post on the Wii Fit and whether it is a sign that the Wii is really more about clever marketing than it is about clever or innovative game design.

I don't have a problem with the Wii or Wii Fit, but it does feel to me that some of the more unusual games coming out of Nintendo lately have more to do with tapping new markets than play and having fun. Shigeru Miyamoto joked years ago that Brain Age was about finding a game that Nintendo's board would find interesting. Maybe he wasn't really joking, maybe it is really just about that. Not that there's anything wrong with identifying a new market and going after it, I just have an issue with Nintendo then implying that they are the gaming industries salvation.

Totilo seems to disagree with me, but it's a pretty fine line. The whole thing is really a fine line. Does it matter if the Wii's tremendous success is driven more by good marketing than good game design? I don't know. I do know that if you ever had doubts about our readership's ability to deal with potentially fanboyish topics maturely you should drop into my post from the morning. That's one hell of an interesting and intelligent conversation going on in there. Makes me proud.

Ps. The Ubisoft embargo lifts tomorrow morn-ish. Expect lots of impressions and interviews about HAWX, Far Cry 2, Hells Highway, etc. etc.

What you missed:
Wii Fit: Innovation in Gaming or Marketing?
Nintendo Invades Japanese McDonalds With WiFine
Sega Reups Unreal License for Secret Game
Grand Theft Auto: DUI
Winners Named for Teen Dating Violence Prevention Game Design Contest

Ah, yes, you just woke up. Sleep, isn't it WUNDERFUL?! Over the weekend, you and Mini-Bash took your buddy from high school to Shinsekai in Osaka, watched old men rock the cup sake at 10am and ate some seriously good kushikatsu. Last night before you slept, you downloaded a Heatmiser album. You should listen to it. Today, even!

What you missed last night
Game Boy from microwave hell
$600,000 Gundam painting
Square Enix lose money, need more greenbacks
Final Fantasy Agito XIII cancelled?
Gatorade, Windex compared. Talk of 3D action games

Sometimes it's fun to play a few rounds of Who's Not Crediting Us Now, don't you think? Sure, I spend a good portion of my day filtering other people's work, in addition to hunting down original stories, but there's always an attempt to give credit where credit is due when someone from 1UP or NeoGAF or Variety or wherever breaks some news. Sometimes there's a slip up and we're sent a polite, occasionally terse reminder that we goofed, but it tends to be remedied quickly. It's curious how often we have to remind our British friends that they accidentally neglected to link back to us on a piece of news, whether it's the odd factoid, white hot Tifa hentai or data-rich quotes from Nintendo execs. Shan't lose any sleep over it, as I'm going into extended weekend mode and can't be concerned with such things, despite it being so common over the past fortnight.

Here are some things you might've missed.
Fahey Invents A Virtual Console Update
Phil Harrison Talks About Alone In The Dark
id Says Bye Bye To The ESA
Devo In Rock Band Shows How Young We Skew
I'm Gonna Buy Gears Of War Next Month!

Sheesh it's been a busy month. I spent all of last week attending press conferences and game days put on by half a dozen publishers in San Francisco and Los Angles. Then I flew home for the weekend and turned around and flew back out on Monday to speak on a panel at Ziff Davis' annual Electronic Gaming Summit. I flew back from that last night and then left this morning to drive to El Paso, Texas to visit my mom and step-dad. As often is the case, I'm riding shotgun so I can blog on the move while my lovely wife drives us through (this time around) huge wind gusts, torrential down pours and, for a few minutes, a hail storm.

I brought along the Wii and Wii Fit to see what my mom thinks of it and plan on loading up Age of Conan at the house to see if it lives up to my expectations. All of my posts from the week and a half of events have already gone up with the exception of Ubisoft's stuff, which is embargoed until next week.

What you missed:
Guitar Hero World Tour: The Press Release
BioShock Confirmed For PS3
Bethesda Teams with Splash Damage
Euro Kotaku Job
Nintendo's Dunaway: Wii Fit Won't Be Purchased and Forgotten
Which Publishers Can Think Globally, Act Globally?
Thompson Sanctions Hearing Set For June 4
Sonic Unleashed Impressions

Dead Space: Hands-On Impressions
GameStop Reveals New Stores, Top 5 Q1 Sellers

Whorelore Incites The Rage Of Bonan

Tonight I'm meeting up with a slew of local developers for round two of our monthly poker night. If you don't recall, I managed to lose $60 at a $20 poker game last time round. This time, I plan on at least not buying in three times. Big talk, I know, but a mans gotta do what a mans gotta do.

What you missed:
Bad Company Demo Coming June 5th
New SOCOM Confrontation Screens
Call of Duty 5 To Feature "New Military Theater"
New Wrath Of The Lich King Details Galore
Will Verbinski Make BioShock The First Great Game Flick?
BioWare Backs Down From Draconian Mass Effect Authentication
Spore To Use Online Authentication
echochrome Review: Poppin', Lockin' and Thinkin'
MGS4 Character Spoiler

Good lord that sounds disgusting. I'm surprised it didn't kick off a Monty Python-esque vomit train. Speaking of which, I better go lay down.

What you missed:
Lord of the Rings: Conquest Gallery
FTC: It's Increasingly Difficult for Children to Buy M-Rated Games
Rockstar Explains GTA IV Multiplayer
Street Fighter Film Writer Won't "Blatantly Sexualize" Chun-Li
Battle of the Bands Review: Musical Smackdown
What If Your Character Was Only As Fit As You Are
Activision Announces Record Billion-Dollar Growth In "Breakthrough" Fiscal 08

So yesterday I was up to my eyeballs in dealing with pre-E3 planning, the Sony Gamers Day in London, and the regular insanity of running Kotaku. At one point I was on my cell phone and home phone at the same time talking to two people at once while trying to discretely finish my lunch. When the calls all ended I placed the cell phone on my desk, then put the paper towel that once hold my sandwich next to it and almost threw the phone in the trash. Yesh.

What you missed:
Take-Two Confirms GTA's Half a Billion Week
Ubisoft Brings Protöthea Shump to WiiWare
A 70-year-old's Take on GTA IV
Rockstar Patches GTA IV's PS3 Online Play
Analyst: Record GTA Sales Change Nothing For EA's "80/20" Take-Two Bid
Wii Nintendo Channel Video Walkthrough
id Software Begins Production on Doom 4
LittleBigPlanet Killzone
Mike Tyson Returns In Fight Night Round 4

The most exciting thing to happen to me today, Ash? After photographing my "Greaser" linen field jacket, the one with a busted cuff button, I awaited response from a customer service rep on the resolution of my defective article of clothing. Would I have to take it to a tailor? Would they be able to exchange it?! Would I get store credit?!? :O It's the kind of drama that one can only express via emoticon.

I really need a kid, one who will barf on various things in my house in case I need to write a spicier Day Note again...

Actually, Crecente and I went back and forth on his Boom Blox review, arguing the finer, more limiting points of our review system and realized how swamped June is with big game releases. We also kvetched about pre-E3 plans, with a relationship-straining cluster of events from Microsoft, EA, SCEA, Konami, Capcom and others just around the corner. Sony, of course, just had a big one.

Anyway, here's some stuff you missed.
Boom Blox Reviewed, Mostly Good
Mirror's Edge Pretty, Lacking In Green, Brown
Resistance 2 To Features Lots Of People
Killzone 2, LittleBigPlanet Pushed Back
Stephen Colbert Takes On... Rain!!!!!
Dave Reeves Declares PS3 Outsells 360 (In Europe)

Tristan's birthday went off without a hitch on Sunday (his real birthday was Saturday, but we had the party on Sunday). We held it at a local fun center that had a ton of different things including a laser tag area, arcade and even a one of those Battlemech, sit down games. I hadn't played the Battlemech game since it first hit in the, 90s I think. Really hasn't improved much and still leaves me feeling sorta bored. Laser tag hasn't changed much either, though the rigs we played with had laser sites, which is really damn cool. I had forgotten it was to run around shooting people in a neon-lit maze. Tristan and his friends managed to keep me out of the game for most of the ten minute round by using the Spartan tactic of forming a pack and just peppering me with lasers constantly. It must have been fun for those not involved to watch a pack of six kids less than half my size chasing me through the maze coating me with little red lights. Man, they were vicious.

What you missed:
The Only Mother's Day GTA Ad You'll Ever See (I Hope)
LEGO Universe's Story and Economy Unveiled
Iron Man Movie Does Fine Despite GTA Release
Target: Terror Review: 90s Arcade Action
EA Fires Back At Activision's "Soul-Stealing" Comments