I suppose that was a rather large hint, but I just couldn't keep our readers in suspense. The Dante's Inferno Gates of Hell demo will be hitting the PlayStation Network on December 10th, arriving on Xbox Live two weeks later on the 24th. Announced last month, the demo features the entire opening level of the game, detailing Dante's journey to Hell's gates in order to rescue his murdered love, Beatrice.

"The world of Alighieri's Dante's Inferno is such a rich, detailed, and often alarming universe, that all of us at Visceral Games put our hearts, and dare I say souls, into creating something truly intense and exciting," said executive producer Jonathan Knight. "We hope gamers enjoy this tease of hell, and come away from the experience lusting for more when the game comes out on February 9."

In the spirit of the holidays, I urge PlayStation 3 owners to invite an Xbox 360 owner to their home on December 10th in order to promote console harmony. Call it a kinder, gentler way of saying "go to hell."

The "Great Satan" Case Mod [ExtremeTech]

Thankful Tristan isn't a huge fan of the Chipmunks, though he kinda dug listening to the records last night. Instead he listens to something far worse: Pokemon.

Shortly before our drive from Colorado to Georgia I discovered the Pokemon Christmas Bash album on iTunes and thought it might be fun for him to listen to on the trip... once. Unfortunately, we were forced to listen to the collection of Pokemon-sung, rewritten holiday songs over and over again as we drove through Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee and most of Georgia.

The album, which first hit in 2001, includes 13 songs with titles like I''m Giving Santa a Pikachu For Christmas, Nobody Don't Like Christmas (as sung by Meowth in a Bronx accent) and the Christmas Medley. There's even a karaoke version of that last one.

I guess every generation has it's Chipmunks.

If hell had a gateway, it would be that cupcake mouth. Shortly after reader Nathan and his girlfriend made this, they were sucked into a ring of the underworld Dante missed. Truly, truly nightmare inducing. Masochistic readers, check out the complete Flickr set. Yes, there are more of them. Brian Ashcraft

Rabbid Cupcakes [Flickr, Thanks Nathan!]

This should finally put to rest those crazy rumors that the Tokyo Game Show has been cancelled. Not only is TGS 2007 alive and well, it's bigger than ever! This year's show will be increased from the usual three days to four days. And since last year was apparently the most crowded one ever, we can look forward to an extra day of sweating people pushing up close. Oh goodie! So this go round, TGS07 will run from Thursday, September 20th to Sunday, September 23rd with Thursday and Friday being business days. Since E3 no longer what it once was, TGS is making its move to take center stage internationally. We'll be there come September to bring you up-to-the-second coverage. Should be utter hell. Brian Ashcraft

TGS Dates For This Year [Press Release]

A commercial for those PLAYSTATION TVs, which have been appearing across the country. Think of this spot as a nice version of Saturday, when the console launches here in Japan. Brian Ashcraft

More of Sony egging on adult insanity and man crying, here's a commercial directed at a Japanese market that will be getting reamed royally regarding PS3 shipments. If this ads seems short, just check Japan's console numbers. How fitting! Brian Ashcraft

With only 80,000 machines launching here in Japan, I was surprised as hell seeing this on TV. The heavy handed symbolism refers to the PS3's launch Land of the Rising Sun's November 11th launch date. Mark you calendars, that's when the proverbial shit hits the fan. Brian Ashcraft

Gentlemen, grab your beer coozies and mirrored sun glasses! Ladies, pull down your tube tops and shake those jublies to the sky, it's time for some good old fashioned ROCK AND ROLL!!

We're going all the way back to 1984 with rock god Ronnie James Dio and his classic song Last in Line. Featuring a leading man/delivery boy with hair that would make Willie Ames jealous, Dio takes us to Hell in an elevator. Hell apparently consists of shuffling dead people with shopping carts, cruel demon overlords, and Dio himself in some sort of weird Egyptian collar thing. Of the many tortures inflicted upon the damned, the most cruel are probably the brain frying electric guitar, people shackled to video games that electrocute you if you lose and prolonged exposure to the face and hair of Ronnie James Dio.

Now, press play and prepare to ROCK OUT WITH YOUR COCK OUT! Flynn De Marco

100,000 consoles for Japan? Sony was just joshing! Bwahahahahahahahahahaha. The Land of the Rising Sun will actually only be getting 80,000 machines. Isn't that so funny? The demand for the machine is at fever pitch, with Tsutaya Online burning through pre-orders in six minutes and game seller Geo taking a few days to clear house. In hopes of avoiding angry mobs, many stores like Yodobashi Camera, however, are not taking pre-orders. Let's take a quick inventory: A pushed back launch with fewer consoles than originally announced. What. A. Disaster. Brian Ashcraft

Fewer Consoles [Nikkei]

Blame it on the PLAYSTATION 3. (Or rather, the lack of them at launch.) On October 16th at approximately 7:10pm, Amazon Japan began accepting pre-orders for 20GB and 60GB. Since online shopping isn't as popular here as in America, Tokyo's CheapyD at CheapAssGamer.com decide that he'd give it a shot. Cheapy and an otaku hoard swooped, overpowering the Amazon Japan server. He writes:

I checked my shopping cart to see if there were any loose ends and received the same error message. For the next 20 minutes or so, I alternated between placing other items in my shopping cart and checking my order status and still got the same error. Sony's PS3 had quite literally crippled Amazon Japan's order processing. Finally, around 7:38pm, the Amazon techies had patched up the problem and I was able to confirm my order history and the online retailer was back in business.

If this is what PS3 rabid consumers can do to a website, just imagine what they'll do to a store. Hell, launch is going to be hell. Brian Ashcraft

PS3 Kills Amazon Japan [CAG]

Trolling around game shops today, it hit me that Japan is totally adverse to pre-orders. Signs promoting the PLAYSTATION 3 and the Wii also make known that there won't be pre-orders. Why? Because standing in line for three days before the machine goes on sale is fair, that's why. I'm sure both launches will be batshit insane with small children and grown men crying. Though, the PS3 launch just bodes worse, and I'm expecting a ring of hell that Dante missed. The other scary thing, the PS3 HDD60GB still isn't even priced at some stores and is *still* listed as "open." Does that mean the price is going to be sprung on consumers at the last minute? Can't wait. Brian Ashcraft

PLAYSTATION 3 Japan launch? Hell. Pure, uncut hell. To build up everyone in this island nation for the ensuing bitch fights, retailer Yodobashi Camera is getting demo machines. Make that, one demo machine. I have neither seen nor heard of other stores yet installing any sort of demo unit, and Yodobashi's Akihabara branch seems to be sole recipient. Checked the Shinjuku and the Umeda branches, but turned up nothing. The unit will apparently be running Genji, Warhawk, The Eye of Judgement, Hot Shots Golf 5 and Afrika. And according to Yodobashi staffer I spoke with, these games are not playable, and these are just apparently looped clips. Swell. Brian Ashcraft

More Here [PC Watch]

1:35PM—Tokyo Time. We've got a full house. Mike and Scott have headed off to Sony's Polyphonic Digital Studios to get the scoop on Gran Turismo HD. We've roped in Gridskipper's Jean Snow for a fistful of interviews. He's sitting in some posh hotel room, listening closely. Our cameraman Jon is milling about in the sweatfest that is TGS. Me, I've ditched the press lounge. There's a mosquito in there, you know. Brian Ashcraft

Destructoid's readers (and contributors) are a tawdry, villainous bunch. As are scoundrels over at The Age blogs, where Destructoid got the idea for compiling a list of gaming sins in the first place.

For my own part, I despise the tendency of gamers to regard the personal tastes of themselves or others as wrong. Liking or not liking something is not immoral, because it has no effect on others. It's not a sin that you didn't finish Halo. It's not a sin that you dig Parappa. And it's most certainly not a sin to hate Sierra adventure games (it's common bloody sense).

Be absolved.

The most sinful confessions from both Destructoid and the Age's threads were often the ones not regarded so sinfully by onlookers, such as the Age's 'Bluie's precocious chirp, "My favourite game is Unreal Tournament (and I'm a girl)and the newer versions just can't beat it." Note here the absence of awareness of the morally repugnant nature of braying about your vagina every time you get a chance to relate it to gaming.

Hit the jump for my favorite sin from the 'Toid, plus personal confessions from myself and Stickypig (who is tired of being called Sizzlepig).

Being a fanboy is also, most certainly, a sin. If I see one more totally console-free comment thread get turned into a ps3 vs. wii pissing match, I'm calling the Pope to come and take you all to hell. And I'm not talking about John-Paul, either.

But my all-time favorite was from Destructoid, and has nothing to do with pontiffs or pussies:

# Xbudz says: September 19th, 2006 at 9:42 am

You guys call those gaming sins? Try this:

I sold my birthday presents for a Sega Saturn during its suprise launch in 1995.
# Chris Taran

For Stickypig's part, during Sega's promotion for Truxton, he missed the deadline by which he had to purchase another Sega game and send in the receipt to get a free copy of the former. But through the intervention of some dark god, S-Pig was struck with the inspiration to manually transfigure the date on a diferent receipt, thus receiving his ill-gotten game in a timely manner.

For my own part, I discovered that the secondary controller would steer the duck in Duck Hunt. I did not tell my friend who was actually manning the light gun, and who suddenly seemed to become far less proficient at the game. Eliza Gauger

Confess Your Gaming Sins [Destructoid]
Gaming Confessions [The Age Blogs]

Eliza put out a call, and reader Chris answered. Unfortunately. Here is the ugliest DS case mod on this planet Earth. This oddly duct-taped DS was created by altometer1337 (oh, boy), a member of the Pocket Heaven forums. As soon as he finished wrapping his portable in duct-tap and coloring in the DS symbol with ball-point pen, altometer1337 posted this on Pocket Heaven, where everyone with eyes declared this case mod as truly hideous. Note that altometer1337's post signature is:

I'm really not all that 1337. I just screwed up my first acount.

Your DS, too. Oh, and you also misspelled "account." Brian Ashcraft

More Horror Here [Pocket Heaven] Thanks, Chris!

While Western developers worry about burnout, Japanese ones dread the possibility of forced exams. Japan loves tests, passing out certificates to those that pass and stamping a big "L" on those that fail. There are examinations for just about everything in Japan. Want to enter pre-school? Take a test. How about a job? Test. Want a license? More on that shortly.

In what has to be the worst idea this week, the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) hopes to create an examination system for game creators. It's bureaucracy at its absolute, wretched worst. Often, tests seem designed for people to fail. Take getting a Japanese license for example.

I've driven for eons and consider myself a decent enough driver. Yet, I've failed the test three times—reasons have varied from "too far from the curb" to "slightly slow with the blinker." The pass rate I've witnessed is one in eight students. And no, it's not a racist thing either. My Japanese father-in-law was failed because he turned the steering wheel "funny." And this same breed of nit-picky taskmasters are going to judge game developers? That's a great idea!

Still in the talk phase, hopefully this insipid idea won't come to fruition. I, meanwhile, prepare for my next driving test. Brian Ashcraft

They Also Want to Combine TGS, Tokyo Anime Fair and Tokyo International Film Festival [Japan Probe]

Know-it-all analyst P.J. McNealy told face-stuffing marketers at an MI6 luncheon about just how complex manufacturing the PS3 will be. He said that the number of parts used to make a PS3 is even more astounding that the 1,700 parts found in the Xbox 360. What does this mean?

• Limited yields on Sony's end.
• Complex hardware leads to oodles of problems.
• PS3 ramp-up won't hit its stride until 2007.

McNealy even got in a few zingers:

We've learned the Sony Playstation 3 is not just a game console. It's a movie platform. It's also a super-computer.

An analyst with a sense of humor. Heh. It's thought that Sony's won't begin production until July or August. After launch, the company expects hitting a target of 1 million consoles per month, with six million units shipped before March 2007. I expect shortages, fist fights and crying. Lots and lots of crying. Brian Ashcraft

More Here [Next-Gen]

Like the King of Pop, this modder just could not leave well enough alone. Had to keep adding, changing, modifying. Couldn't stop, until the Xbox turned into that. Utterly hideous. Brian Ashcraft

Ugly Box [Aeropause]

Yuko "Not Annoying, But Annoying" Ogura will return as Sega's campaign for the 2006 fiscal year. The child-like Ogura, who claims to be from outer space, was too cute for Sega all last year. She does win big points for effort as her calculated ditzy charade has rocketed her to fame here in Japan. It's no accident she's currently studying psychology at university. Irritating? Yes. Dumb? No.—Brian Ashcraft

More Here [Famitsu]