His name...so beautiful. His beard...so magnificent. His accent...so alluring. And yet, our admiration has been tinged with sadness, because shortly after Assassin's Creed was released in late 2007, Patrice disappeared from the public eye.

Until now!

Here, he appears to not only tell us all about Assassin's Creed 2, but to sooth our frayed nerves with his dulcet, gallic tones. Highly recommended viewing.

Yes, the former Xbox pin-up boy, who played a big part in the launch of both Microsoft consoles, has been awarded an honorary Doctorate of Letters from Boston University, where he once (presumably) majored in geek makeovers. In case you were wondering, the honorary doctorate doesn't mean J passed any extra tests or skipped any classes in the last year or two; it just means BU are honouring his contributions to his field.

Joining Allard on the list are some lofty alumni, including Steven Spielberg and Celtics legend Larry Bird, both of whom also are due to receive honorary doctorates.

While we're glad to see J again, we're actually happier at the news of Bird receiving a doctorate of any kind, because it now means we might finally get that long-awaited basketball game sequel, Dr. J vs Dr. Bird.

Word Out! [BU Today, via Giant Bomb]

On April 30, the rapper will be appearing at retailer Play N Trade to promote his game 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand.

If you don't care about 50 Cent (and why the hell not!), there will be a Street Fighter/Virtua Fighter 5 event with one of the world's best fighting game players in the world, Justin Wong. Yep, the same Justin Wong whose battle with Daigo is internet famous.

50 Cent in store and more at Play N Trade [NEW YORK - TOKYO]

This is clearly not news, but still potentially valuable. Say, for instance, you happen to run into Ms. Fox on the street. Not only can you wow her with your expertise on all things Transformers — particularly your deep knowledge of Cybertronian geography — you can break the ice with Guitar Hero trivia.

Given these newly published Kotaku Stalku tagged candid photos of the Transformers star wailing away on some Wii platform version of Guitar Hero, we're sure Fox would love to hear about your "Through the Fire and Flames" high score.

Megan Fox Plays Guitar Hero, Still Too Hot For You [Egotastic - thanks, Dennis!]

Tonight was the release party for Rogue Leaders: The Story of LucasArts at Chronicle Books headquarters in San Francisco. I met THE Tim Schafer while standing in the lobby. No news to report, I'm afraid. He was there, I shook his hand, and I made a complete ass of myself.

He's a very nice guy, by the way, and as you can see in the photo, Brutal Legend lives!

Good to know, good to know. Looking forward to Schafer's Brual Legend.

Cliff At Epic [Zune, via X3F]

The source added: "They’re both pretty short."

Bear suit, eh? If that bear suit has standard, alternate reality Soviet military issue armor, we'd been inclined to believe that Mr. Flair is attached to Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 in some way. Consider it rumor for now, but hope that bear wrestling will play a major role in our lives soon. No, not just the game... our lives.

Starbucks closing hundreds of stores [KING5, thanks Ryan!]

I went to a horror movie convention here in Chicago on Sunday because George Romero was due to show up for autograph signing and I was hoping he would grace my copy of Dead Rising with his signature (not expecting that he would at all). Lo and behold he actually did, and on top of that, he was not even aware of Dead Rising...i had to explain to him what it was and he was happy to sign it. Makes me wonder if he is even aware of the legal battles Capcom has had to endure.

Makes us wonder, too. If you can't read what Romero wrote, it is: "Tyler Stay Scared George Romero."

Whilst I was waiting, I readied my Metal Gear Solid collection to get signed.

I went up on the platform where it was my turn to get my sleeve signed. I get my collection out, only to be told by some random HMV employee who was supervising the signing that I'm only allowed to get the sleeve signed. I didn't know how to take it. So I just took out my sleeve, got it signed and shook Hideo Kojima, Yoji Shinkawa and Yumi Kikuchi (Raging Raven) hands. Which kind of made it better.

I wanted to take a quick picture of me with Hideo Kojima, so I shook Hideo's hand whilst my brother who came with me took a picture. For some reason, the man supervising the singing on the platform tried to stop my brother taking the picture, saying that no pictures allowed. But luckily my brother managed to take the picture before he could stop him.So now I couldn't take a picture of my brother and Hideo, which could be the first and last time they meet.

Very disappointing. I traveled such a long way, carried a very heavy bag of MGS games for nothing? It could be the last time I meet the man, and I've already gone through a long process of waiting, might as well sign all the games and let me at least take a decent picture.

Signatures after the jump.

Kojima In London [MATTYBLOG]

It's mostly an immature and dumb flick, but definitely Boll's best so far (not that that's saying much) and he should probably stick to making funny movies. Boll is a humble guy and I actually felt kinda bad for him, he mentioned being one o the most hated guys in the video game world and seemed kinda depressed saying it. I felt bad, but then I remembered he made House of the Dead /and/ Alone in the Dark /and /Bloodrayne /and /Dungeon Siege and then I didn't feel bad anymore.

Thanks reader Vincent for the tip!

I pre-ordered Ryu Ga Gotoku Kenzan! at the Shinjuku Bic Camera in Tokyo as after playing the demo I was really interested in giving the final product a serious playthrough. Today being the release date, I headed over to Bic Camera as soon as I could leave work. I arrived at the store around 7:30pm, got my copy and was told that there were holding a Japanese-style raffle and to take my recipt over to another section of the videogame area.

For those that don't know, a Japanese raffle is a kind of lottery where when it's your turn, you spin a hexangoal box around a few times, and out comes a colored ball to determine your prize. I got the lowest level - a "high quality oil cloth."

The highest reward were fairly large posters for the game, and when I got over there, some guy in a flashy jacket was bent over one of them with a pen in his hand. In case you hadn't guessed, it was indeed the
director, Toshihiro Nagoshi, autographing some of them. I didn't feel right asking for his autograph since he was already making the posters for the winners, but I had the good luck to see that he was on his way out - the poster I had seen him sign was his last.

We rode down the elevator together (with his staff), and then as we got off I worked up the nerve to ask him for his picture. One of his staff was kind enough to offer to hold the camera so I could appear in the picture too...

For a guy as flashily and expensively dressed as he was, he was very nice, and to be honest a bit tired - I think the final push had taken it's toll, as his pants were a bit dirty too.

You know what I'll tell you. I will look like I'm full of shit if I tell you... I went to the bathroom, and the person next to me was Bill Gates. So, I had more than eye contact. Well, no contact. No, no, there wasn't any contact, right. But, you know, it's kind of a weird situation. You're kinda like, 'I know this guy.' There was no bodyguard or nothing there... That's a true story.

Wonder if he got in some time with Sonic in Super Smash Bros. Brawl? He orbited the Nintendo booth during my eagle-eyed stalking, but never dove in. He may disapprove.

Torokun's Page [Deviant Art]

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.

If we have any spares or irregular Phil clones, we're willing to accept offers. Serious inquiries only.

...as i walked in the door Uwe Boll was standing right there. So i had to go over and say hi, i grabbed the attached pic of myself and him and made sure to thank him for pissing off videogame fans everywhere. He mubbled something in German and i heard a few shit and fucks coming out his mouth. ...he is quite a nice guy. I picked up his autograph and walked into the theatre.

Burger Time
Tetris
Microsoft Flight Simulator X
Cooking Mama
Solitaire
Outrun

No, on second thought. Don't ask about Outrun That could actually be made into a movie, and we don't want to give him any ideas.
There are some cool guests [It Came From Lake Michigan! Thanks Teekan!]