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CES 09: Hands On With Mad Catz’s Street Fighter IV Tournament Sticks

Get ready to change your opinion about Mad Catz. The third-party controller maker may have made one of the best arcade sticks to ever grace these shores, thanks to its Tournament Edition Arcade FightStick. Not only does this stick have authentic Sanwa arcade parts, sturdy construction and an arcade-perfect button layout, it comes loaded with…

A Week In (Very Long) Comments

U.S. Army Testing Out Recruitment “Arcades” Comment by: Soldier_CLE Nominated by: Witzbold I’m late to this show, but I’m going to chime in, regardless. The truth is that because The United States have an “all-volunteer” Armed Forces with only a “selected service” registration that hasn’t been acted upon since the 70s, the recruiting branches need…

New Dawn Of War II Trailer: Tyranids!

THQ have released this new trailer for Relic’s upcoming RTS, Dawn of War II. Shows the Tyranids. And how they’re going to a royal pain in the Imperium’s ass.

Final Fantasy Versus XIII Site Also Opens Today

It’s not just Final Fantasy XIII that is just getting a site with new stuff, but also Final Fantasy Versus XIII — minus the new stuff. The FFVXIII site is barebones — things like it’s release date and rating are still TBA. That screen grab is pretty much it! Still, if you are interested in…

Nintendo, Microsoft Sued Over Parental Control System

All three current generation consoles have a form of parental lock-out controls. They’re a good idea. A good idea that has, however, landed Nintendo and Microsoft in court. Around Christmas time, 36 companies – including Best Buy, Dell, DirecTV, Motorola, Tivo and Wal-Mart – were sued by Guardian Media Technologies, who hold a patent for…

Xbox 360 Helps Japan’s Greatest Sumo Stay Fat

Mongolian-born Asashoryu is sumo’s most successful yokozuna. When not injured or playing soccer in Mongolia, he keeps his 300 pound plus sumo weight by eating chankonabe, sleeping and, apparently, playing Xbox 360. For as much money as Asashoryu makes, we’re glad to see his hasn’t wasted it on, I dunno, a non-crappy TV. How can…

X-Men Origins: Wolverine Site Launches

Invitations to “slash it up!” on the freshly-launched X-Men Origins: Wolverine site make me distinctly uncomfortable. That’s probably because I associate the word “slash” with the tender love expressed between two men in fanfiction written by thirteen-year-old girls. Not with the beloved Canadian X-Man who’s getting his own movie and accompanying game later this year.…

Relax, Klonoa Is Getting An American Release

Klonoa is coming to the Wii. We learned that at TGS last year, but seeing as the PlayStation original was so roundly ignored, there was never a guarantee they’d bother with a Western release. BUt it’s OK! Namco Bandai have confirmed today that, yes, Klonoa will be coming to North American Wiis sometime in 2009.…

Dissidia, White Knight Keep Sony’s Japanese Hardware Sales Up

Japan’s best-selling Dissidia: Final Fantasy helped the PSP outsell the Wii this week, even though it couldn’t muster enough sales to dethrone the Nintendo DSi. Also seeing a big boost was the PlayStation 3. It even outsold the Nintendo DS Lite, still going strong in Japan to the tune of almost 50,000 handhelds sold per…

Final Fantasy XIII Site Opens, Has New Stuff

Square Enix have gotten around to opening up a dedicated website for Final Fantasy XIII. Within? Aside from the soothing piano score, there are more screenshots (not scans!) than you’ll know what to do with. It’s hard telling which are new and which aren’t, what with the number of scans we’ve seen over the past…

CES 09: Activision CEO Dazzles CES Crowd With 2008 Line-up, Guitar Hero: Metallica

Good news. If you missed Activision Publishing president Mike Griffith’s CES talk this morning, you didn’t miss much. Outside of seeing double-bass pedals in action in Guitar Hero: Metallica, Griffith kept Activision’s 2009 plans quiet. Not so with the intro, which featured Neversoft employees wailing away at Metallica’s “Fuel” in the upcoming Guitar Hero: Metallica.…

CES 09: Microsoft Responds To Sony’s Console Add-On “Peddling” Claims

Earlier this week, Sony sent us an oddly timed media bulletin, trumpeting the PlayStation 3’s value versus the Wii and Xbox 360. It also accused Nintendo and Microsoft of “peddling add-ons.” What say you, Microsoft? “First, I would say we absolutely would not want to trade places with Sony,” said Aaron Greenberg, group product manager…

Lay Offs Strike Crystal Dynamics

Crystal Dynamics laid off 30 people this morning in the wake of underperforming Tomb Raider Underworld sales, reliable sources tell Kotaku. The cuts were made across the board, we’re told, to eliminate redundancy and give the studio tighter focus moving forward. Earlier this week, UK publisher Eidos said that sales of the latest Tomb Raider…

Dissidia Ends 2008 As Bestseller In Japan

Square Enix’s Dissidia: Final Fantasy returned to the top of the charts in Japan, after a week off thanks to previous champ White Knight Chronicles. How did the Level 5 RPG fare in week two? While the PlayStation 3 game slipped, it held strong in the top ten, slipping to sixth. We call that “legs.”…

Rockier Trail

To:Owen From: Crecente I’ve been speaking to folks over at the Rocky lately. Things don’t look good. Not at all. In fact I’m writing a game of the year feature for them right now and it seems like there’s a chance it will never see the light of day. It’s due on the day that…

Can 2009 Innovate Itself Out of a Recession?

The past week in gaming news gave us a glimpse into 2009. It’s a year that could witness plummeting sales with Rock Band on the sidelines, Sony’s continued struggle to reinvent itself and Nintento working again to innovate with an eye toward new gamers. It may be Nintendo’s greatest stumbling block. How do you appeal…

New Day-Old Dark Void Screens

I was kind of excited about Capcom’s Dark Void until I realized that the Watchers your human character fights against in the parallel universe he’s transported to aren’t this guy. Worse still, the main character seems to be suffering from hackneyed hero syndrome. It’s a tragic affliction among male leads these days. Oh well –…

CES 09: I Just Played Guitar Hero III… In 3D!!!

3D gaming is huge at CES 2009. It’s a great gimmick that blows the mind of the buttoned down conventioneer glassy-eyed from looking at television monitors and cell phones that are 0.01% different this year. Chip maker Nvidia is attempting to lure in the mid-level manager still wowed by 3D displays, showing off Guitar Hero…

Developers Respond To Nintendo’s Hint System Patent

Today a Nintendo patent came to light for a hint system which would allow gamers to essentially let games play themselves. We reached out to game developers for their opinion on the patent. The patent, filed by Nintendo Creative Director Shigeru Miyamoto on June 30, 2008, outlines a gaming system more akin to DVD playback,…

CES 09: Relive Sony’s CES PlayStation Press Conference

Miss Sony’s PlayStation press conference? You’re not the only one. Fortunately, G4 was there, cameras in hand, lens pointed directly at the stage, moments captured, off-screen video shot. What’s worth seeing? Previews of Resistance Retribution for the PSP, as well as inFamous and Killzone 2 for the PlayStation 3 with brand-new video, first previewed at…