We don't expect you to be surprised by the contents of your Patapon 2 box, should you choose to pick it up, but let's be very clear about what's in that PSP game case.

The official PlayStation blog lays it out for potential Patapon 2 customers, displaying the contents—box, instruction manual and download voucher—and clearly warning "No disc included. Memory Stick and access to PlayStation Network required."

The UMD-free release is a "one time test case" according to the company. Frankly, I hope it's a success, but that Sony drops the excess of shipping thousands of mostly empty plastic cases.

http://kotaku.com/5217271/heres-what...-patapon-2-box ...

Here's how it works: We ask a question, you answer it. Simple and no strings attached! This isn't some marketing survey or whatever. It's an emotional investment in you. Yes, we're interested in knowing you, reader person.

You probably know oodles about us - more than you even want to, we're sure. But, hey, we'd like to know about you. That way you won't be some faceless blob - and we might feel a tinge of guilt when we ban ya. Or not, because really we're incapable of human emotion.

So, our question is:

With more and more games going multi-platform, what do you think of console exclusive characters or content?

http://kotaku.com/5217329/do-you-lik...racterscontent ...

Two days from the 10th anniversary of Columbine, Salon's David Sirota writes that "our national discussion about violence hasn't yet matured past gun control and video games."

Ten years after the tragedy, Sirota says the United States' debate on violence remains rooted in easy scapegoats because the country as a whole doesn't want to take a closer look at why it is so conditioned to violence.
After each tragedy, it's the same thing. Liberals want us to wonder why gun laws let anyone access deadly weapons. Conservatives insist we question why video games supposedly turn down-to-earth kids into murderers. These queries satiate two desires. In a country that ascribes hubristic "exceptionalism" to itself and berates self-analysis as "hating America," we seek absolution via scapegoat, and so we upbraid boogeymen like firearms and Xboxes.
Among the more likely culprits, Sirota writes:

• A "winner-take-all economy." When it "tortures society, should we be shocked that a few lunatics go over the edge?" He cites reports of increasing domestic violence and extremist activity since the economic collapse of last year.

• U.S. militarism and a media culture that enables, glorifies or otherwise sanctions it.

His politics are very well left, so if you don't care for that, it may just piss you off. But the fundamental point he makes seems reasonable and apolitical to me. Games and guns are sort of pretend-cultural arguments about violence in America. No one is asking why we're dispositioned to carry it out in the first place. We're just looking at means or inspirations.

He says: "Ultimately, shouldn't we expect the deep alienation that may lead the occasional troubled kid to turn video-game fantasies into real-world terror?" That's reasonable. The game's not even a proximate cause of all this. If someone's life is so dysfunctional they spend hours in front of a screen divorced from reality, the last thing we should look at is what's on the screen.

http://kotaku.com/5217686/violence-d...ee+jerk-issues ...

A post on the Left 4 Dead blog shares details of the Survival Pack downloadable content due out next week. It will be free, and available for both the PC and Xbox 360 versions of the game. "Our goals for Survival Mode are to deliver a mode of play distinct from Campaign or Versus, have games that regularly last under ten minutes, and emphasize competition with team play through leaderboards. Survival Mode draws on the planning and communication aspects of a successful Finale or Crescendo event, while taking it to another level. It rapidly hits a fever pitch that only a well coordinated team will be able to successfully survive. ... Given the extreme pace of Survival Mode, the number of zombies killed in a single round often outnumbers an entire campaign."

http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl...9/04/18/047228 ...

New documents suggest motion tech could be at the heart of the upcoming new model.
Mac Rumours reports on two Apple patent applications that indicate the tech giant has been wrestling with the problem of gesture control in a portable device, and specifically, the issues involved in gesturing to a handheld when the user itself is moving.

One patent outlines an idea where the iPhone can detect when a user is moving and automatically enlarge the UI accordingly, reducing the scope for error.


More interestingly, however, the patent diagrams seem to show a front camera on the iPhone/iPod Touch – something that isn’t present on either of the existing models.

Such a development would, in telephony terms, pave the way for video calling. But from a games perspective it could add a whole new dynamic to the current touch screen and accelerometer functions.

http://www.mobile-ent.biz/news/33102...g-iPhone-thing ...

New documents suggest motion tech could be at the heart of the upcoming new model.
Mac Rumours reports on two Apple patent applications that indicate the tech giant has been wrestling with the problem of gesture control in a portable device, and specifically, the issues involved in gesturing to a handheld when the user itself is moving.

One patent outlines an idea where the iPhone can detect when a user is moving and automatically enlarge the UI accordingly, reducing the scope for error.


More interestingly, however, the patent diagrams seem to show a front camera on the iPhone/iPod Touch – something that isn’t present on either of the existing models.

Such a development would, in telephony terms, pave the way for video calling. But from a games perspective it could add a whole new dynamic to the current touch screen and accelerometer functions.

http://www.mobile-ent.biz/news/33102...g-iPhone-thing ...

With the NPD group confirming that “Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars” sold an un-”GTA”-like 89,000 units between its March 17 launch and April 4, the question turns to gamers:
If you’re a “GTA” fan who has purchased games like “Grand Theft Auto IV,” but didn’t buy “Chinatown Wars,” why not?

http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2009/...hinatown-wars/ ...

Few words can make a gaming reporter roll their eyes as easily as a publicist’s offer to “let me show you the Wii version.” So how did the Nintendo Wii version of “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” look during a demo this week?
Transforming is, essentially, a super fighting move.
Activision promises that the Wii version of the coming-to-every-platform “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” won’t be a stinker.
For some gamers, that’s not been a safe bet. Since the Wii launch, many publishers have slapped together Wii editions of games that were conceived to best entertain and impress on higher-end systems like the Xbox 360 and PS3. Didn’t the Wii, the most popular system in the world, deserve its own special treatment?
To get around this problem, Activision has tapped Krome Studios, developers of the Wii version of “Star Wars The Force Unleashed” to make a from-the-ground-up Wii version of “Revenge of the Fallen.”
Here are some key differences I was shown during an in-person, controlled demo by Activision reps earlier this week.
* The Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of “Revenge of the Fallen” let players pick Autobot and Decepticon campaigns. The Wii game puts players in one chronological adventure, controlling whichever Autobot or Decepticon is tied to each level.
* The Xbox 360 and PS3 versions allow players to transform at will, to fly or drive, then turn into a robot, smash an enemy, transform back and dash away. The levels in the Wii game are geared to one mode at a time: flying, driving or robot. Players move their Transformer with the nunchuk’s control stick and aim/shoot with the Wii remote.A player can transform in any of those missions, but only when their energy meter is full enough and only because they can use their transformations as special attacks. Transforming is, essentially, a super fighting move.
For example, in a Bumblebee robot mission set in a city swarmed by Deceptions, transforming Bumblebee caused him to go into car mode, spin out his tires and smash into enemies before reverting to robot.

In an on-rails flight mission featuring Starscream blitzing a fleet of aircraft carriers, the one-button transformation caused the Decepticon to switch into robot mode, aim at his enemies and allowed the player to point the Wii remote and shoot them down. (Flight control for Starscream when he was in plane mode was managed with tilts of the Wii remote.)
The co-op player controls a floating gizmo called the Remote Weapons System.
In a driving mission set in a tunnel in Shanghai, the transformation caused the player’s car Transformer to become a robot that can grind, “Tony Hawk“-style with whatever momentum he had from his driving, before reverting back to a car. The Transformer can shoot while in robot mode.
* The Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of the games are single-player adventures with separate online multiplayer modes. The Wii has campaign co-op and a two-robot horde-survival mode called Arena. Arena Mode is reminiscent, I was told (but not shown), of “Gears of Wars“‘ Horde mode. The campaign co-op is inspired by “Super Mario Galaxy.” As with Nintendo’s game, a second player can pick up a Wii remote and serve as support. The lead player controls the mission’s Transformer. The co-op player controls a floating gizmo called the Remote Weapons System. This small drone will float near the Transformer. The player controlling it can use it to shoot enemies, exchange energy with the lead player (who can give health energy back), or throw up a shield that can be re-positioned at different sides of the first player’s Transformer. An Activision rep said that the game’s difficulty will automatically be adjusted when the second player joins and dropped when they leave, simply by tweaking values related to damage and health.
The Wii game will also have Achievement/Trophy-like “Feats” and even some missions that show action not seen in the upcoming movie.
The Wii game is indisputably graphically inferior to the Xbox 360 and PS3 games, but has been designed to be something different. That’s what it needs, right?

http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2009/...axy-and-gears/ ...

In a story I filed today for MTVNews.com about the sales of “Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars,” A GameStop spokesman expressed a positive read on the performance of Rockstar’s superbly-reviewed but seemingly low-selling game:
“‘GTA: Chinatown Wars’ is exceeding our expectations and illustrating the power of the franchise on a new platform,” GameStop spokesman Chris Olivera said in an e-mail to MTV News. “We’ve seen a solid lift in sales of ‘Chinatown Wars’ following the launch of the DSi and believe that the product will continue to enjoy a long life at our stores as the buzz around the new handheld gaming experience continues to grow.” Nintendo’s DSi model of the DS platform was released a day after NPD’s sales-tracking window for March.

http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2009/...-expectations/ ...