Twilo

I believe they've decided to release the browser seperately to the console (kotaku), so slap an extra 20 bucks or so onto the price if you want it, I guess. It supports javascript and flash, so it'll be kind of cool for watching sbemails or possibly youtube videos (if they work). Also (from joystiq): Pokemon will be the first online game, ready for Dec. 2 launch in Japan YES!

Regarding the early american launch, I think it's largely because of the month between thanksgiving and christmas being completely nutso for games in the US. Since Christmas in Japan is more like valentine's day with fried chicken, it's not so much a big deal to get out in time. As for the PS3 coming out first, I don't really know why they're doing that. It might be worth considering that the PS3 will instantly sell out (low number of units) and many disappointed parents might just end up getting a Wii instead. "I'm sorry, Mrs. Public, but we're all out of PS3s. On the other hand, we have a shipment of a couple of hundred Nintendo Wiis due in this weekend! Come try our display model! Have some fried chicken!"

Superfrog

Expanded list! (seeing as everyone is listing movies) Foreign language films that make me look clever: Les Misérables (du vingtieme siecle) (Claude Lelouch 1995) MindGame 2046 American films that I watched when I was wee and still love (even if I feel sort of guilty about it): Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure (Starring Keanu Reeves as Ted Theodore Logan!) Hook Freaked (Starring Keanu Reeves as Otis the Dog-boy!) Jurassic Park I still like the Matrix even though it isn't cool anymore (Starring Keanu Reeves as Jesus Christ!)

And a little trickled out of my nose...

Like a hundred thousand electric laser explosions, streaming out of your eyes (and exploding a meteor)

What's worth doing is getting the songs as mp3s and listening to them outside of the game. The songs are by and large very well selected, so it's more a pleasure than a chore. Generally you're hitting the things along to one of the beats; the more difficult sequences are usually based on the vocals (they're difficult because two otherwise similar sets of beats might have differing numbers of beats, or later on, double and triple beats thrown in there). Stuff like Kokoro Odoru (pottery guy) is based entirely on the rapping in the music. I found that stage pretty easy because I was very familiar with the song beforehand (it used to play a lot on Sony's defunct Morrich internet music video thing), though the *hup hup* bit with female vocals near the end is very scary on insane. Ouendan is a great game for scaling the difficulty perfectly to match your progress; when you finally beat this stage, you'll find that you're much better overall at playing the other stages you've already done. Going back to hard mode after finishing insane makes your wonder why you ever found it difficult at all. Gitaroo Man arrived this week, so it's backed to noobness for me.

Hmmm! That does actually sound interesting. Some of the stuff in the review reminds me of Jeff Vandermeer's Ambergris stories. More postmodernism in games is a good thing.

One of us! One of us! Re: Daigasso I got daigasso a few weeks ago and yeah, it doesn't have the appeal that Ouendan and Gitaroo Man have because the music isn't as high quality and there aren't any excellent scenarios animated on-screen for my delight and amusement (o/~ Guts Daze! o/~). On the other hand, Daigasso is the closest game to a genuine musical instrument, providing a 2-octave range on a bunch of midi-style instruments. The songs are the usual JPop (Ready Steady Go, Sakuranbo, Yeah Mecha Holiday and something from Orangerange are the ones I recognised), Video game songs (Mario theme, Pokémon, Zelda, FZero, others) and classical/public domain stuff (Air on a G String, others). It also has a fairly useful and comprehensive musical notation editor which you can make your own songs with (the only real limitations are that you are stuck in 4/4 time and you can't have more than one note play on one instrument at the same time (except for drums)). You can save your songs on the card and play along to them in gameplay mode. It's not as fun as the other games but it's probably more useful in the long run. If you can manage it at all, the Pop'n Music games on PS2 are some of the best music games you can get; though they require a $60 controller and are only available in Japan. There ought to be a youtube link in my signature.

Battalion Wars certainly looks like a decent buy considering the multiplayer. Plenty of so-so games become super-excellent when you throw in internet play, and it looks to have enough depth to stay interesting over a large number of matches. I don't think that I would say the same about mario football, though obviously I shouldn't be making judgements at this stage; the special shots remind me of the special shots in Mario Hoops, which are fun. In all, the video has me warming up to battalion wars and giving up on the other stuff. I don't think the launch lineup is all that great, to be honest. TGS might change my mind.

Snakes is a movie that needs context; When I went to see it, there were three of us in high spirits, armed with gummi snakes from the Sweet Factory and launching loud *hisses* at the screen. Half the fun of the movie is being in the audience; we were lucky enough to be in an audience that "got" the movie, and got exactly what we expected. By the end, there were other random people hissing at the snakes without us telling them to or ANYTHING There is definitely an excellent drinking game in there for when the DVD comes out. Someone dies? Have a drink! See a snake? Have a drink! The end credits roll? Peel yourself up off the floor and check into rehab!

Gattaca, Solaris (2003 Soderbergh remake), Akira... SNAKES ON A MOTHAF*CKIN PLANE!!! (well, maybe not, but it still rocks!)

But what if you could...

Yes. Aside from having to tap the English mode button when starting the game, it's just like the english language version you get in English-speaking countries. It even detects the language of your DS for deciding which name to display for the cart in the DS launcher thing (where you see the DS cart, GBA cart, settings and pictochat) .

My PW1 is the same deal as this (Best Price Capcom cheap thing) and the translation is identical to the european one (I checked). Delaying the release to 2007 is a fairly logical marketting thing, seeing as the first game is selling really strongly following reprints.

Bump! Gyakuten Saiban 2 (Phoenix Wright 2) Japanese or English language selectable (affiliate link) is out on Oct 26 for rl rl cheap No waiting till 2007 for ME

Sleep mode does not work for GBA games on the DS (Lite, at least) Also, occasionally a line of pixels on the screen doubles-up (is twice as thick) for GBA games; this is mostly invisible but I notice it sometimes in Pokemon Emerald. Considering that my GBA is the original launch model with no backlighting or recharging, it is is still significantly preferable to play on the DS.

Well at least we'll have Man to Man with Dean Learner in the meantime.

Oh man, that was the most fun I've had at a movie in a long time. I figure some of you guys might be more inclined to picking up a torrent or something rather than shelling out money for Snakes, but this is really one of those things that is 10-times-awesomer when you watch it with 100 other people; all hissing and shouting "SNAKE!" when appropriate. The cinema here was selling candy gummi snakes which were excellent fun to dangle at the screen in a menacing manner. I'm absolutely positive that an excellent drinking game can be developed when the DVD is released.

Greetings, traveller. I hope you are sitting UNcomfortably!

... [*bida-bida-bip*]

It seems that the Japanese version (Gyakuten Saiban 1 on DS) handles the muffler thing in exactly the same way; "muffler" is a loan word in japanese and gets katakana treatment: マフラー (mafura). This loan word is used for both car mufflers and a lady's scarf. http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&lr=&q=%E3%83%9E%E3%83%95%E3%83%A9%E3%83%BC&btnG=Search&sa=N&tab=wi http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&lr=&q=mafura&btnG=Search&sa=N&tab=wi I can check this out properly for you if I play case 5 all the way to the first court scene in Japanese mode, but that would be HARD

I think this is pretty much what will end up happening in the months after Christmas. If they did decide to pick your game up, you would decide the licensing deal at that point and get yourself on Live Arcade. Until then, your game is playable on the community by anyone who pays the membership (and MS of course). It's a win-win for Microsoft because half the people will be paying money to MAKE games and the other half will be paying money to PLAY games. All the money is going to Microsoft. $$ My feeling is that the Pro version will incorporate a "Microsoft Approved Merchant" membership in the pricing, which would allow you to publish to Live. The cost for this will be appropriately prohibitive. Microsoft "Scholarships" may follow: unfair deals where MS takes a 90% cut of sales in exchange for free tools for the developer. Still good for a one-man-one-month game though. Nice for students or anyone trying to make a name for themselves.

The other Express versions of visual studios that Microsoft make available are pretty decent, the limitations are usually pretty fair (like max 2 connections to a server etc., stuff that doesn't impact development but wouldn't make it viable for a proper release). I think the biggest w00t about this news is that Microsoft are looking like they're finally opening up the Live Marketplace to real people. I sure wouldn't mind selling a one-man one-month game on Marketplace to a market of millions of people. In the meantime, it's a good launchpad for getting your game released officially with the other Arcade releases (or at least getting a lot of work done before the Game Studio Professional release) so overall it's a Good Thing.

If they don't behave like journalists, then don't treat them as such. I usually visit a fair number of various blogs on my daily adventures and many of them seem reluctant to do proper fact checking or whatever (BoingBoing gets around that by issuing lots and lots of corrections when people mail in complaints, "Web 2.0" style) and to be honest, I prefer it like that. I like getting X amount of information of which Y is bunk/garbage/wrong and then sorting out the accuracy myself rather than getting ((X - Y) - Z) information where Y is bunk and Z is false-positive good stuff the guy was afraid to post. That's obviously a problem if you're not super-clever and handsome like I am, but f:cens0r:k 'em if they can't take a joke. As for invite-only comments, I probably approve. I don't read the comments on popular blogs or news sites because they tend to run in the hundreds and are filled with garbage (digg.com) . The issue I think, is that Kotaku is not elitist enough and has crap in the comments anyway. When it's done properly, it's pretty good; like the "Okay, screw that guy. What does everyone else think?" thing on Thumbs features (when it has real people and not just Thumbs staff).