Today’s VGQH isn’t the most fantastic version ever, but there are a few things to be excited about. And my ranting is mainly limited to one paragraph.

I’m not familiar with Larian Studios, the indie-developer from Belgium. Apparently they recently received a lot of praise for Divinity II, a game that sounds familiar, but not one that brings details to mind. Regardless, they’ve recently announced a new game for 2012, Dragon Commander, and they now have my attention. Not because it’s set in the Divinity universe (as I mentioned, that doesn’t mean much to me) but because it sounds great. It’s part turn-based strategy and part RPG. Ostensibly, you have an army of wizards, dragons, and other fantastic elements and build power alongside allies. Once the enemy comes, you join the fight in full on dragon combat. And the dragons have jet packs. That’s right, being a dragon is no longer good enough, now they have jet packs. If I can give one of them a robotic laser eye along with the jet pack I will officially have the most awesome beast imaginable. Jet pack dragons will make you their bitch.

Let’s take a complete 180 now. Larian has a new game, while Valve has an old game. Counter-strike: Global Offensive, an update to a 12 year old game, is coming to Steam, XBLA, and Playstation Network in 2012. This release will update and upgrade classic elements of the game, but will also release new weapons, characters, maps, game modes, etc. The first chance for the public to play the game will be at PAX Prime (this Friday) and the Eurogamer Expo.

God of War Collection Volume II is coming to PS3 in just a few weeks. Collecting both epic PSP titles (Chains of Olympus and Ghost of Sparta) for the big brother console is pretty great in and of itself. But upgrading it to full 1080P at 60 frames per second is amazing. I can’t even explain, just check out the video:

” target=”_blank”>SD vs. HD

Speaking of collections, we all know about the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection coming in November. This includes, MGS: Peace Walker, MGS 2: Sons of Liberty, and MGS 3: Snake Eater. But it’s clearly missing a couple of things. Online retailer Zavvi is fixing that problem with exclusive rights to the MGS Ultimate HD Collection. The catch is that they’re only making 4,000 of them and it’ll run you roughly $100 US. But, along with the normal kit, you’ll get 5 art cards, a download code for the PSN release of the original Metal Gear Solid, and MGS 4: Guns of the Patriots. And it all comes packed together in a numbered steelbook case. If this is the one you must have, pick it up now.

This hardly qualifies as news, but I love making fun of people and this one’s a two-fer so I’m going for it. A gaggle of folks from Heavy Iron Studios have become decidedly outspoken on what they see as a bad misstep for Sony, the Playstation Vita. Many of them referred to the concept as a “car wreck.” They cite some good reasons, including the recent trouble Nintendo has had with launching the 3DS, the price point, the lackluster reception of XPeria Play, and the fact that people don’t seem inclined to carry a dedicated gaming device when their smart phone can pretty much handle that task. In broad strokes, they are correct and I don’t necessarily disagree with them. Will Vita be as big a flop as PSP Go? Probably not, but I’m not convinced the technology is there to drive the general market back to a gaming only device. Sorry Sony. On the other hand, I have to question the source of this derision: Lyle Hall, President of Heavy Iron. And the guy behind UFC Personal Trainer has an opinion that matters? Your most recent claim to fame is making an exercise game, one published by the slowly sinking THQ. Somebody want to find me the sales and Metacritic numbers on that game? I can’t be bothered. But I’ll gladly stand corrected if the numbers show it.

FREEZE! Sorry, can’t help myself on that one. I don’t normally link videos and I know this is the second time I’ve done it today, but you’ve got to see this, the latest villain announcement for Batman: Arkham Asylum. I can’t say I’m a huge fan of the character, and I don’t know how well he fits in this version of the fiction. But, it’s a villain announcement for one of my most anticipated games of the year.

Victor Fries

I have a few other little bits, but nothing of any real relevance, so I’m just going to leave it with the Mr. Freeze reveal. Kind of hard to top that today. With the Gamescom happening now in Cologne, I expect to see some better updates on Friday. Unless everyone blew their wad on E3 and Comic-Con that is. See you then.

Multiplatform:
El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron (360, PS3)

Sony:
No More Heroes: Heroes Paradise (PS3)

Nintendo:
Jerry Rice & Nitus Dog Football (Wii)
Puzzler World 2 (DS)

And since there’s only one release next week, let’s just cover it now. Deus Ex: Human Revolution is coming 8/23/11 for 360, PS3, and PC.

The World Cosplay Summit, a tournament and festival for cosplayers from around the world, was held in Nagoya, Japan last Sunday. An annual event, the Summit is a chance for international cosplayers to come together and share a passion for all things cosplay. Each country is represented by a team of 2 people in the competition, and this year’s tournament had 17 countries competing – Australia, Germany, Spain, Italy, Finland, Denmark, Thailand, Mexico, the USA, China, Korea, Brazil, Japan, Singapore, France, the Netherlands and Malaysia. 17,000 attendees watched as the teams gave it their all in their performances.

Judges selected winners based on evaluation criteria regarding the costume, the performance (acting, creativity, entertainment value),  and how faithful the performance was to the original story. After presenting an amazingly choreographed performance and mesmerizing costumes from Final Fantasy XII (Balthier and Ultima), it was Brazil that went home with First Place. This same pair from Brazil had also won in 2006, making this their second World Cosplay Summit win.

The champions were presented two round trip airline tickets between Brazil and Japan and a special award from the Foreign Ministry of Japan. Winners Monica and Mauricio Somenzari were extremely grateful for the honors bestowed upon them. Mauricio told reporters – “I’d just like to express my gratitude to everyone who supported us, our Brazilian friends who came to this event, and to our father who stuck with us even in tough times.”

Runner ups in the tournament were second place Italy (Sugar Sugar Rune), third place China (Dynasty Warriors 7), Brother Award (best costume) winners Australia (Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust), and Cyperous Award (best wig) winners the Netherlands (Mai Otome). The United States was represented by Alexandra Weber and Ashley Laure Rice (XXXHolic) but did not place this year.

And now, please enjoy these stunning photos from the Championship, the Nishiki-dori Parade, and the Osu Parade provided to us by T.V. Aichi! All images © TV Aichi Broadcasting Co., LTD.

A very special thank you to TV Aichi for providing us with photos for this special report! All images © TV Aichi Broadcasting Co., LTD. For more information, visit the World Cosplay Summit Website.

Welcome to this week’s late edition of VGQH. E3 isn’t so long ago. Comic-Con just happened. And next week is Gamescom in Cologne, Germany. What that means is that there isn’t much newsworthy content being released outside of those big shows. Which corresponds to the dearth of retail content being released as well. So we should be pretty short and sweet today.

One of the things you can see at Gamescom next week is Strike Suit Zero for PC and PSN. Made by Doublesix Games, the team that made Burn Zombie Burn!, their latest title puts you in command of a Strike Suit *cough* Transformer *cough* as you fight to save the earth in what could be her final hours. The game is currently scheduled for “early 2012.”

I’m not sure what to make of all the strange press coming about Team Bondi, the developers of LA Noire. It all started with some employees making brutal accusations about the work practices of Brendan McNamara. Alongside all of that came stories about the difficulties they had working with Rockstar to publish the game. More recently there was mention of them possibly merging with a film studio in Australia. It now appears that same film studio, Kennedy Miller Mitchell (KMM), is really more interested in their IP and assets, not the company. And, in the face of bankruptcy, Team Bondi is selling those elements. It’s also rumored McNamara may be joining KMM, essentially meaning the end of the developer. I’m still trying to sort out what parts of the LA Noire IP go where so I can determine if a sequel could be coming from Rockstar, the remains of Bondi, or even KMM.

Less on business, more on games (for a minute). Warhammer 40k: Space Marine is coming September 6. But it’s got more features coming about a month later. Specifically, it’s getting an entirely new co-op game mode. No details about the mode are available yet. Is it a separate campaign? An extra layer to the main story? What we do know is that it will be free with the packaged online pass. Wait, what? I know the online passes are designed to get developers and publishers more of the original sales dollar by limiting online to new copies or through sale of the pass on your console’s store. But not giving you entire pieces of the game? This seems a little excessive. According to THQ, the mode’s delay is not profit-based though. It’s just a matter of giving it the extra coat of polish they want without delaying the title’s street date.

But, THQ is clearly being motivated on the monetary side of things. They’ve recently cut 200 jobs in the process of closing two Australian development studios, a development house in Phoenix, and ending the the MX vs. ATV franchise. Their explanation sounds pretty Activision – they want to leverage IP that can provide long term annual profits across multiple consoles.

Speaking of THQ, and calling back to Gamescom, they’ve announced their lineup for the show. No surprises here:

• The aforementioned Warhammer 40k: Space Marine will be on display.
• uDraw Game Tablet is coming to PS3 and XBox. It will include uDraw Studio: Instant Artist and Pictionary: Ultimate Edition
• adidas miCoach, the interactive training system for fitness buffs, is coming to consoles.
• That might help you in the real UFC, but not in UFC Undisputed 3, scheduled for January 2012.
• Or, if choreographed fighting is your thing, you can check out WWE ’12, coming in November.
• Then the doom sets in as you’ll see a world you don’t want to live in with Saints’ Row: The Third,
• a dying world Metro: Last Light,
• and the world after it ends in Darksiders II.

If you haven’t signed in to the Playstation Network since Tuesday night, better plan ahead. The PS3 has another new firmware. These have become less annoying – partly because they happen less often and partly because the download is so much faster now. What’s changed with 3.70? Not much. Streaming services like Hulu and Netflix have been combined under a single icon, “TV/Video Services.” If you have a 3D TV and camera, you’ll now be able to display your 3D shots straight from your PS3. You can also take advantage of the new “recommend” feature on the Playstation Store, letting your friends know which games, demos, videos, etc. you think they should try. Finally, for PS+ members, your “Automatic Download” feature has been renamed “Automatic Update.” The automated service will now get you the latest patches for your games, load saves to the cloud server, and sync your trophy information at your scheduled time.

We’ve received word of a delay on the fourth DLC chapter for Fallout: New Vegas. Lonesome Road was originally scheduled for July, but won’t be making it this month either according to Jason Bergman (Senior Producer): “[D]ue to circumstances beyond our control, Lonesome Road won’t be out this month. This isn’t due to any major issue with the code or content, but there are lots of factors involved in releasing these things, and one of those is causing us to slip past our intended release date. We don’t have an exact date yet, but we’re working to get it out as quickly as possible. We’ll be announcing the final date, along with a couple of other interesting FNV-related items in the near future.” But, to whet our whistles, they did give us a screenshot:

Itching to get your hands-on Assassin’s Creed: Revelations? It could happen as early as September 3-11. That’s when a timed beta, exclusive to PSN, begins. PS+ and uPlay members get first crack. Everyone else will need to wait until the game launches November 15. The beta will include:

• Nine Characters: Bombardier, Champion, Deacon, Guardian, Sentinel, Thespian, Trickster, Vanguard, and Vizier.
• Three Maps: Antioch, Constantinople, and Knights’ Hospital.
• Four Modes: Artifact Assault, Deathmatch, Manhunt, and Wanted.

If you’ve been reading along for a while you’ll know I’ve been following the saga of the R18+ rating in Australia for some time now. I’m pleased to report that it has officially been given the go ahead by all nine Australian states, including New South Wales (who had previously abstained from the vote pending discussion with its cabinet). The rating is equivalent to the U.S. “M for Mature” rating. This means previously banned games, like Mortal Kombat, will be finally be sold in the country. Future games that formerly would have been edited to the 15+ rating will get the normal release.

And I see that as a great positive note to end this issue of VGQH. Come back Tuesday for all the highlights from the weekend.

If you’ve been following the news recently you’ve heard a lot about the decline on Wall Street. Turns out letting the rich draw us all in to the market and investing our retirements may be just as bad of an idea as trusting those same rich people with our pensions. It’s depressing. Which is why today’s first news bit will be at least tangentially related. Might as well start off on a down note and see if we can’t get some better news by the end. Right?

Sales for Square Enix decreased 25% in the last quarter, with overall profit declining 62%. Yoichi Wada attributed this to not having a major title release in the time frame. Which is true, though his assessment of its impact may be overstated. His predictions for full recovery by the end of the next fiscal year (March 2013) are very possible. A quick look at their stable of upcoming games should be reassuring: Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Final Fantasy XIII-2, Hitman: Absolution, and Tomb Raider are all expected to make a strong showing.

If you’re looking for a chance to play the new Twisted Metal I hope you plan to hit Gamescom or PAX. A new level “Thrills & Spills Amsement Park” will be available at both venues. Why hit the shows? The game comes out in October. Doesn’t it? No. It’s actually been pushed back into early 2012? Does this mean the game sucks? Good question. Not according to David Jaffe:

Now, if we shipped Twisted Metal tomorrow – going off the response from folks who have played it – I assure you, it would never be a bad game. Not even close. But we’re aiming for a heck of a lot more than that! With Twisted Metal we plan to ship a multiplayer classic. We plan to ship the best Twisted Metal ever made. We plan to convert a lot of folks who think vehicle combat is a relic best left to 90′s nostalgia.”

Sony is striking back at XBLA’s Summer of Arcade with PSN Play. The program kicks off today with preorders available for four upcoming summer games: Street Fighter III Third Strike Online Edition (August 23); the third DeathSpank title, The Baconing (August 30); Bloodrayne: Betrayal (September 6); and Renegade Ops (September 13). Preorders are available up to five days before each release (8/18, 8/25, 9/1, and 9/8, respectively) and will include a free theme and free DLC or Home item. Each game is set for $14.99 (less 20% for PS+ subscribers). Pre-order all four games by September 19 and you’ll get a free voucher (must be 18 or older) to download Payday: The Heist (a $20 value and also available for separate pre-order starting September 20, set to release in October). This is clearly inspired by XBLA’s Summer of Arcade, and the games aren’t necessarily top shelf, but this does look to be a good deal for fans of downloadable games and a great way to introduce the PSN’s new pre-order feature.

While we’re talking about pre-orders, how about an announcement of the Collector’s Edition of Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, available for preorder now. The formerly announced pre-order incentive, a very cool map of Skyrim is being packaged into this edition, along with a making-of DVD, art book, and a DRAGON! Unfortunately PETA got upset about including a live dragon in such a small box so it will come with a 12″ PVC model (based on the games 3D files) of Alduin, the World Eater. Seriously, at $150 this is probably priced way too high for anyone who doesn’t collect dragon statues anyway. But if you do, that’s a really cool dragon.

You may recall the announcement of Freddy Krueger as playable DLC in Mortal Kombat. It should go without saying by now that a free compatibility pack will also be available to keep multiplayer available for those who don’t make the purchase. This compatibility pack has an added bonus, two additional Sub-Zero skins. You’ll get the maskless Sub-Zero from the third game, and a Retro-Cyber Sub-Zero (whatever the hell that means).

And that concludes a pretty lackluster edition of VGQH. The lack of major content sort of goes hand in hand with the lack of any games released at retail today as well. Will Friday or next Tuesday be any better? I certainly hope so. Hopefully by then I’ll have figured out what I just did to my internet browser that made it start behaving strangely, making this article about four times more difficult than it needed to be. Guess I should count myself lucky it’s a slow news week.

The late edition this week is definitely a potpourri of stories. It’s a little heavy on back end corporate stuff and light on actual game news. An interesting change of pace I guess.

After many years of making successful games like inFAMOUS and the Sly Cooper franchise Sucker Punch has officially joined the Sony Computer Entertainment family. Like a couple that’s been living together for years, the two companies are finally getting married. More like a plural marriage though, as Sucker Punch is the 16th company to officially join SCE as a first-party developer. What will this mean for future games together? We’ll have to wait and see, but hopefully it means Sucker Punch will get the chance to work on some new IPs. I’ve liked everything I’ve seen from them so far.

If you’re a fan of Lord of the Rings and action-RPGs (I’m one, but not the other) you’re probably looking forward to LotR: War in the North. Until now, you’ve just been looking forward, because you haven’t known when it was coming. Now you do. The game is set to join the holiday crowd in November, but a specific date hasn’t been locked down. The game features up to three player co-op and will likely be rated M for lots of blood, which is a little unusual for the franchise. Because the game is not tied to the main story through characters or plot, just the world, this actually looks to be a good game for fans of the genre who may not actually care for the franchise (like myself).

You may have noticed a new offering from EA on your console’s store earlier this week. But, if you don’t know what the EA Season Ticket entails, here’s the rundown. There are currently five participating titles (Madden NFL, NCAA Football, Tiger Woods PGA, NHL, and FIFA), with EA softly saying more titles may be included later (but don’t count on it). For $24.99 or 2000 MS Points, you’ll be able to download and play all five games three days before their retail release for free. If you want to continue playing the games after release, you’ll need to buy the disc, but your save game and trophy/achievement progress will port over to the disc version. You’ll also receive a 20% discount on related DLC, free web content (currently just an add-on for FIFA‘s Creation Center), and “membership badge” that will show up in online gaming and your EA.com profile. EA has also specified that this not a part of the EA Sports ID they still have planned. I certainly won’t be buying this offer, but if you play all, or even most, of these titles it may be worth it.

I mentioned Tuesday that there were rumors spreading of Gearbox showing off Borderlands 2 at Gamescom. This is no longer rumor. Gearbox Software and 2K will have the game in Germany this month, with a showing at PAX Prime in Seattle to follow. It’s also the cover story for September’s Game Informer magazine. The game will once again feature loot-heavy, four player co-op, FPS RPG gameplay. There are four new characters to play and you’ll be exploring whole new areas of Pandora.

Speaking of Gamescom, Ubisoft has announced their lineup of games for the show, and it’s no surprise that Assassin’s Creed Revelations is at the top of the list. Driver: San Francisco, Far Cry 3, Rayman Origins, Ghost Recon, From Dust, and Just Dance 3 (multi-console for the first time) will also be shown. They seem to have all their bases covered with hardcore, family, and downloadable games.

Capcom has also announced their relatively small batch that will be on show for Gamescom. They’ll have Asura’s Wrath, Dragon’s Dogma, Resident Evil: Revelations, and Street Fighter x Tekken. By “small batch” I clearly mean the number of games, not the hype level. You may not have heard much about Asura’s Wrath and Dragon’s Dogma, but keep an eye on these two. They could be surprise hits. The other two will get plenty of coverage based solely on franchise recognition.

If you’re somehow not burned out on FPS gameplay and, to a lesser extent, zombies, then you’ll be thrilled to hear the new “Rezurrection” DLC for Call of Duty: Black Ops is coming August 23rd on XBLA (and probably a month later on PSN). Four of the five new maps being were actually included in the Hardened and Prestige editions of the game. Buyers of those versions will be getting this DLC free instead of the standard price of $15. The fifth map is The Moon, where “the rules of engagement will apparently be changing.” No details on what that means. But it is the moon, so you can probably make a few educated guesses.

Sony has yet to attach a release date to the PS Vita, but industry talk has had it rumored for late 2011, just in time for the holidays. According to Kaz Hirai, Executive Vice President of Sony, that is not the case. It is possible the new handheld will see release in Japan before the end of the year, but Europe and the United States won’t be seeing it until 2012. Hirai indicated that the company wants to insure they have a solid stable of games for the unit before selling it. It seems they saw what happened with the 3DS for Nintendo. They’re also not going to follow Nintendo into a price cut, as Hirai stated clearly: “We packed so much into the device and made it very affordable. There is no need to lower the price just because somebody else that happens to be in the video game business decided that they were going to lower their price.”

Not long ago, I mentioned a new game based on the Child’s Play horror franchise was in development. What’s the deal with ’80s movies getting new games? I have to ask because Reef Entertainment just announced they have a Rambo game in development they plan to release next year on XBox 360, PS3, and PC. Is it based on a particular film in the franchise? An as yet untold story of John Rambo? They haven’t said yet. But the company does have the rights to make several games from the franchise. Reef Entertainment is hardly in the top tier of developer talent, but they aren’t on the bottom either. What they really need to sell this game is voice talent. As in, get Sly or don’t bother.

EA is continuing the slowly ongoing release of the roster for the SSX reboot. The two new additions this week are Alex Moreau – snowboarder, fashion model, assassin – and Ty Thorsen – laid back Norwegian snowboarding prodigy. That brings us to ten announced characters. I originally thought the game would have 16, but they’re running out of stereotypes. I’m thinking one more announcement featuring two characters, at least one of them new. After that they’ll start announcing the classic characters and guest stars that will be available as DLC (allow me to predict Jacob Taylor).

Speaking of EA, they’re shuffling their staff in a big way. COO John Schappert recently left the company to join Zynga, now a direct competitor of EA in light of their recent acquisition of PopCap. That vacancy is being filled by Peter Moore, leaving a hole in the head honcho position of EA Sports. But, as Corporate America does, that position is now being packaged into a new role, making Frank Gibeau (President, EA Games) the new President of EA Labels. This will have him overseeing BioWare, EA Games, EA Play and, EA Sports. This leaves EA Mobile, Hasbro, Playfish, Pogo, and PopCap in the hands of Executive Vice President of EA Interactive, Barry Cottle. CEO John Riccitiello’s position is not changing, which is the true telltale in this situation since it means nothing is really changing. Regarding the changes (which go into effect Monday) Riccitiello wrote:

Not all of it was easy but looking back, it was exactly the right structure and priorities for the challenges we faced. The changes included hundreds of job cuts. Now, we are switching from defense to offense. We’re focusing on building our intellectual properties/franchises into year-round business. We’ve established our own platform, Origin, and we continue to grow our digital business.

How about one more story about gaming jobs to close out this edition? This time it’s not corporate politics though, it’s a couple of job listings found on Criterion’s website. In an ad for an AI Programmer, they say “Our current ambition requires an innovative programmer to deliver killer entertainment experiences with believable, open world AI Racing Drivers.” [Emphasis added] An additional ad for a Lead Software Engineer wants the applicant to “help create a new extension to the existing Criterion team focusing on developing on new platforms.” [Emphasis added again] So what’s the big story here? Is it that Criterion is working on a open world racer – possibly a new Need for Speed or Burnout game? Or is it that they’re looking to develop on new platforms? That could mean WiiU, or they could already be discussing the next generation of Sony and Microsoft consoles. Those two companies have denied a new console is coming anytime soon, but we all know they’re working on them. Considering the development times needed for a top tier game, if they’re discussing this as a launch title, I wouldn’t expect the next generation until late 2013 at the earliest. But, that’s a lot of “if”s and supposition on my part.

So, what do you think about a new console? Too soon? Or too late? Are you jumping onto the WiiU as the next generation, or is it just Nintendo’s attempt to catch up? Personally I feel like the Move and Kinect were the new platforms their respective companies said they were. But those were just attempts to catch up to Nintendo on the motion control front. Both of them are currently failures in my eyes as well, based solely on available software and its quality. Not to mention the Move isn’t even much of a step up from the EyeToy I had on PS2 years ago. So it only seems fair that Nintendo is now trying to catch up graphically. What will the next gen be, and will all of the big three go in the same direction? How much will motion control be a part of the experience? Will the “console as multimedia center” trend continue, or will it step back to a bare bones gaming device? Only time will tell, but let’s hear your predictions.

With the announcement of the 3DS price drop. Nintendo gave news of a consolation to those of us that picked up their hardware within the first months of its life. Initially announcing that anyone who has connected the system to the eShop channel before 11:59 pm August 11, 2011 would be receiving 20 free game downloads, 10 NES games available September 1st, and 10 Game Boy Advance games available by the end of 2011. This announcement made me feel a lot better about my early adoption of Nintendo’s new handheld. At first hearing the news i found myself livid at the $80 slap in the face Nintendo had just seemingly dished out. Once I heard how much free software they were sending my way, my tune definitely changed. The announcement of free GBA games brought forward a question that had not been answered, and had been brushed to the side by many gamers. Will there be GBA games in the virtual console market place? This question hasn’t been really answered with anything besides speculation, but an updated message sent to 3DS owners answered it pretty satisfactorily for now.

Nintendo 3DS Ambassador Program

To our loyal customers, we would like to offer you 20 downloadable games from the Nintendo eShop at no charge. These free games are available to Nintendo 3DS owners who connect* to the Nintendo eShop at least once before 11:59 p.m. Eastern/8:59 p.m. Pacific time on Aug. 11, 2011. You will be registered as a 3DS Ambassador.

Starting Sept. 1, Ambassadors will be able to download 10 NES Virtual Console games at no charge and before they are available to the public. These games, including Super Mario Bros, Donkey Kong Jr., Balloon Fight, Ice Climber, and The Legend of Zelda, are slated to become paid downloadable games. but Ambassadors get them early for free. Later in the year, once the paid versions of the games are available in the Nintendo eShop, Ambassadors can download any of the remaining games or any of the updated versions at no cost.

By the end of 2011, Nintendo will provide Ambassadors with 10 Game Boy Advance Virtual Console games like Yoshi’s Island, Super Mario Advance 3, Mario Kart Super Circuit, Metroid Fusion, WarioWare, Inc: Mega Microgame$ and Mario vs. Donkey Kong. These games will be available exclusively to Ambassadors, and Nintendo has no plans to make these 10 games available to the general public on the Nintendo 3DS in the future.

More details about this program will be announced in the future.

*Wireless broadband connection required to access the Nintendo eShop.

Nintendo

This seems like a pretty straight forward message. I was hoping to see GBA games hit the 3DS eShop at some point in the systems life cycle. Nintendo’s statement does leave room for them to change their mind, but I don’t think we’ll be seeing our GBA favorites any time soon.

Not exactly starting August off strong. There’s very little in the way of gaming news dropping since Friday. Which is actually kind of okay with me. My hands are pretty raw and my elbow is in a lot of pain right now, so typing sucks. Running really fast down a hill that ends in a flat parking lot may sound really fun. But it’s not. On with the news:

Are you still playing Brink? Probably not, as it seems the online community is basically dead. But if you want to play some more, you’ll have good reason this week. Free DLC! The Agents of Change DLC launches this week and will be free for two weeks. Included in the add-on are two new maps, five new player abilities, two weapon attachments, and two character outfits. Now that the lag and glitchiness from the initial launch appears to be fixed, this may be a good reason to get back into an online shooter that doesn’t just clone CoD gameplay.

The rumor mill is turning again. This time it’s all about a possible reveal of TimeSplitters 4 at Gamescom this month. Crytek isn’t saying anything so it’s absoutely rumor. Which I normally wouldn’t bother to run, but then I have no excuse for using this picture of a gun-wielding monkey:

Few things in the world make me happier than guns and monkeys. Combining both is a sure-fire way to capture my attention.

Another thing that makes me happy are classic JRPGs. I don’t know why, they just speak to me. One of my favorite series in the genre has always been Breath of Fire from Capcom. And they’ve just announced that Breath of Fire IV will be hitting the PSN August 16th in the form of a PSOne Classic. This is great news if you haven’t played the game. But not as great as it could be. The first two games in the series, published on the SNES in the US, were better games. And publishing this as a PSOne Classic means it’s not an HD remake with trophies. Considering I still have my PSOne disc, and that it plays just fine in MY PS3, I probably won’t even download it. But I will get me a blue-haired Ryu avatar since they’re launching a few of those alongside the game. Ultimately I’d prefer the first four games in an HD collection, disc or downloadable. Feel free to keep the awful Dragon Quarter from PS2 out of that collection though. Please don’t let my negativity discourage you. If you like classic JRPGs and missed this one, or if you no longer have your classic disc, use this opportunity to enjoy a great game.

If you’ve been wondering about True Crime: Hong Kong‘s status, you’re looking under the wrong name. Activision shelved the project earlier this year and Square Enix has picked up the rights. But they didn’t get the rights to the IP. Huh? Basically they get to publish the game, including all development so far, but they have to rebrand it. They haven’t announced a new name, but the publisher is giving United Front Games a lot of leeway to finish the development. I’m not a fan of the series, but this game did look to be shaping up well before Activision let it go. It will be interesting to see where this leads.

Gearbox was rumored to be showing Borderlands 2 at E3, but it obviously didn’t happen. Expectation is that it will now be announced at Gamescom this month. This comes after an “inside source” at the company told Eurogamer that development on the sequel is currently in progress. No shit? How is that a secret? You sold four million units of the first game. A sequel is obvious in this market. This definitely earns today’s least shocking news award.

Another viable contender for that award though is the news that Battlefield 3 will use EA’s $10 online pass. Duh. This is exactly the type of game EA had in mind when they came up with the plan. These $10 passes are becomng the rule, not the exception. I’ll consider it news when a major online title doesn’t require an online pass.

I recently ran a paragraph in VGQH about Suda 51’s next game, Lollipop Chainsaw. At the time it was only confirmed for Japan. But, it appears the game now has a publishing deal with Warner Bros. Interactive. Not the company I would expect to run a game about a high school cheerleader killing zombies with rainbows and glitter, but I’ll take it.

Speaking of Warner Bros. Interactive, have your fingers started twitching for Batman: Arkham City yet? Only two and a half months to go. If you still haven’t picked your store to preorder, maybe this will help. As of today, here’s the preorder breakdown – what you get and where to get it:

• For the UK:
• Batman Beyond character skin: GameStop
• 1970s character skin: ShopTo.net
• Australia and New Zealand:
• Batman Beyond character skin: Mighty Ape
• Earth One character skin: MightyApe
• 1970s character skin: EB Games
• The Animated Series character skin: MightyApe
• Robin playable character: JB Hi-Fi
• Holland:
• Robin playable character: GamesMania.be
• USA:
• 1970s character skin: Toys ‘R’ Us
• Robin playable character: Best Buy
• Joker’s Carnival Challenge Map: GameStop
• Arkham City digital only comic and $10 credit: Amazon.com
• 1970s Legacy Batman: Arkham City action figure: Toys ‘R’ Us

And with that, I’m going to stop. What’s going to top Batman in his grey, blue, and bright yellow costume from the ’70s? Here’s hoping all of those skins become available in a DLC pack at a later date. Mostly because I’m not importing mine from Australia and they seem to have a great set. The wait for October 18th is getting brutal.

It’s been nearly 11 years since Diablo 2 came out. So when Diablo 3 was announced in 2008 the internet was jumping for joy, but today the internet is having a bit of a backlash against Blizzard for some of the announcements this morning. So what exactly is going on?

First: It has been announced that Diablo 3 will be online play only. Many people were excited to have a good single player game like the first two but it seems this game is going the way of World of Warcraft in that you are completely unable to play the game offline. So not only can you not play the game without the internet but can Blizzard keep two highly successful online only games running at the same time?

Second: No Mods allowed under any circumstance. To the new gamer that doesn’t seem like a big deal but to the advanced gamers that’s like a shot in the foot. The entire DOTA franchise was created because of Mods made to the Warcraft 3 engine and so many people were already chomping at the bit for mods they could apply to the new Diablo game however it seems they will be unable to do so. Here’s from the official FAQ on Blizzard’s website:

“For a variety of gameplay and security reasons, we will not be supporting bots or mods in Diablo III, and they’ll be expressly prohibited by our terms of use for the game.”

Third: The online Marketplace will only use real money. Instead of farming for gold it looks like the only way you’ll be able to buy anything is with your real hard earned cash from outside of the game. It won’t be buying from Blizzard however it’ll be online transactions between players from one person’s bank account to another. There are just too many insane things that could come out of this. New people can quickly buy the best weapons without working for it, others could scam others by offering awful prices, and since mods aren’t available on the stores you may end up buying something for much more then you should without knowing about it. Of course there are a few who if they play it right could make money by always playing this game and getting all of the best weapons and selling them at high prices.

There are a very few who are praising Blizzard for these new things and most people are quite angry about these new developments. What do you think? Could this lead to a better gaming system? Or will it simply become a giant mess?

It was reported yesterday that Nintendo stocks fell around 19.9% in the wake of the steep 3DS price cut to USD $169.99. The cut was made all the way down to a loss-producing level in an attempt to drive up sales for the console (which has unfortunately struggled since its release).

In an even more drastic move that is somewhat more commonplace in Japanese culture, Nintendo President Iwata Satoru publicly took blame for the failing console and slashed his salary by 50%. Iwata also commented at a shareholders meeting, “For cuts in fixed salaries, I’m taking a fifty percent cut, other representative directors are taking a 30 percent cut, and other execs are taking a 20 percent cut.”

As Arse-bot reported earlier this week, there are a lot of quality titles coming out for the 3DS this year, so hopefully Nintendo will recover quickly from their losses. They do need to be somewhat cautious, however, with the launch of the Wii U coming up next Spring. The recent news in Game Informer that the Wii U may not support DVD, Blu Ray or backwards compatibility with Gamecube titles has not really been helping to boost public opinion for the new console, so perhaps some re-designs will be considered before the launch next Spring (or the launch price may be lower than anticipated).

Either way, it is a great time to go buy a 3DS right now, so go get one if you’ve been waiting for the price to be right!