Kotaku

Kotakuite faithful Adam didn't just email us with news that the Rock Band demo kits were hitting Best Buy stores today, he actually went back to his local BB to fetch us some picture proof. And good thing he did, because the music game demo isn't just hitting stores the same day as Guitar Hero III goes on sale, it's all over the competition like an alpha mom on a Wii.

Apparently the demo kiosk, at least in this particular Best Buy, is literally set up within the wire racks housing Guitar Hero III. And if that weren't enough of a thunder-stealer, the ads above the wire racks are for Rock Band. Now Guitar Hero III knows what its like to have Rock Band inside of it and I suspect it's not happy.

Adam ads that the demo features 15 songs, that it was set up on a 360 with a 4-way USB port. Oh and for some reason there was no bass pedal included with the demo.

By John Gaudiosi

SAN FRANCISCO--With private military contractors (PMCs) like Blackwater topping news stories, the timing couldn't be better for EA Montreal's new cooperative shooter, Army of Two, which has just been pushed back to a Q1 2008 release.

"Army of Two should help PMCs," said Woodie Mister, a former Navy SEAL and current PMC operator for an undisclosed company who consulted with EA on the new game. "PMCs do a job that nobody else wants to do. They're willing to put liability on the line. Some governments out there aren't even doing that. The way Army of Two portrays the PMCs is the way the top tier operators perform on the field in the real world."

An informed UK reader sends word of the Playstation 3's 2.0 firmware release, which he says is supposed to hit on Oct. 30. While the source appears to be genuine, I am a little doubtful of the timing since 1.94 seems to be just hitting now with copies of Ratchet and Clank, so take this, as you should all rumors, with a grain of salt.

Chief among the updates is the inclusion of cross media bar customization, a separate Playstation Network category, music and photo playlists and the ability to turn your PS3 on and off with PSP Remote Play. Hit the jump for the full break down of what we're told will be coming in this rather robust update.

Good news and bad news. OK, really just good news for Nintendo.

Nintendo President Satoru Iwata today ruled out any price cut for the Wii today during a press conference, saying that they would be struggling to meet demand for the console. He added that the will begin selling the Wii in China next year and unveiled a new gift-giving feature for the Wii.

The new function will allow users to send each other games via the Wii's shopping channel. The user will purchase the game and then choose a recipient, who will receive an alert. When the other gamer accepts the gift the Wii will jump to the channel and start downloading.

"We think this will be a breakthrough in encouraging customers to spread news of fun games word of mouth," Iwata said. "We also hope to spur more users to connect their Wiis to the Internet," he said.

Just in time for the holidays. I wonder how well this will go over?

Nintendo Rules Out Wii Price Cut [AP]

"Fuck no, I don't play games"

He's an ex-Green Beret, combat correspondent, founder of Soldier of Fortune magazine, and hard-ass, but Robert Brown is no gamer.

His grandson is, he tells me moments later, as we walk down a hall lined with Soldier of Fortune back issues in his Boulder office, but that doesn't seem to sit well with him.

"He plays too fucking much."

"How old is he?"

"Too old. He's addicted. I'm afraid if I try a game, I'll get addicted too."

For your eyes only, the official trailer for the upcoming Soldier of Fortune: Payback shooter. Hell of a kicker. The Activision folks told me today that the game will be hitting the PC, Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 and that it won't be a "Value" title in either spirit or price.

Tomorrow Activision launches the site, which has the above trailer, the below screens and some more details. Hit the jump for a quick description of the plot.

Still Alive, as Stephen Totilo points out in his latest article, may be an anomaly: An original video game song that people like as much as or more than the game. And it looks like soon it will be available for purchase as part of The Orange Box soundtrack on Steam.

It is sublime, but I'm not sure how well it will stand on its own feet. The thing is, as much as I love that song, I know full well that I love it because of what I attach to it: The emotions I felt while playing Portal. And then that song hits at the end of a sublime experience and, at least for me, it pulls the whole thing together.

It's sort of like some movie soundtracks. When I was younger I would rush from a movie, sometimes, floating on the high of a story well told and go out and buy the soundtrack only to find that I hated the song when it wasn't connected directly with the experience.

That isn't to say that Jonathan Coulton's song isn't wondrous, or fun, but it's not something I think I'd want to listen to while jogging, or sitting on a train, or eating dinner or, well, doing anything other than soaking in the pleasure of a game well played.

I never again want to live through the embarrassment of carrying around a taped copy of Always Look on the Bright Side of Life from the Life of Brian only to discover that the song wasn't really meant for listening to in public.

But maybe it's just me.

I'll be, if I can get the equipment working, liveblogging a bit of Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction gameplay in a few minutes. The area I will be playing is from Level Six. As always I will try to avoid all spoilers, well at least plot ones.

Hop to the jump and comment away, I'll be reading the Kotaku comments to try and answer questions as I play.

OK, that's it, show's over. You can always hit up the Justin TV archives if you want to watch me playing.

When we usually talk about libraries and video games, it's generally a very formulaic story in which Small Town Library A is battling Parent Group B or Religious Group C to offer [fill in M rated game of choice] for the public to play. The conclusion is often that video games are probably suitable for libraries but there's controversy...yada yada yada.

But today we have a different story for you with a very different ending. The fact of the matter is, according to The Library of Congress, video games are just as important to our historical past as literature, movies and music. And at the moment, the LoC is teaming up with major universities across the country to begin a 2-year initiative with the sole intent of figuring out just how institutions can preserve video games for years to come, while making the content accessible for use and study.

So our story today doesn't present some artificial controversy ending in a sad, bleak future of debate and wasted efforts. Our story today is about the very real victory for game developers, enthusiasts and scholars, in which the top library in the nation has said they're part of this video game fad for the count.

After reading of the MTV intern's plight to create a Master Chief costume earlier this week I remembered that some reader had sent me a picture showing a pal of his wearing the helmet from the Legendary version of the game on his head.

I had asked him to email me the details on how it was achieved and then never heard back. So I decided to do it myself... big mistake.

As predicted, we lost the first ever Kotaku versus Gizmodo Halo 3 challenge last night, 4 to 2.

While the games were close, we should have had a clear, spotless victory since Kotaku alum and Bungie superstar Luke Smith was on our team. I blame, besides our general suckatude, the fact that we never played as a team prior to last night while Giz made the right decision to train as a unit nightly leading up to the event.

Hit the jump for the full report.

I may have been drunk when I suggested it last night, but it's a good question. OK, maybe it isn't, but I'm still going to ask it.

Why hasn't Bungie created a tool that allows for easy exporting of in-game Halo 3 videos? Currently you can shuffle around the data that helps recreate the video, but you still need to own the game to watch a replay and the only way you can create a playable video is by capturing it yourself. I'm sure this isn't news to anyone with a copy of the game.

Wouldn't it be nice though, if they came up with some sort of tool that allowed you to take that data, run it through an engine and export it as a video file? Granted I am a technological idiot when it comes to video... and lots of other things... but this seems like it would be useful.

I started thinking about this again this morning while talking to MTV's Stephen Totilo about the upcoming Spike TV Game Awards nominations. (Stay with me here). He had asked what nominees I had selected for breakthrough technology and mentioned he liked Bungie's Saved Films tech. While I agree it's a very important new element to Halo 3 and all games, I feel like it's a bit broken.

I mean you can do that in Skate, you can do that in Tony Hawk Proving Ground. Why not Halo 3?

Keeping the data in the game creates a hurdle for those who want to use it beyond their Xbox 360. Think of the Machinima applications. Much more importantly, think of how much more prevalent vid caps would be if you could get them onto YouTube with a click of a button.

Of course this all stems from my frustration at not being able to pull a vid of me teabagging Brian Lam for you to see from my saved films from last night.

Crecente's Saved Films

A pretty convincing rumor reports that Microsoft is teaming up with Toshiba to make a new Xbox 360 to compete with Sony's HD-enticing Blu-ray PS3. Here are the potential proposed specs that would come standard in the new device:

- HD DVD
- 1080p w/HDMI (doesn't sound much different)
- Wireless Networking
- dual HD tuners with program guide (no dvr?)
- MP3 player dock (possibly a new open standard ala ipod...won't happen, Zune is USB)
- Toshiba is also exploring a 40-inch TV that can dock the 360
- This same TV dock could allow for more hard drive or component swappability
- Expected in late 2008 or CES 2009

And here's the quote that adds some more (rumored) credibility to the rumor:

Watch live video from kotaku on Justin.tv

Live casting starts now. Watch and don't mock! Game starts on the hour best of seven. Guardian, Pit, Isolation, Construct and High Ground. Hit the jump for the live-ish blog!

Sure, we might have had a bit of nastiness this afternoon. People said things they regretted, POSTED PICTURES they regretted. But nothing can stand in the way of a Halo 3 grudge match... not even the bottle of wine I polished off tonight by myself.

It's on ladies and gentleman. Oh good God it's on. 11 p.m. Eastern. Best of seven. Team Slayer. There will be carnage. There will be smack talk. There will be tears. And I will be livecasting it on our rig... drunk.