Kotaku

A photo of this week's pre-newsstand Famitsu shows new SFIV character "El Fuerte." Not much is known about him other than he's a Lucha Libre wrestler. Hit the jump for a closer look.

Naughty video actresses get excited by things other than sex and money! Take rising star Sasha Grey (who was grilled by Tyra Banks). She's not only into things like punching and puking, but also Coleco Vision! In an interview with Hustler, Sasha says:

Favorite purchase of the past year? A brand new Coleco Vision...it's still in the box.

Take-Two Interactive announced today that BioShock 2 was officially in the works, under the development wing of the recently formed 2K Marin studio. The sequel—rumored to actually be a prequel—to the Xbox 360 and PC shooter is planned for a fourth-quarter fiscal 2009 release date. Take-Two's fiscal year ends October 31, so expect it to hit unspecified platforms (read: Xbox 360) before the '09 holidays.

Take-Two also noted that the original BioShock has 2 million unit sales under its belt since its August '07 release. No pressure, 2K Marin! No pressure at all.

While Kojima has already apparently moved on to other things, we haven't! Check out these new Metal Gear Solid 4 screenies. Looks like aqua green is the new brown! The game is out June 12th. Everywhere.

New Metal Gear Screens [eNe3]

While most of us in North America don't read the Dutch magazine Chief, one of our readers abroad pointed out that they'd run a major exclusive on upcoming Quantic Dream/Sony title Heavy Rain. (You know Quantic Dream as the company behind Fahrenheit/Indigo Prophecy, and you know Heavy Rain from my fanboy obsession).

Reader Saimon was kind enough to translate some of the more enticing statements about the title made by Quantic Dream's founder David Cage. And we were kind enough to copy and paste the translations after the jump.

Everyone knows that Ms. Pac Man is filled with ghosts, four of them to be specific. But a fifth ghost?

That's what a Boston-area Craigslister claimed when he was contacted to ask why he was giving away a Ms. Pac Man cabinet for free.

Someone on ArcadeControls.com contacted the cabinet owner for the explanation, which involves poltergeist, a crying 3-year-old and a "dark figure."

Remember Shredz64, Toni Westbrook's Guitar Hero retro port to the Commodore 64? What was once nothing but a fun concept is now a reality, with a playable C64 version of Harmonix's rhythm game that uses a standard guitar controller. It doesn't play stock tunes, as you might expect, but SID files, which Westbrook demonstrates in the above clip. The tune? The Legend of Zelda Overworld Theme, something that only makes us pine for Nintendo remixes in future Wii versions of Guitar Hero.

For more, without all the exposition, check out the second clip.

The still-yet-to-hit-newsstands issue of this week's Famitsu also unveils a new Soul Calibur IV female fighter named Scheherazade (bottom left). Plus! The SCIV version of nunchaku-swinging pirate Maxi is revealed as well. Couple these with the new Street Fighter IV fighter, and yes, this week's Famitsu is fighting game character all-you-can-announce smorgasbord! Or something.

Thanks, jayce!

Earlier, we posted that Capcom has been focus testing a new game, which could be Lost Planet Colonies or something else entirely. Capcom's PR blog posted a pic of the focus testing with the TV monitors blacked out. Thing is, Capcom left the Exif thumbnail on the original JPEG image. Since it's a JPEG, the image is small, but we've blown it up after the jump.

Side quests can sometimes be left on the side, so to speak. Pardon the pun. But a lot of times it's even just getting that whole game done, that first shot [that is important]. We look at "Mass Effect 2" as incredibly exciting. Just the amount of effort and knowledge and know-how that went into building the technology for the first one is huge, and [we now have] the chance to actually make things a little bit richer.

Following in its grand tradition of "hacking" reality with silly pranks around campus, a bunch of MIT students dressed up the main lobby of MIT with a bunch of Super Smash Bros. Brawl power-ups.

Celebrating the release of a big video game is starting to become a regular theme over there. If you recall, some pranksters dressed up John Harvard's statue to look like Master Chief when Halo 3 was released. The rather fuzzy pictures show a Mario hat, the Smash Bros. box, a Poke ball, a Smash ball, a banana peel. Not shown were some other power-ups hanging from the ceiling.

Ah MIT.

Thought we'd be satisfied with a single rain drenched Mark Wahlberg as Max Payne pic. One photo is not enough! No way, no how. We need more Mark, less rain. Check out the above photo of Marky Mark. It's the second shot of him as Max Payne. The third is after the jump. The fourth is somewhere else (we don't know!).

Like all parents, I know it is increasingly difficult to protect our children from negative influences... We have learned that when self-regulation fails, government must step in... We must do more to protect our children from excessive sex and violence in the media... Media content has gotten more graphic, more violent and more sex-based...

We already knew Brits like buying video games more than music. Now it seems like like playing video games more than doing each other. A survey from "bedroom specialist Sharps" polled 2,000 people in the UK about the most common activities in bed. What did the bedroom retailer find? Number one was sleeping, number two was talking. Three? That was watching TV. To see where gaming fell, hit the jump. It's surprising!

Bad Dick! Bad! That's a page from Australasian electronics retailer Dick Smith Electronics. The happy, solitaire kid is holding up two games: Gears of War and Halo 3. Perhaps they are games other children want! Perhaps. But both are games that children can buy, and there's not a parent in sight. In Australia, Halo is rated "M (Recommended for mature audiences)", but can be purchased by younger customers. Gears of War legally can't! It's rated M +15, meaning "Not suitable for people under 15. Under 15s must be accompanied by a parent or adult guardian." No wonder this kid's so happy! So if you are 10 years old, Dick Smith will totally hook you up.

Thanks, Christopher! Close-up after the jump.

Okay! Whew. We've got our finalists. Twelve of them. Usually, we don't like to do more more than seven — ten at the most. But these are too good — damn good, even. So, now it's time to vote. After the jump, write down one (yes, ONE) of the finalists you like best. Don't write down two or three or whatever, just one. Failure to do so will result in your vote counting for zip. Voting ends tonight at midnight EST. Winner gets a copy of Insecticide. Everyone else gets a warm fuzzy feeling inside. Yay!

We had been running traditional fashion and hair/make-up courses for a long time, but we came to realize that many of our students wanted to apply those skills to cosplay.

Anyone? Anyone at all? Seven screens are on offer, all new, all showing the Zerg in various stages of rippin' stuff up. People, Protoss, dirt, space stations, it doesn't matter. If it's ground, the Zerg will come, and they will rip. It. Up.

Back in 1999, Nintendo released Super Smash Bros. for the Nintendo 64, taking their most popular characters and dropping them into a simplistic fighting game that captured the hearts of millions of gamers around the world. Its sequel, Super Smash Bros. Melee, was the best-selling title in the entire GameCube library, so you can see why Super Smash Bros. Brawl has a lot to live up to. The game is bigger, with more characters, more stages, and star cameos from a few non-Nintendo properties like Sonic the Hedgehog and Solid Snake, but does it live up to the legacy of its predecessors?

The results are plain as red and blue.

"We will go out and destroy Indiana Jones at the box office!" thundered a confident Uwe "Raging" Boll of the first film to win him positive reviews, even from the video game community.

To celebrate the South by Southwest Festival, Harmonix released today a SXSW DLC pack for Rock Band featuring Shockwave by Black Tide, Crushcrushcrush by Paramore and Serj Tankian's Beethoven C*** for just under $3. You can also buy the songs for $0.99 a pop.

All three bands will be playing at the Hot Topic/Xbox Live/ Rock Band party at Austin's La Zona Rosa on March 13 and March 14. Attendees will also be able to play the game at the part and check out music by other SXSW bands like Flyleaf, Phantom Planet, Chiodos and Drop Dead, Gorgeous.

Full release on the jump.

With Microsoft dropping Xbox 360 prices by a substantial chunk of change in Europe this Friday, you have to wonder how Sony is taking the news. While Strategy Analytics analyst David Mercer doesn't see the price of the PlayStation 3 dropping before the end of the year, he does believe Sony is going to be paying close attention to their day-to-day sales numbers from here on out.

"Sony will be nervous that the PS3's recent sales surge may fizzle out now that the premium Xbox 360 undercuts the PS3 by GBP 40, and the cheapest Xbox model is almost half the price of the PS3," commented principle analyst David Mercer.

Sony "nervous" following Xbox 360 price cut [GamesIndustry.biz]