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    DS piracy leads to 2.5-year prison sentence

    August 3, 2009 - 3:10pm

    DS pirates in Japan aren't just at risk of having to forgo Facebook -- there could also be jail time involved. Yoshiaki Asagiri has been found guilty of copyright violations by a Kyoto district court, and sentenced to two and a half years of jail, plus over nine million yen (almost $100,000) in fines.Judge Junichi Tochigi said that "This crime is an insult to the efforts of the rights holders who spent great amounts in the production of the games. It's clear that the rights holders suffered great losses."Asagiri was more than just a casual downloader of DS ROMS. Along with friends, he created a website to distributed copied DS game files. He also participated in other forms of piracy, including selling designer knockoff goods. But even with those extra circumstances, that jail time is enough to send a chill down the spine (and peg leg) of even the most casual downloader.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

    Guitar Hero 5 also supports Miis

    August 3, 2009 - 2:30pm

    Wii owners: don't feel left out by the Xbox Guitar Hero 5's support of Avatars! You'll also be able to make your big-eyed simulacra windmill their (nonexistent) arms like lil' Pete Townshends (even as lil' Pete Townshends, now that we think about it). An Activision rep confirmed to Eurogamer that Mii support would be present in GH5.Of course, the exact same "Mii Freestyle" mode was already present in the Wii version of Guitar Hero World Tour, so its inclusion in Guitar Hero 5 is less groundbreaking than the Avatar support -- if only because that particular ground has already been broken in the Wii games. Unfortunately for Quincys about to rock, there are "no plans to have Home Avatars for the PS3 version."Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

    Monster Hunter Tri coming to US, Europe in (sigh) early 2010

    August 3, 2009 - 1:00pm

    Wii owners eager to take sword in hand and slay humongous creatures had best take note of Capcom's latest announcement: Monster Hunter Tri is set to depart from Japan (and assured smash-hit status) and arrive in American and European homes in early 2010. The Wii incarnation will boast both online and offline cooperative modes, as well as "strikingly beautiful" graphics and the challenging quests that fans of the franchise have come to expect.If you consider yourself to be outside that rather large group of the gaming population and have no idea what to expect, understand that among franchises like Devil May Cry and Resident Evil, Monster Hunter stands out as having a remarkably straightforward title. As the titular monster hunter, you'll track down and slay all manner of snarling creatures, only to turn them into better equipment to facilitate more dangerous monster hunt ... ery. Find it, stab it and then make it into a nice hat!
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    Call of Duty: Modern Warfare: Mobilized headed to DS

    August 3, 2009 - 12:00pm

    crude artist's interpretation, media forthcoming
    Activision has announced that Modern Warfare will be traversing a much smaller battlefield this holiday with the introduction of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare: Mobilized for the DS. It's a little joke, see, because it's mobile? Get it? Anyway, the title is being developed by n-Space, which also worked up the DS versions of both Call of Duty 4 and World at War.Mobilized is set to feature "building-to-building tactical combat," controllable vehicles and will serve as a "companion narrative," presumably to its big brother on consoles. The game will also feature online multiplayer for up to six players, including a Survival Mode that pits players against waves of AI opponents, a la Horde Mode in Gears of War 2. An Arcade mode will also challenge players to rack up a high score. Expect Modern Warfare: Mobilized to assault retailers on November 10th. Also, on a completely unrelated note, every holiday DS game has now been delayed until 2010.Permalink | Email this | Comments

    Facebook integrated with DSi in North America tonight

    August 3, 2009 - 11:30am


    Regardless of what your weekend activities may have been, we know it was hard to enjoy yourself, knowing that people in Japan and Europe were sharing their DSi photos on Facebook higglety pigglety, while yours were trapped by a lack of DSi 1.4 firmware like Zod and crew in the Phantom Zone.Finally, said photos can be set free with an update to your DSi arriving at 8 p.m. EST in North America. Can you even wait until then? Yes, we imagine you can.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

    UK chart get: Wii Sports Resort soars

    August 3, 2009 - 10:30am

    Nintendo's latest flagship title continues to dominate the UK sales charts. According to Chart Track, Wii Sports Resort is the top-selling title for the second week in a row. After two weeks at fourth place, Wii Fit returns to second -- we guess people were just in a mood to buy things with Wii in the title last week. We suspect the top two will look much like this for a while -- Resort may just be starting an extended period of Wii Fit-like success.If they weren't buying games labeled Wii, they were buying things with the EA logo. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 is at the number three spot, followed by Harry Potter & The Half-Blood Prince and Fight Night Round 4.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

    Watch four videos of The Beatles: Rock Band [update 3]

    August 3, 2009 - 12:30am


    Update: Alas, the videos featured last night have been removed from YouTube due to a "copyright claim by Viacom." Sorry to everyone who missed them!Update 2: As some of our commenters have smartly pointed out, all four of the removed videos are available legally through the official website for The Beatles: Rock Band. Update 3: It seems as though even three of the four tracks have been removed from the official website for the game, and now only "Birthday" is available. Sorry again, folks! There's nothing we like more than sitting back on a Sunday evening and listening to some good music. Tonight we're offering you the chance to listen along with us, with four tracks from The Beatles: Rock Band. Better yet, we've got the videos from the game as well for your viewing pleasure, just after the break. While we're partial to the video for "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band," who are we to go all willy nilly suggesting what you choose to enjoy? Kick off your slippers and get ready for sheep counting with a handful of Beatles music from us to you. Oh, and if it's your birthday, happy birthday to you. (Sorry, we couldn't resist.) [Thanks, Jon Q!]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

    Pearl Jam's next album simultaneously arrives at retail, in Rock Band 2

    August 2, 2009 - 2:30pm


    For a site that writes about all things video games, we've written an awful lot about Pearl Jam over the last couple of years. In fairness, Pearl Jam has been making a lot of noise on the rhythm game front, releasing an entire album as DLC for Rock Band 2, eliciting responses from their community on a future "Rock Band project," and now, announcing that their next album is dropping day and date at retail as well as DLC for Rock Band 2. Billboard spoke with the band and confirmed that their next album, titled "Backspacer," will be "available on Rock Band the day it comes out." Additionally, Target will be getting its own version of the album that will come with a code to download various PJ songs in Rock Band -- a tactic that the group's employed in the past. "Backspacer" hits stores and XBLM/PSN on September 20. [Via VG247]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

    A Boy and His Blob's new screenshots warm our hearts

    August 2, 2009 - 12:30pm


    We'll be honest -- the upcoming re-imagining of A Boy and His Blob for Nintendo Wii makes our hearts go aflutter. The newest screens, grabbed by Aussie-Nintendo, do little more than entice us while we patiently wait for the game's release date. When is that again? Oh, right, we have no idea.

    We do, however, have two videos from back in March to compare with today's screens, which we're pleased to say look just as good as the videos did back then. And just look at that adorable picture with the game's main character taking a snooze! Sorry, sorry, we'll be over here being total creeps. You enjoy the new screens below.

    [Via GoNintendo]
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    ESRB reveals localization plan for Let's Hitchhike

    August 1, 2009 - 6:35pm

    Let's Hitchhike from NIS (actually, Let's Zenryoku Hitchhike!!!!!!!!!, but we'll stick to Let's Hitchhike) is one of the weirdest games on WiiWare -- a board game with a hitchhiking mechanic and an angry restaurant owner as the primary antagonist. It might not be Muscle March weird, but it's quirky enough to get our attention.According to a new ESRB listing, NIS is planning to localize Let's Hitchhike as Full Blast Hitchhike. The content description offers two examples of the English version's "tongue in cheek humor": "What are the two sexiest farm animals? Brownchickenbrowncow!" and "Japanese girls are great! W-well...not as great as YOU, my pet." If you enjoyed those, be sure to give Full Blast Hitchhike a ride whenever it actually, you know, is announced and released for real.Also found via ESRB: the Wii version of Geon, now published by UFO Interactive and called Geon Cube -- not to be confused with Technos's Geom Cube.[Via GoNintendo]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments