A certain Mr. Hideo Kojima was in Oxford Street, London the other day (I only first learned about it from reading the trashy free papers that they give out near the Tube stations) signing 300 limited edition CD sleeves of Metal Gear Solid 4. Check out the queues.

Coupled with the strict NDAs surrounding the games press, it’s hard not to be caught in the claws of hype once again.

So, I was feeling a bit off this morning and also broke the news to my manager that I wasn’t going to be extending my contract. The perfect time to chuck a sickie!

• According to Major Nelson, 2 million GTA:IV achievements were unlocked in the first 24 hours of release. As mentioned in the link, these are only the figures for the Xbox.
• On that note, GTA:IV has sold just under a million copies in five days. More figures at the link.
• Here’s some info on what to expect from MGS4 multiplayer. MGS4 looks to be a fine swan song for everybody’s favourite geriatric super spy.
• Blizzard’s digital distribution store lets you download some of your favourite Blizzard titles, as well as register them with Blizzard so as to be included in “beta lotteries”. Intriguing, and sweet.
• Kotaku has linked an article explaining why those Xbox 360 HDDs are so very expensive. Can hardly blame them for trying to turn a profit…well, maybe I can.
• The DRM used for Mass Effect will be similar in nature to Bioshock. As most of us know, the DRM issue was one of the many controversies surrounding Bioshock…let’s hope that there won’t be a repeat performance for the PC players.
• That DRM stuff also applies to Spore. Bah.
• PS3 sales have overtaken Xbox 360 sales in Europe. Because of the Blu-ray player, perhaps? “And it plays games, as well!” says the salesperson at your local electronics store.
• Either way, the Xbox 360 will also be getting a Blu-ray player at some point in time.
• In other news, Jack Thompson rants to a mother, everybody laughs.
• Some more sombre news - THQ announced some job cuts following a “very tough year”. This credit crisis can’t be helping consumers spend all that much, either.

Are you looking forward to GTA:IV? Yeah, I bet you are. You bastards.

• First up, an interview with Rockstar founder Sam Houser on 1up. Edge also did a pretty in-depth interview in their previous issue.
• More GTA:IV-ness as the Chicago Transit Authority gives up an advertising contract for GTA:IV based on a response to earlier GTA:SA advertisements. Keep it to Viva Pinata on the Tube, eh?
• If you haven’t already heard, the next Mortal Kombat iteration will be MK versus DC. As in, DC Comics. Yeah, Batman vs. Sub-Zero.
• Korn made a song based on Haze. It’s “the shit”.
• DMC4 is coming to PC. Looks like there’ll be a frame rate hike and DX9 and DX10 support…and those screenshots look half decent.
• Activision CEO says that “EA takes away studios’ souls“. Also, contracts are signed in blood and virgins sacrificed to hideous beastmen.
• According to Chinese state media (I know), China has surpassed the US to become the world’s largest Internet-using population. South Korea must be livid.
• I don’t care much for these kinds of articles because they don’t really prove all that much, but I’ll put it up anyway - here’s a faceoff between Xbox 360 and PS3 in terms of graphical quality across a number of recently released multi-platform titles. There’s also a list of previous face-offs on the page.
• Lolcats made the news…I chuckled audibly.
• I have a feeling that the Chinese Olympic Games will not go down well at all - Chinese hackers are putting their efforts behind the motherland. Better take our PM’s cue and start learning that Mandarin, eh?

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to break into my local GAME store.

According to Internode:

We strongly support the OLFC and will continue to work within their guidelines; however we believe the government needs to bring games in line with other media by introducing an R18+ rating, or edits to games will continue to be necessary. We encourage consumers to let their politicians know that they support an R18+ rating for games.

Get writing, people.

I feel bad for leaving this alone. I’m the workaholic father that would rather stay back in the office rather than go back home and spend some time with his kid, saying to it every so often, “Hi, kiddo, how’s it going?”

Anyway, on to the links (with some not entirely related to gaming):

• eBay is set to process COD and PayPal options only in forthcoming auctions from June 17th onwards. Customer security interests at heart, or a bit of a sneaky move on eBay’s part?
• A cool article on someone graphically modelling computer viruses. That someone may or may not have an abundance of time on their hands.
• Another SMH article, this time bemoaning the lack of sales momentum from the 360 steam train. “But arguably the biggest factor in the 360’s dwindling sales compared to its rivals is that Microsoft has not delivered the kind of wide-appeal, “casual” games that Sony and Nintendo have regularly produced.” Does this make me hardc0re?
• I didn’t realise that people still played GameCube, but I underestimated the timelessness of the console after the announcement of a White GameCube controller available for sale soonish (in Japan only, afaik).
• It turns out that GlaDOS (of Portal fame, if you recently had that all-important lobotomy) is a bondage whore. Yeah. That boy needs therapy.
• A rumour has emerged that Microsoft may be working on a motion controller, not unlike a Wii controller. I’d still feel like one of those kid actors that “play” video games in romantic comedy movies, thrusting their controller in every which way as if it makes a difference. (I guess come Winter it will.)
• Turns out that if EA successfully merge with Take-Two Interactive, it could mean the delay of the GTAIV launch for April 29th. Screw you guys and your GTAIV-playing consoles.

Ministers fail to agree on game change rating (Sydney Morning Herald).

It’s sad when things don’t progress.

I’ve ranted about this one way too many times, so I’ll just reiterate the facts I know.

• Games are not only played by children. The average age of gamers is 28 years old. Unless you are generations away from the primordial soup, it is not an age commonly associated with becoming impressionable overnight due to moving pictures on a screen. (And if you are 28 years old and a prehistoric being, you should marvel at the fact that you have lived beyond 15.)
• R18+ ratings are present in other forms of media, such as films and publications. Such ratings are helpful in informing parents and guardians whether or not such material is suitable for their children.
• History has shown that prohibition is not an overly effective means to preventing access to a good or service.

It looks like that the proposal will be taken to the public. A public forum will open things up a bit - I’m personally hanging out for the fights between evangelistic mothers and outspoken gamer-geeks.

In the meantime, if you’re an Aussie gamer who would rather not resort to illegal downloads and bootleg imports to enjoy titles available everywhere else, you can make your voice heard here.

My last trip was to Berlin, and it was…weird. The buildings that were levelled by the Allied bombings (that is, most of them) are now replaced by hastily erected apartments that look several floors too small. And despite the fall of the Wall, there’s still an eerie lingering scent of Communism lingering in the air. Maybe it was just me, a young Oriental man stranded in a very, very white populace?
Potsdam was nice, though.

Not many articles here - by now you’re all playing Vegas 2 or DMC4 working on those Achievements. You bastards.

• 50 Cent II is coming out. The gushing reviews must have had something to do with it. In this latest episode, you’ll find Fiddy and his G-g-g-g-g-g-unit “stranded in an unnamed Middle Eastern country after a benefit concert goes awry”. The irony works on so many levels here - I’m just waiting for the cartoon series to come out.
• Some corporate propaganda always helps to whip the general public into shape - Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 has sold around 2 million units. Good news for the big-name publisher, but mo’ money mo’ problems. (They should make a game on P Diddy while they’re at it, building him up from a struggling freestyle rap artist in the early 90s or something.)
• I thought it was scrapped (maybe I’m confusing with Halo) but the Gears of War film is on track for 2010. “”We’ve got our script on and a director we’re about to attach. We’ll hopefully make that early next year for the summer of 2010,” said (Gears’ producer) Godfrey.”
• This is kinda sickening, but typical of sensationalist tabloidism - a newspaper is offering readers cash to share their stories about how video games turned them to a life of crime. So, rather than actually go out and do some investigative research, we pay some random strangers off the Internet to tell us stories which may or may not be true. Nice one.
• This is a great opinion piece on the sanctity of video game writing. Worth a read if you want something nice and bitter.
• Another good piece of Escapist writing dealing with the common theme of the social stigma of video games and the media bashing; this time it’s from the perspective of a veteran games designer. “What’s sad is that their ideological, ignorant, hostile, one-dimensional attitudes oversimplify one of the most beautiful problems in human history. It makes me very sad that many of these people will die fearing games. I would so rather include them, but they have to meet us in the middle or become sad, lonely, reclusive luddites.”