We’re surprised it didn’t happen sooner, but Activision have announced that they have had to pull Wolfenstien from sale in Germany after a swastika was found in the game.  Attention all Germans: don't look As you may know, the swastika and other Nazi related symbols are illegal in Germany and punishable by law with the exception of educational reasons, but this isn’t the first time that a game has been banned due to Nazi imagery. The original Wolfenstien 3D was also banned in 1994 for this very reason.
Activision responded to the news, saying:
"Although it is not a conspicuous element in the normal game... we have decided to take this game immediately from the German market."
Looks like Activision are playing it safe with this one.
Australian gamers won’t be able to kill zombies in Left 4 Dead 2 after it was announced, last week, that the games had been banned due to the intense “depictions of violence”. Well, EA’s Tiffany Steckler has shared the company’s views regarding the situation.
"It's funny that a place like Australia, which has come up with some pretty violent material in the past with something like Mad Max, can effectively ban video games for the same reason."
"EA believes that adults should have the right to make their own choices when it comes to the content they consume."
She makes a good point. If Valve want to release their game down-under, then they’ll have to do some major teaks to the game.
This piece of news is a bit of a no-brainer, but Nintendo have announced three new colours for the DSi will be available from October 23rd. The colours are Metallic Blue, Light Blue and Red.
The new colours will come pre-loaded with the very popular Flipnote Studio and will also have the Facebook functionality right out of the box. Also, anyone who buys a DSi from now until March 31st, 2010 will be able to receive 1,000 Nintendo DSi points for free which will allow you to purchase exclusive DSiWare games and applications through the DSi Shop.  We want one now! Not only are Nintendo bringing out new colours for the DSi but they also announced a new games called Nintendo presents: Style Boutique where you run your own fashion store and enter fashion contests. Yes, really.
“Nintendo presents: Style Boutique, for both the Nintendo DS and Nintendo DSi, challenges you to run your own fashion store as a style consultant, hand pick your own stock from 10,000 items, take part in Fashion Contests to win special items, open a branch of your shop online and even play against other consultants in multiplayer modes. Working your way up from shop assistant in a store, you can offer clothing advice and outfits for customers. With each customer having their own style and personality, you need to choose their clothes carefully to make a successful sale.”
If we were in a Roman coliseum, right now, we’d be giving Nintendo presents: Style Boutique some major thumbs down, whilst shouting “KILL THEM!”. The new colours sound pretty cool, though.
A document containing minuets of a meeting between Sony Computer Entertainment of America (SCEA) and Sega has surfaced on the internet and it contains some rather interesting stuff.
The document revealed that Sony is planning to release their motion controller in March in Japan and Spring for Europe and America. They estimate that the new motion controller will shift between 4-5 million units worldwide, although there have been no plans to bundle the new controller with any games or consoles, yet.
Sony also plans to sell PS2 games on the PlayStation Network, similar to what Microsoft are doing with their ‘Xbox Classics’ range of downloadable titles. The document also mentions the possibility of a new ‘Japanese Import’ section of the PS Store where people can buy Japan-only PS3 titles.
But what is perhaps the best news of the lot is the possibility of Dreamcast games making their way to the PS Store and a ‘Best of Sonic’ compilation, which will have all the old Sonic games, on one Blu-Ray disc.
Sounds all very exciting so far. We just hope that the Dreamcast downloads happen in the near future.
The boss at RedOctane, Kai Huang, has said that Microsoft’s motion sensing Natal technology is “exciting” and that a Natal version Guitar Hero, or one that supports the motion sensing tech, is “likely”.  Don't worry, the camera won't be THAT big Huang said:
"We've definitely been evaluating Microsoft's Natal technology along with a lot of other different technologies that could enhance the Guitar Hero playing experience"
"I think the technology is very exciting. "I think it's likely that sometime in the future we'll have those technologies integrated into our games."
This backs up the statement from Neversoft’s product lead, Brian Right, that the developer was also interested in Natal.
To all of the people who are hoping that Goldeneye will be released on the Xbox Live Arcade, it looks as if it won’t happen, as Rare have said that it will never see the light of day.
A comeback did look promising when screenshots of a graphically improved version of Goldeneye were flying through the world wide web just a few months ago, but this latest news has left people wondering if the most beloved FPS on the N64 will ever make a comeback.
A representative for Rare said:
“That was some time ago.”
"Fate was against us that day. Destiny conspired to raise the hurdles even as we attempted to clear them, resulting in unpleasant groinal injury. I suspect we're long past the stage where an agreement was on the cards, but you never know. Stranger things have happened... somewhere... probably."
Honestly, we don’t know what all the fuss is about. Sure, Goldeneye was a great game back in 1997 and the multiplayer was just awesome. But, unfortunately, it’s aged terribly. Personally, we’d rather stick with Halo or Call of Duty. Sorry, 007.
Oh! And in case you’re still holding your breath about a Virtual Console release, then we’re sorry to say that it’s very unlikely.  It almost happened. Almost.
According to reports, Sega is planning to bring out the third instalment of the Yakuza series in Europe and America.
The first two games were released over here, but we had to wait a year for each one to come out after there were out in Japan. But the Yakuza 3 looked as if it would never be released outside of Japan, but that could all change.
Sega of America assistant community manager Aaron Webber said:
"Yakuza 3 is not cancelled - and the possibility for localizing it does, in fact, still exist."
"The original news story that went around about Yakuza 3 being declined for the US was false, and localizing the game still remains a big point of discussion for many people here at SEGA, and especially those of us on SEGA's community team.”
Look like we’ll, once again, be able to beat up some Japs, but this time it’ll be in HD. Whooo! We’ll bring you more on this story as it develops.
There’s no denying that Street Fighter IV is a gaming masterpiece. From it’s gorgeous graphics to the well-balanced gameplay, Street Fighter IV is defiantly a game that’s hard to fault. So it seemed inevitable, judging by the millions of copies that it sold, that Capcom would be interested in making a sequel.
In the Japanese Street Fighter IV official blog, writer Natsuki Shiozawa promised readers that she would talk about a possible sequel and she kept her promise by saying that a more solid announcement would be made in the future. That’s kind of a rip off, if you ask us Mrs. Shiozawa.
What we mean by ‘sequel’ is that, we’d imagine, Capcom would release a Turbo, Super or Special edition of Street Fighter IV and possible add new characters like in Super Street Fighter II where Dee Jay, T. Hawk, Cammy and Fei Long were introduced to the series.
We’re all looking forward to hear more about this sequel. We’d guess that an appearance from Dee Jay and T. Hawk is on the cards or even some of the guys from 3rd Strike or Alpha, but it’s just too early to say.  We want more! We want more!
After last months announcement of BioShock 2 being delayed till ‘fiscal 2010’, 2K Studios have confirmed that the highly anticipated sequel will be arriving for the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC on February 9th and will be released worldwide.
The single player mode, being developed by 2K Marin, is set after the first game where “a monster has been snatching little girls and bringing them back to the undersea city of Rapture”, but the multi-player modes, which are being developed by Digital Extremes, is set before the first game, so players will now get a glimpse of what Rapture was like before everything went wrong.  Where can we get one of those Big Daddy dolls? There still hasn’t been any confirmation of an age rating yet, but we're pretty sure that it will be an 18 like the previous one was. We’ll bring you more details as we get them.
Jon Bon Jovi has revealed that Activision originally approached him with an offer to appear in Guitar Hero 5, but he decided to pass on the offer.
“I had the paperwork, they wanted me to be on that game and I just passed.”
He also went on to say that he understands why Courtney Love was so pissed off when she, not only, saw Kurt Cobain in the game but also singing other peoples songs.
“No-one even broached the subject with me that I would be singing other people’s stuff. I don’t know how I would have reacted to that. I don’t know that I would have wanted it either.”
“To hear someone else’s voice coming out of a cartoon version of me? I don’t know. It sounds a little forced.”
For crying out loud, people, it’s just a video game. Get over yourselves.
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