In other news, Microsoft is late to the party AGAIN. (I know it’s a lame analogy. At least I didn’t say “LAN party.”)

The HD DVD player for the XBox 360 is “officially” $50. Not recommended unless you have the shelf-space to buy one of every “limited edition”, made in China toy and keep it in the original packaging…

Good rumors from the Destination Playstation conference. Per some sources at the retailer show, alongside the Gran Turismo 5 Prologue launch on April 15th will be a redesign of the Playstation Store.

The new Playstation Store is rumored to look a lot like the SingStore (that’s it in the picture) and have an improved navigation system. I’m still not sure it will measure up to XBox Live where I’m spending at least 10x more than I am in the Playstation Store. Then again, at least the rumored launch date isn’t April 1st.

[via Kotaku]

In-game AI has a bad reputation and I haven’t heard high expectations about game AI since before Quake 2 launched. Then again, we’re sure not evolving that fast and I’m sure that once game developers go beyond state machines and minimax this could happen. Play the online 20 Questions game for just a taste of a neural network that’s an example of one new technique that’s starting to be used.

With all the new genetic algorithms and neural networks out now I think it’s definitely possible that AI will hand most of us our tails in about 20 years. Hit us up in the comments if you think so too.

Besides … getting beat by a machine might not be that bad either. At least they won’t gloat over it (yet).

[via Engadget]

[via YesButNoButYes]

The killing blow was probably Warner’s well-timed (or poorly-timed, depending on which side of the battle you were cheering for) pre-CES announcement that it was dropping publication of the HD DVD format. A big studio switching formats like that likely motivated the quick one-two of Blockbuster and Netflix officially supporting only Blu-Ray. After all the bad news Toshiba’s concession quickly followed the final Friday announcement by Wal-Mart that they would follow suit.

I’m actually shocked that Toshiba dropped out of the race so gracefully. Their losses may be into the hundreds of millions of dollars, but the move should save consumers a bundle as higher sales should lead Blu-Ray drive and disc prices to fall.

Speaking of falling prices, new and used XBox HD DVD drives accompanied by stacks of games are already littering eBay. Prices are only half what they were last week – and they’ll probably be half that after the holiday on Tuesday.

If you’re now in the market for a Blu-Ray player, the PS3 is future-proofed with support for version 2.0 of the Blu-Ray format. Oh, And, it plays games too.

On sort-of-sale are the the 40GB PS3, which comes with a $40 Target gift card, and a stack of popular PS3 and XBox 360 shooters, which each come with a $10 Target gift card. Hop on over to CheapAssGamer for the full list and copies of Target’s Sunday flyer.

All three songs are included in the hidden list found by laconic this week that everyone thinks is Harmonix’s future-song-list. The full list, minus released songs, is posted after the jump.

• Garbage “Why Do You Love Me?“
• Stone Temple Pilots “Sex Type Thing“
• Weezer “El Scorcho“

Click for 30-sec song previews.

Full, hidden song list:

(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction
Alabama Getaway
Beetlebum
Behind Blue Eyes
Blinded By Fear
Breed
Brown Sugar
Casey Jones
China Cat Sunflower
Come as You Are
D.O.A.
Drain You
El Scorcho
Franklin’s Tower
Fuel
Hysteria
I Need A Miracle
Lithium
Lounge Act
March Of The Pigs
Message In A Bottle
On a Plain
Pinball Wizard
Polly
Received Your Letter
Rock ‘n’ Roll Star
Sex Type Thing
Shadow World
Shooting Star
Simple Man
Smells Like Teen Spirit
Something in the Way
Stay Away
Still Alive
Sugar Magnolia
Supernaut
Territorial Pissings
The Collector
The Perfect Drug
Thrasher
Through the Monsoon
Truckin’
Why Do You Love Me?
Wrathchild
Zero

The limited edition version of Rainbow Six Vegas 2 gives you … hold on this is *so exciting* … pro tip videos, frag dolls, and a keychain (WTF?). If you can’t contain yourself either the box will be on store shelves March 18th for an extra $10. As if $60 wasn’t enough already, now we’re going to get some videos that will be on YouTube before lunchtime on the 18th and a freaking keychain for $69.99.

Someone send us a pic of their keychain. I’d love to know if the thing is even made from a semi-real’ish poker chip.

Disclaimer on the video: Not safe for work. Nothing graphic and no sexual acts depicted, just an implied menage a trois and digital nipples.

Between January 31st and today Super Smash Bros Brawl has sold 1.08 million copies in Japan. That’s the fastest-selling Wii game ever in Japan. Over 5 weeks faster than Wii Fit, sold separately from the console there, made it to the platinum sales mark.

We can hardly wait until March 9th, and it doesn’t seem like anyone else can either. Despite console shortages meaning less gamers to be shopping, I’ll bet when the game drops here it won’t take nearly 11 days for sales to hit the million mark.

[via Reuters]

• The Clash’s “Complete Control“
• The Police’s “Truth Hits Everybody“
• The Ramones’ “Teenage Lobotomy“

If you’re a punk fan there’s also a 3-pack of all three songs available – for a big 50¢ savings.

Medal of Honor Heroes 2 for Wii does not support online functionality in Australia. We made an error in the documentation and marketing materials. We are very sorry to have caused confusion for our customers. We will provide a refund to anyone in Australia who wishes to return the game to EA because of the lack of online functionality.

No note on how to get the refund from EA, but we’re pretty sure that “refund” means you’re getting money back (some day). We’ll keep watching for info on how to get the refund and post here when it’s available.

This won’t be the last nail in HD DVD’s coffin, but it’s a major one. It also means you should cancel your order for that XBox 360 HD DVD add-on. Microsoft has already admitted that they “could still develop a Blu-ray Disc drive for the Xbox 360.” Get with it already Microsoft, you’re falling even farther behind PS3 in the tech race.

Anyone reading this actually buy an HD DVD add-on for the XBox 360? It’s hard to be sympathetic to money bags, but tell about it in the comments and we’ll try.

Update: It looks like Best Buy has followed the Netflix lead today. They’ll be pushing Blu-Ray players in stores, though they’ll continue to sell HD DVD discs.

• Guitar Hero III add-ons and major content packs, plus Guitar Hero IV this fall
• Call of Duty 5, assuming it stays on-schedule
• An adaptation of Quantum of Solace, the new James Bond movie
• Another Tony Hawk skateboarding game, supposedly totally revamped after EA’s Skate won this year
• One more Spider Man game
• Multiple sequels for DreamWorks’ movie sequels: two Kung Fu Panda games and Madagascar 2
• A Marvel Ultimate Alliance sequel

Plan for another fat, happy year if you own Activision stock, or their parent Vivendi Games (if owning stocks if your thing). If you’re a gamer, are you going to be happy with Guitar Hero IV, Call of Duty 5, and more of the same? Let us know in the comments.

[via Variety Blogs]

EA is currently testing the waters with such a game–Facebook Smarty Pants, a repurposed version of last year’s Wii-exclusive trivia title Smarty Pants.

Working with social application development house Context Optional, the two companies created the title, an online-only application that challenges gamers in many of the same ways the Wii game did (only without the Wii controller interface).

Seriously? Did EA run out of ideas? Since when does a small developer need help to launch a Facebook app? Unless a couple of college kids really want to meet an actress or model from CAA’s talent pool I don’t know why they’d need EA’s help.

Tip to current Facebook developers: launch version 1 on your own. If it takes off then version 2 can go to the next level with the extra resources of Blueprint, plus you’ll get a bigger share of ownership if the game already has an audience.

[via Gametap]

[image: 1010 Wins]

So far, giant gold coins are winning by a good margin, of course, but that’s because people voted without thinking very hard about how many places actually accept huge gold coins as legal tender, and they also neglected to consider how many actual, easy-to-use dollar bills they could procure if they were able to shoot fire balls out of their hands. Also, think of all the ladies and/or dudes you could impress or kidnap, as the case may be.

There are only five options listed. Are there any that aren’t on there you would like to have been able to vote for? Being able to wear the same red overalls every day without people judging? Turning into a flying raccoon whenever a certain type of leaf touched you? Warp zones? What’s your Mario wish?