Furthermore, Iwata said that those numbers will decline if the company doesn’t “take aggressive action” on the online front — which it of course plans to do. All we can say is; it’s about damn time!

This comes after Activision had hired an online investigation firm to look into suspicious posts on Craigslist advertising Modern Warfare 2 Xbox 360 bundles for sale. With the age of high-speed internet, where anyone can download the pirated version, why would you even try and sell the pirated version on a burned disc? That kind of “business” seems so 1999.

This is an increase of a staggering 835% compared to last year, mainly fueled by MMO Aion — one of the few big MMO releases this yea — which was pre-ordered over 400,000 times, the publisher revealed, and proudly added that sales numbers top 500,000 copies in North America, and 470,000 copies in Europe.

This is a good idea in theory, as it gives plenty of time for players to explore the world instead of just going XP hunting. We’ll see if it pays off with increased subscriber count.

In The Ballad Of Gay Tony, you play as Luis Lopez, a nightclub manager and Tony Prince’s — aka. Gay Tony — business partner. Gay Tony, who’s gay in the most extravagant fashion, owns a few nightclubs and the biggest gay club in town, and when a deal goes bad, he sends you to recover some stolen diamonds — the same diamonds that were mentioned in GTA 4 and Lost and Damned — making you progress through mission by mission, GTA 4 style, on a hunt.

The missions in The Ballad Of Gay Tony are far more over the top than in GTA 4 and the previous episode, you’ll be shooting down helicopters from moving trains, blowing up a group of crooked cops and even helicopter dog fights — where your helicopter is made of gold. Yep, quite over the top. You’ll actually be blowing up plenty of stuff in the game, there’s far more action and large set pieces than in previous games, you’ll even get to drive an armored personnel carrier this time, with a sweet 20mm chain gun that obliterates everything in your path. On top of that, you gotta do your regular job, which is to manage clubs, and there’s even a mini-game where you can shake it on the dance floor, which, as you might expect, is pretty darn boring compared to the real missions.

However, there seems to be a lack of consistency with the missions, you’ll go from a few awesome high-octane missions to some that can be categorized as the most boring of both episodes. There are some good additions to the gameplay though, for instance, every time you complete a mission, you get a score, and when you’ve completed the game, you can go back and try to beat that score, which adds some replayability to the game — more than the previous editions. It’s also worth mentioning that the game includes a ton of content, missions and side missions, far more than one might expect from a DLC.

Technically, the game is up to par with the other GTA 4 games, and that means the visuals are beginning to showing their age. The character animations look dated and the visuals still feature low res textures and some popping here and there. The music and voice acting are top notch, GTA 4 quality as you might expect, and the game runs pretty smooth throughout. On the multiplayer side, there isn’t much addition, unfortunately, as this looks to be a very single-player focused episode. In conclusion, GTA 4: The Ballad of Gay Tony will most definitely satisfy GTA 4 fans, and you won’t be disappointed with the last installment in the series. Also, we finally get to know what happened to those darn diamonds.

The Good:
Lots of content
Great gameplay
Lots of action
Top notch voice acting and characters

The Bad:
Visuals are beginning to look dated
Some missions are very bad

Overall score: 8/10

What better way to prove your Halo fanboyism than the cruise down the street on a motorcycle wearing an ODST helmet? What may have seemed like a dream to you Halo feins may soon be a realty as what you see above is the X-Lite X-802 concept motorcycle helmet.

Now, the chances of this helmet ever being made available are currently unknown but we’ll keep an eye on it and let you know.

via kotaku

The original 8-bit Game Boy was released in 1989, and its subsequent variations, have sold over 120 million units world wide since then, with the best game being Tetris, selling a whopping 33 million copies.

Congratulations, Nintendo!

The company is set to release their brand new graphics card and technology later this year, called Fermi.

They haven’t, in fact they’re early. UK retailer HMV (among others, including GAME) said that they won’t send the game out early, meaning those who pre-ordered will get theirs possible a day later than the release. Modern Warfare 2 will be released world wide on November 10.

The company lost $66 million, while it posted a profit of $14 million during the same period last year, so it’s quite a decline, mostly attributed to lack of decent titles during the period. The company still expects sales to reach $94 million this year, fueled by Tekken 6, of which 2.5 million copies have already been shipped.

The gameplay is very similar to the last Mario & Luigi DS game, where you basically control both characters at the same time, with one button for Mario and another for Luigi. This time however, you control Bowser as well, and actually, you’ll spend more time in the game playing as Bowser than Mario & Luigi, which might seem odd at first, but it feel quite natural. Yes, quite natural, controlling the antagonist.

If you like the humor of the previous game, you’ll be glad to know that it’s back, and everything from Mario & Luigi’s Italian murmur to the writing is just hilarious at times, even if you’re a bit older than the age group this game was intended for. The visuals of the game are strictly 2D, with the old-school pixelated style, but it’s very colorful and the use of the dual screen on the DS is take to its full advantage.

The main levels are comprised like this: you stride through the levels until you meet an enemy, and then you duel it out, old school, turn based style. You then pick which attack to use, and hope for the best. Well, not really, each attack does require some skill and finesse, but once you’ve gotten a hold of it, it’s very easy to do the simple attacks, while the more elaborate ones will require delicate timing to pull off. The game also includes a series of mini-games as well, which help break the main gameplay into larger chunks — always a good idea with a lengthy campaign. For instance, there’s a Space Invader-type game that helps boost Bowse’s adrenaline, and there is a notable RPG element with badges that you can collect an equip Mario & Luigi, giving them added bonus to their abilities.

Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story is a wonderful game that should satisfy a wide spectrum of DS owners, from kids to adults. The campaign lasts a good 20 hours, a solid chunk even for a Mario game, but the game has a tendency to repeat itself, especially during the end. Technically, it looks great, the sounds and music are top notch as well — the whole game screams of great production value, which is hard to achieve, since it’s still a “little” DS game.

The Good:
Great humor
Wonderful gameplay
Great story
Top notch quality and polish

The Bad:
Not much innovation
Can get repetitive

Overall score: 9/10

One of the most disappointing things I encountered with Street Fighter IV was the fact that it didn’t feature the beloved car smashing bonus level. Well, with the announcement of Super Street Fighter IV gamers yet again had some car bashing fun to look foward to, if the game was to include it, that is.

Today we have confirmation that the bonus level will infact be included in the new title with the above screen shot showing it off.

Super Street Fighter IV will be out for the Xbox 360 and PS3 on March 23rd, 2010.

via joystiq

Up until now, we’ve heard almost nothing about Halo: Reach other than the fact that Halo 3: ODST owners would get access to the game’s multiplayer beta. However, today we bring you screen shots of the game taken from, well, a screen.

They aren’t exactly high quality but they definitely give us a glimpse of what the graphics are to look like in the new title and I must say they definitely look on par with recent titles.

When exactly will Halo: Reach hit store shelves? Your guess is as good as ours.

Of course, I don’t think Bungie would appreciate us hosting the images so you’re going to have to head here to check them out.

It seems that Valve’s soon to be released Left 4 Dead 2 is gearing up for a successful launch as the developers have recently announced some interesting statistics.

In a statement to CVG, Chet Faliszek said that Left 4 Dead 2 was pre-ordered 4 times as many as the original game. He comments further:

“As we get closer to launch we see the reaction to the demo, people’s excitement, the boycott itself and how it’s changed… I think people are just excited now.”

Yes, people are certainly excited, especially with the recent launch of the demo and the game’s quickly approaching November 17th release date.

If you’re looking to pick up Modern Warfare 2 via Steam on November 10th, you may want to consider altenative options. The game’s Steam listing was updated with a release date of November 13th, 2009 as you can see above.

While there is a chance that this could be an error, there is also a chance that this may be true so you’ll have to be careful which method you use to purchsae the game if you want to get it on release.

As for the rest of us, we’ll still be able to get Modern Warfare 2 on November 10th.

Modern Warfare 2’s launch is going to be huge, we already know that, but for all of you diehard fans out there we now know of yet another retailer that will be holding a midnight release; Best Buy.

The midnight launch event is nation wide with more than 500 locations participating and will start on November 9th, the day before the game actually hits store shelves.

To check if you local Best Buy is participating, head here.