On this day, in 1980, I was born. Birthdays don’t typically hold any real significance for me, which made finding a “birthday memory” a little bit of a challenge. I’m not one of those people who obsesses over one day being a specific marker of how old I’m becoming. If anyone should be celebrated on a birthday, we should be giving gifts to a person who was consciously involved in the act....

The folks at Joystiq were tipped that a PS3 bundle will be coming to Best Buy for Madden NFL 11. This bundle will cost $349 and will include a 250GB PS3 and the game. For those that count their pennies, this is the same cost as the standard PS3 250GB system, so you’re getting the game for free. Joystiq’s sources say that the bundle will be available on Madden launch day, August 10th....

Yet more fuel for thePSP2 rumor fireis yours today, with another graphical boast for the as-yet-unannounced system. According to the latest gossip, PSP2 games will look so good, they’ll rival early PS3 games for visual impressiveness. “As far as graphics are concerned, the PSP2 is a beast, packing enough processing hardware to produce graphics comparable to early PlayStation 3 titles,”says IGN, via a mysterious source. “The processor, we’re told, is just over half as powerful as the PS3, though the specific framework of the cores and the clock speed was not revealed....

Who here was a big fan of theMega Mancartoon from the mid-90s? Sure, the dialog was campy and the animation hilariously inconsistent, but it was one of the most fun Saturday-morning shows at the time. Despite the program’s high ratings, however, it was cancelled after two seasons and a single third-season episode (frightening howhistory repeats itself, eh?). Anyway, online hobby magazine ASM was able to get in touch with Joe Ruby, an American animator who, along with his partner Ken Spears, createdScooby-Dooand founded the production company responsible for several shows includingMega Man....

Nintendo’s Koji Kondo is responsible for a number of the most iconic themes from the history of videogames. As it turns out, you also have him to thank for the upcoming concert tour celebrating the 25th anniversary ofThe Legend of Zelda. We caught up with Bill Trinen from Nintendo’s product marketing group this weekend at Comic Con and were given more details about the concert tour that Nintendoannounced just days agothat will be kicking off in Los Angeles this October....

Sega has admitted that despite a “brilliant” concept, Obsidian’sAlpha Protocolwill not be getting a sequel due to a poor sales performance. Sadly, we don’t give out awards for just having good ideas. Good games often have to be attached to them. “Let’s speak very commercially; the game hasn’t sold what we’ve expected, therefore we won’t be doing a sequel,” says Sega’s US boss Mike Hayes. “The concept was brilliant, though. You know this whole thing with Metacritic where you have to be in the high 70s to mid-80s minimum [to have any success] – well, with RPGs you have got to be in the late 80s....

Don’t get me wrong: I lovedShenmueand its sequel. I was always a Sega kid, and it was a thrill playing both of these titles, weird stretched texture faces and all. And yes, I would love to play a game of Lucky Hit with you. But give it up, guys. Sega is not going to give us all the last game of the “trilogy.” They’re too busy fcking upSonicgames to do that....

It’s not entirely out of character for a Nintendo-published game to get this kind of commercial, but it certainly hasn’t been the norm for the duration of this console generation. Notice the distinct lack of families and part-time models, as Jonathan Holmes puts it. Sin and Punishment: Star Successoris shown. As in, just the game, with very in the way of added frills. And the robotic lady? She seems like a decent enough match for how Treasure and Nintendo appear to be pitching the game, at least in the United States....

Sony Computer Entertainment America has announced that the new standalone disc for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 2,SingStar Queen, is headed to North America on August 18. As you’re able to expect, it’s simplySingStarwith Queen songs — 25 of them to be exact — which sounds pretty incredible. Songs include “Crazy Little Thing Called Love,” “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “We Will Rock You,” and “Fat Bottomed Girls.” You know, only 25 tracks seems a little skimpy, for sure....

Here is the first gameplay video forSpider-Man 3the game. As the video proclaims, this is 100% in game. Maybe it’s just me, but I’m not really surprised at how great the game has turned out. I lovedSpider-Man 2so I guess I’ve come to expect Activision at bringing out a superb game. It will be out May 5th for all platforms. The official Web sitehas also released some animated concept art worth checking out....

Last night in San Francisco, EA and Maxis had a “State of the Universe” address where they revealed their upcoming 2009Sporelineup. I’ll have details on the new PC, Wii and DS titles in a little bit, but the event was mainly focused on the expansion pack forSporecalledSpore Galactic Adventures. So what else is Maxis going to give players to mess around with now? The entire game! Players will now be able to beam down to player created planets, have actual adventures and it’s all completely customizable just like the creatures are....

Blizzard co-founder Frank Pearce recently sat down withVG247and talked a bit about the potential of a fourth race inStarCraft II. Pearce points out that the development team talked about a fourth race early in development, but decided that adding one in would squash some of the new ideas that Blizzard wanted to implement with the game. We talked about the possibility of a fourth race early on, but we felt like we had a finite amount of great ideas and wanted to make sure we focused all the cool, best ideas on the existing three races rather than diluting those ideas across four races...

Everything may seem serene in the above video, butFinal Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearerspromises to be quite “nasty“. According to theESRB,The Crystal Bearerswill include “damn”, “hell”, “bikinis that expose deep cleavage”, “telekinetic powers to throw people off cliffs”, “a goblin samurai holding a sake-shaped bottle (who) appears to be drunk”, “steaming manure”, “You were peeping?!” and “How icky of you to watch girls changing!” Any game that takes the premise ofHancock, puts it in theFinal Fantasy Crystal Chroniclesuniverse, then releases itself on f*ckingKwanzaahas my utmost respect....