The Japanese RPG never ceases to astound me. It is a nearly untouched genre, steeped firmly in tradition. It beckons players to grind for experience senselessly for hours on end with an overly simplified battle system. It entertains with the same archetypal build of protagonists, antagonists, and supporting characters. The genre’s males look like women, and the women look like 12-year-old girls. The games have multiple discs, hours of cut-scenes, and a massively linear style of exploration and gameplay....

The fine editors of Destructoid are hard-hitting journalists dedicating to giving you, the hardcore gamer, all the facts fit to flaunt. This is why, for thepast several days, we have been clobbering snakes, scaring bears, and feeding chickens in the name of science and JOURNALISM. That’s right, folks … Destructoid has been playingFrontierVille. On today’s episode of Destructoid vs.FrontierVille, Nick Chester has a problem with me. Me and my chickens. Read on to find out what the bokking fuss is about!...

Just recently, a British media outlet claimed that gamers cannot tellreality from fantasy. Well, it appears theBritish mediacan’t do it either, as a recent documentary about Colonel Muammar Gaddafi seems to testify. The above clip purports to show footage of a helicopter being shot down with weapons supplied by the Gadaffi to the IRA. The only problem is that the footage doesn’t show that at all. It doesn’t even show a real helicopter....

You have to love cheeky Japan and its disturbing, sexually maladjusted ways. Theabove pictureof a cosplayer handing out ads for an X-rated DS erotic novel, the title of which can be translated asHalf Elf Feeler Insult DS. Not a lot else to say, as this is really just a cheap, cynical excuse to post a photo of a Japanese girl in a frilly costume and talk about pornography for a few seconds....

When I sat down in a room full of proper games journalists like Brian Crecente, Adam Sessler andNick Chestertowatch someModern Warfare 2gameplay, I was quite excited. Not just because I was getting to see a very exciting FPS, and not just because there was loads and killing, and death turns me on. No, I was mostly excited for the fact that not a single enemy threw a grenade! Grenade spam is one of the biggest bugbears I have with the series....

At this morning’s Microsoft E3 press conference, prior to a new trailer forFable 3, Peter Molyneux announced the launch date for the game: October 26. Not to much longer for those who want to retune to Albion and get their royalty on, eh? Now, the trailer ends with “It’s a revolution”, and hopefully Molyneux and team can come up with the gameplay experience to back that up.

Team Dtoid is sittin’ pretty at Nintendo’s E3 press conference, ready and waiting to give the lot of you some live updates. It’s big, loud, the music is slightly obnoxious and the room is jlit up with any number of family-friendly photos of people playin’, y’know, games. Hit the jump for our live-bloggin’. [Note: Nick here — I’m going to be doing my best to take care of the photos on this post, but I’ll also be doing my own personal live blog over in my community blog....

Earlier today (yesterday?) reader-cum-tipper Aerox sent us a link tothis Associated Press piecediscussing EA’s second quarter earnings. Or, more specifically, EA’s second quarter losses. It seems that the gaming behemoth lost $195 million dollars during the quarter due to “how it accounts for sales of online-enabled games, now recognizing the sales on a deferred basis over an estimated service period.” Not having easy access to their financial records — or the green visor and helpful Chinese grad students necessary to read them — I can’t definitively say this is the sort of thing a company tells its shareholders to keep them from taking up the torches and pitchforks and going all Mary Shelley on its reanimated ass, but it does seem somewhat coincidental....

EAconfirmedthat their next Lord of the Rings RPG,White Council, will be “on hold” for the time being. Well, sorry to break it to you LOTR fans but this one is canceled. I just so happen to have a “friend” on the inside who deals with this sort of stuff and he/she mentioned to me recently that the game wascanceled— in fact we reported as much in January. I never bothered to mention this, because 1) I never cared and 2) The source talked about it like it was common knowledge....

You may have noticed that I mentioned an upcoming sports gaming-related contest in my post asking you topick the winnersfor ourBlitz: The League IIPS3 contest. Well, in this case, “upcoming” meant “next week,” as we’ve got another great giveaway for you all, thanks to our friends at New Media Strategies! (Side note: Keep voting on that contest, people!) You’ve probably seen ads on Destructoid for an EA Sports-themed contest that Gillette (as in, Mach 3 and Fusion razors) is running....

Start getting your trigger fingers nice and warm,Quakefans! Actvision has finally launched theEnemy Territory: Quake Warsbeta test Web site. However, it seems the site isn’t really up and running quite yet. Here’s the message you see when you access it: WE ARE CURRENTLY UNDERGOING SITE MAINTENENCE AND ARE NOT ACCEPTING ANY NEW REGISTRATIONS AT THIS TIME. PLEASE CHECK BACK MONDAY THE 27TH OF NOVEMBER Hopefully this means we’ll be seeing some news as to when the beta testing begins come Monday....

You may have been lucky enough to see the at The Behemoth’s booth if you attendedComic Con, but if not, you’ll have to make a special trip to add these bad boys to your toy collection. According to Behemoth Art Director Dan Paladin, theseCastle Crashersfigures are only available at conventions and may not be sold online at all. Better hope you’re going toPAX! The fierce little 3″ dudes are completely poseable and come equipped with stands so they can look ready for serious business....

I’m posting this for Chad. Why? Because he was unable to do it thanks to the fact that he’s weeping under his desk with years and years of Mario love (and a massive amount ofMario Galaxylove) flowing out of his eyes. If every person on earth hadn’t already purchasedMario GalaxyI would say that this fan-made ad for it would do the trick. Yea, the game is older than anything, but now is the time to check it out again thanks to the sequelhopefully landing this year....