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Nintendo has a gaming lounge set up right next door to the San Diego Convention Center, where Comic-Con is taking place. In the San Diego Ballroom at the Marriott Marquis & Marina, right outside and to the right, is the Nintendo Gaming Lounge, and they actually have a lot of what we saw at E3 playable for the public for the first time. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is the big title for the Wii, but there’s a ton of upcoming hits for 3DS, includingSuper Mario, Starfox 64 3D, Metal Gear Solid 3D Snake Eater, Kid Icarus Uprising, Mariokartand more....

Even though Japanese developers try to Westernize their games, they always keep that certain Japanese edge. Games likeVanquishshowed us that a typical third-person shooter can still feel fresh even though we have so many of them year after year. Binary Domains’Japanese touch is the game’s “trust meter.” Every character has a meter that shows you how much they trust you. While we were talking to Sega Japan, they explained to us how this system works and how it influences gameplay....

Street Fighter IVhas been lauded as one of the best 2D fighters made in recent memory, but we could have seen a very different scenario play out. In our conversation with Seth Killian for the next episode ofBit Transmission, we received some insight into how the game managed to use 3D polygons while still retaining the accuracy players expect from aStreet Fightertitle. When we first started out withStreet Fighter IV[…] it was soft....

Today, theSan Jose Mercury-Newsran a story dealing with the sales of new consoles. According to the report, the sales of next generation consoles is still rising, but only through people that already own another console. David Cole, analyst at DFC Intelligence explains it best: You can look at how much the console systems actually sell, but that doesn’t account for duplicate households. If you look at most new console purchases today, they are going into households that already own a game system from a previous generation....

Since being announced some time ago, things have been quiet on theSin Cityvideogame adaptation front.GameSpotis now reporting that development duties for the title have changed hands. Red Mile Entertainment has confirmed that Transmission Games — currently also working on flight combat simHeroes Over Europefor Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC — will not longer be developing the game. WhileSin City‘s new developer is unknown, a Red Mile rep says that the change happened “quite a long time ago,” which would theoretically indicate that the project’s quality is not in jeopardy....

The JapaneseStreet Fighter IVblogshared some concept art for the alt costumes on Blanka, Dan, Balrog and Seth. Typically, when you think of costumes in fighting games, you just think the designer wanted to go nuts on his creations. In the case ofStreet Fighter IVthough, all of the costumes were made with the thought that these characters would actually wear the outfits in their life. I guess the makes sense, except for Cammy....

After far too many hours of playingDemon’s Souls, I know what it’s like to want to throw a PS3 at my television, but Sony Australia has actually gone and done it. As part of a big new giveaway that’s soon to be announced, Sony had a PS3 affixed to some sort of modern day supercatapult and had the machine flung at top speed into the face of a Bravia. It’s been noted that, while the TV caved in and shattered like a child with brittle bone disease, the PS3 itself appears to be unharmed by the ordeal....

It’s been awhile since we last heard about solid information about the oft-delayed PlayStation 3 digital experience,Home. Today,PlayStationBlogannounced that the closed beta forHomeis expanding, and will be accepting new members at the end of the month. If you want to be one of those new members, you’ll have to apply. Luckily, it’s as easy as a few button presses. Later today, the PLAYSTATION Store will be updated with a PlayStation Home theme....

Sonyhas announcedthat it will be offering two free games — from an unspecified choice of five — to PlayStation Network members as part of its apology for theinfamous PSN breach. PSP users will also have two games, from a list of four. In addition, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe is looking at a way to offer some identity theft insurance for its users, following the announcement that Sony America would be doing so....

Spark Unlimited (Call of Duty: Finest Hour) have announced today that Gamecock Media Group will be publishing their new first-person shooter,Legendary: The Box. An original IP,Legendary: The Boxfollows the story of art thief Charles Deckard, who is suckered into stealing Pandora’s Box. Like a complete moron, Deckard opens the box and releases hordes of mythical beasts once thought to be fiction, like werewolves and gryphons. Predictably, the creatures begin to tear the modern world to shreds, and a war between man and these creatures erupts....

By all accounts, a beat-’em-up about cyborg/spy hybrids should be relevant to my interests, especially one coming from Capcom. I guess my love for the genre has sort of faded in recent years, or perhaps brawlers are finally starting to show how outdated they can feel, even when done correctly. On a much lighter note, the Wii-exclusiveSpyborgshas been dated for September 29 in North America. Hamzahas played the game, and speaks highly of its excellent boss battles....

Codemasters, currently working on a brand newOverlordtitle for the Wii,has criticizedwhat it deems “lazy” ports on Nintendo’s system. The critique comes courtesy of Codies’ Dean Scott, who argued that the best Wii games must be built with the console in mind, and developers shouldn’t just “retrofit a load of sh*t.” “At this moment in time, because the installed userbase on Wii is so high, it’s the Wii gold rush. So publishers are like ‘sht, what can we get out on Wii really quickly?...

Tara Long got a chance to demoThe Darkness 2and talk to 2K’s Seth Olshfski about it today at PAX. They discuss the art style, which is more heavily influenced by the comic than the first game, and story (Paul Jenkins is returning to continue the tale). There is also some talk about what quad wielding is. There is something satisfying about calling up the powers of darkness to cause destruction, andThe Darkness 2looks like it delivers plenty of mayhem....