Perhaps unsurprisingly to anyone who knows me I found the news that EA would publish Minna Daisuki Katamari Damacy in Europe potentially worrying. Good that it would have some exposure (although it could easily be left unpushed and fall by the wayside like the excellent Oddword: Stranger’s Wrath, which EA also picked up but then left to die), but bad that it was the Evil Empire that was giving that exposure and getting their foot in the door of a sleeper hit that had no licence, no licenced music, and not even a particularly marketable concept…yet.

What I did find funny was that it was necessary for them to point out today that they won’t be altering the concept – notably the music – for their European version. It seems that even EA themselves were only too aware that their reputation goes before them and that much of the hardcore experienced a collective vision of EA Trax popping up in the game with the latest Maroon 5 track. Of course that’s only because their marketing department has been reading our thoughts from their lair inside a volcano.

Also on the subject of EA, I heard a very funny statistic about them over on the Dreamstation.cc Video Game Show – apparently out of EA’s next 26 titles, 25 of them are sequels. The one that isn’t? The Godfather…

So it looks like the Xbox 360 will be coming in two flavours: a bare bones version for $299/£209 and a deluxe one with all the trimmings (including a wireless controller and 20GB hard drive) for $399/£279. I’d said all along that it would be more than $300…so there.

Since I heard the initial rumblings that it was going to have a dual price point in the US earlier today I was convinced that we’d get completely raped with that old “swap the dollar sign for a pound sign” thing with a £299/£399 price (they did that with the Xbox, after all), but MS have actually brought the 360 out here for less than the Xbox was at launch. We still end up paying about £50 more than the Americans but if you were to import one and pay shipping and import duty you’d probably be paying £50 more, and you’ve got to expect it anyway. Bear in mind that the US price doesn’t include tax either whereas ours does, so in some states the yanks will be adding around $30 to the price.

Kudos to Microsoft for actually giving us something close to a good deal. At least they’re not charging £70 for hardware that’s pushing five years old.

I just saw this linked on Joystiq. Apparently either some joker’s having a laugh at the expense of the new Zelda and the IMDB, or Eiji Aonuma is taking the franchise in an even more radical direction than anyone could have expected. Not only is every fanboy’s fantasy, Reggie Fils-Aime, making a cameo appearance as “The Man” (actual character or fanboy declaration of love?), but excreable rapper 50 Cent will appear as Link’s horse Epona and fitness guru Richard Simmons will turn up as the wannabe fairy, Tingle. Not that “wannabe fairy” can really be used to differentiate the two of them.

I give it hours at the most before it’s removed even if it is funny as hell, so here’s a screenshot for posterity:

The anxiety over TGS has passed, since I’m assured that I’m not going to be conducting interviews or anything like that. I’m just going to be attending conferences where some of the new booty will be shown off – I’ve heard that there are conferences from Square, Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony at least, so there should be some good stuff on show that I’d miss out on if I was only hitting the show floor. For some reason even though I was slightly underwhelmed by MGS3 (keep meaning to give it another try), all I’m really intent on seeing is Metal Gear Solid 4. That and anything new on Resident Evil 5, of course.

In other news, I somehow spent a few hours today in the VGC playing nothing but Lumines. I don’t know how I managed it (on most games it’s a chore for me to play that long in one sitting) but before I knew it almost three hours had passed and I still wanted to try for the next skin. I’m definitely picking that one up in Japan. It’s like crack, but crack that can play really good music.

Damn, I just got an email from GamesTM saying that they’re not sending anyone to TGS except me as a freelancer and my mate Jude, who just got a job on Play, their PlayStation magazine. That means I’m solely responsible for getting pictures and impressions of games, attending (and recording) interviews, and just general photography around the show.

One side of me is really excited but the other side really doesn’t want that amount of responsibility when I was going to be there for a holiday. There’s less than a month to go until I go to Japan and a little over a month until TGS so I’m sure I can sort out any concerns that I have in the meantime, but when my duties at trade shows so far have amounted to little more than playing new games and writing what I think about them this is a ton of responsibility. I’m sure I’ll benefit in the long run and it will mean that I can get more paid work in the time before I finish university, but still…damn.

Yay, it’s so good to be back into a Premiership season and have Match of the Day to watch again. My Dad was actually so desperate for some to watch yesterday that he paid £7 to watch Everton/Man United on PremPlus, which was worth it for the Rooney goal alone. And what I wouldn’t have given to have seen Chelsea draw or even lose at Wigan today…

Anyway, it’s gotten me in the mood so I’ve been playing a lot of the Winning Eleven 9 import. I’ve got some impressions that I’ve been working on so I’ll post them when I get around to finishing them. I’ll be getting the PSP version (Ubiquitous Edition = best title for a handheld game ever) and the UK version (as Pro Evolution Soccer 5) when they come out so I might even bother to write a full review then. I need to move over the reviews from the old site design as well because three reviews in over six months is pretty pathetic. I want to write more but playing a game as extensively as is necessary and sitting down for an hour or so to knock out a decent review is easier said than done now.

I’ll say right now that WE9 is an excellent game and fans of the series won’t be disappointed.