Last year’s X-Box 360 shortage caused a ridiculous amount of overpriced systems selling on ebay within the first week of the system’s launch. After about a week the auction closing prices settled down to about 10% over the sticker price. So what does the world learn from this? Absolutely nothing apparently.

Check out these completed auctions for a $1,995,00 Wii and even worse a $14,900.00 PS3. These aren’t even auctions for systems now. They’re pre-orders to be shipped this weekend when the systems are launched. Sure they include a few launch titles but those are terribly unlikely to sell out in the first couple of days. One only needs to do a quick ebay search for Wii or PS3 to see the ongoing auctions and ebay users can click on the “completed items” box on the left to see what these auctions finished at.

Sure the PS3 will have less systems at launch than the X-Box 360 but with it’s heafty price tag it will also sell that many less systems. Is making sure you get a system on launch day really more important than say… a car? Paying more than a couple of dollars over sticker price for the Wii is terribly ignorant seeing as the sytem is likely to be able to fill demand into December. You can pay 2000$ on ebay or you know… you can pay 250$ in a store next week. I personally walked into a Toys ‘R Us on a random Sunday afternoon in Septemeber and pre-ordered my Wii which I’m told is almost certain to be in 9am launch day according to the expected number of systems they’ll be getting. That’s a net savings of $1750 US!

Never underestimate the power of human stupidity. Keep checking ebay to see just how much higher these people are willing to pay for these systems before the price drops back to MSRP.

A cyborg ninja. How cool is that? Hudson Soft’s Hagane was one of those games that didn’t rely on some special gimmick to shine. It didn’t have any FX chip, pre-rendered graphics, open world gameplay, cart racing, or RPG like stat building. It was just you taking control of a robot ninja, making your way to the end of the level while destroying everything in sight, and generally being a total bad ass. It was like a 16-bit version of ninja gaiden. You used every weapon at your disposal to defeat a wide variety of enemies. It’s a shame that this didn’t do nearly as well as it could have, but hopefully the Wii virtual console can give it new life.

Lets see, I already featured Silent Hill 2 and 4 here, so it’s only natural I feature number 3. Many people like this better than 4, and it’s larger than 2, with a greater variety of enemies and weapons to use. You play as Heather, a teenage girl who gets caught up in the bizzare alternate universe of Silent Hill while enjoying a day of shopping at the mall. However, there is more to Heather than she seems, as you find out later on in the game through a big plot twist. The neat thing about this game, and the Silent Hill series in general, is that each entry in the series is stand alone, and they tell you just what you need to know about the previous titles. Though, there are several nods to the previous games in the series that are sure to make fans of Silent Hill happy. Another part of Silent Hill’s allure is the alternate world you find yourself in. At any moment, the tranquil world around you will dissolve into a horrifying alternate version with bloodstained walls and floors made of human skin. It’s terrifying and sure to provide several sleepless nights. Fans of survival horror should pick this game up already. If you’re lucky, you can even get a free soundtrack cd included with the game.

As Nintendo slowly submits old games to the ESRB to be re-rated for release under the Wii Virtual Console, we find out what new titles are on the way.

The list is very NES heavy, but with some gems like Super Metroid and lesser played Kirby titles. I also see a few shooters here as well. Where’s my Wii Zapper?

Duck Hunt (NES)
Hogan’s Alley (NES)
Wild Gunman (NES)
Kid Icarus (NES)
Kirby’s Adventure (NES)
Pro Wrestling (NES)
Punch-Out (NES)
Excitebike (NES)
Ice Climber (NES)
Dr. Mario (NES)
Mario Brothers (NES)
Ice Hockey (NES)
Soccer (NES)
Pilot Wings (SNES)
Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars (Super NES)
Kirby’s Super Star (Super NES)
Super Metroid (Super NES)
Kirby’s Dream Land 3 (Super NES)
Mario Kart 64 (Nintendo 64)
Starfox 64 (Nintendo 64)
The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time (Nintendo 64)

All of the above were rated “E For Everyone” by the way.

For the past few years this show has been largely an embarassment to hardcore and casual gamers alike. Aside from the terrible presentation, awards and nominations are given to brand new unreleased games or ones with big sponsors. Just glance at the apparent mediocrity in the 2005 Winners.

But this year might be different. The first ad is from Mega64, and while they’ve done contract work for years with Ubisoft, they also don’t hold any punches.

We’ll have to wait for December 13th to find out if this is just one clever ad, or a sign of a change.
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Well imagine that. Tomonobu Itagaki, the “too cool” lead producer from Team Ninja, is the subject of a lawsuit seeking compensation for a string of sexual harassment incidents over the span of 3 years.

No comment yet from the usually out-spoken Itagaki. Though to be fair, he usually only speaks about how awesome he thinks he is and his games are. I don’t suppose his comicly objectifying games can be used as evidence against him?

In other news, DOA4 on Xbox 360 just sold a million copies, making it the fastest selling fighting game on Xbox 360 from Tecmo.

Excuse me while I chuckle a bit. He’s so pompous.

via Kotaku

He hasn’t let a dab of white makeup touch his pretty face yet but Heath Ledger has some things to say about being the Joker and his words have pissed off a few comic book geeks. He basically admits to not reading comics or having much interest in them or movies based on them. I’m not sure that’s at all relevant as I don’t think too many actors could honestly disagree with such statements. Would you rather see that guy at the comic book store every Wednesday with his stack of subscriptions the size of 3 phone books on the silver screen? I’m not sure they make movies in such an aspect ratio.

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Coming in Summer of 2007, Stikfas licensed Evangelion kits will be coming out to celebrate the anniversary of the franchise that took Japan by storm. Stikfas and GAINAX worked out nearly all the red tape so that these would come out to coincide with the release of the new series of animated movies, “Rebuild of Evangelion”.

Stikfas put up a couple of teaser images of the preliminary designs.