Joystiq

Nintendo celebrates Thanksgiving by dropping a massive feast onto the table of every Wii and DSi owner in North America. The next Bit.Trip game is now available on WiiWare, DSiWare receives another heaping serving of Electroplankton, and Virtual Console welcomes ... Super Mario Kart. We guess when Nintendo said "by year's end" it meant "next week." See the full, seasonally appropriate bounty after the break.

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This Black Friday, November 27, Nintendo will release DSi bundles containing pre-installed software to the value of $20. The metallic blue DSi bundle (a new color for the States) will feature Mario-themed DSiWare, while the white is for those with "a passion for brain teasers."

• Blue version: Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Minis March Again!, Dr. Mario Express, WarioWare: Snapped!, Mario Calculator and Mario Clock.
  
• White version: Brain Age Express: Arts & Letters, Brain Age Express: Sudoku, Brain Age Express: Math, Clubhouse Games Express: Card Classics, Photo Clock.

There is no altered price to go with the announcement of these bundles, so we're guessing the units will retail at the normal $170 price. Of course, it is Black Friday, so check various retailers for the best deals.

Was the past week good for you? It certainly was good for us. As usual Big Download had a bunch of exclusive feautures, news items and downloads for any PC gaming fan. Let's take a look back at the last seven days:
Exclusive Features

• Left 4 Dead 2: Check out our review of the PC version of Valve's shooter. Plus you still have time to win one of five Steam download codes for the full game.
• Interviews: This week we chatted with the creator of the upcoming 8-bit version of Left 4 Dead along with the COO of Reality Gap about the new free-to-play title Battleswarm.
• Mac Monday: This week we focus on two Mac games: Drawn: The Painted Tower and New Star Soccer 2010.
• Boot Disk: This week our retro games feature looks at Interplay's Fallout 2.
• Big Ideas: Our weekly look at game themes examines what, if anything, could be considered taboo in games.
• All You Need To Know: Our weekly 411 on a game titles gives you the info you need on Assassin's Creed 2.
• Freeware Friday: Our popular look at free PC games checks out the browser-based Captain Forever.

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We know how boring most holly jolly holiday cards can be, so we were glad to see that a handful of Valve-ified greeting cards are now available for purchase at the game maker's online store. Featuring characters from Left 4 Dead, Left 4 Dead 2, and Team Fortress 2 in compromising holiday situations, there's no doubt that we'll actually – finally – send out greeting cards this year to everyone in our little black book. We're quite partial to the handful of TF2-themed images you see above (just look at The Spy, back with The Scout's mother!), but we're sure there's something for everyone in your list of Source Engine-loving holiday card receivers.

[Via Big Download]

If you haven't noticed, just about every foreign sales post we do somehow references football (or, as our primitive North American minds have designated it, soccer) -- including the post you're reading right this hot second. The terrifically named, PSP-exclusive J. LEAGUE Football Club Tsukurou! 6 Pride of J took top honors in the Japanese charts this week, pushing the portable platform to a first-place finish over its ill-equipped, football-less competitors.

We know better than to stand in the way of progress -- so, from henceforth, Joystiq will be changing its focus from video games to the foot-centric sport which half of our posts tend to be about anyways. Yes, we know very, very little about the game, but we don't really think that's too important. You know what is important? Choosing a new name of our blog, which we've already done: Joykick. Or, in sticking with our current typographically-challenged theme: Joyqick. Yeah, that's solid gold.

We know this transition will be extremely difficult, but as you probably already know, we've always had a knack for achieving our lofty GOOOOOOAAAAAAAALLS! (See? It's already started.)

- PSP: 38,770 4,986 (14.76%)
- PS3: 38,498 10,427 (21.31%)
- DSi: 33,749 3,672 (9.81%)
- Wii: 26,764 5,046 (15.86%)
- PSP Go: 6,427 7,565 (54.07%)
- DS Lite: 5,036 479 (8.69%)
- Xbox 360: 4,124 555 (11.86%)
- PS2: 2,031 35 (1.69%)

[Source: Media Create]

See: The foot-centric archives

Remember that silly, insane rumor from back in 2008 about Diablo 3 being released by Blizzard before StarCraft 2? Turns out that Blizzard's Rob Pardo thinks that's a bunch of hogwash. Rather, that's at least what we can infer from his recent conversation with Techland on the subject. "We always announce all of our games too early," he says. "I think it's safe to say that, yeah, [Diablo 3] is not going to be out next year."

Considering StarCraft 2's delay to 2010, we think it's fair to assume that Diablo 3 will in fact not be arriving before a StarCraft sequel. Pardo adds that it's not a question of lacking resources, as "each game has individual development teams; it's just that the way that we develop games, we develop them very iteratively." Worse yet, there doesn't seem to be a finish line in sight for D3. "Now when we announce [a game] we just go, 'Here's the game we're working on, we're going to start talking about it and who knows when it ships.'" If any of you were still holding your breath for Diablo 3's release, now might be a good time to exhale.

[Via Big Download]

A few minor glitches which Left 4 Dead 2 players on Steam were experiencing have been squashed by a recent patch. The update includes fixes for an error which impeded matchmaking for players looking for higher difficulty games, for a bug which allowed special infected to team up on players who are being pummeled by a Charger, and for performance problems which cropped up when the game rendered too many decals, "notably when fighting Tanks with shotguns."

Well, thank goodness for that. If there's a better way to kill a Tank than with a few well-placed shotgun blasts, we've yet to find it. Check out the full list of changes after the jump!

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In response to a possible class action lawsuit resulting from a recent round of Xbox Live bans, Microsoft has now asserted the legality of its position. A spokesperson has told the Financial Post that piracy is a violation of the company's terms of use and that Microsoft is "well within its legal rights" to ban users from its Xbox Live.

It was reported earlier this month that the law firm AlbingtonIP is "investigating" the possibility of a class action lawsuit against Microsoft over the bans. The firm argues that timing of the bans -- shortly after the release of Halo 3: ODST and just prior to the launch of Modern Warfare 2 -- was designed to get as much money from Xbox Live subscriptions as possible. In other words, the firm believes that Microsoft personally waited for a time when many people -- modders in this case -- would be purchasing Live subscriptions for popular games -- money that probably wouldn't be refunded after a ban.

Joystiq's Law of the Game columnist, Mark Methenitis, classified the suit as a likely "cash grab," explaining that anyone savvy enough to mod an Xbox would know to stay well away from Xbox Live. We might add that major releases, like ODST and Modern Warfare 2, are the biggest targets for piracy, and likely correspond with rises in illegal downloads. And that just might have something to do with the timing of the bans in question.

[Via Kotaku]

Cruising the Twitters, as we are wont to do, we stumbled upon a revelation, courtesy of one Major Nelson. That revelation: Today is the fourth anniversary of the launch of the Xbox 360. Yes, just four years ago, on November 22, 2005, the Joystiq universe was just buzzing with excitement. There were freezing cold lines to wait in, boxes to open and new games to play -- in fantastic HD resmolutions! And then, of course, it began.

Check out a sampling of our Xbox 360 launch coverage after the break.

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Are you in New York City today wondering what to do at 5PM? We suggest you head to the below address in NYC's beautiful East Village where The Engadget Show is being taped, featuring not just HTC's Drew Bamford, but also Joystiq's very own head honcho Chris Grant! They'll be talking games and giving out an Xbox 360 Modern Warfare 2 bundle to one lucky attendee. Seating is limited to 450 and tickets are available ... right now at the Tishman Auditorium. We're serious! Head over this minute!

Tishman Auditorium at Parsons The New School for Design

Despite a relatively low-key launch on the PSP this past Fall, Rockstar Games' Beaterator is showing back up in the news this week for reasons that we couldn't have seen coming from a mile away. It turns out that kids in some NYC public schools are getting their music education by means of the beat making application and PSPs, with a custom workshop being taught by Dubspot.

CBS2 News reports that students from the East Side High School in Manhattan are being instructed on not just using Beaterator's tools, but also creating fully fleshed out tracks. "They're able to learn music theory in a different format ... it's the same information, just a different way of presenting it," the class' teacher says. Copies of Beaterator and PSPs are being provided for free, as is the classroom. We've contacted Rockstar to see if it plans on expanding the program into other cities.

[Via Rockstar Games]

You know what happens in five days? Turkey happens. It's difficult for us to think about things that aren't turkey at the moment -- unless those things are stuffing-based. We only managed to compile the seven comics below by pretending that instead of being about video games, they focused on sweet potato casserole. With brown sugar. And cinnamon crumbs. And little marshmallows. And oh man is it Thursday yet?

Below are our seven favorite gaming-related webcomics from this past week. Check them all out, then vote for your favorite in the poll after the jump. If we missed out on any notable strips, make sure you let us know in the comments!

Ode to Minions (Brawl in the Family)
Assassin's Creed Teaches (Digital Unrest)
Grim (Penny Arcade)
It's a Win-Win (Dipswitch)
Pokémon Green (Virtual Shackles)
Who Does That? (Extra Life)
Rise and Shop, The Walking Dead (Monday Night Crew)

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They said it couldn't be done -- and for good reason, considering how difficult it must be for a creature to stretch its own body to a length of 576,682,810 miles. However, thanks to a little help from Namco Bandai, Noby Noby Boy's community-driven "Girl" has managed to extend her torso from Earth to Jupiter, unlocking a new playable planet for all of the game's inhabitants.

Make sure you check out the video after the jump to get a sense of what eating your own butt whilst aimlessly traversing a gas giant feels like. We can't believe we just had a reason to write that sentence. Thank you so, so much, Noby Noby Boy.

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Though The Saboteur developer Pandemic Studios is losing its 200-person staff, the company's final game has just "gone gold" across Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. In a post on the studio's forums, Community Manager Mathew Everett noted that while "this has been a very difficult week for Pandemic Studios," The Saboteur will still be "available across Europe starting December 4 and throughout North America on December 8."

Unfortunately, it would appear that EA (the game's publisher) has forgotten about said release dates, choosing to offer as little marketing push as possible. We wish the folks at Pandemic Studios the best and offer our condolences to those who recently lost their jobs.

[Via PlanetXbox360]

Here it is, folks: your chance to beat up relatives all throughout the holiday season, albeit from the relative safeness of Tekken 6's confines! For this week's Swag Saturday, we're giving out a copy of Tekken 6 for the Xbox 360 to one lucky commenter who tells us which fictitious holiday character (think: Santa, the Easter Bunny) they'd like to beat up the most, and with which Tekken 6 character they'd like to do so with. Fancy a battle of Kuma vs The Tooth Fairy? Perhaps Jack-6 vs George Washington (wait, he was real?!)? We want to hear about it!

• Leave a comment telling us which fictitious holiday character (Santa, the Easter Bunny, etc.) you'd like to beat up most, and with which Tekken 6 character they'd like to do so with.
• You must be 18 years or older and a resident of the US or Canada (excluding Quebec, mostly due to the gravitational quotient of poutine)
• Limit 1 entry per person per day
• This entry period ends at 6:01PM ET on Sunday, November 22
  
• At that time, we'll randomly select one winner to receive one copy of Tekken 6 for Xbox 360 ($60 ARV).
• For a list of complete rules, click here

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What is Joyswag? Since we don't keep the games and merchandise we receive for review or promotional purposes, it becomes "Joyswag," which is passed along to our readers. For more info on our policy, click here.