The official word from Activision is thatCall of Duty: Modern Warfare 2has not been “banned” from store shelves in Russia, but whether or not the gamehas been pulled as reportedbecause of the kinda-controversial“No Russian” airport massacremight still be up in the air. In a statement given toVG247, the publisher of the latest Infinity Ward-developed title said, “Reports thatCall of Duty: Modern Warfare 2has been banned in Russia are erroneous. Activision only released a PC version of the game in Russia which went on sale on Tuesday, November 10....

Remember how we showed you thesilly trailer Alienware createdto tease some kind of reveal at next week’s Tokyo Game Show? Well, now there’s a follow-up video, and it makes just as little sense as the first. The “invasion” looms even closer. Now, from the looks of it, it’s hovering over Tokyo. In the first video, a kite-loving American kid saw the aliens. Now a girl in a Tokyo highrise apartment sees the same thing....

Sleater-Kinney is sort of an institution in my part of the world. See, they began in this tiny Northwest microculture and since then have gone on to the sort of bizarre limbo of indie groups where they’re simultaneously unknown and widely beloved. Like The Decemberists, The Exploding Hearts or everything Courtney Taylor-Taylor has ever done, this region exists perennially on the sharp bit of the cutting edge by knowing the hip unknown first and best and fighting fiercely to keep things permanently that way....

A few weeks ago, I told my wife she should downloadAngry Birds HDfor the iPad. She did, and I regret recommending it; I haven’t seen the iPad since. Now I have to keep both my PlayStation Portable and PlayStation 3 away from her —developerpublisher Chillingo has announced that developer Rovio’sAngry Birdsis headed to the PlayStation Store as a PSP Mini game this fall. If you haven’t played it, the game involves using a catapult to flick birds (angry ones, at that) into structures; the idea is to smash into green pigs who have stolen the irked birdies’ eggs....

SNK fighting fans, take note: your favorite company has a whole heap of compilations to offer you this summer. Today, SNK Playmore announced their intentions to publishArt of Fighting Anthology, a comprehensive package containing all threeArt of Fightingtitles that played Granpappy McFireball to SNK’s now-immortalKing of Fightingseries. Don’t be expecting a remake or online play, however; by the looks of the low native-resolution screens (check the gallery),Anthologylooks to be a purely emulated deal and is likely to appeal more to hardcore SNK fighting fans than a broader audience looking to experience something new....

Nice job, Ubisoft!Assassin’s Creedmanages to sneak up on your typcial charting Japanese software titles and stab them in the back, coming in at no. 8 on the sales charts this week. This is the only Xbox 360 title in the lineup this week, but selling 41,000 copies of a game that will eventually come out for the PS3 in a PS3-favoring country is pretty impressive in itself. Is this a first for an Ubisoft title published in Japan?...

“Advisory:Velvet AssassinHas Gone Gold.” That was the subject of the email sent to us by SouthPeak Interactive today, advising us that the third-person stealth action titleVelvet Assassinhas gone gold. Simple and to the point. The game will be hitting store shelves for the Xbox 360 and PC next week. Please also be advised thatwe have doneearly previews ofVelvet Assassin, as well as advised youof the achievementsthat will be included. Please advise us if you intend on sneaking to your local games store to pick up the game next week....

One ofBaseball Tonight’s most popular segments is called “Web Gems,” a nightly roundup of the day’s top ten defensive plays. It’s always fun to watch top-tier athletes go all-out to try and make a catch, and 2K Sports’The Bigs 2is taking that to the next level with its “Legendary Catches.” Above, you can see Los Angeles Dodgers shortstop Rafael Furcal leaping to snatch a ball out of the air, and if you check out the video after the jump, there’s more insane defensive action....

Gearbox Studios isn’t opposed to changing the way people exchange loot in the fascinating RPS,Borderlands. The catch is that the crew behind the game will move in whatever direction the community wants to in the future — not now. “We were pretty careful there,” Gearbox’s Mikey Neumann toldShacknewsin a recent interview when asked if trade in the game would be expanded. “We wanted free-for-all looting for now. Then we’ll look at what the community really latches on to or wants, and we’ll move in that direction....

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers… I still can’t get over that name. It’s got three more syllables thanSuper Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix, the game I previously thought would remain champion in the “unnecessarily long title” contest for years to come. I believe in Capcom though. Hopefully in a few years, we’ll getSuper Street Fighter IV Versus Resident Evil Turbo Zombie Warfare HD Wii Editionor something. That would be a triump indeed....

Capcom wanted to brag to us this morning that their zombie extravaganzaDead Rising 2has exceeded two million units shipped. That, apparently, sets the franchise’s total number of copies pushed into the neighborhood of four million. Considering that those numbers includeDead Rising: Chop ‘Till You Drop, I’d say there is a lot to be proud of. As an additional footnote to their little pep rally, Capcom has announced that Canadian authorities have ratified the publisher’s acquisition ofDead Rising 2developer Blue Castle Games....

If you want to bringCammy’s flexed gluteuswith you wherever you go but don’t like Apple, then Capcom might have you covered. The company has revealed in a recent Q&A that it wants to bring the immensely popular fighting game to the PlayStation Portable, joining therecently revealediPhone version. Capcom’s Natsuki Shiozawa has said that she wants the game on PSP and that many of her colleagues agree. WithSF IVcoming to iPhone, it’s no stretch to imagine an easy port over to Sony’s handheld system as well....

The Necromantic DLCpack forCastle Crashersis now out! It’s going for 160 MS Points and contains some pretty awesome new content. The pack contains two new playable characters (The Necromancer and Cult Minion), two new weapons (the chainsaw and NG Skull Mace) and also comes with a new animal orb by the name of Dragonhead. The DLC comes just beforeCastle Crasher’sfirst birthday this Thursday. Kelly over on The Behemoth teases people about presents and that you all should check outThe Behemoth blogon the 27th....