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As many fans had hoped, Nintendo revealed the latest installment in theLegend of Zeldafranchise today. Nintendo bigwig Shigeru Miyamoto took the stage to demoThe Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, braving fierce deku babas, misfiring bombs, and mysterious “control interference” issues to show off the new title, and I have to say, it’s looking damn sexy. While most of the action is what we’ve come to expect from the Zelda series, the art direction sports a unique fusion ofTwilight Princessby way ofThe Wind Waker....

By this point, it seems pretty clear that Sega’sYakuzaseries game releases are mainly forYakuzafans. It’s not like they’re out to try to draw in new audiences, or if they are, they’re not trying very hard. The core concepts and gameplay have been the same since the beginning. A Japan-based, Japanese underworld crime world sandbox game has always been the goal, and I don’t think thatYakuzafans mind that at all. While it wouldn’t be fair to simply callYakuza 4more of the same, those same core concepts are here in the series’ second PS3 game....

If E3 2006 was Papa Bear and E3 2008 was Baby Bear (E3 2007 does not count in my book), then the upcoming Electronic Entertainment Expo 2009 will be something like Mama Bear on Slim Fast. She’s lost a bit of weight, but there’s plenty of cushion for the pushin’. Wait, what? Thefreshly released 2009 floor plansshow that both the South and West hall will be filled with over 100 exhibitors in all, with some packing some decent square footage....

I bet you thought our E3 videos were over, didn’t ya? Well, guess again! Max and I are back with one of our last demoes to come out of E3, and believe me, our exhaustion shows. Then again, that could just be from playing Fruit Ninja Kinect. Waving your arms around like an idiot is a surprisingly fun workout! Just askHamza, who got some hands on time with the game as well....

Whenboldanalystsdaredto suggestthat the Apple iPhone could topple the Nintendo DS and claim its position as the #1 portable gaming platform, welaughedat them. Not just adismissive chuckle, OH NO, that wouldn’t be nearly good enough to express thedumbfoundednesswe felt over such adumbstatement that onlydumbpeople could havedumblyconcocted in theirdumblittle heads. Therefore we opened our mouths wide, sending ourmad cacklesreverberating across the wide series of tubes that is the Internet to let them know just howmadtheir wild predictions were....

You know what sucks about real life? It’s only from one perspective. Where are the variance in genres? You can only play real life in first person, and we all know too much of one type of genre gets boring. We need variety, and nowwe can have it. Introducing (a year or so after it was revealed) theAvatar Machine. This is a suit that allows the wearer to view himself in the third person, and the video above shows off its newest iteration....

When it comes to racing games, there are true racing experiences, and then there are arcade racing experiences. Almost entirely different genres, one is methodical with how it portrays racing, and the latter is all about recreating a white knuckle experience that feeds the adrenal gland more than the mind. Split/Second, if it is not obvious, is in the second category. How else can you describe a game that not only throws racing mainstays like manual shifts and speedometers out the window, sends even bulky trucks on the road easily blowing 200 mph in their wake, and outfits every player with the ability to manually blow up a city to change a race?...

It’s been a while since we’ve highlighted any mildly sexist game ideas here on Fake Game Friday. Time to remedy that. This week’s game idea comes to you courtesy ofTwisted Imp(and Photoshopped by our own Topher Cantler), who has evidently longed to see a game which portrays women during wartime as strong, positive, patriotic characters — that, or he wanted to create a videogame which teaches women to stay in the kitchen, no matterwhat....

Another E3 trailer for you, this time presentingFinal Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light. In case you haven’t heard of it yet, it’s a DS game that brings back the feeling of an old school RPG. It also boasts a job system and an interesting new battle points combat mechanic. Check out the video and see if it looks like a thing you might like. All you have to do is click play and sit through an advert!...

When I first bought my Xbox 360, one of the first games I picked up for it wasNinety-Nine Nights. As a very vocal fan ofDynasty Warriorsand all things hack n’ slash, the game looked like a lot of fun. Unfortunately, it failed due to a ridiculous difficulty based upon cheap attacks rather than well designed challenges, dreary controls, and endless reams of boring cutscenes. I was surprised it ever got a sequel, but I held out hope thatN3IIwould be an improvement....

Over the past couple of days several gaming sites have been raising a fuss overanentryFlagship Studios programmer Guy Somber had madeon his blog. Making it sound as if members of theHellgate: Londonstaff were leaving en masse, Guy’s statement certainly made the company look like it was in a bad spot. Seeing as the entry was written over a month ago I decided to get in touch with Guy to see exactly how Flagship had been doing, and what their status was now....

The fourth and second-to-last episode of Telltale’sTales of Monkey Islandseries, intriguingly entitled “The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood,” comes out this Friday. According to the Telltale press release, episode four “finds Guybrush double-crossed by the pirate hunter Morgan LeFlay and returned to Flotsam Island against his will. Facing an angry mob of poxed pirates with a long list of grievances, Guybrush must defend himself in court against a smooth-talking prosecutor and absolve himself of the false accusations in order to continue his quest to rid the Caribbean of the insidious pox of LeChuck!...

Watch this thing. Watch it right now. Because I need to know that I’m not insane. This thing, thisGal Gun, really exists. It’s an an on-rails shooter in which you have to incapacitate lovestruck teenage girls by shooting them with pheromones. Inti Creates, the developers of theMega Man Zeroserieshave some hand in the game, which is for the Xbox 360. There’s a plant monster with tentacles binding a schoolgirl. Man, if this doesn’t move some Xbox 360s into some homes, nothing will....