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Yes, Nippon Ichi, the company behind theDisgaeaseries, is working on a top-down RPG for the PSP calledCriminal Girls. You play as a warden of a female prison that’s set in hell and it’s your duty to rehabilitate seven prisoners that represent the seven deadly sins. Spankings and massages will be required from you on your quest to help these women rejoin society. … HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAAHHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAH Oh man. I have tears in my eyes....

I live for these art books, so imagine my surprise when Midway shuffled a press release my way aboutThe Art of Midway: Before Pixels and Polygons. Published by Design Studio Press, the 160 page book features over 200 concept and environment illustrations from Midway titles likePsi-Ops,Mortal Kombat,The Suffering, andStranglehold. While it’s disappointing there’s no mention of an entire section called “The Art of Smash TV: Big Money, Big Prizes I Love It,” I’ll take what I can get....

Although, technically, the Prince would eventually roll you up in his Katamari regardless of you being a dick to him. Still, you might get to enjoy life a little longer if you let the Prince roll along in peace.

Out of all the game announcements so far, I am the most excited about Epic’s XBLA offeringShadow Complex. Looking like a combination ofBionic Commando,Metroid, andContra,Shadow Complexis an old school side-scroller with gorgeous graphics, fast paced gameplay, and, most important to me, gigantic, jaw-dropping bosses.Check out the screens in the gallery and theepictrailer above.With news that this hot-looking game will bereleased within a few short months,Shadow Complexhas officially become my most wanted game of the year so far....

Surprisingly, I think this dancing game is the one that showed off the stuff Kinect can do the best.Dance Centralmight have us all attempting to dance really awkwardly, but it is made by Harmonix so I can’t see it sucking completely. They do know how to make a music game. Below and above you can see said music game in all its dancing glory; not the best logo. What do you think?...

Oh, Peter Moore — you titan of industry, you icon, you had to up and leave us, didn’t you? And just hours before I planned on publishing this interview. While latching onto a new face as the public persona for Xbox and Games for Windows might take some time, at least he hasn’t left us completely — give him a year and he’ll probably be sporting aSims IIItattoo at the next big trade show....

GamersGate is launching FreeGames, an ad-supported platform for both PC and Mac. It’s set to launch in 84 days, according to acountdown timeron their website. How will it work? Every user will be able to have “up to five games available for free on their account at any time with the capability to add additional games.” What does that even mean? How do you have only up to five games and then add more than… actually screw it....

One of the bombshells of Nintendo’s E3 press conference was the word that Nintendo is working onSmash Bros.titles for both the 3DS and the Wii U. Sadly, that was all the information that we got, and it’s likely all the info we will get for a while. In the meantime, we can chew on this interview between Nintendo President Iwata-san andSmash Bros.creator Sakurai-san. It sounds like everything is in the planning stages at this point, but one thing is for sure, it sounds like Sakurai-san thinks it would be “wrong” to make a newSmash Bros....

Coming seemingly out of nowhere,Payday: The Heistfeatures a dangerous group of four armed robbers who have stolen more than mere millions of dollars. They also made off with my heart. One of our E3 Game of the Show nominees, check out Max and Tara’s impressions of this stunning title for yourself. And stay tuned for a forthcoming interview with Overkill’s Ulf Anderssen to go even deeper into the workings of what I hope will be a huge PSN-exclusive success....

It looks like it’ll be a bit before we real-time strategize troops by screaming into a microphone again. In a recent interview withVG247, Ubisoft Shanghai’s Michael de Plater said thatEndWar 2is “on the backburner,” adding no further details. The originalEndWarreleased on consoles in November 2008. A PC version lagged behind, releasing in February 2009. I heard that people liked the RTS despite its simple tactical formula (rock-paper-scissors). But people also like Oreos and Coca-Cola, and hell, you don’t even order that stuff into your mouth....

Last week, indie developer Cliff Harris posted a scathing blog direct at Epic Games vice president Mark Rein. The rant was directed at Reinfollowing comments allegedly madeduring a panel Harris was part of during the Develop conference. Today, Rein himself has responded, apologizing for his out-of-turn comments, and clarifying his statements. The full email, a personal apology to Harris (as published byDevelop), can be found after the jump. On a personal note, I’ve never dealt with Rein on the business end of gaming, so I can’t speak for his character in those regards....

I used to hate the early Xbox years when a title likeSilent Hill 2for PS2 would hit, and then shortly afterwards a version for Xbox with more content would appear. Seems the process is being console reversed now:Eternal Sonata’sPS3 incarnationwill feature two character that were previously non-playable (Serenade and Prince Crescendo) and extra story sequences. Grrr! The only motive here can be to drive a gamer to buy a game twice, which peeves me beyond description....

After two hours by shuttle, twelve hours by plane and an hour cab ride into the city, I’ve finally arrived in Reykjavik for this year’sEVE OnlineFanfest 2007, CCP’s yearly get-together at the top of the world for players, developers, and nerdy press types like yours truly. Though it’s been awhile since I’ve been properly addicted to the game, infiltrating the ranks of surly space-farin’ rebels and corporate masters reminds me of what I love aboutEVE —these people take their gaming seriously....