Kotaku

More On Dead Space's Tie-In Cartoon

Speaking with Variety about their recent deal to produce an animated film based on EA's upcoming Dead Space, Starz Media's Scott Greenberg has explained how they'll be going about making a story out of a game that's not even out yet. Step 1, they're making it a prequel, and the game will pick up exactly from where the cartoon leaves off. Step 2? Consult the game's creators on the rich history of their game universe:

Variety: How did you come up with the story for the film? How much were they involved with it?

SG: They have a very detailed bible. It's basically "'Alien' meets 'Doom' in space.

Rainbow Six Vegas 2, Bugs And All, Ships 2 Million

Pachter: Wii Shortage? Blame The Lousy US Dollar

Wedbush Morgan analyst and Kotaku reader idol Michael Pachter went on record with the Dallas News with his theory on one reason it's still so damn hard to find a Wii. The United States dollar, he's paraphrased as saying, is so limp, that Nintendo is shipping excess consoles to Europe to meet demand there, squeezing out a bit of extra profit when all is said and done. It's not like Nintendo is completely abandoning American gamers—it sold 432,000 Wiis in February—it may just be allocating stock to its first class customer base.

Don't despair, though, if you're holding a copy of Brawl with nothing to play it on. Mr. Pachter thinks that with European demand leveling off, Nintendo may shift some of those Wiis Stateside. Stop burning your Euros in protest, please. It'll just breed contempt.

Wii shortage may finally be near an end [Dallas News - thanks, Brian!]

Xbox Live Downtime Tomorrow, Don't Get Excited

Battle Of The Bands Feels Good In Spanish

Capcom Is Your New MotoGP Publisher

When Capcom announced about this time last year that it had secured the publishing rights to the MotoGP motorcycle racing championship, it only did so on the PlayStation 2. THQ pumped out versions for the Xbox 360 and PC, last year, but Capcom is going full throttle with MotoGP from here on in. It has announced it has signed a four year license to bring the racer to Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, PC, PS2 and mobile platforms. Expect MotoGP 08 on anything and everything later this year. Hopefully featuring zombie riders. I might actually buy that!

Epically long press release with all the pertinent info follows.

Lord of the Rings Online Kicks Off April Fool's With The Battle of Amon Hen

It may be March 31 on the Kotaku Tower desk calendar, but it's April 1 somewhere in the realms of The Lord of the Rings Online. Turbine has decided to make with the massively-multiplayer hilarity, announcing that a new playable race, the Fowl-People, would join the currently playable Humans, Elves, Dwarves and Hobbits, bringing new epic quests and new housing options (coops, henhouses, etc.).

The jokes are too good to spoil here, so make your way to the official site. But pee before you do. We can't have your LOL-derived incontinence on our hands. This is sure to be just a mere speck on the landscape of puns, gags and sidesplitters to be delivered this April Fool's, so brace yourself for all comers.

The Battle of Amon Hen [LotRO]

Proudly Display Your Metal Gear Inspired Moustaches

The one feature of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots that seems to be getting the least attention, despite being such a high profile change, is the ol' soup strainer on Old Snake. Snake is equipped with a meaty, manly moustache in the fourth MGS, presumably to soften the sound of the breeze passing across his hardened angular upper lip for stealthier stealthiness.

Fortunately, a group of dedicated gamers is joining Old Snake in his facial hair endeavor, proudly showcasing their lip fuzz at Metal Gear 'Stache. If you're packing a dazzling lip forest of bristly hair, make sure you join the team of proud growers. We don't see much in the way of competition for Old Snake, but we're hoping that changes.

Metal Gear Stache [thanks, CaptainWow!]

I'm a Joker, I'm a Toker...

To: Bash
From: Crecente
Re: A Little Cooking Help, Please?

Well project GC is well underway. Hopefully you guys can put some finishing touches on it tonight in time for tomorrow's big roll out. I spent a bulk of the day looking at the stories and talking with Adam about his end of the project. I know it will be late for you, but I hope you and Luke can try and stay awake till 8 a.m. to check it out.

What you missed:
PSN Redesign Revealed
You Just Won IGF! That Means...?
Dark Sector Review: A Difficult Journey
Still Alive for Rock Band Free Tommorrow
At Least One More PlayStation 3 Model Coming

Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon Puts Wii In Chocobo Hold This Summer

Square Enix announced today that it would be bringing Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon exclusively to the Wii on July 8. Cost to you? Only $39.99! The action-RPG features the previously feathered designs of Toshiyuki Itahana and, based on the trailer for the Japanese version, will be so horrifically adorable that you'll want to rip your face off just like that guy did in Poltergeist after he ate that maggot-y chicken leg.

Beyond the painfully cute aesthetic, Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon promises mini-games and online card battles that we're sure Wii fans won't tire of for a least another six months. Further details on the story and gameplay systems are after this.

Tiger Mauling Victim Becomes Wii Remote Thief

It's the same old story. One day you're getting mauled by a tiger with your buddies, the next you're suing the city of San Francisco and (allegedly!) shoplifting Wii controllers. That's the case for 19 year old Paul Dhaliwal who was arrested last week on shoplifting charges, nabbed by security personnel who claim he had stuffed two Wii remotes down his pants at a San Leandro Target store.

Yes, it's weird. You'd think that having your 17-year old buddy clawed to death by a wild tiger would scare you straight on just about everything, but it doesn't appear that alleged Wii remote thievery is Mr. Dhaliwal's first offense. At least Nintendo can say they've cornered the market on Alpha Tiger Mauled Teens. No one's done that before.

San Jose brothers maimed by zoo tiger allege negligence, defamation [San Jose Mercury News - thanks, Adam!]

Stephen Totilo sat down with Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword producer Yosuke Hayashi last week during the devs tour of NY and managed to squeeze some pretty interesting and different information out of him.

Take for instance the fact that Dragon Sword is the first Gaiden game that Hayashi's mom has endorsed, or that the game was designed to be played at the speed of penmanship:

At Least One More PlayStation 3 Model Coming

The Federal Communications Commission has let slip news of one more addition to the PlayStation 3 hardware family. At some unspecified date, we'll be welcoming little AK8CBEH1101 into the gaming world, kicking and screaming with a new antennae gain for both the Bluetooth and Wi-fi modules. Hopefully, that means less SIXAXIS wonkiness, the kind that leads to Drake walking off a cliff unintentionally. The rest of the new spec is under a confidentially agreement, due to expire on April 14, so we'll hold tight until then for this potentially underwhelming reveal.

AK8CBEH1101 Report [FCC via NeoGAF - thanks, Elaine!]

StarCraft Turns Ten Years Old Today

If we still did This Day In Gaming, we'd remind you that today was the day StarCraft was born. On March 31, 1998, Blizzard shipped the epic orcs in space real-time strategy classic, selling 1.5 million copies in its first year, ultimately reaching 9.5 million copies sold. I still remember internally debating which box style to buy—I went with the Protoss—and the thrill of competing in ranked Ladder matches. While the game took a toll on my academic performance, it has provided me and countless others with hundreds of hours of solid gameplay.

Blizzard has a brief retrospective of the game's first decade, reminding us that StarCraft II is indeed reality and not just a fanboy fantasy. For those too young to remember the heady, early days of Battle.net, quickly read up. Got any good StarCraft stories to share? Hit the comments.

StarCraft's 10-Year Anniversary: A Retrospective [Blizzard]

Free SOCOM 3, Combined Assault Map Packs Announced

All eyes may be on the upcoming online only SOCOM Confrontation for the Playstation 3, but that doesn't mean that the SOCOM developers have completely forgotten about their PS2 fan base.

The team just announced the release of a new downloadable map pack for SOCOM 3: U.S. Navy SEALs and SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Combined Assault. This third downloadable map pack includes SOCOM and SOCOM II maps Crossroads, Fishhook, Frostfire and Guidance.