And now for the news...

[Marik]

Congrats to Microsoft for doing the near impossible, hitting the #1 seller spot with Halo 3 in Japan last week. The big ol Xbox isn't really a powerhouse in Japan, with the PS3 and Wii destroying it in the market there. This achievement is more rewarding cause it beat Final Fantasy VII Crisis Core in its third week as well as the new Pokemon Mysterious Dungeon for DS.

Since we're talking about Bungie's hit, the company had some news today. They're no longer a part of Microsoft now, they have went indie. Now they will continue focus on the 360 as well as working with Microsoft on these new games, but now any game they make is theirs, not Microsoft's. They'll continue like they have been, but now Bungie is owned by Bungie. Halo on the other hand, is owned by Microsoft, and will continue on with spinoffs like Halo Wars and the Peter Jackson game. Also, if there was a Halo 4, Bungie most likely won't be developing it. They did say that they will "retain a long-term publishing agreement" in terms with Halo, but these things mostly fall flat. Of course now it's time to have fun seeing who would develop it. Here's my choices:

-Rare, makers of the awesome Perfect Dark and Goldeneye?
-Gearbox, makers of Brothers in Arms and Halo for PC?
-2K Boston & Australia, the guys behind the other good sci-fi FPS this year, Bioshock?
-Epic Studios, the ones behind Gears of War and Unreal Tournament?
-Free Radical, the guys who quit Rare after Goldeneye and made Time Splitters and Haze?
-Id software, the Doom and Quake makers?
-Crytek, the Ubisoft studio behind Far Cry and Crysis?
-Infinity ward, the Activision studio behind Call of Duty 1, 2 and the kickass 4th installment?

Yea any of them will do. Better yet, All of them combined.

Ok, enough of having fun, lets start making fun. Back in November, Sony launched the PS3 in two models, a 20GB version and a 60GB version. Now 11 months later, we see both SKUs are now discontinued. Now they're focused on the 80GB model as well as this new one. Sony announced the 40GB PS3 today. It's $399, and sports 1/2 the hard drive space as the other current model, 2 less USB slots, no SD, Pro Duo and Flash memory card slots anymore and here it is.... no PS2 compatibility. Ok... but there's still PS1 compatibility.... I dunno what the hell's going on anymore. What's worse, this makes more for me to do at work. There's too much to describe with this damn system.

Oh, and there's co-op in Smash Bros' Adventure mode. Offline, so aka, useless. What a waste of my big Friday update.

[Lil Ninja]

You can't say it's really a waste if you just told people stuff they didn't know about

[Marik]

Also played The Simpsons Game demo on the PS3, and I must say it's impressive. The only faults are a lame lock on and camera issues. You'd think after Ocarina of Time being out for a decade that developers know how to do lock on. But top quality visuals and excellent production values (thanks to Fox, Matt Groening's crew and EA), and little show related easter eggs(as well as some EA ones) to make fanboys of the classic TV series weep. This is a platformer to watch out for. I might even get it when it comes out for Wii, Xbox 360, PS2, PS3, PSP, and DS on Halloween. If I got it; I, of course, would get the 360 version.

[odinsafeperson­­]

Wow, whoever thought that all that stuff on the 40gb PS3 was somehow a good idea is insane. At least they kept the Wi Fi on this one, that was just the worst idea ever not having it on the 20gb.