- Whenever I feel bad about spending an hour or two on World of Warcraft, I think of the other MMOs out there that really hate their player base. One of these is FInal Fantasy XI, which has bosses that take over 18 hours of nonstop play to beat, a game design of astonishing dickishness. Finally, Square-Enix is dialing them back down to more human timetables.

- The “Space Invaders attack the World Trade Center” art installation at the Leipzig Games Convention: “A social tale that can be related to historical tales without losing its poetic power” or an uninspired hack’s attempt at faux-edginess? Neither, says Taito. It’s intellectual property infringement.

- Marketing fluff: There was a bug in Tiger Woods ’08 that let you drive from the surface of a lake. EA responds for ’09. You win this round.

- Namco-Bandai is going to sell levels as gold as a downloadable content in Tales of Vesperia. That’s the laziest approach to DLC I’ve ever seen in my life. Game-playing public, I implore you, no money for cheat codes. I want this nipped in the bud.

- Kotaku goes hands-on eyes-on with Bayonetta. I think this one is going to be big.

While the initial demo stage takes place in a forgettable setting — yes, I already forgot about it — the new area was jaw-dropping. It takes place on the head of a clock tower, one that happens to be falling from the sky at maximum velocity.

Designing settings for movies is to designing settings for video games as making a dress for a high fashion runway model is to making a dress for a drag queen. If you’re not going balls-out outrageously insane, you’re doing it wrong.

Popularity: 1% [?]