Want to play the Michael Jackson video game on PS3 and Xbox 360 this year? You'll have to beat it, because Ubisoft has delayed the HD versions of the game to next year. It's not all bad news, though. The publisher told IGN that "we're giving our teams more time to develop the Kinect and Move versions to ensure we deliver awesome experiences that take full advantage of the new technologies."

Before you say they don't care about us, the Wii and handheld versions of the game are unaffected by the delay. The Wii, DS and PSP versions are still planned to ship this November. Will you be there?

Michael Jackson Xbox & PS3 delayed to 2011, Wii and handhelds unaffected originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 10 Sep 2010 17:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We're in that weird space between PAX and TGS, and we've marked the lull with a heavy dose of gaming, everything from Dragon Age to Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions. Unfortunately, we don't talk about any of those on this episode. ... No, we do, we do. Just trying to mix it up.

Also, thanks to us for authorizing Alan Black to use his photoshopping powers on this image.

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Hosts: Justin McElroy (@justinmcelroy), Ludwig Kietzmann (@ludwigk) and Chris Grant (@chrisgrant)
Music: "Gravity (Don't Let Me Go)" by Jon Black, "Like a Hitman, Like a Dancer" by A.C. Newman
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See all of this week's links after the jump.

Continue reading Joystiq Podcast 152 - Not the bad one edition

Joystiq Podcast 152 - Not the bad one edition originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 10 Sep 2010 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Have you spent the days following the announcement of Super Street Fighter IV's upcoming DLC wardrobe change attempting to discern the new garments from the fuzzy silhouettes that were teased? Discern no longer, friends -- series producer Yoshinori Ono recently took to the Twitters to show off some concept art for Ryu, Chun-Li, Fei Long, Cammy, Juri and Sakura's new duds. Check them all out in the gallery below.

Now, we're far from fashion experts, but we can't help but take umbrage with a few of these designs. Like, Sakura? Do you know how difficult it is to perform crushing high kicks while wearing floral flip-flops? And Fei Long? It's after Labor Day, dude. Your whole situation is jacked. And Cammy? No. Don't. You can't.

First look at new Super Street Fighter IV costumes originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 10 Sep 2010 12:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A study released today by former leaders of the 9/11 Commission finds that “terrorism is increasingly taking on an American cast.” Warning of “a much more diverse threat,” the report urges the U.S. government to prepare for “the radicalization and recruitment of Americans to terrorist ranks.” While the report rightly warns of threats from radical Muslim extremists, law enforcement officials should also be concerned about right-wing zealots, as a 2009 Homeland Security report warned.

For instance, this past Tuesday, the FBI arrested 26-year old Christian radical Justin Carl Moose in Concord, NC for “providing information to create explosives” to “blow up a North Carolina abortion clinic.” Through his conversations with an FBI informant and his Facebook page, Moose expressed virulent “anger at abortion doctors, President Barack Obama’s health care plan, and plans to build a mosque near ground zero in New York city.” He goes on to describe himself as “the Christian counterpart to Osama bin Laden” who “has learned a lot from the muslim terrorists and have no problem using their tactics”:

Justin Carl Moose, 26, is a self-described “extremist, radical” and the “Christian counterpart of Osama bin Laden,” according to an affidavit filed by FBI agents. [...]

“Whatever you may think about me, you’re probably right,” he wrote on his Facebook page, according to the affidavit.

“Extremist, Radical, Fundamentalist…? Yep! Terrorist…? Well, I prefer the term ‘freedom Fighter.’” [...]

Status updates posted beginning in January urge violence, FBI agents said in their affidavit.

“The Death Care Bill passed last night,” he wrote when Obama’s health care plan was approved in March. “Keep your phone and rifle close and wait.”[...]

“If a mosque is built on ground zero, it will be removed. Oklahoma City style. Tim’s not the only man out there that knows how to do it,” the affidavit says he wrote in July, in a reference to Timothy McVeigh, who bombed a federal building in Oklahoma City.[...]

FBI agents obtained search warrants and started reading his private messages. In one sent to a fellow abortion opponent, agents say Moose wrote: “I have learned a lot from the muslim terrorists and have no problem using their tactics.”

According to WCNC-TV, a yellow “don’t tread on me” flag – the anthem of the Tea Party movement – hangs over the door to Moose’s family home. Watch it here:

Moose is self-attested member of “Army of God,” an “underground network of domestic terrorists who believe that the use of violence is appropriate and accetable as a means to end abortion.” According to its manual, the group’s purpose is to “officially declare war on the entire child killing industry.” Believing that “Our Most Dread Sovereign Lord God requires” bloodshed, members “are forced to take arms against” abortion clinics in which “execution is rarely gentile [sic].”

Arrested Tuesday, Moose will appear in federal court Monday. If convicted on all counts, he faces up to 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000. Despite his arrest, Moose has no intention of surrending peacefully. In a post taunting the federal authorities monitoring him, he told “all the feds watching me: You can?t stop what is in motion. Even if you bring me in, my men will continue their mission. Furthermore, I will not go peacefully. Do you really want another Waco?”

When's the last time you saw another person? A real human being? You see, we're stuck here. Inside the internet. And short of Facebook profile pics and, well, some questionable adult sites (is foot crushing really a thing?) we haven't seen anyone in years. That's why it's so great to see EA bringing another Hasbro classic to yet another digital platform, with its release of Yahtzee HD for iPad. It's just like Yahtzee for real life, except made entirely of ones and zeroes.

Miss the tactile feeling of rolling dice out of a plastic cup? Travis Boatman, Vice President of Worldwide Studios for EA Mobile, says that "rolling the dice across the iPad's expansive screen is addicting." Cursed with an army of digi-friends and no meat-based friends, like we are? Use Facebook Connect "to issue friendly challenges and post high scores." All yours for the asking price of $5.

Yahtzee HD now on iPad, please don't scream 'yahtzee!' in public originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 10 Sep 2010 09:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Believe us, Zangief, we're just as surprised! Apparently when fans aren't fighting in the streets, they're taking time to share their love of Capcom's series by painting the streets full of fighters. Here's just a few, courtesy of Shoryuken.

[Thanks, Terry]

Continue reading Here comes a new challenger: Street Fighter graffiti

Here comes a new challenger: Street Fighter graffiti originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 10 Sep 2010 05:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Halo: Reach isn't even out in stores, but IGN has already found a way to exploit part of the game for the sake of easy Achievements. In this video, its outlines a surefire method for farming up a good amount of the game's cheevos by tweaking the customized Firefight system to be really hard and then giving yourself invincibility. Which means "you can basically shoot around in circles, and get massive amounts of points." Seems like fun ... we guess?

If nothing else, this shows off just how customizable the multiplayer system in Reach actually is. Bungie has made it so that the priority is coming up with fun gametypes with your friends, not just tweaking for as many points towards Achievement as possible. Not that we don't appreciate sweet, sweet cheevos, but that's not the only reason we're Firefighting against the Covenant, right? Right?

Continue reading Video: Halo: Reach Achievements made easy (and cheat-y)

Video: Halo: Reach Achievements made easy (and cheat-y) originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 09 Sep 2010 20:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Viewing the GOP as “the party of ideas,” Republican Senate candidate Bill Binnie entered the New Hampshire senate race to “add my voice to economic challenges” as a self-described fiscal conservative who believes in a woman’s right to choose. According to Binnie, his pro-choice stance invited “over 1,000 pieces of mail” and threatening phone calls to his home. “We don’t answer our phone anymore,” he said.

In defending his pro-choice stance, he said, “I believe that the individual has the final say, not the government, in terms of how we live our lives.” He added, “There is a fight in my party for individual rights and what it means to be a Republican.” But as the GOP shifts towards a more radical stance, he says “it is a challenge” to “stand in a Republican primary” when the party “has morphed into parts that I don’t recognize”:

“My view of the Republican Party is the party of ideas. It morphed into parts that I don’t recognize. I think it’s one of the debates of my candidacy.” [...]

“I started out in this race to add my voice to economic challenges and my background,” he said. “I didn’t realize, you’re talking about the polarization, I am a centric New Hampshire citizen. I’m fiscally conservative, I’m socially moderate. I’m not an extremist in any way. And yet, as I stand up in a Republican primary, it is a challenge. That’s what I’ve learned from this process in the last few months.

“I went to a debate in Portsmouth and I was the only one when asked are you a social conservative, I said no,” Binnie said. “I couldn’t believe that. Everyone is a fiscal conservative and we all have to be social conservatives? I don’t think we all have to stand on the same square to be a Republican. That’s what this fight in my view has turned into. You could put a piece of paper between the substance of most of our decisions. By any measure I’m a conservative. Just ask my kids.”

Binnie is not the only Republican falling victim to the “hostile takeover” and radicalization of the GOP. The so-called “reasonable Republican” Rep. Bob Inglis criticized Republican leaders for the “lowest form of political leadership” and Tea Party-driven “demagoguery” that is “dividing the country into partisan camps that really look a lot like Shia and Sunni.” Though he received “a 93 percent lifetime rating from the American Conservative Union,” he lost in his primary run-off.

Sen. Bob Bennett (R-UT), who fell victim to a Tea Party backlash, slammed the GOP for letting tea parties and Fox News lead it by the nose. Echoing Binnie’s sentiments, Bennett noted, “I find plenty of slogans on the Republican side, but not very many ideas.”

The sun will rise, the moon will set and it would be a sign of the end days if Madden didn't rule August software sales in the United States. The August NPDs are out and Madden NFL 11 sold over 1.8 million units in the month, a six percent increase over last year, with significant increases on PS3. Mafia 2, which Take-Two expects to be profitable, entered with a badda-boom and appears to have sold around 200K units during the month -- the title has been a chart topper in the UK since launch.

The Xbox 360 remains the top-selling console for a second month, but its sales did drop nearly 20 percent from July. The only hardware to see sales gains during the month was the PlayStation 3, which according to the NPD has now seen 13 consecutive months of year-over-year sales increases.

Overall, hardware and software sales were down both year-over-year and year-to-date. Sales for hardware, software and accessories combined was down 10 percent to $818.9M from last year and down 8 percent year-to-date to $8.31 billion. Consoles tried to make up for the sagging handheld market, as NPD analyst Anita Frazier notes, "The 360 and PS3 platforms both grew in dollar sales versus last year. In fact, the 360 platform contributed more than 1/3 of total new physical retail sales across hardware, software and accessories while the PS3 platform contributed over 1/4 of total dollar sales."

Oh yeah, one more thing: the top ten list of titles after the break only charts console and portable SKUs, so it's worth mentioning StarCraft 2 sold another 300K units in August, which would make it the second best-selling game for the month... if it were factored in. Frazer also stated, "PC games retail dollar sales saw a 35% increase over last August."

• 360: 357K, down 83K (-19.7%)
• DS: 343K, down 55.3K (-13.9%)
• Wii: 244K, down 9.7K (-3.8%)
• PS3: 226K, up 11K (5.1%)
• PSP: 79K, down 4.6K (-5.5%)

Continue reading August NPD: It's another mad, mad, Madden year

August NPD: It's another mad, mad, Madden year originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 09 Sep 2010 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Today, a three judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit stayed the court decision stopping federal funding of embroyic stem cell research:

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia granted a request from the Justice Department to stay an injunction issued Aug. 23 blocking the funding. In a major victory for supporters of the research, the court said the Obama administration could resume funding the research pending a full appeal of the case.

U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth, ruling in a lawsuit filed by two researchers working on alternatives to the cells, said the funding violated a federal rule that prohibits federal tax money from being used for research that involves the destruction of human embryos.

Significantly, the stay order was handed down by a unanimous panel of Judges Karen LeCraft Henderson, Janice Rogers Brown, and Thomas Griffith. All three of these judges are conservatives, and Judge Brown is arguably the most conservative judge in the country. Moreover, to stay a decision a panel is supposed to determine that the party requesting the stay has “made a strong showing that they are likely to succeed on the merits.” Such a determination does not guarantee that the stayed decision will ultimately be reversed — the panel which stayed the decision striking down Prop 8 also strongly hinted that their court lacks jurisdiction to hear the case — but today’s stay decision is a very hopeful sign that stem cell research will be able to move forward.