Watch live video from publicaccessdestructoid on Justin.tv [Update #3]We made it to $2,000. That means we get an exclusive reveal of a new character forSuper Meat BoyPC. Check out the image after the break [Update #2]We’ve been at this for eight hours and have raised at $1,500 so far! Keep watching and donating to watch more weird meaty stuff happen! [Update]Danny B. upped the ante. He just announced that he’ll be giving 100% of the sales of his soundtracks to charity for as long as we keep this steam going....

A few weeks agoit was revealedthat Activision had left the Entertainment Software Association, taking Vivendi with it, and we hinted that others might soon be following their lead. Well, it’snow been confirmedthat LucasArts is the next company leaving the trade group. “Today, we can confirm that one of our members, LucasArts, has decided not to renew its membership,” announced ESA spokesman Rich Taylor. “We value each member of our association, but respect the unique factors that led to LucasArts’ decision....

Max got to go hands on withMass Effect 3and, spoiler, it’s totally stillMass Effect; that’s not a bad thing. Putting the last title’s gameplay with some welcome refinements looks to be coming together nicely. Max gets some hands on time with one of this generation’s most anticipated titles.

Mega64 constantly provides us with a look at what videogames would be like in real life. The latest example shows us whatBayonettais like outside of the videogame world and the results are pretty scary. Old men will shoot lasers at you and grocery store owners will throw their own property on the ground trying to look tough. While men will go nuts, girls seem to like a real-life Bayonetta a lot and will dance for you!...

Midway has just sent over some new screens for the next chapter in theMortal Kombatseries:Mortal Kombat: Armageddonfor the Wii. What is sure to be more or less the same game you’ve played for years, now gets a Wiimote makeover. Still interested? Scheduled to ship in April 2007 with the most complete roster ever, including more than 60 fighters from the entire Mortal Kombat® universe (past, present and future), a revolutionary Kreate-A-Fighter mode and Kreate-A-Fatality mode, plus a brand new Konquest mode and Endurance Mode, Mortal Kombat®: Armageddon™ promises to be the most complete, intensely lethal, fighting experience ever!...

As aforementioned by Nazi-in-Chief Nick Chester inhis previous postabout Wiiware and how Game|Life’s Chris Kohler has it and we do not (grumble), it seems thatFinal Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a Kinghas a feature we hadn’t previously heard much about: microtransactions. There’s something decidedly unkingly about paying for a game’s extra features, but nonetheless, that’s the story here. Royalty ain’t all it’s cracked up to be, folks. In games likeMass Effect, DLC is very much optional: you can still enjoy the full game even if you never notice the extra content exists....

In case you haven’thad enoughHalo 3coverage in the past few days, I’ll be taking over my beta and skills to theEpileptic Gamingcrew for a pre- and post-show play session. This is your chance to not only see it live, in action, but to also ask questionson Stickamwhile we’re playing it. The coverage should start around 6 p.m. Eastern/3 p.m. Pacificright here, before the show begins at 7 p.m. Eastern. Also, if you stick around, we should be playing even more for you right as the show ends....

The latest trailer forFar Cry 2gives us a little insight to the game’s storyline. There’s an arms dealer named the Jackal and it looks like you’re trying to hunt him down. The trailer shows off a variety of guns that you’ll be using to take on enemies and set things on fire. The big selling point of this game seems to be the burnable environments and lots of fire is shown off in this trailer....

Here we are presented with what looks to be the beginning ofFez, or, at least thecurrentbeginning; you know how those crazy developers like to switch things up. This slice of footage is so lovely, though, that I have a hard time imagining Polytron will change it. There’s nothing shown here that I don’t love. Is … is that too forward? The animation in particular is coming along quite nicely.Fezis taking a while to make, so for me, it’s been moved to the part of the brain that remembers to attribute fondness but tries not get too excited for fear of a long wait....

Bit of a slow week for releases this week. The biggest releases really seem to be betweenStrangleholdandMedal of Honor: Airborne.I had a lot ofhands-on timewhen I went to theStrangleholdevent last month but wasn’t too impressed with the game. I at least got some cool secrets to tell you all though*.What’s looking sw33t to you this week?WVC:Adventure Island, Landstalker: The Treasures of King Nole, Bonk 3: Bonk’s Big AdventureX360:Medal of Honor: Airborne, StrangleholdPC:Medal of Honor: Airborne, Stranglehold, Sherlock Holmes, The Sims 2: Bon VoyagePS2:Naruto: Uzumaki Chronicles 2PSP:Worms: Open Warfare 2DS:Worms: Open Warfare 2[*Yes, I know I’ve shown this video before — I’m just narcissistic and wanted to show it off again....

Nintendo is doing their best to make it clear that helping out third-party developers is high on their list of priorities. Their reasons for doing so probably go much deeper than Nintendo’s general manager of marketing, Shinji Hatano would have us believe (to maintain a level of quality), but I’m trying my best to give them the benefit of the doubt. However, we all remember the GameCube days. While addressing a group during a Q&A session, Hatano remarked that Nintendo is still being questioned by developers about how to best leverage the unique platforms of the Wii and the DS....

Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime has dripfed a bit more hope to JRPG fans like the cruel little sausage that he is, stating thatXenoblademay yet come to North America if “business opportunities” are there. He said he’s watching Xenoblade’s performance in Europe to gauge its worth. “We will be watching very closely what happens in Europe,” he said of the game. “Certainly if there are business opportunities and positive consumer uptake from some of those titles, that will be great data for us to consider as we look at what to do with these titles....

Can’t find a Wii? Think Nintendo are being stingy with their stock to create an artificial demand? That’s crazy talk. Today, Nintendo released this photo taken at their North Bend, Washington distribution center. According to Nintendo, it depicts employees hard at work preparing thousands of Wii for shipment to retailers. Nintendo says that it has tripled its distribution workforce to meet the high demand for the system, producing 1.8 million Wii systems a month, nearly twice what was produced at the same time last year....