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Okay, I’m going back to calling it “soccer,” since both EA and Konami are doing so. Anyway, on the virtual soccer pitch, the two main combatants are EA’sFIFA Soccerseries and Konami’sPro Evolution Soccergames.FIFA 09was announcedover a month ago, and now Konami has responded by bringing out the first screenshots of this year’s iteration in their vaunted soccer series,Pro Evolution Soccer 2009. The cover will feature Argentine footballer Lionel Messi, of FC Barcelona....

Media Molecule’sLittleBigPlanetis not experiencing the consumer impact that Sony was hoping it would. According to aGamasutrareport, the quirky platformer sold a meager 141,000 units this November in the US. This places it outside the top 20 games sold overall and just fourth on the list of Playstation 3 titles in the month of November. Contrast this with the 215,000 units sold in October and it appears as though Sony may have aLittleBigProblemon its hands....

The latest issue ofGame Informerhas more information onSonic 4: Episode 1than one could possible want, with screens and an interview that should please plenty of old school fans. At least, the old school fans who aren’t busy whining about Sonic’s legs being too long. Here’s all the important stuff gleaned from the interview with Takashi Iizuka: Of the controversial Homing Attack, Iizuka says he wantedSonic 4to have an easy-to-play feeling, as well the ability to find “fun routes in the air....

Nintendo’s third “Mario & Luigi” action/role-playing gameMario & Luigi: Bowswer’s Inside Storyhits shelves today for the Nintendo DS. Our review is forthcoming, in the capable hands of Mr. Jim Sterling. But based on the few hours I spent with our review copy last week, I was inspired to run out and reserve my own copy (which I’ll be picking up this evening, thank you very much). Why? Besides the game’s solid gameplay, which should be familiar to fans of previous Mario role-playing games, the game is full of character....

Just forked over $15 for a handful ofModern Warfare 2maps? Good luck trying to get it going! A number of Xbox 360 users are reporting that the Stimulus Pack DLC isn’t launching on Xbox Live. The packcanbe downloaded and players can get as far as the lobby, but when they do, the game just perpetually counts down and never actually gets a game going. Microsoft is aware of the problem andMajor Nelsonhas confirmed that engineers are working on a fix....

Lunar: Silver Star Harmony, the PSP remake of the classic Sega CD game, has gone gold and will ship to retailers on March 2nd. There’s a $29.99 Standard Edition and a $39.99 Limited Edition; the latter comes with a soundtrack and 13 “bromide” cards. A few days later, a PlayStation Network download version will be available for $29.99. And just in case you forgot about playing the demo ofLunar:SSH, remember that booting up the new game will start you out with bonus items if you completed it....

Namco Bandai’sMajin and the Forsaken Kingdomis looking like it’ll be a lovely little game when it launches on Xbox 360 and PS3 later this year. After somescreensanda trailer, a few short slices of gameplay have now been unveiled. Would you like to look at them? Help yourself! The footage is short (and not of the best quality) but it gives you an idea of what the combat and puzzling will look like....

I truly find it hard to believe that anyone is still actually playingWii Sports, much less the “sounds great on paper, but about as fun as trying to bite your own ear”Wii Boxing. But then again, NPD numbers indicate that Nintendo sold 338,000 Wii consoles last month, so I’m sure that somewhere someone’s grandmother is flailing wildly at a television. WithWii “fight clubs” and bowling leaguespopping up all over the place, maybe there actually is a market for the Wii Boxing Gloves thatDivineois selling for $12....

Oh, Internet. First, you shattered my ability to feel empathy for the world’s woes. Then, you killed every scrap of sensitivity that I had with outrageous pictures and video. Now, you have swooped down and taken the originalSuper Mario Bros.theme away from me. Thankfully, you only did it with a banana. That’s right, one of the guys fromEegraplays theSuper Mario Bros.theme with a banana in the video above. Naturally, I’m wary of what kind of banana that man has....

The New York Yankees eliminated the Minnesota Twins in Game 3 of their 2009 American League Division Series matchup last week, and that baseball game is the last one that will ever be played in Minneapolis’ Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome. Next spring, the Twins will take the field for an outdoor home game for the first time in 29 years when they open the 2010 season in Target Field, which is still under construction....

While developers are quick to jump on the Project Natal/Sony Wiimote bandwagon and a number of established franchises are rumored to be gearing up for motion, Square Enix’s Yoshinori Kitase isn’t too keen on putting it inFinal Fantasy. According to the producer, JRPG waggling would be far too tiring. “These new type of controllers are very interesting, but we’re not sure that people would like to spend up to 100 hours playing a conventionalFinal Fantasytitle with these type of controllers,” explains Kitase....

Let’s start with the facts-Muramasawas released by relatively small publisher Ignition on Sept 8th and cost $50 new,Spyborgswas released by relatively big publisher Capcom on Sept 25th and cost $40, andDead Space: Extractionwas released by super-huge publisher EA on Sept 29th and cost $50.Muramasareportedly sold approximately 35K in Sept, whileSpyborgssold around 500 units total that month.Dead Space: Extractionput in around 9K. Not a fair “fight” by any means, but one could argue that in the grand scheme, the advantages and disadvantages between the three games more or less balanced out....

As far as the games press goes, we really can’t choose. We need to be there or we miss out. But the industry can, technically, and especially when two events are so close together. E3 is about a week away, but Gamescom is in August. To make matters worse, Tokyo Game Show is in September. Namco Bandai Partners VP, Olivier Comte, says that E3’s return to the old days is bringing the industry back, but feels that they’re going to have to choose between the two events....