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For years, the traditional arcade has been dropping steadily off the map. Where once you couldn’t swing a dead joystick without hitting kids ripping off their parents wallets for a bag of pot and an afternoon spent playingRobotron 2084(with accompaniment courtesy of Geddy Lee and the boys), you now have an entire generation growing up without having ever even been to an arcade! To combat the menace of shrinking returns and to capitalize on the new-found substance fondness of a generation raised on ironic Voltron shirts and the music of the Spin Doctors, many arcades have metamorphosed into a sort of hybrid club/bar/arcade....

This one isn’t super solid, but a rating from a classification board is a bit better than a rumor. Kind of. The Australian Classification Board had a listing forGrand Theft Auto: Vice Citypop up yesterday. In the listing it says that the game is a modified version. We have no idea what “modified” means for Rockstar’s game, but it did get a MA 15+ rating, so we know it’s not just a dumbed downGTA: Vice City....

When we first got our paws onan early build of Volition’sSaint’s Row 2in April, we called it “a $200-a-head Las Vegas illusionist performance featuring Pamela Anderson, then Volition’s sequel is a balls-to-the-wall, over-the-top Coney Island sideshow starring a limbless, glass-eating female midget named Senorita Cobrita.” As it turns out, our first impressions were closer to the truth than even we had expected. While THQ and Volition didn’t pick up Anderson, theydidannounce adult actress Tera Patrick as a “special producer” on the game....

As if there isn’t already enough Ninja related material on deck today, I’ve got more folks! The fellows over at Electronic Arts decided that Ninja Day wasn’t soon enough. So in the spirit of impatient celebration, they debuted their new game,Ninja Reflexfor the Wii and DS, last night at the swanky oh-so-Japanese Kabuki Hotel in Japan Town, San Francisco. While the only Ninjas attending were the conveniently costumed h’orderve waiters, CTZ and myself did our best to sharpen our Ninja wits with a hands-on opportunity....

Electronic Arts is not shy about telling you how greatBattlefield 3looks. The latest trailer is definitely pretty, and sports various soundbites from the press, including Destructoid, extolling the game’s visuals. EA and DICE want you to know that eye candy is on the cards. It helps that the action looks pretty damn cool as well. I’m starting to worry that I’ve had my fill of military shooters, but I’ve definitely got enough gas in the tank to take this one out for a spin....

In the fairly short demonstration forStar Wars: The Old Republicat E3, I had the opportunity to view a small slice of the previously unannounced setting, Hutta. You can now check out what my eyes saw in the gallery below, as BioWare and LucasArts saw fit to drop the media in attendance plenty of screenshots of Jabba the Hutt’s infamous, but unseen, stealthily acquired home world. As you may have noticed, Hutta isn’t a pretty place to be....

Iloveself-reflexive art. I don’t really know why, but stuff likeAdaptationorThe People of Paperjust drives me wild. Maybe it’s the fact that the author is respecting his or her audience enough to admit that everything he’s created is a complete fabrication with little connection to the real world. Or maybe it’s just that I like the gimmick of it. Either way, it would seem that every major art form has its fair share of self-reflexive works, save for games....

Indie Nation is an irregularly-scheduled series that highlights good independent games. Mr. MulletbyThis Is Popis probably one of the least funny games on the entire Adult Swim Web site, but it is also undoubtedly one of the best. The basic premise is simple: your family has been killed and your mullet shaved off. You need to regrow your mullet. To accomplish this goal, you will need to use a magical electric hair clipper to shave the citizens of the world, adding their excess hair to your ever-growing mane....

I’m sure you all remember the first trailer forKatamari Foreverthat Josephposteda while back. It had a monkey in it, which is really the only reason I remember. Above, you’ll find the new launch trailer for the game, which also features said monkey and the rooster puppet from the first one. This time around, the Prince of All Cosmos also shows up, and gives the boys a look at the game in action....

Videos of assorted Kinect hacks have gotten, well, kind of old. Specifically, videos portraying non-Kinect games being adapted to work with the device are the main offenders. But then a guy by the name of Garratt Gallagher comes along and does something inventive. This video shows his entry forWillow Garage‘s Robot Operating System 3D contest. Naturally, he came in at first place. Gallagher’s hack involves drawing buttons — and then having Kinect recognize those shapes as functional buttons which activate sounds upon being touched....

World of Warcraftfans rejoice: The rights to theWoWlive action film have been snapped up byLegendary Pictures. Now you’re able to not only plow all your free time into crafting and trying to flirt with low level dwarves online, but you can go and watch the dramatized version of it in the theatre too! I really, really hope someone thinks to bringLeroy Jenkinsin for a cameo, because that could just be terribly clever....

Sometimes things just turn out of the best. Earlier this week I had a ninety-minute appointment over in Electronic Arts’ press area, where they had a whole load of their upcoming games available for play-test or presentation. With the words “Burnout Paradise” scorched into the front of my brain, I headed in and went to check out when the next session was.Horror! I was told that theBurnoutguys had already gone home!...

LittleBigPlanet 2is on its way to us this November, so fans of the first game don’t have long to wait. However, if you’re lucky, you just might find yourself playing the beta a little sooner — if you were a true enthusiast of the first game, that is. ThePlayStation forumshave made an announcement that beta invites are going out this week. Will you get one? Well, here’s what they had to say:...