With the addition of a Japanese faction to EA’s Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3, staff here at Big Game Box were curious as to how our friends across the other, other pond were taking it. Suffice to say that we were surprised.

At time of writing, the Hell March 3 trailer for the game in question had over 500,670 views and 27,578 comments on video-sharing site nico nico douga – uploaded under the title gaijin ga souzou shita totetsu mo nai nihon ga detekuru geemu (’a game with a preposterous foreigner-envisaged version of Japan’). We’ve provided a few selected comments for your perusal below:

“Holy shit, we’re awesome!”

“Expect nothing less from the country of technology!”

“Oh shit, there go our state secrets!”

Reception on Japanese internet forum 2ch seems positive overall, with some users likening EA LA’s over-the-top depiction of Japan in Red Alert 3 to From Software’s depiction of America in presidential mech action game Metal Wolf Chaos (and if you haven’t heard of that, you owe it to yourself to see this).

It’s not all good news, though - Korean site CNB News reports on a Korean politician’s condemnation of the game’s 15+ classification for its glorification of Japanese militarism, alleging that the classification board had not taken the historical issues between the two nations fully into account when making its decision.

Some of us wonder whether a game with sonic dolphins and bionic war bears should be taken all that seriously.

The big hitting PS3 game, Little Big Planet was recalled from all retailers because of a song!?

Sony said:

“During the review process prior to the release of LittleBigPlanet, it has been brought to our attention that one of the background music tracks licensed from a record label for use in the game contains two expressions that can be found in the Qur’an,”

Because of this, all current copies of Little Big Planet have been recalled and the entire stock of the game is being remanufactured. It is unknown how long the delay will last as there is no new release date announced. However sony has assured us it will be short.

Lets hope it’s before Christmas or sony might take a big hit in the wallet.

Electronic Arts would like to remind you that Red Alert 3 is coming out. Soon, too! One method they’re using to remind people is to release a whole bunch of fake Presidential Public Service Announcements from the desk of the American President. JK Simmons knows how things are supposed to be. Bad ass, that’s how!

Follow the link for more!
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The fine folks at Rock Paper Shotgun have done a very nice expose/interview on Sword of the Stars, the game that was doing the space-based 4X RTS thing way before Sins of a Solar Empire came around and stole its thunder. Make sure you’ve got a coke or something, this article is long.

I’m honestly not sure what the hell they were thinking when they made this, but the corniness of this Red Alert 3 video, combined with some rather inventive editing, generates a feeling of…I don’t know what this feeling is. It’s somewhere between embarassment and absolute terror, I suppose. George Takei saying “All your base…” just seems wrong. The man is awesome enough on his own, don’t compromise his intrinsic awesomeness by forcing him to say lines that would only have been funny five or six years ago! You must have seen the second Holloween episode of Futurama! Remember that weird alien getting out of the Space Invaders’ ship and dropping that line? Several years too late, Futurama producers!

GamePolitics reports in yet another victory for the Dark Lord that the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod has determined, in response to a question delivered from On High unto them via the miracles of the Internet, that killing and other acts of indecency embarked upon within the confines of a video game will not, in fact, condemn your eternal soul to Hell forever after. WHEW! That’s a load off my mind!

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In case you weren’t already aware of it, the Independent Gaming Source is holding a competition among, well, independent gamers/developers to see who can make the best old version of a recent game. It’s called the Bootlegs Demakes Competition, and the latest contribution to this amazing contest is this, Gang Garrison 2. It’s…well, why should I tell you when I can simply show you?

Source: RockPaperShotgun

Yes, you read that correctly. After many grueling months of waiting with nigh-on ridiculous anticipation, the team of people working on the Sonic the Hedgehog 2 HD release have finally let a tech demo let slip from twixt their cheeks! If you’re a Sonic fan, and you lust for what could possibly still officially be, you’ll want to grab the demo from the Sonic Retro forums.

Go!

In an obvious but nonetheless appreciated promotional move, the people at SoftImage have released an in-depth look at the making of Metal Gear Solid 4. The fourteen chapter article focuses on the underlying technology used and, of course, how the SoftImage package of content tools allowed the MGS4 team to do what they did. Of course, they neglect to mention that an equivalent software package from any of SoftImage’s competitors could probably have done the same thing, but who cares? It’s interesting!

Go!

It’s been about 20 years since the introduction to the NES Zapper/light gun. Other great game peripherals including the Power Pad and the not-so-great Power Glove are among the classic devices that changed the way we play games. Here’s a look at a few little-known Nintendo-specific peripherals and games this year that may change how we enjoy playing games 20 years later.

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