Today's episode of Celebrity Video Game Awkwardness stars Aisha Tyler, who does not, under any circumstances, want to hear you crying after she "smokes your ass".

The video below is something many of you will be seeing over the next few hours, as you take your first steps into the Halo: Reach beta, which opens for real today.

Hammy intro aside, this clip is actually mildly useful. Lord knows I could have done with it on Friday, when I spent half the day running around getting shanked in the back and flying my jetpack into walls.

Konami's Nintendo DS love simulator Love Plus is popular in Japan. Very popular. That means one thing.

Figurines! Love Plus character Manaka Takane is getting a color resin statue on May 4, 2010 from figure group The Poppy Puppet. According to website Neko Magic, the price is not known, and there are few details about scale. So go ahead, look at it!

Anime & Figures: Love Plus Takane Manaka non-scale GK by The Poppy Puppet [Neko Magic]

The black Wii console, which we already knew was coming, has today been officially revealed by Nintendo of America. It'll still be $200, and include not one game, but two.

Along with the Wii console, controller and nunchuk, the new Wii pack will include a Wii MotionPlus accessory and a copy both of Wii Sports and its sequel, Wii Sports Resort. We knew this too, but still, official details are always appreciated.

This price and bundle deal will extend to both the black and existing white models of the console, with the new pack (and black Wii) going on sale on May 9.

Something happened in the mid-80's that forever shaped the way I thought video games would be when I got older. And that something was this scene from the Japanese animated series Macross.

Screened in the West as the first chapter of Robotech, this sequence shows a video game arcade of the future as imagined by the show's creators in 1982. That future was 2009-10, so this is nice and timely!

I love how arcades are still not only deeply relevant, but a hub of the entertainment industry, attracting crowds of people of all ages and professions, as well as both genders. They're even a great place to meet hot alien chicks!

Note also the fact that the arcade has a "big screen", where the game of the moment can be broadcast live across the entire building. I always thought, especially once I got a bit older and the Street Fighter craze hit, that this would become commonplace in arcades across the world. Guess not!

One thing I do think this show got right is the game itself. While the first stage is a cute homage to the games of the "time" (ie the 80's), the second, where they engage in full-blown, 3D holographic combat, blew my mind when I was little, and even now, still looks amazing.

"3D" screens do nothing for me. It's a clumsy, and expensive, fudge. But the prospect of something that can actually project true three-dimensional objects in a three-dimensional space? That shit sounds amazing. And while the creators of Macross may have been a little premature in thinking we'd be playing games like that within twenty years, it's a place I still hope gaming can get to in the next twenty years.

Gentlemen, start your engines. Your bio-mechanical Neon Genesis Evangelion engines.

This Saturday, Run'a Entertainment's "Evangelion RT-01 apr Corolla" team completed its first day or racing in the Super GT300-class grand touring championship series. The team placed #14. The team's Corolla is painted after the Evangelion EVA-01 unit, and the driver's suits were modeled after the "plug suit" worn by Evangelion character Shinji Ikari.

The "race queens" (think girls in skimpy clothing at racing events) donned costumes that were inspired by Evangelion characters Rei and Asuka. One of the race queens is Noa Mizutani, who appeared in Yakuza 4 as a bar hostess.

As competing were teams modeled after Japanese anime Speed Racer and Vocaloid character Hatsune Miku. Beats cigarette and beer ads, I guess!

Evangelion Race Car Team Debuts with Plug Suit Cosplay (Updated) [ANN]

In the 80's, Bandai tormented the world with the "Gobots", their take on the "transforming robot" craze that never captured the imagination like Transformers did. Maybe they would have had better luck pimping these transformable NES cartridges instead.

Released in the 80's by the Japanese toy company, these "Kasetto Sentai" (Cartridge Corps) figures were small replicas of actual Famicom (the Japanese NES) cartridges, which were able to transform into the characters of the games they were representing. So the Mario cart became Mario, and the Gradius one became a freakin' Vic Viper. So great.

Below you'll see how these figures compared in size to the actual Famicom cart, along with the full range, which also included Bowser, Ghost 'N Goblins and Dig Dug.

Kasetto Sentai [Video Game Den, via Fuck Yeah Famicom]

The upcoming Call of Duty title, Call of Duty: Black Ops, was developed by Santa Monica-based studio Treyarch. The studio did not create Call of Duty. Has it done anything for the franchise?

Back in 2003, the Call of Duty franchise was developed and created by Infinity Ward for the PC. Treyarch was brought on board for Call of Duty 2: Big Red One, which, unlike Infinity Ward's Call of Duty 2, focuses on a singular group of soldiers — here, the Big Red One division. The game features narration from Mark Hamill, who starred in Samuel Fuller's war epic The Big Red One, and stock World War II footage.

While Infinity Ward focused on what would become Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Treyarch developed Call of Duty 3. The nuts and bolts of the game were largely similar to Call of Duty 2, with noticeable differences in how campaigns played out in the single player campaign. One new gameplay feature was the addition of hand-to-hand combat. Another was having players drive more vehicles. Online play was reworked as well. Call of Duty 3, however, simply did not have the polish that Infinity Ward's Call of Duty 2 did. That isn't to say Call of Duty 3 is a bad game, because it's not. It's just not Call of Duty 2. Hence the problem.

While Infinity Ward moved on to modern combat for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Treyarch stayed in World War II for Call of Duty: World at War. The game was more violent and grotesque than the previously Call of Duty games. It seemed exploitative, even. Hey, war is really violent and horrible, did you know that? Granted, the Pacific theater of the war had been largely unexplored, so the setting was, for WWII, a good choice at the time.

And the addition of cooperative play was welcomed, and the Nazi Zombies mode, while gimmicky, was enjoyed by players. The rub is that Treyarch didn't exactly push the series forward like Infinity Ward did. Treyarch, instead, seemed content to tinker and tweak, but left the overhauls, like no more endlessly respawning enemies, to Infinity Ward.

Of course, it is entirely possible that Treyarch was never really given the chance to shine and was told to labor in the shadows of Infinity Ward. But now with Infinity Ward a shell of its former self, Treyarch now finds itself in the driver's seat with the Call of Duty games. Treyarch is now the lead studio for the series, having the most experience developing COD games. That isn't to say that Activision won't farm out other Call of Duty sequels to other developers, but rather, that Treyarch does now have the most know-how for making these games.

The studio's previous efforts were admirable and fun — but often seemed to rely on gimmicks than truly compelling gameplay. They just felt slightly "off". That isn't to say all hope is lost — not by a damn sight! The debut trailer for Call of Duty: Black Ops is a rapid cut of images, but what it seems to hint out seems fantastic. This is the type of game we should have gotten for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, but did not.

Treyarch's most important contributions to Call of Duty could very well be still yet to come.

Classic football game Tecmo Bowl was first released on the NES in 1989. It had real players, who you probably presumed had all retired years ago, but no. The last one only hung up his boots last week.

That man was Jeff Feagles, a punter for the New York Giants, who at the ripe old age of 44 decided last week that 2009 was his last year in the National Football League. Beginning his career with the Patriots in 1988, he would go on to play for the Eagles, Cardinals and Seahawks before spending the final seven years of his career in New York.

It means that the original Tecmo Bowl, a light-hearted and highly-exploitable version of America's biggest sport, is now 100% obsolete. The 2009 season began with three Tecmo Bowl players still active on an NFL roster, with fellow specialist John Carney at New Orleans and future Hall-of-Famer LB Junior Seau at the Patriots, but those two retired at the end of the year, leaving Feagles the last man standing.

The Official End of the Tecmo Super Bowl Era [NBC]

Classic football game Tecmo Super Bowl was first released on the NES in 1991. It had real players, who you probably presumed had all retired years ago, but no. The last one only hung up his boots last week.

That man was Jeff Feagles, a punter for the New York Giants, who at the ripe old age of 44 decided last week that 2009 was his last year in the National Football League. Beginning his career with the Patriots in 1988, he would go on to play for the Eagles, Cardinals and Seahawks before spending the final seven years of his career in New York.

It means that the original Tecmo Super Bowl, a light-hearted and highly-exploitable version of America's biggest sport, is now 100% obsolete. The 2009 season began with three Tecmo Super Bowl players still active on an NFL roster, with fellow specialist John Carney at New Orleans and future Hall-of-Famer LB Junior Seau at the Patriots, but those two retired at the end of the year, leaving Feagles the last man standing.

The Official End of the Tecmo Super Bowl Era [NBC]

You thought that soundtrack slip cover was something?

As with Metal Gear Solid 4, a batch of sexy time Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker screens has made its way to the internet. The Peace Walker screens show Costa Rican girl Paz, who is studying peace at the University of Peace. Here, she's in her underoos.

The guy in the bikini briefs is half-Japanese military officer Kazuhira Miller, whose first name is a word play on peace. How...peaceful.

『メタルギアソリッドピースウォーカー』下着姿のパスとダンボールでイチャイチャ [チラシの裏でゲーム鈍報]
【パ○ツ丸出し】『メタルギアソリッド ピースウォーカー』噂のお色気画像【上半身全裸】 [オレ的ゲーム速報＠刃]
『メタルギアソリッドPW』 パスとのデートイベントが 完 全 に エ ロ ゲー な 件 [はちま起稿]