Namco Bandai's God Eater might look like Capcom's monster hunting series Monster Hunter. That doesn't matter. The game is popular, and thus, Namco Bandai is making another one.

God Eater Burst will be coming to the PSP this fall in Japan and feature new characters and a new story. According to Japanese magazine Famitsu, it is less of a straight-up sequel and more of a super evolved version. (Not sure what that means!)

The game's graphics get a polishing and apparently will look better than in the original PSP title. But will it still look like Monster Hunter?

The original God Eater game will arrive in North America later this year.

It's not until you look at the games of the past that you realise how easy the games of today really are.

Nearly every game these days has a "very easy" setting, some like Bayonetta - with its optional one-button mechanic - taking this to extremes. But in decades past, a lot of games prided themselves on their toughness. On how difficult they were to finish.

And while some people will point to games like Contra as examples of this, today I'm going to show you something a little different. I'm going to show you what adventure games were like before Lucasarts revolutionised the genre.

This is Space Quest 3. Before series like Monkey Island ruled adventure games' earth, Sierra's franchises - Police Quest, King's Quest and Space Quest to name a few - were top dogs. If you wanted a combination of puzzles and humour, Sierra is where you went.

You also went there for brutal, instant death, which I think is the toughest, cruellest death of all in video games. If you were too slow to dodge a bullet, that's your own damn fault. But killing you instantly in a game for doing what seemed the right thing to do? That's cold. And it's something these old Sierra games excelled at.

The war of the sexes depicted in a fan-made fighting game, complete with S&M brawlers and groin kicks.

Made with 2D Fighter Maker software, "Man vs Woman" has a male character named "Chan" and a female character named "Mary" duke it out in the streets of Akihabara. Chan can slap and kick, while Mary can kick and grab his nards.

She says things like, "Man-killer!" or "It doesn't hurt, does it?" while unleashing her attacks. Her special move — pulling down Chan's underpants — causes him to cover himself in shame, which is a reaction that Japanese news site IT Media calls "somewhat cute" in an article published this week.

The PC game is priced at ¥700 (US$8) and was released earlier this year, complete with a playable demo. Check out the game clip here. Warning, NSFW.

男対女 [Surpara Market via Kotaku Japan]

It's one thing when a writer or sales analyst tells you music game sales are down. It's another, all the more disheartening thing to hear it from someone who makes Guitar Hero games for a living.

"Sales across the board were lower last year," Neversoft project director Brian Bright told MCV. "Our rival might sugercoat it but I won't. Sales are down for software and for peripherals. We put out a load of games last year, and even when you add them all together they didn't do better than World Tour."

Bright puts the slide down to a loss of focus. "The first three Guitar Hero games had very strong ties to rock ‘n' roll, but I think with World Tour and 5 we just tried to please everybody. And in the end I think we ended up not pleasing anybody. We put more into this game to give Guitar Hero its life back".

Precisely the problem with DJ Hero as well. If only Activision's devs all worked in the same building...

Neversoft: Music game sales ARE down [MCV]

There's nothing in the world quite like lifestyle photography, the practice of making models look like they're having fun with a product when they are in fact not having fun.

These new shots for Microsoft's Kinect, though, are especially great, because not only do they feature people trying to look silly flailing around their living room, but they feature what must be the most amazing group share house in world history.

Look at them! They're like one giant rainbow family. There's the Hispanic family, the Blonde/Hispanic family (ie the white people), the Japanese family (who we've seen before!), the Asian family (not Japanese!) and the "AA" family (ie African American"), all using the same Kinect in the same apartment (albeit in two configurations, one for families, one for couples)! Note we didn't label them that way; that's how the families and their photos are tagged on Microsoft's press site.

Wonderful how it can bring all the peoples of the world (or at least Microsoft's target demographics) together, all under one roof, only...where does everyone sleep?

Last year, a Federal judge ruled in favour of Electronic Arts in a lawsuit brought forward by former NFL superstar-turned-actor Jim Brown. Well, Brown just won't take no for an answer.

Brown claimed that classic rosters in EA Sports' Madden series used his "likeness", and since he hadn't been asked about it - or paid for it - he took them to court. The judge ruled against him, however, saying that the alleged "likeness" (which didn't use his name or face, just his number and general appearance) was OK, because video games are "expressive works, akin to an expressive painting that depicts celebrity athletes of past and present in a realistic sporting environment."

The judge in question was Florence-Marie Cooper, who in January died of lymphoma. Brown now says Cooper's ruling was "erroneous", and is looking for a San Francisco court to overturn the decision.

NFL great Jim Brown appeals lawsuit dismissal [AP] [image: Getty]

The upcoming action game from the folks that gave the world Bayonetta and MadWorld has a been given a release date in a recent Famitsu magazine article. Would you like to know what it is? Would you?

Vanquish will be released in Japan on October 21. No word on its Western release date.

The game is being developed by Platinum Games and designed by Shinji Mikami, the creator of Resident Evil.

With Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker finished and released, those hoping that MGS creator would now begin work on another Zone of the Enders game, bad news.

In an upcoming Japanese magazine interview, Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima states that development on the next Zone of the Enders has been pushed back a tad.

As early as 2006, there have been stories circulating that Kojima's giant mecha series would be coming to the PlayStation 3. It's 2010, and the last Z.O.E. title was Zone of the Enders 2 in 2003.

Kojima reportedly was moving on from Metal Gear Solid in 2008. Kojima apparently had design documents for a title that did not include MGS.

The game designer, however, went on to develop yet another Metal Gear title, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker.

And in 2009, Kojima Productions, Kojima's studio, was gauging interest in Zone of the Enders 3. Then Kojima said he and his team were "really considering" Z.O.E. 3, followed by a promise that there would be a Z.O.E. sequel someday.

The mere mentions of a possible Z.O.E. sequel that Kojima made on his blog got his staff in a tizzy last October. "The reverberation has been bigger than imagined," the game designer wrote at the time. KP staffers who worked on Z.O.E. have been stopping him on the elevator, in the office, in restaurants and in Tokyo Midtown, saying "Is it true?", "When do we start making Z.O.E.?" and "Please let me join the team!" One guy even has a Anubis (Z.O.E.) print out tacked up on his cubicle! "No, no, a little longer," Kojima wrote. "I want you to wait."

Kojima is using Zone of the Enders 3 as a carrot to dangle and then jerk quickly away — something he'll continue doing this until he actually begins work on the next Z.O.E. game.

So what is he working on? Kojima tells the magazine that it is a home console game, and he is choosing between Metal Gear Solid 5 and an original title. The game, Kojima adds, will contain things that he was not able to do in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker.

(Recently released Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker was originally going to be Metal Gear Solid 5.)

"Kojima-san doesn't have to make Metal Gear any more."

The game's design document, however, has been completed, and it deals with the "taboo" topic that Kojima tweeted about. His "next title", Kojima tweeted last past April, will "challenge a certain type of taboo." According to Kojima, "If I mess up, I'll probably have to leave the industry." A melodramatic overstatement.

The magazine asks Kojima how long the development will take for this new title. "If I get moving," he replies, "quick."

Because who doesn't like drinking something called "slime"?

Japanese game company Square Enix has collaborated in the past with Osaka-based beverage maker Suntory to release game-themed drinks for its Final Fantasy series. This time around Dragon Quest gets its own beverages as part of a promotion for Dragon Quest Monster Battle Road Victory.

The drinks comes in two flavors: blue Hoimi Cider and orange Mera Tropical. As website Siliconera points out, the names are based off spells in Dragon Quest with "Hoimi" referring to "heal" and "Mera" meaning "Frizz".

No wonder Suntory has laced its heal cider with B6.

Priced at ¥284 ($3.25), the drinks go on sale July 13 in Japan and come with with a redeemable in-game avatar item.

Guzzling slime has never been this cute.

Drink A Dragon Quest Slime [Siliconera]

The Miis, cute little avatars that are one of the highlights of Nintendo's Wii system, look set to be around for the long run, according to comments made by Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto.

Asked whether Miis might somehow be compatible with the upcoming 3DS, Miyamoto replied "We need to keep in mind how we evolve the Miis and how we think about compatibility with Miis between different systems, but that's something that we're definitely giving consideration to and want to continue to try to allow people to use their Miis on different Nintendo systems going forward."

Not confirmation that we'll get them on the 3DS, then, but you may want to hang onto them when Nintendo's next home console comes around.

Miyamoto on 3DS [IGN]