Totilo was taking it easy this past week but we didn't forget about you. He's back tomorrow. Rictor is the winner of the #taypics derby today. So remember to submit yours before Stephen gets back! He'll need one.

Meantime, talk amongst yourselves! About games.

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Some hate it. Some love it. There is going to be a new Devil May Cry game called DmC: Devil May Cry, and the reaction has run the full spectrum. Time to ask the diehards.

That's right, Devil May Cry cosplayers.

At this year's Tokyo Game Show, I asked a group of cosplayers what they thought about the DmC: Devil May Cry trailer. The ladies cosplaying as Dante and Vergil had this to say:

"What a letdown! I was so disappointed."
"We don't know much about it, though."
"Is it a prequel? Is it a spin-off?"
"His hair looks different!"
"But I'm going to buy it."
"I'm going to buy it, too."
"I'm going to complain about it, and then buy it."
"I'm going to complain while buying it."
"I think all fans of the series are going to say they don't like it, but then buy it."
"I might like it!"
"I'm going to buy it new. I'm not going to buy it used."
"It's good to have low expectations."
"I have low expectations."
"Yeah, I'm going to buy it."
"Me too."

Well, it has a blow-up doll grenade. Is that loco enough for you, hombre? What if I told you that Gun Loco pits bizarre interstellar criminals based on vinyl figures against each other in mortal combat? And that Square Enix is responsible?

That's about as crazy as it gets. Having played Gun Loco, a third-person, team-based shooter—at least in the multiplayer demo on display at Square Enix's Tokyo Game Show booth—it's clear the aim is to do something outside of the publisher-developer's norm.

Players can select from a group of eight criminals, all with exaggerated features, some wearing rabbit heads, some with big gold teeth or green afros, some that just look like street thugs. Gun Loco's cast of scum and villainy is based on figures designed by toy maker Kenny Wong. Sometimes, when you kill an opponent, you'll see their bodies split into a pile of toy parts.

It's bloody, but not particularly gory.

The goal in multiplayer is to rack up the longest prison sentence by killing the most enemies. You'll be rewarded a longer sentence by killing players that have a big bounty on their heads. That scoring system lends a tactically interesting layer to team deathmatch.

Each character has his own specific load out—one gun, one grenade type. These can be pistols, assault rifles or shotguns that look like kittens. Grenades range from simple fragmentation types to the aforementioned blow-up doll, which inflates quickly and moves towards nearby targets.

Gun Loco is a fast-paced shooter that puts an emphasis on sprinting. By pressing the left bumper, you'll cruise through the level, hopping over and under obstacles, rolling around corners to keep your momentum moving forward. Objects that the player can hop over or slide under will be highlighted with a blue tint while sprinting, similar to the movement indicators in Mirror's Edge.

While sprinting, players can perform special moves, like an explosive dive. Also while sprinting, players can tap the A button for a close quarters melee attack. Sometimes this is simply a devastating punch to the testicles from behind. Sometimes its a body shattering kick to the chest.

Occasionally, it's a button mashing contest between two players trying to pull off a melee attack simultaneously. During these moments, you'll have to jam on the left and right triggers while the on-screen action figures grapple hand-to-hand. The victor will snap his opponent in half, then crush his action figure body.

Gun Loco felt early, but potentially promising. It's loaded with weird charm, but it's going to need a little more gameplay polish before it starts to feel reliant on that charm. The game's wild camera can be unsettling while sprinting, especially when rolling around a corner, and its controls might benefit from a more common layout.

The six-versus-six online multiplayer battles were fun to play, in part because my competition served as great target practice. Many of the TGS attendees I played with and against seemed to have a hard time coming to grips with this weird Square Enix game, but at least they were lining up for it, unlike its next door neighbor shooter MindJack.

But Gun Loco was a surprising—some might say crazy—product from Square Enix. Can't say we've gone totally loco for it yet, but we'll keep an eye on it.

Sony is releasing a limited edition version of its popular (in Japan) PlayStation Portable, one designed to be easier on players' thumbs and to capitalize on the highly anticipated release of Monster Hunter Portable 3rd. Let's have a look...

The new PSP analog nub on the limited edition features a concave design and a textured surface, which certainly looks comfortable. Unfortunately, the glass between us and the new PSP prevented us from going hands-on with this particular model, but we did get withing close-up shot distance.

So, without further ado... ENHANCE!

Notice the cute paw print speaker holes? Clever, aren't they?

TGS isn't only about girls. It's also about boys. Booth boys. There aren't many of them, but they do exist!

There are tons of dudes-in-polo-shirts working the booths. They are typically company employees. They wear boring outfits and are not booth boys per se.

And some of the booth boys aren't actual humans. Can you guess which ones?

When Duke Nukem Forever finally arrives next year, the erstwhile action hero will have spent 15 years in ass-kicking and gum-chewing limbo. Last week's contest asked everyone to imagine what he'd done in the meantime.

In CatsAkimbo's world, Duke saved CBS from a zillion dollars in FCC fines. Eight_Bit_Remix does what the comedy biz terms a "callback." Roth, paying attention, implements Asshole Dog for an automatic win. For some reason, Ransomlikescake's entry hit my funnybone. psykofaze gets in on incumbency and a current film reference.

Winners? hotcake goes back to a time when news photos were fun. OctaneHugo is deliberately trolling Chewblaha, but I like it. But ShakeelCaban summons the only excuse for this game taking so long, and is therefore crowned the winner.

Thanks again and congrats to all who entered. See you in here tomorrow.

Alpha_PL
Andy Roo Mac
Bouchart
brockishard
CatsAkimbo
Chinpokomon
Cynical1
Eight_Bit_Remix
hotcake
JGab
jojo1288
Karljohan Pettersen
Laodicea-Dude
OctaneHugo
plasticslug
psykofaze
Ransomlikescake
Roth
ShakeelCaban
Stephen Ansell

Remember "Close Range"? The Onion's violent video game satire got a web-based flash game after its hilarious introduction in April, and soon the satirical publication began work on an iPhone app. Until Apple killed the fun, of course.

GameSetWatch reports that Close Range, the "hotly anticipated video game in which players repeatedly shoot people point-blank in the face," ran afoul of the App Store's violent content guidelines. Watching the video, that's not hard to imagine. The Onion "has since revised the game and re-submitted it," says GameSetWatch.

Apple won't allow "apps portraying realistic images of people or animals being killed or maimed, shot, stabbed, tortured or injured." Given that the punchline depends on graphic violence I'm not sure how much more they can edit this concept before it loses its oomph.

If nothing else, this censorship controversy definitely proves that Close Range is "the most important game of the year"! Has California heard about this yet?

Apple Rejects The Onion's 'Shoot People Point-Blank In The Face' Game [GameSetWatch]

Most of GameTrailers TV's production last night was devoted to Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2. Tucked within that was a 30 second preview of gameplay in BioShock Infinite. It's at 14:00 of the video embedded here.

The full gameplay sequence will be available over Xbox Live on Tuesday.

Minecraft, the indie hit for PC whose popularity has gone meteoric of late, has found its servers overwhelmed. Playing the game isn't affected by the trouble, however. As such, its creator has declared it "free-to-play" until he can restore order.

Per a barebones page on the Minecraft page, Markus Persson, aka "Notch," says that "Minecraft got way too popular for this humble server. I've had to disable everything fancy to even get it to run."

Presently, registering an account, buying the game and user verification for online servers are all inactive. But playing the game and player skins still work.

"Until this all gets sorted out, I'm officially calling a 'free-to-play weekend,' or however long this will take to fix," says Notch. "You will need to have a paid account to play it later on when this gets fixed though."

The official page (linked below) has download links for Windows, MacOS and Linux-supported versions of Minecraft.

Minecraft Offline [Minecraft.net, thank you to all who tipped this]

Yesterday evening saw the filing deadline for supporting briefs in Schwarzenegger vs. Entertainment Merchants Association - the Supreme Court case involving a California statute restricting the sale or rental of violent video game sales. Nine states oppose the law.

Rhode Island, Arkansas, Georgia, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Utah and Washington, plus Puerto Rico jointly filed a brief supporting the games industry. Their paper made a range of arguments, saying California's law both treads on unconstitutional censorship and, worse, could waste law enforcement resources on defendants who could claim a games-made-me-do-it defense under the precedents set in a ruling favorable to California.

"California's statute legitimizes the off-loading of personal responsibility on to a video game," wrote Patrick Lynch, the attorney general of Rhode Island, in a brief signed by his nine counterparts.

Briefs supporting the games industry also were filed by the Motion Picture Association of America and the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression. "To be insulated from depictions and descriptions of violence, one would have to be insulated from the great works of religion, history, art, literature, and culture," said the booksellers brief.

The California statute, twice found unconstitutional in federal courts, sets penalities for the sale or rental of extremely violent video games to minors. It is not based selling games of a certain ESRB classification, such as M, but on a broader standard related to violence. California seeks to have violence set as a new and separate standard justifying the content-based restriction, by the government, of expressive works.

The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Schwarzenegger vs. Entertainment Merchants Association on Nov. 2.

States Join Media Groups In Briefs Opposing California's Violent Video Game Ban [LegalTimes Blog via Game Politics]