Remember that silly April Fool's joke from Saints Row the Third about the alien kidnapping the leaders of the Saints and trapping them in a simulated reality with super powers? It's now a standalone expansion due out this fall. Indulge me as I fist pump triumphantly.

Saints Row the Third: Enter the Dominatrix is exactly what the April 1st prank advertised: An alien has kidnapped the Saints and trapped them in a virtual reality simulation of Steelport. Apparently they were the only humans capable of halting a full-blown alien invasion. Why not kill them? Shut up, it's cool.

From the official announcement:

"Faster than a speeding cyber jetbike, more powerful than a roided-out Luchadore, able to leap flying aircraft carriers in a single bound… That's the power you'll find inside the Dominatrix. Use it for good. Use it for evil. Use it for whatever you want. As always in Saints Row, it's up to you," said Danny Bilson, Executive Vice President, Core Game Production, THQ Inc. "With a franchise with more than 11 million units shipped globally, it's incredibly gratifying to have the flexibility to give Saints Row fans the features they want most." He later added, "Freaking super powers."

Saints Row the Third with super powers. That's everything I ever wanted. Dammit, here comes another fist pump.

More on Saints Row the Third: Enter the Dominatrix shall be made known when THQ feels like it.

It's good timing for everyone to be excited about Call of Duty: Black Ops II, it seems. New research finds that playing the game, and others like it, can actively change your brain for the better.

Several previous studies have found that playing different kinds of games has a different effect on the brain, from improving players' real-life aim to helping alleviate depression, PTSD, and other mental illnesses. Now, a team at the University of Toronto has found that playing "action video games," by which they mean an unspecified first-person shooter, improves players' ability quickly to recognize and process visual cues.

This study included only subjects who did not previously play video games. One group of players were given an FPS to play for 10 hours; the control group, a puzzle game. Only the group that played the FPS showed the differences in brain activity:

Before and after playing the games, the subjects' brain waves were recorded while they tried to detect a target object among other distractions over a wide visual field. Subjects who played the shooter videogame and also showed the greatest improvement on the visual attention task showed significant changes in their brain waves. The remaining subjects — including those who had played the puzzle game — did not.

Previous studies had shown that people who played games displayed different brain patterns than people who did not, but the existing research couldn't conclude cause and effect; it was unclear whether perhaps people who have sharper visual acuity were more likely to seek out action-oriented games.

The researchers added that the ability to increase visual perception and attention is highly relevant for day-to-day life, including, "things such as driving a car, monitoring changes on a computer display, or even avoiding tripping while walking through a room with children's toys scattered on the floor."

So, while the effects of violence as depicted in games are still hotly debated, it seems that playing an FPS can make you better at driving, or at least at helping you not step on the stupid cat toy for the third time today (ow).

Action Videogames Change Brains, Improve Visual Attention [Science Daily]

Nothing's worse than thinking you're going to get something cool at a certain time and finding out that there's going to be some sort of delay. Damn you, delays!

While other companies wouldn't own up to the amount of time they keep folks waiting, Valve is better than that. The developer of the Team Fortress, Half-Life and Portal games have cooked up a handy chart that compares the promised and actual delivery dates for various sorts of content. There's also a component that tracks when they've actually gotten stuff in ahead of their announced

To me, a grid like this shows that Valve has a sense of awareness and humor about the way that they're perceived. And for those keeping score at home, there's no mention of a certain sequel.

Valve Time

Yesterday, Al Lowe told me a dirty joke.

"What do you call a redneck with a pig under one arm and a sheep under the other arm?

"Bisexual."

Al Lowe likes telling jokes, many of them dirty. Back in 1987 he created Leisure Suit Larry, an adventure game about a loser who tries to score with hot women.

Earlier this week, he and a small team of dreamers who wanted to remake the original game with updated graphics and other new touches broke their goal of collecting more than $500,000 on the crowd-funding service Kickstarter.

They actually hauled in more than $650,000 which triggered a clause that guarantees that the remake will include a new girl for Larry to try to score with and a couple of new rooms.

While Lowe was watching people marathon through his Leisure Suit Larry games online for charity this past weekend, he asked fans what kind of girl they'd want. "Almost the universal answer was ‘Asian! We want an Asian girl!'" Lowe recalls them saying. (Analyze that!) So that's what's happening.

The comeback of Leisure Suit Larry and the exuberance of its fans delights Lowe and former stand-up comic Josh Mandel, who will help write the new content for the new game (and who wrote many of the jokes in the Larry Kickstarter campaign). They're teaming up with Replay Games and Tel Aviv-based developer Adventure Mob to get the game overhauled with modern graphics and sound, plus new content, for iOS, Android, PC, Mac and maybe even consoles.

The return of Larry is part of a comedy continuum for the jovial Lowe who literally tries to make people laugh five days a week by sending subscribers to his e-mailing list two jokes a day. The farmer joke was one of the two jokes he sent on the day we spoke.

"I try to send out one clean joke a day," he said, which is the kind of caveat that tells you a lot about his sense of humor. Lowe doesn't write the jokes, though he does edit them to punch them up. He's been doing this for 14 years. He's even collected them on his website in a searchable joke database.

For Lowe, this return of Larry is a triumph for funny games, but it's also a resurgence for one of the only popular games that's ever been about sex. It's not that LSL was porn. As Mandel pointed out, Larry was such a loser that it wasn't even possible to generate explicit situations in the old games.

Lowe doesn't keep up with most modern games, so he seems quaintly unaware how far from the edge his formerly-edgy game now is.

"Are we going to be AO?" he asked Paul Trowe, who runs Replay Games. AO is essentially the XXX rating in the gaming industry and ensures that a game won't be sold at any major retail chain.

"Have you seen God of War, Al?" Trowe laughed. "There's actually full-on titty [in that game]." He promised Lowe he'd send him some clips.

The LSL re-make, Trowe promised, will just be M-rated. And that's what Lowe wants, since he looks back at the M-rated but more explicit Leisure Suit Larry sequels that were made without him and says they "prove the point that the [original] games were not really about sex and T&A… those [newer] games were much more risqué and overtly sexual than my stuff ever was and they both bombed."

Lowe believes his games were about humor first-and only humor he could get past his wife, who he says was the only person who ever nixed any Leisure Suit Larry jokes (he won't say which ones). The old games were raunchy if not explicit. "I thought that sex would be a good means to an end, and I was looking to do a humorous game. One reason, at the time, was because there very few games out there like that. There were very few games that combined humor with a mature theme, although it's rather immature in most places!... The whole goal of the game was never pornography or blatant sex, because you can get that anywhere."

You'll be able to follow the development of the Leisure Suit Larry remake at Replay Game's website. Keep your eye on the Replay forums for the latest news. The remake is planned for release on PC and mobile platforms.

Welcome to Kotaku's official forum, known affectionately as Talk Amongst Yourselves. This is the place where we gather on a daily basis to discuss all things video game and existential. Want to talk about new games, old games, games that aren't even out yet? Knock yourselves out!

So this month's painting pairs a well-off gentleman of the 17th century with his very aggrieved counterpart. The self-satisfaction and the angest of each man is palpable. Hey, you know who else is a smug, presumably rich dude with weird headgear? The King of All Cosmos! This TAYpic from The_Real_Pan1da7 has the Katamari Damacy scene-stealer hoarding a bunch of delicious Katamari. Poor, poor Prince.

You can do funny things with pictures, right? Want everyone on this fine web forum to see? Here's what you do. Post your masterpieces in the #TAYpics thread. Don't forget to keep your image in a 16x9 ratio if you want a slice of Talk Amongst Yourselves glory. Grab the base image here. Don't forget to keep your image in a 16x9 ratio if you want a slice of TAY glory. The best ones will be featured in future installments of Talk Amongst Yourselves.

Publisher Electronic Arts seems to have backtracked on its plans to shut down the mobile version of Rock Band following a massive outcry from fans and press yesterday.

Yesterday, customers with the iOS version of Rock Band received a message saying the game would shut down on May 31. Now, EA says that was an error.

"Rock Band for iOS will remain live - the in-app message users received yesterday was sent in error," an EA representative told Kotaku last night. "We apologize for the confusion this caused. We're working to clarify the issue that caused the error and will share additional information as soon as possible."

After news of Rock Band's expiration date circulated yesterday, gamers took to Reddit to complain about EA, which was voted the Worst Company in America during a fan-driven web poll last month. Some fans also bombed the game on iTunes, hitting it with one-star reviews to warn people to stay away.

"How is it that they can have me pay for this app and songs to play, and then just take it away from me after they get their money?" one customer wrote. "RIPOFF!"

In addition, The Verge reports that the FAQ on EA's website, which used to say they were "suspending support for Rock Band after May 31 and focusing resources on other EA titles," has now been modified to reflect the "error."

We've contacted EA for further clarification and will update should we hear anything.

Charles Schulz's Peanuts comic strips stand as one of the most brilliant artistic achievements of the 20th Century. You could say the same about The Legend of Zelda video games.

So, yes, I'm going to vote for this shirt design by Threadless contributor Winter the Artist. You should, too. He's also got a great Chewbacca shirt design as well.

A Hero named...

[Threadless, via Boing Boing]

Back in late 2006 we were convinced that one day our Wiis would be filled with every classic video game we ever wanted, thanks to the magic of the Virtual Console. That dream is dead now, but the Virtual Console continues to hang-on in superlative fashion.

Today on the Wii Virtual Console it's Super Hang-On, the arcade motorcycle racer from the company that makes me want to keep typing 'virtua' instead of 'virtual'. You might recall this Sega classic as the one with the awesome motorcycle you'd sit on in the arcade. Well now you can play it on your Wii. Park a motorcycle in your living room, it can only help.

Along with Super-Hang On, this week sees some sort of 3D bird game for the eShop and the DSiWare release of Amoebattle, previously a Kotaku Gaming App of the Day.

It's funny. I'm tempted to pick up Super Hang-On for nostalgia's sake, but it's nostalgia over the Virtual Console and not the game itself.

Games

Amoebattle
Platform: DSi / 3DS
Price: 500 DSi Points / $4.99
Battle for 'Primordial Soup'-remacy! A mysterious infection threatens the microscopic world and its inhabitants, and it's up to you – and your group of loveable single-celled creatures – to stop it from spreading. Built from the ground up, Amoebattle delivers a portable twist to the real time strategy genre and brings the experience to the palm of your hand. Intuitively command your troops using the Touch Screen as you discover interesting types of amoebas, journey through fantastic environments, and lead your amoebas to victory in battle…Amoebattle!

Bird Mania 3D
Platform: 3DS
Price: $1.99
When Mojo realizes his friends from the flock set out to Africa he begins a frantic chase after them because he wants to go on a vacation too. Fly faster and faster, dash, soar, glide, and collect all bonuses. How far can you get in pursuit of a delightful vacation? Bird Mania 3D is a skill-based action game where you steer a little birdy on his way to Africa. Keep him out of trouble as long as possible and beat your best score! You will be hypnotized for long hours while trying to collect all bonuses and avoid obstacles. And if you really want to perfect the art of flying, try to get all achievements.

Super Hang-On
Platform: Wii Virtual Console
Price: 900 Wii Points

Gear up for ultimate speed in Super Hang-On. Based on the hit arcade racer originally released in 1987, this sequel to SEGA's Hang-On will put your street bike skills to the test. Tour through 48 challenging tracks on four continents and discover the rush of true arcade game play as you blaze through checkpoints in a race to beat the clock and your competitors. Experience the thrill of street bike racing and earn your place at the top of the scoreboards in this must-have classic.

Raise your hands if Gravity Rush is the reason you got a PlayStation Vita or plan on getting one. Wow, that's a lot of hands!

All the anticipation for Gravity Rush comes from the game's combination of a clever core mechanic with a unique aesthetic. A new post over at the PlayStation Blog shows a three-year-old concept video from the physics-defying action title's early development days and it's clear that an emphasis on looking wonderful was there from the very start.

The accompanying blog post from the game's art director explains how the sharply delineated look of the game came about and why the game's environment needed to be much more than static backdrops:

Another important factor is the concept of a "living background." This is the idea of bringing the game world itself to life so that users can actually ‘feel' it. Basically, players can interact with certain objects in the game and they can actually get into the scenery within the remote background. Environmental background is not a piece of a picture, but it actually exists within the game, and we can use that background with our gameplay. That was our ultimate goal. By combining the unique art style of BD and the idea of living background, we created a sensation that could only be brought to life with a video game.

Last time I saw Gravity Rush, I remember thinking it felt like a living comic book. Something drawn by Moebius, maybe. I can't wait to dive—upside-down, sideways, whatever!—into its world when Gravity Rush comes out next month.

The Art of PS Vita's Gravity Rush[PlayStation Blog]

Two of Warner Bros. most beloved children's franchise come together later this year in Cartoon Universe, a free-to-play browser-based online adventure world. You know, for the kids.

The first project out of WB Games Montreal, Cartoon Universe is a colorful kid-friendly destination for fans of The Looney Tunes Show and Scooby Doo. Kids will be able to create their own toonified avatar, participate in puzzles and mini-games, meet new friends, and experience the joy of exploring a place that doesn't actually exist.

Along the way they'll run into popular characters from both cartoon series, though Scooby Doo and the gang are relegated to their own mysterious island. Quarantined is a good way to put it.

"Cartoon Universe is an online game filled with safe, social worlds designed just for kids," said Samantha Ryan, Senior Vice President, Production and Development, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment via official announcement. "They'll love discovering a constantly changing place full of fun activities, cool rewards and memorable humorous moments with their favorite characters!"

Apparently you can play an incredibly buggy beta version of the game in your web browser right now. I've logged in, created a character....

...and watched the opening story unfold.

Once the cut scene was over I was trapped behind a door, but I can see where they're going with it.

Head over to the official Cartoon Universe website and poke around for yourself. Cartoon Universe is slated for release in North America in 2012, with select international markets planned for next year.