Here's a hilariously odd piece of corporate expression; it seems Nintendo has adopted an official gesture when its senior employees are mentioning the word "direct".

Tiny Cartridge's Eric has spotted that, too often for it to be a coincidence, when the word (part of Nintendo's term for its impromptu press briefings) "direct" is mentioned, the person saying it chops their hands very directly. Company president Satoru Iwata does it a lot, but so too does Bill Trinen, and even Reggie gives it a go.

What's awesome is that it's not just done in the English-language presentations. In Japanese briefings, Iwata does exactly the same thing when he says "chokusetsu", which of course means "direct".

You can see some chopping in the pics above, or here's a video example. What you can't see is my hands chopping every time I type "direct". This thing is catchy!

Nintendo Direct [Tiny Cartridge]

First shown off in unpainted form earlier this year, Sideshow's enormously fancy Diablo statue, from Diablo III, is finally going on sale this Thursday.

The poor thing's in a weird place. I always feel bad for the artists and designers who come up with great-looking characters—which in turn make for great collectibles—only to see the fanbases for their games die away like they have for Diablo III.

Priced at $350, there's more info at the link below.

DIABLO STATUE PHOTO GALLERY AND PRE-ORDER INFORMATION! [Sideshow]

It's been a peaceful few years, hasn't it? As the current generation of consoles got cheaper, more and more people were able to buy more than one of them. They could play, and enjoy, games across different systems. And as a result, stopping being so emotionally invested in the one system they did own, to the detriment of others.

In other words: people stopped being fanboys. And it was wonderful.

Now, though, the pot is being stirred. There's a new console out, the first in six years, and whether they're coming in from the woods or losing the fight against old habits, fanboys are out in force with it.

Over the next 12 months, we can probably expect the Wii U to be joined by at least one, if not two competing consoles from Microsoft and Sony.

So now is the time to dig our heels in and put up our guard. If you're reading this, chances are you're someone who at least likes to observe, if not actively participate in online discussions about video games. You'll also know, then, that fanboy crap is able to swiftly and decisively derail almost any discussion. It doesn't matter if they're defending their console/company of choice or attacking a "competitor", the result is the same: madness.

My mother always told me never to argue down. That's what it's like dealing with a "fanboy". It's like discussing the finer points of racial tolerance with the Ku Klux Klan. They're zealots, fanatics, and what's worse they're not even being blinded by something remotely important like race, or politics, or religion. They're attacking other human beings over... entertainment companies.

If you see one—and over the past week, they've been hard to miss—leave them well alone! Don't reply to them. Don't think you can reason with them. They're like a hornet's nest. Walk on by.

If you find yourself fighting fanboy urges, take a step back and think about what you're saying. Every platform, genre and game has its ups and downs. People will criticise them, people will laud them, sometimes even in the same article.

That's life! Instead of feeling as though you need to somehow defend the actions of studios or corporations, you could try considering something that gets me through these tough times. To quote the words of a Mr. Tom Araya, "I hate everyone equally". These platform holders and publishers don't love you. They don't cherish your fervour. Their methods might differ, but the end result is the same: make as much money out of you as is humanly possible.

So instead of saddling up to them as though they're a football team or political party, take them for what they are, not what your nostalgia or personal investment in a purchasing decision might fool you into thinking they are.

These are businesses. So give them your business. Not your passion.

(top image courtesy of Meat Bun)

This is Anakin. He was born without a pelvis or either of his back legs, but you'd never guess just by looking at how much energy and enthusiasm he has. And also by how he can move around practically uninhibited. Look at him climb! With only two limbs! Could you do that? I certainly couldn't.

There are lots of Internet celebrity cats out there. Maru, for instance, is definitely a favorite, but Anakin has stolen my heart recently. Maybe you're already aware of him, but if you're not this recap of his first six months of life should be a good introduction.

Head over to the Talk Amongst Yourselves forum for more conversations, off and on-topic.

Garry's Mod has added support for Kinect. The popular PC machinima/screwing around tool will be able to read your movements on Microsoft's camera and, to the best of its ability, recreate the actions in the game.

What results won't change the world. But it will result in some funny, funny stuff. Especially since Kinect works on servers, meaning people can get together and just dance.

Battlefield 3: Aftermath releases today. If you're a premium member... playing on Playstation 3. Xbox 360 and PC premium members get the DLC on December 4, followed by a December 11 on PS3 and December 18 on Xbox 360 and PC for the standard release.

But what's in it? The video up top will show you everything the expansion has to offer, including new maps, a new Scavenger mode, new vehicles, and a crossbow. That you can equip a scope onto. And shoot things with. This pleases me.

Who is still playing Battlefield 3? Raise your hand. With all the shooters releasing lately I have trouble scrambling back and forth between them.

A leaked document has revealed at least some art and the basic story background for the next game from Bungie, the creators of the Halo universe.

The document sent to IGN, and also to Kotaku, says that the game is set on a future Earth where, after a brief colonisation of the stars, humanity has been attacked by aliens and forced back to a single city on our home planet, where we are protected by a large, mysterious spacecraft. Another alien. Only this time it's a good one.

Players will take the role of what's basically a space knight, travelling the stars, exploring the worlds and of course fighting the alien menace.

The game is being pitched as a highly social experience, sort of like an MMO, with the universe hoping to appeal to as wide a variety of people.

We received a document earlier this month containing many of the same images visible on IGN, but with a twist; a reader claimed they had found the document on a USB stick left behind in a coffee shop. We refrained from posting them at the time because we weren't sure how real these images were. Some images seemed like they could be for Bungie's mysterious game. Others, we'd find, were not. But as we were tracking things down, Bungie confirmed the authenticity of some of the images to IGN.

While most images and information appear to be the same as those shared by IGN, others differ. And in attempting to determine the source of the pictures, we found that rather than being made entirely of Bungie-supplied art, at least two pieces had been lifted from places like DeviantArt.

In the wake of the leak, Bungie has stopped short of confirming all the information, but has posted a story and image (below, the brown tank in the snow) on its own site, saying "Go ahead. Take a peek. It's alright. We weren't quite ready, but we will be soon, and we can't wait to finally show you what we've really been up to.

Stick around, we haven't even started yet."

Bungie has confirmed to Kotaku that the document and some of the art is genuine, and is somewhat representative of the game. They declined to say if the art was out of date.

This of course isn't the first bit of information about the game to spill out. Loads of stuff came out from secret studio visits earlier this month.

Below you'll find a selection of the images we were sent. Note that the bottom one, with the brown tank in the snow, was posted by Bungie earlier today.

You know it's more than that, but at the time of this writing there are 77, 361 official signatures proclaiming each person's desire to see Rockstar's next Grand Theft Auto title release on PC.

And why shouldn't it? After all, as the petition to Rockstar to get GTA V on PC offers, the PC modding community is part of what made previous titles thrive and evolve even years after their respective releases. Because of some crazy modders, we got to see insanely cool creations in the heart of some GTA games. It would be a crime to deprive GTA V of that same opportunity.

It's not completely out of the question that we will see GTA V on PC. Rockstar's Dan Houser was last quoted indicating that a PC version is potentially "up for consideration," so hang tight for future (likely positive, is my guess) news.

I saw two movies at two movie theaters this weekend and the same Best Buy commercial aired before both of them. I usually tune out the commercials at the movies (strange that we can avoid commercials on TV but get smacked with them in theaters, no?). This big-screen commercial did get my attention since.... wow! I know those people in the commercial. I'd been to their Halo-themed wedding!

The couple in the commercial are John Henry and Desirai Labrada, who met and fell in love while playing Halo 2 online. I heard about them when I was covering games for MTV and wound up taping a segment on them at their Halo-themed wedding in January of 2009.

Here's that segment:

Cute couple, right? They had plasma grenades as wedding favors. Still the best wedding favors I've ever seen.

I've heard from John and Desirai a little bit since then. The day I visited Halo founders Bungie in Seattle—the day the cops were called on the studio—they walked in as I was walking out. Just visiting, pre-PAX.

A year after the wedding, I checked in with John and Desirai. They were still doing well.

And now they're in a Christmas commercial. How in the world do you get in a Christmas commercial? That's damn near as exotic as being married by Master Chief.

How does that happen?

Desirai explains in a new blog post on the couple's A Match Made in Halo. Short version: you get contacted out of the blue, you wait, you get flown to L.A. and treated like royalty. Voila! You are in a Christmas commercial that is airing before Skyfall and Cloud Atlas.

Congratulations to the happy couple, once again!

Best Buy ‘Gifts That Do: What Will Your Gift Do?' [A Match Made in Halo]

Monsters! Maps! Flying zeppelins! Dungeon crawling!

I'm pretty psyched for this one: the Etrian Odyssey series has always done a good job of satiating those dungeon crawl cravings I get every so often. EOIV is out for 3DS on February 26.