Amazonys – Wii Games

No let-up for sales of Aion this week, which if it keeps this up may well rank as one of the biggest surprise hits of the year on the PC.

The MMO took the top two spots on both the Steam and Direct2Drive charts, leaving other big releases like Fallen Earth, Resident Evil 5 and Batman in its dust.

PC Digital Download Charts For The Week Ending September 26

Steam

1. Aion Collector’s Edition
2. Aion
3. Fallen Earth
4. Batman: Arkham Asylum
5. F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin
6. Left 4 Dead
7. Resident Evil 5
8. Counter-Strike
9. Star Wars Jedi Knight Collection
0. Red Faction: Guerrilla

Direct2Drive

1. Aion Collector’s Edition
2. Aion
3. Fallen Earth
4. Neverwinter Nights 2
5. Assassin’s Creed Director’s Cut
6. Titan Quest Bundle
7. Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir
8. Champions Online
9. BioShock
10. Star Wars: KOTOR

[via Shacknews]

Part of the charm of Fat Princess is how bloody drenched violence is contrasted with cute characters and cake. That charm, it seems, does not translate to the Japanese market.

The game, retitled Pocchari Princess (“Cubby Princess”) for The Land of the Rising Sun, is getting a domestic Japanese release on the PSN and the PSP later this November. The trailer Sony is running on the title’s official site is entirely blood-free. Pocchari Princess does carry a warning about violence — but, the actually blood letting appears to be censored as it often is for Japanese titles.

We are following up with Sony Computer Entertainment.

ぽっちゃり☆プリンセス [Official Site Thanks, Neer'mo!]

Sony have a chequered past when it comes to advertising their consoles. Some ads have been memorable, others, highly controversial. And while they’re now just mostly memorable in the US and Europe, in Chile, they’re…using Nazis.

These two award-winning print ads, put together by Chilean agency BBDO, depict a Regular Joe – presumably someone who has bought, or is about to buy a PS3 – on a hospital bed. In one, he’s giving a heart transplant to Joan of Arc. A flame-resistant suit may have been a better option, but then, it’s not as touching.

But in the other? The same Regular Joe is in a Nazi hospital (complete with swastika bed heads) giving a blood transfusion to the Desert Fox himself, Feldmarschall Erwin Rommel. Who, despite escaping the war with his reputation (if not his life) in tact, was at the end of the day still a Nazi general. So…if you buy a PS3, you can…save Rommel, and…win the war for the Nazis? That’s all I’m seeing here.

Erwin Rommel, Joan of Arc resurrected by PlayStation 3 [copyrant]

Stan Lee, co-creator of Spider-Man, X-Men, the Hulk and the Fantastic Four, among many other characters, is no spring chicken. He’s 86 years-old. But if he was a youngster, would he go into comic books?

“If I were young now and I wanted to do stories,” Lee told The Guardian, “I would very much want to get into the videogame business because it’s the most exciting.”

While Marvel has licensed its characters out to developers for game development, Lee’s involvement seems largely hands-off.

“Videogames and movies are the most exciting forms of entertainment,” he continues. “But a videogame in a way is more imaginative, it has more variety. In a movie you stick to the plotline, in a videogame you go in a million different directions. I have no idea how they’re able to do that. It’s like a miracle.”

Know what’s an even bigger miracle? When they make good games.

Stan Lee: ‘I have no idea how games are made – it’s a miracle’ [Guardian] [Pic]

While we knew that there would be yet another Resident Evil movie, it wasn’t official-official. Now it is.

Website ShockTillYouDrop report that the Screen Gems and Constantin Film have officially announced that production on Resident Evil: Afterlife has kicked off in Toronto, Canada.

The film will be shot entirely in 3D and directed by Paul W.S. Anderson. Afterlife stars Milla Jovovich as Alice, and Ali Larter and Spencer Locke will reprise their roles as Claire Redfield and K-Mart from the previous films. Actor Wentworth Miller is joining the cast as Claire’s brother, Chris Redfield. Shawn Roberts will play Wesker.

“Alice’s battle with The Umbrella Corporation isn’t finished,” says director Anderson. “Last time we saw Alice, she let them know she was coming after them. It’s time to settle the score.” Dun-dun-dunnnnnnnnnnnnnn.

Resident Evil: Afterlife Officially Announced [ShockTillYouDrop.com] [Pic]

Five imagined status updates, and their comments, reveal the typical comings, goings and doings of gaming’s glitterati, played perfectly to type.

For my money, Tails’ pitiful sycophancy is bested only by Mega Man’s personality test disappointment. As someone who used to write Facebook personality tests (literally) I can vouch for their unscientific inaccuracy and overall irrelevance.

5 Video Game Status Updates [College Humor, thanks Ken]

No more complaining about a teaser trailer: here are two clips showing more Super Street Fighter IV gameplay than you or a large stereotypical Native American Indian could possibly handle.

A study involving Unreal Tournament players, given a cash incentive for winning, found that gamers’ testosterone levels spiked noticeably after pwning complete strangers. When defeating friends, they produced even less testosterone than their vanquished teammates.

The study’s results imply that video games draw on physiological mechanisms in ways similar to warfare, where testosterone-fueled aggression provides a strong advantage. Researchers had tried studying it on subjects in sports, but the natural production of testosterone by physical exertion clouded the results of the study.

In this one, researchers pitted 14 three-player teams against one another in Unreal Tournament 2004’s Onslaught – a capture-the-flag mode – and laid a $45 bounty for winning team players vs. $15 for losers. To make sure they knew what they were doing, they let the teams practice for a week.

Afterward, they found that winning teams’ testosterone levels spiked immediately after the tournament, especially in those who contributed most to the win. When team members played one another, in death matches with similar cash incentives, the best performing males typically produced less testosterone than those they defeated.

“In a serious out-group competition you can kill all your rivals and you’re better for it,” said David Geary, an evolutionary psychologist at the University of Missouri. But when competing against others in order establish a social hierarchy, annihilation doesn’t make sense. “You can’t alienate your in-group partners, because you need them,” he said.

Gamers Are More Aggressive to Strangers [New Scientist]

Two of my favorite series are making the jump to Xbox Live Arcade this week, as Bust A Move Live and Military Madness Nectaris make an appearance on the Xbox Live Marketplace starting Wednesday.

In addition to those two higher-definition classics, expect Football Genius – The Ultimate Quiz to become suddenly available to Xbox 360 owners. Before you start flexing your NFL and NCAA football skills, just a heads up that that’s the game that some of us call soccer. All titles will set you back 800 Microsoft Points.

While looking through Sony’s PlayStation image archive for my story on Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, I found some development sketches for the latter game that I’d never seen. I had to share. Sorry this is four years late.