At a guess I'd say it has a lot more to do with the Japanese culture versus the American culture's (and to a lesser extent Western) outlook on guns. You know, like how guns are banned in Japan and rarely seen whereas in America we've got a big old contract between the government and the citizens that forbids gov'ment…

Yikes, you'd think they'd put a better mic on there. Ah well, I'm sure some enterprising individuals will mod it to hell and back until it's actually a good bluetooth headset.

Whoop, shoulda been @Fugue there.

@Bobby McPresscott: It says "rumor" right in the title of this post. Take it with a grain of salt and remember, even if they ARE a recently-fired Lucasarts employee that doesn't mean they're not just fucking with Kotaku.

@QuietStorm: It took me a while to get what exactly my general "mood" was from the radial menu in Mass Effect down pat. Even then it's a double-edged sword in my view; on the one hand you actually pay attention to your main character because you're not sure what (s)he will say. On the other hand it's definitely not…

@Drake Lake: Um, you're going to the same place the last Kotaku article on these firings went where it stated that Lucasarts was looking to outsource more of it's games...?

@Komrade_Kayce: "[...]even if it tugged at my heartstrings a few times when I was stealing money and items from a poor woman, threatening to kill her if she gave me any more lip."

@thaKingRocka: I'm going PS3 myself (should all things be equal), but that's because I cannot for the life of me stand the D-pad on the Xbox 360 controller. the PlayStation controllers are just plain better for most fighting games as I see it.

@Kia: Then just like it. It's going to have the same Soul Caliber moves as every other SC game, most of the same characters as the other SC games, and some new characters that aren't in any way related to Star Wars. If you're really against them just put a house rule in place that says you can't select them. It's easy…

Hrm, I wonder what this means for Force Unleashed? It was already pretty far along in development so I can't see much affecting it, but cutting QA divisions certainly won't help it any.

I'm content with that Street Fighter's a fun hitting fest when I'm playing with friends but it's never been known for the greatest plot in the world. So they want to take liberties with the costuming, not mention or show Ryu/Ken, or even change the storyline whole cloth? Fine, so long as it makes it a decent movie.

Eh, I'm also spending ~AU$250 for my PC, speakers, and screen to be on all year. And the PC tower's a hell of a lot more likely to be left on 24-7.

I'll get "a few surprising surprises" eh? Well with that kind of writing how can I resist?

Me thinks some doth protest too much...

@Archaotic: "People really need to chill out [...] and wait until the game actually comes out before they start whining about a bonus character they may never even use."

@CheechWizz: That is an excellent point. Sure it's just a question of convenience for us bachelors or anyone around or below college age, but it's a freaking gamekiller for anyone with familial obligations, especially young children.

@slomo788:

@slomo788: It doesn't matter how easy it is to install the hard drive, nor how cheap it is to get a hard drive. It's added difficulty; it removes the simple plug and play system of consoles, making gaming less convenient. That's not a plus in my book. It may be necessary but it isn't a good thing.

@KEELr: While I believe this does hurt the console's reign as easy-to-use gems... no, it could still shorten the load times. If the primary reason the developers put the mandatory install is because of unacceptably long load times without it then the mandatory install is there to shorten load times. If the five gig…

@slomo788: I can install RAM in my computer by pulling a handle and snapping it in place but there are still people who pay Best Buy $40 to have it done for them. In my mind it's a question of ease of use; if I have an SNES (which I do) and I plug a game into it chances are that game will run. The advent of the…