Last week we played through a game where your future self torments you. This week we just plain old fashion torment ourselves. "Karoshi" is a Japanese word for "death by overwork" and with our hard working staff home from TGS 2009, I figured taking another look at this series was appropriate.

The goal in this series is simple: beat every level by finding a way to kill yourself. Jump into spikes, let boxes fall on your head, shoot bullets at bouncing surfaces, and the list goes on and on. The controls can be a bit over sensitive and fast paced, but in a suicidal puzzle game it only ends up lightening the mood of the journey as you burst into bloody fireworks over and over each level.

Two of the games you can play right in your Web browser, while the other three are offered as free downloadable PC games. Feel free to dive into any of the five games here on Jesse Venbrux's site.

What do you do when you're a professional blogger JOURNALIST and you come across something that you think is really cool, but you know that it's already days old? Do you ignore it, preventing the blog-o-sphere from accusing you of being a bad internet citizen, or do you brace yourself for the "welcomed to yesterday, @22H07E!" comments, and just go for it?

I think it depends on how cool the "something" in question is. In this case, it's three trailers for No More Heroes: Desperate Struggle. Two of these videos focus on the game's heartwarming 8-bit jobs segments, and the last culminates with a sexy black (or Japanase?) woman with a white afro talking trash to a decapitated man's head. She's so pissed at this head that she's actually threatening it after she's already removed it from its body.

Yeah, I think that's worth posting, especially since I just found these "old" videos in a higher quality format than previouslty available. Hey, you don't take my word for it. Hit the jump and decide for yourself if this post deserves to exist.

[Spotted on Novakaine's cblog]

I'm so frickin' jealous of all of you that will be at PAX 2009 this weekend. Unfortunately, one of my stupid friends decided to get stupid-married and I'll be at his stupid-wedding in NYC next Saturday, when instead I should be living out my dream of being one of the first to play No More Heroes: Desperate Struggle.

The original game is one of my all time favorites. It works as both a mindless beat 'em up, a deep analysis of the modern American gamer, and a laugh-out-loud comedy all at once. Still, the title had its flaws, though none that couldn't have been fixed with a little extra time and money. Looks like NMH:DS has benefited from more of both. The game looks a lot prettier, and promises to play a lot better than the original did... and I wont be playing it this weekend because two stupid people are in "love".

Well, at least I have you, Dtoid. Will you guys play it for me and Cblog about your time with the game? After my nearly two years of playing videogames on your behalf at events like E3 and Comic Con, it's the least you can do for me.

Thanks in advance.

[via Kotaku] 

Three things you should know about me before reading this: I hate doing stuff I don't feel like doing (some call it laziness, I call it "strong willed"), I'm a sucker for free stuff, and I hate gaming peripherals. Those are the three aspects of my personality that came to a head in the process of being put to the task of reviewing the Perfect Shot. I promised Nyko I would review this thing weeks ago, and I kept putting it off, until I heard that they wouldn't be sending us any more free stuff until we reviewed all the free stuff they've already sent us.

So here it is, the official Destructoid review of Nyko's Perfect Shot, with cute sales girl included -- though unlike the Nyko girls at E3 09, she's totally wigless. Other than that small oversight, this post is the greatest thing in the history of the Internet. Hit the jump to see what I'm talking about.

Richard Garriott leaving NCSoft late last year came as a bit of a surprise to some, but surely not to others. He certainly didn't sound pissed about it all after coming back from his trip into space, but he's clearly pissed about it now, because he's decided to sue NCSoft for 24 million dollars.

According to GamesIndustry.Biz, the case was filed in Texas and is classified as "Torts – Property – Other Fraud". I was not familiar with the word tort, but apparently it means "a wrongful act or an infringement of a right outside of contractual obligations".

There's not much else to go on right now, but we're sure to find out more information soon enough. I wonder what happened?

[Update -- Gamasutra has come forward with more details. It seems Garriott may not have left NCSoft of his own accord. The suit claims that the president of NCsoft's North American operations, Chris Chung, informed Garriott that NCsoft had decided to "part company" with him and that Garriott objected to this dismissal. Garriott claims that Chung re-characterized Garriott's departure as a voluntary one, which wouldmajorly impact his stock options. The plot thickens...]

Those of you who keep up with Xbox Live Arcade on a regular basis are probably wondering how last week's stellar game could ever be topped, right? Well, it seems that the people involved with scheduling releases knew it was too impossible of a task to handle and ultimately decided to give us the complete opposite of Ikaruga instead.

Rocky and Bullwinkle (800 Microsoft Points) has been compared to Yaris by my colleagues, but at least that game was free, unlike this Wario Ware-esque take on a popular cartoon show. The visual style may be reminiscent of The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, but looks can be deceiving -- download this demo at your own risk.

Next up is Battlezone (400 Microsoft Points), a remake of the 1980 Atari classic. Besides the visual facelift, Battlezone for XBLA has a few new modes including deathmatch, team deathmatch, and capture the flag. But, if you're content with just the original version, that's included as well.

Do I even need to ask if these games look appealing to you?

Most hardcore Diablo fans have accepted that the titanic success of World of Warcraft means there will likely never be a Diablo 3, but we have tried to sate our addiction with Diablo-clones. Titan Quest was one of these and was in fact fairly well received, earning positive reviews from multiple websites. Iron Lore Entertainment has posted an official statement on their homepage, which is excerpted below:

It is with great regret that we must announce that as of close of business Tuesday, February 19, 2008 Iron Lore Entertainment has ceased active game development. Several unrelated events occurred which resulted in Iron Lore being unable to secure funding for its next project.

We would like to extend our thanks to everyone who has helped us in the last seven years – our team who moved mountains to create such great games, our publisher THQ who has been a great partner through three product development cycles, and most of all our customers and fans. We owe all of the success we’ve had to you, and our greatest satisfaction has come from creating games that have given enjoyment to the community.

Oh well. Now Diablo addicts will have to turn to Mythos for their hack and slashing needs, which is not so bad since its pretty much the spiritual sequel to Diablo anyway as far as the feel of play goes. Farewell Iron Lore, we hardly knew ye. 

[Via Eurogamer]

It seems that Valve's territorial control for The Orange Box and other software has caused a bit of trouble for gamers who opted to import to save a few dollars.

Some gamers found out about this territorial control the hard way after purchasing discounted software from a Thai Web site to save a buck. According to Shacknews, it turns out that these gamers were locked out of game play in non-Thai territories as those games are only valid for play within Thailand.

"Valve uses Steam for territory control to make sure products authorized for use in certain territories are not being distributed and used outside of those territories," said Valve's Doug Lombardi.

It looks like those importers are now out of luck, and will have to purchase a copy from within their own territory to continue playing.

"Some of these users have subsequently purchased a legal copy after realizing the issue and were having difficulty removing the illegitimate keys from their Steam accounts," added Lombardi. "Anyone having this problem should contact Steam Support to have the Thai key removed from their Steam account."

Listening to Microsoft might lead you to believe that all is roses and sunshine in the world of the Xbox 360. After all, the company's never been slow to claim that the old 'red rings of death' problem afflicting Xbox 360 machines is not as widespread an issue as we might think. However, a new report from SmartHouse calls the failure rate for the Xbox 360 'massive' and suggests that as many as 30% of the consoles are being sent back to Microsoft for repairs.

The report also details shoddy repair practices, including the story of one consumer in Australia who was sent back a dirty, secondhand machine instead of his own one and got seemingly dicked over by the 'Soft at every turn. Despite this and a plethora of horror stories regarding broken consoles all over the internet, Microsoft emphatically denies there is a problem, stating that "There is not a single root cause or systemic issue with any Xbox 360 console but we continue to look at ways to make improvements to our products and services." You heard MS, folks, there's no reason at all why Microsoft is having to repair so much hardware. It must be elves and goblins breaking them. 

While I do love my Xbox 360, there is no denying that Microsoft needs to get its act together for what is becoming a horrible farce. Its failure rate is said to be considerably higher than other machines and is certainly much more documented. For a company that wants the Xbox 360 to be at the top of the food chain, it needs to seriously learn how to start making the Xbox 360.

[Via Xbox360Rally and I got by with a little help from my F1tch]

In hindsight, I suppose making the world's most powerful consoles for both the home theater and portable gaming seemed like a bright idea.  When you have the best system in the business, how could you go wrong?  Who knew that the two most underpowered competitors from Nintendo would actually be irrefutably more enticing to consumers back then? I'm sure you've heard how well Nintendo is doing lately, but this new Bloomberg report will give fanboys a golden ratio they can sing about:

Wii Outsells PS3 5 to 1 in Japan

Japanese Famitsu game magazine publisher Enterbrain, which said Nintendo sold 251,794 Wiis during May. The PS3 sold just over 50,000 units. Xbox 360 was a dot in the rear view at 11,082 sold during the entire month. The DS outsold PSP at the same rate, with Nintendo’s handheld selling 620,670 versus 123,673 for Sony’s portable. The gap between PS3 and Wii widened since April in Japan, when the Wii outsold PS3 four-to-one.

That's gotta burn.  As a PS3 owner, this news saddens my inner panda. I can only hope Sony and its now-wobbly third party support are going to come out of this one alive. Doesn't the Japanese know that its got Blu-ray amphetamines?!!

Editor's note: The mere thought of Reggie singing Morrison at a press conference sent me into a coma. 

[Via Next-Gen] 

Welcome, my friends, to the second part of Destructoid's ongoing field guide to the anthropology of the various modern gamer sub-species. 

Before we go on with this week's study, I must confess that only one of the two breeds I had planned to detail in this chapter has actually made it in. However, this is purely down to the fact that upon starting, I found that said strain provided me with more material than I had originally banked upon, and so a cut had to be made in the interests of brevity. Fear not though, as I shall make it up to you next week.

And now, onwards to chapter 2 ...

It used to be a lot easier to stereotype a gamer. It used to be that all that was needed was some greasy hair, thick glasses, and a few faintly veiled allusions to terminal virginity in order for the lazy sitcom writers of the world to have a brand new supporting fall guy all written and ready to go. But that was in a less enlightened time, when gaming was unknown to the masses and the concept of actual normal, well-adjusted adults playing video games was unheard of.

Now however, everyone plays. Your siblings, your Mum, your Dad, your Grandparents, your boss, his boss, his secretary, and her cat with the bowel troubles. Everyone from foetus to corpse plays one manner of video game or another, and gamer archetypes are a lot harder to pin down.

With people from all walks of life coming to gaming from any number of countless perspectives, and all wanting to get something different out of the activity, it’s now impossible to classify someone just on the grounds that they play games. No, if you want to properly look at the various archetypes now involved in our favourite pastime, you now have to look more deeply into how they play games and what they’re getting out of it.

With this in mind, I have begun building an in-depth anthropological study of the modern video game player and his/her ways. Join me if you will, as with the occasional aid and input of my fellow Destructoid writers, I endeavour to shed light on the varying strains of this most interesting modern cultural phenomenon. You might meet yourself, and I virtually guarantee you’ll meet someone you know. And at the very least we’ll all get some cheap laughs at the expense of people probably not too dissimilar to ourselves.

Look I drink...

and from time to time, I end up fighting a dog. At one time I was 38 & 2 until the sport was outlawed. I don't remember many of the fights, so this video was nice to see. This dog has mad skills.

[Thanks NamelessTed]

Day One's afternoon session saw the official conference welcome from Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov Peter Moore in which he intro'd the keynote speaker: one Russ Klein, head marketing cheese at Burger King.

Citizen Moore praised BK's corporate rejuvenation, driven largely by creative marketing programs: creepy commercials with The King, the Subservient Chicken viral site, and the triple-headed adver-game lineup: Big Bumpin', PocketBike Racer, and Sneak King.  The games, at a very accessible $3.99 price point, captured hours of face time with customers, something traditional marketing struggles to achieve.

Klein, gaming cognoscenti he is not, led off by lampooning GameDaily for its self-righteous claim as the "Wall Street Journal of the game industry".  He emphasized the Web 2.0 mantra of Content is King adding that "the marketplace insists on value and it always gets its way".  The accessible price point and subsequent success of King Games shows he's onto something.