Mark Rein engages in a bit of punditry in this interview at Eurogamer.

Developers did not have finished Xbox 360 hardware last year at E3. So Sony’s actually maybe in a better place vis-a-vis Microsoft in relation to launch.

Yeah, Mark. Except Sony’s launch window was three months ago.

Oh right, I’m talking to Mark Rein.

Yeah, Mark. Except Sony’s launch window was… at least two weeks from the end of April.

In our rundown of Japan’s blossoming love affair with Medieval and Revolutionary France, Metafuture regrets being remiss in not including what may be the seed: Arm Joe, the 2D fighter inspired by one Japanese man’s love of Les Misérables.

This man, known only as Takase, has been working on this PC game all by himself since the late 90s. We saw this get mentioned as recently as last month on GameSetWatch, but it completely slipped our minds.

To make up for it, here’s a link to download the game, if you haven’t yet seen Robo-Valjean avenge the mistreatment of his human peasant buddies. (The download will start automatically)

Metafuture infobit: It’s called Arm Joe because in Japan, Les Misérables is called Ah, Mujou (”Ah, Cruelty”).

First there was that X360 game about our old half-French buddy Chopin.

Then last week I saw an anime about what would happen if Louis XV, instead of saying “après moi, le déluge,” instead said “pendant moi, le GODDAMN ZOMBIES VS. GENDER-CHANGING PALADINS”. Actually, it was just one dude being possessed by his dead sister. And it was really cool up until that point.

Now Level 5— the developers of Dark Cloud, Dragon Quest VIII, and Rogue Galaxy— take us way back and turn Joan of Arc into an SRPG for the PSP. If there is no North American release planned, may Level 5 put one there, and if there is, may Level 5 so keep it.

Thanks to Close Readin’ Steve.

The bottom line is it’s better to have ten good writers that require very little editing than ten awful ones.

–Chris Buffa, GameDaily Biz article “How to Fix Videogame Journalism”

Sony’s bold and somewhat random stabs at not really copying Nintendo’s jive continue. A word for it is now necessary, and that word is “flailure”.

flail·ure

n.
A sequence of quick and dirty— but unsuccessful— attempts to provide Wii-like functionality using different methods.

Somehow the magic of the Cell is supposed to allow one camera to do the work of two: looking at a stick and translating successive pictures into motion in 3D space. Which is sort of what the Wii controller does, only this is not as precise and not as included in the console’s purchase price.

Don’t let anything come in between your stick and the camera, like Player Two, your arm, or a preference for playing at night in a living room without klieg lights.

Developers ArenaNet announced today that Guild Wars is soon to have its third iteration. As is to be expected in a third effort from a franchise with “Wars” in the title, there will be ewoks. Well, that’s how I interpret the “Guild Wars game unlike any players have seen before” full-of-nothing line from the press release.

Details are light, except for the promise of two new classes, the Paragon (a “paladin” “guardian angel of the Elonian people”) and the Dervish (a “dual-wielding paladin” “scythe-wielding holy warrior”— whirling skill cooldown time still under press embargo).

Gamers tend to also be fans of pro wrestling because their entertainment qualities just naturally feed off of each other. They can provide anything from absurdist humor, to this trenchant and to-the-point commentary on the wrestling skills of one John Cena:

What do you think? Looks a little bit Evil Genius, a little bit Venture Brothers.

Team Fortress 2 is going to be bundled with Half-Life 2: Episode 2. Keep checking Metafuture for some exclusive information on this and the other project being bundled in, Portal.