Harvest Moon for the Rest of Your Life

Fans of Harvest Moon need not plant a million vegetables so that watering time can extend the length of the game, Natsume is coming out with a slew of Harvest Moon games just for you. The entire Natsume E3 lineup includes:

Harvest Moon 2 (DS)

Harvest Moon DS Cute (DS)

Harvest Moon Wii (Wii)

Harvest Moon: Boy and Girl (PSP)

Innocent Life: A Futuristic Harvest Moon Special Edition (PS2)

Puzzle de Harvest Moon (DS)

Rune Factory: A Fantasy Harvest Moon (DS)

Harvest Moon DS Cute? That sounds like overkill for a game that already has the most adorable chickens and cows the world has ever known. They're cuter than the girls you're supposed to hit on. Not that Natsume would ever openly include some bestiality in a game.

Dojo Dump: Pokemans Shown To You

Weary of thee Super Smash Bros. Brawldaily update of non-news? Well, if you can handle a weekly dose of details on the Sora-developed Wii game, this is all you'll need. The Dojo Dump will collect a week's worth of non-news surrounding SSBB, bundling them into a single post that might be considered newsworthy.

So what happened this week?

Monday: The Yoshi's Ending Story Theme was added, giving us a new listen to the game's soundtrack.
Tuesday: Sakurai answers the burning question ""Where are the Poke balls", detailing the power up. Several Pokémon are shown, including the giant Groudon
Wednesday: The Dojo gets Smash Bros. newbies up to speed on how to recoverwhen knocked off a platform. Wins for week's most boring update.
Thursday: Veteran fighters Kirby and Pikachu are profiled.
Friday: Control scheme fears are put to bed and hints at Wii remote-only controls are dropped.

Halo 3 Box Contents Xtremely Detailed

Confused about what version of Halo 3 contains which goodies? Let's let Frankie from Bungie clear that right up for you with this week's edition of the Bungie Weekly Update. He'll also address a rumor running rampart on the internet today, one that implied Halo 3 would ship on two discs. Surely, it would've devolved into a Blu-ray versus HD-DVD pissing match at some point, so I'm quite glad we missed it.

The update covers, in detail, exactly what you'll be getting when you pick up the Halo 3 Collector's Edition or the Legendary Edition. The former, while not featuring a cat-size Spartan helmet, does contain some sweet stuff, including the hard bound Bestiary book you see pictured above plus a very nice sounding interactive DVD. Oh, what the hell, you should just read on to get the full details.

Diablo [Gameboy] [Unreleased]

That's what Past To Present Online claims the above video is from. It's mighty unimpressive from a technical, graphical and completion perspectives and appears to have been filmed while piloting a helicopter, but it sure looks like Diablo on a Game Boy. While questionable, its alpha-build existence wouldn't be that odd. Blizzard has ported three of its older games to the Game Boy Advance and certainly didn't mind releasing the hobbled StarCraft 64. Real? Fake? What do you think?

Play Game Boy, Lose Weight

For gamers looking to drop a few pounds, the Wii is the go to console. But, what about the Game Boy? Can it help you lose weight? It's not just pressing buttons as fast as possible to burn calories. Oh, no. It's about portable gaming acting as an appetite suppressant — much in the same way smoking does. A Weight Watchers online tip explains:

"Pick up a Game Boy: Playing a handheld video game can squash a food craving, says Cynthia Sass, RD, a Tampa nutritionist and spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association. "When you start to visualize your craving you've already lost half the battle," she says. "A video game occupies your eyes, your hands and your mind," she explains."

Wimps Still Suffering From "Wiiitis"

The mainstream media scare tactics continue, as CNN/Reuters report that Dr. Julio Bonis, family physician, has self-diagnosed himself with the affliction "Wiiitis." Cause? Playing Wii Sports while being a flabby, soft-armed milquetoast.

He warned in a letter to the New England Journal of Medicine that Wiiitis is "probably an underdiagnosed condition" but calmed fears that it can be treated by "ibuprofen for one week, as well as complete abstinence from playing Wii video games." Bonis also warned of future cases of the condition based on unexpected waggle motions causing different types of muscle strain.

Blizzard: No Starcraft II In '07

Those of us hoping that the Second Coming of StarCraft would ship this calendar year are either delusional or unrealistically hopeful. It ain't happenin'. Ensuring that fans won't be disappointed by a Blizzard-famous missed ship date, Rob Pardo tells MSNBC that STARCRAFT IIis not going to ship for the holiday season.

While Blizzard may employ some 2000 staffers, Pardo says that only 40 of those are dedicated to StarCraft II development, the majority focusing on World of Warcraft support. And they plan on shipping no real-time strategy game before its time. Even though the highly anticipated 3D sequel has been in development proper for going on four years, the Blizzard philosophy means we could still be years away from a release.

Japan Gets PSN Cards Next Week

Sony's been teasing us with the prospect of Playstation Network prepaid cards for over a year now, but the agonizing wait for prepaid digital money is finally over. Starting next Wednesday, Japanese gamers will be able to purchase PSN cards at some 52,000 retail outlets nationwide making credit card purchases a thing of the past.

The cards will be sold in denominations of 10,000 yen (about $82 US), 5,000 yen, 3,000 yen, and 1,000 yen and usable on the PLAYSTATION 3 for PlayStation Store purchases and, at some point, I assume, the PSP as well. Think of the credit security! Think of the lazy, thoughtless gifting! How exciting.

Dead Rising Gets "New" Threads, New DLC

Capcom is celebrating 1 million copies of Dead Rising sold by... hitting you up for Microsoft Points. Seven new pieces of downloadable content for the Xbox 360 game are now up on Xbox Live, including three freebies.

Those gratis downloads are a trio of unlockable costumes for Frank and include the Accountant, Pure White Suit and Stripe costumes previously only available at Best Buy, Gamestop, and EBgames kiosks. This is all stuff already on the disc, a nominal download, and will simply give you a key to unlock the goodies, so make with the downloading and digital fashion shows.

Rumor: Nintendo Announcing Mario Kart Wii, New Hardware At E3?

Adorable Frenchmen Jeux France have run what they reckon is a "credible" rumor. Well, rumors, because there's a few, and they all involve Nintendo. Seems at this year's E3 we'll not only get firm release dates for Smash Bros and Mario Galaxy, we'll also get a "grosse révélation au niveau Hardware" [big hardware news] as well as a look at Mario Kart for the Wii.

The release dates, we expect those, and the big hardware news could be anything, so we'll leave that well alone. But the Mario Kart thing? Feels right to me. We're about due some more Mario Kart, particularly since it's one of the last big Nintendo franchises we're yet to see anything of on the Wii.

Nintendo is releasing yet another Nintendo DS, this time with popular Pokémon branding and a brilliant Pikachu yellow paintjob. While this special edition Nintendo DS Lite will retail for the regular price of 16,800 yen, getting your hands on one is going to be challenging. To secure this yellow piece of kit, you'll need to visit one of the five Pokémon Centers in Japan between June 1 and July 1 and fill out an application to "win" a chance to buy one. Winners will be notified by mail if they've been selected as a lucky purchaser.

Slowmotion Phax Talang 2007 semifinal

Apparently, the horrid American television program America's Got Talent has a Swedish equivalent titled Talang 2007. Just like the US version, regular Joes and Janes can acheive 15 seconds of reality television fame by performing stage shows demonstrating their questionable talents. Take "Slowmotion" Phax Ahamada, for example, whose talent is channeling his inner Mario in half-time with a bit of poppin' and lockin' thrown in for good measure. The judges are split, but the audience eats it up like a plate of steaming köttbullar.