The eight most talked about stories of the week (10-15 Jan 2010)

In news that literally everyone expected,some people, somewhere, are working on a new Halo game. How de we know? Well, aside from the fact that it's Xbox 360's killer app and Master Chief is its mascot and it would be commercial suicide NOT to make another Halo game, there aresome jobs going.

Yes. It's one of those.343 Industries, the development studio currently responsible for the series has asked for people passsionate about the series to get in touch and maybe get a job working on their fave game. Before you start dusting off your resume, the jobs also involve being passionate about 'tools and infrastructure'.

And there doesn't seem to be any listing for 'Chief Play The Game All Day and Eat Cakes and get paid shitloads Officer' in there.

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Anyways - NEW HALO IS COMING! (That isn't Halo Reach).

Pedant alert! GT5 delay only applicable in Japan

This one's nice and simple. Despite what you may have heardGT5 isn't delayed,unless you live in Japan. The reason for this? It didn't have a release date anywhere outside of Japan, so it couldn't be delayed, could it?

Which is mighty pedantic, and also suggests a somewhat backward approach to releasing a game. In this day and age, isn't it fair to assume that everything's a global release date? And even so, why is it being released in Japan first?

We've said this before and we'll doubtless say it again and again and again. WHAT ARE POLYPHONY DIGITAL DOING? Pull your fingers out of your collective ass and finish the damn game, already!

Look, we never promised this news update would be fair and balanced, okay?

Heavy Rain: Box art more interesting than porn

Apparently Heavy Rain has sex scenes. Not pornographic sex scenes, but huggy-kissy-lovey sex scenes. That's quite an interesting story.

But no one cares about that - porn is old hat. No, this week everyone just had a good old cry off about the new box art instead. For reference the UK and US box art are above, side-by-side. Now call us contrary but don't they both have flaws?

The European version is so up its own ass it doesn't include anything to suggest what the game is about - except, possibly origami. The US version retains the same cryptic paper bird, but with some generic characters to make sure you understand it is, in fact, about more than just origami.

Isn't that a bit American-ist? Are Sony suggesting we GET IT more in Europe?

Rather than just continue the moaning and bawlingwe thought we'd solve the problem by designing the definitive boxart.

And while we're at it, here's some otheramateur attempts at the Heavy Rain box art. Which mostly involve using the same image with a font out of Microsoft Word. Not as easy as it looks is it?

US: PS3 outsells 360 in December 09

The headline says it all.In December 2009 the PS3 sold more than the Xbox 360 in the US. This means the PS3 is significantly better than the 360. In December 2009. In the US.

For the stats and bit of thoughtful analysis read the CVG story...

Cut out and keep videogame statistics

We've been crying out for theseVideogame Fact Chartsfor theTalkRadar UK Podcast: cheat sheets that contain lots of easy to read game facts. Perfect for dropping into conversation rather than just mumbling stats made up on the spot to suit whatever we happen to bearguing about.

These are going on the wall.

Porn star makes bold claim about videogames

Ron Jeremy is a hardcore porn star best known for his films Backdoor Lust and Shaved Sinners 2.

Speaking on a panel about the porn industry and the internet at last week's Consumer Entertainment Show in Las Vegas (which coincides with the Adult Entertainment Expo) he made the starling claim thatvideogames are more harmful to children than porn. That's not taken out of context, that's a direct quote. Well, pretty much.

So this weekend instead of playing Modern Warfare 2 with the family we're going to stick on a couple of Ron Jeremy's classic films: Bad Mama Jama and the Fat Ladies of the Evening and then E3: The Extra Testicle.

And yes, we are all over 18.

Hard Fact: Games cost a lot of money to make

Because as gamers, we're prone to be flippant about the development process and forget how much time, effort and money goes into creating that six out of ten shovelware, read thesesobering facts about how much it costs to make avideogamethese days...

So that's what PSPgos were invented for

The Korean version of EasyJet (insert no-frills US airline here) Jin Air, is finding a use for all the unsold PSPgos andrenting them to passengers on their aeroplanes for in-flight entertainment.

The rental price is $3.50 (£2.15) and we're assuming you get some games loaded onto it or the only entertainment you'll haveissliding it open and shut for the duration of the flight.

That was the news for the week ending Jan 15, 2010