The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) has been dealt yet another serious blow with the announcement of LucasArts leaving the ESA. This brings the company drop out number to three with Activision and Vivendi refusing to renew their memberships as well. Speculation lays the blame on the ESA’s new president Mike Gallagher’s potential to lead the organization.

LucasArts’ PR department released a statement regarding the company’s departure from the ESA, “We can confirm that LucasArts is no longer a member of the ESA. As a company we are still committed to bringing consumers the best interactive experience possible and support the ESA’s mission in the industry.”

Despite the departure from the ESA, LucasArts will be participating in E3 this year.

The ESA’s Senior Vice President of Communications and Research, Rich Taylor, also released a statement on behalf of the organization, reminding us of the 25 other members that are still on board, “Since its creation in 1994, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) has grown and evolved into the pre-eminent voice of the video and computer game industry. The organization has 25 members, including three companies that were welcomed last year.

At some point in time that no one can truly pinpoint (*ahem* DOA’s release *ahem*), having large bouncing breasts in fighting games became just as important as, well, the fighting itself. This is why it is so terribly shocking to hear news that there is controversy in the world of fighting game’s breasts. If you take a look at the image above you’ll notice that the two pictures of Ivy from Soul Calibur IV are a bit different in a certain area. I’ll give you a hint — if you’re a guy, you’re already looking at it.

That’s right, one has less breasticles (now a word) than the other. It seems that the SC IV American website has a different take on how much skin Ivy should be showing than the Japanese site does. Does this mean that American gamers will be getting less bouncy breast physics in their version of the game? If you watch the trailer playing in the background of Ivy’s page on the U.S. site then the answer is no, because she’s clearly wearing the Japanese sites’ costume there. But this could just be the Japanese build playing so how can we truly know? If I had to wager a guess I’d say they just covered them up for the site and the game will be far more revealing, but only time and the thousand anguished cries of horny American male gamers will tell.

What? Fine, I just wanted an excuse to type the word breasticles…

[See also: Soul Calibur IV gallery]

“Steal this game” is a little column about classics that many of us have played before, or if not, should play even this day and age. Blasts from the past, if you will. Check out your old favorites and build up that vintage game collection.

Even though Tyson went off the deep-end after that facial tattoo, Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! was the best thing he could have ever put his name on in his prime. Punch-Out!! enables gamers to play as Little Mac, a 17-year-old boxer looking to get into the boxing circuit. Through dodging, punching, and blocking, you are ultimately matched up with the ear-biter to-be himself, Mike Tyson. Through every circuit, the difficulty of fictional opponents rise while you try and figure out their weak points. Hearts on the screen dictate how many punches or blocks you can take without having to take a breather, but make no mistake - this is not a button masher, but a great strategy game that you can spend hours trying to beat.

If you’re one of the Warhammer enthusiasts who live in the area of the world often referred to as Oceania, today is your lucky day. EA Mythic has announced that their upcoming MMO, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning (WAR) will be released in Australia, New Zealand and Southeast Asia at the same time as in North America and Europe — this fall. It’s also been announced that WAR will feature a dedicated server down under so players in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and other Southeast Asian territories could enjoy as smooth and lag free gameplay as possible. Connecting to North American servers will still be an option.

Mark Jacobs, VP and General Manager of EA Mythic: “Warhammer is a worldwide franchise with a strong following in Australia and New Zealand. By placing our own server down under and running customer service out of EA Mythic, we can ensure that when we launch WAR, Oceanic players will experience the same quality of game play and customer service as North American players”.

Though the press release avoided naming a specific date, slating merely “Fall 2008″ for release, the general word on the street is that WAR will be getting a November release. In addition to the good news for Oceania, WAR fans in general were treated to a bunch of new screenshots yesterday, including one of a high elf that seems ripped straight from the screens of the Lord of the Rings movie. Overall, it’s been a good week to be a WAR fan.

[See also: Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning gallery]

One of those games that made the Xbox 360 really worth owning last year was BioShock. Imagine then the shock and awe of PlayStation 3 owners everywhere when news surfaced that this trophy title would be coming to Sony’s console as well. The news originally came from eCanadaNow who reported that, according to indications from a number of sources as well as the latest issue of EGM, Big Daddy would indeed be thumping its way to the PS3 this September. Along with this shocker came the news that the PS3 version would come with the all the previously released downloadable content, and would also bring with it visual improvements.

However, it was all a ruse, or so claims Thebitbag — after contacting 2K, the company responded in true style by saying that they would not comment on rumor and speculation and that no official announcements have been made. Thebitbag interpreted that party line as a firm ‘no’, while we really don’t know anything more than before. So, for the time being, the whole ‘BioShock coming to PS3′ ordeal will have to remain in the little old town of rumorville.

While a few lucky people got to see the game being played at SEGA Gamers Day, the rest of us have to sit back and settle for some new screens of Sonic Unleashed. We’ve seen the game in motion briefly but these screens definitely reconfirm that we’ll be getting plenty of both 2D and 3D Sonic action in the game. They also confirm that Sonic is going to look darn pretty while he’s blasting through levels at top speed. Word on the street from the event is that the build that was playable at the event has a few frame rate issues (a huge problem in a Sonic game) and some clipping here and there but that this is all to be expected from a game so early in development.

Levels seem to be designed around running fast and spin jumping onto enemies, which is what a Sonic level should be designed around. We can also look forward to power-ups and acrobatic tricks ala the Sonic Adventure games. Let us all keep our fingers firmly crossed until the game comes out and hope that the whole ‘weresonic’ thing is actually an interesting gameplay mechanic and not yet another lame attempt to once again make Sonic “to cool for school,” which happens to be a phrase that went out of style right around the same time Sonic did.

[See also: Sonic Unleashed gallery]

The mastermind behind Shrek, John H. William, is at it again with Space Chimps, the next big CGI film from Vanguard Animation. Like most summer blockbusters (Iron Man, Wall-E, Prince Caspian, Hulk etc…), the mandatory movie tie-in game is already in development.

If you haven’t heard of Space Chimps before now, allow me to bring you up to speed. A young circus chimp named Ham III (voiced by Andy Samburg of Saturday Night Live) is drafted by NASA to head an all chimp mission to an unexplored planet as a publicity stunt since Ham is the grandson of the first chimp sent into space. Their ship crashes and Ham must fight to save his crewmates, Luna (voiced by Cheryl Hines) and Titan (voiced by Patrick Warburton, whose voice seems to be in about everything these days) as well as free the other creatures on that planet from the evil King Zartog (voiced by Jeff Daniels).

The game is being developed by Brash Entertainment and players will control Ham and Luna as they solve puzzles, jump, fight and swing through 11 levels following and expounding on the movie. Matt got some hands-on time with the game at NYCC this year and while he’d love to report that a game based entirely on monkeys in space was both fun and funny, it fell pretty short. The game featured some pretty sticky controls that made it hard to maneuver the monkeys around and jumping movements were a bit unpredictable and made what should of been some child-friendly platforming pretty aggravating. Graphics looked decent at best and, while playing with two different characters could have been fun, from what he played it looked like you’d only be having fun with the boy monkey as the girl monkey was pretty much a bore. In short, this looks like another rushed movie tie-in game targeted at kids who will see a monkey on a box and want it.

But, if you like monkeys on boxes then know that Space Chimps will be released alongside the film this August for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, Nintendo Wii and DS.

[See also: Space Chimps gallery]

The guys down at ye old rumour mill have been hard at work. This time they’ve churned out apparent “insider” information regarding Sony’s upcoming clone of Xbox 360’s Acheivements - “Trophies”. The news comes from the relatively obscure blog sev1512, who claim to have a contact inside Sony. The employee (who is so top secret not even their gender can be revealed) contacted sev1512 and informed them (as all good informants should) that the elusive trophies would be appearing on June 12th. Yes, that is the very same day that Metal Gear Solid 4 goes to retail.

This of course is just latest in a long line release date of rumors regarding the PSN, followed closely by HOME and In-Game XMB, so there is little way of knowing whether this particular tidbit of information is bona-fide or whether this is one blogs attempt to push itself into the limelight with its supposed “contacts”. Only time will tell.

This will give you pause. Normally when you read about a game being released on every platform you can assume two things. The Wii version won’t have as good graphics as the PS3/360 version and that the Wii version will probably be gimped some how in the multiplayer end, usually relating back to the fact that the Wii’s online features blow. LucasArts though wants to hit us with a curve ball. This time the Wii version of the game is the one with the kick ass multiplayer, thanks to its Duel Mode, and the PS3/360 version is getting nothing/zero/zilch in terms of multiplayer.

Not only that but LucasArts PR manager Adam Khan told Total Video Games the reason for the lack of multiplayer on those two systems is because the Wii does have it! “To be specific, there’s no multiplayer in the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions, because there is on the Wii, PSP, and DS. As far as specific reasons are concerned, we don’t really like to get into the reasons why we don’t do things because I don’t think there’s really a satisfactory answer that people would really be happy with. So, there isn’t multiplayer and that’s kind of how it is…”

Well there you go. Not really an answer, and some strange logic to boot, but you can’t really say anything cause he just told you to shut up about it. So basically, shut up and enjoy the awesome single-player is what he’s saying. Sounds like good reasoning to me but, whereas before I was only slightly tempted to buy the Wii version instead of the 360, I’m going 50/50 now. I mean, have you seen Duel Mode? It looks pretty sweet.

[See also: Star Wars: The Force Unleashed gallery]

As April sales show, Wii is dominating in hardware sales; but, as almost any gaming forum will show you, it’s still being hounded about a lack of great third party titles. Example: EA’s Casual Entertainment Label has just announced Hasbro Family Game Night which will help us all enjoy Battleship, Yahtzee, Boggle, Connect Four, and Sorry! “from the comfort of your own living room.”

Really, doesn’t at least half the world have these games already? I know I do. Mine are crammed in the closet behind my Jr. Karate trophy and my old SNES collecting dust. As a family man, I do see the appeal to casual games and games that bring the family together, but we could just dust these relics off sometime, right?

Ok, I admit that I am being a little harsh. Likely this game (also coming to the PlayStation 2) will be very cheap and these are classic games. Plus, EA has tried to add more to the party — the game is hosted by Mr. Potato Head! They also threw in some new game modes like Connect Four Power Chips, Boggle Portal Cubes, Reverse Yahtzee and Battleship Barrage as well as new mini-games like Match the Pattern, Shake for Words and Bomb Run. Players can even decorate their own digital game room with trophies and furniture.

Hasbro Family Game Night is being developed as part of a licensing agreement between EA and Hasbro that lets them make games and toys of each others products. Hasbro Family Game Night is just one of the first official games. We can expect to see more titles like Nerf, Tonka and Monopoly.

If you’re really into classic board games, Hasbro Family Fun Night will be there for your needs this fall. For the rest of us, be thankful Wii has much more to offer — MADWORLD anyone?

Via a strange form of communication called a press release, Sony has lined up their upcoming games for the rest of the year and one — the game Sony can’t possibly not mention, Killzone 2 – for the beginning of next year. All I can say is LittleBigPlanet (What is it with games not putting spaces between words these days?). Really, that game is going to sell me a PS3. Not Metal Gear Solid 4, not Resistance 2, not some super high-tech, bloody, science fiction epic. The thing selling me a PS3 are a bunch of rag dolls. That’s right, we’ve come so far we’ve actually returned to a point where rag dolls are the most wanted toy of the year.

That might be all I have to say about their line-up but Sony’s Scott Steinberg has a bit more: “For the second half of 2008 and beyond, we will see a spectacular line up of triple-A titles and original gaming content that will satisfy PlayStation fans across the board… Highly anticipated games such as Resistance 2, LittleBigPlanet, and Killzone 2, along with original content such as SIREN: Blood Curse and PixelJunk Eden, demonstrate SCEA’s passion to lead the market by continuing to deliver unique gaming content and revolutionary sequels to our best-selling franchises.”

SEGA has announced a momentous partnership with developer PlatinumGames, along with three games that they’ve apparently been keeping under wraps quite well for quite some time now. The three titles - MADWORLD, Bayonetta and Infinite Line - are a diverse bunch and will be arriving on a viarety of platforms.

MADWORLD (screenshots), the first title set for release in Q1 2009, is an inventive and delightfully brutal third-person action game designed and developed exclusively for Wii. MADWORLD seems to stand somewhere between madcap No More Heroes and post-modern noir of Sin City. Check out Matt’s more detailed MADWORLD post to see what this one’s all about.

Next on the list is Bayonetta (images, trailer below), a stylish and cinematic action game directed by creator Hideki Kamiya. The game sees gamers take control of Bayonetta, a daring anti-heroine and witch, as she squares off against a host of angelic foes in “a game of 100% pure, unadulterated all-out action” where “outlandish finishing moves are performed with balletic grace.” Bayonetta is set for release in 2009 on both the 360 and PS3.

It was just a few short years ago that many, if not all of the gaming industry, were accustomed to the post-holiday game lull that would accompany the spring and summer seasons — during the months of January all the way through roughly July or August there were very few big name titles landing on store shelves. The powers that be decided that nobody was going to buy games in the spring or summer so there was simply no reason to push a title’s release date into that window. I mean, who wants to play games when the sun is out, right? Oh how naive we can be sometimes…

It would now appear that those feelings were completely unwarranted, and this past month of April may be looked back on for years to come as proof that if a game is marketed and anticipated already, there’s no reason why a title can’t do extremely, extremely well. Last month saw the release of Mario Kart Wii, as well as a little game called Grand Theft Auto IV for both the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3. These three titles accounted for over 4 million sales in just one month’s time. Check out the sales breakdown below:

Just released are a new bunch of new PS3 and 360 screenshots from Silent Hill: Homecoming. They look pretty nice, not ‘current-gen-effect-heavy-Alone in the Dark-nice’, but nice enough for fans of the series. But my question is this: Is simply polishing the graphics to a high sheen enough of a step-up now that the current-gen consoles are well into their life cycles?

I am not trying to damn Homecoming before I get any hands-on time with it, but from the screens it looks like it will play exactly the same as all the last-gen games in this series. Am I alone in wanting more from developers than a coat of polish? Even whilst playing GTA IV I have had some doubts, is it just GTA III with better graphics? On reflection I don’t think so. GTA IV does enough new things and throws up enough surprises to warrant the rave reviews that it has received, but this is not true of all games. I’m getting excited about God of War III, but as the gameplay of the first two games is so perfect how are they going to improve it other than just give it a graphical makeover?