You also might enjoy (especially you Street Fighter fans), Alvin Lee of UDON/Street Fighter/Deadpool fame has donated some beautiful prints to give away to you all. So enjoy the cosplay pictures for now and keep checking back to this page for updates.

Consider this a landing page of sorts for all the MegaCon coverage that will be posted in the days to come. On top of the cosplay above, here are some other nifty items shown at the con:

If there is one thing that we simply cannot stand, it’s games that have “unlockable content.” It’s like downloadable content, but in reality all you’re paying for when you purchase the downloadable content is the unlock code for the content which is already on the game disk.

Apparently this is the case with BioShock 2 as the “Sinclair Solutions Tester Pack” downloadable content weighs in at a paltry 108kb on Xbox 360 and 24kb on PC.

To give you a comparison, the image at the top of this article is 179kb, 71kb larger than the supposed DLC for Xbox 360.

BioShock 2 isn’t the first game to have this kind of scam content. Soulcalibur IV had “downloadable” content that allowed users to purchase the rights to either Darth Vader or Yoda as playable characters. Resident Evil 5 was also widely believed to engage in this shady tactic with their Versus content.

On the 2K forums where this all started, 2K’s Community Manager Elizabeth Tobey addressed the matter, saying in part:

I noticed there was a bit of confusion about our Sinclair Solutions Tester Pack file size, and I wanted to clear things up for you. The way our engine and game structure works is that people need to have the exact same content for people to play together. One of the challenges with post launch content for MP is that it can split the player base, and we want to avoid that whenever possible. For this content, creating the DLC package the way we did allowed for us to not split the player base – so whether you purchase the new content or not, you can still play with your friends.

While I like 2K and I like Elizabeth, this doesn’t really address the issue of why the file size is so tiny. But then again, this isn’t something that a Community Manager can answer so she really shouldn’t be chastised for not answering a question to which she probably doesn’t have an answer (or isn’t allowed to) for.

In news that can only be described as the single most important cultural event of our lifetime*, Harmonix has announced that Lady Gaga will soon be coming to Rock Band in the form of downloadable content.

Gaga, who is almost as famous for attire that would make Helen Keller spittake as she is her music, will have four songs featured in Rock Band:

• Poker Face
• Just Dance
• Bad Romance
• Monster

Each song will run you roughly $2, but you can buy the entire track pack for $7. What that is in Wii Points or Microsoft Space Bucks is… well, figure it out for yourself (200 Wii Points/160 MSPoints per song).

In addition to the Lady Gaga news, it was also announced that the Eric Cartman cover of “Poker Face” will also be retailing for the standard song price. While this is indeed excellent news, it is unfortunate that Harmonix was unable (or unwilling?) to include the single greatest Gaga cover/mash-up of our time:

As I have said for ages, I am not a big music game guy. But… if Rock Band were to release a Ben Folds track pack, I’d cave. I’d cave in a heart beat. Who knows, maybe they’ll include it in Rock Band 3.

…oh, yeah. Forgot to mention — they’re totally releasing a Rock Band 3 in time for the 2010 Holiday Season. Because you can’t beat a dead horse until you fucking kill it first.

*ED NOTE: I (JW) am no fan of Lady Gaga’s music. Plus she kind of looks like my ex, which is becoming increasingly creepy.

…I ain’t bitter. At least I’m not as bitter as Polish Xbox 360 owners are.

You see, Poland has yet to receive Xbox LIVE — even though it was promised to them six years ago. Now a group of Polish gamers walk into a bar are demanding some answers. The above website is almost entirely in Polish, but thanks to the dapper Jim Sterling we have at least a rough translation of what is said on the site:

Polish gamers have been hearing about the introduction of Xbox Live to our country for 6 years, ever since Peter Moore said the hope-inspiring ‘Xbox Live will eventually be available in Poland.’ Those were not concrete promises and we are aware of this fact, but that was definitely an indication that Microsoft is aware of the potential the Polish market has.

Unfortunately, during those 6 long years nothing has changed. The Polish division of Microsoft continues to make hollow promises of introducing Xbox Live in our country eventually by saying ‘just wait a little longer’.

To all of my Polish friends (both of you) and to Polish gamers everywhere, take it from me — you’re not missing out. Not unless you actually long to be called racial slurs (that probably mean nothing in Poland), have your mother insulted by some cretin 4,000 miles away and have your blood pressure skyrocket to astronomical heights as you try, in vain, to have a conversation over the shrieking of children and dumbasses who think (incorrectly) that they’re funny.

All the same… Xbox LIVE in Poland really should have happened ages ago. There’s simply no excuse.

via Destructoid

I’m not sure if any of you have heard, but there seems to be a wee bit of confusion going on over at Infinity Ward. Offices were put on lockdown, lawsuits have been filed and it’s all just a general mess. During the mass confusion after the story initially broke, I called the few people at Activision/Infinity Ward that I knew (repeatedly, in some cases) and tried to get them to talk.

Some of them did. Kind of. To say that they weren’t very comfortable in talking to either myself or anyone else about what was going on would be something of an understatement. After some convincing they started to open up and I was able to get a few things out of them, which I passed on. As I stated in our initial post (as opposed to the initial post over at G4), none of what was said was being reported as fact and was simply what people with some knowledge of the situation were telling me.

Cue Michael Pachter. Speaking with Joystiq (who contacted whom, I don’t know or care), Pach-Man seems to take issue with what we reported on. We give props to Negative Gamer, as they were both the outlet in which we first noticed Pachter’s comments and they are (as of now) the only website to get our name right — it’s two words.

The first thing he points out is our use of the term “royalty” and how it should be “bonus.” Now, the reason why I had the “royalty” issue as #1 on the list of what was told (and, indeed, the reason why I wrote the article in the first place) was because everyone I talked to (all five of them) brought this up. Not only that, it was the first thing that was brought up in each conversation.

Additionally, a day after Pachter made his comments to Joystiq, a press release was issued by the lawfirm representing Jason West and Frank Zampella (the two men who were fired), which included the following language:

Activision terminated their employment weeks before they were to be paid substantial royalty payments as part of their existing contracts for Modern Warfare 2.

So to recap: Five people independently refer to the financial compensation as “royalties” and the legal documentation for the two who were fired refer to it as “royalty payments.” I think it’s safe to refer to it as “royalties.”

The other was an especially poorly-worded part of our (my) write-up on the Infinity Ward fiasco. Now I’ll be the first to say that what I said didn’t make much sense, looking back. Throughout the afternoon of March 2nd, I did attempt to clarify what I initially had written. Whether or not the rewrite/summary made a lick fo sense to any of you, I don’t know.

So, if you wanna nail me for poorly relaying what I was told I can’t really fight that. I did. I’d rather have a poorly-written paragraph proven wrong than drastically re-write something after it was posted and deal with the accusations that it was all made up. Because we’re not one of the big three blogs (Kotaku, Joystiq and Destructoid) and because of the use of the phrase “anonymous sources,” we have to deal with enough of that crap as it is.

While on the subject of “anonymous sources,” I know that the phrase is a giant red flag for some people. Having been burned by “anonymous sources” in the past, I totally get people’s tendency to roll their eyes at the generic title. In this case (and when we broke the Neversoft firings), the ubiquitous title “anonymous source” (as far as I remember, it was only used once) was used to protect those I was talking to from potentially facing the legal wrath of their current/former employer. This was especially true for this Infinity Ward story, as everyone I talked to refused to so much as speak to me unless I made absolutely zero mention of who they were. I was even asked by a couple of them to refrain from mentioning their gender or using initials.

Suffice to say, they were a bit on edge so I agreed to not identify them.

To clarify what I had written (or attempt to clarify), I was told that “They [were] under contract” until October. Of no fault other than my own, I misheard what was said to me and I believed I heard “Infinity Ward [was] under contract” until October. What was actually said was that certain personnel at IW (namely West and Zampella) were under contract until October as part of a contract renegotiation that was struck with Activision back in 2008. However, after Infinity Ward completed Modern Warfare 2 the company would be allowed to operate as an independent studio under West and Zampella’s control. Additionally, I was told that Infinity Ward still owned the Call of Duty rights. Considering West and Zampella are demanding (among other things) the rights to the Modern Warfare games, there was obviously something to those statements.

The independent operation of the studio leaves the door open, theoretically, for West and Zampella to return to IW after October.

Getting back on track, I don’t have a problem with Pachter disagreeing with what we (I) published, nor do I take issue with him dissecting each of the statements made. Where I have a problem is with Pachter going into name-calling mode, referring to us as “financially unsophisticated” (whatever the hell that means*) and the overall dismissive hostility in the tone of his comments regarding us. Now, I don’t know if this has to do with the fact that one of the first Google results is our quasi-mockery piece on him (results may vary) or the fact that I used to open every Michael Pachter news story with “Michael Pachter is better than you…”, but if he has an issue with something we report on, whether it be factual error or asking for/providing clarification, he should contact us instead of slamming us on another gaming blog.

What I found curious was the “financially unsophisticated” comment made at the end, as well as the general knock about this “playing out on blogs.” Perhaps I’m reading too much into this or my fever is playing with my brain**, but it almost sounds like a jab at smaller sites (like us) simply because we’re small. All I will say in regards to this is that this kind of overly skeptical thinking and dismissal of any site that isn’t immediately known is why so many smaller sites have a hell of a time being recognized.

*Yes, I am aware of the irony in that statement.
**Or both. Or neither.

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