No ill feelings here. Tomonobu Itagaki and his ex-team have moved on - he has a new team, Team Ninja has new projects - and he only has the best wishes for Team Ninja and its new leader, Yosuke Hayashi. It's a refreshing change to see the man behind the sunglasses be so positive for a change and he even had enough compliments to go around. Good for you, Itagaki-san.

Three key devs behind Nintendo's Metroid Prime series have formed a new studio, under the publishing flag of Electronic Arts. What does that mean for us gamers, exactly? It means the prime (hah) talents behind Metroid are now free to develop games for non-Nintendo platforms. Personally I'm looking forward to see what they have in store. More in the full article.

Penny Arcade's Child's Play, a five-year-old fundraising outfit that started out dedicated only to the Seattle Children's Hospital, has now evolved into a full-time charity drive.

Child's Play is now extending its reach throughout North America and five countries. Major online retailer Amazon is also giving Child's Play a boost-up by letting participating hospitals create wishlists of items to give to children.

Read more about Child's Play at the full article link below!

The numbers are in and it has been confirmed that both Bungie's Halo 3 and Microsoft's Xbox 360 dominated the U.S. NPD Group's sales charts for the month of September. This was pretty much expected since the Canadian NPD charts also had the Xbox 360 and Halo 3 on the top of their list.

In NPD's top selling games for September, Halo 3 took top honors with all three versions combining to sell 3.3 million copies. This was followed by Wii Play which sold 282,00 copies. Pulling up the third slot is The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass for the Nintendo DS with 224,000 units sold. Here are the rest of the games on the top ten list:

• Madden NFL 08 (PS2) - 205,000
• Skate (Xbox 360) - 175,000
• Madden NFL 08 (Xbox 360) - 173,000
• Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (Wii) - 167,000
• Bioshock (Xbox 360) - 150,000
• Brain Age (Nintendo DS) - 141,000
• Heavenly Sword (PlayStation 3) - 139,000

On the console side of the market, the Xbox 360 received a 50 percent increase of sales tallying over 527,000 consoles sold last month. This was closely followed by the Nintendo Wii which sold 501,000 units and the Nintendo DS which almost broke the 500,000 mark.

NPD Analyst Anita Frazier commented on this sudden surge of Xbox 360 sales saying that, "if ever there was a doubt that great content drives hardware acquisition, this should put that doubt to rest." The numbers do make a point, and it is one that console manufacturers may want to keep in mind.

(As promised, here's the second serving of our weekly feature, QuickJump QuickPeek! For the uninitiated, this space will be filled with the highlights of the past week in the gaming world. On to the second ish!)

Aside from Michael Bay not totally bastardizing our childhood memories of the Transformers, there are a few other great events that made this week quite memorable. There's Microsoft announcing a 3-year extension to their warranty service as an answer to the reported 33% failure rate of purchased Xbox 360s. There's also the rumbling webtalks of the looming PS3 price cut. And there's the Wii too, reportedly just a little over a million figures behind Xbox 360 in terms of consoles sold. Do bear in mind that we haven't even scratched the tip of the All Spark, err, iceberg yet; there's still a lot more great events that made this week, ahem, "more than meets the eye."

This weeks news', transform and roll out!

The full article article awaits after the jump!

Through an email sent to website Level Up, Tyler Bleszinski, older brother of Cliff Bleszinski from Gears of War fame, expressed his thoughts on the Wii's rapidly gaining popularity and its possible effect on hardcore gamers. Apparently, he's troubled by how Nintendo is reaching its hands to casual gamers and pushing the market towards that audience.

Being a gamer himself, Tyler grew up with Zelda and other titles generally aimed at guys. With the Wii reaching millions of non-gamers, he believes that publishers might also move in the same direction. In other words, casual games could overrun deeper games.

"The NPD sales figures since November have been troubling to me as a hardcore gamer who loves new IPs and in-depth experiences... There have been umpteen stories about the scrappy little Wii wooing non-gamers and bringing in hordes of new converts to worship at the altar of Mario," he said.

"I'm not saying that the videogame industry shouldn't strive to bring in as many new people as possible," he added. Tyler told a story about how he found an old woman at the store looking for Cooking Mama and Wii Play. "If these are the type of games that become blockbusters, then you can count on other gaming companies who cater to the more hardcore gamer to promptly change direction."

Tyler strongly believes that gamers who got into the scene because of the Wii and its casual games aren't likely to get into more hardcore titles. It's difficult to imagine that the woman at the store would be playing Metroid. He continues:

If Nintendo winds up outselling the 360 and the PS3 by a wide margin, how soon will it be before we gamers are using the Sixaxis to chop up onions with in Metal Gear Mama? How long before we're frantically swinging waggle remotes for tennis, bowling and golf in Halo Sports?

I sincerely believe that bringing new people to video games is a good thing. I like seeing the business continue to grow and be even more successful, because I'm old enough to remember the videogame industry crash between the Atari 5200 and the Nintendo Entertainment System. But ultimately, going more mainstream can have unintended consequences--ones that could negatively impact the breadth and depth of the kinds of games that I love, as do millions of others.

We came across an interesting discussion at the Wii mailbag portion of IGN discussing how the remaining eight months of 2007 will play out in the game console arena. The discussion delved mostly on the prospect of big franchises coming up with new installments for all three systems and rumors of exclusives porting. At this point, the Wii seems to have the swagger.

 Leading the charge for Nintendo's wonder system are flag-bearers Mario Galaxy, Metroid, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and NiGHTS, keeping fans busy hot off the heels of Super Paper Mario and Twilight Princess. As if that wasn't enough, hot prospects Wii Health Pack, Battalion Wars II, Mario Strikers Charged, Project H.A.M.M.E.R., Dragon Quest Swords, No More Heroes, Manhunt 2, Boogie, and Mario and Sonic at the Olympics are looming large.

That's not to say that the other consoles are without their share if big releases at this year's second half. The Xbox 360 will wreak some serious havoc once Halo 3, Too Human and Mass Effect hit the Microsoft console. With its ever-vibrant Xbox Live community, gamers will be kept occupied for months on end. Don't even get us started on Grand Theft Auto IV. It'll kick some serious thomps and outrage moral zealots everywhere. It's also a good reason to get a PlayStation 3 along with LittleBigPlanet.

Nintendo fans also seem to be eager to see more shooters in their turf. There's already a significant presence of the genre on the Wii, but fans are itching for games like Time Crisis to see how the Wiimote ups the fun factor. IGN, however, was quick to dismiss the idea, pointing to the title's exclusivity for the Xbox 360 and the PS3.

Winifred Phillips, known for her audio pieces on game titles like God of War, The Da Vinci Code, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and the upcoming Shrek the Third, has recorded a Super Mario Bros. tribute track to commemorate the 20 year anniversary of the game that redefined the gaming industry and remains as "The Best-Selling Game of All Time" in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Together with award-wining producer Winnie Waldron, Phillips they conjured up the track entitled "Go Mario! (Super Mario Brothers)" to contribute to a game music compilation as a tribute to great game tracks. The track sports a catchy tune of the lovable Mario theme song, accomplished in an a-capella fashion featuring her own voice.

The result: it's a multi-tracked, a-capella piece adorned with classic video game sound effects to create an orchestral feel, but still amazingly faithful to the original NES version.

Winifred's numerous awards include an Interactive Achievement Award for Best Original Score from the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences, and four Game Audio Network Guild Awards, including the prestigious Music of the Year Award.

She believes, like many composers, that "older video games ... have helped shape our current industry" and "are an important part of our shared heritage." She claimed to be happy to add their track to the game music tribute album coming soon.

Entitled "The Best of the Best: A Tribute to Game Music," the album will be bringing the game industry's best composers together and compile tribute works to music from The Legend of Zelda, Myst III: Exile, World of Warcraft, Metroid Prime, Medal of Honor, Final Fantasy and many more. The album is slated for a May 1 release and should be available at the opening of the Game Music Central website.

While this list isn't exactly the most original of its kind, we wanted to offer our take on which mamas are the hottest in the virtual world. Everything here is subjective and any list is as good as ours. So without remorse, this is our top 10 hottest game babes to date:

10. Maria Renard (Castlevania: Symphony of the Night)- The blonde hottie from Alucard's big night out may not have been seen in 3D glory and all, but the portrait was convincing enough. With her perfect complexion, killer brown eyebrows and the wavy, golden hair, she was a perfect leading lady to match with the vampiric charm of Dracula's son.

9. Mai Shiranui (King of Fighters)- Mai first appeared in the first half of the 90's in Fatal Fury 2. She immediately became one of the stars of the game for obvious reasons: She had the moves and the physique to match. Where rival bear 'em up Street Fighter II featured more conservative lady brawlers, SNK showed Mai's assets off with an innovative twist: Bouncing jubblies! Now imagine the testosterone levels in the old-school arcades more than a decade ago.

8. Aerith Gainsborough (Final Fantasy VII)- The gorgeous good girl of the legendary RPG Final Fantasy VII may have led a short and sweet character lifespan, but the fact remains that she's still one of the most beloved females in the business to date. Okay, the clothes she wore may not exactly be revealing, but we have to understand that it's how she was meant to be packaged in the first place. Imagine if she was a bit more fashion-trendy: She would have given the DoA girls a run for their money.

7. Morrigan Aensland (Dark Stalkers)- The naughty night warrior does that succubus lineage proud. She looked fantastic in 2D and had the ferocity to match. The anime spin-off of Capcom's popular Halloween fighter did her justice as she was just as charming there. Call her costume weird, but that only strengthens the convictions of her appeal. You gotta admit, not a lot of girls will look sexy in that!

More ladies follow at the full article.

The student body of Yale University will be getting smothered with some Video Games Live loving on March 31, in cooperation with the Yale Symphony Orchestra. VGL's on-going tour (with sold out tickets at its wake) hits the academic campus by 8 p.m., but not without some pre-concert festivities. Special events served on the side of the VGL performance include a video game industry educational panel scheduled a day before the concert.

Entitled "Video Games - Past, Present, and Future," the panel is open to the public without any charge. And dropping by for the said talk would be the industry's iconic composers like Lorne Lanning (OddWorld Inhabitants), Tommy Tallarico (Metroid Prime), and Jack Wall (Myst III, Mass Effect). Now, for the show's date itself, from 6 - 8 p.m., they will be hosting cosplay contests, playable games, and gaming competitions (Guitar Hero II and Halo 2).

Ok. On with the concert proper: the show starts at 8 p.m. at Woolsey Hall. One of the biggest numbers for this show would be VGL's Castlevania arrangement. It's going to be played by Martin Leung on Woolsey Hall's 104 year old 3-story pipe organ. Could you imagine hearing Castlevania on that?!