In an interview with Edge, Pan's Labyrinth and Hellboy director Guillermo del Toro establishes two very interesting facts:

1. del Toro, who has been enamored with gaming's charming beeps and boops since the days of Pong, lavishes a considerable amount of praise on Sony's Team ICO. "There are only two games I consider masterpieces," he says. "Ico and Shadow of the Colossus."
2. The popular filmmaker has excellent taste in games.

Those are far from the only titles he appreciates, however, as he tells Edge that he "absolutely loved BioShock." In addition, he approves of Resident Evil, Devil May Cry and Silent Hill, which he likens in particular to a "Lynch, Polanski or Romero type of horror experience." It seems our only point of disagreement can be found in his "happy" working experience with Konami's Hellboy: The Science of Evil. Nobody's perfect, eh?

[Via PS3 Fanboy]

Right, so the Mario Bros. remake below the jump -- by former Joystiq writer Jared Rea -- might be just the slightest bit offensive (and not in a NSFW way). But, it's also very funny, which has always trumped offense in our book. He says it's the result of a Twitter joke gone too far, but in our book it's gone just far enough.

Mr. Rea does provide some additional explanation for the gag on his blog, but we hope you don't need it (you're not that removed from the outside world, are you?).

Warning! There's an expletive-filled trailer below for the film Nerdcore Rising. It also features people binge drinking Yoo-Hoo, just so we have full disclosure. If you haven't heard about the movie before, it's a documentary that follows MC Frontalot on his first national tour as he goes from South Carolina to last year's PAX, where he was captured on film by our own Christopher Grant.

Nerdcore, which is trying hard to become its own genre of music, features songs about everything from Dungeons & Dragons to 8-bit video games, and the film explores what that's all about with Frontalot, his band, and several other Nerdcore artists. The film premiered at SXSW in Austin earlier this year, but PAX gets the goodness of the first-ever west coast showing of the flick this Saturday at 4pm. Head below the break to see the special PAX trailer for the movie, created by director Negin Farsad and MC Frontalot himself.

Maybe it's just because we're nerds for gaming journalism dirt, but we can't get enough of Sore Thumbs, a blog run by former EGMers Dan Hsu and Crispin Boyer. Now that both have moved on from the mag, they're spinning tales about the glory days of gaming journalism, often with shocking results.

In the newest entry, for example, Hsu delves into the Ubisoft/Ziff Davis blackballing and how it, in a sense, played a part in his resignation. It's all fascinating stuff that's both unflinchingly honest and essential reading for informed consumers of game media.

Continuing with their week-long series, nos amis at X3F talked with Silicon Knights President Denis Dyack over some of Too Human's biggest perceived faults. Part 1 of today's video interview is embedded above. Some highlights:

• On the community's early judgment: "People are trying to understand a game that's inherently interactive [by watching a video] ... All I can say is try the demo."
• On clipping and texture issues: "There's glitches in all games. It's really interesting to me because, as an example, there's gonna be things you can always improve. To me, framerate's not really that essential in cutscenes and it never has been for us ... I don't think Too Human's inconsistent from any of our previous games ... So there's clipping. Oh noes. Bottom line is, does it affect gameplay and by how much? Are there ways to improve Too Human? For sure, but the overall big picture? Happy, extremely happy."
• On the Valkyrie death scene: Dyack estimated it was a 15 and a 1/2 second scene. "If it's a sign that people love the game so much that they just want to get back in and play, could we make it skippable? Sure, it's an easy change. Is it something we ever would have anticipated since we thought it was faster than going to get your body or losing experience [which does not happen in Too Human] ... is that a change we can make in the future? Sure."
• On comparisons to Diablo: "There's this tactical element. People think, 'oh, this is like Diablo with a bit of action. In Diablo I can just go up to an enemy and pound him away [until it dies] and move on to the next one, if you had the better loot, you usually win. In Too Human, if you don't use your tactics, it is a new kind of genre-bender, you're gonna die. And we're looking at some of the feedback and a lot of people are dying. [laughs]"
• On future downloadable content: "I think that's gonna be unique to people who pre-order it, that's a one-time thing. But we've got tons of ideas that will far exceed the pre-order bonus."

Check out part two of the interview after the break.

It's a shame to see someone ditching their Nintendo 64 on the railroad tracks next to broken dreams and two empty Sprite bottles, especially when there's 17 versions of Rock Band 2 to look forward to.

[Thanks, Mike]

The organizers for next year's Cologne-based Gamescom event want you to know that their show will be the 'new European games platform for the international games community." Taking place from September 9th to September 13th, 2009, Gamescom has thrown down the gauntlet and cast a demeaning glare towards the recently concluded (and returning) Leipzig Games Convention.

"It was to be expected that the Leipzig trade fair would try to keep the topic in its 2009 programme as well by announcing its date," said Oliver P. Kuhrt, managing director of Gamescom organiser Koelnmesse. "But they will have to do it without the industry for the most part. The lead trade fair will take place in Cologne in 2009 and beyond." Despite posting improved attendance numbers this year, Kuhrt is adamant that it's time to move 'zig down from its biggest-show-in-town status. "Whatever happens in Germany in 2009 outside of Cologne cannot claim to represent this sector."

It figures that the organizers of a trade show would exhibit such a fine "Oh snap," but we think it best to wait and see if the Cologne show offers up something to sniff at.

To celebrate the release of The Art and Making of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, LucasArts has sent over two copies of the book, which are currently getting midichlorians all over our lovely coffee table. So, to prevent our furniture from having the ability to Force Choke every person who spills a drink, we're giving them away to decorate your living rooms and grant your furniture the midichlorian count to Force Choke you.

To enter this giveaway:

• Leave a comment telling us what force power, or combination of force powers, you'd use in your everyday life! Would you fly to work, strangle a boss, or simply heat your coffee?
  
• You must be 18 years or older and a resident of the US or Canada (excluding Quebec and fully operational battle stations).
  
• Limit 1 entry per person per calendar day (comment more than once and you'll be encased in Carbonite).
  
• This entry period ends at 7:00pm ET on Saturday, August 30th. We'll randomly select two winners at that time, who will each receive an art book valued at $30. Please check your e-mail!
  
• For a list of complete rules that you can peruse or crush with your mind, click here.

For gamers, there's usually a push-and-pull battle involved in deciding to order a new game from an online retailer. On the plus side, ordering online means not having to deal with clueless game store employees, not fighting off the harsh rays of the sun and, most importantly, not leaving the comfort of the couch! On the downside, though, those online delivery people will sometimes arrive days after a game is available in stores, losing you precious time you could be spending pwning n00bs.

Amazon is looking to get rid of that major online ordering negative with their Release Date Delivery program for some of the season's biggest games. Shoppers that pay an extra $5.98 can get Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, Fable 2 and Gears of War 2 delivered to their doors the same day they're available in stores (you may remember Amazon tested the program last month with Soul Calibur IV). Amazon Prime members can get this service for free, but it's only currently available in the continental U.S., so residents of foreign lands (not to mention the freak states) should be prepared to hoof it to their nearest brick and mortar game retailers.

Source - Press Release
Source - More Details

He's not quite the big name that Hideo Kojima is, but the fact is that if you liked Metal Gear Solid 4, especially how its gameplay had evolved since the last entry in the series, producer Ryan Payton is a big part of the reason. Now, Payton has left the team to spend more time with his family in North America after, he says, receiving some "pretty heavy news concerning my mom."

We knew the guy was good at making games, but it turns out he's also got a heart as big as all outdoors. Let's hope he ends up somewhere nice.

(P.S.: Metal Gear Solid 5 will be completely inscrutable, with Reagan-era gameplay. Confirmed.)

Sometimes being the World's Most Dedicated Video Game Blog isn't easy. Like when we have to read a long, dense response from Douglas Edric Stanley, the artist who created the controversial Space Invaders/World Trade Center piece that you've been reading about all week. Oh, and it's just barely 9 a.m. Joystiq Time (and did we mention it's long?). You know what that is? Dedication.

What'd we learn from the admittedly well-reasoned response? Well, in (very) short, Stanely's piece (see the video after the break) appears to be a way for him to understand, to contextualize what happened on that September morning, attempting to find some sense in a senseless act. While we appreciate Stanley's urge to add context to the inflammatory piece, it kind of makes us sad that he had to explain it at all. And, perhaps more troubling, it doesn't really answer the big moral question: Where's the promised four-player online co-op?

Nothing goes together like drinking brewskis and the PlayStation Portable, right? Apparently, that goes doubly so if you're a sales representative in the land down under. Stella Artois is the number one international draught beer, but they haven't cracked the Australian market. So, instead of sending boring brochures and glossy guides down to the land of Oz, they sent 50 custom-made Stella-branded PSPs to the sales teams.

Not only were they in hand-stitched black velvet Stella bags, but they also had Stella themes loaded on them, and were packed with information about the beer. Plus, since they have wi-fi built-in, they can download updated beer data when they aren't playing God of War: Chains of Olympus or listening to Kylie Minogue MP3s. Now that's a marketing tool we can get behind. We wonder how long it'll be before one of these babies is up on eBay.

[Thanks, Dan]

Maybe it's the upcoming expo, or that we made the focus of this week's wrapup on the comic series, or maybe (just maybe) it was the favored gaming comic. Whatever the reasons, Penny Arcade's "A Life of Service" took top honors in the webcomic wrapup.

Second place was taken by 2P Start's Level Up!, while Hijinks Ensue's Scared Straight claimed a distant third. A special mention goes to Robot Martini's two great tastes, which came in last place, even though we actually quite enjoyed it. Thanks to everyone who voted, and be sure to let us know of any game-related webcomics you stumble upon this week!

The Leipzig Games Convention was apparently a success and is already scheduled to return next year from August 19 to 23. The "final report" by the Leipziger-Messe states that 82.1% of attendees asked for the show to stay in its current location, with more than a third of attendees traveling over 300 kilometers (186 miles) to attend.

The show had 203,000 attendees, with 547 companies exhibiting their wares. Showing that Leipzig is actually becoming of interest to the media as well: 3,800 journalists attended, up from 3,395 in 2007. It'll be interesting to see how Leipzig does next year when it will reportedly have some competition from GamesCOM in Cologne.

Our pals at Big Download hit the phones, tracked down PR people and figured out which companies, exactly, are going to this year's E for All Expo ... and the answers ain't pretty. In fact, the only two major exhibitors will be Microsoft and Electronic Arts! THQ and Konami – familiar faces from last year's expo – won't be in attendance this year while Nintendo and 2K Games – also at last year's Expo – have yet to make a decision (Update: 2K and Activision, previously undecided, let BD know that they won't be attending).

To make sense of the whole messy situation, we did the same thing we always do when we're upset: grabbed the crayons and expressed our feelings artistically ... then we turned those feelings into a chart comparing exhibitors for both this year's and last year's E for All, side-by-side with this year's Penny Arcade Expo. Yes, we know the Penny Arcade kids have been pouring salt into E for All's wounds for awhile now and that this is just another pile of color-coded salt that we're placing at their disposal. But really, that's a lot of salt! Chart after the break or read the full article at Big Download.

[Update: IDG sent us a comment: "We're disappointed that you didn't contact us yesterday before putting up your E for All post, and we hope you'll do so in the future. At this point, we'll just say that the show isn't over until Tiger hits his last hole in one, Microsoft has packed up its last Xbox, Target has sold its last Wii Fit, Fatal1ty has blown away his last opponent, and the World Cyber Games National champions are crowned. Further announcements are forthcoming, and we are confident that E for All 208 will be a great event for everyone in the game community."]