Good lord, Cho Aniki is back. Aksys Games has announced that they are bringing the "manliest" shooter ever to North America, this time as a digital download for the PlayStation Portable. Cho Aniki's history stretches back to the early 90s, where it was originally released for the PC Engine. Americans got their first official taste of the homoerotic shooter last year, when it was released on the Wii's Virtual Console.Cho Aniki Zero is the latest game in the series, having been released in Japan earlier this year. Sporting a 2.5d appearance similiar to what was found in the PlayStation 2's Cho Aniki: Seinaru Protein Densetsu, it features "five man-mazing levels of love" and multiple endings.

  The Ballad of Aya and YokoHow composer Yoko Shimomura became one of gaming's most versatile voices.By Jeremy ParishVideogames have developed into a mature mainstream entertainment medium over the past few years. Few people would feel ashamed for choosing to spend an evening playing Halo or World of Warcraft over watching brainless television reruns. Yet while the medium may have found acceptance, its music inspires much less enthusiasm. Game soundtrack CDs remain a rare creature in the U.S., and far too often the only games whose audio earns widespread critical acclaim are music titles specifically built around popular songs (The Beatles: Rock Band, for instance) or big-budget action games whose publishers have recruited Hollywood talent like Harry Gregson-Williams or Hans Zimmer to lend a little cinematic flair.Perhaps that's why Japanese composer Yoko Shimomura remains fairly unknown among gamers, despite having created the music for some of the most popular games ever. With major blockbusters like Street Fighter II, Kingdom Hearts, Parasite Eve, and Super Mario RPG under her belt, Shimomura's music has entertained tens of millions of gamers. Yet only a fraction of that number knows her name, and fewer still realize that she's arguably the single most versatile composer in the industry.Shimomura's career began at Capcom in the 1980s, where she contributed music and effects to a number of arcade and NES games. Within a few years, she found herself working on two of the biggest arcade games of the era: Final Fight, which galvanized the nascent brawler genre, and Street Fighter II, which practically invented the fighting game.

  Modern Warfare 2 might not support dedicated servers, but it will be shipping with a few other PC-exclusive features. Valve has announced that Steamworks will be supported from launch, allowing players to access their save files remotely, among other things."Steamworks will make it possible for us to have a closer connection to our fans, and enable us to support our community much more than ever before," said Infinity Ward creative strategist Robert Bowling. "Steam is the hands down leader in offering a community focused experience on PC and the inclusion of Steamworks has allowed us to deliver the most feature-rich PC version to ever come from Infinity Ward, which at the end of the day will mean the most to our fans."

  With its first solo outing a success, Disgaea's demonic penguin mascot will soon be coming back for more. Nippon Ichi has just announced that a sequel to the PSP's Prinny: Can I Really Be The Hero.We don't have much information about the sequel, but it's likely to be NIS's track record suggests that the sequel will be quite similar to the original. For Prinny fans, that's not necessarily a bad thing, as the first game rated a 'B' in our review.If you haven't had a chance to play the first game, you can find it on the PlayStation Network. With a budget version having just been announced for Japan, hopefully North America will follow suit. Just be warned that the game is apparently quite hard.

  It seems that Atlus' evil plan has finally run its course. The publisher is releasing Crimson Gem Saga ($29.99), Yggdra Union ($14.99) and others to the PlayStation Network, thus ensuring plenty of Atlus games for all."We've finally reached a point where, according to our physicians, any further laughing at our masterfully executed plan of never making enough copies of our games for everyone poses risks to our health," said Atlus Manager of PR and Sales Aram Jabbari. "In order to prevent illness, and because, hey, sometimes you just want to change things up, we're very pleased to offer PSP system classics via digital download. It may mean that we'll have to shut down our numerous online auction accounts, as we won't be able to hoard large quantities of our hard-to-find games and then slowly trickle them out at obscenely high prices anymore, but the end result will be better for everyone."

  With its fantastic mix of platforming and shooting gameplay, the Ratchet & Clank series has always struck me as a sort of modern day Mega Man. I mean, there are obviously plenty of differences between the two series, but on a fundamental level the two share a perfection and balance of their core mechanics. What attracted us to one series two decades ago still enthralls us today -- though Ratchet & Clank has the benefit of several gameplay lessons developers have learned along the way, from the appeal of item collection to weapon upgrades. But let's be honest, in the Ratchet & Clank series Insomniac found itself a fantastic formula that's remained consistently fun and entertaining, and has been easy to replicate -- we've seen nine Ratchet games in the past eight years (counting the PSP titles). Because of this, if you're burnt out on the series, I'll completely understand if you plan to skip out on this latest installment. I'll understand, sure, but I'll still try to convince you otherwise.

  Microsoft is working to get ahead of rumors that started circulating yesterday regarding Blu-Ray support for the Xbox 360. It started when company CEO Steve Ballmer commented that Blu-Ray drives would be coming as accessories, in response to a question about the Xbox 360. Word got out fast, and last night Larry Hryb (a.k.a. Major Nelson) made a blog post to clarify. "Steve was referring to Blu-ray accessories for the PC," he explained. "As we have said in the past, we have no plans to introduce a Blu-Ray drive for the Xbox 360."It does still seem odd that Microsoft's main man mentioned the accessories in response to a question about the Xbox 360, if he were merely talking about the PC. But, Ballmer does have a history of making erroneous statements regarding the console, so we can probably chalk this up to a simple misstatement. At this rate, an inaccurate comment about the Xbox 360 is bound to be dubbed a "Ballmer."

  Rock Band gets into the Halloween spirit next week with some vaguely monster-themed DLC, as well as a song you might recognize from the genuinely terrifying reality series Daisy of Love. They're all set to hit the Xbox 360 and Wii next Tuesday, October 27 and the PlayStation Store that Thursday, October 29.Each track will stick with the standard $1.99 (160 Microsoft points; 200 Wii Points) pricing scheme -- the only exceptions being the Morningwood songs, which will go for a discounted 99 cents (80 Microsoft points; 100 Wii Points) apiece. The Rob Zombie tracks will also be offered together for $5.49 (440 Microsoft points), while the six-pack of Wolfmother songs are planned for a $8.49 (680 Microsoft points) bundle.Next week's entire DLC offerings follow:"Burn" by Rob Zombie"Dragula" by Rob Zombie"Superbeast" by Rob Zombie"New Moon Rising" by Wolfmother"Pilgrim" by Wolfmother"Sundial" by Wolfmother"White Unicorn" by Wolfmother"Woman" by Wolfmother"Rock Me" by Liz Phair"Best of Me" by Morningwood"Sugarbaby" by Morningwood

  In case you're wondering if your rig will be able to handle Modern Warfare 2 when it storms retailers next month, Infinity Ward has provided the minimum system requirements well in advance. Assuming you're not planning on outright boycotting the game on PC for its console-like implementation of matchmaking -- or its $60 price tag, for that matter -- then these specs should come in handy.OS: Microsoft Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7 (Windows95/98/ME/2000 are unsupported)Processor: Intel Pentium 4 3.2 GHz or AMD Athlon 64 3200+ processor orbetter supportedMemory: 1 GB RAMGraphics: 256 MB NVIDIA GeForce 6600GT or better or ATI Radeon 1600XT orbetterDirectX: Microsoft DirectX 9.0cHard Drive: 12GB of free hard drive spaceSound: 100% DirectX 9.0c compatible sound cardInternet: Broadband connection required for Multiplayer Connectivity.Internet Connection required for activationYou've still got a couple of weeks to purchase the necessary upgrades if your computer isn't up to snuff. Modern Warfare 2 launches on PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 on November 10.

  When the SmackDown vs. Raw series adopted the yearly naming scheme a few years back, many worried it meant the end of any sort of innovation and the start of annual roster updates. While Smackdown vs. Raw 2010 isn't a complete overhaul of the series by any means, a host of updates, and one new feature in particular, keep the game from feeling like just another by-the-numbers sequel.Borrowing heavily from some of the more recent sports titles, SVR initially skips the pleasantries of a menu and thrusts you directly into the ring with the brand new Training Facility -- the wrestling equivalent of a fighting game's training mode. Though wrestling games aren't quite as deep as most fighters, this mode gives beginners the chance to learn the game's mechanics at their own pace, while providing veterans a nice little SmackDown playground.