This week's episode has a pretty long Games of the Week segment (mainly because we spend a healthy portion of it talking about artgames), so be ready for that.

After the first half of the show, however, the regular Podtoid crew yaks about Sonic 4, EA's 2011 lineup, and some other stuff I can't remember at the moment.

You can listen to the show here or subscribe to us on iTunes.

Ah, Level 5. I like those guys. I'd like them to make more games. Less portable ones would be nice. Oh, and U.S. releases would be fantastic. You know. Just whatever. If you're listening.

They are working on some Wii and PlayStation 3 games, though. Akihiro Hino, Level 5's president, said that his company has some PS3 and Wii titles in development at a company meeting. Of course, no names of titles were given. We'll have to wait until later this year. Maybe they'll have something at the 2010 Tokyo Game Show to put in their inexplicably large show floor booth.

We know that a sequel to White Knight Chronicles is coming to the PS3. Other than that, it's anyone's guess.

Speaking of White Knight Chronicles, I'm currently playing it for a Destructoid review. I didn't love it at first, but it has grown on me. Nothing fancy, but I'm enjoying it. Look for our review soon.

Level 5 Developing Unannounced PlayStation 3 And Wii Titles [Siliconera]

Surprise! PixelJunk Shooter 2 is happening! Actually, we kind of knew about it already. Q-Games' Dylan Cuthbert has been mighty talkative lately, and he's only just beginning to discuss the sequel to last year's most fluid-filled game in-depth.

"We still have a ton of ideas on the drawing board and the engine has lots of potential we want to use before moving onto our next idea," Cuthbert told G4. "It would be a waste not to use it to try out more stuff."

"We managed to put in all the ship 'suits' that we thought up this time around, but there will be a number of new suits to make use of some of the brand new ideas for fluid gimmicks you may or may not see sometime soon."

Sounds good to me. I feel like PixelJunk Shooter could have been fleshed out more, and a sequel would be able to fairly easily expand on what is an all-around neat concept for a dual-joystick shooter.

Here Are A Few Details On PixelJunk Shooter 2 [G4TV]

Dream Chronicles started out as a PC game, but now it's coming to Xbox's Live Arcade and the PlayStation Network by way of Hudson. It's a surreal mystery dreamscape adventure game. That make any sense? It will when you see it. You play as Faye, who is out in a strange world to find her husband and escape a spell of sleeping that has been cast over the town of Wish.

It's a puzzler/adventure game that won a Zeeby winner for “People’s Choice Award for Best Hidden Object & Adventure Game of 2007” in its PC form. I kind of miss these pre-rendered, puzzle-packed adventures. Looks interesting.

Hudson will be bringing the title to consoles this Spring. Check out our gallery below for some screenshots.

If you're not yet sick of spending pretend Microsoft money on present toys for your pretend people, then BioShock 2 has you covered. A range of items based on the 2K Games sequel has hit Xbox Live, ready to suck up your money in celebration of today's release. 

For the low, low price of "Not Free," you can dress up your mawkish Avatars in a range of Big Daddy and Little Sister clothes, as well as obtain a Big Daddy doll for the thing to hold. It's a bloody great day to be borderline retarded and have too much money!

Instead of buying any of this stuff, why not buy BioShock 2? We reviewed it and thought it was great, even if some of you seem to think that a score of 8.0 is somehow bad. Mind you, if you're that stupid, then this Avatar gear should be right up your alley!

Akira Yamaoka has been all over the news lately. We first told you that he was leaving Konami after many years of working on horror game series Silent Hill. Last week we found out that he's the newest employee of Grasshopper Manufacture, and is already working on a new game for them. Now we hear that the composer is going to be speaking at the 2010 Game Developer's Conference.

In the Audio Track, his panel, "As Long as the Audio is Fun, the Game Will Be Too," Yamaoka will speak from his experience in the game audio field, going back 20 years.

He says:

"People tend not to think about game design and audio design in parallel. I will present my views on audio design in games from a producer's perspective, having had experience in both roles."

It should be noted that he has wasted no time, with the listing naming him Akira Yamaoka of Grasshopper Manufacture Studio.

I'll definitely be there to hear what the man has to say. I hope he talks a bit about his new game.

Akira Yamaoka to Speak at GDC With Grasshopper Manufacture [OSV]

It would appear that Telltale Games is preparing a brand new adventure for Sam & Max with a third season of mindbending puzzles and faintly embarrassing witticisms. It's called Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse.

At least, that's according to the OFLC. The rating board outed the game recently, shedding a little titular light on the future of the Freelance Police. That's all there is at the moment, but considering the last season ended with Episode 5: What's Cooking Beelzebub?, it would appear that we're picking up where we left off. The OFLC says that Episode 1 of The Devil's Playhouse will be called The Penal Zone. 

So there you go. More Sam & Max for anybody who's interested. Hooray!

Third Season Of Sam & Max Called “The Devil’s Playhouse [Siliconera]

We all know by now that Australia gets the short end of the stick when it comes to Nintendo releases. The country can wait up to a year after the North American release before getting a sniff of a new Wii or DS game. Frustrated gamers may be tempted to pirate these titles, but Nintendo, fresh off winning $1.5 million from one Aussie pirate, has claimed that piracy affects Australian release dates. 

"Nintendo Australia is always pushing for games to be released here at the same time as the rest of the world, so we were pleased to get New Super Mario Bros. Wii before anyone else," explains Nintendo of Australia. "Unfortunately, due to to the actions of this individual, future release dates may be affected for Australia, which is disappointing for us."

Now, I fully understand that it must be insulting to have New Super Mario Bros. Wii ripped and uploaded in Australia when it was one of the few games to be released on time in the country, but I have to call bullsh*t on this statement. Nintendo has a long history of delaying Australian games while giving no justifiable reason for it. To retroactively try and shift the blame onto pirates is a bit of a pathetic move, in honesty. 

Australian gamers are frustrated with Nintendo and its long history of shafting the territory. I don't think any smart Aussies are going to fall for Nintendo's buck-passing.

Nintendo Stomps Aussie Mario Pirate [GameSpot]

A person in Australia fudged with the wrong game maker. He ripped and uploaded New Super Mario Bros. Wii a week before it was even available in that country. Naturally, he was busted and was taken to court. Now that Federal Court has awarded Nintendo $1.5 million dollars in damages to compensate for loss of revenue.

Speaking of revenue, they've sold 10 million copies of the game.

And Nintendo on why you shouldn't pirate their games:

“Fewer sales of Nintendo’s hardware and software systems means fewer resources that Nintendo, its licensees, developers and publishers have to create and market new video game products which is ultimately to the detriment of video game enthusiasts. When there is a decrease in game development, there is also a decrease in the number of jobs in the industry. The existence of piracy jeopardizes the strength of the video game industry overall.”

Nintendo Awarded $1.5 Million In Piracy Suit [Edge]

According to a recent consumer survey, Electronic Arts is considering bringing Dead Space Extraction from the Wii to the Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network platforms. According to the survey, Extraction would be presented in HD and retail for $14.99 while retaining the "guided first-person experience" of the original game.

As well as Extraction, EA is considering another downloadable Dead Space game called Planet Cracker.
According to the survey, Planet Cracker would be a "resource strategy game where players will manage a CEC Mining operation." In a similar vein to Fable II: Pub Games, the actions in Planet Cracker would yield bring in-game rewards to Dead Space 2. 

Sounds ridiculous, but stranger things have happened. I wouldn't count this rumor out just yet. 

Dead Space Extraction, Planet Cracker Coming To XBLA, PSN? [Kotaku]

The two games that won't ever die come together through a little hackery. Cloud Strife, the spiky haired hero of Square Enix RPG Final Fantasy VII, has been inserted into Nintendo's Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Buster Sword and all. Cool idea, I guess, but the modders must have made sure Cloud had his Generic Materia equipped as it looks like Cloud is wearing a tight-fitting Janitor's worksuit. You can see him in action in the video above?

Me? I've got no opinion. I'll let a commenter from Game Videos do the work:

It's just a slightly modified Ike, and it really doesn't even look like Cloud. Frankly, I don't know why modders waste their time make such lame changes to the game. If you're going to go to all the effort to change the game, then actually do something good.

And, after being scolded by another commenter:

No crap I couldn't do it. That's hardly the point. The point is why bother wasting so much time on something that's this lame or half assed. There are plenty of things that I can do extremely well, but I don't waste my time and talents doing stupid things.

I love that I work on the internet.

Hackers put Cloud Strife in Super Smash Bros. Brawl [GoNintendo]

You've no doubt already seen the video of an "officially" released Sonic 4 that's been floating around, but if you haven't, check it out. It seems Sega was a little too late to the part when it announced Sonic the Hedgehog 4. A sneaky "developer" by the name of Twin Eagles Group already made it ... for the SNES.

This not-quite-legally distributed game was a surprisingly expert hack of Speedy Gonzales: Los Gatos Bandidos. Since the game was already like a stripped-down Sonic title, it wasn't too much of a stretch to replace Speedy with Sonic and throw in some rings. Oh, and he rescues little Marios trapped in cages for some reason. 

The sound effects are bizarre and they didn't change the music, so Sonic struts his stuff to digitized mariachi bands. Meanwhile, on the Game Boy, the hackers skipped Sonic 5 and went straight to Sonic 6! You can see a video of that after the jump. Man, Sega has some catching up to do.

Sonic the Hedgehog 4: 1996? SNES? Gameplay Video? [Ygro Wok's Destructoid CBlog]

When it comes to downloadable content and Dante's Inferno, Visceral and Electronic Arts aren't messing around. In fact, according to a slip that shipped inside the retail game box, they've got it planned through at least through April.

February
Soul Packs
Poet Costume
Animated Feature Film Costume

March
Prequel Level

April
New In-Game Abilities
Trials of St. Lucia

The prequel level refers to the "Dark Forest," which PlayStation 3 owners can get for free (via a redeemable code found inside the game box). According to the description, it "includes a new costume, relic, and prequel level featuring two new enemies, an expanded storyline, and more than 30 minutes of new gameplay!"

"Trials of St. Lucia" is the biggie, though -- a full challenge mode expansion that will allow players to not only design their own challenges, but to fight through them with a second player who will control a second player, the female St. Lucia. Created levels can also be shared and download.

Dante's Inferno is out today, and if you're curious as to how it is, be sure to check out our review.

A few weeks ago, we told you about how Square Enix president Yoichi Wada claimed that Final Fantasy XIII may be the "last of this type of game." We weren't entirely sure what we meant by that, and it seems that we're not the only ones. Even high ranking Square Enix developers, like producer Yoshinori Kitase, and director Motomu Toriyama, are befuddled. 

"We don’t know exactly what he meant by that," answers the pair on the official PlayStation Blog. "We don’t really know what he meant by this style of game. If you consider that during Final Fantasy XIII’s development, at peak time the team consisted of over 300 people. It was a huge team, plus it took a several long years to get the game finished. So, if Mr Wada meant that we would never make another Final Fantasy title with the similar number of people, taking as long as FF XIII did, we would agree.

"Obviously in the future we want to be much more efficient. Having worked on XIII, we feel that we have got much better at making good games for high definition consoles. In the future our teams will be smaller and more effectively run. We suspect that is what Mr Wada meant by his statement."

That's certainly a crowd-pleasing answer, but it's certainly not what I think of when someone says "style of game." That would imply the way the game plays, looks and feels, as opposed to the way it was developed. I like a good JRPG, so I hope Kitase and Toriyama are correct. It would certainly be nice for Wada to clarify his statements though, especially if his own staff are confused.

An Interview With Final Fantasy XIII’s Kitase And Toriyama [PS Blog]