Ubisoft’s soon-to-be-released Red Steel 2 could have been sent to the presses with a different name on the box, a recent interview reveals.

According to creative director Jason VandenBerghe, the thought of re-branding the cel-shaded Wii launch title follow-up did cross the developers’ minds but, for obvious reasons, was a road not taken.

“Well, the question has certainly come up. But let me put it to you this way: if I was here, getting ready to release a different game, (call it ‘Blue Iron’) a first-person sword-and-gun fighting game exclusively for the Wii, made by the Red Steel team, shipped by Ubisoft, I’m going to assume your first question would be, ‘oh, you mean like Red Steel?’”

Xbox Live’s code of conduct has been updated to allow references to users’ sexuality in profiles and Gamertags, Microsoft announced today.

Previously, “to prevent the use of these terms as insults or slurs,” Live’s general manager Marc Whitten wrote in the note announcing the changes, certain “expressions of self identification” were not allowed. After hearing feedback from its customers however, the company has eased restrictions and now allows the use of the terms “lesbian,” “gay,” “bi,” “transgender” and “straight”.

Naturally, this also means “increased stringency and enforcement to prevent the misuse of these terms.”

“I truly believe that our diversity is what makes us strong: diversity in gaming and entertainment options, and diversity in the people that make up this amazing community.”

You might not realize that this is great news, but believe me, this is great news. One of the most underappreciated games from the last generation was The Red Star. The game is based off of a comic book and had the unfortunate distinction of being published by Acclaim, who happened to go under when development was nearly complete. After years of being in limbo, the game was finally released by XS Games in May of 2007, and the fourteen people who played it wanted to climb the nearest mountain and sing to the heavens praising the game for being one of the best traditional beat ‘em ups since Streets of Rage 2.

Those who missed it the first time around are getting another chance, as XS has announced that the game will be re-released as downloadable titles on the PSP and iPhone sometime this spring. If you’ve never played The Red Star, do yourself a favor and give this part brawler, part shmup the chance it deserves. It reeks of awesomeness.

The increased talk of Project Natal’s input delay issues are “frustrating” Peter Molyneux; in an interview with gi.biz, the Lionhead and MGS Europe boss explains that the worries are unwarranted and that, since Microsoft’s X10 event less than a month ago, Natal has seen “countless” revisions of both cameras and software.

“It’s always a huge frustration as a designer when you see somebody play a version when you know it’s been exceeded many times over. It so often happens, because you do a version for a show and then you don’t do another version because you’re too busy developing the game,” he explains.

“So very often you get a position that what a person’s looking at is two, three, four months, a year old and you kind of want to go, ‘no, no, it’s 10 times better than that!’ So it is very, very frustrating; it always is – there’s just countless revisions of cameras since the one at X10 and countless revisions of software.”

Natal’s latest iteration, according to a Microsoft source also referenced in the gi.biz piece, is in fact ten times more responsive than the one BBC presenter Jonathan Ross — who called it “impressive” but “not quite there yet” — got to sample last month.

It seems like an age since we first got our hands on infectiously joyful Joe Danger. When we previewed it in November it was already enough to put a big, stupid grin on our faces. Indeed, all it really lacked was a platform. Well, now it’s got one: PlayStation 3.

“We’ve been having the most insanely awesome 2010 so far,” said Hello Games’ Sean Murray on the PlayStation Blog. “We’ve been nominated for two Independent Games Festival awards, a Direct2Drive Vision award and now we get to announce that we’re coming to PlayStation 3. It feels good to finally tell someone. Whoop, whoop!”

Whoop, whoop indeed, and news that should please anyone with a penchant for daredevils, Excitebike, cartoon cacti, outrageous stunts, Green Hill Zone skies and shark-infested tanks… which is all of us really, isn’t it?

But wait! Those of us without PS3’s shouldn’t despair; Murray told Eurogamer that an Xbox 360 and PC version of the game is likely to follow. Phew!

MAG, the experimental new multiplayer FPS with massive, 256-player matches (our review here), has been gaining traction in the world of PlayStation 3 gaming. In a recent post in which he thanks fans for making 2009 a flagship year for the PS3, Sony Computer Entertainment America CEO Jack Tretton revealed some key details pertaining to MAG’s growing popularity. As Tretton writes, “Over half a million of you have already chosen your allegiance in MAG, and have played over 270,000 games in the Shadow War.” According to sales figures, the shooting game is faring better in the UK than it is in the Americas. The game failed to break the top 10 last month in the US, while it has remained a top 10 game since its launch in Britain.

I’ll be honest – I’ve been waiting a long time for a great game about the wild west. Gun was mediocre at best, and Call of Juarez just didn’t do it for me. So, needless to say, I have high hopes for Red Dead Redemption, Rockstar’s forthcoming effort for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

In a recent interview with GameSpot, Rockstar San Diego technical director Ted Carson talked about some of the play mechanics to be featured in Redemption. While most are calling it simply a western-themed Grand Theft Auto, Carson claims that Red Dead’s inclusion of unique, randomly generated “dynamic events” will do much to differentiate it from GTA.

As he describes them, the inclusion of dynamic events will make no two games, “…there are countless ambient, completely dynamic events to discover. You might meet an official needing help apprehending escaped criminals that were being transported, or a woman being attacked by an unwanted suitor, or you might be attacked by a bear.”

Carson continued to explain that not only will these events be unique, but that they will be dependent upon a number of in-game factors: “All of these are contextual, depending on where you are in the world, the time of day, even what you may be wearing at the time.”

Red Dead Redemption’s release date is far from a random event though and is currently scheduled for the end of April.

Activision is stating that, in the absence of any new Grand Theft Auto content, the genre will be left “wide open” in 2010 for a new True Crime game to sweep in and dominate. As Activision Publishing executive Mike Griffith told investors this week, “This is a big open world action game that looks to be especially strong – and should benefit as this year’s competitive window in the genre is wide open.” Of course, all of this talk hinges on the presumption that True Crime rivals the GTA franchise in both quality and popularity. Moreover, Activision may be taking an unwarranted view of this year’s competitive window, as other much-hyped open-worlders such as Red Dead Redemption are also slated for release in the coming months. Needless to say, one should approach Activision’s bold claims with a healthy dose of skepticism.

When EA released their product schedule for 2011, some took the omission of any Rock Band games as an indication that the publisher was ending its relationship with MTV Games’ rythym-based franchise. This isn’t exactly the case. An EA spokesperson has confirmed that Green Day: Rock Band will indeed be published by MTV Games and distributed by EA, although no release date has yet been assigned.

However, there is irrefutable evidence that Electronic Arts does seem to be cooling its ties to Rock Band. The gaming giant’s contract with Viacom is up this year and company officials have stated their intentions of reducing the volume of releases they do through their distributing arm, EA Partners. Moreover, EA COO John Schappert gave only tepid reinforcement to the idea of continuing their partnership with the Rock Band name.

E3 is fast approaching and TVGB plans on being there to get the lowdown on everything we can, so in case anyone is looking for me, I have gone to arrange my travel plans. Granted, the expo does not happen until June 15 through June 17, but it is imperative that I make sure space is still available in the local hotels, especially after Nintendo teased their E3 lineup today.

During a meeting with investors, Satoru Iwata named three huge draws for their area at E3 this year: Super Mario Galaxy 2, the new Zelda game for the Wii, and – drum roll please – the Wii vitality sensor. Of course, Nintendo will have to bring other toys to the party, but if anyone says they are not curious to see just what the sensor is going to be capable of, they are liars.