Oh, Japanese television, how we love thee so. If you need a reason to share in our affection, look no further than this spot for Konami's forthcoming cell phone title, Metal Gear Ac!d Mobile. It's four minutes of sheer digital – as in fingers – brilliance, with action from MGS4 re-created using ... thumbs. Thumbs with mustaches and bandanas. Thumbs with OctoCamo. Thumbs.

[Kotaku, via PS3 Fanboy]

Anti-smoking organization Tobacco Free Florida recently released a local TV spot featuring a fake FPS title, which for all intents and purposes, may as well be titled Haylo, created by little-known developer Spungie. The ad shows the unwisely unhelmeted hero laying waste to a squadron of robo-baddies, then lighting up a moke-moke, which quickly drains his health, leaving him very dead in the enemy stronghold.

Gaming news site GameCouch recently interviewed the ad's creators, who explained that the fake game theme was chosen to grasp the attention of the coveted 11-17-year-old demographic. It's certainly not the least clever anti-smoking PSA we've ever seen, though we never knew that smoking a cigarette led to immediate death. They should really put that on a warning label or something.

The image above is not the complete ad from Sony's European ad agency, TBWA\Wien, but we have placed the full monty (literally) after the break. When viewer's eyes wander south they will not be greeted by a penis, but by a well manicured thumb where a penis should be, which, believe it or not, is actually a thousand times more frightening.

Ads of the World posted this Austrian PS3 ad which continues to make us scratch our heads as to why Sony only fired TBWA from doing its American ads. As this blogger has received about 10 IMs in the last twenty minutes asking if I've seen the Sony Europe ad yet, one could say the piece is doing its job. Whether its doing the right job is a whole other debate.

[Via GayGamer, PS3 Fanboy]

So, there's this game called Metal Gear Solid 4 ... it's apparently a big deal for the PlayStation 3. Well, above is the movie-style trailer (with movie-voice guy) for those interested in watching it. No pressure. Watch it, don't watch it. We wish there was more we could do to generate hype for this indie title made in some guy named Hijeo Koshima Hideo Kojima's garage on a shoe-string budget.

After the break you'll find three ads involving MGS4. It's really nice to see Sony taking an interest in this title. It warms our cockles to see a giant corporation give support to a game featuring geriatrics at war.

The UK is currently under assault from a Grand Theft Auto IV ad promoting the title on Xbox 360. Microsoft is doing its best to own this launch in consumer's minds, or at least get people thinking GTA doesn't equal Sony anymore. Have no fear PlayStation army, the game is still releasing on the PS3 in spite of what this nasty advertisement tells the masses.

That being said, it certainly gets bonus points in our book for showing what the game actually looks like (unlike some ads). GTA IV releases April 29 ... yeah, 'cause you didn't know that already.

[Thanks, Cyborgmatt]

Spy Hunter, one of the great arcade games of the '80s, is given proper tribute in the amazing commercial found above. OK, ignore for 30 seconds that this is a Pontiac commercial and just bask in the awesomeness of it. The music, the look, the feel ... seriously, if we could focus on what car the company is selling for even a split second we might consider buying it.

But don't be fooled folks, there is some brilliant marketing at work here. Even the car's website is designed with our demographic in mind; featuring a mosaic of the car made up of images like Transformers and Halo (clearly being promoted at the bottom of the page). Admittedly, the whole thing is very slick. Now, if only this car wasn't $30,000 ... oh yeah, and a Pontiac.

[Thanks Josh ... even if you might be a Pontiac marketing guy]

Crytek recently whipped up a tech demonstration for their haughty, hardware punishing software, CryENGINE2, to show off at GDC. Mimicking an unforgettable ad for the Sony Bravia, the demo turned quite a few heads -- but how did the visuals of the ball-droppin' doppelganger compare to the original advertisement? Never one to miss an opportunity for a video comparison, Gametrailers whipped up the above video. What do you think -- are video games nearing photorealism? Or were your discerning, pixel-counting eyes not fooled?

Verne Troyer, better known as Mini-Me from Austin Powers, is the latest celebrity to grace the airwaves in a World of Warcraft commercial. Troyer and his mage blink late to the ad game following the international flavor of Van Damme and Toledo, and the more domestic musings of Shatner and Mr. T. Great ad campaign. What celebrity would you want to see and what race/class would they be?

[Via WoW Insider]

With the popularity of Shatner and Mr. Tureaud's commercials for World of Warcraft, Blizzard has brought it's celebrity advertising game to a global scale. In a TV spot for France, Jean Claude Van Damme talks about his mage, and, though our French is a little spotty, we're pretty sure he complains about having to respec after patch 2.0.1. After the jump, Spanish comedian Guillermo Toledo talks about how rolled paladin, and how he gets all the cyber-tail in Azeroth. Poor guy.

Yes, we know most of you won't be able to understand both of these commercials, but before the monolingual horde comes to tear us limb from limb, know that there's nearly 10 million subscribers to WoW, and a nice portion of them live in non-English-speaking areas of the world. Plus, you don't have to know the Spanish language to know that Willy Toledo says "paladin" much, much sexier than you or we could ever hope to.

Paladeen.

Here's a one-post summary for your perusing pleasure of all the good stuff showing up on Joystiq's Azeroth-inclined sister site WoW Insider. Yes, yes, we know it's not your standard SDF/ Xbot/ Wii60 trollbait, but you get plenty of that the rest of the week. Take a little time and enjoy some intelligent WoW news and analysis, whydontcha?

News

• Rumor: WoW going free-to-play in China
  Probably not true, but it's an interesting thought anyway.
• New WoW ads featuring Shatner and Mr. T
  Maybe Mr. T is pretty handy with computers. Had that occurred to you, Mr. Condescending Director?
  
• PTR Patch 2.3.2 notes leaked
  The official patch notes got released as well.
• WoW Moviewatch: Taming the elusive ghost wolf
  The rarest pet can Azeroth can be yours with a little casting speed and some good reflexes.
• Put on your party hats-- today is WoW's 3rd birthday
  Happy birthday to Blizzard's MMO masterpiece!

Discussion

• Breakfast Topic: 100 useful Warrior tips
  Priceless if you're a Warrior... or know someone who is.
• Officers' Quarters: Zero pressure raiding?
  Can you be casual and raid at the same time?
• Know Your Lore Special: So what are you doing for the holidays?
  WoW loreheads will love this one. Hilarious.
• Blood Sport: Building an arena team, part 2
  Our PvP column helps you put an Arena team together with care.
• Have any of you tried...
  It's always nice when someone in your group has actually done the pull you're about to do.

We have yet to see the new Rock Band commercials out in the wilds of TV-land, but they are amusing. The commercials play in a world where "the band" is on tour with their fake instruments and living room attitude in rock star settings. We hate the whiny guitarist, but that's the point.

No sustained gameplay footage is shown in the spot above or the two after the break, which we guess means that EA and ad agency Wieden + Kennedy expect people to be "in the know" of what Rock Band is. We're not sure how great it was to have a commercial about a music game play off the humor of rock clichés like some kind of slacker-style Spinal Tap homage rather than show people playing the game. The "platform" is $170, it's going to require some parental coercion for many children to get the game and it might be good if parents were prepped by a commercial or two. Oh well, if EA is right, the game will be sold out anyway this holiday. Carry on. And is that Billy Idol doing the voice over at the end?

[Thanks Vlad]

There are two new commercials for World of Warcraft featuring Mr. T and William Shatner. Mr. T is a "mohawk" warrior and Shatner is a shaman. We have no idea why World of Warcraft needs to be advertised, but if it gives us gems like this -- we'll take 'em!

Both ads can be found after the break and on the WoW site for download. There is also an ad with Verne Troyer (Mini Me) expected in the near future -- we're hoping for something less obvious than him being a gnome. Keep these types of ads coming Blizzard, we know you've got the money.

[Thanks Steve, Via Massively]

Across the country video game marketing departments are screaming, "Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war!" Ads will begin to flood the airwaves and above we have the Mass Effect television spot.

It's worth pointing out that in almost every instance -- other than the released lesbian sex scene (SFW) -- Shepard is portrayed as a scruffy mocha-skinned man. We don't know if the character selection screen is still the same as it was many moons ago, but we're praying to make a short chubby mid-life black woman to save the galaxy -- like Oprah. There's something satisfying about the star of a space opera not being a run-of-the-mill action hero guy. Help "Oprah" Shepard on her quest in Mass Effect beginning Nov. 20.

MTV Games continues to publish new music titles in its $500 million spree, with the latest Harmonix development, Phase. The original Phase news reminded some of us too much of (non) game, Musika to buy. But this video clearly shows simple pattern-matching gameplay that may rock pockets better than the portable Guitar Hero.

Check out the video, and contemplate your purchase after the break.

While The Onion has already run a similar parody -- Sousaphone Hero -- Black20 throws its implausible instrument into the band with Harmonica Hero. The snappy fake commercial combines equal parts harmonica and gaming jokes for a tasty send-up slurry. Even those of us who don't know our Rock Band from our Guitar Hero III were amused by the video.

See the clip after the break.