In the celebration of all things great and American, we're proud to present the characters of inFamous and Prototype cross-dressing. YAY! (See inFamous' Cole after the break.)

Okay, so you're probably wondering where these images came from. Yahtzee presented a challenge to the development teams of these two games after he couldn't decide which game was better in a recent episode of Zero Punctuation. So, he jokingly said the "winner" would be whichever team sends in an image of the other game's protagonist cross-dressing.

And now the world is a much better place.

GameZine did some snooping around eBay recently, and found some of the more rare PlayStation Home items were going for a surprising amount of money. Two examples were presented in an InFamous reaper costume that sold for $30 (that's like 18 Slurpees) and a Killzone 2 Helghast outfit that went for -- you may want to brace your hindquarters for this one -- a whopping $66. That is more than the frakkin' game!

So, Joystiq has come up with a plan:

1. Create a Joystiq-themed Home space (there may be some minor kidnapping of designers involved, but we'll flesh that out later)
2. Make sure it is the only one in existence
3. ???
4. Profit

Fool-proof plan, doncha think?

PlayStation Home is becoming, well, home to a number of new game-specific spaces, the latest of which -- devoted to inFamous -- has been revealed by Sony. Set to be added to the virtual world on Thursday, July 2 (hey, that's tomorrow!), the themed location ("The Abandoned Docks of Empire City") will feature a couple of interactive goodies, including the ability for users to create graffiti designs using Sony's tool set (to prevent any naughtiness, we suppose) which can be seen -- and voted on -- by other Homers.

Much more exciting, though, is a shooting gallery minigame where (after waiting in line for, like, forever, spamming the X button) Cole-esque electric bolts are used to knock down targets fashioned after Reapers, Dustmen and the like. We were hoping for a corresponding announcement of a new "Zeke's Rooftop" private space, but, alas, it's seemingly not to be, at least for now. Check out a video tour of the new inFamous space after the break, along with high-res screens below.

In a recent post on the PlayStation.Blog, SCEA's Katie Reid revealed a few random inFamous facts. According to the post, the inFamous demo is the fastest demo ever to reach 1,000,000 downloads. Will those demo downloads all turn into purchases?

The biggest news hidden in the post must be the revelation of an inFamous space for Home. No other details (or images) were revealed, but we're sure it will let you walk around in a small section of Empire City. Odds are low that you'll get magical electricity superpowers when entering.

Chances are you've already beaten inFamous by now -- and boy, what an ending! (No spoilers in the comments, please.) We're proud to present you the last half of the inFamous comic, which chronicles events that occur before the game's main adventure. Get insight into John's investigation of the Cole and the Reapers. You'll even find out why there are so many manikins on Zeke's roof. Start from the beginning, or jump to the new content:

• Issue One
• Issue Two
• Issue Three
• Issue Four

[Update: We've picked a winner! Congratulations, mahunoy! Everyone else: thanks for the best wishes. Here's to five (hundred?) more! Now, enough playtime. We've got some news to report on!]

Earlier this week, Joystiq turned five. Five! That's half a decade of daily video game reporting. That's over 38,000 posts and over 1.5 million of your comments. That's up from over 27,000 posts last year, and less than a million comments! Let's put that in perspective: even lowballing the average word count per post at 100 words (for example, this post is 339 words) that's nearly four million words! How does that stack up? If Joystiq had been a monthly magazine, and if you consider a standard printed page to be 250 words per page (spoiler: game magazines aren't 250 words per page), each issue would have been over 250 pages, with no images and no ads. And we're lowballing here! And that doesn't include comments.

So what? This is all to say, "Thanks!" Thanks for reading the site today; this week; this year; or this half-decade. Thanks for supporting our unique flavor of game journalism. Thanks for taking us to task when we get it wrong and for sharing when we get it right. Thanks for being interested enough in video games to read about them every day, multiple times a day, and for staying engaged.

So, what better way to say "thanks" than to give you free stuff. Introducing Swag Saturdays – every Saturday, we'll be donating something from our pile of free stuff to you, the Reader. Slow week, it may be a shirt for an iPhone game. This week: A superhero c-c-c-combo pack for your PS3, featuring both inFamous and Prototype.

Again, thanks!

-Love, Team Joystiq

Rules after the break!

According to Best Buy's "Summer of Savings" flier, Canadian gamers are getting some seriously discounted games. PSP owners can pick up Resistance Retribution ($15) and Patapon 2 ($10), while PS3 owners will be able to get this summer's big PS3 blockbuster, inFamous, for only $30. Once again, these deals are Canada only -- our American readers can finally be jealous of our mounty-lovin' friends up north.

[Thanks, Bryan!]

Developer Sucker Punch started life nearly a decade ago with its first release on the Nintendo 64. Since that time, however, the studio has created titles exclusively for Sony platforms, including the Sly Cooper franchise and recent electro-shocky superhero game, inFamous. Co-founder Brian Fleming recently spoke out on his company's love-in with Sony, explaining that Sucker Punch's platform exclusivity has less to do with money and more to do with simply enjoying what they do.

According to Fleming, while going cross-platform puts a game in front of more potential eyeballs, "it also introduces a whole bunch of problems and compromises and difficulty that doesn't make making games a lot more fun. In fact, I think it subtracts from that."

While the exec notes without reservation that the studio is in this business to make money, he adds that you "have to be careful about being greedy." He adds that the pursuit of dollars has to be weighed against other things, like enjoying what you do for a living, publisher relations and game quality. We'd be hard pressed to argue, especially since our obsession with inFamous has only grown since the game first shocked our hearts.

If you've been spending a lot of time enjoying the electro-shockery featured in inFamous, you've got the guy pictured above -- and the other 50-odd members of Sucker Punch Productions -- to thank. His name is Nate Fox, game director for inFamous and a writer/designer who has a decade of tenure with the studio. We had a chance to sit down with Nate at E3 to get a post-mortem look at the high voltage superhero sim, and to finally inquire what lies within protagonist Cole's mysterious backpack.

So, Nate Fox, how long have you been at Sucker Punch?

Nate Fox: I've been at Sucker Punch for over 10 years. When I started, I had a full head of hair. That is not a lie.

We're not going to say inFamous' quality is a big surprise (this is Sucker Punch after all) but it's nice to see someone getting the superhero genre so right. Everyone (including us) has been piling the love on it, and we've taken the liberty of providing with just a slice of the love fest below:

• 1UP (A-): "It's how InFamous blends all of this -- the platforming, the combat, the powers, the missions, and the Karma -- that makes it an eminently playable and enjoyable experience for me. It's why I've been staying up so late for the past few days."
• D+PAD (4.5/5): "Yet remarkably, inFamous - as a whole - feels entirely unique. It's perhaps largely due to Sucker Punch's ability in creating an outstanding animation system that subtly adapts to the environment, but also because of the game's suitably atmospheric setting."
• GamePro (90/100): "Great game, minor faults, a lot of fun to be had, terrible story but the gameplay holds up despite it. Maybe this "sleeping on it" thing has some merit, after all."
• NZGamer (9.5/10): "Any other games vying for the crown of Game of the Year 2009 pay attention - there's a new kid in town and he means business."

Here's a fun, recently discovered fact -- people who make video games are ... people! We know, we know. Stop the presses!

This fact came to our attention in the form of 2 Player Productions' recent three-part developer diary for inFamous -- though, really, inFamous isn't the centerpiece of their work. It's about the minds behind the game: The charismatic, hard-working folks from Sucker Punch Productions. It's a great piece of work -- the diary and the game are, that is -- and we've posted it after the break for your perusal and enjoyment. So ... peruse! Enjoy!

Shock! It looks as if Sony is actually going through with inFamous' promised multi-million dollar marketing campaign. This TV spot was found by a tipster, haran_elessar. The 30 second promo highlights Cole's electrifying powers, and hints at the morality system central to the game's plot. You'll be able to play the game for yourself this week, but if you want another tease, check out GameTrailers' exclusive release trailer after the break.

Images of a supposed 80GB PS3 + inFamous bundle have been circulating the video game blogosphere for the past few weeks. Sony has been hesitant to comment on the package, but a recent online retail listing cleared up the confusion -- the bundle is real, and coming to Amazon UK on May 29. Those interested in simultaneously acquiring the shockingly good superhero title and the system on which it runs can grab both for £279.99. We've contacted SCEA to find out if this deal is coming stateside. Consider our fingers crossed.

Bored at work right now? Don't worry! The long weekend is almost here. You can pass the time by playing this brand new inFamous Flash game. The 2D side-scroller has you jumping and using electric powers -- just like in the PS3 game -- choosing between acts of good or evil. We're guessing this'll tend to evil if you're still at work.

It may not be the deepest of games, but it'll certainly pass the time before the full game comes out. To give the inFamous Flash game a whirl, you can check out Agame.com.