In what might be today's most recursive April Fools gag, Capcom has revealed character art for the infamous Sheng Long on its official blog, touting him as an unlockable character in Street Fighter IV.

The update emerged from a translation of the latest entry on the Japanese Street Fighter IV blog, where project manager Natsumi Shiozawa issued details on the character's appearance in the upcoming fighter.

The roots of the Sheng Long gag stretch back to 1992, when the character was introduced in EGM's April issue as a secret boss in Capcom's Street Fighter II. It ranks among the most infamous April Fools gag in the history of gaming, sparking a tradition that would bring woe to game journalists for years to come.

According to EGM, if the player could complete the game untouched while playing as Ryu, Sheng Long would replace M. Bison as the final boss in Street Fighter II. In his post today, Shiozawa referenced similar conditions to attain Sheng Long within Street Fighter IV.

The whole supposed existence of Sheng Long ties back to an old mistranslated victory quote, in which Ryu would proclaim "You must defeat Sheng Long to stand a chance" instead of "You must defeat my Dragon Punch to stand a chance" after winning a battle.

Chiming in with the legion of April Fools gags today, developer ArenaNet swapped all level 20 player characters' avatars with stick figures in the MMO Guild Wars (PC).

The swap was brought to our attention by reader Tadej Lasic. While the change was universal across the game—avatars became stick figures in outposts, Guild Halls, PVP areas and so on—the swap did not affect heroes, NPCs, or any characters not directly player-controlled.

In a surprisingly punctual outing for Duke Nukem Forever developer 3D Realms, the studio has delivered its April Fools' prank in the form of a new design for the Duke Nukem pig cop enemy and a revised company logo.

"One thing we weren't happy with in the teaser from December was the pig cop design," 3D Realms webmaster Joe Siegler posted on the company's official site. "We happened upon a really hot new artist by the name of Alex Huenick.

"We're really excited about Alex's work, and had him redo the 3D Realms corporate logo as well," Siegler continued. "Wait till you see this new pig cop design in action. It'll be like nothing you've ever experienced in a game before!"

This latest April Fools' Day gag comes as a collaborative effort between Konami and Ubisoft, who unveiled a video showcasing the epic crossover of Ubisoft Montreal's Assassin's Creed (PC, PS3, X360) and Kojima Productions' Metal Gear Solid 4 (PS3).

Essentially a clip of Solid Snake lurking about a battlefield wearing the robes of Assassin's Creed lead Altair, the gag reel also unveils new gameplay footage of MGS4 in which Snake battles the Gekko, a bipedal tank.

Metal Gear Solid 4 will hit North American retailers on June 12.

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As every company is apparently afraid of making an actual announcement today, Xbox 360 maker Microsoft has chimed in with its contributions to April Fools' Day.

False products advertised over at Xbox.com include the wood paneled Vintage Edition Xbox 360, a monstrous wireless headset, an Xbox 360 console designed for outdoor use, and a board game that is both based on and connects to Xbox Live.

Furthering its celebration of April Fools', Microsoft is currently offering a selection of new gamer pictures via the 2008 April Fools' Day picture pack, which is available as a free download in the Xbox 360's online Xbox Live Marketplace.

In celebration of April Fools' Day, esteemed developer Blizzard Entertainment has posted a number of well-intentioned pranks on its official website.

Chief among today's jokes was word that the company's highly successful PC MMO World of Warcraft will hit Atari 2600 in the form of World of Warcraft: The Molten Core. The collector's edition is said to pack tinted cellophane TV overlays, among other extras.

Another post teased the addition of Warcraft's Tauren race to the upcoming sci-fi RTS sequel StarCraft II, complete with screenshots and artwork.

Blizzard then jested it would be adding a Guitar Hero-esque Bard Hero class to the forthcoming World of Warcraft expansion Wrath of the Lich King, before rounding out the festivities with its plans to sell a child-endangering Diablo-branded loot pinata.

Certain Affinity has unveiled the first details of Plunder, a pirate-themed RTS said to draw heavily from Bungie's long-running joke of a game entitled Pimps at Sea.

The game is set to debut this June as a downloadable title on PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade, according to the April issue of print magazine Electronic Gaming Monthly. Though EGM is notorious for its April Fools pranks, the magazine was adamant that Plunder is no joke--that distinction belongs to LEGO Halo.

"I'm pretty sure the impetus behind [a game about pirates] and sailing ships came from thinking about Pimps at Sea," admitted Certain Affinity founder and Bungie alumni Max Hoberman. "But not a lot more than that."

Tasking players with the seemingly simple goal of capturing towns, the game will require players to carefully manage their resources and set traps. In addition to online multiplayer and a Halo 2-esque party system, the seafaring RTS will include support four-player split-screen play, as well as the ability to edit and share maps.

Though most entries in the RTS genre are rather complex, the studio noted its intent to create a title accessible to everyone.

Certain Affinity developed the Halo 2 Blastacular Map Pack and is currenly porting Valve's Left 4 Dead to Xbox 360. Plunder represents the studio's first original work.

A round-up of today's gaming/hardware related April Fools jokes. If you find anything else post in the thread and it will get added.

- Beyond Unreal has the Unreal 3: Slug Saga - The Adventures of Ne'ban press release.
- Sven Co-op is adding a flight sim mode.
- Hexus sues Beyond3D for not going beyond 3D. They also look at AMD's GPU.
- From Voodoo Extreme: Blizzard merges WoW with Guild Wars, Carmack contacts aliens on cell phone, people want the Phantom, Fox's Prey reality show.
- Gabe Newell is leaving Valve.
- QuakeCon taken over by Imps.
- The Game Gear returns.
- Doomworld, I'd hit it.
- World of Wordcraft announced.
- Multiplay UK has word of Frogger Online.
- Avatar change on the World of Warcraft forums.
- Blizzard & Pandaren Xpress hook up for a /panda command in World of Warcraft.
- Apple is coming out with the gPod.
- The iTreoPod is reviewed by CNET.
- In Star Wars Galaxies Ewoks are now armed and extremely dangerous.
- European World of Warcraft players get Warbucks coffee.
- Halo 2 Multiplayer Eggstravaganza.

Some exciting news for the Grand Theft Auto fans, Rockstar Games has just announced Grand Theft Auto: Sin City. Interestingly enough, the new game will mix Grand Theft Auto gameplay with Frank Miller's Sin City universe. Here's a bit from the press release

Sin City creator Frank Miller remarked, "I've been a fan of Rockstar since the first Grand Theft Auto game. It was clear to me that they have the right attitude, and with Grand Theft Auto 3 they created a modern crime masterpiece. I felt honored when they approached me to collaborate on Grand Theft Auto: Sin City, and I am positive that fans of comics and games alike will agree that this is a match made in heaven."

Kelly Sumner, Take-Two Interactive Software's Chief Executive Officer added, "The Booze, Broads and Bullets' atmosphere of Sin City was an absolute perfect match for the Grand Theft Auto franchise. Fans of the series will be thrilled when they encounter Marv, Hartigan, and the lovely Nancy Callahan, all lovingly rendered in stunning 3D. And of course, Lazlow will be on the radio, having shipped over from Liberty City."

Though the official site is down at the moment, we grabbed some images from it earlier, you can find those here. Grand Theft Auto: Sin City will be released October 21st on the PS2.

(Update: April Fools :)

In honor of our fallen comrade, Bluesnews should be back online later this evening. For now at the suggestion of Jason here's the April fools day roundup as we painfully watch some folks display why they are copy/paste jockeys like myself and not comedians. Oh, and a few rare funny ones!

- Google's search technology
- HardOCP has gone soft
- DarkHorizons has word on DareDevil (scroll down)
- Slashdot has Slashdvertisements
- Tomshardware has NVidia buying AMD
- 3DGPU gets the award for lame ATI joke!
- OCWorkbench has siamese twin Athlons
- Reactorcritical has word of DOOM test in 2 weeks! (Ok, that's my lame joke that only 5 people will get)
- TheGIA is shutting down
- GameFAQs has gone Xbox, the only console that matters
- TheForce.net has caught boyband fever
- CSNation has caught wrestling fever
- SomethingAwful has a new business model
- eBay is funny! haha!
- Panda race in Warcraft 3.
- These stories at GameSpot including one about EQ rates being raised, and another about DNF.
- ThinkGeek has a bunch of phony items up, including a DNF pre-order page and WheatoniX OS.
- Actor Will "Wesley Crusher" Wheaton posted that he's joined the cast of Enterprise.
- Monkey Island 5!!!!!
- id and IMG are giving away a real rocket launcher.
- F**ked Company gets funding from idealab.
- The Force.net's new domain.
- It's official: the moon is made of green cheese.
- How to be Azn at Tweak3D.
- Halo Babies! (This one's really very funny).
- Check out 2600's new web site.

- Submit any in the comments and I'll add it to this list

April first. Today a lot of people are going to try and be funny. In fact we received a press release from Valve saying they have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Isn't that just a bummer.

Ok so Sunday night WAS a good TV night..as I watched Angel last night, they said they are moving it and Buffy to the Wednesday night. That's too bad as I'm prone to miss TV shows during weekdays, unless they start late. Maybe I should get a ..VCR...ok just the thought made me feel icky. Oh and just to be clear here. Of course I would like to get a Tivo..but they aren't available in Europe yet. Update: Richard informs me they have Tivo in England. Commies.

update Jack - Looks like Slashdot is joining in the April Fools fun by pretending like they're selling out, and Israel for pretending like they're going to war with the Palestinians!

Well here is one for the record books. The Sims according to EA has just recently become the top selling PC game of all time. They are claiming sell-in numbers of 6.3million copies of the game.

The Sims has steadily insinuated itself into pop culture consciousness since its release. In September of 2000, the game inspired New York City-based band Electric Funstuff to release a Sims-inspired anthem, appropriately titled Sim-Hilarities, about a player of the hit PC game who finds odd parallels between his life and the lives of his on-screen characters. A take-off of ``Simlish,'' the unique language of The Sims, was featured in last year's season opener of ABC Television's ``Drew Carey Show,'' as well as game footage depicting the office antics at Winfred-Louder Department Store, Drew's place of employment, in its April Fools episode. Most recently, a take-off of The Sims was featured in an episode of Fox Television's ``Malcolm In The Middle.'' Malcolm recreates his own family in a computer game called ``The Virts'' with disastrous results.

The woman sitting next to me owns the game and all the expansion packs.

Damn, I'm funny. Any clever April Fools pranks you saw/played today? Mention them in the good ol' comments. Maarten'll be the lone updater for tonight as a bunch of us are going out on the town to feed Steve's chick lots of alcohol and see what happens.