The Center for Disease Control, which apparently also looks after national obesity, has released a new public service ad urging gamers to "Give your thumbs a rest. Play for real." The accompanying image is made to look like a screenshot from a game and features severely overweight baseball players lounging around in filthy uniforms and generally being pigs.

The problem is that some gamers are taking offense to the message, no matter how well intentioned. Especially in light of other recent bad reports about gaming, from video games making children violent to "games are the new crack", it feels like yet another attack on gamers and their evil, life-destroying hobby. The problem is that the real issue is slightly subtler than "games make you fat", but it's hard to condense that into an advertisement. Some people are more prone to slide into a sedentary lifestyle given the opportunity, and the more forms of entertainment that facilitate that slide -- video games being one of the most potent -- the greater the potential for obesity. Thus playing games is making them fat, in a sense, but it's not an inherent property of games themselves.

Like I said, not as catchy as "Go outside tubby." But seriously, do get outside on occassion. I mean, spring's almost here, it'll be nice.

Source: Ars Technica

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ExtremeTech has tried to demonstrate why Windows Vista won't suck. I'm not really seeing the added value.

• Unsigned bands can enter a contest to have their song used in the soundtrack to Scarface: The World Is Yours, and Myspace readers vote on the winner. But the real question is: Will the soundtrack have Push It To The Limit on it?
• More Mother 3 shots dribble out.
• Get your Pong clocks here, but do it fast -- Atari has pulled the legal card on the clock makers, and after the original run of 400, production will cease.
• Ever caught yourself thinking "Boy, what I'd really like is to play Tony Hawk against members of rock 'n' roll outfit POD"? Well here's your chance!
• Attention New Yorkers: Demos of Brain Training are now available at the DS kiosks in the NIntendo World Store.
• Telltale Games, producers of the new Sam and Max game, have secured a total $1.5 million in funding.
• An open letter to the occupants of a house in Paperboy.
• The planned third-party PSP keyboard accessory has been canned.
• A warning to all, uh, "Cheese fans" -- Old Sonic Adventure chao keychains are being resold as Cheese keychains. I don't know which is worse, Sega renaming old merchadise that doesn't actually represent the character to shovel it out the door, or people getting genuinely upset about it.
• Article: A look inside EA's motion capture studio.

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Go ahead, try to disagree.

Source: Drimple.net

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The Platinum Series, like the Greatest Hits on the Playstation or the Player's Choice for the Gamecube, was meant to be a way of isolating some of the console's biggest hits and providing them at a budget price of $19.99. That apparently wasn't good enough, as Microsoft has now announced the Best of the Platinum Hits, kind of a Platinum's Platinum. The series contains the biggest hits of the Platinum series with yet another budget price point: A mere $9.99.

The first entrants in the line are:

• The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind
• Fuzion Frenzy
• Splinter Cell
• Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow
• Counter-Strike
• MechAssault
• Project Gotham Racing 2
• Soul Calibur II
• Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon
• Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Island Thunder
• Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3
• Tom Clancy's Let's Bake A Cake

A pretty solid list -- but did anyone ever care that much about Fuzion Frenzy? -- so if you've somehow put any of these off until now, you really have no excuse anymore.

Source: Xbox.com

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A poster at the Gaming Age forums has compiled a chart showing the relative popularity, measured in sales, of all the major franchises in this generation. Sales figures were provided by the NPD Group.

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Mario leads the pack, probably thanks to all those sports titles, and just edges out Madden. GTA is a couple million behind that in third, and Star Wars and Tony Hawk round out the top five. It's kind of depressing to see Namco Museum of all things beating out Zelda, but hopefully Twilight Princess will change that.

In other news, Spongebob is bigger than wrestling. Somehow I always knew.

Source: Gaming Age forums

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A patent recently granted to Nintendo opens the possibility of a touchpad for the DS that can recognize more than one contact point at the same time.

The images included with the patent show two fingers being placed on the pad at once that correspond to the left and right wingtip of a plane on the upper screen (that looks somewhat like a Starfox Arwing). The patent explains how the player could control the ship's speed by sliding his fingers together or apart, as well as controlling the ship's roll by changing the angle of his fingers.

Before ideas of yet another DS iteration start dancing in your head, though, it's important to note that the patent was drafted in 2004 and filed in 2005. Most likely, this patent was part of Nintendo's early experimentation with the potential of the system -- it's not new and is thus not a sign that Nintendo is planning an upgrade soon. They may have decided the more technologically complex touchscreen was simply not worth the added cost. However, this doesn't rule out the possibility that the idea could still be used in a new version of the DS sometime down the line.

Source: Gamespot

Posted by Bill at 2:15 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Will Wright's anything and everything simulator Spore is still a ways off for the PC (no official release date has been annouced) but already people are wondering what other systems it might be ported to. The Xbox 360 seems an obvious choice, both given it's technical capabilities as well as its online connection which allows other players' creations to be used to populate your world. But more unexpectedly, it seems Spore will be coming to handhelds as well.

Gamespot reports news of a GameDev.net job posting for the position of "Handheld Designer: SPORE." The ad makes references to "handheld titles", seemingly implying both the DS and the PSP -- or possibly, given that this is EA, just a lot of expansion packs. The graphics could be concievably scaled down, but Spore still seems like it would be fairly tough on a portable's processor. Are they up to it?

Source: Gamespot

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Super Princess Peach has sparked some debate as to whether the game stereotypes women as being overly emotional. Is it sending the wrong message to kids? Or would kids even notice it? While you ponder that, here are little girls in Peach outfits going through boot camp.

• Rumor places the DS Lite to launch in America on May 7, to coincide with the release of New Super Mario Bros.
• Europe will be left out of the free Xbox Live weekend, whenever Microsoft finally decides to have it.
• Comic book illustrator Jim Lee will be creative director for an upcoming DC-comics based MMOG.
• 48% of those polled say games offer "poor value." Maybe you should stop buying crap.
• To help ease relations between the used game market and game developers (who don't see any of the profits), an online used game retailer has vowed to give 10 cents on every dollar back to the developers and publishers.
• Are you psychologically unstable? Then you'll want to bid on a pose for this Princess Peach cosplayer to act out for the winner. Poses have to be non-adult, because please, she doesn't want to do anything to lose her dignity.
• 1up feature for us cheapos: The 101 best free games.
• What sin could a man commit in a single lifetime to bring this upon himself: New stills from the Dead or Alive movie.

Posted by Bill at 5:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Earlier we saw the first shots of Bomberman: Act-Zero, a "re-imagining" of the character for the Xbox 360 that took him from cute and lovable to some Bionicle reject. Now comes a teaser trailer on the game's official website that doesn't feature any in-game footage, but is even better. How can we not be hyped for a game that takes place in "the earth of the despair that arrived at an end of a fight"?

Source: Hudson.co.jp

Posted by Bill at 3:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Here are the highlights of what's coming out today or tomorrow:

• 24: The Game (PS2) - A whole new 24 hours, written by the TV show's scriptwriters and taking place between seasons two and three.
• Super Princess Peach (DS) - Those of you who haven't played a Mario game since Mario Bros. 2 because you wanted to play as the Princess again have gotten your wish. A whole new platformer about Peach saving Mario and using her emotions to battle enemies. No, seriously.
• Black (PS2, Xbox) - Blow things up and then blow other things up in this cinematic, destructive, also really short shooter.
• Final Fight: Streetwise (PS2, Xbox) - This update to the classic brawling franchise adds the one thing the series was really missing: Respect Up!

  
  More at the link.

  Source: Gamespot

  Posted by Bill at 2:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Gamespot has a new feature that should prove interesting: It's called Flashback, in which they take a look back past systems -- their history, their influence, and their games. They've already done one for the Playstation, which includes write-ups on some of the best games as well as some lengthy videos, but the second part of the series, focusing on the NES, is even better. As before, they talk about the best games, and they have a massive 45 minute retrospective on the system, but they also have interviews with a NIntendo PR rep, game testers, and the illustrious and mysterious game counselor.

For example, let's say that I took a call on Ren & Stimpy Show Part II: Fire Dogs for the Super NES. If the caller stumped me, I'd enter their name into the database to arrange for a callback. If there happened to be a Fire Dogs expert on hand at the time, he or she would call the person back with the answer. If not, then anyone with free time would borrow that game from our library and figure out the answer by playing the game.

There's a lot of cool stuff to be found. So read up, remember, and try to ignore how some of the Gamespot staffers come off as jaded dicks in the videos.

Source: Gamespot

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Footage was recently unearthed on marketing agency DigitalKitchen's website of a handheld device dubbed the "Origami Project," created for Microsoft. Looking basically like a miniature tablet PC, the device was shown browsing the web, editing photos, running a GPS map program, and even playing Halo. Most functions used a stylus on the touchscreen, but Halo was controlled with the buttons on either side of the system. A detachable keyboard was also shown being used for chat.

An official statement from a Microsoft spokeswoman actually confirmed the existence of the project, telling website Silicon.com, "While Origami is a concept we've been working on with partners, please know that the video seen on DigitalKitchen’s website is a year old and represents our initial exploration into this form factor, including possible uses and scenarios."

This is where my conjecture comes in: If this is the mysterious Microsoft handheld that rumors were going around about a while back, then it doesn't look to be an attempt by MS to muscle in on the DS and PSP's territory. It's too bulky and simply does too much to be in the same market. It seems MS is simply looking for a midpoint between small, specific devices like iPods and gaming handhelds, and large, all-purpose systems like laptops.

The film was taken down on DigitalKitchen's website, but ever helpful YouTube has a copy of it here.

Source: Next Generation

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Despite multiple reports to the contrary, Sony has continued to claim that the PS3 was on track for a spring release. But now, just a week after that last statement, they are now admitting that the system could be delayed if the Blu-ray drive's specs could not be nailed down soon.

Famitsu president Hirokazu Hamamura, is quoted, "Sony has not begun taking orders early this month, that means that it would be difficult for the company to begin sales in May."

Most analysts currently believe the PS3 will launch in fall in both the Japanese and American markets.

Sony also recently denied the reports about God of War 2 and Gran Turismo 4: Online Edition, so maybe they'll be saying those are "possible" too in the next few weeks.

Source: Next Generation

Posted by Bill at 1:08 PM | Permalink

Need to be creeped out for the weekend? How about a Mario musical done with disturbing, poorly constructed puppets.

• A video -- complete with timer -- demonstrating the unbelievable load times for Smackdown vs. Raw 2006 for the PSP. A full minute before they even hit the menu?
• The free Live weekend announced yesterday has been pulled, as the date was only "tentative."
• This should be a skit on Chappelle's Show, not the name of an actual game.
• Games that pushed their systems to the limit, part 3.
• Mega64 videos coming to the Xbox Live Marketplace, in HD no less. Because what a Jackass quality film production needs is high-definition.
• Hey, want to pay too much for some Space Invaders decals?
• Rumor mill, GO! EA rep mentions something about "touch sensitivity" in regards to the Revolution. Confusing with the DS, a poor choice of words, or a mistaken slip of a new Revolution secret?

Posted by Bill at 10:05 PM | Permalink

It's like a high tech peacock Transformer.

• EA is already planning on sequels to The Godfather game.
• UK TV actress Keely Hawes is the new voice of Lara Croft.
• Half Life 2 will not be required to play HL2: Episode One. The episode will sell for the slightly-higher-than-I-had-hoped price of $19.99.
• GamerGod has an interview with Tommy Tallarico.
• Next Generation has an interview with NIntendo's Perrin Kaplan.
• I had never heard of these personal trainer video games before.
• A not terribly in-depth but still mildly memory refreshing Sonic retrospective.
• The fifth edition of the Kojima Productions Report is out, featuring guest Rika Muranaka, theme song composer for the MGS series.

Posted by Bill at 3:52 PM | Permalink