It amazes me that I can find copies of Shonen bloody Jump at my local, rural Virginia Wal-Mart, but I can't find a single store that carries Play magazine. Damn Yu Gi Oh.

Industry and multi-console news:

• According to the NPD, "heavy gamers" are more interested in buying a Wii than a PS3, but among those only interested in purchasing one system, the majority want a PS3.
• The Washington Post asks why Nintendo and Sony aren't doing more to promote their systems' parental controls.
• While some have noted the game-like qualities to ABC's Lost, VH1 Game Break discusses an even more literal game parallel: Sci-Fi's miniseries The Lost Room.
• Game Politics names judges as their People of the Year.
• Armchair Empire lists their top ten game news stories for 2006.
• And Shacknews lists their games of the year...
• Hell, even Time magazine has a list of the top ten games of the year.
• Kotaku has a long list of which games Toys R Us is cutting down for their end of year clearance sale.
• David Sirlin, the producer on the Capcom Classics Collection games and a fighting game tournament player, has created several Super Street Fighter II turbo tutorial videos that cover beginner and advance techniques.

PC news:

• $300,000 worth of DDR RAM modules were stolen in Taiwan over the weekend. The thieves brandished machetes and stun guns, and I have to wonder why they wouldn't just try to steal money instead.
• CVG names their ten PC games to watch in 2007.
• GameTunnel lists the top ten indie games of the year. Unlike most top ten lists, there's a good chance you haven't heard of most of these.
• Too much money + too much time + a vengeful streak = tracking down and suing the phishing scammer who stole your WoW account.
• MyMacGames is preparing to launch a games on demand service for Mac users in the third quarter of 2007. Y'know, I stuck Mac news under PC as a temporary measure, I didn't know more news would keep coming in.
• Frets on Fire is now available for Mac OS X. Dammit, did it again.

Nintendo news:

• Pocket Gamer presents the top ten DS games to look forward to in 2007. They have SimCity DS on the list, but as far as I know, it hasn't yet been announced for release outside of Japan.
• Siliconera has an interview with Atlus' Nich Maragos about Izuna: Legend of the Unemployed Ninja on the DS.
• This trailer dates back to E3, but I'd never seen it before: Hotel Dusk on the DS. I wish more games would experiment with unique visual styles like this. A more high quality but extremely slow loading version is available here.
• Toroboros examines the significance of symbols found in the Legend of Zelda.

Sony news:

• Pocket Gamer argues why 2007 will be the best year yet for the PSP. Somewhat tellingly, only two games are specifically mentioned.
• Worth Playing has 22 new screenshots of Final Fantasy XIII.
• Hardcore Gaming 101 takes an in-depth look at God Hand, Clover's final game that didn't exactly set the sales charts ablaze.
• PS3Fanboy suggests a semi-fix for jaggy PS2 games on the PS3.

Microsoft news:

• A 14 year old boy in Utah found porn on his copy of Madden NFL 07. The family and law enforcement is trying to figure out where it came from. It was purchased at a Circuit City, and the uncle who bought it says the disc and packaging were authentic.
• Video documentation proves that Sonic the Hedgehog has some of the worst load times in history. This is even worse than I imagined the game could be.
• Here are a few of the glitches being exploited in Gears of War, along with instructions so you can cheat too!
• CVG reports a single player and co-op demo of Crackdown will be available on Live on January 18.
• Bungie flew some early-build copies of Halo 3 out to Iraq so American soldiers could get a little playtest. A couple of short shaky-cam videos of the game in action were taken, but they're not exactly thrilling.