That is one classy machine.

Industry and multi-console news

New media: NFL Tour screenshots

• Take two has acquired Illusion Softworks, developers of the Hidden & Dangerous and Mafia franchises.
• The Game Chamber is a new device that aims to prevent kids from losing DS or PSP games by requiring you to put a game back before you take another out.
• GamesIndustry.biz has an interview with SquareEnix president Yoichi Wada.
• Next Generation has the newest European and UK sales charts. They do America too, but they only use Amazon sales data, and I don't think there's any reason to think Amazon shoppers are representative of America as a whole.
• Next Generation, or more precisely Edge, has a feature on Street Fighter IV if you somehow haven't gotten everything you could possibly learn from the 1up coverage already.
• Nintendo, EA and Blizzard are just a few of the game companies that took home awards at the Technological and Engineering Emmys.
• CNet Networks, which owns Gamespot, GameFAQs and MetaCritic, may be in the middle of a takeover.
• Texas Instruments demonstrated 3D technology for games at CES. Not like polygon models, the put-on-glasses kind.
• While they're screwing with your eyes, TI also showed off a system that would allow split screen gaming without the split screen. Two people, with the help of the glasses, can watch the same screen and see two different images.
• The CEO of McDonalds UK says that video games have a role in childhood obesity.
• Two new cases of crimes blamed on games to report, one blaming Postal 2 (nothing new), the other blaming Fight Club (the movie, not the game) and Tony Hawk's Underground 2.
• The ESA has responded to the Wisconsin proposal of a tax on video games to fund a juvenile justice program.
• Jada Toys has announced the Guitar Hero licensed Air Guitar Toy. Basically by waving a pick over a belt buckle, it plays songs. A video demonstration can be seen here.
• Serious Games Initiative co-founder Ben Sawyer argues that parents need "first games" they can play with their kids. "Instead, he says, all he finds are games that he can watch his kids play ... or games that they can watch him play ... but nothing they can play together."
• Maybe I'm just not imaginative, but I don't really see the value in a fan-made Guitar Hero turntable controller.
• MTV has an interesting new feature: a searchable database of all rhythm games' tracklists, so you can find out if a particular song has ever been used in anything from Amplitude to DDR to SingStar.
• SquareEnix has announced their early 2008 release schedule for the UK.
• Rumors are going around saying that Bioshock 2 will be a prequel, which seems kind of a given to me. There's not a whole lot of after going on down there.
• The Sun Sentinel has a column about the moral quandary of Call of Duty 4, namely that fighting in Iraq isn't as fun or easy as fighting Nazis.
• I guess crocheting video game stuff is passe, so now we can start crafting video game characters out of balloons.
• It turns out CompUSA was only mostly dead, as they've sold their assets to TigerDirect.
• SoundTech's Ediface is a device that can be used to play Guitar Hero with a real guitar.
• If you ever wanted a real Wii60, well, this is what you get. A $25,000 block of ugly with a Wii, 360, HD-DVD player, HDD recorder, sound processor, iPod dock and amps crammed inside. And you can't even get to the Wii's Gamecube ports.

PC and mobile news

New media: Age of Conan screenshots

New content: Crysis 1.1 patch, IL-2 Sturmovik 4.09m beta patch, Penumbra: Overture Mac demo

• The Fallout 2 Restoration Project has been released. This is a fan-made mod that restores various events, characters, locations and dialog (even voice) that was planned to be in Fallout 2 but cut out.
• Independently developed RPG Birth of Shadows has been released, and a demo is also available.
• Games like Spyro, Crash and Leisure Suit Larry are coming to Nokia handsets.
• Blizzard is still saying no to the requests for player housing in World of Warcraft.
• Gamasutra has a feature on the challenges of translating World of Warcraft into a tabletop RPG.
• The Sandio 3D mouse may have some valid applications, but it seems like the main one so far is to be able to move and fly around in Second Life all with one hand. You go ahead and tack on the joke you know is coming, I'll head out early.
• Amazon has Bioshock for $39.99 and Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance for $29.99.

Nintendo news

New media: Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games DS trailer, Soma Bringer screenshots

• A new version of the Starcraft DS homebrew is out, adding the jungle tileset and fixing some things.
• Florida's WFTV recently did a report on Wii injuries.
• You know things are getting bad when even Family Circus is making Wii jokes. This is how the world ends.
• Satoru Iwata wants to expand use of the DS' wi-fi, such as using it to download map data after you get off a train.
• Do you really need to buy a speaker system that looks like a Wii?

Sony news

New content: Yakuza 3 demo (Japan only)
New media: Eternal Sonata screenshots, some showing new playable characters

• Sony is looking to include low-res versions of movies on Blu-ray discs so they can be copied to the PSP memory stick for watching on the go.
• If you can't pony up the money for a PS3, you can win one by guessing when Britney Spears is going to die. Fun!
• Sony has announced a keyboard peripheral for the PSP, due in mid-2009.
• Another Motorstorm track pack has been announced.
• VideoGamer has some screenshot comparisons between the 360 and PS3 versions of Lost Planet.
• The original PSP will not be able to use Skype due to some memory differences.
• Amazon's deal of the day is Heavenly Sword for $39.99.

Microsoft news

New content: The Club demo (available only to Europe and Australia)

• It's being reported that the Live service problems can also cause you to lose achievements. Something to do with rolling back servers as they weed out bugs.
• Rez HD contains the option to make other controllers rumble during play to simulate the effect of the trance vibrator.
• Ikaruga has been spotted on PartnerNet, the "other" Live used by developers to test games. This doesn't give any indication as to how close it is to being done, but at least it's out there.
• A Microsoft Games memo confirms Fable 2, Alan Wake, Halo Wars, Splinter Cell: Conviction and Too Human for 2008.
• ExtremeTech teaches you how to hack your 360 fan.