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Don't look now, Archie!

Today is one of the worst days of the year to follow news, as you have to sift through the reams of tired, overdone jokes to get to any of it. If you want to keep up with what's being done where, Blues News has some links.

Industry and multi-console news

• EA says they disagree with the Byron report's suggestion to have the BBFC begin rating games for older players.
• The BBFC has cleared GTA4 for release with no cuts needed.
• As part of their review, the BBFC put up a description of the game's content on their website. They took it down later when they realized it had gone up early (they only put up content summaries ten days before release), but Eurogamer has the full text of what it said.
• The new European sales charts are out and Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games is still on top. Meanwhile Gran Turismo 5 Prologue has debuted at number one on the UK charts.
• This year's New York Comic Con will see an "expanded focus on video games."
• The ESRB has a new free search widget that you can place on your website to allow easy searching of the ratings database.
• Infinity Ward programmer Jon Shiring says not to rule out single-player DLC for Call of Duty 4 but they "don't have any plans for that right now."
• Codemasters has announced plans to make Bella Sara video games for the DS and PC. Bella Sara is apparently some trading card thing popular with young girls.
• Gamasutra has a feature on "the art and science of game community management."
• Crackdown developer Realtime Worlds has received $50 million in funding, which will help them with the development of their MMO All Points Bulletin.
• GameCareerGuide talks about the law of the land for video game writing.
• Morgan Webb went on Tyra Banks' talk show for an episode on "decoding your man" to act as the expert for a guest whose boyfriend is "obsessed with video games." It's remarkable, given that Tyra's show is the worst thing ever put on television, that the blogger and YouTuber comments are actually worse. yeah man morgan totally sold out video games by suggesting he not play so much plus i think she is ugly as well
• While we're on the troll train: Games Radar recently did a Week of Hate, where they did a bunch of articles about why basically every system sucks and why JRPGs suck and why you suck. Apparently suck sells as it gave the site its best March traffic numbers ever.
• The ECA has a launched a new site called Gamers for Net Neutrality.
• Paramount recently asked the owner of the URL CloverfieldGame.com if they could have the domain, which is a pretty reasonable hint that a Cloverfield game is in the works.
• Variety talks to Film Roman about the upcoming Dead Space animated movie.
• Opposable Thumbs has a review of the Omega Pedal, a real drum pedal modded for use with Rock Band.

PC and mobile news

New media: Overclocked: A History of Violence trailer
New content: Frontlines: Fuel of War 1.02 patch, The Sims 2: Free Time 1.0.1022 patch, Space Force: Rogue Universe 1.2 patch

• Ubisoft is bringing over 40 titles to Steam.
• Amazon has Hellgate: London Collector's Edition for $29.85.

Nintendo news

• 1up has a report from one of those Wii for Women events at Best Buy.
• The first wave of downloadable content for Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King went up in Japan today.
• Atlus has announced Trauma Center 2 for the DS.
• Wired wraps up their WiiWare coverage and talks about why WiiWare needs work.
• On the same day that the two brothers who got mauled by a tiger at the San Francisco Zoo filed a negligence and defamation claim against the city and zoo, one of them was caught trying to shoplift two Wii remotes stuffed in his pants.
• The newest issue of Nintendo Power has the Final Fantasy IV remake on the cover and a big story about the game, all the while not directly confirming the game for a US release. Although it's on the cover of a US magazine with English screenshots inside. The remake's director also mentions that a Chrono Trigger remake could be possible, "if the demand is great enough."
• Amazon's deal of the day is Medal of Honor Heroes 2 for $32.99.

Sony news

• The first game design competition has begun for Sony's Gamers In Real Life scholarship.
• There's a site called Metal Gear Stache dedicated solely to guys sending in pictures of their mustaches, yet so few of them actually have one in Snake's style.

Microsoft news

New content: Army of Two demo, Rock Band track Still Alive (free)

• The lawyer for the family of a teenage girl who was burned in a house fire allegedly sparked by a faulty Xbox is threatening to have Bill Gates testify in the case.
• Jason Scott discusses the problems with Halo 3's ranking system. "What they now have is a system that breeds a level of nastiness far and beyond mere pseudo-jingoistic team puffery."
• Someone on Ebay spent $3500 to snatch up the replica Halo 3 Brute spiker used in one of the game's ads.