Kotaku

IESB.net has gotten their hands on a the results of a worldwide casting survey performed for the role of Prince Dastan in Jerry Bruckheimer's upcoming Prince of Persia movie, and from the questions asked and the audience reaction it certainly looks like there is a clear front runner. Both international and U.S. audiences overwhelmingly favored David K. Zandi, motion picture executive, actor, champion equestrian, model, and honest to goodness Persian prince. One of the last male members of the Zand dynasty (1747 - 1779), David has also studied both fencing and Roman sword fighting in England, so the only way he could be better suited for the role is if he actually possessed control of the Sands of Time, which I am not completely ruling out at this point. Zandi beat out the likes of Cilian Murphy, Orlando Bloom, and Zac Efron in the audience poll, conducted between January 2005 and June 2007. Hit up the link for a complete rundown of the audience poll results.

IESB Exclusive: Prince of Persia Casting Report! [IESB.net]

Regular Wii just a bit too vanilla for you? Perhaps you ought to have won Nintendo's Super Smash Bros. Brawl tournament! Of course, if you suck at Brawl and think a Wii decked out with 20,000 Swarovski crystals is very much "your thing," you could possibly just grab one from Crystal Icing, maker of all things crystallized. They're not currently selling them, but I'm sure if you got them on the phone and asked them to charge four grand to your credit card, something could be worked out.

The Brawl to End Them All... [Crystal Icing]

The Cyberathlete Professional League has become the latest pro-gaming operation to close its doors. The organization announced that it had ceased operations on March 13, canceling all currently schedule events. The official statement cites "the current fragmentation of the sport, a crowded field of competing leagues, and the current economic climate" as responsible for the CPL suspending operations. General ennui was not mentioned as a factor.

The World Series of Video Games, which shut down in September of last year, similarly pointed to a "very crowded field of competitive gaming leagues." The CPL, established in 1997, noted that it "intends to continue to pay the 2007 World Tour prizes."

The CPL Ceases Operations [CPL]

I have a sort of love-hate relationship with Jonathan Blow. I still think he can come off like a pretentious jerk, but after some epistolary exchanges, I think we're maybe seeing a little more eye to eye on several key issues. But I adore his game Braid. I'm even willing to put up with the fact that it doesn't play nicely with my Mac: it's really a pleasure to play, and I'm looking forward to having it on my 360 so I can look at it on something bigger than my laptop. The guys at 1UP did an interview with developers Blow and David Hellman on the subject of Braid; we posted the gameplay montage a few weeks back. Now you have another chance to hear Blow talking about why Braid is pretty awesome. And I will — for once — gleefully concur on a lot of it.

The most recent Bungie Weekly Update teases that this Tuesday will see the official word on new Halo 3 Legendary Map Pack details, including a solid release date and a look at the second of three new levels. The first, "Ghost Town," was unveiled just a few weeks ago. We think it's a pretty safe bet that the new map will be frosty, as the game's vehicles have been given a fresh snowjob, with pictures of each new iced out ride over at Bungie.net. Luke Smith also drops word that the Hornet has been given a gameplay nerf, making it "less of an airborne death machine and more of an aerial support vehicle now."

Bungie Weekly Update: 3/14/08 [Bungie]

You have to love how vague this stuff is; to me, leaving off the 'And they were playing a video game' part wouldn't diminish the story at all.

A 15-year-old boy from Marble Falls is at Austin's Brackenridge Hospital after suffering a gunshot wound to the head. [...] The boy was playing a video game with a friend when that friend loaded a gun and shot him in the head.

Police said the 13-year-old shooter is being held at the juvenile detention center in Belton and is charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

The newspaper said the boys were playing a video game called "God of War".

Hopefully this won't lead to a media frenzy - news is sparse right now, but we'll see how it continues to develop.

13-year-old shoots friend in the head [News 8 Austin]

You might want to think twice about keeping your credit card information stored on your video game consoles, especially after reading the cautionary tale of one Xbox 360 owner who unwittingly bought 15,000 Microsoft Points for a bunch of thieves. The story of Clinton's bad luck combined with bad judgment is a bit of a scary one. The Canadian gamer writes that he was robbed to the tune of about $25,000 when someone broke into his residence, swiping his Xbox 360, games and computer equipment, as well as the keys to his truck.

But it's the Points he's pissed about.

Earlier this week the folks at GameCock dumped a bunch of screenshots, fact sheets and videos on us for all of their upcoming titles. Here's a run down of everything, in case you missed the massive info dump:

Pirates Vs. Ninja Dodgeball Info Dump
Hail to the Chimp Info Dump
Stronghold Crusader Extreme Info Dump
Dungeon Hero Info Dump
Velvet Assassin Info Dump
Legendary Info Dump
Insecticide Info Dump
Section 8 Info Dump
Mushroom Men Info Dump

This is one of those flyers that I wasn't able to find much info on, but after checking it out I think you'll understand why I featured it this week.

Grudge Match was put out in 1989 by Yankee Game Technology. According to KLOV and the internets, this may well be the only game that Yankee Game Technology ever made. Grudge Match was a fairly straightforward wrestling game that could be played by up to two players at a time. In the single player version, you would go through a slew of opponents on your way to becoming the world champion wrestler. Each opponent would have to be beaten three times before moving on to the next. The multiplayer version had a continuous play feature that would let the losing player join back in for a rematch with the addition of a few quarters.

Leigh Alexander has an interesting proposal (one that will never, ever happen, but interesting nonetheless): two versions of the Wii console to rid the system of the pesky Friend Code system (which is, as Alexander points out, frequently a pain in the ass):

Friend Codes are a pain, right? The Wii doesn't have the sort of lobby system that just about every other game machine has managed to perfect. The mechanism exists, sure, but I've never seen it function usably. If current reviews of Brawl are to be believed, it's best to match up with a friend than to try and get a random battle.

Of course, the Wii is a family console; I don't think Nintendo has anything to gain from making it easier for random strangers to hook up with kids on the internet. But why don't they make like Xbox did and offer different console packages?

Clearly, the Wii is selling like hot cakes and Nintendo doesn't need to do anything; but it would be nice to have the option of dumping the clunky Friend Code system, no?

Wii For Grown-Ups [Sexy Videogameland]