The 2008 edition of Child's Play has topped $1,000,000 in funds raised, according to a recent announcement by the charity drive's organizers.

In case you've been living under a particularly stingy rock these past five years, Child's Play is an annual holiday charity drive organized by Penny Arcade creators Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins that seeks to provide video games (and other forms of geek-centric entertainment) for hospitalized children around the world.

While Child's Play also topped $1,000,000 in its 2007 incarnation, it should be mentioned that this year's event reached the milestone nearly a month sooner than its predecessor.

Those hoping to contribute to the drive can find a comprehensive list of ways their cash can help the needy youth of the world via the Child's Play website.

See Also:

• Fünde Razor: Come Party For Child's Play in SF, NYC, Denver
• Buy My Retro Game Systems for Child's Play
• Art Of Blizzard Show To Aid Child's Play Charity Drive
• Roles in Fable 2 Being Auctioned for Child's Play

Speaking with UK-based website CVG, PlayStation Home's European service manager Dan Hill claims that the recently released beta has the potential to become a system-seller, once the product and its offerings evolve.

As it currently stands, Home is little more than a venue to toggle scripted emotes, play mini games, chat with strangers, and pay real money for the dubious honor of wearing digital advertisements for clothing companies. But Hill believes that once Home has grown, and its vision becomes fully realized,  PlayStation 3 owners will be a part of a unique gaming experience.

I'm inclined to agree.

Science fiction has often hearkened to the fully realized 3-D Internet of the future. Of course, typing a URL into a browser is far more efficient than "walking" to a web page; But from a gaming perspective, with 3D interactions being all but second nature to us, the marriage of digital spaces and the web just makes sense.

Continue reading "Home Will Move PlayStations, Says Sony" »

If you concede that games are a form of art, you too must concede that some games may exist purely as an example of their creator's effort to express his or herself. Such is Jason Nelson's I Made This. You Play This. We Are Enemies.

The game is a standard Flash-based platformer, at least superficially. Though it uses a typical set of directional input keys for movement, there is seemingly no overarching objective, no plot to speak of, and the environment is constructed entirely from mangled internet destinations.

That's to say nothing of the constantly changing sound effects, voice samples and visual effects that serve to confuse players as much as offer a reward for progression.

Continue reading "Jason Nelson Unveils His Latest Surrealist Game" »

Missing last night's broadcast of the 2008 Video Game Awards on Spike TV is a bit of a mixed bag: On the one hand you didn't have to witness the embarrassing spectacle of the awards show, though on the other you missed a number of premiering clips from upcoming games.

Luckily for you we've assembled the best ones, including trailers for Grand Theft Auto IV's "Lost And Damned" DLC pack (above), God of War III, Mafia II, Gears of War II's "Combustible" map pack, the Terminator: Salvation movie tie-in game, Fight Night Round 4, Dante's Inferno, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves and Watchmen: The End is Nigh.

I'm making no secret of my distaste for the Spike's effort, but the sheer number of important debut trailers impressed even my jaded sensibilities.

Continue reading "Video: The Trailers of the 2008 Spike Video Game Awards" »

Seeking to capitalize on the success of World of Warcraft in his native country, a Chinese businessman has opened a restaurant rife with artistic touches gleaned from Blizzard's MMO.

His goal, he claims, is to offer WoW fans a place to enjoy themselves and share in his affection for the game. From the recreation of Tel'drassil in the center of the dining room to the vast murals depicting artwork from the game, the attention to detail alone is evidence of that affection.

While I'm sure this eatery would be sued out of existence if it were created here in the United States, Chinese copyright law is somewhat less strict. Though I'm sure Blizzard -- and Chinese WoW operator The9 -- are less than pleased with the restaurant, it's unclear if either firm has any legal options regarding the establishment.

Image courtesy Blizzard Entertainment

Beijing restaurant captures online game trend [CCTV, via WoW Insider]

Though the truth is likely buried somewhere beneath the plethora of rumors, sci-fi MMO EVE Online is once again gripped by controversy.

According to the official report, game masters responding to a player's petition to address a glitch uncovered a network of player-run corporations engaged in exploiting a bug for unimaginable profits. Over 70 player accounts were banned, but the ultimate effects of the exploit are still being investigated.

The "bug" in question caused expensive raw materials used by crafters to be generated effortlessly, with the banned players selling these ill-gotten materials and reaping the benefits.

But the rabbit hole goes much deeper.

Continue reading "Scandal Looms Once Again In EVE Online" »

A recently published study conducted by the University of Illinois psychology department finds that time spent playing videogames actually improves the mental prowess of older people.

After submitting a group of older people (specifically, 40 60+ year olds) to almost 24 hours of Big Huge Games' real-time strategy title Rise of Nations, the group exhibited notable improvements in a number of cognitive tests.

"As a group, the gamers became significantly better -- and faster -- at switching between tasks as compared to the comparison group," the study reports.

"Their working memory, as reflected in the tests, was also significantly improved. Their reasoning ability was enhanced. To a lesser extent, their short-term memory of visual cues was better than that of their peers, as was their ability to identify rotated objects."

Image courtesy Microsoft

Strategic video game improves critical cognitive skills in older adults [Physorg.com, via Wonderland]

When you're looking through the gallery of pornographic Dickerdoodle cookies on Penny Arcade today, I just want you to know that Karen Chu, our friend Rob, and I made this one.

Just saying, is all. We brought some class to the proceedings by recreating the Penisaurus Dix.

Dickerdoodle Gallery [Penny Arcade, so very NSFW]

Notorious prankster Rémi Gaillard makes for a surprisingly excellent Mario doppelganger, as demonstrated by his latest escapade through the streets of France.

In the clip, Gaillard reenacts one of Mario's famous Kart races complete with haphazardly tossed banana peels, retro Nintendo sound effects and ridiculous moustache.

It almost goes without saying, but please don't try this at home. It's one thing to drive an open-wheeled kart through the streets of France, it's totally another to be crushed by a semi truck on I-5.

In an effort to better understand what drives player interaction and engagement, EmSense -- a company that designs brain-monitoring and bio-sensing technology -- conducted a study that measures physiological responses to games.

The study, which centers around first- and third-person console shooters, is comprised of over 300 hours of data, centered around the first 90 minutes of a number of titles. The study's aim was to determine which design elements spark a compelling experience, and which fall flat.

EmSense has developed a headset that measures physiological responses to media, including brainwaves, heart activity, breathing and temperature -- variables which are used to calculate adrenaline levels, levels of engagement or interest, and emotional responses. For a blind, objective approach to the research, "event tags" are used to mark recurring instances between games (cutscenes, player deaths, etc), with the resulting data compared between titles.

Continue reading "Monitoring Players' Brains to Find What Makes Games Fun" »

In case you haven't heard, Gordon Chan (The Medallion) is directing a film adaptation of SNK's King of Fighters games, one that seems to bear little relation to the scarce plot found in the fighting series.

"The King of Fighters movie will introduce a new science fiction spin into the setting established in the games’ universe by following the surviving members of three legendary fighting clans who are continually whisked away to other dimensions by an evil power," says insider blog Movieset.

"As the fighters enter each new world they battle that universe’s native defenders, while the force that brought them seeks to find a way to invade and infect our world."

I won't write this one off just yet, but why did the film's writers feel the need to muck up the KoF film plot with unnecessary sci-fi elements? Can't they just point the camera at Mai and watch the drooling fanboy cash pile up?

Expect this film to hit theaters sometime in 2010.

Image courtesy SNK Playmore

Exclusive: King of Fighters details revealed [Movieset]

See Also:

• King of Fighters XII Likely Coming to Consoles
• AOU 2008: First King Of Fighters XII Trailer
• Virtual Consolation Prize: StarTropics, King of Fighters
• First Thoughts: SNK vs. Capcom Card Fighters DS

When Blizzard announced that World of Warcraft would be ported to the Atari 2600, everyone applauded the company for such a clever April Fools Day gag. Few could have guessed that anyone would actually make the game a reality.

Gamer's University, a website that appears to be something of a general purpose gaming collective, announced this morning the release of The Molten Core, an ultra-retro manifestation of everything promised in Blizzard's joke.

The game itself is a 2MB Windows-only downloadable title that seeks to mirror World of Warcraft's raid dungeon of the same name in an abysmally small number of drab-colored pixels. I can't attest to the game's quality as I'm writing this from a Mac, but it certainly extends the original gag far beyond anything I had imagined it might entail.

Image courtesy Gamer's University

The Molten Core [Gamer's University]

A clinic geared towards rehabilitating and counseling video game addicts has declared that compulsive gaming has less to do with a psychological addiction, and far more to do with social pressures.

Amsterdam's Smith & Jones Center, which opened in 2006, is the first and only clinic in Europe with facilities targeted at rehabilitating and counseling patients who profess an addiction to playing video games.

But after years of research, the BBC is reporting that the clinic is revising its tactics -- having come to the conclusion that these compulsive gamers are in need of "good old fashioned communication," and not necessarily treatment for psychological ills.

Continue reading "Game Rehab Clinic Says 90% of Patients Aren't Addicts" »

Awesome: Silicon Knights released the soundtrack CD to its Xbox 360 game Too Human on Tuesday.

There's lots of things to argue about with Too Human, but damn if it didn't have a great soundtrack. And now you can buy it.

It's $16 on Amazon and $10 on iTunes.

What else is there to say, besides pointing out that it's by Steve Henifin, whose Eternal Darkness soundtrack I still listen to all the time?

[via NeoGAF]

When the inevitable zombie apocalypse comes, we're all doomed, if Valve's recently released statistics from the first week of Left 4 Dead multiplayer matches is anything to go by.

Though 72 percent of Left 4 Dead's players earned the altruistic "Drag And Drop" achievement by rescuing a teammate from a "Smoker" before they were harmed, only a disturbingly low .2 percent of all players had survived all the campaigns on Expert.

Assuming the inevitable zombie apocalypse doesn't include a handy difficulty slider, we're all going to be turned into the shambling (or should I say "unnecessarily sprinting and leaping") hordes rather quickly.

A full rundown of L4D's stats can be found at Valve's official site, but be warned: The numbers do not bode well.

Image courtesy Valve Software

See Also:

• Opinion: Left 4 Dead's Hyperactive Undead Disappoint This ...
• Review: Left 4 Dead Delivers Definitive Team Zombie War
• Steam Cloud Debuts with Left 4 Dead Demo
• Hands On: Left 4 Dead Multiplayer Demands Brains

A group of devoted Shenmue fans, incensed that Sega has apparently nixed all plans to conclude the originally planned epic trilogy of games, intend to inundate Sega's offices with thousands of tiny toy capsules in protest.

The Shenmue MySpace Campaign outlines the details of the event and invites any fans of the Dreamcast classic to join ther struggle. From November 27 through 29, the group will be shipping packages of the capsules -- which were a precious commodity in the Shenmue game world -- to Sega of Japan and series creator Yu Suzuki in the hopes that the firm will reconsider its plans to leave the series abandoned.

Though it may seem like a crazy idea the scheme echoes a similar mailbombing event initiated by fans of the television series Jericho that actually succeeded. After sending literal tons of peanuts to the show's creators, the series was put back on the air.

Any Shenmue fans wishing to join the effort need only read the MySpace Events page linked above. All the details are there, though be warned: The effort will set you back $20 to $30.

Image courtesy Sega

Mass Mailing SEGA!!!  Shenmue!!! [MySpace]

See Also:

• Rumor: Shenmue Ported to the Wii
• Rumor: Shenmue Gone for Good
• Yu Suzuki No Longer a Sega Employee
• GTAIV Budget Tops Gaming Records
• New Dreamcast Games Coming This Spring

Update: As Ms. Day so kindly pointed out in the comments, Season 2 of The Guild hits the Xbox Live Marketplace early tomorrow.

The second season of The Guild, a cult-classic 'net video series detailing the non-virtual lives of a group of MMO gamers, will see distribution via Microsoft's Xbox Live Marketplace, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

This acquisition is only one part of a plan by Microsoft to bring the series to the masses via multiple entertainment vectors. Not only will the show join the Xbox Live Marketplace, it will also be available on Microsoft's Zune and MSN platforms.

Though this drastically changes The Guild's distribution tactics, creator and star Felicia Day retains ownership of the intellectual property rights to the series under this new deal. No doubt that stipulation played a huge part in Day's choice to side with Microsoft, even after being approached with distribution offers from many other choice firms.

The Guild's second season will launch "pretty soon" according to the series' official site.

Triple 'Guild' play for Microsoft [The Hollywood Reporter]

How can Hollywood get videogames so wrong, while a fan film like this gets them so right?

Admittedly, the transition to real-time seems a bit jarring for the Mega Man universe, but everything from Roll's borderline annoying cheeriness to Dr. Wily's bushy 'stache is kept intact. The creator even included Mega Man's teleportation, which looks surprisingly good here.

Most intriguingly, this clip seems to be exactly what it claims: A trailer for a full-length feature to come at some point in the future. Sadly, the film's official site has no word on when the full film might appear.

On Monday we told you about a Flash game designed by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals to parody the virtual cruelty the company saw in Majesco's Cooking Mama gaming series. Capitalizing on the opportunity for free press, Majesco has issued a response.

"I would never put rat in my Ratatouille. Like any accomplished cook, I create my recipes to appeal to a broad range of tastes and preferences. My only goal is to ensure you leave the table well fed," the Mama character wrote in the official press release.

Continuing, the company cites the "more than 25 vegetarian-friendly recipes" in the upcoming Cooking Mama World Kitchen as proof of their disinclination to promote the murder of adorable animals. "While Mama is not a vegetarian, she fully supports the humane treatment of animals, particularly for her canine protégé Max who makes his doggie debut in World Kitchen," the company added.

Image courtesy Majesco

See Also:

• Bloody PETA Parody Skewers Cooking Mama Game
• Cooking Mama: 1.6 Million Served
• Majesco and the Future of American-Japanese Game Development

A new study suggests that games that feature motion-controlled violent actions, like the Wii version of Manhunt 2 (above), don't affect players any differently than traditional violent games. Phew!

The study was conducted by Dr. Patrick Markey at Villanova University, and examined participants with varying levels of psychoticism, gauging their "hostility and aggressive thoughts" while playing Manhunt 2 or Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2008.

The 118 participants (68 female and 50 male college students) completed a measure of psychoticism before and immediately after playing one of the two games, with either motion controls or standard controls. 

Published in Computers in Human Behavior, the study concludes that the use of motion controls did not exacerbate any of the perceived negative effects (aggression, hostility, etc.) that could result from playing violent video games. Swinging a Wiimote or mashing a button generated the same results.

Continue reading "Study: Wii Controls Don't Make You Violent" »