Week In Review

Possibly Habitable Planet Confirmed By NASA

Since its launch in 2009, the Kepler space telescope has been watching more than 150,000 stars. The telescope is set to detect any small disruptions to any star’s light made by planets orbiting around them, and today NASA announced they have confirmed a new planet – dubbed Kepler 22-b – which resides in the so-called habitable zone of its star about 600 light years away from Earth. Kepler 22-b is about 2.4 the size of Earth and its average temperature is 22 degrees Celsius (71.6 F), making it theoretically possible to support life. (Link)

“Fake” Tourist Trap Skeletons Found to Be Real

If you’ve ever visited the London Dungeon tourist attraction, which according to Wikipedia “recreates various gory and macabre historical events in a grimly comedic ‘gallows humor’ style,” you’ve probably laid your eyes on a skeleton or two in some of its many displays. And you probably assumed, if you put any thought into it at all, that it was fake. And in at least one case – possibly two – you’d be wrong. (Link)

Apple Doesn’t Own the iPad Trademark in China

It turns out that Apple does not, in fact, own the trademark for the iPad name in China. A Chinese company called Proview Technologies filed for the iPad trademark back at the turn of the century. At some point they sold the rights to a firm in the UK, who promptly sold them to Apple. The problem is; the original sale did not include in the Chinese trademark rights. That means Apple has been selling the iPad in Chinese territories in violation of Chinese trademark law. (Link)

Newest Xbox 360 Update Prevents Class Action Suits Against Microsoft

After a bit of a shaky start, the most recent Xbox 360 update has finally gone live, introducing a wide variety of new features and giving users access to a massive collection of film and TV content. However, the new update does come with a somewhat devious catch. A segment written in big, bold letters in the update’s terms of service essentially state that Xbox 360 owners are forbidden from participating in any class action suits against Microsoft. Specific details can be found in section 18 for those versed in legalese … (Link)

Gamers Find Way to Block Ads From New Xbox Dashboard

The new Xbox 360 “Metro” dashboard design released last week to a mixed response from the gaming community. While some appreciate the new, sleeker aesthetic, others feel bogged down by the ratio of whiz-bang to function. One of the most prominent additions making some uncomfortable are the newly emphasized advertisements, but thankfully, a dedicated group of network tweakers have figured out the key to making them disappear for good. (Link)

title: “Week In Review” ShowToc: true date: “2025-03-03” author: “Theodore Marlow”

3DS Discovers Myst

Not content with being available on almost every other platform in existence, one of the most popular adventure games of all time is on its way to the 3DS. Myst is one of those games that just many people played, but few have made it past the first level, much less beaten. In March 2012, gamers will get a second (or third, or fourth, or hundredth) chance to point, click, and puzzle their way through the enigmatic island of Myst, but this time, in full autostereoscopic 3D. (Link)

Epic Wins Advantage in Too Human Lawsuit

Though the final resolution of the case is still in dispute, a December 22 ruling by Chief District Judge James Dever III reveal Silicon Knights has suffered a major setback in its suit against Epic Games. The Escapist has obtained a order by the court granting Epic’s motion to exclude the reports and testimony of Terry Lloyd. Lloyd, a Certified Public Accountant and Chartered Financial Analyst, was retained by Silicon Knights “to render an opinion regarding Silicon Knights’ alleged damages.” (Link)

Gamer Drops $16,000 on Virtual Sword for Unreleased Game

During a recent auction for the soon-to-be-released martial arts MMO, Age of Wulin, one excited gamer purchased an exclusive in-game sword for just $16,000 before even playing the game. At the same event, someone else bought a Hook of Departure sheath for a paltry $1,600, and another walked away with a Lordly Spear sheath for a mere $2,500 (apparently fashionable scabbards are a big deal in ancient China). (Link)

Valve: There Is No Half-Life 3

After years of meme-level jokes about the lack of a Half-Life game in 8 years – especially since the series was supposed to be “episodic” – the collective internet began to rumble this month. There was that guy with the Half-Life 3 tee-shirt at a Valve party, and the appearance of a phantom website with the logo clearly emblazoned upon it. A poster on Valve’s official forums even claimed there was an arcane clue hidden in Wheatley’s speech for Game Character of the Year at Spike’s VGAs. (Link)

Ocean Marketing Attempts To Extort Former Client

Moisés Chiullan has had a busy day. Since he took over handling N-Control’s PR after Roid Rage Nightmare Paul Christoforo, Chiullan has done a pretty masterful job of damage control. He’s managed to very publicly disown and denounce Christoforo (going so far as to say that there “isn’t a bus big enough for me to throw Paul Christoforo under) and has personally taken to Twitter to answer people’s questions about the situation. Tonight, though, Chiullan set up a Reddit AMA to directly respond to all the questions and revealed that his predecessor isn’t done making life difficult for N-Control: It turns out the man is trying to extort some serious cash from them. (Link)

title: “Week In Review” ShowToc: true date: “2025-03-13” author: “Elizabeth Miranda”

Father of the Commodore 64 Dies

If you ever adored a 64 at any point in your life, then you have Jack Tramiel to thank. Tramiel, who survived the horrors of the Auschwitz concentration camp during the Second World War and emigrated to the U.S. in 1947, took his first sideways step toward becoming a legend in the world of technology when he opened a typewriter repair company in 1953, naming the business Commodore Portable Typewriter. In 1955 he launched Commodore Business Machines in Toronto to get around U.S. restrictions on imports – specifically Czechoslovakian typewriters – from Warsaw Pact countries. (Link)

DARPA Announces Build-A-Rescue-Robot Competition

Although it’s common practice for geeks of all stripes to howl the word “Skynet” at any kind of robotic technology which possesses functions more complex than those of your average can-opener, there exist in our lives many mechanical friends deserving of much better treatment. First and foremost among these particular bots are mechanized First Responders, a group of machines built to assist distressed humans in especially dangerous places, such as nuclear disaster zones or buildings damaged by earthquakes. (Link)

BioWare “Falsely Advertised” Mass Effect 3

The brouhaha over the end of Mass Effect 3 is like nothing I’ve ever seen. Fans aren’t just upset, they’re seriously pissed off, and the staying power of their nerd rage is almost beyond belief. Petitions and angry forum posts are par for the course, but an anger-fueled, $80,000 Child’s Play drive? An FTC complaint? And in case that’s not enough, now Majorie Stephens, the director of communications for the Better Business Bureau of Northern Indiana, has weighed in on the matter with an opinion that’s certain to fan the flames even higher: All those complaints about false advertising are valid – technically speaking, anyway. (Link)

Mass Effect Fans Stand By Child’s Play

The wildly successful Retake Mass Effect 3 Child’s Play donation drive took on a tinge of ugliness when Jerry Hokins, better known as Tycho of Penny Arcade, announced that Child’s Play had asked the Retake people to pull the plug. The drive raised a ridiculous $80,000 in donations – ridiculous in a good way, to be clear – but according to Holkins, some contributors thought they were paying to finance a new ending for Mass Effect 3, which led to a “high number of people asking for their donations back.” (Link)

Mega Man Creator Shakes Fist At Japanese Game Industry

The common consensus seems to be that while Japanese developers are still dominating the handheld market, they’ve fallen behind when it comes to AAA titles. Inafune, former Capcom R&D commander, co-creator of stumpy gaming-icon, Mega Man, and an outspoken critic of the Japanese game industry, reckons it’s because developers are ignoring criticism. (Link)

title: “Week In Review” ShowToc: true date: “2025-01-21” author: “Ken Williams”

Facebook Faces Underage Gamer Lawsuit

The world’s most popular social network is once again facing legal trouble, this time from a California woman who claims that the ability of underage gamers to purchase Facebook credits for use in its games violates her state’s consumer protection laws. Facebook policy prohibits the purchase of credits by users under the age of 18 without parental consent but the plaintiff, Glynnis Bohannon, claims it’s not doing enough to actually keep it from happening. Bohannon filed the action on behalf of herself, her minor son and “all others similarly situated,” and is seeking to represent “all parents and legal guardians whose minor children allegedly made unauthorized purchases of Facebook credits from the minor’s account.” (Link)

“Hundreds of Thousands” May Lose Internet in July

Back in November, the FBI dropped the hammer on a group of international hackers who were running an online advertising scam that allowed them to infect and take control of an estimated 568,000 computers around the world. Exploiting weaknesses in Windows, they were able to redirect infected computers to their own “rogue DNS servers,” effectively leading them into a fake internet. The hackers earned an estimated $14 million through the scam, but the more long-term problem is that the victims were also made reliant on the rogue servers for web functionality. Recognizing the potential for trouble, the FBI called in the Internet Systems Consortium, which set up two clean servers to take the place of the impounded rogue servers. (Link)

Scientists Unveil Mind-Controlled Robot

Judging from reports, there wasn’t really anything all that impressive about the tiny robot making its way around the laboratory at the Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, Switzerland. It was barely a foot tall and could only travel around, turning left and right as commanded. The impressive bit was how it was controlled – or rather, who was controlling it. The operator was Mark-Andre Duc, a resident in a hospital in the town of Sion, about 100km from the Lausanne lab. Remote-control robots are hardly anything new, but what made this interesting was that Mr. Duc is partially quadriplegic, having lost the use of his fingers and legs in a fall. (Link)

Cryptic Reveals 2010 Database Hack

Cryptic Studios, the publisher of MMOs including Star Trek Online and Champions Online, announced yesterday that it had “recently detected evidence of an unauthorized access to one of our user databases.” Not good news, but nothing all that super-terribly unusual in this post-PSN-hack world we live in either. But this attack wasn’t actually post-PSN at all: it happened in December 2010. We’re only hearing about it now because Cryptic just stumbled upon evidence of the intrusion due to recent “increased security analysis.” (Link)

Google “Zerg Rush” and Prepare for Browser Attack

Google famously allows its workers to spend one fifth of the work week furthering whatever project sparks their interest. Quintessential Google features like the Transit directions in Maps, or cultural documentation like the Google Art Projectall started through work using this “extra” time. I can only imagine that the latest Easter Egg found in Google’s search engine came from a 20% project, but this time it’s a nod to a little game from Blizzard called StarCraft. (Link)

title: “Week In Review” ShowToc: true date: “2025-01-30” author: “Catherine Ables”

You Are Probably Using Google Chrome to Read This

Oh, how the mediocre have fallen. Back in the day, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer was cool. Really cool. Then people realized the browser sucked way more RAM and CPU cycles than it needed to, but there wasn’t really an alternative. Mozilla came out with the Firefox browser in 2004, and offered the first real challenge to IE’s superiority, with tabbed browsing and helpful extensions. Google followed with Chrome in 2008, and with two viable solutions – not counting Safari if you’re a pesky Mac-user – the worldwide usership of Internet Explorer waned. (Link)

DC Says One Of Its “Iconic” Heroes Is Gay

When you get down to it, there’s something about superhero comics that is just inherently homoerotic. You have these strapping, square-jawed men in skin-tight spandex with rippling muscles forging lasting bonds with equally spandex-clad muscle-men – it’s like the locker room after a football game. In that light, it’s a wonder that there aren’t more openly gay superheroes. However, DC Comics says that one of its major heroes will be soon joining the ranks of Northstar and the Midnighter as an openly gay crimefighter. (Link)

High Schooler Builds Portable X-Ray Machine

With a bit of research and tenacity, a high school student by the name of Adam Munich has completed probably one of the most interesting science projects to date: a fully-operational, portable, battery-powered X-ray machine. Munich was inspired to build the portable device after speaking with two friends online, one of whom lived in Pakistan and complained about the rolling electricity blackouts affecting his country, and another whose local hospital had problems finding a working X-ray machine to help him deal with a broken leg. (Link)

Entire 38 Studios Staff Laid Off, Effective Immediately

After weeks of uncertainty regarding the future of Curt Schilling’s 38 Studios, which saw everything from missing paychecks to fleeing executives, every single employee has been officially been laid off. 38 Studios, which employed nearly four hundred workers between its Maryland and Rhode Island offices, have informed employees of their termination through a succinct, impersonal email. “The Company is experiencing an economic downturn,” it read. (Link)

Guy Ties Up 4-Year-Old So He Can Play Videogames

According to a court affidavit, one Heath Howe, a 27-year-old gentleman from Sarasota was arrested after he tied up a four-year-old girl with rope and left her in the kitchen while he retired to the living room to play games. Howe’s relation to the girl is currently unknown. The girl told police she didn’t think she was being punished because Howe didn’t say anything to her while he tied her up. (Link)

title: “Week In Review” ShowToc: true date: “2025-02-04” author: “Donna Ogburn”

Do Your Bit, Join The Police State Today! Has anyone here read 1984? It’s a book that get’s bandied around a lot when people talk about civil liberties getting trampled on and one of the key methods of oppression used in the book is constant surveillance, both from other citizens and omnipresent cameras. Well guess what? If you live in the UK, you can recreate your favorite scenes from the book by playing Internet Eyes, and watching people going about their business in the hopes of catching someone doing something bad enough to win you big cash prizes. No, this isn’t a joke. Hit the link for more details. (link) A Lot of Little Galaxies, Closer Than You Think We geeks are funny creatures, especially when it comes to Star Wars. If the guy who made it back in 1977 changes even a single frame, then he’s touching our childhoods inappropriately. However, if the fans decide to reshoot it 15 seconds at a time however we damn well please, well that’s just dandy. If you hadn’t already guessed, the Star Wars Uncut project does exactly that. The whole movie, 15 seconds at a time, by fans. Hit the link for the trailer. (link) Cod MewTwo Trailer Angers Christian Just a warning, there are plot details, albeit very minor ones, about Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, so if you have a spoiler allergy, move to the next paragraph and consult your physician should symptoms appear. Anyway, it would appear that a writer with Christian Science Monitor has taken issue with the game’s location – Washington DC – after watching the latest trailer, dubbed ‘Infamy’. According to the gentleman in question, Infinity Ward ahs gone ‘too far’. Hit the link to watch the trailer itself and see if you agree. (link) Those Wacky Execs! The PS3 is a great machine, with a lot of very playable games, but I can’t help but feel that it would do a lot better if every Sony executive wasn’t mad as a hatter. This time it’s SCEA President Jack Tretton claiming that a win for Sony is a win for the industry. According to Tretton, Sony occupies a middle ground that its rivals simply can’t emulate. (link) DJ Vanilla Can’t Touch This Hammer Baby! Music games huh? It’s all guitars and drums and stuff right? Well not DJ Hero, which as the name suggests, casts you as, well, as a DJ. What’s had some people baffled though is what you’d actually be doing and what songs will be in the game. Which is were some recent gameplay videos come in, showing off some pretty sweet remixes, especially if you’re my age. Hit the link so that you can hit another link to see the videos. (link)

title: “Week In Review” ShowToc: true date: “2025-03-12” author: “Albert Demps”

Turtles Fetch Sixty Mil That’s right, the Teenage Mutant Ninja – or Hero if you’re British – Turtles have been sold for a cool sixty million dollars. Nickelodeon bought the heroes in a half shell from the Mirage Group with the aim of making a new CGI TV show and movie scheduled for 2012. I never imagined the End of Days would be heralded by mutated reptile assassins. (link) The Most Epic Game of Make-Believe Ever Hey there! How’d you like to go to Mars? Well, sadly, that isn’t possible, so instead, how would you like to pretend to go to Mars? The ESA is looking for healthy men and women who inexplicably have a year and a half that they don’t need to engage in a simulated trip Mars. The trip also includes a relatively brief 30 day stop on a mock up of the red planet, which I’m sure will make the remaining 490 days totally worth it. (link) Bruce Willis to Appear in Kane & Lynch Movie The only thing more startling than how bad videogame movies are is their ability to con actual actors that you’re heard of into appearing in them; Ben Kingsley has an Oscar for Samus’s sake! The latest soul to be snared is Die Hard legend Bruce Willis, who will star in the upcoming Kane & Lynch movie, based on a game so mediocre it ends careers. It must come with a very big check attached, that’s all I’m saying. (link) No Mods and No Servers Makes Cod Mewtwo a Dull Game The release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is only weeks away and the PC enthusiasts amongst you are no doubt looking forward to hosting your own servers and maybe grabbing some mods when they arrive. Well tough, because Infinity Ward don’t want you to do that, instead favoring a new system that mimics that of its console brethren. If I’m honest, the new system doesn’t sound that bad, but it’s not the one that many PC gamers are going to want. (double link!) Creatures From the Moon! Well, from a moon anyway! Scientists have discovered that Jupiter’s fourth largest moon, Europa, has a lot more oxygen than previously thought, perhaps enough to support life; freakish, monstrous life that will consume us and devastate our planet! Well, either that or single-celled organisms, which would be less impressive, but a lot more realistic. The only problem is the thick layer of ice that separates the oceans from the oxygen rich atmosphere. (link)

title: “Week In Review” ShowToc: true date: “2025-02-18” author: “Kristine Patterson”

Pokemon Goes Monochrome Hold on to your Mudkips, because Nintendo has announced a new set of Pokemon games for the DS. Titled Pokemon Black and Pokemon White, the games are set to be released in Japan this fallm which would mean that we in the west will probably see them early 2011. Nintendo has promised that “every aspect will be reborn innovatively.” What this actually means isn’t really clear, but it certainly sounds impressive. (link) Fourteen Large for Farmville A 12 year old kid in the UK managed to rack up a $1400 bill for the free-to-play agricultural simulator Farmville. He burned through his own savings, and then added nearly another $1000 dollars on to his mother’s credit card. Amazingly, his mother seems – and the key word there is seems – to be taking all of this pretty well, and doesn’t blame Zynga or Facebook. The young farmer was apparently ‘very shocked’ at how much he’d managed to spend. (link) Game Design, Suda51 and Poop Anyone who has played No More Heroes or Killer 7 knows that Suda51 makes some pretty unusual games, but you might not be aware that even the metaphors he uses to refer to them are pretty strange. “What we are hoping to do now with No More Heroes 3 is probably to digest everything we eat, and then purge absolutely everything in our guts, just like diarrhea!” Yeah, thanks for that mental image Suda, thank you so very much. (link) A Strange Package Arrives at the Office The Escapist office often receives weird things in the mail; sometimes it’s rickrolls for Yahtzee, sometimes it’s crates filled with plush toys, and one time, we even got sent the beard of Zeus. But a solitary flash drive in an unmarked envelope? That’s a mystery and we love a good mystery. This one was a especially good, it had codes and everything! Hit the link for our findings so far.(link) CNN’s RapeLay Coverage Gets Angry Response RapeLay continues to spark controversy, after news network CNN discovered the game and decided to cover it. In a follow up article, CNN then tried to explain why Japan has such games, which rubbed a certain Japanese citizen up the wrong way. Manga artist Takeshi Nogami wrote an open letter to the network, saying: “We Japanese enjoy one of the most safe and peaceful societies on Earth. Naturally, that is not to say that our society is without problems, but to be honest, I frankly do not think that you are the ones to tell us.” CNN has yet to respond to the letter. (link)

title: “Week In Review” ShowToc: true date: “2025-02-21” author: “Claudia Mallari”

Angry Birds Studio Happy About Chinese Piracy

Piracy, as it applies to counterfeiting, copyright infringement and so forth, is not cool. It not only deprives content creators of income, it can also hinder future projects [just ask any PC gamer about that] and can lead to some pretty gross overreactions from companies determined to protect their work. [Just ask any PC gamer about that.] But despite the runaway piracy of Angry Birds merchandise in China, Vesterbacka is determined to focus on the upside. (Link)

Australian Study “Confirms Dangers of Violent Videogames”

The debate over the impact of violent videogames on impressionable minds has been raging for almost as long as videogames have been around. The concern is that their interactive nature makes them far more influential than other media, such as television or movies. Watching a guy get shot on the screen isn’t nearly as impactful as pulling the trigger yourself, the thinking goes, even if “pulling the trigger” just means clicking a button on a mouse or controller. (Link)

Prisoner Builds Final Fantasy Arsenal Out Of Matchsticks

The guards of a prison located in Monmouthshire, Wales were surprised to find an impressive arsenal of replica knives that a prisoner had assembled entirely out of matchsticks and glue. The prisoner in question, though, must have a soft spot for JRPGs, as some of his creations are clearly from Final Fantasy. (Link)

Gearbox Claims Reviewers Were Unfair Toward Duke Nukem Forever

“Everybody should really be thankful that it existed to some degree at all.” Those were the words spoken by Brian Martel, one of Gearbox’s five founders, in response to the negative reaction gamers and critics shared regarding Gearbox’s latest FPS, Duke Nukem Forever. DNF had difficulty across the board, earning a bevy of poor reviews generally sharing words like “incomplete,” “deeply flawed,” and “forgettable.” According to Martel, that’s only because reviewers weren’t giving it the credit it deserved. (Link)

Australian Attorney General Calls For Violent Videogame Ban

The name Greg Smith may not be as instantly recognizable as, say, Michael Atkinson, but that might be about to change. Despite making hopeful noises about Australia’s slow but seemingly inexorable march toward an R18+ videogame rating, Smith, the Attorney General for New South Wales, now says that games like Grand Theft Auto should be banned outright. (Link)

title: “Week In Review” ShowToc: true date: “2025-03-12” author: “Mike Eichmann”

Bioshock Infinite Creator Discusses Real World Political Parallels

If you’ve looked at videos of BioShock Infinite and thought, “wow, this really reminds me of the Tea Party,” then have no fear, because you’re most definitely not alone. Ken Levine, the game’s creative director, says that there are plenty of parallels between real world events and the politics of BioShock Infinite.(Link)

Console Minecraft Exclusive to Xbox 360

Markus Persson – the creator of Minecraft more commonly known as Notch – announced that his viral PC game would be coming to consoles this past E3. The nuts-and-bolts of adapting the controls to a gamepad aside, the proposition of Minecraft entering people’s living rooms was an exciting one. Unfortunately for people who own two of the three major consoles though, Notch said via Twitter that Minecraft will be exclusive to the Xbox 360 and it releases in Spring 2012. (Link)

Ubisoft Becomes First Major Publisher to Open Studio in Middle East

Videogames do not have a strong presence in a region more known for conflict than creativity. But that hasn’t stopped the city of Abu Dhabi from attempting to become a cultural hub for the Middle East. As part of the initiative called the twofour54 Media Zone Authority, Ubisoft will become the first foreign videogame publisher to open a studio in Abu Dhabi this December. The studio will hire and train local talent through a sister “gaming academy” that aims to get people up to speed on making videogames. Over the next five years, the French publisher plans to hire more than 100 developers to create online games that will specifically appeal to the region’s cultural mores as well as a worldwide audience. (Link)

Nintendo Braces For First-Ever Loss

It wasn’t all that terribly long ago that Nintendo’s dominance of the videogame market was absolute. Despite gimmicky motion controls and anemic hardware, the Wii ruled the console playground with an iron fist while the DS went more or less entirely unchallenged in the handheld market. But things started to slow down in 2009 and now Nintendo appears to be almost in full rout. (Link)

Iwata Apologizes For Ugly Nintendo Financials

Yesterday was not a good day for Nintendo. The company posted a half-year loss of $932 million and revised its full-year forecast down to a $264 million loss, the first time the company has posted a full-year loss since it began making public financial reports in 1981. Today didn’t get much better for Iwata, who issued a statement taking responsibility for the company’s falling fortunes even as he expressed optimism for the future. (Link)

title: “Week In Review” ShowToc: true date: “2025-02-04” author: “James Montague”

Gearbox Remembers Late Fan With Touching Borderlands 2 Tribute

When Michael John Mamaril passed away of cancer at the far-too-young age of 22, his friend Carlo thought to memorialize his late pal by petitioning developer Gearbox Software to permanently inscribe Mamaril in the annals of gaming history. This wasn’t something that Gearbox had to do, nor was Mamarill previously known to the development team, and yet his memory will now live on in every copy of Borderlands 2. (Link)

Zetas Cartel Frees Kidnap Victim Following Anonymous Threats

The Zetas, for those who don’t keep up with the shadowy world of Mexican drug cartels, is widely considered to be the worst of the worst. The group was founded by deserters from the Mexican Army Special Forces who began working as a mercenary army for the Gulf Cartel but eventually grew to become the country’s second-most-powerful – and far and away most viciously violent – drug cartel. They have butchered hundreds of rival cartel members and innocent civilians alike; in 2010, the group killed 72 people in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas and in 2011, another mass grave in the state containing at least 193 bodies was also attributed to the group. These are not guys to be messed with. (Link)

Modern Warefare 3 Nutcase Threatens to Blow Up Best Buy

Call of Duty really seems to bring out the Einsteins, doesn’t it? First we had the criminal mastermind who was picked up at a midnight launch event after abotched robbery attempt and now comes the sordid tale of Lomorin Sar, a 31-year-old man from Colorado who was mightily disappointed when he learned that his local Best Buy had screwed up his Modern Warfare 3 preorder. (Link)

Former Team Bondi Chief Speaks Out

The post-L.A. Noire breakdown of Team Bondi has been well documented but the one man who hasn’t had much to say about it, until now, is former studio head Brendan McNamara. McNamara earned himself a reputation as a tyrant and a bully in the waning days of Team Bondi’s swan song, which he says contributed to the demise of his studio even though it was unjustified. (Link)

Modern Warfare 3 Blows Up Single Day Sales Record

Two years ago, Modern Warfare 2 was a smash hit from day one, selling nearly 7 million copies to make its publisher very happy with $310 million in revenue.Black Ops followed suit the next year by generating $360 million the first 24 hours it was available. This week, MW3 sold an estimated 6.5 million copies for an ungodly amount of $400 million. Everyone wanted to get their hands on the game, including a few weirdos. Activision president Mr. Bobby Kotick is undoubtedly pleased with these results, as the Call of Duty series has come under attack from EA’s Battlefield 3. (Link)

title: “Week In Review” ShowToc: true date: “2025-02-28” author: “Carmen Pullon”

French Power Company Fined For Hacking Greenpeace

A French judge found the state-owned nuclear power company EDF guilty of hacking the email of Greenpeace France back in 2006. The security chief hired a private firm called Kargus Consultants to infiltrate the environmental group to determine their plans for protesting the opening of nuclear plants in the UK. Judge Isabelle Prévost-Desprez fined EDF €1.5 million ($2,062,610) and ordered the company to pay damages of half a million euros ($687,535) directly to Greenpeace. Several executives were also fined and will serve up to three years in jail for the hacking. (Link)

Minecraft Is Finished

Thus tweeted Minecraft creator and Mojang AB founder Notch early this morning. Minecraft 1.0, or simply Minecraft, will be available to download on November the 18th. Though this technically means the game is ready for release, it doesn’t mean it’s completely done, as Notch has promised Mojang will continue adding features for “a long time after the full release.” (Link)

Gamers’ Brains Are Different

The bad news is that, according to the study, frequent gamers have the same sense of reward as pathological gamblers. The study discovered that when a gamer “loses,” the reward centers of their brain activate, dispersing dopamine into the system, encouraging them to disregard the loss and continue playing. Much like gamblers, frequent gamers had a larger ventral striatum – colloquially called the ‘reward center’ – than other respondents. So next time someone says gaming makes you stupid, you can whip out your ventral striatum and show them a thing or two. (Link)

PlayStation 3 Turns Five Years Old

On November 17th, 2006, you could buy a PlayStation 3 in North America for a cool $599. Sure, having a Blu-Ray player for that amount of money in addition to a gaming system wasn’t terrible, but you could say the chips were stacked against Sony’s new console. The pricepoint ended up dropping, and several great exclusive titles have brought accolades to make the PS3 one of the most successful videogame consoles ever. To commemorate the five year anniversary, Sony asked several prominent game developers to list their favorite PS3 games and the diversity of their responses might surprise you. (Link)

Telltale Employees Caught Reviewing Their Own Game

Jurassic Park, the latest adventure game from the guys behind the latter Sam and Max games and the excellent Hector: Badge of Carnage, hasn’t been fairing too well with the critics. The three professional reviews it’s received start at 60 and get lower from there, and the Metacritic user reviews were even worse. That is, until a series of four positive user reviews cropped up in quick succession, each giving the game a solid ten and lathering on the praise. (Link)

title: “Week In Review” ShowToc: true date: “2025-02-09” author: “Scott Salvo”

Valve’s Gabe Newell Says Piracy Is a Service Problem

The CEO and cofounder of Valve is never short on opinions. As the creator of some of the most beloved games titles (Team Fortress 2, Portal, Half-Life) and owner of the most pervasive online gaming portal for the PC platform, Gabe Newell has earned the right to express them. In an interview for the University of Cambridge’s school newspaper, Newell said that the way to end piracy is to provide a service that’s more complete than cracked software, and that restrictive DRM only encourages more piracy. (Link)

Study: Don’t Use Wi-Fi Near Your Junk

Mainstream news outlets always seem to cry wolf at various technologies posing health problems. Remember how cell phones were supposed to give you brain cancer and infect your soul with spirit of Mephistopheles? So it is with great skepticism that I present to you a study from Argentina that proves sperm cells – one half of the necessary ingredients to make tiny baby humans – were never meant to browse the internet. (Link)

Creepy Skyrim Serial Killer Keeps Heads on Shelves

Skyrim is now well-recognized as the pinnacle in open-ended and emergent gameplay. The designers at Bethesda have provided a fantasy sandbox where players are generally able to do whatever they wish. While some players have scoffed at not being able to murder children – and installed mods which allowed such “pedo-cide” – one player decided to turn the creep-factor up to eleven without any apparent mods. The one-handed or two-handed weapon perk decapitation performs the killing blow by cutting off the victim’s head. YouTube poster “Symixable” created a video of his house which he just happened to decorate with the bodies and heads of the women he has killed in Skyrim. (Link)

Game Industry Grows $132,000 for Movember

Movember isn’t just an excuse for men to get sexy, you know. Behind all that luscious machismo lies a very good cause: raising awareness and funds to support research into treatments for prostate and testicular cancer. They’re not as flashy as boobs but they’re the parts we’ve got, so we do what we can with ’em. (Link)

Notch Steps Down as Lead Developer on Minecraft

In a post made to his personal blog this morning,Minecraft creator and Mojang founder Markus “Notch” Persson announced that he has stepped down as lead developer of the popular sandbox indie game. Jens “Jeb_” Bergensten will be taking over as lead developer, having worked on updates for Minecraft for the past year. (Link)

title: “Week In Review” ShowToc: true date: “2025-02-04” author: “Derrick Case”

2011 Holiday Buyer’s Guide

We’ve come to that time of year once again, dear friends. That time when you’ll lose many of your sanity points not only trying to figure out what to get the nerd in your life, but also what to suggest your clueless loved ones procure for you. To the rescue comes your friends at The Escapist! (Link)

Modern Warfare 3 Bans Depend on “Douchiness of the Offense”

This week hasn’t been a great one for equitable bans so far. Now, in an incidental attempt to remind us of the value of even-handed justice, Infinity Ward creative strategist Robin Bowling has revealed the nature of the ban-scale used by his studio’s security teams. “Every ban [is] unique to the level of douchiness of the offense,” he said on Twitter. “The greater the douche the greater the length [of the ban]. PermaDouche possible.” (Link)

Peruvian Scientists Discover Alien Corpse

The image at right depicts a mummified body recently unearthed by Peruvian anthropologist Renato Davila Riquelme that he believes is an extraterrestrial. Or, more specifically, that he originally believed to be a deformed human child, before Russian scientists swooped in and said, “Да друга. То есть чужой.” (Roughly translated: “Yup, that’s an alien.”) (Link)

Here Is The G.I. Joe Film You’ve Been Waiting For

Let’s be honest about something: G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra was pretty much a giant middle finger from Hollywood to … well, everyone, but especially those of us who grew up in the 1980s watching the animated series. Two years later, it looks like a fan has succeeded where The Rise of Cobra failed with Operation: Red Retrieval. He’s created a live-action G.I. Joe movie that is gritty, fun, violent, and slightly ridiculous. (Link)

South Korea’s “Shutdown Law” Takes Effect

South Korea’s government has long been worried about the prevalence of online gaming addiction in its tech-savvy country. Fearing the effects that high levels of addiction could have on its future (specifically, everyone failing school), the government passed a Shutdown Law in April this year which would ban all gamers aged under 16 from playing online games between midnight and 6:00 am. Earlier this week, the law went into effect. (Link)

title: “Week In Review” ShowToc: true date: “2025-02-26” author: “Rusty Phillips”

Airline Wants You To Choose Seatmates Via Facebook

Traveling by plane is pretty unpleasant these days, thanks to the crowds, the general lack of comfort, and the hassle of airport security. However, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines is about to kick things up from “unpleasant” to “borderline creepy as Hell” with a new feature that will let passengers choose their seatmates by checking out their social media profiles.

X-Men Movie Pirate Gets One Year In Federal Prison

It’s easy to snicker at the FBI pirating warning before films. “Up to five years in a federal prison?” That never really happens, right? Right? Well, just ask 49-year-old New Yorker Gilberto Sanchez who uploaded an early copy of X-Men Origins: Wolverine to Megaupload one month before its 2009 theatrical release. He’s likely someone who just starting taking it much, much more seriously.

Half-Life 3 Logo Appears on Mystery Website

Point yourself at black-aperture.com and you’ll see something mighty interesting: a very professional-looking Half-Life 3 logo, complete with Steam, Valve and Source tags and even all the proper copyright notifications in fine print. Mouse over the logo and you’ll notice it links to half-life3.com; click it and you’re transported to the Orange Box website. Interesting, and all very legitimate-looking, too. But is it real?

Skyrim Fans Uncover Insectoid Conspiracy

Throughout the frozen wasteland that plays host to the game there are a number of bugs trapped inside various jars. If you’ve played the game for an extended period of time, you’ve likely found one of these imprisoned creatures only to assume that it serves no purpose beyond adding a bit of flavor to the detailed fantasy world. A group of Reddit users with far too much time and an abundance of creative reasoning skills however, has discerned a far more sinister purpose behind the glass prisons.

Go Daddy Drops SOPA Support After Boycott Threat

Nothing is more powerful than the collective internet grouch, as domain host Go Daddy learned this week. The company public supported SOPA – the piece of legislation meant to stop piracy but will actually break the internet – and scoffed at the public’s plan to boycott the company and take their domain hosting business to a company that wasn’t so dumb. Then, within 24 hours of the endorsement, Go Daddy’s CEO flipped her position and withdrew support from SOPA. “In changing its position, Go Daddy remains steadfast in its promise to support security and stability of the Internet,” the company said. Yeah right, and I’m a Chinese jet pilot.