First they said that efuse would brick your Droid x if you tried to reflash it. When that didn’t work and we started to reflash our, more than willing, droids they had to change their strategy a bit.

Now Motorola is not only suing and sending cease and desist letters to all of the sites hosting the leaked froyo update for the Droid x, but they are warning users that if they update to the leaked Rom they won’t be able to update to the official version when it releases.

While I understand that a company wants their devices to operate a certain way, I don’t understand the sudden “do it our way or screw off” aditude that some companies have taken (ahem, AT&T).  HTC recently had the same basic issue with the leaked froyo update for the Evo 4g, however, HTC told Evo early updaters that while their handsets wouldn’t update when the official Rom came out they would be working on a fix for the issue and had that fix out in a matter of weeks.

It seems to me that Motorola is trying to make a platform that is inherently open and ready for this kind of customization more closed off and like that other “closed system” that we all love to talk about.

The only piece of advice I can give Motorola is this: any time you create a prohibition you create an underground.  I hope that as Android gets more popular that more people get brave and start making their phones do what they want them to do instead of what the maker or carrier wants them to do.  Also, before any of you say it in the comments, I do not expect phone makers to cover your phone with a warranty once you start messing with it. You break it doing something it wasn’t originally made to do and that is your problem.  Just don’t tell us we can’t do it.

(Midlife crisis?)

An adult in the life of one of the boys found nude pictures of the woman, Christine Shreeve Hubbs, on a cell phone and contacted the police. Upon securing a search warrant, officers found sex messages between Hubbs and each of the boys, and pictures ranging from sex acts to nude photos.

Right now she’s being held in prison with bail set at $4.3 million. Hubbs procured an attorney immediately and isn’t speaking with anyone about the charges. Authorities said the boys were victimized, and that they were confused and manipulated into the relationship with the gifts Hubbs gave them.

In her hometown she is known as the “Mormon Mom” who drives a large black hummer, dresses like a teenager herself, and looks much younger than her 42-years. The two boys who came forward admitted to having sex with her in her vehicle and hotel rooms.

[Source: KTVU | HBG]

Mark Ruffalo is the Hulk, Edward Norton is out. Jeremy Renner is Bullseye, and Whedon is directing the avengers movie.

So much more after the jump!

A trailer for the new animated show Young Justice on Cartoon Network

Karl Urban is Judge Dredd in a soon to be announced movie.

Image comics Chew, about a man with psychic abilities derived by eating what he wants to learn about, is being made into a TV show.

Abin Sur, who gives Hal Jordon his ring in Green Lantern, is on display at comic con. Well, his corpse is. Hee hee… Green Lantern Corpse hee hee

World War Z, a fantastic book detailing the history of the fictional war on zombies, is being made with Bradd Pitt starring.

A trailer for the animated Goon has been released, I’m mega happy for this.

Do you like aliens? You better! Next year we’ll see:
Battle:LA, Skyline, Falling Skies (with Noah Wyle!), and Cowboys & Aliens

The trailer for the new Disney XD Avengers cartoon has been released, I’m mega excited! Why? because Constrictor!

Sucker Punch, a movie that can only be described as “Alice in Wonderland, with guns” has had some images released.

These guys are assholes with no respect for human life. Below are some pictures of the signs they carry to events, for real, I didn’t change anything. These are real signs the crazy douches use.

This time they are picketting Comic Con Why? read a quote from the WBC below

” If these people would spend even some of the energy that they spend on these comic books, reading the Bible, well no high hopes here. They have turned comic book characters into idols, and worship them they do! Isaiah 2:8 Their land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made: 9 And the mean man boweth down, and the great man humbleth himself: therefore forgive them not. It is time to put away the silly vanities and turn to God like you mean it. The destruction of this nation is imminent – so start calling on Batman and Superman now, see if they can pull you from the mess that you have created with all your silly idolatry.”

Does anyone else think this as crazy as I do? I know a ton of comic fans, and a lot are religious as well. There is no reason these two things can’t be appreciated by the same people. I hate these people, and I’m pretty sure if I ever gained super powers there would be a real problem on the WBC’s hands.

What do you think? Are they going too far, or are they just trying to gain some more fame by going to one of the largest gatherings in Hollywood?

Anthony Damien Smythe, 23, was found dead in his seat in the Reading Cinema complex on Courtenay Place by a security guard at the end of the 6 p.m. screening of the latest Twilight film, Eclipse, on Sunday night. Click on the read more tab to hear what may have caused it and what local police are saying.

Ambulance and fire officers attended the scene and tried to resuscitate him.

“Preliminary results of the post-mortem examination conducted yesterday show there are no suspicious circumstances regarding his death,” Detective Senior Sergeant Scott Miller said.

Police are now investigating on behalf of the coroner who will determine the cause of death.

I don’t like to make fun of the death of such a young person, but he WAS watching Twilight all by himself.

My guess? He was really rootin’ for Team Jacob, or he was bored to death. Honestly, though, the most likely scenario is that after watching Kristen Stewart try to act for a couple hours his body said “F*$K IT!” and just gave up on life.

To me, the scary thing is that a security guard found him, meaning no one else in the theater thought it suspicious that he didn’t get up to leave when the movie ended. Sure, they could have thought he was sleeping, but common courtesy says you nudge the guy and at least tell him the crappy movie he spent $20 on is over.

Shiny, small, and wifi oh my.  In true Microsoft fashion the big “M” has beat E3 to the punch by announcing their new Xbox 360 console which is smaller than the original along with a new cooling system, shinny finish and a hard drive that slides into the system itself.

Microsoft announced that the new design will be shipping to retailers by the time you read this so expect to see them in store real soon.  Here are some of the bullet points of the new system:

- "Much quieter"
- Different power supply—it’s still big but nearly weightless 
- 250GB internal hard drive, which is still swappable.
- There are five USB ports now, with three in the back and two in the front 
- A custom Kinect port (not a standard USB port—it’s a USB port that can feed more power)
- Touch sensitive on/off and eject buttons (like the PS3) (audio feedback when you turn it on.)
- Internal components that have changed: two small fans changed into one large fan for quieter operation, 45nm integrated CPU and GPU 
- AV cable included,  HDMI and optical audio ports (no HDMI cable yet)
- External Xbox 360 hard drives and memory units are NOT compatible with the new Xbox

You can buy the data transfer cable that was used to transfer data from your 20gb drive to the new 120gb when they released for $20 or you can use a thumb drive and do it one piece at a time.

At first I was a little bit turned off by the lines of the new design, but I must say that this new take is beginning to grow on me.  What do you think?  Will any of you be buying this new system?

(Picture courtesy of Microsoft)

Well AT&T, what do you have to say for yourself?

For those of you just tuning in, AT&T has announced their new tiered data plans just in time for the new iPhone.  Other carriers have talked about it (Verizon) but AT&T was the first one brave enough to do it. 

The new plans seem to cater to the mass of AT&T customers that don’t use their data quite that much and don’t want to pay as much for 200 MB as a person using 2GB. (Descriptions after the break) 

These plans (effective June 7th) are as follows: DataPlus has a 200MB cap for $15 a month and 7.5 cents for extra MBs  –  DataPro has a 2GB cap for $25 a month and 1.25 cents for extra MBs –  DataPro + Tethering has a 2GB cap and for $45 a month and 2.25 cents for extra MBs.  If you look at the numbers it does seem that AT&T is making you pay more for less.  AT&T also says that if you go over your 200MB you can upgrade to the 2GB plan without any trouble and if you go over your 2GB you’ll get another 1GB for $10 for every 1GB you go over.  If you are smarter than AT&T seems to think you are that means that for the same 5GB of data you are getting right now you would be paying $55.

Not only are the new prices a little bit of a snag but AT&T is also charging you more based on how you use your data($20 more just to tether)

There are some rays of sunshine on this dark day.  If you are already an AT&T customer then DON’T CHANGE YOUR DATA PLAN.  By keeping your data plan the same you will be grandfathered in and you can stick it to AT&T every chance you get.

It seems (me having a blackberry) that this is good news for RIM due to the fact that their phones use less data than other smartphones on the market, however, this could ruin the iPad on AT&T.  My opinion is that AT&T wanted to keep the exclusivity on the iPhone and apple said no. Then, just to spite, AT&T decided to make money in any way they could while their main cash cow jumped the fence.

Being geeks, what do all of you think?  Will you stay with AT&T and a grandfathered plan then stick it to them or will you jump ship and go to a better (or at least more open) network.  Verizon might be following suite with AT&T if they hold to their current plan (will they if they get the iPhone) so our choices are Sprint or T-Mobile.  I, for one, am exploring my options on other networks but will be using as much of AT&T’s data as I can until I switch.

So that being said,  I reiterate; what do you have to say for yourself AT&T?

A legend among men, actors, and all of us who strive to be cooler than we are left us after teaching us the valuable lesson of how not to “etch ones cool”.

Dennis Hopper passed on May 29th and left us with one of the most revered filmographies to date. Hopper started his career in 1955 with his role in Rebel Without a Cause (among other TV apperances). In 1969, Hopper directed and starred in Easy Rider which became a celuloid repersentation of the 1960′s.

All of you are probably wondering about Mr. Hopper’s geek cred. Well, let us not forget who played King Koopa in the 1993 (flop for regular people semi-ok movie for geeks) adaptation of Super Mario Bros.

Whether you like his movies, his directing, his philosophies, or just his attitude. We can all agree the world is a little less cool without Dennis Hopper to show us how its done. Our thoughts are with his family and friends.

“I should have been dead ten times over. I’ve thought about that a lot. I believe in miracles. It`s an absolute miracle that I`m still around.” – Dennis Hopper

R.I.P. Dennis Hopper

Today is a sad day for fans of the show Diff’rent Strokes and Gary Coleman.

The 42-year-old actor died in a Utah Hospital today. He was hospitalized earlier this week because of head injuries. He went into a coma and was put on life support on Thursday. His wife chose to take him off of life support earlier today in the AM and he died from an intracranial hemorrhage around noon (MST).

Our condolences to his family and friends.

[source]

Not quite, but it is pretty magical all the same.  At Google IO this week Google announced Google TV, a software platform that will be installed in TV’s, set top boxes, and even a DISH box.  GTV has a few basic requirements for it’s hardware: An Atom (or better) processor, Bluetooth, IR (with a transmitting “blaster”), Wi-Fi, and Ethernet, discrete GPU, HDMI-out, all while supporting a keyboard and a pointing device, as well as more traditional remotes.  All of these products should start to arrive at Best Buy by fall of 2010.

What makes GTV different?  When you want to watch a show just use the Google-ish search page and GTV will either turn the channel on your receiver or go to the web and find it for you.  It will also integrate very closely with Android (you will be able to use your phone as a remote and even use it’s voice recognition features to change channels just by talking).

GTV will have access to the entire Android app store and although some of the cellphone apps won’t look “great” on your tv, but with the SDK being available 2011 means we’ll be seeing tv-specific apps soon after GTV becomes popular.  Apps got a little applause from the crowds at Google IO, but when the big G announced that GTV would support Flash (the real kind with games and movies) the earth shook just a little bit.

Google hasn’t even begun to tell us everything that Google TV can do and it already sounds like an amazing platform.  Are any of you going to be looking to Best Buy this fall?

What could possibly be any better than playing The Stimulus Map Pack on Modern Warfare 2 till the wee hours of the morning, fragging noobs with extreme joy?  Playing the NEW map pack of course.  The Resurgence Map Pack release date has been set, June 3rd (Playstation date have yet to be announced).

Sticking with what works Infinity Ward is putting five maps into the pack, three new and two old.  The two old maps are Vacant and Strike.  Carnival, Trailer Park, and Fuel make up the three new environments.  Fuel is a snipers haven.  Set in an oil refinery, Fuel is littered with abandoned warehouses, pumps and outposts with a large open area in between.  Trailer Park is, as it sounds, a very close quarters map that is described as belonging to the owners of the boneyard (in the single player campaign) and last but not least (and the one I’m most looking forward to) Carnival.  Carnival is just that, a carnival; roller coasters, a fun house, and even a world of tomorrow.  Being a daytime map, Carnival sounds like fun based on the thought of sniping from the top of a roller coaster.

Resurgence will be available for Xbox 360 owners on June 3rd for 1200 Microsoft points ($15).

So readers, are you going to buy this map pack?  What maps are you most looking forward to?

Why, listening to geek talk when you’re not online (or when you are, who are we to judge).

That’s right 8 Days A Geek will be producing our own bi-weekly podcast starting with our first episode on June 16th.  We will be posting each episode in the blog itself so that you can go to the same site for your geek stories and geek podcasts.  As soon as we begin posting episodes we will start adding them to the most common podcast directories (ie. iTunes and Zune Marketplace).  If enough of our readers become listeners we are prepared to start a live stream of the podcast so you can listen uncut and chat with us in the process.

Keep reading and hopefully start listening.

(My first post of this got somewhat deleted so I reposted)

Ok, the first thing to mention is that this is only a beta (a very stable and quick beta at that).

The screen above is my home screen, you are able to have a new tweet box at the top to reduce tweeting time but I think that it gets in the way and it defiantly takes up more screen real-estate. On this screen you have direct access to your timeline, mentions, lists, your profile, DM’s, find people, find tweets, and trending topics.

It’s your average twiter client with a few little upgrades that you never even knew you wanted, but once RIM gives them to you, you’ll never what to be without them again. Most of these features are just integrations with the blackberry os. Go to your pictures and select send/share from the menu and twiiter is at the top. When you press that, without opening the twitter client, a small context screen shows at the bottom of your screen. Add a tweet and send, quick, simple, effective. Just like RIM.

I’ve used Seesmic for quite awhile on my Bold 9700 and I have fallen in love with the picture preview option, meaning that you can see a tweeted photo without opening the tweet itself. If you want to see more than a preview in Seesmic you have to open the pic’s address in the browser and view it there. On RIM’s client you simply open the tweet and select the picture, the client will then open it full screen and give you a good look at it without having to go to the web. This saves me undeterminable amounts of time.

Smooth kinetic scrolling, great integration and a great UI. I think this might just be my next preferred client. If you have a blackberry and use twiiter go to the app store test center or the Beta zone website and get your copy of the public beta. It’s worth it. Great job RIM.

Full gallery here:

(Review of the client to come as soon as tomorrow check back to see what we think)

Photo property of RIM

If the Black Blackberry Bold 9700 is just a little too butch for you or you live in a hermetically sealed home you might be interested to know that a white version of the newest Blackberry smartphone has been seen on the company’s Thai site. The track pad is still black giving this new addition to the family a cute “button nose” look.

Are you interested in this new color palette that, I think, makes the phone look a little like a toy phone? Let us know in the comments.

Xiao Wei, a 16-year-old Chinese boy, was playing Counter-Strike against opponents in the same Mishazi cafe with a friend. A group of said opponents walked over to the pair and accused Xiao and his friend of using a software hack to cheat and win their matches.

The argument was dragged outside, where the stabbing occurred. Strangely enough, Xiao stayed conscious with the 14cm blade sticking into skull until he was put under for surgery. The blade didn’t come in contact with any main arteries or nerves, but the doctors did say there might be post-surgery complications.

Xiao’s friend was stabbed in the arm during the fight.

1) The gamers in that cafe take their Counter-Strike seriously.

2) The gamers in that cafe are a little stab-happy.

3) I wonder what kind of scar that’s going to leave…

[source]

If you own a Wii and ordered you netflix streaming disc your in for a surprise. It should arrive in the next couple of days. The first batch of discs just shipped out this morning.

I wish that netflix and the console companies would just get together and make an update so that I wouldn’t have to switch discs to watch streaming movies. I watch streaming media so that I don’t have to switch discs. Oh well, its a start and its better than nothing.

If you own a Wii did you or will you order one of these discs?

What about you? Will you upgrade your 360′s hdd to give your content some breathing room?

Leave us some comments here or in the forums about what you think of the mobile site. Thanks for reading.

If you’re on AT&T your smart phone options will be opening up just a little bit more “in the coming months”. AT&T officially announced that the Palm Pre Plus and Palm Pixi Plus would be coming to “the nations fastest 3G network”. Rumor is that both phones will be $150 + a mail-in rebate that takes them down to $50 a piece.

The specs on both of the phones will be the same as their CDMA counterparts apart from their network. Palm just released their earnings numbers Friday and let’s just say they were worse than anyone thought. Can putting the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus on AT&T save the company? Only time will tell.

Rumor also has it that the “Hotspot” feature (turning the phone into a wifi hotspot) will not be available.  Go figure that AT&T would take the only good thing out of the phone before releasing it.  Hey AT&T inprove your network to handle the traffic don’t limit the traffic to save your network.

Is the Palm Pre Plus or Pixi Plus a phone that you would buy on AT&T?

The wifi only iPad, however, would be a different story.

I also think it’s funny that the Sprint owner “Matt” (as in Matt Carter president of Sprint 4G) and the iPhone owner “Steve” (you already know this one) are the characters chosen for the ad. Also, at the end of the ad, “Matt” takes a bite out of an apple. Clever, Sprint. Kudos.

What do you think? Is 3G fast enough or do you need “more cowbell”.

Google has officially (also quietly) released the nexus one with frequencies to operate on AT&T and Rogers. I for one can’t wait to get my hands on one of these. I’m just not sure if I can go from a Blackberry with 2 days of battery to a nexus one with 6 hours.

What do all of you think? Would you buy a nexus one on AT&T?

We’ve lost a Lost Boy. (Too soon? Maybe.) And yes, while he technically wasn’t one of the “lost boys” in that movie… well, most of you get it. He’s the kid on the left in the picture. He was a teen idol in the 80′s, along with Corey Feldman. Over the past five or so years he was involved in a few different shows and movies, and was starting to get more and more involved in the movie industry. Check out Wikipedia and IMDB for more details.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to find a channel that’s going to play The Lost Boys.

How many of you love Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 1 & 2? Well it’s developer Infinity Ward is having a few family problems.  On March 1st G4 broke the story of Jason West and Vince Zampella (the two minds behind the Modern Warfare franchise) had been fired by Activision.

No one knew what was going on at “The Ward”, at one point Jason and Vince were in a meeting the next there were “bouncer looking guys” roaming the office.  The next day  Activision issued a press release assuring fans that they have big plans for the Call of Duty franchise.  Activision also released the news of a new COD game coming in 2011 as well as a new take on the franchise from one of their newest studios, Sledgehammer Games. They also confirmed that Jason and Vince are in fact gone from the company.

On March 3rd Jason and Vince issued a press release stating that they were suing Activision for the events surrounding their termination.

On March 4th, a memo leaked from Activision hinting on to the company looking for “documents regarding West and Zampella’s communications with Activisions competitors, including but not limited to Electronic Arts.”

What are you thoughts on this?  I think that Activision was simply trying to cut out the middle man.  Also I think that Activision wanted to do  another Modern Warfare and Jason and Vince wanted to go a different direction.

Any way you slice it we need not cry for Jason or Vince. I guarantee that their phones are ringing off the hook with studios and company wanting to grab up the brains behind MW.  We here at 8DAG wish them the best of luck and look forward to playing their next masterpiece.

UPDATE: Everyone can start coming out of the bunker now.  No official word has been put forth by Sony but it appears that PS3 systems affected by this bug are beginning to work again.  No patch or firmware upgrade was needed.  If your PS3 has suffered from this bug leave a comment telling us of your ordeal and if it started working again for you.

ORIGINAL STORY: For a day now PSN, the Playstation Network, has been of the fritz; throwing the error 8001050F and telling PS3 owners that they have been signed out of PSN.  However, if you own a model older than the new PS3 slim Song has advised that you don’t even turn it on.

We hope to resolve this problem within the next 24 hours. In the meantime, if you have a model other than the new slim PS3, we advise that you do not use your PS3 system, as doing so may result in errors in some functionality, such as recording obtained trophies, and not being able to restore certain data.

Some of the problems encountered include:

-The date being reset to Jan 1, 2000
-Loss of trophies (this is the worst from what I’ve seen)
-Not being able to play games rented from PSN before their due dates

We’ll keep you updated but as Sony says, they are working on the problem.

I have disconnected my PS3 from it’s network so-as not to encounter any of these issues, but without PSN what use is a PS3?  Here’s to hoping for a quick solution.

James Swan is 27 and lives with his grandpa, mother and five young children. He likes to play World of Warcraft and sometimes get drunk while doing so.

On one of those nights his mother asked him turn the volume down at around 10 p.m. so everyone could sleep peacefully. He didn’t. She asked again and this made him angry. He proceeded to grab his mother by the hair and throw her onto the bed. His little brother tried to help the mother, James did the same thing to him.

His mother managed to run to the kitchen and grab the phone. James decided to rip the phone from the wall because of his WoW-induced rage and then proceeded to smash his head through the drywall to prove some kind of point. (Was it, “Hey look, I get unreasonably angry over little things and now I will hurt everything!!”)

After he was done with that, he started to choke his mother until she blacked out. During said choke-fest he said he was going to kill her. His grandfather came into the room and tried to get him to stop—James also said he was going to kill him too. Grandpa got a revolver from his room and the two men struggled with it.

It went off.

A bullet grazed James’ head and went out a window.

James was taken to the hospital where he refused medical treatment and was promptly arrested for the assault.

I don’t know where to start with the commentary that’s running through my head, so I’ll type out the one that is the most prevalent: CRAZY MAN NEEDS A STRAIGHT JACKET.

[HBL via TCR]

While playing Modern Warfare 2, a Texas teenager told his Canadian party that he was going to take a few guns to school, that he would get from a Marine friend, and shoot a pregnant girl and his best friend. He also said “that because SWAT may be on the scene within 10 minutes, they would have to aim for the head.”

The Canadian gamer called the local police, who called Microsoft, who linked the gamertag to the boy in San Antonio, Texas, where the local police were notified of the threat and acted accordingly,

The 16-year-old boy, was arrested and suspended from school invariably, AKA expelled. A locker search turned up nothing and the kid “was very remorseful and very scared,” according to a spokesman for the school district. (He probably wanted to crap his pants.) The spokesman also said, “We believe that the boy truly was sorry for what he was doing, but in this day and age you have to take all of these kinds of verbal statements, these verbal threats, very seriously and he’s going to have to learn that the hard way.”

The San Antonio Police started the investigation as soon as they received the phone call from the Canadian authorities. I’m not clear what his punishment will be since he’s underage, but since a school was involved the charge is a state jail felony, not a misdemeanor.

Ouch.

[HBL via San Antonio Express-News]

Welcome, welcome. All links go to places other than this site. Do these annoy you?

Christopher Nolan might direct the Superman reboot.

Ebayer got $13k for an NES+5 game bundle.

Chris Pine (Capt. Kirk) on the short list to be Captain America.

Wil Wheaton will be the inaugural keynote speaker at PAX East.

Netflix doesn’t care about streaming HD, being buddies with Nintendo.

Yale gets $3.9 million to develop a sex-ed video game.

Last two characters for Resident Evil 5 Gold Edition revealed.

Belarus (a country we’ve hardly heard of) rips off The Big Bang Theory.

New Spider-man will be in 3D.

MTV seriously discusses five actors who could play The Riddler, no sarcasm intended.

A new approach to reselling, cds, dvds, books and games on the internet.

Top 10 Geek love stories that end tragically.

Little Big Planet to get a full sequel.

There might be a PS3 shortage in the next few months.

Alan Wake won’t be releasing on the PC.

BioShock 2′s hacking system is no good for colorblind gamers.

Ebayer got $13k for an NES+5 game bundle.

Chris Pine (Capt. Kirk) on the short list to be Captain America.

Have you ever been putting on your coat at a restaurant and accidentally set off the gun that you were carrying only to have it shoot your girlfriend in the leg?  Yeah me neither.  That’s exactly what happened to Anthony Holtvogt and I bet he was relieved when he found out that all his girlfriend (or ex-girlfriend at that point) would walk away with is a bruise.

In a perfect example of “right place, right time” the greatest, most powerful, most fantastical…
Wait,  that last one may not be a word.  Any who,  her Blackberry smartphone stopped the bullet in it’s tracks leaving her with only the previously mentioned bruise.

Hey iPhone, you got an app for that?

Jo Frost is the Supernanny. Basically, she takes unruly kids and the parents they walk all over and turns them into rule-abiding, behaved families. This woman does not sugar coat the truth, she tells the parent exactly what she sees and advises them on how to fix it.

The first episode of her new show Jo Frost: Extreme Parental Guidance, centered around an issue that has plagued poor parents for about 30 years now… violent video games and their effect on children.

She, along with a doctor, conducted an experiment. 40 boys were asked to play a game for 20 minutes. Half of them played a football game, the other half played a FPS war game, then they had to watch some violent news footage and get their heart rate monitored.

The boys who played the FPS shooter didn’t react as much to the news footage as the boys who played the (probably) Madden football game. According to Jo, only 20 minutes of a violent game was enough to desensitize the boys to violence in real life and perhaps make it easier for them to commit violent acts of their own.

Later on in the program, the boys were being questioned by the doctor. He knocked over a cup of pencils (accidently) during their conversation about the games to gauge how empathetic each child would be to the plight of the perilous pencils now rolling around on the floor. Forty percent of the boys who played the FPS shooter picked up the pencils, thus showing that not only were they desensitized to violence, they were desensitized to being helpful… and less empathetic, I suppose. Eighty percent of the other group cleaned up the mess.

If I were to apply the results of this study to my own life, I would be a war monger. I have played hours and hours of Gears of War Horde with two of my favorite guys, and delight in the dismemberment of my enemies. I have Fairytale Fights, self described as Ultra Violent but cute!, sitting next  to my 360 calling over to me. I  giggled when I threw bodies around in Bioshock to stun/kill enemy splicers. Hey, guess what. I hate killing spiders and most insects, unless they’re out to get me. I hate hurting people, unless they’re hurting me, and I cherish the life of myself and those around me, and would never, ever willingly take one.

Like the source article says, correlation is not validation. These kids were placed in a clinical environment and then questioned. This would make anyone uncomfortable, so the results, in my opinion, are skewed. We knew nothing of the children’s family and social life, which is a large impact on anyone and shapes the person and his or her behavior.

It’s really easy to blame problems on something else. Until parents, guardians and people in society that blindly agree with the “video games are evil!!” sentiment really look into the issue for themselves, this opinion will  float around and people like me will keep on writing about it, and railing against it.

In 20 years a real study might come out that validates the video games = evil people idea. If that happens, I will eat my words. And then probably go play a FPS shooter, or something.

[source]

It comes down to a simple reason: Public Relations.

The consoles were to be used in place of the PCs that are currently used for training and education, but Microsoft didn’t want to sell the Xbox 360 or license XNA game development tools to the Army at a trade show in 2006. (The man wanting to buy them being  Roger Smith, chief technology officer for PEO STRI, the Army command that purchases training equipment. ) This could possibly save the Army millions upon millions of dollars, considering that the PCs cost around a $1,000 for each person, and the 360, with the proper accessories, could max out at $500. And remember, every soldier gets one.

Reasons sited by Microsoft as to why they don’t want the Army to buy up their consoles.

• Microsoft was afraid that the military would buy up lots of Xbox 360s, but would buy only one game for each of them, so MS wouldn’t make much money off of the games.
• A big military purchase could create a shortage of Xbox 360s.
• “If the Xbox became an Army training device, it could taint its reputation. Microsoft was concerned that “do we want the Xbox 360 to be seen as having the flavor of a weapon? Do we want Mom and Dad knowing that their kid is buying the same game console as the military trains the SEALs and Rangers on?” Smith told Wired.com

Wired.com contacted Microsoft about the above reasons and spokesman David Dennis said he didn’t know about Smith’s talks with Microsoft, but that the Army “has multiple avenues to pursue building simulations. They can team up with a professional Xbox 360 publisher and development studio that have the expertise to assist them with development of a complex simulation. In fact, the Army has successfully done this in the past by working with publishers such as Ubisoft (’America’s Army’) and THQ (’Full Spectrum Warrior’). Or, if the Army prefers to build a simulation without engaging game development professionals, Microsoft has also enabled independent developers to create games for the Xbox 360 using the XNA Game Studio development tools, and deploy and play them on retail Xbox 360 consoles using an XNA Premium Creator’s Club membership.”

As of now the Army doesn’t really care about Microsoft and the 360 at the moment, stating that “Our initial enthusiasm when Xbox and XNA were new products has cooled. At this time we have no active or anticipated projects or R&D that are looking at using either of those products for military simulations. I would be happy to reopen these discussions if Microsoft is interested in selling these products to our community.”

[source]

Nintendo announced that they were the victor of an Australian court case involving a man, James Burt, who uploaded the first pirated copy of New Super Mario Brothers Wii onto the internet a week before it’s official release. Captain Burt now owes $1.3 million dollars to Nintendo, for pirating a game that has sold over 10 million copies.

“Upon the game being uploaded to the Internet, Nintendo was able to employ the use of sophisticated technological forensics to identify the individual responsible for illegally copying the file and making it available for further distribution,” Nintendo said in a press release. “On 23 November, 2009, Nintendo obtained a Federal Court search order in respect of the individual’s residential premises. This led to the seizure of property from those premises in order to gain further evidence against the individual.”

And to simply put it: Future pirates, be careful.

The amount of money was determined to appropriately compensate Nintendo for the loss of sales that Captain Burt might have caused. This pirate broke the law, yes he did, and he got caught! It’s only right that he should be punished.

A single individual now owes a multi-billion dollar company a million dollars. I’m sure this is fair in some realm of existence, but not this one. Nintendo, you’re an asshole.

Dante’s Inferno will not be released in the Middle East. EA states, “Electronic Arts has decided not to release Dante’s Inferno in the Middle East after an evaluation process which is based on consumer tastes, preferences, platform mix and other factors.”

The religious area is sensitive to issues dealing with Hell and the afterlife, so this decision isn’t surprising. Dante’s Inferno joins the ranks of banned games, which includes Bayonetta, Darksiders, and God of War 3. God of War 3 was banned for having the word “god” in the title, even though those of that have played the game know that it’s based on Greek/Roman mythology. Well, it’s their decision. They’re probably informed enough to know of the game play.

I have to say the obvious, of course: this will not stop consumers who really want the game from getting it.

[source]

A news round up. Links below go to their respective source.

February 1:

A fan of the Assassin’s Creed series? GameInfomer has a wish list.

Apple won’t support flash. IGN explains.

IGN Movies chats with Ben Kingsley about the  Prince of Persia movie.

Shenmue 3 a possibility? The Gaming Liberty discusses it. (Meanwhile, I’m trying to figure out what system Shenmue 1 and 2 are even for.)

250GB xbox 360 hard drive, for Japan only. (For now.)

Twisted Metal:  is it a reboot or new game? Either way, neither is confirmed–yet.

More!

February 2:

CBS rejects the original Dante’s Inferno game ad.

The new Miss America hates video games. No longer hot.

Final Fantasy XIII is on 3 discs for the 360, one blubber-ray for the PS3.

February 3:

Watch the Bioshock 2 launch trailer.

Short video: Real life Donkey Kong, with barrels and sound effects.

Darksiders sold well, will get a sequel.

February 4:

The Sony Motion Dildo called the Arc by THQ CEO.

Halo is moving to Hollywood–Halo Movie, Halo: Reach.

Sony says “Arc” is still a code name, nameless dildo-like controller is still nameless.

February 5:

Primal Carnage announced in PR statement, with pictures.

“De-Terroristing”  program uses video games.

Mega64 takes to the streets, discusses Mass Effect 2 censorship and alien sex.

February 6:

The video game industry is hoping 2010 is a better fiscal year than 2009.

Bioshock 2 Developers prepared for fan backlash.

Remember Stretch Armstrong, the toy? There’s a movie, and a Twilight guy is starring in it.

I know that since we provide news for quite a few gamers and geeks that a few of you are probably still playing Xbox titles, either on your 360 or like me and on your original Xbox.  Well that’s all and well if you don’t play them online (wait, what about Halo 2, yep that one too).  Microsoft, on April 15th, will be pulling the plug on Xbox Live to all Xbox titles (regardless of which system they are played on).  The games themselves will play just fine but there will be no more “Live Love”.

By discontinuing Live service for original Xbox titles Microsoft will gain much more flexibility with the Live platform through announcements coming “in the next few weeks.”

So Watchmen ended when it ended, so thought the writers, the fans, and about anyone who ever has lifted a comic, but Dan Didio, a man known for good ideas has decided to milk the property for everything it’s worth, this is a bad idea, thus the title. Watchmen was a fully engrossing title that told you the history in a nice little package, and the only way that spin-offs may remotely work is if they were to tell the stories of the Minutemen or if the comics were all just prequels. I Think this is a horrible plan and since I think a Captain Planet movie is a good thing, that’s not good news.

A Saturday news round up, because I’ve been busy with real life and it turns out it.. it’s been a slow week. Links below go to their respective source.

Mass Effect 2 is selling like crazy.

Somalia Islamists group bans video games, as real guns are preferable.

God Of War Slurpee Cups. Brutal brainfreezes.

Disgaea Infinite getting ported to the PSP in May.

Delayed Dragon Age expansion “Return to Ostagar” for PC is now available.

Battfield2: Bad Company PC beta footage leaked, GIANT youtube video available.

Nintendo teases us with hints about what they’ll present at E3.

Mortal Kombat: the movie franchise getting a reboot?

Like the PS3, the Wii will need a disc (free) from Netflix to install the program needed to connect to online library.  Unlike Microsoft’s and Sony’s systems, the Wii will not be able load HD videos.

But, you know, us Wii owners are idiots when it comes to technology, so what do we care about HD? (Uh…that’s a reference to an article on this subject I read earlier that rubbed me the wrong way.)

All this comes from the NY Times, from January 13. Yes, old news. I dropped the wii-mote on this one. There’s a lot more information at the link, quite verbose but informative on the game industry and its worries about the future.

A frustrated update to Twitter from Paul Chambers, 26, saying he would “blow up the Doncaster’s Robin Hood Airport ‘sky high’ if his flight was delayed” led to his arrest a week after it was posted.  It was considered a conspiracy to “create a bomb hoax” under the Terrorism Act.

He was arrested on January 13 and interrogated at the police station for seven hours before being released, his bail pending. The police have since then deleted the (terrorizing) tweet and have the man’s laptop, iPhone and desktop PC. Paul Chambers is now banned from the threatened Airport.

Airport Officials released a statement that supported the police’s decision to arrest Chambers. He is the first person in Britain to be arrested because of his twitter account.

So, Geeklings, do not threaten airports (and other big public places) on the interwebs. In this age of Security Everywhere, we must be careful. Voicing our harmless frustrations isn’t very harmless as it turns out.

[Source]

An 11-year old boy that goes by the name Cameron has had an app in the Apple app store since December called iSketch.  iSketch allows you to draw on your iPhone or iPod Touch (and seems to be one of the best drawing apps out there).  The purpose and function of the app aren’t what tugged at this journalist’s heart string nay; it was the fact that Cameron is donating the majority of his earnings to the Mattel Children’s Hospital UCLA.  Cameron had a medical issue that caused him to become very familiar with hospitals (he is almost fully recovered now) and while he was unable to do some of the things most kids do he began to read.  Cameron would read anything he even watched university lecture on iTunes.  Cameron taught himself programing and then began to develop for the iPhone and iPod Touch because, “the apps offered for sale for use on those devices seemed really cool to him.”

Wow.  I’m not worthy.  I’ll take one lesson on humanity with a side order of charity; hold the greed.

Great job Cameron,  we here at 8 Days a Geek salute you and will pitch your app to everyone who will listen.  Keep it up.

Download Cameron’s app iSketch here.

[picture property of Gizmodo]

I’ll make this short, since it’s not really all that detailed anyway.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez stated on his radio show that the Playstation console is poison and that “some games teach you to kill.” He also said that games featuring bombs and cities were sold by capitalist countries to promote violence that would increase weapons sales in the future.

“Those games they call ‘PlayStation’ are poison,” Chavez said. “Some games teach you to kill. They once put my face on a game, ‘you’ve got to find Chavez to kill him.’” (Mercenaries 2: World in Flames was set in Venezuela but Chavez was never featured in it.)

And, he said that Western countries promoted drugs, alcohol and cigarettes which lead to hell, aka capitalism.

I don’t know about you, but when I think of South America I think of hot women, drugs, and awesome parades and parties, so I think the South has a bit of the drug/alcohol thing going on for itself already.

From GamePolitics.com:

Chavez suggested that Venezuelan should be churning out educational games.

In October, Venezuela’s parliament gave the go-ahead to a ban on videogames that grants the country’s consumer protection society full power in determining what titles would be outlawed in the South American country.

[via GP and IGN]

Romania (or somewhere around there):

Romanian Teen, Ionut Savin, killed his adoptive mother because she refused to pay the Internet bill. She felt that he was addicted and did not want to feed it any longer. She hadn’t lived with the family for the last two years, only returning home this past December to spend time with her family.

Donut (which is easier to type than Ionut) has missed over 200 days of school and rarely left the house because of his gaming habits.  His father and relatives felt that he was dependent on the games and saw that he had no social life outside of the computer and video game consoles.

Donut stabbed his mother 17 times when he found out that she did not pay the bill. He went to a local internet cafe after taking all the money he could find from the house and played online games there for the rest of the day. The father came home to find his wife’s body and called the police, a short time later Donut turned himself in and gave the police the weapon he used.

The teen is now being treated in a psychiatric hospital.

[via HBG]

The cable companies, with their feature poor DVRs, will do their best not to let this happen in the states but we can all hope, right?

Veteran voice actor Daisuke Gouri died (he was) 57 not long after he was found bleeding and wandering through the streets of Nakano, Tokyo. Gauri’s reoccurring roles included Heihachi Mishima of Tekken fame and Bass Armstrong of Dead or Alive, however, he is perhaps best known for his parts in anime. He has also worked on a bunch of games including Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, Ninja Gaiden, King of Fighters, Metal Gear, Street Fighter, Ace Combat and more. It is said that there was a sharp object and a will at the scene leading authorities to believe his death may have been suicide. Truly a sad time.  Our thoughts go out to him, R.I.P. Daisuke Gouri.

A Chinese business man (Xu!) argued with his wife. To blow off some steam Xu went to a local cyber cafe and decided to play some online games. He went four days without sleep, and was staring at screens for over 90% of the time.

He went to the doctor after his vision started to dim, and was diagnosed with temporary blindness  because of eye strain due to 96 hours of gaming. Xu’s age was not disclosed. His vision was fully recovered, and I’m sure the doctor told him to stop staring at screens for so long.

The lesson here, Geeklings, is to rest your eyes during long-term gaming sessions. This can be avoided.

[HBG via APP.com]

What if your netbook could play Call of Duty at 30fps at a 720p HD resolution and looked like a galaxy tripping craft from beyond the milky way?

If that were the case then you wouldn’t have a netbook at all would you?  While not a netbook, the Alienware m11x is only an inch bigger than one and does all of these wondrous things.  Dell (who owns Alienware) says that the m11x is the most powerful notebook under 15 inches; I for one believe them whole heartedly.(This little beauty was found lurking in the geek infested show floors of CES.)

If you aren’t looking for a gaming laptop then no matter how small the m11x is, it won’t appeal to you.  There is no mistaking this machine as anything  but Alienware.  From the stealth bomber stylings to the multi-color keyboard backlingting and LEDs behind the thermal grates the m11x tells the world, “I look small, but I play hard.”

First impressions are that the case is a little too plastic-y and the screen would look really nice with a glass front but these things don’t take away from the m11x.  While most notebooks it’s size weigh in pretty light; the m11x packs a rather hefty 4 pounds and change (hey I bet body builders don’t exactly float like feathers on the breeze do they).

There’s also something to be said about a machine with plenty of holes to put things in…
I’m not sure exact what would be said but I’m sure there’s something.  The m11x has 3 USB, an HDMI, DisplayPort, mini-Firewire, VGA and just so it has most every port imaginable Dell has added a SIM slot as well for that broadband on the go.  I for one am no fan of mirror finished track pads and flat keyboards and the m11x has neither.  The texture of the track pad seems pretty nice and the keys on the keyboard have curve to them to fit your fingers.

Tech specs include an 8-cell lithium ion polymer battery, an energy efficient Core2Duo, and a 1Gb Nvidia 335m Graphics card.  It won’t run COD full specs, but it will look darn crispy all the same.

“Are there any cons or have you just drank the Dell koolaid,” you may ask.  Yes there are somethings about the m11x that vex me; one being the non-removable battery.  I know this is starting to catch on in the notebook realm (starting with Apple of course) but I am on the road so much that I have three batteries for my laptop and while the third never gets used, the first and second are constant residents in my laptop’s life.  That being said Dell quotes the battery life of the m11x as being 6.5 hours of casual use and 2 hours of full on gaming (because I’m going to buy an alienware laptop for casual use * sarcasm*).

What kind of “limb trade-in plan” is Dell going to have so that I can afford one of these “little monsters” (good movie, geek stuff don’t ask)?  That is what I would have to call the best part; maxed out this little beauty will run you $1000 or less (Dell won’t nail down a price till the m11x releases).

So what say ye geeks?  Does the thought of an 11-inch gaming notebook interest you?  If I have the dead president flash cards in the bank when this beast hits the market it might just have to join me in my plot for world domination…
Or at least LAN party domination.

Want more pics?  Head over to  Gizmodo to see their CES pics of the M11X.

Photo property of Alienware and Dell

A google news search for “video game” yielded some results. No deaths, fortunately, but a little bit of crazy and and some pleasant news for gamers.

From Freep.com:

In Michigan a teen tried to punch and slash his mother with a shard of glass from a broken picture frame because she took his game console away.  She was treated at a local hospital for non-life-threatening injuries. The teen fled the home after the attack, but was caught by the sheriff department soon after.

—

ToledoBlade.com:

Libraries in Ohio are starting to bring in game consoles and host gaming events to bring in children and teens and provide gaming to kids who may not have access to systems otherwise.

“The literacy aspect is huge,” Ms. Braun says in the article. “Many video games have books related to them. And there is a lot of reading that goes on with actual game play.”

It’s nice to see a story put games in a good light, and it’s nice to see non-gaming adults talking about the good effects of games. The article isn’t too long, check it out if you have a few minutes.

—

From Gamespy.com:

A 14-year-old boy in California decided to wield a BB Gun and steal a few bikes. He said later on he was basically recreating is own real-life version of a GTA game. Later on he was chased by the police, which he then said felt like an episode of “COPS.” He even told the cops that he was wanted to shoot one of them in the eye, but wasn’t sure how they would react.

He was apprehended without injury and booked as a juvenile.

I have for you a bulleted list of features of the phone and of news to come out of the announcement itself.  Well go on.  Hit the read more already.  You know you want to.

– 3.7-inch AMOLED display

– 1GHz Snapdragon proccessor

– multi-color notification LED under the trackball

– Compass

– GPS

– Accelerometer

– Light and Proximity sensor

– Five megapixel camera with LED flash

– stereo bluetooth and 3.5mm headphone jack

– Active noise suppression – one on the bottom and another on the back for noise reduction

If you want even more tech geek goodness you can go here–> Nexus One Specs

So what, out of all that talking, do I think we need to look out for?  Firstly the voice recognition software on this phone looks very promising.  My blackberry can call anyone I choose using nothing but my voice commands but what if I could tell my phone what to tweet or SMS while I was doing something else and then post or send my snippet without ever having to look at my phone?  That’s one of the most interesting pieces of news to come out of this announcement.  Android 2.1 will allow this voice recognition and more features to be used not only by the Nexus One but also to such new Android phones like the Motorola Droid.  That’s good news for all of you Droid owners out there who might have thought that maybe you bought too soon; fear not for Google hath not forsaken thee.

You might be saying, “how many dead president flash cards is this phone going to set me back and where do I go to give my money away?”
The Nexus One goes on sale today for $530 unlocked and $180 on T-mobile with your usual two-year blood-pact.  Now when I say that the phone is unlocked that means that you can use it on any GSM network, however, it does not currently support the frequencies needed to connect to AT&T’s 3G network (it can still use EDGE thought).

I for one am super excited to get my hands on one of these and see for myself what the perfect android experience should be like.  I love Android and I can’t wait to see even more come out of the noble halls of everyones favorite internet company, Google.

(Photo property of Google)

GamePolitics.com is reporting a delay in the Hadopi Law that would punish French Internet pirates. Oh, and in case you didn’t know, there’s a law the French senate has voted through and is trying to put in effect that would punish internet piracy, much akin to California’s criminal three-strike law.

The French government needs permission from the Commission Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés (CNIL) to put the law into effect. The CNIL is an agency in charge of the personal data and online privacy of the French citizens. Without the agency’s approval, the law is once again delayed. It was supposed to go in effect this month, barring no holds, but it looks like the law won’t be enacted until April. (If nothing else goes awry.)

The law states that anyone caught pirating would first receive a digital warning,  secondly a physical warning (as in a letter) and if caught a third time, would face fines, prison time or lose their internet service.

If or when it is successfully implemented, this law could be considered the framework of Internet Piracy laws that many other countries are considering making, if they haven’t already started on them. And, quite frankly, that’s bad news for a lot of people.

[Game Politics]

It’s a sad day whenever someone dies, and perhaps even sadder when it’s a child who was murdered. Nine-year-old Anthony Maldonado was stabbed and slashed at several times by 25-year-old Alejandro Morales, apparently over a squabble while they were playing Tony Hawk: Ride, late on New Years day in Harlem, New York.

The boy died from his injuries within the hour of the stabbing at the hospital. Morales had a history of violent behavior and a rap sheet. According to the police, Anthony’s injuries lead them to believe that he struggled with his attacker and tried to defend himself.

All of this happened at Anthony’s uncle’s apartment, whom he was visiting during the holiday. His uncle went to sleep and left the three Morales brothers, his roommates, in charge of the boy. They were playing the PS3 Anthony was given for Christmas when two of the brothers left the apartment for food around 3AM, leaving the 25-year-old and 9-year-old alone. The stabbing was reported to happen around 3:30AM.

Quotes from the family include them saying the boy was murdered over the video game, and that’s partially true. I have to take into consideration Morales’ past with the law, a turbulent past. He was already an unstable individual according to state, so this could have happened over almost anything. It’s unfortunate and (utterly, undeniably) horrible that it happened to an innocent 9-year-old and over his PS3.

[Kotaku]

[Photo/News Source]

A 16-year-old Canadian boy and a 42-year-old Texan woman are in love, and they met on World of Warcraft. She flew from Texas and then rented a car to travel to Barrie, Ontario to meet him (in person) so they could… do whatever they wanted to do? Which, I’m guessing, included physical consummation of their relationship and shopping.

The Globe and Mail has a full story with all the details of the situation. Apparently the teen, Andrew Kane, is a dedicated gamer (addicted, per his parents and a therapist) to WoW, among other games.  The woman, Lauri Price, is the mother of four and thought Andrew was 20. Lucky for her, the age of consent in Canada is 16.

The two had been cultivating their relationship for about a year, if I read everything correctly. He used the family computer to speak with her on MSN when they weren’t traveling the lands of… uh, I don’t play WoW, so fill in the blank. His parents found logs of their conversations (which he didn’t know were saved) and they included many things, including sexual content. They told him to cut off the relationship, and told them he did. Little did they know.

What strikes me as funny, respectful, and somewhat insane, is that Andrew asked his parents if he could meet the women, and they told him he couldn’t. (I don’t blame them, I’d do the same thing in their situation.) When they went to check on him later that night, around 2 AM, he was gone. He was later found in a store shopping with his cougar.

[source]

A 27-year-old Richmond Heights man met a 15-year-old girl over XBox Live and drove a little over 30 hours to Sanger, Calif. to have sex with the girl. Edward Stout is now facing up to 10 years in prison and will be registered as a sex offender for the rest of his life. Stout and the girl met in April 2008 over Live. In January of 2009 he drove to Sanger and they… well, you know what they did.

This is an example of what not to do with XBox Live. If he waited that long to meet the girl, couldn’t he have waited until she was legal if they were that determined to consummate a relationship? I shake my head at both the teen and the man. Think, people, think!

For now.

What about you geeks?  Do you think this is going to become more popular as time goes on? Will you buy one…   or five?

Find them here:  FastMac (TruePower USB Outlet)

BioWare community coordinator Chris Priestley has confirmed that Mass Effect 2 will require two game discs to store the entire game. Both the pc and 360 versions will ship with two discs (the collectors edition contains 3 but the third is simply a dvd of extras). The pc version will be a standard install whereas you install the game and all is well. The 360 version however will require disc switching during the game. Mr. Priestley did say, however, that the switch happens at a time in the game where it will not interrupt the game play. There won’t be any swapping back and forth though, Bioware says one swap and you’re done.

So what say you readers? Does having to change discs ruin a game for you or does it just mean twice the goodness?

Another question; will ME2 allow installing to the hard drive? If you have the space, and it allows it this might be a beautiful thing.

None of the rumors were true about who was going to be who. Robert De Niro’s name was floating around, and that might have been… eh, I don’t know, to be honest. Would he fit the Thor atmosphere? Jude Law was another famous face that people thought would be part of the cast. I can’t say with good conscious that he’s an action guy.

The film starts shooting in January of 2010.

Fandral will be played by Stuart Townsend, Hogun goes to Tadanobu Asano, and Volstagg will be played by Ray Stevenson. Marvel.com announced it, so it must be true!

Photo property of AT&T.

Cheers.

From the story:

A court case where the two defendants met on a “furry” website has put the spotlight in this little-known world. So what is a furry?

Full story: here.

We’ve been waiting for a long time and the day has finally arrived.  Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is on store shelves.  I picked up a copy of MW2 and played the crap out of it so now I guess the right and just thing to do would be for me to tell you about it.  Welcome to my review of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

The first thing you are greeted with as you start the game is a montage of site and sound (along with some credits) that will recap the last modern warfare game.  After that montage, which is pretty cool to watch so don’t just skip it, it’s onto business as usual.

MW2 has taken the great graphics of the first game and made them godly.  At 1080p I can practically feel dust hit my face as the wind blows in game.  Explosions are greatly satisfying and weather seems all to real.  Comm chatter between your team mates is all original.  There are very few moments of, “bogey spotted” and , “in that building”; MW2 has chatter such as, “there’s a bogey behind that white truck” and, “in the shop with the red and white roof”.  MW2 keeps on the intensity that we, as gamers, have come to expect from the series.

Weapons in MW2 not only have handy add-ons like thermal sights, heartbeat monitors, and under the barrel shotguns, but the shear number of weapons is amazing.  Every time you start a mission you tend to have a different weapon and that breaks up the monotony of always having an M4.

Audio is an integral part of any gaming experience and in this area again MW2 fails to fail.  Using a Dolby 5.1 system I could hear where the person was who was talking to me and could hear enemies walking softly through a building because of their breathing.

While there aren’t many scenes that I think warrant people skipping them, MW2 does give you that option just in case these scenes offend you or just plain hurt your feelings (this is a testament as to how brutal MW2 has gone, they aren’t sugar coating war anymore).

Lastly one of my favorite things about MW2, and no game developer could ever over estimate this enough in my eyes, is the ability to think on your feet and flank your opponent.  If you’re on a city street with enemies shooting your guys like fish in a barrel, find an alley to get around them or find a building that has roof access and use it to your advantage.  This feature really shows off the enemy AI which so smart it’s scary.

Final thought:  BUY BUY BUY  if you own one of the system this game is available for and you like the Call of Duty series or FPS games in general you would be crazy no to go out and buy this game today.

Score:  9.75 (because as ten worthy as it is no one gets a ten)

Thanks for reading.
Cheers

I was excited when I heard the stirrings of a new Sci-Fi epic named Avatar.  When I heard how James Cameron put more money into this movie than my whole city has into its roads I thought it must be amazing, but after watching the first trailer I was unsure.

The first trailer was short and made it out to be like most Sci-Fi Indian movie, basically meaning that mean old Earth is beating up on little ol’ aliens and then they send a special agent after them, and he ends up loving them and fights for them instead. After the newest trailer my opinions haven’t changed. It seems like the exact same movie I’ve seen a hundred times except pretty. Watch it and tell me what you think.

The demo releases for Xbox Live Gold members on November 3rd and for Silver members on November 11th. Left 4 Dead 2 releases on November 17th, so look for my review. I will be writing said review during my L4D2 launch party.

XKCD

Yahoo closed down registration to new users some time ago and started encouraging existing users to upgrade to their $5 a month plan. (They have one of those? I’ve been using blogging sites for too long. I’m out of the loop.) Since I just woke up an hour ago I’m going to let this LA Times article gives you the detailed-details.

And visit XKCD today.

GeoCities took my HTML-virginity. The sites I had are… well, slightly embarrassing now. I used to use it to store biographies for some original characters I used for AOL’s RP world between 2000 and 2002, and I had a fan site or two for a certain game I’ll keep to myself in the late 90s. How did you use GeoCities?

That’s misleading. There will be no unedited Left 4 Dead 2 for you, Australia.

Valve is planning to release a heavily edited version of the game to counter the RC rating (Refused Classification) that the Australian Government’s Classification Board unanimously passed, and they refuse to change their mind. The piles of dead bodies, depictions of decapitations and dismemberment and detailed wounds will be removed.

I feel for my fellow gamers down under, you know. There will be ways around it, frustrating and time consuming and costly ways. Would this have happened if L4D 2 was merely downloadable content instead of a separate release?

Discuss!

The DLC is called “Crash Course” and will be available September 29th.

– Post From My iPhone

Finally the PS3 version of Fallout 3 is set to recieve the Broken Steel downloadable content. This dlc will be available to download for PS3 owners September 25th. The rest of the dlc packs will release around the first week of October. Bethesda has also announced a multi-platform Game of the Year edition which will include all five dlc packs, this will be hitting store shelves October 13th.

– Post From My iPhone

About two months ago I saw a trailer that I thought was all in fun, Black Dynamite. This is a parody of seventies blaxploitation crime dramas, and it looks phenomenal considering the biggest star is the guy who played spawn and has some bit roles here and there. I think that Black Dynamite will revive parody film making and pull it out of this horrible slump of Movie movies (Scary movie, Epic Movie, Meet the Spartans, ETC.) and put it back like the good ol’ days (Airplane, Hot Shots, Naked Gun) I mean come on even the cast is parodied with different names which makes it all the more funny. I’ll let you watch the trailer and you tell me.

All kinds of awesome, right? I’m actually excited about this movie, even if it’s destined to fail, there are no commercials or any real advertisements so I’m not sure what the studio was aiming for but I for one plan on seeing it. Coming to theaters October 16 2009.

Click the read more link to see a summary of what went on at the Apple Rock and Roll Event.

- iPod Nano gets a camera, microphone, and a speaker
- iPod Nano gets a voice recorder app and an FM radio
- iPod Nano prices $149 8Gb & $179 16Gb with new colors too

- iPod Shuffle goes to $59 for the 2Gb Version
- iPod Shuffle gets new colors and a stainless steel version

- iPod Classic is not going away and is now 160Gb

- iPhone OS 3.1 is available today with enhancements and bug fixes

- iTunes 9 is available today with improvments to the iTunes Store
- iTunes 9 lets you have new control over organizing your apps on iPhone OS 3.1

- Apples new movie and music format will allow music and movie extras like DVD and Blu-Ray

Okay I think I covered the most important and relevant parts of the presentation. Apple’s site is up to date so you can go there to get anymore info on the upgrades and to buy your new iPod Nano.

GTA 4: The Ballad of Gay Tony will be available to download on October 29th. Viewing the video for the release you can plainly see that this DLC brings in another new character and tells the story of the nightclub owner Gay Tony. Also, much to my excitement, Rockstar has brought back the parachute from San Andreas. Base Jumping here I come.

Cheers

Activision has delayed Singulartiy until the first quarter of 2010 to avoid being in direct competition with Modern Warfare 2…

Good idea guys.

2K games has announced that it will be delaying the release of Bioshock 2 and bringing in some help for art and design (Making it 4 studios working on this one title).

Also to be delayed are Max Payne 3, Mafia II, and Red Dead Redemption.

No dates have been nailed down as of yet but I have been told to expect a release of these titles sometime next year (way to be vague PR guy).