I know, I know, everyone is still waiting desperately for news of the next shipment of Nintendo Wii's, but if anyone is still actually waiting with bated breath for a chance to get their hands on a Sony PlayStation 3, NewEgg now has them in a not-so-egregious bundle.

Unlike Fry's--who seem to have plenty of units through the interesting tactic of marketing them in a well-nigh unsellable bundle of all the release-day games at a total of just over $1,000USD--NewEgg is selling their PS3's with just Call of Duty and Fall of Man, two of the games that are probably going to pull in the biggest draw for the type of people looking to buy a video game machine. The total price for the combo:

$769.96 before taxes and shipping.

...and no dealing with shifty eBayers needed.

OMG PS3 60Gb Units for sale!

Here's someone on an auction site with zero feedback, claiming to have an unlimited supply of Nintendo Wiis for sale for a mere $275 per.

Su-u-u-u-u-u-u-ure he does.

As of 7:47am, November 25th, 43 morons have already fallen prey to his rather obvious fraud. Let's all bookmark this and check back around Dec 10th to see how many feedbacks of "THAT @#$@ @#$$%! RIPPED ME THE @!#$@$ OFF! I HOPE HE #@$@$! IN THE @##$@ @#$@!!!" there are.

Whee!

Look, kids! Crime!

Okay, so it's a little hackneyed, but it is still a funny "public service announcement". ...and for those of you wondering, that might as well be in-game footage from a video card perhaps one notch higher up than mine.

Friends Don't Let Friends Play Solo

If you genuinely *like* coding, at the moment Basic accounts are free again, and this will be amusing to you.

Second Life free signups

Well, the Hellfish Team (site currently demolished by simultaneous linkage from Penny Arcade and Slashdot--*shudder*) took Jack Thompson up on his little offer, and created a mod for GTA:SA for the PC that turns it into a game about hunting down and murdering violent video-game developers.

For those who don't follow game news, Jack Thompson offered to donate $10,000 to charity if someone would do this. It was done, and then Thompson promptly shows his true colors by saying on his website (where he regularly rails against "violent video games") that his offer and indeed the whole game idea was just satire.

To make things more amusing, Penny Arcade took note of this amazing display of "takesees-backsees" and donated $10,000 to the Entertainment Software Association Foundation in Jack's name.

Thompson, of course, responded to this display of generosity by attempting to pursue harrassment charges against Penny Arcade.

Go figure.

(Can we go ahead give Thompson the Internet Kook of the Year Award now or must we wait until the end of the calendar year? I don't think anyone's going to be able to top this one for sheer stupidity.)

Jack Thompson welshes!

Tycho of Penny Arcade made a pretty sizable ruckus the other day (http://www.penny-arcade.com/news.php?date=2005-07-21) pertaining to the distinction the ESRB makes between their "M" (Mature, 17+) rating, and their "AO" (Adults Only, theoretically 18+) rating for video games. Apparently their written distinction is that it's the _length_ of the scenes of violence and/or sex that determine what rating the game gets, and he doesn't like it. Neither do I really, I think it's too vague to be useful as a determination, and can lend itself too easily to circus antics to swing the "offical rating" one way or the other.

For a rating system to be useful, it *must* be applied equally to all the things it's supposed to rate, and in this instance, the circus antics of Senator Clinton and the various video-game haters of America have clearly swung the rating. I present to you a blatant evasion of the smoking gun by Patricia Vance (president of the ESRB) as posted in a Gamespot article today...

From: http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/07/21/news_6129557.html?part=rss&tag=gs_news&subj=6129557

GameSpot: Arguably [Sony Computer Entertainment's] God of War has similar levels of violence and even more graphic portrayal of sexual activity. Rockstar could argue that its Grand Theft Auto has been singled out...

Patricia Vance: I'm certainly familiar with the materials that were submitted to us, and it was rated, you know, as a relatively high M, with a number of content descriptors that indicate the game is inappropriate for anybody under the age of 17. Our action [on San Andreas] was really as a result of determining that the content--the sexual depictions--were the result of the developer creating those depictions and leaving them on the disc, coded not to be accessed by the player. Nevertheless, once they were made available and made accessible, we had no choice but to change the rating.

What this boils down to is that Sony managed to get God Of War (which is by and far more graphically violent than GTA:SA) to market without making too many ripples so that no one would have a chance to make a stink over it, so it got to keep the "M" rating. Manhunt (which is another Rockstar North title BTW) which also has an "M" rating, practically redefines "extended duration" for scenes of graphic violence, since the whole point of the game is to make the violence as sadistic and malicious as possible. In Manhunt, you are being forced to make a snuff flick for pete's sake.

Now, I'm not particularly against graphic and adult-oriented games in the least. Personally, I like playing something with more bite than a damp spongebat when I play a video game, but this business of giving Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas an "AO" rating because a third-party modification drew attention to it is complete and utter bullshit. Rockstar *is* being singled-out because there's been a big media stink, even though there are multiple other titles that the ESRB has failed to rate as "AO" which contain even more graphic content than this.

BTW, if anyone's still stocking the "AO" version of the game, let me know. I won't wait for the price drop--I'd rather buy it without the taint of politics.

I'm with Tycho on this one, ESRB is bullshit.

This is a regular web broadcast (i.e., large downloadable video files) which is mainly a parody of hardcore gamers.

Well, at least we *hope* it's a parody. I find it entertaining, anyway.

Pure Pwnage

This video is a little slow to start up, but worth the wait. Watch it full screen, because you won't believe your eyes otherwise.

Basically, some people have come up with one of the scariest arcade games ever, and are simply waiting for new victims, er players, to step and stick in some coins.

Proof that british people have a strange sense of fun

Now here's a blog entry from a man with clue who isn't afraid to use it. While some may try and blame piracy for the lackluster list of new and innovative computer games on the market, here's a man who knows that the real reason is a supersaturated solution of utter lameness that is the end result of large gaming companies attempting to squeeze out games by using weighty demographics and narrow-minded ideals instead of inventiveness and a desire to challenge.

If you play games, you must read it! For great justice! Make your time!

A Gamer's Manifesto