Click here to read our PAX Grand Finale. Even if you have no interest in doing so. Help me help...

SlappingOysters writes "Gameplayer are running a comprehensive feature on the history of Nintendo that runs through all 119 years of their existence, from humble card maker to gaming powerhouse. It is documented in chronological order and includes a stack of trivia about the company that will be thoroughly enjoyed by all Nintendo fans. As an interesting side note, it links to a sister article that explores how Mario can improve your sex life."

Spore highlights this week's list of new releases. Thanks, as always, to raistmaj42 for rounding...

Epic has announced the finalists for the $1,000,000 Make Something Unreal Contest vehicle capture...

The Warhammer Online open beta is now live! This is for folks who pre-ordered the game, or...

The Warhammer Online open beta is now live! This is for folks who pre-ordered the game, or...

I am so happy that the NFL season is underway. Sundays are way too boring without football. I was...

Massively recently interviewed Hermann Peterscheck, a producer for NetDevil's upcoming space-fighter MMO Jumpgate Evolution. He talks about the UI and the huge level of customization, as well as basic flight and zone design. Also available is a video showcasing space combat inside an asteroid belt. "We're still sort of working on [ship progression], but the idea is that you pick your first ship at level five, which is about an hour or so of gameplay. Basically there's sort of forks, so you start out in kind of a beginner ship and then there's like fighting types of ships, mining types of ships, cargo haulers and within that there's sort of sub-classes. So like, there's light fighters, medium fighters, heavy fighters, bombers. There's haulers that carry a lot of stuff, but move kind of slowly and there's haulers that carry lost stuff, short little courier shuttles that move really quickly."

Morning Shackers, how about a fresh post to wind down the weekend? If you need some browsing with your brunch, may I suggest this interview with EA about Spore? And of course we've got the Release List if you're interested in playing games other than Castle Crashers. Not sure why you would want to do that though. Oh hey, and a new Gibson-Goldstein Index, giving you a succinct recap of the week's highlights.

Bridger tips news that NCSoft's Tabula Rasa, created in part by Richard Garriott, is running an unusual promotion right now. Garriott is going to the International Space Station on October 12th, and he'll take with him a digital record of the DNA of various players and celebrities. The basic plot of Tabula Rasa is that Earth was attacked and humans almost completely wiped out. Garriott's promotion is playing on that idea; the hard drive with the DNA data will be left in orbit "just in case" something happens to humanity on Earth. NCSoft has been running a variety of polls and contests to include further data about humans on the hard drive. The deadline for joining the project has recently been extended to September 29th.

Here are the NPD's top 10 best selling PC games in the US for the week of August 17 – August...

The boys at PCGH posted some impressions of playing S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky at 3.360 x 2.100...

Edmund, co-creator of Gish, Triachnid, Coil and character artist and animator on Braid has...

Crispy Gamer fried up a 4-page interview with Blizzard's Jay Wilson who shares the wealth about...

The Vault conjured up a nice little preview of StarCraft 2 for your Saturday reading pleasure:...

Boards Gigabyte MA78GPM-DS2H - Digit-Life Cases LanCool PC-K1 Case - 3DX Cooling Asus Lion...

PC S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky - PC.IGN - 7.3/10 Spore - 7/10 360 Pirates vs. Ninjas Dodgeball -...

RPG Vault Focus: Games Convention - Part 1 We learn about this year's version of the massive...

Yawn. Not much is going on at the moment. I'm still waiting for Spore to be released here in the...

After years of development, and a little hype to go with it, Spore has finally crawled its way out of the development pool and into the lifestream of retail. Already fans are devouring the anticipated game--some to delight, others to disappointment.

Recently I caught up with Spore senior producer Morgan Roarty and asked him whether Maxis is concerned about the game meeting the demands of both casual and traditional gamers. We also touched on cut features, the 2005 GDC demo, and where the game is headed in the future.

Yeah, it was tough at times. It's one of those games that's really easy to imagine other things with.. Spore classically was one of those games where every day people were coming up with--we used to call them "Spore Moments." "What if we added this, what if we added this to that." It was really easy to imagine the possibilities. So I think that's going to speak well to the future for...

GameSetWatch is running a feature about the evolution of game characters' physical presence. In many games, you can look down and not see your feet, or pass right through other players or NPCs. Other games rely on a believable model that can animate and collide with its surroundings. Tom Cross examines some of those scenarios, and also games that raise the bar for having a physical presence, such as the new Alone in the Dark. "Edward Carnby's body is a distinct factor in everything that the player does. Your inventory is carried inside Carnby's leather jacket. To use, drop, or combine items, you must open it wide and look down at your own chest. The healing mechanic, too, reinforces the oft-forgotten fact that you have a body. To heal yourself, you must look at the parts of your body (arms, leg, chest) that are wounded, and then spray them with first-aid liquid. Likewise, when you equip an item, Edward reaches for it, palming it and then switching back to the stock third or first person view."

At long last, Maxis and Will Wright's PC evolution simulator Spore hits this week, along with the latest batch of hockey titles and, yes, the Hell's Kitchen game.

To see everything due out this week, hit up the full list. If you're looking for a particular system, feel free to skip right to the PC, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, Nintendo DS and PSP sections. And should you want to c...

CVG spoke with John Carmack about the in-development browser-based version of Quake III Arena called Quake Live. He discusses the development team's reasons for the new project and mentions that current mods will not work. However, he adds, "We're in no way shutting down the original Q3A scene, so anybody who wants to build things with the open-source code is still more than free to do so. That may even become a proving ground for moving things into Quake Live." Carmack also says Quake Live will be fully ad-supported to start, but "it's not out of the question that eventually we'll have some kind of a premium service. But we don't know what it's going to be yet, and we're certainly going out with the completely free-to-play model." We've looked at video clips from Quake Live in the past.

EA Redwood Shores' Dead Space seems to be one of the few games that has its release constantly moved forward. Shortly after news that the game's European debut was moved up to Oct. 24th, the company announced that the US launch date would be moved up to October 14th. Unfortunately, EA's Ben Swanson also said the game has been banned in China, Germany, and Japan. (Announcement here, sound toggle to the upper right of the page.) Previews of the game are available from Ars and Gamespy.

If you're the owner of a PC with a single-core processor and are having problems running Bionic...

Click here to read our PAX Grand Finale. Even if you have no interest in doing so. Help me help...

SlappingOysters writes "Gameplayer are running a comprehensive feature on the history of Nintendo that runs through all 119 years of their existence, from humble card maker to gaming powerhouse. It is documented in chronological order and includes a stack of trivia about the company that will be thoroughly enjoyed by all Nintendo fans. As an interesting side note, it links to a sister article that explores how Mario can improve your sex life."

Spore highlights this week's list of new releases. Thanks, as always, to raistmaj42 for rounding...

Epic has announced the finalists for the $1,000,000 Make Something Unreal Contest vehicle capture...

The Warhammer Online open beta is now live! This is for folks who pre-ordered the game, or...

The Warhammer Online open beta is now live! This is for folks who pre-ordered the game, or...

I am so happy that the NFL season is underway. Sundays are way too boring without football. I was...

Massively recently interviewed Hermann Peterscheck, a producer for NetDevil's upcoming space-fighter MMO Jumpgate Evolution. He talks about the UI and the huge level of customization, as well as basic flight and zone design. Also available is a video showcasing space combat inside an asteroid belt. "We're still sort of working on [ship progression], but the idea is that you pick your first ship at level five, which is about an hour or so of gameplay. Basically there's sort of forks, so you start out in kind of a beginner ship and then there's like fighting types of ships, mining types of ships, cargo haulers and within that there's sort of sub-classes. So like, there's light fighters, medium fighters, heavy fighters, bombers. There's haulers that carry a lot of stuff, but move kind of slowly and there's haulers that carry lost stuff, short little courier shuttles that move really quickly."

Morning Shackers, how about a fresh post to wind down the weekend? If you need some browsing with your brunch, may I suggest this interview with EA about Spore? And of course we've got the Release List if you're interested in playing games other than Castle Crashers. Not sure why you would want to do that though. Oh hey, and a new Gibson-Goldstein Index, giving you a succinct recap of the week's highlights.

Bridger tips news that NCSoft's Tabula Rasa, created in part by Richard Garriott, is running an unusual promotion right now. Garriott is going to the International Space Station on October 12th, and he'll take with him a digital record of the DNA of various players and celebrities. The basic plot of Tabula Rasa is that Earth was attacked and humans almost completely wiped out. Garriott's promotion is playing on that idea; the hard drive with the DNA data will be left in orbit "just in case" something happens to humanity on Earth. NCSoft has been running a variety of polls and contests to include further data about humans on the hard drive. The deadline for joining the project has recently been extended to September 29th.

Here are the NPD's top 10 best selling PC games in the US for the week of August 17 – August...

The boys at PCGH posted some impressions of playing S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky at 3.360 x 2.100...

Edmund, co-creator of Gish, Triachnid, Coil and character artist and animator on Braid has...

Crispy Gamer fried up a 4-page interview with Blizzard's Jay Wilson who shares the wealth about...

The Vault conjured up a nice little preview of StarCraft 2 for your Saturday reading pleasure:...

Boards Gigabyte MA78GPM-DS2H - Digit-Life Cases LanCool PC-K1 Case - 3DX Cooling Asus Lion...

PC S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky - PC.IGN - 7.3/10 Spore - 7/10 360 Pirates vs. Ninjas Dodgeball -...

RPG Vault Focus: Games Convention - Part 1 We learn about this year's version of the massive...

Yawn. Not much is going on at the moment. I'm still waiting for Spore to be released here in the...

After years of development, and a little hype to go with it, Spore has finally crawled its way out of the development pool and into the lifestream of retail. Already fans are devouring the anticipated game--some to delight, others to disappointment.

Recently I caught up with Spore senior producer Morgan Roarty and asked him whether Maxis is concerned about the game meeting the demands of both casual and traditional gamers. We also touched on cut features, the 2005 GDC demo, and where the game is headed in the future.

Yeah, it was tough at times. It's one of those games that's really easy to imagine other things with.. Spore classically was one of those games where every day people were coming up with--we used to call them "Spore Moments." "What if we added this, what if we added this to that." It was really easy to imagine the possibilities. So I think that's going to speak well to the future for...

GameSetWatch is running a feature about the evolution of game characters' physical presence. In many games, you can look down and not see your feet, or pass right through other players or NPCs. Other games rely on a believable model that can animate and collide with its surroundings. Tom Cross examines some of those scenarios, and also games that raise the bar for having a physical presence, such as the new Alone in the Dark. "Edward Carnby's body is a distinct factor in everything that the player does. Your inventory is carried inside Carnby's leather jacket. To use, drop, or combine items, you must open it wide and look down at your own chest. The healing mechanic, too, reinforces the oft-forgotten fact that you have a body. To heal yourself, you must look at the parts of your body (arms, leg, chest) that are wounded, and then spray them with first-aid liquid. Likewise, when you equip an item, Edward reaches for it, palming it and then switching back to the stock third or first person view."

At long last, Maxis and Will Wright's PC evolution simulator Spore hits this week, along with the latest batch of hockey titles and, yes, the Hell's Kitchen game.

To see everything due out this week, hit up the full list. If you're looking for a particular system, feel free to skip right to the PC, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, Nintendo DS and PSP sections. And should you want to c...

CVG spoke with John Carmack about the in-development browser-based version of Quake III Arena called Quake Live. He discusses the development team's reasons for the new project and mentions that current mods will not work. However, he adds, "We're in no way shutting down the original Q3A scene, so anybody who wants to build things with the open-source code is still more than free to do so. That may even become a proving ground for moving things into Quake Live." Carmack also says Quake Live will be fully ad-supported to start, but "it's not out of the question that eventually we'll have some kind of a premium service. But we don't know what it's going to be yet, and we're certainly going out with the completely free-to-play model." We've looked at video clips from Quake Live in the past.

EA Redwood Shores' Dead Space seems to be one of the few games that has its release constantly moved forward. Shortly after news that the game's European debut was moved up to Oct. 24th, the company announced that the US launch date would be moved up to October 14th. Unfortunately, EA's Ben Swanson also said the game has been banned in China, Germany, and Japan. (Announcement here, sound toggle to the upper right of the page.) Previews of the game are available from Ars and Gamespy.

If you're the owner of a PC with a single-core processor and are having problems running Bionic...