TecnaDigit writes "The ESA and the VSDA have achieved a small victory in the case against Michigan Senate Bill 416. According to Game Daily Biz, Michigan Judge George Caram Steeh (who himself seems a bit skeptical of the bill) passed an injunction holding it for consideration. In other words, while the bill is under examination it won't be passed into law. Originally, the law was supposed to commence on December 1st, 2005. Though the battle for this case is far from over, it is a bit of silver lining."

cadaeibfed writes "Coinciding with the 25th anniversary of the iconic puzzle's introduction to the world was the second Rubik's world championship, held in Orlando, FL this weekend. Competing under official World Cube Association rules, competitors from around the world vied for recognition in this nerd olympiad. Some new world records set include the 4x4 solve, solving using only feet, and blindfolded solving. The winner, Jean Pons of France, finished with an average solution time of 15.10 seconds on a standard 3x3 cube. Here are the full results."

axonis writes "ZenChi has created a Google Maps API project based on the popular board game RISK on Google Maps. While Zen is developing a multi-player version, you can play a game right now with others huddled around your computer."

afaik_ianal writes "Remember that guy who bought a virtual island in "Project Entropia" for £13,700? Well BBC is reporting that that he has managed to make his money back in under a year. According to the article, 'He made money by selling land to build virtual homes as well as taxing other gamers to hunt or mine on the island.'"

vituperation writes "1UP has a feature up today marking the first anniversary of Halo 2. It's brief, but it manages to cover the hype around its launch, how well Bungie has handled its problems, and how gamers feel about the game after a year. From the article: 'Creatively, though, Halo 2 has been a less clear-cut victory. It's a technical marvel, one of the most visually-impressive games on the market thanks to its solid graphic design and gimmicky tricks like normal mapping. Yet it's also jarringly buggy in places, which has created no end of trouble for those who want a fair multiplayer match.'"

tyko writes "CoolTechZone.com takes a look at all three consoles from Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo and presents a nice overview of the strategies behind the products. From the article: 'Now that Microsoft has put its weight firmly behind HD-DVD, it seems obvious that Xbox 360 will have HD-DVD support. If recent rumors are anything to go by, Xbox 360 will not have support for HD-DVD games at launch because it won't ship with the needed HD-DVD drive. Whether or not the support will come later as an optional accessory is not clear either. Needless to say, this has added more confusion to the product that is due for launch in just two weeks.'"

jasoncart writes "Persistent scoring (where your score is counted from one gaming session to another) is the norm in MMORPGs, but using it in arguably less mature genres such as FPSs makes for interesting gameplay. " From the article: "The most prized asset for the competitive, ranking-sensitive Battlefield 2 player are the helicopters. These fearsome death machines are almost ludicrously overpowered, in the right hands. They feature a gunnery position with a nasty cannon (best for troop takedown), and TV-guided missiles (best for vehicles). The pilot, whose job is to grapple with the newbie unfriendly control system, and powerful engine also has access to a bank of effective-in-quantity missiles. Newbies inevitably do get hold of them sometimes, to disastrous effect - they are pretty difficult to fly until you get your head around the control system. I'm reminded of a driving school car around my way that says 'Everyone had to learn once!' on the back."

Conspiracy_Of_Doves writes to tell us Brett Thomas over at Bit-Tech recently interviewed Elder Scrolls producer, Gavin Carter. From the article: "The size, scope and sheer graphical grunt required for Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion requires gigahertz of processing power to run, good bandwidth to update and expand, and gigabytes of hard disk space to store. Things that a console didn't really have...until now." The interview takes a look at the development with respect to the two different platforms, PC and Xbox 360.

xtracto writes "The Inquirer has an interesting piece about a new Sony Patent on a technology that may possible prevent DVD disc media users from using their purchased disks in other machines after they have used them on a specific reader. Commentary also available on Joystiq. From the Article: 'While many are aware of the double profit companies make on pre-owned games, this would ensure the death of trading games between friends and even going to a friend's house to play a little multiplayer.'"

Early last year, NCSoft and Cryptic Studios released a MMORPG that struck out in a new direction. Despite the familiar leveling structure, it eschewed the fantasy trappings of Everquest and Ultima Online for a more four-colour experience. City of Heroes (CoH) tapped into the Comic Book Guy in all of us by allowing players to create their own superhero. The incredibly detailed character generation system and the feeling of power that it invoked for even starting players made it one of the most enjoyable games of 2004. Unfortunately, a sense of repetition set in for many players and CoH subscription numbers dipped. CoH has an evil twin, though, and City of Villains (CoV) allows you the opportunity to step into the psyche of a depraved criminal mind, a thuggish legbreaker, or a lead-melting pyromaniac. Whatever your villainous bent, read on for my take on Cryptic Studio's City of Villains.

Microsoft is apparently hoping to sell 3 million of its next-gen console in its first three months of life, reports ZDNet. From the article: "'We think through the first 90 days of launch...we expect to have sold 2.75 (million) to 3 million consoles worldwide,' said Bryan Lee, chief financial officer of Microsoft's Home and Entertainment unit. Lee's comments came as part of a speech at the Harris Nesbitt Media & Entertainment Conference in New York. Lee said the prediction should translate to about $1.5 billion in sales of Xbox devices, games and accessories during that period."

An anonymous reader writes that "Village Voice has a small article by Julian Dibbell about the Machinima Film Festival that takes place this Saturday (Nov. 12th) at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria. The festival is also holding their annual awards on Friday night. For me, the highlight is their honoring David Wright for creating Keygrip (the program behind the creation of Quake movies like Blahbalicious and Operation Bayshield) - which is a nice nod to machinima's roots. "

Matt writes "Next-Gen.biz has published the second set of prototype designs that were considered, but ultimately rejected, for the Xbox 360. Note the distinct similarities to the final design actually chosen." I wonder if I'm alone in just wishing that consoles looked like stereo components and fit in my rack without scary balancing acts and lopsided aesthetics. A Gamecube, PS2, and X-Box can not be stacked nicely.

An anonymous reader writes: "A group of game designers from the pen and paper world have come together to create a sourcebook about the city of New Orleans. The pdf book includes fiction, mini-games, and source material for using the Big Easy in settings from fantasy to Cyberpunk. The book includes contributions from gaming talents such as Matt Forbeck, Adam Jury, Sean Riley, and Seth Johnson." From the introduction: "It is a collection of visions of New Orleans and its environs. When I sent out my call for contributors, I said that I believed that modern role-playing games owed a debt of creativity to New Orleans and her culture. I still believe that. Th is book is a way for writers and artists to repay that debt in part. Th ose involved in the creative professions might not always have extra cash laying around to contribute, but they do have their muse. And I firmly believe that every individual who contributed to this project shared generously from their muse."

rupert0 writes "A research paper on the Microsoft website gives an insight into the way that gamers will be ranked on the new-style Xbox Live. The paper outlines some existing ranking systems, as well." From the article: "The TrueSkill(TM) ranking system is a skill-based ranking system designed to overcome the limitations of existing ranking systems, and to ensure that interesting matches can be reliably arranged within a league. It uses a technique called Bayesian inference for ranking players. Rather than assuming a single fixed skill for each player, the system characterises its belief using a bell-curve belief distribution (also referred to as Gaussian) which is uniquely described by its mean (speak [mju:]) ("peak point") and standard deviation (speak [sigma])("spread")."

kormoc writes "Transgaming has released a large update to Cedega. This release (5.0) changes how the entire product works, merging the GUI with the actual program, as well as implementing features such as pixel shadier 1.4 support, in order to get games such as battlefield 2 working. The release notes list all the new improvements as well as the newly supported games. This seems to be the best release to date and expands the feature set to work with a large number of new games."

cyrus_zuo writes "Game Tunnel took a look at some of the indie games that will be available when the Xbox 360 launches (through Xbox live). They've posted a summary that breaks down what people can expect from the oft ignored indie side of gaming, in addition to taking a quick shot at HD, calling it a 'marketing term that people have sold out to.'"

eToyChest reports that Publisher Take-Two has acquired Firaxis studios, developers of the Civilization franchise. From the article: "At this point I'm not sure what to think. If Take-Two takes a hands-off approach, and lets Firaxis do their thing, then I'm all for this. I just don't want this to become a matter of "too many cooks in the kitchen", and somehow negatively impact future titles that spring from Sid Meier's genius. Your thoughts?"

Game Politics reports that Jack Thompson has removed himself from the Alabama court case against members of the games industry. From the post: "Thompson's flamboyant profile, take-no-prisoners style of communication, and frequent press releases and media appearances were the subject of a defense motion on behalf of video game industry clients to revoke his Pro Hac Vice (visiting) admission to the Alabama bar. The motion to remove Thompson from the case occupied much of last Thursday's hearing before Judge Moore in Fayette County. By day's end the judge asked both sides to submit opinions on the Pro Hac Vice revocation motion as well as another defense motion to dismiss the case on a summary judgment for lack of merit." Gamespot has commentary as well.

thegamebiz writes "Amped IGO continues its 'XBox Retrospective Week' with a great two-page feature breaking down exactly where Microsoft went right and wrong with the XBox. From the article: 'Both lists have included hardware and the acquisitions of developers, but both have ended by reverting to the big issue: games...No matter how many impressive technical specs are shoved down our throats we must remember one simple fact: in the end, it's all about the games.'"