freakmn writes "CNN reports that Dr. JoAnn Difede, an associate professor for the department of psychiatry and the director of Anxiety and Traumatic Stress Studies Program at Weill Cornell Medical College is working to help heal the wounds of 9/11 through virtual reality. They claim to use video games to re-enact the events that happened on 9/11 as part of the therapy." From the article: "The program is basic compared to slick video games on the market, but the developers say the simplicity allows patients to fill in the blanks."

Gamespot's always enlightening Rumour Control series tackles several weighty issues this week. Included in their analysis is the backwards compatibility of the Xbox 360, the possibility of 3D Projection from the Revolution, 360 controllers being PC compatible, and the imminent announcement of Diablo III. From the article: "RUMOR #5: Some postproduction work on Diablo III has been completed. Source: Blizzard fan site Diabloii.net. The official story: 'We'd definitely like to revisit the Diablo universe in the future, but we haven't announced any plans to do so at this time.'--Blizzard rep."

Since last week my inbox and submissions bin has been overflowing with complaints and rants about the Combat Upgrade put into Star Wars Galaxies last week. Players are speaking out all over the internet, and the media is responding. If you've had first hand interactions with the combat upgrade (either positive or negative) please leave a comment below describing your experiences with the changes, and pass on word of this thread to all the players you can. Think of this as a call for interview questions, because I'm going to formulate queries as best I can and see what sort of information I can get from the folks that I know at Sony Online. Here's your chance to be heard, folks. Use it well.

terrisus writes "While he had stepped down as President a few years back, Hiroshi Yamauchi had remained on Nintendo's Board of Directors. In June, however, Yamauchi will now be retiring from the Board of Directors as well. He will be foregoing his multi-million dollar retirement package, instead desiring the money be put to work in other places. He will still be a 10% stockholder in the company. It's sad to see him go."

The merger between GamesStop and Electronics Boutique adds another feather into the cap of one of the largest game distributors in the United States. 1up.com asks what does this mean for gamers? From the article: "If you're GameStop, it means you're much bigger and potentially more efficient. For instance, while GameStop's execs were reluctant to comment in detail about plans for integration during their conference call, the two chains will eventually merge their distribution systems and databases for retailing used games."

Puzzle Pirates (the boxed version) launches next week across the country, and in preparation Warcry has a rundown on the different games you'll find on the high seas. From the article: "Swordfighting: Swordfighting is the noble art of Pirate combat. Clear blades of the same type to strike blows upon your enemy. Swordfights can range from individual challenges to the great battles between Pirate crews that occur at sea during boarding. " When the cap'n says to team up on a scurvy dog, ye best hop to it!

IGN has news that the long running suit between Valve and Vivendi has finally been resolved. There has been some sort of settlement reached, the immediate result being that as of August 31st Vivendi will no longer be distributing Valve titles. From the article: "Valve has not announced a new publishing partner, or whether the company will now solely rely on Steam for distribution. A new publishing agreement would almost certainly be needed for the Xbox version of Half-Life 2 scheduled for release later this summer."

Via Kotaku, the news that MTV Games has launched. The site already has a few features up, including a (juvenile) look at the next Tomb Raider title. At the moment, the site appears to be almost entirely a rebranding of Gamespot content, right down to the news feed.

MMORPG.com has an excellent feature up discussing the trajectory of World of Warcraft as it's progressed since its launch day. They touch on the recent honor system features, the added dungeons, and call Blizzard out on their inability to keep to a consistent update schedule. From the article: "So you may ask, 'How well has Blizzard delivered on their monthly content updates?' The simple answer is: they haven't. In fact, a couple months post launch some players challenged Blizzard as to their promise on scheduled updates. Official Blizzard posters denied making such claims but were quickly pointed to their own website where, in plain text, monthly content updates were promised. After some backtracking Blizzard announced that they would not be able to keep to a definitive content update schedule."

GamesIndustry.biz is reporting that several major motion picture studios are considering releasing some of their films on Sony's UMD format. The studios in question include Fox, Universal, and Paramount. From the article: "Fox is said to be closest to committing - with an initial line-up that could consist of Dodgeball, Napoleon Dynamite, I Robot, Super Troopers and Predator - while Universal could get involved by mid-summer and Paramount is currently evaluating the format's potential."

oskard writes "John C. Dvorak recently posted a PCMag.com rant trashing the gaming industry, predicting a complete market-meltdown in the near future. Titled 'Doom 4: End of the Game Industry?', it was interesting to see how the 3D Realms Forums reacted to the article. He claims that 'games have hardly changed since the invention of the first-person shooter.' His kids have obviously showed him too much Halo 2, and not enough Half-Life 2." From the article: "The business is going to attempt to sustain growth and creativity by making game players buy newer and newer machines. Computer gaming has always been sustained by never-ending improvements in resolution and realism. But once we get to photorealism, what is going to sustain growth?"

Gamasutra has a lengthy article discussing many aspects of The Psychology of Video Games. The article discusses why we play, why games are made the way they are, and tips for designing for members of our species. From the article: "We are all familiar with the feeling we have when we are completely caught up in a great game. The state where we are completely focused on playing, and all other things become irrelevant. This article is about that feeling - why we get it when we play games, and how we can design games that give us more of it."

Gamespot has word that a Worldwide Halo 2 Tourney is in the works, because fragging the Covenant is something we can share as a species. From the article: "The tournament will be played in the Rumble Pit matchmaking playlist over Xbox Live beginning sometime around May 2. Gamers who register and compete in Rumble Pit optimatch sessions will have their statistics recorded for the duration of the competition. At the end of the tournament, on May 30, a winner will be announced based on the highest ranking."

NCSoft's newest edition to their ever expanding stable of games, Guild Wars, has launched in North America and Europe. From what I saw while in-game things seem to be working well from a technical standpoint. Commentary from the player base is already available from the fine souls at f13.net and Grimwell.com. More specific commentary comes from AFKGamer, who has commentary about the title a few days ahead of time, and on day one of play.

Another development studio has closed up shop, with British company Elixir laying off staff and closing down development. Elixir has published two titles, the political sim Republic and the mad scientist strategy title Evil Genius. The cancellation of an upcoming project forced the company to make a hard decision. From the article: "I'm very proud of what all the staff at Elixir have achieved and the games we produced...We gave it everything we had but ultimately it wasn't quite enough. It seems that today's games industry no longer has room for small independent developers wanting to work on innovative and original ideas. Perhaps there is no longer any need for them."

Neverwinter Nights introduced a new generation of gamers to D&D style roleplaying. When Knights of the Old Republic was released it was arguably the best Star Wars tale told since the end of the original trilogy. Given the chance to create their own world, Bioware has produced an immersive action/RPG with a compelling plot, memorable characters, and entertaining gameplay. Jade Empire is a most worthy addition to Bioware's library of games. Read on for my take on one of the most original RPG's in recent memory.

GamesIndustry.biz has word that principal photography has begun on a film adaptation of the Silent Hill game series. From the article: "The film will star Radha Mitchell - best known for her role in Pitch Black - as lead character Rose, a woman who finds herself exploring the mysterious town whilst searching for her missing daughter. Sean Bean will play Rose's husband, and other cast members include Deborah Kara Unger (Crash, The Game) and Kim Coates (Black Hawk Down, Pearl Harbour)."

mars soup eel writes "Cube.IGN is reporting that Brooke Burgess (of Broken Saints) has let the proverbial cat out of the bag concerning Nintendo's new Revolution console. The big secret (assuming the rumors are true)? 3D projection." From the article: "At the core of the theory sits how Revolution will display games: through a form of real-time 3D projection. That's right folks, along the lines of a classic 50s monster movie. Nintendo itself has stated that what it plans to use on Revolution isn't all that unique, only that it has never been applied to videogames. Taking that into account, plus recent patents filed by Nintendo, and it doesn't sound all that far fetched, argues Burgess." As always, take this with a grain of salt.

Neon Spiral Injector writes "Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. (TBS, Inc.), a Time Warner company, just put up a website for their new GameTap service. It appears to be a flatrate, all-you-can-play program that will allow ROMs to be downloaded to a PC and run through their software. Today's press release says that there are 17 publishers onboard with nearly 1000 games (300 available at launch)." This could be the first gauntlet into the ring a major media company. Who will be the next into the industry?

Pxtl writes "The long-awaited remake of Total Annihilation (considered "#1 RTS of All Time" by Gamepsy), "Spring" has hit its first official public beta release. The game reimplements the original Cavedog game in a full 3d environment, replacing TA's fixed-angle view. It also brings other new features to the table, such as revised physics and a 1st-person-shooter mode. Spring reuses the original TA content and is backwards compatible with the old unit packs. While the game is currently win32 only, its source has been released under the GPL, so fixing that is only a matter of time. Get to the download page now and help out with the torrents."