Not every worthwhile game title involves headshots, big explosions, high speed racing, or athletic prowess. The stealth genre, which started to gain attention with the likes of Tenchu: Stealth Assassin, is now typified by the modern military series Splinter Cell. The newest title, Chaos Theory, improves on concepts introduced in previous games, continues to offer a unique multiplayer experience, and expands the gameplay in a few minor ways. All told, Splinter Cell : Chaos Theory is a worthy successor to the previous games in the series, and offers up familiar gameplay that never once feels stale.

Settler writes "Freeciv 2.0.0 has been released upon the world! A big thanks goes to the people who made it all come true. Remember to read about the exciting news and hurry up and get it here. To see what this game looks like, check out screenshots here and here. This goes to show what a great game an open source project can create."

MMOG Designer and commentator Damion Schubert has up an article on the constantly renewing Permadeath debate. Permadeath is the concept of permanent death for a character in a Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game. The design hasn't shown up in any major commercial games yet but, to borrow a phrase, the soul still burns. His commentary is a great synopsis of the debate, from the rearing of its head to the final bitter back-biting threads. From the article: "3. Captain Obvious Speaks. 'People don't like to lose their stuff.' 'It isn't fun.' 'It's hardcore, and only hardcore games will ever use it.' 'Any game which depends on the internet for its reliability has no place permanently taking away all your stuff.' 'Why in God's name would anyone consider this idea a good or compelling idea?'"

1up.com continues its trend of topical features by delving into Generation Next: Separating the Facts from the Fiction of the Next-Gen Consoles. From the article: "Photorealistic graphics, streaming multimedia content, complete Internet integration and revolutionary new kinds of gameplay are all promises of next generation gaming. Right now, it's all executives blowing hot air and technobabble, but in just a short few weeks, the battle for the living room starts again, as Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony take the wraps off their new babies and show the world their visions of the industry's future."

The Tabula Rasa site has been replaced with a large announcement stating that the game has undergone massive overhauls in the last year. The designers apparently felt that the game simply wasn't shaping up to be what they had hoped, and went back to the drawing board for some elements. From the announcement: "Over the next few weeks you will see changes to the Tabula Rasa website. The site will be receiving a major overhaul in advance of this year's E3 event. You can look forward to new creatures, new features, and new information."

LiquidIce writes "Control your house with a PSP, using the wipeout browser hack. Currently, you can control a TV, DVD, and Lighting using the WiFi on the PSP. There are so many more possibilities for using a PSP as the controller to a home automation system."

Moe Napoli writes "Nearly six months since its release, Half-Life 2 is not only making ripples for its being a great game, but also for the works being made from the game itself. Garry's Mod (aka GMod) is a extremely popular and fun "sandbox" modification for Half-Life 2, that allows you to play with the game's exceptional physics engine as well as pose characters, create Rube Goldberg-type devices and other physics phun inside of HL2. Taking advantage of GMod's character posing, the compelling and professionally produced Apostasy is an online comic that follows 3 characters from the HL2 universe and is interwoven within and around the game's original narrative. Still Seeing Breen is an excellent machinima music video created by intercutting the game events with a singing G-Man - ultimately displaying Valve's powerful FacePoser software (which comes with the game's SDK) and HL2's capabilities for machinima development (spoiler alert for those who haven't completed the game yet). It's really great stuff - I'm looking forward to what the next six months brings."

Via Games*Design*Art*Culture*, a link to a Hollywood reporter story breaking the news that Oddworld Inhabitants is closing up shop in the games industry. Owner Lanning is apparently going to move the company into movies and TV, as a result of sour experiences in the current gaming industry environment. From the article: "As game production costs rise, publishers want more sure bets because with rising costs come rising risks. What we see is an industry which is rapidly discouraging innovation because people don't want to take chances on more innovative types of titles."

Neil Halelamien writes "Many enjoy listening to video game music arrangements, like those offered by OCRemix, Project Majestic Mix, or the Minibosses NES-rock band. A newcomer on the scene is the Video Game Pianist, an accomplished performer studying at the Cleveland Institute of Music. His skills garnered the attention of some in the industry -- he performed at the 2005 Game Developers Conference and will also be playing live at E3 this year. His web site offers some amazing performance videos (many with him playing blindfolded), downloadable albums, live internet concerts, sheet music, and other goodies, all for free. His albums and videos include several selections from the Mario, Zelda, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Final Fantasy series. Fans of his work can also donate to support his music."

hollismb writes "Bungie has released all the details and set a date for the upcoming Halo 2 AutoUpdate, which includes a list of fixes to cheating and glitches. The update will also include changes to weapon balance, and you can look for it on Xbox Live on Monday, April 18th."

Reuters is reporting that video game sales were up 32% in March. The story attributes the increase in sales to improved console supplies, Gran Turismo 4, and some handheld Sony is hawking. From the article: "Citing figures from market researchers NPD Group, analysts also said Sony Corp.'s new PlayStation Portable handheld gaming unit sold 620,000 units of hardware in the month and 1.1 million pieces of software. The PSP was released on March 24."

Despite rumblings of a new Dungeons and Dragons cartoon, the first Wizards of the Coast setting that will see production as a television show is apparently Urban Arcana. UA is one of the canned settings offered by Wizards of the Coast in its d20 Modern roleplaying game. Despite this announcement, it's not going to be in front of your eyes for some time. From the article: "...the Sci-Fi Channel and Fox Television Studios are developing a television series based on the Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast D20 MODERN campaign suppliment URBAN ARCANA for the '06-'07 season."

Gamasutra has up responses from its frequent feature, the question of the Week. This week's question was a call for the best of the best. "For any genre of your choice, what is the game that defines that genre for you?" From the article: "For the RPG, simply Final Fantasy 6. It has the best story, greatest variety of characters, tons of different music, and added many secret areas. It was the first game to truly to define a real experience of an RPG to the player. -Anonymous" What games would you refer to as Genre Defining?

_xeno_ writes "Final Fantasy XI is currently under a DDOS attack from unknown parties. No additional information is really available, but Square-Enix has contacted "[l]aw enforcement authorities in Japan, the United States, and Europe." The attacks started on April 9th and are evidently ongoing, causing server downtime, preventing people from logging in to the game, and causing extra latency. No word has been made on the exact nature of the attacks or any progress on blocking the attacks."

The folks over at ArenaNet are throwing the Final Pre-Release Beta Weekend Event. It's specifically aimed at folks who have preordered the game. If you're in, you can download the client and get into the game world early. From the article: "This BWE might be called our polishing event. Aside from the brand new maps that are being presented in their newer form, and which we know might need a bit more refinement, we're moving in on release (just 14 days and counting!) and we'd really like things to be just perfect on April 28th."

GameGossip has word that an Animaniacs video game entitled "The Great Edgar Hunt" is currently in the works. The game is being done by the in-house Warner Bros. developers. From the article: "The game is a third-person action title developed by Warthog, and puts players to the task of guiding characters Wakko, Yakko and Dot throughout six levels while trying to find the Edgar trophies; each making use of their own moves. The game will also include five "Pinky & The Brain" mini-games."

TomServo writes "This week registration began for Quakecon 2005, the largest LAN party in the western hemisphere and the largest free LAN party in the world. 3200 BYOC seats and over 400 tourney slots are up for grabs in a first-come, first-served registration. This year Quakecon will be Aug. 11-14 at the Gaylord Texan Resort in Grapevine, Texas." And with previews of Quake IV evidently available, it's sure to be a popular LAN party too.

In an editorial entitled Will Anybody Care That You Liked Gaming Before It Was Cool?, GameGirlAdvance editor ClockworkGrue discusses aspects of PSP Glamour, and what it means when gaming devices become sex symbols. From the article: "It's great that gaming can be trendy, and that the 300 pound guy on the train the other day and Paris Hilton are both PSP owners. Maybe now there'll be some demand for game-related clothing that breaks the basement-casual standard?" Update: 04/15 11:13 GMT by Z : To fix broken link.

Gamespot is reporting on a possible SAG strike against the video game industry. The working contract that the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists has with the major game publishers expires tomorrow and negotiations are still underway. From the article: "Academy-Award winner Charlize Theron will lend her voice to Majesco's Aeon Flux, David Duchovny and Marilyn Manson voice-act original characters for Midway's upcoming Area 51, and Sean Connery will do some Bond-speak for EA's recently announced From Russia With Love. Actors are even voicing from beyond the grave--the late Marlon Brando will join James Caan and Robert Duvall in Electronic Arts' digital version of The Godfather."

jvm writes "Are negative reader reviews of the Sony PlayStation Portable (like this one) being yanked from GameFAQs? Some have certainly been removed, and Kyle Orland of the Video Game Ombudsman investigates: one of the reviews which was taken down, an interview with the author of the review, and a subsequent anonymous email purportedly by the person who took the review down. The review's author then responds that the justifications are questionable. Accompanying this is a discussion of the handling of reader-submitted reviews." Update: 04/16 04:53 GMT by Z : Many thanks to CJayC for setting the record straight in the comments below.