endersdouble writes "Ars Technica's Jon "Hannibal" Stokes, known for his many articles on CPU technology, has posted a new article on IBM's new Cell processor. This one is the first part of a series, and covers the processor's approach to caching and control logic. Good read."

This past weekend we discussed virtual sweatshops, and the legal issues they bring up. Today Terra Nova has a discussion in which Julian Dibbell, noted VW economics researcher, asks do such things really exist? Firsthand experiences would seem to indicate they do, with extensive chat logs (via Broken Toys) and the experiences of players documenting farming behavior.

Gamasutra.com has the first in a new series of opinion gathering articles, where individuals can pipe up with their responses to a question of the week. The first query was "What was the most creative game of 2004?" From the article: "Katamari Damacy, hands down. Unique concept. Unique gameplay. Solid execution. And most important of all, it was _fun_."

Yosho writes "Doukutsu Monogatari, a freeware platformer for Windows by the Japanese Studio Pixel, has been translated into English. The game has been making a lot of waves in the freeware gaming circles recently, and for good reason; it's quite fun, and it's comparable to commercial games in length and depth."

HatTriQk writes "Maybe if your skillz are lacking you should become a Counter-Strike tourney commentator? The BBC has an article on the role of the Pro Gaming Commentator." From the article: "E-sports, sometimes called v-sports, are growing at a dramatic pace with games such as Unreal Tournament, Quake and Counter Strike letting gamers not only participate in online duals but also spectate online. The games are played at a frenetic pace, making real sports such as football and rugby look like petanque, and often it can be difficult to follow the intense action."

Ant writes "Many people are having problems connecting to the Steam servers to play Half-Life 2, and now the legal agreements that surround a purchase of Half-Life 2 have been examined. The German Consumer Association has found that the packaging on Half-Life 2 is misleading. In a report made following complaints from the public, they said that the mere listing of an internet connection under the 'other' category in system requirements did not accurately describe the true extent of the internet tie-in with the game, and ordered Vivendi to amend the packaging and untie Steam from HL2 or face a hefty fine."

An anonymous reader writes "Gamesarefun is reporting that Capcom is having serious difficulty in porting Resident Evil 4, to Sony's PlayStation 2. The numbers behind the graphical differences are interesting, since Capcom sites a few specifics. Apparently the original model for Leon Kennedy in the GameCube version has had to be scaled down from 10,000 polygons to 5000 for the PS2 version, which is equal to both the poly count for Naked Snake in Metal Gear Solid 3 as well as the poly count of the typical villager in the GameCube version of RE4."

slashflood writes "After reading two articles on slashdot about the Cell architecture and another one that criticizes the extensive roundup of the STI patents, I found the first pictures of the Cell core. It seems that at least some predictions were true. Seeing is believing." mtgarden points to this ZDNet article which says that the "first version of the chip will run at speeds faster than 4GHz. Engineers were vague on how much faster, but reports from design partners say 4.6GHz is likely. By comparison, the fastest current Pentium PC processor tops out at 3.8GHz." (More below.)

Voodoo Extreme has a small piece on EA Games celebrating The Sims' fifth anniversary. They have apparently sold over 54 million units in the lifetime of the series. From the article "The very first The Sims videogame for the PC began shipping to stores this week in February 2000 and took the nation by storm by becoming the #1 selling PC game in four out of the last five years."

GameGirlAdvance has a look at the litigation between NCSoft and Marvel, examining exactly how infringy the character creator can let you be. The Square/Enix people are starting a roving FFXI party, to kick off later this month in CA. f13.net has an interview with Scott Brown, a developer on the upcoming car-based Auto Assault MMOG. The staple MMOG stats resource, MMOGChart.com, has been updated again by Sir Bruce. He's added several more games but doesn't have new subscription numbers for WoW or EQII.

The New York Times (registration required) has an article entitled Blockbuster With a Joystick, discussing the recent interest big media companies have had in game developers. From the article "What is driving the flurry is Hollywood's newfound respect for the profits earned by video game makers. Until recently, movie studios were happy to license their films to game developers...But as the profit margin on video games has remained around a healthy 25 percent - three times that of the average motion picture - the interest of companies like Disney has increased."

An anonymous reader writes "Gamesite Engadget has a story claiming via a trusted source that says the next generation Xbox (codename Xenon) will be called Xbox 360." From the article: "Our source, who has worked on several projects involving the Xbox and the Xbox 360, has seen the proposed packaging and other design elements for the new console..last year a marketing firm conducted a survey where they asked people whether they thought Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, or Nintendo N5 sounded more 'next-gen'."

PC.IGN is running a piece by Douglass Perry on the Fight for Original Games. In the article, the author examines the trends that have led to a slew of sequels, franchises, and movie industry tie-ins in the gaming industry of late. From the article: "...depending on who you speak with, the videogame industry is either reaching the most impressive convergence of its entire 30-plus year old existence, or it's falling into a never-ending death spiral of sequel-heavy, rehashed, franchise dominated blocks of stinking cheese."

XxtraLarGe writes "MyMac.com has videos of a couple of guys modding an Atari 2600 case to a Mac OS X System. The cool thing is, it looks like the 2600 can still play cartridge games too!"

An anonymous reader writes "Gamasutra is running a post-mortem on an interactive love story that was written by students. They were attempting a solution to the game designer's challenge from the GDC 2004. From the article: Interaction with video games is currently done at an almost entirely rational level. The player may react to a game emotionally, but the game will never know about it, and thus, never respond to it. We wanted to change this, and have the player interact with the game solely through his own emotions."

HarryCaul writes "The Georgia Legislature has a bill proposing the restriction of sales of video games to minors. This bill is independent of the voluntary ratings in that it would prohibit the sale of "especially heinous, atrocious or cruel" games to children. Another bill from the same legislator would take the more reasonable step of requiring stores to post a sign explaining the video game rating system. From the article: "The video game proposal is one of several like it being introduced across the country. Lawmakers in North Carolina, Illinois and Michigan are among those considering similar measures."

gonzoxl5 writes "The final verison of the excellent Star Wars Galactic Conquest mod for Battlefield 1942 has been released. This is the final release of Galactic-Conquest before the mod team (Prolific Games) moves onto a new and currently undisclosed project. A fantastic mod with over 60 vehicles and a host of maps from the Star Wars universe, this total conversion of the BF1942 engine plays better than most 'offical' star wars titles.

CheesyPeteza writes "GameSpot is reporting that the popular game messenger client Xfire is being sued by Yahoo for patent infringement. The patent was originally granted to two Yahoo employees who developed GameProwler for Yahoo Messenger. It describes a system which "allows users to use a game server in connection with a messenger server to permit 'buddies' to know when other 'buddies' are playing games online, and easily join such games." One of these employees then left Yahoo to work for Xfire. Xfire denies infringing on Yahoo's patent, but with the costs estimated at $2 million to defend this cas, will the startup company Xfire be able to stand up to the Yahoo giant?"

prostoalex writes "MSNBC points to the court cases spawned by virtual worlds. Recently, Tom Loftus notes, a virtual island in one of the MMORPGs sold for $30,000, enough to attract commercial attention. Apparently, some businesses create third-world sweatshops, where low-wage laborers are being paid to play and accumulate enough virtual merchandise, so that an eBay sale of it makes the operation profitable. 'One such business, Blacksnow Interactive, actually sued a virtual world's creator in 2002 for attempting to crack down on the practice. The first of its kind to center on virtual goods, the case was eventually dropped,' MSNBC says." Update: 02/06 18:59 GMT by Z : We ran a story about the sale of the virtual island, and Terra Nova has a lot of commentary on the sale of virtual goods. For comparison, the economic impact of this phenomenon is roughly equal to that of Namibia or Macedonia.

Alex Garland, the writer of the script for 28 Days Later, has been retained to pen a script for a Halo movie. Voodoo Extreme has the story via Variety, and notes that Microsoft is keeping close creative control over the script writing process.