An anonymous reader writes "In a recent Gamespy interview with Doug Lambardi it was revealed that the retail version of Half-Life 2 will require product activation. This isn't just restricted to multiplayer, you will have to create a Steam account and activate your retail purchase before you can even run single-player. "

ZIA writes "In response to the continued trend of games being warezed before release, inXile Entertainment, developers of the forthcoming action role-playing game The Bard's Tale, have sent out an amusing press release that pokes fun at the issue. "The Bard's Tale is a highly original game in the same category as a Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Half-Life 2 and Halo 2 so we feel some sort of leak that sounds similar to what they have experienced may be the next logical step in our launch plans."

b0r1s writes "Gamespot was among the dozens of gaming news sites to point readers to the arrival of the first of Nintendo's apparent marketing sites for Metroid Prime 2 Echoes. Having started the trend with Datadyne prior to the launch of Perfect Dark, Nintendo apparently pokes fun at ilovebees.com with several different fake domains. Also included are links to government contractors sites. It seems like Channel 51 and Orbis Labs will both be updated in the weeks prior to the release of Metroid Prime 2. Channel 51 seems to have new stories every week, and Orbis Labs promises that test videos of the Battle Sphere are coming soon. In addition, there is a name and password login on the Orbis site, which we expect will be leaked--or even "hacked"--later on."

zmcnulty writes "Over at TechJapan, we've finished our three part translation of Game Watch's interview of Mr. Izumi Kawanishi, one of the PSP's lead designers. New details revealed include a few about the USB interfacing (with both PS2 and PC), a small hint about the elusive battery life, and best of all, that game saves can indeed be copied from Memory Stick to PC by using the PSP's USB interface. Here's part one, part two, part three, and the original Japanese interview."

NiteStar writes "Major Nelson, the Xbox Live Director of Programming, has released a statement stating they have initiated additional security measures on the Xbox Live service. These measures are aimed to block out cheaters who used modifications to gain an unfair advantage over other players, such as faster cars in Project Gotham Racing 2. He also says "Modified consoles will be banned, and information about those banned machines will be tracked to prevent them from connecting to the service again." Thanks also to BlueMoon who wrote in to mention that "The Xbox enjoyed 53% market share among consoles in the UK last week."

Grimwell Online is carrying a story entitled When does an Online Game go too far?. It details a post to a news group about a world event in the newly released A Tale in the Desert 2. The online game, which simulates an ancient Egyptian culture, was full of angry players after a developer-run event used openly discriminatory language against the female gender. Details on the event can be found at the ATITD2 Wiki, and commentary can be found on TerraNova.

Anonymous Coward writes "Worthplaying is reporting in with the rather sad news that Lionhead has stopped further development of B.C. , its highly anticipated Xbox title. Not giving any specific reason as to why, Lionhead's Peter Molyneux said he hopes to "revive the project at a later date." This news is especially odd since a few days ago Lionhead announced to have secured millions of pounds on venture capital."

antdude writes "A forum user at Broadbandreports.com found Peter Packet, Cisco's Security Game. Peter can dodge viruses, evade hackers, the whole nine yards. That is the real reason why the Internet is safe! There is a cool introduction, music, games, informative stuff (educational), etc. Quite amusing. You need Flash to view it."

miller60 writes "At least one Adware company has purchased a game developer, hoping to use game downloads to install advertising software on gamers' computers. 180solutions, which recently received $40 million in venture capital funding, says its purchase of Full Armor Studios is the "first of many gaming relationships the company will forge over the coming months.""

pupkick writes "Wired news has a story about a government supercomputer running Linux that 'pits two opposing teams of soldiers against one another in a fight for control over a city under siege.'"

se2schul writes "Although there is no NHL hockey this year because of the labour dispute, you can still look up scores. EA is simulating the 2004-05 NHL season using NHL 2005, made in the company's Vancouver studio. The irony won't be lost on long-suffering Maple Leafs fans: It's taken a lockout for Toronto to top the league."

Andru Edwards writes "Recently, there has been a flurry of game developers releasing games which did not live up to expectations the developers set earlier on. Due to this pratice of overhyping upcoming games, gamers have become wary of those games which have major hyoe behind them. Here is a look at which developers are falling victim to the hype, as well as why Nintendo's frustrating strategy might actually be the best approach after all."

In the wake of a new body in the Chinese government set to determine the healthiness of video games, China has pledged to invest 240 million dollars in healthier online games. The "PCBang" phenomenon so popular in South Korea is spreading into China as well, making this a big industry for the government to be subsidizing. Commentary on the social implications of online games is available at TerraNova as well.

Thanks to HomeLANFed for the news that several new Atari games have been revealed on the official site. These include the action title "Chronos", and the much anticipated Civilization IV.

stm2 writes "Alex Varanese just released the XGameStation, a new homebrew video game system designed to teach its users how to build and program their own video game machines from the ground up. From their PR: "The expansive eBook, written by LaMothe himself, covers everything from introductory electronic theory all the way up to computer architecture, as well as a complete coverage of each of the XGS ME's subsystems. Imagine learning everything about how a video game console is built and programmed from scratch: designing and printing circuit boards, generating TV signals, external device interfacing, and much more.". They have two posters, as well."

Jerry23 writes "At Accelerating Change 2004 (November 5-7 at Stanford University), Virtual Reality pioneer Jaron Lanier and Sims creator Will Wright will face each other in a debate entitled "Finding Humanity in the Interface: Capacity Atrophy or Augmentation?" As our interfaces get continually smarter, how do we keep them from dehumanizing us? Can we avoid the world of MT Anderson's masterful dystopia, Feed (2002), where the Internet-jacked, childlike teens of 2030 speak pidgin English and live primarily as vehicles for highly sophisticated and automated corporate marketing and political programming?"

AndyDavies writes "Sony has announced that the highly anticipated Gran Turismo 4 will be delayed to a 2005 release in PAL regions due to the localization process. The game is still on schedule for a 2004 release in North American and Japan."

Anonymous Coward cuts-and-pastes: "Less than a week after a pirated version of Halo 2 began appearing on the Web, another of the year's most sought after games has been stolen. Ironically, it also happens to be a game titled after a larcenous act itself. That's right. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas has become the latest victim of piracy, with illegal copies of the game, its manual, and its cover appearing on various Web sites." Update: 10/21 13:54 GMT by Z : Rockstar adds some details to what we know about the crime in a press release covered by CVG.

Thanks to IGN for the news that a Super Monkey Ball Deluxe will be released next year on the PS2 and Xbox. "The new title will feature 300 stages (114 from Super Monkey Ball, 140 from Super Monkey Ball 2, and 46 Deluxe-exclusive boards), and will be available in spring 2005." Hi. My name is Zonk, and...I have to admit to a predilection for tossing monkeys around in plastic spheres.

Many thanks to GameJournalism.com for the heads up on two white papers put out last month by the Women in Gaming Special Interest Group. The two papers (both excellent reads) are Chicks with Joysticks: An exploration of women in Gaming, and Why are there so few Women in Games? In a related topic, TerraNova has a piece on the Women 's Game Conference and MMOGs.