jshriverWVU writes "Seems the next-gen Arcade hardware for Namco is going to be running Linux and using video hardware from NVidia. The first game to use the system will be CounterStrike Neo, a version of the popular game currently only available in Japanese arcades. The official press release is also available."

Thanks to Gamasutra for the heads up about a political music video starring video game characters that is to start airing on MTV today. The newest "Choose or Lose" video will feature characters from popular video games such as The Sims and BloodRayne and is intended to encourage youth voters to show up at the polls. The video will air for the first time on MTV today on TRL, and afterwards can be seen on the MTV Choose or Lose site. This follows closely on the heels of MTV2's Video Mods series, which uses video game footage for the visuals in music videos.

nevermore94 writes "After a long wait, Tribes: Vengeance, the latest game in the Tribes series has finally shipped to retail stores in the United States. Reviews are available at ActionTrip, GameSpy, GameZone, and WarCry .

PasteEater writes "The good people over at XBox Scene have the scoop. Mac OS X has been successfully installed on a modified Xbox. What does this mean? Well, it's no Xbox Media Center, but it does prove that nerds are at the forefront once again!"

Several readers submitted this story in the Washington Post about gaming addiction in adolescents and adults. The main sources of the story are two people who get paid for solving this problem, so they have an incentive to make it sound scary and widespread, but on the other hand, most Slashdot readers probably have a... friend... who spends too much time playing video games.

Thanks to the numerous readers who alerted us to the Gamespot article mentioning that the PSP may be delayed until next year. This analysis comes from games industry analysts and is the result of Sony's game title weakness and battery issues. David Jenkins at Gamasutra has additional analysis as well.

News for nerds writes "While Sony already announced its adoption of Blu-ray in PS3, IGN Xbox section reports that Xbox 2 may make use of the HD-DVD format if Japanese electronics giants and proponents for HD-DVD, Toshiba and NEC can make their way. Interestingly enough, Toshiba is actually working with Sony on the Cell processor, a key component of the PS3."

An Anonymous Reader alerted us to the fact that the FFXI connectivity issue reported earlier has been resolved. They finally acknowledged the issue and changed the ports used to collect and send data. Meanwhile, with the recent introduction of the game into Europe and the release of a new expansion, gamesindustry.biz sat down for an interview with FFXI producer Hiromichi Tanaka.

Thanks to GamerFeed for their confirmation that a Playstation 2 GITS: SAC game is in the works. It will be released in November to coincide with the series premiere on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim.

Thanks to Halflife2.net, who today recieved word from game retailers that, at least in the UK, Half Life 2 will only be available via DVD. This is evidently becoming common for US games in Europe, as FarCry was not released on CD in Europe either.

gp32 writes "Our translation group has just wrapped up work on an English translation of the visual novel Fate/Stay Night. If you are at all interested in this genre of games, this one isn't a bad place to start."

Thanks to Eurogamer for the news that THQ is going to be charging for Full Spectrum Warrior mission packs. This additional content was originally supposed to be available for free (and indeed was shipped with the PC version of the game) via Xbox Live. Players are instead being charged $4.99 for the additional content.

edawg writes Linuxgames reports that "the Linux edition of Doom 3 has been released by ID Software. Although it didn't ship with a Linux version on the install CD, its still nice to see they release Linux binaries around the same time as their first game patch. Here is Information directly from ID Software."

CrusadeR writes "id Software has released the Linux client/server binaries for Doom 3. An installation/FAQ page has been setup; there's also a torrent tracker for the various files."

Thanks to the BBC for their articles on the near future of Bungie. With Halo 2 ready to ship, it appears the company is stepping back from the Halo series for the moment. While they have over 100 years of plot fleshed out for the gameworld, plans for the future are in flux. For now, "Most people will take a week or two, some up to a month, but almost everyone will be back here in time for the game launch, to witness it first hand."

Thanks to GameSpy for the news that former Nintendo President Hiroshi Yamauchi is planning to present a plan to the Board detailing Nintendo made anime series. The move is intended to provide diversification and increase earnings by linking their characters more closely with the anime market. The company also pleased investors by adjusting higher their profit forecast by almost 20 percent for the year. Nintendo now expects to report almost US$758.9 million for the year.

JimLynch writes "There's a playable demo of Tribes Vengeance available (single and multiplayer)." Gamespot recently took another look at the Vengeance Multiplayer experience, and Tycho has thoughts on playing the demo over at Penny Arcade.

OneHungLo writes "Gamespot has posted an article showing the final design of the Nintendo DS packaging. The package design confirms that a "Metroid Prime: Hunters" demo cart is included, and the "Pictochat" software is embedded into the DS."

Thanks to pdawerks who alerted us to the post on the Bungie site stating that Halo 2 is ready to ship. It's filled with typical Bungie humor. "If you create a clan, do it because you intend to use it, and enjoy the camaraderie that Clan membership brings. We have systems in place to deal with "dead" or unused Clans. Unpleasant, pointy systems that reek of rust and blood and horror. Think Silent Hill meets Autocomplete."

Ryan Shrout writes "Recently AMD and Atari have both been promoting the game "Shadow Ops: Red Mercury" as the first 64-bit game to hit retail shelves. Even without an operating system ready for it, both companies want us to believe that the 64-bit version of the game adds a large amount of detail and visual quality that the 32-bit version just can't handle. PC Perspective decided to go buy the game and test those claims."