Silicon Mike asks: "A nice sized group of us here at work recently picked up City of Heroes, and started playing together. While all of us were gamers to some extent, now we're all pretty addicted and want to play together online all the time. The problem some of us are running into is that our significant others aren't too happy with us gaming all the time. Other then the two obvious solutions (quit playing or dump the significant other) I'm wondering how other people have deal with it? I tried installing Zoo Tycoon on my other computer and saying 'Look honey, cute bears' but she just didn't bite."

frogcircus asks: "Several weeks ago, at a neighborhood yard sale, my wife found an intact copy of Scotland Yard. I had been looking for one for several years (ever suspicious of eBay), driven by fond memories of group games in the late 80s. We played with a group of friends last night, and while some of us loved the game, others seemed a little less enthralled. It soon surfaced that the logic and reasoning involved in the game made it highly attractive for some of us. This got me thinking that perhaps the game was especially appealing to the geek mind. Which leads to my question: to which board games do you feel a close affinity? And to what degree have they engendered social interaction who don't share your particular interests?"

Ozh writes "QuakeWorld players will want to try this interesting light Penguin-powered 'live distro' : QWCD provides a ready-to-frag nothing-to-install QuakeWorld installation, playable from the bootable CD. It includes popular Quake clients FuhQuake and MWQCL, comes with an up-to-date Kernel, and every piece of software a player should need (ATI and nVidia drivers, internet connexion and browser, IRC client...). Has Quaking at the office ever been easier?"

Thanks to IGN GameCube for its article noting overall sales totals for Nintendo's most famous franchises, revealed as part of the company's recent financial results. The winner? "Across a total of nineteen titles, the Super Mario Brothers series has managed worldwide sales of 174 million units. This figure works out to 54 million units across nine portable titles and 120 million units across 10 home titles." Additionally, "Pokemon comes in second at 91 million units... [though] the company has chosen to not include sales from the series' console counterparts... Donkey Kong beats out Zelda for third place with 43 million units... Zelda comes in at 42 million units." Elsewhere, Game Science has news of a limited edition Metroid-themed Game Boy Advance SP, with the "two-tone GBA SP body shell, in the colors of Samus' bodysuit" available in Japan via Club Nintendo.

Thanks to GameSpot for its 'GameSpotting' editorial discussing why buying second-hand games could have a negative effect on videogame creators. The author points out: "You know, Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft must have a real love/hate relationship with stores that stock used games alongside their new games [since buying used games doesn't give] the game developers, or the game publishers a thin, red cent. Instead, the retailer is enjoying a nice, fat profit margin, where the markup is in the neighborhood of 200 to 1000 percent." He goes on to argue: "Buying used is equivalent to the game not selling at all in the eyes of developers and publishers, and when games don't sell, they don't get sequels and excellent concepts and, therefore, opportunities are lost."

arxmage writes "A group of my students went to extremes to play the GameCube ARPG Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles in multiplayer mode with wireless controllers, and without using a Game Boy Advance [as a Gamers Europe review explains, the multiplayer mode 'requires each player to have a Game Boy Advance and a GameCube link cable'.] You basically get a GameCube with FF:CC in it, then get 4 more GCs with attached GameBoy Players. Link each of these 4 GCs (using GBA link cables) to the main GC, and plug each of these 4 GCs into its own small tv. The small TVs act as each player's 'GBA screen' and the main TV is where everyone plays. Finally, plug a WaveBird into each of these 4 GameCubes and you're good to go." The resulting cable mess is a joy to behold.

heXXXen writes "The first release of Unreal Annihilation is out now - it's a total conversion for Unreal Tournament 2K3/4 that mimics classic PC RTS title Total Annihilation. However, the first release only supports UT2K3, with 2004 support coming June 6." Elsewhere, an anonymous reader writes "Part two of the Community Bonus Pack for UT2004 has been released, featuring a whole host of new maps, skins, and mutators for the game, with information and screenshots available at FPSCentral. Torrents can be found at PlanetUnreal (UMOD version and ZIP version.) The 'official' CBP2 channel can be found at #cbp on irc.enterthegame.com."

Thanks to GameSpot for its interview with Aaron Loeb of developers Planet Moon Studios, the quirky developer that "was founded in 1997 by the Shiny Entertainment team that created MDK", has gone on to make console/PC titles Giants: Citizen Kabuto and Armed & Dangerous, and is now "devoting itself to the [Sony] PSP exclusively." Loeb justifies this arguably risky move to the "unproven terrain of PSP development" by suggesting: "The PSP will enable a developer like us to make cutting edge games quickly, alleviating the challenge all small developers currently face", and argues the kind of games that will be successful on the PSP are "Games that focus on opportunity game play. Games that are really fun to play right away. You get them immediately, they're cool, you play them for 15 minutes and you've got a very satisfying experience."

Thanks to Way of the Rodent for its feature providing printable plans for making your own mini classic videogame arcade using paper cut-outs. The accompanying text explains: "Finally - relive those early-to-mid '80s arcade glory days without the hassle of paying for stuff or having to learn how the machines work so you can keep fixing them or negotiating with strange, staring men at frightening auctions", before linking to printable color templates for games including Gauntlet, Defender, Robotron, and Tempest and asking: "Send pictures [of your completed mini-arcade], too. We'd love to see how you interpret and arrange all of this", in a move reminiscent of Konami's Metal Gear Rex paper model kit handed out at E3 2003.

An anonymous reader writes "Bruce Campbell mentions a new Evil Dead videogame due out in spring 2005 in a recent interview over at AICN. Asked whether there's going to be an Evil Dead 4 movie or not, he concludes 'So, I don't know. I mean, no one's gonna weep if there isn't... I mean, look! We've got these Evil Dead games coming out left and right. The new one's coming out next year, next Spring. I did the voice for it for Cranky Pants.' Looks like Cranky Pants Games are internal developers for THQ, working on an 'unannounced third-person action game shipping on the PlayStation 2 and Xbox consoles in early 2005', probably the Evil Dead game - I hope they do a better job than developers Vis Entertainment did on Evil Dead: Fistful of Boomstick!" THQ's first Evil Dead title, Evil Dead: Hail To The King, wasn't rated too positively either, so hopefully this new game should be an improvement.

George Kaspiris writes "It seems the Cyberathlete Professional League (CPL) has announced a 2005 'CPL World Tour' with one million dollars in cash prizes, the largest cash prize ever for professional videogaming. The tour will include ten worldwide stops." There'll be more information revealed at the CPL World Championships (which includes Counter-Strike, Unreal Tournament 2004, Call Of Duty, Halo PC, and Painkiller tournaments) in Texas this July, and over at independent eSports site Gotfrag, reaction has been largely positive, with commenters arguing "competitive gaming could become kinda like the PGA Tour", although another commenter worries: "Right now, there are far too few teams and players... that have the [financial or scheduling] ability to follow this series of tournaments around."

Thanks to Kikizo for its interview with Tecmo's Tomonobu Itagaki regarding "Ninja Gaiden 2, Code Chronus, Dead or Alive Ultimate, DOA4 and PSP, [and] Nintendo DS development", conducted at the E3 Expo in Los Angeles. Itagaki addresses the complaints of some about Ninja Gaiden's extreme difficulty, posturing: "It was done intentionally of course. The testers who tested this game went nuts. At first it was easier, but when the testers said 'this is too difficult', I made it even more difficult", before mentioning that a Ninja Gaiden 2 is planned, and "the concept will not change", but "it will be after [development of] Dead or Alive 4", which in turn will be produced after the nearly completed Dead Or Alive Ultimate, the Xbox Live online-enabled title which "takes the first two Dead or Alive titles, adds all new environments, a novel online setup, a higher degree of interactivity in its levels, new movies, new costumes, and more."

An anonymous reader writes "A game for children modified for geeks: The austrian art (or something like that) group monochrom has made the worlds probably first massive multiplayer thumbwrestling performance in the viennese Museumsquartier. They've got some photos and explanation of several network structures (even includes a Death Star Reactor - i wonder how many things like that could be done - new kind of simple origami?). A network game in the 50s? Beware: requires real social interaction!"

Thanks to IGN PS2 for its hands-on analysis of Japanese PlayStation 2 title Vib Ripple, the latest in the series from cult developer NanaOn-Sha, creators of Parappa The Rapper and Vib Ribbon. According to the article, "Stages take place in square arenas, with a center 'mat' that's textured with a picture. Your goal is to find all the Peta Characters hidden in the picture... [you must] search for a clump of color in the picture corresponding to the size and color indicated in the [Peta] character's icon [on the side of the screen]." It's also explained: "By connecting a digital camera to your PlayStation 2, you can use personal pictures as the basis for new stages. The game automatically places Peta Characters appropriately about the picture." 1UP has an earlier preview of this title, which is out now in Japan (with Western release as yet unconfirmed), and was previously mentioned on Slashdot Games.

An anonymous reader writes "China's State News Agency, Xinhua reports that China's Ministry of Culture has banned a computer game for 'distorting history and damaging China's sovereignty and territorial integrity'. Paradox's PC strategy game 'Hearts of Iron', was accused of distorting historical facts in describing Manchuria, West Xinjiang, and Tibet as independent sovereign countries in the maps of the game. 'All these severely distort historical facts and violate China's gaming and Internet service regulations,' the Ministry's Game Products Censorship Committee said. 'The game should be immediately prohibited.' [via China Digital]"

Thanks to The Magic Box for relaying the unconfirmed rumor that "Capcom is planning to release the popular court simulation game Gyakuten Saiban for Game Boy Advance in US later this year, as they have applied for a [trademark] for the title in US." Searching the USPTO database certainly reveals a U.S.-specific "Trademark 78416207... [filed] May 10th, 2004" by Capcom for the Japanese courtroom adventure title with intriguing handheld gameplay, which is helpfully explained in a recent InsertCredit review: "Listen to witnesses speak; at the right time, use the L button to question them... [which] may reveal holes in their stories... Point to the right pieces of evidence at the right times (hey! you can see the victim's watch in that picture with the bottle of pills!), and look really good to the judge as the witness stutters out a confession." Although the game's release is distinctly unconfirmed, would you buy this title if Capcom opted to translate it?

Aaron asks: "I write the crossword for the student newspaper at my university (McGill, in Montreal). For the last issue of the year I like to go all-out and do something special. Usually I just make a super-big one, but I had a brainstorm - a crossword is essentially a 2-dimensional matrix where set intersections are judged as valid if they test positive as real words out of a dictionary. Of course, the decision to limit the matrix to 2 dimensions is just pragmatic so if you wanted you could make crosswords of 3 or more dimensions (though a 4-dimension crossword might have to be done in pencil first). Any ideas on how to actually do this?" This would be interesting on a computer, but would be fairly hard to do in print. If you were of a mind to make a 3D crossword puzzle on paper, how would you do it?

Thanks to GameSpot for its interview with Will Harvey, founder of There Inc., after the virtual world creator announced this week that it "is reevaluating its consumer-side game environment, giving itself 90 days to determine if a licensing-only model might offer a more secure upside to the company." Harvey explains that he has "left the company and I'm no longer on the board", and describes his original vision of There: "to support all the kinds of rich interactivity and human experience that top-tier video games are capable of, but in a single, unified world where everything works together." When asked to describe the problems with 'virtual world' products, he suggests: "If you look at the nongenre MMORPGS--There, Second Life, The Sims Online--they are all version 1 products that won't really be complete until version 37. The challenge is making version 1 commercially viable."

Crusader writes "Black Cat Games has announced the release of Alien Swarm, their Unreal Tournament 2004 modification that features an overhead POV cooperative multiplayer battle against AI-driven aliens. There's torrents for both the trailer and the mod itself. Linux users are catered to as well: the ZIP package contains a shell script-based installer."

AciDive asks: "I am currently working on developing a game and I want to use OpenAL for the sound. I have downloaded the SDK and currently have it working with Dev-C++. The reference documentation that comes with the SDK is good but it leaves something to be desired. What I would like to know is has anyone here on Slashdot ever done any sound programming with OpenAL and if so what resources did you use to get yourself started?"