Thanks to AVault for its editorial discussing the responsibility videogame makers have to use their powers for 'good'. The author expresses concern about games' influence on the young: "My love of digital maiming is tempered by the fact that, at this stage of my life, I can tell right from wrong. I have a fully developed set of ethics. I wouldn't say my nine-year-old nephew has quite had the time to develop these tools." The article ends with the exhortation: "Developers and publishers, hear my plea: start injecting a strong sense of right and wrong into your stories. I don't want you to pull back on the gibs, I don't want anything more than a stronger sense of ethics and perhaps a small dose of moral fiber. Take into account the fact that kids are playing, no matter that they shouldn't be."

Thanks to The Next Level for its hands-on preview of Bandai's PlayStation 2/GameCube title Ribbit King, a unique new game in which "you play frog golf, or 'frolf' for short. You put a frog on a catapult and smack it around a course littered with traps and point bonuses, and the person with the highest score at the end wins." The previewer notes that "even by my standards, this is an oddball", before concluding: "Ribbit King is due out in June from Bandai, and should retail for $20 on both PS2 and GameCube. Though the demo had a few issues here and there, I can definitely say that for sheer lunacy it looks to be a must-have game."

Takara writes "In an enormous from scratch project, piloux has recreated the HL feel in his LAN PC. This UV reactive watercooled case features 7 fans along side the meticulously texture painted contents. Take a look at the finished product images."

News for nerds writes "Sony Corp plans to offer a broadband television by 2006 that would incorporate the powerful new 'Cell' processor it is developing with IBM Corp. and Toshiba Corp. The Cell processor is expected to power the upcoming PS3 console, a workstation, server, and other home appliances to form Cell-based P2P network. The sample production of the processor has already started. In PlayStation 3, TV props you!"

Ant writes "Brent Bozell of TownHall.com wrote an editorial about the video game nudity trend. It covers games like 'Playboy: The Mansion' and 'Singles: Flirt Up Your Life' that are due out later this year." Ultimately, Bozell seems to distrust the ESRB, citing Eidos' decision to only sell Singles in downloadable form.

Thanks to Yahoo for reprinting an EA press release noting a special 7th Anniversary Edition of Ultima Online has been announced, featuring the game plus the "five [previously released] expansion packs... one of seven rare and powerful anniversary [in-game] gifts... and a collector's edition of the Ultima Online Fan Guide", as well as a "full version of the classic Ultima IX: Ascension." The official UO site has a picture of the box, and over at UO Stratics, they have clarification from UO's lead programmer, part of the California-transplanted Ultima Online team, that "the primary motivation to release the Anniversary Edition is to get UO back on store shelves until the [late 2004-due] expansion is complete. At the same time we were looking for ways to give players some value [also including 'an extra character slot'] that would complement the package."

Thanks to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer for its interview with Sim City and The Sims creator Will Wright, ostensibly about forthcoming title The Sims 2 - however, Wright also notes that "a new version of 'SimCity' is in early planning stages", lamenting that "'SimCity' kind of worked itself into a corner... We were still appealing to this core 'SimCity' group. It had gotten a little complicated for people who had never played 'SimCity.'" He also espouses his new hobby, 'uncollecting', as he explains, after handing out "lapel pins commemorating the Soviet space program" to the interviewer: "I buy collections on eBay, and I disperse them out to people again. I have to be like an entropic force to collectors, otherwise all of this stuff will get sorted." Update: 05/24 20:10 GMT by S : Commenters note there's a transcript of the same interview with added detail, over at GameSpy.

An anonymous reader writes "Most of the major game sites have put up 'Best of E3' sections, including those from Gamespot, from IGN, from GameSpy, and from 1UP . Everyone gave a different Best of Show this year, and agreed that the competition was fierce. I was happy to see mention of Yoot Saito's Odama and Namco's Katamari Damashii. Notable absences, in my opinion, included Tim Schafer's chronically late Psychonauts for Xbox. What games caught your eye? Who was the big winner this year?" T adds: Danno writes "The gang over here at GameGal.com have just put up our 2004 edition of the E3 Hall of Shame. Each year we chronicle the best of the worst in booth babes and half-naked female video game characters. We're not really offended by most of this, but it is amusing to see the lengths companies will go to catch the attention of jaded E3 attendees."

Thanks to Insert Credit for its in-depth report on SNK's forthcoming PS2 title, King Of Fighters: Maximum Impact, as "the first 3D fighter of SNK's new age" is rated from preview builds, with the author arguing "it would be considered a respectable contender against Dead or Alive 2 and Soul Calibur." Elsewhere, UK company Vektorlogic are bucking the death of the MVS arcade hardware, and are announcing multiple new MVS-compatible arcade cartridges, including an arcade version of Super Bubble Pop. Finally, and sadly, prolific Neo Geo (and other) FAQ writer Chris MacDonald, aka Kao Megura, has recently passed away, according to forum messages posted by his brother.

VL writes "Keyboards and mice are great for gaming, but sometimes you need something old school... especially when playing those MAME classics - here's ViperLair's review of the X-Arcade dual controller." X-Arcade also makes a single-player version, and a sturdy-looking trackball.

An anonymous reader writes "There's a new release of the open source multiplayer/singleplayer first person shooter Cube available on the official site. According to the site, this update, which has freely downloadable 'Win32/MacOSX/Linux/LinuxPPC clients and Linux/Solaris/FreeBSD servers' includes 'lots of new great SP [single player] and DM [deathmatch] maps, new textures, mapmodels, a completely new soundtrack yet again, and a variety of code improvements such as better animation.' - the history document has more info on the changes."

Roland Piquepaille writes "If the theory of evolution has worked well for us -- even if this is arguable these days -- why not apply it to mobile robots?, asks Technology Research News. Several U.S. researchers just did that and trained neural networks to play the Capture the flag game. Once the neural networks were good enough at the game, they transferred them to the robots' onboard computers. These teams of mobile robots, named EvBots (for Evolution Robots), were then also able to play the game successfully. This method could be used to build environment-aware autonomous robots able to clear a minefield or find heat sources in a collapsed building within 3 to 6 years. But the researchers want to build controllers for robots that adapt to completely unknown environments. And this will not happen before 10 or maybe 50 years. You'll find more details and references in this overview, including a picture of EvBots trying to find their way during a game." Read on for a similar robot competition held this weekend in France.

angryflute writes "'Have you played Atari today?' was an ad jingle for the Atari 2600 VCS game console during its reign in the early years of the video game industry, from the late 1970s to early 1980s. That question that could apply even now, according to an O'Reilly Network article, thanks to the passion of programmers who've continued to make new Atari 2600 games for the past few years."

MigrantHail writes "According to the official site, the Red Orchestra 2 mod has just been released for Unreal Tournament 2004. Red Orchestra is a popular, freely downloadable total conversion mod which takes place in World War II, on the Eastern front (Germany against Russia, mainly.) The mod tries to give a more realistic WWII experience by not using crosshairs (aim down the barrels) and keeping the guns true to history."

Thanks to Terra Nova for its story discussing a major refocusing at PC 'virtual world' company There Inc., as an official statement mirrored on ThereUniverse.com explains the company is "changing its strategic direction to focus on our technology platform", and "we will no longer be making regular updates to the [There 'virtual world' consumer] software, and we will not be fixing bugs", some claim due to plateauing interest in the game. Terra Nova points out: "Presumably There will be continuing their work with organizations like the US Army. Though they make it clear that this isn't a shut-down of the consumer world, it can't be good news for the development of virtual worlds beyond the typical D&D-inspired MMOGs", a category which also includes PC 'virtual world' title Second Life.

shadowcabbit writes "Gameforms is reporting that director John Woo, who previously optioned Nintendo's Metroid series of games for the silver screen, is in negotiations with Universal to direct the 2005 film adaptation of Spy Hunter. The film, which will star Dwayne Johnson (aka The Rock), has been in the planning stages since 2001, but has not yet begun production."

Thanks to NTSC-uk for its feature discussing what the new pixel and vertex shaders mean to this generation of videogames. The piece laments: "Looking back at the past few years, games have looked incredibly similar. And this is the main reason why: they all used the same tools", before going on to explain: "The hardware previously contained logic circuits to simply perform the operations needed by Gouraud and Flat shading, but now the fully Programmable Pipeline has introduced a whole new world of graphical effects for us all, limited only by the programmers' time and creativity", referencing "the water effects used in Super Mario Sunshine, cel shading effects used in Zelda, or the rippling water effects on Dead or Alive 3."

Thanks to 1UP for its article discussing the forthcoming, impressively feature-rich Action Replay Max for PlayStation 2. This Sony-unapproved third-party USB drive/CD combo includes the ability to "burn a CD of MP3 music, DivX video, or Genesis/Mega Drive ROMs [on your PC], which will then play back on an Action Replay-equipped PS2", and, similar to previous versions, "...will circumvent the PS2's DVD region lockout, and also stream MP3 music or DivX video from a PC connected to the PS2 by way of its Network Adaptor." In addition, the device can "download new cheat codes through a broadband Internet connection, or accept new codes loaded on a CD-R or Datel's own USB flash drive", and finally, Datel "has also added its PS2 online chat and instant messaging client to the Action Replay package."

Thanks to TotalGames for reprinting a GamesTM piece discussing hardware and software that opens up videogaming to blind, deaf or physically impaired people. The piece notes "an increasing number of games created for the accessible market, and 'high-street' games [that] can be adapted to meet individual needs", although programmer Nick Adamson comments: "Currently the accessible games market is purely based on the PC... as for game consoles, they are pointless to blind gamers."

Sutekh-Acolyte writes "Blizzard Entertainment just released a native Mac OS X v10.2+ Diablo II installer, so Mac users no longer have to use the Classic environment to install the game and its expansion set. At 25 megabytes, it's not a small download, because it includes patch files and installs as version 1.10b. PlanetDiablo has a set of screenshots of the installer in action. Download it from FilePlanet (login required) or directly from Blizzard."