Thanks to Insert Credit for its interview with SNK USA's Ben Herman, conducted at E3 last week, in which he "addressed the rumor that Sony had forced the company into making [multiple games in one compilation] pack-ins for their 2D [PlayStation 2] titles." Herman noted that, apparently, "pack-ins were indeed his plan all along... but acknowledged that Sony was definitely more receptive to the pack-in idea than the single package. SvC Chaos and Metal Slug 3 stand alone discs were not approved, for instance." Thus, "The Xbox exclusives in the US market (the aforementioned SvC Chaos and Metal Slug 3) only came about because of Sony's rejection", and Xbox exclusivity won't be repeated in the near future. There's also a longer interview with Ben Herman posted at the MMCafe forums in which he confirms that "Samurai Shodown V and Samurai Shodown V: Special... [are] approved for the PS2."

Thanks to the IGDA for its Chris Crawford-authored 'Ivory Tower' column discussing the gap between science and the arts in videogame creation. Crawford, ever belligerent, argues: "Let's face it, the world of game design is dominated by science/engineering people; people from the arts and humanities play a secondary role... the result: a vast wasteland of cold, heartless games, technological works of genius deficient in redeeming social value." He goes on to suggest: "We need educational programs that expose students to equal amounts of technology and art. They should learn to program even as they study Michelangelo, rhetoric and recursion, algorithms and architecture." Do you think this would lead to better, more innovative, socially aware videogames?

Thanks to Wired News for its article discussing the use of forthcoming PC strategy title Rome: Total War in a History Channel TV show called Decisive Battles - the piece explains: "As video-game graphics evolve to portray increasingly realistic environments, TV producers are turning to game developers for help in re-creating history." Heartwarmingly, the article continues: "While TV can't compete with the visual spectacles created by big-budget, computer-generated scenes in movies like the upcoming Troy, the History Channel can put viewers in the middle of battles with thousands of men hacking and slashing each other to death." Elsewhere, it's mentioned that the Creative Assembly-developed title "also lent its technology to a BBC series called Time Commanders", in which "teams of contestants [battled] against a computer loaded with the tactics of the greatest military minds of all time."

dalangalma writes "Students at Carnegie Mellon University who took the student-led course 98-026: Game Development for the 8-bit NES have finished up their ROMs and made them available for download. Most of these ROMs were developed using NBASIC, which was written by their instructor, Bob Rost. These are some of the first new NES games developed in years, and best of all, the ROMs are legal! You can get the games and learn about the NES (and the software tools developed for this class) at the course web page. You can even start developing your own games!"

Thanks to EvilAvatar for pointing to an extremely in-depth preview of Ion Storm's PC/Xbox title Thief 3:Deadly Shadows, courtesy of fansite Thief: The Circle. The piece deals with some of the more controversial changes ("Loot glint is there whether you like it or not. It sort of clashed with the look/atmosphere to see this bright twinkling light across the room, but it aids in what has been one of the most frustrating elements in the earlier games: the loot hunt"), whether this is anything like Deus Ex 2 ("No. This game is actually finished at the time of its release") before concluding by noting: "Loot glint and arrow streaks mean exactly zip when you're actually... playing the game... and for once in the history of the series, the game actually looks GOOD." Update: 05/17 16:39 GMT by S : An anonymous reader also points to a detailed retrospective of the Thief series on the delightfully named FourFatChicks.com.

Sean O'Neill writes "Ken Lobb mentioned to a GCAdvanced writer that Rare is already working on titles for the Nintendo DS. "After him mentioning that, I began to speak to him about the Nintendo DS. He loves the DS and confirmed with me that Rare does have DS development kits and that two titles are in the works for the DS."

Thanks to Watch Impress for its news story covering the novel Korean Xbox game, XTango [Japanese-language link], shown at the Kentia Hall during last week's E3. The official English-language XTango webpage has more information, explaining the "new-concepted sports dance game in which there's fantastic ballroom [dancing], music, and handsome and beautiful characters." The gameplay is also sketched out: "Collaborating 1 or 2 Players fight against computer couples. 1P is the leader in couple dance, he or she inputs next 'step command' for dance motions, like as command input system of fighting games. [The] follower, 2P presses the same 'step command' right after."

Thanks to The Next Level for its two-part hands-on impressions of Halo 2's multiplayer modes, as shown at the E3 Expo in Los Angeles last week, including many videos of the action, and discussing "the changes to the heads up display", also noting gleefully: "Is carrying two guns worth sacrificing your ability to throw grenades? In a word: Hell Yeah!", before finally concluding of the Xbox title, due out this November: "It was by far the most fun and intense playing experience I had with any game at this year's E3."

Thanks to Gamers With Jobs for its story claiming possible links between the theft of the Half-Life 2 code and the Phatbot trojan writer, following the arrest of the alleged Phatbot creator in Germany last week, as the site claims, regarding "Axel G., 21 years old and known under the nick 'Ago'", that "German IT news mag Heise.de did some investigation [German-language link] and according to their research Axel G. probably also was heavily involved in the Half-Life 2 code theft that happened more than 7 months ago", pointing particularly to an IRC log, available on a Half-Life 2 leak page since late last year, which has Ago allegedly saying "[Download speed] suxx, especially from valve to germany... i coded myself my own sourcesafe client to get it at full speed... i only used a simple null-session to a pc in valves net, that wasnt directly controlled by valve."

Thanks to SirBruce for pointing to Square Enix's official Final Fantasy XI census survey, recently revealed since "May 16, 2004 marks the second anniversary of Final Fantasy XI's Japanese launch." The piece re-confirms that "the number of active Final Fantasy XI players (or, the number of paying customers with at least one character) has topped 500,000", and goes on to look at log-in distribution ("Japanese logins peak at around 11 p.m [but] the North American peak time occurs on a relatively smooth spread of 10 or 12 hours [largely due to] the 3-hour time difference that exists between North America's two coasts"), and job type distribution ("the warrior dominates the charts.") In a related story, Terra Nova discusses an economic research paper on Final Fantasy XI, which notes: "There is a pricing differential in exactly the same object depending on the time of day. This corresponds with the times that Japanese and North American users log on."

Thanks to Eurogamer for its article revealing many new details about Rockstar North's ravenously-awaited PlayStation 2 title, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, which had first screenshots revealed during last week's E3 show. Hitherto unavailable information includes the setting ("comprising Los Santos (Los Angeles) where you start out, San Fierro (San Francisco) and Las Venturra (Las Vegas), it's an epic environment allegedly six times the size of Vice City") and unorthodox new features ("through dozens of accurately modelled restaurants and other eateries, the criminal wannabe will be able to top up his stamina meter, and actually visibly gain weight"), with Eurogamer concluding happily: "We fancy that Rockstar North's dark and satirical sense of humour, and passionate obsession with minutely detailed gameplay will see us through many a lonely night in San Andreas."

mindless4210 writes "The new Nokia N-Gage, shown at E3, looks promising, but Nokia better be prepared to compete with Sony and Nintendo. Nokia is betting the N-Gage's wireless communication abilities will set it apart and allow multiplayer gaming to move away from computers and living-room consoles and into consumers' pockets." Reader harikiri writes "According to the BBC, the much-maligned Infinium Labs has showcased their Phantom console at E3. Apparently Infinium have made agreements with AMD and Nvidia to provide the processor and graphics controller. The specs seem very respectable: a 2.5GHz AMD processor, 256MB RAM and a 40GB HDD." Reader Ipingforpong writes "E3, probably the most well known video game trade show was assaulted by the U.S. Army in a promotion for America's Army. Soldiers rappelled out of a real Blackhawk helicopter with real rifles and rushed the show."

Thanks to Lik-Sang for its update on the status of Nintendo's iQue 'TV game', the Nintendo 64-based controller previously featured on Slashdot Games. The update notes Nintendo have "...confirmed their plans of an international release of the iQue Player... [and now] seem to have announced a release in other... countries of Asia and South America." It also references a forum post in which a user reports "the iQue Depot [which delivers N64 games to the iQue's flash memory] is powered by Linux and connected with some kind of network through wireless." He also notes some 'interesting' tech support beliefs: "The iQue Depot has got a camera built in to the top of the screen... I cannot see why... The girls at [Chinese department store] Jusco told me that this camera is the antenna, and it is connected to Mars (I am not kidding) and the reason why the iQue Depot does not flash my card is that the signal to the Mars is now not good because of bad weather condition."

scishop writes "While most of the gaming world has been focused on the dazzling smoke and mirrors special effects of E3, Gamasutra has published an interesting article on a different game convention: Indie Game Jam '04 where two dozen game developers spent four days creating a variety of games built around the same engine in an effort to encourage innovation. The results included apps centered around boxing, yoga and flaming hamsters." Our earlier story over at Slashdot Games has more links and information.

Thanks to Forbes/Reuters for its article mentioning Sony expects to lose money on its PlayStation Portable hardware, with Sony's Kaz Hirai saying: "So if you're saying 'Day one, are you going to be profitable on the hardware?' then probably not... Hopefully, this will have a 10-year lifecycle, at which point I'll look back and say 'Yes, definitely profitable'." Elsewhere, on the final day of the E3 show, 1UP has a preview of Nintendo's unique-looking Odama, described as "the fast action of pinball mixed with the ancient art of Japanese warfare", GameSpot has more information on Pandemic/THQ's Destroy All Humans!, where you'll "get to probe farmers, slaughter cows, and do all the awesome little things that aliens do", and other sites go hands-on with Star Fox 2, confirm a Disgaea pseudo-sequel for PSP, give some more information on Devil May Cry 3, and show impressions of Treasure's take on the Gradius series.

Thanks to GamesIndustry.biz for its article discussing an interview with Square Enix president Yoichi Wada, as he discusses a perceived "evolution in the thinking" at Microsoft, and "said that his company... would consider working on Xbox 2." The analysis, which uses as its base a GameSpot interview conducted during E3, has Wada mentioning of Microsoft's Xbox Live service: "The attempt was to create a closed network in a closed environment. That is completely contrary to our concept of networked business", and ends by suggesting: "Reading between the lines of Wada's comments, it seems likely that [more 'open' online] concessions could be integrated into the standard terms of the online service on Xbox 2... making the Xbox into a much more attractive platform for companies such as EA and Square Enix."

Ant writes "GamesRadar.com is reporting that a Metal Gear Solid 3 demo was stolen from the E3 videogames expo by nefarious exhibition attendees, as, allegedly: 'L.A. Convention Center security staff were left flat-footed and red-faced yesterday as two unknown perps had it away with a copy of the MGS3: Snake Eater demo... The code snatchers were able to gain access to the PS2 demoing Snake's hotly anticipated jungle rumble by cracking the perspex case on one of the pods on the Sony stand."

An anonymous reader writes "That's right, playing PC and video games can be good for you, according to this article on BusinessWeek Online. The article talks about games that can help people improve their self-esteem, fight phobias and ADD." There's obviously some biofeedback hardware involved with the games mentioned, but sadly there's no pictures with the story. It's also probably safe to assume that such games won't be coming to an arcade anytime soon.

sp00 writes "Computer-game-loving teens and industry professionals take note: a new Electronic Game and Interactive Development degree at Champlain College in Vermont has been unveiled. The career-oriented college will offer a bachelor's degree in this field starting in the fall, and it's the first degree of its kind in the region." While academic programs for game development aren't new, they're still far from being a standard course offering. It's cool to see that they're catching on.

Thanks to continuing coverage of the E3 Expo show from GameSpot, from 1UP, from GameDaily, and many other sources - highlights for the second day included Eurogamer's detailed write-up of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, apparently "an overwhelming spectacle" in both positive and other ways, GameSpot's first images of Unreal Engine 3.0, a "complete game development framework for next-generation consoles and DirectX9-equipped PCs", IGN Cube's hands-on impressions of DK Jungle Beat, allegedly "the sleeper hit of the show", 1UP's musings on The Lord Of The Rings: The Third Age, an "attempt to make a Japanese-style turn-based console RPG in America", and even GameSpot's brief impressions of a mobile phone-embedded Turrican, as the Factor 5 classic returns "pre-loaded on Siemens 65 Series phones."