Thanks to GamerDad for its editorial discussing some of the problems of videogame remakes. The author, having recently played Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes for GameCube ahead of playing the original, comments "I never really came to grips with that game either until I played the VR missions in [the original Metal Gear Solid" He goes on to point out: "Never assume that the audience for your remake is the same as the audience for the original. Hollywood has been remaking a lot of old movies and TV shows in the last few years but they're certainly not expecting audiences to know those plots inside and out to the point of leaving out crucial bits. That's kind of the situation I think Silicon Knights and Konami got in with leaving out the VR missions (or something similar) in Twin Snakes." But he concludes by arguing that 'what makes a remake most worthwhile is when time is spent reworking the game to make things 'different'." So exactly how reverent should a remake be?

Thanks to Yukihime.com for its feature showing cartoons from popular games-related webcomic Penny Arcade 'remixed' by Japanese high school students. The poster explains that he "...made a short class on American comics [in a Japanese school] with artwork and examples of popular comic books and comic strips. Then came the exciting part: making your own American-style comic!" Highlights from the 100 cartoons using Penny Arcade art with newly devised text include surreal heavenly messages, some crazed growth serum talk, and odd maternity-related humor.

Thanks to UnrealTournament.com for its announcement of the finalists for the "FPS Mods" section of the $1,000,000 Make Something Unreal competition. These include popular mods such as "World War II multiplayer experience" Red Orchestra, as well as more unique adaptions such as "first-person survival horror total conversion" Infection. Elsewhere, the Unreal Expo LAN party has just been announced, "officially endorsed by Epic Games", and to be held July 9th, 10th and 11th 2004 in Columbus, Ohio.

Thanks to Nintendojo for its review of the GameXplain series of DVD-based game strategy guides, in this case oriented around Mario Kart: Double Dash!! for the GameCube. The reviewer seems to approve, arguing: "Why bother struggling through conventional strategy guides by reading vague text and squinting at tiny images when you can actually see in motion exactly how you're supposed to solve that puzzle, defeat that annoying boss, or shave 15 seconds off your best lap around the track?" He also notes: "When the video arrives at the critical part of the strategy the video will pause, cued by a camera clicking sound effect, and everything unimportant will gray, leaving only the important information in color." The official GameXplain site also mentions forthcoming guides to Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask.

Thanks to GameSpy for its column discussing some of the choicest 2D side-scrolling games of all time, as discussed in a lecture at the recent Game Developer's Conference in San Jose. Some of the "ten games from the past that have something to teach the aspiring platform game designer" listed included "Batman (1989, NES): Best wall jump ever (and game over music, he noted)", as well as "Ghouls 'n Ghosts (1988, AC/Gen/etc.): 'If your game is harder than this, you're in trouble.'", and even "Super Mario All-Stars (1993, SNES): Everything you need to know in one cart." What are your favorite 2D side-scrolling platformers of all time?

Deekin_Scalesinger writes "Seems Atari may have let the cat out of the bag when one of their staff mentioned upcoming sequels for both the Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights series in a posting on the official Atari forums. No ETA posted for either title, but any news is good news when it comes to Forgotten Realms games..." In related news, the Czech games magazine SCORE has its latest cover online, claiming Baldur's Gate III: Seven Gates Of Aznarr as the title, and back in the Atari forums, the spokesperson also notes: "Atari is the sole licensor of all D&D interactive properties. We could bring back Gold Box games if we were so inclined."

Thanks to Boomtown for its article discussing an insight into the failure of a game developer, in this case developer Escape Factory. The post-mortem styled interview touches on problems with engine licensing ("We had no PS2 experience whatsoever, which is why we chose to use the Unreal engine, lured by its promise of PS2 compatibility. Unfortunately, that compatibility ended later in the process"), as well as how developers present themselves to publishers ("We thought it was all about making the best game in the world, but in reality it's all about making your publisher think you're making the best game in the world") - there's more information in a post-mortem Powerpoint presentation at Escape Factory's official site.

Thanks to GameCritics for its interview with Alex Rigopulos of Harmonix Music Systems, discussing how the company "is breaking new ground by putting a uniquely North American spin on the music game genre", including titles such as Frequency, Amplitude, and Karaoke Revolution. He explains of their games: "People didn't want to learn a bunch of new skills, so we decided to use [the gaming skills] that people already had and repurpose them onto the task of making music", but reveals there may not be a sequel to Amplitude, lamenting that "...in order for that to happen, we need to sell, at a minimum, hundreds of thousands of units of each title, which is not a sales level we achieved with those games."

Thanks to GamePro for its preview of Sony's forthcoming Japanese PlayStation 2 game, Happiness Controller. The preview explains: "The goal of Happiness Controller is to make 100 people that you control happy", and details: "Some of the types of people you need to make happy include... Happily married businessman, whose company is about to go bankrupt... A child whose father is a slob, and whose mother comes home late at night drunk... Bar club hostess, who gets paid to listen to rich Japanese businessmen talk." However, the preview ends: "Given the very Japanese nature of the 100 characters, if a North American release is planned it would likely have different characters."

Thanks to GameSpot for its article discussing Microsoft's announcement of a limited-edition Halo bundle for the Xbox. The article explains that "the company unveiled a 'limited-edition retail special' which bundles the the award-winning, Bungie-developed shooter Halo with a translucent green Xbox and S-controller for $169." Following the recent standalone Xbox price drop to $149, the green console is "the same color as the debug kit Xboxes used by Microsoft game testers and a limited-edition console issued in Europe last year", and the article also notes: "Microsoft is only releasing 200,000 of the boxed sets."

Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to an Eidos Interactive financial presentation, originally from late 2003, but only noticed recently, mentioning the development of Deus Ex: Clan Wars, a previously unhighlighted title that continues the popular stealth action series. The game is mentioned in context of an "Example WIP [Work In Progress]", and a newer financial presentation on the Eidos UK site indicates Clan Wars may only be a working title, since it lists 'Deus Ex 'Action' game' on release schedules for the next financial year. Online rumors suggest Clan Wars may be a PlayStation 2/Xbox title that's in development at Eidos-owned Crystal Dynamics, who is also developing the new Tomb Raider title, and elsewhere, the recent Eidos financial presentation lists other unheralded forthcoming titles, including "Commandos 'Tactical Shooter'", presumably an extension of the Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines franchise, and new IPs called "Crash N' Burn" and "25 To Life".

crhylove writes "A guy called Lewey Geselowitz has hacked the GPL Quake II code to display a real time full motion stereogram SIRD 3D environment. Warning, though, it's very hard to play if you aren't excellent at focusing on SIRDS already. He has a download page on his personal site with more information." The page notes: "You finally saw the yacht in the seemingly random bunch of dots! Now use your skills to free yourself from your evil extra-dimensional zombie oppressors! Welcome to Quake II as it was never meant to be."

MacThemes.net writes "MacThemes.net has had over 45 artists submit entries to our Theme Mockup Contest, of which the top six will be created into actual themes by established themers. Prizes of over a thousand dollars of software and cash will be awarded. Until this Sunday, readers and visitors are asked to visit our entries archive and vote for the submissions. Winners are expected to be announced Monday, April 5th." blobbo writes "iDevGames announces the opening of '21 Days Later', a programming mini-contest that is designed to motivate and educate Mac game developers. It is open to developers from around the globe, and the source code from all entries will be released as open source."

securitas writes "The New York Times' Seth Schiesel writes about hardcore gamers and the growing trend toward high-performance gaming laptops. Traditional enterprise computer manufacturers like Dell and HP are entering the gaming markets dominated by VoodooPC and Alienware, with the specialty high-end PC makers going the other way and breaking into corporate markets. There are some accompanying graphics and quotes from hardcore gamers about the Alienware Area 51m, Dell Inspiron XPS, and VoodooPC Envy m:750."

jaaron writes "The Register/GamesIndustry.biz reports on what Sony may have in store in terms of gaming hardware for E3, and according to remarks from Sony Computer Entertainment Europe president David Reeves: 'PSP games will probably be region-free, that PS3 will be intrinsically linked with PSX and may appear in home server and standalone gaming versions, and... Sony may announce a stripped down, PSone-style PlayStation 2 product.'" The interview also mentions: "Looking further ahead, Reeves spoke about Sony's 'ultimate goal' for PlayStation 3 - 'to get into electronic broadband distribution'."

Thanks to CNN Money for its column interviewing a Nintendo spokesperson on the company's possible strategy for the rest of 2004. Although not giving much away, the article notes official word that: "Though the company has publicly referred to [their new handheld] system as the DS since announcing it on Jan. 20, the plan was never to use that name at retail", renewing "Internet rumors [that] have suggested that system will be called 'Nitro'." The piece also mentions the company is "already planning a second wave of classic [NES] games for the GBA, with a possible launch date of the 2004 holiday season", and elsewhere, GamerFeed confirm Nintendo has announced a GameCube sequel to Paper Mario, an N64 title which was "an RPG-like game that was based on a unique combination of 2D graphics set against a 3D background." Update: 04/02 16:02 GMT by S : GI.Biz has the U.S. Nintendo release schedule for the rest of the 2004, "with Geist, Mario Tennis, Metroid Prime 2, Paper Mario 2 and Star Fox 2 all down for release between October and December."

Thanks to TheFeature for its article discussing the popular Japanese mobile phone game Mogi, a title which "uses both the position of players in the landscape, and the landscape itself to generate play." The French developers of Mogi at Newt Games explain: "We used the map to give [virtual] creatures some interesting behavior. Some creatures only hunt at night. Some hang around close to parks", thus: "If a player wants to find that [in-game] creature, they'll have to travel near a park [playing Mogi on their mobile phone] in the evening hours." A keen Tokyo-based player of the game also explains why he enjoys it: "All the trips I make in the city are now randomized, as I will often divert a few hundred meters to go and collect an object around me."

Thanks to Evil Avatar for pointing to the Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes speed demo archive, which is storing a massive 294MB DIVX video showing the recently released GameCube title completed perfectly on Extreme mode in 1 hour and 10 minutes - the record holder 'Karma Hunter' explains: "I decided to help those I knew by making a video of a no-save game. Nothing fancy--a perfect run. So, I turned GOID (Game Over If Discovered) on, and made a video. Imagine my utter shock when I achieved a World Record at the end of the video." Elsewhere 1UP has a few more details regarding the PS2's Metal Gear Solid 3, after last week's voice casting call revealed possible new character names, also noting much more complex combat for the sequel, with moves "...developed by MGS military advisor Motosada Mori, himself a teacher of self-defense and close combat techniques."

TheAlchemist writes "Ever think about using a video game to propose to your (hopefully) wife-to-be? One of the forum members on AtariAge has, and he's planning on using an Atari 2600 to display a proposal message on-screen in the middle of a game! Paul Slocum (author of the upcoming Homestar Runner RPG game) has offered his services to modify Donkey Kong so that when the first level is completed, a proposal message will be displayed on-screen. AtariAge will build the cartridge free of charge, and the only remaining missing piece is the custom label! Tim is holding a label design contest for his marriage proposal cart, the winner of which will receive a $25 gift certificate in the AtariAge Store. The contest runs until April 17th, and you can learn all the details and how you can participate by stopping by the AtariAge Contests Forum." There's already at least one creatively-designed illustration entered into the competition.

RevDobbs noted that a new site dedicated to OpenBSD on the Game Boy Advanced SP platform. Since the 4 Player Link Cable is supported, no doubt a variety of networking applications will soon follow.