GrimSean writes "Well, it looks like someone in power up here in Ontario finally noticed the level of violence in Rockstar's Manhunt, as the Ontario Film Review Board has given it an R rating, much like a movie. The Toronto Star has an article here and the CBC has also covered the story - according to an article at CJAD, businesses could be fined a minimum of $25,000 Canadian for selling it to minors. It seems like they've completely sidestepped the ESRB's M rating and gone directly to the Restricted to 'control the thing'."

Cebu writes "According to GameSpot, in a less than surprising move, Kyle Bennett of tech website HardOCP has decided to file a lawsuit against Infinium Labs, makers of the forthcoming Phantom PC-based 'console'. On February 27, a lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Dallas Division under the Declaratory Judgment Act to force the issue of Infinium Labs' repeated legal threats against HardOCP for an allegedly defamatory article written last year."

Pluvius writes "A terse press release from LucasArts, the creator of classic adventure games such as Grim Fandango and the Monkey Island series, reveals that development on Sam & Max: Freelance Police, the planned sequel to Sam & Max Hit the Road, has stopped. Says LucasArts exec Mike Nelson, 'After careful evaluation of current market place realities and underlying economic considerations, we've decided that this was not the appropriate time to launch a graphic adventure on the PC.'" The International House Of Mojo fansite has some editorial comments [original URL] on this move, the second Sam & Max game cancellation in recent years, lamenting: "LucasArts has made a gigantic mistake."

Thanks to GameSpy for its interview with Ion Storm's studio director Warren Spector, discussing "design, his excitement over the new Thief title, and past mistakes." He comments on the optional third-person mode in the forthcoming Thief: Deadly Shadows, suggesting: "It really does provide a kind of tactical awareness you don't get in a first-person mode", and goes on to further discuss the controversial fan reaction to Deus Ex: Invisible War, admitting: "We made a really bad, bad decision... by not supporting drag and drop in the interface on the PC version of Invisible War, and that was unforgivable." However, he doesn't comment on recent rumors that have him "aiding in the design of the next Tomb Raider game", currently in development at fellow Eidos-owned studio Crystal Dynamics.

Thanks to the Gaming-Age messageboard regulars for pointing to an extensive feature in Mix Magazine ('Professional Audio and Music Production'), including an editorial discussing the rising importance of professional audio creators in videogames. The magazine's editor suggests: "Galaxies removed from the blips and boings of Atari's 1972 Pong or the primitive 'soundtracks' of early 1980s classics such as Donkey Kong or Mario Bros., the cheesy 8-bit music and effects have been replaced by high-quality streaming audio (16-bit/44.1kHz) with real-time, hyper-realistic Foley thunks, screams, shots and explosions that are triggered from RAM, with near-zero latency." The rest of the game audio feature also includes an in-depth look into audio at Electronic Arts, as well as articles on Ensemble Studio's audio, examples of musicians moving into game music creation, some tips for game sound designers, and the market for licensed songs in videogames.

Thanks to GamesIndustry.biz for its article discussing Sony's confirmation that its forthcoming PSP portable will feature connectivity with the PS2 home console. According to remarks from Sony's Fumiya Takeno: "This feature would allow games to be played on the home systems, with save games being moved to the PSP so that play could be continued on the handheld system - exploiting the fact that the PSP's hardware is broadly similar in specification to the PS2." Although "...it is known that porting code from the PS2 to the PSP is extremely easy", it's also been confirmed that Sony "..is placing a heavy emphasis on the development of new titles for the PSP, rather than the porting of existing PS2 software", meaning the company is likely to be harsh in the approval process regarding 'shovelware' PS2 conversions.

bippy writes "Game critic Brian Crecente's weblog Red-Assed Baboon asks if modern video games are too easy. He argues, after playing the new Pitfall game, that what made the games from the '70s and '80s such as the original Pitfall! so much fun to play was 'because the game is so hard - brutally, temper-tamper inducing hard' - Crecente goes on to conclude: 'I'm not saying we should go back to the days of Donkey Kong and [the original] Pitfall!, but maybe developers need to worry a little more about challenging a gamer, instead of plopping them into something that is little more than an interactive movie'."

XBox4Evr writes "In a follow up from two weeks ago, Infinium Labs is again threatening the tech website HardOCP with legal action. This in itself, is no big deal, but to actually read the letter from Infinium Labs lawyers will make you wonder if an educated person actually penned the documents. This seems to another huge blow to IL's credibility in the console market in general, now that ex-Xbox manager Kevin Bachus is on board with Infinium Labs."

Carlos Camacho writes "iDevGames, a Macintosh Game Developer's Site has started issuing small programming challenges to Mac developers. The first challenge just wrapped up and the result is two nifty apps. The source code for both apps, and all apps entered into the programming challenges, will be released as open source. The next challenge has added an extra day, so developers have 72 hours. The focus is on creating an application to demonstrate 'A* pathfinding.'"

dblh3l1x writes "Reuters is reporting that a Swedish group finds 'Video games can make children fat and, in the case of violent games popular among teenage and younger boys, aggressive and even criminal.' These articles make me want to hurt someone. If I didn't get out of breath so easily, I'd go hurt someone right now, so instead I'm just going to go play the Unreal Tournament 2004 demo again."

Andrew Leonard writes "Salon has a loooong interview with Eugene Jarvis, the creator of legendary arcade video games Defender and Robotron, up today. Jarvis talks about why he is pro-emulators, anti-Grand Theft Auto, still focused on arcade games, and deeply worried about terrorism. It's a good read, even if you have to watch a ten second ad to get access."

Thanks to Terra Nova for pointing to information about Maestro, a game billed as 'Mike Oldfield's Virtual Reality Online Quest'. The title, created by the composer of the multi-million selling '70s album Tubular Bells, goes on to promise "a free form world offering a refreshing alternative to the typical, task-orientated 'in-your-face' computer game", although the gameplay seems somewhat less 'free form': "Your job is to find the Gravitars, bring them home to the mothership and put them in their pen." The demo is available from Mike Oldfield's website, and the full game is available next month for around UKP15 (USD28).

LlamaRama writes "Reuters reports that Nintendo has nearly sold out of GameCubes in the United States, with Nintendo spokeswoman Perrin Kaplan explaining: 'Store shelves are just running very dry... I'd say about 50 percent of our stores are out.' Seems like the holiday rush on GameCube might last a few months past December!" Kaplan also indicated that "...January hardware sales were up 60 percent year-over-year, while January software sales were up 101 percent" following last year's GameCube price cut to $99, though it's unclear how these increased totals compare with current PlayStation 2 and Xbox sales.

Griffon4 writes "Nvidia announced today that they have been branded the recommended graphics card for id's forthcoming PC FPS Doom 3. Now I'm wondering: Recall a little over a year ago that Carmack said the Nvidia card at the time was just a slight bit more worthy than the ATI? Jump forward to today - are we getting a real recommendation based on id's own experience or just seeing the end result of a financial deal that benefits both?" Other possible factors (apart from NVidia simply being the better graphics card for Doom 3) include the alleged origination of some Doom 3 Alpha version leaks, unlikely to endear ATI to id, and, of course, ATI already having a major bundle deal in place with a certain other FPS.

Decaffeinated Jedi writes "As reported by GameSpot, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata indicated in a recent interview (Japanese-language) that the company's upcoming dual-screen portable (previously covered on Slashdot) will feature wireless Bluetooth-esque connectivity for multiplayer gaming. Iwata goes on in the interview to describe the Nintendo DS as a 'unique' machine, noting that 'not everybody will understand it right away. There might only be 10 to 15 people applauding during its unveiling at the E3, but they'll understand it once they touch it. At the least, it should serve as a hint towards [our] next-generation console.'" Although we've covered Iwata interviews recently, this now makes a little more sense given the context of the DS announcement.

CowboyRobot writes "ACM Queue has an article exploring the challenges of developing a reliable platform for an MMORPG, specifically looking at Wish by Mutable Realms. From the article: 'A common scalability problem for distributed multiplayer games relates to managing distributed sets of objects... A player may not be a member of more than one guild, or a guild may have at most one level-5 mage (magician). In computing terms, implementing such behavior boils down to performing membership tests on sets of distributed objects.'"

Thanks to BBC News for its article discussing a virtual reality game using a soccer ball and an 'exertion interface', as devised by MIT's Media Lab Europe in Dublin. The article explains: "Breakout for Two uses video conferencing over broadband to create a virtual 'glass wall' players have to break down with a ball." According to researcher Dr Stefan Agamanolis: "It was designed... to show how remote strangers can bond and feel more at ease with each other more rapidly when they have to exert themselves physically, rather than when relying on 'traditional' electronic communication, like instant messaging or e-mail", and he further explained: "When you get into that state of arousal, you are more likely to be able to bond socially with other people around you."

Tickenest writes "According to a Yahoo-reprinted press-release, Rockstar Games has officially announced Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, the latest in the GTA series. The press release continues: 'Developed by world-class designers Rockstar North, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas will be available exclusively for the PlayStation(R)2 computer entertainment system and is expected to be in stores in North America on October 19, 2004 and in Europe on October 22, 2004.'" This confirms earlier rumors of (initial?) PS2 exclusivity and possible name for this much-awaited game.

Thanks to Waterthread.org for its messageboard thread pointing to major new Asian-specific features for UbiSoft's PC MMO title Shadowbane, following Asian publisher En-Tranz's decision to create a separate version of the game to better meet "the needs of the Asia-Pacific players." This unique split, with 2 development teams working on different version of the same MMO, has led to Asian-specific changes such as "a 'WASD' control scheme (no more mouse clicking movement)", a new experience curve ("players can now reach level 20 much more easily but as players reach the higher levels, it gets much more difficult"), and a general "newbie experience overhaul." Update: 03/01 19:07 GMT by S : In related news, UbiSoft has just announced the purchase of Wolfpack Studios, creators of ShadowBane.

Sabathius writes "If you're a Thief super-freak like me, you've been looking at the 'Coming soon' message at thief3.com for years...hoping they would finally put something there. Well, our collective prayers have been answered! This spring Thief 3 (Thief: Deadly Shadows) is being released by the same guys who recently gave us Deus Ex: Invisible War." S!: We've also recently covered previews of this new Thief title at Slashdot Games.