For many gamers, Halo 3 is the reason they bought an Xbox 360. As the biggest title in the 360's arsenal, Halo 3 is undoubtedly the most hyped game in existence. Notice, however, that we didn't say over-hyped. We've put in some serious hours reviewing this game, and after several exhaustive playthroughs both solo and co-op as well as countless bloodthirsty multiplayer rounds, we can announce that Halo 3 is everything that it needed to be to fulfill our wildest gaming fantasies... and then Bungie showed us The Forge.

We've finally gotten a good look at EA's mysterious MySims, the blockbuster series' offbeat Wii rendition. Our first glimpses of the game suggested something along the lines of Animal Crossing, with surprisingly cute characters and a bright, colorful world -- and now that we've played a little of an extremely early build of the game, it seems those first impressions were partly correct.

But only partly. There's much more to MySims than a simple Animal Crossing rip-off. On the contrary, it seems to embrace the entirety of the "life simulator" genre, with nods to Harvest Moon (players are tasked with bringing new vigor to a run-down town) and even its own heritage -- running errands to build relationships with NPCs (a la The Urbz) and rebuilding the town (kind of like that one game, SimCity). By all appearances, it's a new perspective on a long-running series that promises at once to be refreshing and faithful.

Now to the business at hand – There's some juicy Halo information to absorb and process. First up is the announcement of an exclusive worldwide Halo 3 TV commercial set to air during Monday Night Football on December 4th. Naturally we don’t want to spoil the fun but we did want to clear the air on a few points up front to set your expectations appropriately. As the press release mentions, this ad will feature CG scenes that are being built by a 3rd party agency (known as Digital Domain). Now you may be thinking to yourself - "CG!? But Bungie doesn’t do CG!" - and you would be correct... until now.

For the purposes of this holiday commercial and knowing the tight timeline with which it had to come together we decided a long time ago that utilizing real, final, actual gameplay just wasn't the right thing to do. As you know, we're very protective of our baby and we will only show it when we feel it's ready to be shown (and even then it's sometimes pried from our protective fingers). We all agreed that a cooler thing to do would be to move as far away from gameplay-style footage as possible, and make something more movie-like. Let our fans see what the Halo universe looks like in a photo-realistic fashion.

We didn't want folks to think we were trying to pull the wool over their eyes, when we had such a great opportunity to do something cool and worthwhile.

Now don't get me wrong - just because this ad isn't gameplay doesn't mean it's not really cool. In fact, we provided the folks at Digital Domain with all of our new in-game models and assets. They then polished them up to movie CGI standards, animated them and rendered them to a degree of stunning beauty. There will be a lot to like in this ad and we're happy with how it's turning out. Just because you're seeing a kind of "real-life" representation of Halo 3 doesn't mean you aren't seeing real gameplay elements from Halo 3.

Of course you'll also hear Halo 3 as well, with new music composed by our own Marty O’Donnell. We'll leave it at that for now. After the commercial airs on television, it will be available on Xbox Live Marketplace in full 720p glory for you to dissect and discuss.

Perhaps the biggest bomb that was dropped today, the MOAB of press announcements, was the indication of a public beta for Halo 3 coming next Spring. What exactly does this mean? Well, again we can't really get into the details quite yet (notice a theme here?) but we can confirm that our fans will have an opportunity to play Halo 3 multiplayer over Xbox Live BEFORE the final game is available. You'll be playing a little multiplayer and simultaneously providing us with some valuable data to help our development team. We're still working out the details on timing and scope and there will be a lot more info coming in the weeks ahead. We can confirm that you will absolutely be required to have an Xbox 360. Probably not a huge surprise.

Later versions of Bomberman added new twists to the battle arenas-conveyor belts, pipes, warp zones, mine carts, catapults, kangaroos-and the power-ups also became more plentiful and diverse. The Bomberman character itself is also enduring: with his antenna-capped white helmet, pastel blue vest, black belt, and red hands and feet, he's one of the most recognized video game creations ever. The game's simplistic musical chimes also had a nasty habit of playing through one's head for days.

The games industry is looking at new ways to deliver content to gamers and episodic content is seen by some as a way of meeting demand and distributing to consumers in new ways.

"One of the problems is that you are getting a piece of a game," Mr Rein told the conference.

"You are typically paying $20 for a third of a game and waiting at least six months between episodes. That's a long time.

"When you are watching a TV show it's not that big a deal to wait a week between episodes because you are not paying for it - it's advertising supported."

But he said gamers were more fickle and that competition from new, full cost, heavily marketed titles would result in diminishing returns for episodic content.

Sloppy Sims who do not clean the cage of the guinea pig and get bitten by the filthy beast are falling ill and, in some cases, dying.

To make matters worse sick Sims that do not rest and recover can infect other Sims.

Players of The Sims who have lavished attention on the virtual people for weeks only to see them cut down by a dirty guinea pig are getting annoyed.

"People are very upset by this aspect of reality being added unannounced to the game," said Sandra Linkletter, a keen Sims player. She said people were annoyed because there was no warning about the danger posed by the guinea pig.

Some child Sims with bad grades have ended up in military school after spending a day or two in bed recovering from the cold.

The Portage County Hazardous Materials Unit and Bomb Detection Unit were called in to downtown Ravenna on Friday morning after seventeen suspicious packages -- boxes wrapped in gold wrapping paper with question marks spray painted on them -- had alarmed residents.

Boxes were found at the Immaculate Conception Church on West Main Street, the Portage County Courthouse, Deluxe Pastries, the corner of Cherry Way and Main Street, Reed Memorial Library, Ravenna High School and a residence at Sanford and Main streets.

Five girls -- age 16 and 17 -- claimed responsibility for making and placing the packages. The girls said they found an Internet site that included step-by-step instructions for creating replicas of blocks featured in the game.

But that's not the news. The news is buried in one line of the release (PDF, Japanese): Namco plans to continue producing games in the style of Katamari. That means more games that are fun regardless of "nationality, age, or gender" and are "easy to pick up and play" with "new types of gameplay" and a pop culture design aesthetic.

On behalf of The Silver Lining Development Team, we would like to thank the thousands of fans that made this possible by emailing VUG and spreading the news; we would also like to give a special thanks to Matt Compton and Cat Tyson, organizers of SaveKQIX.org for such unconditional and wonderful support, as well as everyone who helped them in this kind effort. Also, special thanks to Rod Rigole "Vice-President of Legal Affairs" and Marcus Beer "Senior Public Relations Manager", both from VUG, for their great help during the negotiation. Without any of the aforementioned, none of this would have happened.

The cloak has dropped and the silver lining appeared. You, the fans, made it happen.

There is something SO wrong about Shadow with a gun though -- on the loading screen, Shadow cocks his gun, and the sound is just so not something I want to associate with collecting rings and bouncing on platforms. Magic, slingshots, rotten tomatoes ... why guns??

Shadow awakens with amnesia and is tormented by a dark past as he struggles to unveil his true identity. Was he created to save humankind or to do the evil bidding of the dark side? Only by collecting the seven Chaos Emeralds will Shadow unlock the truth. Caught in a complex battle between aliens, the G.U.N. army, and Dr. Eggman, Shadow becomes the very element that may tip the scales between good and evil forever. The epic is set…and the path that Shadow will ultimately take is completely up to you!

"I would like to create a playground for children," he said. "A normal playground is flat but I want an undulating one, with bumps."

At first glance, this seems a strange ambition for a game designer. But Mr Takahashi has a degree in sculpture and Katamari is all about a tactile world.

And he believes children should spend more time in the physical world and less time wrapped up in the virtual world of games.

The genre began in earnest in 1993 with the release of Nintendo's franchise game, "Super Mario Bros."

I wasted much of my youth in my parents' basement controlling this pudgy plumber as he ran around and jumped over evil turtles. And I waited in a near-frenzy for "Super Mario Bros. 2" (still quite possibly the best Christmas present I've ever received).

But when the movie was released, I couldn't understand how any studio exec could think that this video game would hold an audience's attention for 90 minutes. And to do it live action. And to cast Dennis Hooper as something called "King Koopa."

Back in 1993, Miramax Home Entertainment released the Super Mario Brothers movie, a $42 million dollar budget movie. However, game fans all around did not receive it well. The movie was absolutely nothing like the game, other than the fact it had the characters. By the end of it's time in theaters, it had only grossed $20 million dollars, about half of what it cost to make it. While many people liked it, many people regarded the movie as trash and a complete upset. The movie's failure was most likely due to it not being similar the game.

Needless to say I and the rest of Bungie are positively incontinent (Marty especially). But what really knocks us on our asses is we’re also getting the combined talent of the mighty men and women of WETA in the bargain. From fabricating Covenant weapons to building life-sized Forerunner structures to accomplishing shot after shot of complex live-action/CG integration – simply put, there’s no group of people we’d rather have realize the Halo universe on screen.

While to date, most video game to movie adaptations have met with critical and box office failure, Bungie and its parent company are determined to make "Halo: The Movie" a little different. They started by crafting the script in-house, and now rather than handing control over to an Uwe Boll type director, Bungie maintains control over the movie version of their creation, and is on record as refusing to settle for anything less than the best. Their search for a director continues, at one point Peter Jackson was rumored to be in running to helm it, his confirmation as the film's executive producer will likely only add further fuel to those rumors.

For winning the regional championship in the Netherlands, King Tuur received the following prizes:

A half-size Master Chief Statue

Personalized Xbox Live Halo 2 Championship sweatshirt and Regional Champion Plaque

A Samsung Camcorder

For winning the Xbox Live "Halo 2" World Championship, King Tuur received the following prizes:

A 50' Samsung Flat Screen DLP HDTV

A Samsung DVD Player/Recorder

A Personalized Xbox Live Halo 2 Global Champion Trophy featuring a gold Halo 2 game disc

The U.S. equivalent of $1,500 in cash

After being announced nearly four years ago at QuakeCon 2001, how much do we really know about Quake 4? We know the single-player game will continue the story of the Strogg introduced in Quake 2; that it's being developed by Raven Software (creators of the Soldier of Fortune games as well as the latest Jedi Knight games) under the watchful eye of franchise creator id Software; and that it's using the same next-gen technology used to power 2004's DOOM 3.

Tim Willits: I believe that Quake 2 had the best single-player universe of the Quake series, and that's what we're returned to. And then Quake 3 had the best multiplayer feeling and experience of the Quake series. So with Quake 4, you have the best single-player environment to go off of, and then you have the best multiplayer environment to build off of. And honestly, I believe this will be our best Quake -- we've had 10 years to make this that game great. It's really building off the experience of the other Quake, the experience of id, the experience of the guys at Raven -- all the pieces have come together to create the perfect environment to make an awesome game.