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The Great Experiment: SingStar: So Sexy it Hurts
newVideoPlayer("SingStar_gawker.flv", 475, 376);This concludes are great experiment. Verdict: We rock.

Pax 07: The Mass Effect 360 Winner
One of the main games being focused on this year at the Microsoft booth was Mass Effect with the game being demoed to large crowds every couple of hours. They also ran a contest with the prize being a "customized" Mass Effect Elite 360, "customized" in this case meaning autographed by everyone who worked on the game and featuring a Mass Effect faceplate. As the end of the conference drew near, the crowd gathered en masse to hear who the winner was going to be and I was on hand to snap a photo of the happy winner. Congrats to Brian Webb on his awesome prize! Make the jump to check out a close up of his hard won treasure.

Start, Hammertime: Ban Monday Begins
Let the blood letting officially begin. As you may or may not know, today is a Ban Monday, our favorite Kotakaday! Our willingness to ban increases ten-fold as we clean up and clean out. We want to keep the comments section readable (AKA thin the herd), and we want you to help. Here's how it works: Send us commenter pages for anyone you think should get the boot. Our ban threshold is going to be way lower (hello fanboy trolls!). Nothing is definite, but ban requests from longtime commenters will be given great authority with the hammer. So be sure to include your own commenting profile! Ban Monday ends in exactly 24 hours. Tuesday's comment section will be lighter, faster, better. Onwards!

Gc07: Tender Booth Babe Moment (Babies)
True story. We were witness to the dark side of being employed as a booth babe when one German flesh worker broke down sobbing in one of the temporarily constructed business booths after hours. After holding in the tears after an all day (we assume) grope session and series of harsh evaluations of her figure by German gamers, she'd had enough. While we worked, the soft sounds of weeping continued to penetrate the thin plastic walls of whatever pissant European hardware manufacturer was paying her her daily pittance.Fortunately, we captured some more tender booth babe moments, such as this young lady's interaction with one of the littlest Games Convention attendees.Deep in conversation, this elfen model for Samsung turned the tables with her own chance to play some grabass, this time with a spritely, tow-headed kid who knows nothing of sexually objectifying women paid to stand near things in midriff baring get ups.Near the end of it, however, we got a little more depressed. As...

Gc07: More Guitar Hero III Hands-On Impressions
We got to spend plenty of time with Activision's Guitar Hero III at their press center as the press presence during the weekend at Games Convention ranges from nonexistant to a mere smattering of aromatic Europeans. While there's little to add to the amazingly successful Guitar Hero formula, Neversoft has certainly tried to make it their own, revamping portions of the game's HUD and adding the new Battle Mode.They've also made the game seemingly much easier, even at Expert level difficulty. Using the new wireless Gibson Les Paul controllers, I found myself pulling off solo note sequences with ease, possibly a bit too much ease. Hammer-ons and pull-offs feel more forgiving than ever. Nice for noobs looking to faux shred, but it might not sit well with the more skilled.We got a chance to play through many of the newly revealed European skewed tracks, but finally got our hands on some old favorites including Tenacious D's "The Metal", Pearl Jam's "Even Flow" and Priestess' "Lay...

Pax 07: Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness Website Opens
Just in time to miraculously coincide with PAX, Hothead Games had announced that the Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness website is now open for business. The episodic game is set to launch launch this year and will feature the ability to custom create a character that will join Gabe and Tycho in their exploits. PAX attendees will get a chance to try out the character creation at the Hothead Games booth. I have an interview with the Hothead folks tomorrow morning and will presumably get the chance to create a character myself which I will then try to convince them to let me photograph for posting later. They are also running a contest at the show to find a name to be used for a character in the game and PAX goers were encouraged to submit their real names for possible inclusion. I went ahead and submitted mine so perhaps I'll be lucky and my ridiculous sounding name will be chosen. I mean I know it's no Florian Eckhardt, but then, what is.Penny Arcade...

Pax 07: Surprise, It's Uwe Boll!
Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) I missed the tail end of Gabe and Tycho's Q&A with the crowd at PAX. After hearing the boys answer the audiences in their typically hilarious style and watching Tycho sing a song of his own creation they announced that they had a special guest arriving to greet the crowd. Being as I had a previously scheduled appointment, I was unable to stay and for the safety of my sanity, this was probably a good thing.Apparently, the gleeful pair let loose with what may go down in history as one of the biggest let downs in surprise history, the introduction on director Uwe Boll. Luckily, the folks at Joystiq were on hand to catch every painful moment from his arrival on stage to massive booing and jeers to the crowd leaving in droves like rats from a sinking ship. Even more fun awaited in this half hour journey into hell including a hideous bit of his upcoming Postal movie and a gal who just couldn't help herself from telling...

My, That Was Frustrating: 20 Hard Games and What They Can Teach Us
Teach us about game design, that is. Gamasutra has the first part of a new series on 'Game Design Essentials,' a lengthy entry by John Harris on twenty difficult games (mostly oldies-but-goodies) and what their challenges illuminate about game design. It's an interesting (if lengthy) trip down memory lane.The impulse to make video games easier can be traced to a fundamental change in perception over what a game should be. The older school of thought, which dates back and beyond the days of Space Invaders to the era of pinball, is that a game should measure the player's skill. Arcade games, in fact, must make it difficult for a player to last for any great length of time in order to keep money coming into the coin box. The newer concept is that a game should provide an experience to the player. The player is to feel like some character, or like he's participating in a story, or that he's making some difference in a fictional realm.I'm curious to see what other 'game design...

Gc07: Leipzig Round-Up
We've been here for a chunk of the week covering the Games Convention in Leipzig, but for most of the public the show didn't really kick off until today, Saturday, when it was open to the public and attendance soared.We'll bringing you coverage through-out the weekend and lots more on Monday but in case you missed it here's what we've done so far.The Sony SprintWe Have Secured Phil Harrison's Chewing GumKonami Whips Up Two Castlevania Mobile GamesLara Croft Hands-On ImpressionsFirst Look At Midnight Club Los AngelesGran Turismo 5 Prologue To Feature Car Damage, Improved AI, Better PhysicsSpore? Or SimSim?Missing at GC07 - Class Action LawsuitsThe Four Stages of Grief SporeGames For Windows Live Maybe, PhysX Not So MuchTony Hawk's Proving Ground, Incredible Video Creation and Erection HoodiesGabe Newell Smack Talks the PC, PS3, Xbox 360 (And your Mother)Call of Duty 4 After HoursSloppy Seconds - LairRock Band Tour BusRock (Out) BandGC Offers EA TatsThe GC Opening Day Walk/RunMetal...

Red Cliff: Perfect World Formally Announces 'Red Cliff' MMORPG
As we mentioned last weekend, John Woo's next film (The Battle of Red Cliff) is getting the MMORPG treatment courtesy of one of China's biggest game companies, Beijing Perfect World. And in fine Perfect World tradition, they've presented us with an almost unintelligible press release telling us so! The game will be released ahead of the film and is scheduled to launch later this year (the film won't be arriving until 2008). Full release after the jump.'The War of the Red Cliff' Breaks the Traditional Game ModelBEIJING, Aug. 23 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/-- Beijing Perfect World Technology Co., Ltd. announces that their new game, ''The War of the Red Cliff'' will break the traditional computer gaming concept. This game is nostalgic for many gamers who grew up playing ''3 Kingdoms 2 -- The War of the Red Cliff," but rest assured that this new game does not conform to the traditional mould of games.Beijing Perfect World will release "The War of the Red Cliff" in the fourth quarter...

Gc07: Booth Babes Revenge: No Where To Hide
Friday was a bit of a lull, sure it was busier than Thursday, but still not the epic, soul-crushing crowds of today. Not only have the number of attendees increases exponentially, but so have the number of booth babes. Funny how that works. It seems like the naked, but painted Booth Babe is very popular in Germany.galleryPost('gcbb', 4, 'Girls, Girls, Girls');

China: China's CDC Games To Expand Globally
Further ensuring that Western gamers will have a hard time escaping the sometimes cool, frequently criticized glut of games coming out of China and other points East, CDC Games - operating 13 games in China - is making plans to expand to the rest of the world through the creation of a new creatively-named subsidiary, CDC Games International (that would be 'CGI' for short). Apparently trying to fast-track their way to global success, they plan to launch some of their free-to-play offerings in the Japanese and North American markets later this year.The new subsidiary will leverage the domain expertise of CDC Games to seek out licensing opportunities that will enable the company to enter targeted global markets including Japan, North America and southeast Asia. CGI intends to launch new online MMO games in Japan and North America in late Q4 this year through its own operations as well as through publisher partners. The company has completed initial plans for publishing games...

Gc07: Rock Band Retail Display Revealed
Tucked away in a back room of Electronic Arts' mightily impressive press room here at the Games Convention was this spiffy retail display case for Rock Band.The giant cardboard display has space for stand-alone copies of the game as well as stand-alone guitar and drum hardware. It's hard to tell if this is the final product, but it certainly looked like it was ready to start showing up at a Wal-Mart near you. galleryPost('rbdd', 4, 'Getcher Rock Band');

Shanda: Shanda's Co-Founder on 'Hard Choices'
Shanda is one of China's biggest game operators and while they've been doing well recently (really, really well), they didn't hit their stride for a few years. Chen Tianqiao, former real estate executive and co-founder of Shanda, talked with the Wall Street Journal about what it took to get Shanda off the ground and turn it into one of the dominant companies in the Chinese gaming market (we'll ignore the lawsuits regarding copyright infringement):When we first started, it really was very tough. Venture capitalists, investors -- they didn't understand this business model. Our colleagues told us it was all about page views, but our product was an online game client [software that didn't involve loading Web pages, as other Internet products including search Web sites use to attract advertising revenue]. So when page views are king, they said, 'How can we give you money?'It's an interesting and short interview - a somewhat enlightening look at the inner workings of a company...

Gc07: Kane & Lynch Pantsu
This is a little disturbing: I was playing Kane & Lynch on the Games Convention show floor earlier today when I accidentally shot a business woman who was running around on the floor I was on. Instead of killing her, I apparently winged her shoulder. She lay sprawled on her back screaming in pain with the camera angle shooting straight up her skirt exposing a pair of white panties. (That's her in that picture laying next to a dead body, one of my henchmen headshot her as I was about to take this picture.) It wasn't at all sexual and I don't think it was meant to be. The sight of this terrified and injured woman, her panties invertently exposed highlighted the terror of the moment for this woman and how very vulnerable she was. Good idea or taking things too far?

Cue Ominous Music: Another Take on the Creepy, Creepy 'Little Sisters'
Fahey already discussed the mainstream media's take on 'killing little girls', but the weekly Aberrant Gamer column over at GameSetWatch has yet another take (far less prone to the hysteria of the mainstream, to be sure). Creepy kids, creepy little girls in particular, are nothing new to the horror-survival genre - books, movies, games, you name it, there's plenty of unsettling children to choose from. BioShock may head into less travelled waters by giving players the choice between killing or freeing them, but it's hardly a first in using creepy kids to frequently powerful effects.It's not unusual to see small, saucer-eyed children as conventions in the horror genre; in fact, it's common. Young girls in particular make very good devices in survival-horror video games, either as archetypes of feminine vulnerability (for who needs you more than a damsel-in-distress except a little damsel?) or as strange aggressors, all the more fearsome for their innocuous appearance. The...

Gc07: LittleBigPlanet Gets Better Acting
We had the opportunity to sit in on a LittleBigPlanet demo with Media Molecule creative director Mark Healey at Games Convention to get a quick update on how the PLAYSTATION 3 game is progressing. Unfortunately, the build on hand was from E3 '06 meaning there was little in the way of new features or content. Healey did tell us though that we can expect an improved version of the "create, play, share" software at Tokyo Game Show.In addition to loads of new stuff to futz with, edit and graffiti, exactly where you can place your customized materials is going to change (read: there's even more flexibility there). In addition to that very dry detail, one that probably needs to be seen in person to understand properly, Healey promised that we'd be impressed—quite possibly even doubled-over with laughter—at the new puppet emotes and "acting" skills.He also revealed that you'll be able to interact with other users by navigating the textile based globe, seemingly...

Nexon: Nexon's Min Kim on What's Next For Nexon
Nexon - the Korean company responsible for MapleStory and KartRider - has been expanding (quietly) beyond its home borders. With MapleStory already in the US and KartRider due to launch sometime in the near future, Nexon's been making a quiet-but-succesful entry into Western markets. Worlds In Motion has an interview up with Min Kim of Nexon America talking about MapleStory, KartRider, the Nexon recipe for success, and what's next for the company. Not surprisingly, great swaths of his thoughts are pretty sensible (in a market glutted with free-to-play games, yours better be fun or else no one's going to play it), but sensible and game company plans do not always go hand in hand.... For Kim, the business model is step two. "In terms of our products doing well, it's that our games are very fun, and I think that's the core to all games that are going to be successful in terms of the business model we're in," he says. "It's one of the most competitive markets out there, because...

Pax 07: Three Great Blogs = One Awesome Band
The doors of PAX opened an hour early for press and when I arrived there was a small smattering of media folks hanging out in a line waiting to get in. Once they let us have the run of the place I made a beeline for the Rock Band booth. At E3 (or any other event I've been to this year for that matter) I wasn't able to get anywhere near it, so I was determined to check it out this time. I got my name in the hat for checking it out and when they called me they asked if i had anyone else I wanted to play with. Well, standing with me was none other than Mr. Destructoid and the lovely Colette from Destructoid.com as well as my friend Chris Furniss of the Weekly Geek so we decided to become the hottest multi-blog band at PAX and stormed the stage to give a stellar performance of Creep. We did pretty well with Chris on bass, Mr. Destructoid on drums, myself on guitar and Colette selling the crowd with her melodious voice and scored a respectable 97%.The game was a blast and sharing...

Pax 07: The Giant LAN Room Of Doom
No, I don't mean they are playing Doom. Actually, I don't really know what they were playing, but there sure were a lot of them doing it. The room was enormous and allowed players to play on PCs that were provided plus an area set up for those obsessive enough to actually bring their own computers to set up and play. Surprisingly, there were quite a few of these hardcores dragging in all their equipment on pack dogs and wagons. I hope they live in the area because I can't even imagine hauling my heavy ass computer and monitor across the country to sit in a dark room and play games. My dedication to PC gaming is obviously lacking.Make the jump to check out the seedy (and surprisingly not stinky) underbelly...

Pax 07: Penny Arcade Adventures To Appear On XBLA
More Penny Arcade news from PAX, imagine that! Hothead Games announced today that the Penny Arcade Adventures downloadable episodic game will be available over Xbox Live arcade. It will join the releases destined for Windows, Mac OS X and even Linux. Now that's what I call hi-tech! The game is set to release in the early part of 2008. I'll be checking it out tomorrow morning so if I can push back my hangover and get the hooker out of the room early enough, I'll be sure to let you know what it was like.

Pax 07: Kane & Lynch Gameplay Clip
From the PAX floor, GameVideos bring us a gameplay clip from the upcoming Kane & Lynch. Sorry fellows, I don't think there are any panty shots in this one. But there are guns. Lots and lots of guns.

Pax 07: The Halo 3 Merchandise Booth
PAX goers were treated to a whole raft of new exclusive Halo 3 merchandise that will soon be available on Bungiestore.com (if there's any left) for those of you who weren't able to attend the conference. There was a little something for everyone including calendars, man purses, keepsake photos, back packs, four styles of T-shirt and even a fancy bedazzled Halo 3 logo T-shirt for the ladies or you few daring gentlemen. make the jump to peruse some more pics and start making your shopping lists.

Gc07: First Look At Borderlands
It's funny what can easily turn one on (and off) to an upcoming video game. In the case of Gearbox Studios' just announced Borderlands, it was Game Informer's teaser cover blurb that described the 4-player co-op shooter as "Diablo meets Mad Max" that whet my nerd appetite. Gearbox themselves pitched the shooter as "Mad Max meets Indiana Jones." Reality, however, leveled off my personal expectations, as the game seems to be more accurately described as "Hellgate: London meets Firefly meets Pitch Black". That's the reality of it, a franchise step down that's very grounding. But is that necessarily a bad thing? Jesus. No. While Borderlands may not be a wet dream blend of two uber-franchise favorites, it still has plenty going for it—over 500,000 guns for example. Bullet point alert!Half a million guns may seem like a bullshit claim, but it's the Diablo II-style item randomization system that makes such a thing possible. The debug build of Borderlands that Gearbox showed...

The Great Experiment: The Games Convention Hall Crawl
One of the more surprising aspects of Games Convention is the availability of alcohol, a rarity at a video game expo, BlizzCon not included. We've ridden into town with a drinking population of Leipzig-bound teens that was much higher than expected. Therefore, we've decided to try to see the sights and sound of Games Convention through the eyes of the German youth. By drinking. A lot.We've already secured a mini-bottle of the local poison (Jagermeister) with which to start our hall crawl, but the rest of the drinking (mostly beer, we suspect) will be done on the show floor itself. The rules are that any time we pass a beer stand, we drink.We'll be posting progressive updates and expect that by the time we reach Hall 5, we'll be praising Pony Friends for its fresh take on the horse grooming genre. We may even take up the mic on the SingStar stage to belt out some Scissor Sisters.

The Great Experiment: Hall Crawl: Meat Lunch
In true German fashion, we ate meat and starch after consuming precisely two mammoth Jager bombs (we polished off the tiny bottle). Synopsis: Subjects shows a propensity to discuss topics of high school activities.Over lunch, we learned that Mark played trombone, Brian mended a broken leg and Michael asked that you not confuse him with Fahey. He also ran track and wrestled. Yes, he was a jock. Throw rotten food at will.

Achievement Whore: Guitar Hero III Achievements Revealed
Even the crushing fun of PAX can't keep the boys from Xbox360Achievements from digging up the latest in achievements for your favorite 360 games. This time they bring us the achievements for Guitar Hero III of which there are 59 equaling a total of 1000 points. Some highlights include:Hendrix Reborn - Complete Career Lefty and Righty - 10ptsStreak Master - Earn a 1000 note streak in Career or Quick Play - 20ptsNow That's Impressive - score 750,000 on a song - 20ptsLiving Legends - 5 Star all Co-op songs on Expert - 75ptsI love seeing these and it makes me wonder what the achievements will be for Bully. Personally, I'm hoping for some points for Ballbuster - Successfully kick someone in the balls, Grand Theft Bicycle- Steal at least ten bikes and Bi-Curious - Kiss your first boy. Rockstar, if you're listening, PLEASE include that last one. And the ball kicking.To see the entire list of all 59 GH III, check out Xbox360achievements.org.

Gc07: BlackSite: Area 51 Impressions
I can't tell you from a technical standpoint why Midway's BlackSite is so great. The graphics aren't stellar, the AI is lacking and your main weapon works like every other gun from every other FPS you've ever played. But it's fun as hell—not a cookie cutter FPS, but a dynamic new title that captures the heart of its arcade shooter roots. The first demo level is stereotypical suburbia. You work your way through backyards and down cul-de-sacs while keeping your eyes open for aliens reminiscent of Resident Evil Hunters. You eventually command two NPCs who join your party, both who will run ahead to a spot of your choosing with a quick click of the bumper. Funny detail? Whenever there is a door or gate, you need to send in the soldier to kick it in for you. Yeah, he's the "kick the door down specialist" or something. The game tracks your party's moral as well, which I only noticed after plowing down a bunch of baddies when a very small message popped up on the screen.But...

The Great Experiment: Hall Crawl: Boogie Is A Buzzkill
We're, at this point, two Jager bombs deep (FOR ENERGY!), one Corona (apparently the party beer of Germany) and one man-sized Paulaner Hefeweizen. Games are looking a lot better and Mark is sweating up a storm. After spilling most of my German beer on the floor due to premature intoxication on the floor due to waiting in line at the PlayStation booth to play something PlayStation Eye related, we looked for something that we'd like maybe a little more fun in our slightly buzzed state.Unfortunately, we ran into Boogie, after the Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 kiosks looked to be totally occupied. After a couple played songs—Daft Punk's "One More Time", Kelis' "Milkshake" and who knows what Old Man Crecente did—we were more sleepy than pleasantly boozed. Fuckin' Boogie. It's literally a buzzkill.We're off to Hall 2.

Gc07: Mercenaries 2 Gel: Hair On
T-shirts and inflatables might be good enough for the E3 and Penny Arcade crowd, but in Germany if you want to make a splash with gaming swag you've got to go big... big hair.Electronic Arts was giving out these tubes of Mercenaries 2: World in Flames HaarGel or hair gel for those non-German speakers out there. I, of course, had to take the stuff for a spin as soon as I got back to the hotel. The gel's rich texturing and high poly-count left me with the sort of three-foot high flattop perfect for open world mayhem and Brigitte Nielsen-inspired discotheque dance parties.

The Great Experiement: Hall Crawl: Rock Me Like a Hurricane
Fuck 9:30 a.m., it's well into 5 p.m. here in Germany and we're well into our... um.. three Jagerbombs and five beers.. GERMAN beers. Around beer number two we noticed that the dank, stinking, littered halls of Games Convention had magically transformed into a sort of beer garden discotheque Valhalla replete with booth babes, Germanic gamers and lots of alcohol. We've managed to squeeze in a couple more beers each as we wandered the halls, first waiting in line for a facial (Mark's idea), then after losing interesting taking pictures of flying BMXers and naked booth babes. We ended up, somehow, at the Activision booth waiting in line for WAY TOO LONG behind Activision employees for a chance to play Guitar Hero 3.I was hammering away at medium and Mark at expert when a Kotakuite came up to say "Hi. We sat and talked a bit and then I hopped online to post this lovely bit of almost-drunken prose.And then Mark streaked around the Activision booth: The end!

Ashes, Ashes, We All Fall Down: Scientists Studying Warcraft Plague
A couple of sources (notably Wonderland and GamePolitics) have taken note that a forthcoming paper in The Lancet Infectious Diseases will be taking a look at the World of Warcraft 'Corrupted Blood' plague of 2005. Their purpose? To see how virtual models of epidemics can help real-world research - and they got the perfect case in the WoW plague. Eric Lofgren (Rutgers University) and Nina Fefferman (Tufts University), the two researchers who worked on the paper, say in their abstract:Simulation models are of increasing importance within the field of applied epidemiology. However, very little can be done to validate such models or to tailor their use to incorporate important human behaviours. In a recent incident in the virtual world of online gaming, the accidental inclusion of a disease-like phenomenon provided an excellent example of the potential of such systems to alleviate these modelling constraints. We discuss this incident and how appropriate exploitation of these...

The Great Experiment: Hall Crawl: Hungry Like the Wolf
We are officially eight beers and about two Jager Bombs into the show. After hanging out at the Activision booth for way too long watching McWhertor pwn at Guitar Hero III, we realized we were out of time and high-tailed it to Hall number three where Sony and, more importantly, SingStar was located.We arrived just in time to find a clutch of booth babes and booth bucks hogging the machine doing a monstrously-bad rendition of Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive." The song, or attempt at a song, ended with the woman in charge of the microphone thanking everyone and tuning off the sound system. It took a little sweet talking by Mark, Mike and I before we convinced them to let us, sans beer, to get them to turn on the sound again and have a go at a song... specifically Duran Duran's "Hungry Like the Wolf", the drunk man's opus. After knocking it out of the ballpark, Mike and I walked from the stage trying our best to keep the shrieking fans from tearing our t-shirts from our sweating...

Pax 07: Gamers, Everywhere Gamers
In case you have never been here or have noticed that I haven't been posting lots of "hands on" articles, PAX is really about gamers. It's not an E3 where you will see all the latest games (although there are some thing s here) it's more a giant social gaming party. Everywhere you look there are gamers playing games. And not just video games either, there is plenty of board gaming, card gaming, RPG gaming, D&D gaming and pertty much any other kind of gaming you can think of. As I've been wandering around I've marveled at all these gamers peacefully co-existing with each other, making friends and just generally having a good time. If you've ever doubted the camaraderie of the cult of gaming, come to PAX and it will change your outlook completely.galleryPost('paxgamers', 4, 'The Many Gamers of PAX');

The Great Experiment: Sing Star: So Sexy it Hurts
newVideoPlayer("SingStar_gawker.flv", 475, 376);This concludes are great experiment. Verdict: We rock.

Royal Spanking: McWhertor Pwns with Princess
newVideoPlayer("MarioSonic_gawker.flv", 475, 376);McWhertor had a little hands-on time with the Princess in Mario & Sonic Olympic Games...she's a fast girl, if you know what I mean.

Isn't College Life Grand?: 'Most Rad Dorm Ever'
'Tis the season when college students go streaming back to the joys of living in dorms and institutional food, and some dedicated RAs decorated their hall in some game-related finery. All I remember from my (short-lived) dorm-residing days was a poorly-decorated announcement board and no coherent design theme to speak of (unless you count 'institutional cream' paint a design theme). I just wonder how the carefully cut and crafted paper designs are going to stand up to typical college student shenanigans. You can find some more photos of the cleverly decked out dorm at Sexy Videogameland.

Shhh...booth Babes Are Sleeping: Tender Booth Babe Moment (Sleeping)
Someone ring a bell and this angel will get her wings.

Let The Casual Games Begin: Play Diner Dash For Cash
I'm waiting for the Bejeweled competition to start (is there anything they can't make a skill game/play-for-cash version of?), but in the meantime, PlayFirst and WorldWinner have joined forces to offer up Diner Dash (and its two sequels) - for cash. PlayNoEvil has this to say about the announcement: "Skill games can be thought of as the complementary strategy to the Virtual Asset Purchase business model. They both remove the cost of entry to participate. The key in skill games is to keep the game "just skillful enough" so that anyone thinks they can win." Press release is after the jump.WorldWinner and PlayFirst Team Up to Create Diner Dash(R) Online Cash CompetitionsPlayers Can Soon Compete Against Others for Cash and Prizes While Expanding Flo's Online Restaurant EmpireSAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA and NEWTON, MASSACHUSETTS--(Marketwire - Aug. 23, 2007) - WorldWinner, a subsidiary of FUN Technologies Inc. (TSX:FUN)(AIM:FUN) and the leading provider of online game competitions,...

Gc07/homecoming07: Sony's Cheerleaders Break Hearts Everywhere
newVideoPlayer("Cheerleaders_gawker.flv", 475, 376);High school cheerleaders enjoy Sony's Trial of Topoq to the romantic backdrop of Germans SingStarring Pretty Woman. It was the stuff that 14-year-old dreams are made of.

We're In The Money: In the Wake of Free-To-Play, What's Next For Traditional Models?
While the virtual asset/microtransaction/free-to-play models are met with suspicion and derision in some quarters, Free To Play has an interesting analysis up of the challenges facing more traditional channels in the face of declining profit margins and an up-and-coming generation of gamers raised on the Club Penguin and MapleStorys of the world. "North American game companies are taking the same "partner and acquire" approach that they've used to achieve growth and purchase innovation for the last two decades," a model that doesn't work when dealing with some of the Asian companies have theoretical purchase prices that are astronomical.Shanda's market cap today is $2B. It's not far-fetched to assume their purchase price might be close to $3B. The only companies with that kind of cash on hand are EA and Microsoft .... Netease (NTES) has a market cap of $2.06B. The9's (NCTY) market cap is $1.14B. Nexon is privately held, but with $235M in revenue two years ago, they won't...

Gc07: The Trash of Games Convention
I've found Germany to be a pretty clean country, much cleaner than a lot of cities I've visited in the U.S., but that was before the public swarmed into the Games Convention. Talk about trashy. An hour into the show and the floor is flooded with all sorts of German leavings. The walk from the convention center to the train is even worse, with paper, bits of swag, broken up discs, cups and even one very mutilated bicycle spotting the once-clean walkways.galleryPost('trash', 4, 'Leavings');

Contest: Design Contest: Gamma 256
For those of you with a hankering to design a game with as low a resolution as you can manage, the Kokoromi collective has the challenge for you: design a simple, pick-up-and-play game that has a resolution no greater than 256 X 256. Entries close 1 November, and the winning game will be fted during the Gamma 256 party at the Montreal International Game Summit on 28 November. The guidelines are after the jump.1. Your game may use any kind of aspect ratio and be as low-res as you want. (ex: 16256, 648, 44)2. Your game may use as many colors as you would like.3. Your game should remain simple, pick-up-and-play.4. A single game session should not last more than 5 minutes.5. Your game should not rely on audio of any kind (no sound will be fed out of the game at the event).6. Single-machine multiplayer is fine/great.7. All games will remain the property of their respective creators.Beyond that, the game's gotta run on Windows XP and use an Xbox 360 controller. I'm genuinely...

Gc07: Playground Impressions
I finally got a chance to check out Playground yesterday in Electronic Arts press booth. While I was a bit let down by Dodgeball I was surprised to find myself enjoying quite a number of the pick-up-and-play games packed into the title.The instructions were all in German and the PR folks were mostly gone for the show, so I had to figure things out for myself. The game takes place on a playground, where you control a child avatar, running around collecting bags of marbles and looking for kids to play games against.To play a game you just run up to a kid playing with a toy specific to the game they're going to play and select them. The first game I tried was Tether Ball which, despite its simplistic interface, was a lot of fun. You use the remote to swing your hand at the ball as it zips around the pole, smacking the ball back at your opponent. If you wrap the ball and rope around the pole enough times in a row you win. You can also hold in the trigger to charge up your swing....

Pax 07: Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness First Impressions
When I found out that I would be attending PAX, one of the things I was most excited about was getting a really good look at the new Penny Arcade Adventures game being put together by Hothead Games with some help from Gabe and Tycho themselves. A few trailers have been out so far and in the last two days, a website has surfaced as well as the news that the game will be coming to XBLA. Well this morning I finally got a chance to see it for myself live and in person.First of all let me just say that the game has everything you would expect and want from a Penny Arcade game. A terrific art style, fun gameplay and hilarious dialog. You kick off the game with a great character customization screen. You can play a male or female character and for a comic style game, you get a surprising amount of variety in facial features, clothes and body types. One great mechanic has your character checking him or herself out whenever you change outfits. The amount of work that goes into the customizat...

Gc07: The Cars Of Games Convention
You might think that video game marketing is easy, but it's not. It's hard. Sisyphean sometimes. At this stage in the advertising game, marketeers really only have three tactics—scantily clad ladies, alternate reality games, and cars decorated with game logos. German marketing teams who didn't want to pull a creativity muscle clearly opted for the easiest two of the three, sometimes combining them for maximum impact.With short shorts and body paint in full force, cars may look like they're underrepresented at the Leipzig Messe. Wrong! They're everywhere. And there are a lot of Volkswagens.galleryPost('carsofgamesconvention', 4, 'The Cars Of Games Convention');