New Photos

Patrick Seybold says

"I know you all want to know exactly when the services will be restored. At this time, I can’t give you an exact date, as it will likely be at least a few more days"

Shigenori Yoshida says it won't be until May 31st.

This is getting to be ri-god-damn-diculous. Just blow in the cartridge!!!

AT&T will start limiting its users broadband usage on monday. The usage cap is expected to affect 16 million users. The limit will be 250GB or 150GB depending on the service you have with them. There will be overage fees for exceeding these limits. The story at wired has some info to help you estimate what your usage might typically be so follow the link to see how the changes might affect you.

I'm going to have to dig up some info on common online game bandwidth usage.

Redbox will be offering video games for 2 bucks a pop at 21,000 locations starting in June.

Personally, I could never rent anything from a redbox just because when I see people standing in line at one, it looks like the same vibe as people waiting in line for a welfare check or something. For no good reason, I just feel sad for them.

Alicia Silverstone and Michael Vick have teamed up to get an android game called Dog Wars banned from the app store. Alicia Silverstone, representing PETA in this case seems to think that there are real dogs in your cell phone and that they are in danger.

She wrote to google:

As a mom-to-be and someone who has adopted and loved rescued pit bulls, I join Peta's millions of members in imploring you to cancel this game immediately. If one dog dies as a result of this game, you will not forgive yourself.

I am sure Michael Vick is just looking for any way to improve his public image with people an dogs alike, I can't help but laugh at his idiocy along with hers.

Now its a ghost town.

Here is a link to pictures of Chernobyl 25 years after a nuclear meltdown forced it to be abandoned by all its inhabitants. What does this have to do with video games? Anyone who has played Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (1) can tell you. There is a level in the single player campaign and a map in the multiplayer mode that look to be built around these photographs. You will see a photo of a ferris wheel where I protected an injured sniper from hoards of russian soldiers. You will see bumper cars that I set up claymores in to protect myself from flanking russians. You will see a swimming pool where I killed a pack of wild dogs. You will see buildings where I camped the B flag.

Whether its obsolete or not I don't know (ask HollowPino) but if you have never played CoD4, you should just to see how much effort went into to making these levels look exactly like the real thing.

Miyamoto has confirmed that Wii 2 will be released in 2012 and will be playable at E3 this june. Woo hoo!

Unlike the Wii, which has been described as "two gamecubes duck-taped together" initial reports from various gaming sites have described the new Wii as being more powerful than the Xbox360 and PS3 (one should hope so).

Personally I still think Nintendo is the best 1st party developer on the planet, so I'm totally stoked for Wii2. Bring it!

When it comes to ratings, video game retailers are more vigilant with mature video games than places that sell rated r movies or music with explicit lyrics.

The FTC recruited kids ages 13 to 16 to buy music, movie tickets, DVDs, and video games, without a parent, between November 2010 and January 2011. They were instructed to pick up movie tickets and DVDs for R-rated movies, CDs with parental advisory labels that warned of explicit content, and video games that were rated "M" for mature.

Apparently the kids were more successful getting movies and music they shouldn't be able to than video games with mature ratings.

After recognizing failed attempts to make us laugh, Sam Machkovech takes some time to praise Valve, Portal and Portal 2 for getting humor right in video games while providing a review for Portal 2.

From Playstation.com:

We sincerely regret that PlayStation Network and Qriocity services have been suspended, and we are working around the clock to bring them both back online. Our efforts to resolve this matter involve re-building our system to further strengthen our network infrastructure. Though this task is time-consuming, we decided it was worth the time necessary to provide the system with additional security.

We thank you for your patience to date and ask for a little more while we move towards completion of this project. We will continue to give you updates as they become available.