While it's been met with the expected amount of skepticism by everyone from my wife to my friends, I made a pledge on my personal site that deserves repeating here: I swore that as of yesterday, I will not be purchasing a single PC or video game from now until 1/1/04 at the earliest. This means games like Manhunt, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and Final Fantasy X-2 will all have to wait at least that long (unless of course someone buys it for me, which is bound to happen at least once). What on Earth prompted such an insane declaration? The fact that I have at least 25 games that are already waiting to be played (the list I posted there is actually pretty incomplete, and those were just the games off the top of my head). I've got far more games than I have time to play already, and the last thing I need are more shiny new games to keep them collecting dust. So we'll see how this experiment goes. I've already basically given up buying games at launch (with only rare exceptions) due to my discovery that if you wait at least a month, games actually tend to come down in price. And since the wait time on my stack tends to be on average two or three months (or more...there are some that have been there for literally years), there's really no reason for me to pay full price. So we'll see what happens. The urge may just be too great for me to pass up, although since I've already given myself an exception in the event that Half-Life 2 comes out this year, I don't expect it to be too much of a problem.

	State of Emergency 2 Confirmed, Not from Rockstar? A story on gamesindustry.biz reports that UK developer VIS Entertainment has created a new company to effectively self-fund the development of State of Emergency 2, which in turn will allow them to wait until fairly late in the game's development cycle before securing a publisher. This suggests that Rockstar is very much out of the picture, which may not be a good thing, as it was largely Rockstar's reputation and promotional efforts that made the first game a success.
	N-Gage Fizzles in the UK Also on gamesindustry.biz is word that Nokia's much-hyped N-Gage hasn't exactly been setting the charts on fire over in Britain. Across the 6,000 retailers polled by firm Chart-Track, less than 500 N-Gage units were sold. Of course, this doesn't include sales from mobile phone retailers, and unlike this country, there are actually companies that are offering the N-Gage for a substantial discount with a new service contract.
	Less M-Rated Games Sold to Minors The FTC has published the results of their undercover nationwide survey regarding sales of M-rated games to minors. The good news is that less games are being sold to minors. The bad news, is that...well, less games are being sold to minors. Bad news, that is, if you subscribe to the philosophy (as I do) that it's up to parents to decide what games kids can play and not retailers, who are under absolutely no obligation or legal requirement to limit sales to minors.
	It Came from Intellivision! Intellivision Productions, Inc. has announced Intellivision Lives!, a collection of over 50 classic Intellivision games that will be released for PS2 and Xbox later this year. This collection includes several previously unreleased games and a jukebox that plays "Intellivision-themed music."
	Mario Bros. Gets Re-re-re-re-re-....released Nintendo has confirmed that the upcoming GBA RPG Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga will include the same multiplayer Mario Bros. game that's been featured in every single Super Mario Advance game (including this week's SMA4: Super Mario Bros. 3). Someone needs to tell Nintendo that it really wasn't all that fun the first time around.
	High-Speed Data Transfer in PS3? A brief post at GamePro.com says that in two days, at the Microprocessor Forum in San Jose, Sony will confirm that they are using a Toshiba/Rambus technology that enables data transfer speeds up to six times faster than previously available, in their "Cell" processor technology, which will almost certainly be used in the PlayStation 3.
	New Xbox Live Broadband Partners Announced Microsoft announced today 22 new global broadband partners for Xbox Live. These join the some 50 already announced companies in North America, Japan and Europe which are doing something behind-the-scenes to enhance the Xbox Live experience.
	Today's Soundtrack News The full track listing for the soundtrack CD to the upcoming title True Crime: Streets of L.A. has been released, and features such well-known artists as Snoop Dogg, DJ Quik and Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E. In other news, a special Street Fighter anniversary album has been announced in Japan, and it will feature reorchestrated music in the series by some really big names in Japanese game music, including Yasunori Mitsuda (Xenogears, Chrono Cross) and Yuzou Koshiro (Ys). And finally, Music 4 Games has conducted an interview with Steve Schnur, EA's worldwide executive of music, talking about the soundtrack for the upcoming SSX 3.
	True Crime: Streets of L.A. Interview Speaking of Activision's True Crime: Streets of L.A., a new interview with Chris Archer, the executive producer of the game is up at Team Xbox tonight. The interview covers everything from the decision to use a third person perspective to the game's numerous driving sequences.
	Rainbow Six 3 Interview A new interview with Mike McCoy, the creative designer and director of the Xbox version of Rainbow Six 3 is up at 3DAvenue tonight. The interview is of the one-on-one type, and has Mike fielding questions about how this game is very much not a port, and how it differs from its PC counterpart.
	Dead Phoenix != Kid Icarus Here's one rumor you can cross off your list...some excerpts from an interview Atsushi Inaba gave to CUBE Magazine are up at GamerFeed, and one of the questions deals with that rumor that the canceled Dead Phoenix has been revived as a new Kid Icarus game. His response? "That's definitely not happening!"
	F-Zero: Legend of Falcon Details There's not a whole lot here, but nonetheless, Pocket.IGN has posted some of the first details to trickle out from F-Zero: Legend of Falcon, the upcoming GBA F-Zero game that's based on the new F-Zero anime that will be airing in Japan this fall.
	Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Q&A A new Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Q&A is up at HomeLAN, talking with Yannis Mallat, the game's producer. Among other things, Yannis talks about the extremely positive reception the game has been getting.
	Misc. Media/Previews GameSpot has new shots from Monster 4x4: Masters of Metal (GC, PS2), Monster Rancher 4 (PS2), James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing (GBA), Hunter: The Reckoning Redeemer (Xbox) and Battlestar Galactica (PS2, Xbox). IGN has new media from I-Ninja (GC, PS2, Xbox), Mario Kart: Double Dash (GC), Mario Party 5 (GC) and Medal of Honor: Rising Sun (GC, PS2, Xbox). Elsewhere online, GameSpy has new previews of SOCOM II (PS2) and Goblin Commander: Unleash the Horde (GC, PS2, Xbox), Planet GameCube has new shots from Sonic Heroes (GC, PS2, Xbox), Computer and Video Games has a hands-on look at Prince of Persia (GBA), GameInformer.com has new details and media from Project Gotham Racing 2 (Xbox) and new movies from WWE Smackdown! Bring the Pain (PS2), 1UP has their own preview of Project Gotham Racing 2 (Xbox) and a look at Rogue Ops (GC, PS2, Xbox), Team Xbox has a new trailer from Goblin Commander (GC, PS2, Xbox), which oddly enough is the very game HomeLAN has a hands-on preview of.