Late Night Consoling

Every gamers' favorite politician (no, not Arnold), Tem Leland Yee, is once again at the forefront of a videogame political scandal. Since it was discovered that users can unlock a sex mini-game in the PC version of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Yee now wants the ESRB to give the game an Adults-Only rating. "Once again, ESRB has failed our parents," he said. " Plain and simple, parents cannot trust the ESRB to rate games appropriately or the industry to look out for our children's best interests. The ESRB and the video game industry cannot police themselves and this is yet another example of why we need legislation to limit these types of games to children." The ESRB has responded by saying it will conduct a "thorough and objective investigation."

Bizarre Creations revealed new details on how tournaments will work in the Xbox 360 game Project Gotham Racing 3. Multiple tourneys will be held each month over Xbox Live that include a qualifying and a knockout phase. The first two weeks of the month are all the qualifying races; then Gotham TV takes over and sorts out everything for the knockout round, telling players when to play. The finals can be viewed through Gotham TV, which is pretty damn cool if you ask me! Live gaming events!

Those sleuths over at GameGossip have discovered what could possibly be a new bundle from Microsoft that packages the Xbox with Halo 2. Over on their official site, the Canadian product catalog shows "Halo 2 Edition" priced at $259.99. The link doesn't go anywhere, but one could assume a new bundle is on the horizon. Now the question is.. is this bundle for Canada only?

Okay, so Microsoft decided to port Fable over to the PC and gave it the sub-title of The Lost Chapters, adding in new regions, quests, and story elements. Well, today, Microsoft will be porting the port back over to the Xbox this fall. Fable: The Lost Chapters will have everything the PC version has but it'll sell for the low price of $19.99.

IGN had a recent discussion with a few peeps over at Square Enix and came away with some interesting details regarding the Xbox 360 port of Final Fantasy XI. All graphics work is done with the entire process at about 55% completion. Porting started this past February and they're basing the content off the Windows version. It was actually supposed to release on the original Xbox and be part of the Xbox Live launch, but it just didn't happen. No worries; Square Enix is confident FFXI will be ready for the launch of the Xbox 360.

A European market research group announced their findings on their study that tried to tap the pulse of gamers to see which new handheld they preferred. The results were a landslide in favor of the Nintendo DS. It beat out Sony's PSP in all the major categories: screen, games, quality, and value. Still, there were plenty of complaints for both handhelds; gamers don't like the huge amount of puzzle games for the DS but they also dislike the long drought of new games for the PSP. Check out the full details inside the link.

The upcoming Xbox version of Sid Meier's Pirates! will come bundled with new goodies not found in the original release. New to the version are 200 unlockable items that show off behind-the-scenes media and a new party game featuring ship battles. On top of that, downloadable content will be possible through Xbox Live and there'll be an online leaderboard.

I think it goes without saying that the vast majority of cable news channel pundits are the scum of the earth, but here comes Donny Deutsch to outdo them all. His program lured journalist John Davison, former chief of EGM and current editor at 1UP, to talk about a wide range of gaming topics, including clans, tournaments, and also violence. However, Davison quickly discovered that he was lured into a trap to paint him as the evil defender of videogame violence. Read the whole tale from Davison himself here at his blog. Thanks to Kotaku.

Tecmo announced their first PSP game the other day and it's called Tokobot. "Players will take on the role of the young hero "Bolt", a quick thinking agent who has discovered some friendly, highly advanced robots called "Tokobots" during his explorations of ancient ruins. With the help of the loyal Tokobots, Bolt will reveal mysteries and save the world, as the Tokobots faithfully follow him on his journey, helping him on his way." Sounds a bit like Pikmin!

Sony Computer Entertainment performed a ton of housekeeping maneuvers that shifted around personnel and created new divisions. The two new areas of SCE are Sony Computer Entertainment Asia and Sony Computer Entertainment Japan Studio, with the latter overseeing all first-party games. Phil Harrison, who was the prez over in Europe, now is in charge of all SCE game developments. Also, Kazunori Yamauchi, creator of Gran Turismo, has been given a new executive position.

The "offline MMORPG" series, .hack//, will continue with .hack//fragment. However, with this baby, you can actually play online with it! It'll have a BBS, mail, and guild system and there'll be a matching server to make it easy to find people to play with. It won't require the PS2 HDD nor will there be a monthly fee.

Ubisoft has tipped off gamers to expect some of those promised Chaos Theory maps within the next couple weeks. In that time frame, the versus map Street Squat will be released. Not long after, two more versus maps will become available with the summer wrapping up with one last final map.

The Japanese-style MMORPG that was canceled near its completion, True Fantasy Live Online, may not be as dead as we all thought. 1UP has learned that Microsoft has renewed the trademark on the game. This may not be saying much; I mean, really, it's not that expensive to renew the trademark, but it gives a glimmer of hope to its fans.

This country definitely has caught poker fever and now fans of ESPN's World Series of Poker can play against the greats right from the comfort of their living room couch. Activision has announced they'll publish a game based on the TV series and it'll feature the likenesses of players that were at the 2005 tournament. Expect this one later in the summer for the consoles indicated above.

Take-Two Interactive announced that it has signed the goalie of the Dallas Stars, Marty Turco, to grace the cover of NHL 2K6. Turco has been voted twice to the All-Star game and won a couple championships in college. The game is slated for release this fall. I forget; will there even be a season this year?

Don't steal the spotlight, Turco! The Phoenix Suns' Amare Stoudamire was also revealed to grace the cover of a sports game: NBA 06 for the PSP. The All-Star power forward was an integral part of his team reaching the NBA Western Conference Finals this past season. The game, however, is still slated to suck.

It has been an on-going saga that the 82-year old Viacom CEO, Summer Redstone, has been wanting to gobble up Midway. Slowly but surely, he's been buying large chunks of Midway stock. Over the past week alone, he's made nine stock purchases worth nearly $7 million. With the recent agreement of Midway to partner with Viacom-owned MTV, it doesn't appear long before the two are one.

ABC's megahit series, Lost, will have its own UMD release on the PSP later this year. Launching alongside the Season One DVD set on September 6, the two-part pilot will be available on UMD for an unspecified price. Considering the $38.99 DVD set contains about 26 episodes, I'm hoping the UMD is coming out at a bargain price.

Planning to go to the big San Diego Comic-Con International this weekend? If so, you'll get the opportunity to see Backbone Entertainment's Death, Jr. The game will be playable and the staff working on the comic series will be on-hand. Check the link for event details.

A new version of the EyeToy will be hitting store shelves in the near future. Sony Europe has signed Nam Tai Electronics, the original manufacturers, to build a new EyeToy that is smaller in size than the original. It will be made to sit alongside the upcoming satin silver PS2.

Take a deep breath; it's not as bad as it sounds. Nintendo isn't pimpin' Mario in a yet another oddball sports game. Instead, the Big N is sponsoring the Rip Curl's GromSearch 2005, a national surfing contest. Surfers can win Nintendo prizes, such as GBA games. Also at the beaches will be Nintendo kiosks to try out their games. Cowabunga, dude! Radical!

TeamXbox looks at the A.I. of Far Cry Instincts. 1UP briefly runs down what to expect at this year's Tokyo Game Show. Want to truly understand the interface of the new Xbox Live? Then click that link!