ffwd: Linklog

FlightSimBooks.com puts classic '80s flight sim game books online (Flying into Seattle was more difficult back when everything was wireframe.)

Atari Museum on hacking the Atari Flashback 2.0 to run carts (Unlike most previous Atari 'TV games', this one is doing it right, with proper, perfect emulation.)

Flemart.com: Awesome CD-ROM cover illustration (Joysticks! Pizza! Game god! Anyone know what this is from?)

BBC: £42,500 bottle of water snatched ('Mr Hill fears the bottle was taken and then drunk.' Via Fortean Times.)

UK Guardian: 'Can iPods Make You Hallucinate?' (OMG, the hidden dangers of Apple's killer app. Or not.)

Loonyblog points out 'embarrassing' wristbands for your failed Ninja Gaiden Black character (A 'rainbow of humiliating colors' - Itakagi, positive reinforcement not best friends.)

Jeremy Parish cheats on Boktai 3 with a blacklight (The solar-sensing series gets pwned.)

Sega: Official 'Where Do Babies Come From?' website opens (Official site, with catchy music, to sequel for Feel The Magic now online.)

Google Sightseeing: Giant Dead Lego Cowboy (This is why Google Maps is vital.)

Full version of awesome Adidas 'Impossible Field' soccer ad [.MOV] (Very cool - via adampsyche)

Why's (Poignant) Guide To Ruby (This is absolutely the funnest technical book I have ever read - O'Reilly peeps, sign it up - via ABLY.)

1UP: MMOs Anonymous (Yet more good game journalism from 1UP.)

New Zealand Herald coos over Google Sightseeing (A cool little story, though.)

Adventure Developers multi-parter on the past and future of the adventure game (Past - well. Future - unwell.)

Mediaweek: Morgan Spurlock to make 'Public Nuisance' TV show for Comedy Central (But more importantly - Gay Robot!)

Reality Blurred: Fox Reality Channel airing foreign reality TV shows (Not sure Comcast gets it here, would be interesting for a comparison point.)

FiringSquad on the Abit ACON5 LAN party in China (Interesting geography/travel info, though likely this was an Abit-funded junket?)

Times Online: 'Parrot placed in solitary for swearing at vicar' ('He stands on the top of his cage swaying his head backwards and forwards, singing 'B*****ks', "B*****ks'.' Via IR.)

CNET News on Capricorn Technologies and the Archive's Petabox project (I want one of these for home.)

Evan Dorkin working on official Simpsons book, 'The Comic Book Guy's Guide to Life' (Best. idea. ever.)

Gamasutra: 'Designer's Notebook: You Must Play Facade, Now!' (Ernest Adams gets all gushy over the interactive drama.)

Variety: Alex 'Halo/Stubbs The Zomie' Seropian, Ron Howard doing 'space'-based reality show (Connected video game, 'extraordinarily expensive' TV series - via RB.)

1UP: Scott Sharkey's final 'Matrix Online' in-game report (Sharkey is a funny man, and this is a fitting ending to his document of a troubled game.)

Newgrounds and Alien Hominid co-authors release 'Dad & Me' (.SWF game) (Deliciously, spectacularly twisted.)

Insert Credit on Japanese government 'serious games' (Specifically 'Let's pretend we're the minister of finance and work on the budget!')

The Beat: Heidi MacDonald on Comic-Con 2005 - 'I was part of the problem' ('Hollywood has taken San Diego to its bosom like a Wonder-Bra.' Via Lacunae.)

Corante: 'Memo to mainstream media: You don't get to blog' (Plenty of good journalism vs. blogging sass here - via Doc.)

GameTomorrow: IBM engineer mentions testing rigid body dynamics on Cell chip (Via GameTomorrow, which is a blog from 'IBM leaders who are involved with games and game-related technologies.')

Insert Credit: GamePark GPX2 unveiled (As the article says, with rampant PSP homebrewing, not quite so exciting.)

GameSpy: Making [Xbox] Live a Better Place to Play (Countering what's also known as the shi*c*ck effect.)

Game outsourcing firm New Pencil closing doors (More interestingly, Gamerifts points out Hogwarts Online pics [never-announced, now-canned EA MMO?] in the old NP site - Portfolio/Environments link. )

Get The Sugar: ' You Don't Know What Happened to Jellyvision' (Well, now we do - via Evil Avatar.)

1UP reports on Microsoft Meltdown 2005 (Games much easier to find, play in next version of Windows.)

Gamasutra: 'Media Consumption: Sony Japan’s Gregg Tavares' (LCD Soundsystem rockin' Tokyo, apparently.)

2005 Machinima Festival launches (One of the lead sponsors is the Independent Film Channel - neat. Machinimate also still going on.)

O'Reilly Connection 'geek-centric professional networking' launching next week (Invite-only for now, though.)

BBC: 'Fruit salad' tree hoax exposed (Owner said it was a 'rotten trick' - is Ashton Kutcher accounted for?)

Snopes: Arby's beef assembled from paste? ('Arby's roast beef is shipped to them in some kind of liquid or gel form?' Whadda you think?)

Books2Eat - international edible book festival (Yummy reading - via Gaiman.)

NME: Billy Corgan talks Smashing Pumpkins reunion, then stops concert after someone asks for Pumpkins song (Also throws his Hello Kitty dolls on ground.)

MTV.com: 'Pedal To The Metal: Heavy Tunes Cause Gaming Fender Benders' (I wish these pieces were easier to find on the uber-confusing MTV site.)

PR: Sony Online narrows 'Quest For Antonia' spokesmodel search (Finalists basically visible without logging on, I still feel dirty.)

GAF: 'Feel The Magic' sequel called 'Where Do Babies Come From?' (Oh, Sega, keep taking those pills!)

Gamers With Jobs on freeware space exploration game Noctis ('The real joy of Noctis lies in setting eyes on alien landscapes that nobody has ever seen before.' Great intro, too.)

Game Informer has more pics, movies from Harmonix's Guitar Heroes (ZZ Top's 'Sharp Dressed Man'? I'm so there.)

Gamasutra: 'What Every Game Developer Needs to Know about Story' (Microsoft Game Studios' John Sutherland makes some well-thought-out points.)

PopJustice: 'The children are still our future' (Linking the latest Kidz Bop greatness.)

NCSX has full pics of emulated games in Taito Memories Vol.1 for PS2 (Yum - there's a whole lot of new import games out this week, too.)

GameDev.net hosts PDF from 'Beyond Reality: A Guide to Alternate Reality Gaming' book (Sample chapter from example ARG, apparently.)

Lulu: Tyrone Short's homepage for buying 'The Bible vs. The X-Station' e-book ('This book is mainly focused on kids, teens and young adults who have allowed the XBOX to become their god.')

Computer Games Magazine has a pop at Next-Gen.biz on story vagueness (Hee hee.)

BlitzMax game programming language official site (Look to be some neat homebrew games linked here, like Plobb! [screenshot].)

BBC News: Comedian Vic Reeves DJ-ing on Virgin Radio (Good to see Vic back - FWIW, The Smell Of Reeves and Mortimer is still possibly my favorite comedy show ever.)

'Jeux Video a 200%' - French version of Gaming Hacks (Oh... I guess I want a copy now I've found out about it!)

Panopticist on Ricky Gervais' new series, Extras (Though 'pretty good', apparently: "The shtick [from guest star Ben Stiller] has gotten really old at this point. Does anyone still find it funny?" Heartily agreed.)

CNet: Wired News cuts editorial staff as part of restructuring (Sorry to hear this, it's still an online-only bright spot.)

I4U on the Sega Toys Homestar home planetarium (I heart Japanese gadgets - via RobotWisdom.)

Tomus Files interviews Kenta Cho on ABA Games ('I'm much influenced by Rez. I like old vector style games such as Atari Star Wars and Tempest.' Via TIGSource.)

Engadget on the Yamaha Tenori-On LED-panel instrument (But can you play Othello on it?)

Mojave Weblog shows off two other Mojave-based space development projects (They don't look as cool as SpaceShip One, though.)

Gothamist: 'Spoof Goes Down Under' (An adapted NYC 2012 logo with a gunman? No problem for Australian TV.)

NCSX: Chubby Japanese Alien, Predator dolls ('A stubby tail and squat legs also lend support to our theory that this is the bad DNA, beer slugging, couch potato version of Alien.')

GamersWithJobs 'team reviews' Psychonauts (For a game about a brain, it sure gets analyzed a lot.)

NYT: 'Putting For The Fences' (Neat article on competitive mini-golf players.)

BusinessWeek adds 'Game Room' subpage (Does any website not have a game section?)

Gamasutra: 'Silicon Knights' Denis Dyack Goes 360' (Mr. C.Kohler gets some interesting info out of Mr. D.Dyack.)

GameSpy: 'I Bad Guy' (Robert Culp, aka Half-Life 2's Dr. Wallace Breen, says hi.)

The Escapist: 'A Horse of a Different Color' (V. good piece on Derby Owners Club addiction hilarity.)

Majoria News' 'desert island gaming' picks (What would your 5 (or more!) be?)

Touch-DS: Movies of people playing Oh! My! Ouendan for DS (The latest DS rhythm-action title, *drool*, Jonnyram has impressions over at GAF.)

Slashdong: 'LifeStone control in Second Life' (Reasonably SFW, save the logo - on using the Wild Divine heart rate controller inside Second Life.)

Photoshop News visits the Adobe offices in downtown San Jose (Interesting since they're 100 yards from our house and we've never been inside! Via Luxo.)

Gamasutra: 'Playing Catch-Up: Steve Purcell' (The Sam & Max creator dishes - totally awesome self-portrait, too.)

InsertCredit on the future (or not!) of SegaSammy's Atomiswave (Can't wait for these to turn up on eBay for cheap, parasite that I am.)

GameSpy interviews comic-book scribes on comics-to-games (Hurray for Doug TenNapel!)

Game Informer Online interviews Xbox .JP's Yoshihiro Maruyama (GI Online has some good pieces nowadays.)

Newsarama on the '44 years of the Fantastic Four' Marvel DVD-ROM (550 comics, 20,000 pages, sign me up. Via EvilAvatar.)

Eurogamer previews Black & White 2 ('Say what you want about Peter Molyneux; there's no denying he's honest.' Eventually!)

Game Paused call for video game art gallery submission (I like the 'Action Pak' example art on the submissions page.)

IGN Babes: 'Babes of Pump It Up: Loriel' (Mastiff's new publicity campaign for the Andamiro DDR-style game. Wacky.)

GameGossip PR: Data Design's new budget PS2 games (Particularly good: 'Action Girlz Racing the only racing game designed by Girls, for Girls' and... Ninjabread Man!)

Captain Ahab's tweakin' cover of Avril Lavigne's 'Sk8er Boi' [MP3] (Check the sneaky Tigerbeat mention - unreleased old MP3s posted on his new site, including 'Keep Teh Peace' - Ahab is on Irritant Records, who have a all-'Total Eclipse Of The Heart' streaming radio station.)

Gamasutra: 'Question of the Week Responses: Game Ratings and Government Regulation?' (Some interesting perspectives here from game professionals.)

Japan Today interviews Fox's Frank Foley on Japanese pay TV (Fascinating - apparently '24'-totin' Fox is way out in front in Japan.)

LegalTorrents adds 'Nobody Needs To Know' re-encode, 'Adventures Of Fatman' PC game (See the index for more info - more CC-licensed games coming soon!)

UTI interviews Drunkenbatman from DrunkenBlog (And oh my, he's wordy about it.)

Bytten's 'Ernie Awards 2005' for indie games (Actually awarded a little while back, but some v.obscure/interesting picks.)

Petromyzon's arcade tokens Flickr photo set (From the retro arcade pictures Flickr poster - I adore the Maneater picture.)

Codespace: New Beta of 'Endless Fire' PC freeware shmup released (Gratifyingly abstract and lots of fun.)

NME: Pet Shop Boys to release 'Battleship Potemkin' soundtrack (Unlikely headline of the week.)

Private Eye's 'Funny Old World' on not-quite-dead corpses ('At first, the gravedigger insisted that this was because they thought he was a zombie who had come back from the dead.')

Pro-G: 'Brian Lara streaker escorted from the field' (Uber-odd story on a cricket game - did Codemasters publicize this?)

'Wing Commander Privateer Gemini Gold' unofficial remake available (Looks like Wing Commander still has rabid fans - via Blue's.)

1UP: 'Katamari Love' - Q&A w/Keita Takahashi (My frothing etc for this etc etc.)

News From Me: WB dumping Michigan J Frog as mascot (Nothing to do with Dave Chappelle's lambasting of said amphibian, surely?)

Bright Red Rocket: Gilbert Hernandez's 'The Naked Cosmos' (The Love and Rockets creator makes a distinctly unhinged DVD - via FLOG!.)

Oishii! - ephemeral pheromonal del.icio.us-ness (Simple, but helpful.)

Clive Thompson on 'the ransom model of publishing' (Despite the kidnap-sounding name, this is a great and under-used idea imho.)

1UP: 'The Embattled ESRB' (I'm quoted, alongside Jason Della Rocca, in this story on the ESRB and modding.)

XRRF: UK compilation album with giant barcode on front has 'issues' ('Singer Jack Johnson is said to be showing phantom gains in record sales.' Woops.)

Gamepapers: Adorable mini dachshund & friend Nintendogs wallpaper (Awww! What's more, awww! And GamePapers is a pretty darn comprehensive site.)

Ren'Ai.us: English-language anime dating game downloads (Here's more info on the genre - didn't know there was this big a Western scene.)

NCSX: Sega's I-Fish (Apparently closely related to the I-Dog - looks more like a mutated Aquaroid to me. I want robot fishies.)

Archive.org: 'Noise Is Music' podcast archive (Nice, shorter selections from netlabels, now hosted at the IA.)

Sams Publishing: '1337 h4x0r h4ndb00k' (Not. A. Joke. Contents include 'Working With Notepad', 'Naming Your Computer', 'The Mouse'.)

Paid Content on the Casual Games Conference (Nice to see this market solidifying further.)

Leaky Cauldron: Full, insanely detailed 3-part J.K.Rowling interview now up (Spoilers for book 6 in here, but obviously fascinating.)

Warner Bros: 'V For Vendetta' movie trailer (AKA yet another Alan Moore movie adaptation - Loonyblog has comments.)

Mega64's 'E3 1975' video (PC .EXE) (A couple of months late on this, but Mega64 japery can't be denied.)

Year01: 'Mario Battle No.1' NES ROM ('All you can do is go for a walk' - old, but now findable - via Fort90.)

Lady Sovereign - '9 To 5' music video (.MOV) (Colonel Blimp directors masterminding the post-Dizzee UK hiphop scene visuals - also see Kano's 'Remember'. Oh, and neat Adam Freeland video as bonus.)

'Everybody Loves Eric Raymond' webcomic (Involving ESR, RMS, Linus cohabiting - oh, the washing-up japes they get into! Via ABFY.)

Rochester City News cover story on Nicholas 'Perry Bible Fellowship' Gurewitch (MTV2, Cartoon Network sniffing around, and rightly, too - via CR.)

Music Thing: 'Man builds two-string bass inspired by aliens' (I bet he likes Babylon 5.)

Yahoo!/AP: 'Cheesecake and It's Hollywood History' (I'm preparing the shoesaw for the APOSTROPHE ATROCITY, Yahoo! or AP person who did that!)

Gamasutra: 'Event Wrap-Up: Comic-Con International 2005' (Lotsa nice developer quotes, and a particularly dreamy picture of the Mega64 crew.)

Mojave Airport Weblog: 'Farewell to the Spirit of New York...Almost' (Another neat slice of Mojave Airport life.)

IC finds images of the Fossil/Atari watch (Or at least, the Asteroids one - wanna see Centipede, Breakout too!)

GamersWithJobs: 'The Retail Game, Part III: What's Next' (Finish to an excellent series on the North American game retail market.)

ThinkGeek: 'Hot Coffee' T-shirt (It's the inevitable Fonzie-related moment of any popular phenomenon, innit?)

Wired News: 'Game Over for Modders?' (Rather inflammatory headline, Costikyan's quote is dead-on.)

UK Resistance on Richard Jacques' Video Games Live appearance (Actually, just read all of UKR, all the time - complete genius.)

GameCritics: 'Life+Game: Birth' ('Nothing I experienced in videogames could prepare me for or resembled the birth of my baby boy, Ryan. Games are something completely different.' Really?)

BBC News: 'Potter ending revealed to drivers' (That's a pretty evil trick for Britishers.)

N64Europe: 'Alien Hominid - First Screens & Boxart' (Neat, they're using the GD magazine art for the GBA cover.)

Archive.org: Max Fleischer's 'Now You're Talking' ('An instructional film for the telephone using a combination of animation and live action.')

ffwd: 'Beware the Ides of August?' (Update on my main blog, info on latest/next issue of Game Developer, for the terminally nosy.)

GameTunnel's June 2005 Indie Game Monthly Round-Up (Game of the month is Mexican Motor Mafia, which I have never heard of and sounds great.)

Improbable Research on married marijuana use (Oddest. Survey. Evah.)

Defamer: 'Fox fails to properly renovate family' (Endless pool for handicapped kid 'forced him under and almost drowned him'. Thanks a bunch, Fox.)

Video Game Ombudsman on what you can do to 'Hot Coffee' (Well played, Sir!)

Kerrang: British Whale's 'This Town Ain’t Big Enough For The Both Of Us' music video (Side-project from The Darkness' Justin Hawkins, featuring, uhh, Sparks and darts? Via XRRF.)

OhMyNews: 'It's Not Just Soda, It's Free Enterprise' (Did I mention I love soda? Great article, via AdJab, oddly enough.)

Luxist: Will the Fairmont go co-tel? (Just shows what the prices of property in SF will do - I've stayed in the Fairmont, s'historic, innit?)

QT3 Japanese RPG Generator page (Keep reloading, pretend you didn't see the 'Hot Coffee' rating.)

Insert Credit on 'Colorful Notes' PC freeware (Mmmm, addictive puzzle fun.)

GameSpot Q&A: Author Steven Johnson interprets our world (I like GameSpot when they do quirkier stuff like this.)

PR: Atari announces voices for Marc Ecko's Getting Up (P. Diddy! George Hamilton! The RZA! Adam West! Unfortunately, a New York council member isn't impressed.)

1UP: 'Gaming's Rhapsody: First Movement' (Good intro, I hear there's further intricacy down the pipe.)

Disgruntled Designer visits Aichi Expo 2005 in Nagoya (Checking out a .JP-style World's Fair - neeto.)

Assembler Games: 'Acclaim Awards Gallery' (From the Acclaim bankruptcy auction, naturally - also damn neat Thousand Arms licensing CD found there.)

Greggman on the 'Delicious Stick' called Umaibou (Random Japanese food watch - I'm excited by the octopus dumpling flavor, personally.)

Gamasutra: 'Media Consumption: Tadhg Kelly, Lionhead Studios' (Gotta respect the man with the puffy jacket.)

Dofus - cute French 2D 'Tactics'-style MMO now in Open Beta (GameBunny notes the 'turn-based battles and a very charming, cartoony art style.')

Kempa finds the Coldplay colored Baudot encoder (Wow, the generator is weirdly hypnotic.)

NJ.com: Mickey Rooney hijacks Television Critics Association press tour ('Mickey Rooney should be forgiven for all his madness up here today because he is a genius.' Via TV Squad.)

TIGSource on Samorost Flash-based adventure game ('Lots of organic-shaped wooden structures that are populated by lots of strange little creatures.')

Engadget on Bandai Bubble DVD-based edutainment system (Like a new, simpler Bandai Pippin, maybe?)

Yahoo/AP!: 'Rapper Gucci Mane Arrested In Miami' (Gucci Mane?! Must missed that one. His lyrics are entrancing.)

Batari Basic - for creating Atari 2600 games ('Lowers the bar' to 2600 game making - good idea! Via IC.)

Game Informer Online interviews The Behemoth guys ('We had 10-year-old kids coming up to us thinking that we had invented side scrolling.')

eToychest shows pics of new Level 5 game, Rogue Galaxy (Out for .JP PS2 this December from the Dragon Quest VIII, True Fantasy Live Online (doh!) developers.)

Guardian Gamesblog on Singstar '80s (Damn you, SCEA, bring this to America already.)

Archive.org: 'Tortures et tourments des martyrs chrétiens' (The Archive's Canadian robot book scanning efforts include extravagantly, gruesomely-illustrated 17th century books on martyrs. Which is neat.)

InsertCredit on Teenage Queen DS (Cool, though Brandon unsuccessfully tries to conceal the furry connection, haw!)

Jelly Belly: 'Bertie Bott's 10 Flavor Discovery Box' (Yes, a bad flavor-only assortment. People who bought this item also enjoy: throwing up.)

GameSpot interviews CNN Money's Chris Morris about the industry ('If I see one more World War II-themed game, I'm going to scream. Ditto with the glut of gang-warfare/GTA clones.')

Laika - Phil Knight from Nike's new CG animation studio (Includes Vinton Studios, Henry Selick, check the Moongirl short film - first feature up is Gaiman's Coraline.)

Insert Credit: Tim Rogers reviews Killer 7 (Actually rather a straight review for Tim - restraint is the new black.)

TIGSource poke further at The Behemoth's next game (Some nicer pics here - looks great.)

Newgrounds: 'Polkamon' Flash animation (The song [which I hadn't heard before!] is the star here - via YankBlog.)

Smart alt.publisher Chronicle Books has 40% off sale (Wow, includes the now ultra-bargain So Crazy Japanese Toys! , among others.)

NKH Studio: 'Can I Get An Amen?' movie (A neat history of the Amen Break, but as Bradsucks says, wanders off into copyright piffle.)

Naturalmotion Endorphin Learning Edition - free trial download (Makes custom animation for games/film by applying AI to 3D characters - interesting/neat concept.)

Gamasutra: 'The Esoteric Beat: Quantum Gaming, Advergaming, Science Gaming' ('Children should be given video games that would explain the bizarre repercussions of extreme quantum cleverness in interactive form.' Yes!)

Joe Gratz debunks John Dvorak's trolltastic Creative Commons rant (Clearly, a man who asks Andrew Orlowski for advice is 'in the know'.)

1UP: 'Crucial Classics: Bionic Commando' ('Still remains a crucial play for Tarzan enthusiasts [and] Nazi haters.')

The Escapist Issue 2 looks at mobile gaming (Chick, Varney are probably the picks of this litter.)

Eurogamer previews Rockstar's 'The Warriors' in typically honest style ('It's clear that it's still very rough around the edges, technically' - but interesting nonetheless.)

Amiga Music Preservation adds 131 (!) interviews with Amiga demo-scene musicians (From Nhp to Schmoovy Schmoov, they're all here.)

Leaky Cauldron: JK Rowling interview Part 1 (Only a tenth of the way through - great stuff so far.)

Gamasutra: 'Study Indicates Game Outsourcing On the Rise' (Good hard data, even if it's commissioned by an outsourcing company, heh.)

Peggster.net: Spaced action figures due Spring 2006 (Daisy's has a little Colin accessory - me and Holly are fawning tragically.)

Clickable Culture: 'Second Life' Hacked, User Scripts Stolen (Sound the virtual alarm, send out the virtual cops - the hackers didn't exploit GOM for $$, though.)

Newsarama's San Diego Comic-Con comic news wrap-ups (Jeez, there's a lot going on in comics nowadays.)

CBBC: Full transcript of kids interviewing J.K.Rowling ('At least another two year wait' for the last book. Gah.)

Yahoo/Reuters: 'Dawson up for 'Descent' as star, producer' (Not known whether there will be an OS/2 Warp version. Sorry.)

David 'Masters Of Doom' Kushner's new book is about a Magic: The Gathering geek turned poker king ('Jonny Magic And The Card Shark Kids' is _absolutely excellent_ - another movie deal likely, maybe?)

Lurker Films' 3-DVD collection of indie HP Lovecraft movies (Yum - from the same people who do the HPL Film Festival, this October in Oregon.)

1UP: Bone "Out From Boneville" preview (A valiant attempt to do episodic gaming, digital download biz model, adventure gaming all at once, ohmy.)

Dean Takahashi: 'Profile: India's Game Developers Target Outsourcing' (The San Jose Mercury News gamesblog ranks alongside the UK Guardian gamesblog in actually being decent.)

Magic Box: Tamagotchi DS screenshots ('For example you can become a Tamagotchi dentist'. Score!)

Tron 2.0 Unofficial FAQ: 'Why Buena Vista Games Sucks' (If it's an extended whine, it's still an interesting one - via Blue's.)

Gamasutra: 'Catching Up: Al Lowe' (On the new LSL: 'It was like receiving a ransom video from your son’s kidnappers. You’re happy he’s still alive, but at the same time, he’s being tortured.')

PR: News Corp. acquires MySpace/Intermix for $580 million (Apparently, eyeballs above all else is the current currency of the web.)

Forbes: 'Do Game Publishers Ignore Piracy?' (Um, not really? Conspiracy theorists are welcome, of course.)

PR: EA to distribute Valve games, including Half-Life 2 (Finally Vivendi-extricated, Valve gets serious at retail.)

New Mono211.com frontpage for the first time since, uhh, 2000. (Not really THAT interesting, but wanted to thank Transient for the great art - oh, and watch for a modsoulbrother update soon.)

eBay: Lovecraft/Cthulhu-related statues and artifacts from 'A Visable Dark' (Custom-made, I think - his Necronomicon is particularly good.)

GameDevBlog: Jamie Fristrom on why people play games ('The most important kind of reward you can give is recognition.')

Autoblog: John Cleese now available as satellite navigation voice (Muh brain huuuurts! Muh brain huuuurts!)

Invisible City: Run, Hamster, Run! (Version 2.1) (A re-version of the print out and play board game - via Ogre Cave.)

GameSpy: 'Black & White 2' preview (GameSpot has more, as does IGN - now coming out September/October, one wonders what the game budget is by now.)

SCEJ: Official 'Shadow Of The Colossus' website (The art direction on this title is just awesome - via Game Science.)

Cool Hunting on 'MedicomToy Life Entertainment' (From Kubrick to world domination - via Jean Snow.)

Primotech talks to Optimus Keyboard designers ('I can hardly imagine it to be less than $200 to $300 (USD).' My precious! Via Engadget.)

WebProNews: 'Google Print For Libraries Proves Challenging' (Publishers getting persnickety about fair use, interestingly.)

Richard Stallman orders you not to buy Harry Potter (Sorry, Richard, I love civil liberties, but I've read it already.)

IGN PC: 'State Of The RPG' (Steve Butts is another one of IGN's bright spots, alongside Anoop Gantayat.)

Muppet Newsflash: 'What's next for the Muppets?' (Ooo, 'six-episode "reality" series titled "America's Next Muppet".' JHM has a full report.)

O'Reillynet: 'An Interview with Ourmedia.org's J.D. Lasica' (Nice to see them making a good fist of this.)

Fate Magazine: 'In Search of the British Bigfoot' ('At first glance, the idea that jolly old England could be home to a hidden race of large, ape-like animals seems manifestly absurd.')

Defamer: 'Candle In A Very Creepy Wind' (All life is on Craigslist - but ugh, two extremely disturbing posts in a row - won't happen again!)

LPN: Toups' E3 wrap-up (Scroll down for more info on CMNet's '3Feel', the very NSFW Korean sex-based PC MMO shown in Kentia Hall - apparently there's v.amusing promo footage of 'motion capture work done for the sex scenes' - I can only find the semi-NSFW intro WMV online tho.)

Toastyblog on the Harry Potter NES bootleg (Cool - is this a graphics hack or all-new?)

JAPJAC Board: Taito's 'Spica Adventure' arcade game impressions (Scroll down for pics/impressions - 2D arcade platforming comeback ahoy? Also see some great Japanese game mag pics.)

PR: Jim Henson Company, Tokyopop, and Neil Gaiman do manga deal ('Original graphic novels based on "MirrorMask," "The Dark Crystal," and "Labyrinth" scheduled for Fall 2006 release.')

Catfight - all-female graffiti PDF magazine (Two issues up there for download right now - neat - via A Blog Like You.)

1UP: 'The Behemoth's Next Game' preview (More extreme retro goodness from the Alien Hominid creators.)

Luxo: 'Dr. Catmull's 'Finding Nemo' Pool' ('Voglund's Pixar Pool was showcased in an article of 'Hawaiian Style' magazine Vol.2 No.3.')

Neomarxisme on anti-bootlegging Japanese kitten bikers ('The kitten always meowing was named Nyanta.')

Jeff Freeman: 'A [MMO] Love Story' (Hurray for extremely disturbing MMO fiction - via BrokenToys.)

Jeansnow: 'Darth & Friends' (Japanese schoolgirl watch comes up trumps.)

UK Guardian: Jon Ronson interviews military hacker Gary McKinnon (It's all a bit Lone Gunmen - via CollisionDetection.)

The Witch's Yarn alt.indie game website (Now available, known for being a neat, under-publicized indie title.)

1UP: 'LotR: Tactics Confirmed?' (Sorry, 1UP, this news story is terrible: 'While we can't confirm the game was on display, there's also a 50/50 chance it might have been'?!)

GamerDad: 'LongShot #89: Budget Pressure' ('It really makes me wonder why anyone is paying full price for much of anything anymore?')

Hollywood Reporter: 'LucasArts: Where's the Force when you need it?' (LucasArts staffed down internally to... staff up again? They're odd chaps.)

Eurogamer: Creators and Players on Tekken 5 (Neat little Ryan Hart interview here - people from the fighting game competitive scene often ignored.)

Deathrow UK: 'Lord Of The Chavs' (.JPG) (Chavs are so 'controversial', the Wikipedia page is disputed - via GAF.)

Gamasutra: 'Day In The Life: Bruno Valenti, Mobile Game Designer' (Really fun piece on Argentinian developer - also, I heart 'Charles Darwin's Ocean Life'.)

NCSX stocks the fabled Star Wars Umbrella (They also got those neato Nintendo watches.)

Reality Blurred notes reality-related Emmy nominees (Didn't spot this before - Penn & Teller: Bullshit! vs. Antiques Roadshow? Love it.)

1UP: 'GBA's Last Stand' (Great Toasty-piece interviewing Sting, Orbital, Wayforward.)

Hogan's Alley interviews animator J.J. Sedelmaier (From helping on Beavis and Butthead to SNL cartoons and Harvey Birdman involvement, plenty of goodness here - via Cartoon Brew.)

Defamer: 'Ben Affleck, Rogue Cop' ('Dashing police cap', indeed.)

PSP Hacks: 'No Update Launcher For PSP' (Enterprising hackers now trying to stop UMD auto-updating of BIOS.)

Music Thing on 'Unwieldy Synthesizer Potluck NYC' (Featuring, holy crap, a Triadex Muse - owner Tim Goldsworthy of the DFA even appears in the comments.)

Improbable Research @ UK Guardian: 'Floating ideas' (I like the idea of crunchy, oceanic lost data - all this digital copy stuff gets tedious.)

LargePrimeNumbers reviews We Love Katamari (Rogers starting to remind me of Vicky Pollard - nobutyeahbutnobutyeahbut.)

GameSpy's new 'Planet' site - Planet Stacked (V.odd choice for a Planet site - did the fans demand it?)

Games.net: 'From 'Ghandi' to Garbage' (Or Gandhi, possibly - also, I have only just realized that this Uwe Boll-related article is, apparently, real. His mother loves him, though.)

PRWeb: Sean Connery Lookalike John Allen Has Been Nominated for the Prestigious "CLONEY AWARD" (I was looking for a Samsung PR contact, found this. Here's the Cloney voting.)

GBAX 2005 handheld homebrew winners announced (GP32 version of the dreaded Sudoku wins out.)

1UP blog: 'Yo Soy Kratos!' (Hurray for crazy Spanish 'God Of War' fans.)

NCSX on 'Kenran Butousai' Japanese adventure game (Slow-paced, story-based, never coming to West, reminds me a bit of Sentient, thematically.)

Gamasutra: 'Media Consumption: Double Fine's Tim Schafer' (Tim funny! Simon laugh!)

Flickr: 'Spaceinvaders' tagged pics (Lots of cute French stencil graffiti, also alien invaders, gadzooks.)

Site analyzing Massive Inc's in-game advertising tech ('They know which player in the game saw the advert, and when, for how long, and from how far away.')

Hillary Clinton's official statement on Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (The NIMF are heavily involved - interestingly, and picked at random, their Psychonauts review seems pretty fair to me.)

Games That Weren't C64: 'The Alligata Masters' (Found at a garage sale, some seminal old data - lots of GTW64 updates recently, including what happened to Parasol Stars for C64 - ouch.)

'Freax - The Brief History Of The Demoscene' official book site (According to the news, it'll be available from August 1st - great that someone did this.)

eBay: Auction for LegalTorrent.com (I own LegalTorrents, of course - how nice of the seller to inform me of this lovely auction.)

Golf Question Mark official site w/public beta (Abstract 3D pseudo-golf insanity co-created by Gish makers Chronic Logic - too early to do well at last year's IGF, but rocks a _lot_ - look at it!)

Flickr: World Sand Sculpture Festival Brighton 2005 set (Absolutely awesome sand sculptures - via Simon Thornton.)

1UP: 'What If... Atari had acquired the rights to the NES?' (1UP asks an interesting hypothetical.)

Gamasutra: 'Event Wrap-Up: Playing on the Boundaries – NTI*' (Valve have hired the lead facial animator for Gollum? Cool!)

Eurogamer: 'Interview: The Master Of Mastertronic' (Most notable for the revelation that Pom Pom's excellent indie shooters sold badly for Mastertronic - name brand issues?)

Nintendo Insider: State Of The Handheld Industry - Journalist Edition (There you go, listening to journalists again...)

GamersWithJobs: 'The Troubling Decline Of PC Gamer Magazine (U.S.)' (A tad curmudgeonly, mebbe, comments have a good objective-ish comparison on the current U.S. PC magazines.)

Edge Online: 'Punch & Judy: The Game' (So, Rock 'Em Sock' Em Robots, then?)

PS2 Scene: Action Replay codes for GTA:SA's 'Hot Coffee' mod (Unlockable without actually altering files on disc? Uhoh, Rockstar.)

Stylus Magazine: 'Luminfire – Ants in My Trance, Vol. III' (More mix goodness from Luminfire's golden arrow.)

Insert Credit analyzes Cave Online's formation (Windysoft's previous online game GetAmped still seems pretty darn cute to me, too.)

Gamasutra: 'Critical Reception: Capcom's Killer 7' (I only have about 45 mins to do these, so forgive me - watching the detectives again!)

Travel Channel: 'Anthony Bourdain - No Reservations' (Starts July 25th - since A Cook's Tour is quite the best thing on the Food Network, this should be good.)

Nasty Little Man: Director's Label Vol.2 music video compilations announced (Featuring Anton Corbijn, Jonathan Glazer, Mark Romanek, Stephane Sednaoui - yay, I adored the first set of these - via Fort90.)

Japanese Graffiti Kingdom 'make-your-own-character' galleries (Made in the Magic Pengel sequel for PS2, out soon in U.S. - masterpieces include Katamari king, Robocop cop, Darius ship, many more - via #ic.)

SearchEngineWatch: 'How Americans Search' ('Getting directions/maps' is my #1 would-be-lost-without, thank you, Interweb - via Battelle.)

Video Game Ombudsman: 'Jane's New News' (The 1UP fanboy alarm has been tripped, but this is certainly interesting.)

Patry Copyright Blog: 'The Way Back Machine and Robots.txt' (Not nice at all, bah. Via Jarkolicious.)

Gamasutra: 'Astro A-Go-Go: Designing The Look of the Xbox 360' (Dayjob, notably interesting material on how the product designers 'wanted light to be part of the [Xbox 360] project' for usability reasons.)

Nintendo Insider: State Of The Handheld Industry, 2005 Edition (More fun OCD question-asking. Bonus: Perrin Kaplan interview has cute Nintendogs quotes.)

City Of Heroes launches 2nd Annual Film Festival competition (Amusingly prominent disclaimer due to recent Marvel shenanigans.)

GameSpy interviews the 'Playing DS on Mount Everest' guys ('We only brought the DSes when we went up to 26 thousand feet' - cop out!)

Yahoo Games Domain: 'Reset Episode One: The Phantom Games Show' (The new Flower/Hunter/Padilla thing - surprisingly little-publicized thus far?)

Eurogamer interviews Dave Perry about Path Of Neo (Very much worth it for the Pyjamarama/Herbert's Dummy Run references.)

Course PTR: 'Beyond Reality: A Guide to Alternate Reality Gaming' book (ARGs getting more written-up, already.)

TFAW: Guitar Heroes: Slash statue (Sweet collectible of mine! Well, it's either that or Randy Rhoads.)

Gamasutra: 'The Esoteric Beat: Remixes, Mods, Retro Goodness' (More weekly Rossignol column goodness - this Flickr handheld games gallery is particularly choice.)

The Escapist Magazine - Issue 1 (Themis Group's 'gaming culture' twice-weekly webzine launches, avec NGJ faces galore.)

Japanese Tamagotchi DS official website (Not much info yet, but Fort90 says it's by Nanaonsha of Parappa fame - if so, joy!)

Gamasutra: 'Playing Catch-Up: Paul Reiche III' (Dayjob, latest new column, Cifaldi tells us what the Archon/Star Control creator's up to.)

TV Squad on 'Plum TV' luxury cable network (Average viewer income - $218,000 - cable TV getting weirdly niche/specific.)

Regret The Error: Cleveland Plain Dealer restarts the West Coast-East Coast rap beef (Bookayasha, California Love, baby.)

Gothamist: 'Innit Ali G? For Real!' (I didn't know he was engaged to Home & Away's Isla Fisher - blimey.)

NY Daily News: Hilariously grumpy 'Andy Milonakis Show' review (I'm really starting to like his show - even if MTV are still being cheeky-vague about his age.)

RLLMUK: Write-up of David Doak's 'Making of [Rare's] GoldenEye' talk at NTI* (Lots of good info here - via PTB.)

Hacking Netflix: Glitch Exposes "Netflix Player" (Pleaseletitbetruepleaseletitbetrue. Via Waxy.)

Zap2It on Vin Diesel's VSDA award (The picture and the loathing tone of this story make it comedy gold.)

Edge Online on the 'Les Seules' Counter-Strike reality TV show (Well, apparently, their manager 'can just about handle anything from a dangerous face-off to a girl’s broken nail!')

GamersWithJobs on the unlikely success of FlatOut (Largely due to the windshield-ragdoll thing, not the 'jokamiesluokka', hurrah!)

Double Fine Action Comic explains how to draw the DF logo (All of the DFAC are rockin', like Psychonauts inevitably is.)

Records Of The Damned putting out YMCK album in U.S. (That's this YMCK - v.v.cool Japanese cute chip-pop.)

DoubleJump Books: Phantom Brave strategy guide now a free PDF (The DoubleJump guys are smart, and this only reinforces their smartness.)

TIGSource's currently free-to-play Korean MMO round-up (Many of the usual suspects - GunBound and GunZ both v.intriguing.)

Monotonik: Izmar - Conscious EP [mtk149] (Latest on my net.label, Dutch nu.chill with added sitar, mellow/yummy.)

2005 Web Cartoonists' Choice award winners (Highlighting some neat stuff, like Copper.)

The New Gamer: 'God of War: Guilt and Penance in Ancient Greece' (Hadn't spotted The New Gamer before, also see a good recent piece on Psychonauts.)

Hawanja.com: Tomy Evio violin simulator (Beatmania/DDR-style games, Play-Asia has more pics - oh, random P-A aside, the Japanese cover to the very eh Retro Atari Classics is v.cool. [UPDATE: It's apparently by Polygraph, thanks Michael!])

Wonderland notes IGN ads minus the lingerie rips (Probably just a change in ad rotation, hah.)

Neomarxism on 'Train Man' Japanese cultural phenomenon (Conspiracy theories abound, but the story's the thing.)

Blue's News: Latest Battlefield 2 patch has memory leak (Woops. This after lots of detailed criticism, particularly about the extra cost ($100 a month?) for renting ranked [stats-enabled] servers, furore over a UK monopoly for ranked servers, more furore over unpopular restrictions to 'prevent' cheating. PR nightmare?)

QT3 thread on 'the carrot at the end of the stick' (Why WarCraft is more fun at level 59 than level 60.)

Legaltorrents - 'Best Of Webbed Hand Records Vol.1' added (Here's the .torrent link - 'the best 10 Creative Commons-licensed albums from the respected Webbed Hand alt.ambient netlabel.')

NCSX: Pics of We Love Katamari JP back cover and cell phone strap bonus (Out in Japan this week, due out in U.S. this October.)

ARGN: Perplex City ARG puzzle trading cards on sale (Co-creator Adrian Hon wrote an ARG primer for Gamasutra a few weeks back.)

TVShowsOnDVD: Count Duckula Season 1 set for American release (An under-rated gem, this - I heart Cosgrove Hall.)

DannyDoesChina.com - Danny Way skateboard jumps Great Wall of China (A 61ft gap? Jeez. Via OctopusDropKick.)

Harry Potter Lexicon collects all the 'Door Opening' puzzles on JK Rowling's official site (Good archiving, chaps! Also, the back cover is out, featuring Ron and Hermione. Book out next weekend.)

Yahoo!/AP: Jackie Chan says Chris Tucker holding up 'Rush Hour 3' ('He needs to learn slowly'. Oh, Ruby Rhod!)

Gillen: Highlights from 'Boiling Point' game patch notes ('fixed: jaguar floats across screen at treetop level'. Blimey.)

TopFree40.org - new netlabel directory/chart (Still nascent, quite complicated, but valiant effort.)

Human Head Studios: 'Villainy' card game (By the same guys working on Prey, who do paper _and_ video games - via Villainy artist CalamityJon.)

Defamer: 'Worst. Movie. Toy Ever.' (Human Torch ATV? Makes total sense to me. Uh. Or not. Oh, and Fantastic Four sucks, apparently.)

1UP: 'The Long And Short Of It' (Oo, Ben Turner features on 1UP, *excited clap motion*. This one's good.)

Gamasutra: 'ESRB Responds To Grand Theft Auto Rating Controversy' (This could blow up _really_ big.)

Tiny Mantis: 'The Mosquito Project' Flash game (It's a bit like Mister Mosquito, and rather adorable.)

Fort90 reviewing more NY Asian Film Festival movies (Almost all of these sound damned interesting.)

Game On: Gaming In Libraries weblog (More good movement on this front, via ShiftedLibrarian.)

Hollywood Reporter: 'Lost' pilot coming to UMD (Is the UMD market flooded already? I'm starting to get skeptical that people are really buying them.)

Engadget: Mustek's new super-compact portable DVD player (Still shopping for one of these that isn't no-name brand.)

Gamasutra: 'Blogged Out: Publisher Risk, Talk Shows, MMO Terrors' (Another new Gama column, Rossignol looking at game professionals' weblogs.)

Greggman: 'Cosplay phones' (Courtesy of Vodafone, including... a cheese phone?)

eBay: Pepsi/Nintendo Mario Bottle Cap Figure 30 Complete Set (Tempting. Via Fort90.)

Ninja Theory reprints Edge magazine diaries (...on the making of Heavenly Sword. Good, brutal game biz gossip.)

GameSpy previews Supreme Commander for PC (Chris Taylor's pseudo-sequel to Total Annihilation looks... neato.)

UK Resistance on Sakura Wars 5 ('Oh, Wheelchair Girl. My heart has an access ramp.')

Snopes: 'World's Ugliest Dog' contest winner (Whoa, that's just extremely disturbing. Via Negatendo.)

Gamasutra: 'Media Consumption: The Behemoth's Dan Paladin' (Another new weekly Gama feature, debut column talks to the Alien Hominid artist.)

GameScience: Famitsu's 2005 Q1-Q2 sales summary (The DS has 3 titles in the top 10 to the PSP's zero.)

Insert Credit: Pics/movies of emulators running on DS and PSP (A good mini-primer, bonus points for the Taito shirt.)

Gamers With Jobs: 'The Retail Game, Part 1: Profit' (I thought Step 3 was Profit? Some good info on what purchases are really important to game retail stores.)

1UP: 'We Love Katamari' preview (Adorable - and thanks for moving the video to a separate page, 1UP guys.)

Archive.org: Dorothy's Magic Bag - Sfinxen, Pasen och Garderoben [XD-NETS-003] (Some delightful bleep electronic electronica from the X-Dump posse.)

Defamer: Reality TV writers sue over underpayment (Remember when everyone was claiming reality shows weren't scripted?)

Gamasutra: 'Yee Blasts ESRB For Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Rating' (Yee doesn't have a point, imho, but was that functionality _really_ in there somewhere? Wow.)

UfoCatcher.net: Seaman plush toys (I'd forgotten that the lovable virtual pet curmudgeon had 'em - NCSX has the full set pictured.)

Clickable Culture on Aleks Krotoski's 'Second Life' academic research (An "objective" social network map? Will it be like this one?)

AW Studios: Spoken Alexandria Project launches (Neat idea, the actual site is still somewhat sparse, though.)

GeekOnStun shows off the latest retrogaming .S block sculptures (Here's the official site, much retro goodness.)

Lost Garden: 'Confessions of a horrible game player' (Horrible gamers unite! Include me!)

Panopticist on Channel 101's new online shows (Now I understand what Channel 101 is better - also, Yacht Rock is great.)

Toilville: Mark DeNardo ft. Sharkula - 'Ravenswood Vol.1' MP3 album (Chicago Game Boy musician versus Kool Keith-ish semi-unhinged MC Sharkula, extremely weird lo-fi hiphop freeness results.)

Gamasutra: 'Improving Game Accessibility' (Interesting material on games modded/tailored for the deaf and blind here.)

Game-Science: New Sega Ages titles revealed (Let's hope the Gunstar Heroes Treasure box isn't asinine remakes.)

Eurogamer follows up with Gizmondo game reviews (Not too bad, then, though some of the developers may now be without a job.)

Official 'Bad Day L.A.' game website (McGee is all good, but what matters is the awesome Kozyndan art.)

Unofficial IBM blog on MMOs (Mentions a free Roland Garros MMO, too - Big Blue cares about games.)

1UP/CGW: 'Wage Slaves' ('Smooth Criminal's game cartel made $1.5 million from Star Wars Galaxies alone last year, and individually, he's made as much as $700,000 in a single year.')

Gamasutra: 'Critical Reception: Pandemic/THQ's Destroy All Humans!' (My super-simple new Gama mini-column, trying to humanize and rationalize what critics _really_ think of games.)

Nice Cup Of Tea: 'McVities reveal crumb test dummy' (127.8 tonnes of crumbs produced by Britain's biscuit eaters each year - via Improbable Research.)

Clickable Culture: Project Entropia "Negativity" Censored (Probably going a bit far with the EULA crapola.)

ARGN: The Devil's Own Work: A Sable & Shuck Wrap-Up (Evidence that some ARGs just don't work.)

Cityrag: Mariah Carey's 4th July parade appearance... with painted-on abs? (Sure looks like it from here, unless it's faked - via Gawker.)

Edge Online: The Making Of Maniac Mansion (Marvellously macabre.)

Gamasutra: Interview: Rodney Greenblat, The Mother Of Sony's 'Almost Mario' (Wait, UnJammer Lammy was based off... Natalie Imbruglia?!?!)

Guardian Gamesblog: 'Jeff Minter vs Xbox 360: how Microsoft bought the light synth vision' (Hairy man alert!)

Water Cooler Games: Facade ships (Innovative title, IGF finalist ships for free!)

Game Science: Latest videogame trademarks (Aha, this is where the 'Namban' rumor came from, also: 'Monster Hunter Portable' - PSP version? We can hope.)

GameGossip: 'Trollz: Hair Affair Announced' ('Before the boys are sent to military school to have their hair shaved off, the Trollz must go back in time to change events in order and rescue the boys from their fate.' Catch ya later, Trollz!)

Eurogamer reviews Gizmondo hardware (Lots of 'unfortunately not working at press time' features here.)

Gamasutra: 'Gamasutra Launches Daily News Features' (Dayjob, launching some cool new mini-features, here's the first 'Esoteric Beat'.)

Cube-Europe: Alien Hominid Confirmed For GBA (Good news - Metal Slug Advance is cool, this could surpass it.)

DVD Savant reviews Spielberg's 'War Of The Worlds' (Saw it today, agree with the Savant.)

GameTunnel: 2005 Independent Game Mid-Terms Grades (School's out for summer.)

Toastyfrog's cute cartoon on mis-spelling Solvalou (Even worse, I am the pedant in question. Grammar Nazi alert!)

LegalTorrents releases CC-licensed Siberian nature documentary (The 55-minute-long doc "follows a group of ornithologists as they travel from the South to the North of West Siberia" - hope they get more work out of this kind gesture.)

Afterdawn: Multiple PSP games now cracked to play from Memory Stick (This is rough, and a big deal for Sony - they'll be using that 'autoupdate BIOS' feature on all their forthcoming games.)

PSP Updates: Rogue Clone II v1.00 for PSP (Every great piece of hardware needs Rogue.)

EBGames: Capcom/Sony's 'Flipnic' PS2 pinball game (Just played the Official PlayStation Magazine demo of this - the game is finally coming out in the States next week for $20 - crazy-table pinball fun, worth checking.)

IGN: House Of The Dead 4 arcade playtest ('A sensor inside the gun can determine when the gun is being shaken. You'll often have to shake the gun in order to get out of situations.' Neat.)

Jay Is: Indie/casual game review list (Wow, that's a lot of reviews.)

UK Resistance: Daytona 2 flag at Glastonbury (Yep, this Daytona - reassuringly pointless.)

Psychochild's Blog: the benefits of MMO play (A Yahoo manager's lecture on how he "earned important management skills from leading an [MMO] guild.")

Erasmatazz: Chris Crawford lecture on 'Artists and Technologists' ('Long have I railed at the obsession with spatiality that grips the mind of every game designer.')

Free Play - Next Wave Independent Game Developers Conference (Held in Melbourne in a couple of weeks, GDC/IGF unaffiliated, sounds neat.)

Gel.tv Japanese ASICS sneaker commercial (Shock-absorbing gel? Apparently. Via IA)

NCSX: 'Kenka Bancho' PS2 info (Quiff-laden Japanese wannabe gangsters, an 'electric stare', objectives like 'stare at 100 girls' bosoms or bottoms'? It's the joke-laden J-GTA!)

Consolevania: Season Two, Episode 1 download (The baud-y online TV show returns, reviewing Battlefield 2, Conker, more.)

Metafilter on 'greenlighting' (The most interesting thing about this - if it's a good enough hoax, will people just start doing it?)

3Yen: Sesame Street posters in the Tokyo Metro (Telling people to fold their newspaper is totally... something. Cute posters.)

Movies.com: 'Statler & Waldorf From The Balcony' review show (It's regular! They make fun of Tom Cruise! Pepe the Prawn appears to review 'Miss Congenitalia 2' on DVD! My weekend is complete! Via Tough Pigs.)

The Triforce: 'Why I Hate Wimmin In Gaming' (Oh boy.)

N-Philes: 'Tales From EBGames - Part 4' (This whole anecdote is oddly Adrian Mole.)

paradoxSHIFT: 'The Twenty Hardest Shooters Ever Made' (One of the least forgiving genres ranks its least forgiving.)

Sondheim Review interviews Joss Whedon on his love for Stephen Sondheim ("Growing up on show tunes, you become attuned to the rhythms of human speech." Via Whedonesque.)

N-Philes info page for 'Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan' DS (Nintendo DS, rhythm game, from Gitaroo-Man developers - worth mentioning again! Via Jonnyram.)

Insani: FAQ for Japanese visual novel scripting engine NScripter/ONScripter (From the premiere visual novel translators at Insani.)

Neomarxisme on the Japanese names for Western movies (Rushmore => 'The World of Genius Max'? Neat!)

GA Forums: English patch for Adventure Player Studio (This is the PC construction kit for the PSP make-your-own-RPG game, but apparently it's unintuitive and limited, *sigh*.)

Collector's Corner: Adol's insane Japanese game collection (Just these Caravan Hu-Cards alone are priceless - all of the collections are pretty OCD.)

1UP: Irem's Bumpy Trot for PS2 preview with accompanying video (Neat! Please fix the video [unintentionally] autostarting in Mozilla, tho, 1UP.)

Blogarithms: Doug Kaye's plans for a global speech/conference/presentation archive (There was a very basic start made on this at the Archive, but nothing like this, yay - via Doc Searls.)

Salon: Douglas Wolk on Alan Moore's 'Promethea' (Day pass clickthru required - a nice, level-headed analysis of Moore's most abstract work.)

Cursor Miner - 'Library' music video (.SWF) (Lauding librarians is the new black - includes a sneaky Jet Set Willy reference - via Dickon Edwards.)

Gamasutra: 'Question of the Week Responses: The MMO Goes 'Mainstream'?' (Dayjob - neat MMO-ish answers, neater Erin Mehlos art.)

Water Cooler Games: McDonald's late-night munchies game (I keep picturing that Dave Chappelle sketch at the drive-thru, for some reason.)

GameSpy's Top 25 Xbox games of all-time (List features are tragically addictive.)

GameSpot previews Tecmo's Tokobot for PSP (Hey, an interesting PSP game, sound the sirens.)

Cokemachineglow reviews MIA's 'Arular' (Notable 'cos of some Diplo-sanctioned [tho' maybe not artist-cleared] mix links in the bottom left.)

Rakugaki Nikki cartoon site (Run by Jason of Nihongonauts 'fame', I like his hot dog cartoon a lot.)

Frostitution interviews Nick Frost on 'Danger! 50,000 Volts!' U.S. DVD release (Mike from Spaced's 'dangerous stuff' UK TV show gets release via Rykodisc, yay!)

Nintendojo: Namco & Bandai Consider Merger Names (Namban? I can't find confirmation on this story, but I like it.)

1UP: Brooks Brown - 'Violence in games is a GOOD thing' (An acquaintance of the Columbine killers, a moving viewpoint - via GeekOnStun.)

Press release: Shout! Factory, DIC team up for cartoon DVDs (Includes Mario, Zelda, Heathcliff, Inspector Gadget - how can you resist?)

Flickr: Mold-A-Rama of Abraham Lincoln (Adam Kempa points out the Mold-A-Rama Road Trip site, for the retro plastic obsessed.)

PaidContent: Finally suitors emerge for CNet (Here's more info, talks for GameSpot's parent company in v.early stage.)

ARGN: The Art of the H3ist Wrap-up and Review (This really was some impressive, large-scale ARG-ing.)

Insert Credit on Porindama NSFW doujin puzzle game (Cosplay Teahouse Girls? The UK Resistance guys will have a field day.)

Gamasutra: Feature: 'GDCTV: CELL - A New Platform for Digital Entertainment' (Lots of stuff about PS3 I don't understand! Hurray!)

GamerDad: MomGamer #66: Console Parental Controls Rule! (I really love GamerDad - keeping it real.)

Costume Get: a videogame character costume blog (Do designers for non-Japanese games care about costuming, even? Via GGA.)

Stuart Campbell on the old chestnut 'Are videogames art?' (Enjoyably contrary as always - via Gillen.)

Archive.org: Phantasy Star Online Blue Burst Episode IV Primer (More info on Phantasy Star Monthly site - isn't citizen journalism great?)

PomPom: enhanced Mutant Storm and sequel for Xbox Live 360 (I already mentioned Mutant Storm for current Xbox Live Arcade - built-in Xbox 360 version is going to be a juggernaut.)

Guruphiliac - a guru-related blog (Although discussions of what Shoko Asahara is up to are neat, this is my favorite guru - semi-via BB.)

1UP: Venus or Mars? ('The uneasy relationship between gaming and gender.')

Insert Credit: Doom homebrew for Nintendo DS ('DoomDS will be the game that Doom64 should have been.' Heh.)