Video Games

Amy Lamjav hit the stores Friday for a jump start on the holidays. "We're just looking for Christmas presents for her and for her just trying to get a handle on what things are costing and different things that she likes," she said. When it comes to the Christmas wish list, both parents and Santa might be in luck this year.  

The Spike TV Video Game Awards will once again double as as an autumnal E3 as new games are revealed, new trailers unveiled. Halo: Reach is coming. As is whatever this game is, teased first on Kotaku in video below.  

Prices for the latest hot digital gadgets have been falling, allowing consumers to trade up at lower prices, says the research firm NDP Group Canada. "It's just an excellent opportunity right now to get a high-quality product at a really good price," said Mark Haar, the research firm's director of consumer electronics. For example, a 12-megapixel camera costs $330 down 59 per cent from $806 last year, while a 10-megapixel version, now costs $193 instead of last year's price of $311, Haar said.

It's just an excellent opportunity right now to get a high-quality product at a really good price   -Mark Haar

 

There were no iPods, peer-to-peer file sharing sites or digital copyright wars back when Billy Bragg first belted out "Waiting for the Great Leap Forward," but the tune seems completely a propos to his latest political fight. The British alt rocker teamed up with Safwan Javad of Canada's Wide Mouth Mason, the Canadian Association of Songwriters and the NDP's Heritage critic Charlie Angus Friday to push for a new approach to dealing with music downloads. "The Wii is not going back in the box," Bragg told reporters, lamenting that kids these days save up for video games before albums.

The Wii is not going back in the box   -Billy Bragg

 

You might call him the Mickey Mouse of video games. He's reminiscent of a doughnut, round and sweet and comforting. He's also a vessel, devoid of a real personality so you can live vicariously through him.

people didn't realize that video games were a burgeoning industry   -Scott Steinberg

 

The social games space, driven in large part by Facebook, is quickly becoming big business in the $45 billion global games industry. Next year, it's expected that the social games market will eclipse $1 billion. More and more game developers and small studios are looking to the casual and social fields to make their mark in a games industry where it's increasingly difficult to even profit on a traditional console video game.  

Undeterred, that gamer appealed the decision last month, and this week filed a new suit against Microsoft and Nintendo, this one bypassing the Bill of Rights and instead citing the Declaration of Independence. In the suit, the San Jose, California gamer takes exception to a recent Nintendo Wii system update that disables access to unauthorized third-party programs like the Homebrew Channel. Specifically, the plaintiff is upset about losing the ability to use a program that would unlock the character ...  

Speaking to Edge Magazine in an interview about his upcoming game, Command & Conquer 4, Producer Raj Joshi laments that real-time strategy gamers get their kicks "entirely … from smashing another human in a video game". The full Joshi quote as pulled by Gamerzines reads: "RTS players are great people but some of them have very little balance in their life. So their enjoyment is entirely derived from smashing another human in a video game." On the one hand, I want to disagree because I like ...  

It sounds impressive, and it is, but it's important to recognize that digital distribution is still in its infancy. In other words, Valve has a 70 percent hold on a not-that-big-yet business. Not that digital distribution isn't the future .