Clip: Ancient Atari Ad

This one is truly ancient and believe me, I should know. It's amazing to look back on these ads and remember a time when we thought those giant chunky things were the greatest thing ever. Not to mention how excited I remember being about Adventure on my brand new 2600. That square with an arrow for a sword was the most amazing thing we had ever seen, especially right in our own homes. I can only imagine what games will be like 25 years from now when we look back and say "Man those PS3 graphics sure were crap. How did we ever play that and think it was cool?"

Manhunt 2 Screens

Website Computer and Video Games has posted thirteen screens for the upcoming ultra-violence fest, Manhunt 2. To say that they are disturbing might be understating thing just a bit, especially first thing in the morning. I've posted a few images after the jump, but for the full gallery, check out Computer and Video Games' site.

I can only imagine what our friend Phantom Jocks (I'm trying not to use his real name if humanly possible) would have to say about these as he sips his morning cup of bitter. As a matter of fact, I think I shall send him a link to this gallery right now...

Australian Games Industry Feels Threatened, Wants Cash

The Australian games industry is a little concerned. See, the bulk of local studios are outsource jobs; in fact, most of the biggest studios in the country are outposts for developers like Creative Assembly, Pandemic and Irrational. Which means most are on "work for hire" contracts, which will soon be lost as work starts going to places like China and India.

Wanting to, you know...keep their jobs, local devs have gone cap-in-hand to the government to ask for federal funding, without which they argue they just won't have the money to make original games and IP (which would be the only way to avoid "work for hire" contracts). After all, the film and television industries get the same breaks, so you'd think games should be able to get in on that action.

Not if the Screen Producers Association (who would lose some of their government funding should games get some cash) can help it. They argue that they receive government funding because their mediums "have social and cultural value". And games don't:


The extent to which we can say games fall into that category, we think is problematic to say the least


Good to see them approaching this with an open mind rather than a guarded checkbook. This one? Gonna get messy.

Satoru Iwata:"We'd love to have Kutaragi"

Now, who would have thought it?



According to the German gaming site GameFront, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun has released a report about a press conference which has just been held by Nintendo. As most press conferences go, the Nintendo officials spoke about upcoming game titles, the financial gains of the company, movements and plans in general. However, one simple statement from Nintendo President Satoru Iwata made the event a whole lot more exciting.

According to the Japanese newspaper, Iwata stated that they "would love to see Kutaragi join up with Nintendo".

Now, this may generate a lot of reactions, but then again, how this will all develop would be nothing short of interesting. After all, Kutaragi's honorary position at Sony isn't exactly a very active office, and The Father of Playstation has also stated in recent interviews that his next ventures would mostly be independent from Sony, so there MAY be a good chance that he'll take Nintendo up on his offer. After all, it cannot be denied that Kutaragi has a long history with Nintendo, since he IS the guy who gave the SNES the gift of sound, via the SPC700 chip which he designed.

However, considering the fact that Kutaragi was also once badly slighted by Iwata's predecessors (think: Hiroshi Yamauchi, CES 1989, and a botched Play Station announcement... note the space in between "Play Station"), one can't really tell what Crazy Ken will do next.

Your First Look at Call of Duty 4

Say Goodbye to World War II

Many have been waiting for Infinity Ward to finally take the Call of Duty series out of the overused World War II era and into the modern age, and today they premiered the first trailer for Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and confirmed these suspicions.I don't need to tell you how amazing this game looks -- see for yourself. Please, Infinity Ward, show us more.

Championship Gaming Series Announces $5 Million Annual Player Payroll

First Draft in Gaming History will take place June 12 at the Playboy Mansion[/I]
The Championship Gaming SeriesTM (CGS), the first global professional gaming league, today announced that worldwide salaries and bonuses for the 2007 season will exceed $5 million, a new benchmark for professional gaming.
CGS has also announced the official games and schedule in its North American region for 2007. Qualifying for North American league play will begin April 28 and the first draft in history will take place on June 12 at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles.
“This is the moment the gaming world has been waiting for,” said CGS Commissioner Andy Reif. “We will be paying salaries and bonuses to our players in excess of $5 million dollars during the 2007 season. The time has come for a new era of professional gaming as sports entertainment. Your chance to be a part of history starts on April 28.”
Valve’s Counter-Strike®: Source® and EA’s FIFA 2007 will be official PC games for 2007. For the Xbox 360, CGS will feature Tecmo’s Dead or Alive® 4 (DOA4) and Project Gotham Racing® 3 (PGR3) from Microsoft Game Studios.
The official CGS 2007 event schedule will feature online and live qualifiers where players will battle to reach the Regional Combine, scheduled to take place at the legendary Fox Studios in Los Angeles from June 8-10.
Players from the Regional Combine will then be drafted onto one of six city-based teams at the 2007 CGS Draft on June 12 at the Playboy Mansion. CGS online qualifiers for the North American region begin on April 28, 2007 with the first live qualifier to be held at The Bridge Cinema de Lux in Los Angeles on May 11-12.
Each CGS team will feature a total of ten athletes per team, each of whom is a specialist in one of the official league games. Five of the ten players will comprise a Counter-Strike: Source squad who will compete in five-on-five matches. The soccer title FIFA 07 will be played one-on-one. Each team will have a mixed-double team of two DOA4 players, one man and one woman, who will play against other teams in one-on-one matches on Xbox 360. The racing game PGR3 will be represented by two players on each team and matches will be played in a two-versus-two format.
Soon-to-be announced dates for the full global slate of 2007 CGS events in the UK, Europe, Asia, Australia, Latin America, and the Middle East will yield regional representatives for the CGS Grand Slam and World Championships, to be held in Los Angeles this October.
CGS events will be broadcast in North America on DIRECTV’s The 101.
For more information, please go to here