The console makers are on to a winner with these so called "micro transactions", providing relatively cheap add on content for games via digital download. Microsoft's Xbox Live Marketplace is the first example we've seen get released into the wild, with people buying credit (and that's a critical part of the equation) for people to spend on items ranging from wallpapers to customise their console to add on maps and items for games.

Some of the stuff, like the Oblivion horse armour for example, has received a mixed reception from gamers. However they have been spending their credit, and Call of Duty publisher Activison has reported that they have sold almost $1 million in expansion maps for CoD 2, the most played multiplayer game on Xbox Live.

That's a serious amount of ongoing revenue intake, but the really surprising thing is that people have also been spending their credits to purchase things that, in the past, PR and marketing types would pay you to take. Things like wallpapers, to "customise" your desktop, can only be provided through the Xbox Live Marketplace, and so it is a sellers market. People have been literally buying promotional materials - only, when you spend "1000 credits" as opposed to "$12.50" it makes the medicine go down that bit easier.

Of course, a stingy person might point out that in games like Day of Defeat: Source and Red Orchestra we're getting bonus materials just as good as the Call of Duty map packs for free. Indeed, there was a time (once upon a better time...) when we got map packs for free. EA have tried selling smaller expansions for PC games, like the Battlefield 2 booster packs, and the exercise has largely been a failure. It seems that this sort of success story for publishers will only work in the highly managed, "sellers market", of something like the Xbox Live Marketplace or Sony's upcoming answer on the PlayStation 3.

There has never been a better time to buy an Xbox than right now this second, I've decided to myself. In fact, I decided it to myself with the launch of the Xbox 360, but I'd like to reiterate the point since I've just returned from a lunch hour excursion in which I saw quite an amazing sight.

In a major game retail store they were (and please do excuse the euro pricings, just think in your native equivalent currency and all will be well) selling an Xbox for €90. Or, you could grab one with 5 games (decent ones at that, spreading the spectrum of fighten' and driven') for €150. And then, beside these now "retro" consoles, were games going for €30. Actually, they were going for €15 as there was a straight up "Buy one, get one free" offer. A "BOGOF" offer in the video gaming sphere is about as common as good music aimed at 14 year olds.

Every game we've been told is so, so bloody great over the past two years was there. This was no display of the shoddy wares that the Game group want to offload onto the streets - this was a display of the great games that the Game group wants to offload onto the streets.

When you consider that an Xbox 360 game costs €75, or €15 less than you can get an Xbox for these days, and even a PlayStation Portable, with no games, is gonna set you back €205 (at least in this particular store), well you begin to see, if you're not an avid Xbox player, how becoming one can be such an appealing financial alternative.

The Xbox was a modders dream after it was cracked, enabling the console to be used for anything from pirated games to a file server. In the wake of this Microsoft had promised us that the Xbox 360 would be secured "at the silicon level", apparently making it very difficult to crack and the results even more difficult to replicate on multiple consoles.

Well in South Korea they're reporting a booming trade in modified Xbox 360's which allows copied discs to be played in the consoles DVD player, and Microsoft has gone from talking up its vaunted security to downplaying the piracy. The company is promising to fix any bugs such as this with patches and updates pushed through Xbox Live, reminding me somewhat of Sony's farcical ongoing back-and-forth with the homebrew crowd on the PlayStation Portable. One would crack the system, the other would release a patch, this would be cracked a few weeks later, another patch, rinse and repeat.

At the moment times are good for South Korean pirates, where the modification costs around KRW 70,000 (60 Euro); and pirated software is said to be readily available for as little as KRW 15,000 (12 Euro), compared to the standard retail price of around KRW 40,000 (33 Euro), says Gamesindustry.biz.

Can we please, please, pretty please get over Pac-Man at some stage in the next 20 years? The game is over 25 years old, as any

PR

Well, now Xbox 360 players, with all that raw graphic processing power, can get it on Xbox Live Arcade for a mere 400 Microsoft points - that's around $5 in real money. There's something about graphics which have been "upgraded to high-definition but still maintain the charm and retro-look of the original iteration" that seems like an oxymoron to me, but maybe I'm just not high-def enough.

Well, if you want to spring a fiver for a game that's possibly older than you are, be my guest.

...Though we're told there won't be any cheap Sony copycat attempts with motion sensitivity just yet.

This is the news that Microsoft will be (hopefully) releasing a separate extra controller for the Xbox 360 which will replace the already much lauded standard one for the purpose of playing first- person shooters; a genre of games not immediately suited to a console controller even as good as the 360's one.

If it is introduced, the new controller will have a redesigned right analogue stick (the equivalent of a mouse in most console control systems) to allow for more precise movements, we're told.

What Microsoft won't be doing quite so immediately is releasing, or even announcing, anything to do with motion sensitivity. To heck, let Nintendo chart that ground and Sony make themselves look like a bunch of eejits I say.

If we sit back and take stock of what this "next-gen" in gaming has delivered, and will be delivering, to us I would say that the entire thing is one major cock-up, and gamers have been fools to be taken in by it.

The Xbox 360, the first herald of this next-generation of loveliness. What did we get with it? A whole heap or PR tripe, leading up to a disastrous launch pockmarked by shortages; alleged price hiking by retailers, via forced selling of expensive bundles to consumers; and then a first year of operation which basically saw Microsoft and partner developers sitting on their hands waiting for the launch of the PlayStation 3 to be, coincidentally, also marked by the launching of big-name titles for the 360.

Ohh, and one other thing: All new games now cost about ten or fifteen quid more than they used to, depending on where you live. Having been around games for such a long time, I recall when around €30 (before we switched to Euro in these parts, so I'm calculating a little there) was the norm for a new game; then €50 and now, for the pleasure of new titles on the Xbox 360, €75, and more such price hikes expected for the PlayStation 3 games. Allow me to give you another view of €75. It's €25 short of €100, and we're seeing such price inflation all over the world. (I could complain that while €1 is worth about $1.25, we get a 1:1 conversion ratio on these prices, so a $600 console actually costs Europeans $750.) The next-gen is late, not up to much and expensive.

Over the past year and a half alone we have witnessed some amazing cock ups where video game hardware launches have been concerned. You may recall the PlayStation Portable launch, particularly if you happen to be a European left out of pocket for six months after Sony panicked and sent all its European units to sit in warehouses in what turned out to be a soft US market.

More vividly, perhaps, folks might recall the launch of the Xbox 360 alluded to above, which saw panic buying and retailers like BestBuy allegedly hiking prices and profiteering by forcing consumers to buy expensive bundles instead of just the console and the game they wanted.

Shortages and extortionate pricing seems to be the order of the day where modern console launches are concerned, and for the launch of the PlayStation 3 Sony execs seem to have studied these debacles carefully and chosen all the worst elements to emulate in their launching of the "Next-generation"; which won't be starting until they say so, apparently - November in North America and sometime in the misty sands of 2007 for Europe (don't tell me you're not expecting further delays?)

Shortages? Check, as we've already seen with the pushing back of the European release. Something like 400,000 units for the lucky North Americans, who will actually be getting to crawl over one another for the console this side of Yule... 400,000 units is about one for every 1,285 people, I believe. If you ignore the Canadians, or just divert their shipments, that's one unit for every 750 people... still a lot of bodies to clamour over to get that special "value" bundle that'll be waiting for you.

Shortages lead to price hiking even in the pre-order stages, and considering the PlayStation 3 is expensive to begin with you can now expect to pay around $2,500 on eBay for a $100 pre-order slot that's not even a guarantee that you'll get a PS3 on launch (same, incidentally, as it was with the Xbox 360... a pre-order isn't worth much more than $100 these days, eh?)

As much as retailers took a good bit of flak for the dogs dinner they made of the Xbox 360 launch, will anyone in this room, cynical or not, stand up and tell me that with a comparatively tiny launch allocation, extremely high demand and really expensive peripherals and games to tout; we won't be seeing a repeat of the Xbox 360 "value bundles" come November?

What, at the end of the day, are gamers scratching one another's eyes out to get at? Fancy graphics, online capabilities and a game or two that'll still be worth playing in six months time. There are better things to get excited about in life, I daresay (and the most amusing thing about it all is that the one console that looks truly innovative, the Wii, is the cheapest and least sophisticated looking of the lot.) I for one don't intend to buy into it. Unfortunately for those of you who are intent on wasting your money, I'm in Europe and so I'm not actually one less person for you to bid against on that $2,500, non-assured unit, pre- order.

I was surprised and fairly discouraged to see reports yesterday that the Halo movie adaptation had been scrapped. I was hoping that with Peter Jackson taking the lead as executive producer, "Halo" had a good chance of becoming really the only good video game movie adapted by Hollywood. I didn't like Halo the game much (in fact I frequently rate it as one of the most overrated titles ever) but I was still excited to see what Jackson could do with a film treatment.

The news broke Friday that the two studios behind Halo, Universal Pictures and 20th Century Fox, had backed out of the project this month. According to various reports, Universal and Fox got spooked over the film's rising budget - more than $140 million - and the fact that a first-time director, Neill Blomkamp, was going to helm the movie, which was scheduled for a 2008 release (I have a feeling the picture to right is a fan-created poster since it says 2007). Apparently complicating matters was the fact that the studios wanted Jackson and Microsoft to reduce their cuts of the potential profits of the film.

Isn't Hollywood just grand?

Anyway, the studios pulled out, and soon headlines were popping up everywhere that "Halo" had been cancelled, which wasn't actually true. First, Microsoft issued a statement that it would continue to work with Jackson and were already in discussions with new studios. Then some news trickled out of the Screenwriting Expo in Los Angeles yesterday. During a superb talk between famed science fiction author Harlan Ellison and "Battlestar Galactica's" Ronald Moore (more on that excellent discussion later), Ellison pointed out one of the members of the audience: screenwriter Josh Olson, who penned the Academy Award- nominated adaptation for "A History of Violence" (which was controversial because it featured major changes from the original graphic novel, but that's another story).

Ellison noted that Olson was scheduled to work with Jackson on "Halo." Ellison, who Olson counts as one of his biggest inspirations, told the audience "Mr. Olson is off tonight to go to work with Peter Jackson in New Zealand. He's doing the screenplay for Halo."

This is an exciting development, for me at least. I absolutely loved "A History of Violence" and prefer Olson's screenplay to John Wagner's graphic novel. Plus, "Halo" sounds like it could use some good writing. Originally, the "Halo" screenplay was written by novelist and screenwriter Alex Garland (The Beach, "28 Days Later"). Then another writer, D.B. Weiss, was brought in to draw up a new script. Weiss had authored the 2003 novel Lucky Wander Boy, an interesting story about young man obsessed with video games, but "Halo" was poised to be his first movie screenplay.
First time director. First time screenwriter. Sound the alarm!

Okay, let's not push the panic button yet. According to Ellison, Olson is on his way to New Zealand as I write this blog post to hopefully pull Halo out of the fire. If he and Jackson can get a good script together, I have a feeling that the rest of the pieces will fall into place. Cross your fingers, Master Chief.

I won't mince words: I've been largely disappointed by the Xbox 360 games thus
far. Call of Duty 2 was a colossal disappointment, as was GUN. Peter Jackson's
King Kong looked great but was ultimately flat. Prey had potential but never
quite lived up to it. Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter? Good but
overrated, in my humble opinion. I haven't played Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion or
Saint's Row beyond demo versions yet, so I can't issue a verdict on them at this
point. But you get the point; for the most part the games have been lackluster.

Dead Rising changed all that for me. What a game. I've always been fond of
titles that feature open-ended game play and alternating scenarios that offer
loads of replay value. Capcom has taken that approach to the nth degree; in fact,
game designer Keiji "The Killa" Inafune nearly took the approach too far - Dead
Rising can be a little intimidating and confusing at times with its variety of
missions and storylines. As photojournalist Frank West, players arrive in
Willamette, Colo., to find out why the town that has been quarantined by the U.S.
National Guard. Trapped inside a giant mall, Frank discovers zombies have taken
over the town and has 72 hours before the rescue helicopter arrives to save as
many survivors as he can while uncovering the mystery behind the zombie outbreak.

The graphics are all fine and good, nothing too impressive considering this is
after a next-generation title on a next generation console. What makes Dead
Rising such a rewarding experience is the fantastic game play. Players can
pretty much go anywhere in the mall and use anything they can find as a weapon
(chainsaws in the hardware store, hockey sticks in the sporting goods store, and
even a katana blade in a boutique shops for knives and swords). The zombies move
slowly, but there are thousands of them and they are everywhere. You can hack
away at the undead and engage in bloody, cartoon-ish violence but if you weapons
run out, you're pretty much finished.

The trick is finding ways to navigate the mall and its extensive outdoor
courtyard while avoiding giant hordes of zombies and even a few psychotic humans
holed up in the mall. The game moves pretty quickly, since the 72 hours is about
6 hours in real time. But the great part is that you can play the game the whole
way through a few times and experience different scenarios and hidden treasures.
Plus, there are different modes of play.

Now for the bad: Dead Rising could have been an A, maybe even an A+, if not for
two absolutely idiotic design issues. First, if you don't have an HD television,
you could be in trouble because the on-screen text is extremely small. Honestly,
you'll feel like you're taking an eyesight exam at the DMV to get your driver's
license. There's nothing you can do about it besides getting a HDTV because
Capcom made the game specifically for Hi-Def.

The bigger issue is the save system; I cannot stress how much this tarnishes
Dead Rising. Here's the deal: you only have one opportunity to save in-game
progress per memory device. Players can use several save points - bathrooms and
lounge couches - throughout the mall. So you may be in the midst of a series of
tasks and missions and unable to save your current progress. If you die, you go
all the way back to your last save date. In essence, you can play for an hour
and, if you're not careful, die and then have to start the whole day over again.
While you're progress will be saved - number of zombies killed, number of skill
levels attained - you will get frustrated playing the same missions six or seven
times.

Another problem in the save system is that when you die, you get two choices:
"Load Game," which lets you load your last save point, or "Save Status and
Quit." Now, you'd think the latter option would be pretty self-explanatory in
that the game would "save" your "status." But the option is incredibly
misleading because it restarts the game from the beginning but your profile
retains all experience and skill points, which is stupid. Why would anyone want
to start the game over from the beginning? I cannot believe Capcom let this
happen.

Whatever. Dead Rising is still an excellent game. If you have an Xbox 360 - and
an HDTV - give it a try

Epic's first paddle into the market of single player first-person shooters has paid off in spectacular fashion as Gears of War has shifted over a million copies in the two weeks since its November 7 launch.

Gears of War was hyped up to the high heavens, but surpassing Halo on the Xbox Live stakes and shifting so many copies is a spectacular result. By my reckoning there's one copy of GoW for every seven or so Xbox 360's worldwide. Not bad at all.

I'm considering actually buying myself an Xbox 360 come February or so. If Microsoft can offer a price cut by then and games like GoW aren't up in the "€25 short of €100" price band it might just be a mature enough system to consider.

There, see, Microsoft is turning me around. Slowly. That's a good sign for the next-gen, eh?

Well consummate me pink - Microsoft rolled out Neil Armstrong to Dublin for the launch of Vista. Turns out he's not somebody we'd care to meet twice... Well, insofar as we dealt with him on the day. Chap refused to sign autographs or have photographs released to the press - which kind of begs the question as to what Microsoft was paying his appearance fee for, but how and ever.

Ohh well, at least it's something to tell the grandkids. Other than Armstrong there's not much to report on Vista, except this rollout strategy agreed among engineers, journalists and Microsoft people alike (though not all vocalised): If you're a Small to Medium business owner, you'll get Vista with your next refresh - IE by about H2 2007. If you're a consumer, you're going to get Vista in 2007 largely whether you like it or not, if you're buying an anyway new system. Corporate users won't start rolling out Vista in any major way until at least the end of 2007. Expect to still see corporate users still using XP right the way through '07.

Having been somebody who was still using Windows 2000 until slightly after Service Pack 2 arrived for XP, I don't think I'll be rushing to be an early adopter (Read: Glorified bug tester) for Microsoft.

If there's one thing we learn from major console launches, it is that technology and particularly gaming companies hold their customers in the utmost contempt. Customers are mugs who have money in their pockets, and as far as the gaming industry is concerned it seems to be a crying shame that they actually have to provide you with any product to get it.

Ultimate example: Pre-orders. We've all heard a great deal about these over the past couple of months - "PS3 Pre-orders sell out in seven minutes", "Pre- orders being sold on eBay" and so forth. Really and truly however, pre-orders should be renamed "Non-statuatory expressions of interest and tokens of false hope."

When Nintendo launched the Wii here in Europe yesterday there were many people with pre-orders who have been told that they're not going to get their orders by Christmas; though, paradoxically, any games they may have pre-ordered are now in the post while gamers who did manage to secure a Wii are scouring the country for extra supplies of actual software. We could, quite amusingly, now see games rather than consoles going on-sale on eBay.

One woman who spoke to the Beeb put it quite well: "I pre-ordered the console in November from Woolworths website for my son's Christmas present.

"I received an e-mail today informing me that as Nintendo had not shipped enough I might not receive my order.

"So the fact that I had the foresight to pre-order and not disappoint my son means very little as they obviously expect me to camp outside Woolworths for days on end."

Precisely. A pre-order is not a promise that you'll receive a console - indeed, a pre-order isn't for your benefit. It's something for the sales folk to smile about and send out press releases on the back of, while it's the guys and gals who freeze their nuts and other assorted pieces of fruit off in the December nights camping outside of HMV who get the units. Nobody wins, really, except the people selling the consoles: They know that 9/10 disappointed pre- orderers will pick up the console at a later date.

This might seem like a crazy idea, but how about we make pre-orders stick? That is, if you pre-order in the allotted amount of time, you get a unit. Crazy idea, huh? No camping outside of HMV, on top of your pre-order, and no disappointments at Christmas for those with foresight.

Fat chance, but a nice idea. One day, the consumer will be king. For now, he's just a walking, talking wallet.

KHAAAAAAAAN!!!

Good grief. I had been looking forward to Star Trek: Legacy for quite some time, and for a few reasons. First, Star Trek has sucked lately. And second, I love a good strategy game. And third, I needed a really good Star Trek game to come along. So I was pretty pleased when Bethesda Softworks announced that all five actors that played Star Trek captains in the television series would be lending their voices to the game. Even better was the news that longtime Trek writer Dorothy "D.C" Fontana and writing partner Derek Chester had penned the script for Star Trek: Legacy.

So I was pumped for some good Trek. And then after the PC version of Star Trek: Legacy was released a week ago, poor reviews and seriously negative user comments started popping up everywhere about poor control systems and highly flawed game design from Mad Doc Software. Well, at least I had the Xbox 360 version to look forward to, which was released yesterday and has fared much better in its initial reviews and feedback than its PC counterpart.

Well, that got photon-torpedoed pretty quickly: news broke yesterday via Xbox360fanboy.com that story for Star Trek: Legacy had been cut significantly from the proposed script provided by Fontana and Chester. In fact, the information came directly from Chester himself, who weighed in on the game via the Bethesda Star Trek forum. Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the Mutara Nebula, another weak Trek game comes along. Seriously, just stick a Ceti Eel in my ear and get it over with.

Here's what Chester said on the forum: "A lot of what was intended was cut. From rendered cinematics and interstitial cutscenes to a great deal of backstory and events that took place between the eras to tie them together. The total portrayal of the intended story was incomplete. Dorothy and I wrote a lot for this game...but not everything made it in. As a result there may be some difficulty in following the motivations for characters or the reasons for crucial events. The story as was written, tied together a great deal of Trek history and events to make it seem more substantial than it came across in the final game."

Well, double-dumbass on Bethesda!

Microsoft has just announced that Epic's action title Gears of War has sold 2 million copies (one of which I own) in about six weeks. As a result, Gears is the first mega- hit for the next-generation consoles. Not only has the game sold plenty of copies, but the game has also been a hit with critics who have lauded Epic's eye-popping design and graphics. In addition, Gears is doing crazy business on Xbox Live and finally unseated Halo 2 as the most played game for Microsoft's online network. Will Gears of War help push the Xbox 360 to 10 million units sold by January 1st? We'll see.

And wouldn't you know, Epic is hard at work on sequels to Gears of War. This is a good thing because the enjoyable single player campaign came off like an example of episodic gaming: brief content that's part of a larger story. Indeed, there are plenty of details that were left unexplained in Gears of War, such as Marcus Fenix's backstory, the Locust Horde's origin, and the identity of the spooky female voice-over at the end of the game.

While I think Gears is a tad overrated at this point, it was well worth the money spent and has been the best example yet of the next-gen consoles' potential. And even though I got totally annoyed by NPC Augustus "Cole Train" Cole, I'm pretty excited about a Gears sequel. If Epic can add some new elements to the already enticing game play, expand the single player campaign and then fill in the story, then GoW 2 will be even better than the original.

Yes, you read that headline correctly. According to Research and Markets, Sony's PlayStation 3 will eventually win the hard-fought next-generation console race. It's time to ask a simple question: does this research firm know something that the rest of the world doesn't?

Let's think this through for a second. First, Microsoft's Xbox 360 has an enormous head start on Sony and has already sold around 10 million consoles. In fact, another research firm, NPD Group, recently reported that Xbox 360 sold 2 million units in the U.S. during the holiday season (November to Dec. 25). Plus, with hit titles like Gears of War and forthcoming games like Halo 3, the Xbox 360 has a stronger library of games than the PS3.

Then there's Nintendo's Wii, which sold nearly 2 million units in North America since its launch on November 19th and has attracted positive buzz like it was a giant flood light pulling in hapless moths. The Wii has gotten outstanding critical reviews for the most part, while the PS3 has been ravaged by negative reviews in the mainstream press from the likes of the New York Times.

Plus, the PS3 suffered shortages for its launch and sold less than half the number of Wiis Nintendo sold. Also, the PS3 launch library is significantly weaker and a number of big titles scheduled for 2007 will be available on the Xbox 360 and in some cases the Wii as well. Oh, and don't forget the seemingly endless stream of stories about people returning their PS3s because they couldn't sell them on eBay for a mammoth profit and numerous retailers with PS3s sitting on the shelves, unsold and collecting dust.

So why will the most expensive console with the least amount of buzz and positive reviews eventually win the race? That's a good question, and frankly, I don't have the answer. And I'm not sure that Research and Markets does either. I haven't read the report - because I don't have it - but here are some excerpts from the press release:

"The PlayStation 3, Wii and Xbox 360, dubbed the next generation of consoles, each hold a unique position with regard to console offerings. While Sony and Microsoft aim towards increased functionality as a key driver for adoption, Nintendo look for innovative game play and the elusive fun factor. The Sony PlayStation 3 is expected to win the console war in the long term with an install base of around 75 million globally by 2010. The console is not expected to dominate as much as its predecessor, the PS2, due to late launch issues in the PAL region and the early lead of Microsoft's Xbox 360."

If you figure this one out, please let me know.

Another hallowed game developer is experiencing the all-too predictable talent exodus that comes after being acquired by a behemoth. Brothers Chris and Tim Stamper, who founded Rare in 1982, have departed the developer, which was purchased by Microsoft in 2002 for $377 million (quite a high number, historically speaking, for a game developer).

Rare is responsible for creating some of Nintendo's greatest titles, such as Donkey Kong Country, Killer Instinct, Perfect Dark, and the immortal GoldenEye 007. Oh, how I love GoldenEye. I loved that game since the first day I played on the N64, and I still play it today, which is the true sign of a classic.

I haven't cared for Rare's recent work, as Perfect Dark Zero and Kameo: Elements of Power failed to impress me. While some felt Rare's best days were far behind and that the developer's games had slipped since becoming part of Microsoft, its latest game, Viva Pita, has emerged as one of the most critically acclaimed and popular next generation titles. I haven't played it yet, but a number of people have raved about it and encouraged me to pick it up, including Vicious at UncleGamer Radio.

Still, Rare pretty much dropped off the map for me after 2002. The developer stopped making Nintendo console games, sticking only to Microsoft console and Nintendo GBA titles, which was great disappointing. I can't help but wonder if being pigeon-holed to the Xbox platforms led to their departure. Now the question is, will the Stamper Brothers start a new game developer? Perhaps they want to flex their muscles on the Wii platform. Let's hope so.

The world of Wiki is in uproar after it turned out that Microsoft (and heaven only knows who else, eh?) has been offering money for Wikipedia post edits and creation.

Dun dun dun, company takes advantage of open encyclopedia to further its own neferious ends (breaking no laws, one might add.) Roberto got a bit up in arms about this in the office, but my debate is that if leftie's and rightie's, fanboys and girls and so forth can wage massive debates on the most inane and obvious topics, what's so wrong with Microsoft & Co moving in to help screw Wikipedia up more than it already is?

Wikipedia is useful, in certain circumstances, but if you use it as your sole reference then you deserve what you get. Bias and anti-bias bias; comma naziism; power trips and stupid debates reign supreme. As Le INQ points out, there is currently a thought provoking debate on whether or not the "Everywhere Girl" should have a Wikipedia entry. In other words, they're debating whether a real person of some interesting note actually exists.

It's not right that Microsoft should offer money for Wikipedia edits. It's just not worth sweating about, given that so many unpaid posters have already screwed the online encyclopedia so well.

I had a long - and I mean real long - talk with Liquilife and Vicious over at UncleGamer Radio about CES 2007. I chatted with the guys about some of the more interesting news and events at the show, such as Bill Gates' keynote and Microsoft's Windows Vista, as well as some of the hot gadgets and technology like a $15,000 gaming chair.

In addition, we discussed how Apple and the iPhone pretty much trumped everything in Las Vegas and how MacWorld stole CES's thunder; the prospect of cross-platform gaming with the Xbox 360 and PC games on Vista, as well as the implications for the Xbox platform with Microsoft's IPTV technology. From there, we talked at length about how the next-generation console war is shaping up in 2007 and some of the new games coming out for the PC this year, such as Crysis.

What were the coolest gaming products at the show? Will Vista have a big effect on gaming? Will Crysis be Vista's Halo? Are console games overtaking PC games? And who's got the edge in the next-gen console war? Check out Episode 16 of UncleGamer Radio to find out.

Also, here are some leftovers from CES 2007, including some Wolf King gamer keypads, Sandio's 3D gaming mouse, the Novient Falcon controller, Voodoo PC's new laptop, the Straight Power cooling system and Enermax's cooling system, and some gaming chairs from D-Box, Hotseat Chassis, and others.

It's Tuesday at GDC 2007, or as I like to call it, "Microsoft Day." The software giant had lured many members of the games press, me included, away from the Moscone Convention Center to a nearby hotel with promises of juicy secrets and tantalizing previews of titles such as BioWare's Mass Effect and Lionhead Studios Fable 2.

The sessions started at 9 a.m. sharp and will pretty much run throughout the day. It's a bit of a grind, considering that Microsoft invited dozens of tech media members and games journalists to the hotel and packed them into very small rooms. During the waiting period this morning, there were close to 30 of us squeezed into a small foyer near the elevators of the Mezzanine level of the hotel. There was absolutely no room to move, and I couldn't stop thinking about how an earthquake at that very moment could have wiped out half of the games press in one fell swoop.

Well, an earthquake didn't strike, thankfully. And we were well rewarded for the wait. Microsoft gave us exclusive previews of Fable 2, Mass Effect, the new Conan title, and several other games for its next generation platform. More on those later.

A number of media members, myself included, remarked on how Microsoft is really turning the tide in its favor lately in the game community. Years ago, the company was catching nothing but flack for its initial Xbox effort. Hell, even after Xbox 360 launched a year ahead of the competition, people were still doubting them. Now Microsoft has assembled what is clearly is clearly the strongest library of next-generation games available today, with more titles like Halo 3 coming.

While Sony has run afoul of gamers lately with backwards compatibility issues, public relations gaffes and other eyesores, Microsoft has clearly gained momentum and credibility in the industry. To be sure, Microsoft is still a long way off from the buzz and gamer love that Nintendo is enjoying. But the software giant is leaps and bounds ahead of where they were with the first Xbox.

The Longest Journey series just got a lot more interesting, which I didn't even think was possible. Funcom announced recently that its epic adventure franchise, which includes The Longest Journey and its sequel Dreamfall, will become an episodic series titled Dreamfall Chapters. Funcom said Dreamfall Chapters will pick up exactly where 2006's Dreamfall: The Longest Journey ended. The episodic series will continue the epic saga of the twin Earths, Star and Arcadia, in "a brand new format" that promises to reveal "the greatest mystery of them all - one that will bring the groundbreaking saga to a surprising and stunning conclusion."

I have no idea what that means, and I don't care. I'm so pumped up about this that I can barely type the words. I recently played The Longest Journey after I had had enough of people nagging me about giving it a try. Well, I did, and the game was fantastic. And despite begin a seven year old title, it changed the way I think about games as an interactive narrative. Rarely have I felt more passionate about a game and its characters. I just started Dreamfall: The Longest Journey recently, and I curse the Game Developer Conference for taking me away from it for a week.

It seems that Longest Journey fans like myself have the government of Norway to thank for the new development. Funcom, which is headquartered in Oslo, Norway, announced last week that the Norwegian Film Fund awarded the game developer with a grant which will partially fund the research and initial development of "Dreamfall Chapters." The company said the grant gives it the ability to establish a core technology team that will concentrate on online-only delivery of episodic content and create the foundation for the pre-production phase of the episodic series.

According to Funcom, each new installment of 'Dreamfall Chapters' will initially be delivered as online-only content, but said there may be retail releases with combined chapters both for console and PC at a later date. In addition, the company stated that there may be potential for an MMO version of The Longest Journey.

Seriously, I just got goose bumps.

I caught up with Funcom product director Jorgen Tharaldsen, who was giving previews of Funcom's forthcoming MMO Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures at Microsoft's press preview today for GDC. I asked him about Dreamfall Chapters, and he said Funcom isn't planning on releasing many details about the episodic series. "We had to announce Dreamfall Chapters last week because of the funding. We knew we couldn't hide it because we're a public company, but we wanted to keep it secret," Tharaldsen said. "So we're not going to announce any more information for a while because we don't want to give anything away. But we're excited because we think in a year or two, the digital distribution market will be really strong and will be right for this kind of content. This is the kind of game we want to make. We probably should make shooters since they're more successful. But we love adventure games and we're good at making them, so hopefully the fans are as excited as we are."

After I was done drilling Tharaldsen for information, I gushed like a total fan boy about how much I loved The Longest Journey and how crazy excited I am for Dreamfall Chapters. I can't wait to learn more.

Speaking of gushing, I put April Ryan and Zoe Castillo of The Longest Journey and Dreamfall, respecitvely, on the TwitchGuru list of the 50 Greatest Female Characters in Video Game History. Enjoy.