After creating RPG masterpiece Mass Effect, author BioWare went on to win several awards for their work. Now, BioWare is confirming that they plan to spread the love: a PC version of the game is due out sometime in May 2008. The best part about BioWare being responsible for both writing and porting the game is that BioWare will fix many issues in porting. Among the most obvious tweaks...

• PC-centric controls (aiming with your mouse?), with customizable hotkeys
• Higher quality textures; PC version will be capable of higher resolutions
• New decryption mini-game (for hacking turrets, etc.)
• New GUI for the inventory system

You can check out some current screenshots here.

While not nearly as epic as Halo 3, sales-wise, the sequel to one of the most popular Nintendo-based multiplayer games has hit it big. Super Smash Brothers: Brawl, where gamers throw famous characters from classic games at each other, sold 800 thousand copies in the first week of sales. This puts the game at the top of all current game charts, outselling Sony's Devil May Cry 4 by several hundred thousand units. Other than those two games, here are the top five games in Japan right now:

• Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii) - 819,647 units
• Devil May Cry 4 (PS3) - 205,390 units
• Tales of Destiny: Director's Cut (PS2) - 116,928 units
• Suzumiya Haruhi no Tomadoi (PS2) - 114,335 units
• Wii Fit (Wii) - 73,325 units

With violent video games such as Manhunt 2 causing controversy, the British government is reconsidering the exact rating system. At this point, games are given to the British Board of Film Classification, who slaps an appropriate rating on the game. Selling games to children under the rating's age class is grounds for arrest. However, up to 90% of games needing a high-class rating bypass this system by getting their games rated by the much more relaxed PEGI system. And so, the British government decided that it was high time to change things around. No matter how things turn out, the British government wants their citizens to know that this is being done to "protect children from damaging games". They also want you to know that their definition of a damaging game involves "gross violence towards humans or animals, human sexual or excretory activity, or scenes that would show people how to commit a crime".

A few days ago, we reported that Rockstar was in talks with a movie studio and rap star Eminem to make a movie based on Grand Theft Auto. Rockstar has a statement in regards to this. Apparently, instead of a movie being just about certain, negotiations were fouled up from nearly the start. Dan Houser, vice president of creativity at Rockstar, had this to say on the whole GTA movie idea.

Some movie producers were trying to put something together to entice us to make a movie, as studios and production teams frequently have done in the past. This proposal was no more interesting than the numerous others we receive. We never entertained proceeding with the project.

Houser also emphasized that a GTA movie is of no interest to Rockstar at this point.

It's apparently the season for oddball game pitches. Except, this time, the game pitch has already been accepted and is in development. Publisher Mastiff recently took up the concept for a game that will be called "Major League Eating", based off of what some call America's favorite past time. The game itself sounds like something out of a 7-year old's dream. The contest of the "world's greatest gurgitory athletes" will play much like many other fighting games, such as Mortal Kombat. However, instead of using swords and fists, the aforementioned athletes will attack and defend using "burps, belches, and mustard gas", all while making sure that they get their fair share of munchies. Mastiff's announcement did not mention any timeframe for release, or finalize any platforms.

2007 was an epic year for games, as over 1500 were submitted to the ESRB for rating. The ESRB recently released all the ratings they have given games in a pretty pie chart. According to the pretty pie chart, a lot more games than you'd think were actually E-rated. 59% were for "everyone", 15% were for "everyone 10+", 20% were for "teen", and only 6% were for "mature". It should be noted that this chart includes all games, not just blockbusters. It should also be noted that this chart includes all games released on all platforms, even "edutainment" platforms designed specifically around little kids.

As Neoseeker puts it, "even 3D Realms didn't believe" the latest rumors of an upcoming Duke Nukem Forever release. For those of you who don't know, there was a rumor going around that 3DRealms was planning on sending out a retail version of Duke Nukem Forever within 2008. While geeks and true fans of the series had warm smiles on their faces, alarm bells went off at 3DRealms HQ. 3DRealms was very quick in eliminating false hope, and says, with a hint of disgust, that Duke Nukem Forever is still on the "when it's done" release timeframe. While there are still a lot of months left in 2008, it's very unlikely that we're going to see any hint of Duke Nukem Forever for quite some time. Release platforms have not been announced or finalized.

Epic Games is well known throughout the gaming community. Most well known for their Unreal Tournament series and the Unreal engine series, Epic Games has every reason to be at the peak of their game for the PC gaming crowd. However, they are beginning to doubt their fan base. While Gears of War for the Xbox360 was an instant success for the Xbox360, the PC version of Unreal Tournament failed to take off. In an interview, Mark Rein confirms that gaming itself has begun to move away from the PC, and towards consoles. Even inside Epic Games, a sizable chunk of employees play their games on the Xbox360. Outside Epic Games, a paltry 14% of gamers game on their computer. The reason for this, despite the superior technology the PC offers, is the sheer cost of owning and maintaining a gaming habit on the PC. While an Xbox360 is $400USD including games and extra controllers, a PC is upwards of $1000USD for a game-worthy setup, not including games, and only supporting one player at a time.

Being the avid gamers you all are, I'm sure you know that there have been some pretty ridiculous game concepts that went to market, and some pretty good concepts that never went into production. Be it ridiculous or not, the Indy hit "Juno" could possibly show up at your local video game store in the near future. Considering that the movie is a moving comedy with heavy dialog and little action, whoever takes this game up is in for a whopper of a challenge. If they pull it off though, Juno could become quite the franchise. There are very little details on this idea at the moment, other than plans to turn Juno into a game for "casual gamers". How, exactly, they will turn Juno into a video game for the masses is unclear.

It would seem as though, for a while, Rockstar Games was planning on putting out a Grand Theft Auto movie. Rockstar and Take-Two wrote up a script and sent their finest men to pitch their idea out to major studios everywhere. One particular studio almost bought the idea, and everyone inside Take-Two was talking about the Grand Theft Auto movie like they were about to begin casting. Unfortunately, Take-Two and the aforementioned studio were unable to come to proper terms, and the movie is a lost dream.

Fortunately, thanks to "new management" over at Take-Two, we may yet be able to see a Grand Theft Auto movie. Until then, all we can do is wonder how awesome it would have been to see rapper Eminem spinning rhymes while popping caps in his low-rider.

GameSpot has managed to acquire some new Far Cry 2 screenshots as part of an article about the game. You can see all five of the new screenshots below, with all of the older screenshots available to look at here.

The games industry managed record sales of $17.9bn in 2007, up 43% from $12.5bn in 2006. The Wii, Xbox 360 and PS3 all saw their most successful sales figures in December, shifting a total of 1.4m, 1.3m and 800,000 units respectively, meaning that the Xbox 360 has now sold 8.5m units since its launch, the Wii 6.3m and the PS3 2.8m. However, the best selling console over Christmas was actually the Nintendo DS, which achieved sales figures of 2.5m in December. Meanwhile, the most successful game last year was Halo 3, which sold 4.82m copies, with Wii Play in second place on 4.12m and Call of Duty 4 in third on 3.04m.

N64 fans will remember GoldEye as being an instant classic, and many gamers have been calling for Nintendo or Microsoft to release it on the Virtual Console and Xbox Live Arcade respectively, which had always seemed unlikely. However, Rare has recently revealed that the game was within two months of being released on Xbox Live. According to the game's original developer, the port had been in development for several months, and would be identical to the original other than that it would feature an online multiplayer mode and several characters would have to be removed due to licensing issues. Unfortunately, just as it was nearing completion, Microsoft and Nintendo couldn't agree on the financial side of things - apparently whether Nintendo would receive a one-off payment or a cut of the revenues.

McDonald's Boss Claims Video Games Cause Child Obesity

Well if this isn't the pot calling the kettle black then I don't know what is. McDonald's UK chief executive, Steve Easterbrook, has hit out at video games claiming that they are responsible for obesity among children. Easterbrook also commented that people need to be aware of the importance of a balanced diet, saying:

The issue of obesity is complex and is absolutely one our society is facing, there's no denial about that. But if you break it down I think there's an education piece: how can we better communicate to individuals the importance of a balanced diet and taking care of themselves? Then there's a lifestyle element: there's fewer green spaces and kids are sat home playing computer games on the TV when in the past they'd have been burning off energy outside.

Possibly the most delayed video game in history, Duke Nukem Forever, has just had a new trailer released - over six years since the last one. The video is about a minute long, and according to George Broussard of 3D Realms, the company developing the game, it was originally created internally as a festive treat. Broussard said:

"The release is still 'when it's done,' but you can expect more frequent media releases and we're not changing engines again and we have considerable work behind us. It's basically a restart as the tech changed and we've been on this version of the game since 2004 or so. The released media up to this point are no longer relevant other than for curiosity purposes.

The trailer for the game, which began development in 1997, can be viewed here.

Some of the most anticipated titles of the year, Unreal Tournament 3 and Crysis, have failed to sell very well. In contrast to the overly hyped Halo 3, which boosted actual Xbox 360 sales, Crysis and Unreal Tournament 3 sales were, in short, abysmal. Since last month, neither game has managed to sell even 100,000 units. To be precise, EA sold 86,633 copies of Crysis, and Epic Games sold 33,995 copies of UT3. The Inquirer claims that Crysis, despite having a beautiful graphics engine that will have benchmarkers twiddling their thumbs for years, failed to impress anyone without a very expensive gaming machine. And Unreal Tournament, despite being absolutely breathtaking, had gameplay that was uncannily similar to the previous two versions of Unreal Tournament. Hopefully, as systems get better and gamers get more money to spend on games, these sales figures will increase.

Just when we thought all the controversy surrounding Manhunt 2 was over, the UK Censoring Board decided to start it right back up. Manhunt 2, the game that almost got banned from several countries and most consoles, was recently cleared for release in the United Kingdom. However, the UK Censoring Board recently brought an appeal of the decision to sell Manhunt 2 in the UK to court. If they succeed, Manhunt 2 will be pulled off of shelves before it is even put on them. The Censoring Board cites "sustained and cumulative casual sadism, unrelenting focus on stalking and brutal slaying, (and) the sheer lack of alternative pleasures on offer to the gamer" as reasons that this game should not be viewed by anyone...at all.

More and more often, lately, the phrase "it's all fun and games until someone gets hurt" is holding itself true. When one 10 year old boy suffered a seizure in the middle of a game of Rayman Raving Rabbids, his mother didn't let her child become just another statistic. Instead, she's started a legal campaign to prevent more seizures like this in the future. If she succeeds, no game released in the United Kingdom can be played until the game is screened for scenes that might cause an epileptic seizure. While this screening is already required for movies, it has not happened for video games as of yet. As consolation to the boy and his family, Ubisoft is currently testing Rayman Raving Rabbids for said seizure-causing instances. Game manufacturers may deem these methods unnecessary, considering that most games and consoles come with a seizure warning on the box or in the manual.

The recent merger of Activision Blizzard seems to have slowed down neither. While Blizzard announced yesterday that the only thing changing on their side of things was ownership, Activision announced that they're going to immediately begin (or continue) work on new games. Activision is proud to announce that they're hard at work on quite a few games, including "Guitar Hero IV, Call of Duty 5, James Bond, new Tony Hawk, new DreamWorks titles, new Marvel titles and (an) entry into racing with Bizarre." Thanks to the experts at Blizzard, we may see some great games coming from Activision in the future.

While new joysticks and racing wheels attempt to make you feel like you're actually in a helicopter or race car, we have yet to see a control interface that properly emulates something fanatical, like a wand for Harry Potter games, or a goat for World of Warcraft. Emotiv Systems is working on a controller that can fill in the blanks, by connecting right to your brain. In the Electronic Arts game Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, prototypes of this controller have already been used to trigger spells and move the character, based on nothing more than the thoughts of the user. With a lot of help from James Breen, who used to work for EA and Lucas Arts, the Emotiv Systems controller will find a way to retail shelves by late 2008.

Charles Martinet, the man whose voice will forever be associated with plumbing, multi-billion dollar video game franchises and "Mama Mia!", is writing an autobiography. In the autobiography, Martinet will talk about what it feels like to be the guy behind "woohooo!" Martinet is aiming the book at a 2008 release, and hopes to talk about a view of Nintendo from the inside. The main thing inspiring Martinet to writing this book is the feedback he gets for his voice talents. And really, if someone said you were the "the voice of my childhood", wouldn't you want to live up to that?

As more and more video games come into the spotlight for their violent nature (Manhunt 2 springs to mind), a study carried out by L. Rowel Huesmann, a professor at the University of Michigan, claims to show a link between virtual and real-world violence. The study claims to show a strong correlation between on-screen violence and violent behaviour in adolescents and adults, based on more than 50 years of research on the effects of media violence. Huesmann said the following:

The research clearly shows that exposure to virtual violence increases the risk that both children and adults will behave aggressively. Children are also spending an increasingly large amount of time playing video games, most of which contain violence. Video game units are now present in 83 percent of homes with children.

I haven't personally read through the publication, called the Journal of Adolescent Health, so whilst I'm not saying it's wrong, I'd be interested to see how you can prove that a video game is the cause for violence and that it isn't simply the case that violent natured people tend to play more violent video games.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R to Arrive on Xbox 360 Soon; Sequel 'Clear Sky' In Development

This year's 'most delayed game', S.T.A.L.K.E.R., is rumored to be making it's way over to the Xbox 360 console. GSC Gameworld, who created S.T.A.L.K.E.R, finally were able to attain a license from Microsoft to create Xbox 360 games. Instead of a pure re-coding, S.T.A.L.K.E.R on the Xbox 360 will most likely be a port. However, the license GSC Gameworld has allows them to make more than just one Xbox 360 game. When announcing the license, GSC Gameworld also hinted at a prequel-sequel, code-named "Clear Sky". You can expect to see more of Clear Sky next year, and expect to see it on the Xbox 360 around 2010.

Eidos Interactive, known for such classic games as Tomb Raider, Hitman, Lego Star Wars, and the Deus Ex series, recently announced that they plan on adding a new member to the Deus Ex family: Deus Ex 3. The Deus Ex series, for those of us who have not heard of it before, pioneers mixing elements of a first-person-shooter with a role-playing game. Similar to the 2K Games hit BioShock, you can manipulate the behavior of the character and plot of the game by making ground-shaking choices at critical points in the game. You can check out files.neoseeker.com for a Deus Ex 3 teaser trailer.

It's no secret that to get many famous songs while avoiding ridiculous royalties (and to also avoid the inconvenience that half the artists included are dead anyways), the majority of Guitar Hero songs are "covers", or similar versions of the song performed by a completely different artist. 'The Romantics', a classic band that wrote such hits as "What I Like About You", recently picked up Guitar Hero 3. When they heard the rendition of one of their songs, and how it was "virtually indistinguishable" from the real version, they sued Activision. After all, nobody had asked The Romantics if they wanted their song included in Guitar Hero 3. The Romantics are seeking ridiculous amounts of money in compensation, and for Guitar Hero 3 to be pulled off the shelves.