Reports have suggested that EA is set to sue the creators of South Park over one of their newest episode featuring Tiger Woods.
According to an anonymous "source", soon after the airing of the (hilarious) episode in question, this week "the top beef were called in, even Peter Moore was informed of the situation."
The source claims:
"Before the episode aired the marketing folks were already worried, but now they have a lot more to worry about. while I personally found the episode quite funny, there are definitely a few copyright infringements in there that I'm sure will be dealt with accordingly." If you haven’t already watched it, the episode sees Tiger’s personal life with his ex-wife being played out in a game. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11, to be more precise, which is obviously developed by EA. Make sense now?
The creators of South Park, Trey Parker and Matt Stone have come across many different lawsuits in the past, so it‘s very unlikely that this latest lawsuit is going to slow them down.
The big night in Gaming award ceremony’s, in Britain at least, the BAFTA’s were held last week and there was some stiff competition in the race for the Best Game. The big night in Gaming award ceremony’s, in Britain at least, the BAFTA’s were held last week and there was some stiff competition in the race for the Best Game.
Surprisingly, Batman: Arkham Asylum won the title of Best Game beating the likes of New Super Mario. Bros Wii and Modern Warfare 2.
In fact, Modern Warfare only won one award, the GAME award of 2010, as voted by the public.
But the run-away game of the night was Uncharted 2: Among Thieves which snagged a total of four awards including Best Action game and Best Story.
But it wasn't all about the games. Shigeru Miyamoto was given the fellowship award for is tremendous contribution to video games with the likes of Mario and Zelda.
If you want to find out the full list of winners, then just click on the link.
 Switzerland has recently passed a law that will soon lead to the complete ban of any violent video games in the country.
German magazine, GamesMarkt reports that the full implications of the ruling will not be known until the Government reveals its exact requirements. A decision which has not yet been made.
What is certain though is that the Swiss authorities have now obtained the power to introduce any measures they see fit.
The likeliest outcome seems to be an outright ban on the production, distribution and sale of any games deemed to be unsuitable (presumably anything with either a 16+ or 18+ PEGI certificate.)
The original motion called for the ban on any title that "requires cruel acts of violence against humans and human-like creatures for in-game success."
All we have to say on the matter is that there is plenty of violence in many films and television shows. So is the Swiss government planning to ban those too? Of course they won’t. We thinks is ban on videogames is a joke.
Bungie has lifted the lid on a list of new features coming to Halo Reach's multiplayer mode when it's launched later this year.
The most significant are new ‘Arena’ playlists. These are a mixture of both Slayer and Team Slayer games that are aimed at the hardcore Halo player, where players are separated into different skill divisions based on their performance during month-long seasons.
You're not just ranked on skill but on assists in team games along with your kill/death ratio. The game places you into the most appropriate category - Onyx, Gold, Silver, Bronze, and Steel - and shifts you between the categories as your skills improve. To qualify, you have to play a certain number of games a day to gain a ‘Daily Ranking‘, and you need a certain number of ‘Daily Rankings’ to get a ‘Divisional Ranking’ and compete in a season. With ‘Arena’ drawing in hardcore players, Bungie has gotten rid of the Ranked and Unranked play lists and have replaced them with a new, more intelligent, matchmaking system that can put you and your team into the most appropriate game type with an opposing team of equal skill.
Other tweaks have also been made. The game will now auto party-up with players after a game, giving you the option to opt-out (instead of having to opt-in). You can specify language, connection speed or skill level as a preference for matchmaking, vote to veto maps or game types separately, and can enter a queue to join friends that are already in-game as soon as the match is finished.
Sega has told revealed today that the company is very keen on creating sequels for Bayonetta, Aliens vs. Predator and their latest game Alpha Protocol.
President of Sega West, Mike Hayes said:
"We want to get the core games right before anything else. We've got our shooter with AvP and our RPG with Alpha Protocol - we really want to make those into franchises.”
"If you think about it, we can sequel-ise Bayonetta, AVP, Alpha Protocol and we can make a hit of something like Vanquish. Add that to Football Manager and Virtua Tennis - we actually have a broad portfolio."
That’s a good idea, Sega but we think we’ve got a better one. Here it is: why not bring back classic franchises like Streets of Rage or Crazy Taxi? Just a thought. Hayes also admitted that the company need to increase its popularity on 360 and PS3. He said that Madworld was "mismatched" to the Wii and that the company regrets the use of it’s classic IP in under whelming titles such as Golden Axe (the less said about that, the better.)
"It's important that on our old IP that is respected, we need to deliver a good product. And in some instances we have done that - look back at when we re-did Sega Rally.” said Hayes. “It scored well and was moderately successful commercially. But then with other great franchises like Golden Axe we didn't produce a great game at all.”
"Going forward, if we're going to look at any existing IP to bring out the locker, we have to make sure we get the quality to a level we now expect. I'm not saying which IP it would be - Streets of Rage, Crazy Taxi, whatever. What we have to do now is build something that is 85 per cent plus [rated]. We can't just get away with PR."
Huh! Guess he was listening to our idea after all. Touché!
Alone in the Dark creator, Frédérick Raynal is apparently at work on a new title for Ubisoft that may be set for release later this year. The yet-to-be announced title is being teased on the developer's personal site, with the message scrawled in French on a chalk board, saying:
"The name of the next game is on the back of the slate."
When clicked on, another image of the chalk board is shown with smudged writing, a note below it says:
"Sorry, it's not LBA3!"
Raynal is known for his work on Alone in the Dark and Little Big Adventure but most recently worked on Soul Bubbles for the Nintendo DS.
 Blockbuster Entertainment has today admitted that the company is in serious danger of going bankrupt.
The company said that it’s struggling to secure the latest Hollywood DVD films due to several debts, and growing concerns of their ability to continue business. They said:
"Our level of indebtedness may make it more difficult for us to pay our debts as they become due and more necessary for us to divert our cash flow from operations to debt service payments."
They also claim the "increasingly competitive industry conditions" as a reason for "substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern."
Online rental services such as LoveFilm.com are attracting consumers with the proposition of unlimited rentals with no late fees for a small monthly payment, not to mention that both Xbox Live and PSN allow you to download rental films for a small cost, too. Anyone who has been hit with a hefty overdue fee from Blockbuster, in the past, will agree that services like LoveFilm.com are a Godsend.
Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami has explained his decision to develop his new shooter, Vanquish, primarily on PlayStation 3.
According to the designer, working on Sony's console first will help avoid any dodgy PS3 ports as seen in Bayonetta. Mikami said:
"The team know less about making games for PS3 than Xbox 360, so we thought the sensible thing to do was to make the game on PS3 first then move it over to Xbox."
"If we can get Vanquish to a certain standard on PS3, we can make Xbox the same." In other Shinji Mikami news, a website has just gone live and show a countdown clock along with the words “Mikami Shinji Project.” We guess that this has something to do with his brand new studio which he is setting up in Tokyo, as revealed yesterday. Check out the website here.
A London consultant psychiatrist has set up a new rehab service for teenagers addicted to the internet, mobile phones and, of course, videogames.
Richard Graham started the service to help "screenagers", as he calls them (very funny), whose lives are apparently "impaired" by their addictions. He said:
"Mental health services need to adapt quickly to the changing worlds young people inhabit and understand how seriously their lives can be impaired by unregulated time online, on-screen or in-game."  See how evil videogames really are The service, the first in UK to be dedicated to children as young as 12, was started in response to calls from worried parents.
We’ve said this many times before when the subject of videogame addiction rears it’s head: There’s plenty of REAL things to be worried about when it comes to addictions. Kid’s just need to learn to turn the screen off once in a while.
Square Enix has confirmed that Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days will be released on August 24th in America and on August 27th throughout Europe.
Square says that the game follows two disturbed criminals, Lynch - a reckless self-medicated psychopath - and Kane - a disillusioned ex-mercenary and takes place over '48 hours of hell'. The games general manager, Niels Jorgensen said:
"We believe the unique visuals and relentless gameplay has created an intensity never delivered in a video game before."
"In a genre where so many games look and feel the same, Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days will make people double-take. We think it's going to make quite an impression."
Here’s hoping that it doesn’t suck like the last one.
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