GameJonez is Coming Out of the Closet

Happy New Year everyone! I'm Todd Melanson. If you've been here before, you know me as Tiberius Jonez. I hope your holidays were filled with fun and you were able to make some great new memories to carry into 2015.

As you can probably imagine, finding the time to consistently write a small blog like this can be difficult when you have a normal life to maintain. The rewards for blogging on this scale are internal and completely unheralded - so if the satisfaction of a well-written story and the occasional scoop of the "big boys" like IGN or Gamespot - even if it seems like nobody noticed, are not enough to keep you writing, then you are unlikely to keep going. Because trust me, the rewards for this kind of thing are not financial. I am not making a living for my efforts. That's the dream, but it hasn't materialized as of yet. Which is partially why I am writing today.

First, a very brief history of Tiberius Jonez:

"Tiberius Jones" was born in 2001, it was my PC gaming name way back in the days of Medal of Honor: Allied Assault and it was my original gamer tag on Xbox Live until someone hacked my account and Microsoft was unable to recover it. It's been "Tiberius Jonez" with a "z" ever since. I simultaneously played under the name "Thunker Jonez" in some gaming arenas, but I never wrote under that name, it was strictly a gamer tag.

That brings us to the present day. I recently started a Thunker Jonez YouTube channel where I review PC games and talk about tech stories of the day. Essentially a lot of the same material I used to cover here but in video form. Getting this blog's readership up has been a struggle for a couple of years - and the Thunker Jonez YouTube Channel also needs a boost. At the same time, I need to get my real name out there so I can legitimize myself as a known journalistic quantity.

I'm not in a financial position to invest in a domain name right now, so I am limited to blogging on blogger for now. Luckily, after doing some research I've discovered that GameJonez Blog is beginning to get crosslinked with quite a few aggregators around the world, so I've decided to come out and start blogging with my real name and start taking this whole thing to the next level by dedicating more time and effort to my writing and my love for all things tech and gaming.

So, over the next few weeks and months I will endeavor to share my work and experiences as I merge the Thunker Jonez YouTube channel and GameJonez Blog.

The December 2014 Trailer for Thunker Jonez YouTube Channel

that will be merged with GameJonez Blog in the next couple weeks.

After a rather lackluster 2014, 2015 looks to be a truly exciting year for gaming and tech. The emergence of Virtual Reality technology, new super high definition display technology, and an array of new PC Space sims that I personally am quite excited about, are just a few of the things we have to look forward to this year. I would be remiss in not mentioning the long-awaited GTA V for PC that is finally coming in just a few weeks on January 27th. I can't wait to play that game from a first person perspective - it looks incredible from what I've seen and read.

I am very excited about the future potential of GameJonez Blog. I ask for your patience as I get things going. Please check out some of the past stories here, my Twitter Feed and the Thunker Jonez YouTube Channel.

As things evolve and come together, I will be relying on your feedback, comments and suggestions for inspiration and more importantly, to keep me from flying off the tracks. Thanks everyone. Game on!

GameJonez Blog is back by popular demand!

WELCOME BACK!!

Posted by Tiberius Jonez
GameJonez Blog Founder and Editor

Well, hello there GameJonez readers. Long time, no see. I've received quite a few requests over the last several months to write some fresh material and breathe some new life into GameJonez Blog. So, by popular demand, and after an extended absence, here I am, out from under my proverbial rock.

I want to thank everyone who has emailed me encouraging me to resume my participation in GameJonez Blog. After more than a two year hiatus, it is gratifying just knowing someone out there even remembers me or this little gaming blog of mine. As long as you keep coming back and commenting, I'll try to keep finding interesting things to talk and/or occasionally rant about.

So, here we are. The first thing you'll notice is our new look. I hope you like it. I doubt anyone will confuse GameJonez Blog with the IGNs and Gamespots of the world, but considering I'm only using free Blogger tools, I'm pretty happy with the result. I think the new look is more elegant than the old and most importantly, it's even easier to navigate. Each picture represents a story. Simply click and enjoy. All the old content has been preserved, and amazingly, some of it is actually still worth reading. With any luck, I will hopefully give you plenty of new reasons to stop by often. As always, I welcome and look forward to your comments!

So, where to begin...hmm. So much has happened in the world of videogames over the past couple years. In short, with the current console generation coming to a close, Nintendo seems to be fading fast, Microsoft is kicking butt in the sales arena and Sony is hoping to reclaim their previous status as market-leader as we move into the next generation of hardware this Fall. Meanwhile, PC gaming keeps chugging along despite an environment of rampant software pirating and copyright infringement and in spite of the naysayer's seemingly never-ending pronouncements of doom and gloom.

I finished Bioshock: Infinite and Mark of the Ninja a couple weeks ago. Both were absolutely outstanding for different reasons. Bioshock: Infinite, aside from being visually stunning, left me contemplating and discussing with others, it's controversial subject matter and compelling plot for several days after the final credits rolled. Mark of the Ninja was a refreshing take on stealth mechanics and the Ninja approach to combat wrapped in a package of slick graphics and uber-tight controls.

Everyone's favorite annual gaming event, E3, is right around the corner, and with new consoles from Microsoft and Sony on the horizon, it should be a whale of a show. All in all, there's certainly lots to talk about and we will get to much of it, in time. Over the next few weeks I plan to gradually work my way up to once again contributing to the global conversation surrounding gaming on a regular basis. For your part, I would love to hear some suggestions for topics you'd like me to explore or gaming related things that have been on your mind.

For today though, I want to briefly talk about my favorite past-time and, I assume, the reason you're here...playing games! Specifically, playing older console games on your PC. So, please, read on to the next post. And, as always, thanks for visiting GameJonez Blog. Game on!!

Far Cry 2 - Make your old PC feel cutting edge

Posted by Tiberius Jonez

I think we'd all agree that good gameplay is what ultimately counts in making any great videogame, but there is no doubt that great graphics make any gaming experience that much more immersive. Unfortunately, modern games with directx 10 capabilities and all the bells and whistles are often unplayable for the average PC owner.

With Far Cry 2, the brainwizards at Ubisoft have somehow managed to make one of the most stunning graphics engines without requiring a $3,000 uber-rig to run the game.

The Far Cry 2 video below (recorded from my PC using FRAPS) features the game's opening sequence so you can see just how pretty this game is, even without maxing out every graphics option. While my PC is capable of running Far Cry 2 with maxed out settings, this video demonstrates that even if you don't have the latest tech in your PC, you can still enjoy beautiful graphics.

.

Far Cry 2's manual recommends 2GB of ram to run the game with full settings, and as you can see, it runs well. My PC has 2 Gb of OCZ Platinum Rev 2 Ram (800mhz). The game's graphics settings are set to "very high" with 4x antialiasing, "ultra real" trees and lighting.

I am thoroughly impressed with this engine. It runs smoothly while making your eyes burn with glorious graphics splendor. The only downside is, if you weren't a graphics whore before playing this game, you will be after. You've been warned.

Enjoy the video.

Blogging with video - the basics

Posted by Tiberius Jonez

As an avid gamer and gaming journalist, I’ve always appreciated blogs that include original video with their stories. Unfortunately, until recently, the prospect of including videos here at GameJonez Blog just seemed like more effort than it was worth.

From capturing video, to editing it and compressing it to an acceptable size for blogging (100MB or less) while still retaining a high enough level of quality to make it worth viewing online, the prospect of learning the process was daunting to say the least.

As usual, we fear that which we don’t understand. After several hours of googling, downloading and trial and error, I can safely say I now have at least a functioning understanding of how to make this video blogging thing a reality.

The Gears of War video below was created using the steps outlined in this short article.



If you want to learn how to do this yourself, read on.

There are some basic steps to keep in mind when it comes to capturing, manipulating and uploading videos to the internet. First, you need a utility for capturing the video. For the purposes of this article, I am talking only about capturing PC video, not video from gaming consoles. By far, the best utility I found, and the highest rated around the net is FRAPS. You can buy the full version of FRAPS for $37, which is a steal when you see how powerful and easy it is to use. A trial version is also available and will work for this purpose.

Once installed, simply start FRAPS and then start whatever program you want to capture video from – a game, a browser, whatever. Basically whatever your video card is outputting at the time, FRAPS will capture it and save it. Simply hit the F9 key to begin capturing, and press it again to stop. FRAPS can also take and save screenshots in your preferred format by hitting the F10 key. Besides capturing video and screenshots, FRAPS has many functions as a benchmarking utility as well. For more info on FRAPS’ benchmarking capabilities, visit the FRAPS website.

Once you’ve captured some avi video with FRAPS, you will see the next problem to overcome – that video you captured is HUGE!!! The video below (which is under 5 minutes long) originally weighed in at over 2.5 GIGS! Most blogs and other sites like YouTube will limit you to uploading videos of 100MB or less.

Not to worry, our friends over at Adobe have the perfect solution – Adobe Premiere Elements 3.0. You can download the 30 day free trial for short term use, but if you have any interest in video editing from your camcorder or other source, you really can’t go wrong with Adobe Premiere Elements.

Now, Premiere Elements isn’t quite as simple as FRAPS, but it’s far from rocket science. For now, let’s keep it simple. All you’re going to do in Elements is open your saved avi file, edit it if you like, and then export it.

When you choose to export, you will be prompted to select your preferred codec. I recommend Windows Media Player simply because almost everyone has it and, more importantly, it does an excellent job of compressing video while maintaining a high level of visual quality. Once you’ve selected a codec, you can set several other parameters like aspect ration, etc. Otherwise, you can just click OK and go with the defaults.

The cool thing here is any changes you make to the export settings can be saved as an export template, so you can use these same settings for future projects.

After the video finishes saving, open it up and prepare to be amazed. Our video which was once 2.5GB’s is now only 17.5MB’s (your numbers will vary based on the settings you chose). That’s an astounding level of compression. Of course, the higher quality video settings you select during the export process, the larger your final file will be. You may be surprised just how high a quality of video you can achieve while staying under 100MB’s.

Voila! That’s pretty much it. Your video is done. All you need to do now is upload it to Blogger or YouTube and that’s as easy as following their simple instructions. With Blogger, it’s as simple as adding a photo to a story.

So, let your inner video producer out and start posting your videos for the world to see today!

Deus Ex 3 teaser trailer

Way back in the year 2000, before 911 and wars with no end, Deus Ex was one of the best games ever released for the PC, and later, consoles. While it was confirmed a few days ago that Deus Ex 3 is in the works, no game truly exists in the public consciousness until it is given a teaser trailer. Well, tada!, said teaser has arrived. Watch it after the break.

The new Eidos, Montreal studio is developing Deus Ex 3. As the original Deus Ex was one of the few examples of interactive entertainment reaching the level of high art, I am definitely looking forward to this game...way forward as it likely won't be released until sometime in 2009. Watch the teaser trailer below.

Are the AI enemies in Call of Duty 4 cheap?

Call of Duty 4 is a blast to play, there is no doubt about that, but it's not perfect. Chewing Pixels has posted a nice piece about the enemy AI and coding techniques used in Modern Warfare. Is it cheap to have enemies seemingly spawn endlessly just to increase difficulty? Does it really make a difference?

From Chewing Pixels: "In CoD4 there are sections where enemies just keep re-spawning until you pass an invisible trigger point. In one night-time escape mission from a crashed helicopter I took out the gunner in an enemy gunship stalking my team - at great risk - only for a new one to appear ten seconds later. I did this six or seven times to see if there actually were a bunch of spare gunners waiting in the back of the helicopter or if they were just spawning there to artificially keep the difficulty up. It is, regrettably, the latter."

I am also playing COD4 at a higher difficulty level (hardened) and find some parts of it do seem to be unfairly difficult, not due to any fantastically advanced AI, but due to an endlessly spawning stream of enemies. I have also found myself wondering, like the writer, whether it wouldn't just be smarter to run forward a bit to trigger the next script.

Like I said earlier, Call of Duty 4 is a blast to play for the most part, but things like this do tend to break your suspension of disbelief and hurt the immersive quality of the game. With the power of these new consoles, there has to be a better way...right?

The Secret World Xbox 360/PC MMO revealed

"For there really is a world within ours, a secret world, where magic exists, monsters roam and ancient forces are fighting for the dominance of earth. It is a world of legendary stories, ageless conflicts and powerful cabals. In this world, even modern cities hide secrets. In this world, players can take part in the greatest conspiracies of our age, and battle the forces of darkness across the world and throughout time."

That's the description from the Funcom website introducing The Secret World, a new MMO for the Xbox 360 and PC. Placing an MMO in a contemporary setting may seem like sacrilege to players of WOW or the new LOTR MMO, but seeing as how this game is being developed by Ragnar Tornquist, the man behind The Longest Journey, there is a very good chance this game will successfully avoid employing every stereotype it is going to fervently strive to avoid. So, I don't think you'll see anyone passing through a wardrobe to a hidden world or wrestling fire breathing dragons while tumbling into an impossibly deep abyss in The Secret World. While I don't expect the game to be completely cliche' free (I am a realist after all) I do expect a compelling story filled with well-developed characters.

“We believe there are millions of gamers out there who want to explore something beyond traditional fantasy and sci-fi games,“ said Trond Arne Aas, CEO of Funcom. “'The Secret World' is just that – a fantastic new setting that will fuel the imagination of online gamers, and keep players busy for years. We have a golden opportunity to bring something fresh and exciting to the genre, and we firmly believe the game is an ideal extension of Funcom’s MMO portfolio.”

The MMO genre badly needs an injection of originality and Tornquist may be just the kind of fellow to give it just that. Put this on your short list of "games to watch in 2007", assuming of course it is released this year. The game is currently in a playable state but no release date for either platform was announced.

Shadowrun coming May 29th to Vista and Xbox 360

Halo 2 drops May 22nd and it will be quickly followed by Shadowrun hitting retail on the 29th. Shadowrun will retail for $60 for Xbox 360 and $50 for the Windows Vista version. Shadowrun will be the first game to pit 360 Console gamers against PC players. WASD vs Gamepad. I expect there to be some balancing issues initially, but in the end it will be a great evolution of the gaming space for everyone. Afterall, more available gamers to pwn is always a good thing, right?

In order to play against Xbox Live gamers, you will have to buy a Gold level Xbox Live membership, which is $50. Without Xbox Live Gold, you can still play Vista Shadowrun online, you just won't have matchmaking or the ability to play against 360 gamers.

So, which camp are you in, keyboard and mouse or gamepad?

NPD online gaming report shows Solitaire still dominates WOW and Xbox Live is King!

The NPD Group has released Online Gaming 2007: The Virtual Landscape, which is a marketing report containing statistics pertinent to the growing field of online gaming. It is a statistical breakdown of who's playing what online when and on what devices. The information contained in the report is of vital importance to game, console and PC developers who will use the information for formulating future strategies for maximizing revenues.

For gamers it is interesting to see exactly what types of games are the most popular online and it might reveal some interesting future online gaming trends.

Their research indicates that 62% of all gamers play online games. You may have expected MMO's like World of Warcraft to be the number one genre of online game, but the fact is MMO's are not even second. The top dog of internet games is still casual card, puzzle, arcade, and word games, which represented 44% of the online games available across all platforms. Meanwhile, family oriented games made up 25% of the share while MMO games of all types held only 19%.

According to the NPD's research, 42% of all online gamers are female, which may account for the high popularity of casual games genres. In addition, the report also reveals that the majority of online gamers fall within the bracket of middle income ($35,000~$75,000) households.

In terms of the most popular gaming consoles, Microsoft's Xbox 360 has solitary control over the top spot, with the highest percentage of actual online use at 54%. However, owners of the Nintendo Wii may be the most internet savvy, as 76% of Wii owners surveyed are connected to the internet. The percentage of connectivity for the other two next-gen consoles hovers at around 70%.

While Nintendo Wii owners may have the highest percentage of internet connections, they aren't spending most of their time online with their Wii's. According to NPD's data, Xbox 360 users spend the most amount of time online, with an average of approximately 7.1 hours per week. The PS3 came in second at 6.1 hours a week, while PC/Mac users spent about 5.8. All other connected consoles amounted to less than four hours a week of online playing time.

If you think about it, none of this seems very surprising to me except maybe the amount of Wii owners with an internet connection. Otherwise, I would always expect casual games to dominate the online PC gaming space. People have a lot more opportunities for playing those types of games during the work week than they do to sit down and waste 4 or 5 hours playing WOW. Xbox Live is the best console online gaming platform available so it dominates the Console online space.

First Person Shooter opens in San Francisco

Last night in San Francisco, Aaron Loeb, who works at Planet Moon Studios (Armed and Dangerous and Infected) premiered his play First Person Shooter at the San Francisco Playhouse. The guys over at GayGamer.net attended a preview friday night and have a review up on their site. The story follows a successful fictional company known for making violent video games. Things go wrong at the company when they are blamed for a schoolyard shooting and the young CEO of the company has to deal with the lawsuit which follows and the parents of the victims.

The SF Playhouse says, "Aaron [Loeb], who now develops videogames, worked as a journalist covering the world of videogames at the time of Littleton, Colorado shootings and 'wanted to write a play about the people caught in the echo chamber of the debate. What must it be like for the people actually accused of making a game that turns kids into killers? What about the parents of the victims? Their children are dead and the news is jam packed with talk of something so trivial as videogames!'"

The play premieres to the public tonight and runs until June 9 at the San Francisco Playhouse. Ticket information is available at the playhouse's website. If you live in the San Francisco area go check it out and let me know what you think. Hopefully after the play's run they'll make a three camera video of it. Sure, it kinda defeats the purpose of seeing it live, but not everyone that wants to see it can make it out to San Fran and it sounds like a good play.

Source: Joystiq

World of Warcraft Credit Card...priceless!

A new form of e-currency is almost upon us with the announcement from Blizzard that they are offering World of Warcraft themed Visa cards that turn your real world spending into WOW virtual world game time. The card will take 1% of what you charge and turn it into minutes that you can use to visit Azeroth. So, if you want to rack up a lot of time, hand this to your mom/wife/sister when she makes her next mall run.

This comes on the heels of The Sims credit card, which will likely be something similar. MAKE magazine predicted something of this ilk a year ago, and it looks like they were on the money. Now if they can turn our real world purchases into WOW money you can get that uber cool sword that costs a bajillion WOW dollars. Have fun storming the castle!

Microsoft has big plans for Xbox 360 Successor

Microsoft has made no secret of the fact that they are already hard at work on the Xbox 720, or whatever they plan to call the successor to the Xbox 360. A filing to the U.S. Patent Office may reveal what Microsoft has planned for its next gaming platform and it describes a multi-component gaming system that incorporates both handheld devices and console devices by wired and wireless connections.

The patent’s abstract describes the system as a process "to take advantage of another gaming component's processing capabilities and memory capacity, each gaming component is capable of utilizing another gaming component to process gaming applications."

Hardware permitting, each gaming component would be capable of rendering audio and video information provided by another gaming component. Also, any single gaming component is capable of utilizing another gaming component as an adjunct processor to increase system speed. System memory may also be shared among the devices.

In english, if I'm on my Xbox handheld I could use the processing power of my Xbox 720 or PC to make video content, games, or other applications run faster through my handheld. Sounds intriguing.

The fear from early commenters around the net has been that this would cause console developers to have to program to the lowest common denominator as they do currently with PC's. However, if Microsoft does go this route, I would think it more likely that all console software would be made only assuming the power and system specs of the console it is designed for and that anything outside those parameters would be clearly designated as such. In other words, my version of Mass Effect 720 isn't going to look any better than yours just because I have the processor of a more powerful PC to leverage than you.

Of course this whole thing could just be smoke and mirrors intended to throw off the competition and get them chasing shadows or just an opportunity to sew up a possibly lucrative future idea.

Who knows? We'll keep our collective ear to the ground on this one.

Wanna be the "EA Sports, it's in the Game" guy? Learn how here!

Andrew Anthony, the official voice of EA Sports' tagline, presents this short and very enthusiastic tutorial on how to properly say the line, "EA Sports, It's in the game!" Very funny!

The movie voice guy should do something like this next.

Jack Thompson blames Bill Gates for VT Massacre

Jack Thompson wrote an open letter to Bill Gates yesterday, blaming him for the Virginia Tech Massacre. I don't find it necessary to debunk Mr. Thompson's "reasoning", I think his letter says plenty about his state of mind and motivation.

Below is a copy of Thompson’s letter to Mr. Gates.

April 18, 2007

Bill Gates

Microsoft

1 Microsoft Way

Redmond, WA 98052

Via Fax and e-mail

Dear Mr. Gates:

On Monday, April 16, at 3:10 pm, I was a guest, as I often have been in the past, on the Fox News Channel. News anchor Bill Hemmer asked me to profile the Virginia Tech rampage killer. I did so, noting that until that day the worst school massacre in world history was at the hands of Robert Steinhaeuser, who literally trained on the Microsoft on-line, hyper-violent shooter game, Counterstrike. I mentioned your company’s game by name. I explained that the rehearsal for such a massacre is key to being able to pull it off, as efficiently as Cho, whose name we didn’t even know at the time. Cho and Steinhaeuser were able to do what they did the first time because it was not the first time. This is why the military uses this same virtual reality simulation to train soldiers to want to kill and how to kill calmly, as the witnesses of Cho said he did.

Sure enough, last night I was doing a west coast radio interview when the host said to me, "Mr. Thompson, you are right. The Washington Post is reporting right now the following:
‘Several Korean youths who knew Cho Seung Hui from his high school days said he was a fan of violent video games, particularly Counterstrike, a hugely popular online game published by Microsoft, in which players join terrorism or counterterrorism groups and try to shoot each other using all types of guns.’"

I thus went back on the Fox News Channel, and Bill Hemmer and I explained not only that I was right about your game figuring in the Virginia Tech massacre but also that the Washington Post excised the above excerpt from the story this morning. That is yet another story. The bad news for the Post however is that you can still get the excised excerpt at [hyperlink removed, Washington Post has since removed the article]. Thus, the cat is out of the bag, and his paw prints are still on the bag. Is this a great Internet, or what?

As you know, I similalry [sic] went on NBC’s Today Show with the DC Beltway Sniper still unidentified and at-large a few years ago and told Matt Lauer and the nation that the triggerman would most likely be a teen video gamer trained on a sniper video game. The tarot card was a clue, but there were other clues. I was right, as Malvo trained on your Microsoft game, Halo. NBC reported that three months later, and it was part of the criminal trial of Malvo.
Mr. Gates, your company is potentially legally liable the harm done at Virginia Tech. Your game, a killing simulator, according to the news that used to be in the Post, trained him to enjoy killing and how to kill. You knew five years ago that your on-line game, Counterstrike, so clearly figured in the massacre by a student in Erfurt that the event and the game impacted the race for Chancellor in Germany at the time!

Yet, here you are, five years after "Erfurt," still marketing Counterstrike. having done nothing to disable the server(s) for this mass murder simulator, and it looks like "Virginia Tech" is a consequence. There’s more going on in the world than Vista. Just ask the bereaved Virginia Tech families.

Mr. Gates, pull the plug on Counterstrike today, or do we need more dead to convince you? "Virginia Tech" was the 9-11 of school shootings, and it appears Microsoft is in the middle of it, in more ways than one.

Regards, Jack Thompson

Howard Stern smarter than Jack Thompson and Dr. Phil?

With his family counseling show, Dr. Phil is the latest media darling to come from no where and invade our group conciousness. Jack Thompson is the attorney loved by Fox news and anti-gaming politicians everywhere for his ludicrous and boisterous attacks on our favorite past-time. Howard Stern is an over the top shock jock widely seen as a pariah by the mainstream media but loved by tens of millions of listeners that tune into his sirius radio show every day.

Now, if you had a serious subject to discuss such as the possible causes of the tragic Virginia Tech massacre, would you trust the judgment of the Attorney, the Family Therapist or the Shock Jock?

I'll take the Shock Jock, thank you very much!

Jack Thompson wrote an open letter to Microsoft founder Bill Gates this week calling for Microsoft to put an end to one of the most popular online video games on the planet, Counterstrike. He blamed the Virginia Tech massacre on Mr. Gates and Microsoft for not shutting down the servers for what Thompson calls a "killing simulator".

Unfortunately for Mr. Thompson, he doesn't understand the industry he would so dearly love to legislate well enough to even know that he wrote his sarcastically toned and poorly reasoned letter to the wrong person. Microsoft only published the Xbox version of Counter-strike back in 2003. Valve Software originally developed Counter-strike and Vivendi Universal handles the publication of the game on the PC, which is the only version that’s played on a large scale these days. So, even if he were right, which I STRONGLY disagree with, Thompson was wasting his ink on a letter to someone who had zero influence on the future of Counter-strike.

Monday night Dr. Phil made the following statement on Larry King Live on CNN about the connection between video games and the VT tragedy:

“The problem is we are programming these people as a society. You cannot tell me - common sense tells you - that if these people are playing video games where they’re on a mass killing spree in a video game, it’s glamorized on the big screen, it’s become part of the fiber of our society. You take that and mix it with a psychopath, a sociopath, or someone suffering from mental illness, add in a dose of rage, the suggestability is just too high. And we’re going to have to start dealing with that. We’re going to have to start addressing those issues and recognizing that the mass murderers of tomorrow are the children of today that are being programmed with this massive violence overdose.”

Enter the voice of reason, Howard Stern. Wait, Howard Stern as the voice of reason? I know I know, sounds ludicrous, but it's true.

On his sirius radio show this morning, Stern lambasted Dr. Phil for his comments and said, "he's a f***ing ***hole!"

Stern ridiculed the idea that video games could have caused the VT shootings, pointing out that plenty of the world’s greatest tragedies happened in environments devoid of video games, sarcastically suggesting that “Hitler played Donkey Kong” and “Osama Bin Laden played Grand Theft Auto.”

Stern went on to explain why he thinks so lowly of Dr. Phil saying, “You know the reason why Dr. Phil is an ***hole? Because whenever something like this happens he wants to play the blame game.”

Stern commented that he has either played or knows people who play video games “all day and all night” and do not act out violently. He pointed out that blame is always put on “the movies or something” and finished the conversation expressing the sentiment that most gamers have known all along:

“This is so stupid.”

Amen brother, amen!

*Complete transcript of Dr. Phil's appearance on CNN.

Top Ten Games of 2007

2007 has a chance to go down as the single greatest year in the history of gaming. That's not hyperbole, it's simple fact. Don't believe me?

First of all, 2007 is already off to a nice start with Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2, God of War 2 and Motorstorm. Now, consider the short list of games coming later this year. With the release of Metal Gear Solid 4, Halo 3 and Grand Theft Auto IV, 2007 was already poised to rock our worlds. Now, add Mass Effect, Bioshock, and Assassin's Creed along with a new Forza, Mario and Metroid to that list and 2007 is truly poised to be remembered as a new golden age of gaming.

GameTrailers has their list of the Top Ten Games of 2007 and I agree with most of their choices, if not the order. Check it out below and let the debate begin!

China imposes 3 hour time limit on Internet players

China is taking a major step to address the growing problem of cyber addiction among its youth. China's growing band of young internet gamers will face virtual penalties if they stay online for more than three hours, under a new set of rules designed to "only target minors who lack the self-discipline to control their playing time," according to Kou Xiaowei, an official with the Chinese State Press and Publication Administration.

Chinese authorities have voiced increasing concern in recent months about the number of teenagers who spend hours and sometimes days in internet cafes playing games.

In the latest measure to combat the problem, eight government departments have issued new rules that will force internet gaming companies and operators to install and run "anti-addiction" software, the China Daily reported.

The software is supposed to discourage marathon play sessions by cutting the amount of points earned in games the longer they are played. Gamers under the age of 18 will receive full points in their online world only for the first three hours of play, which the Chinese government has deemed as the limit for a "healthy" amount of time to be glued to the internet. If young gamers choose to stay on-line, they will get half the normal points for the next two hours. Any gaming after five hours of play will not recoup any points.

The official Xinhua news agency said that most online games encouraged players to play longer by rewarding them with more credits and virtual goods.

The new rules will come into force on April 15, with games to be closed down from July 16 if they are not installed with the anti-addiction software, according to the China Daily.

Under the new rules, all gamers will have to register with their identity cards to prove their age. If they are aged over 18, they can play for as long as they like.

China has about 137 million online users, according to the latest official statistics. Of those, 31 million are internet gamers.

Can someone educate me? Do the Chinese play shooters of any kind or are they not permitted in the country? It seems this kind of measure would only affect MMORPG players.

WOW and Guitar Hero 2 added to World Series of Video Games

The world of competitive gaming has traditionally been the realm of the first-person or squad-based shooter, but the World Series of of Video Games is changing that by adding World of Warcraft and Guitar Hero II to this year’s competition.

The addition of Guitar Hero really opens the competition up to a much wider audience, and should also make the event much more watchable for casual gamers–it can be hard to track the action of a fierce round of Counter Strike, but anyone can tell if you’re screwing up "Crazy On You." The PvP action of WoW will get a slight tweak for the sake of the competition: teams will be 3-on-3, as opposed to the usual 5-on-5.

Also on the roster are Quake 4, Fight Night Round 3 (o…kay….), and the obligatory Halo 2, Counter Strike, and Call of Duty. Here’s hoping they skip the ungodly stupid Miss WSVG contest this time, although it certainly did provide some amusing controversy and comedy last year.

"Game On" - HP Shows Amazing New PC Gaming Technology

HP isn't exactly known as a hip and cool company. In fact their image is probably more conservative IBM wannabe than cutting edge visionary. Well, they are about to pack that image up, pour some gas on it and burn that mother to the ground!

With the recent surge in popularity of console gaming brought about by this latest generation of hardware from Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony, HP is planning to seize what it sees as a golden opportunity to take PC gaming to unprecedented heights while fundamentally changing the way we play games on computers. During HP's Gaming Summit at Dogpatch Studios the company announced "Game On", the company's HP Labs research center that is developing technology that could be incorporated into next-generation personal computers that play interactive video games designed for the broadband era.

We're not talking your standard Next Gen shooters or racing games either. Oh no, what HP has planned are some pretty amazing gameplay technologies. The prototypes they showed included computers with curved screens so someone playing a racing game can see the track they're driving on ahead and to the sides for an incredibly immersive experience and a touch-screen computer built into a coffee table so players can sit on all sides and participate. HP also played a video in which a teenage boy is walking through a big city with his handheld game player. He points the device at a portion of the city's skyline and the device scans the outline of the buildings in view, creating a game scene from that image. Very cool indeed!

During a panel discussion, Rahul Sood, chief technology officer at HP Gaming, and founder of Voodoo PC which HP acquired in the fourth quarter of 2006, said that next generation PC games based on Microsoft's new DirectX 10 technology will do more to drive sales of Vista than anything else. He said, "DirectX 10 is going to provide a dramatically improved gaming experience that will drive adoption of Vista."

Sood also said he sees HP offering a premium line of gaming PCs priced higher than its current line of HP and Compaq branded PCs, but lower than VoodooPC's custom-made models, which can sell for $8,000. When asked specifically if HP plans to soon introduce a line of PCs such as that, Shane Robison, executive vice president and HP's chief strategy technology officer said, "I am not allowed to go there."

While impressive, HP has a steep hill to climb. Sales of gaming consoles grew 33 percent in 2006 while sales of gaming PCs grew by only 1 percent, according to the retail sales tracking firm NPD Group Inc. There are reasons to be optimistic though. Sales of gaming software that runs on PCs reached US$6 billion globally in 2006 and are forecast to hit $12 billion by 2010, said Rick Wickham, director of games for Windows for Microsoft, citing figures from IDC.

HP's move into gaming could be a "game-changing" one, said Rob Enderle, lead analyst with technology research firm The Enderle Group. HP could try selling high-margin gaming PCs to escape from the low-margin PC market it competes in with every other PC maker. But he explained it could also be a risky move. "The buyer may say they don't want one and that is the risk when you make a game changer. You make a guess at where the market is going and you get there first," Enderle said. "If you guess wrong you're there all by yourself"