Gaming

With the expanding reach of video games, Conan O'Brien used a Nintendo Wii joke to make fun at the economic downturn. On an episode of NBC's  The Tonight Show, he said:

"Experts say the video game industry has been dramatically hurt by the economic downturn, which explains the popularity of the new Nintendo game, Wii Job Interview."

It's a quick joke, and it hits on multiple levels. It pokes fun at the economy. It also makes fun at the ridiculous variety of Wii games. This is a sign of how far video games have come and how the audience has changed. It's great to see video games referenced in a mainstream show like The Tonight Show. There has also been heavy video game content on NBC's Late Night with Jimmy Fallon

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Long awaited World of Warcraft movie has found a director. Evil Dead creator and Spider-Man director, Sam Raimi.

Paul Sams The Chief operating officer of developer Blizzard Entertainment, sopke of the partnership in a press release:

“Blizzard Entertainment and Legendary Pictures have a shared vision for this film and we searched at length to find the very best director to bring that vision to life. From our first conversation with Sam, we could tell he was the perfect choice. Sam knows how to simultaneously satisfy the enthusiasts and the mainstream audience that might be experiencing that content for the first time. We're looking forward to working with him to achieve that here.”

Legendary Pictures will be co-producing / financing the film with Warner Bros. Also Charles Roven, the producer of The Dark Knight, Batman Begins and 12 Monkeys, will have a hand in it. Given how early along the film is in to production,  at this point, it’s no surprise that there was no mention of a release date or cast, but that info is sure to come.

Microsoft announced a South Park themed game was exclusively to Xbox Live Arcade at E3 2008, but no details on the game have been released since. The project isn't gone just yet,  it will be revealed at Comic Con. The game's called South Park Let's Go Tower Defense Play!

South Park Let's Go Tower Defense Play! will be on Xbox Live October 7, along with the debut of new South Park episodes on Comedy Central.

MTV Games announced that they will soon be launching  a Rock Band Network where independent musicians and labels can submit their songs through the XNA Creator's Club to be included as a download to players on the XBOX 360. The music can also be updates for the Wii and Playstation 3 thirty days after Xbox 360 release.

Membership to the XNA Creator's Club is $49.99 every four months or $99.99 for a year. Microsoft will allowing bands to sell their music through Xbox Live for Rock Band at $0.50 up to $3.00 per song. Bands keep 30% of all sales. No word of when the Rock Band Network will be available.

MTV is available on Satellite TV channel 331

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Exclusivities have always been big ammo for console companies. Nintendo has its successful Mario and Zelda franchises, Microsoft is strong with its Gears of War and Halo shooters but Sony struggled to get its LittleBigPlanet or Killzone 2 into the media spotlight.

One of the landmark franchises for Sony was always Metal Gear Solid from Konami, that has a cult following and had very big sales with the MGS 4: Guns of the Patriots, last year.

Now, with the bomshell creator Hideo Kolima droped at E3 things have changed. He announced that one of the next two MGS games, MGS: Rising, would make its appearance not only on the PlayStation 3 but also on the Xbox 360 and the PC, two platforms that work under Microsoft.

The vice president in charge of the Xbox 360  Shane Kim, was very excited, as he said that the platform could not be ignored by third party developers just because it is so profitable to bring a game on multiple platforms.

Shane Kim went on to say “I still think exclusive content is really important, First of all, in games, we've said for a long time that a key part of our strategy with Xbox 360 was a level third party playing field. Now we've effectively done that with Metal Gear Solid coming to the Xbox 360. The economics are such that third parties also have to support multiple platforms, and you can't ignore Xbox 360. It's the second leading platform.” Look forward to more details in the months to come.

G4 TV, TV for gamers, has announced their G-Phoria video game awards show for this year. The winners are determined by voting on G4's web site.Awards will be giving out in 20 separate categories. The voting starts on July 16th and lasts until July 31st, with the winners to be announced in a one-hour special on August 5th.

This year's categories and nominees are:

Game of the Year
Fable II
Fallout 3
Gears of War 2
Killzone 2
Street Fighter IV
inFamous

Best Graphics
Resistance 2
Resident Evil 5
Fight Night Round 4
Killzone 2
Street Fighter IV

Best New Character
Sackboy - LittleBigPlanet
Your Dog ? Fable II
Cole McGrath - inFamous
Crimson Viper ? Street Fighter IV
Galen Marek (Starkiller) ? Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

Best Party Game
Boom Blox Bash Party
Street Fighter IV
Rock Band 2
Guitar Hero: World Tour
Raving Rabbids TV Party

Best Strategy Game
Valkyria Chronicles
Halo Wars
Demigod
Patapon 2
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II

Best Sports Game
Madden NFL 09
Fight Night Round 4
MLB: The Show 09
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 (Wii)
NBA Live 09

Best Action Game
inFamous
Prototype
Red Faction: Guerrilla
MadWorld
Dead Space

Best Shooter
Left 4 Dead
Gears of War 2
Resistance 2
Killzone 2
Call of Duty: World at War

Best Racing Game
Fuel
Burnout Paradise: Big Surf Island
Motorstorm: Pacific Rift
Excitebots: Trick Racing
Pure

Best Role-Playing Game
Fallout 3
Fable II
Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood
Star Ocean: The Last Hope
Tales of Vesperia

Most Original
LittleBigPlanet
Braid
MadWorld
Valkyria Chronicles
Plants vs. Zombies

Best Online Multiplayer Game
WoW: Wrath of the Lich King
Left 4 Dead
Resident Evil 5
Killzone 2
Street Fighter IV

Best Downloadable Game
Peggle
Castle Crashers
Flower
Braid
Bionic Commando: Rearmed

Best Downloadable Content
LittleBigPlanet
Burnout Paradise: Big Surf Island
Fallout 3: Broken Steel
GTA4: The Lost and Damned
Fable II: See The Future

Best Handheld Game
Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood
Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia
GTA: Chinatown Wars
Patapon 2
Rock Band Unplugged

Best Voice Acting
Left 4 Dead
Fallout 3
MadWorld
Gears of War 2
Ghostbusters: The Video Game

Best Soundtrack
LittleBigPlanet
50 Cent: Blood on the Sand
Fallout 3
Halo Wars
inFamous

Game Most Deserving of an Uwe Boll Movie Golden Axe:
Beast Rider
Castlevania: Judgment
Legendary
Oneechanbara
X-Blades

Longest Lasting Game presented by Stride
Fallout 3
Lich King
LittleBigPlanet
Left 4 Dead
Street Fighter IV

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The Nintendo Wii is tring to stay in the race with Sony and Microsoft,  the black version of Wii system is a step in the right direction. The onyx colored system is will be released in  Japan on August 1st. It is not clear when or if it will hit stores in the US.

UFC president Dana White threatened to ban any UFC fighter who appeared in the new EA Sports mixed martial arts video game MMA. Well, it turns out White was not messing around. White's has quite a history with EA,  White said , "EA wouldn't even take a meeting with me about the UFC game because mixed martial arts disgusted them. This wasn't a real sport. Boy, they got over that real quick, didn't they?"

Turns out former UFC heavyweight champion Randy "The Natural" Couture will in be appearing in EA's MMA, and White has made no effort on banning him. This suggest that White isn't ready to lose a bunch of high profile fighters that bring in a lot of ticket sales. That would most likely have a negative impact on the business. It will be interesting to see the progress as EA as it gets further along in development .

Dish TV has brought you G4 TV. G4 is a Dish TV satellite tV channel devoted to the world of video games.
G4 has shows like X Play where Adam Sessler and Morgan Webb bring you the most reviews from the video game world. Covering all video game platforms like Xbox 360, Sony Playstation, Wii, and even your PC. G4 and X Play also bring you world premiere demos of all your favorite viedo games like God of War III, The Sims 3, Assassin's Creed 2, and much more.
One of G4's exclusive program is Attack of the Show also known as AOTS. Hosted by Kevin Pereira and Olivia Munn. AOTS  bring you the best in viral videos with the segment Around the Net, hot new gadgets on Gadget Pron, and movies with DVDuesday. Alos the latest in tech news with The Feed. The only news you need to know.  Attack of the Show seems to gets it before it gets out.