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In a recent lawsuit between retired NFL players and the NFL Players Association, details have been released showing how the NFLPA helped EA actively maintain its status as the sole publisher of NFL licensed football games. People are now speculating that the Federal Trade Commission may revisit this whole EA-NFL deal in light of this new information.

Full article on GamePolitics

Sleepy plays through a low-tech game of exploration that does a fantastic job of setting atmosphere. Plus, it can be finished in the time it takes to sit down and watch a movie.

Full review

Looking for something amusing for a quick evening's play, Areala digs out this game which originally appeared in issue #44 of Dragon Magazine and gives it a fresh whirl with her roommates. Hilarity (and spaghetti) ensues.

Full review

If you follow graphics technology at all you have probably heard of the "Uncanny Valley". It's the theory that, as simulated humans get more realistic, people like them more except for a peculiar range of realism where the simulations suddenly become repulsive to observers. It's actually a very interesting phenomenon and these days we have lots of real world examples that we can look at: Heavy Rain, The Polar Express, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, etc.

The following is a good video lesson the topic. It keeps the concepts simple, accessible, and entertaining to watch. Take a look and get some education while you're websurfing!

It looks like Sony is taking a page straight out of Nintendo's playbook. They recently filed a patent for a motion-sensing controller for their PS3 system. They are upping the ante a bit by adding ultrasound to their list of ways to improve the quality of the motion sensing data. They also have a mode where you attach two controllers together and make this crazy looking boomerang thing.

I think we all knew this was coming. It was just a matter of time before Sony and Microsoft execs realized that the success of the Wii just cannot be ignored. The question that remains, though, is - Are they doing this to expand their market into more casual gamers or are they trying to make motion controls a viable option for hardcore gamers?

I can't imagine that they would have much success with the former. That ship has sailed and those customers have bought Wiis. So, I'm guessing they're going for the latter. Of course, hardcore gamers have already shown how disinterested they are in the Wii and its controls. I think Sony would have to do something very different to attract that audience... and a modified Wiimote with ultrasound and boomerang mode isn't going to do it.

Full article on Yahoo

No, this isn't some kind of bizarre Halloween joke. Presidential candidate Barack Obama and Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin (who seems to have become the superstar of the McCain-Palin ticket) will be part of an upcoming update for Mercenaries 2. Obama and Palin will be playable characters as seen in the below video.

Be warned, though. You will see the potential leaders of the United States strangling helicopter pilots and throwing grenades into tank hatches.

Japanese woman jailed for killing ex-husband after painful divorce

Sounds like a sad story that you would probably skip over while looking at news headlines, right?

Now let's try that again with some more details filled in...

A Japanese woman who plays the MapleStory MMORPG recently logged onto the account of her in-game husband after his MapleStory character unexpectedly divorced her character. Then she proceeded to kill off his character in the game. The man who played her ex-husband got upset about his character dying so he called the police. She has now been jailed on suspicion of illegally accessing a computer and manipulating electronic data.

Full story on Yahoo

LittleBigPlanet won't be available for sale tomorrow after all. The original Oct. 21 release date has now been pushed back a week to expunge content that a Muslim group cited as offensive. Specifically, there are passages from the Koran included in one of the game's music tracks which some Muslims consider sacrilege.

Full story at Yahoo

In a move reminiscent of the previous MPAA and RIAA lawsuits against movie and music filesharing, Activision has begun suing individuals for pirating Activision games.

Now here's where it gets interesting. There are six known cases. However, in the rulings Activision did not mention how their copyrights were violated or how they came to learn of the violations. Additionally, a stipulation of the six settlements is that the defendants have agreed not to discuss the case. Finally, and perhaps the biggest difference from the RIAA and MPAA lawsuits a while back, three of the settlements were for $100,000 and one was for $25,000. That's far beyond previous filesharing lawsuits which have been at about $2000 or less.

Full article at GamePolitics

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