Culture

One of the most critical voices of the game industry, particularly of how games handle violent content, is closing its doors. The non-profit National Institute On Media and The Family has announced that due to lack of funding it will officially shut down by the end of the year.

Formed in the mid-1990s by psychologist Dr. David Walsh, the group was best known for its Video Game Report Card which it issued every year with backing from US lawmakers. The report card always gave failing grades to games which had lots of violent or adult content, even games that had gotten rave reviews from game critics. According to WCOO's web site, Dr Walsh stated that despite his group's shut down he feels that it had a positive effect on keeping certain games away from children. He states, "The fact that the retailers will no longer sell video games, adult video games to little kids, is something we take a great deal of pride in."

Combine a upcoming game about a jetpack-flying hero with arguably the most well-known movie star on the planet and you might have yourself a good movie. Capcom certainly hopes so as it announces today that Brad Pitt's production company Plan B Entertainment has bought the movie rights to Dark Void, the upcoming third person action game from developer Airtight Games.

The press announcement states that the movie is being prepped for a "potential starring vehicle for Pitt". He's been known to delve into the sci-fi and fantasy genre before in movies like 12 Monkeys, Interview with the Vampire and (ugh) Meet Joe Black. No studio, writer or director have been announced yet for the Dark Void movie. In the meantime the game is due for release for the PC and other platforms on January 19, a few days later than the previously announced January 15 release date.

Like it or not, Spike TV's annual telecast of the Video Game Awards is the highest profile award ceremony that the games industry has. Today the cable TV network revealed the nominees for the 2009 edition of the awards with the winners, as voted by the fans on the show's official web site, to be named as part of their live ceremony on Saturday, December 12.

The "Best PC Game" category has four choices this year; EA's people sim sequel The Sims 3, BioWare's RPG Dragon Age: Origins, Valve's zombie shooter Left 4 Dead 2 and . . . Popcap's casual tower defense game Plants vs Zombies which we think is a good if somewhat out of the box choice. Left 4 Dead 2 is also one of the nominees for Game of the Year along with other games released for the PC like Batman: Arkham Asylum and Modern Warfare 2. Assassin's Creed 2 was also nominated in that category but won't be released for the PC until 2010. You can check out all the nominees in the various categories and vote for your picks now (and by the way, we were scratching our heads about Borderlands being put into the "Best RPG" category, too).

Video games are definitely maturing as the medium grows older. What once might have been a simple diversion has become a massive industry, rivaling Hollywood in scope and budget. Though the mainstream media -- and therefore much of America -- might still see the very concept of playing games as juvenilia, it's clear that games are able to willing to broach nearly any subject matter, including some that might be controversial.

Is there any topic that is beyond the scope of a video game? What's taboo these days?

Borderlands has proven itself to be a sleeper hit for Gearbox Software and 2K Games even in the midst of higher profile title releases this fall. Soon fans of the first person shooter game will be able to purchase its official soundtrack. As they do for a number of games, Sumthing Else Music is handling the publishing duties for the Borderlands soundtrack when it comes out on December 8 in stores and via iTunes.

The soundtrack features a number of tunes from various composers including Jesper Kyd, Sascha Dikiciyan, Cris Velasco and Raison Varner, Tim Larkin. Unfortunately, the catchy song "Aint No Rest For The Wicked," which was featured in the game's trailer and TV commercials, is not included.

Welcome to Mac Monday, where we highlight some games for your Macintosh that you might want to try ... or try to avoid. This time around, we're looking at Big Fish Games' Drawn: The Painted Tower, and New Star Games' New Star Soccer 2010. Two completely different games, and both intriguing for different reasons. Find out more after the jump!

Blizzard fans who had hoped to be rolling sevens and pulling on some one armed bandits in Las Vegas next year during BlizzCon can now hold off. Our sister site Wow.com is now reporting that their previous story of BlizzCon 2010 being held in Vegas in late July isn't happening after all.

The Las Vegas Convention Center's web site did indeed show that Blizzard's annual fan event was booked for their venue for July 30 and 31. However the venue's reps have now admitted that due to human error, they had listed the convention on the site when in fact no such confirmation had been made.

Interestingly the convention center rep did say they had one conversation with Blizzard about having BlizzCon come to their venue which may indicate that Blizzard might still move BlizzCon away from Anaheim, California to a new location for the 2010 event. Of course we will post up any BlizzCon news when it happens.

Last August at BlizzCon, Blizzard VP Paul Sams hinted that they might be changing the venue for future versions of their (sort of) annual fan convention. Since its start the event has been held at the Anaheim Convention Center (close to Blizzard's own headquarters) but the 2009 edition made it clear that the venue was close to its limits in terms of holding its over 26,000 attendees.

Now our sister site WoW.com has learned that the Las Vegas Convention Center has a new listing on their calendar . . . for BlizzCon 2010. According to them the show will be held at their venue in Vegas on July 30 and 31. So far Blizzard has yet to admit that they have made such a change, telling WoW.com that they are asking people to refrain from making any travel plans. However if it turns out to be true (and that's likely) it looks like Blizzard will be able to allow even more people to attend than in the past. The Las Vegas Convention Center is the home to tons of conventions every year including the largest trade show in the US, the Consumer Electronics Show, which has well over 100,000 attendees.

Update: WoW.com has updated their story with word that Blizzard is now flat out denying that BlizzCon 2010 will be held in Las Vegas even as the Las Vegas Convention Center's web site continues to show otherwise.

Last week we were given a look at how Cryptic Studios' highly-anticipated spacefaring MMO Star Trek Online was coming along, and let me be the first to say that my fears have been dispelled. STO looks amazing, and from what I saw of it will feature enough interesting gameplay to keep both fans of the franchise and those new to it -- as Jean-Luc Picard might say -- engaged.

Well, you knew some kind of pun was coming, didn't you? Please forgive me. I'm a little giddy with the fact that Big Download has been blessed with three exclusive screenshots from the game -- thanks Atari! Check 'em out below, remember to click on them to see them in full-res, and read all about what we saw after the jump!

The man who helped to create and run the US's leading trade organization for the game industry will be given a huge honor next year. The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences has announced that it will give its annual Lifetime Achievement award to Doug Lowenstein, the long time president of the Entertainment Software Association.

Lowenstein, who left the organization in 2007, helped to launch the ESA (then called the Interactive Digital Software Association) back in 1994. The trade group helped to establish the current ESRB ratings system for games, launched the E3 trade show in 1996 and defended the industry against lawmakers who seeked to restrict the sales of certain games to minors. Lowenstein will receive his award during the AIAS's annual DICE Summit in February.

As we enter the holiday season, Penny Arcade's Child's Play charity has begun its annual fund raising drive to help 70 children's hospitals around the world. Last year the charity had over $1.4 million in cash, toys, games and other items that were donated to the participating children's hospitals.

The drive has been in effect for just over a week but thanks to events held throughout the year the charity has already raised $250,000, which is a quarter of this year's goal of $1 million. In addition to individual donations, a number of events to raise money are being held all over the US and Canada. As usual the biggest event is the annual Child's Play Charity Dinner Auction where people can bid on truly one-of-a-kind items donated by the game industry. This year's auction is being held December 8 in Seattle and tickets are being sold now.

Tomorrow publisher Activision is supposed to officially launch Modern Warfare 2 (although as we have reported some stores have gone ahead and broken the street date for the game). This Wednesday, the US also celebrates the Veteran's Day holiday. Today the Washington Post reports that Activision is using both occasions to launch the Call of Duty Endowment, a foundation designed to help US veterans find work after their military service is over

According to the article, US veterans have a much higher rate of unemployment than civilians. The money from the foundation will be used to help fund programs that are in place to help veterans find jobs. The first $125,000 will be used to help fund a vocational rehabilitation center via the Paralyzed Veterans of America.

Several months ago, back when Blizzard was still targeting a release of StarCraft II by the end of 2009, Pocket Books announced plans to release a prequel novel, StarCraft: Heaven's Devils, by author William C. Dietz, in December. Now that Blizzard is targeting a first half 2010 release date for the long awaited sci-fi RTS game, Pocket Books has delayed the release of the novel as well.

According to Amazon.com, the new release date for the novel is April 6, 2010 which certainly is in that broad time period that Blizzard has stated publicly for the game's release. It's possible that Pocket Books may know something about Blizzard's tentative specific release date for the game and adjusted the novel's release date accordingly . . . or they could just be guessing.

Yesterday we reported on the early release of a novel based on Ubisoft's upcoming spy game Splinter Cell Conviction. Now comes word that another Ubisoft game is being turned into a prose piece. Assassin's Creed: Renaissance is the title of the book that's based on the upcoming stealth action game series.

The book, written by an apparent first time author named Oliver Bowden, seems to be based on the storyline from Assassin's Creed 2, at least according to the summary from Amazon.com The paperback is due for release on November 26 while the PC version of the game is due out in the first quarter of 2010.

If you can't wait for the Splinter Cell: Conviction game to come out in February from developer and publisher Ubisoft, you might want to take a look at Penguin Book's newly released Splinter Cell Conviction novel. The book is the latest in a series of novels based on the exploits of super-spy Sam Fisher. The book's author is listed as "David Michaels" but that's known to be a pseudonym for a series of different writers who have penned books based on various Tom Clancy game properties.

Indeed there's another Splinter Cell novel, Endgame, that's due for release in early December that seems to be totally original and not based on a specific game. And on top of that a novel based on the recent flying action game Tom Clancy's HAWX will be released in late December.