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They are listed on the soundtrack for the game Skate, as well. They redid "Pretty Vacant"

From microsofts own webiste.
List of know applications that service pack 2 broke
Untest updates are always bad for business.

OL Toolbar 1.13.2 AOL 32-bit and 64-bit (NX) http://www.aol.com/ The Information Bar blocks access to the tool's edit boxes.
PhotoShop CS 8.0 Adobe 64-bit (NX) http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/main.html Program installs, but will not start.
BlackICE 3.6 crj Internet Security Systems 64-bit (NX) http://www.iss.net/ When you use this program, you may receive a Stop error that causes the program to quit.
BootSkin All Stardock 32-bit and 64-bit (NX) http://www.stardock.com/ When you restart your computer during the Windows XP SP2 Setup program, a Stop error occurs. For more information, see the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;%5Bln%5D;873159.
Command Antivirus 4.9 Authentium 32-bit and 64-bit (NX) http://www.authentium.com/ This program does not start.
Encyclopedia Britannica 2000 Deluxe 1 Encyclopedia Britannica 32-bit and 64-bit (NX) http://www.britannica.com/ Java rendering does not function after you install this program.
eTrust EZ Armor 1 Computer Associates 64-bit (NX) http://www.ca.com/ The EZ Firewall part of this program generates a Stop error during installation.
Freedom Force 1 Electronic Arts 32-bit and 64-bit (NX) http://www.ea.com/ When you start the program, a message appears that points you to the following EA Web site: http://techsupport.ea.com./
Kaspersky Anti-Virus (German) 4.5 and 5.0 Kaspersky Labs 64-bit (NX) http://www.kaspersky.com/ Real-Time scanning does not work in version 4.5 or 5.0. The vendor's Web site has available product updates that are designed to address this issue.
Live Motion 1 Adobe 32-bit and 64-bit (NX) http://www.adobe.com/ This program displays various errors that prevent typical operation.
MapSend DirectRoute 1.0 Magellan 32-bit and 64-bit (NX) http://www.magellangps.com/ When you start the program, a message appears that points you to the following Web site: http://www.magellangps.com/en/support.
MPEGcraft DVD All Canopus 32-bit and 64-bit (NX) When you try to save an MPEG file, you receive a "Failed to Edit" error, and the file cannot be saved.
NBA LIVE 2000 1 Electronic Arts 32-bit and 64-bit (NX) http://www.ea.com/ This program does not start in certain systems.
NOD32 for Microsoft Windows 2.000.11 Eset 64-bit (NX) http://www.eset.com/ When this program is started on an AMD64-based computer, all network connectivity is lost. To resolve this issue, upgrade to NOD32 version 2.12.2 or higher.
Norman Personal Firewall 1.4 Norman 32-bit and 64-bit (NX) http://www.norman.com/ Norman Personal Firewall Assistant will not start.
Norman Personal Firewall 1.4 Norman 64-bit (NX) After this program installs and restarts, the desktop does not load correctly
Norton AntiVirus 2003 Symantec 32-bit and 64-bit (NX) http://www.symantec.com/ At system startup, Scheduled Tasks in Norton AntiVir

From microsofts own webiste.
List of know applications that service pack 2 broke
Untest updates are always bad for business.

OL Toolbar 1.13.2 AOL 32-bit and 64-bit (NX) http://www.aol.com/ The Information Bar blocks access to the tool's edit boxes.
PhotoShop CS 8.0 Adobe 64-bit (NX) http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/main.html Program installs, but will not start.
BlackICE 3.6 crj Internet Security Systems 64-bit (NX) http://www.iss.net/ When you use this program, you may receive a Stop error that causes the program to quit.
BootSkin All Stardock 32-bit and 64-bit (NX) http://www.stardock.com/ When you restart your computer during the Windows XP SP2 Setup program, a Stop error occurs. For more information, see the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;%5Bln%5D;873159.
Command Antivirus 4.9 Authentium 32-bit and 64-bit (NX) http://www.authentium.com/ This program does not start.
Encyclopedia Britannica 2000 Deluxe 1 Encyclopedia Britannica 32-bit and 64-bit (NX) http://www.britannica.com/ Java rendering does not function after you install this program.
eTrust EZ Armor 1 Computer Associates 64-bit (NX) http://www.ca.com/ The EZ Firewall part of this program generates a Stop error during installation.
Freedom Force 1 Electronic Arts 32-bit and 64-bit (NX) http://www.ea.com/ When you start the program, a message appears that points you to the following EA Web site: http://techsupport.ea.com./
Kaspersky Anti-Virus (German) 4.5 and 5.0 Kaspersky Labs 64-bit (NX) http://www.kaspersky.com/ Real-Time scanning does not work in version 4.5 or 5.0. The vendor's Web site has available product updates that are designed to address this issue.
Live Motion 1 Adobe 32-bit and 64-bit (NX) http://www.adobe.com/ This program displays various errors that prevent typical operation.
MapSend DirectRoute 1.0 Magellan 32-bit and 64-bit (NX) http://www.magellangps.com/ When you start the program, a message appears that points you to the following Web site: http://www.magellangps.com/en/support.
MPEGcraft DVD All Canopus 32-bit and 64-bit (NX) When you try to save an MPEG file, you receive a "Failed to Edit" error, and the file cannot be saved.
NBA LIVE 2000 1 Electronic Arts 32-bit and 64-bit (NX) http://www.ea.com/ This program does not start in certain systems.
NOD32 for Microsoft Windows 2.000.11 Eset 64-bit (NX) http://www.eset.com/ When this program is started on an AMD64-based computer, all network connectivity is lost. To resolve this issue, upgrade to NOD32 version 2.12.2 or higher.
Norman Personal Firewall 1.4 Norman 32-bit and 64-bit (NX) http://www.norman.com/ Norman Personal Firewall Assistant will not start.
Norman Personal Firewall 1.4 Norman 64-bit (NX) After this program installs and restarts, the desktop does not load correctly
Norton AntiVirus 2003 Symantec 32-bit and 64-bit (NX) http://www.symantec.com/ At system startup, Scheduled Tasks in Norton AntiVir

From microsofts own webiste.
List of know applications that service pack 2 broke
Untest updates are always bad for business.

OL Toolbar 1.13.2 AOL 32-bit and 64-bit (NX) http://www.aol.com/ The Information Bar blocks access to the tool's edit boxes.
PhotoShop CS 8.0 Adobe 64-bit (NX) http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/main.html Program installs, but will not start.
BlackICE 3.6 crj Internet Security Systems 64-bit (NX) http://www.iss.net/ When you use this program, you may receive a Stop error that causes the program to quit.
BootSkin All Stardock 32-bit and 64-bit (NX) http://www.stardock.com/ When you restart your computer during the Windows XP SP2 Setup program, a Stop error occurs. For more information, see the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;%5Bln%5D;873159.
Command Antivirus 4.9 Authentium 32-bit and 64-bit (NX) http://www.authentium.com/ This program does not start.
Encyclopedia Britannica 2000 Deluxe 1 Encyclopedia Britannica 32-bit and 64-bit (NX) http://www.britannica.com/ Java rendering does not function after you install this program.
eTrust EZ Armor 1 Computer Associates 64-bit (NX) http://www.ca.com/ The EZ Firewall part of this program generates a Stop error during installation.
Freedom Force 1 Electronic Arts 32-bit and 64-bit (NX) http://www.ea.com/ When you start the program, a message appears that points you to the following EA Web site: http://techsupport.ea.com./
Kaspersky Anti-Virus (German) 4.5 and 5.0 Kaspersky Labs 64-bit (NX) http://www.kaspersky.com/ Real-Time scanning does not work in version 4.5 or 5.0. The vendor's Web site has available product updates that are designed to address this issue.
Live Motion 1 Adobe 32-bit and 64-bit (NX) http://www.adobe.com/ This program displays various errors that prevent typical operation.
MapSend DirectRoute 1.0 Magellan 32-bit and 64-bit (NX) http://www.magellangps.com/ When you start the program, a message appears that points you to the following Web site: http://www.magellangps.com/en/support.
MPEGcraft DVD All Canopus 32-bit and 64-bit (NX) When you try to save an MPEG file, you receive a "Failed to Edit" error, and the file cannot be saved.
NBA LIVE 2000 1 Electronic Arts 32-bit and 64-bit (NX) http://www.ea.com/ This program does not start in certain systems.
NOD32 for Microsoft Windows 2.000.11 Eset 64-bit (NX) http://www.eset.com/ When this program is started on an AMD64-based computer, all network connectivity is lost. To resolve this issue, upgrade to NOD32 version 2.12.2 or higher.
Norman Personal Firewall 1.4 Norman 32-bit and 64-bit (NX) http://www.norman.com/ Norman Personal Firewall Assistant will not start.
Norman Personal Firewall 1.4 Norman 64-bit (NX) After this program installs and restarts, the desktop does not load correctly
Norton AntiVirus 2003 Symantec 32-bit and 64-bit (NX) http://www.symantec.com/ At system startup, Scheduled Tasks in Norton AntiVir

Apparently, if you burn the iso to a disc, and then follow these steps[.DOC warning], it works. I haven't verified this though.

Just wanted to address a few points in your post:

The Sims surpassed Myst at the top selling game of all time, quite a few years ago, and has continued to sell very well. The franchise has sold about 85 million games to date.

The success of The Sims is largely due to the fact that players can add their own content to the game. Conversely, The Sims Online was a flop because it didn't allow players to add their own content, even though that feature was initially promised, to the delight of the fans, then later forgotten, do the fan's dismay.

Yes there are official and semi-official mod tools. I wrote the character animation system in The Sims, and several tools for creating custom content. Before we release The Sims in March 2000, instead of releasing a demo, I developed a tool called "SimShow" that displayed the animated characters, and enabled players to create their own Sims. After we release The Sims, Will Wright hired me to use The Sims source code to develop The Sims Transmogrifier, a tool for cloning objects, exporting and importing theie graphics and properties, so players can modify them and create their own objects. I've created other easier to use "drag-and-drop" tools like Show-N-Tell for displaying Sims objects in a web browser, and Rug-O-Matic for creating picture story rugs. (You can enter text that's displayed in the catalog and in an in-game pop-up window, that tells a story about the picture on the rug.)

One important way that The Sims is family friendly, is that it does not discriminate against families with gay people, nor does it perpetuate the hypocritical anti-gay homophobic agenda of the Republican party (like some other games from Texas and Senators from Idaho whose names I won't mention). Any of The Sims characters can participate in gay or straight relationships with each other, without any negative consequences or stereotypes. Anything less would be hostile to many families and gay people. Anyone who would argue that it's family friendly to discriminate against gays is homophobic, and needs to have their head examined, and work through their self-loathing personal issues with a mental health professional, just like Republican Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho, or Republican Senator James Foley of Florida, or Republican Evangelical Crystal Meth and Gay Sex Addicted Reverend Ted Haggard. (Oops, sorry -- I just couldn't resist naming some names.)

-Don

Bill Gates regrets that MS ignored Internet Explorer for so long that Apple wrote Safari in frustration. (See: Worst. Keynote. Ever. over at The Secret Diary of Bill Gates). He thinks that Apple is making a ploy to capture a large part of the web browser market now. It certainly is easy to imagine Microsoft buying Electronic Arts or ID Software or even two or three of the top dozen game software companies to inflict further damage on the Macintosh game market. I wonder how Apple could prevent that?

SimCity Classic. 'nuff said.

Anyone ever play Myth: The Fallen Lords, or Myth 2?

If you didn't already know: Bungie, the developer of these games, ran bungie.net, a multiplayer game server with game lobbies and chat rooms similar to GameSpy or the like, but exclusively designed to give people a place to organize/host games and chat. The servers also tracked game stats and scores (there were both ranked and unranked "rooms" to play in).

Bungie kept the bungie.net Myth server running for years. The first game launched in late 1997, and finally closed in November 2001 after the server machine died (at this point Bungie had been bought by Microsoft so I imagine that has a lot to do with the server not being replaced with a new one). The Myth 2 "bnet" server was launched December 1998 and ran through until March 2002.

The thing that makes this significant is that during all of the years these servers were running, you didn't pay a subscription fee to use them. They kept these extremely high-traffic servers running for 4 years with only the retail box price covering the cost this whole time. Not only was this a service equivalent to the game-tracking and chatroom functionality of GameSpy, the service also, as I mentioned above, tracked game stats and gave you a little ranking symbol based on your skills/stats in comparison to other users.

I realize a lot of recent games still offer free multiplayer, but not only are most of them supported by in-game advertising, many recent games have their multiplayer services cancelled after only a year (or less).

Anyway, I just wanted to take the opportunity to point out this comparison between companies and their ideals. Some are more concerned about giving the damn best gameplay experience they can offer, and, not surprisingly, some are a little more bent on maximizing profits at the user's expense (literally).

An hypothesized (meta)algorithm running our universe has been proposed in "The New AI: General & Sound & Relevant for Physics"

Here's another one:

http://thesims.ea.com/us/

This one requires less steps to make big tits.

Werd.

From all of the Quake-clones, only a few really stand out. Unreal branched to make their own engine, (recently licensed by EA Games, in fact--NOTE: link downloads PDF file) so did Half Life (the first). (partly responsible for the industry movement to "skeletal" modeling) Of the two, Source engine is truly the more powerful. (even if not the more ubiquitous)

Steam resembles a constant hack-in-progress, and the "Content Servers" are what get my goat every time. (2 megabit pipe and I'm still downloading at 80kbps?!?!) Let's join hands and pray for it's quick emergence into robustitudity. (yes, I made that up... what, you don't invent any words?)

In all, it only amounts to the partly-bruised banana in an otherwise delicious arrangement of delights in the gaming industry.

'click' ... purchased ... 'click' ... installed ... 'click' ... start game -- nobody else has that

No; it's in the gaim.

Go tell that to Maxis.

university students are unable to see content that the rest of the (free) world sees

and more importantly are often blocked from very legitimate information crucial to their area of study

Papers like Village Voice are blocked. Anatomy sites are blocked. Electronic Art sites are blocked. Anything with ".mp3" is blocked.

It strikes me as odd that students must leave campus to learn, and smacks of censorship in horrible ways.

Are we alone, or part of a disturbing trend?

• Thought, at length, about how the internet can both help and hurt your students, both during and away from class.
• Recorded specific examples of sites or resources you can't reach and why they would make a justifiable, positive impact on your class.
• Met with your local IT staff to discuss your specific examples and discover what can be done about providing access to them.

Strider - Game that looks hard but is actually quite easy and fun to play. You always feel like you're doing amazing things.
Puzzle Pirates - Time to bilge your life. Yarr.
Ikaruga - My nethack. Just play. You're dead. Ouch.
Sim Golf - I don't actually like playing golf, but for some reason running a golf course is really relaxing.
Ore No Ryouri - No matter how panicked things might get in real life, nothing can compare to running a japanese ramen house in a video game.

Will Wright's Spore ( http://spore.ea.com/ ) looks like a decent step in the direction of "highbrow". There's a definite potential for deep intellectual stimulation, you could have a serious discussion about the philosophical implications and themes, and it appears it will be a master work of video game art.

I enjoyed this article because it relates to me. There's a reason why I don't own a gaming console. I haven't owned one since Atari 2600. Due to my four fingers on my hands, lack of thumbs, and inablility to hold game controllers in mid air, I cannot use those console controllers very well. I have to use them on tables to hold them. This is why I do better on computer games because of keyboards, mice (small light ones like those old two/three button ones), and simple small joysticks (think of those old one/two buttons one like those old school Atari 2600 joysticks). I currently have a Microsoft Sidewinder joystick, but they have too many buttons and too big for my hands, so I don't do well when flying (I avoid flying in Battlefield games ;)). :(

I also have speech and hearing impediments, so I don't use Teamspeak or any voice communications. I tried it once in Day of Defeat (original version) and obviously, no one knew I was saying (even my friends whom I talked to!). Hearing is another problem since I don't hear well with my analog bone conduction hearing aid (mono -- one microphone and can't determine audio directions). I love games that use closed caption/CC and suititles like in Half-Life 2 games (only use the dialog ones) and F.E.A.R..

This is not what CPU's are good at. CPU's are general purpose processing units. They do bad code well. In fact Intel is particularly good at running crazying branching all over every where code with no particular sense to it. CPU's are good at doing un-predictable things to a few memory locations. Even the MMX/altivec etc code really only are set up for doing 4-16 memory locations at a time. Not much compared to GPU's, which are designed for doing 256x256 to 2048x2048 things at a time. That's several orders of magnitude more.

So again, GPU's do a single thing to a bunch of things well. Their memory model is setup with that in mind. Its all about keeping the stream running as fast as possible.

So what other things might this be used for? Check the GPGPU sites for specifics, but mesh based simulations come to mind, and as another poster said, the same kinds of things as the physics cards. The thing is, gaming keeps getting higher levels of graphic fidelity, to the point where if the underlying physics is wrong, its distracting. People don't need to know physics to know something looks funny. So game titles, and others, are increasingly spending time on simulations.

Today's GPU's can run a program for each and every pixel with 60fps+ framerates. These programs can do more than just set a color, or read a value out of an image, and write it to the destination pixel. They can calculate accelerations, velocites, etc, based on force applied. There really is alot of freedom. My personal favorite flavor of talking to GPU's is this one: http://www.opengl.org/documentation/glsl/

And the other thing is, the GPU is powerful, and a BIG part of the total budget for a PC now. So it seems like it should be used for more than high end games, and the thing is, with the exception of the occasional high end graphics professional, it really isn't right now.

MacOSX changed that to some extent, but seriously programmable GPU's can do a lot right now. Notice that MacOSX runs well on the iBooks, which don't have high end GPU's, but integrated Intel graphics. But games like BattleField2 requires the high end GPU. The point is there is ALOT of room to run in the high end GPU's, and it is basically idle for everyone not playing BF2 http://www.ea.com/official/battlefield/battlefield 2/us/ or some other modern game title.

So you can see why ATI (and NVidia, etc) would want to find other reasons for these cards to exist. Otherwise, the game market will go even more to XBox/PS2, etc, because marketing aside, there is little reason to put a high end graphics card in most peoples machines. The GPU hardware will go to those boxes, and Intel's integrated stuff will win the day. (cheaper, easier to build a system around)

3. The largest game company in the world has no equivalent to Steam or battle.net.

Since about a year ago.

Third time's the charm, right?

because cooking is a chore

Battlefield 2142 http://www.ea.com/official/battlefield/2142/us/

The wheel gets reinvented because if every game used the Source engine every game would play exactly like Half Life 2 and CounterStrike Source and DoD Source. If every game used the Doom III engine every game would play exactly like Doom III and Quake IV.

It's hard to imagine that Adventure Pinball plays exactly like Unreal Tournament, despite using the same engine.

Well let's see, have we had any games about vietnam?

You mean other then Battlefield: Vietnam?
http://www.ea.com/redesign/games/pccd/bf_vietnam/h ome.jsp

It sounds like you haven't actually played The Sims, looked at any of the web sites of stories written by Sims players about their characters, or downloaded any user created characters or objects. It was designed from the start to enable you to model your house, family and environment, and use it tell stories about anything you want. You should check out online community of people who make original content for The Sims. Fans have made several orders of magnitide more content than Maxis originally produced.

The Sims Exchange: hundreds of thousands of stories created with The Sims, downloadable houses, families, etc.

SimFreaks: one of the premier sites for high quality player created content.

-Don

Over the last few months the Spore team has had a vareity of job openings for people who have experience in the handheld market. (Similar to this)

[speculation]
While this is hardly conclusive, its quite possible they are trying to hit all the markets. PCs/Consoles/Handheld Game Devices/Smart Phones/etc. On the PC or console you would have a full toolset and on the smaller devices it would be a scaled down version. (Spore Tamagochi)
[/speculation]

Burnout 4

Burnout 4 (Burnout Revenge) has been out for a while (released on September 13th 2005). I bought the PS2 version several months ago.

You can play the original on the Maxis website:

http://simcity.ea.com/play/simcity_classic.php

Read the last 3 paragraphs carefully.... the quote from the article doesn't really touch on the syngergy between LucasArts and ILM. It looks to me like ILM is trying to do coordinated game and movie development - probably using the same models, effect engines, artists and scripters.

A thought comes to mind... did EA have any easy way to bring movie LOTR geometry in the game engine? More probably they spent lots of money: either on converting the models or remaking them to render in realtime on a console. Perhaps the scenes needed to be reengineered as well.

From the economic point of view the more a product costs to develop the less risk you want to take in making something innovative, the more units you have to sell to turn a profit and the higher the entry barrier for a small company. I'll wager this is true of movies as well as games.

It's no big deal to simulate life forms. I have created an entire life form and simulated its life with this software. The best part, I have managed get it to go through sexual reproduction (think "woohoo").

Um, they have that. It's called the Sims Online.

http://www.ea.com/official/thesims/thesimsonline/u s/nai/index.jsp

Personally, I like killing stuff while chatting.

My big purchase for February was Cubivore. Used. Waiting on two things at this point: Spore and a Revolution. I may pick up Chibi-Robo, but my schedule hasn't been game friendly lately.

flash required
http://spore.ea.com/

Yeah... Imagine how stupid it would be to have a game where you don't kill anyone.

My web browser shows the EA home page as a plain black page. Quite innovative. Shouldn't a company's web site work with any browser? Why should I buy a new product from this company if I can expect zero support through their web site?

I'm curious where you read that StarForce was on the Battle for Middle Earth 2 demo. Battle for Middle Earth 2 is EA, which doesn't use StarForce. Plus, based on the way the Wiki says Star Force works, it relies on physical media, which wouldn't be included with a downloaded demo in an active form (no key, no activation, nothing to protect).

"That won't stop people from holding this up as more evidence that games are evil, though. I should take bets on how long it takes Jack Thompson to chime in."

Well of course they're evil

We need new genres for everything. Also why can't we get another day in the week? Week In Week Out its Mon,Tues,Weds,Thur,Fri,Sat,Sun. When will the "calendar makers" listen to the consumer and put 2 more days in between Sat and Sun?

On a serious note. Quit bemoaning it and draft Your Original Ideas, If you can't code them there are DevHouses who need writers/story editors with Original Ideas. Or you can sit back and say "Entertain me!", and then whine because you get what sells best.

Original Fun games don't come from Editorials, they come from creative thinkers and coders.

Like this Guy Here:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_Wright#Exte rnal_links Have you read/heard about Spore http://spore.ea.com/ or http://www.google.com/search?q=Spore+will+wright&s tart=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&rls=org. mozilla:en-US:official seems pretty innovative to me.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled WhinaPaLuza.

By the way, since when is the well-known fact that SUVs present an extreme roll over danger news?

I'm not sure of your definition of blockbuster, but Battlefield 2 was a huge hit this year.

I agree, but the game has to be good and not crap. Doesn't Electronic Arts have the rights to this game?

Once you get Jets'n'Guns to start, Pontifex to not crash over sound buffer underruns constantly, Simcity 4 Deluxe to start (note: Not just SC4, the deluxe version), and Tropico to run, I'm sold.

But if you think you can replace Windows with WINE right now, you're deluded. I've got hundreds of PC games going back about 12 years. With programs from before 2000, it's about 50-50 run/won't even start. With more recent stuff, maybe 1 in 4 or 5 will run something resembling correctly. Let's not start about those games that don't like my 'debugger' or have DRM on the CD.

On a more positive note, Outpost 2 runs nicely, as does 1602 AD and Cyberstorm II.

I'm not going to link to porn sites on Slashdot.

You're probably the first, but I'll respect that.

How would they stop them? Uhhh, it's a violation of the EULA to sell mods.

Considering that EA releases tools directly to do modding on The Sims, I highly doubt it against the EULA to make mods. There may be some argument about selling them, but that would be near impossible to enforce, and probably tossed out in court very quickly. Besides which, most of the "nude" mods are released for free.

They also happen to be advertising these mods by using The Sims trademark.

And? It isn't trademark infringement for me to say that my product interacts with someone else's product. I'll need to have a disclaimer somewhere which states that I am not affiliated with them and that the trademarks are wholly owned by the other company, but I can still name them by name.

The fact that EA isn't defending their trademark will probably get them into serious trouble with their shareholders anyway.

I think their shareholders would be happy that the company isn't throwning money away fighting frivilous lawsuits, and possible opening itself up to counter-suits. There really isn't anything actionable about parody mods. Disney has been fighting parodies for a long time, and lost at every turn. If Disney can't win, do you really think EA is going to fare any better? Parody, even that which is sexual in nature, has a history of being protected speech.

you can see PS2 everywhere besides homes: in taverns, in coffee shops, everywhere where there is a TV in public display there is also a PS2 and Konami's soccer

You're making this up aren't you?

I'm from the UK, and I've never even heard of this game, let alone seen it anywhere in public. Apart from in the windows of shops that sell consoles, I don't even see any PS2's in public.

I seriously doubt 'Winning Eleven' has anything to do with the success of the PS2 in Europe. The most popular football games are EA's FIFA series, but I reckon the GTA series is a much more serious force behind PS2 sales.

Planning so so poorly thought out, a kid playing SIM City would come up with better plans. And that is exacly my point. We have simulation software that is inextensive. Tons of historical data to pull from. We know how to design better levee systems, bridges and canals. But the political system fails us again and again.

Citizens are taught to hate paying taxes. Politicans abuse their authority for personal gain. The spiral leads to the present situation where systems are allowed to decay to the crisis point.

http://investor.ea.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=88189&p=iro l-newsArticle&ID=744892&highlight=

Madden 2006 sells a record breaking 1.7M copies in its first week.

So it doesn't seem to matter to the lemmings that the game has very little to offer in terms of innovation.

$49.99 for a new roster either means people have more than enough disposable income to waste, the reviews are wrong or mass consumtion is good. Or something else.

I just finished reading a preview of Spore, a new game from the creator of the sims, and it seems like AI in games is about to take another leap :) (messed up my previous post a bit)

• American's McGee Alice - admitedly it's not more than a 3D Mario in terms of game play, but oh does it have style.
  
• Rez - abstract shooter with great soundtrack and original graphics.
  
• Tranquility - Abstract 3D flying game. Unlike anything else I've seen, has the simplicity of Tetris.
  
• Gish - 2D platformer with very original gameplay due to the lead character's physical properties