A rather lengthy piece about The Beatles: Rock Band on the New York Times' online equivalent has revealed that the game will be getting three albums as DLC after it launches early next month. Details after the jump.

I know a lot of our readers have been disputing Grand Theft Auto 4's (PS3, Xbox 360, PC) GOTY status, so it may come as a disappointment to that part of the gaming masses that Rockstar's latest GTA has been crowned as THE game of 2008 in the New York Times' own Best of 2008 list. Yeah, it's not exactly earth-shaking news, but what caught my eye in this list wasn't the GOTY, but the more unconventional awards that were handed out.

Photograper Robbie Cooper shows us all just how focused young gamers can be while playing with actual clips of kids of various ages while they're playing games. Watch all the triumph, the anxiety, the joy of the kill, and a little girl with no emotion. Catch all the different faces in the video.

The AC/DC Rock Band title sure is real, after all. No less than The New York Times itself has confirmed the existence of the title, as well as the title launch that's happening on MTV tomorrow.

Microsoft Game Studios Vice President Shane Kim discussed several choice topics during the recent DICE Summit in Las Vegas last Thursday. Among the things he mentioned were the company's move to expand its userbase into the casual gaming market, more Halo projects and some other small tidbits discussing the state of the gaming company and its plans for the future (a portable handheld gaming console, perhaps?). Read more about what Shane Kim had to say in the full article.

Those of you who were expecting to get downloadable content for your Nintendo DS will be sadly disappointed at this bit of news we have today.

A Nintendo representative retracted Reggie Fils-Aime previous statement about the top-selling handheld getting downloadable content through a future Wii channel.

For more information, read the full article!

(Editor's Note: QuickJump QuickPeek just turned 16. Ah, sweet sixteen. Sixteen is definitely a lovely number. For those inclined to all things mathematical, four is the square root of 16. And that's just what we're going to try to get to the bottom of right here. The root of all things gaming. For this week at least. Here again is QuickJump's weekly article dedicated to the un-updated. A week's worth of great news, in bite-sized form!)

So here we are in QuickPeek 16. Last week's edition was pretty jam-packed with hot news items, confirmations, and releases, and there's also been a couple of heated debates between icons in the industry. This week will have you guys feeling good about the little big tiny giants that you have sitting in your living rooms - or handhelds snuggling comfortably in their respective pouches or carrying cases.

This isn't about one platform besting another. It's about shaking hands and welcoming people with open arms. As beauty pageant contestants always put it: World Peace! Because if Mario, Solid Snake, and Sonic can do it, then so can we. Err, that is barring the fact that Mario, Snake, and Sonic are in a Brawling game, but the essential thing remains: they're together.

Click the Full Article link below to check out this week's full issue!

QuickJump QuickPeek 16 originally posted October 13, 2007 at 02:00 PM.

Here is the church. Here is the steeple. Open the doors and see all the people (playing Halo). An article from the New York Times reveals that churches actually do have a soft spot for games. In fact, some churches are using video games as an actual tool to recruit more youths.

Taking a more modern approach at enticing kids to their community, church leaders have been renting out video games and inviting teenagers for "video game night" down at the church - and this is despite the fact that some churches hold some grudges against violent games (e.g. a very recent appeal to withdraw R:FoM from the BAFTA). The New York Times article runs:

Across the country, hundreds of ministers and pastors desperate to reach young congregants have drawn concern and criticism through their use of an unusual recruiting tool: the immersive and violent video game Halo[...] // Witness the basement on a recent Sunday at the Colorado Community Church [...] where Tim Foster, 12, and Chris Graham, 14, [...] locked in violent virtual combat [...] Tim explained the game's allure: "It's just fun blowing people up." // Once they come for the games, Gregg Barbour, the youth minister of the church said, they will stay for his Christian message. "We want to make it hard for teenagers to go to hell," Mr. Barbour wrote in a letter to parents at the church.

Other supporters of this new method in recruitment believe that the important thing is for the church to connect to the youth. James Tonkowich of the Institute on Religion and Democracy points out that "If you want to connect with young teenage boys and drag them into church, free alcohol and pornographic movies would do it. My own take is you can do better than that."

The story of Halo 3 is sometimes used even as a spring board for discussion about faith. As a 16 year-old Baptist in Lawrenceville recounts: "We play Halo, take a break and have something to eat, and have a lesson. [The pastor even tried to use analogies] between God and the devil."

Sort of makes you think twice about the definition of "Covenant" doesn't it? The simple fact that the game is called "Halo" might connote something rather holy as well. So what's your take on this, though? Yes, there are a lot of controversial points raised by this issue, but please be mindful of your comments.

In a recent interview with the New York Times, Entertainment Software Association (ESA) President Michael D. Gallagher revealed that one of the ESA's priorities is to infiltrate Washington.

The new ESA president noted that while the movie and music industries already have backers in Washington, the video game industry does not quite have the same privilege yet.

According to Gallagher, the main challenge lies in "connecting with decision makers and creating champions for the video game industry in the policy-making arena."

In addition to having a smaller budget, Gallagher also noted that the video game industry doesn't have the star power to seduce politicians.

"Washington is very enamored with glitz and the appeal of stars," said Gallagher. "Whenever Bono shows up he creates this bow wave as he comes through, and it's true that stars do help drive messages. And it is true that Master Chief and Mario are not yet household words on the Hill, but wait for the years ahead."

Gallagher also said that the ESA will be revealing its full agenda after E3.

This is excellent news. Our lawmakers make their decisions based on information. If that information only comes from anti-gaming lawyers and anti-gaming activists, then of course our lawmakers are going to develop an anti-gaming bias. So it's good that our industry strengthens its representation.

 

The last time we heard about Manhunt 2 and the controversy surrounding it, it seems that we're not going to find any closure soon until the game itself gets released and the public is able to truly digest just how the title can get gruesome. A writer for the New York Times by the name of Seth Shiesel then went forward to find out for himself, and with rather surprising results.

Dropping by Take-Two's Manhattan offices, Seth met up with company chairman Strauss Zelnick, in order to clock in about three hours' worth of playtime with the now-infamous title. The two exchanged pleasantries and opinions about the game, and then finally got down to the bloody task at hand: playing the highly-controversial Wii version of the game, which the critics have been blasting for the sole reason that you had to imitate the killing actions your character does in order to get the full gameplay out of it.

So what were his impressions of the game? Seth calls Manhunt 2 a highly-conventional game. Playing as Dr. Daniel Lamb, you look around for tools like a crowbar to open a door, or solve little puzzles with simple solutions. He notes the creepy music and the creepier bondage outfits, but we got that in Manhunt 1, didn't we?

But as we all know, those aren't the parts of the game it's being banned for, and so he moves on to talk about the gameplay's execution system - and while he admits that Manhunt 2 IS indeed quite violent and quite gory, it pales in comparison to today's more prevalent media, with Hostel and Saw II as his examples. The actual execution scenes, violent as they are, are quite optional and last no more than 10 seconds. And with the game being pretty much about your character trying to break out of a heavily-guarded facility, you're more focused on not getting swarmed by the enemies rather than seeking on inflicting as much violence as possible.

Seth Shiesel's final verdict? Confessing that he's not a gorefest fan, finding himself quite the squeamish one when it comes to violence, Seth found Manhunt 2 to be not particularly sickening or frightening. And compared to today's movies, he says that Manhunt 2 is more of a violent, interactive cartoon than anything else.

It's certainly good that someone actually tried playing the game to see for themselves just what every parental watchdog group is eager to ban. You can read the entire article at the read link below, and let us know what you think by your comments.