Go Play Lumberjax is the first in the new Go Play line of games from New Jersey-based developer and publisher Majesco. According to Majesco VP of operations Gui Karyo, The Go Play brand was created to deliver "active, family friendly game experiences" on the Nintendo Wii, with "motion-based fun for everyone" the overarching goal.

Lumberjax itself is a competitive party game in which players chop, saw, and log roll their way to victory, much like real loggers do, only without having do deal with actual trees, which can be be real jerks. I'm not sure why Majesco decided to go with the strange spelling of Lumberjack, so I will just assume it's the way the younger generation of loggers call themselves.

Lumberjax will be launching Majesco's Go Play this spring, followed in the summer by the classic street games of Go Play City Sports, with Go Play Circus Star rounding out the line up in the fall. Each game also features support for the Wii Balance Board, further justifying the glorified bathroom scale's existence.

Now let's fill the comments section with witty suggestions for the next Go Play titles. I'll start! Go Play Doctor and Go Play In Traffic. Okay, your turn.

As well as the heart-warming finding that 87% of parents regularly play videogames with their children, the survey also looked at how parents perceived their child's development being affected by gaming.

Perhaps surprisingly, the survey conducted by a major games console manufacturer found that many parents noticed improvements in their kids that they attributed directly to gaming!

75% of surveyed parents think that their children's hand/eye coordination has been improved by gaming, while 84% say that PC gaming has boosted their kid's typing skills.

Parents See Benefit of Children Playing Video Games [GameSpy]

"We more than doubled our anticipated beta audience for Wizard101," said KingsIsle CEO Elie Akilian. "It turns out that the solid game mechanics and whimsical fantasy environment appeal even beyond the tween audience. We've had a great response from testers that included everyone from grandmas who play with a grandchild sitting in their lap to twenty-something traditional gamers."

Not to mention thirty-something traditional gamers! Anyone and everyone can head over to www.wizard101.com right now, download the client, and start getting completely thrashed by children half your age. It'll be awesome.

KingsIsle Entertainment Launches Open Beta Testing Phase for Wizard101

Beta Testers Find Virtual World Brings the Family Together For Shared Playtime

PLANO, TEXAS- Aug 06, 2008 - Online entertainment company KingsIsle Entertainment, Inc announced the successful completion of closed beta testing for virtual world Wizard101. The final beta testing phase has now been opened to the general public at www.wizard101.com. Wizard101, which emphasizes magical adventure and card-collecting in an online 3D world of Wizards, is expected to officially launch within the next month.

"We more than doubled our anticipated beta audience for Wizard101," said KingsIsle CEO Elie Akilian. "It turns out that the solid game mechanics and whimsical fantasy environment appeal even beyond the tween audience. We've had a great response from testers that included everyone from grandmas who play with a grandchild sitting in their lap to twenty-something traditional gamers."

Wizard101's collaborative play style supports an environment where players benefit from working together in adventure quests. A tiered chat system and pre-defined character name generator create a safe community for younger players while an Arena provides a spot for more traditional gamers to show off their player versus player spell-casting skills. As they adventure, players can upgrade their costume and magical accessories, adopt bizarre pets, solve puzzles and play mini-games. At launch, Wizard101 will be free to play, with advanced play content available by subscription.

KingsIsle had Wizard101 under development for three years before the beta period, which means testers experienced a very fully fleshed out game with detailed graphics, fantastic worlds and fully-functional game play. There has been an increasing online buzz about Wizard101. Testers, including those below from esteemed virtual community The Syndicate® have been saying things like:

"Wizard101 is a great game for the whole family, especially for kids. I watch my 6 year old AND my 14 year old laughing with each other instead of irritating one another, as brothers tend to do. I play right along side of my kids."

"Having been a gamer for 30 years now, playing with my kids has to be the most fun I have ever had ... They enjoy the ability to get many different spells and see all the amazing animations, and both are always wanting to start new wizards to try the others. I think the variety of schools and the spells that goes with them makes Wizard101 stand out over [other online games]."

Anyone with a PC who would like to join the final beta testing phase can now sign up at www.wizard101.com and instantly download and install the initial software to join the large cast of good, bad, and frequently silly in-game characters and other players. Beta testers play the game for free and provide feedback to the game's creators leading up to the official launch.

For additional details go to www.wizard101.com.

Installing Free Realms will be simple enough that even the most clueless parent can do it. Prospective players will go to the web page, sign up for an account, and begin to customize their character while the client downloads directly from the game's site. Once completed, players will be able to launch the game directly from a MySpace-like profile page, complete with lists of their online friends and news about the latest game updates.

Perhaps the most parent and child friendly thing about Free Realms? Despite the high level of polish, the game will run smoothly on a GeForce 3. I am pretty sure my toaster comes stock with a GeForce 3. Even the crappiest laptop equipped with onboard graphics will be able to run the game...a definite plus.

At its heart, Free Realms is really a community games portal with a colorful candy shell. It isn't all about leveling, though you can certainly fight monsters solo or with up to three friends to your heart's content. You can also participate in a wide variety of 2D and 3D mini-games, or play the built-in collectible card game. I was shown a factory you could wander into where a fairy asks you to help construct mining belts, launching a Diner Dash-type 2D mini-game. Nifty!

They've got an API in place that will allow them to add mini-games into the game quickly - in fact, when first logging into the game you are presented with a pop-up window that shows friend status and new mini-games added, allowing you to click to either join your pals or check out the new content right away.

I'd feel a bit silly calling a family MMO experience one of the games of the show if not for the fact that so many of my fellow writers seem to agree with me. Every time I mention the game to other press folks who've seen it their eyes light up with excitement. Several have said that they would play the game themselves despite the obvious kiddie/family target audience. When you show jaded members of the gaming press a kid's game that sparks this much interest, you're on to something special.

I leave you with a feature list, directly from the official E3 fact sheet.

Features:
Experience a vibrant new world that's an exciting mix of real-world and fantasy.
Be a wizard one day, and a warrior the next, without having to make a new character.
Join your friends in the game and adventure with them, wherever they are, no matter how long they have been playing.
When you’re ready for some excitement, head out to the wilderness and battle challenging enemies like giant spiders and forest trolls in fast-paced, strategic battlegrounds.
Cooperate with or compete against other players in battle!
Explore, quest, and collect items that you can wear, use or display.
Play a wide variety of mini-games to craft armor, weapons, potions, clothes, furniture, and many other items.
Grab a root beer at the inn and hang out with your friends while a rock band plays on the stage.
Interact with humorous, unique characters, become their friends and receive emails from them!
Raise a dog or cat and teach it to be the kind of pet you want—shy, brave, or funny.
Decorate your own house and grow a variety of plants and flowers.
Send links, share images and videos, and chat with friends from your own, personal, customizable social networking page!

While members of my family are great at bullshitting, we're also pretty good with rhythm and music. My mother and her mother before her ran dancing schools for most of their lives, with most of the girls in the family performing at some point. My brother Richard and I both dabble with musical instruments. He is an excellent guitar player in his own right, and I can pick up just about any instrument and at least peck out a simple tune or two. When I put my mind to it I'm a pretty good singer as well, so we were pretty sure we would make an excellent Rock Band group.

We start off with me on vocals, Xavier on lead guitar, Richard on bass, and Wade on drums. We immediately discover that knowing which of the guitar tracks on the screen is your own is of paramount importance, and the drums are extremely hard for a novice to play. We swap Wade and Richard, but once again the drums prove a bit too complicated, especially for a lifelong guitar player.

As I sadly hand my mic over to Wade, my leg starts throbbing in anticipation of becoming the band's drummer. Until you find the sweet spot between stomping and tapping, your leg is going to hurt. There is no way around it. I'm surprised professional drummers don't have to special order their pants to accommodate freakishly giant calf muscles.

As soon as we launch into Weezer's "Say It Ain't So", we know we've found our places in the band. Well, as soon as we relaunch it, after my brother fails due to playing the wrong side of the screen. Xav picks up on the guitar quickly, Richard is pretty much a natural at it, and Wade - while not knowing the lyrics - performs an admirable if warbly rendition of the hit song.

As for me on the drums, I actually don't do half bad. Once I get into a rhythm it's hard to break me out, though when I do stumble the recovery time is nasty.

After doing a few quick songs, we decide to try out career mode. We let the game randomly generate a band name, but in my head we are the truly outrageous Fahey and the Holograms. For the sake of brevity, our band members are named A, B, Alan, and Fahey. It's getting late, and we decide we're going to do a couple quick songs and call it quits.

If you've played Rock Band single player, you haven't really played the game. Whereas the single player game is just about completing a set number of tracks to open up a new set number of tracks, the multiplayer is about opening new venues, playing mystery sets, and earning fans and fame.

An hour and a half after deciding to just play two more songs, cheers ring out as our band wins a 1967 van, allowing us to travel to neighboring towns to spread our musical love there. My brother and I bow out soon after, but my two nephews are still playing about an hour later, nearly having to be pried away from the Xbox 360 when time comes to go home.

What started out as an excuse for ordering pizza ended up being one of the best times I've had with members of my family in recent memory, even if one of my nephews reeked of onions (he's still figuring out this whole deodorant thing). We don't get together very often, but I've a feeling Rock Band is going to be a staple of such get togethers for a long time coming.

The offer is exclusive to Sam's Club members and can be purchased online although no price was given. Beginning Black Friday from 5:00 AM until 7:00 AM, the bundles will be sold at a limit of one per customer, but after that members can purchase as many as they lke until the supplies run out. This is a one time deal and once they are gone, they are gone.

Good luck Sam's Club members and try not to find yourself crushed under a one hundred pound tub of gummi bears in the fray.

Buried with the news of the Xbox 360 Family Timer was an interesting date: early December. That's when Microsoft says the timer will be available on the Xbox 360. Here's a safe bet: The timer is part of the Fall Dashboard update, which means we won't be seeing the update until early December. It sure seems like Microsoft is getting dangerously close to making this a "winter update"! No news yet on the other features we will see in the update, but my sources tell me we will be hearing more about the update in the next week or so. But let's play a game, shall we? How many more PS3 firmware updates do you think we will see before the Xbox Fall Update actually arrives?

We'll only really be able to tell how successful this generation is when they have been around a while. Once our PS3's have been battered and scratched by various two year olds, our Wii's have had all manner of thin items inserted in their slots and our stylus-less DS's are played with a cocktail stick, only then can we sit back and see how well this generation's gaming project has worked out.

Thankfully, my friends don't come over and stick things in my Wii (there's just no really good way to word that is there?) and put scratches on my PS3, at least not if they value their lives. Just goes to prove my point though, one man's test of a system's worth is very different from another's.

The Family Gamer: A little Mii time [Play.tm]

Just in time for Father's Day, CNN has a positive article up on the subject of families who game together. From the Wii to Diablo and Guild Wars, the message is that gaming with your kids can equal a (gasp!) positive way to spend time together, as opposed to the usual litany of complaints that equal gaming will turn your children into blank-eyed violent zombies.

"You're on the kid's turf," said Dr. Arminta Jacobson, director of the Center for Parent Education at the University of North Texas. "Anything that's fun between fathers and their kids I think is a really good thing."

Who ever would have thought? Maggie Greene

Fathers and kids bond playing video games [CNN]

Here's a trio of new Japanese PS3 ads. Each of them delivers hard hitting messages. Take the one above: Nothing says family time like polishing PSPs together.

Woah. Deep. Hit the jump for the other two. Brian Ashcraft

Girls like the PS3, but not their fathers.

Children crash and burn just like cars, you know.