“GameStop takes this situation quite seriously,” said Rory Rhoads, GameStop’s Regional Vice President of Stores. “We are pleased to partner with the ALERT Unit and have taken very deliberate steps to improve our operations. Specifically, we have suspended our cash-for-trade transactions in Shelby County and DeSoto County, Mississippi until February 2009.”

Each of the 8 defendants were charged with one year on diversion, a form of probation that can ultimately result in your record being cleared.

As an aside, Rory's office is located down the street in the GameStop I used to work at. Hell of a guy, that Rory.

GameStop employees nabbed in undercover sting [Memphis Commercial Appeal]

SEGA Unveils Details For Mario & Sonic At The Olympic GamesTM

LONDON (September. 26, 2007) - SEGA Europe Ltd and SEGA® of America, Inc., today revealed details of the exciting blockbuster title, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games™. Published by SEGA across Europe and North America, and published by Nintendo in the Japanese market, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games is licensed through a worldwide partnership with International Sports Multimedia (ISM), the exclusive interactive entertainment software licensee of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

This exciting new game for the Wii™ video game system Wii™ and Nintendo DS™ system is packed with all-new interactive features and includes 20 authentic Olympic events - played out in stylised Olympic venues. Using the Wii Remote™ and Nunchuck™ control system, players can have an unparalleled interactive experience and compete using one of 16 characters - 8 from the world of Mario and 8 from the world of Sonic. The Wii controls are created specifically to replicate the actions that offer the best results for each event which include:

Fencing - Individual epée
Archery
Shooting - Skeet
Gymnastics - Trampoline
Gymnastics - Vault
Field - High Jump
Field - Pole Vault
Field - Long Jump
Field - Triple Jump
Field - Javelin Throw
Field - Hammer Throw
Rowing - Single Sculls
Table Tennis - Singles
Aquatics - 100m Freestyle
Aquatics - 4x100m Freestyle
Track - 110m and 400m Hurdles
Track - 4x100m Relay
Track -100m and 400m

The interactive Wii controls include actions like swinging the Wii Remote™ to simulate hammer throw, notching the Nunchuk to shoot arrows, and replicating swimming strokes. Players can also discover the best way to win a game by experimenting with different movements to discover secret boosts to propel them towards a win.

With four playing styles to choose from, players can decide their game strategy: all-around, technical, speed, and power - for example: Mario and Amy (All-around), Peach and Tails (Technical), Sonic and Yoshi (Speed), and Knuckles and Bowser (Power). Players will be able to choose and try out, in both single and multiplayer mode, each event individually with Single Match mode (where players can choose their event and play until they score top marks). They can also compete for the highest overall score in a series of events in Circuit mode (where players can either create their own circuit by choosing the individual events, choose a pre-determined circuit, or randomly generate a circuit). Gamers looking for extra tests of their athletic abilities can choose the single-player Mission mode and earn top marks on challenges made for only the toughest athlete. Additionally, gamers can learn about the history of the Olympic Games through trivia, quizzes, and mini-games and unlock all-new facts and figures from past Olympic Games in the Gallery.

By all accounts it sounds like Boll got himself an early Christmas present, and this account in no way changes that. Boll basically got a chance to beat the crap out of people he hates.

I am all alone, in a ring, across from an undefeated amateur boxer from Germany of all places, in Vancouver of all places, about to get punched in the head, of all places, hard and repeatedly. By the end of the first round I couldn't feel my own legs. I could hardly breathe. The guy who was supposed to be my corner man, no joke, got so drunk before the match he passed out and had to be taken home by his 60 year-old father. My "trainer" gave me no advice other than keep moving, keep breathing, and keep your hands up. It was like his first time or something, but apparently he wasn't too worried. Um... hello. The crowd is totally behind Uwe, half because they know him personally and half because they just want to see some blood and a potential serious injury and or tragedy.

I'm not nearly stupid enough to think I could survive, let alone beat, Boll in a boxing match. But if the angry German ever wants to do some fencing, I'm his man. I will hand him his ass, he can even name the weapon. Brian Crecente

MiraJeff is conflicted about ROCKY BALBOA and spills all about his match with Uwe Boll [AICN, via 1Up]

Awhile back, infamous games-to-movie director Uwe Boll challenged his mouthy critics to a boxing match. What they didn't know is that he was semi-pro boxer.

Well reader Fidel sends word that the first Boll boxing match ended as expected, with Boll making a fool out of his critic. Not only did he land some nice blows, the other guy was literally tripping all over himself to get away. Once he even turned his back on the boxer/director to try and stop the abuse.

The moral of the story: One's ability to make movies has nothing to do with one's ability to pummel a person into a bloody pulp.

Now if he had challenged all-comers to a bout of fencing I'd be all over that. Brian Crecente

Little known fact about me, I spent a big chunk of high school and college fencing. I wasn't great, but I was good enough to go to the Junior Olympics in two weapons and qualify for Nationals in all three. I also taught introductory lessons at Johns Hopkins.

I mention this because Peter Molyneux's speech about next-gen fighting today in Leipzig has gotten me all hot and bothered. According to 1Up he started talking about the idea of bringing the concept of parries and realistic fencing into a nex-gen fight system.

What a fantastic idea. Modern fencing is, of course, not fatal, it's not even really dangerous. Because of that there are a bunch of rules created to force fencers to behave as they might if facing the point end of an epee, sabre or foil.

Basically this means that if you are attacked (except in sabre, my personal favorite weapon), you must defend before counter-attacking. Sounds familiar? It's basically the same rule set that Street Fighter is built around.

If someone pokes a foil at you, you must parry it and then counter-attack, typically. This goes back and forth until someone lands a blow because they are fast, tricky or have more endurance... basically.
If you applied something like this to a nex-gen fighting system, you'd end up with an entire game, wrap it in a role-playing or action game and you'd end up with something no one has really seen before.

It sounds like Molyneux's team is on the right track. What I'd love to see is a game that uses the different buttons as different parries and counters. While foil fencing has eight parries, you could get away with just four. And you could get away with just three parries with the sabre.

Can you imagine using a Wii-mote to deliver authentic slashes with a cyber sabre? Modern sabre's actually use a sensor to make sure the whipping action of a slash is powerful enough to count, this could totally work. Brian Crecente

LGC 2006: Peter Molyneux on Next-Gen Combat [1Up]