That was followed with this pre-commercial quip: "Is the game going too far? We're going to have a fair and balance debate to find out."

Jon Christensen of website Slash Gamer and Common Sense media CEO Jim Steyer discussed the issue with the Fox host. Reader Ryan transcribed the conversation from his television set. It follows:

Fox Host: Jim, you got some problems with this game?

Jim: It's mainly for adults and a well made game, but there's no doubt there's a link between violent video games and kids.

Fox Host: Jon, you essentially get to be a terrorist and kill people and it's very realistic.

Jon: You're not actually a terrorist. You're a CIA undercover agent. You are infiltrating a terrorist organization and the game specifically says, when you go into, uh when you work with this terrorist organization. You are um... (Jon loses his train of thought, awkward moment) You are a a a uh a a a CIA operative. (chuckles) I'm sorry.

Fox Host: Jim at what age is this game appropriate or is it ever appropriate?

Jim: The main issue with violent video games, including very well made made games like COD. There's no question there's correlation between violent games and kids blah blah*. It's up to the parent to decide whether they buy the game for their son or daughter blah blah*. You need to use common sense.
*blah blah blah added by reader Ryan

Fox Host: I'll give you the final world Jon

Jon: Kids can definitely pick up the game. If parents buy it for them. I have a buddy who's a manager of a store. Little kids came in to buy the game and he asked if they were over 17. They said no, so he didn't sell them the game. Retailers are doing a good job. It's been proven time and time again.

Fox Host: You bring a violent game into a house with an 8 year old, nothing to stop that kid from playing it and becoming a terrorist...on a video game.

Jon: That's ridiculous! You're not a terrorist! It's pixelated violence! You're not a terrorist!

Fox Host: It's violence.

Jon: (closing his eyes) It's not real. It's not real.

Fox Host: Jon and Jim. The debate goes on.

Not nearly as exciting as Fox's take on Mass Effect!

And yes, we'll post the actual show clip when it pops up online.

Hop on over to the site to lend your support and pepper him with show questions. The show goes live streaming at 2 p.m. EST.

Strategy Room

Fox has only gone and introduced the glow-eyed menaces to the iPhone. Great. Now death will be both swift AND stylish.

Terminator: Ambush is a mini MMO that can be played via the iPhone or a web browser. the idea is that players using the web interface hunt down and terminate those using the iPhone version. There is a GPS component to the game, so don't play if you actually are being hunted by a killer robot - this will lead them right to you.

FOX Launches ‘Terminator’-themed, location-based MMORPG [Touch Arcade]

The remainder of Fox's report becomes muddled. In the intro, we cannot tell if they are blaming the shootings on the ads or just claiming that the ads are in poor taste. (They never, in fact, mention when the ads actually went up.) We'd say Fox buried the lead, but we're not so certain there was any lead to bury.

The piece continues grasping for a story, this time through the political hypocrisy of IL governor Rod Blagojevich, who had once spoken against Grand Theft Auto San Andreas advertisements publicly. And then, to demonstrate how we should/could feel about this story (other than confusion?), the viewer is treated to a series of man on the street interviews. Finally, we find that CTA has made no comment on the situation but will be pulling the ads (we can assume only because Fox was doing the story).

After viewing the clip, we realized that the headline above the video is simply "Violent Video Game Ads on The CTA." But that headline, while appearing innocuous at first glance, is as intentionally misleading as Fox's video. Is Fox calling the "video game" itself violent or the "video game ads" violent? You can't tell...which seems to be precisely the point.

We'd say to check out the video for yourself, but we'd hate to see Fox News Chicago make the ad revenue. Crecente had an interesting feature a while back on a similar GTA ad controversy if you feel the need to click something.

Violent Video Game Ads on The CTA [Fox via GamePolitics]

An analogy comparing small budget games to small budget films was taken out of context—the true story is really quite lame. Luckily, it means that the video game industry hasn't figured out how to spoil the few good movies that come out of Hollywood...yet.

Juno getting game treatment? [Gamespot via DigitalBattle]

In order to sit at the grown-ups table, culturally speaking, developers are going to have to act like adults. And that means not letting other people do their fighting for them.

Max Effect [loadingreadyrun via Maxconsole]

Electronic Arts, likewise, got upset and called out the news network on its "insulting" inaccuracies. The Fox producer of the segment in question blew off Electronic Arts' request for a correction. There still hasn't been a correction or an apology from Fox News. The game publisher added that it won't back down and will continue to "step up when someone maligns our creative teams." According to MTV Multiplayer, Fox News issued this statement:

Fox News Channel has extended several invitations to EA through a company representative to appear on Live Desk With Martha MacCallum to discuss Mass Effect and the segment which aired on Monday. We have received no response.

Keighley totally took charge of the interview. How much, you ask? He goaded their expert, who seconds earlier was talking about sexism, to call him "darling." Nice, maybe ask him to bend over and pick up a pencil next darling.

Let me end by saying it's obvious that every one of the people who they had discussing it after the fact have not only never played Mass Effect, they probably heard about it five minutes before they were supposed to offer an opinion. Very shoddy. Though, at least they got his name right.

Please be advised that the feature film "HITMAN" has been given an "R" rating for, "Strong bloody violence, language, and some sexuality/nudity.

Well, that's a relief. I still don't have much hope for the film, but at least it won't be the eunuch version.

The whole thing kicks off tomorrow night at 8 PM, with a "surprise unveiling" at 9:15 (again, no Keeley). The usual snacks, drinks, giveaways and general fun will be dished out by the folks from EA and Fox, so make sure you show up on time. To pass the time between now and tomorrow night's early access to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 game, we certainly don't suggest at-work Google Image Searches for the above Briton. It's not worth throwing your career away for.

Joss Whedon's sci-fi project Firefly was cancelled after just 11 episodes. The Firefly $39 million cinematic spin-off Serenity pulled in just $38.8 million worldwide. So, what's next for the cowboys in space superflop? Massively multiplayer online gaming, of course.

Wired is reporting that MMO platform developer Multiverse has struck a deal with Fox to throw the Firefly property into the crowded MMO ring, but has yet to put together a development team. They're hoping they'll find someone to "not just [do] a re-skin of World of Warcraft or Star Wars Galaxies" but give the itty-bitty Firefly fanbase something "unique and fun and interesting."

While I agree that the show has a unique aesthetic and sense of humor, is it enough to stand out? Will fans of the show have the fortitude to wait until sometime in 2008 to get their hands on a Firefly based game? Will it be any good? Any Firefly/Kotaku crossover out there?

As a (can't believe I'm going to publically admit this) huge Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan, I was never drawn in to the Firefly universe, but maybe I ought to crack open my DVD set and try to make it past episode 3.

Firefly Reborn as Online Universe [Wired - thanks nesdude!]

The Halo movie is not any closer to being made now that Universal Studios and 20th Century Fox have made a last minute pull-out from the project.

Apparently, Universal and Fox tried to strong arm Microsoft and the film makers to accept a pay cut, apparently in response to an upward spiral of estimated production costs stretching Babel-like into the sky from the base of the original $135 million guesstimate. Rumors brought that number up to $200 million.

Apparently, Peter Jackson's still soldiering forward on the project, doing pre-production work at his studios in New Zealand. Talks continue with other potential partners. Jon Polito has been cast as the Master Chief. Florian Eckhardt

'Halo' pic loses its studios [Variety]

I just finished watching the premiere of Viva Pinata with my 5-year-od son. He loved it, I thought it was typical empty children's programming.

Obviously, the show is made for children, but I find that children's cartoons come in two flavors: the kind that only children can enjoy and the kind loaded with jokes that only adults get. This one is definitely of the first sort.

While I found Viva Pinata relatively boring, Tristan really seemed to be into it. He thought it was funny that the show was peopled entirely by Pinatas and asked when the show would be on again.

Despite what I thought, the game didn't really seem loaded with game references. Sure, there were a couple: Every time a pinata broke in some way candy would spill out and a bunch of other pinatas would rush over and eat it. I think it was meant to be cute, but I found it more disturbing than anything else.

I did learn one thing from the second episode in the half hour broadcast. A plot point lets you know that if a Horsetachio (that's a horse pinata) eats blackberries and daisies they turn into a Zomba, which looked to be a striped horse pinata.

Meh. Brian Crecente

From the 'Don't Say I Never Said Anything Good About Blu-Ray' Department, this news from Fox: over 8 50GB Blu-Ray Releases will be available at the Sony's PS3 launch.

Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment President Worldwide Mike Dunn announced today the Studio's first wave of highly-anticipated motion pictures to debut on Blu-ray Disc (BD), which is the only high-definition packaged media platform broadly supported by the film, music, gaming, computing and consumer electronics industries. Representing more than $2 billion in box office and 90 million DVD units sold worldwide, the studio's first eight BD releases are right on target with the BD early adopter and Playstation 3 purchaser. Taking full advantage of the next generation format's high definition technology and advanced Java-based functionality, titles will be presented with the highest quality audiovisual elements including AVC (MPEG4 Compression) and HD "Lossless" Audio (select tracks) and many have unique interactive special features.

Fox's stellar, action-packed line-up of initial BD releases includes: BEHIND ENEMY LINES, FANTASTIC FOUR, KINGDOM OF HEAVEN (Director's Cut), KISS OF THE DRAGON, THE OMEN (666), THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN, SPEED and THE TRANSPORTER. This first wave of BD titles will arrive at retail outlets worldwide in November. Japan launches November 10 and product hits North American (SRP US$39.98/CAN$49.98), Australian and European stores on November 14

Gee, only 40 bucks each for such timeless classics as Transporter and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen? Sign me up! Thought I have to admit Kiss of the Dragon is a guilty favorite of mine. Florian Eckhardt

Fox announces first Blu-ray releases: 8 titles, BD-J, MPEG-4 AVC, 50GB [HD News]

Murdoch-owned broadcasting giant Sky has revealed details of a monumental move into PC gaming by openly looking for a new 'head of PC gaming'.

The media behemoth is currently advertising for a candidate who will be charged with the task of managing the firm's forthcoming 'broadband games destination', and is also looking for a marketing manager to join whoever spearheads the new operation.

The pundits think he's got his sights on AOL, which owns game blog Joystiq. This is believed to be part of his plan into ease into the broadband and game space. And make a truck load of cash in the process. Brian Ashcraft

More Here [Games Blog]

A Fox News segment on Brain Age I don't really think much of Brain Age, but one thing's for sure... with all the negative publicity being garnered by anchorman idiots concerning Hot Coffee and the like lately, it sure is nice that at least one game out there seems to charm the pants off of everyone who meets it. Florian Eckhardt

The Rare-developed Xbox 360 game ships this fall, alongside the marketing blitz which will feature not only the show, but surely tons of plush and plastic trinkets in the shape of your favorite anthropomorphic pinatas. Parents, I feel your pain.

Keep your big googly Rare-style eyes peeled for more. Michael McWhertor

Viva Pinata TV Series (thanks, Packratshow!)

Penny Arcade's latest comic is about Fox news and their ability to squeeze controversy out of even the most innocuous of events. This time around Fox targeted the Playstation Portable and its ability to capture the wild porn that, apparently, is floating around us everyday in the air. Even better, the Penny Arcade comic was inspired by our very own Eliza's take on the whole issue. We await a big fat royalty check Tycho. Brian Crecente

The same as it ever was [Penny Arcade]