I suppose that was a rather large hint, but I just couldn't keep our readers in suspense. The Dante's Inferno Gates of Hell demo will be hitting the PlayStation Network on December 10th, arriving on Xbox Live two weeks later on the 24th. Announced last month, the demo features the entire opening level of the game, detailing Dante's journey to Hell's gates in order to rescue his murdered love, Beatrice.

"The world of Alighieri's Dante's Inferno is such a rich, detailed, and often alarming universe, that all of us at Visceral Games put our hearts, and dare I say souls, into creating something truly intense and exciting," said executive producer Jonathan Knight. "We hope gamers enjoy this tease of hell, and come away from the experience lusting for more when the game comes out on February 9."

In the spirit of the holidays, I urge PlayStation 3 owners to invite an Xbox 360 owner to their home on December 10th in order to promote console harmony. Call it a kinder, gentler way of saying "go to hell."

Insomniac Games has kept to the Ratchet series' tradition by making the newest installment on the PlayStation 3 aware of players' activity in the older ones. Having played — and reviewed — the new Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack In Time using a final retail copy, I was able to see how my save files for the last two games, 2007's Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction and 2008's Ratchet & Clank: Quest For Booty, affect the new game.

I had completed both previous PS3 Ratchets and had the following perks activated automatically when I started the new game:

-My Tools of Destruction save file classified me as a returning customer when I visited A Crack In Time's weapons-vending kiosks. I was given a discount. Thanks to the lower prices and my collection of new bolt money throughout the new game, I found myself lacking money to buy the next available item in the game only once.

-My Quest For Booty save unlocked the pirate hat you see my Ratchet avatar wearing atop this post. The avatar appear in the game's community section, which displays a variety of player accomplishments and stats, shows leaderboards for many of those accomplishments. Players can customize their Ratchet avatar or look up the records and avatars of their friends. The avatar is essentially a visual shorthand for some of the things you've accomplished. For example, the pistol that Ratchet is holding in that shot looks as it does in the game, where I attached mods and selected its paint job.

Those are the unlocks I found so far that relate to the earlier Ratchet games, confirmed by a Sony representative. If I find any more I'll let you know.

There's the time I split my knee racing friends while wearing flip-flops. The stitches in my head earned during a vigorous match of tag. The countless skinned elbows, bumps and bruises of a youth spent on skateboard and bike.

Those were just the hallmarks of growing up outside. Each wound, each scar a tiny reminder of time spent running, laughing, playing.

But the summers of today's youth seem far removed from those times. Over the decades the evolution of play has drawn children closer and closer to home, from side streets to backyards to, finally, dens and video games. As parents become more cautious and children more agoraphobic, is something getting lost?

In Roger Caillois' famed book on play and games, Man, Play and Games, he divides play into four categories: Competition, chance, role-play and the physical effects of vertigo.

That last one is the feeling of riding a roller coaster, of running with abandon, of losing control. And that's the only form of play that video games can't tap into points out Ian Bogost, video game designer, critic and researcher at Georgia Institute of Technology.

"The sense of vertigo is missing," he says, "of being very active, physically spastic in some way. I don't see how we could argue that video games provide that."

While some games include a physical aspect, like what is found with Nintendo's Wii and in-development projects for both the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360, they still require very controlled motion and physicality. For a game to truly tap into that fourth element, vertigo, there has to be a sense of abandon, of danger.

"Outdoor play has to be almost destructive in some ways, you have to be at risk at some time, of breaking something, of falling," Bogost says. "You don't really have that in games, simulating it isn't sufficient."

But don't blame video games. Video games are just the byproduct of a society and encroaching suburban lifestyle that buys into the culture of fear, Bogost says.

"It used to be that before suburban life, in the early 20th century, people would play in the streets, not just backyards or parks," he said. "But then you had to move the kid with the stick and the ball to the park.

"Now we're taking the backyard and moving it into the den and the television screen."

These relocated children still find ways to tap into three of those elements. They make up their own rules, games within video games. They play Rock Band or Guitar Hero with friends. But by limiting play to the relatively safe confines of home, children might be missing out on a chance to find and explore the raw edges of life.

"Something about play should be disruptive and antagonistic, not toward each other, but toward the environment. It should be about children finding the edges of their world, " Bogost said. "When we were children our neighborhood kind of became this kingdom."

Now a child's kingdom is often a haven of air-conditioned safety, of entirely explored space and little opportunity.

Maybe that's a good thing. Maybe today's children don't live in the same type of world that we did, don't need to run the risk of injury or testing oneself. Maybe they should prepare for a life indoors, online, physically void of risk. Maybe that's what we've all become.

If you find that hard to accept as a desirable beacon of progress, then do something about it.

But don't just send your children outside, go outside with them, even at the risk of a skinned knee.

Play games with them, even if they're ones that mimic their childhood pastimes.

Have fun.

Well Played is a weekly news and opinion column about the big stories of the week in the gaming industry and its bigger impact on things to come. Feel free to join in the discussion.

The problem that Stardock seemed to be having with releasing a demo for the action real-time strategy title was figuring out how to limit things while still giving players a good idea of what to expect from the title gameplay wise. What they've come up with is a demo with one map, four playable Demigods (Regulus, Rook, Sedna, and Lord Erebus), and all multiplayer modes.

Seems like an elegant solution to me. Allowing the player to experience multiple Demigods is key. The maps don't matter as much from a demo standpoint as letting players know that each Demigod they can pick offers them a completely different set of skills and powers to accomplish your goals in each game mode.

Check out my review from way back when - ignoring the now fixed networking issues - to get an idea of what to expect, or better yet, just head over to FilePlanet and download the damn thing.

The cleverly-titled ARhrrrr is a concept demonstration for an augmented reality mobile phone game that pits players armed with guns and Skittles bombs against an invading army of zombies, all superimposed over a real-world map. Through the magic of the NVIDIA Tegra GPU, the map springs to full 3D life when viewed through the phone's camera, allowing the player to circle the map in his helicopter, shooting zombies, saving humans, and using different colored Skittles as explosives.

It's yet another intriguing example of augmented reality gaming at work, though we must ask...who wants to play a game associated with Skittles?

ARhrrrr! [Georgia Tech's Augmented Reality Lab - Thanks Tiago!]

A note about genres: The list below may encompass a broader range than some gamers might expect. I'm using the action-adventure term liberally, including both those games that I believe will be driven by a story and those that will be driven by non-shooting action. That means role-playing games are listed alongside God-of-War-types. What unifies these games is a sense that they propel the player through an experience scripted by a development team. And they are not all about shooting.

Splinter Cell: Conviction - This game used to be about a bearded Sam Fisher elbowing his way through Washington D.C. Now? There's this trailer. (Xbox 360 only, unless someone says otherwise.)

Assassin's Creed 2 - A new assassin doing his work in Leonardo Da Vinci's Italy. Also recently trailered. (PS3, Xbox 360 and possibly the Wii, plus a new PSP game.)

Dante's Inferno - EA's accused God of War clone that adapts one of the oldest literary classics, the Divine Comedy. (PS3, Xbox 360. Preview here.)

God of War III - Sony's accused Dante's Inferno clone (OK, not really) has growling protagonist Kratos fighting on the backs of titans in what mayl be the biggest PS3 exclusive of 2010. (PS3. Impressions here.)

Uncharted 2 - Some may think of the return of Nathan Drake as a shooter, but the depth of character and adventure of the first Uncharted makes this major holiday 2009 title from Naughty Dog a great fit for today's list. Unusual among the games listed here is that it is announced to have co-op and competitive multiplayer modes. (PS3, Impressions here.)

Heavy Rain - The latest hope for sophisticated storytelling in games, it's another dark, thriller mystery from the makers of Indigo Prophecy. (PS3. Gameplay footage here.)

The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks - Cartoon Link's on a train instead of a boat and possibly armed with a bow, a boomerang and some bombs? (Nintendo DS)

Batman: Arkham Asylum - Pushed back to late August, impressive in previews, features a Batman exceptional at both brawling and detective work. (PC, PS3, Xbox 360. Preview here).

Final Fantasy 13 - Square-Enix's role-playing game. Perhaps you've heard of it? (PS3, Xbox 360)

Dissidia Final Fantasy - It's a Final Fantasy mash-up! (PSP, Import review here.

Dragon Age: Origins - BioWare's spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate. (PC, PS3 Xbox 360. Preview here.)

Mass Effect 2 - BioWare's successor to Mass Effect. (PC, Xbox 360)

Spyborgs - Capcom's flashy co-op Wii brawler, with a special scan-the-screen-with-the-Wii-pointer gimmick. (Wii. Preview here.)

Brutal Legend - Tim Schafer and team take their video game comedy expertise to a heavy-metal-ized open world of guitar-swinging, headbanger-commanding, road-raging and demon-slaying. (PS2, Xbox 360. Preview here.)

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days - Square-Enix's first Disney-Final-Fantasy mash-up for the DS. (Nintendo DS, Trailer here.)

Alpha Protocol - Development studio Obsidian makes what might be too simply described as a spy-themed Mass Effect, but you get the idea. (PC, PS3, Xbox 360. Impressions from the last E3.)

Fallout: New Vegas - Perhaps Bethesda will have more to show at E3 of this Obsidian-developed Fallout 3 spin-off? (PC, PS3, Xbox 360, presumably.)

Ghostbusters - I probably should have put this in the shooters list. I forgot. (PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, PS2, DS, PSP. Preview here.)

No More Heroes 2 - The only Nintendo Wii game with bathroom breaks, an unlicensed lightsaber and a sexy lady who speaks to you through your Remote's speaker is back with a sequel. (Wii)

Muramasa: The Demon Blade - Developer Vanillaware's latest, prettiest side-scrolling action title, from Ignition. (Wii. Gorgeous screenshots here.)

Mini Ninjas - From the makers of Hitman, a family-appropriate game about some cute ninjas. Really. (Wii)

Spore Hero - EA brings Spore to a home console, focusing on the creature stage and making it something of an action-RPG. (Wii)

The Saboteur - Pandemic's long-in-the-making World War II adventure starring a resistance fighter in occupied France who must defeat Nazis in a game world drained of color. (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)

Bayonetta - Platinum Games puts a pioneer of Devil May Cry to work making an even more over-the-top action game, starring a woman who wears little more than eyeglasses and her very long hair. (PS3, Xbox 360.)

Nier Square-Enix's newly-revealed possible answer to the likes of Devil May Cry and Bayonetta. (PS3, Xbox 360)

Mafia 2 - Recently delayed to some time after Halloween, the decade-spanning and genuinely mature mobster drama still has promise to wow E3 with its Madmen-esque 1950s visual style. (PC, PS3, Xbox 360. Preview here.)

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 - Lots of Marvel characters. Fighting. (PS3, Xbox 360 Wii, PS2, PSP, Nintendo DS)

Pirates of the Caribbean - An action role-playing game from Propagana Games, the makers of the Turok re-make. (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)

Lord of the Rings: Aragorn's Quest - The creators of Battalion Wars make a kid-friendly re-telling of the Lord of the Rings Saga. (Wii, with PS2, PSP and DS versions too. Wii preview here.)

New Jak and Daxter - Announced for the new PSP. (PSP)

Alan Wake - Ah, the mystery game of the Xbox 360. Moody adventure from the makers of Max Payne. Not seen publicly in a couple of years. Shall it return? (Xbox 360)

Dead Rising 2 - Supposedly not coming to E3 because of health concerns related to the H1N1 virus, it still seems like its zombies-in-casino-town angle will get shown at the big show via a trailer like this one. (PC, PS3, Xbox 360).

Trico - This would be the new game from Team Ico that had a somewhat odd trailer leak recently. (PS3)

Beyond Good and Evil 2 - Not slated for 2009, but this sequel to the cult hit action game starring heroine Jade and some animal friends may have a trailer at E3 that looks kinda like this.

Hideo Kojima's project - What a tease this guy is. Was he referring to that Metal Gear PSP game?

Some sort of Mario/Zelda/etc from Nintendo - Because Nintendo can't go two E3s in a row without a major single-player adventure for its hardcore fans, right?

OMISSIONS: Red Dead Redemption and Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony not included in this list (although I guess I just did) because development studio Rockstar is skipping E3. Any other games deserving of inclusion aren't here because I forgot them.

What's the trend here?

There isn't much of a trend here, except that action-adventure games continue to tend to be single-player. While almost every shooter gets support for multiple players, most of the games listed here are announced as being playable for just one.

You can also check out our E3 Racing Game Preview and our E3 Shooter Preview.

io9 pal Ed Grabianowski explains it all over at Robot Viking:

Part of what makes these sets so cool is how rare it is to find terrain sets with a modern theme at all. The Mayhem Junkyard set just came out a few weeks ago, adding a dirty, grungy setting complete with crushed cars, piles of used tires and the dingy front office that you find in every junkyard. The only detail missing was a girly poster on the wall.

The Mayhem Junkyard is just the latest Mayhem setting, though. Mayhem Industrial includes a trucking company, industrial equipment and trucks. Streets of Mayhem is a gritty urban street scene perfect for a ton of modern and sci-fi RPGs and miniatures games, including a certain special Robot Viking project (that I promise isn't dead!). Mayhem Downtown will give your superheroes all the tall buildings they can possibly leap over, brood on the ledges of or swing from via synthetic webbing.

Get the scoop on how to deploy these cool gaming sets in your next post-nuclear D&D game. Read the rest of Ed's review at Robot Viking.

Deus Ex 3 is a prequel to the other two Deus Ex games. In it, you're Adam Jensen, a private security officer working at a company that develops biomechanical augmentations for the human body, just one stepping stone towards the nanotech augmentations of the other games. Jensen witnesses an attack on his company, and has to investigate. Besides Shanghai, the game will take you to future versions of Detroit, Montreal and two other cities.

Here are some more bitchin images:

[EIDOS Forums]

The last I heard, and I'm sure it's well past this by now, is that there are 15,000 applications on the App Store right now, many of them games.

I try to check in on the App Store daily but find it hard to keep up with what's new and what's worthwhile. Worse still, the games are so popular that they tend to push out all other applications in the broader categories like What's Hot and What's New and Top 25.

Pocket Gamer recently sat down with Apple's senior product manager for iPhone worldwide marketing to talk about the issue and a few other things.

The good news is that Apple is aware of the problem, the bad news is that they don't seem ready to do much about it, at least not yet.

Instead, Apple's Eric Jue said, they're relying on the App Store's featured application pages and the Apple website to try and pluck out the newer and better games from the masses.

While I don't have a deep understanding of the inner workings of the App Store, I think one of the problems is that any update to a game tricks the App Store into thinking it's a new title. If that is indeed the case, it would explain why a lot of older titles seem to float on the top of the page for gaming in the App Store. Often the only changes I see are to the description. That's perhaps the result of astute developers gaming the system.

At the very least, I'd like to see Apple create separate Top 25s for games and for other applications, so I can see which non-games are the most popular.

I do get quite a few emails from iPhone game developers complaining about this very issue, trying to figure out how to stand out in a very over-crowded field. It's a real frustration, a real problem, for both gamers and developers.

If it becomes too big a problem, I can see it cutting into the time developers are willing to spend on a game. Why make a top, triple-A title when you can't be guaranteed better "shelf" placement?

Imagine walking into a GameStop and confronting a wall of 15,000 games that includes everything from Madden to Big Rigs Over the Road Racing and no way to distinguish the good from the bad. With key developers still trying to make a name for themselves and few publications with comprehensive coverage of the iPhone's games, there just aren't enough filters in place.

Hopefully, the rumored, tiered App Store is really coming, because this issue is currently the iPhone's biggest impediment to success as a true gaming platform.

Interview: Apple talks iPhone games and the App Store [Pocket Gamer]

Sometimes I have a hard time figuring out if Mega64' series of live-action video game performances is a work of genius or a work of madness. All I can think as I watch this latest clip is how utterly embarrassed I would be to be out there in public, dancing along to a rhythm game that's only playing in my head. I suppose that's why the Mega64 squad does this sort of thing...so I don't have to.

In the end, I think I had more fun trying to make out the words to Josh Jones original song, which is just enough of Steriogram's "Walkie-Talkie Man" to be recognizable, while still remaining utter nonsense. Hit up the link below to download the song as an MP3!

Elite Beat Agents {Mega 64]

League of Legends began life as Defense of the Ancients, a custom scenario for Blizzard's real-time strategy game Warcraft III, which features teams of player-controlled hero units trying to infiltrate the opposing team's base in order to destroy their Ancient - generally a strategically placed destructible building. Widely considered to be one of the most popular gaming mods ever created, Defense in its various incarnations is also one of the most played player-created gaming mods, in some parts of the world even rivaling the popularity of Counter-Strike, the ridiculously popular mod to Valve's Half-Life.

So how does a popular gaming mod make the leap to full-fledged video game? Just ask the team at Riot Games, the developer behind the upcoming persistent strategy title League of Legends, which takes the core gameplay of the Defense of the Ancients mod to the next level. Better yet, we asked them for you.

The Evolution of Defense of the Ancients
Marc Merrill, the Executive Producer for League of Legends and President of Riot Games, explains that League came about primarily due to the limitations of Defense of the Ancients as a game mod. Being an offshoot of Blizzard's Warcraft III, there were simply too many features that players were demanding that wouldn't work within Warcraft's framework.

"League of Legends primarily came about because the fans and players of (Defense of the Ancients Allstars) were constantly demanding more features and better around-game services that simply couldn't be provided in the mod. All of our guys felt this pain as early members of the (Defense) community and came together to help address this gap and to deliver something awesome to fans."

League of Legends' Director of Systems Design Tom Cadwell elaborates on some of the features that players craved that Defense of the Ancients couldn't deliver, such as matchmaking, stat tracking, and methods to deter players from simply quitting halfway through a match when their team was losing, which has ruined many a Defense game.

"It also lacks polish in a lot of little places — there are no custom hotkeys, the interface is built for an RTS, not for (Defense), there is no tutorial, etc. And of course, the item shop gameplay is tricky to use since the War3 store interface is not designed to support it. As we thought about developing LoL, it became more and more clear that there were many areas where we could make things better suited for a (Defense)-style game and provide a much more fun experience for players."

Assembling the Team
With exactly that goal in mind, Riot Games was formed in late 2006, with the intention to create League of Legends as its first product. Over the course of the past two years, the team has grown to include nearly 40 members spread across design, art, gameplay, engineering, platform engineering, and community.

Riot Games' team member credits include Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, World of Warcraft, Total Annihilation, Neverwinter Nights 2, Counter-Strike, Dungeon Siege, Sly Cooper, and Heroes of Might and Magic, but despite the high level of pedigree among the professionals, Merrill explains that the core development is still being driven by "the mod guys", including original Defense of the Ancients Allstars co-creator Steve "Guinsoo" Feak.

"The product vision is really being driven from the consumer point of view and is largely in the hands of Guinsoo and the mod guys; they have amazing ideas and are really talented guys."

Tom Cadwell himself worked extensively on the talent system on World of Warcraft, as well as heading up play balance for Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne during his time with Blizzard.

"When I was working on War3 at Blizzard, a lot of us were fans of (Defense). It's been a lot of fun to work with Guinsoo and the guys to instill some additional game design principles into League of Legends."

So What is League of Legends?
While League of Legends does benefit from the incredibly large fan-following Defense of the Ancients enjoys, Merrill explains that introducing new players to a title that is very nearly a new genre - team-based tactical role-playing - presents a real challenge.

"By far the more difficult thing for us will be explaining to non-(Defense) users how the gameplay works and why it is fun. It's extremely fun, but it's also new to many people, so breaking through that user education challenge is one of the problems we're focused on solving. "

Breaking out of the Defense of the Ancients mold a bit, League of Legends presents a much more persistent experience. Players take on the role of a Summoner - an avatar tied to the player's account that advances in power and grows over time. Summoners call forth Champions to represent them in combat, aiding their team in defeating the enemy team. Champions come in many different forms with a variety of unique functions, delivering what Merrill compares to the experience of playing different classes in various traditional role-playing games.

So rather than building up forces as you would in your normal real-time strategy game, you pick one Champion at a time, selecting them based on the powers and abilities you feel would best enhance your team's performance. League of Legends in effect adds specific classes to the RTS formula, similar to a game like Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare giving players a choice of which role they hope to fill in their team.

The Call of Duty 4 similarity is no coincidence either, as Cadwell reveals the game was a major influence on League of Legends progression system as well.

"There is no perfect gaming analogy to capture the Summoner / Champion relationship, but some games are starting to come close. We drew a lot of inspiration from the COD4 and Battlefield 2142 unlocks system in designing this system. These offer very simple advancement compared to an MMORPG, but players love the sense of progress and purpose they get from knowing that a couple more wins will unlock something cool. We feel that by further expanding this, and creating a cool persistent identity that players can customize based upon their accomplishments that we can create something even more fun. "

So, in a nutshell, League of Legends is an online team-based strategy game with persistent-world elements akin to the sort of ranking system you would find in a first-person shooter like Call of Duty 4.

Creating a League of Their Own
Taking a mod for an established title like Warcraft III and crafting it into a standalone title takes more than just building upon the gameplay elements established in the Defense of the Ancients mod. The team at Riot has poured a great deal of effort into breaking out of the Warcraft III aesthetic, creating a world that is truly their own.

Art direction plays a big part in creating any game, and especially in a title that springs from

"Our Art Director, Hokyo Lim, is the key artistic visionary for the look and feel of League of Legends. Hokyo was previously on Sly Cooper 1, 2 & 3 up at Suckerpunch Studios in Seattle and just has a phenomenal eye. He brings a very stylized look to the game and has a team of talented guys who have worked on distinctive stylized games like Jak and Daxter and Psychonauts prior to joining Riot. "

The artistic pedigree of the League of Legends certainly shines through in the design of the world and its Champions, a motley crew of super-powerful beings that the player's Summoner can command. From the adorably deadly dark child Annie to the mysterious cardmaster Twisted Fate, each is completely unique to the world of League of Legends, the products of a creative team positively overflowing with new ideas.

"We've created a robust internal process that allows everyone to create Champion ideas," Merrill explains. "We have so many cool ideas, Champion themes and ability kits that by far the hardest part is filtering them down to focus on the best ones that also fulfill a core design need of the game."

Further aiding in making League of Legends is the team's focus on keeping things fun, creating what Tom Cadwell calls "a unique blend of whimsy with hardcore."

"Humor is pretty important to League of Legends. We wanted to create a universe that appeals to the hardcore while maintaining the ability to make fun of itself and not take itself "too seriously". We think that a lot of great games (Team Fortress 2 and World of Warcraft come to mind) have managed to create great gameplay that appeals to the hardcore gamer with lots of badassery, but still manages to have a good sense of humor and reach a wide audience. "

For an excellent example of Riot Games' sense of humor, be sure to visit their team bio page, where each team member is not only given a brief paragraph explaining their existence, but is also assigned a special power, such as Marc Merrill's "Night Merrill" ability.

Marc temporarily enters Beast Mode, which causes all employees to fervently increase in productivity by 300% for the next two hours.

What Comes Next
Nearly two years in development, League of Legends is rapidly approaching the the initial beta phase, where the game will be put to the test by the same people who inspired the original Defense of the Ancient mod, and Tom Cadwell couldn't be more excited.

"We're excited to have gotten the reactions we have seen so far, but ultimately can't wait to get users in the game because that is really what matters. That's really what it's all about for us. For me personally, all of my best experiences in design have been during betas, when you get to see how the stuff you worked on plays out, and see people enjoying the work you've done. "

Players interested in getting in on the ground floor of what could be one of the biggest games ever to sprout from a game mod can visit the official League of Legends website to get the scoop on upcoming beta dates while checking out the game and the talented team behind it.

As for what's coming next from Riot Games, the developer currently has two more games in the works, and while Merrill was tight-lipped about details, he assures us that Riot will continue to innovate in the multiplayer gaming space.

"Our plans for the future are to continue to develop titles that leverage our core technology platform that includes a proprietary back end as well as a game engine and associated toolset, while staying true to our core design philosophy which focuses on replayability through multiplayer emergent behavior, instead of creating massive amounts of linear content that you really only want to play through once. "

For now, Riot continues to work on League of Legends, taking a relatively simple player-made mod for Warcraft III and creating something hopefully as legendary as its name.

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Original I only got a chance to spend about 10 minutes with this game on the Comic-Con floor, but that's clearly not enough time, nor an adequate place, to really dig deep and see what it has to offer, especially one as large as this.

What We Saw
I saw roughly five missions from the game while also seeing how the GPS/PDA system works. I also checked out early parts of the story. This demo took place in the Rockstar press van at the Comic-Con, which allowed me to hear and see the game much more clearly than on the show floor.

What Needs Improvement?
Cut Scenes: With the exception of the opening of the game, the mission-start cut scenes I saw weren't very riveting. They mainly consisted of motionless, nicely hand-drawn profile shots with subtitles, which is certainly a step down from the console versions. While no one should have expected a fully voiced game on a DS cart, I'd like to see just a bit more going on in terms of action and emotion to keep me more engaged. Hopefully the missions I didn't see provide that.

Radio: While the music in this game is completely original and sounds pretty good coming from a DS, it's mainly just repeating beats and notes. No lyrics. The five different styles of music are Electronic, Hip-Hop, Funk, Rock, and Jazz.

What Should Stay The Same?
Scale: This game is enormous. All the touches you've come to expect from a GTA game are all here. Each building and neighborhood was closely examined and given it's own personality. There's not a lot of repeating textures or copy-and-pasting going on either. Besides being massive in size, it's still a living, breathing city. Pedestrians have their own active A.I., there's some nice physics going on with the cars and environment, and a full day/night cycle.

Connectivity: This game not only allows you to upload an insane amount of stats to the Rockstar Social Club to see where you stand with the rest of the world, but you can also trade items and information with your friends, such as drugs, weapons and way points and chat with them in-game on your instant messenger.

Makin' Money: Just like today's economy, money is tough to come by in Chinatown Wars. No longer will you be a billionaire halfway through like in previous GTA games. Any expensive item you wish to purchase is going to have to be earned the hard way. Don't worry; there are plenty of extra ways to make some dough besides completing missions, such as selling six different kinds of drugs to neighborhood dealers.

Touch Screen: There are a variety of touch screen interactions that you'll come across. These range from filling up bottles at a gas station to make Molotov cocktails, paying a road toll, and even hot-wiring select cars. For one mission I had to actually assemble the sniper rifle I used to assassinate someone, while another time I had to complete a short "Simon Says" mini-game to arm a bomb. They don't seem to be forced on you all the time, either, and they helps break up the gameplay a bit.

Final Thoughts
I'm glad I got a lot more time to sit down with Chinatown Wars. I knew this game was big, but not this big. It's an ambitious title for the DS, and one Rockstar seems to be taking very seriously. While I nearly spent two hours with the game, I still didn't feel like I even scratched its surface.

As well as the expected 'bonding' (e.g. using America's Army to learn about teamwork) one company issues staff with tokens for performing their jobs that can be exchanged for time playing videogames. Personally, in these uncertain times, I would prefer money. Perhaps that's just me.

At Kotaku towers, of course, we are the exceptions that may prove the rule. Our jobs here involve a lot of gaming and the systematic absorption of gaming culture via machines like the ones they use in A Clockwork Orange. You could probably issue us with tokens that we could exchange for some time operating a photocopier or doing some filing.

How about you lot? Does a bit of causal gaming help you through the working day? Can you sharpen your boardroom skills in a first person shooter? Answers in the comments, if you please.

Does Gaming at Work Improve Productivity? [PC World]

From next autumn, NYU will offer courses via its new NYU Games Center, which was also announced today.

NYU is no stranger to videogames, having opened the Microsoft-funded Games For Learning Institute which aims to research the use of games in education.

NYU launches video gaming degree [Crain's NY]

I Made This.. is the kind of platform game that you play inside your head while hopped up on over-the-counter cough remedies during a 3-day fever. It's like someone tried to make schizophrenia into a flash game and is just the right side of incomprehensible. As the 'instructions' say, "Remember, 'figuring out' is for control centred hedonists and sharks with bees for hair."

Guide your... round thing around levels seemingly constructed from printouts of popular web pages (YouTube, Google, Yahoo! and Fark all get a look in - no Kotaku so far, though) that have been cut up, glued together in a twisted collage and scrawled over in ballpoint pen. As you move to the various 'goal' sprites to progress you will trigger alarming popups, Burroughsian cut-up poetry and flashing slogans. It's curiously compelling - I'm even starting to worry that there might be a plot.

I Made This. You Play This. We Are Enemies [via Waxy]

New Xbox Experience: Community Games [Xbox Live's Major Nelson]

Playing through it while sticking to the more virtuous decisions netted me a three-piece chicken costume. Playing through again on evil got me a nasty expression book and a vial of pink dye. Hit the link and let us know what prizes you come up with. Together we'll collect the whole set!

Fable II Storybook Game [Xbox.com - Thanks Jose!]

Well, no, actually. To interrupt your scheduled grumblings about know-nothing moral guardians and anti-games cliches I bring news that several figures from Church of England groups and charities met at a round table chat organised by the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA) and came to the conclusion that this gaming lark might actually have something positive to contribute to society.

Mike Royal, national director of the Lighthouse Group said that games can encourage children to talk about 'boundaries' and what behavior is good and acceptable, not only in gaming but other aspects of their lives.

Up next - Jack Thompson "really getting in to Tales of Vesperia".

Computer And Video Games Are Good for us!! [Yet Another Review Site]

A survey by The Pew Research Center has 'revealed' that around ninety seven percent of American children regularly play video games (boys: 99%, girls 94%). Possibly, the other three percent are being punished for something and have had their consoles nailed to a tree.

Its not all stating the bleedin' obvious, over at Pew towers. More revealing was the broad spectrum of games that America's youth are playing.

All genres get a look in, with racing, action, puzzle games and sports being the most popular. More that two thirds of the kids surveyed played online, with games being seen as a social activity rather than the solitary pastime so often portrayed in the media.

Survey: Nearly every kid a video gamer[SF Gate]

As I was standing there an ambulance pulls up, with medical technicians rushing into the building. A couple of minutes later they come up with an Asian teen writhing about in the stretcher, screaming the most blood-curdling scream I've ever heard, over and over again. I saw no blood, and his body looked okay outwardly - he was just screaming nonstop. I waited til they closed the door to snap the picture, out of respect, but even within the sturdy van I could still hear him wailing away.

I did ask around to see if anyone knew what happened, but no dice. I am just going to go ahead and assume he got hopped up on speed and attempted to play My Horse and Me 2.