We've known that the game would contain multiplayer since Mental Mill's Laura Scholl announced at the Game Developers Conference last month that Dead Rising 2 would support 6,000 zombies on screen at one time during multiplayer. Soon after, however, Scholl cleverly threw everyone off scent by ingeniously telling the gaming world that she meant to say "multiplatform" instead of "multiplayer".

So up until now we just assumed that the game would have 6,000 zombies on screen during multiplatform, which makes perfect sense. Now that we know for sure that there is multiplayer in the game, we can all get really pissed off when it comes out and doesn't contain a multiplatform mode.

As for why Dead Rising 2 contains multiplayer when the previous title sold fine without it? Inafune explains.

"We're at a point in game history that you need to have some form of multiplayer component in a game"

Because they have to. Excellent.

Dead Rising 2 does have multiplayer [Eurogamer]

Is Mayor Tortimer actually a man in California that asks for naked images from Missouri children? That's what Missouri's ABC 17 News suggests in a story posted on March 11th regarding the increasing use of game consoles as tools for sexual predators. The report, which you can view in its entirety below, suggests that Animal Crossing allows children to interact with complete strangers, encouraging them to exchange notes, items, and "favors" in order to reach the next level in the game.

Another example of the sort of sensationalist television "news reporting" aimed squarely at terrifying parents into tuning in. In case any parents are actually reading this, Animal Crossing: City Folk only allows other players to visit each other if they exchange friend codes. Your task, as a parent, is making sure your children aren't posting their codes on forums, or sharing them with strangers.

The whole situation isn't helped by the Mid-Missouri Internet Crimes Task Force, who seem to be aware that internet crimes are going on, but don't seem to have any real knowledge of how communication on the Wii occurs to impart to our newscaster friends. All they know is Animal Crossing is a kid's game, and adults shouldn't be playing it.

"I cannot come up with any legitimate reason that an adult would be playing that particular game," says Andy Anderson, Mid-Missouri Internet Crimes Task Force. Um. How about game reviews? Is that legitimate? I don't want to be playing for the wrong reasons here. Either Andy Anderson just isn't trying hard enough, or I am a sexual predator.

I don't mean to downplay the dangers of online play for children. As we've seen recently, it's an issue that's becoming more and more widespread. My problem here is that ABC 17 News is combating a real problem with misinformation. I know that news programs make a great deal of advertising revenue off scaring parents senseless, but a certain amount of actual "journalism" isn't too much to ask from our well-paid television news personalities.

Is Mayor Tortimer an internet predator from California? No. That's ridiculous. Everyone knows it's Tom Nook that likes them young.

Wii Gamers Vulnerable To Crime [ABC 17 News via Game Politics]

Don't get too excited, however. There is a DC MMO in development but a) it's not ready yet b) while it will feature the Bat it is in no way an 'Online Batman Game' and c) it sure as hell won't be free.

No, as the Facetime Labs Security Blog has uncovered, this looks like an attempt by (possibly someone acting on behalf of) Adware developer Zango to lure hapless gamers into downloading their search toolbar.

Following the link takes you to the anonymously registered (and currently down) website Batmangame.info featuring screengrabs from 2005's Batman Begins tie-in and the following message:

"To download and play the Batman Online Game you must download and install Zango as well. It is free, very easy to install and will give you access to the full game."

Tellingly, the site seems remarkably light on DC or Warner Bros copyright info.

Zango And The Batman Online Videogame [Factime Labs via TechDirt]

They dealt with it with a videogame called Hitman that he used to watch, and it was a video game where you got impressions that you would kill somebody - hit them from their backside, where they were not aware that they were being killed.

CNN Video Report On Trial [CNN via GamePolitics ]

"I can confirm as we originally said at the announcement of the WiiWare service earlier in the year that WiiWare games will come in a range of sizes but we will encourage smaller, more compact games for the service," a Nintendo spokesperson told Eurogamer today.

Nintendo refutes WiiWare size cap [Eurogamer]

Celebrate National Video Games Day by playing video games. If you are off from school (or if you are a big kid off from work), make this a marathon day for video games. Better still, invite a few friends and hold a competition. Just make certain that you have enough controllers.

National Video Games Day [Holiday Insights - Thanks Fred]

Shacknews cites a revision comparison from November 2006, which shows the old and revised listings side by side, highlighting changes made by the EA IP address. Trip Hawkins name is removed from the important people listing as well as several places within the text. Whole paragraphs of criticism have been excised. One of my personal favorites:

Electronic Arts has from time to time been criticized for its employment policy of requiring employees to work extraordinarily long hours—up to 80 hours per week—as a general rule and not just at "crunch" times leading up to the scheduled releases of products.

Electronic Arts has led the industry in reforming work/life balance issues that are endemic to the software industry.

The changes and source were discovered by Shacknews using Virgil Giffith's Wikipedia Scanner, which references anonymous entry editor IP addresses to a WHOIS IP lookup. They determined that the IP address in question is responsible for a third of the Wikipedia changes made from the Redwood offices, which tells us this is either someone in the company assigned Wikipedia editing duty or someone doing this on their own with far too much time on their hands. Unlikely, but possible.

As a daily user of Wikipedia, this doesn't surprise me in the least. On a daily basis companies and individuals have to monitor their entries to make sure no biased or inaccurate information gets added to their listing. They're just not supposed to be adding it.

EA Staffer Attempts to Alter Wiki History [Shacknews]

An article from a Korean site called Fighter Forum is claiming that a StarCraft 2 release might be around the corner at the end of 2007. The article is also full of meaty gossip morsels that include a new race being added to the game, and a super-sized whopper of a rumor that claims Blizzard will shut down the original StarCraft servers to make ensure that the sequel will come out on top.

I hope it is a fake. I can't take all the lies about needing to work late and the nightmares he has about making crystals. Kim Phu

A Korean Site Claims to Have the Scoop on a New Race and the Future of the Original Starcraft [IGN]

Of our sample of 200 women, those who played video games on average had sex 4.3 times a week while those who didn't play games only had sex just 3.2 times a week.

Perhaps even more promising for gamers is the fact that many of the women that we interviewed who have only recently started playing games said that they now have sex more often than before.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
13/02/07

Gamers Have Sex More Often!

It's official - women who play video games have sex more often! Gametart, the UK's largest online games rental company, carried out the survey throughout January to see how the recent influx of the likes of Pink PSPs and DS Lites would affect gamers' sex lives across the country.

The results were surprising.

Of our sample of 200 women, those who played video games on average had sex 4.3 times a week while those who didn't play games only had sex just 3.2 times a week.

Perhaps even more promising for gamers is the fact that many of the women that we interviewed who have only recently started playing games said that they now have sex more often than before.

Gamers have never had it so good!

And a tip for Valentines Day: a nice meal and a bottle of wine only last for one night but for only 11.96 you can have games for a month!

Head to www.gametart.com to make this Valentines Day the best ever!

###

There was a bit of a flutter last week on the Intertubes when Tiger Direct started listing Gears of War for the Xbox 360 as in-stock and shipping.

People were speculating like crazy about the chance to grab the game almost two months early. I quickly hopped onto the site and ordered it.

Today, I hit up the site to see if the game was shipping yet, as promised. I was not too surprised to find that the order said that the order had been sent to another company for "fulfillment." Suspecting that was double speak for "We screwed up and this was really a pre-order." I hit Tiger Direct's live chat to try and squeeze the truth out of a rep.

My not so friendly rep took forty-five minutes to first feign confusion about my direct question, then, then lie to me about the reason for the delay and then finally admit that the order, which minutes before he was saying was delaying because of heavy orders, was in fact always a pre-order.

Way to go Tigers Direct. Love the lies. Keep it up. Brian Crecente

Hit the jump if you'd like to read the full transcript.
Please wait while we find an agent to assist you...
You have been connected to Sasha T.
Brian Crecente: Hi there, I just wanted to confirm my order is going to be shipping in three to four days as the site said, not next month.
Brian Crecente: I5951584
Sasha T: GIVE ME ONE MINUTE SIR AND I WILL HELP YOU WITH THIS
Brian Crecente: thanks
Sasha T: ok what seems to be the problem with the order
Brian Crecente: ?
Brian Crecente: when am i receiving it
Brian Crecente: will it ship this week as the page stated or not?
Sasha T: let me look into it
Brian Crecente: is that what you were doing for the last ten minutes?
Sasha T: yes sir but I don't see when it will be sent out. it does tell me that it will take from 7-21 business days to reach you.
Brian Crecente: well, is this a preorder, or is it an order for an item you have in stock, as you said on the site?
Sasha T: the reason the item is taking long to send out to you is because the item was on heavy back order and we ran out of stock
Brian Crecente: it was listed as in stock when i ordered it and now it says that it's been sent to another company for fulfillment. What does that mean?
Sasha T: that means that at the time we had it, but the product had more of a high demand then when had in stock so we had to order more to fulfil all the orders placed for it
Brian Crecente: and you have no idea when it will become available?
Sasha T: it should be out by 11/07/06
Brian Crecente: thats in a month and a half, your site said this was availabe. It sounds like you guys just lied about the game, saying it's available when in fact your just doing pre-orders.
Sasha T: I apologize for the misunderstanding this is a preorder item and please advise if you want to cancel
Brian Crecente: i want to cancel
Sasha T: ok sir give I will do that for you
Brian Crecente: please send me confirmation of the cancellation and I am very displeased with the misrepresentations made on the website
Sasha T: our system doesn't provide us with conformation emails. we internally cancel the orders
Brian Crecente: Is there a way for me to confirm the order is canceled?
Sasha T: yes if you check the order status on tigerdirect.com it would show cancelled with in 3-4 business days
Brian Crecente: thanks
Sasha T: you welcome
Sasha T: We'd like to take this opportunity to thank you for your business, and for this opportunity to assist you.

Have a great day, and thanks for shopping with TigerDirect.com!
Thank you for using TigerDirect Chat. You may now close this window.
Your session has ended. You may now close this window.

Most parents think their kids play way too many video games, according to a survey commissioned by VTech Electronics. In other shocking news, parents say kids have no respect, listen to crap music and follow way, way too close when driving.

I think people need to just start sending me money whenever they want arbitrary and useless statistics about gaming: Seven out of 10 children have lost an eye playing video games, mothers worry more will put an eye out. *

Survey Shows Parental Attitudes to Video Games [Gamasutra]

*Margin of Error: +/- 70 percent.