"Forget about any golfers picking up the sponsorship slack," says Michael K. Ozanian. "According to E Poll Market Research, aside from Tiger, they generate no buzz with consumers."

He's talking about all products, not just video games, but if Phil Mickelson and Jim Furyk can't sell shaving cream, they probably can't push a $60 title either. Tiger Woods has been the lead endorser of EA Sports PGA Tour series since 1998 - only John Madden has a longer association on the title of a sports video game. EA axing Tiger is a far different thing than AT&T or Accenture (although Nike and Gatorade have comparable product lines in play here too.)

This is all speculation of course. EA Sports' latest guidance is this stand-by-your-man news release. It's got a major release coming up with Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online, a free-to-play browser-based product that's been in a closed beta already, with another coming up soon. And as said above, if Woods is so toxic that he can't rep a game, EA Sports would have no reasonable fallback. Of course this scandal is a disaster for Woods as a business; it's not a party for his corporate partners either.

Tiger's Troubles: The Winners [Forbes]

The two games do look mighty similar and have pretty much the same player objective. When people pointed that out in comments for a YouTube trailer of Aquatica, Ketera Software responded by saying the source code was "100% written from scratch."

This was two hours after Chen himself had seen the game and made the following Twitter post:

"I released flOw source for people to learn. I didn't expect to see it on iphone without quoting the creator http://www.ketara.ca/aqua.html."

Luckily, this scandal seems to have a happy ending. 1up.com contacted both parties for comment and received a conciliatory statement from Ketera — and now Aquatica's website reads: "Please note: Aquatica is an iPhone from-the-ground-up re-make (FAN VERSION) of the famous flOw game created by Jenova Chen of the ThatGameCompany fame. We deeply apologize for not properly crediting him earlier. Our mistakes were caused by naivety, not malice."

I'm pleased the situation was worked out so quickly — the longer a scandal festers, the harder it is for a game to get clear of it and be awesome on its own. And it is awesome to have flOw on the iPhone, even if it has a different name and isn't affiliated with Sony.

Hm. I wonder what Sony has to say about Aquatica?

Aquatica iPhone Devs Respond to flOw Creator Accusations [1up]

Manchester Cathedral was ransacked during the English Civil War in 1649, half-destroyed by German bombs in 1940, and bombed by the Irish Republican Army in 1996. It survived all these attacks. Its patrons rebuilt it.

And it stands still today. Resistance adds a fictional homage to the church's resolve, this time in an alternate history fraught by an enemy that neither understands nor cares for human practices like religion. And it survives this as well. The Church of England sees their cathedral's presence in Resistance only as a sordid juxtaposition, the sanctity of worship set against the profanity of violence. But when viewed in the context of the game's fiction, the cathedral serves a purpose in the game consonant with its role in the world: that of reprieve for the weary and steadfastness in the face of devastation.

The Manchester bishop obviously didn't agree, but Bogost points out that this flap provided yet another platform for 'concerned citizens' to rail against video games and perceived links between virtual and very real violence. Would the flap been as big if there hadn't been some religious angle to foam at the mouth about?

Persuasive Games: The Reverence Of Resistance [Gamasutra]

From The Escapist, the magazine that occasionally takes itself a wee bit too seriously, an interesting wrap up of the 2006 Oblivion topless mod/subsequent ESRB re-rating issue. At the core is the idea a developer or publisher could be punished - by bumping an original T rating up to an M - for content that they didn't produce or distribute. But with their hands tied - a game without a rating is a game that can't be sold in retail stores - Bethesda agreed to abide by the ESRB decision. But was the Oblivion problem a blip on the radar screen, or a sign of larger future problems lurking in the distance?

Looking back, there's a reason the incident didn't make bigger headlines: The news dropped in May, just a week before the last real E3 event, and there were bigger stories to cover that month. But with player-centric content vehicles like LittleBigPlanet and PlayStation Home on this year's docket, last year's ESRB decision may prove to be the gift that keeps on giving for an already beleaguered industry.

Maggie Greene

The Breasts That Broke the Game [The Escapist]

The totally rad website for Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80's has launched and while it may only be one page it does hold some new information. At the bottom of the page, an audio player plays tracks from the game and reveals three new tracks that were heretofore unannounced. The three new tracks are:

• "Balls To The Wall" by Accept
• "Only A Lad" by Oingo Boingo
• "The Warrior" by Scandal

Add these three to the already released tracks and you've got yourself quite the set list. Some of the 30 total tracks available will actually be the original versions of the songs and not covers. As of now, only "I Ran" and "I Wanna Rock" are confirmed as being the original tracks and hopefully there will be more. We'll keep our ears to the ground and let you know what they are as soon as we find out. Make the jump to see the entire list of titles already announced. Rock on, party people! Flynn De Marco

Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80's Website [Red Octane]
[via theprp - Thanks, wookubus]

• "18 And Life" (as made famous by Skid Row)
• "Bathroom Wall" (as made famous by Faster Pussycat)
• "Lonely Is The Night" (as made famous by Billy Squier)
• "Nothing But A Good Time" (as made famous by Poison)
• "Play With Me" (as made famous by Extreme)
• "Shaken" (as made famous by Eddie Money)
• "Synchronicity II" (as made famous by The Police)
• "I Wanna Rock" (Twisted Sister) (original recording)
• "I Ran" (Flock Of Seagulls) (original recording)
• "Round And Round" (as made famous by Ratt)
• "I Want Candy" (as made famous by Bow Wow Wow)
• "Metal Health" (as made famous by Quiet Riot)
• "Holy Diver" (as made famous by Dio)
• "Heat Of The Moment" (as made famous by Asia)

On Boxing Day (that would be the day after Christmas to all of us Yanks) Prime Minister Tony Blair flew out to Florida with his family for a week-long holiday at the Miami Beach home of the Bee Gees Robin Gibb.

As if the pricey vacation wasn't scandalous enough, his wife Cheri Blair was then spotted lugging around a brand new Playstation 3, the console that even John Edwards couldn't land.

Hit the jump for a less flattering shot of the backside... of the Playstation 3.

The End. Brian Crecente

[Thanks ukmountie for the tip]