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For those of you who remember such classic computer games such as Descent (a Doom-type First Person Shooter) and Descent II, ars technica has an article posted about how some alums of the game are attempting a reboot of the game for PC/MAC called "Descent Underground". Another source states that a Linux version is planned but no reference is found in this article. More info, history, and some nice graphics are at the website.

Military futurist Peter Singer -- and consultant for the forthcoming Call of Duty -- reveals what kind of dark assumptions are baked into the next blockbuster game. The Internet has been abuzz over details -- and several intriguing YouTube videos -- of the upcoming "Call of Duty: Black Ops II," scheduled to hit shelves in November. A sequel to the 2010 blockbuster "Call of Duty: Black Ops," the latest iteration of the video game continues the saga of American and Russian operatives immersed in a complex 1960s Cold War plot. But much of the sequel takes place in 2025, when...

Berlin - The more devout a young Muslim male in Germany is, the more likely he is to resort to violence, according to a federally financed study seen Saturday by the German Press Agency dpa. The study, based on interviews with 45,000 boys and girls aged 14 to 16, also concluded that male supremacist views and a preference for violent videos and computer games link closely with mosque attendance among the young. It compared Christians and Muslims.

Me dancing at the shelter,it was crowded today. At a weapons testing sandbox testing out a machinegun i bought. At Anthroxtacy dancing.

SNIPPET: "Does terrorism work, meaning, does it achieve its perpetrators' objectives?" SNIPPET: "In the long term, however, Islamists will likely recognize the limits of violence and increasingly pursue their repugnant goals through legitimate ways. Radical Islam's best chance to defeat us lies not in bombings and beheadings but in classrooms, law courts, computer games, television studios, and electoral campaigns. We are on notice."

Commander in Chief, a PC game that puts players in President Obama’s shoes, launches tomorrow, Inauguration Day. Just like the President, players immediately face the same problems and challenges as in the real world – the economy, controlling the military, national security and terrorism, natural disasters, alternative energy sources, and many others – all with the persistent threat of a terrorist attack on a major U.S. city. A game trailer can be seen at www.commander-in-chief.net. The game can be played alone, or, with an Internet connection up to 16 friends. Commander in Chief is played on a detailed 3D world...

RPG game about Warsaw Risisng 05.07.2008 It was published by Bully Pulpit Games, in the US and designed by Jason Morningstar. It proved a huge success in America, though has not found its way to Poland yet. ‘Grey Ranks is a game for three to five players’, write the publishers, ‘that puts you in the shoes of child soldiers during the Warsaw Uprising. The game is designed to be played over three sessions and includes a scene structure, with each scene corresponding to a specific date in 1944. As the game progresses, success becomes increasingly difficult and the player is...

A plague carried around the world by travellers, pets and curious teenagers may show that experts have not taken everything into account when planning for an outbreak of disease, researchers have said. Luckily, the world involved is an internet game. The outbreak of "Corrupted Blood" indicates that specialists trying to predict what the next pandemic will look like might make use of a real-world laboratory - the culture of online gamers. "It really looked quite a bit like a real disease," Nina Fefferman of Princeton University, who worked on the report with her then-student Eric Lofgren, said in a telephone...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Pac Man will be reborn on Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox Live online service on Wednesday as a final tribute for designer Toru Iwatani, who is retiring from the $30 billion games industry he helped ignite. The new version of the iconic arcade game is a faithful interpretation of the addictive 27-year-old original, where players wrenched joystick controllers to race a character -- resembling a yellow pizza missing a slice -- around a digital maze to chomp white pellets and chase multicolored "ghosts." The new game, "Pac Man Championship Edition," is the second and final version Iwatani personally...

A federal judge has declared unconstitutional a Michigan law attempting to make the sale of violent video games illegal to those under the age of 17. While such rulings have become commonplace, the specific language used by Judge George Caram Steeh sets a variety of interesting precedents. Judge Steeh actually demonstrated a surprising understanding of certain aspects of video games that have been either misrepresented or outright twisted by many of the proponents of laws restricting game sales. One of the arguments frequently used by gaming's detractors is that the interactive nature of video games makes them less eligible to...

Lei Feng, Mao's model soldier, stars in new Internet game www.chinaview.cn 2006-03-15 19:49:06 BEIJING, March 15 (Xinhuanet) -- Frequently referred to as electronic heroin or invisible killers, China's on-line games sometimes redeem themselves when historical education becomes popular among hundreds of thousands of youngsters. A new game, "Learning from Comrade Lei Feng," claims that its most distinguishing departure from its peers lies in a theme which encourages players to live a thrifty life and offer help when needed, rather than promoting sheer killing and bloodshed. Lei Feng, who was just 22 when he died in an accident in 1962, inspired...

Violent games 'affect behaviour' Violent computer games may make people more likely to act aggressively, a study says. Previous research has found people who play such games are more likely to be aggressive but some say this just shows violent people gravitate towards them. But a team from the University of Missouri-Columbia said their study which monitored the brain activity of 39 game players suggests a causal link. The findings were published on the New Scientist website. The researchers measured a type of brain activity called the P300 response which reflects the emotional impact of an image. When shown images...

I'm buying some Playstation 2 games for the troops in Iraq. I know nothing about which ones are good. Anyone who has played these games, please give advice on what to avoid and what to get. ************** Posting list of some that are currently available on a auction website, but please also advise if most recommended not on the list. Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Playstation 2 Game PS2 $6.99 MLB SlugFest: Loaded Playstation 2 Game PS2 $16.99 True Crime: Streets of LA Playstation 2 Game PS2 $5.99 Cabela's Big Game Hunter Playstation 2 Game PS2 $12.99 SSX Tricky Playstation 2...

It's been a long time since the last Age of Empires. The fans await with great anticipation this new sequel, especially because of the beautiful, story like graphics, screenshots and trailers. For those of you who have been waiting for something completely new, you're in for a disappointment. With a few exceptions and the introduction of a new feature you will see nothing revolutionary. Age of Empires III picks up where its predecessor, the Age of Kings, left it. Focusing on the colonizing of the Americas, AoE 3 follows the actions of the European powers as they strive to carve...

SEOUL (Reuters) - A South Korean man who played computer games for 50 hours almost non-stop died of heart failure minutes after finishing his mammoth session in an Internet cafe, authorities said Tuesday. The 28-year-old man, identified only by his family name Lee, had been playing on-line battle simulation games at the cybercafe in the southeastern city of Taegu, police said. Lee had planted himself in front of a computer monitor to play on-line games on Aug. 3. He only left the spot over the next three days to go to the toilet and take brief naps on a makeshift...

SEOUL, South Korea - A South Korean man who played computer games for 50 hours almost non-stop died of heart failure minutes after finishing his mammoth session in an Internet cafe, authorities said on Tuesday. The 28-year-old man, identified only by his family name Lee, had been playing online battle simulation games at the cybercafe in the southeastern city of Taegu, police said. Lee had planted himself in front of a computer monitor to play online games on Aug. 3. He only left the spot over the next three days to go to the toilet and take brief naps on...

Get the Stupid CrossbowGo into the elevator and open up the top-hatch. Climb up to the top of the elevator, then climb up the side of the shaft. At the very top of the elevator shaft will be some machinery and atop that will be a crossbow. This crossbow is the greatest weapon in the entire freaking game. It makes the Lightning Gun look like a nerf-rifle. Again, it doesn't matter if you're in the year 3030 AD; apparently, even in the far future, the crossbow remains the most balls-out deadly-accurate weapon in the history of warfare. ... The Part...

News Paralysed man sends e-mail by thought Roxanne Khamsi News@Nature.com Brain chip reads mind by tapping straight into neurons. Controlling objects with thought is becoming a reality. An pill-sized brain chip has allowed a quadriplegic man to check e-mail and play computer games using his thoughts. The device can tap into a hundred neurons at a time, and is the most sophisticated such implant tested in humans so far. Many paralysed people control computers with their eyes or tongue. But muscle function limits these techniques, and they require a lot of training. For over a decade researchers have been trying...

I know this is a very unserious topic, but I have been looking for a War on Terror/US friendly computer game. I have played "America's Army", but that doesn't really have a plot. I have been a fan of the Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six series, but I have been REALLY PISSED OFF that Team Rainbow is presented as an arm of the United Nations. Also, frequently enough, the terrorists are neo-Nazis rather than islamofascists. I'm also annoyed at having the option of choosing Europeans from France, Germany or other Iraq-war wimps for my anti-terror forces (though I have sometimes enjoyed...

The most interesting news of the day is rarely in the A-section; it’s buried in the back pages of the Wall Street Journal, where you get a glimpse into some small aspect of the future that will die or flourish in months to come. My favorite article today concerned the French computer game industry, and yes there is such a thing. Turns out that it’s in the pissoir for all the usual reasons - the companies can’t fire anyone when business heads sud, the taxes are onerous, and, uh, the games suq. But the French PM believes that the industry...