It’s bad enough that the company doesn’t even come close to what Netflix can do when it comes to streaming video…but when I hear news of the movie rental chain having to close 500 stores, it’s time for us to let the store go into the woods to die a solitary death like all good old dogs are supposed to do.

In a swift move of pure dickery, Activision has pulled out the old cease and desist on The Silver Lining, better known as the fan sequel King’s Quest 9. The previous owner of the Sierra IP, Vivendi, tried to shut down production of the game back in 2005, but negotiated down to a non-commercial license of the game as long as they dropped the King’s Quest moniker from the name.  The now 9 years in production game, which was prepping for a Spring 2010 release was forced to cease development and remove all assets from their website.

You remember those days when you would be playing your favorite video game and discover someone had figured out how to hack it or to glitch the game into winning? You remember the days when the developers actually cared and patched the game to fix the hole in their code to keep these hackers from cheating?

Yeah I miss those days.

Well it’s official, Microsoft only loves the PC for selling Windows. That’s right, the makers of the most-used operating system in the world, is calling it quits on getting Alan Wake, one of the biggest Survival/Horror/Action games of the year, to the PC.

The Steam weekend deals were announced today and their big discount this time is 85% off of some game called Mount & Blade. Think Elder Scrolls: Oblivion on a horse and you have the basic idea.

Yours truly got to spend an hour playing the demo for this game and my conclusion is this: I wouldn’t play this game if you paid me. That’s right, I would turn down CASH MONEY to play a game. That’s how a bad it is. But if you really like playing something that will make you want to gouge your eyeballs out, then be my guest.

Many of you may remember that when the first Bioshock came out, that the game was awesome, but there was a serious problem with the PC version…regarding an el-cheapo method that 2K made wide-screen on the PC.

Ok, people, please remain calm. There is no need to get panties in wads. Sony hasn’t actually come out and said that they’ll be charging $X.XX for subscriptions, but keep in mind that not only has there been proof from a Sony conference (see above), but two of their corporate officers have said as much.

No, it’s not a joke about how most of us Sci-Fi fans tend to have a little bit more dough around the midsection, which sometimes makes breathing strained because of the same weight pushing down on our lungs and spreading our rib-cages…It’s about the apparent controversy that stirred for about a half hour as Zachary Quinto was quoted about not wanting to touch the Star Trek franchise for 2 years.

Last Christmas, my Brother, being the awesome guy he is, bought me FIFA 10. It’s a great game by any means and there’s tonnes to do in it but imagine my disappointment when I found out you couldn’t play any international tournaments in the game. That meant no World Cup, no Euro Cup and perhaps most tragic of all, no Africa Cup of Nations! Considering my ex, PES, had all of these and a qualification mode for their World Cup, it was pretty shameful on EA’s part.

What you’re looking at right there is the SOM, a piece of personal hardware that the sad men and women across Japan and soon weeaboos across the US can use to help them…what’s a good way of saying…reach climax. That’s right it’s Jack Mehoff machine that can also be aligned to work with the lady parts or certain naughty fellas.

I think it’s safe to assume at this point that the chances of Duke Nukem Forever ever being released are about the same as a black man woman becoming President. That is to say, don’t count on it. However, this fellow from the Internet, Mr. “Slash000″, has posted images of his Gamestop pre-order receipt for the PC version of Duke Nukem Forever, that he is still holding on to.

Though it is neat to have a 9-year old piece of history, if Slash000 had invested that 10 dollars in 2001, by now he would have…(*goes and gets an Asian to do math*)…11 or 12 dollars. Which is probably more than 3D Realms has at this point.

(Via Ripten)

A player of Entropia Universe Online that goes by the name Buzz Erik Lightyear must have a whole bunch of disposable income that he should be spending macking hoes and smokin blunts while doing donuts in his Ferrari. I say this because the DB actually spend over $300,000 dollars to buy a piece of in-game real-estate.

Well, my expectations of the VGAs weren’t even high to begin with. A respectable video game award show is far from happening, the closest we have being the videogame BAFTAs over here in Blighty. However, lapdog Geoff Keighley was claiming that there were 12 exclusive reveals at the show, such as the first look at Halo Reach and Prince Of Persia: The Forgotten Sands as well as games we hadn’t even seen yet. So with that, I just had to watch it out of morbid curiosity at least. The only difference being that I was watching this at 1-3am instead of 8-10pm like in America. Hit the jump for my impressions on this  ”awards” show.

This was today’s Marmaduke strip, I’m fucking serious.

Owen Wilson has signed on to play the Great Dane in an upcoming Fox CG/Live Action adaptation of the newspaper comic Marmaduke.  Not a particularly odd film choice considering the mass success of his last dog-centric film, Marley & Me, but I don’t see people exactly clamoring for Marmaduke (I didn’t even know it was still made!).  Plus, look at Garfield…

On second thought, don’t look at Garfield.

The Weather Channel, wanting to broaden their audience out of the 60+ age range, announced a new series to their programming schedule dubbed The Weather Channel Presents… This Friday night (8pm EST) block will air weather-centric movies starting October 30 with The Perfect Storm.  Subsequent movies include March of the Penguins, Misery, and Deep Blue Sea.  So next time you want a quick check on the upcoming snowfall, you may be greeted with Kathy Bates and a sledgehammer.  Bravo, Weather Channel, bravo!