We got an update on the upcoming Nordic Game Conference which is set to happen in a few weeks in Sweden. Things are definitely shaping up as the top names from the industry gather for the multidisciplinary Game Creation Sessions. Find out who they are in the full article.

Okay, so you've got your agenda finalized. What's the next thing to do? Why, it's to announce the All-Star Speakers, of course.

Evergreen Events, the organizer of the 2008 ION Game Conference, has done precisely that. It's mentioned four important names to take note of. Find out who these four people are after the jump.

If you enjoyed the last Nordic Game conference and are looking forward to this year's event, we've got some news for you. Quite a number of big name speakers will be sharing their thoughts at the Business and Production part of the program. To find out who will at the event, head on over to the full article.

A press wire in circulation is announcing the launching of the upcoming ION Game Conference's very own ION Network. This new service will enable the event's participants to keep tabs on the conference's other participants and important news with greater ease. More details are in the full article.

The 2008 ION Game Conference looks to be building up quite a line-up of keynote speakers. It was recently revealed that the first keynote speech will be delivered by none other than president of Sony Online Entertainment John Smedley.

Check out the full article for more information.

Ever since the Online Game Development Conference (OGDC) started, more than a few big names have graced the event. However, it won't be known as the OGDC for much longer. Evergreen Events has announced that it will now be known as the ION Game Conference.

Want to  know more about this change? Head on over to the full article by clicking on our "read more" link below for more information.

Some gamers may find in-game advertisements to be nothing more than shameless plugs, while others still believe it's necessary.

In the Independent Game Conference in Austin, Gordon Bellamy goes into the subject a bit more and discusses how advertising could benefit not only the company who does the advertising, but also the game itself. He also explains why Doritos can't go multiplatform. Find out why in the full article.

Two things come from Texas: one of them's got horns, and one of them apparently is video gaming.

Or else why would MTV's Gamer's Week 2.0 send Sway Calloway and MTV News' Stephen Totilo off to Austin to do a feature for, well, gaming? Austin is, as MTV finds, home to Dell, the University of Texas in Austin (one tricked out college for gaming and gaming purposes), the Austin Game Conference, NCSoft's Richard Garriott (daddy to Ultima Online and Tabula Rasa), a Midway Games branch, and the Halo-machinima "Red vs. Blue" producers Rooster Teeth.

All that gaming... je ne sais quois in one city... it's bound to produce some degree of craziness that MTV's dying to report on. (We sense a future Punk'd episode idea here.)

You've got Richard trying his hand out in amateur archaeology (his home's full of relics and stuff) and - God forbid - rap music. Visit the Austin Midway Games branch and you'll find whiteboards for brainstorms-while-walking everywhere (why not make them wall-to-wall?), and Razor scooters for in-house transportation (better make those "brainstorms-while-scooting..."). There was an idea for fire poles to make leaving second-floor meetings more fun, but that didn't make it past the drawing board. Aww.

And a lot of the gamers here, apparently, are killer. One local FPS clan fought against a New York-based clan, "basically fed them (the New Yorkers) their own tonsils". Alrighty, these are guys we definitely do NOT want to underestimate in any future multiplayer matches.

You do know that the unofficial motto of Austin is "Keep Austin Weird", right? Now, if we could find some Tauren out in the fields. Because they got horns, you know...

Eve Online's much-awaited Revelations update was brought up again as Mog Army recently released a vid of their correspondent Ryan Verniere interviewing two of the game's developers during the Austin Game Conference last September.

From the looks of it though, even the developers look pretty excited over these new updates, their voices a bit on the hyped-up side. Hmm, caffeine rush? Putting the focus back on the Kali patch, there was much excitement over the upcoming contracts system in the next patch up, which will replace the eskrow system  formerly established by players.

Then came the subject of factional warfare and voice system, with the developers abuzz over this patch's potential to change the face of how inter-group combat within the game's (massive) space will be executed. Well, given the game's massive player population, and its notorious in-game politics, we believe 'em.

This is just an  idea of what the dudes over at CCP are cooking up, and we suggest dl'ing the vid to get a much better idea of what's going on.

Download: [Mog Army interview on Eve Online]

Lee Hammock, the lead designer of Fallen Earth from Icarus Studios, demonstrated the game earlier this week at the Austin Game Conference. For those not familiar with the game, it's set in a post-apocalyptic world where gamers play the roles of various mutated humans (yup, I'll be calling myself "Mad Max" from now on). But there's more: as mutated humans, you have special abilities (yup, I'll be calling myself "Mad X-Max" from now on). Here are the details:

• Vivox technology that delivers high quality and real-time in-game voice communication">Vivox technology that delivers high quality and real-time in-game voice communication">Vivox Voice Over IP: You'll be so busy using your hands to control your character that you'll need voice. The demo run went great: voice communication was fast and clear, and the graphics of the game went smoothly, too.
• Crafting: Almost every item in the game will be crafted by players. You don't go after a giant monster to get a rare weapon. You get a rare component that you use to make a weapon. And there's time involved; it takes a few hours (either online or offline time; the time still keeps counting even while you're offline) to make a gun but it'll take days or weeks to make something more complex (like a car). You can only craft one item at a time.
• PVP: There are 6 factions in the game organized as a six-sided wheel. The faction across the wheel is the great enemy, the 2 factions next to you on the wheel are allies, and the remaining 2 factions (sandwiched between your allies and your great enemy) are on the cusp between being friendly and being hostile. You don't have to choose a faction right away, and you can do missions for any faction to earn "reputation points." The reputation points fuel the drama: for every positive point in your favor, you lose two points from the opposing faction.

Considering that Icarus Studios is behind the Icarus Studios Technology Suite (a collection of high quality fully-integrated tools), and considering the fact that this was developed in order to make Fallen Earth, we're going to keep an eye on this game. The world is interesting, and the game design along with the crafting and the factions add more depth to it. Meanwhile, I'll go practice my Mad X-Max pose.