We interrupt your regularly scheduled TGS updates for news on another gaming convention, E3. No, it's not dead yet. But this new development won't help it recover any.

It seems that Codemasters, the company behind Clive Barker's Jericho, Colin McRae, and Lord of the Rings Online, has left the ESA. This makes the sixth publisher to leave the organization since May.

id Software president John Carmack has revealed that they have been approached by several publishers to develop an MMO version of the Quake series. An offer that they turned down. Why? Well, you'll have to check the full article to find out.

Normally, a major event such as E3 would have all the big name companies attending it.  This year will be different, though, as five publishers have decided to drop out of the event altogether. Part of the reason may be due to reported bad blood between them and ESA president Mike Gallagher. More on this after the jump.

China's World Series of Video Games event has risen for an early start on Day Two, and managed to put a few photos shy of a hundred in their online gallery this early in the second day. While we await the results of the game brackets and details of the main events that took place, let's take a breather and soak in these life stills for a sec.

Being officially sponsored by Intel, it appears even consumer and business computing solutions giant Dell made a grand showing at the 2007 WSVG in China. They've got keyboards to monitors and even laptops touting the Dell brand all over the competition floor.

And...wait a second. Do you see what we see? It's World of Warcraft! Funny how the laptop keyboard wasn't good enough for the contestant, eh? And look, there's Team Pandemic's Power Trip! If these pictures weren't enough to get you tingly all over, budding pro-gamers in North America might want to know that the WSVG is coming to Dallas soon, with an additional game to their lineup of game brackets.

And because the majority of WSVG patrons have spoken, Gears of War for the Xbox 360 is now an official game event. It will be included into the official Dallas lineup that includes Activision's Call of Duty 2, EA's EA Sports Fight Night Round 3, Activision's Guitar Hero 2, id Software's Quake 4 and Blizzard's World of Warcraft.

Day One

Need to see more? Well then, feel free to click on Full Article below!

Let us go far as to say that an article like this had to be written, and we're glad that someone actually did. While blogger and PC geek dp was as avid a gamer as any of those who remain of the multi-genre gaming enthusiasts, it's not hard to see where his sentiments are stemming from.

As part of the social subculture in the world, LAN parties used to be the pinnacle of community gatherings and social structuring that allowed gamers to connect on a real inter-personal level. But now, as broadband weaved its way to the mass market, the number of LAN party attendees soon dwindled to nothing.

It was pretty fine at first, of course, as most FPS or RTS gamers who couldn't win a match (even if their lives depended on it) were noticeably the first to go. But then even the mainstream LAN gamers suddenly opted out, seeking out human flesh player pwnage glory in the likes of MMORPG PvP games. The end of the LAN party was at hand.

While broadband's 2Mbps and even 4Mbps is nothing close to the mainstream LAN party's 100Mbps (or if you've got the bucks to blow - 1Gbps), gamers opted for the laggy, increasingly unimaginative but virtual worlds that MMO games had to offer. Players didn't mind not knowing the person that they were playing with, as long as they could be played with. And then players were able to hide behind masks of alter-egos, even if it confused some of the more practical players.

So now the once-mainstream, now-brainwashed gamers spend around eight hours a day crawling around dungeons with pixelized versions of themselves, hacking away at other pixelized versions of monsters with a sorry excuse for AI. Soon, those gamers couldn't pay for their own Internet connections that they soon returned to LAN parties, only to connect their PC to the high-speed network and fire up World of Warcraft. The nerve!

Thanks to some charitable PC enthusiasts who have the audacity to shell out their money for a great LAN gaming session, or even well known game developer companies such as id Software, LAN parties still have a fighting chance to be epic milestones in the gaming community. The upcoming QuakeCon is one of the world's most awaited and celebrated LAN parties, and it's probably the only last refuge of the LAN party culture. Competitive games such as the Electronic Sports World Cup and the World Cyber Games need this mechanic, and so it's not a big deal on their part.

So for game enthusiasts that are still out there, here's our calling to revive the gaming culture's biggest social achievement in world history. Let's return it to it's former glory and even seek out to bring the FPS-heads from consoles into our fold. After all, the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 are all capable of wired and wireless networking. And if it's not hard to ask, can we get more cross-multiplayer titles? Please?

I was bored last night. Not able to stand the monotony, I decided to go through my game shelf just to see if there was something that I could pop into my PlayStation 2 and enjoy. I eventually picked up and dusted off my copy of Clover Studio's Viewtiful Joe 2.

I decided to play through the first stage mostly as Sylvia. While I was blasting through the stage with her pink guns of unrelenting joy and joyfulness, I suddenly got hit by a wave of nostalgia. I needed a 2D platforming high.

Why go with 2D you ask? Well, it's because if there's anything that Castlevania on the DS and Viewtiful Joe by Clover proves, it is that there's still room for well-done 2D platforming games in this hyper defined, 1080p, next-gen world.

Dammit, I want to play Commander Keen again.

This isn't really news. This is a long rant-ish post, and to save you the pain of having to read through a dinosaur's gaming woes, you're only going to have to read the rest of the post after click on that "Full Article" link below. Zerglings, cyberpunk hippies with mini-guns, and space-travelling pre-teens await after the Jump!

Slipgate Ironworks and Interzone Entertainment have both announced that they will be using the BigWorld Technology Suite for their respective upcoming MMO titles. The BigWorld Technology Suite is billed as "the complete MMOG solution," providing all of the difficult technology required to produce an engaging next-generation MMOG.

Slipgate Ironworks is the new game development company formed in 2005 by id Software co-founder John Romero. "The BigWorld solution enables a streamlined production period which brings our game to market sooner," said Romero. "We are extremely pleased with the technology offering and support BigWorld is providing on this MMO."

Interzone Entertainment COO Robert Spencer commented, "BigWorld is clearly leading the field, with a proven technology and tools solution that allows us to hit the ground running. With the BigWorld Technology already in place, we are free to concentrate on what we do best, develop compelling worlds with innovative and exciting gameplay."

Both Slipgate and Interzone have yet to release details on their upcoming games.