Unless you're living under a rock, you should know that today Apple announced their newest piece of hardware, the iPad. Resembling an oversided, ten-inch iPhone with a modified UI, Apple was quick to tout the device's functionality as a gaming platform, bringing both EA and Gameloft on stage at their keynote to show off modified versions of their existing iPhone games.

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Given the organic, ever-evolving nature of MMOGs these days, the line between alpha, beta, open beta and release are blurring moreso than in usual titles. Even though Cryptic will be releasing its latest MMOG, Star Trek Online, in a bit over a week, the state it goes live in will likely not be representative of the game in a few months. As such it's difficult to give a really fair round-up of the game, or any MMOG in general, because they change so drastically in such a rapid space of time. Perhaps because I played the Champions Online beta, I am approaching Cryptic's latest offering with a bit of a raised eyebrow. In its current state, Star Trek Online is a rather buggy mess that shows great promise but feels rushed and unpolished.

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It's a little difficult to tell where the line between hyperbole and seriousness is, but in this piece on The Orange County Register, Marla Jo Fisher begins her story declaring, "I truly believe that video games were created by Satan to turn otherwise normal children into his drooling, glassy-eyed stooges."

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Out.com, the official website for Out Magazine, has recently published their list of the "gayest" video games. Looking over their selections, I have to say their choices are a little… interesting. And by interesting I mean, in fact, that this list would at first glance appear to be compiled by a gaggle of frat boys giggling over their collection of eBay'd NES cartridges.

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South Australia's Attorney-General Michael Atkinson has long stood in the way of efforts to gauge public opinion on whether or not Australia should have an R18+ classification for video games, but finally it looks like the federal government has decided to take things into their own hands. Residents of Australia can submit a comment to the Commonwealth government on the topic of the R18+ classification, the first time that public opinion has been solicited directly on this topic.

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While the escapades of Zevran and Leliana in BioWare's Dragon Age: Origins have been featured positively in a lot of gay media, it was presumably only a matter of time before their inclusion would show up in negative depictions as well. WorldNetDaily, a popular conservative news site ran an article last week with the ridiculous headline of "Players have dirty 'gay' sex in hit game".

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For my birthday a couple weeks ago, Adam surprised me with a brand new PlayStation 3. Whilst browsing things on it, I recalled a title I heard about months ago which seemed interesting: Flower, an ambient/atmospheric game available for purchase on the PlayStation Store that has you taking control of the wind, ushering seeds and flower petals around in a beautifully rendered landscape. Having seen videos of the game on YouTube and hearing rave reviews from friends, the game seemed intriguing and I eagerly added cash to my account to buy it. What has happened next has really annoyed the hell out of me.

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