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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Last week Ars Technica ran an interesting article discussing ways that PC gamers can make their voices heard to game studios when they're upset about decisions those studios have made. I'm not sure why they narrowed in specifically on PC gamers, since I think their advice would work equally well with respect to console releases or even customer/company interactions that have nothing to do with gaming whatsoever. Perhaps it's because the majority of what they touched on was regarding anonymity within internet communities that led them to keep their focus on PC players– I'm not sure.

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A new political party has been formed in Australia with the goal of ousting South Australia Attorney-General Michael Atkinson and finally getting an R18+ classification for video games passed in the country. While this is commonly (and incorrectly) attributed as being a moral judgement on the part of the Australian population, most Australians are for such a classification and Atkinson is the sole opponent in government to getting one implemented.

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Dragon Age: Origins was rather unique in the fact that at its launch not only one but two pieces of downloadable content were available; The Stone Prisoner and Warden's Keep were two addons that added extra quests and content to the base game. While The Stone Prisoner was available to everyone who bought the game, Warden's Keep was only included with the digital deluxe version of the title. Anyone else wanting to play it has to purchase it for an additional seven dollars.

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If you haven't heard by now, Infinity Ward, the developers behind upcoming FPS Modern Warfare 2, have released a YouTube public service announcement warning players against unsportsman-like "grenade spam." It's all well and fine, but the five seconds at the end of the video inform you that the PSA has been brought to you by "Fight Against Grenade Spam," or, FAGS.

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