R.U.S.E. is a upcoming RTS developed by Eugen Systems and published by Ubisoft. While a private beta has been under way for some time, Steam users were treated to a free open beta test earlier in March, continuing through until April 9th. Set in the time period of World War 2, R.U.S.E. takes the traditional RTS and gives it an interesting spin through the form of the eponymous "ruses," wildcards that allow a player to trick and deceive the enemy in a variety of ways.

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Long has the stereotype of the "gamer" crowd been one of lonely, overweight nerds living in the basements of their parents, with no social contact with the outside world beyond virtual interactions in video games. One company with a clear aim to capitalize on this perception is GameCrush, who have announced that they're creating a new service which hooks said depressed, isolated gamers up with "PlayDates" in the form of supposed hot women who just want to game, man.

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South Australia Attorney-General Michael Atkinson, for some time the only opposition to introducing a R18+ classification for video games in the country, announced over the weekend that he was resigning from his position as Attorney-General immediately. Holding his position as MP for over 20 years, Atkinson will step down fully at the end of his term in 2014, his role a backseat one in the interim.

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While excited gamers this week have been treated to the first full expansion to BioWare's epic RPG Dragon Age: Origins, customers who purchased the Mac port of the game are left wondering when they'll get in on the latest content themselves. Since being launched the Mac port hasn't been supported in the least, and nobody at any of the involved companies have confirmed or denied whether or not the expansion will be coming to OSX.

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We Fly Spitfires, one of my favourite blogs, posted an entry documenting a recent spat in the WoW-blogosphere regarding that terrible dragon of gold-buying. I'll admit upfront that I've bought gold in World of Warcraft before; back when I first started playing and the thought of how much grinding I'd need to go through in order to purchase my first mount, the time commitment seemed unlikely. A little spam message in my inbox telling me how much game-gold I could get for a pittance of money seemed like a no-brainer: in the trade off between grinding for time, amidst my actual real life day job, or plunking down cash for the same result, ease won out.

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Earlier today, Australia's largest video game retailer, EB Games, delivered forty-six thousand submissions to the federal Attorney-General's department supporting their recent discussion paper around creating an R18+ classification for video games. EB Games collected submissions in all of their stores across Australia, as well as online, and in just two weeks it collected the staggering number of favorable statements advocating such a classification for 18+ video games.

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In an article on Tuesday over at The Bulletin (Philadelphia's family newspaper), Susan Brinkmann explores a growing problem facing today's "avid gamers" and their immortal souls. Specifically, a rise in the proliferation of satanic-themed video games targeting God, Catholicism specifically and Judeo-Christianity in general. Most of the article is built up on quotes by a 32 year old named Lance Christian who declares matter-of-factly that "the devil has a new tool to work with in this age of technology, and the majority of adults in a position of responsibility are left in the dark."

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