Blog Posts by Ben Silverman

Just the facts, man. After getting shown
up by a super fan who pointed out a flaw in their game's continuity,
World of Warcraft developer Blizzard could have taken their lumps in stride,
chalking up their fiction foible as a simple oversight, and moved on with no
further mention of the incident.

Instead, the ace game makers proved why they enjoy such a rabid following by paying their newly famous critic the highest honor imaginable: he's now a character in the game.

The new character, cleverly named "Wildhammer Fact Checker," can be found standing right next to none other than Falstad Wildhammer -- the very hero whose health status
flummoxed the game's designers at the recent BlizzCon expo. Clothed in a red

Game over, man. He rescued Amity from Jaws, reminded us of Oskar Schindler's heroic
list, and, of course, saved Private Ryan. But even a filmmaker as
messianic as Steven Spielberg couldn't do the same for his latest video
game project.

After years of work on the top-secret "Project LMNO," publisher EA has officially announced that the title has been canceled.

"While EA maintains its relationship with Steven Spielberg, we ceased development of LMNO," a company rep told game blog Joystiq.

The news came to light during a podcast with industry vet Jake Kazdal, who revealed that he worked on the doomed project for over two years.

"I don't want to get the EA police on me. I can't say too much. It
was very

Achievements unlocked.Achievement points
have been with Xbox 360 gamers since the console debuted in 2006. It's a simple
idea: pack every game made for the system -- including retail releases, smaller
downloadable titles and expanded content -- with a number of specific
challenges. Accomplishing these nets you points which are cumulatively tracked
as your overall Gamerscore. It's been hailed as a game-changing feature, one so
addictive and brilliant, it's been copied by everyone from Sony (Trophies) to
Apple (the newly released Game Center).

And no one has achieved more than Stallion83.

The 27 year-old Tennessee man already made a mark on his favorite hobby when he was officially recognized by Guinness World

Nintendown, but not outThey might have the
best-selling home console and best-selling game handheld under their roof, but
even Nintendo can have a bad spell.

That's one way to
describe the company's most recent earnings report. Nintendo got slammed in the
six months ending September 30th, with overall sales plummeting roughly 33% --
or over $2.5 billion -- compared to 2009's numbers. It's the company's first
six-month loss in a whopping seven years.

Part of that has todo with a stronger-than-usual yen, but shrinking sales of both the Wii and DS certainly didn't help. DS sales dropped in a big way, from nearly 12 million in
2009 to just over half of that at 6.7 million. The Wii suffered a much smaller
drop, falling

It isn't every day
a fan gets a chance to directly confront their idols. And more often than not,
such an encounter usually results in blank stares, forgotten questions,
uncomfortable compliments, and possibly a signed body part.

But when one
big-time World of WarCraft fan (currently known only as "The Red Shirt
Guy") stepped up to the mic during a Q&A session at the recent
Blizzcon Fan expo, he managed to not only ask the right question, but earn the
respect of thousands of players by schooling two of the game's developers on a
botched piece of fiction.

Monotone voice,
encyclopedic knowledge of Warcraft's universe...yeah, safe to say he's a robot.
Or a mandroid. Either way, he's gotten

The good old days."You are standing in an open field west of a
white house, with a boarded front door. There is a small mailbox here."

If that sent
shivers down your spine, then you, my friend, are old-school. Very old-school.
Old-school enough to remember playing groundbreaking text adventure game Zork,
considered by many (or at least me) to be one of the most important games ever,
though it's sadly been lost to the ravages of time and, one could say,
graphics.

But thanks to a precocious Hawaiian coder named Planetsurfer, you can once again plumb the depth of the Great Underground Empire, if you happen to own a Kindle. Found at portablequest.com, the rebuilt text adventures include Zork I, II and III as well

It's still rock 'n' roll to himLegendary songwriter Bill Joel hasn't been too keen on bringing his catalog of hits to
music gamers, but The Piano Man has changed his tune.

And we can all thank a TV sitcom -- and media mag Entertainment Weekly -- for that. The bizarre turn ofevents began with an EW review of an episode of NBC's 'The Office' in which Jim and Pam briefly discuss the fictional game Rock Band: Billy Joel.

"The critic wrote something like, 'God forbid that ever should happen,' Joel told USA
Today. "So I called my people and said, 'Get me (on) that Rock
Band game.' Then I wrote the critic, saying that every time I get
a check, I'll give him a little nod."

And what Billy Joel wants, Billy Joel gets. Today MTV

Kinect bundle is $400: a bit of a stretch Can't wait to get your hands on (or off) Microsoft's controller-free
Kinect system? Got a couple hundred bucks burning a hole in your pocket,
too? You're a liar, but you're also in luck: Microsoft has formally announced a Special Edition Kinect bundle due out November 4th.

And it's pretty loaded. For $400, you'll get a 250 GB Xbox 360 Slim
console (with built-in Wifi), the Kinect camera sensor and a copy of
launch title Kinect Adventures. Buy those separately and you're looking
at about $500, somehow making this a legit deal.

It's not the only Kinect bundle on offer, however. A $300 package
swaps out the 250 GB console for the 4GB version, while current Xbox 360
owners will be able to