Blog Posts by John Gaudiosi

Max Payne 3 (Rockstar Games)Rockstar Games might best be known as the force behind Grand Theft Auto, but they've got other intense franchises in their game stable, too.

And it doesn't get much more intense than Max Payne. After an 8-year layoff, the dark detective returns in the anticipated sequel Max Payne 3, which brings one of the more unique video game heroes to the PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on May 15.

Debates over violent or sexually-explicit video games have been raging since the early days of gaming, as titles like Mortal Kombat, Night Trap and others fueled the fires of controversy.

Final Fantasy XIII (Square-Enix)But Greg Perreault, a doctoral student in the University of Missouri School of Journalism, decided to explore an untapped avenue of gaming controversy: religion. More specifically, he focused on the correlation between violence and religion, both organized and more spiritual beliefs.

Perreault studied five games, and while the specifics differ, he found that in each case, religion was closely tied to violence.

The odds are pretty good that you haven't heard of 505 Games, but you've probably heard of Blackwater.

Blackwater (505 Games)The private military company -- which changed its name to Xe Services in 2009 after getting hammered during Congressional hearings focused on the killing of civilians and non-combatants in the Middle East -- is back.

But this time, it's targeting gamers.

Erik Prince, who's no longer with Xe Services, has resurrected the Blackwater brand in a new first-person shooter aimed at Microsoft's Kinect for Xbox 360. 505 Games is publishing the title, which is being developed by Zombie Studios, whose past work includes the downloadable shooter Blacklight: Tango Down.

In the aftermath of the Oslo, Norway terrorist attack by Anders Behring Breivik, some have fingered video games as a potential contributing factor to the madman's rampage. Retailers in Norway are already clamping down on toys and games that it deems dangerous -- including both Call of Duty and World of Warcraft, the two games Breivik mentioned in his manifesto.

Anders Behring Breivik

But according to Christopher Ferguson, a clinical psychologist and leading expert on video game violence at Texas A&M International University, video games aren't to blame. Breivik was just plain crazy.

Ferguson, who has spent the past decade studying violent video games and their impact on society, points out that of the over 1,500 pages in the manifesto, approximately a page and a half was dedicated to video games. Of that, most of the writing was focused on how to use World of Warcraft as an alibi to cover for his plotting of the terrorist attack.

Civilization VDespite everything we learned from watching WarGames and The Matrix, computers are still a few clicks away from taking over the world. But thanks to some cunning researchers, they just got a little bit closer.

The geniuses at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab have used an electronic instruction manual from Sid Meier's best-selling strategy game, Civilization II, to teach a computer how to read -- in any language -- and learn the complex intricacies of the nation-building video game.

Thanks to the landmark Supreme Court's ruling, video games are now afforded the same protection under the First Amendment as other forms of media.

But it didn't answer the million-dollar question: Does playing violent video games lead to an increase in violent behavior? The answer is elusive -- and depends a great deal on which particular study you choose to believe.

Grand Theft Auto IV - Rockstar GamesAccording to Dr. Craig Anderson, director at the Center for the Study of Violence at Iowa State University's Department of Psychology, playing violent video games is significantly associated with factors like increased aggressive behavior, as well as a decrease in wanting to help others.

"We can now say with utmost confidence

Game makers flocking to New Orleans NEW ORLEANS - A week before Hurricane Katrina battered Louisiana and turned New Orleans into a natural disaster area, the state government passed tax incentives to attract video game developers to the region. Now that the recovering state is looking to build into the future, it's aggressively courting technology and video game companies with the best tax incentives in the United States.

And it's working.

"We set the foundation in 2005 before Katrina to focus on game developers and technology companies, but last year we went back and made these tax incentives a permanent fixture," said Stephen Moret, Louisiana's Secretary of Economic Development. "We want game companies to open up studios

All-Star Jam - Getty Images With the NBA playoffs in full swing, most players are focused squarely on keeping their team in the hunt for the Larry O' Brien trophy.

When they're on the court, at least. Because when they're not dribbling, passing, or dunking on cars, you'll likely find NBA ballers doing what most 20- or 30-something men do: playing video games.

According to the league, a whopping 85 percent of its players are 'active' gamers. And it's not just scrubs -- some of the biggest names in the sport grew up with controllers in
their hands and somehow find the time to play. We caught up with a few of the
best and brightest to find out which games are stealing away their free time.

Derrick Rose

Derrick Rose - Getty ImagesChicago Bulls