If you've been keeping up with the Take-Two buyout malarkey from Electronic Arts, then you'd know that EA is now targeting the shareholders after Take-Two gave them the cold shoulder. Now, we get the look at just what's driving this offer, with the word straight from EA Chief Executive John Riccitiello himself. All the details after the jump.

Did you enjoy the Grand Theft Auto and Max Payne series? Well, you'll be happy to know that Steam, Valve Corporation's software distribution service, is now carrying those games and more. In addition, those who purchase these games get to do so at a 10% discount.

If you're interested, head on over to the full article for the more details. Follow the "read more" link below to do so.

The contract between Take-Two Interactive and Rockstar North expires in 14 months. Because of this, Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter is saying that the developers of the Grand Theft Auto series might actually consider following Bungie's footsteps and set up their own camp.

More information on why Rockstar North might decide to go independent can be found in the full article.

Well, it looks like the Hot Coffee scandal is slowly coming to a close. Aside from FTC deciding not to impose fines on Rockstar Games and Take-Two Interactive, Take Two finally drafted a proposed settlement to the class action litigation on the Hot Coffee controversy in Rockstar North's Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (for the PC, PS2, Xbox). The settlements involve game disc exchanges and even cash refunds to be given to gamers who bought the title. Read on to check out the details on how to qualify for the settlement benefits!

Y'know, law books in the future will soon come to include the classic "GTA defense." Look at the sheer glut of criminal acts that perpetrators attribute to titles in Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto series. It's practically become the next gen version of the insanity plea.

Over in London, a teenager loaded with "skunk weed", a high-strength kind of cannabis, murdered a 51-year old woman. Why? According to a report from ThisIsLondon.co.uk, Ezekiel Maxwell, a paranoid schizophrenic, committed the crime because "gangster voices" from a Grand Theft Auto game told him to do so.

Maxwell apparently believed that he was Carl Johnson, the main character in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. The crime happened on September 5 last year, but we're guessing that the reason this has come to light now is due in part to the recent rash of "skunk"-related crime pieces in London papers. Of course, the upcoming release of Grand Theft Auto IV may also be part of it, but that's kind of far-fetched.

We should also note that Maxwell had been smoking cannabis and "skunk" as well as taking cocaine since he was 14. He had also been diagnosed as a schizophrenic. Unless there's something wrong with your head in the first place, playing a violent videogame won't turn you into some kind of homicidal maniac.

If you think we're the only ones fidgeting in our seats while waiting for a hot game that's already on everybody else's computers, then you thought wrong. Released for over a good two years now, Rockstar's GTA: San Andreashas only recently landed in Japan.

Yep, that's right. Just now. We're probably asking the same question: why did Capcom wait this long to release it there? The answer to that is: we don't know. And frankly, we're pretty sure the Japanese gamers don't really care anymore. What's important, after all, is that the game has landed. Finally. Better late than never, as they say.

Word has it as well that the promoting publisher did not spare any promotional money, slapping buses with sticker posters of the game to really get the word out. Nobody's sued so far. Anyhow, this vid right here is a Japanese promotional trailer for the game (uploaded in YouTube by Siliconera). Check it out and enjoy.

Before anything else, check out this video.

What you just saw was the Multi Theft Auto Christmas movie. Multi Theft Auto, as the name suggests, is a multiplayer mod for Rockstar North's Grand Theft Auto games. According to the people behind MTA, it is the world's first modification to incorporate multi-player into a single-player PC game.

So, how does one make a mod that turns a single-player game into a multiplayer fiesta? The magic is in MTA's new scripting system. All of the scripts used in MTA are written using Lua. Jon Chappell, of the MTA devs, says they chose Lua partly due to its "simple syntax, extensibility and the fact that Lua scripts do not need to be pre-compiled."

Those who are familiar with other programming languages should pick things up easily, and even people who have no coding experience can still make MTA maps. According to Chappell, "existing game mode scripts can be imported into new maps with no scripting necessary (more on this at a later date). However, for those of you that do want to code game modes, the QA team has been working hard on providing extensive documentation to aid in this process."

There are also quite a few game modes that are currently in development. While the Christmas vid mainly showcased tech demos and mini-games, other modes such as Conquest and Turf Wars are in the works. The new scripting system will also include features that will be useful to budding RPG programmers such as control over time and weather, customisable player stats and clothes, integration with the MTA Center for player authentication (optional), vehicle modifications, 3D sound functions, dimensions, and many more.

Just looking at the amount of energy, work hours, and sheer love of the game put into this mod is enough to give us a few teary eyes. In all honesty, we are really looking forward to playing a full beta version of MTA (heck, we'd settle for just a few more vids of it in action).

Speaking of the beta, the MTA team has also revealed that they're nearly ready to release the public beta for their new MTA software. Right now, the client for Multi Theft Auto: San Andreas - which contains a race mod and a race map editor - is available for download on the MTA website. A series of scripting demos will be released on the MTA development blog soon, so watch out for those.