We all know that Valve's Half-Life 2: Episode 2 kicked some serious booty last year, and it's still among today's favorites because of its superior gameplay. The only downside in this scenario is that fans are asking for more, and they've started looking at E3 2008 as the possible birthplace of the next episode. Valve says "not yet", but they've got another thing for itchy trigger fingers. More after the jump.

With all the concerns circulating violent video games, horror author Stephen King joins in on the discussion. Writing novels for more than four decades, he's one of those credible enough to speak about the matter. Instead of writing down what he believes in, King chooses to speak up his mind. Find out what he said in the full article.

You read that right - professional gaming now has a huge venue in China where the best players can train and compete. The Championship Gaming Series league went all out, and it's expected that the CGS 2008 Pan-Asia Final which will be held in the facility will be the most explosive yet. Find all the details at the full article.

The recent shooting in North Illinois University had Jack Thompson appear once again on Fox News, linking yet another tragic incident to violent video games. In this latest development, Thompson faxed a letter to NIU asking for the shooter's history in playing violent video games, ending the letter in what could be construed as a threat of a lawsuit should the documents not be provided. Read Thompson's complete letter in the full article.

Consolidation isn't just a buzz word in the gaming industry, it's also becoming common practice. Just a few days ago, Valve Corporation snagged another developer for its fold, and the recent addition wasn't very surprising: it was none other than Turtle Rock Studios, the people behind the development of Left 4 Dead (Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Xbox 360). More in store at the full story.

In an email to Valve, gamer Thomas was able to confirm that a bunch of Valve games (including three games in the Orange Box) will be getting additional achievements, namely: Team Fortress 2, Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode 1, Day of Defeat: Source and Counter-Strike: Source.

Read Valve's email in the full article.

How would you feel if your guild or group suddenly vanished without a trace? Well, some of you won't have to imagine the scenario as it has happened to one group in the Steam Community, CSProMod Group.

Counter-Strike Pro (or CSP) Mod member chibsquad made an announcement earlier, saying that the group has been re-registered and urging members to re-join the group. According to the same announcement, the group just vanished. It actually sounds like a plot out of horror book "Phantoms" since the said group had 15,500 members at the time.

The members took concern to the Steam Forums and fortunately got a quick solution. PatrickM of Valve explained that it was an error on their part and said that they have created a new group for the CSProMod community.

 

2K Games' BioShock is still riding waves of success, being top pick for various gamers around the world. The Swedish are no exception either, for the first-person shooter from 2K Games Boston and Australia steals number one spot for their all platforms chart - well the Xbox 360 version, that is.

It also managed to squeeze through four popular PC, MMO games in the region, which include NCSoft's Guild Wars expansion Eye of the North, Creative Assembly's Medieval II: Total War expansion Kingdoms, and Blizzard Entertainment's two-hit combo - World of Warcraft and World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade - in that order from second to fifth.

BioShock's Games for Windows version settled into sixth place, while Insomniac Games' Resistance: Fall of Man and Revolution Studios' Motorstorm also found a place in the top ten titles, having grabbed a solid seventh and eighth respectively. 

Counter-Strike 1: Anthology from Valve Software at ninth closed the PC game count to six in PC-dominated charts, while PS2 title Guitar Hero 2: Rock the 80's from RedOctane concluded the top ten games. In essence, Guild Wars: Eye of the North topped the PC list, Resistance: Fall of Man trumped the PS3 list, BioShock rocked the Xbox 360 chart, and Nintendo's Legend of Zelda: The Twilight Princess was king of the Wii mountain.

In the handheld scene, Nintendo's Pokemon Diamond was favored in the DS list, while WWE Smackdown vs RAW 2007 from THQ crushed competition in the PSP chart. Here's the top ten in the Swedish multi-format charts:

1. Bioshock (360)
2. Guild Wars Eye of the North (PC)
3. Medieval II Total War Kingdoms (PC)
4. World of Warcraft (PC)
5. World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade (PC)
6. Bioshock (PC)
7. Resistance: Fall of Man (PS3)
8. Motorstorm (PS3)
9. Counter-Strike 1: Anthology (PC)
10. Guitar Hero 2 Rock the 80´s (PS2)

Buy: [Bioshock (Games for Windows)]
Buy: [Bioshock (Xbox 360)]

What are they playing over at Sweden? Aren't you curious? This bit of info just might save your life one day, y'know. The region's data trade firm, Dataspelsbranschen (now try saying that as fast as you can, ten times consecutively), has just released the top sales charts of video games for Sweden.

The Multiplatform chart is dominated by the MMORPG mogul that is The World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade from Blizzard. This is followed by Pokémon Diamond on the Nintendo DS. MotorStorm and R:FoM have also landed a place in the multiplatform chart, and unsurprisingly, both titles get bragging rights in the PS3 chart.

The 360 chart has Guitar Hero II fronting the musical act - and smack dab in the middle is Gears of War on fifth place. The Wii has Leon Kennedy and Ashley Graham running up to first place with Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition, while Twilight Princess is galloping up to the Top 2 spot.

On the handheld side, the DS chart has both Pokemon (Diamond and Pearl) titles on top, while the PSP chart has Pro Evolution Soccer 6 kicking into the goal - Konami's sports title is enjoying the kingly spot on top.

 Multiformat

1. World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade (PC)
2. Pokémon Diamond (DS)
3. World of Warcraft (PC)
4. Counter-Strike 1: Anthology (PC)
5. Guitar Hero 2 Rock the 80´s (PS2)
6. The Sims 2 H&M Fashion (PC)
7. Pokémon Pearl (DS)
8. Motorstorm (PS3)
9. Resistance: Fall of Man (PS3)
10. Singstar 90's (PS2)

Check out the Full Article link below for each individual chart per platform!

Gamers turning pro aren't rare anymore, and guys spending lots of time to improve their game are more cool than geeky nowadays. If StarCraft is almost South Korea's national sport, it's not impossible for other countries to realize that video games can be good spectator sports. UK broadcasting company took notice, and will now feature the Championship Gaming Series on TV.

Big tourneys have been on TV before, sure. What makes CGS a lot more epic is how the top 20 players will walk away as pro-gamers earning bread by playing games. Still not exciting enough? "Pro-gaming has reached a level of maturity and reach that makes it a natural fit with Sky's entertainment business," said Adrian Pilkington, director of Enhanced TV and Games for Sky.

In other words, CGS aims to capture not only current gamers, but also intrigue others that aren't into gaming yet. Skeptics would say it's not fun when you're not playing, but Pilkington has something in mind. He told GamePro in an interview:

People will watch CGS for the same reasons that sports fans like watching football or golf - because they want to watch the best players make the best plays. Pro-gamers have incredible hand-eye coordination that you wouldn't believe unless you see it. It's important too that viewers get to know the players and their personalities, so we'll be following the gamers outside of the games as part of each show.

Sounds like American Idol, much? Apparently not, because no reality show can beat massive competitions on TV where we can see the best plays in FIFA, Dead or Alive, Project Gotham Racing, and even the classic Counter-Strike.

Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like PS3 games are on, while the Wii is still under consideration. "The online qualifications have been open to anyone with an Xbox or PC," Pilkington continued.