When Slash000 paid US$ 10 to pre-order Duke Nukem Forever through his local GameStop, little did he know that he would have to wait 12 years to wait for an answer. Unfortunately for him, the answer might be a disappointing "no" now that 3D Realms has run out of money and can no longer continue the game's development.

The government of UK has made it known that they're apparently not a fan of racing simulation games such Gran Turismo. According to a government-backed report, these games are responsible for creating "a cachet of excitement and glamour around speeding."

Dr. Tanya Byron has raided airwaves again with her latest endeavor with video games. After her six-month review of game violence, she was able to write and front a BBC TV show wherein she linked playing video games to heroin addiction. More details can be found in the full article.

Assassin's Creed took a long time coming but, looking at the game's development, the game seems to be worth the wait. Ubisoft Montreal producer Jade Raymond had a sit down with BBC to talk about why the game took four years in the making.

As if in reply to David Braben's claims that Halo 3 and BioShock weren't next-gen games, Raymond explains that, as a next gen game, Assassin's Creed (Xbox 360, PS3, PC) should live up to the increased standards of gameplay and not just graphics. Assassin's Creed isn't just about looking pretty, it's about taking the gameplay to the next level by taking advantage of the power of the next gen consoles.

First of all, the game has a larger playing environment, set in three huge cities that are populated with thousands of characters and every single thing within the city can either be "grabbed, climbed on [or] jumped from." The challenge is having to create each object to become interactive.

Another big challenge for the developers was to make the characters in the game act more lifelike, even the faceless populace. And as for looking pretty; the faceless populace will all have randomly created factors so each of them will be, in a way, an individual and not just a clone.

So will Assassin's Creed herald the way for taking games to the next level? Says Raymond:

As an entertainment medium, games are really just scratching the surface. I think we are at where we were with film when we made the transition from silent films to films that were telling a story with sound and dialogue. We are just at the point of discovering what we can do with interactivity and what's an interactive story where you are creating a story for players, but it really has to become the player's story.

Buy: [Assassin's Creed (Xbox 360)]
Buy: [Assassin's Creed (PS3)]

Here's your chance to vote for your favorite games for the past year! Now on it's 25th year, the Golden Joystick Awards is going stronger than ever, again, being broadcast live on the internet this year. With over half a million votes last year, the producers are aiming for a million votes to celebrate a quarter of a century's voting. There are 17 categories you can vote in this year:

Ultimate Game of the Year
The Sun Family Game of the Year
Bliss Girl's Choice Award
Nuts All Nighter Award
BBC 1Xtra & Rampage Soundtrack of the Year
Handheld Game of the Year
Innovation of the Year
The One To Watch Award
Mobile Game of the Year
Nintendo Game of the Year
Online Game of the Year
PC Game of the Year
Playstation Game of the Year
Xbox Game of the Year
Publisher of the Year
Retailer of the Year
UK Developer of the Year

We'd love to give you a complete list of all the games you can vote for, but that'd just be crazy. But to give a sampling, there's MotorStorm, Crackdown, Rayman Raving Rabbids, and even the Halo 3 beta. Go on over the list and look at the nominated titles for yourself. And while you're at it, vote for the games that made you spend so much time on your couch - which probably already has your butt-print on it.

To vote, you can visit Golden Joystick's official site behind the Read link below! You can also watch videos from last year's Awards and if you have the cash, buy your own tickets to the show. (Take us with you.)

A joint celebration of everything entertainment and artistic, the Edinburgh Interactive Entertainment Festival (EIEF) coming on August 13-14 will highlight the games industry through the eyes of the entertainment industry as a whole. To be held at the Royal College of Physicians at Edinburgh, the fifth EIEF will reflect upon what has been the game industry's significant rise of popularity today.

Pooling personalities in the world of entertainment, what the industry gamers call "home" will be examined by parallel creative industries which include music, art, and movies. Keynoted by Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot, the conference will also feature reflections from Simon Nelson of the BBC, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE), Linden Labs' Jim Pubrick, and actor Steven Berkhoff on games as culture.

Together with Dare to be Digital game creativity competitions and Future Publishing's EDGE Awards, the event will also conclude with a Digital Interactive Symposium on August 15 at Edinburgh University. Chris Deering, chairman of the Edinburgh Interactive Festival, concluded the announcement, saying, "This year we have much to be excited about. The festival is now firmly established as one of the most important events in the interactive entertainment industry's calendar."

BBC News reports that Disney has made a deal with Stan Lee to create an arrangement of new super heroes. The ideas that the Marvel mastermind comes up with will be used by the company to create new films, games, books, and comics, among others. And so far, he has enough ideas to whet Disney's appetite.

"I've got millions of them. I have file cabinets filled with ideas for movies and television shows and all sorts of things. I've been waiting to be associated with someone like Disney so I can start tearing into these things," said the 84-year-old comic creator.

Disney Studio chairman Dick Cook confirmed that the deal they signed was laid out for Lee to create characters and projects that Disney could use as franchises. Other studios have already made US$ 3.5 billion in profit from the X-Men and Spider-Man movies, while the upcoming Fantastic Four sequel and The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, Thor, and Nick Fury movies are expected to do well, too.

Pow! Entertainment, owned by Lee, claimed that they had almost two dozen characters in active stages of development, with names like El Lobo, Chameleon, Thunder Rider, Whirlwind, Doubleman, Nightbird, and Blaze. There are about 20 more in early stages of development, while another 40 will be introduced later on. BBC reports that Disney will not create a Stripperella film.

GamesIndustry.biz reports that Ubisoft boss Yves Guillemot will be keynoting this year's Edinburgh Interactive Entertainment Festival (EIEF) to be held in August. Guillemot will be delivering one of the event's two keynote addresses. The BBC's Simon Nelson will be delivering the other.

Fred Hasson, the CEO of festival organiser TIGA, said that this year's event will look at how video games interface with other media. This will most likely be the focus of Guillemot and Nelson's keynote addresses. Also taking to the stage will be Jim Purbrick from Second Life creator Linden Lab and a spokesperson from EVE Online publisher CCP.

The EIEF is the longest running event of its kind in the UK. This year's event will be the fifth time that the videogame conference will take place. Exact dates for the conference have yet to be announced.

Investors in controversial videogames publisher and favorite lawsuit target Take-Two Interactive have revealed plans to take control of the board. Due to news of the planned management coup, the company's shares jumped 18%.

According to the BBC News, documents filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission revealed that the said investors will try to aim to oust chief executive Paul Eibeler and install Strauss Zelnick, ex-chief executive of BMG Entertainment (which, incidentally, sold its own gaming arm to Take-Two in 1998) as non-executive chairman.

The investors, who currently own 46% of Take-Two, also aim to review the position of chief financial officer, Karl Winters. Take-Two has been under fire for a string of financial irregularities. Last month, former Take-Two chief executive Ryan Brant was convicted of backdating stock options to increase their worth.

JP Morgan analyst Dean Gianoukos said that the change in management would be "a positive for the company, assuming key development personnel are retained." Elizabeth Osur of Citigroup concurred, saying that the move was "long overdue". Arvind Bhatia of Sterne, Agee & Leach warned, however, that Take-Two's problems could not be solved "overnight".

It's been months since last year's Golden Joystick Awards wrapped up. And while this year is still fresh with plenty of soon-to-be-launched hits, UK-based publisher Future is already announcing their plans for this year's GJA, set to be on Friday, October 26. What makes 2007 special is that it will be the awards' 25th anniversary since its first launch in 1982.

The awards will be held at the London's Park Lane Hilton Hotel as it did last year, with tables to the awarding and after-show party now available at £ 1650. The event will once again be broadcast live via the Computer and Videogames site, and will be partnered by The Sun, Nuts, Bliss and BBC 1Xtra.