After Master Chief and Cloud came to Unreal Tournament 3 (Sony PlayStation 3, PC), you'd think mods can't get any better. Yet, here's another that can put a grin on your face. We'd never even imagine Epic Games and Nintendo joining hands, but if you want to see Super Mario powered by Unreal Engine 3, look no further than the full article.

Bored with the same old avatars in Unreal Tournament 3? Well, to resolve this issue you can modify and customize the characters in the game, just like what Organ did. He was able to create a mod of gaming icon Master Chief as well as characters from Crysis and more. Check out the screenshots in the full article.

Master Chief ordering take out at Burger King? Solid Snake wearing Speedos? These are just some hypothetical plugs that gamers might be seeing in the near future with the way in-game advertising has grown into a phenomenal industry nowadays.

As far back as the early '90s, we've seen games that have plugged, advertised or even coerced gamers into taking a gander at their real-life sponsors, as well as the products tied-in with them. The full article awaits after the jump!

Us writers over here at QJ.NET dedicate ourselves to playing every game we could get our hands on - and we've had our share of ups and downs, likes and dislikes, loves and hates. We've played them to death, and now, we present to you our predictions for the most coveted title in this industry - Game of the Year.

Check out our choices at the full article.

Previously, we saw Master Chief hit the waxy halls of the Madame Tussauds museum at London. Guess where Halo 3's superstar is right now? No, not Korea. He's just taken the next Phantom drop ship off to Sin City and has graced Madame Tussauds Las Vegas.

Master Chief now joins the ranks of television and film characters to be immortalized in the Tussaud museum's 250-year history as the very first videogame character to be featured in the attraction. And who's there to reveal the life-sized version of the Chief? It was none other than Fall Out Boy song-writer and bassist Pete Wentz who unveiled the new wax figure at the official unveiling last Saturday. Wentz reckons:

For me, the launch of Halo 3 will be the entertainment event of the year. It will be as big as or bigger than any of the summer's movie blockbusters. Master Chief is as much of a hero today as characters like Spiderman, Frodo, and Luke Skywalker were for previous generations.

If you plan on visiting the museum, you won't only be able to take shots with the Chief. There'll also be a couple of Halo merchandise for sale. Just to put things in perspective, the wax figure is the product of around 900 hours of sculpting, molding, and painting. It stands at 7"2' and weighs in at around 275 lbs. Yeah, Master Chief is a biggie.

In a recent interview with the New York Times, Entertainment Software Association (ESA) President Michael D. Gallagher revealed that one of the ESA's priorities is to infiltrate Washington.

The new ESA president noted that while the movie and music industries already have backers in Washington, the video game industry does not quite have the same privilege yet.

According to Gallagher, the main challenge lies in "connecting with decision makers and creating champions for the video game industry in the policy-making arena."

In addition to having a smaller budget, Gallagher also noted that the video game industry doesn't have the star power to seduce politicians.

"Washington is very enamored with glitz and the appeal of stars," said Gallagher. "Whenever Bono shows up he creates this bow wave as he comes through, and it's true that stars do help drive messages. And it is true that Master Chief and Mario are not yet household words on the Hill, but wait for the years ahead."

Gallagher also said that the ESA will be revealing its full agenda after E3.

This is excellent news. Our lawmakers make their decisions based on information. If that information only comes from anti-gaming lawyers and anti-gaming activists, then of course our lawmakers are going to develop an anti-gaming bias. So it's good that our industry strengthens its representation.

So maybe some of you weren't too hot about the Halo 3 McFarlane controllers. To quote a comment from lmxloco (Unregistered): "Eh, they look good and all, but they're a little too busy for my taste." Well, everyone's entitled to their own opinion. That includes Todd McFarlane himself. And to him, controllers are just the start.

McFarlane Toys has just announced a partnership with Microsoft to bring in Halo 3 action figures come Spring 2008. Not only are they going to include a 6-inch Master Chief in their line up. There's also going to be Cortana, Brute Chieftan, Jackal Sniper, and a bundle pack consisting of two Grunts.

Tagging along for the ride are, well, your Halo rides: McFarlane Toys will be releasing miniaturizes of the Warthog, Ghost, and Chopper as well.

Solid Snake is getting his own 12 inches. Marcus Fenix is getting a big head as a toy. Well, it's about time that Master Chief got his own plaything-version too.

 

For those who are planning to pick up both Halo 2 and Shadowrun, or even just Halo 2 for Vista. Circuit City is running a sweet deal where you can get Shadowrun for free if you buy a copy of Halo 2 for Vista. Yup, you're getting two games for the price of one. Halo 2 for Vista is going for US$ 39.99 which is pretty good if you don't have a copy of it already for your Xbox or just want to play it on your PC (Keyboard + Mouse = pwnage).

Both games are playable over Microsoft's Games for Windows Live service where you can play against players on the Xbox 360. Halo 2 is about Master Chief fighting against ... why bother, you probably know this by now. Shadowrun however, is an online based game where you go head-to-head against other players using magic and some heavy ordinance to take out your opposition. Counter-Strike fans might want to check this out since both games have similar gameplay.

That said, click on our read link to head straight to Best Buy to view their promo. Be sure to keep checking back here for the latest deals and bargains for your PC.

We know you guys were probably sitting silently in the dark, waiting for QJ to cover this portion of the recent "partial nudity" development while Dracula was asleep. But first, we'd like to clarify what exactly the partial nudity was: someone's pair of fleshy buns.

 

Now what Microsoft did say about the game's delay was that they were addressing installation smoothness and other technical facets of Halo 2 for Windows Vista, and not something way off key from the technical department as a bare bottom of an intern or developer. Or is that the guy behind Master Chief?

Now definitely it was the ESRB that really sparked the ruckus and the same reason why Microsoft's white just turned beet-red for bearing someone's nether regions over its flagship operating system. The ESRB was claimed to be "notified" by Microsoft about a certain incident (if you can call it that) that probably might catch the eyes of unsuspecting parents.

The ESRB took the image as partial nudity, asking Microsoft to bare 'Partial Nudity' upon the label of the ESRB sticker of the game. It seems though that many other sites interpreted the idea too wrongly and considered the possibility that either Master Chief forgot to slap armor over his merchandise or Cortana wasn't translucent enough. Latter would have made our day. Really.

ESRB considered it another "hidden content" issue, just like that of the Hot Coffee controversy, and took steps to ensure that the game was properly labeled to inform parents that a highly popular game was coming with someone's particularly successful efforts of mooning.

Thanks to Kotaku for the bottoms...err...heads up!

As odd as the following block of indented text may read, it's real. Or at least Next Generation claims it's real. Halo2 Vista apparently shipped with accidental partial nudity. Yes folks, partial nudity in Halo, a game where Master Chief and his ilk are covered in heavy doses of Spartan Armor. Anyhow, here's what Microsoft sent via e-mail, it reads:

It has come to our attention that an unfortunate, obscure content error which includes partial nudity was included in our initial production of "Halo 2" for Windows Vista. As such, we have updated the initial game packaging at retailers with a label, so customers are aware before purchasing the game. Additionally, we've developed an online update which can be downloaded from www.halo2.com to remove the content.

At Microsoft we take the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) guidelines very seriously and hold ourselves to high standards, with our customers always in mind.

Yes, if you're a parent and you have issues with your children seeing nudity, but you're cool with them engaging in a hyper-violent form of cops and robbers, then you can download the update at their site and not worry. Given that Bungie Software's Halo 2 is already an M-rated (17 or older) game, one can't help but wonder just exactly how much "partial nudity" is in it.

It was also reported that Halo 2 Vista has been delayed from this week to next week. It seems that adding "partial nudity" to ESRB warnings take that much time. The bright side of this is that Microsoft is making sure that their video game (revenue source) doesn't step on people's toes, and is properly packaged and marketed.

Anyhow, if you're signed in to Games For Windows LIVE, the update should be automatically downloaded. If you're not, signed in then You can head to the Halo2 support site using our "read" link below. It must be noted that the support page does have a May 22 update but it fails to clarify what it's for.