Source: Planet GameCube

Quote:Do you pretend you are the Hero of Time in your sleep? Are you the biggest Zelda fan on the block? Well, take a gander at what this Zelda fan owns...

When we read that Paul Hantschel, one of our forum users, owns a real-life replica of the famous Master Sword from the Legend of Zelda series, we couldn’t just leave well enough alone. So we contacted Paul and asked for some details on his little artifact.

Mr. Hantschel emailed blacksmith Rob Miller of Castle Keep, located in Scotland, with the initial concept and original artwork. Around a week later, Rob responded and requested detailed dimensions for every aspect of Link’s Master Sword. After a ten-month wait period and a £1,800 transaction (around $3,300), Rob began work on the sword of legends.

The blacksmith provided updates of his progress during the one-and-a-half-month forging process. With them he included photographs of the sword, which Paul has graciously shared with PGC.

That’s one great sword, if you ask us! Paul agrees. “Now I've just got to go to my local gravestone peddler and get a Pedestal of Time made up!”

Quote:The Advocate news in Baton Rouge, Louisiana is reporting about a federal case against Nintendo that claims the company failed to follow consumer protection rules. A family has gone to court with Nintendo after their son had a seizure playing a game. Their attorneys say that Nintendo’s games contain defects that present a “substantial hazard” of serious injury or death to those that can suffer from seizures while playing games. Some people’s brains are extremely sensitive to certain patterns and flashing lights and can have a seizure. Striped clothing, helicopter blades, and strobe lights can also have the same effect.

After three days of testimony Nintendo settled the personal injury claim in the case for an undisclosed amount. That’s only the beginning though, the judge has to decide whether Nintendo knew about an unusually high risk and didn’t do enough about it. Nintendo has been putting warnings on their packages about games possibly causing seizures for years, but there are several other guidelines and rules to follow.

Nintendo’s professional witness says "Video games don't cause epilepsy or seizures. They are caused by a pre-existing neurological condition." The defense also testified that Nintendo donated funds to the Japanese Epilepsy Association to help fund research into the connection of games and seizures.

The family is going to tremendous lengths in their demands, they’ve asked Nintendo to require there to be warnings about seizures on the screen while games are in use. They want Nintendo to rank all games according to seizure risk and reformat all their games to reduce the chance of seizures. And as if this wasn’t enough they also want Nintendo to fund a nationwide advertising campaign to inform the public about seizures from games and to institute a refund program so that anybody that wants to get their money back from Nintendo games can do so.

In total there were six complaints related to seizures from Nintendo's games in 2003, down from 22 in 1999.

Most Penalty Minutes, one game, both teams-Ottawa and Philadelphia, 419
Most Penalty Minutes, one period, one team-Philadelphia Flyers, 209, third period
Most Penalty Minutes, one game, one team-Philadeplhia Flyers, 213 (Ottawa had a respective 206)

That's carazy! 419 penalty minutes in the City of Brotherly Love...ironic. Ottawa, The City that Closes at 8 PM, couldn't pull off the win though. Too bad. :(

http://www.nhl.com/onthefly/scoreboard/h...021001.HTM

It took the refs 90 minutes after the game to sort out all the penalties and whatnot. :D There were only three players left on the bench from each team at the end of the game...16 total from each team finished.

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...a record-breaking 82 degrees here today. Spring has never felt so damned sexy before!

Looks like Fable lost yet another feature, this time a big one...

http://www.gamespot.com/xbox/rpg/fable/n...90653.html

Nuts... That's one of the things I was looking forward to the most...

The official blow-out will be in a few short days, but here are some terrific-looking scans from Famitsu and other sources (found em at the gaming-age forums), as well as a super-cool gif:
















According to several gaming journalists that have played the game it's going to be incredible. Matt from IGN places it just below Metroid Prime 2 as his most-anticipated game of 2004.

I have to admit that while I've never been a real RE fan I am very excited about this game. It looks like it's going to get rid of the main reasons why I don't really like the survival horror genre (crap controls, crap camera, and terrible puzzles).

72 - Meanwhile, Back at the Office

Edit: There, I fixed it, you grammar-fiends!

Quote:On what was a pleasant March day, Scientific-Atlanta announced that it is planning to develop television set-top boxes with high-performance video game capabilities, and that 250 European engineers are already making games for the Explorer series of boxes. The box will probably not be sold in stores but instead be supplied by cable television companies who would offer subscription services to consumers a la pay-per-view, video-on-demand, and whatever else people use to watch Wrestlemania.

With the video game industry making billions of dollars, more and more companies are going to mosey in, poop on the floor and hope fans will pay money for it. Will the combined might of 250 European engineers be enough to sway the gaming world? Only time will tell, and it will tell us no.

Source: GameSpot

Quote:What do American Pie's Stifler and Soul Calibur's Sophitia have in common? Two words: Warren Zide. According to The Hollywood reporter, the Pie and Final Destination producer has purchased the film rights to Namco's fighting game series.

While no date has been set, the project will be Zide's first under his new Sony-based production banner, Anthem Pictures. Matthew Rhodes, Noel Vega, and Jesse Warshal will co-produce.

While no details were given on the Soul Calibur movie's plot, it is likely it will take elements from the original Dreamcast and arcade game as well as Soul Calibur II, its arcade, PlayStation 2, Xbox, and GameCube sequel. Both games concern a cast of mighty warriors, lots of brutal hand-to-hand combat, and the all-powerful Soul Edge.

GameSpot will have more details on the Soul Calibur movie as its preproduction nears.