129 diggs Stop.

117 diggs Daniel Erickson has made a post on the official forums with some clarification. Apparently, in a conversation with a fan at PAX, he said something like (when speaking about what species players will be able to play): "If you can't imagine it making out with Princess Leia, you probably won't be able to play it."

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98 diggs There are many misconceptions about what an eco-investment is and a bewildering array of products have appeared on the market. Many of these make extravagant claims that cannot easily be verified. Some are more closely associated with ‘green’ rhetoric than serious investment. So what are eco-investments?

81 diggs A slip by Japanese accessory creator keysfactory may have preempted Nintendo's plans to reveal a 3DS release date.

101 diggs A night to remember indeed!

123 diggs Apple's policy reversal on third-party development tools for iOS may yet draw close checks from the Federal Trade Commission.

77 diggs Let's face it.  Milk mustache?  Come on people!  It's just another way for the Milk industry to lure celebrities into looking like they're taking facials

110 diggs Over 90% of Hong Kong's inhabitants daily journeys are via public transport – the highest rate worldwide – meaning car dependency (and the shocking carbon stats that come with it) are now a thing of the past.

93 diggs Foreclosure ahoy

202 diggs An Australian lawyer, Alex Stewart, has smoked pages torn from the Koran and the Bible, posting the video on YouTube just days after an American Pastor's threat to burn the Muslim holy book caused worldwide outrage.

109 diggs Antonio Damasio, noted researcher and professor of neuroscience at USC, talks about emotions and the science of being human. He describes the difference between emotions and feelings, and explains why emotions are one of humanity's most important survival mechanisms.

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113 diggs Cranio is a very talented artist we recently discovered. He approaches art in a manner that is hard to frame, not traditional but not modern either.

90 diggs Nokia lost another key executive today as its Mobile Solutions head Anssi Vanjoki said he would quit the company in six months. The company veteran would only say he wanted to "seek new opportunities" and insisted he was "one hundred percent committed" to Nokia for the half year.

137 diggs Men aren't the only ones that like to have a little fun with their new vehicles. Women have their favorites, too. And for whatever reason it's getting harder to distinguish what actually makes, what used to be called a "chick car."

125 diggs Despite the best intentions of the health lobby, smoking rates in the U.S. have now remained level for five years. One in five Americans still smokes, a statistic that hasn't changed since 2005. Before that, the rate dropped every year for four decades. Why has the decline in smoking rates stalled?

128 diggs Lady Gaga is wearing slabs of meat on the cover of Vogue, but we've seen it all before. Here are 11 people who decided that wearing raw meat was fashionable long before Lady Gaga did.

145 diggs As somebody that uses his fair share of Post-It notes, it’s nice to see them used for something other than just reminders and out of office reminders. The dedication of these artists is nothing short of amazing.

118 diggs Rather then just a the small heart icon and a few relationship status, how about Facebook implement more icons and more accurate descriptions. Here are a few good ones. I'm especially fond of the "dumped" one...maybe because it should probably be constantly displayed on my page.

78 diggs Mazda's global-market B-Series pickup is due for a refresh; enter the BT-50 truck set to debut in October.

67 diggs In case you guys weren't around last week, there was another fine edition of the Pax Game Festival that took place last week.

123 diggs We all love Family Guy but it wasn't quite always the show you've come to know. Here you can see Seth MacFarlane's original idea of a man with his talking sidekick of a dog evolve into what the show is now.

142 diggs Wondering how to have fun with your iPhone? One obvious way is to play games on it. And I have found 10 great iPhone games which you won'€™t need to pay anything for. Read on my list of top 10 free iPhone games. Try them all out -€“ they'€™re free!

78 diggs Which movie gangster rocked the most fashionable threads? Read here to find out.

123 diggs Even the great Tom Brady rocks a Justin Bieber side-sweep haircut.

119 diggs Have you ever wondered what people were purchasing online? We took a look at some of the recent e-commerce data (mostly from the 2010 Census, and from Pew) and pulled the most interesting of the findings. These are illustrated in the graphic below.

105 diggs I don’t know how they do it.  The Tennessee Volunteers basketball program continues to be a Top 25 program every year despite being the NCAA’s version of a dysfunctional family.

115 diggs It was just that easy. Step 3: Profit.

97 diggs Product sells increased if concepts are cleared in packaging and would win the hearts of customers. It is more important companies maintain cost of product, packaging within its cost. Mostly people judge the quality of product with its unique packaging.

102 diggs This newly developed pressure-sensitive electronic skin (made from semiconductor nanowires) could be used to restore touch to patients who have prosthetic limbs...as well have wide-ranging applications in robotics, medicine/surgery, even driving safety.

86 diggs "I thought she was dying and my goal was to give her everything she wanted before she did…Now, I want to see the truth come out. If that means her going to jail, then let her pay for what she did."

79 diggs Food trucks are so popular right now, it's almost harder to find a truck that doesn't serve lunch. The names are getting pretty awesome, too

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91 diggs Liberty or security?

79 diggs POP The Moonwalker, who did the amazing moonwalk with a shopping cart at a Walmart, has returned, this time doing a moonwalk with a truck in front of a CVS. via Doobybrain

120 diggs Dude, of course, is the original slang for “city slicker,” and dude ranches’ collective history dates back to the 1880s, when families who’d recently moved out west would invite friends to visit their cattle ranches. Once the practice spread, ranch owners realized they’d better start charging for room and board.

100 diggs A general scope of features that will be included in WordPress 3.1 release.

114 diggs Check out the top 10 weirdest instruments in action.

73 diggs Few people in the world know more about Al Qaeda than Lawrence Wright, and that includes most of the people actually in Al Qaeda and as well as the people trying to stop them.

87 diggs Behind every epic hero is a mentor who helps forge their destiny. t’s their sacred duty to spot the spark of brilliance within their young disciples, and to support them in their quest to save the galaxy/Universe/World/Whatever.

133 diggs A major breakthrough by Irish scientists could prevent the onset of Type 2 diabetes which affects 14 per cent of people over 40 in the developed world.

142 diggs New artificial skin fashioned out of flexible semiconductor materials can sense touch, making it possible to create robots with a grip delicate enough to

129 diggs Playing PC games on your laptops is the best way to have gaming fun when you're not able to use a console. This is a cool list for gamers..

105 diggs And you thought ringing cell phones were annoying. At a recent screening of 2001: A Space Odyssey, an audience member on LSD lost control and started flailing his arms and yelling during the film's Star Child sequence. How he kept...

150 diggs Apple's iPad has already done quite well already, thank you very much. Until now, the tablet has been available through Apple--via its Webstore and ever-growing list of retail locations--and Best Buy. The best way for the company to really hit a sales spike this holiday would be to ensure the device's placement in even more retail locations.

98 diggs She is 40 years older than most of last night's attendees and hasn't had a major hit since 1998, but Cher was the name on everybody's lips at the MTV Video Music Awards. The singer stole the show in a barely-there outfit reminiscent of the costume made famous in her video for her 1989 song If I Could Turn Back Time. It was an updated version of the controversial jewelled outfit, complete with her trademark over-the-top curled hair and leather jacket.

134 diggs The title pretty much sums this one up. It's a collection of propaganda posters for Star Wars featuring Imperial pin-ups who want you to do your part and serve the Empire.

62 diggs Around the world, frogs are in peril. Threatened by pollution and habitat loss, changing climates and epidemic disease, the outlook for many species is dire. Still, every year, new species are discovered and frogs long thought to be extinct are found again.

126 diggs Social networking has been finding its way into our everyday lives for quite sometime now. Most recently, it’s become a part of our gaming space.

133 diggs For every great horror movie, there is a heinously crappy sequel.

106 diggs The heart is my favorite part.

136 diggs There should be more than 12 reasons but this is a good starting point.

167 diggs Back in the day, you didn’t turn on NBC Sports to watch the NBA. You turned it on to see Hannah Storm.

120 diggs PlayStation 3 has had a great run for the last couple of years with blockbuster games getting released every three to four months. In almost all of these releases everyone just remembers the heroes. No one really cares about the bad guys who are equally responsible for adding drama in to the game. Through this article we take a look at 10 Most Bad Ass Guys We Love More Than the Good Guys on the PlayStation 3.

198 diggs I’m a fan of the Kindle, I really am. With books on the whole going by the wayside, the Kindle is the closest I and my ilk will be able to get to a traditional reading experience over the next few decades. But that’s okay – that e-ink screen is just the cat’s ass once you use it IRL for the first time. Never change, Kindle. You’re just what you need to be.

110 diggs As much as we dislike thinking about people actually dying, there really isn't much more entertaining than the stories of people dying in the most absolutely ridiculous and ill-conceived ways possible -- hence the Darwin Awards.

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91 diggs The Ukrainian authorities are set to slaughter hundreds of thousands of stray animals in preparation for the Euro 2012 European soccer championship.

118 diggs The FCC plans to vote on rules to govern use of "white spaces" in spectrum between TV stations to enable high-bandwidth wireless broadband.

147 diggs With an expected 1.2 million robots in 2013, the age of the automated workplace is at our front door. However, these are

118 diggs Keeping up with the Joneses, bring home the bacon, time is money...we've all heard these phrases a thousand times, but how did they begin?

113 diggs The Diablo series has captured hearts and minds for over a decade. One writer examines how and why it manages to do so.

127 diggs Nothing says "Never Forget" like girls, bikinis, and body paint.

92 diggs A college education costs a lot. So, would you be better off with just your high school diploma?

120 diggs YouTube is testing live streaming on YouTube Channels as part of a plan to make the service broadly available

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134 diggs The U.S. Food and Drug Administration may soon approve genetically modified salmon for humans to eat, a prospect that is raising concern among some consumer advocates who consider the fish a threat to both health and the environment.

81 diggs Videos from the International Bottled Water Association's Bottled Water Matters campaign try to convince consumers to fight for the right to bottles.

91 diggs The advertising server of The Pirate Bay has been hacked and exploited to spread viruses and trojans among users of the site. The hackers targeted a vulnerability in the site’s software to offload the malicious files, causing sections of The Pirate Bay to be blocked by Google, Firefox and several virus scanners.

108 diggs Mario is not afraid, the plumber may lack black belt combat skills, but the midget knows how to fight to save his princess.  Mario is 25, and getting

127 diggs Any way you cut it, a lack of personal accountability could play a large role.

76 diggs Researchers at Stanford and also UC Berkeley have developed ultra-sensitive artificial skin. For example, the Stanford group's elastic polymer "skin" detected a fly and butterfly on it, expressed by a change in the amount of electric charge the materials could hold. The UC Berkeley researchers constructed their skin from a grid of semiconductor nanowires laid out on pressure-sensitive rubber. Each nanowire intersection functions as a transistor "pixel" that changes current based on the pressure. While prosthetic skin is a long-term goal, the nearer application is in robotics. From Nature News: Fully working artificial skins will need to do more than detect pressure and bend. "The ultimate prosthetic skin should behave like our own skin," says Stephanie Lacour, a materials scientist from the University of Cambridge, UK. That would mean the skin being able to detect sideways shear forces such as those produced by scratching a twig down your leg as well as pressure. "This is one of the most difficult things to implement," she says. (UC Berkeley's Ali) Javey agrees that there are many challenges to overcome to make a fully functional artificial skin, not least integrating that skin with the brain. But applications in robotics could come much sooner, he says. The next step is to scale up production so that enough artificial skin can be made to cover an entire robot's body, Javey says. "Artificial skins detect the gentlest touch" Sensitive synthetic skin Artificial human skin as a sculptural medium Victorian "rather sinister" artificial arm and hand

138 diggs I always thought that they are enemies... But here you go they formed a real relationship with each other...

115 diggs Calling all wannabe designers with a bright green idea: Sony has today officially launched its Open Planet Ideas initiative and is inviting proposals for how the company's products could be repurposed to tackle environmental problems.

69 diggs Are Miami's homeless really that obsessed with having up-to-date sports gear, or are advocate groups making this more complicated than it needs to be?

134 diggs Now that you've laid out ,000, or ,000--or even 0,000--for your new vehicle,you may be asking a touchy question of your salesperson: "Why the heck do I have to pay more for a proprietary cable, just to run my iPod?" Not surprisingly, it's pretty much the fault of Apple and its...

114 diggs A dating website has implied that atheists are more educated or intelligent than religious people. But applying the rationality that is supposed to accompany atheist thought highlights some major caveats.

77 diggs The Santa Monica-Malibu School District announced Friday their plans to install solar power systems at nine elementary schools, a move that is expected to save the school district $4 million in electricity costs during the next 25 years.

76 diggs Filed under: Credit, Debt, ShoppingWhile the federal government continues to try to pull us out of the recession by spending money it doesn't have, on a personal level Americans have dramatically tightened their spending patterns, especially those Americans that have a lot of money. According to a new Gallup poll, In August we averaged $63 per person, per day, of discretionary spending on items like restaurants, clothing, entertainment and gasoline, compared to $97 in 2008. That's a drop of $34 per day, or 35%. This is even down slightly from our spending level in August of 2009 ($65), when the overall economic climate was even bleaker. Those earning $90,000 or more were spending $185 a day as recently as May of 2008. In August of this year, they spent only $109 a day, down 41% from that peak.Continue reading Gallup poll shows Americans are still not spending like it's 2008 againGallup poll shows Americans are still not spending like it's 2008 again originally appeared on WalletPop Blog on Mon, 13 Sep 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Email this | Comments

103 diggs "Halo: Reach," the highly anticipated follow-up in the popular gaming series, will hit stores at midnight, Sept. 14, in more than 25 countries, and retailers around the world are gearing up for late-night launch events.

124 diggs Because lakes are land-locked bodies of water, they are our planet's experimental mixing pots. They can stew strange chemistry and give rise to anomalous creatures found no where else on Earth.

62 diggs First lady Michelle Obama is prodding the nation's restaurants to add more healthy options to menus, label those items more prominently and market nutritious foods to kids.

117 diggs A cool invention called the Park Spark was unveiled last week in a Cambridge dog park. The methane digester converts dog poop into energy, and that energy is now powering a gas-burning lamp at the park.

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78 diggs What started as a simmering team dispute earlier this year on the Mobile Roller Derby team apparently escalated into a pair of bombings at the roller skating rink the team uses in Tillman’s Corner and two attacks on the home of the organization’s president.

160 diggs Super Mario Bros. was released in Japan 25 years ago today on the Famicom, the Japanese version of what Americans call the Nintendo Entertainment System. Since then, Mario has become one of the most iconic characters and entertainment brands in the world. Mario had previously appeared in the arcade games Donkey Kong and Mario Bros., but it was Super Mario Bros. that propelled the Italian plumber to icon status and contributed significantly to making video games commonplace in homes around the world and reversing the video game crash of the early 80s.The game was bundled with the Nintendo Entertainment System in the U.S., and its tough to say whether it was successful because of the NES or vice versa, but either way, Super Mario Bros. has sold more than 40 million copies over the past 25 years. In fact, it was the best-selling video game of all time until just recently. That title now belongs to Wii Sports, the game bundled with the Nintendo Wii.To celebrate the 25th Anniversary, Nintendo released a video, which weve embedded below. Its a sort of video timeline of the major Mario releases, though it omits Super Mario Kart and other genre-bending spinoffs that have featured Mario and friends.Weve also included Nintendos Mario timeline graphic in case you dont want to sit through the video. The Guardian also listed 25 fun Mario facts and Nintendo launched a star-studded ad campaign to commemorate the date.Super Mario Bros. 25th Anniversary VideoMario TimelineMore About: anniversary, birthday, classic games, classic gaming, gaming, Mario, NES, Nintendo, nintendo entertainment system, super mario bros, video, video gamesFor more Entertainment coverage:Follow Mashable Entertainment on TwitterBecome a Fan on FacebookSubscribe to the Entertainment channelDownload our free apps for iPhone and iPad

100 diggs The VMA's are always a big deal not matter how much you may want to deny it.  There were no fights or awkward moments on stage this year, but at least these sexy women made the show worth watching.

107 diggs Known as the Tribute of Light, the beams have struck an emotional chord with a lot of residents. This year, more than 10,000 birds flew into the beams and got trapped, unable to fly away.

110 diggs As Mike Zapata shouted for his family to run for their lives, his wife and daughter tore out of their house on Earl Avenue as a thunderous fireball rose in the sky just two blocks away Thursday evening. But things were about to get worse...

90 diggs If crappy pizza wasn't enough, you get an awkward dance routine!

81 diggs Whether it's the $14 beers or the way the bartender has to duck whenever a dancer spins around the pole, there's just something about strip clubs. Of course, some people enjoy them more than others. Take, for instance, James Clooney, who ended up with a nearly $47,000 tab after a fun night out at the Penthouse Executive Club in Manhattan. Clooney charged steaks, liquor and lap dances to rack up a bill big enough to buy a 3-bedroom house in Kansas. According to the club, he's since made some small payments, but nothing big enough to put a dent in his debt. So, they've filed a lawsuit against him, seeking $46,698.18. This got us thinking: surely James Clooney isn't the first guy who's gotten a little heavy-handed with the free champagne and ended up slinking away from a massive strip club tab. Turns out, we were right. A lot of people want to party like rock stars, then wake up the next day, covered in credit card receipts and shame. Keep reading for the biggest strip club debts to date. ...5. $28,021 In 2004, Mitchell Blaser filed a lawsuit against a Manhattan Scores for overcharging him -- to the tune of $28,021. He says they ripped him off. They say: You can't buy five magnums of champagne and hundreds of lap dances and not expect to pay a pretty penny. Not helping Blaser's case is the fact that he signed receipts for every purchase. 4. $29, 512 James Hackett of Andover, Massachusetts, filed a dispute against a $29,512 charge to his AmEx made at Club Paradise in Las Vegas while he was in town for a convention. His defense? Somebody took his wallet and then returned it to him while he was sitting in his hotel bar. He doesn't know what happened after that because he drank so many martinis while watching a Red Sox game that he blacked out in the lobby. Riiight. Because nobody ever gets blackout drunk and goes to a strip club. 3. $53,000 At Club 10 gentleman's parlor in Okaloosa, Florida, a young Tommy Slater decided to celebrate his college graduation. He told employees he had about $600 to spend, but his bill came out to $53,000. Whoops. Later the club agreed to drop $39,000 of the charges, because they were made illegally after hours, leaving the total amount owed at $14,000. If he didn't have post-college debt to pay off before, he does now. 2. $130,000 A Bangladeshi diplomat's husband landed himself in hot water and lost his wife her job, when he managed to spend nearly $130,000 in just seven hours at Scores in New York. The bill was spread out over four credit cards, with no expenses itemized. Tauhidul Chaudhury disputed the charges, saying he was intoxicated (ya think?), and that Scores kept plying him with alcohol. Scores responded by saying that Chaudhury "partied like a potentate" -- which we personally think is kind of a weird thing for a strip club representative to say. 1. $241,000 The granddaddy of all enormously out-of-control, unpaid strip club bills? The $241,000 tab that Robert McCormack, an executive from Missouri, managed to rack up at Scores. McCormack refused to pay, admitting only that he had probably spent only $20,000, which is still quite a few clams to throw down on lap dances and cocktails. A lawsuit involving McCormack, his (former) employer Savvis Communications Corp., Scores and American Express was eventually settled confidentially out of court. A hat's off and slow clap to you, sir. Looking back, we guess if there's one thing to be learned from all of these tales, it's to operate on a strict cash-only basis at strip clubs. And also, never, ever go to Scores, because that place is crazy expensive.

90 diggs Mark Zuckerberg admits in a New Yorker profile that he mocked early Facebook users for trusting him with their personal information. A youthful indiscretion, the Facebook founder now says he's much more mature now, at the ripe age of 26.

81 diggs All of the actors on this list spent time in the gym, pumping iron and counting their calories, in order to better portray characters who have to look like they’re at the very pinnacle of physical perfection.

121 diggs Perhaps one of the largest breakthroughs in drunken feasting has arrived. Deep fried beer, invented by a man in Texas named Mark Zable.

109 diggs Natalie Gonzales, a San Francisco McDonald's franchise owner, was tired of the underworked and undersanitized keeping her front sidewalk warm and using her restrooms without buying many of the non-nutritious items on her menu.

130 diggs There’s no doubt that the Amazon Kindle is one popular and terrific reading device. And in many ways, the Apple iPad isn’t so bad either.

80 diggs It doesn't give me any pleasure in saying this, but the evidence is overwhelming that Linux is not huge on the desktop, despite new figures showing it now commands 10% of the market.

126 diggs Although fewer college students are buying new computers this year as a rule, Macs continue to grow in their proportional representation.

79 diggs It's man vs. machine, for real

79 diggs There are two primary reasons why your salary, net worth, assets, investments, or anything else that defines your worth are not counted in your credit bureau risk scores. The first is that your credit reports do not include your salary or any other metric that defines your “value.” They used to, but not for the past 20 years. Salary was purged from credit reports because it was provided by the consumer, which made it a highly unreliable figure. And if it’s not on your credit reports it can’t count in your FICO scores, plain and simple.

176 diggs If you work at McDonald's or Papa Johns, I really can't blame you for having a little bit of fun with your shop signs...

64 diggs A new announcement from ARM sheds fresh detail on where the semiconductor industry is headed in the next few years. Say hello to the next-generation ARM core, the ARM Cortex-A15. Unlike the ARM-A5 architecture, ARM-15 is aimed squarely at higher-end markets for tablet devices etc.

115 diggs Hyundai announced today that an expansion of its not-yet-complete third assembly plant in China will increase its total assembly capacity in the country to more than 1 million vehicles annually.

89 diggs There’s more than a film here; there’s a comment. There are a finite number of slots on a baseball team roster, only so many seats available at the cool kids table, and we all want to be offered that last spot.

83 diggs If you've got some money that you're looking to invest, use this chart to help figure out what kind of account is best for your saving needs.

135 diggs Apple is moving fast to get the iPad into the world’s most populous country on Friday, only months after...

87 diggs The Reins of the Golden King is a new Bind on Account Alliance-only ground mount obtained through the new guild system. Once your guild has completed the Dungeon Diplomat guild achievement, you can purchase the mount with gold.

136 diggs Well, this is something I haven't seen before. Millions of ants get caught in a circular pattern and form what resembles a hurricane that lasted for over 2 days.

145 diggs Trying to close a chapter on the "Antennagate" controversy, Apple will stop giving away free iPhone 4 bumpers at the end of the month.

83 diggs When Porsche first announced that it would be producing a four-door hatchback Gran Turismo model purists around the world cried blasphemy and said it shouldn't even be considered.

100 diggs The general consensus following the release of the BlackBerry Torch in the tech journalism sphere was that RIM had failed to put out a competitor to the iPhone and Android smartphones, and had therefore failed. Since we’re never really about swimming with the other salmon here on Techi, I decided to hold a very unscientific poll of a few friends and colleagues who were already BlackBerry users to see if they agreed with the pundits.

126 diggs SMP Skate Park is an enormous outdoor spans 44,936 square feet and is the largest skate park in the world. Each year SMP holds an international skate competition known as The Showdown. If youre a skater, its hard to think of a more fitting place to compete. Not a skater, not a problem! Enjoy the activities from a 12,300 square foot viewing deck and plaza! Here is a demo that was put on by the Dc Shoes in the street course section of this massive skatepark. Riders will find an exceptionally long vert ramp with two extended roll ins, bowls that spine into other bowls, a massive full pipe, pipes that lead from one section of the park to another, flat banks, quarter pipes of all sizes, a mini ramp, fun boxes, hips, grind poles, hand rails, wall rides and more. Whether you are an amateur or highly experienced, SMP has something to offer for everyone!

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106 diggs September 9 represents the 15 year anniversary of the original PlayStation released in North America.Included below are the top 15 games sold for any PlayStation system in ascending order from least successful worldwide to most successful. Units in millions sold worldwide. 15. Crash Bandicoot (PS) 6.80 In last place, Crash Bandicoot. The first installment of the Crash Bandicoot series. 14.Tekken 3 (PS) 6.91 Next to last, Tekken 3. This installment changed the movement for each character from Tekken 2, reducing the jump height and adding focus to the third axis. 13.Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped (PS) 7.12 A direct sequel from Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back.Featuring Crash and Coco as they travel back in time. 12.Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back (PS) 7.57 The third Naughty Dog presentation on our list. Crash is again abducted by Dr. Neo Cortex and crash must keep the planet from being destroyed. 11.Final Fantasy VIII: (PS) 7.86 The first Final Fantasy title toconsistentlyuse realistically proportioned characters. 10.Final Fantasy X:(PS2) 7.95 This installment of Final Fantasy featured for the first time fully 3-D areas, voice acting, a new Conditional Turn Based Battle system, and a new Sphere Grid leveling system. 9.Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2: (PS3) 8.52 A direct sequel to Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, following the same storyline. 8. Gran Turismo 2: (PS) 9.37 The least popular Gran Turismo title on our list, this sequel offered more cars (650) than any other game at the time. 7.Final Fantasy VII: (PS) 9.72 This was the first Final Fantasy in the series to use fully 3-D modeled characters against pre-rendered backgrounds. Originally developed for the SNES, Final Fantasy in later developments of the game required more storage capacity, which was available on the PlayStation. 6.Gran Turismo 4: (PS2) 10.56 One of only two titles on the PlayStation 2 to offer 1080i output. The other is Tourist Trophy, also by Polyphony. The game features 700 cars ranging from the 1886 Daimler Motor Carriage to concept cars slated for 2022 development. 5.Gran Turismo: (PS) 10.85 This Racing Sim spawned over 10 spin-offs and sequels and took over 5 years to develop. 4.Grand Theft Auto III:11.60 The first 3-D title in the Grand Theft Auto series. 3.Grand Theft Auto: Vice City: (PS2) 14.20 A sandbox style game which borrows from many different styles of game to create a large world in which the user has a lot of control over their experience. 2.Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec: (PS2) 14.89 Released early in the PlayStation 2's lifetime, the number of cars were limited from the game to make room for graphics and audio improvements. New to the game,unlicensed versions of Formula One cars were available to unlock. 1.Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas:(PS2) 18.43 Our winner! No doubt owing much of the game's commercial success to the outcry over the "Hot Coffee" sex minigame, causing the game briefly to be rated for Adults Only and pulled from U.S. shelves only to be re-issued a 'Mature' rating.

83 diggs Take a glimpse inside of the special

79 diggs The discovery of a discrete layer of diamonds in the Greenland ice sheet, the first such formation ever found, supports earlier published evidence for a cosmic impact event about 12,900 years ago. The diamonds number in the trillions, but are so small they can only be seen through microscopes.

106 diggs You'll be hard pressed to find a college football fan who wasn't awed by Denard Robinson's performance against Notre Dame on Saturday. He struck a very familiar pose on his way to racking up impressive stats.

170 diggs As if the impending launch of a revamped $99 Apple TV and Google TV this fall weren’t enough, the long-awaited D-Link Boxee Box has lurched out of hibernation with even more muscle, and you can finally get in line for one.

81 diggs Rather than tout their own accomplishments, Democrats look to the fear of Sarah Palin to motivate their base.

112 diggs Sometimes the words are hard to get out.

98 diggs Sometimes people's fascination with video games stretches into the real world. We don't just want to control our favorite characters on-screen, we want to be them! And we want to put it on YouTube!

52 diggs House Democrats won't be forcing a vote on the Bush tax cuts, preferring to let John Boehner twist in the wind.

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77 diggs Almost nine years ago a little company called Microsoft decided to jump into the gaming industry with the Xbox. Their headlining system-selling launch title was Halo: Combat Evolved, by a well-known developer named Bungie. Two main games, two spinoffs, many books, and an anime later, the Halo franchise has gone through a lot of changes, some good and some bad. Halo: Reach is Bungies final movement in the Halo symphony, a bombastic yet elegant finale for the series creators. Before Master Chiefs adventurous and explosive trilogy, there was Reach. Halo: Reach takes you through the events which led to the very beginning of Halo: Combat Evolved as Master Chief fled the planets destruction aboard the cruiser Spirit of Fire. Reach has been discovered by the covenant, and Noble Team, a group of well-equipped Spartan commandos, must desperately hold back the Covenant onslaught. The plot is pretty predictable, and theres not much of one through the majority of the campaign. As you near the end you will hit the twist so to speak, but there are no earth-shattering revelations to be had about the Halo mythos here. The game benefits from not being overly loaded with story, and its a significant improvement in pacing for the franchise. That said, what story is present is delivered well, and the ending scene is absolutely perfect and poignant. Noble Team consists of six Spartan super-soldiers, each with a very distinctive personality. The Spartans are all interesting, if not particularly unique, and its easy to be attached to them. On the down side, its easy to feel like theres not enough time to connect to the characters, but in general the attempt to merge the character focus of ODST with the heavy action of the traditional Halo games is a success. You are Noble Six, a mysterious and intentionally vague new addition to the team of commandos. Noble Six follows the Master Chief tradition of silent and determined, but this is partly because he (or she) is meant to represent the player. The same design the player creates for use in multiplayer is Sixs armor throughout the campaign, even the cutscenes. Unlike Halo 3: ODST, Reach sports the kind of campaign youd expect out of a main series Halo title. The campaign is built around big explosive battles and nonstop action, but stealth is also present on rare occasions. Reachs campaign is also built to be fun in co-op, and for the first time the difficulty actually scales with the amount of players. Curiously, the much-advertised space combat is a tiny part of the final game, and while enjoyable, not incredibly memorable. However, the first-person shooting in space was excellent, and the low gravity jumping and muted sound from the near-vacuum were excellent. On the ground, most of the missions follow a familiar pattern of go to a location, destroy all the enemies, and move on. This may sound monotonous, but the wide variety of environments, vehicles, weapons, and the new armor abilities make each fight fresh and different. The re-addition of health which does not regenerate after your shields are drained adds some urgency and desperation to the more difficult encounters that was lost after Combat Evolved. And desperate you will feel, as Halo: Reach offers one of the most difficult campaigns in the franchises history, but not in a bad way. Reach is a culmination of all the enemies and vehicles in the Halo franchise in one game, including the dreaded and deadly Elites, now remade to be even more intimidating and challenging. I absolutely recommend everyone play the game on the Heroic setting, as the challenge is great, but never cheap. Battles will require some strategy and the ramping difficulty in co-op makes communication essential. If Bungies goal was to make Reach feel like an enormous battle for the fate of the galaxy, they succeeded brilliantly. Also loaded into the game are numerous brand new weapons and vehicles, many of which are ridiculously overpowered (in a good way). The Covenant arsenal in particular got major boosts with Reach, now sporting numerous new weapons and overhauls to old ones. Almost all of the new guns are a blast to use, and in general Reach represents the biggest advancement in the franchise arsenal. The new vehicles are also enjoyable, and scattered generously throughout the missions to give you a taste of all of them within the campaign. Of course with these advancements come the armor powers, which are all very useful in certain situations, and scattered throughout the campaign, but more on those later. A few things have been changed and removed. Melee power has been downgraded some, and the first melee hit only removes the shields of your opponents. Assassinations can be performed by holding down the melee button when killing from behind, but youre not invulnerable during these and its easy to be killed in the middle of one, especially in multiplayer. Dual wielding has also been removed completely from the game, but frankly its not missed. Finally the equipment found in Halo 3 has been removed, but again, this is an easy sacrifice to make for the much more significant advancement of the armor abilities, and I never found myself wishing they were around. So what does all this mean for the gameplay? Does it still play like Halo? Well, yes and no. Theres definitely an underlying Halo-ness to the game, and you certainly dont have to worry about the numerous physics, graphical, and weapon boosts turning this into Call of Duty or some other realistic shooting game. Weapons are still crazy and over-the-top and youre still going to need skill and a lot of bullets to take down your opponents, which is what really makes that Halo feeling. That said, the armor abilities are a game-changer. Jet packs and sprint alone would have been enough to add a whole new degree of speed and depth to the way the game progresses, but it goes even farther than that. The armor abilities all represent a completely new degree of customizability and strategy to the formula in both single player and multiplayer. Some major adjustment will be needed for veteran players. Graphically the game is gorgeous, but not perfect. There are a couple moments of stutter, and there are occasions when the environments can be too barren. That said, the art direction is brilliant, and the backdrops and set pieces are frankly jaw-dropping. If youre tired of brown and gray, prepare to be overloaded with color with Reachs vibrant and gorgeous visuals. While not perfect, it easily ranks among the top visuals seen on the platform. Voice acting is top notch, though the game isnt exactly dialog-heavy, and the musical score by series composer Martin ODonnell is possibly the best in the history of the franchise. The music is adrenaline pumping, and brilliantly choreographed to the pace of the gameplay. The combination of the striking visuals and scale of the game with the excellently scored music makes for an experience that can take your breath away. The single player campaign will last you about 9 hours on Heroic, and its fun enough to be worth replaying once or twice, especially with some friends in co-op, and now that theres matchmaking its easy to do so. As incredible as the single player is, what made Halo really popular is the multiplayer, and here Halo: Reach doesnt just excel, it overwhelms. Every competitive multiplayer option you can possibly think of returns from the previous games, and numerous new ones have been added. Among the most enjoyable are Invasion, where two teams of six, Spartans vs. Elites, battle to attack and defend objectives, and Headhunter, where you must gather and turn in flaming skulls from your fallen enemies to score. There is a tiny downside, as there are only 13 competitive maps included on the disc, but make no mistake; Reach pushes the boundaries for multiplayer content way beyond whats been done in the past. In addition to the competitive modes, Firefight has been beefed up from an extra feature in ODST to a headliner in Halo: Reach. With eight maps on the disc, matchmaking, and tons of customization options Firefight almost offers an entirely new game of its own. Firefight now has seven game types of its own, including Generator Defense, Rocketfight, and my personal favorite, Versus, where players take turns on the Spartan and Elite sides. Every aspect of the games can be customized including respawn time, enemies, and even the basic traits of your Spartan such as speed, height, and gravity. But wait! Theres more! Now Forge World allows you to build entirely new maps and game types in a sandbox however you wish, and the Forge tools for the existing maps are all improved as well. Game types arent limited to just killing things either, as vehicle-based game modes are also present including capture the flag on mongooses and races on Forge maps. The amount of original and creative map designs is potentially endless, and as further good news Bungie has devoted a team to supporting Halo: Reach with new maps and updates down the road, as well as daily and weekly challenges for extra points. Truly replay value is endless. You could play Reach for the rest of your life and never try everything. I almost feel sorry for 343 Industries, who to this point has done a brilliant job supporting the Halo franchise through Halo Waypoint, because Bungie has left them with an act that I cant imagine many people in the world want to follow. Halo: Reach is still Halo, but its so much more. Bungie has poured everything imaginable into this game, and while there are still some hiccups in the campaign pacing and multiplayer could use a few more maps on the disc, there is no end in sight to the amount of play you can get out of Reach. This is the biggest leap the series has ever seen between entries. Gorgeous presentation, masterful design, unlimited value, and a unification of great franchise staples and brilliant new concepts make Halo: Reach a true masterpiece. Presentation: 9.5 Gameplay: 9.5 Value: 10 Overall: 9.6

65 diggs You know what's not a good idea? Denying you've been selling weapons to the Russians, and then going on TV and calling yourself "sexy russian."

115 diggs A poll from Common Sense Media could affect the legal challenge against California's ban on violent video games, at least in the court of public opinion.

77 diggs Knowing whether to break up or stay together is a wrenching question that often lacks an easy answer. Until now.

87 diggs Let’s just say that your uncle with the Walmart plasma might not be so smug after seeing you bring home one of these bad boys.

92 diggs What if everything you needed to survive had to fit through a hole 3.19 inches wide. In Chile, 33 miners are trapped 2230 ft underground and it will take months to rescue them

133 diggs On September 13th, 1985, 25 years ago, Super Mario Bros. was released in Japan. For the first time, the world heard those first few 8th notes by Koji Kondo, with a tempo designed to match the speed of Mario's jumps, and notes selected to harmonize with the game's sound effects. That theme has become the most famous and most instantly recognizable game music of all time, and was recently in the top ten most downloaded ringtones for 226 weeks straight, through February 2009. No matter how tone-deaf you are, you can definitely hum every single note. In fact, you probably hear it in your head right now, just from reading about it. Nobuo Uematsu, the famed composer of the majority of the Final Fantasy series, believes that this Mario theme should become Japans national anthem. For the first time, the world's gamers found their first ? block, and as intended by game designer Shigeru Miyamoto, they thought "what's this ? thing?," clenched their fists, and gave it a swift jumping uppercut. We were each rewarded one coin and 200 points for our curiosity. Then, now that we all knew how to jump, a walking mushroom thing approached us. Some of us jumped on this first Goombas head, and were rewarded with another 100 points. Some of us didnt make it and had to start over, or let a second player learn from our mistake. After this, we had all learned a valuable lesson about how things were going to work from now on. Now we knew some things must be jumped into from below, while others must be jumped on from above. Theres a very important metaphor for the real world somewhere in there. Thirsty for more, we hit our second ? block. A mushroom came out of it and seemed to float away, but as intended, it bounced off a pipe and ran right into us (those who tried to jump out of the way were thwarted by the low ceiling). This mushroom made us bigger and stronger, and gave us a clean 1000 points. We had now been rewarded for our courage. Thus began a quarter of a century in which we all played this game. It has gone by many names, in the form of many games, but it has always followed the same basic rules. One dream team (usually but not always led by Shigeru Miyamoto and/or Takashi Tezuka, with a constantly growing and rotating cast of friends) would leave us clues, obstacles, secrets, traps, puzzles, and gauntlets, and those of us who were still curious and courageous enough would continue to find them and follow them. And for those who still wanted more, most games offered an extra optional challenge, just for fun. This was the beginning of the "Hard Mode" or "New Game Plus" that many games feature today. That first level, 1-1, of Super Mario Bros., has now been remade in every game with a level editor or modding tools, and even some without. It can be played in LittleBigPlanet, World of Warcraft, and everything between. But we didn't stop our quest there. We have now journeyed through the eight (or nine) worlds of the Mushroom Kingdom, the seven dream worlds of Sub-Con, the four kingdoms of Sarasaland, Dinosaur Land, and the Star Road, and even across time and space. Weve traveled by airplane, tail, cape, spaceship, dinosaur, rafts made of bones, cannons, winged hats, and stars that launch us across space, and weve turned into frogs, raccoons, tanookis, ghosts, springs, balloons, drills, clouds, boulders, penguins, solid metal, and more. To commemorate the 25th anniversary of the first release of Super Mario Bros., and a quarter century of adventures with gamings biggest hero, Nintendo has released the following retrospective video: But what else was going on back then, in that strange time right before pipes meant warping, question marks meant mushrooms, mushrooms meant extra lives, and extra lives meant more chances to find out our princess was in another castle? Lets travel back to the year 1985, when the highest grossing film of the year, Back to the Future, was about traveling back to the year 1955. The most popular TV show was The Cosby Show. An 8.1 magnitude earthquake hit Mexico City, resulting in an estimated 25,000 deaths. The 1985 Academy Award for best picture was awarded to Amadeus, written by Peter Shaffer and directed by Milo Forman. It won 8 Academy Awards out of 11 nominations, and inspired the song Rock Me Amadeus by Falco, the only German-language song to ever reach #1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. The #1 song on the Billboard Hot 100 the day Super Mario Bros. came out was St. Elmos Fire (Man in Motion) by John Parr. The biggest U.S. single of the month was Money for Nothing by Dire Straits. The biggest single of the year was We Are the World, written by Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson, produced by Quincy Jones and Michael Omartian, and performed by 47 artists using the name USA for Africa. It was the fastest selling American pop single in history. It was also the first song to be certified as multi-platinum by the RIAA, and more specifically, quadruple platinum. Within a year it raised about $50 million for Africa, and the Ethiopian famine in particular. The best-selling album of the year was Born in the USA by Bruce Springsteen. Wham! became the first western group to perform in the Peoples Republic of China, and to release records there. The World Wrestling Federation produced their very first WrestleMania event for 19,121 fans at Madison Square Garden. It was watched by over one million fans through closed-circuit television, the largest closed-circuit TV event in the U.S. at the time. Andr the Giant defeated Big John Studd in a $15,000 Body Slam Challenge, and Hulk Hogan and Mr. T. teamed up to win the main event against Roddy Piper and Paul Orndorff. Muhammad Ali was a special guest referee, and he even punched Piper in the middle of the fight. 1985 was the first time since 1914 that the U.S. became a debtor nation, owing more money to foreigners than it was owed. Ouch. Mikhail Gorbachev became the seventh and final General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak received the National Medal of Technology from President Ronald Reagan. Also in 1985, Jobs resigned from Apple and founded his own company, NeXT. (Apple would buy NeXT in 1996, and Jobs would become Apple's CEO in 1997.) But most importantly, where were YOU on September 13th, 1985? And if you weren't born yet or weren't gaming yet, what was your first Mario game? And how old were you when you first played Super Mario Bros.?

68 diggs 'Machete' director Robert Rodriguez helms an episode of 'The Soup' (Fri, 10PM ET on E!), but is fired by host Joel McHale after his teleprompter

102 diggs Could you imagine living in a bunker? Far from drab and depressing, repurposed bunkers take on a life of their own, providing peace, quiet and safety.

93 diggs After stabbing and holding his ex-girlfriend hostage for two hours inside a Walmart, a man surrendered to officers from the Virginia State Police.

72 diggs Apparently British teenager Luke Angel made a mistake recently: He wrote an email while drunk. Of course, such a little mistake easily turns into a lifetime ban from America when it contains an obscenity and is addressed to President Obama.

124 diggs Not all the best tourist sites on the planet are well known, and some which should classified as world wonders are overlooked. Here are seven fantastic places to see.

86 diggs #security Seems like every guide to securing your wireless network tells you to keep your SSID from broadcasting to make your network more secure, but is that really worthwhile? Let's take a look at one of the silliest myths out there. More

79 diggs No one likes to see adults game the system. But there are better ways to deal with illegal immigration abuses. Direct the State Department to deny visas to would-be birth tourists. Keep the heat on employers who knowingly hire illegal workers. But some Republicans want to keep going.

70 diggs It's hard to feel sorry for a billionaire. But here I am, feeling bad for Mark Zuckerberg. If you see the "The Social Network" you're probably going to feel bad for him, too. I've seen the film, and can report back that it's just as rough on the Facebook CEO as his people feared it would be.

81 diggs

103 diggs Just as the MPAA is preparing to offer movies to customers at home while they're still in theaters by limiting playback to DRM-protected digital outputs only, the HDCP protocol they rely on may have been cracked wide open. All devices that support HDCP, like Blu-ray players, set-top boxes and displays with HDMI inputs, have their own set of keys to encrypt and decrypt protected data and if keys for a particular device are compromised, they can be revoked by content released in the future which will then refuse to play. Now, posts have been floating around on Twitter about a supposed "master key" which renders that protection unusable since it allows anyone to create their own source and sink keys. Who discovered this and by what technique isn't immediately clear, but as early as 2001 security researcher Niels Ferguson proposed that it could be easily revealed by knowing the keys of less than 50 different devices. Hardware HDCP rippers like the HDfury2 and DVIMAGIC have been around for a while and various AACS cracks easily allow rips of Blu-ray discs but if this information is what it claims to be, then the DRM genie could be permanently out of the bag allowing perfect high definition copies of anything as long as the current connector standards are around. While it's unlikely your average user would flash their capture device with a brand new key and get to copying uncompressed HD audio and video, keeping those early releases off of the torrents in bit perfect quality could go from difficult to impossible.HDCP 'master key' supposedly released, unlocks HDTV copy protection permanently originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Sep 2010 00:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Twitter |Email this|Comments

81 diggs He's getting pretty good air there.

81 diggs While you may know names such as Mark Ingram, Jake Locker and Ryan Mallett, here are five players who deserve to be mentioned for the Heisman Trophy — but probably won't.

105 diggs Nadal joins the group of Roger Federer, Andre Agassi, Roy Emerson, Rod Laver, Don Budge and Fred Perry to complete the career Grand Slam.