If you like shooting creepy fiends, you're probably real excited about Project Origin (Microsoft Xbox 360, Sony PlayStation 3, PC) by Monolith Productions. In this trailer, you'll see images of haunting swingsets. What's so scary about a playground staple? You'll find out by watching the trailer after the jump.

We need you! The QJ community has ventured into a new game, and has a new bid for galactic conquest through a web-based online strategy game called Ogame. You might have heard the name before, as the game itself has been going for a very long time. But now QJ.net forum members have ventured into this online strategy game in a bid to take over it, and we are already causing a stir. The so-called QJA (QJ Alliance) already has 32 members, and we are growing every day.

Start out with just one undeveloped world and turn that into a mighty empire able to defend your hard earned colonies. Create an economic and military infrastructure to support your quest for the next greatest technological achievements. Wage war against other empires as you struggle with other players to gain the materials. Negotiate with other emperors and create an alliance or trade for much needed resources. Build an armada to enforce your will throughout the universe.

That's the description of Ogame, and it can't be too far from the truth - as more QJ forum members are signing up to the RTS/In browser MMO hybrid each day.

Read the full article for more information, including how to sign up and how the QJ community are doing their part to dominate the universe that is Ogame.

EA greatness coming your way! Electronic Arts has released its line-up of games down at E3 in Barker Hangar and Le Merigot Hotel.

Here's a shortlist of the games it's showcasing in E3: Madden NFL 08, NBA LIVE 08, NASCAR 08 and Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 08, Burnout Paradise, SimCity Societies, The Orange Box, Mercenaries 2: World in Flames, Crysis and Hellgate: London, The Simpsons on three platforms, Army of Two, Boogie, MySims, The Sims 2 Castaway, Medal of Honor Airborne, Need for Speed ProStreet, EA Playground, Skate, and Rock Band.

Says EA Games Label President: "In the next six months, EA will launch the most exciting line up of games in our 25 year history. We’re publishing brand new games ... delivering innovations in blockbuster franchises..." Some of these games will be available for demos for those who are lucky enough to attend E3.

For a quick lowdown of EA's wicked line-up, click on the full article.

 These are the words of Vicious Cycle President, Eric Peterson when asked by QJ.net in an exclusive interview about the possibility of a demo for the company's upcoming PSP title, Dead Head Fred.

"QJ: What are the chances that we'll see a demo (downloadable or on disc) for Dead Head Fred before release?

Peterson: Let me shake the magic eight-ball. All signs point to…very likely.  We are looking into the feasibility of this now and if we do a demo, we want to be sure to release a great one that shows the player what a vertical slice of Fred would be like if they purchased and played the entire game.  We should have more info on this soon."

Id Software, creators of the epic Quake and Doom franchise, has revealed that a new gaming franchise is in the works. "We are working on an all-new franchise: it's not Doom, it's not Quake, it's not Wolfenstein, it's not Enemy Territory, it's not even Commander Keen," says Todd Hollenshead, CEO for id Software. "It is a new id brand with an all-new John Carmack engine and I think that when we show it to people, once again they'll see, just like they saw when we first showed Doom 3, that John Carmack still has a lot of magic left."

John Carmack, the programming genius who created the phenomenal Doom (and can anyone remember Wolfenstein 3D?), is now working on something that Hollenshead emphasizes is different from Doom, Quake, and other id Software titles. "It is a new id brand with an all-new John Carmack engine and I think that when we show it to people, once again they'll see, just like they saw when we first showed Doom 3, that John Carmack still has a lot of magic left."

When asked about some details regarding this new project, Hollenshead prefers to keep mum about it. "The new stuff that we're working on does have a brand new engine that John has been working on, actually is still working on today. We can’t really talk any details about it; we'll see about when the timing is right for an announcement. We like to be able to talk about stuff that we can show at the same time and it's not really ready to show yet."

Whatever it is, we bet that it's well worth the wait. In the meantime, there's Enemy Territory: Quake Wars to look forward to.

News is really slow today, so let's take a little look at the hardware sales figures from Japan for the week of March 12 to March 18, courtesy of Media Create.

Just like last week (and the many weeks before that), Nintendo's DS Lite handheld gaming system is still on top of the whole heap. The DS Lite currently has almost double the sales of the Nintendo Wii, which is in second place. Nintendo's one-two combo also saw some increased sales figures the past week.

At number three is the Sony PSP, while the PS3 is at number four. Although both Sony gaming systems took a bit of a dive in sales, both systems are still doing better than the PS2, which in turn has a pretty commanding lead over Microsoft's Xbox 360 console. The Xbox 360's Japanese sales also dipped a bit.

Here are the current numbers from Media Create:

• DS Lite: 121,471 
• Wii: 67,070
• PSP: 43,769
• PS3: 21,635
• PS2: 13,321
• Xbox 360: 2,910
• GBM: 727
• GBA SP: 557
• GC: 367
• DS: 159
• GBA: 9

We bring an important clarification for gamers readying for the launch of Turbine's Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar (LOTRO). According to LOTRO official forums administrator "marketroid," the game's North American and European versions will be incompatible - each region will get its own set of independent realms, like Blizzard Entertainment's setup for World of Warcraft.

This report comes in light of LOTRO's international release mechanics, as each region had separate publishers and service providers backing up the game:

In North America and Oceania, Turbine is the service operator. We work with two publishers to support our service – Midway in the US and Codemasters in Oceania. In Europe, Codemasters is both the publisher and the service operator.

What this means is that the version of the game you can play is determined by the service operator that supports your region. Since the service operators maintain completely separate billing, hosting, and support systems it is not possible to allow players to access both services – they’re just not compatible with each other.

European players who buy a copy of LOTRO's North American release are warned that they will be unable to activate their Product Key on the Turbine billing system. Likewise, American buyers who buy LOTRO's European release will be unable to activate their game "with Codemasters from a country outside of the territories they serve."

Just keep these details in mind when you get your copy of the game, be it a pre-order or store purchase, come launch. LOTRO is expected to launch in both Europe and America on April 24, with an estimated retail price of US$ 49.99 (£ 26, € 38).

There are three essential elements that makes life complete for any man on his day off work or school: A loving girlfriend, a game console with some really cool games and a fridge filled with drinks and snacks.

However, common norms dictate that girls and video games don't mix at all times. If you're one of the many men who gets his heart torn between his girl and his console, there's a how-to guide on how you can reconcile the two conflicting interests.

Understanding and humor,above all else must be present when introducing your loved one to the wonderful world of video games. If you remember to keep the atmosphere light and non-competitive, it's not hard to have a good time. By being sensitive to her feelings and capitalizing on the stuff that captures her interest, you just may be able to get in a groove and capture her imagination with some attention-grabbing titles.

If you want a detailed, step-by-step guide on how to pull off the seemingly impossible, click the read URL. We wish you the best of luck in your virtuous mission.

According to its latest announcement, Chicago developer and publisher Midway Games has posted better revenues in the last quarter of 2006 and the year as a whole compared to its 2005 performance. The company is famous for popular titles such as the Mortal Kombat series, Stranglehold, BlackSite: Area 51, The Wheelman, The Lord of the Rings Online, and Unreal Tournament III.

Midway president and CEO David Zucker describes 2006's last quarter as "a landmark quarter for Midway." Ge explains that it's "our largest revenue quarter in seven years that included our largest initial ship-in for a single title, Happy Feet; the culmination of our marquee franchise Mortal Kombat on current generation systems; and the kick-off of our next generation releases with Blitz: The League on Xbox 360 as well as our four Wii titles." 

The company's report says that fourth quarter sales are up at US$ 96.9 million compared to the US$ 69.8 million it made last year- a 38.8 percent increase. Losses are also down to US$ two million compared to last year's US$ 37.8 million. For the year's totality, sales are up by a significant ten percent from 2005's US$ 150.1 million to  US$ 165.6 million in 2006. Annual losses are down to $77.8 million from $112.8 million.

The company has also expressed intentions to capitalize on the Wii's good performance saying that they have been bullish initially about the platform but are now taking a "small shift to look more significantly at the Wii going forward."

Incidentally, the company revealed that the Mortal Kombat development team has been "hard at work on a next-gen version of the franchise, with an all new fighting system redesigned from the ground up leveraging our common technology base." Details are yet to be revealed in terms of release dates and as to which platforms the game will land on

Two decades ago, Americans were much inclined to believe in alien abductions, horoscopes and Bigfoot. Now, they still dream wistfully of being sucked in by a flying saucer or having a quick conversation with the Sasquatch himself, but not too much - really.

Researchers say that this progress in the American way of scientific thinking could be largely credited to the requirement that all college students attend at least a few science classes. Jon D. Miller, a Michigan State University Professor said that in 1988, only about 10 percent of people in the US knew enough about science to understand reports in major newspapers. In 2005, the figure grew to 28 percent. He presented these findings at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, but we weren't told if somebody actually questioned the professor himself about his belief on whether or not we are alone in the universe...

Carol Susan Losh, an associate professor at Florida State University, however, thinks that the decline in belief on horoscopes and lucky numbers is actually bad. She believes that astrology could explain the meaning of life in a way that science could not. For most women, Losh said, having a good life depends on whom they marry, and astrology speaks to love relationships.

This was probably one of the reasons why Professor Miller named "female" as a leading negative factor in science literacy. Women tended to believe in horoscopes a lot. They also tended  to take fewer college courses.

The second negative factor to science literacy, according to Miller, was religious fundamentalism and aging. This finding speaks of the fact that there has been a drop of people who believe on evolutionism and an increase of people who believe that mankind was created 10,000 years ago.

Miller said that the best way to become scientifically educated is to take science courses in college, inform yourself through the media, and have kids at home. Is it because kids are more scientifically educated, or that they never really grew up on Bigfoot news and Star Trek?