It's another sad day for the earth. Scientists have declared the (formerly) rare Chinese river dolphin baiji extinct. The six-week search on the Yangtze River failed to find even a shadow of the blind white dolphin. Swiss naturalist August Pfluger concluded that even if the search team missed one or two dolphins, it's safe to conclude that the baiji is "functionally extinct". This means that even if there are baijis in the river, their chance of survival is nil.

Now, who should be blamed for the demise of the "goddess of the Yangtze"? All signs point to the ship traffic on the Yangtze. This is in addition to the evil effects of overfishing, dam-building, and environmental degradation.

Back in the 1980s, there were about 400 baijis left on the Yangtze. It should've been a clear indication that the dolphins were in grave danger. But as commerce started flourishing, the dolphin population plummeted to 100 in the mid-1990s. In 2004, only one baiji was found. Since then, the fate of the dolphin has been sealed.

It's sad enough to have lost a species that dates back 20 million years, but what's even worse is that the death of the baijis could signal the start of a "wave of extinction" involving other species. If the trend continues, we'd be shedding more tears for other dolphin species in the next 20 years.

After the box-office success of the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie in 2003, Disney wanted to move forward with a Pirates MMO. At that time, it seemed a bold move and, truth be told, an unnecessary one as the franchise was earning a lot from the sale of movie-related merchandise. But Disney believed in the idea of building a world that could stand on its own with new stories, characters, and environments - things that could inspire fans of the movies to live their own pirate adventures online.

The success of the Disney MMO Toontown Online gave Pirates of the Caribbean Online a further boost. Disney wasted no time and quickly assembled a team to take on the challenge of making an MMO out of a popular movie.

At this point, the development team headed by Lead Game Designer Joe Shochet is busy making our pirate dreams come true. The team will keep us updated on the more sordid details of the game in the coming days. In the meantime, check out the new screens and images for Pirates of the Caribbean Online. Yarrr!

     
 

PC Gamer UK gave The Ship passing marks and hailed it as an "ingenious murder mystery". With such high praises, Merscom reckoned it's just fitting to partner with Outerlight to publish the game in North America in Q1 2007. If you want a darker version of The Sims, then The Ship is just what the mystery doctor ordered.

The Ship combines traditional first and third person gameplay with the "needs system" you've come to love in similar simulated games: food, sleep, social interaction. What sets the game apart from The Sims is the intriguing game feature that allows you to explore the highly interactive environments to solve a crime, and ultimately to survive in the game.

The main feature of the game is "The Hunt", wherein you have to hunt down contestants on-board and kill them with any available weapon. To win, you'd have to know your way around the liner. If you get lucky, you'd stumble into hidden rooms, passages and tunnels where "extra special" ways to kill your foes await you.

The Ship will hit North American shore in 2007 for US$ 19.99.

More screenshots await after the jump!

Mystery-solving games don't die, they spawn more intriguing games guaranteed to test your crime-solving skills. Take the case of Sherlock Homes: The Awakened. This is the third game in the series developed by Frogware Studio, a testament to the popularity of the mystery game genre.

Publisher Focus Home Interactive already gave us a little bit of info about the new features of the game, and gave us an intriguing trailer to boot. To further immerse us into the world of Sherlock Holmes, the publisher dished out just enough info to keep us interested in the game.

Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened brings two opposing universes together: the rational vs. the supernatural. It's up to you to "wade through the madness and horrors" as you take on the role of the brilliant detective.

On a typical London day, Doctor Watson brings news of the mysterious disappearance of a young Maori maid. As the curious detective, Holmes discovers the first clues leading to the kidnapping. He soon finds out that there are more cases of kidnappings. All signs point to a powerful organization. However, the absence of ransom demands puzzles Holmes. Further investigation leads Holmes to a sect that worships the god Cthulhu. This is where the rational meets the supernatural.

As Sherlock Holmes, you need to interact with over 60 characters to piece together hundreds of clues. It may sound a bit easy, but when fear sets in, you need more than just logical reasoning to get you through terrifying environments and situations. It's up to you to find your focus and discover the truth.

Crysis is one of the most highly anticipated first person shooter games for the PC. Too bad Crytek and EA have decided to delay the game's release. Until now, we don't know when it'll hit retail. Good thing Crytek continues to give out info about the game's features. In an interview with HEXUS.gaming, Crytek's Q&A Manager Sebastian Spatzek and Associate Producer Ben O'Donnell talked about the CryEngine, AI and interactivity.

Crytek is banking on the CryEngine 2 to deliver an "almost completely interactive" environment. - every single player action has a corresponding effect on the surroundings. O'Donnell explains:

Instead of just being a first person shooter where you have to think about your ammo or your health, with Crysis everything around you is usable, you got this suit, you’ve got different types of ammo, the environment is destructible… So you see some guys over there, you can shoot a tree down and it can kill them… you can use different types of ammo to drop them wherever you want… I think really, to get an idea of how immersive this all is, you have to view it as a whole rather than just components because it all adds to the experience.

To further improve gameplay experience, Crytek made sure that opponents in the game would be as realistic as possible. With more intelligent opponents,  they react differently to various situations. As Crysis is a free roaming game, players will always be in different situations, hence the AI would also be different each time. This somehow guarantees that the game has high replay value.

When asked about the release date of Crysis, O'Donnell said,  "It’ll be out when it’s ready to be out." A safe answer but something tells us we're in for a long wait.

Twenty years from now, your entire life can be chronicled in a high resolution video recorded in a tiny device the size of a sugar cube. No kidding! Some people call it "human black boxes" that serve as repository of medical, financial, and whatever digital records you've accumulated over the years. While this may be the ultimate evidence of technological advancement, it could bring fear and paranoia to the next level come 2026.

Researchers urged government and society leaders to talk about the implications of "huge increases in computing power" as well as the growing obsession to the collection of information on individuals.

Cliff Lynch, director of Coalition for Networked Information, believes that the changes would give the State further power to interfere in the affairs of individuals. It seems Big Brother would get too close for comfort.

You know enough about No More Heroes, but nothing beats getting juicy info from the game's designer and director Goichi Suda (a.k.a. Suda51). And even if you know zilch about No More Heroes, you'd still be intrigued with what it has to offer, knowing full well that it came from same lab where Killer 7 was made.

In an interview with IGN, Suda talked about the controls, experience points, game engine, graphic style, and gameplay.

In No More Heroes, Travis Touchdown uses a sword to defend himself against unlawful elements. Being a sword master, Travis can buy different kinds of swords from professional weapons maker Miss Naomi, but they don't come cheap. The nunchuk is used to move Travis and the Wiimote to swing the sword. Only Travis can fight the enemies, so that means there'll be no other playable character.

Suda admitted that the team has not yet decided on the specific details of the game system, but he let slip the idea of leveling up via experience points. An online function via Wi-Fi is also a possibility. The game is being compared to Killer 7 because of the similar graphic style, but Suda assures everyone that No More Heroes has a totally different game engine.

As for gameplay, Suda explained that No More Heroes is a free-roaming, mission-based game with the ultimate goal of defeating all 10 hitmen.

When asked why his team chose the Wii for No More Heroes, Suda said that it is the best platform for them at this point. Grasshopper Manufacture is a small company and as such, the budget for developing a Wii game is very reasonable. He's also banking on the idea that people who are going to buy the Wii will be interested in, as he puts it, "something different, something that's an extraordinary action game".

The 2006 NFL season is winding down and that means football fans will soon find themselves in the middle of a long off-season. This means they have to turn all their attention to non-football activities. We're sure the hardcore football fans will just spend more hours playing sports videogames. Game developer Enlighten Interactive knows this full well; that's why they'll soon launch the next installment in the Mogul series.

With Football Mogul 2007, players will have the chance to pick characters based on updated in-depth statistics, and build what amounts to a football dynasty. They can formulate offensive and defensive plays, based on the strength of the team and individual players. Mot only that, but they can even get to relive real football drama as events unfold on and off the field - trade negotiations, draft picks, finances, etc.

In Football Mogul 2007, you are a president, general manager, and head coach rolled into one. Just remember to keep your blood pressure in check! The game is now available for US$ 19.99.

Trigger-happy European DS owners can now go on a sharp shooting spree with the release of Point Blank DS from Namco Bandai Games and Atari. The classic arcade shoot-em-up's rapid-fire gameplay becomes even more addictive with the stylus as your main weapon to hit that elusive bulls-eye.

With 40 different stages and gameplay modes, we're pretty sure that your DS screen will get no rest from all that stylus action. The four difficulty settings ensure that all types of gamers will be able to enjoy the game. If you're feeling a bit competitive, you can challenge another player via the wireless multiplayer mode. Great way to settle disputes, don't you think?

Point Blank DS is now available across Europe.

Panasonic must have thought that a 2.5 millimeter speaker is not thin enough to get the "world's thinnest speaker" tag. So the company sliced it up some more and came up with an ultra-thin 1.5 millimeter speaker (to go well with a super tiny mobile device, perhaps?).

And how's the sound quality, you ask? Well, if we are to believe Panasonic, we should be getting adequate enough sound quality for the little thing's size. As some of you know, when a magnet in the speaker is made thin, the sound quality degrades. We'll spare you the techie explanation, but Panasonic came up with a mechanism that supposedly solves that particular problem.

We'll know if the sound quality is good enough when production starts in May 2007. No word yet on applications, pricing and availability.