Take this from a guy whose brilliant mind turned figments of the imagination into glorious cultural icons. No less than the man behind Marvel himself, Stan Lee, has expressed his admiration and respect for gaming development. His exact words: "It's lke a miracle."

Just like the Guardian Forces that they can't survive without, Squall, Rinoa, and the rest of the Final Fantasy VIII crew have Junctioned themselves into a new domain - the Japanese PSN. Now you can go and relive the days of boosting Eden for ten years, spending hours hunting Draw Points, and taking advantage of critical HP to spam Limit Breaks.

No question about it, TellTale Games has proven time and again that they are indeed one of the more credible companies within the industry. Titles like Sam & Max, Wallace & Gromit and Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People should be enough to convince that they really do churn out quality games. So how come they're not yet riding the PS3 bandwagon when they've already boarded the WiiWare and Xbox Live trains?

This year, fans of point-and-click adventure games will be treated to a revamped version of LucasArts' The Secret of Monkey Island which which will be released as a digital download on Xbox 360 and PC. Craig Derrick, the producer of The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition, intimated to the Guardian that PS3 and Wii owners may get the game as well.

The Zune Marketplace is coming to the Xbox Live. This much is confirmed in a chat with Chris Stevenson with The Guardian UK, where it is revealed that Xbox 360 users can now purchase TV shows to other video content via the XBL, sans the Zune. And then there's the official confirmation for ZuneHD. Microsoft's on a roll.

The Wii was already deprived of Grand Theft Auto IV and now Mediawatch UK wants to have MadWorld banned from it too - in Britain, at least. After declaring that they wanted the BBFC to deny the game a rating though, they received a number of emails to "shut the f- up," and others to that extent.

And Mediawatch's reaction? Read about it in the full article.

Good news for PlayStation 3 gamers out there - in the UK and the rest of Europe at least, since the service likely won't be released in the US - the PlayTV service has been confirmed to be able to record TV content while playing games. Details in the full article.

It seems impossible to prevent changes that constantly reshape our planet, especially when some happen in the short span of a year. Other drastic changes also take decades, though the results are still irreversible. A recently published book titled Fragile Earth has very enlightening pictures that prove how the place we live in changes shape in so many ways, and you can learn more by checking out the full article.

Fans of the Microsoft Xbox 360 game console are about to get Sega's expansion of Phantasy Star Universe come November 20, 2007. Titled Phantasy Star Universe: Ambition of the Illuminus, this expansion heralds the arrival of an all-new dimension to an already rich RPG experience.

All the standards such as new locales, enemies, items, and personable characters will be added, bringing the cost of this Xbox Live MarketPlace downloadable content to 1,600 Microsoft Points.

PC and Sony PlayStation 2 versions of Phantasy Star Universe: Ambition of the Illuminus are also available with a discounted GUARDIAN License that lets players exploit the game's most interactive features. The GUARDIAN License sells for US$ 49.99 and is valid for six months.

 

Okay, this may cause some alarmists to scream "Big Brother!" so before all the speculation, here are the known details - just so all you privacy advocates can relax a bit.

Google has filed a patent that reveals that they plan to compile psychological profiles of millions of gamers by covertly monitoring the way they play online games. Now you may think that this only concerns folks who play MMOs on their PCs, however, the patent apparently says that Google can also monitor people playing on any game console that hooks up to the internet, including the Sony PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii, and Microsoft Xbox 360.

What's even more hair-raising is that it says that information could be retrieved from previous game details saved on memory cards. To quote: "Such saved information may be thought of state information, and offers a valuable source of information to the advertisers." Yes, if you've played 350 hours of Oblivion, they'll know. Yep, the patent is that creepy; it even says:

In a car racing game, after a user crashes his Honda Civic, an announcer could be used to advertise by saying 'if he had a Hummer, he would have gotten the better of that altercation', etc... If the user has been playing for over two hours continuously, the system may display ads for Pizza Hut, Coke, coffee.

Now here's why we're asking all those privacy advocates to calm down and not cry foul. Google has said that they do not plan to roll out the technology in the near future. They say that it was just one of the patents that they wanted to file. The Guardian reports that a Google spokesman had this to say: "Google registers different patents irrespective of whether we actually intend to use them."

So no, Big Brother, er, I mean, Google isn't watching you. Not yet. *insert cheesy B-movie sci-fi music* It's not paranoia if they're really out to get you.