It looks like there's a lot to look forward to, that's if you own a Zune. According to Microsoft XNA's big wig, Chris Satchell, the Zune game concepts are now progressing very nicely.

Aside form this, he was able to discuss briefly the developments currently going on. Details on what he said after the jump.

With the recent release of God of War: Chains of Olympus, it seems that the Ghost of Sparta has been spotted once again in his tiniest incarnation for the series so far. The Kratos toy figurine developed by Randy Falk definitely shows off the angry Spartan in the prime of youth and then some. Take a look at the images of mini-Kratos in action by clicking on the "read more" link below.

BMW sent prototypes of its revolutionary new Hydrogen 7 cars to NASA for testing and the clean, mean and green vehicles came out with flying colors after being graded for their efficiency.

The Hydrogen 7 is based on the design of the BMW 760Li and carries a dual combustion engine which can use either gasoline or fuel hydrogen. What's more, it can switch seamlessly between the two and deliver the same results each time.

It's strong V12 engine delivers 260hp, a top speed of 143 miles an hour and accelerates from 0 to 60 miles in 9.2 seconds. The high performance comes with the distinctive BMW look and ease of handling that luxury drivers look for.

The best part about the BMW Hydrogen 7 is its contribution to the prevention of climate change. When running on hydrogen, its emissions are essentially as harmless as water vapor.

Ready for more ace pilot action? Blazing Angels 2: Secret Missions' box art just landed on this side of the interwebs and we're trying to muster what little information we can from upcoming title.

Aside from the rain of media for Ubisoft's Blazing Angels 2: Secret Missions at this year's Ubidays, little was known about the title. The video games casts the player as the leader of a secret pilot squad out to prevent the Third Reich from creating a weapon of mass destruction. Players will be able to choose from 50 different planes (authentic and prototypes) and complete 18 single player missions. The game also features multiplayer modes of up to 16 players.

Anyway, we'll get you more info on this uber secret title as they happen. Stay tuned.

There has been talk that The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) and Microsoft has teamed up to put Windows XP Starter Edition on the systems. It was inevitable that some people would have drawn this conclusion given the fact that Microsoft has joined the some 1,500 developers who will be working on this project; the company having access to the XO prototypes only added more fuel to the fire. However, all these rumors were debunked by the Software and Content president of OLPC Walter Bender.

Bender spoke to ars technica saying that "we are a free and open-source shop. We have no one from OLPC working with Microsoft on developing a Windows platform for the XO.  MS doesn't get any special treatment from OLPC." It's good that he clarified this because the program at its core has been about open source.

The program has really gotten a lot of attention, and rightly so. This US$ 100 laptop seeks to bring affordable systems to children around the world. The laptop features a 400Mhz AMD Geode processor and an SD slot. The project has been met with some skepticism but looks to be on its way.

A patent given to Intel revealed in the US Patents and Trademarks Office suggests that the giant company best known for its work with microprocessors has invented a method to revolutionize electronics displays as we know them.

Near as we can figure, the product hinges on technology which makes use of two flexible sheets. These sheets have magnetically charged particles which control reflectivity.  The onscreen pixels are generated via a flexible ring between the two magnetic flexible sheets.

The techno;ogy, the patent says, is intended for use in mobile devices. Mobile phones, laptops and PDAs could all benefit directly from the new methods, but at this earl stage we can never be sure. Some concepts make it to paper and prototypes are never constructed. Still, it's a nice idea and it's good to know that our currently good displays can only get better.

If you liked the homebrew application OpenWii v1.2, then we're pretty sure that you will love this newly-released and improved version. To those who missed it, OpenWii is one of the modchip programs which, unlike the others, doesn't require installation of full-fledged chips. OpenWii is based on altering your console's micro-controllers and pin configurations.

As we've mentioned before, dealing with this application requires an amount of knowledge in coding since this was coded in C. Take note that you will also be needing the appropriate GCC tools, and will also require editing makefiles to use OpenWii v1.3. To help you guys out, we listed down some of the program's smaller parts with their proper uses:

• clueDirectories/Files:common - contains stuff used by everything
• main.c - well umm its the main part
• common.h - defines and prototypes used elsewhere
• serial.c - handles bitbanging and reading data to and from the drive
• serial.h - defines and protos for serial

These files are required to be in each processor specific dir:

• machdep.h - this are mostly macros change depending on the microprocessor and pin configs used
• machdep.c - mostly microprocessor dependant functions

The "Read" link below should take you to the application's official forum thread where you can know more about this exciting application.

Download: OpenWii v1.3

It looks like inventor extraordinaire Dean Kamen (same guy who came up with the Segway PT) is all set to make more stuff again. This time his latest project focuses on soldiers wounded in the war.

Details are still scarce, but apparently, Kamen is currently working on developing a next gen prosthetic arm for soldiers who'd lost limbs to improvised explosive devices and such. News trickled out last month that Kamen had been approached by the Department of Defense last year regarding this project.

Kamen presented an early video of the prosthetic limb in action at TED, and the arm does indeed show promise, performing such precise actions as picking up stuff (a pen, a pad of paper, a water bottle) and scratching a nose. Word is that prototypes of the new six-pound prosthetic limb have already been fabricated, but that's pretty much it. No news yet on how far along the project Kamen is.

Gamasutra bring us more word from the ongoing Game Developers Conference (GDC), and this time it's all about prototyping as explained by Jonathan Blow.

Blow is a programmer and designer who works primarily on advanced and experimental video games. His game Braid, a meditation on loss and relationships where the player controls time to solve puzzles, the Game Design award at the Independent Games Festival in 2006.

Blow started the 45-minute session by showing what doesn't make for a good prototype. As an example, Blow used a magical gesture-based combat game he had worked on, where he heavily prototyped the gesture system. According to Blow, just testing the thing did not make a good prototype. "Even though it exercised the technical parts of the scheme, it didn't exercise the game play parts," he said.

Blow conceded that while some prototypes won't be much fun, but they can be successful. Speaking of Braid's precursor, Oracle Billiards, Blow said that while it didn't do what he wanted, he "got a feeling out of it that I never got out of any game I ever played before."

Another of Blow's more successful prototypes was one called Raspberry. Again, Blow didn't quite find the Raspberry prototype enjoyable, but what mattered was that it was successful. Raspberry went on to become a big part of what led up to his next project, Eight Dots.

In closing, Blow emphasized that just like in the strategy games he is so fond of, life is a very limited resource. Wasting it on quick games that are just "good enough" is unfortunate.

Finally, the Wii is now getting some color treatment to break off the monotony of its pearly white casing. Not that we have any problems with that at all. But come on, guys. Admit it. At some point in time, you wondered yourself just how fun it could be to color your Wiis according to your mood, right?

  

Well, that time's come now as Team Xtreme now unveils their Wii console case replacement. Although they only have prototype pictures for now, they assure that they are dead serious about turning this Project SHOCKii into a full-fledged thing. The prototypes come in color grey, but it won't be long 'til they add more colors to their palette to suit your preferences even more.

Included in the SHOCKii's package are the following replacement parts:

• Faceplate with buttons
• Standby Battery Insert
• Card/Controller Panels
• Console left/right Panels

Something funky to match those catchy Chuckiis, eh? Keep it posted here for more updates on this project.