Hideo Kojima is one busy man, and it looks like he will be one for the years to come. He has two different games (three if you count Lords of Shadow) under his supervision right now, but he already has his eye on what he'll be doing after MGS Rising and his personal pet project, MGS Peace Walker. He also has a lot of downright weird ideas sometimes. Case in point: singing and screaming weapons in Peace Walker. Say what?

A new DLC pack is headed for the Guitar Hero: World Tour (360, PS3, Wii), and this time, it's for all the punk rockers in all of us. Even the name of the pack is punk-sounding, with Epitaph Punk-O-Rama Track Pack as the title. Obviously, as you may also see from the name, it's all about the Epitaph artists. List after the jump.

You know what comes next after the European PS Store Update, yes? That's right, it's the US PS Store Update for the week of July 2, 2009. And it's a hefty one to serve you fine too, in time for the 4th of July weekend. So in case you're feeling a little lethargic to join in on the festivities, at least you'll have something else to do to keep you busy. Among those stashed in this week's goodie bag are add-on packs for MotorStorm Pacific Rift, Cross Edge, the Capcom Classics Collection Remixed for the PSP Store and more. Full list after the jump.

Scientists have reason to believe that solar flares may be somehow linked with the "starquake" solar phenomena occasionally experienced by our solar system's sun. Images taken from the ESA-NASA SOHO spacecraft may give some clue to the long-standing mystery behind the sun's interior make-up. You can read more about the details of this study in our full article.

People have already been warned before that mixing politics and MMO video games is not a good idea, but it seems that it's not going away, especially now that real-life elections are just around the corner. Virtual event and promotions company Forefront Media will be hosting a virtual campaign in Second Life for the U.S. presidentia candidate, Senator Barack Obama.

Here's how it goes: In the real-world, the senator will address and interact with a select small group in a living room somewhere in Iowa. Aside from being webcast for community gatherings around the states, the discussion will also have an SL version. The said living room will be simulated by Forefront on March 31 at 1:00 p.m. on their island, SoHo.

There will be an authorized avatar that will represent Barack Obama, and will try to replicate the movements of the senator. Needless to say, this avatar will not be controlled by Obama himself, but the speech will of course be him, and can be heard by SL residents through an audio stream piped into the simulation.

Politician John Edwards, as reported on many occasions before, has also brought his campaign into the virtual world. We don't know if Obama is even aware of what happened to Edwards' headquarters which, for the benefit of those who do not know, was bombarded with Mario and Bill Crosby pictures, not to mention various obscenities, thrown by virtual attackers.

A lot of people have been desperately waiting for news regarding the release date of the Apple TV. Just to keep you on your toes (just kidding), here's a still-to-be-confirmed update on the little doodad's release.

Matt Buchanan of Gizmodo recently posted about his experience in the Soho Apple Store, where he "played the dumb consumer" in order to get some details on the Apple TV's actual ship date. According to Buchanan, store employees pointed towards a February 27 ship date, although an "if we get it then" comment from the very same employees keeps that date from being a lock.

Still, it looks like the Apple TV will definitely be making its way to retail stores sometime by the end of this month or the beginning of March. Keep checking back here at the QJ Apple blog for more updates.

The upcoming London Games Festival gives more focus on game design- tackling its cultural and creative dimensions. As such, one whole day of symposium and lively debate will be dedicated for its discussion. General topics include the game design's craft, its discipline, as well as current and future possibilities.

Dubbed as Sense of Play, the conference does hold relevant weight as key players in the industry were invited over. Patrick O'Luanaigh (nDreams, former Creative Director at Eidos/SC) discusses ways on how to improve storytelling in games. He had actually started on this topic during the past Leipzig Games Convention. O'Luanaigh shares, "We’ll be exploring what it means to be a games designer, looking at where interactive storytelling is going, and how the industry is trying new ways to create deeper levels of emotion and immersion."

Furthermore, Charles Cecil (Revolution Software) confronts the so-called "content crisis" that is currently bothering the games development and publishing communities. Finally, projects within and beyond the broadcast realm will be handled by Rob Cooper (Interactive Drama & Entertainment, BBC).

Co-sponsor University College for the Creative Arts invites everyone to this free symposium. Sense of Play takes place at London's Soho Theater and will run from 9.30am – 5.30pm. Interested parties need to pre-register by going to the official website which is where you'll be when you click the link.

The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft will extend its mission for at least three more years, thanks to new funding.

The Sun-monitoring mission, jointly operated by NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), left the Earth over a decade ago, and  was originally planned to operate until April of 2007. “This mission extension will allow SOHO to cement its position as the most important spacecraft in the history of solar physics,” says Bernhard Fleck, SOHO’s project scientist. “There is a lot of valuable work for this spacecraft still to do.”

SOHO has imaged the far side of the Sun and recorded seismic ripples on the solar surface during the last ten years. The spacecraft's crowning achievement was the Bastille Day event, when, on 14 July 2000, it captured images of a particularly violent solar storm.

SOHO-related scientific papers have been generated by this project every working day for the past two years. It will soon be joined by five new Sun-observing spacecraft, expected to launch between now and 2008.