We all know that America’s financial situation is getting worse, especially with the gas prices rising, the housing market suffering, and the war in Iraq which has cost the United States an estimated $3 trillion. There is one thing in the American economy that is keeping afloat and growing, which is gaming, and the nations largest retailer of games and consoles is GameStop. "As we analyze our sales deployment, we can't find evidence of the economy affecting our business," GameStop company officials said recently. "In fact, like we did after 9/11, we're seeing [comparable] store growth as consumers travel less and stay at home more, as well as trade in more games on new game purchases. Read More...

As some of you may know Calamity, Clov3r, Riotmonster, and I are running something called The Pwned.com Pokemon League. And this Narticle is being written to reach the masses, and call all pokemon trainers to participate in our League. Allow me to tell you a little about this: What It Is: Pokemon, as I am sure you all know, is a game where you raise monsters to battle them against other trainers. To Participate in the tournament, you will need a Nintendo DS lite, a wireless internet connection, and either Pokemon Diamond or Pokemon Pearl. Starting on June 14th, we pair trainers up to battle (via drawing names from a hat randomly) and over the next several days or what could even be weeks, we do a bracket-style Battle Royale similar to the March Madness brackets for basketball: the winner from one match goes on to battle the winner from another and so on and so forth. Read More...

Epic Games has now launched their new "Make Something Unreal" PC game mod contest. Sponsored this time by Intel, the contest will give aspiring game creators a way to win cash and prizes for making mods based on Epic's Unreal Tournament 3. Over $1 million in cash and prizes will be given to the winners and just like the first "Make Something Unreal" contest (for mods made with UT 2003/2004) the new version will have a grand prize of a full Unreal Engine 3 license for the overall best mod. Last time the winner was Tripwire Interactive for their Red Orchestra mod; they later formed a full dev team and released the game as a stand alone commercial title. Judging will begin in June 2008 in the first phase of the contest; the final winners will be determined in fall 2009 after all four phases are complete. Read More...

PlayStation Store Update It's not a content update, but a whole redesign of the PlayStation Store. I'm sure you've heard something about this in the last few weeks or so. But it looks like they are actually going through with it sometime in the middle of April. No solid date has been locked down for it. The only set date is that they will not be releasing any new content on the store from April 3rd on to the actual release of the re-vamp. This of course will all be made with yet another Firmware update. Read More...

For those iPhone fanatics out there, some hope has finally emerged in the lines of TOTAL FREEDOM, that is, freedom from Apple's restrictions built into the iPhone. The developer team of the new iPhone "Pwnage Tool" have finally made some releases on their crazy new software. Unlike previous iPhone hacks, the iPhone Pwnage Tool allows you complete control of your iPhone. Aside from being able to install the firmware of your choice, theres even talk of installing Linux if you want! How cool would it be to be able to say, "I HAVE LINUX," on your iPhone? Read More...

In light of the upcoming release of Grand Theft Auto IV, I figured I'd deliver you all some more updates on EA's attempt to buy out Take-Two!Earlier this year EA attempted put out a bid on Take-Two, parent company to Rockstar and 2K games, and were rejected. After trying to make a bid again last month, EA once again ups it's anny and puts out yet another bid out on Take-Two. And once again - they got rejected!Although the press release on T2's site is pretty much written in Wall Street-lingo wrapped in an abundance of legal mumbo-jumbo, I was able to gather some details: -EA has upped it's offer to $26 a share for stock-holders of Take-Two. Read More...

GameStop's Grand Theft Auto IV Contest Could you use 10K? I know I could. I could also take a trip to NY again. You can get in on possibly getting this just by going to the GameStop site, link below, and either entering in via their web site or by texting your answer to the question they have on the site. Either will get you into the running. You can also pre-order the game if you haven't already. Read More...

On this day in history ..1621 - Massasoit & Pilgrims agree on league of friendship (Plymouth) 1638 - Religious dissident Anne Hutchinson expelled from Mass Bay Colony 1733 - Joseph Priestly (father of soda pop) invents carbonated water 1765 - Britain enacts Stamp Act 1778 - Capt Cook sights Cape Flattery - in Wash state 1799 - F.W.A. Read More...

Boston Rock Band DLC So I like being the barer of fun news. That and I like giving you all the fun new stuff I run across. And it looks like Harmonix posted a little earlier than they usually do, the new downloads for next week. Much like the Grateful Dead pack, except it is Boston this time around. Some of the songs sound like will pretty fun on guitar. Not as brutal as Thrasher, but just another good 6 to add to the already large list of songs that are available on Rock Band. Read More...

My Experience At The Gamestop Release. Yes, I know there were a few about this already here, but this is an actual event that I thought needed to be out there. So please bare with me, it is a fun story that needs telling. So myself and a friend of mine, Mythicgriffon, went to the release of Smash Bro's last Saturday night. It was kind of a cool event. For the most part. Read More...

Sony Is In Talk About Blu-Ray For Other Machines So after the striking blow to HD-DVD Drive, from Toshiba and backed up with Circuit City, Sony looks like they are trying to help spread their tech out there. Like before, they are talking about making the Blu-Ray player available on all formats. Of course this has to be one of those ego things for Sony, but tey aren't leaving anyone behind. This claim came from Stan Glasgow and he states that they are in discussions about this whole thing. So hopefully we will see some good come out of this whole "Format War" soon. Read More...

Halo 3 Charity Tournament To Help A Fellow Gamer Not really much to say about this except for the background on what is going on. It is nice to see gaming promote a good cause, To Save A Life. What is going on is one the members of the site is in need of a new Kidney. What better way that to have a gaming event to help raise the money. It is a good cause, so if you are charitable, want to help a fellow gamer out, and want a good game of Halo 3, check this out. If you don't want to play, but want to donate, there is that option as well. Read More...

GameStop is finally releasing the anxiously awaited Nintendo Wii game Super Smash Bros. Brawl this Sunday (3/9/08), but they have put a new twist on to the midnight release, a countrywide tournament. This tournament, which is free to play in, is absolutely huge! There are 45 pages of participating first round stores from all over the United States, which basically means that this is probably going to be one of the biggest tournaments ever. This tournament has four rounds. GameStop will be flying the eight semifinalists to San Jose, California to compete in the fourth and final round at their brand new tournament center and store. Read More...

SSB:Brawl Biggest Tournament At GameStop I know I've talked about it the few times I've been in the ShoutBox and once on the Forums, but here is the release event to end all release events, at least for now. But it looks like they are promoting even further a game that has already hit over 2 million pre-orders already. Awesome right? Well you will get to play the game before the actual US street release, at least for a few hours before you get to take it home with you. Read More...

New Halo Figures Out From McFarlane Toys They are action figures. In fact they are action figures of one of the most popular games on the Xbox system. McFarlane is also know for having some of the best figurines ever made. I know I have a slew of them in my pad just cause they are so frigging cool to look at. That being said, you can now pick up the set of figures and play out you Halo fantasies like Darth Helmet in Spaceballs. Here is a list of what is out now, there will be another set come June this year so if you don't see one you like here, just wait until then. Read More...