Excluding blog posts and short news articles:

• Fox News: Global warming debate heats up in wake of record snowstorms
• Kotaku: A Frag Without the Fest: If Chess Was a Shooter
• GamePro: The biggest voice in video games
• VentureBeat: Better quality creates opening for third-party game controllers

Excluding reports, blog posts, and short-news articles:

• MSNBC: Best games for kids under 10
• MSNBC: Top 5 war scenes in gaming
• MSNBC: Top 10 PSP games of 2009
• GamePro: The reach of retro
• GamePro: The Headshot Turns 10
• MSNBC: Best Wii games of 2009
• MSNBC: Top 5 reasons to keep playing your PS2

Excluding short new and blog posts.

• MSNBC: Top 5 video game heroines your mother would approve
• MSNBC: Top 5 underrated Nintendo DS games
• MSNBC: Top 5 hardest NES games
• MSNBC: Top 5 most wanted E3 games
• GamePro: Review—Dell’s most popular gaming PC  (print only)
• Show Daily: The official magazine of E3—multiple feature stories and reporting (print only)

Excluding short news articles and blog posts:

• Game Pro: Long live the PlayStation 2 
• MSNBC: Top 5 Sega games
• Ars Technica: A game you don’t care about but probably should
• MSNBC: Top 5 bodacious video game guns
• Ars: It’s personal: Gamers favor local multiplayer to online
• Ars: Realistic audio has us pinning for bleeps and blips of yesteryear
• MSNBC: Top 5 video game innovations
• Ars: Utah governor vetoes underage game bill
• Ars: New consoles give disc media the finger, face uphill battle
• Ars: Scratch Hero? I interview Mix Master Mike on his DJ game

Whoever said video games are recession proof is a turd. I know because my GamePro invoicing and contributions were drastically cut two weeks ago as the outlet readies for the great advertising scare and depression apocalypse of 2009. It was the right thing for the company to do in an effort to stay lean, even if freelancers like myself and lowly employees suffer as a result.

In any case, I will no longer serve as news editor for the publication, something I’ve greatly enjoyed since taking the helm in July 2007. Instead, I will remain an editor at large, helping to expand the coverage of GamePro’s subsidiary sites. I will continue responding to “letters to the editor” along with the occasional game review and preview, but for the time being, I will no longer be writing news.

During my tenure as news editor, I wrote more than 1,000 news articles (a partial list which can be found here) and oversaw 2,000 published works. I also scooped some original stories, got cited in CNN, planned coverage for a team of three reporters, and edited lots of copy. For any interested, click to your hearts content, and let me know if any media outlets are looking for wordsmiths (wink, wink).

In the early 80s, video game programmers did all the work: sprite design, writing, music — you name it. Often times, one or two people was all it took to develop a hit.

But these days, hundreds of programmers, artists, and designers work together to create our favorite games. Here’s a handy explanation of some of the most common jobs held inside a game studio.

Continue reading at GamePro…

Review scores are too complex. What began as a useful tool for players to compare and prioritize games has now become a confusing, lopsided, and political mess.

Consider score explanation guides, which often appear in magazines and review sites to interpret what should be easily understood: is a game any good? Furthermore, “average” games routinely score in the 80th percentile now, and the credibility of ratings are compromised when sly publishers allegedly work the system in exchange for favorable reviews (see also: Jeff Gerstmann).

So what’s a gamer to do? Should scores in reviews be thrown out altogether?

Continue reading at GamePro…

Ever since launch, the Xbox 360 core model without hard drive has largely been written off by gamers — and rightfully so. It lacks many of the attractive advantages of its older brothers, not to mention value for what’s included in the box. (Most core models can’t even save games without separate purchase!)

But all that’s about to change with the upcoming $80 price cut of the latest Arcade bundle (September 7, according to retailers), which includes a matte white system, wireless controller, and a 256 MB memory card for saving games and playing online.

Continue reading at GamePro…

Most gamers are familiar with big name publishers like Electronic Arts, Activision, and Sega. But what about the development studios themselves? You know, the ones that actually make the games, not just distribute them. Behold! Here are eight of the most important ones, in terms of multiple hits, present impact, and cash money.

Continue reading at GamePro…

With only a week to go, we profile the 25 most-promising titles expected this year.

We’ve polled our editorial team, scoured the internet, and given special attention to original efforts to develop the following list of 25 games, all of which has us giddy with the prospects. So with exception to unknown announcements, you can confidently count on these babies to be shown this year… and hopefully playable.

Continue reading at GamePro…