Say what?! Gaming is just "one notch up from porn"? Not literally, but seriously, the British parliament pays little attention to the gaming industry, treating it like some cultural minority. As a result, gaming in the UK has gotten so bad that developers from other countries are buying British companies out. More in the full article.

If you like playing spy video games and/or solving mind-bending puzzles, then this new game called Spy-Q for the Nintendo DS is perfect for you.

Spy-Q from Eidos Interactive and Razorback Developments will bring players on spy missions around the world and solve puzzles along the way. The title is a joint project of Ian Livingstone (author of "Fighting Fantasy" gamebook) and Dr. Reiner Knizia (award winning game designer of Samurai and puzzle expert).

In Spy-Q, players will race against time and travel to 16 cities around the globe. Solve puzzles for clues, evidence, and unlock secrets to track down and thwart the villain Dr. Know (please stop snickering). This video game is definitely for those who love a good brain exercise and a good mystery as well.

So far, that's the only information released for Spy-Q. But fret not, puzzle-solving handheld lovers - we'll be sure to keep you posted on the game.

Remember all those Fighting Fantasy books? You know, those books that added a dice mechanic to their Choose Your Own Adventure counterparts? Well, gaming legends Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson are teaming up with veteran development consultants Bad Management to bring the classic series of books to portable console platforms.

Here's Mr. Livingstone's comments on the move from book to handheld game:

Fighting Fantasy built up a huge, worldwide fan base over the years. We believe that players will really enjoy the adventures in a new way on DS and PSP. Fighting Fantasy's interactive structure is ideal for bite-sized chunks of gameplay which is important for these devices

We've given you Mr. Livingstone's credentials before, so we don't really have to tell you guys why he's big. So what about Steve Jackson? Well, he's not the guy who made manuals for those tabletop RPG folks, that guy happens to be American, although he did also write several Fighting Fantasy books (adding to the confusion). This particular Steve Jackson is a Professor of Game Design at London's Brunel University. Aside from the Fighting Fantasy books, he's also notable for having created 'F.I.S.T.', the world's first interactive telephone game.

If you can make a game that can make telephones interactive and fun (no gutter-minded phone-lovin' jokes please), you can probably make good games for the DS and the PSP.

If you've watched Pirates of the Carribean one too many times and Jack Sparrow's line; "clearly you've never been to Singapore," is still looping in your head, so much that you're planning to head to South East Asia this holiday Season, you'd be glad to know that there's a gaming related event that's about to happen there.

The second Asian Game Developers Summit is scheduled for December 9-10 at the Orchard Hotel Singapore. The event is jointly organized by the IGDA Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philippines. It aims to promote game development within the region and to provide education, networking, and business opportunities for programmers, artists, producers, game designers, audio professionals, and others involved in game development.

The two day event is set to feature lectures, forums, and round-table discussions on game game design, game technology, game arts, and other things creatives and developers busy themselves with.

The speakers at the event include Ian Livingstone, OBE (Director of Product Acquisition, Eidos), Obsidian's Feargus Urqhart, Koei Entertainment's Raymond Wong, FunCom's Ragnar Tornkvist, and USC Professor Tracy Fullerton.

IGDA Singapore coordinator, Allan Simonsen had this to say:

We are happy to have the recognition and support of MDA Singapore (Media Development Authority, Singapore) and sponsorship by key game players the likes of EA (Electronic Arts, NASDAQ:ERTS), the world's leading developer and publisher of interactive entertainment and Hewlett-Packard (Commercial Systems Unit, Asia Pacific and Japan), the industry leader with more than 20 years of experience designing and certifying high performance workstations for game developers.

So heading to Singapore?

Anyway, back to good 'ol Captain Jack. When he said, "clearly you've never been to Singapore," we think he meant this.