For a place that once deemed September 26 as Guitar Hero Day, you'd expect most New Yorkers to be pretty cool about games. We've got news that might startle you though, as the New York State Senate recently voted 61-1 to approve a bill that would make game ratings mandatory in the state of New York. Learn more after the jump!

It seems that Rockstar's own Vice President of Creativity, Dan Houser, has something to say about the recent boom in casual gaming. Before you ask, no, he actually appreciates what the Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS are doing - but as far as casual games are concerned, you might as well color him unimpressed. Check out what Dan said in the full article and see what it means to you.

Marvel fans rejoice for Activision has let slip a few more details about Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 and Spider-Man: Web of Shadows. To discover more about these games swing on over to the full article by clicking on the "read more" link below.

The recent Spider-Man games have all been free roaming, open-ended games. However, the games never really gave you a choice of becoming the bad guy. Activision is looking to change that with their latest game, Spider-Man: Web of Shadows. To find out more, head on over to the full article for more information.

Whenever you play a video game you enjoy, do you ever stop to think about the people who made that game possible? If you haven't done so before, then here's your big chance.

Sega has introduced the various members The Incredible Hulk video game development team. More on these folks in the full article, right after the jump.

It's all about Jose Reyes in the new promotional trailers released by 2K Sports for its latest hardcore baseball sim, Major League Baseball 2K8. The new series of videos, featuring a bobble-headed incarnation of the New York Mets shortstop, was aimed to promote the recently released game across its various platforms. You can take a look at the videos in our full article after the jump.

Interested in the whole Ziff Davis Media bankruptcy hub-bub that's been going around lately? Then here is 1UP Editor Simon Cox to clear up the entire matter for us, and how we shouldn't really worry about today's more popular videogame magazines. Bankruptcy is a scary word, yes, but for 1UP, it's anything but. Check out the full article for more info.

According to Newsweek's N'Gai Croal, the New York-based NPD Group will limit the data it releases to its non-paying customers starting with the October hardware sales data, which is due for release later this month. Hardware sales data will no longer be available every month, and the Top Ten SKUs charts will be cut in half. Hardware sales data as well as the Top Ten software titles will instead be released on a quarterly and yearly basis. Find out more at the full article.

We all know how big the Naruto manga, anime and gaming franchise is in Japan, but here's what we just found out: The loud ninja will debut his latest games in New York later this month and he plans to do it in style.

Naruto: Clash of the Ninja Revolution for the Nintendo Wii and Naruto: Path of the Ninja for the Nintendo DS will launch on October 27th in North America and all eyes will be on the Nintendo World Store in New York when it happens at exactly 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM.

According to the day's plans, there will be a ramen-eating contest featuring some of the world's greatest gastronomic gladiators in an intense face-off. Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS stations will also be allotted to participants of a fighting game tournament. Finally, there will be a raffle to give away one-of-a-kind items like an engraved Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS.

As a special treat to the Naruto faithful, the first 1,500 attendees wearing the trademark Naruto forehead protectors will get special gifts. Makes us wonder what they'll give people with sharingan contact lenses.



Buy: [Naruto: Path of the Ninja (DS)]
Buy: [Naruto: Clash of Ninja Revolution (Wii)]

In a drive to get the word out there, Nintendo Company Ltd's Brain Age 2: More Training in Minutes A Day is out to conquer communities to give folks a taste of the game. While some of the locations in the list are expected, there are those that seem rather unorthodox for a brain exercise to be in, like a parlor. A parlor?

Yes, along with a 50-City Mall Experience scheduled between now and January 8 of next year, a hair salon is also on their itinerary list. The chosen one: the new Nelson J Salon in Beverly Hills, California. Hmmm... what do you know? Maybe more of those Hollywood celebrities could get their hands on Brain Age 2 and exercise their heads, huh?

Anyhow, apart from those locations, the popular DS title is also set to visit the Alzheimer's Association Memory Walk Events, where Nintendo will be sponsoring booths as their runs -- er -- walks in Chicago, Austin, New York, Washington, and LA. And still that's not all. There's also the Nintendo Street Team Appearances where members of the Ninty Street Team will bring Brain Age 2 to events like home shows and fitness expos in Atlanta and Long Island, to name just a few (running from from Sept. 28 - 30).

Whew. That certainly sounds like a busy calendar for Brain Age 2, don't you think?