Here's an update on the current DICE Summit 08: Roger Hector, Vice President of Development at Namco Bandai, gave a short talk on how video games have made fictional characters into living icons. He even mentioned one of the greatest icons living until now. Details in the full article.

There's a new Pac-man homebrew in DS town, and it's certainly easy and fun. Developer sebskater29 was nice enough to share it to the community, so feel free to download and enjoy it. More details are available after the jump.

Download: Dual Pac-man v0.1

It's natural for human beings to reminisce about days gone by and compare them with the current status quo. Famed Nintendo designer Shigeru Miyamoto did a bit of that in a recent interview featured in the 1000th anniversary issue of Famitsu. He also touched upon a variety of other topics as well. Curious about what he said? Why not find out in the full article after the jump.

Moral Kombat has finally been screened, and straight after was the panel discussion between Jack Thompson and Lorne Lanning, co-founder of Oddworld Inhabitants. The debate was heated and filled with solid (and not-so-solid) arguments (complete with friendly jests and banter) from both sides.

No hair pulling, no punches thrown (except verbal ones, maybe). Read the full article for more details on the debate.

Thanks to German gaming site GameFront, we got a European release schedule for Electronic Arts titles today. Notable releases for this month are Burnout Dominator, Untold Legends, and Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars. Anyway, check out the full release list below.

May 3

• Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom (PS3)

May 10

• Burnout Dominator (PSP)
• Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars (Xbox 360)

June 21

• Sim City (DS)
• The Sims 2: Pets (Wii)
• Pac-Man Rally (PSP)

June 28

• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (DS, Wii, PSP, PS3, Xbox 360)

Destructoid first put this up on the net for people to take notice, and we're definitely taking notice of this one. Much like the numerous game parodies we've put up on the site, this one takes one of the creepiest characters in video game history and makes us relive the fears of our youth.

Nothing is more frightening as a child than the thought of being swallowed whole... by Pac-Man.

Romeo Mazzei's "Game Over" takes us back to that frightful little time, and even puts in some in-jokes for gaming fans. Expect to see references to Super Mario Brothers, Street Fighter, and even Super Smash Bros. in this quick clip. Enjoy the YouTube vid, and remember: this has far higher production values and a better storyline than Dead or Alive.

Man oh man, we seriously gotta love them Japanese people for their wicked weirdness and hilarity. We've seen a lot of laugh-out-loud funny game-related videos but this one really has to go way up there on our list of faves.

And yeah, yeah, we knooow this isn't news (as a LOT of you guys have repeatedly pointed out in some of our posts), but seriously, did you guys really think that we'd pass up the chance to share with you a real funny vid and keep the cheer among us? C'mon! So anyway, this vid shows four Japanese dudes dressed up in "intricate" Pac-Man (Xbox360, PSP, DS) costumes emulating the classic game.

The kicker here though is that when Pac-Man is cornered by his colorful foes, they beat the hell out of Pac-Man with ginormous styro sticks. Hahaha! *wipes tears of laughter* (Okay it's not as funny when you read it, you gotta see it, I tell ya.) So check out the vid and let us know what you think. Kudos to theproz for posting this!

 

 

Over at about.com, Aaron Stanton has written a pretty interesting piece regarding the testimony of Dr. Kimberley Thompson on the effectiveness of the ESRB rating system. Dr. Thompson cited a 2001 study on the violence in E-rated video games which, if most of us were to look at it rationally, would make absolutely no sense.

In that study, Pac-Man is 62% violent and Centipede, 92.6% violent. Amazing, no?

Even more amazing is that it was taken seriously, and that said research was done by observing how often the average player engaged in violent activity in the game within a 90 minute period. According to Stanton, applying that same measuring system "to 15 minutes of Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, an M rated game, you find that it says Oblivion is 18 times less violent than Pac-Man, about 5%."

What do you next after creating the No.1 video game of all time ("Top 100 Videogames" in the The Killer List of Videogames) and working for the same company for 30 freaking years? For Toru Iwatani, creator of Pac-Man,  the next step is going back to school to teach. Wow, that's like having Walt Disney teaching you to draw!

After lecturing regularly at several universities Iwatani says he realized the importance of teaching. "I experienced first hand the passion today's young people have for games. So, when TPU (Tokyo Polytechnic University) told me they were beginning a new course on games, and asked me to become a full-time lecturer, I decided to do it."

Sure, he still wants to make games but he thinks its more important to pass on the know-how he had accumulated over the last 30 years to the next generation. Iwatani hopes other veteran game designers will follow in his footsteps and help train the next-gen game makers.

Out of his 30 years of experience, what would be the most important lesson he wants his students to learn? The importance of communication in the workplace. "Game development is a group activity, so communication is crucial," Iwatani said. "On the other hand, it's a creative process, so assertiveness is necessary. I hope to foster in my students a balance between assertiveness and cooperation."