As E3 draws nearer, we've got more publishers coming out guns blazing with their E3 lineups. Up next is Activision, and well, well, well, look who's packing the big guns for the expo! They've covered a lot of genres with this lineup and I would love to win a hypothetical contest to win everything on this list. Check it out.

Chat with your buddies wherever you go! It's an IRC client for your Nintendo DS. Get your friends to download it so you all can keep in touch wherever you can stay online. It's no SMS, but it's a nice, handy app to have just in case.


Download: ClIRC.05beta

The Nintendo DSi has a lot of great new features, but one of the better features that didn't manage to get in the final plans was a second cartridge slot. This idea was scrapped by Nintendo prez Satoru Iwata, saying that it made the handheld feel "big."

How bigger was this model in question that the feature was just not worth the trouble? About three millimeters. Wuh?

More layoffs are happening in the gaming industry, this time from NCsoft. But it's not as drastic as rumors that circulated this week claimed. Details after the jump.

One of the most exciting bits of news that gamers can hear is that of the release date for highly-anticipated games. Fortunately for gamers in the United Kingdom, Play.com has spilled the beans via a booklet. Release dates for various games such as Fable 2 and Protorype have been announced.

Got a particular game in mind? Why not check the full article for the list of games?

For those of you who are looking for a "Russian-friendly" IRC client that works for the Nintendo DS, homebrew developer Cluster has taken it upon himself to create an IRC client with a working Russian in-out interface, as well as all the standard options you usually find on a desktop PC version. Check out the complete list of features in the full article!

Download: ClIRC 0.04

The rumor mill is hot on the Halo DS project after Matt Casamassina testified about the existence of Halo on Nintendo's handheld, and IGN promised to talk about a demo they were able to get their hands on. Website Siliconera was able to get some clarification from Bungie's Brian Gerard and Frank O’Connor regarding the matter.

Straight from Bungie's community guy himself, "...there has never been an officially funded or sanctioned development of any sort of DS Halo game."

Before that, Bungie.net's content monkey Frank O'Connor did state that "we got pitched for it several times."That said, it's "very likely that somebody at some point in time created a prototype."

Halo on handhelds is possible, but O'Connor doesn't think an FPS would be a good idea given the hardware limitations. A scrolling shoot 'em up or some other form Master Chief can appear in is more feasible for the DS, he said.

Here's another fun thought from the interview: Ninja Gaiden's Ryu Hayabusa could actually appear in Halo's universe. "I'm not going to say you're going to see Ryu in Halo, but I would say that our relationship with Itagaki is alive and well," O'Connor replied when asked about Ryu making a cameo appearance.

For the full transcript, click on the Read link below.

Console modder F00 f00 has just announced an new experimental mod that he's finished installing in his DS. The mod involves installing the PulseVU chip (originally for the Wii) into the portable, which enables users to activate several eye-pleasing LED light effects on the unit. See the video below to get a better idea:

F00 f00 further explained that the DS' PulseVU add-on has 10 lighting functions, including music pulsing (Ouendan comes to mind...), a breathing effect that kicks in when the DS is set to sleep mode (switching on, with the unit's lid closed). Take note that this is still a prototype - we'll let you know if F00 f00 decides to share this mod with other DS owners.

Sony and Nintendo may be at each others throats with their Wii and PS3 launchings, but that doesn't mean we gamers can't get along. Sony_PSP over at our forums found this uber-interesting homebrew: Tic-tac-toe Wi-Fi.

While Wi-Fi gaming with homebrew - and certainly tic-tac-toe - are old news, the innovation we're looking at here is that this game is meant to be played between PSP and DS consoles. Yup, you heard it right: PSP owners can play via Wi-Fi against DS owners, and vice-versa.

According to the dev, this game is still a prototype, so we're hoping he finds the time to polish up this little gem, as this is the first time we've heard of Wi-Fi taken this far. We heap thanks over at Sony_PSP for this remarkable find, and heap even more thanks to the game dev for coming up with this development.

   

Download the DS version [Inter-console tictactoe]
Download the PSP version [Inter-console tictactoe]
View: [Forum Release Thread]

When people play a word association game between "video gaming" and "college" they think (a) students playing video games when they should be studying and/or (b) a video game design course. When people play a word association game between "video gaming" and "graduate school" (the one that hands out masteral degrees) they're bound to think "What student in his right mind will have the time for video games while he's in graduate school?"

Trust me. I attended graduate school. Between the heavy classroom work and the heavy outside-of-classroom work and thesis research and thesis writing and thesis editing and even more thesis writing and more classroom work and out-of-classroom work... (phew! Gotta catch my breath) it was nigh difficult - nay, impossible - to squeeze in a couple of hours for a video game. Any video game. Even Pong.

Well, what if the video game was your masteral degree? The UK-based University College for the Creative Arts is now offering an MA in Digital Games Design for this coming academic year. Call it the result of two converging forces: the undeniable impact of video games in global culture today, and the game industry's quest to have its output recognized as an important and serious cultural work - you know, like classic novels and opera and such.