As the attorney general of South Australia, Michael Atkinson has been one of the most rabid critics against the introduction of an R18+ classification in Australia. This has made him a frequent target for Aussie gamers. GameSpot recently had a chance to ask Mr. Atkinson why he's so against the R18+ rating. Check out Mr. Atkinson's point of view after the jump.

Arthur6 has released a homebrew soundboard of South Park characters for the Nintendo DS. All you have to do is click on the characters' faces and hear them speak out, mmmkay?

Download: South Park Sound

For some reason, South Park comes to mind while watching this Dead'n'Furious trailer, though why the connection exists is beyond me. The only thing similar between this zombie-shooting game and the South Park series is the funny way in which things get blown off, kind of like seeing Kenny die repeatedly throughout the game trailer.

Yeah, that's probably looking mighty sick to you. Oh well.

You don't really get that many rail shooters for the DS, and a wholesome company like Nintendo doesn't have the reputation as being zombie city, even if they did have some Resident Evil games on their earlier consoles. That makes Dead'n'Furious even more of an interesting addition to the stable of DS games.

Dream On Studio and Virgin Play have made this game in such a way that furious, well-aimed tapping will lead you to victory against the zombie horde. From the trailer below, it also looks as if you can blow certain parts of the body, which is definitely a throwback to other rail shooters we've grown to love in arcades. Oh, and did we mention that you get to whack stuff with a crowbar too? Sweet!

For now, just take a peek at this trailer for the game think of the characters in South Park dying horrendous deaths at your hands, and laugh like a bloody fool. Enjoy!

Gone are the days where gamers are portrayed as basement-dwelling geeks who are in terrible need of social skills. It seems that today, gaming has gone mainstream, and has gained "pop-culture status" already (instead of the ancient esoteric association with "geek-dom"). Let's face it: gaming has become the "in thing" and the rapid influx of gaming titles, as well as the growing numbers of gamers, can attest to that fact.

These days, it seems that everybody play games: may it be MMO, RTS, FPS or whatnot. Also, gaming companies such as Nintendo seem to make a conscious effort to "reach out" to the non-gaming masses with wacky rackets such as cooking games, "brain games" and the like, stretching the definition of gaming further.

Also, mass media has contributed a key role to gaming's massive success. Of course, there's always advertising, but you may have also noticed the increasing portrayal of games in TV lately. There's the WoW feature in "South Park" and the Call of Duty 2 episode in "The Office". And no, we're not talking about 3-second subliminal messages here, but gaming as a part of regular people's lives.

Although that claim may not be true for everybody, we can't doubt that the gaming population is indeed growing, and getting more varied by the minute. There are kids, there are yuppies, there are forty-somethings, parents, you name it. Gaming is becoming a past time, and an activity that's not merely scoffed at as a "For Kids Only" thing. Although exaggerations were apparent in the shows, you just can't dismiss that the portrayal of gaming in "South Park" and "The Office" is far from reality.

In fact, Paul Lieberstein, who plays HR Director Toby in "The Office", says that when they write particular episodes for their show, they take snippets from their lives and incorporate it in the story:

After a show's been on the air a couple of seasons, we have to dig especially deep into our real lives, having exhausted our imaginations. We write about other TV shows we watch, websites we visit, trips we've taken, relationships we've had, and, yes, the videogames we play. As gaming becomes ubiquitous, I imagine the references to it will become commonplace.

Call it hyper-reality if you will, but it's still reality nonetheless. The gaming industry is not only gaining respect, but is slowly forming a niche in our everyday lives. And we can't be more happier because of that.