Austrian publisher JoWooD has announced the launch of the homepage for The Mark, their upcoming first-person shooter developed by Greek developer Track7Games. An action/espionage thriller which takes the player on a fight against terrorists wanting to blow up London with a nuclear bomb, The Mark features a vast storyline mission which allows the player to change characters at the start of every chapter and of course, multiplayer deathmatch and capture the flag modes.

Read more: The Mark | JoWooD

Leave it to kids today to take something as harmless as Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 and turn it into something so cool that I actually want to buy it. A YouTube user recently had a little fun taking advantage of the AI of Rollercoaster Tycoon 3, by creating a simple and destructive construction whereby hundreds of Tycoon residents mistake a passage of death for one giving away free balloons.

Watch the video, complete with track from They Might Be Giants, after the jump..

Read more of “Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 blood bath“

Sony’s recent advertising campaign is hitting the airwaves and it’s how should I say, hmm, oh yeah, arrogant. I’m probably just reading too much into it, but, it seems to me that Sony is basically saying that we’re all little consumer sheep sitting and waiting anxiously to throw several month’s rent at them in exchange for their next gaming system. But that’s ok, Sony always has some top notch marketing and they’ve made up for my perceived insult by including a brilliant track by Brian Eno in a recent-ish Canadian commercial. The track is “An Ending (Ascent)” from the album “Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtrack” (Playthrough’s #1 Eno favorite album) by Brian Eno, his brother Roger and Daniel Lanois, which has also been featured in many movies in recent years.

Watch the Canadian PS3 is coming (to bankrupt you) after the jump..
Read more of “Canadian Sony PS3 commercial featuring music from Brian Eno“

Second Life, the 3D social networking virtual world where users are able to create alter-egos of themselves, living out their days running virtual brothels, hunting ranges and multi-level marketing schemes, has passed the 1 million subscriber mark. Though, this also counts free accounts, which take a whopping 15 seconds to open, over 400,000 accounts have logged in within the last 60 days, a good sign that many accounts are active. How Second Life will fare next year remains to be seen, but for now, it seems like the Linden-family are going strong.

Second Life reaches 1 million subscriber mark

“Major” electronics retailers, PC World, Currys and Dixons are refusing to stock Rockstar’s latest masterpiece, Bully or Can-whatever whatever edit as it’s known outside of Americonia. All of the retailers are owned by one conglomerate who states that Edit doesn’t fit with their family-friendly image, but they will continue to enjoy a good relationship with Take Two and Rockstar Games. Which is evident since all 3 stores are advertising pre-orders for Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories for the PSP, a title which apparently DOES fit in with what may be one of the most twisted definitions of “family-friendly’ I’ve ever heard. And yes, this is another Rockstar-related story, sheesh, you’d think I used to work for them or something…

Read more: Major UK Retailers refuse to stock Bully

Microsoft’s online service, Xbox Live, announced yesterday that they’ve reached the 4 million subscriber mark, with projections showing more than 6 million by June 2007. Yet still it takes me ±15 minutes to actually get an online Street Fighter match going. Currently, Xbox Live is the largest platform for high-def, on-demand content and pulls a 24% trial-to-purchase rate. Not too shabby, but Microsoft has always led the way with their online service and I seriously doubt Sony or Nintendo will be able to build a better system.

Read more: Xbox Live reaches 4 million subscribers

Bully, the much anticipated “GTA for teens” from Rockstar Vancouver, is receiving rave reviews for it’s innovative gameplay, mini-games and sandbox environment. Garnering a perfect 10/10 from 1UP, Bully appears not to be the Columbine, murder, death simulator that everyone fears, but actually a fun and enjoyable title. We’ll see what Jack Thompson’s next move will be, but I’d go so far as to say that Rockstar has won this battle. Now why oh why can’t there be an Xbox version?

Read more: Bully @ Metacritic

Over at Soldat Movies, they are collecting a long and growing list of neat (and free) physics-based games, both download-able and web-playable. It wasn’t long ago that the gaming press were raving about physics and how it would be the next big thing in gaming and free the games industry from it’s current rut of sequels and boring gameplay. Well, that worked out well and I think the next big thing is artificial intelligence maybe? Who knows and who cares huh? Just bring on the Wii. Oh yeah, sorry, there are quite a few gems here such as Warthog Launch and the critically-acclaimed N, so anyone looking to pass a few hours while bored at work now have a new physics-based playground to call home.

Read more: Collection of physics-based games

Though gold farmers could probably care less, I would think that Linden Labs and all fans of Second Life are starting to wonder what the future may hold for their respective virtual businesses. With members of the house and senate just now starting to learn what a video game actually is, some are stumbling upon the news that virtual economies are growing to the level equal to that of some states’. Naturally, wherever there is money, even virtual, exchanging hands there are politicians, which doesn’t make the news surprising that the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress are starting to investigate the ways which virtual economies can be taxed. A report on where players can be taxed will be completed by year’s end, with virtual taxation bills popping up just in time for World of Warcraft’s 10 millionth subscriber. Typical of the IRS, always swooping in and killing any hopes of fun wherever it may be.

Read more: Virtual economies attract real-world tax attention

The newest in the Bubble Bobble series, Bubble Bobble Revolution, appears to be stricken with a major bug which doesn’t allow the players to proceed past the level 30 boss fight. Though whether this is a bug in the code or a manufacturing defect in the cartridges remains unclear. This is however a rather embarrassing occurrence for developer Codemasters and manufacturer Nintendo, who have recently confirmed that all of the cartridges sold in North America are faulty and will have to be replaced.

Statement from Codemasters:

We have been looking very hard into this issue with Nintendo and have now determined that all of the cartridges that have been shipped in North America are faulty.

Needless to say we are extremely sorry that this situation has arisen and would like to apologise to you for this issue.

We have already started the process whereby a corrected version is to be manufactured and will ensure that all customers have their copies replaced. Unfortunately this will take 8-10 weeks (simply because of the time required to manufacture new carts). We will update you with what you will need to do to get a replacement game, as soon as this has been determined.

Interesting they place the blame on the carts, as previous reports naturally placed blame squarely on the shoulders of QA, who are of course the default scapegoats. It appears to me to have been a manufacturing problem with the game cartridges, but regardless of who shoulders the blame, obviously you don’t want to pick up a copy of Bubble Bobble Revolution anytime soon.

Read more: Bubble Bobble Revolution sees major bug after shipping