An amusing story by way of N’Gai at Newsweek, where he’s reminiscing on an amusing bet between him, several other members of the press and Microsoft’s Chief XNA Architect, J Allard, in 2004 regarding Sony’s soon to be announced PSP hand held console. The wager was over J’s belief that the PSP would be a resounding failure, stating in pure Allard fashion, “You can sell 500,000 units of anything!”. Always up for a bit of fun, the gaming press made J a wager, if the PSP reached 10 million units shipped worldwide within 12 months (same as the PS2) Allard would have to wear a dreadlocks wig for the entire month of May, including the week of E3 2006. If the PSP fizzled and failed, the journalists (some of whom sport quite a nice set of natural dreads) would shave their heads, on stage, during the Xbox E3 press conference, in front of 1500 attendees. Ever the gamer, J took the bet, only, didn’t seem to follow through. E3 came and went, J looked as snazzy as ever, but, there was no sign of J sporting those dreads. For shame J, for shame!

Read more: J Allard’s dreaded gamble

Total Annihilation was a great game for the hardcore RTS fan, a label I sometimes stamp on myself. Well, thanks to the Supreme Commander himself, Chris Taylor, we’re getting ready for the next-generation RTS title, Supreme Commander (see what I did there?). Supporting dual monitors (yay!), extremely nice graphics and AI, and sporting an art direction that looks like Terminator meets Battlestar Galactica, Supreme Commander is looking hot and I can’t wait to have this rolling on dual 20.1″ tft! Supreme Commander is currently in open beta and will be released early 2007.

Watch the trailer after the jump..

Read more of “Supreme Commander trailer, beta signups now“

No I haven’t gotten my frickin’ Wii yet. Argh! But oh well, I’m already having fun reading all the reports of overzealous Wii-heads who are going about tearing their homes apart thanks to slippery hands, flimsy safety cords and way too much adrenaline pumping through those Wii-hands. Never one to turn down taking advantage of a new market-opportunity, enterprising bloggers and self-confessed Wii fanboys, have created Wiihaveaproblem.com, a community blog focusing only on the newest trend in video gaming violence. Flying Wiimotes.

Read more: Wiihaveaproblem

Whosa whatsa!? It was recently revealed that Killzone PS3′s production is aiming to be the most expensive in Dutch history, topping the 16 million EUR ($21 million USD) mark of the Dutch WWII movie Black Book. A large part of the costs are attributed to localizing the game into 20 different languages. Yes, 20 different languages. As the bubble continues to inflate, fanboys around the world quiver in anticipation.

Read more: Killzone PS3 costing way too much

23 year old games design (or games art, it’s a bit unclear) student Bob Averrill surely doesn’t believe in organized religion, even going so far as to write a blog named Portland Athiest to let people know about his beliefs, or lack thereof. So it goes without saying that a discussion of religion taking place at his school (The Art Institute of Portland) would interest Averrill. That it did. During a classroom discussion between other students, Averrill joined in, mainly with another student about her particular religious beliefs in energy layers and astral beings, where it was also discovered she believes in leprechauns (this *is* Portland, Oregon we’re talking about here). Averrill attempted to convince her to stop stating that her beliefs were in fact scientifically proven (it appears she believed leprechauns were floating astral beings on various energy levels). Needless to say, the discussion became a bit more heated and Averrill found himself called before the dean, where he was informed that religious discussions weren’t allowed, before promptly finding himself suspended after a judicial hearing due to violation of the student conduct policy.

Read more: Games design student suspended after disputing existence of leprechauns

CVG has an extremely thorough preview of Remedy’s upcoming action/adventure thriller, Alan Wake, including a few new screen shots showing off the visual candy Remedy is pushing into the title with the help of Intel, Nvidia and Microsoft. The much anticipated follow-up to the Max Payne series, Alan Wake actually feels as if it IS the follow up to Max Payne, with Remedy’s signature art and atmosphere style shining through every screen shot we’ve seen. Now where’s that follow up to Max Payne we heard about a year or so ago? Hmmmmmmmmmm, I wonder…

Read more: Alan Wake preview at CVG

Whoa ho ho. How can this be an EA title? Granted, this is a Japanese game (for now!!), but wow, EA is looking primed to actually have someone in the Japanese market show some interest in their games. By taking on the visual style of an Animal Crossing or Harvest Moon, EA is bringing the right amount of sickly sweet character-driven fun to a stale property that just might work in their favor. Wow, the Wii is going to be huge folks. You didn’t hear it here first.

Read more: The Sims Wii

Attention Xbox Live demo fanatics, the ultra competitive shooter from Capcom, Lost Planet, is launching their demo today via Live Arcade and it’s most definitely worth a look! I have high hopes for Lost Planet since I’m a sci-fi nerd and any style of mech-battle scenarios grab my interest.

Read more: Lost Planet | Lost Planet official blog

Guild Wars has recently entered closed beta in China and has blown away expectations. Even though Guild Wars is being hyped as the most anticipated MMORPGs coming to the Chinese market, NCsoft and China partners The9 impressed many by receiving over 200,000 applicants on the first day of closed beta signups. Hot damn! Closed beta in China begins November 29th, administered by The9 Limited, who also are running WoW China.

Read more: Guild Wars enters closed beta in China

There’s currently a firestorm brewing in Germany (and Austria) in regards to the recent school shooting involving a disgruntled student who recently shot up his school, injuring several classmates before killing himself. School tragedies like this are always an unfortunate incident and seem to always be followed by sensationalist reactions from press and politicians alike. Currently, the German and Austrian press are going all out, placing much of the blame on video games and the internet. You see, the shooter was a huge fan of Counter-Strike and also posted videos and his suicide note on the internet. Thus, the media have a perfect pair of scapegoats for which to cover up most adult’s inability to relate to their kids in any way shape or form.

Read more: German teen shoots classmates, kills self