GameBreak

Watchmen - Ok, I've seen all the ads about this movie, and I still don't have the slightest idea what it's about. There's Blue Guy, who seems to be all blue and sad, and then the guy who looks like Batman, and Wine Stain, who looks like he has a weird stain on his face. And there's Hot Girl, who kicks really slowly. And I think Smashing Pumpkins might have something to do with it, so I can only imagine that it takes place in the 90's.

Also, there's a lot of explosions in the movie, so I'm wondering if they all have to unite to help defeat Mr. Explosion, or Blast Boy, or some other stuff like that. Also, everything in the movie looks shiny, which is nice. I bet it's a really shiny movie. Other than that, I literally have no idea. - Six Grapes From a Bunch

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In today's Gadget Pr0n, our tech experts are talking all about Amazon's second generation e-reader, the Kindle 2. If the show's going to foist some form of reading on you, I might as well foist one that has something to do with video games. So, relish my list of the top five video game novels (which will likely be translated into e-books shortly) of all time.

Mortal Kombat - I'm not talking about the novel adaptation of the movie, I'm talking about an all new, original novel that covers the history of the greatest characters from the first two Mortal Kombat games. If you've ever been curious about what Scorpion and Subzero were like before the first tournament or ever wanted to know what a ruthless and clever bastard Kano was during his Black Dragon days, pick this one up. It's the most entraining read in all the realms of Shokan.

Mass Effect: Revelation - Who didn't love the action, RPG epic, Mass Effect (PS3 owners, I suppose)? It was engrossing, detailed and expansive, just like the prequel novel by science fiction writer, Drew Karpyshyn. What makes it worth reading is the sections which profile the game's villain Saren just before his betrayal of all humanoid life to the genocidal, robot race, the Reapers. It's chilling and really fleshes out the Mass Effect universe.

Halo: Contact Harvest - I don't know anything about its plot, nor do I care. However, I do know it's a Halo book and you kids love that Master Chief. It's also been thumbed through by TheFeed's [contributer who refused to be named], who started reading the book to review it for the site and later threw it across the office in frustration. You'll probably like it though. I mean, it has the word "Halo" right in the title.

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So, I love a good after lunch bowel movement as much as the next guy, maybe more. Lately, I've gotten into a bit of a groove where I go after lunch and play Tetris on my iPhone.  A full game of 120 or 130 lines usually takes me about 15 minutes, well enough time for me to finish my business.

Tetris has always been my favorite game all the way back to NES days so you can imagine my joy upon learning I could take it anywhere with me and use the iPhone's touch screen interface to rotate and slam down the pieces. But just like the NES version, I was curious how far it would go and how fast it would get. The NES version never had a top out point as far as I can remember. Neither did the Ti-85 graphing calculator version that got passed around when I was in high school. So, I've been wondering what the top-out was for the iPhone version.

Well, today, I found it.

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A business development rep from Belkin, makers of computer and gaming accessories, has supposedly been paying people to write five-star reviews on Amazon.com. Using a service called Mechanical Turk (Reno and Rude's side business?), Belkin's Michael Bayard was apparently paying people 65 cents a pop for each rigged review. Furthermore, he was supposedly encouraging people to mark low reviews as "not helpful". The Daily Background did some excellent sleuthing, exposing Bayard and his connection to Belkin. The site reported:

Should this story be true, It's a shame that Belkin has stooped to such shady practices. User reviews on Amazon can be a great resource and it sucks that companies are trying to game a community-driven effort. Fake reviews can really break the system. That said, I have to admit at laughing out loud at a fake review of The Beatles' White Album, which said that it was good, but didn't measure up to classics like Guns 'n Roses' Use Your Illusion II.

Does this news make you think less of Belkin? How about Amazon's user reviews?

Source

Joshua Krane, G4 senior vice president of interactive and new media, has announced that Billy Berghammer has been appointed G4TV.com's director of gaming editorial. In his new role, Berghammer oversees gaming content for all of G4’s nonlinear platforms, including G4TV.com, G4 on Demand, G4 Podcasts, G4 Mobile, as well as the network’s Wii and PS3 browser-based content platforms. Many of you are familiar with Billy's work as managing editor for Game Informer's GI.com and the founder of Planet GameCube.

So what does this mean for you? Well, expect more exclusive content, breaking news and interviews on G4TV.com and all the aforementioned products. The team has tremendous things planned for you in 2009 and with Billy leading the way, I'm confident that you'll enjoy all the great content.

“Billy’s outstanding experience coupled with his strong relationships within the gaming industry make him the perfect fit to lead G4TV.com,” said Krane. “As we continue to expand videogame content on G4TV.com, Billy will play an integral role in shaping the web site and maximizing opportunities for gamers, publishers and developers.”

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Tech writers and gadget enthusiasts alike were thrilled with last week's announcement of the Palm Pre at CES 2009. Many of you have listed it as the biggest news coming out of the show in our Sony Walkman giveaway. While it's easy to see why so many journalists are excited about the product, it's not unusual for writers to become enamored with the potential of a device without thinking about its real-world applications. GigaOm's Om Malik, one of my favorite tech writers, is trying to keep it real. Malik recently wrote, "I remain highly skeptical of Palm's chance to succeed with this new effort. I may be the only one who isn’t buying it." He also pointed out a few reasons why people shouldn't be too excited about the Palm Pre. Let's take a look at his wizened comments and break them down.

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We're getting ready for Toshiba's press conference at CES 2009 and the biggest question on my mind is: Will anyone talk about the death of HD-DVD? You'll remember that last year, right before Toshiba's 2008 press conference, Warner Brothers announced that it was going exclusively over to Blu-Ray, which effectively signaled the death of HD-DVD.

Throw in a struggling economy and I'm expecting losses for Toshiba over 2008. Hopefully, it will be able to recover as I'm definitely a fan of their televisions and laptops.

Here we go so keep updating. As before, new updates can be found at the bottom of the post.

10:00 AM PT - The press conference is opening with footage of the New Years Eve show from Times Square featuring Toshiba displays and advertisements... and the Jonas Brothers. Nothing says HDTV and technology like the Jonas Brothers.

Yes, that was a very nice mega display in Times Square, but where's my home version?!

President and CEO of Toshiba America, Mr. Akio Ozaka, takes the stage to give an overview of the business in America. He points to Toshiba's "heritage of innovation" and the Regza line of HDTVs for its success. Toshiba will continue to add value for consumers by improving what consumers care about most: video quality.

The Regza brand is "breaking new barriers" in picture quality and convenience and will be giving more thought to cosmetics for home theater setups. Much like LG, Toshiba will be focusing on networked devices to provide Internet content to the user. It is committed to making a change in this area and I look forward to hearing about its approach.

Environmentally, Toshiba plans to be a leader in green technology! Have you sensed a pattern yet? Better looking TVs, network devices, and green technology!

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Someone must have put something foul in Michael Arrington's Ovaltine, because the founder and co-editor of TechCrunch is one angry hombre! Due to a combination of the floundering economy and desperate tech companies, Arrington feels that embargoes on information have become useless. He claims that tech companies are no longer being selective about which outlets it gives embargoed information to. This, in turn, has resulted in smaller publications breaking embargoes, which screws over every other journalist that's covering the story. Arrington isn't pleased with all the embargo breaking going on and he's even less pleased that most PR firms aren't doing a damn thing about it. To address the problem, he offers a simple solution:

Go crazy brother! Arrington's wrath continues by calling out particularly offensive PR professionals. His stance is pretty amusing and while he's making quite the spectacle, he does have a point. The gaming business is pretty similar -- embargoes are broken all the time. I've lost count of the number of times some crap game site from Italy has broken an embargo, disrupting the plans of every other outlet covering the story. That said, I don't think Arrington's method is the right way to go about it. Antagonizing PR flaks and tech companies will definitely get you attention, but it's not the kind you want. I'm certainly going to be watching Arrington's holy war (secretly rooting for him), but I don't see how this can end well for him and his site. He's making his job and the jobs of the PR people he works with more difficult than it has to be. Maybe I'm being a bit of a hippie, but I think people find the best solutions by working together and working within the system. Raging against the machine rarely pays off.

The whole affair reminds me of one of an embargo situation between journos and PR flaks that I masterfully mediated....

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We previewed Rob Corddry's new web series Childrens' Hospital on TheFeed on Monday, and told you all about the show, which is currently running on www.thewb.com, with 10 episodes that make up Season One. Now, as promised, we have an exclusive interview with Mr. Corddry about the show, how it was made, and what's coming next, both at the hospital and on the big screen. Read on, Feed reader!

I’m on the phone with Rob Corddry, of Children’s hospital fame:

I am Rob Corddry

So Rob,  tell us how this whole thing came to pass.

I was in Los Angeles Children’s Hospital waiting for my daughter and wife to come out of an exam room cause we had a pulled a ligament out of place in her arm.  So we were waiting for her and so through the emergency room double doors came a gurney being pushed by like five doctors and seven nurses all with IV’s in their hands and yelling things like, ya know, "Stat!" and "CG" and all that s**t, "code whatever." And there was a LifeFlight helicopter bringing up the rear, like it was a classic ER moment.  And I thought, "wow, this is awesome." And then I realized I’m in a children’s hospital, and those IV bags are tiny for a reason.  And I had the most inappropriate reaction to the most horrifying thing ever, and it sort of fell into place.

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