Weekly Wrap-Up

It was a short week with the holiday, but here's what went down on our original web franchises this week:

• Sessler's Soapbox: Adam discussed violence in video games vs. violence in the real world.
  
• Fresh Ink Online: Blair Butler looked at the best graphic novels of 2008.
• Tech News Countdown: Alison Haislip brought you the top 5 tech stories of 2008.

And now, the news:

Monday

• Sony Electronics has declared that it will no longer use that annoying "clamshell" packaging.
• The latest rumor in Factor 5's saga is that the company is shutting down entirely.
• Square Enix has announced pricing and revealed pictures of its limited edition 'Crystal Chronicles' DSi.
• Doctor Octoroc has released an excellent mashup album that combines NES songs and Christmas carols.
• Music video-games have been lucrative for the likes of Aerosmith, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Nirvana.
• Burnout Paradise offering Legendary Cars Pack in '09.
• A group of people from IT University of Copenhagen came up with an idea to give a bar a Portal night.
• Double Fine has launched their Psychopedia website; a Wikipedia for their game 'Psychonauts'.
• Warner Music tells YouTube to remove all WB music videos.
• Olivia has been nominated for Wired.com's Sexiest Geek Award!
• A new 'Judge Dredd' film has been confirmed to be made.
• Catch Chris Hardwick on the Jay Thomas Show Monday.
• Teens using fake license plates to trick speed cameras, frame drivers.
• Instead of their usual holiday Christmas bonus, Google employees receive G1 phones.
• X-Play has a hands-on demo of 'Empire: Total War' on the show tonight at 8PM ET.
• Sony announced that patch 1.05 for Playstation's 'Home' will bring voice chat back to the MMO.
• Startreknewvoyages.com resurrecting rejected gay 'Next Gen' story fonline.
• Oddworld Inhabitants co-founder and president talks about how digital downloads cut costs and save energy.
• An odd spot from 'Google Earth' led to an undiscovered land and hundreds of species.
• Doctors in the UK fear an epidemic called "Wii Knee."
• A Beverly Hills plastic surgeon uses the fat from his patients' liposuction procedure to fuel his SUV.
• A Swedish modder used a special case and coolers to make his Xbox 360 run at near-silent levels.
• An error in the PS3 trophies system that is causing games to crash will be fixed...eventually.
• Junctions Studios might be working on a Mickey Mouse platform game.
• SCREENS: Batman: Arkham Asylum screens show more sexy Dark Knight action.
• Virgin Galactic's WhiteKnightTwo jet-powered carrier aircraft completes maiden flight.
• President-elect Barack Obama has chosen four scientists to lead his science and technology team.
• TRAILER: Dawn of War II video shows off enemies.
• The U.S. Air Force's Airborne Laser will get its first flight in the Summer of 2009.
• It's reported that 10 people weekly are hospitalized in Great Britain from playing the Wii game.
• Once again, the geniuses at Valve give us an Aperture Science holiday card that makes us lol.
• RZA wants Rihanna to co-star in his 'Last Dragon' remake.
• Smartphone maker Palm gets $100 million from investor Elevation Partners.
• VIDEO: Guitar Hero: Metallica rides the lightning In-game.
• We go hands-on with the Japanese version of Square-Enix's action RPG 'Dissidia: Final Fantasy'.

Tuesday

• The popular puzzle-RPG, 'Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords', has been released for the iPhone.
• Capcom will hold a 'Street Fighter IV' tournament between Microsoft, Sony, and themselves at CES 2009.
• IMAGES: Velvet Assassin shows off some of protagonist Violette Summer's spy wardrobe.
• Financial analysts say that a new 'Zelda' game will come out in 2009 and potentially boost game sales.
• Barack Obama to end NASA’s Ares rocket program?
• A brilliant fan-made trailer for the 'ThunderCats' movie has hit.
• VIDEO: Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party wishes you a raving Christmas.
• Publisher NCsoft is offering the MMO 'Tabula Rasa' for free to players before it shuts down on January 28.
• New robot types are revealed in released 'Terminator Salvation' pics.
• Jonathan Blow's 'Braid' will be coming to the PC in February or March of 2009 according to the official site.
• The Xbox Originals version of Bungie's 'Halo: Combat Evolved' is this week's Xbox LIVE Deal of the Week.
• Rare, developer of the game 'Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts' has fixed its illegible text problem.
• IMAGES: Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures capture that clay-like feel.
• Next week's 'Rock Band' DLC will be tracks from Snow Patrol, Deep Purple, Jethro Tull, and James Gang Rides Again.
• VIDEO: Battlestations: Pacific goes to battle on an epic scale!
• The cost to produce the PS3 in the past two years has dramatically decreased for Sony.
• VIDEO/SCREENS: X-Blades glows with pride showing off new gameplay, spells and enemies.
• Harmonix has confirmed that Roy Orbison will be coming to 'Rock Band' as DLC after CMT leaked the rumor.
• The 'SOCOM: Confrontation' 1.30 patch is unfortunately delayed until January 2009 due to the Holiday vacation.
• 'World of WarCraft' has hit 11.5 million players worldwide and 'Wrath of the Lich King' has sold 4 million copies.
• SCREENS: Halo 3 Mythic Map Pack screens detail Assembly and Orbital level.
• Check out the "Duel Colosseum" mode in 'Dissidia: Final Fantasy' for the PSP with 2 new videos.
• YouTube has become the choice for people to find rare songs on the Internet.
• ESRB confirms release of SEGA titles to be released on Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network.
• Tonight on X-Play, we preview the games that you should be looking out for in 2009.

Wednesday

• Valve’s 'Left 4 Dead' cover edited in Japan and Germany.
• Microsoft finally approved and released a patch for the Behemoth's awesome DLC game, 'Castle Crashers'
• Due to the economic collapse in the country, 'EVE Online' developer CCP may be forced to exit Iceland.
• Hideo Kojima revealed that he is working on two new games with one being geared toward the Western World.
• Missouri prosecutors filing charges under new anti-cyberharassment statute.
• IMAGE: Microsoft had the Xbox 360 inspired name from Sony all along!
• According to study, Facebook 30 times bigger than Twitter and growing much faster.
• The incredibly addictive 'LocoRoco 2' will finally come to North American PSPs in February of 2009.
• New study says potency of marijuana has tripled since 1987.
• During Super Bowl week, 'Guitar Hero World' Tour fans get two free Bruce Springsteen songs as DLC.
• Left 4k Dead crams zombie fun into 4 kilobytes!
• WB not releasing The Dark Knight in Chinese market due to pre-release conditions.
• Adam ponders if real world violence is more responsible for desensitizing us than video game violence.
• Disney has cut ties with the 'Narnia' films, pulling financial backing out of the third film.
• We bring you a hands-on report for 'Tatsunoko vs. Capcom', the Japanese Wii exclusive fighter from Capcom.
• X-Play has a review of the Disney-based card game 'Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories.'

Thursday

Off for Christmas

Friday

• UK developer, Free Radical, has laid off 140 of its employees and is up for sale.
• Tony Hawk claims that his next skating video game will be "as close to real skating as you'll ever come".
• In an interview with GameSetWatch, Suda51 discussed his thoughts on 'No More Heroes 2'.
• LittleBigPlanet talks about the business of gaming.
• Alison Haislip counts down the top 5 tech stories of 2008 in an all-new Tech News Countdown.
• A Judge has awarded distribution rights to 'Watchmen' over to Fox.
• A man in Los Angeles, dressed as Santa goes on a shooting rampage and kills possibly be eight victims.
• Tim Burton's new CGI feature '9' has a trailer online, and it looks awesome.
• Nintendo Wii gets unique video service.
• From now until January 2, 2009, every game on Steam is available at a discount of 10% to 75%.