game-review.org has been moved to new web hosting hardware, yet again after totally worthless performance from the old hosting provider. Performance and responsiveness should be much improved.

Drupal has also been upgraded.

Let's hope the site is now working OK.

Uber developers Valve have announced that while Half Life 2 - Episode 1 - Aftermath isn't ready to release yet, they have already started work on its successor.

Sales figures for the last quarter of 2005 show Sony outselling Sharp and Philips in the LCD TV market. This is obviously good news for Sony, but good news for Samsung too: the new Bravia line is the result of a joint venture between the two companies. The pair have combined to leverage Sony's powerful brand name and Samsung's winning technology. Of course, it was mainly fear of a prolonged patent battle that turned the two into partners, but it seems to be working out well for them.

Reports that it costs Microsoft only $11 to manufacture an Xbox 360 wireless controller that sells for $50 put another nail in the coffin of the crazy theories that Microsoft currently makes a massive loss on their console business - software revenues not withstanding.

World of Warcraft topped the sales charts in January with the assistance of its new expansion announcement. EA dominates the chart overall, with Microsoft making a fair showing. The Sims 2 continues to demonstrate the legendary Sims longevity, outselling its Nightlife expansion pack.

Sony have boldly claimed that the eagerly awaited Playstation 3 will ship in spring 2006. Meanwhile business analysts suggest that even a limited Japanese launch would likely not happen until summer 2006, but will be in time for the Christmas trade. Apparently, some analysts are unaware of how the Japanese seasons work: summer 2006 would mean the PS3 is available now.

Continuing in a Digital Millenium vein: hardware giant Samsung is being sued by a collection of big movie studios: 20th Century Fox, Paramount Pictures, Time Warner, Walt Disney, and Universal. The movie moguls seem to think they have a shot to gouge a mountain of cash from the Korean giant to 'compensate' them for revenues lost due to copied DVDs played on a Samsung device, that by some train of dubious logic they translate into lost sales.

Despite admitting that ripping your own CDs to your iPod or computer was fair use to the supreme court last year, the RIAA is now claiming that the copyright owner can decide not to let you do so at any time it chooses. The EFF tells the whole story. Nope, we couldn't make this stuff up if we tried.

An official statement has announced corporate restructuring of the troubled games publisher Atari, which will result in a worldwide workforce reduction of approximately 20%. It is likely that a significant proportion of the redundancies will be in the US, particularly as CEO Bruno Bonnell has previously indicated his belief that the US headcount is too high.

Gamasutra have reproduced a short article on anticipatory AI. This is a technique that can be used to make game characters appear to be living emotional beings rather than automata. It draws on experience with traditional hand-animation techniques that help the audience understand the motivations and actions of a character, and on work observing animals. The researchers were able to construct a convincing AI dog that could be trained like a real one.

Back at the end of 2004 one of the most awaited games for PC ever was finally released. Delayed for a year due to a security breach and early problems with the Steam download and registration system, its arrival was anticipated by gamers for nearly two years. Half Life 2 made almost as big an impact as the original. Read why in the rest of this article.

In a desperate bid to lure in more punters, Sony Online Entertainment have assembled an affordable DVD based software bundle called the Station Access Collection that contains all their current online game products. Keep reading to see if we think this is a good deal...

Peter Moore of Microsoft had a good deal to say at the DICE Summit in the quiet little desert town of Las Vegas. Besides trying to kid us that Windows Vista is a completely new games platform, he was very enthusiastic about Xbox 360. We repeat some of the things he said and then compare them to reality for your amusement.

Square Enix have finally given a date of April 25^th for the long-delayed release of the computer animated movie Final Fantasy VII Advent Children.

It's possible that the long delays in producing an English dub of this almost-high-profile movie will have an impact on its sales, with hardcore fans having watched the movie months ago.

It will be released on DVD, and if you are prepared to pay extra for lower quality, on PSP compatible UMD.