The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction is headed for release this August and now Vivendi Universal has announced the voice talent set to perform in the game.  Grouped together with Ron Perlman and Neal McDonough is Night Court's own Bull Shannon, Richard Moll.  He's playing the role of Devil Hulk, the evil embodiment of Bruce Banner's dark thoughts.  Unfortunately, I cannot picture Moll performing as any other character except for Bull.  I'm scheduled to review Ultimate Destruction for AMN and I have a feeling that I'll be unable to take the character seriously.  Devil Hulk will make grand threats and ooze rage, but all I'll be able to think of is that wacky bald bailiff from the 1980s.  Such is the woe of typecasting.

"Sir, please calm down. You're among friends. Friends who wear badges, and search your body cavities, but friends nonetheless."

A German researcher has released the results of a study he conducted regarding video games, the people who play them, and the brains of the people who play them.  According to this CNN report, the study involved observation of gamers as they played violent video games.  I think you can see where this is going.

Mathiak found that as violence became imminent, the cognitive parts of the brain became active and that during a fight, emotional parts of the brain were shut down.  The pattern was the same as that seen in subjects who have had brain scans during other simulated violent situations.  It suggests that video games are a "training for the brain to react with this pattern," Mathiak says.

I can believe those results, but I find this study to be blatantly one sided.  It appears that players were only tested while playing violent video games.  Why weren't players tested while playing puzzle games, platformer games, or sports games?  Would playing Tetris have resulted in the organizational part of the brain firing up?  Would sports games have brought out the competitive part of the brain?  For all we know, Super Mario World could stimulate the part of the brain that likes to stomp on turtles and ride dinosaurs.  Clearly more research is needed, research that encompasses more parts of the video game spectrum.  I'd also like to know just who commissioned this study and what agenda is at play here.

The crack of the bat, the roar of the crowd, the green glow of the Xbox... when the Kansas City T-Bones face off against the Schaumburg Flyers next month, the first two innings of the baseball game will be played by two fans on a Microsoft Xbox.  Fans will watch the action of MVP Baseball 2005 unfold on the park's large video screen.  Then, when it's time for the third inning, the Xbox is turned off and the players take the field for actual baseball with the scoreboard set to the score from the video game.

So what we have here is a minor-league baseball publicity stunt.  The teams think they're on to something here and that everyone will want to do this kind of thing in the future.  I can see it now: wrestling matches that begin with a game of Mortal Kombat, football games that open with Madden 2006, and televised golf that simply broadcasts three hours of Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour.  How long until we see advertisements that MVP Baseball 2005 is the "official baseball game of the Kansas City T-Bones"?

Sony's plan to push the PlayStation Portable as a game/music/movie machine has seemingly backfired a little.  The company opened up their UMD disc specification to encourage non-Sony studios to bring their films and other content to the PSP.  Sounds great on paper, right?  Apparently Sony wasn't planning on adult film studios wanting a piece of the action, and now seven pornographic UMDs are scheduled for release starting next month.  Sony's thoughts on this?

"It is utterly undesirable, but we cannot stop software makers from selling such videos."

Cheer up, Sony.  Pornography tends to push new technologies forward, after all.  The VCR took off when porn was made available for private in-home viewings, one of the driving forces behind broadband Internet adoption is the promise of faster porn downloads, and now the PSP joins the legacy of technologies that bring naked images to the masses.  If porn doesn't push the PSP into more hands, then nothing will.  And on a related topic, now would be a good time for some enterprising individual to sell a line of sanitizing PSP screen cleaners.  Please.

Nintendo is experimenting with giving the classic games that will be available for the upcoming Revolution console a little All-Stars facelift.  Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has gone on the record that the company is playing around with the original Super Mario Bros. and trying out various graphical enhancements, although it's anybody's guess just how they're enhancing it.  Super NES rendition (again)?  Sprite swaps with Super Mario Bros. 3?  Redoing the whole game with 3D graphics held to a 2D point of view as in the upcoming New Super Mario Bros.?  Replacing Mario with Pikachu and calling the result Super Pokemon Pals?

What captured my attention is the possibility of Nintendo 64 games getting a little update as well.  How about swapping out the character models and textures from Super Mario 64 with the superior versions generated for Super Mario 64 DS?  How about offering the GameCube makeover of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time?  Changing 3D games has to be more of a challenge than simply updating a 2D sprite, but if Nintendo is looking into the possibilities then I have to admit that I'm on board with the concept.  Emulation fans have been hacking old games for years; why shouldn't the company that started it all do the same?

Sony may have overestimated demand for their PlayStation Portable, seeing as how the company has cut their production order from eighteen million of the gadgets down to "just" twelve million.  1-UP reports that with successful launches in both Japan and North America behind us, Sony is eager to move the PSP into Europe.  Originally it had been reported that a European launch would have to wait until September 2005 due to a lack of available PSP units; now Sony has cut their PSP order.

Sony has not indicated why they have changed their production plans.  Seeing as how the PSP has not sold out completely in North America, it's possible that the company could reallocate some unsold stock to Europe, sparing the need to produce millions of PSPs that will be destined to sit in a warehouse for a while.  If this is what Sony has in mind, then it's a smart move.  Why spend money for something that the company already has available?

Over at IGNCube today there's an article criticizing Nintendo's plans to omit the collectable classic Nintendo Entertainment System games from the upcoming Animal Crossing DS.  As you'll recall, the original game featured a collection of playable NES games that could even be downloaded into the Game Boy Advance for on-the-go play.

The basic theory behind the upcoming omission is that when the original Animal Crossing was released Nintendo had yet to get a taste of the retro revenue that classic NES titles could earn.  Now that the company has made a killing with the Classic NES / Famicom Mini series for the Game Boy Advance and plans to spotlight their most beloved titles with the upcoming Revolution console, they aren't about to give those little gems away for free.

While reading an article at Next Generation this morning I came across this quote from Nintendo president Satoru Iwata:

"When is the last time we invented a new genre? Our racetracks, our bosses, our heroes are all starting to look alike."

Gee, Mr. Iwata, why ever would you say that?  Nintendo has some of the most varied heroes around!  Take a look at this group of eleven heroes from Kirby and the Amazing Mirror, The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords, and Super Mario 64 DS.  I dare you to pick out a similarity.

Add New York State Senator Chuck Schumer to the list of politicians who are against M-rated video games.  You've probably heard of or read about Senator Schumer's recent remarks involving the upcoming game 25 To Life, an M-rated title for the Microsoft Xbox, Sony PlayStation 2, and PC in which players take on the role of either police offices or gang members in order to gun down each other.  Here's a summary of the game's theme courtesy of GameDaily:

[T]he game portrays some of the worst elements of gang violence, such as using human beings as shields, killing police officers, attacking people with a variety of lethal and non-lethal weapons.

Based on this description I'd say that this is not a game I would want to play.  However, there will undoubtedly be gamers out there old enough to purchase M-rated games who will be interested in picking this game up when it's released in August.  That's one of the great things about living in a  free market: buy what you want, don't buy what you don't want, and base your decision regarding this on the final product offered on the shelf.

When the evil ink witch Drawcia invades Dream Land and turns the world into a painting, it's up to Kirby and a magic paintbrush to set things right in this innovative touchscreen game for the Nintendo DS.  Gamers have criticized Nintendo for releasing short games that play more like tech demos than actual games, but now with Kirby Canvas Curse I believe that the DS has its first full game that isn't a port or conversion from an existing title.  If you enjoyed Yoshi Touch & Go but wished it had more to offer than just a few short levels, consider Kirby Canvas Curse the next time you're searching for a new video game to challenge.