Remember the PSP-playing bus driver in Honolulu? The one who wasn't fired? Now six months later, the mayor has vetoed a city bill that would have outlawed playing games while driving.

Saying it is too specific and almost impossible to enforce, Mayor Mufi Hannemann struck down the measure that made it illegal to send text messages or play video games while driving. "A police officer operating a motor vehicle will only have a second or two to determine if the driver is committing a violation by text messaging or playing a video game," Hannemann wrote to the council.

As legislation goes, this seems a little unnecessary and reactionary to the bus driving incident, and laws like that are usually bad ones. Besides, if someone plows into a school bus because they're duking it out with Charon in Chains of Olympus, they're probably getting popped for reckless or careless driving anyway. It's probably a stupid idea to drive while baking a birthday cake, too, but that doesn't mean it needs its own law.

But the original bill's 7-1 vote means it has a veto-proof majority, so, Oahu drivers, please put down your Patapon and DS styli. Of course I don't like to see gaming singled out for abuse among all other behaviors, but really - if you're driving, you shouldn't be doing anything other than paying attention to driving. And that includes talking on the phone. At worst it's unsafe, and at best, the inevitable slowdown you see when someone makes or takes a call causes congestion, cutoff lane changes, delays at signals, headaches, and anger. I don't know a single person who doesn't hate cell phone drivers, but everyone does it.

http://kotaku.com/5153682/dw+psp-not...ed-in-honolulu ...

Remember the guy who proposed to his girlfriend with a LittleBigPlanet level? They are in fact getting hitched - and are planning to do so in the game itself.

Dimmujed, the groom-elect, uploaded that video yesterday, then went into the LittleBigWorkshop forums this morning to announce the happy news that he and his betrothed, Andrea, are to be wed in April.

Remember the level I made where I got engaged with a LittleBigPlanet level? Well now I made a level inviting you all to our wedding in LBP! We are going to have the actual ceremony inside of little big planet with a level on April 11th.

You will be able to check out the level online, and the ceremony on a video come April 11th.

And then the community had this tender, heartfelt reaction to Dimmujed's joyful news.


"Wat."

Congrats to Jed and Andrea. I just hope the hyperactive Sony mods take the day off, or don't find any reason to take down their matrimonial level. Because that would be so ironic, like rain on your wedding day.

http://kotaku.com/5153728/couple-pla...planet-wedding ...

The stakes are high. There can only be one true victor in all fart battles: fart tennis, volume contests, holding it in during school/funerals/weddings/sex, and now, in iPhone apps. Who will reign supreme?

http://i.gizmodo.com/5153778/ifart-v...-app-supremacy ...

The Guinness World Records 2009 Gamer's Edition has just launched and if you're not a fan of the words largest, first and most, then this article might not be for you.

On the other hand, if you're interested in learning about the world's most technically advanced gaming set-up, about which country was the first to ban all videogames, or about which game was the first to be recognised as an official sport, then you should read on...


Largest gathering of people dressed as game characters
On 18 March 2008, 80 people in full, glorious costume gathered on the Millenium Bridge, London, UK.






Largest mass-participation LAN party
The social aspect of gaming was evident at the largest mass-participation LAN party, where 203 gamers "partied" for 36 hours at NVISION 2008, San Jose, California, USA.

Largest cash prize won in a professional game tournament
In 2005, the CyberAthlete Professional League offered a prize fund of $1 million for a Painkiller tournament, in which Jonathan "Fatal1ty" Wendel (USA) walked away with the largest cash prize won in a professional video game tournament - a first prize of $150,000 (£81,000)


Largest collection of playable videogame systems
In the last decade, 33-year-old Richard Lecce (USA) has amassed the largest collection of playable videogame systems. The 483 pieces include 73 Game and Watches, 260 cartridge or CD-based systems and another 126 miscellaneous handheld games. He also owns 39 Game Boys and full sets of every game ever released for 12 systems, including the NES, Sega Master System and Atari 5200.

Most technically advanced gaming set-up
Jeremy R. Kipnis (USA) owns the largest, loudest and most expensive gaming set-up. It has taken 38 years of professional experience as an audio-visual engineer to collect the equipment and create an acoustically and optically ideal gaming room. At its loudest, the audio levels reach 132 decibels at one metre from each of the 8.8 surround sound channel arrays; the current screen is a 5.4m x 3m Stewart Snowmatte Unity Gain Laboratory Grade Motion Picture Screen.

Largest collection of Pokemon memorabilia
The largest collection of Pokemon memorabilia belongs to Belle Starenchak (USA), a.k.a. "PikaBelleChu", who has been collecting for over ten years and owns 5,435 items as of 1 April 2008. As well as a vast assortment of general Pokemon merchandise, she also owns a Volkswagen Beetle car kitted out to look like a Pikachumobile.


First arcade game debated by government
In 1981, George Foulkes, the Labour MP for Ayrshire South, UK, tabled a private members' bill to have Space Invaders banned, citing a connection between gaming and child "deviancy". The "Control of Space Invaders (and other Electronic Games)" bill was debated for 22 minutes before being narrowly defeated by 114 votes to 94.

Longest continuous play of a first-person shooter
At the UK's largest multiplayer gaming event, i33, on 22 March 2008, all-girl gaming team the Frag Dolls continuously played the Xbox 360 version of Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 for 24h 4m, marking the longest recorded session playing a first-person shooter.

Longest game of Space Invaders
Between 29 August and 2 September 1980, Eric Furrer (Canada) set a world record for the longest marathon session of Space Invaders. The machine on which 12-year-old Furrer played was fitted with a special button that he used to pause the game for bathroom breaks, which no doubt helped him set his impressive record time of 38h 30m.


Largest voice cast in a videogame
GTA IV has a total credited cast of 861 voice actors, including over 174 actors playing named characters, radio DJs and TV voiceovers. The voices of Liberty City's many inhabitants were recorded by an additional 687 different performers, many of whom were GTA fans who volunteered their voices for a chance to appear in the game.

First controversial videogame
Originally titled Pedestrian, Exidy's 1976 game Death Race is usually cited as the first controversial videogame. It was based on the movie Death Race 2000 and was a simple driving game that challenged players to run over as many "gremlins" as possible within a time limit. Many were concerned that it might inspire reckless driving and the game's notoriety provoked press coverage in the National Enquirer and television outrage on 60 Minutes.

The most games refused classification by a single country
The total number of games that have been refused classification in Australia is 14 as of August 2008, the most games refused classification by a single country.


Most animated spectators
Race Driver: GRID, built with Codemasters' bespoke EGO graphical engine - an enhanced version of the neon engine used in the Colin McRae: DiRT game - allows each of the game's tracks to be filled with up to 40,000 fully modelled, animated spectators.

First country to ban all videogames
On 30 July 2002, the Greek government hastily attempted to curtail illegal gambling by introducing law "3037" banning all electronic games. This, very briefly, led to Greece becoming the first country to ban all videogames, including the innocuous My Little Pony: Best Friends Ball. On 25 September 2002, the law was amended to allow the playing of all electronic and computer games providing there was "no financial gain for the player or any third party".

First virtual pop star to launch a global fundraising ...

We've known for a while now that the release of the downloadable, episodic brawler Watchmen: The End is Nigh would coincide with the March 6 release date of the slow-mo film adaptation of the same name, but for the sake of certain specificity (say that five times fast), Warner Bros. just clarified the launch date of the game. Xbox 360 (and PC) users can find it in their usual Wednesday offerings on March 4, while PSN users can can pick it up on Thursday, March 5. They're cutting it awfully close to the film's opening night, but we doubt anyone will have much trouble blowing through the game's two-hour-long campaign in time for a midnight screening.

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/02/14/wa...h-4-psn-march/ ...

We've known for a while now that the release of the downloadable, episodic brawler Watchmen: The End is Nigh would coincide with the March 6 release date of the slow-mo film adaptation of the same name, but for the sake of certain specificity (say that five times fast), Warner Bros. just clarified the launch date of the game. Xbox 360 (and PC) users can find it in their usual Wednesday offerings on March 4, while PSN users can can pick it up on Thursday, March 5. They're cutting it awfully close to the film's opening night, but we doubt anyone will have much trouble blowing through the game's two-hour-long campaign in time for a midnight screening.

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/02/14/wa...h-4-psn-march/ ...

We've known for a while now that the release of the downloadable, episodic brawler Watchmen: The End is Nigh would coincide with the March 6 release date of the slow-mo film adaptation of the same name, but for the sake of certain specificity (say that five times fast), Warner Bros. just clarified the launch date of the game. Xbox 360 (and PC) users can find it in their usual Wednesday offerings on March 4, while PSN users can can pick it up on Thursday, March 5. They're cutting it awfully close to the film's opening night, but we doubt anyone will have much trouble blowing through the game's two-hour-long campaign in time for a midnight screening.

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/02/14/wa...h-4-psn-march/ ...

Science News reports on a new study which found that the violence in video games was not a significant contributing factor to players' enjoyment. Instead, the feelings of control and competence the games engendered were closely linked to how fun the players found it. Quoting:
"... the researchers extensively modified a popular first-person shooter video game called Half-Life 2 to have less gore. Half the people in a group of 36 male and 65 female college students were instructed to dispatch adversaries as the original game intended, 'in a thoroughly bloody manner,' says Ryan. The other half was instructed to tag enemies with a marker. 'Instead of exploding in blood and dismemberment, they floated gently into the air and went back to base,' Ryan describes. An extensive survey of the two groups showed that the exclusion of violence didn't diminish players' enjoyment of the game."

http://games.slashdot.org/games/09/02/14/018246.shtml ...

News via Dev-Szene.de

georgp24 has released a new text editor for the Wii on Dev-Szene.de.

Features

• Graphic text display with black text on white background.
• Shows a virtual keyboard for using the editor with the Wiimote if no external keyboard is available.
• Supports an external USB keyboard
• Supports line length up to 160 characters and scrolls horizontally.
• Shows a small menu when you press ESC or select the Menu key.
• Maximum file size: 2MB

Download and Give Feedback Via Comments ...