• Precursors
  Could “The Precursors” be the First True Role-Playing First-Person Shooter? on GameZone explores this question that could cause a bit of system shock in some readers: "First of all, it is an open world game filled with NPCs with their own story. You can take objectives from these NPCs and accomplish missions for them. During game play you gain money and experience points. Money can be used for purchasing different kinds of weapons, bullets, upgrades, vehicles, medicine, food etc. Meanwhile experience points give you the opportunity to improve your character and add some perks. Say perk 'diver' will give you more time to be underwater. If you have a mission to take something from a deep lake or ocean, you are not able to accomplish it until you have this perk, because you won't have enough breath to dive to the target."
• DUSK-12
  The DUSK-12 Q&A on Gameguru Mania talks with Aliona Vasnetsova about DUSK-12, Orion's upcoming futuristic first-person shooter: "Indeed, one of the features of the game is the innovative physics that uses PhysX engine with support of the hardware accelerator. The environment will be almost fully interactive and destructible. The character will be able to take and carry various objects, for example, to make a heap from boards, boxes, barrels etc., and to use this 'construction' to get to some place he needs. Or during the street fight the player can take, for example, the door of the car and use it as a shield from the enemy. Many objects can be destroyed even without some specific goal, just for fun. In some levels the player should drive a car, and usually it's necessary also to take down some obstacles and barricades on your way. Besides, thanks to PhysX you will see plenty of nice effects such as water and textile effects, realistic volumetric explosions and many other impressive things."
• Robert Garriott
  Robert Garriott on the Evolving MMO Market on GameDaily BIZ offers a Q&A with Lord British's brother, who acts as a stand in to discuss MMOGs: "The problem in the online game space is that they take a long time to develop and you really have to train your team and you don't learn if you kill a product; the team never learns. You have to learn a lot about the customer and about the product by shipping products. Even if they're not quite as successful financially as other ones, I think the experience and knowledge you gain, even from failures, is quite dramatic. So almost any product you look at and say 'Hey, this product was a failure for some reason,' I think there are a lot of really good lessons as an industry we've learned from those."
• Richard Garriott
  Seems like Richard Garriott blew off GDB for VE, as there's An Audience with Lord British on Voodoo Extreme talking with the famed designer about progress on Tabula Rasa, and more: "So just before Christmas break we started with outside beta testers—what we call 'friends and family'—[and] we've been slowly expanding a few hundred at a time. In the next build, we're going to be moving up to the point where we'll be bringing in thousands of people at a time—and pretty soon going to closed beta within a month or so, where we'll have hopefully tens of thousands…then later in the summer to Open Beta where we have basically anyone who wants to play. So we're in that final push to launch at this stage. Tabula Rasa will come out this year. We don't have a public specific date yet, but definitely the light is at the end of the tunnel. We're tying up the loose ends and polishing it up so we can get it out the door. "

• Frontlines Fuel of War on 1Up.
• Sword of The New World on 1Up on IGN.

• Samurai Warriors 2: Empires Reaches Gold Status.
• Lost Planet Map Packs Announced.
• Retail speaks out after nightmare week for Sony.
• PS3 Not So Hot on Amazon.com.
• Rumour: New Tales Games For Wii AND DS.

• Debate Grows Over Software-As-A-Service Architecture.
• Thirteen Computer Keyboards You've (Probably) Never Seen.
• SlySoft Ships HD DVD Ripper App; Blu-ray Support Planned.
• Google Releases Paper on Disk Reliability.

• Judge Weighs Dismissal Of Google Trademark Case.
• Man sues IBM over adult chat room firing.
• MPAA Violates Another Software License.

• Warnings Over Privacy of U.S. Health Network (registration required).
• Driver’s License Emerges as Crime-Fighting Tool, but Privacy Advocates Worry (registration required).

• Can UT console mods ever work?
• Straight to The Source. Hopefully to be read by some of the sites that freely steal from here.

• Armed Assault on EuroGamer.
• Blitzkrieg 2: Fall of the Reich on GameSpot.
• Close Quarters Conflict on GameSpot.
• Deal or No Deal on IGN.
• DIRT: Origin of the Species on GameSpot.
• Football Mogul 2007 on GamingExcellence.
• Maelstrom on Computer and Video Games and EuroGamer.
• The Sims Life Stories on EuroGamer.
• Supreme Commander on Eurogamer, GamePro, IGN, and (Out of the Box impressions) on GameSpy.
• Test Drive Unlimited on Games Radar.
• Vanguard: Saga of Heroes on GameSpot.
• War Front: Turning Point on Games Radar.

• CoolIt Eliminator CPU Cooler on TechGage.

Happy Chinese New Year! That's right another year has past, and we now ring in the Year of the Pig, also known as the Year of the Boar. And yes Cutter, the problem for me is I will still be writing Year of the Dog on my checks for a month or so.

Hey… just be thankful the Chinese New Year can't actually fall on Groundhog Day!

New Year Links!	Thanks Ant.
Stories:	Beijing fireworks injure 125. Mummified body found in front of blaring TV. Alarming Trend in Deadly House Fires.
Science!:	Boost Your Memory with a Hearing Aid. Tires Meant to Foster Sea Life Choke It Instead (registration required). Suppressed Report Shows Cancer Link to GM Potatoes.
Media:	Canines To Make You Happy.
Follow-up:	Man Honored for Fatal Bid to Save Family.