Ars Technica - The future of gaming: up the beanstalk and into the cloud.
Of course the major question is, does OnLive actually work. The prospect certainly shows quite a bit of promise, but is the technology there yet? While we won't know for certain until it actually launches on June 17, early reports from beta testers suggest that there are a number of technological hurdles that OnLive hasn't been able to overcome, with at least one person who got unauthorized access to the beta test claiming that the lag and graphical issues rendered games "simply unplayable." (In its defense, OnLive counters that this person was way too far away from the servers, and that the service will be targeted at specific geographies to combat this problem.) The service has also been criticized for its pricing structure. OnLive will cost users a $14.95 monthly fee, in addition to the costs of purchasing and renting games.

DAMNLAG - Gaming Maturity: Stop Being Embarrassed and Just Play. Thanks Mike Martinez.
Hell, what if they released a Barbie game that completely kicked ass? I know this may be a stretch of the imagination, but just take a moment and dream with me. This Barbie game comes out and is actually really fun. You play as Barbie and you are kicking ass Bayonetta-style. Are you really going to let your discomfort with your masculinity/maturity stop you from having some stupid fun? That’s what video games are all about, damn it. People, stop being such bitches about playing video games and just play them. Don’t let the embarrassment of being seen playing these games stop you from enjoying yourself.

Kotaku - Losing Our Religion - Religious Censorship.
Several Nintendo, Super Nintendo, and Game Boy titles were modified to fit within Nintendo's policies. Enix's ActRaiser and its sequel, ActRaiser 2, explore profound religious questions. The first game in particular ends with the game's protagonist, the Master, ascending into the sky, having ended the suffering of his people, causing them to no longer have any reason to attend church and pray. It's an obvious allegory to God; in fact, in the Japanese sequel the text reveals that the protagonist's original name was God.