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[Editor’s note: unangbangkay talks about how games have gotten him emotionally involved for hisMonthly Musing piece. — CTZ] It’s an interesting feeling when a creative expression manages to drill through your jaded, unimpressed skin to tap that most-sought target that any narrative dives for: your emotions. Almost every single-player experience short ofTetrisdreams of that halcyon moment. And it’s in that moment, years ago, that it happened, the moment I cared about “them vidya gaems”....

[Editor’s note: Ashley Davis tells us how her local rental store helped start, and continue,her affairwith videogames. — CTZ] Like most videogame enthusiasts my age, games have been a very important, sizable chunk of my life from nearly the very beginning. But unlike most enthusiasts my age, I have not compiled a huge collection of games over the course of all that time. If the degree of seriousness of gaming as a hobby were judged only by the amount of games one has ever owned, I would, sadly, rank extremely low....

Google took maps, directions, and satellite photos and made them hip again – or at least as hip as anything can be on the internet. Google Maps’ easy to use, clickable, zoomable, interface has become popular with travellers and map fetishists, but it has really become attractive to the nerdy type that likes to modify things. You may have seen applications where users can findlow gas prices,find yournearest first-degree murder, or even tracesomeone’s IP address, but now we’ve uncovered the nerdiest application of this map software to date:Dragon Questoverworld maps....

I’m sure there are lots of ways to steal portable gaming systems (personally it seems to me the easiest thing to do would be to nab one from a kid when he isn’t looking), but recently a thief decided to try the door-to-door method, posing as a makeup salesman when approaching the home of a resident in Lotus Way, a neighborhood in Clacton, England. After the resident allowed the thief into the house, he nabbed a Nintendo DS while the occupant was distracted....

Some sad news out of THQ as the company has announced a “strategic realignment of its internal studio development teams.” Basically, THQ is moving away from their kids and movie-based properties to focus on “high-quality owned IP with broad appeal that can be leveraged across multiple platforms.” The shift in focus has thus caused 200 people to lose their jobs and has seen the two THQ studios in Australia and and one in Phoenix to be shut down....

High Voltage’sTournament of Legendshas been pretty quiet since it was announced, but there is a bunch of new stuff for Wii fans to gawp at like rudderless guppies, including a new video, box art, and a sweet little price point of $29.95. Oh … and it’s been delayed. Tournament of Legendshas a release date of July 6 and it looks like a promising little fighter. Sega has pledged to provide “Epic battles in fantastic fighting arenas where [players] will wield mythical blade weapons, launch 40 magic attacks, and dodge giant mythological creatures that protect the battle lairs....

Oh man, I don’t care that this is another cynical piece of advertising likeYariswas, the whole concept ofDoritos: Dash of Destructionis so ludicrous, I can’t hate it. All I can do is laugh, and the above “making of” video, so utterly cringe-worthy in presentation, just acts as the punchline. As Major Nelson says, “Sit back, grab a bag of Doritos, and get yourself some Gamerscore!” I can hardly type this for laughing so hard....

It would seem that Ubisoft has not learned much from thefaux pas of other major franchisesand is releasing another dancing game, this time with an Abba theme.Abba: You Can Dancewill out for the Wii before Christmas. And in case you were keeping a running tally, there will be six dancing games from Ubisoft by the end of the year. I am not a huge fan of the Wii dancing game trend,Just Danceis fun, I did play it but overall I don’t play these games....

Taiwan news sourcesare reporting on a new study that claims the playing of videogames, especially violent ones, may cause harm to brain functions and have an impact on their learning capabilities and emotional control. On top of all the murders that these games are making us commit, they’re now turning us into retards with mood swings … which might explain the denizens of Xbox Live a little. The study was undertaken byChou Yuan-hua of theTaipei Veterans General Hospital....

A fair few fans want to see the originalShantaecome to the 3DS via its newly established eShop, and they’re not the only ones. Developer Wayforward has confirmed that it’s currently attempting to make it happen, though it cannot officially announce anything. “With Game Boy titles now being released on the 3DS eShop, we are frequently asked if we plan on bringing the originalShantaeto the service,” said the studio. “We have nothing to confirm at this time, but we can say that we are actively pursuing the re-release ofShantaeon the 3DS Virtual Console....

No, it’s not a Nomad. I’d lose my sh*t if it was a Nomad for $30. Still, you may play Sega Genesis games on this Retro-Bit Retrogen Portable Sega Genesis Handheld. It has a 2.8 inch LCD and six buttons to go with that Genesis cartridge slot. Single-player only, though. I guess TV-out and a rechargeable battery additions are a nice trade-off. The d-pad looks meh, but hey — $30....

When we say portable Xbox, we definitely don’t meanstrapping yourself to an HDTV and walking around the block— that’s just dumb AND pointless. One look at the compact little model above, though, and you might find yourself tempted to play around with the idea. Of course, it’s not real at all — it comes fromT3, and it’s merely a vision of what a portable 360/Zunephone would look like. Pair it with the hot chick holding it in the gallery pic, and you have a surefire seller on your hands....

While mainstream media outlets rally the braindead public against so-called “realistic” videogame violence, one comic book writer has gone in the opposite direction — criticizing videogames for not being realisticenoughwith its more barbaric content. However, Landry Walker also notes that perhaps society is not ready for such games. “I’ve been shot at a couple of times,” he explains. “… In each instance, the bullets missed. Lucky me. Because there were no handy first aid packs or carefully planted green herbs lying around waiting....