Texas Governor Rick Perry will be speaking at this year's E3 Media & Business Summit in July, the Entertainment Software Association Announced.

"Governor Perry and the E3 Media & Business Summit are both great success stories. The Governor's keynote address is especially timely given the high concentration of entertainment software developers and publishers in Texas as well as the state's long-standing support of our industry," said Michael D. Gallagher, CEO of the ESA, which represents U.S. computer and video game publishers. "The Governor's forward-thinking leadership in encouraging the growth and development of our $US 18 billion industry is a roadmap for other state executives who want to transform their state economies for the 21st century."

The governor will be talking about the confluence of politics and video games, a topic that is likely to come to a head this election.

Electronic Arts announced this morning that it has extended its bid to buy Take-Two. The prior bid expired on Friday, May 16th, and this latest extension, the third since EA announced its bid, gives the publisher until June 16th to negotiate a deal.

According to the latest SEC filing, EA has not raised its bid, as some analysts had speculated it would. The offer remains at $US 25.74 per share, and as of the time the filing was made, the company reported that only 6,210,261 shares had been tendered to EA - to acquire a majority stake, EA needs more than five times that many.

"Extending our offer will allow the FTC review process to continue," said EA VP of corporate development Owen Mahoney. "EA's offer price remains unchanged at $US 25.74 per share and our offer is still subject to conditions that include regulatory approval. As stated earlier, we retain the right to terminate the offer if the conditions are not satisfied."

Following EA's extension announcement, Take-Two executives also issued statements:

So, yeah, Activision and Vivendi pulled out of ESA. What does that mean? Let's ask EA! Jeff Brown, the Canada's arm of corporate communications, said:

I think having [Activision and Vivendi] pull out of the ESA reflects an unfortunate lack of leadership... They're a big company and we feel that when you're a big company you've got a responsibility to consumers to work on policy issues which are very, very important to consumers. And the best way to do that is with an industry consensus... There's always tensions inside these organisations, but for the most part it works... So it was sad to see them step away from that responsibility. We hope that others don't do that, but I think that the onus is on the ESA to prove that membership in it is good for the company and good for consumers. And I think we're going to see the ESA redouble its efforts to prove that.

And if not, Jeff Brown is here to pitch in!
Lack of Leadership [Games Industry]

As previously noted, a 7 year-old girl is dead, and two teens are being tried as adults. A Colorado judge ruled last Friday that there was enough evidence to take Lamar Roberts, 17, and Heather Trujillo, 16, for child abuse resulting in the death of Trujillo's half-sister, Zoe Gracia. Both will be tried as adults. According to authorities, Gracia died after being kicked, hit and pounded on the floor as the two teens re-enacted Mortal Kombat. Roberts pushed Zoe, twisted the child's arms and held her ankles, according to Trujillo. Police Detective Kathy Halldorson said that Roberts told a friend, "he was doing martial arts on her (Zoe) and that his hands were registered weapons." Odd that this Mortal Kombat finger pointing continues in light of comments from Gracia's aunt, who claims video games do not factor into this killing. Tasteless fatality jokes and worrying about how-this-affects-games aside, this is a terrible, terrible tragedy.

Mortal Kombat Killing [The Denver Channel Thanks, Michael!]

Know this: EA aren't breaking the mould with Red Alert 3. It looks for all the world like Red Alert 2, only this time with gorgeous water effects and - we're told - controllable Japanese schoolgirl units. But if you're the kind of person to be excited over the idea of a third Red Alert, and especially the rehash of the old intro theme song, that's most likely exactly what you're after, no?

Own an airgun that looks like Nathan Drake's! From phony sword makers King of Swords come this full metal M92 airsoft gun. It features blowback, can hold 25 rounds and comes with a free aluminium case. Complete with old female side-kick, not newer blond girl! And yes kids, this will put your eye out.
Drake's Airsoft Gun [King of Swords via Ayauki]

Of the three Platinum Games announced last week, I'm actually most excited for Infinite Line. If only because I dig the ship designs, and find the whole idea of managing a fleet, instead of just sending it off to die, an intriguing one.

Face it, MMOs are for PCs, not consoles. Maybe one day someone will figure it how to get it on a console. EA Mythic creator director Paul Barnett thinks he knows who: Nintendo. Says Barnett, currently working on Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning:

You would have to build something very console centric from the get-go. I think probably the best chance of someone doing something like that is Nintendo — doing something crazy that no one expects.

Perhaps Barnett has confused "crazy" with "correct," but hey, who knows? Nintendo's surprised us before.
MMO Future [CVG]

When the PC industry's big guns high-fived as they broke from a warm, gushy group hug, they high-fived with a pledge: that they'd do what they could to help give traditional PC gaming a kick in the pants. We've seen what Nvidia are doing, so what about AMD? They're...well, they're going to start putting little badges on their PCs. If a computer's got a badge that says "AMD Game", it'll play more than just Freespace. If it says "AMD Game Ultra", it'll even manage something like Crysis. You can see an example of the badges to your left. I don't know. It's not that its necessarily a bad idea, just...we were kinda hoping for a little more than just (likely ineffectual) badges, you know?

AMD launches "Good Housekeeping" stamp of approval for gaming computers [VentureBeat]

Actor and rapper Ice-T loves the video games! Just ask him. Ice-T, what do you think about video games? "I love them," he says. Most notably, Ice-T's favourite is Grand Theft Auto, which he describes as "fucking mayhem." According to Ice-T:

Think back a few decades. Think Steven Spielberg. Back before he was putting his name on Wii games, before his stories were being turned into under-appreciated Lucasarts adventure games, before he looked like Totoro. All the way back to 1983. When he was not only putting out ET, but talking up the film's videogame adaptation. And lying through his teeth.

[via Blues News]

While the PlayStation.com blog says that Haze runs at 720p, the game's creative lead Derek Littlewood begs to differ, saying the game runs at 576p, letting the PS3 upscale the game. Says Littlewood:

Sure, EA was closer to Peter Moore's family than Redmond was. And San Francisco's a nice city. Very hospitable. But did that make leaving Microsoft behind to join EA Sports easy? No. Indeed, Moore says the decision to quit "broke my heart", which is a little more emotional, and a little less predictable, than I was expecting. Chin up, Pete! Like you said, Y'now, things break!

EA Sports' Peter Moore [Gamesindustry.biz]

EA just won't take no for an answer! The Wall Street Journal reckon (ie they know ahead of an announcement) that since EA's last hostile takeover deadline passed, they're going to go right ahead and...set another deadline. Stop me if I'm wrong here, but if you set more than one deadline, it's not really a deadline, is it? It's more a "date you'd really like to have things sorted by, but if its not, that's cool".

EA May Extend Deadline for Take-Two Offer [Wall Street Journal]

How popular is anime Haruhi Suzumiya? Popular enough to get its own PSP game and Wii game. Popular enough to be ripped off for the Bejing Olympics. And now, popular enough for Russian copyright infringement. Pictured, Haruhi appears on a tasty treat. But remember kids, in Russia, Haruhi Suzumiya infringement eats YOU! Heh.

Comparison after the jump!

Not just Pokémon! What games do little Japanese kids play? Well, according to the National Congress of Parents and Teachers Associations of Japan (PTA), 2.8 percent of the 5th graders said they often play games with explicit sexual content, while 97.2 percent, well, don't. What games were most popular among Japanese elementary school kids? Action games (including fighters) came in at 30.9 percent, followed closely by RPGs at 28.4 percent. Interesting factoid: Out of those polled, only 4.8 percent of grade schoolers don't have home consoles. They probably have other things!
Over 95 Percent [Mainichi via Sankaku Complex] [Pic]

Another dose of Rock Band news, though this is of the awesome type. Well, the type that doesn't involve delays or pushed release dates.

Kyle over at Canned Geek has put together a comprehensive guide on how to import Rock Band, if you can't be arsed waiting for September (or October, if you live in NZ). According to the article, you can pick up the Rock Band bundle, including a second guitar, for $440.

As a bonus, the article includes info on how to fix the instruments (read: the crappy guitars) and steps to set up a US credit card to buy the extra songs from overseas.

Kotaku's Luke Plunkett scribed a mini-guide for PAL residents looking to import the game back in February. Check it out for additional reading.

Your Guide To Importing Rock Band 2.0 [Canned Geek]

Motorised chair. It's the type of description that screams "PAIN" - though probably only to me. I wear loose clothing and leave certain... things... hanging out where they shouldn't.

Anyway, meet "The Renegade" - an attempt to transform a device normally associated with relaxation into a machine capable of wrenching damp, sweaty fear from the very depths of your man glands. The press release (which you'll find after the jump) states that The Renegade is made from "stain resistant fabrics", among other materials.

I can assure you this is a good thing, as I imagine it'll need a thorough scrubbing after your first adventure in its soft, vibrating embrace.

This melding of comfort, action and danger retails for $649 and will be available in June (though you can preorder now). Accessories include RCA cables, storage drawers and, if your hands lack Herculean stability, cup holders.

Apparently it's done well enough in the US to warrant sale here. I guess the best way to find out is to ask you guys - is this something you might buy?

ULTIMATE GAME CHAIR: THE RENEGADE [Ultimate Gaming Collection]

We've all heard of GameTraders. It's been breaking street dates since the beginning of time, and probably a little before then.

In order to keep customers up-to-date with tournaments, deals, offers and the like, the Carillon store has started a MySpace page. While I think Facebook might have been a better choice, MySpace is more than sufficient.

If you're a fan of the independent retailer, it might be an idea to sign up. At the moment it doesn't provide much, but Travis of GameTraders says he's in the process of getting it up to scratch.

GT Carillon [MySpace]

So Rock Band might be coming out around September in Australia? What about New Zealand?

NZ retailer Gameplanet recently emailed customers with a revised release for EA's jamming simulator. Before now, Kiwi gamers had July as a rough guide. Now, it looks like it'll be October. Late October. That's a shift of three months.

Again, these are estimated dates from suppliers, so there are no guarantees as to their accuracy. But, until EA is willing to provide us with anything solid, they will have to do. The relevant section of the Gameplanet email can be found after the jump.

[Thanks Daniel]

The words of SCE Australia's Managing Director not good enough for you? Then this product page over at the EB Games Australia website should be evidence enough that a MGS4 PS3 bundle is incoming.

The site says the pack will be available as of June 2008, which puts it in the same month as the release of the game. If you don't own a Playstation 3, it's not a bad way to get the game and save a few bucks in the process. It's just a shame it's not the Limited Edition.

Playstation 3: Metal Gear Solid 4 Bundle [EB Games Australia, thanks Ashley]

Age of Conan goes out this week, thus ending, if not exactly rectifying the early server access fiasco. UEFA Euro 2008 is the major cross-platform release. And in the props department, there's SingStar, which comes with a USB karaoke mike -- and Wii Fit, which finally arrives to insult out-of-shape Americans. So, anyone out there getting in shape, or are you still sitting on your arses to play any of these other games? Let us know in the comments.

New games releasing the Week of May 18:

Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures (PC)
Haze (PS3)
Wii Fit (Wii)
Dracula: Origin (PC)
Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness (PC, X360)
UEFA EURO 2008 (X360, PS3, PS2, PSP)
Theatre of War (PC)
Dr. Mario Online RX (Wii)
SingStar (PS3)
The Immortals of Terra: A Perry Rhodan Adventure (PC)
Star Soldier R (Wii)

New Game Releases [Gamespot]

MotorStorm: Pacific Rift Hands-On Impressions
When it comes to racing games, hands-on impressions are better than the hands-off variety.

Kotaku Originals: Grab Your Meat Shields
Vintage Kotaku at its finest. And by vintage, I mean last week.

Ghostbusters Gameplay: Don't Cross the Streams
I know who I'm going to call. Do you?

The 10 Most Terrifying Video Game Enemies
For me, it was that first zombie in Resident Evil. I was playing as Chris but I still managed to run like a girl.

Gamercenteronline begged and pleaded and got its hands on three screens for Halo Wars, the real-time strategy prequel still under a TBA release date for this year. One looks like a close crop of a Sparrowhawk that we've done before. Not sure what exactly is going on in the other two.

Loitering around the site I also found what they touted as a new Mafia II screenshot. You can catch everything after the jump

Sometimes, success is partially a matter of being in the right place at the right time — and sometimes, no matter how much you may want something, you're not going to get it. So Brian Nathanson discovered while trying to break into the gaming industry (and not succeeding). His points on standardizing education are well taken (especially in terms of bridging "the gap between trade schools, academic game programs, and the industry"), but he lost me when he started talking about what the industry should be doing in the hiring process:

Cracked, when I was a kid, was an extremely poor knock-off of MAD, but I really have to applaud what that brand is doing online. Totally different from the editorial mission of the old magazine, but much better. And not just because it provides me lists for the weekend.

This one documents the 10 Most Terrifying Video Game Enemies of All Time, and while the poison-head crabs from Half Life 2 give me the shivers just reading the words, only Evil Otto from Berzerk has an actual, real life body count (two people died playing the game).

Naturally, they had to have missed someone's all-time pants-wetting foe, so let's hear it in the comments. Mine was the Dark Trooper Mark 1 from Dark Forces. Its electronic shriek, the creepy, clanking walk, those red eyes, and the screen instantly flashing red as it hacked away. I hated it far worse than its upgraded cousin, or the sewer monsters.

The 10 Most Terrifying Video Game Enemies of All Time [Cracked]

My summer will be filled with exactly the same things my school year is (herding students along to enlightenment, reading, and research), minus pesky seminars, but for the younger generation, gainful summer employment is getting harder to come by. One solution? Turning to virtual worlds for employment:

Tucked into Boing Boing's look at the timeline of fitness gaming controls is something called the "Atari Puffer." It went unreleased because of the video game crash, but it sounds like, well, a blocky game representation of off-camera work in the porn industry. It actually was some kind of exercise bike you plugged into the 2600.

The book Grand Theft Childhood got a good bit of attention upon its release, and the authors are back discussing reactions to the book, as well as issues that have cropped up (again) in the wake of GT IV. On the media frenzy, they have this to say:

This is strikingly similar to the concerns over and editorials against comic books, radio, gangster films and--back in the late 19th century--the evil influence of paperback novels on teenage girls. None of those bore out. Each time, the pundits and politicians said that earlier concerns may have been silly, but that this time it's different. So far it hasn't been.