It has been almost a month since we saw the leaked pictures of the PS3 Slim and the gaming scene has been waiting for an announcement (or an announcement for another announcement) from Sony to finally quash confirm the rumor. What we have today isn't an official "Yes, it's all true" confirmation, but in John Koller's interview with Ars Technica, the rumors are as good as confirmed. Read more after the jump.

True to its word, Lucasarts has unveiled a short demo portraying some of those neat Force powers in the latest addition to the Star Wars video game franchise with Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.

The game showed off its powerful game engine during the recent 2008 CES. You can check out some of the neat new features that you can expect to see in the game after reading the full article.

Now we know many gaming sites have re-iterated and argued this point over and over again - that the story concepts and the driving of the story are just as important as the quality of the visuals. But given Ars Technica's technical nature and prowess over technology, it's amazing they've been able to put their point across so vividly with a game everyone could relate to.

 

Well, just about everyone in gaming of course. Valve's Half-Life 2 was the first of the games they cited in their multi-part investigation, whose story was written by Mark Laidlaw. The incredible effort and time placed into the "written" content of the game reflects immediately in the opening sequence.

We don't know about you, however, but Half-Life 2 still isn't a keeper in this blogger's books if it comes to gauging art. In fact, aside from the opening sequence, there's very little dialogue or "written" content that is memorable in the game. Even after playing the game over 10 times.

You can hop right into the article by Ben Kuchera over at Ars Technica via the "Read" link below. Currently, the article spurred another heated discussion about graphics and visuals versus game design and storylines over at digg.com">Digg, but if you'd like top place your two-cents right here, feel free to do so.

 

Ben Kuchera likes to vote with his dollar, and with that, he prefers to keep the monopoly of gaming shops away from becoming "Only EBGameStop." It's why he prefers not to go into an EB Games or GameStop anytime soon. However, how do you deal with items exclusively up for sale only in a specific store chain?

That's the question he asks himself and others when it comes to gaming. In fact, it's already been happening with some titles, such as Chulip, Tenchu, and The Settlers:

Chulip—an offbeat game involving kissing—has been released in the US to the cheers of fans of quirky games. The only problem is that EBGameStop is going to be the only place to buy it. Strategy gamers will be annoyed to hear that The Settlers for the DS will also be an EBGameStop exclusive.

Sure, keeping games to yourself is sound business practice, but it's not particularly wonderful on the consumer end, and it also puts some strain on the backs of other game shops. The one thing Kuchera asks, and that we're hoping never happens, is this: Wouldn't you hate it if your favorite game was only available in one kind of store, which you never really were a fan of?

So you're one big "Titanic" fan. And by "Titanic", I mean the movie by James Cameron with Kate Winslet, Leonardo DiCaprio and the big, big boat that unfortunately went *glurg glurg* (that's supposed to be the sound of a boat sinking).

Anyway, back to the "story". So you're a "Titanic" fan, and it has been your habit to check out the movie daily. Of course, playing a DVD over and over and over (ok, you get the point) will lead to disc scratches, rendering your prized disc unreadable by some DVD-playing gadgets.

Well, Ben Kuchera from Ars Technica has found out that while the Xbox 360 "chokes" on scratched discs, it seems that the PS3 doesn't. He tried out a Christmas DVD with his kid a couple of days ago, only to find out that the Xbox 360 has rejected it. Meanwhile, it played quite well on the PS3. He tested it with other scratched discs too, and they turned out fine. Cool, huh?

Ben Kuchera of ars technica thought he could use his nice universal remote with his PS3. Apparently he was wrong. Engadget reports that the remote works via Bluetooth. Wow... A Bluetooth remote for the Blu-ray player that's also a Blu-ray Game console with Bluetooth controllers. I wonder if a blue PS3 will be sold sometime soon?

Anyway, Ben complains that if Sony wanted the PS3 to integrate into his home theater, infrared should've been a no-brainer. He goes on to complain about many other bits concerning the Bluetooth remote, and he says that the balancing factor is the fact that the PS3 remote is huge and unattractive. Based on that statement, I assume that he'll probably not get the remote.

Anyway he's not what some of you would call a PS3 hater, far from it. In fact, he's quite worried about the safety and well-being of his pre-order at EBGamestop.

Some sharp comment posters have pointed out that the decision to go Bluetooth is a logical business one (in short: follow the money trail).

So what have we noticed here at QJ about the Sony remote? Some of us here feel that for a console that we'll obviously be getting, Sony could've at least made their promo pic for the remote a bit more differentiated from the Wiimote... God, November 17 just feels so far. Now I'm wondering if our pre-order is safe and secure.