Jack Thompson is at it again, and this time he has his eye on the recent shoot out that occurred at North Illinois University earlier today. In an interview with Fox News, he presented the same arguments as with previous campus massacres and other violent incidents, pinning the blame once again on violent video games. You can read more about what Jack Thompson had to say, as well as the video interview in the full article after the jump.

 

With the news of Take-Two's biggest gun in the games race, Grand Theft Auto 4 (360 and PS3) being shoved back into its holster until 2008, it's no surprise that analysts are predicting good tidings for those who were supposed to go up against the controversial company in the pre-holiday shootout.

The analyst being none other than Todd Greenwald of Nollenberger Capital Partners, and the rival companies being Electronic Arts and Activision. So why is the delay of Grand Theft Auto 4 a good thing for Electronic Arts and Activision?

Todd Greenwald believes that it frees up budgets that had been set aside for the fourth iteration of the legendary series, and thus giving room for other blockbuster titles currently out or will be out this season. Good ol' Todd puts it like so:

We believe the lack of GTA IV this holiday season is a clear positive for Take-Two's competitors, namely EA and Activision. We estimate that roughly US$ 400 to US$ 500 million in consumers wallets will be freed up to spend on other hardcore games.

While it's certainly a bit disappointing that Grand Theft Auto 4 has been pushed back well into next year, it certainly does give us gamers (especially those of us in a tight budget) a chance to splurge on other great-looking releases, with Call of Duty 4, Halo 3 and Assassin's Creed to only name a few. Let's just hope that Take-Two won't be pushing the title's release date any farther.

  

If Max Payne gave gamers a quick fix of the stylized slow-motion ballet of bullets trademarked as Bullet Time, then John Woo's Stranglehold for the PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 is the fatal overdose. Yours truly is not going to beat around the bush, this game is looking like the most awesome third-person shooter to date.

These gameplay videos are actually Part 1 and Part 2 of what could be the obligatory Skyscraper level of Stranglehold, with Inspector Tequila gunning down each and every nameless henchman standing in his way. There's also an awesome bit in the second part where you dodge gunshots with a simple turn of the head, before sending a round or two of your own back. Enough spoilers from us, enjoy the video!

The second video after the jump!

Adam McMahon, Lead Character Artist of Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom, shares in his blog his experience with character creation for the game. Going through several nitty-gritty details and processes, he reveals "Character creation begins in the most basic form of sketches and concepts". The concept stage, according to him, can be considered as the most important part of character design and is the primordial element in the development of the look and feel of the game.

After establishing the look of the game comes the modeling phase. As for making the games look "next-gen", normal maps are the main ingredient. Using several methods, like the conversion of grayscale height maps from a few years back, to software such as Zbrush, artists are then able to create phenomenal models in half the time that would normally take.

Finally bringing the characters to life are the animators, who take the hollow shells of the artists' creations. And with a little cloth technology, you now have stunning visuals.

Adam MacMahon started his venture in the gaming industry with Sony, working on NCAA Gamebreaker. Some of his projects include NFL Gameday '97, Shootout '98 and MLB '98-'02.