Following the Grand Theft Auto IV copycat crime in Thailand, the government's Ministry of Culture has tightened its grip on video games and banned five games from being sold in the country. Details after the read more link below.

Recently, a member of the Thai media was quick to point out the problems inherent in the Thai Government's reaction to the stabbing of taxi driver Kuan Pokhang.

The editorial in the August 18 edition of the Bangkok Post was critical of the Thai government's plan to crack down on videogames. Learn more after the jump.

New Era Interactive Media, the distributor of the Grand Theft Auto games in Thailand, has opted to pull GTA from store shelves after a teenager confessed to robbing and killing a taxi driver while trying to recreate a scene from the game series. Learn more after the jump.

We know that Smallville's Kristin Kreuk will portray Chun Li in the upcoming Street Fighter movie. As it turns out, that's not some small role at all. Capcom's latest movie venture, dubbed Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, will focus on the Oriental Hundred-Kicker and is now on production in Bangkok. Head over the full article for a movie storyboard sample.

Putting the "heaven" in Heavenly Sword are these screenshots from GamePro (just in case the watermarks didn't make it obvious enough). In celebration for their May 2007 issue's cover story, they're going to be releasing a couple of screenshots of the said PlayStation 3 title from Ninja Theory for the next couple of days this week, and today, we get to see the first batch of 10 pics.

Here, we see shots taken from what seem to be gameplay and cinematic clips. What I want you to direct your eyes to, though, is the pic with the statue head being consumed by overgrowth - kinda reminds me of Wat Mahtat's Buddha head in Bangkok; Google it, if you don't know. Lovely like hell (err, heaven, in this case).

Now I've been talking to resident "Weekend Slowdown" mainstay, Ian C., about these pics, and despite discussions of how gorgeous Heavenly Sword's landscapes and facial graphics are, it all basically boiled down to Ian's last statement: "Strategically-placed sword FTW. @_@;;"

Go straight to heaven; click the Full Article link below for more pics!