We all know that Valve's Half-Life 2: Episode 2 kicked some serious booty last year, and it's still among today's favorites because of its superior gameplay. The only downside in this scenario is that fans are asking for more, and they've started looking at E3 2008 as the possible birthplace of the next episode. Valve says "not yet", but they've got another thing for itchy trigger fingers. More after the jump.

With all the concerns circulating violent video games, horror author Stephen King joins in on the discussion. Writing novels for more than four decades, he's one of those credible enough to speak about the matter. Instead of writing down what he believes in, King chooses to speak up his mind. Find out what he said in the full article.

The recent shooting in North Illinois University had Jack Thompson appear once again on Fox News, linking yet another tragic incident to violent video games. In this latest development, Thompson faxed a letter to NIU asking for the shooter's history in playing violent video games, ending the letter in what could be construed as a threat of a lawsuit should the documents not be provided. Read Thompson's complete letter in the full article.

 

2K Games' BioShock is still riding waves of success, being top pick for various gamers around the world. The Swedish are no exception either, for the first-person shooter from 2K Games Boston and Australia steals number one spot for their all platforms chart - well the Xbox 360 version, that is.

It also managed to squeeze through four popular PC, MMO games in the region, which include NCSoft's Guild Wars expansion Eye of the North, Creative Assembly's Medieval II: Total War expansion Kingdoms, and Blizzard Entertainment's two-hit combo - World of Warcraft and World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade - in that order from second to fifth.

BioShock's Games for Windows version settled into sixth place, while Insomniac Games' Resistance: Fall of Man and Revolution Studios' Motorstorm also found a place in the top ten titles, having grabbed a solid seventh and eighth respectively. 

Counter-Strike 1: Anthology from Valve Software at ninth closed the PC game count to six in PC-dominated charts, while PS2 title Guitar Hero 2: Rock the 80's from RedOctane concluded the top ten games. In essence, Guild Wars: Eye of the North topped the PC list, Resistance: Fall of Man trumped the PS3 list, BioShock rocked the Xbox 360 chart, and Nintendo's Legend of Zelda: The Twilight Princess was king of the Wii mountain.

In the handheld scene, Nintendo's Pokemon Diamond was favored in the DS list, while WWE Smackdown vs RAW 2007 from THQ crushed competition in the PSP chart. Here's the top ten in the Swedish multi-format charts:

1. Bioshock (360)
2. Guild Wars Eye of the North (PC)
3. Medieval II Total War Kingdoms (PC)
4. World of Warcraft (PC)
5. World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade (PC)
6. Bioshock (PC)
7. Resistance: Fall of Man (PS3)
8. Motorstorm (PS3)
9. Counter-Strike 1: Anthology (PC)
10. Guitar Hero 2 Rock the 80´s (PS2)

Buy: [Bioshock (Games for Windows)]
Buy: [Bioshock (Xbox 360)]

What are they playing over at Sweden? Aren't you curious? This bit of info just might save your life one day, y'know. The region's data trade firm, Dataspelsbranschen (now try saying that as fast as you can, ten times consecutively), has just released the top sales charts of video games for Sweden.

The Multiplatform chart is dominated by the MMORPG mogul that is The World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade from Blizzard. This is followed by Pokémon Diamond on the Nintendo DS. MotorStorm and R:FoM have also landed a place in the multiplatform chart, and unsurprisingly, both titles get bragging rights in the PS3 chart.

The 360 chart has Guitar Hero II fronting the musical act - and smack dab in the middle is Gears of War on fifth place. The Wii has Leon Kennedy and Ashley Graham running up to first place with Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition, while Twilight Princess is galloping up to the Top 2 spot.

On the handheld side, the DS chart has both Pokemon (Diamond and Pearl) titles on top, while the PSP chart has Pro Evolution Soccer 6 kicking into the goal - Konami's sports title is enjoying the kingly spot on top.

 Multiformat

1. World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade (PC)
2. Pokémon Diamond (DS)
3. World of Warcraft (PC)
4. Counter-Strike 1: Anthology (PC)
5. Guitar Hero 2 Rock the 80´s (PS2)
6. The Sims 2 H&M Fashion (PC)
7. Pokémon Pearl (DS)
8. Motorstorm (PS3)
9. Resistance: Fall of Man (PS3)
10. Singstar 90's (PS2)

Check out the Full Article link below for each individual chart per platform!

Looking for some hardcore gaming competition? If you are, then you might want to check out the Army Gaming Championships. This U.S. Army-sponsored event is one of the world's largest online video game competitions, and entrants stand to win their share of US$ 200,000 in cash and prizes.

The qualifiers for the Army Gaming Championships begin on July 4, so you might want to hustle if you're looking to join the competition. Those interested can sign up on the event's official website, which you can access via the "Read" link below. Finally, here's a list of titles that gamers can compete in:

• America's Army
• Battlefield 2142
• Call of Duty 2
• Call of Duty 3
• Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars
• Counter-Strike: Source
• Gears of War
• Halo 2
• Resistance: Fall of Man
• Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2
• Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas

We feel sorry for the victims that lost relatives and loved ones during the V-Tech incident. However, it's hard not to feel the same towards the video game industry that takes all the blame.

Recently, a Virginia Tech Review Panel was held and it was suggested that violent video games should be banned like heroin. Why? Panelist Don Phau not only mentioned Jack Thompson's allegations against Counter-Strike motivating Cho Heung-Sui, he also claims that the game is related to the Erfurt school shooting in Germany.

According to this Thompson-wannabe, FPS games were made after the Vietnam War by the industry to make money. He also stated that Microsoft developed Counter-Strike. What's next? Mario's mushrooms are actually drugs?

"These games, I propose, should be banned. The same way you cannot buy heroin; the same way you cannot be a 16-year-old and buy pornography," said Phau. He would've been correct, if we lived a few years ago before the law against selling video games to minors have been passed.

This man is obviously uninformed though, so cut him some slack. He even gave figures: 82% of kids can buy M-rated games. His report is pretty much seven years old, according to the Federal Trade Commission.

"I choose you Homebrew!" Valve's marketing director said. Okay, not really, but Doug Lombardi did point out that the next-gen game console should embrace user-created content. Because the viewpoint of the world's marketing experts say that games on any platform would primarily be online, Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo might want to open up their doors to content from users.

 

"I would argue that it's the biggest component those guys have to get over if they want online to matter," said the PC gaming platform advocate. The PC already has adapted to accommodate the creativity from average users. Valve's own Half Life and Team Fortress Classic were very good multiplayer games.

But when a college student from Canada and a high school student from New Jersey got hold of Valve's code, they created Counter-Strike which simply kicked the life out of Half-Life and Team Fortress formerly on top of the multiplayer game list. Lombardi sees that the PC has the ability to outlast the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360, because it allows user-created content.

"The PC has that great advantage; has had that great advantage, and it comes from multiplayer and modding starting in the early '90s and [online] multiplayer only showing up on consoles in 2000 or 2001," said Lombardi. He noted that it has had more that a decade's worth of advancement that the restrictive next-gen consoles have to catch up with.

Games that originate on the PC with level editing tools are often repackaged without the customizability on consoles. Xbox Live Arcade's Eets was cited as an example. Valve even admits that a console port of Portal will probably also reflect the same restrictions.

But Sony is slowly getting there with Media Molecule's LittleBigPlanet, though it still comes with a certain limitations. "I would love to see [user-created content capability] happen, but I think the platform holders are always going to need certification, which means it's usually going to have to be a commercial thing," Lombardi concluded.

If you're a fan of Valve's work, you'll love this trailer. If you're not, there's a fat chance that you'll still like it. The short video from Team Fortress 2 shows some Russian-sounding man-mountain aptly named "Heavy Weapons Guy" delivering an inspiring speech about his favorite weapon which he lovingly details. Check it out:

Team Fortress has always been about strategy and skills. Where Half-life and Counter-Strike offered shooting fans intense action driven primarily by sharp reflexes and dexterity, Team Fortress introduced coordination, movement, and identity to the genre. With a major facelift, more personality and intensified combat, Team Fortress 2 brings back the core mechanics with new bells and whistles to master.

Players will battle it out online as they choose from 12 roles which will comprise their team. Each unit type has a different set of abilities and play style. Marines are still excellent for close to mid-range fighting, snipers and spies pick you off with stealth and precision, while engineers and medics add support as you escort VIPs or protect installations from an assault.

Entertainment Consumers Association (ECA) president Hal Halpin has given his own two cents on the matter concerning Paul Hwang, the Chinese student from Clements High School in Fort Bend who was expelled for playing on a Counter-Strike map that resembled his high school.

In a statement to GamePolitics, Halpin said that "Paul Hwang's only crime was bad timing. He had the misfortune of uploading his mod during a period of time in which the nation was, perhaps unduly, made sensitive about the supposed link between violence and video games."

Here's the rest of the statement:

It seemed to me that the law enforcement authorities acted with prudence and that the school board should do similarly. This will likely be the first of many such instances where older generations who don't understand a medium, fear it, and as a result there will be reactionary decisions made. It's incumbent upon gamers to persevere and to prove the rule and not the exception. Only together, and over time, can we accomplish such a lofty goal.

A lot of people have pointed to the recent Virginia Tech shooting incident as one of the reasons for the seemingly hasty expulsion. However, some reports also say that Hwang's Counter-Strike map had already been uploaded prior to the Virginia Tech shooting. So, is it timing or something else? Leave a comment below and let us know what you think.