Can you still remember the microbial game flOw? Its dev Jenova Chen left Spore to pursue this indie game which was released in February of 2007. Looking back, Chen weighs on the incentives of going indie. Now if you have similar fantasies to go indie, you may want to check Chen's insights over at the full article.

The game industry may be getting swamped with sequels, remakes, annualization, and all manner of money-raking tactics. That's bad news, an analyst says, because creativity among developers is often compromised. He says, however, publishers are better off in the long run by breeding talent among the minds behind the medium. Get his full take in the article after the jump.

Excited to hear next-gen Simlish talk? That may not be a farfetched dream, since Electronic Arts will soon reveal more information pertaining to the wildly anticipated The Sims 3. A teaser site is now up and the countdown begins. Find out what the fuzz is all about by checking out the full article!

QuickJump QuickPeek has already reached more than half a year old. We've had thirty three issues, not including the special editions that cropped up from time to time. Here's the latest, and probably the greatest - it's our token of appreciation from us to all of you, it's Valentine's after all. Judging from the title alone, you probably know what to expect: every single Comment of the Week, all compiled and neatly packed in one huge compendium! Ever wondered who won the first ever Comment of the Week? You'll be very much surprised indeed...

As we all know, Electronic Arts recently had a conference call with some of this industry's analysts. Want to find out just what sort of surprises they let loose? Then head over to the full article as we brief you about the future of Rock Band (Xbox 360, PS3) and Spore (PC, Mac, DS, Wii). It's not something to be missed.

It's an endless debate when talking about girls playing the same video games guys play. They say girls only like MMORPGs, then follow up with "there are no girls on internet." Others believe female gamers stick to casual games, but Mario and Pokemon titles have more fanboys than fangirls.

No matter what your stand is, here's a list of non-girly games that aren't Barbie, Bratz, or any of those glamorous stuff.

Whether it's Turkey Day or Christmas, we feel the need to thank the greatest figures in video game history for their contributions that made gaming as fun as it is today. For decades, we've seen creative minds emerge and bring forward games that amaze the world, but they don't get much recognition. But now, we have enough time to list down some of the greatest geniuses behind phenomenal landmarks like Mario, Wolfenstein 3D, and even The Sims.

So. Will Wright finally confirmed the existence of Spore on the Nintendo Wii. But what about versions for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3? The other day, Will Wright was interviewed by Guardian Unlimited, and it was then revealed that they, to quote the BAFTA Fellowship inductee, "doing Spore on the Wii."

Today, we'll put that statement into the context in which it was actually said. Just in case you guys missed the whole interview, a certain segment has the father of all things Simlish talk about next generation consoles:

Somebody asked me what I thought next generation meant and what about the PlayStation 3 was next generation. The only next gen system I've seen is the Wii - the PS3 and the Xbox 360 feel like better versions of the last, but pretty much the same game with incremental improvement. But the Wii feels like a major jump %u2013 not that the graphics are more powerful, but that it hits a completely different demographic. In some sense I see the Wii as the most significant thing that's happened, at least on the console side, in quite a while.

Pretty bold statements, true. But everyone's entitled to their own opinion. Moving on though, it turns out that Will Wright's got a different kind of home entertainment console set up (or lack thereof) at home. "We've got an Xbox 360 collecting dust in the background, a Wii hooked up that we use quite a bit. I don't have a PS3. I still, for the most part, prefer playing games on the computer - to me the mouse is the best input device ever." He then continues with:

Every generation it's like "the PC's dead! The PC's dead!". But it carries on growing when consoles are flat for five years. At the moment I can get better graphics on my PC than I can on the PS3.

We're doing Spore on the Wii, and we did MySims. It takes significant re-thinking to work out how you're going to do it. PS3 and Xbox 360 are similar enough that you can basically use the same system for both. So it comes down to what the interesting major platforms are and which markets we want to hit.

Again, these are just his personal thoughts on the matter. He seems pretty candid about it too. Despite this, everyone's still hoping that Spore would eventually make it across all platforms. After all, Spore has already been considered a franchise by Maxis Executive Patrick Buechener. Right now, there are the PC, DS, and mobile versions of Spore being readied for a Spring release. Only time will tell if other next-gen consoles get spored over.

Nolan Bushnell, the man who created the video game, started a media frenzy when he let slip many a jagged word about our today's games. Bluntly put, he said games today are nothing but "pure, unadulterated trash". That, however, wasn't true for every game, and Bushnell knew that.

Clarifying "pure, unadulterated trash," the founder of Atari pointed out that he was describing those games that were repetitive and mundane.

"There’s a lot of people think that bigger, faster, better is an innovation. It’s not. It’s just bigger, faster, better," said Bushnell in an interview.

The creator of Pong enumerated several games that upon first look, could easily be considered different from the rest. Games such as Will Wright's Spore, Konami's Dance Dance Revolution, Alexey Pajitnov's Tetris, and Harmonix' Guitar Hero were all named in particular.

"When you pick up the controller of the Wii, you know that you haven’t done that before. Even though the bowling is the same, doing it on the videogame, using the Wii controller, that’s an innovation," he added. Obvious differences aside, there were many other unsung heroes in the gaming industry. These many games continue to lie buried in the outpour of mainstream games.

More developments on this as they drop by.

The father of all things Simlish will now be "up there" among the likes of Steven Spielberg, Alfred Hitchcock, and Charlie Chaplin. The Sims creator Will Wright is to be inducted into the BAFTA Fellowship - it's an award given by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts to certain icons in the industry for their creative work.

What's more is that Mr. Wright is the first ever in the video games industry to be given this accolade. With games likeSpore (which is going multiplatform, BTW) in his developer's resumé, we're not surprised. Will Wright getting the Fellowship establishes the fact that BAFTA now recognizes video games as a substantial part of popular culture.

And who begs to disagree? We're sure most of you believe that videos games really do have a lot of impact and contribute a lot to the greater concept of art and moving pictures. Academy Chariman Hilary Bevan Jones states:

Will's immense, creative body of work and his continued contribution to the industry make him a most worthy recipient of the Fellowship and being such a pioneer, we are thrilled that he will be the first person to receive this honour.

The awards ceremonies are to take place in London on the 23rd of October.