News Update – March 24 2009

The latest JRPG from Square Enix, The Last Remnant, is available at retail today for PC in North America. The PC version has a host of additional features over the XBOX 360, and has been praised as far superior. Larger battles, faster combat mode, better equipment purchasing, and both Japanese or English voice acting. The website has a demo, a benchmark, and details on the improvements. The Steam version will be available internationally April 9, along with the PS3 version on the same date.

A new study, conducted by PopCap (conflict of interests much?), has found that casual gaming can help dieters by reducing cravings for snack food. The study concluded that people who play casual games during their free time are less likely to get up and get a snack than those just sitting on the couch. This study makes sense to me. I have gone without lunch countless times during long gaming sessions. Sitting a chair for 8 hours without snacks apparently helps you lose more weight than sitting in a chair with snacks. The stereotypical “hardcore gamer” diet of RedBull and Cheetos can’t help dieters too much either. There is a fine line between gaming for weight loss and gaming for weight gain. Tread carefully.

Major League Gaming announced the winner of an annual $10,000 prize awarded by Dr. Pepper to the best collegiate gamer in the country. So college students, there is hope for when you flunk out because you have been playing too many games. Turns out the winner has a 3.6 GPA (or at least did before the contest started), and holds down a job at a retail store. Check the link for details on how the winner is selected, and to sign up for a profile to be part of the 2009 Dr. Pepper Collegiate Challenge.

Doom: Fall of Mars is an RPG set in the world of Doom. Created by a small group of fans, an alpha of the game has been available since August, but the first beta was released this weekend. The game uses the original Doom style graphics, but is a top down (isomorphic) RPG. From the site: “DOOM: FoM is an RPG set in the classic world of Doom. You will fight many demons through the UAC facilities on the moons of Mars to the depths of Hell.”