Battlefield is legendary on the PC, but the main front in the war for first person shooters is now on consoles. With a billion dollars worth of sales, Modern Warfare 2 has proved dominant. So EA sent DICE to make a battlefield which can compete with MW2. And the result is Battlefield: Bad Company 2. Bad Company 2's single player lost its humor from the first game. While trying to meet MW2, it is now about saving. the. world. by stopping a WMD. Deja-vu? The characters even makes "oh-no-you-didn't" jokes aimed at MW2. It's still cheeky and cheesy at some points, but its dead serious most points. The story does not stick with you, but it's good enough to lead you to your next battle. Hopefully, it will have tanks. But Battlefield was never about single player- BF2142 don't even have a campaign. The multiplayer certainly delivers in this game.

Just as EA release Battlefield: Bad Company 2 to combat the juggernaut Modern Warfare 2, MW2 developer Infinty Ward is apparently in its own war against its owner, Activision. G4TV reports "a bunch of bouncer-types" has appeared at the studio and when approached by employees, although they did not reveal who they were to even the employees. Infinity Ward studio heads Vince Zampella and Jason West are reportedly meeting with Activision, and 2 hours later, Jason West apparently facebooked and linkined that he has been fired. Infinity Ward has been known for standing up to Activision; apparently, as 1up's source puts it: Activision is "flexing their muscles" against the studio, which is attempting to "push back against change." The mood in the studio is described as "freaked out" and "confused". More on this story as it develops. I posted links to news articles where you can read up about this below.

Apple products may be overpriced, but you got to admit that they are the absolute best at marketing - from the Stevenotes to the zen-like simplicity. Their marketing team makes any Apple product seems like a dream. Just look at the PC vs Mac Ads. You will notice the funnier actor (John Hodgeman AKA PC) does all the acting, while the Mac just sits there and makes fun of PC's problems. I use a Macbook, own a iPod touch, and come from perhaps the most Apple-obsessed school in the world. I should think the iPad is awesome. However, it is simply an upsized version of the iPod touch - nothing more. I probably would have prefer a Netbook that supports flash and runs on a proper OS. I love my iPod touch, but to use it to surf the web is like trying to make a sandwich with my feet. It's possible, but not very fun. I hate clicking on buttons accidentally when I am scrolling. If you think the iPad is gonna perform like a keyboard and mouse, you are in for a shock. Mobile sites? It's a tablet - it should not use a condensed version of the full webpage. Yet, I have a feeling that Facebook will get another dedicated multitouch webpage - not the actual Facebook.com we use on our computers.

Computer games are a great tool to train soldiers. In fact, there are games labeled as "realistic battlefield simulators" which are almost sold exclusively to armed forces. It seems the US amy is ready to train their troops on the Xbox instead of the PC. Sadly, Microsoft did not seem to like the idea. Microsoft has its reasons to decline the offer, and according to Roger Smith, chief technology officer for PEO STRI, the Army command responsible for purchasing training equipment, Microsoft declined because of 3 reasons. I doubt his reasons; the US Air Force bought 2200 PS3s to form a supercomputer and federal investigators use it to crack encryption codes on child pornographers. And all that time, the no one associated the PS3 with military networks. However, why did they choose to buy consoles? For one, they are cheap- costing only $200 compared to the $1000 on an average PC. Also, younger soldiers are more familiar with consoles. It seems like a great idea to train troops on on this, but they would need to hire someone to make their game.

The Battlefield series track record is unmatchable with 8 extremely successful games (not counting expansion packs). While many call Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare may have moved the centre of shooters to the modern day, Battlefield 2 is the first mega-successful game to feature Modern day locations and weapon. With Activision currently the king of the hill with their juggernaut Modern Warfare 2, EA is putting all their eggs in Battlefield: Bad Company 2 to regain dominance of the first person shooters. And they might actually accomplish that. If you haven't played Battlefield before, let me explain. Its like Call of duty but you can drive vehicles- which are powerful, but they need skill. You don't drive straight into the enemy base, nor do you stay still while flying a helicopter. BF:BC 2's combat system has been changed to imitate Modern Warfare 2's to a point that its not even funny. And surprisingly, they did quite a good job. You get EXP points for the class you are using- for example, you won't be able to unlock new snipers if you are using the assault class to rack up your kills. In this system, players are rewarded weapons they would actually use. Snipers won't get LMGs, and Tank lovers won't get a useless sniper.

Alright, we all know Tiger Woods is a cheating scumbag. But this TV station in Taiwan decided to report the incident with Sims 3, a well-known simulation game by EA. And it is in Slow-motion!

The Kaiser Family Foundation recently did a study on how much kids use media stare at screens. In 10 years, the time spent by 8-18 year olds using media rose from 6:19 hours to 7:38 hours. Another point in the study is that "heavy users" has weaker grades in schools -- and seemingly, less sociable -- 32% say they are often sad or unhappy, as compared to the 23% of "moderate users" and 22% of "light users". However, more heavy users say they "Have a lot of friends". From my experience as a 8-18 year old kid using media 8 hours a day, the result is inconclusive. Different teens/kids have different views on friends. Some may say neutral classmates are friends; some may say everyone is a friend. Also, some consider a clique of 5 as alot, while others compare themselves to popular kids and think anything below 20 friends is little.

The folks at OnlineEducation have gathered information from various sources and put them together into an attractive infographic filled with video game statistics. Some interesting stats include the average age of a gamer is 32 years old, 80 per cent of female gamers choose Wii as their primary console player, and the average time spend per week by gamers playing video games is 18 hours!