Konami is still on with the law suit game. This time Konami is suing Viacom, the company that owns Harmonix for Rock Band. No word on how this law suit will turn out and how this could effect Rock Band 2.

July 10 (Bloomberg) — Konami Corp., the Japanese creator of the “Dance Dance Revolution” music video game, sued Viacom Inc.’s Harmonix studio, claiming its “Rock Band” game violates patents.

The Konami patents, issued in 2002 and 2003, relate to simulated musical instruments, a music-game system and a “musical-rhythm matching game.” Konami also makes the “Karaoke Revolution” music game with microphones, as well as the “Metal Gear Solid” espionage game.

“Rock Band,” the game in which players emulate rock and rollers with toy instruments, drove a 16 percent increase in first-quarter revenue at New York-based Viacom’s media networks business. Konami’s Digital Entertainment unit said in May it plans to begin selling its own rock band game, called “Rock Revolution,” later this year.

Konami is demanding cash compensation, plus an order that would block Viacom and Harmonix from using the inventions, according to the complaint, filed yesterday in federal court in Marshall, Texas. The suit names Harmonix Music Systems, Viacom, and Viacom’s MTV Networks Co., which owns Harmonix…..

Via: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aHQODoKwFYrA

CNN reported A car plowed into a weekend bike race along a highway near the U.S.-Mexico border, killing one and injuring 10 others, police said.

A car plows into a crowd of bicyclists participating in a race on a highway near the U.S.-Mexico border.

The 28-year-old driver was apparently drunk and fell asleep when he crashed into the race, said police investigator Jose Alfredo Rodriguez.

A photograph taken by a city official showed bicyclists and equipment being hurled high into the air by the collision.

Rodriguez said Juan Campos was charged with killing Alejandro Alvarez, 37, of Monterrey.

Authorities said the wreck happened 15 minutes into the 34-kilometer (21 mile) race Sunday along a highway between Playa Bagdad and Matamoros, across from Brownsville, Texas.

Campos said he is an American citizen living in Brownsville. The U.S. Consulate could not immediately confirm that.

“We are looking into the incident in terms of whether American citizens were involved,”

Via: CNN

In case you don’t know what this crazy thing is, it is the Penny Arcade game. I know, it’s crazy isn’t it? But yes the glorious folks at Penny Arcade have created a fantastic looking game with the “legendary” producer Ron Gilbert and the producers at Hothead games.The game, Incidentally, released just today, hence the post. You can download it for a mere $19.95 USD. The game is going to be done episodically which is something that means I could really start looking forward to these things.
I suppose I cannot, in my rushed state, explain the game any better than this blurb from the website can:

On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness is an episodic RPG-adventure game series set in a deranged comic-book meets-pulp-horror 1920s universe. Armed with unconventional weaponry and witty repartee, you join forces with the Gabe and Tycho, the crime-solving team of the Startling Developments Detective Agency to make war on bizarre enemies and solve the mysteries hidden deep in the sinister heart of New Arcadia. From the hilarious and twisted minds of Penny Arcade creators Mike “Gabe” Krahulik and Jerry “Tycho” Holkins, legendary game designer Ron Gilbert and veteran producers at Hothead Gamescomes a 100% authentic and hilarious Penny Arcade experience.

I will just mention that I have not yet played it. I am currently downloading the demo and if it is fun (as I assume it will be) I will buy the game and hopefully do a review so you can all get an idea what it’s like. I am expecting to have lots of fun even if its just because I am a huge PA fan myself.
Here is the trailer; you gotta love that PA style.

If that interested you please check out this picture gallery, I thought it was pretty nifty. You notice that all the conversation appearing in the game is not done through voice acting but through a comic book panel that appears at the bottom half of the screen to display the text. What a brilliant idea.

Wine(Wine is not an emulator) is an amazing project that is basically porting the Windows environment to Unix. It enables you to run a large percentage of the Windows software and games out there but on Linux(or Mac, FreeBSD etc.) so you don’t have to use Windows. This is great for people like me who have a few select pieces of software and games that they want to play but just don’t want to use Windows for whatever reason. Wine 1.0 Release Candidate 1 was released on Friday, May 9th, 2008 with Release Candidate 2 due out Friday, May 23rd, 2008.

Via: Wine Review

CNN is reporting that Apple’s Jonathan Ive played a large part in designing WALL-E’s love interest, EVE, in Pixar’s upcoming film Wall-E. Now you probably don’t recognize the name Jonathan Ive but i’m sure you will recognize the the things he has played a part in designing, like the iPod, iMac and iPhone.

Image Via: Mxmln
Via: The Pixar Blog

First they argued about whether Obama was black enough and now they think he looks to good? Wow American politics are really fucked up.