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Earlier this month, we talked to Valve Software about Half-Life 2: Episode One and all manner of things to do with game development. At one stage, Gabe Newell said that Valve wanted to "get people through as much entertainment as possible".

Australia's Office of Film and Literature Classification has released a statement explaining why forthcoming movie tie-in Reservoir Dogs has been refused a rating - and thereby banned from sale.

Valve has released a video showing off Colmar, one of the two new maps due to be released as part of the Day of Defeat: Source Summer Update later today.

Rockstar and Take-Two are in the dock again - and this time it's nothing to do with secret mini-games featuring doings with naked ladies, oh no.

Atari has done a deal to publish Namco Bandai's DS version of Point Blank in Europe later this year.

Nintendo of Japan has announced the addition of a brilliantly named "Noble Pink" colour scheme to the range of DS Lite handhelds available over there.

Downloadable extras. For cash. There's a lot of that this year, isn't there? While most of the attention has circled around Valve (positively, for its excellent Episode 1) and Bethesda (less positively, for its less excellent give-horsey-some-armour), it's not just the first-person developers who are getting involved. Creative Assembly's Alexander is the most notable example of a strategy developer trying this, and while not up to Episode 1, it's in a position to snort at horsey-armour. That it's about our favourite always-entertaining top-ancient greek bisexual conqueror's another bonus.

Those of you still playing THQ and Relic's World War II title The Outfit will discover that you've to download a mandatory update - in other words, a patch - when you next load the game if you want to continue playing online.

The simplest games are sometimes the hardest to review. Taken at face value there's very little to Shadowgrounds and it does almost nothing that has not been done better elsewhere. Run around, shoot stuff, have half-arsed plot about aliens on Ganymede explained to you via uninspiring cut-scenes. It's not even a new idea - everything here has been around a good ten years. That kind of summary could land almost any game with a crappy score and a textual kicking, but nevertheless I found myself rattling through Shadowgrounds' birds-eye-view shooter levels with a smile. I expected to dismiss it as a waste of time, but instead I've been zapped by a retro ray and landed somewhere between fond memories of the 16-bit era and love of things that go bang in 2006.

Bizarre Creations is planning to release another 12-car downloadable content pack for Project Gotham Racing 3 in the near future.

Ritual's released an update to Sin Episodes: Emergence through Steam which adds a new game mode, Arena, and four maps to go with it.

Games Workshop has agreed to let Cyanide develop a series of licensed games based on its Blood Bowl tabletop fantasy football game.

The arse end of London might not sound like a brilliant vantage point (particularly bathed in heat haze as it often is at the moment), but somehow the team that composed World Tour Soccer 2 has formed a realistic view of the football sub-genre - and the result is a game that sidesteps the traditional PES/FIFA dichotomy of simulations with aplomb.

The DS Lite is proving pretty popular with UK gamers, it seems - more than 35,000 units have been shifted since the redesigned handheld launched here on Friday.

Australia's Office of Film and Literature Classification has refused to grant movie tie-in Reservoir Dogs a rating - which means it won't go on sale down under.

If you've been trying and failing to get on Xbox Live this morning, you might as well give up for a few hours - since it's down for maintenance.

Seen the trailer for the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie? Well a bloke called Ron Gilbert has, and he's not too happy about it.

Some enterprising soul studying computer science has put together a modification that allows two people to run around The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion together.

Poor old Take-Two. They probably thought all that Hot Coffee nonsense was behind them, what with the FTC deciding not to fine them any money earlier this month.

Call of Duty 2 fans will be able to get their hands on five new multiplayer maps this week, and they'll cost less than we originally thought, according to Infinity Ward's community manager.

NCsoft has confirmed that 70 staff at its Texas office have been laid off as part of new restructuring plans.

Sony CEO Howard Stringer has conceded that the company has adopted a riskier strategy by giving the PlayStation 3 a high price tag - but said he's confident that it will still come out on top in the next-gen console war.

Those rumours that an Xbox 360 price cut is on the way just haven't stopped flying in recent weeks - but now John Porcaro, group manager of PR and communications for Microsoft US, has shot them down once again.

It's official: QuakeCon 2006 will go ahead, despite earlier rumours of a cancellation - and yes, attendees will get the opportunity to play Enemy Territory: Quake Wars.

Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime has confirmed that the Wii will use SD cards to store data - which is what the little door on the front of the console is designed for.

Microsoft has released a video of Forza Motorsport 2's developers talking through the trailer used to announce the game during E3.

With the redesigned Lite model now available across Europe, Nintendo UK has moved to dismiss claims it is set to phase out the original DS, pledging to back the system "as long as there is demand".

Valve has released statistics demonstrating how much time's been spent playing Half-Life 2: Episode 1, the nature of the game-sessions and things like how many people used the option to listen to in-game commentary.

Nintendo of America's recently appointed president and COO Reggie Fils-Aime has indicated that Nintendo Wii will allow publishers to sell downloadable content through microtransactions similar to those in place on Xbox Live and proposed for Sony's PlayStation 3 online service.

I'd be as pleased as Punch if my three-year-old son Randolph grew up to be a games designer. To help him on his way I'm already employing a special Hungarian education technique called Realignment Through Play (RTP). It works like this: let's say he's playing with his Lego and builds a neat little model of our house or our car; on such occasions I reward him with affection and words of praise. If, on the other hand, he brings me a model of a huge blue horse drinking from a volcano, or a peacock with rockets instead of feathers, I smash it to bits in front of him and rage until he blubs.