Nope, there was no Rodeo last week, and with E3 just around the corner, we'd say next week isn't looking so great either. What do we learn? Enjoy every Podcast Rodeo, because you never know when it may go on another 8 month hiatus.

1UP Yours: After listening to the nearly hour-long conversation with Denis Dyack that makes up the second half of this week's 1UP Yours, we're still not sure if we could ever put as much energy into thinking about the morality of message boards as he has. But we do know that everyone who uses the internet should listen to the discussion.

BigCast: Why should you listen to this week's BigCast? Well, it opens with music from They Might Be Giants, the world's greatest band. It then goes on to feature Akela Talamasca who, by our best guess, is the most stylish man in the video game industry. For. Real.

Each week Jeff Engel and Geoff Brooks contribute Counting Rupees, a column on the business behind gaming:

I've temporarily relocated to Seoul for the summer to work for a consumer electronics firm, so I thought I'd spend a little time detailing some of the differences in gaming culture here in South Korea, and the impact that infrastructure has on the gaming business. In short, there are two notable differences in the Korean gaming industry relative to the United States. First, PC games are significantly more popular than console games; and second, gaming is much more mainstream in Korean culture than it is even now in the States. These differences have created structural factors in the country that have profoundly shaped the nature of the industry from a business perspective.

Perhaps the most salient factor is cultural - there is, as far as I can tell, almost no stigma attached to gaming in the country (at the least, it's viewed as a mainstream activity). A number of Korean acquaintances have commented on the Korean fascination with the new and fashionable: when one co-worker went apartment-hunting with a real estate agent, the agent refused to show him any houses that had been previously occupied, on the assumption that they would be of little interest. And part of that fascination seems to be technological, indicating a possible cause of Koreans' embrace of gaming as a form of entertainment. Indeed, I've seen countless people using a DS or PSP on the subway... and my cheap, used cell phone has more free games on it than I've played on any phone since I began using them in the first place.

The PS2 and PSP versions of The Force Unleashed are close siblings, and I recently enjoyed playing nearly-finished editions of both. Each follows the same bounty-hunting apprentice story and settings as the 360/PS3 game, although specific level design occasionally differs. Unlike 360/PS3 game, the PSP version gets two-player duel-mode fights against a local gamer, and it also includes five "historical missions" pulled from the movies. The PS2 version includes the full camera control of the 360/PS3, but not those extras.

The PS2 and PSP games felt slightly scaled back from the 360/PS3, with fewer destructible objects or enemies in any one moment. But both maintained a fluid sense of battle, maintaining the visceral thrill of the Force powers. With the game's September 16 release, PS2 and PSP gamers will find a kinetic action title suited to their systems.

The DS version of The Force Unleashed tries to cram all of the light-saber-rage from the consoles into a handheld package. You'll be disappointed if you directly compare the two. I recently tried a late version of the DS game, and I didn't think enough of the system's strengths and weaknesses affected the design. The DS game gives a 3D perspective of the action on the top screen with adequate visuals, but the chunky graphics steal some of the excitement. And since the camera can't be repositioned, you'll be regularly attacked by people just off-screen. Worse, player attacks are issued by tapping on icons, causing hunting-and-pecking through battles.

Since The Force Unleashed is about going nuts with explosive superpowers, that sense of excitement got lost by scaling everything down to fit the DS. A wireless, four-player, local battle mode might make it a fun game to play with friends, but I wasn't able to test that feature. I hope the final game will grow on me after its September 16 release. But the time I had with this portable edition left me cautious.

For good and bad -- or should I say light and dark -- Star Wars: The Force Unleashed for Wii is clearly a Wii game. Side-by-side with the PS3 and 360 versions, the Wii graphics disappoint, and the complexity and frequency of enemies feels scaled back. But the Wii motion controls are regularly interesting, mapping many of the game's controls into gestures. The simplest ones feel great, like punching the Nunchuk forward to do the Force-push.

After recently playing late-development versions of all four game editions--360/PS3, Wii, DS, and PS2/PSP--I think the Wii game holds up as well as any of them. I had fun throwing enemies, shooting them with lightning, and hitting them with the lightsaber. And while the Wii holds its own, I'm mildly concerned that the final game could be repetitious, just cutting down waves of attackers. Hopefully the many different attacks, and Wii-specific two-player duel mode, will keep the game interesting.

Well kids, it seems like everyone is holding their cards close to their collective chests as we begin the final run up to E3. That doesn't mean we don't have a few interesting news bits to share though. For one, the Xbox 360 Mega Man 9 evidence continues to pile up, despite Capcom's claims to the contrary. Gears of War 2 news also continues to dribble out, and we're more than happy to relate it to you. Find these stories and more below.

Community Stuff

• Xbox 360 Fancast 075 -- Pornoisseur
  What does Pornoisseur mean?
• X3F TV -- XBLA in Brief: Soulcalibur
  Awesome game. No online play. WTF?
• X3F TV -- Points>Life: Shedding Light on Secrets
  IGN gives this Points>Life a 3.5
• Ask X3F: Revolution edition
  This one has a haiku in it

News

• Rumor: Samsung releasing Xbox 360 TV this fall
  Us: Baloney
• Penny Arcade teases PA Adventures Episode 2
  Is that spider wearing a hat?
• SCIV Character Creation: Hey, it Ryu!
  So many possibilities to infringe copyrights
• Gears 2 video straight from the UT3 disc
  So much for buyer's incentive
• Gears of War 2's active sniper will not insta-down
  No more sniper spam, yay!
• More MM9 nuttiness: USK rates the game for 360
  So, we getting Megaman 9 or not?

We don't know any way to put this gingerly, so we're just going to come right out with it: July isn't going to be a great month for games. Sure, there are a few (read: very few) exceptions, but for the most part, we hope you didn't burn through all of June's surprise riches already.

But far be it from us to rain on your July, see the cream of the crop and decide for yourself.

Each week Dennis McCauley contributes The Political Game, a column on the collision of politics and video games:


The video game world was buzzing last week following the New York legislature's passage of a video game statute. In voting overwhelmingly for the bill, New York became the first state to pass a video game law since June, 2006 when lawmakers in Oklahoma, Louisiana and Minnesota all sent restrictive game legislation to their respective governors for signature. The video game industry opposed all of those laws, of course, on constitutional grounds. Since Gov. David Paterson is expected to sign the New York bill into law, there's a natural assumption that the industry will also drag the Empire State into federal court.

But maybe not.

While earlier state laws placed content-based restrictions on video game sales, New York's proposed statute does no such thing. It is largely symbolic, perhaps designed to persuade voters that legislators are doing something to address that familiar cultural whipping boy, video game violence.

So, how impotent is the New York law?

At Blizzard's recent Worldwide Invitational, Diablo 3's World Designer Leonard Boyarsky and Art Director Brian Morrisroe got on stage in front of a crowd hungry for details on Blizzard's latest project to talk about combining art and lore to expand the world give the player a deeper and more engaging experience. Diablo is a unique fantasy universe in that instead of having Dwarves and Elves, it has Angels and Demons. The game's setting makes it a dark fantasy environment that the previous games had only scratched the surface of.

At the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational in Paris, Blizzard designers took to the stage to talk about the design goals and fundamentals behind their upcoming title, Diablo III. Jay Wilson, lead designer on the title, presented a rundown of the design philosophy behind the game, covering its origins, the game's approchability, and the design team's "better gameplay, less carpal tunnel" approach.

Amid all the hype for Diablo 3, you may have missed hearing about the StarCraft II developer panel helmed by Blizzard's Rob Pardo at this weekend's Worldwide Invitational in Paris. Joystiq was there to catch all the details on the latest build of the game. See what team Blizzard had to say about the newfound power of the Zerg Queen, the upgraded Protoss Mothership and the reason behind de-emphasizing heroic classes. All this after the jump.

After several days of conjecture, an evolving series of load screens, and more fanboy arguments than you can shake a mouse at, word has finally come down from on high that the newest Blizzard property will be Diablo III. With the announcement this morning, Blizzard has thrown open the floodgates with screen shots, concept art, video and more. If you're wondering about what this upcoming title has in store, check out coverage from around the network and beyond, or wander through the eye-candy goodness of the galleries!

• Liveblogging the Worldwide Invitational opening ceremony
• Splash page changes as WWI opening ceremony begins, announces Diablo 3
• Watch Diablo 3 teaser and gameplay footage
• First Diablo 3 screenshots
• Highlights from the Diablo 3 FAQ
• Diablo 3 shipping simultaneously on Mac
• Who's Jay Wilson?
• WWI streaming reliability disappoints

Okay, it's confession time. This article series, as much as we hope you've enjoyed it, was originally set out to only discuss those titles of the survival horror persuasion that have been cemented into the 2008 release calendar. However, there is an ordnance that says something to the effect that you can't talk about survival horror games without devoting some face time to Capcom's seminal Resident Evil franchise. Or at least there should be. And while a date for when we can expect to continue slaughtering zombies -- or some derivative thereof -- hasn't been announced, we fully expected Resident Evil 5 to ship sometime in 2009.

That said, we nonetheless felt the game would make an appropriate end cap on our week long look at the genre Capcom helped not only create, but perfect, so we ended our week by speaking with producer Jun Takeuchi, and asked him why we should care about Resident Evil 5.

Another busy week at X3F. We've got a new XBLA in Brief (try Ticket to Ride, seriously), new Points>Life and new ... news. We've got everything. Gears of War 2, Halo Wars, Fable 2, you name it. We also got a chance to check out Deer Hunter Tournament and Smash Court Tennis 3. Browse the links below and slake your Xbox 360 thirst. That's right, slake it.

Community Stuff:

• Xbox 360 Fancast 074 -- Mansplosions
  That doesn't mean what I think it means, right?
• X3F TV -- XBLA in Brief: Happy Tree Friends and Ticket to Ride
  Building trains is fun!
• X3F TV -- Points>Life: It's About Timing
  How to kill people as Not Matt Damon in the Bourne Conspiracy
• Ask X3F: Solid rumors edition
  MGS4 on 360? Not anytime soon
• X3F Impressions: Deer Hunter Tournament
  Stay downwind
• X3F Impressions: Smash Court Tennis 3
  Truly smashing

News:

• Bungie serves up new Cold Storage screens
  There's a revenge joke here somewhere
• It's Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts official box art
  Fans complain about lack of platforming on box
• Fable 2 video diary 6 talks art, death and morphs
  Hints at Octover release
• Lionhead refuses to comment on Molyneux's Fable 2 Oct. release hint
  But also refuses to deny it
• New Halo Wars info: The UNSC Firebase and Warthog
  The Firebase makes Warthogs, Marines, and Awesome
• More Gears of War 2 beta footage: disrupted chainsaw duel
  Duelus Interruptus, as the beta testers call it

Every other week Scott Jon Siegel contributes Off the Grid, a column about card games, board games, and everything else non-digital.

For nearly two years now, Off the Grid has introduced (and reintroduced) Joystiq's readers to some of the best board and card games on the market. The relationship between our modern video games and their non-digital counterparts is very clear-cut. As Gamelab CEO Eric Zimmerman puts it: "a game is a game is a game."

So for those readers who aspire to create games of their own, it should come as no surprise that non-digital games are a great starting place for honing the craft of game design. With no programming skills required, non-digital game design is an easy way to begin thinking creatively about interaction, without the complicated prerequisities of digital game development.

The best leaping-off point for non-digital game design is with the tools. Most gamers probably already have some fantastic equipment in their closets. So let's look at the basic tools of the trade.