South Park has 
been around the video game block a few times, but its latest trip could be remarkably different.
South Park Digital Studios and Obsidian Entertainment, makers of “Fallout: New Vegas,” are teaming to create a South Park role-playing game. THQ will publish the title.
uDraw Pictionary: Ultimate 
Edition is a faithful video game recreation of the classic game and creates a modern twist on family game night. While drawing with the uDraw tablet peripheral isn’t as natural — or as fast — as drawing on paper, it adds a twist to the game that many players will enjoy. It’s certainly better than using the controls on a typical game device — even the Wii.
The game offers several gameplay modes to cater to a wide audience and stays true to its family roots by offering different difficulty levels of clues for kids. Some of the wacky things that can happen in the harder Pictionary Mania mode include the lights going out as you draw, the drawing surface rotating, and you are given a limited to the amount of ink to use. The game’s biggest failing, though unavoidable, is that clues appear on the TV screen. Some players might be tempted to sneak a peak while others have their eyes closed. And in a game whose fun lies in guessing and bad drawings, that could spoil some of the fun. If you and your family can resist that, though, this is one of the most family friendly titles on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
The expansion of uDraw 
to the PS3 and Xbox 360 brings a very family friendly option to both systems and opens up the artistic side of both. This game (which is also available as a standalone title for the Wii) is broken into three parts, each of which emphasizes self-expression in a different way. Art Camp lets kids participate in a half-dozen activities, such as paint-by-numbers and dot-to-dot pictures — as well as an arcade-like game where you whack aliens who fly across the canvas. (It’s a cute idea, but not a lot of fun.)
Art Studio is literally an open canvas, letting players use the game to create whatever they’d like via the peripheral. And Art School is a very thorough tutorial full of instructions on how to improve your art skills, covering all of the basics of art and design. The interface keeps tools on screen; and players can share and send images. While it’s a wonderful artistic tool, the peripheral isn’t perfect. The cord feels short and users will fight against it from time to time, which can be annoying — and drawing on a peripheral in your lap, while watching it appear on screen isn’t any easier than it was on the 2010 Wii game of a similar name. (Should you own that one, there’s more to this game, but probably not enough to justify paying full price.)
In June, the Syfy 
Channel and THQ debuted “Red Faction: Origins,” a television movie that not only received decent reviews, but was also the test pilot for a potential series. Days later, the latest game in the series – “Red Faction: Armageddon” – landed on store shelves.
Just shy of two months after that, though, all talk the TV series had stopped and THQ had put the game franchise on ice. And that death knell called into question the effectiveness of the transmedia movement.
If you’re a F1 enthusiast, 
you will be squarely in your element with F1 2011. If you’re not overly familiar with genre (or with any sort of hard core racing sim), you will be downright baffled about what’s going on. The game is a fantastic simulation of the popular racing sport, but it throws players immediately into the deep end and lets them sink or swim. The amount of information presented to you at the beginning is nearly overwhelming, but it gets even harder once you’re out on the track, where the Artificial Intellegence used for controlling the other racers is ruthless, speeding past you whenever it spots an opening. All of this said, the game is beautiful and handles as precisely as you would expect. Fans will be incredibly happy with what developer Codemasters has put together.
Following news of a 
reorganization at THQ, Gamasutra editor-at-large Chris Morris discusses what the company should now consider doing to “right the ship,” such as focusing solely on quality core and Facebook titles.
A few years ago, I came up with an analogy that envisioned the video game world as a high school. EA was the jock. Take-Two was the guy in the leather jacket who blatantly smoked at his locker. And THQ was the guy you wanted your sister to date.
These days, though, THQ’s role in that little drama has changed. Lately, the company has more closely resembled the kid whose attention deficit disorder is so paralyzing that he’s forced to enter special ed.
Gamasutra Editor-at-large Chris Morris 
takes a look at THQ’s use of adult entertainment stars in the promotion and voice talent for its Saints Row games, seeing risks for the franchise in the publicity stunt.
I know my way around the world of pornography.
One of the perks of being an editor-at-large at several publications is you often pick up some interesting assignments. Among the ones I’ve been handed were a series of stories about the business side of the adult entertainment industry. It’s actually an industry that reminded me a lot of the video game field – one that’s very easy to judge on the surface, but one that’s a lot more complex once you peek behind the curtain.
With his enduring anthems to margaritas, 
cheeseburgers and flip flops, you wouldn’t peg Jimmy Buffet to be much of a gamer. But with popular -Ville games like FarmVille and FrontierVille dominating people’s time online, it only makes sense that the man behind ‘Margaritaville’ would join the party at some point.
That point is now. Buffett and THQ are set to bring the tropically inspired Margaritaville Online to Facebook and Apple’s iDevices, packed with a hefty dose of classic Buffett songs, characters and virtual cheeseburgers.
With costs rising and competition increasing, Sony has
laid off one-third of its Sony Online Entertainment division.
205 of the roughly 700 SOE employees received pink slips Thursday as the company shut down three development studios in Denver, Seattle and Tucson. One long-in-development title was also cancelled.
Sony Online Entertainment and THQ are
both handing out pink slips this week.
SOE was hit hard by a devastating round of downsizing that resulted in one-third of the workforce being laid off and three studios closed. THQ cut more than 30 jobs at two of its studios, but both remain open.
Chris Morris: Journalist 