Passenger 57 has 
taken up a new hobby.
As he serves out a three-year prison sentence for failure to file federal income tax returns, actor, producer and all-around butt-kicker Wesley Snipes is adding ‘game developer’ to his resume. The man filmgoers know best as the vampire hunter Blade has teamed with Finnish developer Lapland Studio to release ‘Julius Styles: The International.’
No one has doubted that Bioware’s 
upcoming massively multiplayer game, Star Wars: The Old Republic, was going to be, well, massive. But the unusual — and baffling — pre-order experience for the game is causing a disturbance in the Force.
Typically, pre-orders are pretty simple: You put down a deposit, you wait for the game to come out and you’re guaranteed a copy on day one. But with The Old Republic, it’s a bit more complicated.
Owain Weinert is nine years old
— and like countless children his age, he plays lots of video games. He wants to make them, too, so he conceived and designed a title on his own.
For most kids, the story would end there. But Owain has leukemia. And with the help of the Make-A-Wish foundation, he got to spend some time with the developers at PopCap Games (Bejeweled, Plants Vs. Zombies) earlier this year, impressing the game makers so much that they developed the game he had conceived.
It went live on the App store Thursday.
James Bond might be in a holding pattern 
on the big screen, but 007’s getting quite a workout in the gaming world.
With its remake of the seminal shooter GoldenEye 007 proving a hit on the Wii last winter, Activision is sprucing up the game for high definition consoles, with plans to release it later this year.
Mickey Mouse may have 
two theme parks under his belt, but The Horde is getting ready to rush his castle.
What seemed like the stuff of a fanboy fantasy – a theme park dedicated to mega-hits World of Warcraft and Starcraft – has opened its gates in China. Dubbed “World Joyland,” the park is located just north of Shanghai and brings new meaning to the term “E ticket.”
Add Ubisoft to the list 
of publishers who are throwing up barriers for buyers of used games.
The French publisher has unveiled a new system dubbed the Uplay Passport that will include a one-time code with each game, giving players access to locked content — including online multiplayer. Buyers of used copies will have to shell out $9.99 to utilize those features.
It’s not that often that you 
can definitively point to the beginning of a trend. But when it comes to really bad video games based on movies, there’s a pretty clear starting point.
It was 1982, and Atari was hoping to capitalize on the monster success of Steven Spielberg’s “E.T.” It gave the game’s developers less than six months to create the title — and the rush-job showed. Wise players bypassed it and Atari ended up burying thousands — if not millions — of unsold copies in a New Mexico landfill while ushering in what would become known as the great video game crash of 1983.
Nearly 30 years later, things really haven’t changed that much.
It’s too early to call 3D TV 
a disappointment, but given the hype surrounding it and the accompanying marketing push, it certainly hasn’t lived up to expectations.
The price of the sets is partially to blame (and those wonky, dorktacular glasses aren’t doing the industry a lot of favors, either.) But what it really comes down to is a lack of content — and that’s where television manufacturers are counting on video games to come to the rescue.
After hitting a few speed 
bumps, the big screen adaptation of Sony’s blockbuster Uncharted is moving forward once more.
Director Neil Burger, best known for Bradley Cooper’s “Limitless” and the Edward Norton film “The Illusionist,” has taken over the directorial reins after David O. Russell walked away from the project due to “creative differences”. And fans of the game are breathing a big sigh of relief.
Pokemon – one of the biggest guns in 
Nintendo’s franchise arsenal – is coming to the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. But don’t expect Mario and Zelda to follow suit.
The company behind the addictive role-playing series announced plans this week to develop a free Pokemon-based rhythm game for iOS and Android smartphones. And that, somewhat understandably, has led to speculation that Nintendo might be tempering its opinion about mobile gaming and considering making games for other systems.
Chris Morris: Journalist 