Gamer’s With Jobs has a rant about unlockable content and the often annoying amount of effort that goes into making them available.

I normally hate rant articles, but I totally agree with this one. Maybe not to the point of games never having unlockables, but they unlockables shouldn’t be impossible or time wasting to get at. Megaman Powered Up is a prime offender, forcing you to go through some very tedious challenge levels in order to get that last unlockable. It’s also annoying in a game you have played a lot or beat before and no longer have a save for. I know I don’t feel like playing DoA 2 single player again to unlock all the costumes I am missing.

At least on the PSP I can download a save if I feel like cheating…

[url=http://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/24946]Puritan Work Ethic, How I Loathe Thee[/url]

Source: [url=http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/06/06/1728224]/.[/url]

For those of you who don’t know, Doug Tennapel is the artist behind some great video games, most notably the Neverhood and Earthworm Jim. He’s also got some good comics and Nickelodeon’s Catsratch under his belt. Although this interview is ostensibly about the new Earthworm Jim game for PSP, it mostly revolves around his general view of the games industry.

It’s really interesting to me to hear an artist (and one I like) say a lot of the things we’ve been hearing Carmack say. Most notably, he seems to think that core gameplay is more important than story and character. While I don’t agree with this 100%, I certainly feel that the truth lies more on that side of the argument than the John Romero “design is law” side.

Anyways, read up if you want to hear a slightly different take of the gaming industry from what we are used to hearing.

[url=http://gamasutra.com/features/20060606/murdey_01.shtml]Gamasutra interviews Doug Tennapel[/url]

Source: [url=http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/earthworm-jim/doug-tennapel-isnt-bitter-hes-tangy-178817.php]Kotaku[/url]

It’s the moment I haven’t been waiting for! If G4’s Arena didn’t fix your need to watch socially akward people display their amazing skill at clicking on buttons, USA Network should be able to help you out soon. They just signed a contract with the Major Gaming League to televise 7 unscripted gaming shows.

Now I’m not about to knock the actual training and talent it can take to get the top spots in these game shows, but seriously. Gaming just isn’t that fun as a spectator sport unless you are really interested in the parties involved. I only enjoyed Arena because it was so silly, and it was funny to watch the players lose all sense of self-control when presented with a mildly cute announcer who wanted nothing to do with them. Maybe it’s just me. Maybe people want to see this.

Source: [url=http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060606-6998.html]ArsTechnica[/url]

News from the Battlefield! EA/Dice has released the latest booster pack in the BF2 series, BF2: Armored Fury. The theater of war has moved to the US on the American Highways. The pack releases new maps and new vehicles to tear up the battlefield.

Xbox Live has released their new update that should freshen things up on the dashboard and the marketplace. So when you get home and turn on your 360, make sure you update your Xbox Live. The new update should make the entire Xbox Live experience much more accessible.

Finally, Bethesda is continuing to expand the world of Elder Scrolls in their latest title Oblivion. So far their has been four additions to the downloadble section of Oblivion. The latest content has not been given a date of release, but has been posted on the content page of the Elder Scrolls website. Also stay tuned for a patch release this week as well. This should fix some bugs within the game.