TIME.com launches Techland

TIME.com now speaks our language. Today the online arm of the magazine launches Techland, an intersection of culture and tech news. Techland promises to combine breaking tech news, reviews and discussion. The site is led by Peter Ha, TIME.com technology editor and previously a writer for CrunchGear.com. Techland’s team is also comprised of Lev Grossman, TIME Senior Writer, book critic and lead technology writer; Matt Selman, TIME.com/Nerdworld contributor and Executive Producer of The Simpsons; and Steve Snyder, who will cover the latest films, DVD’s and TV. And one other very familar name: Tracey John.

The first content on the new site includes a closer look at Tony Hawk: Ride, an interview with 2012 director Robert Emmerich, Zack Whedon’s exclusive reveal of his new Terminator series for Dark Horse Comics, a review of Samsung’s latest Android handset, an exclusive sneak peek at Irredeemable #8 and an interview with Valve’s Gabe Newell. find out more at techland.com.

Some Halloween treats at deviantART

We like to argue about whether or not games are art (see the article from David Thomas where he bluntly and emphatically declares that games are not art in his appropriately titled article Games Are Not Art), but while we may never come to a consensus on that here’s something that - there’s absolutely no doubt - is in fact art: pumpkins carved with some of our favorite video games and video game characters.

Carved and photographed for the deviantART crowd, user ceemde has created some masterful Halloween creations featuring Sam & Max, Crusader: No Remorse, Plants vs. Zombies (my favorite of the bunch), Shadow of the Colossus and Pipboy from Fallout. Beautiful.

Check out all these wonderful creations out at deviantART. Thanks to Game Culture for the tip.

GameFly’s GameCenter App now available on iTunes

Video game rental company GameFly has launched its GameCenter App on the App Store for free. The GameCenter App gives iPhone and iPod touch users access to information from GameFly on more than 5,000 video games across all major platforms including up-to-the minute news, videos, screenshots, release dates, user reviews, gameplay controls, cheats, codes and more.

The app also supports syncing with Facebook and Twitter accounts, allowing you to share information with friends (also sometimes known as spamming). GameCenter is free and available to all iPhone and iPod touch users. GameFly subscribers can use the app to manage their GameQ and member information from within the app, which is a given that i’m a-takin’.

The GameCenter App is available for free from the App Store on iPhone and iPod touch or at itunes.apple.com. A walkthrough of the app can be seen after the break.

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Two upstate NY GameCrazy stores closing

According to a blog post on the online site of Albany New York’s top newspaper, The Times Union, GameCrazy plans to close two of its three area stores including stores at 818 Central Ave. in Albany and on Route 9 in Latham, NY. A store spokesperson confirmed that the Albany store will close after a liquidation sale that will begin on Saturday. This will leave only one GameCrazy store left in the area - in the 20 Mall in Guilderland, NY. The Latham store is slated to close Oct. 24, according to an unnamed employee at that location.

Earlier this week Movie Gallery announced that it would close nearly 200 of its stores. Thanks to our own Matt Nolin for the tip.

Warner Bros. forms DC Entertainment

Batman: Arkham Asylum has sold almost two million copies in less than a month, according to published reports. This kind of success with a DC comics-based game is one of several reasons that Warner Bros. is creating DC Entertainment, a brand new company dedicated to taking care of DC Comics properties. The new division will be headed up by Diane Nelson, the current president of Warner Premiere. Warner Bros. says that this new division will attempt to find the full potential of DC related products including games, films, television and other media.

Naturally this is a good idea given that Disney now owns Marvel Entertainment and will no doubt be doing its best to bring popular Marvel franchises to multiple fronts including TV, movies, comic books, and naturally video games.

Capcom celebrates Labor Day with PSN game bundles

Capcom is offering some deals just in time for the Labor Day weekend for those that are interested in its line-up of games on the PlayStation Network. Fans of Capcom’s digital collection will appreciate the library of digital games on the PSN bundled them together into one packages. The Super Pack which retails for $49.99, includes Super Street Fighter II HD Remix, Flock!, Age of Booty, 1942, Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando, Super Puzzle Fighter 2 HD Remix, and Rocketmen: Axis of Evil with the It Came from Uranus pack included.

The Combo Pack, featuring five of Capcom’s PSN titles retails for $29.99. The Combo Pack includes 1942, Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando, Super Puzzle Fighter 2 HD Remix, Rocketmen: Axis of Evil and Rocketmen: It Came from Uranus mission pack.

Finally PSP owners can also download Capcom’s newest fighting game, Fate/unlimited codes, on PSN. Based on the hit Japanese manga and anime series, Fate/unlimited codes takes place in Japan, where seven pairs of magical combatants compete for the ‘Holy Grail’ that will grant them any wish. This new combat experience for the PSP system features a unique roster of characters and fighting moves, a fast-paced weapons-based fighting system and more. That game is available for download on the PlayStation Store for $29.99.

FCC: All Your Ratings Are Belong To U.S.

It is no secret that the United States government likes to have its own control system in place for certain industries. For television it is the Federal Trade Commission, who keeps a tight rein on television, despite the occasional wardrobe malfunction or swear word that slips through the censors, and doles out fines to those who they think have gone to far.

But according to a Bloomberg report, the FCC wants to regulate other things including video games. FCC regulators are considering a single ratings system for television, video games, and wireless telephones - all under the guise of keeping questionable material out of the hands of children and helping parents.

According to the Bloomberg account, the FCC will begin an inquiry into such a system after an agency report is delivered Aug. 31 to Congress on the subject of media blocking and rating techniques. This report is the result of an inquiry by congress on whether children are harmed by inappropriate content, such as sex, violence and obscenity and whether or not the existing FCC system for TV would be a good fit for other content.

West Virginia Senator Jay Rockefeller seems to be at the center of this movement; the Democratic Senator who chairs the Commerce Committee, said at a hearing in late July of this year that his constituents are “horrified” by some programming. The report is the result of a law passed in 2007 mandating such a report to be researched and compiled.

Meanwhile mobile phone providers like AT&T and Verizon Wireless, and software makers like Microsoft have come out strongly against such an idea. The ESA, which created the Entertainment Software Rating Board and the system which currently rates game by content, says that the FCC has no jurisdiction over games.

No doubt this will be a matter of contention for regulators and lawmakers, who see the connected world in which we now live in as highly regulate-able. But as the Internet has remained mostly regulation free, how will the government justify such regulations on content on private services? Will it attempt to regulate Microsoft’s Xbox Live service? Mobile phone networks? Social networks? Opponents see it as a slippery slope for a multitude of content platforms.

We’ll follow this story as it continues to develop.

Source: Bloomberg via Game | Life