I’ve been flaking at work, school and life ever since the release of Fallout 3. I snagged the collectors edition of the game and haven’t stopped playing since. One thing I can say about the game this early on is it’s tough scrounging for ammo, especially after you’ve wasted all of it on a giant fire ant’s skull. Now in regards to leveling and building up your character, it is much easier than Fallout 1 and 2. In the previous games, you were lucky if you came out with a well-rounded character that could do a little of everything. Well, either lucky or just weak. In Fallout 3, with the adjustments to the way tagged skills work and the many skill-related perks in the game, a character can easily be half-decent at every skill in the game.

Of course, most players like to focus on one skill and become a master of it. I’m just surprised how well a “jack-of-all-trades” character works in this game. If I were to make a similar character in Fallout 1, I wouldn’t get past the first radscorpion cave. Check back for screens of the goodies that come in the collectors edition, later today.

In Japan, you apparently can be charged with illegal access of a computer and manipulating electronic data if found guilty of intentionally “killing” someone’s MMO character. Some guy divorced his online wife’s avatar in Maple Story and in her anger she killed his character. Now, she faces a prison sentence of up to five years or a fine of up to $5,000 dollars.

Yowch! I believe a few lessons can be learned here. Firstly, never marry in a video game. Virtual settings and life-long relationships don’t mesh. Secondly, don’t play Maple Story. It sucks.

Link [via]

Everyone has played the game of Operation at least once. You know, the game of human dissection, where you have to remove foreign objects from a man without waking him up mid-procedure. Hasbro has been working on a new Hulk edition of the classic board game, which we guess has something to do with the newest Incredible Hulk movie.

Hasbro has yet to announce an official price for release information for the Hulk Operation game, and frankly, it might be some sort of prank from the Hasbro team. But regardless, it would be pretty damn fun poking around the Hulk’s body, praying not to wake up the not-so-jolly green monster. (more…)

You know how sometimes you need to have the gadget grow on you after the purchase before you start to get comfortable with using it? Well, Japanese toys manufacturer Takara-TOMY has brought this to a completely different level with the new kind of One-Seg DMB toy TV they showed us at Toy Forum 2007 this morning. This portable TV itself certainly reminds us of the iRiver Clix, it carries a 3″ QVGA TFT screen which is not bad, and it runs on alkaline batteries you buy supermarkets (61×99x20mm). The TV can last up to 4 hours each time and you can record your programs to microSD. What’s so special about it is that there is actually a character built in- a female voice that will respond every time you press the a button: changing channels, adjusting brightness and volume, turning it on or off.

The voice will start off as being unfriendly, but as time goes by, when you use the buttons more it’ll become more and more friendly. And this change of attitude will be reflected by her reaction when you press your buttons. So on the first week she’ll say things like “Don’t you think it’s a bit too bright?” or “Are you just changing channels for fun because it’s annoying…”, but if you get acquainted with the TV over time, she’ll start saying nicer things like “Oh, you’re back!” or “Yep, turning up the brightness for you now”. (We’re serious, these quotes are translated carefully) The company is going to release a whole series of these TVs with different characters and different personalities. We think it’s a bit kinky, but in case you are interested, you can pick them up in Japan for 200USD autumn this year. — Sam Chan

Takara-TOMY toy TV [Impress]