If you’ve ever picked up a newspaper or watched CNN it’s no surprise that many politicians are corrupt.  However, this new story shows just how much. According to Kotaku, Baltimore’s mayor allegedly stole from charity to buy video gaming products.

Sheila Dixon’s facing a 12-count indictment handed down by a Baltimore grand jury, alleging perjury, official misconduct, fraud and theft, among other things. The games relevant rap involves asking developers doing biz with the city to donate some gift cards through her office. According to the indictment, she used one or some of them to buy a PSP and the controller, which she either kept or gave to staff members.

Source: Kotaku

Despite revenue of $7.5 billion in December, Best Buy still saw a drop in video game sales.

“While the environment continues to be as challenging as we expected, consumers are being drawn to brands that they trust, and they are responding to our customer-centric model. In this light, we believe the market share gains we’ve been making will be sustained,” said Brad Anderson, vice chairman and chief executive officer of the national retailer.

Best Buy’s entertainment software revenue category, which made up a quarter of Best Buy’s revenue in December and includes movies, music and games, saw a drop of 12.2 percent. Video gaming sales saw a single digit drop, which the company blamed on a drop in console sales.

Source: Kotaku

FRIDAY NIGHT GAMING LIVE
LIVE INTERNET TV BROADCAST FROM COMPUTER ARENA EVERY FRIDAY NIGHT

Friday Night Gaming is a new project from podcaster Bobby Blackwolf which will be a place where gamers can gather to discuss and play each other both online and in person. Utilizing techniques perfected in over three and a half years doing Live Internet Radio, audiences both around the world as well as locally will be able to interact and be a part of the party.

FNG will be a LIVE Internet TV show broadcasting from Computer ArenA in Roswell, GA every Friday night at 8PM ET/5PM PT. Video will be available on FNGLive.net and an Audio-only simulcast will be available on All Games Radio. Audio podcasts of each show will also be available through your favorite podcatcher.

BE A PART OF THE SHOW
Even if you can’t make it out to our broadcast location, you can be a part of the show online! Online viewers will be able to interact via our chat room as well as call in using a toll-free number for those in North America. For those outside North America, they can call in using free VOIP software Skype and calling “fridaynightgaming”.

CC GAMING HARDWARE SPOTLIGHT
FNG has teamed up with CC Gaming, a video game company that started in October of 2005 by the name Console Concepts. Mainly known for creating exciting and unique custom gaming consoles, CCG has offered up-to-date repairs on all video game systems, games, and damaged discs. Located in the Computer ArenA, CCG offers Buy-Sell-Trade of video games, console systems, disc repair, custom consoles, collectibles, accessories, Pro Gaming Gear, and More! CCG carries all video game systems from Atari, Nintendo, N64, Sega, to all the latest systems like Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii.

Each week, CCG will bring either a game console or vintage collectible to describe on the air. In the case of game consoles, they will be taking one apart and describing what certain things do, as well as discuss remedies for repairs. At times, they will do a console repair live on stage, explaining the process!

Source: Computer ArenA

Michal “Carmac” Blicharz, the infamous eSports coverage guru, recently left his Editor in Chief position at SKGaming.com but according to a new Readmore.de article he’s staying in eSports.

“I was heart-broken when I told Alex Mueller that I would not be continuing with SK in 2009, but I am getting older,” said Carmac.

What if I wake up one day and realise that esports has become something that I no longer enjoy? […[ I love esports and I don’t plan to leave but I want to be ready for any scenario. My new job will double my value.”

You can read the entire article here.

Over 10 million unique players have logged onto Xbox Live to game it up on CoD4 since its launch. Some other interesting stats:

* 71.1% have completed F.N.G.
* 68.8% have completed Cargo Ship
* 46.5% have beaten the game on any difficulty.
* 2.8% have completed Airplane on Veteran difficulty

Source: Xbox360Fanboy

Over at Kotaku they found an interesting little upgrade that’s taken place to Half-Life 2.  Better grab your copy and dust it off!

Half-Life 2? Only one of the best games ever. Sadly, it’s getting on in years. It’s not ugly, by any stretch of the imagination, but in 2009, it can look better.

Which is where the latest build of the FakeFactory mod for the game comes in. For a few years now, FakeFactory have been updating the game bit by bit, an updated model here, a new sound effect there, etc etc. But this latest version – taking it to v9.5 – really gives the game’s visuals a kick in the pants.

For starters, it brings true, full HDR lighting to every map in the game. Then it gets rid of the sight limits on some maps, meaning if your system’s powerful enough you can see from one end to the other. Then it adds full 3D foliage to the game, and to finish things off, a new, hi-res version of Dog.

Source: Kotaku

Students currently attending the University of Ottawa & Carleton University are coming together to host a second LAN event for not only gamers but for future engineers and computer scientists across the capital of Canada, Ottawa. Many different types of games are being offered to be played at this exciting event such as Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike: Source, Call of Duty 4, StarCraft, Super Smash Brothers Brawl and many more!

Note: There are 30 early bird tickets that will be available until 16th January. After that, regular tickets will be sold for $25 or online $26.50. For more information, visit Battle Royal main page here.

The GotFrag TF2 Invitational is set for Jan. 13th!

In a recent press release, GotFrag announced that they have postponed their TF2 6v6 Invitational Tournament to Tuesday, January 13th, 2009. One of Gotfrag’s committee members recently realized that it was too eager to start off a tournament so quickly after the 2009 holidays. In addition, eMazing Gaming, will be a last minute addition to the tournament. This late addition will be slipping into the 8th seed, while everyone else will move up one slot.

Invited Teams

1. Pandemic
2. eMazing Gaming
3. iDemise
4. Apoplexy Industries
5. Sway Gaming
6. Xensity
7. Frag Dominant (frm. vPolice)
8. Team Dynamic

For more information about GotFrag TF2 6v6 Invitational Tournament official rules and brackets, Visit the tournaments main page

According to Gotfrag.com, Pandemic has seen some COD changes to usher in the new year:

The 2009 CoD4 competitions are all coming up. With that in mind, Pandemic has decided to add a new player to their lineup. Replacing David “skinz” Patnode, who left when the team originally switched to CoD5, is Nicolas Aubin, formerly of 50cal.

While team captain Joe “Nabore” Amorosa felt that it was time to head in another direction, he did note that Patnode was a vital part of the team’s success last year.

“The reason we made this change was because skinz was not interested in competing in Call of Duty 5,” said Amorosa. “He stepped back from our squad before the switch back to cod4, and we as a team felt that overall a new direction couldn’t hurt. The switch to me is an improvement, but to say David was lacking in performance is absurd since we won an international championship with him. I just want to wish him the best of luck in whatever he chooses to do.”

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