In a report commissioned by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, study author and clinical psychologist Tanya Byron has suggested a number of changes to increase the effectiveness of video game violence classifications in Britain, including a more film-like rating system.

"We need to improve on the systems already in place to help parents restrict children's access to games which are not suitable for their age," she wrote.

Chief among Byron's recommendations is that the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) introduce a new 12+ rating for games. Currently, games in the UK are only required to be rated if they contain gross violence. According to Byron, "the threshold for statutory classification [of video games] is quite high and is inconsistent with that for film and DVDs."

While the BBFC would only be required to rate games 12+ or higher, Byron suggested that the Pan European Game Information (PEGI), which voluntarily rates games, focus on titles that would earn a 3+ or 7+ rating, which she claimed is "where the evidence of potential harm is weakest."

To prevent consumer confusion between BBFC and PEGI ratings, Byron recommended that BBFC logos appear on the front of game packages, while PEGI logos... Read more

Whenever the issue of violence and sex in videogames arises, the majority of us say that it's the parents' responsibility to monitor what their children are playing and their job to check and understand the ratings system. But do they? Do parents care about ratings and is it influential to them when they buy games? A study was conducted across the pond, commissioned by the Entertainment & Leisure Software Publisher Association (ELSPA) to find out those answers.

"Parents perceive age ratings as a guide but not as a definite prohibition," he commented, going on to mention that while many parents weren't entirely happy with the content of the games being played by their children, few would take action to prevent it.
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"The research is on the money," he told GamesIndustry.biz this morning, "but anyone working in a games store has known this for a long time. The number of copies of Grand Theft Auto I've had to sell to parents accompanied by their ten year old kids, who I had refused to sell a copy to just a few minutes before, is absolutely sickening."

Now obviously the social mentality of many European nations is more liberal than that found here in the US, but it reinforces the notion that ratings don't matter to many parents. If something is to be done about youngsters acquiring mature titles, the stores now need to actively card the children and inform parents of the content of each game sold.

Nothing like a long weekend to get the gaming news rolling. Of course, the big story surrounds the controversy involving Blizzard, Nihilistic Software, and StarCraft: Ghost. This story is pretty fresh, with the details about Nihilistic's removal as developer hitting the web at only 9:30pm EST. All we have to go on right now is a blurb from a PR rep, so it should be an exciting tomorrow if we get something more official from Blizzard regarding the issue. When I spent time with StarCraft: Ghost at E3, I felt like it had plenty going for it, but there was just a lack of involving gameplay. The visuals, sounds, animations, and controls were all spot-on, but I just didn't have the fun I was expecting. With the shadow of Halo 2 looming ever larger, I think Blizzard wants to do the right thing and make sure Ghost doesn't disappoint, even if it means a massive delay. Of course, this is all speculation, who knows the real reason for the split, but an interesting story to definitely follow.
Console Game of the Evening: E.T. for the Atari 2600. "You wandered around and fell in holes and when you got somewhere guys in yellow raincoats would take you away." (submitted by burningpantsman).

To start off, the top three stories are required reading for everyone this evening. Today was the day for speeches and members of all camps had something to say. Of course, the top story is the corporate briefing by Nintendo president Satoru Iwata who dropped many details concerning Nintendo's future and solidified the company's stance on being an innovator for the industry. They were definitely bold words because as history has shown, consumers don't react fondly to radical new changes in game design. While I believe Nintendo deserves credit for staking a philosophy and sticking to it, I'm sure many of you are tired of their 'games.' As gamers, we can only hope Nintendo's latest gamble pays off. Enough of my babbling, you have plenty of other, more important reading to do!
Console Game of the Evening: The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past for the Super Nintendo. "Add Zelda with the SNES. Mix well. Makes one legendary game." (submitted by naim v2).

A couple of quick things here tonight...first up, if you haven't already seen Portax's excellent Shackers' Gamertags List of Death, check it out, and more importantly, sign up. It's a great listing of Xbox Live gamertags from your fellow Shacknews readers, and the more the merrier. Thanks wunderbred for pointing that out. On a totally unrelated note, I'm still trying to get a handle on my weekly release list here, and while I've managed to kludge together a passable list from various online retailers, I'm still looking for a better solution. If you know one, don't hesitate to let me know. As evidence of that, I guess I should point out that I neglected to mention last night that Sonic Adventure DX Director's Cut shipped this week for GameCube. Consider that issue rectified.

	First Glimpse at Oddworld 4 PS2.IGN has posted a movie (available in Windows Media format only) that offers the first look at Steef, the protagonist of the next Oddworld game, which will have its first glimpse this Friday in a show airing on the Discovery Channel. Also, GameSpot has two images of their own, and a really quick snippit from the game can be found if you watch the commercial for the show that's available online. While it's geared for a mainstream audience, I do have somewhat high hopes for this show, as it looks like they talked to all the right people (whether you like their games or not, Oddworld's Lorne Lanning is a smart, smart guy, and really fascinating to listen to).
	Crimson Skies Clip Another notable story from that same Discovery Channel show airing on Friday is up at IGN tonight...they have posted a clip (likewise in Windows Media format) that offers a look behind the scenes at Microsoft, showing the Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge team preparing to unveil the early version of the game that was not received well at all by the press and public alike.
	Xbox 2 in 2006? GamePro reports that at a conference about IT investing, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said that while the company is "having trouble" in the Japanese market, they expect to have that situation turned around by the time they launch their Xbox follow-up system in 2006. Whether that date is strictly for the Japanese market or global remains to be seen. He also dismissed the rumors that Microsoft is contemplating a buy-out of Sega.
	Shadow Hearts 2 Announced Developer Aruze has announced Shadow Hearts 2, a sequel to their RPG from a few years back that was released in this country by Midway. Details and some fuzzy (scanned) screenshots can be found at GameSpot tonight.
	2k Officially Gone At an event at the ESPNZone center here in New York City, Sega officially announced today that they have dropped the 2k moniker from their entire sports lineup, and will instead be using the ESPN brand. The one talked about today was ESPN NFL Football, and it was also confirmed that player Warren Sapp will serve as this year's cover model.
	Unreal II for Xbox Confirmed Gavin from the Official Xbox Magazine UK dropped me a line to let me know that they have confirmed that Unreal II is indeed in development for Xbox, and was only pulled from Atari's E3 lineup at the last minute because it wasn't ready to show yet.
	No Xboy Anytime Soon While attending the ELSPA Games Summit in London, Microsoft's Peter Moore addressed the question of whether or not we'll see a Microsoft handheld system to compete with Sony and Nintendo. He dismisses the question outright, asserting that Microsoft believes, "that the future is the social element of gaming, and that's going to be done through a console, not through a handheld gaming device." So that's that.
	Star Ocean 3 Interview Over at Computer and Video Games tonight is an interview with Yoshinori Yamagishi, the producer at SquareEnix on their upcoming RPG Star Ocean 3: Till the End of Time.
	WarioWare in Wario World According to Computer and Video Games, owners of a Game Boy Advance can unlock playable demos from WarioWare, Inc. in Wario World. In other Wario World news, CvG also has hands-on impressions of the game, and new screenshots are up at GameSpot.
	Yet Another Guilty Gear X in Japan GamePro is reporting that Sammy has announced a home version of Guilty Gear XX #RELOAD that will be released in Japan in late July. This is a minor update of the game released here as Guilty Gear X2, and will be released overseas as a budget-priced title.
	Misc. Media/Previews GameSpot has new shots from Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3 (GBA) as well as their hands-on impressions of Pirates of the Caribbean (Xbox). IGN has some new shots from Ghost Hunter (PS2), while Games Are Fun has some screenshots from Mario Golf (GC), The Magic Box has shots from F-Zero GX (GC) and GamerFeed links to a Japanese trailer for Disgaea: Hour of Darkness (PS2).

Console Game of the Evening: Einhander for the PSOne. "The greatest shooter no one played (less than 50,000 units sold in the US). The first rail shooter to break into the 3D arena, Einhander had full 3D graphics, intense gameplay, huge bosses, and one of the greatest soundtracks to ever grace a video game." (submitted by XerXes).

I finished up Splinter Cell the other night (see review here), and while my primary game at the moment is the Bloodmoon add-on for Morrowind (soon to be available on the Xbox in the GOTY edition...if you're a fan, check it out...this add-on is a lot of fun, and definitely better than Tribunal) I've also taken a few trips into WarioWare, which is quite possibly the best GBA game to date. It's a truly unique experience...stupid fast, and stupid fun. I find myself concerned that this game, which has over 200 mini-games in it, might actually be too short, which I guess is a testament to how fun it is. If you're a fan of older console games, don't skip this one...lots of the games in here have a real retro-charm to them, and the fun thing is that even when there's a game I don't like, it's over in three seconds, so who cares? It's a hoot.

	Game Prices Going Up? This article over at MSNBC quotes one analyst who thinks the cost of major titles will actually be going up in the near future. The reasons cited are all logical ones, such as the increased cost of development and so on, but don't start worrying just yet. As is pointed out in that same article, sales have been climbing steadily, allowing publishers to charge less for these games, not more. And while SOCOM did indeed retail for $60, that "cheap headset" it comes with is the same one Logitech is charging $40 for by itself, so that's actually quite a bargain.
	A Sony handheld in 2000? According to a Nikkei report (relayed at GamePro), Sony apparently had a handheld system, roughly the size of the original Game Boy Advance, set to go three years ago. The system played games stored on Memory Sticks, and the idea was that people would pay to download games off in-store kiosks. This was developed by Sony proper, not SCE like the regular PlayStation systems (the PSX being the new exception), and was canned after it was decided to focus all of their efforts on the PS2. Apparently Capcom and Square were already developing software.
	PSP Game Pricing Revealed? GameSpot is reporting that at the ELSPA Games Summit in London today, SCEE president Chris Deering gave a keynote in which he mentioned some possible pricing for games for the upcoming PSP handheld system. He says that the majority of games will be in the $24 - $35 range, with some going as high as $70, and that since the UMD format is cheaper to produce than DVDs, movies could go for as little as $12. He also says that while there won't be any territorial lockout for games (yay!), there will be region encoding for movies, just like DVDs.
	More Downloadable Stuff for MechAssault After making users wait months and months for the first batch of downloadable goodies, Microsoft has wisely decided to speed things up a bit, and so they have already released another content download for MechAssault. A full list of the new stuff was posted to the comments last night by CA_Flynn, and to get this stuff all you need to o is log in to Xbox Live.
	Unreal II for Xbox? Both EBGames and GameStop have started listing an Xbox port of Unreal II: The Awakening. While that's not an official announcement, usually when both of those sites start taking pre-orders the game's definitely on the way. Also adding some weight to this story is the fact that both sites list a release date of 12/9.
	No Experience in Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles? This was actually posted last week, but I only just stumbled across it today...a handful of details from Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles can be found at RPGamer, and among them is a description of the differences between the solo and multiplayer modes (playing solo is literally solo -- no AI party members) and the news that the game has no experience points. You'll get money, items and magic for defeating monsters, but that's it. Jeez, this game just keeps sounding less and less like a game I'd have any interest in playing.
	Policenauts Re-Released in Japan Here's a pleasant surprise...Slashdot Games points to this French-language story that showcases a PSOne re-release of Hideo Kojima's Policenauts, a little-seen but oft-mentioned Saturn game from the creator of Metal Gear Solid. The original was never released in North America (or even officially translated into English!) so hopefully we'll get a shot at finally seeing this game over here.
	Upgrade Your GameShark MadCatz, the new owners of the GameShark franchise, have announced an upgrade program for owners of an Action Replay, CodeBreaker or GameShark2 for the PS2 to their newly released GameShark2 Version 3. The upgrade costs $19.99 and is only available through their website.
	Futurama Interview Computer and Video Games has conducted an interview with Klaude Thomas, the producer on the upcoming Futurama game. Klaude talks about its authenticity and the level of involvement the people behind the show have had, which is apparently quite a bit, as the show's writers wrote the script and all the voice actors are in the game.
	Hulk Codes Already Found Well that figures...as a few people pointed out last night, some enterprising gamers have already found the codes for the Hulk game that will be hidden in the movie opening on Friday. I still think this is a cool idea, even if GameSharks make it easy to find this stuff.
	New Releases This Week Last week was totally dead, but this week's a bit better...new in stores this week is DragonBall Z: Legacy of Goku II and Rock n' Roll Racing for GBA, MegaMan Network Transmission for GameCube , Resident Evil: Dead Aim, Big Mutha Truckers, Unlimited SaGa and RTX Red Rock for PS2 and Evil Dead: A Fistful of Boomstick, Midtown Madness 3 and Soldier of Fortune 2 for Xbox.
	Misc. Media/Previews GameSpot has posted impressions of Sprits and Spells (GC) and Rogue Ops (Xbox) along with new screenshots from Ratchet & Clank 2 (PS2). Over at IGN they have yet another new preview of The Hobbit (GC) and screenshots from the GameCube versions of Buffy: Chaos Bleeds, Charlie's Angels and Gladius, new shots from Resident Evil: Outbreak, a new preview of kill.switch and new footage from NHL Hitz Pro (all PS2), their hands-on look at The Simpsons Road Rage for GBA. Elsewhere Games Are Fun has the first image from the impressive-looking Biohazzard Collector's Box and a link to another Viewtiful Joe commercial (both GameCube), and GamePro has new screenshots from the PS2 and Xbox versions of Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II, as well as new shots from the Xbox port of Dynasty Warriors 4.

Console Game of the Evening: Battle of Olympus for the NES. "It was very similar to Zelda, except based solely on greek mythology. Full of greek gods, cyclops, three-headed dogs, minotaurs, sirens, and a trip down to hades leaves memories that I shall never forget." (submitted by lord cecil).