Game Politics is reporting on a story from the Amarillo Globe News (free reg. req.) regarding a Republication gubernatorial candidate for the state of Texas who doesn't seem to be a big fan of video games. Star Locke, a rancher from Corpus Christi, pledges to abolish Texas' property tax laws and replace them with steep taxes on certain products and services whose consumption he wishes to discourage. It comes as no real surprise given the current political obsession with our hobby that one of those products is violent video games.

Locke said he favors instituting a $10,000 per-abortion tax on abortion service providers, a 50-percent tax on violent video games and a 10-percent tax on soft drinks with added sugar to fund state government.

"I take the position that the Founding Fathers took: that the power to tax is the power to destroy," he said. "So our concept is that we need to tax things we don't want and you want to not tax things that you want to encourage."

It's certainly a different approach than other politicians have taken in their attempts to discourage or control the sale of violent games. Locke seems to hope to make game development and sale in Texas costly enough that it will disappear. In addition to the excessive 50% video game tax, Locke also proposes unspecified taxes against video game manufacturers themselves. It is unclear whether this refers to just publisher or both developers and publishers. Texas is home to a multitude of game developers, including id Software, 3DRealms, Ritual Entertainment, Gearbox Software, Ensemble Studios, and others. In the state primaries in March, Locke will go up against three opponents, including current governor Rick Perry.

A new Age of Empires 3 patch is now available updating Ensemble Studios' strategy game sequel to v1.03. The update fixes an issue where people got a "Failed to join" message when two routers that could not communicate joined the same game.

Ensemble Studios has released a bonus map for Age of Empires 3, with the Winter Wonderland map containing various holiday pleasantries.

There's a patch on the Age of Empires 3 forums announcing that a 1.02 patch is on the way for Ensemble's new strategy game. It will fix problems with sound stuttering, hardware compatibility, improved stability and according to this post five new large sized maps based on current, smaller, maps. Thanks Blues.

Next Generation has a brief interview with Joel Ehrlic, a former high school teacher who now operates a company that brings history-oriented media--including video games such as Ensemble's Age of Empires--into the classroom to get kids more interested in certain subject matter. While the game might not be teaching the fine political and social details of major events, it can be used to get students interested and give them a basic grounding which can then by filled in by more traditional means.

"Games act as an impetus, a catalyst, to get the kids and the teachers excited. Kids don't care about The Mexican-American War until they get to play the part of Santa Ana. Then they get it.

"We do the same thing with The History Channel, A&E, all the major movie studios and the TV networks. Rather than learn from a textbook, people can learn from Spielberg or HBO. You have a much better chance with kids by involving them with TV, film or videogames."

Publisher Microsoft actually pays for the privelege of having its game exposed to high school students around the country, which raises some questions--in the case of regular textbooks, of course, it works the other way around. However, Ehrlic claims that "there's no commercial or message," unlike traditional advertising. So what do you think? Is this the sort of thing worth having in schools? Mine sure didn't, but it would have been nice to be told to exterminate the Vikings for homework.

Also on GameCloud today is this Liquid Development Q&A. This company can be contracted to create levels, concept art, models and character animation and has been used by Lionhead Studios, Ensemble Studios, Humanhead and other developers.

As promised Ensemble Studios has release the updated Age of Empires 3 demo. It features the same content as before but has a patch applied fixing several bugs and adding the new minimized UI.

Shadow of the Colossus (PS2) is out this week! Woohoo!
Other Database Updates:

• Bone: Out From Boneville (Telltale | Sep. 15, 2005 | PC)
• Fate (WildTangent | May 18, 2005 | PC)

Featured ShackReviews:

• Prolific reviewer SixDemonBag gives Mindware's Cold War (Xbox) a shot, but finds it to be subpar.
• FreshView gives us his opinion on Quantic Dream's Indigo Prophecy (Fahrenheit) (Xbox), seeing it as an "overhyped travesty."

Back to Advance Wars: Dual Strike (DS) for me. It seems like it's getting ready to finish up. Also, still working on Indigo Prophecy (Xbox). I have to get these games done so I have time for all the other crazy stuff coming out!

Art & Design: The Alternate History of Age of Empires III is a GameSpy article, offering an article format interview with Bruce Shelley about Ensemble's latest strategy game. GameSpy also has an article on unit formations in the game.

Microsoft has let us know that Ensemble Studios' highly anticipated strategy game sequel Age of Empires 3 has gone gold. Both the regular and Collector's Edition (details) of the game will be in stores October 18. A demo was released earlier this month, you can grab that here.

The third game in the illustrious Age of Empires series that has sold more than 16 million copies and defined the historical RTS, Age of Empires III is being hailed by critics as a new benchmark for real-time strategy games. The minimum system requirements for Age of Empires III are: 1.4GHz processor, 256 MB RAM, 64 MB video card that supports hardware transform and lighting, Windows XP, 56k modem for online play, and 2GB hard drive space.
In Age of Empires III, players assume the role of a European power between 1500 and 1850 A.D. as they struggle to explore, colonize and conquer North and South America. Find out more about Age of Empires III by visiting http://www.ageofempires3.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" class="external.

GameSpy has a new Age of Empires 3 article, taking a look at six non-combat units in Ensemble's newest strategy game. Meanwhile IGN checks out the British faction in the game.

As expected, an Age of Empires 3 demo is now available. The 366mb download includes two campaign missions and two skirmish maps. Ensemble Studios' newest strategy game is due out in October.

Computer & Video Games has posted a Q&A with Bruce Shelley, asking the Ensemble Studios co-founder about Age of Empires 3. Shelley is asked about the game's new features, the card system, the single player campaign, the multiplayer features, engine features, and the future of PC gaming.

Over at Planet AgeofMythology you can find a new Age of Empires 3 preview, offering impressions of the game based on playing it at the Ensemble Studios offices. There are also some pictures showing the new ESO2 interface.

GameCloud discovered a new job listing over at Ensemble Studios' site. They're looking for a Senior Server Programmer to work on a "world-class massively multiplayer game." Let the speculation begin! I'll go out on a limb and guess it's an Age of.. game.

GameSpy has a new Age of Empires 3 Q&A posted. Music and Sound Director Stephen Rippy is asked about his work on Ensemble's latest strategy game. GameSpy also has a new preview of the game.

Computer & Video Games has the first part of an Age of Empires 3 Q&A posted, asking Ensemble Studios lead designer Greg Street about this strategy game sequel.

There's an Age of Empires 3 Q&A on Computer Games Magazine's website this morning, asking lead designer Greg Street about the new Ensemble Studios project. Topics include playable sides, the singleplayer campaign, gameplay, multiplayer features, game engine, and mod/mission tool plans.

There's a Ages of Empires 3 Q&A on GameSpot this evening, asking Ensemble Studios lead programmer Dave Pottinger about the technology powering the game. Five new screenshots are included. Update: a similar article is up at IGN.

Today we have a new Q&A, talking with a few developers from Ensemble Studios about their upcoming Age of Empires III. Everything is covered here, from the decision to do another Age of Empires to the new gameplay options to the multiplayer aspect.

Dave Pottinger (Lead Programmer): Multiplayer has actually been one of the most stable pieces of our development this time around. We took a long, hard look at ESO and the ingame multiplayer systems in AOM. We decided to do wholesale rewrites of both, which has turned out to be a very good decision. Our ingame multiplayer codebase has been rock solid since the new implementation went in. The new version of ESO, called ESO2 of all things, was both a functional and philosophical redo. ESO2 is built upon a much better foundation, but, more importantly, we've refocused the direction of the design.

Read the entire interview right here.