Many of you may have noticed that, over the course of the past week or so, there have been a lot of rumors floating around concerning Square developing games for the GameCube.

When asked what images they mentally conjured up at the utterance of “video game history”, my friends all concurred that they envisioned Japanese geniuses in business suits toiling away at a computer screen, working on the “soon-to-be” hottest new release.

Why is it that some topics just never seem to go away? For several years now, the media has been dogging videogames as the source of teenage violence, and frankly, I am sick and tired of it. The latest anti-videogame rally is the result of a study on violent games from researchers at the renowned school Harvard.

I am tired of hearing about how videogames are for children, and how parents are in an uproar about the violent content of today’s videogames.

“Hype – an intentional excess verging on deception that creates great popular enthusiasm for a person or product.”

Hello and welcome once again to the Weekly Grind. This week, we deal with a problem that has been around for over a decade: System Loyalty. Stemming from the days of Super Nintendo vs. Sega Genesis, system loyalty has become a real pain in the butt for those of us who can see that all game systems have something to offer.

I sit in anticipation on a plane bound to LA, waiting for my chance to witness the dawning of a new era in console gaming. It has only been a year since I was last at E3, seeking all the information I could find on the newly announced Xbox console.

Let me start by saying that this editorial (and all subsequent editorials from me) are not meant to harm or infuriate anyone at all. Think of it as merely a glimpse from the other side.

Hello, and welcome once again to the Weekly Grind. So what’s on the agenda this week? Well, it’s something that I think most of us are all too familiar with: mediocre sequels.

Today, Nintendo officially released Game Boy Advance to a hungry consumer market. After much success and numerous shortages in Japan, Nintendo was hoping to avoid the same problems in the US launch of GBA.