Graduate Games is happy to announce that you will be able to download and purchase the Magic Toy Chest on August 12th! The game will cost $19.95 and you'll be able to pick up Storked! with it for 50% off. Be sure to check out the Game's Site to read the manual and get yourself ready for some wacky "incredible machine"- inspired puzzles.

A Blizzard representative responding to our inquiry about the recently posted job posting for an Art Director for Diablo III has confirmed that Brian Morrisroe, the game's previous Art Director, has indeed left the company, though his leaving had nothing to do with annoying fans or his reactions to them.

Regarding Brian, he recently resigned to form a startup company "outside the game industry", which is why we posted about the open position. That change won't impact the game...we're really pleased with the look and feel that Brian helped create for Diablo III, and the new person we bring aboard will work with other artists on the team to maintain the art style moving forward.

So don't worry - Diablo III isn't going to go all goth on us.

Some of the best games on the PlayStation 3 have never seen a Blu-ray disc, all thanks to the folks at Q-Games. The first two games in their PixelJunk series - Racers and Monsters - proved that you didn't need photo realistic graphics to make video games that truly belong to the next generation. Now they've released PixelJunk Eden, a game about jumping, grabbing, and pollinating. Looking at the graphics alone you'd have absolutely no clue what was going on. Watching a video sheds a little light, but doesn't quite make things clear. No, to experience PixelJunk Eden you need to get your hands on it, just like the reviewers did in our latest Frankenreview.

Eurogamer
What's confusing is the game's wild and carefree disdain for consistency, and the way it throws its head back and laughs in the face of the laws of physics. Many jumps are hard to judge, because the game seems to decide whether your character will make them based on how it's feeling at precisely that moment in time. A plant that looks impossibly far away might be easily reachable, and vice versa. So you're left confused about what your character's capable of, which routes through the level are feasible and why these two aspects appear to change on a moment-to-moment basis.

Boomtown
Remote play on PSP makes a welcome appearance, and works very well, in no small part due to the simplicity of the controls and visuals. Then there is the ‘revolutionary’ trophy addition which will certainly sell a few more copies of the game for those hoping to ‘level up’ their PSN accounts. Thankfully, adding more value than just having to complete each level, the trophies vary between a completist’s dream, opening all of the seeds in each level to a rather crazy trapeze based three player achievement.

1UP
Eden's heart lies as much in its audiovisual detail as it does in any structural or gameplay elements. Strikingly colorful and abstract, the mesmerizing backdrops complement the sparse game perfectly. Even when the levels start flipping gravity and tweaking the relationship between the enemies and environments, it's easy to appreciate the visuals acting as the motivating force behind the action. The music isn't quite as interesting and doesn't evolve much throughout the journey, but the beats are still an essential part of the experience (the louder, the better).

UGO
PixelJunk Racer was cool and PixelJunk Monsters sucked away a good few months, but PixelJunk Eden is straight-up digital crack. The ever-increasing difficulty challenges without ever becoming overly frustrating, probably because the sights and sounds are so damn calming and the controls, so charmingly simple and intuitive. If it sounds too abstract, do yourself a favor try the demo on PSN. PixelJunk Eden is a wholly unique gaming experience, one which is difficult to accurately describe. Like the best things in life, it must be sampled to be truly understood.

I spent the better part of Tuesday playing PixelJunk Eden, leading to me having to stay up until 6AM to finish Eternity's Child for my review. 'Nuff said.

Sanya Weathers has an interesting post up over at Eating Bees about the way some MMORPG developers interacting with their game’s community on forums. (Her “25 Point Drama” is both true and hilarious.)

As I’ve said before, I’m a 20+year veteran of broadcast radio, and the entire “devs should post too” argument has a parallel in our business.

To set up my credentials, I’ve won over twenty state and national awards for radio copywriting and commercial production; I’ve been published in various trade magazines on the subject of how to create effective radio ads; I’ve had a long, successful career…I’ve learned quite a bit about how to create an effective radio commercial.

I’ve also lost count of the number of “Mom and Pop” clients that have come into our station, purchased an advertising schedule, and then present the copy they’ve written and say “I’m a-gonna record this!”

Mind you, there are no absolutes, and sometimes they have in their hands an excellent piece of copy, and then do a fantastic job of recording that copy.

And then there’s the other 99.9999%.

When a client buys advertising with us, my goal is to make sure their ad is as effective as it can be for them. Notice I didn’t say “sounds the best,” “is really funny” or “has rockin’ music,” I said “as effective as it can be“. This is because my employment depends on repeat business, and if the first commercial I produce for a client doesn’t give them visible results in their business, they’ll spend their advertising budget somewhere else.

I have had more than one client look me in the eye while I’m trying to help them with their ad and say “I know my business better than you do; I built it from the ground up. I know what should be said about it better than you ever will, so we’ll do it my way.”

Well, in this particular situation, no, you don’t.

You definitely know more about YOUR business than I do, yes. But I know more about MY business than you, for the same reasons.

If a community manager tried to tell a development team how to design a game, write code or manage a server, they’d be treated to a hearty chorus of “What do you know about it? Shut up.”, and rightly so. They haven’t put the time, the effort, the blood, sweat and tears into learning those things that it takes to have an opinion on the subject.

However, because dealing with a community looks simple, for some reason some developers tend to think they know how to do a community manager’s job as well (if not better) than someone who’s put five, ten, even fifteen years of their life into learning how to do it properly.

Does this mean that developers shouldn’t interact with the community? Of course not. Devs should be active in their community, but you know what? In my opinion, they should take direction from their community manager on how best to do that, and actually follow the advice they’re given.

I’ve had five calls from the same member of my radio station’s “community” this week, lodging a complaint about the classic country music we play that mentions drinking (which, if you’re familiar with country music, you know is pretty much the entire playlist). He actually suggested I edit the drinking references out of various songs by Merle Haggard, George Jones and Waylon Jennings, so we can stop “giving kids the wrong idea.”

The first time he called, he spoke with a salesperson at our company, who told him “Well, that’s just country music, and that’s what we play,” which is the broadcasting version of “Working as intended.” That didn’t help, and the complaints continued.

Finally, I got to speak with the gentleman, discussed it with him, and found out that the root of the problem was that he was a member of Al-Anon (an alcoholic support group), and was upset that we seemed to promote drinking, yet didn’t do enough in his opinion to discuss the negative aspects of alcohol.

So, I invited him in for an interview on the morning show, we talked about his experience on the air, he was thrilled, and he’s sent two new clients our way who have bought advertising.

The salesperson knows our business backward and forward…from his side of it. However, he doesn’t understand the “dealing with the public” aspect of it.

When you don’t understand how to deal with your community, it leads to “Working as intended,” which doesn’t solve anything.

Do me a favor and head over to Sanya’s blog and weigh in on the “Jellybeans Community Project“…I’ll be interested in the results.

Can video games make children smarter? This is the question the American Library Association is looking into, conducting tests in various library systems throughout the country to see if getting children into the library helps promote literacy or just results in having a bunch of kids in the library playing video games. Tucson's News-4 posted a special report today on how the project is going at the Pima County Quincy Douglas branch, where children can come and somehow gain literacy by playing Guitar Hero and "Karaoke".

I'm not all that clear on how Guitar Hero is going to promote literacy. When you think about it, the very concept of Guitar Hero is about dumbing-down an activity so every one can do it, which would make it the literary equivalent of a McDonald's picture menu, but it sure does give News-4's reporter an excellent chance to stand on camera with a guitar controller. Hit the jump for the video report, condemned there due to its auto-starting nature.

I think overall the answer to the question, at least in regards to the games they are playing, is not really, but I think we should all lie and make it seem like the children are smarter just so we can stop by our local libraries and play Guitar Hero in the future.

Do video games make kids smarter? [KVOA News 4 via Game Politics]

It's here, it's here! It's finally here! Tonight at 8PM Eastern time, X=Play presents G-Phoria 2008, the only video game awards show where the gamers vote for their favorite titles. Adam Sessler and Morgan Webb will be putting their personal opinions aside and let the viewers decide which games deserve the awards, from the lowly Best Downloadable Content to the possibly highly coveted Game of the Year. They've even got a Game Most Deserving of an Uwe Boll Movie Adaptation award! Hilarity ensues.

You can head over to the G-Phoria website to cast your vote, or they've got an option to vote via text message in case you don't have access to the internet or just really enjoy typing with your thumb. Hit the jump for the full list of award categories.

“X-PLAY” PRESENTS “G-PHORIA 2008,” WHERE VIEWERS TAKE CONTROL OF G4’S ANNUAL VIDEOGAME AWARDS SHOW

“G-Phoria,” the only videogame award show that puts the voting controllers in the hands of real gamers, returns to G4 with interactive features that make it the most engaging awards show on TV. Once again, G4’s experts put their personal opinions aside and allow the game-playing public to decide the winners in a wide variety of categories ranging from Best Party Game to Best New Character, with the ultimate victor being named Game of the Year.

“G-Phoria” gives gamers interactive voting options which include G4tv.com and Verizon Wireless phones. It’s television’s only awards show where real gamers choose the games they like best. The public’s choices for the year’s best games will be announced during the special “X-Play” presentation of “G-Phoria 2008” which premieres TONIGHT at 8 p.m. ET/PT, only on G4.

Winners in each “G-Phoria 2008” category, including Game of the Year, are determined by votes submitted online and via text message. “X-Play” hosts Adam Sessler and Morgan Webb are your hosts for this annual gaming celebration.

“G-Phoria 2008” award categories include:

Best Party Game

Best New Character

Best Shooter

Best Strategy Game

Best Sports Game

Best Action Game

Best Racing Game

Best Role-Playing Game

Best Handheld Game

Most Original Game

Best Multiplayer Game

Best Downloadable Content

Best Voiceover

Best Graphics

Best Soundtrack

Longest Lasting Game

Game Most Deserving of an Uwe Boll Movie Adaptation

Game of the Year

A complete listing of the 90 nominees in 18 categories, along with additional “X-Play” information, is available online at http://www.g4tv.com/xplay. Visitors can learn more about “G-Phoria 2008” and how to cast their votes, and can also find reviews of the latest games, participate in the show’s online forums and engage in some of the interactive features that make every episode of “X-Play” completely unique.