Love it or hate it, but Resident Evil 5 is here to stay. And if you’re in the former group, you’ll love the fact that you can have a memento of the game on your hands almost all the time – Gamestation is now taking preorders for the Resident Evil 5 watch which is fully endorsed by Capcom.

There will only be 555 watches made (and they are all numbered) from reinforced mineral lens, screw down crown, matt black dial, white luminous hands and more.

The watch will be presented in an RE5 display box and will be released on July 31 for £119.99.

Bizarre publicity stunts are nothing new in the games industry, but this is quite different: Warner Bros. is advertising F.E.A.R. 2 Project Origin on black cats prowling around London.

Branded a ‘cat-vertising campaign’, the specially trained cats sport FEAR 2 cat clothing, and roam the streets of London. Warner hopes that the creepy cats will capture the attention of superstitious passersby, and since it was Friday the 13^th…

“Every day people are bombarded with so many advertising messages that it can be easy to miss them,” said a WB spokesperson. “With our research telling us that Brits are actively looking out for signs of bad luck this Friday, it makes perfect sense to try and capture their attention that way.”

You can find more pictures on Electric Pig.

Capcom’s Dead Rising may have been a critical and commercial hit, but someone didn’t like the game: film production company MKR Group who alleged that the game stole ideas from their Dawn of the Dead film. While they had taken things to court, the trades are now reporting that Capcom got the upper hand and has won the lawsuit over the film company.

United States Magistrate Judge Richard Seeborg granted Capcom’s motion seeking relief from a lawsuit after MKR threatened to sue.

"The few similarities MKR has alleged are driven by the wholly unprotectable concept of humans battling zombies in a mall during a zombie outbreak," claimed Capcom in the motion.

Though Capcom is basking in glory right now, their win wasn’t exactly a pretty one. Dozens of zombie movies and games were introduced in court by Capcom to establish the conventions of the zombie genre, but they were all thrown out because the company included summaries taken from Wikipedia.

Ultimately, Seeborg found some critical differences between the game and the movie, most notably the absence of a political or social message in the game which the movie proudly flaunts.

Capcom is currently developing further titles in the series, with sequels said to be in the works for multiple platforms.

Now that everyone’s favorite lawyer Jack Thompson has been barred from the courtroom, what is he up to? He’s now penning a column for conservative website Human Events.

GamePolitics, his usual messenger, carries a teaser from the anti-gaming lawyer. Here’s a bit:

This new ESRB band aid just gets more of the camel’s nose into the video game industry’s tent. Look for a federal law prohibiting sale of mature games to minors in Obama’s first term.  It will be wildly popular with parents in both  parties, as a recent video game industry poll proves.

The new statutory approach is constitutionally bullet proof…

PS:  Hey, I have a new job that began today, and I’m not saying what it is, but you kids won’t be pleased!

We’ll all now look forward to the debauchery that will be his writing.

The following bit may be hard to believe, but please… bear with me: the film rights to Pac-Man have been picked up by Hollywood production company Crystal Sky Pictures for $200 million.

The $200 million development deal was funded by entertainment financier Grosvenor Park, Variety reports. The transaction also includes funding for the upcoming Castlevania movie, which was delayed due to the writer’s strike.

No other details on the project were disclosed.

In one of the oddest announcements to be ever made, Namco Bandai sent out word that iconic Star Wars characters Yoda and Vader will make their appearance in the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of Soul Calibur IV. The Sith Lord Darth Vader will be choking his way to the PS3 version, while Yoda will be jumping around frantically on the Xbox 360 version.

“It is quite rare that two publishers of this caliber are able to collaborate on this level to create a top notch entertainment experience for next-generation platforms.” said Makoto Iwai, executive vice president and COO at Namco Bandai. “In the entertainment industry, LucasArts possesses some of the most recognizable characters and franchises in the world. We’re thrilled to integrate their historic characters into one of our most treasured brands.”

It is not known how exactly the players in the game will be able to block lightsaber attacks, but rest assured, it will be fun. Soul Calibur IV is due out this September.

If you’re a hardcore World of Warcraft player, keep running Windows Media Player 11 in the background then! Gizmodo reports that running the media player speeds up loading in the popular MMORPG, strange as it may sound. Blizzard knows about this and is currently investigating.

Imitation may be the most sincere form of flattery, but when it involves the murder of a little girl, it’s gotten way out of hand. Two teenagers from Colorado have been arrested after killing a seven-year-old girl on whom they practiced moves from the Mortal Kombat fighting franchise.

The two teens were supposed to be babysitting little Garcia, on December 6, when they seized the opportunity to drink alcohol and immitate Mortal Kombat moves on the child.

Trujillo, according to released documents, admitted she’d “punched her in the stomach, karate chopped her lower arms, punched and pinched the victim’s thighs, kicked her in the shins, slapped her stomach and buttocks and poked at the victim’s chest.”

Witnesses say Roberts performed a back kick on Garcia, from which she did not get up. He then cracked an egg in her mouth, apparently to check if she was faking unconsciousness.

When Garcia regained consciousness Trujillo sent her to bed, according to the documents, but she stopped breathing 15 minutes later.

They reportedly tried to revive Garcia, but she later died in hospital. The autopsy showed she had suffered a broken wrist, bleeding in the neck, swelling of the brain and more than 20 bruises.

The teens are being held and will face trial for child abuse causing death, which could mean up to 48 years of imprisonment.

Arnold Schwarzenegger built his movie career by presenting himself as a star of big, violent action films like Conan the Barbarian. Unfortunately, he is now a hypocrite and is carefully distancing himself from the recent Conan video game release. Here’s the scoop, as reported by the Contra Costa Times:

Schwarzenegger has “no association with this game,” said Aaron McLear, the governor’s spokesman, who did not elaborate on how the governor feels about the character becoming a video game. Schwarzenegger is fighting for a law to restrict the sale of violent video games, and “Conan” would be among those regulated.

Schwarzenegger, who has himself appeared as a a character in several violent games, signed California’s video game law into effect in 2005.

Sad, but true: Arnold is no longer the awesome dude he was just a couple of years ago!

Gamers, you have done an awesome job of getting a word into the dictionary and even making it the word of the year – “w00t”. This word was chosen by Merriam-Webster as the “Word of the Year”, topping the publisher’s online poll for the word that best sums up 2007.

“It shows a really interesting thing that’s going on in language. It’s a term that’s arrived only because we’re now communicating electronically with each other,” said John Morse, president of the company.

Word of the year 2008: “n00b”.

Apparently, Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister of United Kingdom, resorts to Democracy to make sure he’s making the right decisions. Or at least that’s what Ascaron, the game’s publisher, wants us to believe anyway.

The game is due out February 2008 and lets players take on the role of a country’s leader, running the country and choosing between policies to maintain the majority vote.

With mounting pressure from the back benchers to review unpopular policy, the PM needs to carefully assess political strategy to gain the largest share of the vote to stay in power. But you won’t be able to keep everyone happy all of the time, so tread cautiously as popular policy may not be in the best interests of the country.

With an unpopular war being waged in the East and financial meltdown coming from the sub prime markets in the West, the UK government needs to take a firm and steady stance to appeal to the mass vote and win through. Tough political decisions lie ahead…

Do you withdraw British troops from Iraq to gain approval from the masses back home but expose the world to the increasing threat of terrorism? Do you maintain the unpopular increase in interest rates to safe guard from recession or opt for the more popular cut in interest rates and risk increasing the level of consumer debt in the UK? Winter bird flu is back on the agenda – do health services need a boost?

Just when is too good considered “too good”? Well, now you can ask The Romantics, a washed-up group, who is suing Activision over the inclusion of a “too good” cover version of their song “What I like about You” in Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the ’80s.

Apparently, the cover version infringed on the group’s rights to its own likeness, with the band claiming that it was an imitation that was “much like the Romantics’ original”. The band is seeking unspecified damages and is also seeking an injunction that could take the game off store shelves.

In a recent interview with Electric Design, Atari co-founder and gaming pioneer Nolan Bushnell commented that games nowadays are “pure, unadulterated trash” and that he is “sad” for the current situation.

“We used to have families sit down and play a game together,” he added. “A lot of video games today are very isolated. You don’t see mom and dad, sister and brother, sitting down like they used to play, say, Monopoly. That represented good mentoring time for families that just isn’t happening now.”

Bushnell has most recently worked on uWink, a series of interactive restaurants that feature touch-screen terminals with which customers can order food and drinks, as well as play games, watch movie trailers, videos and more.

I was always under the impression that the people at Rockstar were ones to embrace parody, as their games have always had bits of satire and parodies of products thrown in. Apparently, they don’t like it when someone parodies them. The upcoming Simpsons game makes fun of Grand Theft Auto and, as it turns out, people at Rockstar weren’t happy.

“I was always under the impression that when you do parody, it’s a sign of respect… If we make fun of Grand Theft Auto, we’re not going to hurt the sales of Grand Theft Auto… But yeah, we’ve definitely had some reactions – we’ve had to pull stuff from the game”, revealed Greg Rizzer, lead designer of The Simpsons.

However, not all companies are like that, and it appears the dudes (and dudettes) at Harmonix are cool. “I don’t know if you’ve seen Sitar Hero? We did Apu playing this 60-button controller and songs like Pour Some Curry On Me – we made this wonderful parody poster and the guys from Harmonix loved it and we sent them 20 copies of the poster. They just loved it so much.”

The Wii is being used almost everywhere, ranging from cruise ships to gyms. Add physical therapy center to that list. Minneapolis-based WCCO reports that therapists at the local Sister Kenny Rehabilitation Institute have begun using the console’s Wii Sports software to restore stroke victims.

Apparently, it works. Jerry Pope, a 77-year old former semi-pro tennis player, has begun using the Wii Tennis activity of the game, which has helped him regain movement in his hands and feet, as well as regain balance.

“Not only am I moving the hand, my feet are moving, I am jumping around, it is as if I am really playing the game,” said Pope. “It is motivational, makes you feel like you are progressing, even if you are not and that helps you.”

Officials at the center are contemplating a clinical study to investigate further usefulness of the game in physical therapy.