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Playing drums in games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero: World Tour could be far more beneficial than you may think. A study being conducted by the universities of Chichester and Gloucestershire, in collaboration with Blondie drummer Clem Burke, seeks to show the physical and mental benefits from banging away on a plastic kit.

Dr. Marcus Smith, Principal Lecturer in Exercise Physiology at the University of Chichester, explains that he's "particularly interested" in seeing how the drumming affects "child and adult obesity, autism, stroke patients, disengaged communities, and health and mental well-being in the workplace." Regarding that last part, Dr. Smith thinks that a game like Guitar Hero: World Tour could do a lot of good in the workplace, saying the game could be like "a rock venue," lowering stress and increasing "productivity for the business." Sure, if something is going to get your workers to pump out those Excel spreadsheets faster, it's taking a quick break to sing some Elvis Costello.

[Via GameDaily]

"A lot of our elementary school children have Nintendo [DS]. Why can't our companies develop products like that?" These were the words of South Korean president Lee Myung-bak during his visit to the Ministry of Knowledge Economy. Lee wants to bolster the Korean game industry to rival the success of Nintendo, but local game companies agree that stagnant software support in Korea won't see that happening anytime soon.

It's for that very same reason that GamePark Holdings' GP2X (a Korean-made handheld system which relies on homebrew) isn't exactly flying off the shelves. Without any sort of big-name software like Mario or Zelda included, Mr. Lee's dream won't come true. This is a sentiment shared by Korean developers in every sector – from mobile gaming to internet-based and PC software. If the Korean government could find a way of supporting the software industry better, helping out developers like Pentavision and NCsoft, then maybe Korea might get the ball rolling.

[Via Game Daily]

Each week Mark Methenitis contributes Law of the Game on Joystiq ("LGJ"), a column on legal issues as they relate to video games:

It's early 2009, we've just elected a new President, and there are quite literally a mountain of problems to be addressed on Capitol Hill. Our economy has been in substantial turmoil for roughly six months, with some problems stretching back for years. Many states are at or near bankruptcy. This economic crisis has, by now, hit every country on the planet to some degree. So, our legislators have spent the last two months rushing to put together proposals to regulate video games. No, no one's undivided attention has been on the economy during this complete mess. Instead, since the start of the year, it seems there has been an explosion of potential new video game regulations, from Jack Thompson's bill in Utah, to New York, to the US Congress, to Australia -- just to name a few. And that's in addition to issues like the FTC's rumblings about DRM, which I've mentioned previously.

While this boom in regulations and potential enforcement may be great news for sites like GamePolitics, it's potentially bad news for game developers and consumers, not to mention the taxpayers who are footing the bill for all of this. Of course, these laws are also coming from a number of different directions and under different theories, so I thought it might be a good time to give a short take on each and predict which directions things could be going.

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You remember, eight freaking months ago, when we reported on BioWare talking about" more DLC for Mass Effect? Well, while you were vicariously experiencing the New York Comic Con through our virtual window into the Jacob Javits Center last weekend, BioWare community manager Jay Watamaniuk was dropping bombs on CinamaBlend.com's Pete Haas regarding that very same DLC, though remaining notably vague.

"Watamaniuk mentioned earlier in our chat that a second Mass Effect DLC episode was on the way," reads the piece, noting that Watamaniuk quickly redirected the conversation. We've reached out to BioWare for comment and have yet to hear back, but will update this post accordingly as word comes in.

It's been 8 years since the release of the last real Wolfenstein game. After seeing Wolfenstein last week at an Activision event, we wonder if there's any reason to revisit the franchise.

There's a fine line between "classic" and "dated," and Wolfenstein finds itself on the wrong side of the fence. Fighting Nazis was a novel idea back in the series' prime, but it has since become a tired idea. At first glance, Wolfenstein can only be described as generic. A FPS that has you crawling through World War II shooting Nazis? After dozens of Call of Duty and Medal of Honor games, to call the era overused would be an understatement.

Gameplay and setting aren't the only things dated about Wolfenstein. The visuals are lackluster, undoubtedly hindered by the aging idTech 4 engine (Doom 3 engine). We couldn't help but notice how poor the texture work was and how uninspired the levels looked through the entirety of the hands-off demonstration. Although the visuals were rather bland, we were taken aback by the shoddy framerate. Yes, the game still has quite a bit of development left ahead of it, but this early look certainly didn't give us much confidence.

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Because it's important news, sandbox action title Just Cause 2 is scheduled to free-fall to retailers sometime during Q3 2009. It isn't quite the 2008 release window Eidos was targeting, but whatcha gonna do?

Eurogamer Germany broke the news (translated), confirming the release in the wake of developer Avalanche Studios' layoff announcement and subsequent promise to put more focus on the anticipated (?) sequel. As long as Just Cause 2 gets ample time to cook in the developer oven, the title could soar from mediocrity to something special. Know that putting care into the development cycle is always a just cause.

[Via VG247]

There appears to be some confusion over what multiplayer options will be included in the upcoming Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars. The DS game will feature support for Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, but the connectivity does not expand to multiplayer.

Instead, multiplayer is limited to local system play. A flyer from New York Comic Con (via GoNintendo) shows the game will include competitive and cooperative modes -- although no other details were revealed.

While Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection won't be used for multiplayer, it will allow players to communicate and interact with their friends. For example, you'll be able to share favorite locations, chat live through in-game instant messaging, and trade in-game items. Stats can also be uploaded to Rockstar's Social Club site. Through the Social Club, Rockstar is promising "special contests, events, and promotions," although what those will entail is still unclear at this moment.

Hey, welcome to our brand new iPhone feature, "iPhone It In." We're going to start off with a discussion of a new iPhone game, but stick around afterward to see how you can win a super-sexy, Joystiq-branded iPhone case from our friends at Element!

Let's give credit where it's due: As a proof of concept, Silent Hill: The Escape works. If someone at Konami wanted to prove that they could create a creepy atmosphere that boasted the series' trademark look and sound on a phone, they should consider this a success.

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Two top executives at GamePro magazine, President and CEO Daniel Orum and SVP and Publisher Bob Huseby, have left the company. GameDaily reports that Huseby will be joining Wikia, and Orum's next position is unknown. Concurrent with these departures is the arrival of Ziff Davis's Marci Yamaguchi Hughes as executive vice president and general manager.

GamePro Senior Vice President and Executive Creative Director George Jones told GameDaily that the shifts were a "weird confluence of events that aren't related at all." He said that the publication is "in a really good place now," especially since the loss of major multiplatform competitor Electronic Gaming Monthly.

Remember when Ziff Davis went bankrupt last year, and said it wasn't actually bad news for its magazines? We're hoping that this isn't a similar situation, and that those two executives really did leave at the same time for basically no reason.

Somebody in Capcom's offices has a mountain of undeserved hate mail in his inbox. If the frequency and causticity of online discussion is anything to go by, Resident Evil 5's Controls Guy (technical term) has surely become the target of office vandalism, or at least a wall full of passive aggressive post-it notes. In case you hadn't heard: Implausibly beefy protagonist Chris Redfield can't move and shoot at the same time. Nice going, incompetent Controls Guy!

Ignoring this minor incongruity with the survival-horror's commitment to plausibility and sturdy logic, I think a lot of the discussion has merit, especially in a genre which has done much to modernize itself in the last year. There is one sticking point in this move-and-mow-down debate, however: Poor Controls Guy has nothing to do with it. Leave him alone!

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As the late, great, Kenny Loggins once sang, "Ride into the Danger Zone!" What? Kenny Loggins isn't dead? Awkward. Moving on... On February 11, a demo for Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. will hit the Xbox Live Marketplace for Live Gold members.

The demo, which tracks experience and includes three unlockable fighters to test drive fly, allow up to four Mavericks to play cooperatively. It sports two missions for the upcoming air-combat game: In Operation - Off Certification, one of the game's training missions that showcases maneuvers and tactics used throughout the adventure, and In Operation - Glass Hammer, another training mission that teaches pilots how to blow stuff up in the air and on land. Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. lands in stores this March.

Namco Bandai has confirmed that its upcoming next-gen reboot of Splatterhouse -- which we just saw at New York Comic Con -- is no longer in development at Bottlerocket Entertainment. Development of the game, which was the studio's only project, will be completed, although Namco isn't saying who will finish the work.

When approached for comment on the situation, Bottlerocket told us that, "Last Friday, Namco showed up with a U-Haul truck, took all their assets (dev kits, etc.) and informed management that the title was being pulled from Bottlerocket."

Namco would not discuss specifics of the move, saying only that, "Yes, we have decided to part ways with Bottlerocket Entertainment but we are committed to bringing Splatterhouse to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 later this year. At this time, we are not ready to discuss specific development details about the game and wish Bottlerocket the best of luck in their future endeavors."

The job of finishing Splatterhouse is rumored to have gone to the same in-house Namco Bandai team responsible for the recently-released Afro Samurai.

Rush - Moving Pictures (200 Wii points apiece)

• "Tom Sawyer"
• "Red Barchetta"
• "YYZ"
• "Limelight"
• "The Camera Eye"
• "Witch Hunt"
• "Vital Signs"

Videos for the tracks can be found after the break. We're still waiting to hear when "new" Rock Band Weekly tracks will become available for Wii, but last we heard, it should still be sometime this month.

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PrimePlus has a fairly interesting piece about the current state of black characters in video games. The editorial maintains a very moderate approach to the charged subject, covering the differences between Western and Eastern development, along with how black characters have been portrayed over the years.

The piece mostly focuses on upcoming titles and games from the last decade, like Mass Effect, Half-Life 2, Gears of War and GTA: San Andreas. Without getting "politically correct" or preachy, the editorial notes that representation isn't an "exclusive concern to the population of black individuals." It points out that "more socially imaginative avenues of inspiration" would be welcome, which is something we can agree about.

[Via Edge]