The quick cap news

* Peter Molyneux is to receive a BAFTA fellowship, the highest honour bestowed by the British arts award body.

* Tax breaks in the next budget might be in the works for UK games developers, as a measure to bolster the growing industry.

* Bioshock 2 DLC goes up and then down on GfWL. Despite the problems, 2K gave assurances that refunds would be given to those who purchased the originally free DLC.

* A new pro-gaming show, covering Intel-sponsored games, draws in 2.26 million viewers on Eurosport.

* Former RedOctane CEO attributes the death of the Guitar Hero franchise to abuse from Activision.

* Gabe Newell, managing director of digital distribution front-runners Valve, proposes a merit-based system for the purchasing of future DLC and, possibly, games.

* The US Federal Trade Commission are to investigate free-to-play games due to consumer fears that children did not understand the ramifications of in-game purchases.

* Yet another study concludes that there is no desensitising effect to video games. Thank you for saying, yet again, what gamers already know, and conservatives and identity politics groups will ultimately ignore.

* Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood will feature DRM that is much more tolerable than its predecessor. No longer will gamers be required to remain connected to the internet constantly to show Ubisoft that they haven’t been playing a second-hand pirated game.

* Witcher II developer CD Projekt Red asserted its own opposition to DRM in its new game, preferring a focus on richer game content. It was conceded that DRM may feature in the game as a result of factors from other parts of the retail chain.

* Several former Bizarre Creations employees have started a new studio, Lucid Games. Backed by local concerns trying to keep talent within Liverpool, the studio may create up to 50 jobs.

Main news

Telltale Games have been in the news a fair bit recently. Besides the recent Back to the Future series of episodic games, the developer has announced games based on the Jurassic Park franchise to appear in April. Further, they are expanding their range with the acquisition of DC’s Fables and a revival of Sierra classic King’s Quest. Other things in the pipeline included a publishing deal for indie adventure Hector: Badge of Carnage and a sequel to the earlier hit Puzzle Agent. Also, they released a video chronicling the rise of digital distribution.

Also…

* You won’t find this side of gaming out from Fox… Chime brings in $96,000 for charity.

* If human rights abuses and lack of democracy weren’t enough, it’s a bad day to be a gamer in Vietnam.

* Wind Waker stained glass auctioned on eBay.

* Petroglyph announces closed beta for its new F2P DotA style game, Rise of the Immortals.

* Also, this is one cool dad.

Have a good weekend all.

The quick cap news

* The Battlestar Galactica Online beta is open.

* LittleBigPlanet shoes auctioned for Child’s Play, but you wouldn’t find that out via Fox News (see below).

* A new Dungeon Siege III trailer, as well as a preview for Dragon Age II.

* For fans of F2P games, Eurogamer reviewed Bloodline Champions, giving it a respectable 8/10. Also, Paradox Interactive announced the F2P MMORPG Salem, set in the early days of American colonialism.

Main news

It’s been a very interesting week for the first of my blog’s existence. The first item is that EA has closed three Warhammer Online servers, two American and one European, it is offering free character transfers off the closing servers.

In the PC v. console wars, there was talk of the effect console porting might have on Dragon Age II. On the other hand, despite not being a PC exclusive, Crysis 2 will be superior on the PC in every way according to Crytek. Quite frankly, if they can make the game stand out from the crowd in something other than its graphics, like perhaps gameplay, they will have made a superior product to the original as far as I’m concerned. There’s also a rumour that Battlefield 3 will be supporting extra features on the PC as well as the higher player limit.

Of the two big pieces of news, first we have the whole nonsense from Fox News. In service to their dark gods of hyperbole, Fox has attacked Bulletstorm on the grounds that it “ties the ugly, graphic violence into explicit sex acts: ‘topless’ means cutting a player in half, while a ‘gang bang’ means killing multiple enemies.” The fact that people at Fox think being topless is an explicit sex act almost worries me more than the fact that they won’t listen to the more rational arguments, but that shouldn’t surprise anyone; these are the people who think Bill O’Reilly is a journalist. The good news is that, apparently, if you pre-order Bulletstorm (made by People Can Fly, the makers of the excellent Painkiller) from the EA Store, you’ll get Shank for free. Fox have nothing to say on whether Shank will increase the likelihood of rape, so be careful.

Activision has cut quite a lot recently. There was news of job cuts at Vicarious Visions and FreeStyleGames as well as the killing off of Guitar Hero. This got expanded when the 2009 acquisition, 7 Studios, was closed down. This prompted Harmonix to encourage GH fans over to Rock Band. Not that Harmonix has had the best time of it, either. Activision Blizzard’s share price dropped 8% after reporting 2010 financial results on Wednesday.

That’s all for this week. A good weekend to all.