Atari founder: today's games are trash

(Screen shots from Xbox 360 version of Virtual Fighter 5 due this month).

The big news in the industry this week comes from Atari founder Nolan Bushnell, who also made a mint with the Chuck E. Cheese pizza franchises.

Bushnell told the trade magazine Electronic Design that today's videogame titles are "pur unadulterated trash."

"Video games today are a race to the bottom," Bushell told ED, "and I'm sad for that."

Bushell thinks there's a lack of fun family games and most everything is concentrated on one or two players.

"Social games represent something that has been missing," he told the magazine. "Most of the board games are purchased by women for families. It is this gaming world that can be re-energized. We used to have families sit down and play a game together. 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."

Notes
-- Majesco Entertainment shipped "Zoo Hospital" for the Nintendo DS today. It lets players become a zoo intern who must examine and treat 40 different species of birds, mammals and reptiles.

-- Rock band Korn has written and recorded an original song inspired by Ubisoft's upcoming Haze video game. The song will be launched to radio and video in November 2007, to coincide with the launch of the Haze video game. The single, entitled "Haze”, will be available for purchase via online music download sites.

-- “Battlestar Galactica” comes to Xbox LIVE Arcade Wednesday. Inspired by the hit television series of the same name, “Battlestar Galactica” lets players choose their own path – be the hero and defend Galactica or join the dark side with the ruthless Cylons.

-- Blue Raven Technology (www.blueravengear.com) has introduced three new iPod accessories: an iPod Voice Recorder, an iPod Wireless FM Transmitter and an iPod Home Theatre Dock.

The new FM Wireless Transmitter allows you to listen to your favorite iPod music wirelessly on any frequency of your FM radio, in the car or in the home. Using Blue Raven's iPod Audio Recorder, anyone can now turn their iPod into a digital recorder. The Home Theatre Dock allows users to transmit audio and video to your stereo or television.

-- DreamCatcher Inc today released "Painkiller: Overdose," the next installment in the critically-acclaimed and award-winning franchise Painkiller, has shipped to retail stores.

The popular high-energy, frantic-styled gameplay is back in full force to continue the frenzy started among FPS fans in 2004 with the release of the original Painkiller. This sequel to the eventual prequel is packed with tons of fast-paced, adrenaline-fueled single player and multiplayer levels of mayhem. Painkiller: Overdose brings with it 8 innovative demonic weapons, mind-bending physics, lightning-player maps, over 40 demented and sickly-twisted monsters from Hell and gigantic end bosses.