Would you buy a videogame just because a big-name director worked on it?

We now know at least a few of the projects that Zack Snyder (pictured) will tackle once he's completed work on a modest little film called Watchmen:  According to a story in Variety, the director has signed a deal to develop three videogames for Electronic Arts (with an eye on turning some of those titles into film projects). Steven Spielberg, of course, also has a three-game deal with EA: His first effort — Boom Blox, for the Wii — was released last spring to generally favorable reviews. The ever-growing list of Hollywood vets who have worked on videogames now includes: John Woo (Stranglehold), Peter Jackson (a long-in-development title based on the Halo universe), and James Cameron (the game version of his upcoming Avatar).  Big-name directors really don't get much bigger-name than this — and it certainly says something about the strength of the game industry that it can attract talents of such talent and stature.

But just how much can someone like a Snyder or a Cameron bring to the game-playing experience? There were parts of Stranglehold that were like scenes right out of Hardboiled — but, really, couldn't the same be said of many recent action-shooters whose developers were undoubtedly influenced by Woo's masterful bullet ballet? And it's apparent that their names alone can move product: Boom Blox carried Spielberg's name on the box cover, but the game enjoyed only modest sales. (That said, there are many reasons to explain why Blox wasn't a huge hit — the real test will come in his next effort.) Already, a good number of new games refelect a more "cinematic" look and feel: heads-up displays, for example, will be missing from some A-list holiday titles. It will be interesting to see if these gentlemen can bring something to new to gaming (whose business model and structure, in turn, is becoming more Hollywood). What kind of changes do you think we can expect from these guys? Would you buy a game on the basis of their names alone? And which of these will ultimately have the most success in this industry?

'Rock Band 2': The battle of the bureaus

After dozens of raucous jam sessions, weeks of agonizing wrist cramps and the nonstop parade of puzzled stares by colleagues who happened by the EW conference room while our bureau bands were "practicing," the time to battle had arrived. Both the Los Angeles and New York offices had about one week to tinker with Rock Band 2, the new, improved followup to the game we'd become absolutely addicted to, and we each picked a song with which to duel. The date was set, the fight was on and we were ready to rock!

Playing for LA: writers Whitney Pastorek (vocals), yours truly (guitar), Josh Rottenberg (drums) and Editor-at-Large Ben Svetkey (bass). On team New York: EW.com senior editor Adrienne Day (vocals), intern Jaya Saxena (guitar), music editor Rob Brunner (drums) and editorial assistant Simon Vozick-Levinson (bass). Our song: Blondie's "One Way Or Another." Theirs: the Who's "Pinball Wizard" (fine choice, if I may add). And in case of a draw, however unlikely, Bon Jovi's "Livin' On A Prayer" was designated a wild card.

The "battle of the bureaus" précis, and your favorite Rock Band battle stories, after the jump...

On the Scene: Penny Arcade Expo videogame convention

This past Labor Day weekend, while most of America was busy with picnics and barbecues, more than 58,000 gamers flocked to downtown Seattle for the fourth annual Penny Arcade Expo (PAX), North America's largest gaming festival. PAX rivaled last month's E3, with more than 70 exhibitors -- including bigwigs such as Nintendo, Sony, and EA -- packing the convention floor. I was on hand to soak up the geek frenzy and to play a bunch of upcoming titles. Check out the highlights from PAX 2008:

Little Big Planet: I think I can safely say that LBP is the cutest game I've ever played. It is the sole reason I will finally be purchasing a PS3, and I can't wait to spend hours upon hours customizing my SackBoy, playing through the more than 50 (adorably detailed) levels and constructing my own world for him to explore. Oh, and did I mention that one of the outfits is the neon-green Borat thong? In stores October 21.

Fallout 3: The BioShock of 2008. Fallout is definitely not for the casual gamers out there. But for those looking for a truly engaging storyline and near-cinematic experience while blasting away post-apocalyptic mutants, it's definitely a game to lose yourself in for weeks. In stores October 28.

A sneak peek at more games after the jump...

Throwdown: Guitar Hero vs. High School

The gaming blog Kotaku has pointed to a ridiculous, TRUE story about a high school kid (pictured -- not!) whose parents were so sick of his ragging about not having ample free time to focus on Guitar Hero that they're letting him not attend high school anymore. The dude thinks he can make a career of playing the highly addictive game "professionally." From now on, he'll be home-schooled, presumably in hard-hitting academic subjects such as Faster Fingers, Long-Term Ocular Degeneration, and Becoming A Bigger Moron.

Fine, that's a little harsh. I'm just jealous! I wish I'd thought of this in my day. I could've won tons of cash at the hypothetical How Many Apples Can Your Yoshi Eat? competitions in my head. What about you: What's the mindless pop-culture career of your dreams? The pixelated sky's the limit. Apparently.

Snap Judgment: N.E.R.D.'s all-star remix video

The thing that most interested me about N.E.R.D.'s "Everybody Nose" video was the weird way MTV chose to censor it. Not a bad clip — just a little boring. Luckily, the video they just dropped for the "Everybody Nose" remix (below) is far superior on every level. Let me count the ways:

1. Hot guest verses from Kanye West and Lupe Fiasco (which makes this a semi-official CRS reunion!), plus a particularly excellent cameo from the Clipse's Pusha T. Everybody's in top form, making this poppy club track double as a serious lyrical clinic.

So, anyone else feeling this video? All the PopWatchers standing in the line for the comments section, pipe up!

Which songs would you like to see in 'Rock Band 3'?

No, Rock Band 2 hasn't even come out yet, much less any plans for a third one. But the first Rock Band game has become such a major force in the way Americans consume music that the announcement of RB2's set list this week was a huge deal. I mean, Axl Rose is using it to debut the first official track from Chinese Democracy, dude! (Hopefully this does not mean that Rock Band 2's release will be unexpectedly delayed for another 14 years.)

So we figure it's never too early to start brainstorming for the inevitable unveiling of an even bigger Rock Band 3. Personally, now that RB2 has landed the first-ever videogame licensing from Bob Dylan, I'd like to aim high and hope they could nab a Beatles tune. More reasonably, I would love to jam out to the lo-fi goodness of the Olivia Tremor Control. Or — ooh — solo along with noted axeman Lil Wayne!

Your turn: What songs would you pick for this hypothetical Rock Band 3 tracklist? Remember, it has to blow Rock Band 2's already pretty awesome list out of the water...

E3: Day Two: More Spore and [system error]

You know how I said in yesterday's write up of E3 that Wednesday's events would be less jam-packed? Yeah, I meant more jam packed. Much, much, much more. So much more, that there simply aren't enough hours in the day to relate them all to you here (this is what happens when you also have a TV Watch for two-hour episodes of So You Think You Can Dance looming over your head like the sword of Damocles -- or just Dante from Devil May Cry).

So I'm punting a bit and promising the highlights from Wednesday in a super-deluxe entry about Thursday's offerings, which really do seem to be on the lighter side anyway. (Famous last words. See above for proof.) But I don't want to leave you empty handed, so let me tell you about the two hours I spent in the thrall of Wil Wright's gorgeous, ingenious and clinically addictive Spore. It's one of the most intricate and dense life simulation games I've ever seen, and yet it's intuitive enough to play that I simply sat down at a kiosk in the EA Games suite, grabbed a mouse, and within minutes had my own little cellular organism flittering away through the primordial ooze. And then I swapped out my dude's flagellum (i.e. tail) for an extra eye and realized I'd stuck him with almost no method of forward locomotion, which made it kinda hard to, you know, eat. Or not be eaten.

Eventually, an EA expert came over to give me and my colleagues Wook Kim and Gary Eng Walk a proper tour of the game, including a database of thousands of user-generated creatures, which is when we discovered just how insanely flexible Spore's creature creation engine really is. There are Yoshi-shaped creatures, Whack-a-Mole-shaped creatures, Pokemon-shaped creatures. There's a creature that's the spitting image of Hobbes from Calvin and Hobbes. What's even crazier is that our guide told us that the Spore team often has no idea how people made these creatures.

Wook and Gary grew restless and moved on to check out other EA games in their suite, but I stayed parked right there, learning about everything from how to organize my own tribe, to how to navigate my space-ship to distant planets. Even the guide moved on to other people, but I stayed right there, mesmerized, and I only left because they were closing for the day and had to kick me out.

Tomorrow, I'll tell you about the Samuel L. Jackson martial arts game Afro Samurai, the all-new 8 bit Mega Man game (you read that right), the most violent game the Nintendo Wii is likely to see, and what it's like to play "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" while barking in a dog suit while your friend is strumming a sitar.

E3: (Officially) Day One: The Sequel: Migraine Mania!

There are only so many times you can watch a vaguely militaristic man, armed to his digital wisdom teeth, fire a pulse weapon at some marauding zombie/leviathan/genetic freak/Wookie before the bloom pretty much gets eviscerated from the rose. And I write this after just the (official) first day of E3 — I've still got two more jam-packed days of giga-pixeled decapitations to wade through. "Wait, Adam, do you mean to tell me that you're actually complaining about getting to spend your Tuesday learning about videogames as your job?!" No, dear reader, I'm not, promise. (Before I explain why I'm not complaining, though, mega bonus points to my colleagues Wook Kim and Gary Eng Walk for doing me a solid and filling in so awesomely yesterday.) There was plenty to enjoy yesterday, and I'll get to all that shortly. But it's also my job to be honest, and, I gotta tell ya, this isn't exactly turning out to be a blockbuster E3.

Exhibit A: Nintendo's morning press briefing, which took place bright-and-early at the famed Kodak Theater in Hollywood. Surely, the company with the hottest home and portable consoles around bussed in gaggles of E3-ers from their downtown Los Angeles hotel rooms (and dragged me from my apartment ten minutes away) to the home of no less than the Academy Awards because they had something to seriously dazzle the teeming sea of laptop-tapping jaded journalists and industry big-wigs? (Whew.) Um, no. And after the jump, I'll tell you what Nintendo did instead, along with the highlight's from Sony's confab, and which games made the biggest impressions.

E3 2008: 'Spore'!

It is Monday evening here in L.A. and I’m stuck in a hotel room recapping the day's events while my friend (and regular EW.com contributor Gary Eng Walk) is off having fun at a Gears of War 2 party.  And what, you are likely asking yourselves, is Adam Vary doing? Well, it turns out the eager young padawan — who’s supposed to be filing these daily dispatches — was called back to the office to fill in for a flu-stricken colleague. Because that’s the kind of guy he is: one who’ll use just about any excuse to get out of doing work. (I kid, I kid.)  Monday’s summary begins after the jump.

Attention gamers! E3 is nigh, and I need your help!

I need your help, fellow gaming PopWatchers. I'm attending this year's E3 -- the annual über-dog-and-pony show for video games and consoles -- for the first time next week, and while I'll be ably guided by our illustrious gaming editor and E3 veteran Wook Kim, I'm still feeling kinda green about facing down the massive sea of booths and stages at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

So this is where you all come in: What games do you most want to hear about? We'll have the big press conferences by Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony all covered, but when it comes down to the individual games, there's a frak-load to choose from. (Click here for a list of the titles confirmed to appear.) Should I focus mostly on the tsunami of action-based sequels -- i.e. Resident Evil 5, and Fallout 3, and Resistance 2, Killzone 2, Far Cry 2, and Gears of War 2? Do I fixate on games like The Sims 3, LittleBigPlanet and Spore that are as much about creating your own universe as playing inside it? (I'm personally pretty jazzed about Spore (see video below), so you're gonna hear about that one regardless.) Is there anything more you'd like to know about Star Wars: The Force Unleashed or Lego: Batman, or have those EW.com First Looks whet your appetite?

Hop on down our warp pipe to the message board level and let me know!

Guitar Hero action figure: An EW.com Exclusive

No, that isn't Marylin Manson's fat brother. PopWatchers, meet Lars Ümlaut, one of four new Guitar Hero action figures being released by McFarlane Toys with Activision. The six-inch toys come with a whopping 15-18 moving parts (approximately 10 more parts than you move while actually playing the videogame) and will sell for $10-$15. We have the exclusive first-look on Lars, but you can also pick up a mini Johnny Napalm (the green-mohawked guy), Axel Steel (uber-muscular sleeveless jeans jacket dude), and God of Rock (the white-bearded deity). The game franchise is obscenely popular, so it's no surprise they're rolling out new products. But action figures? Maybe those kids shredding GH3 on YouTube will be buying these up, but sorry, Activision — here at PopWatch, we don't play with dolls.

'Wii Fit'? No. You fat!

It's a gorgeous, sunny day, so why wouldn't you spend it indoors, letting a machine tell you exactly how disgustingly out of shape you are? Earlier this week, in an Idol/DWTS-induced stupor, Michael Slezak and I field-tested the Wii Fit's ski jump, hula hooping, soccer field bully avoidance, and jogging (?!) events. Wolf and Crush, who kicked our fat asses in January's esteemed Office Gladiators series, would be horrified.

Question of the day: Would you rather
a) Be great at Wii Fit, or
b) Have access to Girl Scout Cookies?

My answer, at least, is c) 'Duh.'

Audiosurf: When Music Met Gaming

AudioSurf is just about the coolest $10 computer game ever.

The game takes any song you have on your computer and transforms it into a rollercoaster racing track so that you can "ride your music." The shape of the track — its hills and drops, twists and turns — adjusts according to the composition of your song, and the speed of the race increases and decreases based upon the music's tempo.

In addition to the racing aspect, AudioSurf is also a slick puzzle game. As you cruise down your custom-designed track, colored blocks appear in conjunction with the song's beats, and it's up to you to pick up and arrange these blocks into clusters in order to earn points. Each song has its own score leaderboard; for instance, I'm ashamed to say that I currently hold the world record for "Pop" by 'N Sync. (To reestablish my indie cred, let me also mention that I'm on the leaderboard for several Vampire Weekend songs. So there.)

Here's a video example of a track using "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen. Notice how the track changes with the music, especially during the song's second half:

Breaking: Technology makes people fat*

Technology that requires sitting, that is. I don't think the Archive of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine's study accounted for Wii Tennis, now did it, Archive of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine? According to the study, cutting kids' TV and computer time in half made them eat less and therefore lose weight. One of the authors said, ""Viewing cartoons with embedded food commercials can increase choice of the advertised item in preschoolers, and television commercials may prompt eating." And so, clearly, could The Colbert Report from May 1, 2007 (pictured, don't ask). How is this study for real? Like everything I look at every day doesn't already make me want to shovel in a snack cake. As if! Seriously, though... is there anything on TV or the Internet that does not warrant the tag "may prompt eating"? Your suggestions, below.

*This blog post may prompt eating.

A holiday C-Note: How I'm gonna spend my hundred-dollar gift card

Last evening, I came home to a nice surprise: Enclosed in a nice Christmas card from an especially generous friend was a $100 Visa gift card. (Speaking as a recipient of his seasonal largesse, I firmly believe said friend absolutely deserved that large holiday bonus.) Anyway, it occurred to me this morning that I had no idea how to spend that hundred dollars.

I've done all my holiday shopping. Don't need any new clothes at the moment.  Music I get through my eMusic account (which I've had for 13 months now, seven months longer than I had originally planned). I really shouldn't buy anymore books until I've made a dent in the stack of volumes that taunts me from my nightstand (just finished the incredible World War Z, starting Manhunt). I don't have to spend much on videogames as I am the humble recipient of lotsa cool review copies (yeah, hate me).  DVDs? Well, I have four season of The Wire that I've been saving for a rainy month. 

Right now — and this is very much subject to change — this is how I think I'll spend the money:

• What is the What, by David Eggers (a stocking stuffer for my sister)  ...  $16
• Tonto+, Battles (not on eMusic, and not DRM-free on iTunes) ...  $15
• The Day-to-Day Life of Albert Hastings (saw this photo memoir in a bookstore last summer and regretted not buying it) ... $14 (at Amazon)
• Which leaves me with about $50, which, I suppose, should go to a charitable organization I'll decide on later.

All in all, not a bad use of a nice (and unexpected) gift.

What about you members of Team PopWatch — how would you spend a holiday C-Note?

Videogamers: Any one of you excited about 'Final Fantasy XIII'?

That small (and seemingly ever-shrinking) segment of 'gamers who still play RPGs might enjoy this extended preview clip of Final Fantasy XIII that features a lot more footage than was previously seen in the E3 2006 trailer. Me? I'm not sure what to make of this — there's simply too much going on (making it hard to separate the in-game footage from the cut scenes). And I'm sorry to see that the developers can't seem to get over their fixation with Jennifer Aniston-esque character designs. Or sticking them with impossibly large and unwieldy weapons. (I love the series, but perhaps it's time for a major re-boot.)  Right now, I'm not so sure I want to play the game (when it finally makes it to our shores some time, well, after March 2008). Of course, I may be singing a different tune in a few months...

Sooo, any RPG fans out there? What recent titles have rocked your world? And if you were once a fan of the genre, why did you stop playing?

The best videogames of 2007?

Bioshock (pictured). Call of Duty 4. Super Mario Galaxy. Mass Effect. These are a handful of the videogames that have, quite deservedly, appeared on more than a few lists of the year's best games. Chances are, they'll probably end up on EW.com's 10 Best Games of 2007, running next Monday. (For the record, I'm pushing for The Orange Box. And Ace Combat 6. And TLoZ: The Phantom Hourglass.)

Of course, we'd love to hear what games you thought represented the best of 2007 (and why) — especially those titles you feel may have been criminally overlooked in the crush of high-profile fourth-quarter releases. Games like Undertow (on XBLA). Or Everyday Shooter (on PSN). Or any number of RPGs (I thought Blue Dragon was pretty good.)  So have at it.

Games so not over!

This nifty little clip is a big sloppy kiss to videogaming made (several months ago) by a talented young fella named Thuyen Nguyen. I'm not sure where I stand regarding Roger Ebert's assertion that videogames are not an art form (he does make some good points) but I do know that the best games can offer a kind of experience unlike anything you might find in a book or movie or TV show. Perhaps that's a discussion for another day.  In the meantime, peep this footage. And when you're done, we invite you to share your favorite send-a-shiver-up-your-spine gaming moments. I'll start: Who remembers that moment in the PSone version of Tomb Raider, when the T-Rex comes charging out of the dark?

Who said the marching band was just for geeks? Well, actually...

Egads, this is the best halftime show at a football game ever. All videogames all the time, baby!

I spotted The Legend of Zelda, Pong, Mortal Kombat, and Tetris. (There's also, allegedly, Pokemon, but as I'm not 12, I didn't recognize it.)

More evidence that geeks shall inherit the earth.

The 'Rock Band' era is upon us and there's no turning back

I have seen the future of rock 'n' roll, and it's a video game. Specifically, MTV Games' soon-to-be-released Rock Band (out Nov. 20). I only fully wrapped my head around this revelation a couple weeks ago, when a group of us LA music journalists were invited to a private demo at MTV's Santa Monica offices. Oh sure, I'm acutely aware of the Guitar Hero franchise. Rob Thomas introduced me to the game, which he often toyed with between vocal takes in the studio; something I found a bit peculiar — here are all these amazing musicians, dozens of priceless guitars lining the hallway, producer Steve Lillywhite (U2, Dave Matthews Band) at the console, yet Rob, who's no slouch on the six-string, would rather click away on a glorified Simon posing as a pee-wee-sized plastic guitar. Go figure! But he loved his GH, so much so that when it broke, a studio runner was immediately sent out to Best Buy for a replacement.

So yeah, I get it and appreciate its enormous popularity. Even last week's South Park was devoted entirely to a Guitar Hero story line (which included a bold declaration by Kyle that "real guitars are for old people"). And at the recent LA launch party for Guitar Hero 3, I was dumbfounded to walk into a rooftop affair with several hundred in attendance (including Slash, pictured; Good Charlotte's Joel Madden; and some of Slash's Velvet Revolver bandmates) to find the bars nearly empty and the hors d'oeuvres trays full because all the guests were off gazing into fluorescent screens. I basically spent the whole night staring at peoples' backs (when not scanning for Rock of Love contestants — past or present — there to see Poison perform), which was not only freaky in a futuristic sort of way, but kind of sad.

On the Scene: The Simpsons Game's Hollywood premiere

If you're a videogame fan at all, you know there is an ongoing debate regarding whether games can be classified as "art." In one corner, Roger Ebert says no; in the other corner, the millions of gamers who've played Shadow of the Colossus, Okami, Ocarina of Time and countless other examples say, "Hell, yeah."

It's a silly argument, for if we want to entertain the idea that "art" even exists as a concept, then surely videogames belong. What isn't debatable, however, is the growing clout of the videogame industry. Halo 3 made $170 million on its first day, and as a result, Hollywood is starting to treat games with the same respect and enthusiasm typically reserved for movies.

Case in point: Tuesday's The Simpsons Game launch event at the Hard Rock Cafe Hollywood.

I was not expecting the premiere of one, ahem, videogame to outclass the majority of movie premieres I've attended. But Electronic Arts put on quite a production. Everyone walking by was treated to free food from Tommy's (a SoCal burger joint) as a trio of breakdancers did their thing. In front of the restaurant's entrance was a yellow carpet, and at the end of it sat an enormous crate, from which emerged a group of performers in Simpsons costumes.

Inside, guests were treated to Simpsons specialty cocktails. I tried the Homer Ball (gin, lemon juice, sugar syrup, orange juice and grenadine syrup), and yummy it was, even though the Hard Rock bartenders seemed to grumble about having to mix drinks called Recon Maggie and Megaphone Marge.

Recipe for Disaster: A 'Hell's Kitchen' Videogame

I love cooking shows. Really, it's a weakness of mine. (Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I'm on a diet and if watching Paula Deen add a stick of butter to everything is as close as I'll get to indulgence... well, I'll take it.) I could watch the Food Network all day, and would if I didn't need to earn money to keep the cable on so I could watch the Food Network. And I'm a pretty decent cook, provided ''beef'' and ''open flame'' are integral to the recipe.

But the news of a Hell's Kitchen videogame has to rank among the upper echelon of silly ideas I've ever heard. Why? Because cooking is either a spectator sport or a participant activity. If you're watching, you want to drool while watching the deliciousness take shape onscreen. If you're cooking, you get to eat. Neither of which will happen with a videogame, I don't care how next-gen the virtual cooking experience may be. (You will, however, get to hear HK's Chef Gordon Ramsay, pictured, yell at you for your virtual incompetence.) Bytes will never equal bites.

Follow the jump to discover five other videogames I'll never play... should they create them.

The Fellowship of the (Red) Ring

I've been afflicted with what is commonly known as the "red ring of death." For you non-gamers out there, I don't need any kind of salve, but thanks for asking. No, what happened is something that's happened to far too many owners of the Xbox 360: my $400 next-gen gaming hub has mysteriously become a very expensive paperweight.

Why? Hell if I know. I've heard rumblings of phrases like "chip set" and "fragile solders" and "overheating." (And I don't care what anyone says, I'm not wrapping my Xbox in a warm blanket as if it were a blown knee.)

Yes, Microsoft is sending me a box — a coffin — so I can return the dead unit to them for repair/replacement. But that whole process will take upwards of a month…a month where games like Halo 3, Bioshock, and Stranglehold are sitting on my shelf, woefully unplayed. (Not to mention upcoming titles like Call of Duty 4, Assassin's Creed, and Conan that will just wait in their plastic wrappers.) And it's very possible that my machine, or one like it, won't make it back to me before Christmas.

Anyone else been hit by the ring? What did you do to pass the time? Did you break down and buy a PlayStation 3 just to get the videogame monkey off your back?

'Halo 3' to storm stores tomorrow

"Halo 3" goes on sale tomorrow. (And at midnight tonight in some locations.) If you play videogames, this is a big deal: the one-day take for this third and final installment in the mega-selling franchise may top $150 million. That's Spider-Man and Harry Potter kind of money. So who out there is planning on buying a copy? What other upcoming titles are you looking forward to? Oh, and don't forget to check out our review of the game, which will be up on EW.com first thing tomorrow.

Game not over!

I'm sure anyone who checked out the gallery of our favorite coin-op arcade games must've gone into a Kong-like rage at the titles we omitted. You wondered: Was there nobody to defend Defender? Didn't anyone ever go gaga over Galaga? How could we be so devious as to exclude Xevious?  We understand your pain and anger. But before you start calling us a bunch of lame-brained, um, Asteroids, we offer you this opportunity to share your favorite old-school arcade games (as well as any proud or embarrassing or otherwise illuminating memories). Bonus points to the first brave soul who'll step up and speak out for Journey.

Comic-Con 2007: Simpsons, Cylons, and an army of Milla Jovoviches

The last full day of Comic-Con (Sunday is "Family Day," which apparently means "Hollywood Leaves the Town in Its Dust Day") was abundant with panels, clips and general geekery goodness, so let's just get to (but some) of the highlights, courtesy yours truly and my fellow reporter extraordinaire Nicole Sperling:

Fresh from the $30 million opening-day gross of The Simpsons Movie, several MVPs from both the movie and the show — including creator Matt Groening, current showrunner Al Jean, and voice-of-Lisa Yeardley Smith — stepped into the cavernous Hall H for the day's first panel, and, it turned out, the first time The Simpsons had ever commanded the Big Room. What was perhaps most remarkable, however, was that even though a good half the room had already seen the feature film — and the producers screened a brief deleted scene from it (a sausage truck driver discovering his passenger, Homer, had decimated his entire stock) — almost all of the questions were focused on the show. And we did learn a great deal about the upcoming season (number 19!): Jon Stewart and Dan Rather will guest voice in an episode about how Ralph Wiggum manages to become the front-runner in the 2008 presidential election (thanks, of course, to Homer); Sideshow Bob (Kelsey Grammer) and his brother Cecil (David Hyde Pierce) will return in an episode featuring fellow Frasier vet John Mahoney as their father; and country artist Lurleen Lumpkin (Beverly D'Angelo) will pop back into her former manager's life (that would also be Homer). The panel concluded with a clip from the upcoming annual "Treehouse of Horror" episode, featuring Marge taking her revenge on Fox's highly obnoxious on-screen promos for its shows by pinning Jack Bauer to her fridge, microwaving Dr. House, and pureeing Peter Griffin into a gelatinous (non-human) blob. That, and a singalong of the "Spider-Pig" song from the movie. But of course.

'Dirty Dancing': The Video Game?

I saw Dirty Dancing when it came out 20 years ago (and many times since) and was always entranced with the lakeside setting, the love story, and the soundtrack. What never entered my mind was, "I'd sure like to play a video game based on this film." Fatal Attraction, yes, Dirty Dancing, no. But what do I know? Apparently, not much, since Dirty Dancing — The Video Game, from the folks at Codemasters Online Gaming, is set to come out later this year. (Please tell me you are as confused as I am.) I don't quite understand how it'll work, but apparently it's a "puzzler" where you earn camp dollars by doing "fun mini-games" (probably making up the beds, serving food to guests, etc.) to buy items for your cabin and lessons with Johnny and Penny. The game even ends in a dance contest. I'm not sold… sounds boring.

But hold on a sec... nobody puts Baby's video game in a corner. On closer look, the press release says it's a casual game, so maybe it'll be like Diner Dash! You get to be the server at the resort while dodging Johnny and Penny as they fling each other around the dance floor. Now, that would be fun, but do we really need this? A Dirty Dancing video game? I guess this means a Three Men and a Baby game, complete with diaper changing challenges, can't be far behind; it's their 20^th anniversary too!

Fess up, PopWatchers, will you be playing the Dirty Dancing game when it comes out?