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In a bit of weird news,The Tehran Timesis reporting that Iran, of all places, has joined the Entertainment Software Rating Board. You read that right — Iran is mucking in with the ESRB. Behruz Minaii, managing director of the National Foundation for Computer Games made the announcement, sharing his view that this will only improve the Iranian industry. “This plan will help families get better ideas about selecting games for their children and can set a good example for cinematic and television productions,” he said....

Oh, now I get why the hot, upcomingScooby-Doo!game is titledFirst Frights. That’s a little Shaggy and a baby Scooby-Doo in the header. Oh, Warner Brothers, will you ever run out ofzanyideas? Ehem. Anyway, today Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment announcedScooby-Doo! First Frightsfor the Wii, Nintendo DS, and the PlayStation 2. It’s described in the press release as an action adventure game that covers the teenage timeline of theScooby-Doouniverse. (This is before Shaggy discovered marijuana....

Data like the kind found in a recent study by Kaiser Family Foundation reminds me how much we as a society spend hunched over in front of a glowing screen, whether it be a cell phone, handheld, television, or computer monitor. No joke, it’s an absurd amount of time. The research was gathered by surveying kids on a nationwide level who ranged in age from 8 to 18. If you’ve got some time to burn, the report, “Generation M2: Media in the Lives of 8- to 18-year-olds,” isviewable right here....

Perhaps trying to steal the show from oneMr. Duke Nukem, Sony has announced a release date for Guerilla’sKillzone 3. It’ll be on shelves February 22 in North America. If the wait betweenKillzoneand its sequel seemed a bit longer than you had to wait forKillzone 3, you’re not imagining things. Guerilla’sHerman Hulst admittedthat the development cycle forKillzone 3was much shorter thanKillzone 2. He points to a more experienced development, having learned many lessons from bringingKillzone 2to life....

We know theLaytonseries is a moneymaker — the first four DS games haveshippedover 11 million units globally. Nonetheless, every time one of the games hits a milestone, I feel like throwing a party. Just this morning, Level-5 CEO Akihiro Hinotweetedthat the original game,Curious Village, had crossed one million copies sold in Japan alone. Time to break out the good vintage. There was no reason for me to post this other than that Layton is a badass....

[Backlogis the ongoing quest to ridConrad Zimmerman’scollection of unfinished games. As voted on by the Destructoid community, Conrad plays each game from start to finish live onDestructoid’s Twitch.tv channelevery weeknight at 8pm Pacific] I’ve been doing a fun mental exercise today. See, last night we traveled from a spooky mall to an equally spooky subway station inSilent Hill 3. It has me thinking; Is there an environment or locale which could exist in a town like Silent Hill that wouldn’t be made terrifying in the nightmare dimension?...

To really know what’s going on here, you’d have to beknee deep in anime nerdity, but if you’re not, we don’t mind explaining a bit. In Japan, the animeLucky Staris one of the hottest things around, and it’s opening title song “Motekke! Serafuku” (Take it! Sailor uniform) rocked the CD sales charts. Now fans dance in the street to this, making sure to match the animated dance choreography of the opening....

Like a lot of retro-philes out there, I’m currently pre-occupied with this coming Monday and it’s promise ofMega Man 9on WiiWare. To help alleviate my anticipation, I’ve been replaying all my favorite Mega Man games over again, includingMega Man 1and2on the VC, the first threeMega Man Xtitles, and all the portable Mega Man games done by Inti Creates (who also happen to be the development studio behindMega Man 9). I first went back intoMega Man ZX Adventon the DS, because it features a bonus game that looks and sounds exactly like aclassic 8-Bit Mega Man game....

We’ve all heard by now about this cataclysmic “economic crisis,” especially now that it’s started to have serious repercussions on the videogame industry. While many of us expect fresh IP to suffer as publishers hide behind trusted established franchises and guaranteed money makers, Microsofthas promisedto take the opposite approach. “… If we’re in the eye of the storm right now in terms of the economic situation, then clearly we’ll come out,” explains MS exec Chris Lewis, who promised his company would continue to innovate....

2011 marks the tenth year of theHalofranchise and Microsoft is ready to celebrate that milestone at this year’s PAX Prime show. They’ll be setting up an a showcase called “Halo Fest” featuring tournaments, giveaways and exclusive panel presentations. Halo Fest will be open during the regular PAX show hours and free access will be granted to anybody bearing a PAX Prime badge. That ought to be a fun thing to check out....

Now this is more like it! Designer Markus Persson has posted details about the 1.7 update forMinecrafton his blog. It’s going to be the “adventure update.” The team wants to keep the specifics secret, but it will focus on rewarding players for exploration and combat. Modding support “on a small scale” is also getting its start with version 1.7. “We’ll be giving the source code out to a very VERY small group of people before the release of 1....

A package from Activision arrived today, and while it sounded like there was liquid inside, we weren’t prepared for this —Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2branded Monster Energy drinks! The box for four-pack appears to confirm that it’s planned for a Spring 2010 release. As this is the first we’ve heard of this, we checked in with Activision who could only tell us that more details would be coming soon....

In a recent interview withGameTrailers, a solemn Molyneux apologizes for all of his “atrocious mistakes” with the originalFable, then goes on to say that Lionhead has plans forFable 3, 4,and5. He also mentions a mystery project that the UK developer has in the works. Aside from the bittersweet irony of the face-to-face, Molyneux divulges nothing about the planned sequels or the unannounced project. We’ve got plans for Fable 3, 4, and 5 actually....