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A 15-year-old boy from Barrie, Ont. hasrun away from homeafter his parents banned him from playingCall of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Brandon Crisp’s parents argued with the boy after claiming he was “obsessed” with Infinty Ward’s first-person-shooter. He was last seen riding from home on his black and yellow mountain bike on October 13. Because running away from your Xbox will help you to play it. “Over the last couple of years, Brandon has become less involved in sports and extremely involved in ‘Call of Duty 4....

The brain behind indie titlePassage, Jason Rohrer, is developing a Nintendo DS title. In an interview withPress Pause to Reflect, Rohrer divulges a few precious (and odd) details about the handheld game. It’s being published by Majesco at some point in 2010, and in Rohrer’s words, it’s a “two-player strategy game about diamond trading in Angola on the eve of the passage of the Kimberly Process.” The designer adds that it’s his first game “that will be sold in a real box in real stores, so it’s an exciting project for me....

We always dothese “things that totally happened” round-upsat the end of each event we go to. This year’s Penny Arcade Expo has had so many odd occurances that we had to do one early. There could easily be another list tomorrow.

The JapanesePersona 3 Portableblog onFamitsuhas been updated, and it comes with plenty of new details on this upcoming remake of last year’s hit PS2 RPG. As you may have already seen, the maps are now 2D affairs that you move a cursor over to navigate. The P3P blog says that they were thinking about load times when implementing this, and that it makes for a quicker and less frustrating experience....

I think many of us will agree, most aspects of pre-order bonuses straight-up suck. We could get into how having multiple retailer-exclusive offerings is terrible, and how the entire system needs to go away, but for today, let’s leave it at “generally speaking, the rewards themselves aren’t good.” Can we at least come together there? Even Lionhead Studios’ Peter Molyneux has had enough. The designer expressed his distaste in an interview with USA Today: “I’m kind of bored with pre-ordering stuff and getting a little bit more content that doesn’t make any difference at all to anything....

Hudson’sStar Soldierisn’t nearly as popular as other shump series are. Some of the subsequentSoldiergames, mostly TurboGrafx-16 titles, never made their way outside of Japan. But now there may be a collection coming to the PSP. If a listing by Japanese Web storeRakutenis right, a four-game collection will hit Japanese shelves on September 25. What’s in it? Super Soldier, Final Soldier, Soldier Blade,andStar Parodier, all for the lovely price of 2,940 yen ($28)....

In a rather surprising (or unsurprising, depending on how cynical you choose to be), Funcom has today announced that flailing MMOAge of Conanis launching a massive incentive — allowing you to play the game, for free, forever. “Anyone who downloads, registers, and starts playing the trial before January 1st 2010 will be able to enjoy all of level one to twenty — the entireIsland of Tortageexperience — without ever having to upgrade to a full account or pay a subscription fee,” boasts Funcom....

Really, we shouldn’t be shocked at this point when it comes to elements ofPortalseeping into indie games. Even so, I can’t help but find this footage ofPortal‘s turrets in Supergiant Games’Bastionto be absolutely delightful. And I’m one of those guys who gets beyond irritated at the overuse ofPortaljokes. The skill that allows you to drop turrets is exclusive to the PC version ofBastion, reportedly unlocked upon starting up a new game plus....

When Monolith first told Warner Bros. that it wanted to make a Batman game, there were blank, confused stares all around. The publisher already had a successful Batman game with Rocksteady’sBatmam: Arkham Asylumand the follow-up,Arkham City, was already well into production. But the developer had its own ideas, a multiplayer game set in the Batman universe, and one that would turn Gotham City on its head. The first challenge when tackling a multiplayer Batman game is obvious, and that is that everyone’s going to want to be Batman....

Think that the PS3 doesn’t sell? It certainly would seem that way fromthe general reactionto the pricey console, but apparently UK buyers don’t seem to mind. According toMCV, it looks like ChartTrack research shows the two consoles are in very close competition for highest sales volume. However, 55 percent of all PS3 sales were in the first four weeks following console’s launch, so some of the sales can likely be attributed to buyer excitement for new products....

IfThe Orange Boxisn’t the game of the year, it’s most certainly the deal of the year. Five games for the price of one is hard to beat. Xbox 360 and PC owners have been loving it since October, and PlayStation 3 gamers need wait no longer. Electronic Arts has announced that the PS3 version of The Orange Box will be available in stores on December 11. After UPS trolls seemingly nabbed the copy I was supposed to receive last week, I finally have the game in hand....

Treyarch’s upcoming entry into the James Bond videogame world is coming to a head this November. Unlike some of the drivel that has come out of the Bond pipeline sinceGoldeneyeexploded all over the place,Quantum of Solaceappears to be inspired. It’s obvious that it wants to capture Daniel Craig’s portrayal of a more visceral Bond, but more importantly, it may actually be able to stand on its own as a shooter...

Red Orchestra 2had a rough launch. While it is a great game, there were some serious issues to deal with, including bugs. One of those issues was stats not being recorded correctly. Players would sometimes have random and ludicrous numbers attached to their profile. The achievement system was also completely bonked. Since the game’s launch, Tripwire Interactive has been hard at work putting out patches. Many of the major issues have been resolved, and they are still fine-tuning the experience....