Apple has said that there are currently 21,178 “game and entertainment titles” available for download from the App Store.

At a San Francisco event last night the company revealed the massive gap in the number of games available for iPhone / iPod Touch and rival platforms DS and PSP. There are reportedly 3,680 games for Nintendo’s handheld and just 607 for Sony’s portable.

The App Store’s line-up of games has been bolstered by the addition of EA’s Madden NFL 10. Also due for release this year are Ubisoft’s Assassin's Creed II: Discovery, Gameloft's sci-fi FPS N.O.V.A. and Tapulous' music racer Riddim Ribbon.

Sony said earlier this week that it might consider releasing free PSP development kits in a bid to attract more developers to the platform. However, the company has previously stated that it’s focused on the quality of releases rather than the quantity, and has also suggested that an abundance of titles for a platform like iPhone can lead to visibility issues, leaving developers frustrated when their games are overlooked by consumers.

_{By Bryn Williams}

David Perry's new cloud computing game service, Gaikai, will go into a round of closed beta testing in Europe before North America. The man behind the new service told that Europe's response to the service has shown "enormous enthusiasm."

The beta test is currently scheduled to begin later this month, and interested parties can head over to the official Gaikai beta test application page and submit details. Perry aims to "bring the servers to their knees" during the closed beta so he can get a good idea of how many to order. He also wants to test "older" computers to make sure he can reach "the widest audience possible" at launch.

Using Gaikai requires no 3D card nor any software to be installed. Once the invite is sent you can play the test games. Those invites will go out one at a time based on location, and Perry hopes to add new players every few seconds. 

All you need is a broadband connection and a computer workable enough to display incoming video.

Official Gaikai beta test application page

Are you ready for the greatest advance in PC battle gaming this century?

These Gaming Vests transform standard battle gaming into a spine chilling, heart pumping, sweat inducing, adrenalin fuelled (you're getting the point) adventure. Using state of the art pneumatic technology, these S.W.A.T-like body armour suits ensure that every time someone shoots you, you feel the force of impact! With no less than eight impact cells scattered over the front and back of the vest, each delivering up to 10lbs of force, you'll feel the wallop of punches, kicks, bullets and blasts that happen to your character. The strength of the impact varies depending on whether someone taps you on the shoulder, or has the effrontery to hit you head on with a shotgun (which is just rude). Festooned with zips and clips, the vest adjusts to fit snugly over the thin and not so thin alike, will communicate with a variety of games (see below), and comes with a copy of Call of Duty® 2, so you can get started straight away. Cry havoc and let loose the dogs of war!

Vest works with CoD4 ( no info about WaW) and Retail price is £149.00 / € 170,00

Gaikai is a revolutionary new technology that lets you play any game online in your browser. In the age of the cloud, when all your documents, email, photos and videos are instantly reachable online, it seems archaic that you still need to install gigabytes of game files on an expensive PC with an even more expensive video card. And even then you can only play from that specific computer!

Gaikai takes a radical new approach – we host the games, we run them, we worry about hardware and software updates, and we stream them to you. Full resolution, full speed, stereo sound, low lag, no compromise. The only thing you need is a browser and an internet connection.

We call this Streaming Worlds, taking the full richness of modern computer games to anyone, anywhere, anytime.

Today Mad Catz announced that they have partnered with Activision and Infinity Ward to develop a range of controllers and accessories.

The release also says that the company will develop accessories for all platforms currently announced for the title, which include Xbox 360, PC, and PS3 systems.

With an election due in September, politicians in Germany want to rush through laws that will prohibit the sale of violent games and ban companies from making them within its borders.

The move is a knee-jerk attempt to show the German public that action is being taken in response to the shocking school shootings in Albertville back in March. Millions of teenagers play violent games, yet school shootings are very rare. If there was a link such massacres should be an almost daily event. That the Albertville murderer played violent videogames is no more a reason for his actions than the fact he probably ate potatoes at some point in his life. This law won't save lives although it might save the careers of some German politicians.

But this move will do little to prevent a similar tragedy. When the FBI investigated the link between school shootings and violent games after a spate of school shootings in the USA, it came to the obvious conclusion: there is no link.

The danger is that, having introduced a ban at home, Germany may begin to push for similar laws across the whole of the European Union.

So lets stop what those German politicians try to do. Sign the official German Bundestag petition. It is the only hope to stop this ridiculus law being activated. (The epetitionen website is slow so it takes a few minutes register and sign the petition.)

- There’s nothing that can’t be done if we raise our voice as one -

                                                                                      ^{Michael Jackson}