Okay, I admit it: I have a strong tendency to assign to blame for every gaming- related crime I hear about to Grand Theft Auto. I don’t know why, I just do.

Thankfully, though, this one doesn’t seem to have a GTA connection, just a Lame Pathetic Crook connection.

The guy walks into a video game store, asks to see an XBox 360, then lifts up his sweater to show the pistol stuck in his pants, and walks off with the console and just two games. Yes, just two.

If you know Heath Ledger, then you’ll probably know that his last film, Batman The Dark Knight, has  landed on the number two spot of the all-time box office hit list.

That said, I can’t imagine how Eidos and Rocksteady’s upcoming Batman Arkham Asylum can fail, even though it is really a separate project from the Nolan films.

But still, you’ll have gaming fans waiting for it, and curious movie and comic book fans, and I wouldn’t be surprise if Heath Ledger fans might give it a looksee to see to check if the in-game Joker can live up to their idol’s definitive portrayal.

Click here for screenshots

It seems “Tales of Vesperia”, the latest in Namco’s series of “Tales of” games, had what it takes to help push Microsoft and its XBox 360 video game console over the top against it perennial rival, the Sony Playstation 3.

The new game catapulted sales of the XBox last week to beat the PS3’s numbers in Japan, where it has until now met little success with the Japanese gaming population.

We here at the ol’ Gaming Technology Blog really love keeping tabs on the continuing tit for tat, give and take, mano a mano dialogue between people who think video games are bad, evil, unwholesome corruptions sent by the devil, and people who use their brains.

Example of people who use their brains? These psychologists who have
“discovered” that playing video games has benefits, and that you can’t just lump them all up under the “bad” category.

You can read the whole article by clicking on this link.

Despite being a decade old, the Playsation 2 is still the best-selling console of all time. And here are the ten best games ever for that system, according to PCAdvisor:

10: Gran Turismo 4
9: Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty / Substance
8: Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater / Subsistence
7: God of War
6: Final Fantasy XII
5: Okami
4: Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
3: Shadow of the Colossus
2: Resident Evil 4
1: God of War II

What They Play, a parents’ guide to video games, conducted two separate studies asking parents about things their kids did that they as parents found objectionable.

Around 3,000 parents responded by ranking video games a “more objectionable” activity than watching porn or drinking beer.

They also ranked violence in video games as more objectionable than sexual content.

Crytpic Studios dangled some interstellar combat footage as well as screenshots and concept art for its Star Trek Online massively multiplayer role playing game. The footage was revealed at a ceremony presided over by Spock actor and Star Trek film director Leonard Nimoy at a Star Trek convention last week.

Check it out here.

We all know online gaming– World of Warcaft, Lord of the Rings Online, and all those other immersive, sprawling time suckers– can get pretty addictive, and some of us are more addicted than others.

Well if you do your compulsive online gaming on a Mac, here’s something that might help: an application that disables your machine’s Ethernet and wireless networking for up to 6 hours at a time.

Read about it here.

Define Godlike: you think it, and it is so. Or if you’re an atheist, think of it as telekinesis practice, moving things with just your mind.

I’m talking about Emotiv’s EPOC game control helmet, which allows players to move items on their screens by just thinking about it.

It reads your mind–no, really– using 16 brain-wave sensors built into its frame, and recognizes thoughts like “push”, “pull”, “lift” and so on, and translates those into in-game actions.

The EPOC is due for release by the end of the year, and will retail for about $299.

If the biggest Nintendo announcement in recent times–its newest accessory, the Wii Motion Plus–isn’t enough to get your pulse racing in anticipation of increased precision for your existing Wiimote controller, here’s a quick cheap thrill: the Wii add-on’s going to be very reasonably priced.

So says Nintendo president Satoru Iwata, during a Wall Street Journal interview. He also hinted at more accessories in development.