A lot of games are coming out this week. A veritable rainbow of releases, if you will. If we scale it, the red part (ROY G BIV, remember?) would include big titles like Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars for PSP, Borderlands, WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2010 and FIFA Soccer 10. On the violet side (more like bruise purple, really) we have the Charm Girls Club games and another Imagine [Insert Occupation Here] release. Hit the jump and let's get this ball rolling.

Things are definitely looking up for Xbox Live Arcade as Square Enix and SNK Blast announce that they'll each be throwing their own stuff into Microsoft's online service. The two publishers have set dates and margins for their Xbox Live releases, so we'll be seeing more life at Live in the coming months. Hit the full article for the release schedule and vids for the Squeenix releases.

Despite having a comical and motivational theme to it, the TV spot for Change 4 Life was met with ire by the gaming industry for linking gaming with obesity, calling it "another example of naive stereotyping and scapegoating." If you haven't seen the ad, click for the full article and see for yourself.

So you think you can play a song upside-down, inside-out just because your band made it? Wrong. Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic found this out the hard way when he couldn't quite get it right on Harmonix's and MTV Games' Rock Band 2 (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii), playing their song "In Bloom".

The Space Invaders are back, and they're invading today's consoles. PSN and XBL are both getting a port of Space Invaders Extreme. Relive those classic alien-shooting moments and show those aliens how we welcome nasties into our living room. Details in the full article.

This issue is another one of those weeks where you could selectively stave off from spending hard-earned cash, but then there are millions of gamers who need their gaming fix. Gladly enough, third-party publishers on the Nintendo DS and Nintendo Wii have addressed the casual gaming populace, and that pretty much sums up this week's retail release line up. On second thought, no - we still have an MMO, EA Maxis' pre-Spore sampler, a formerly retail, now PSN game, plus the release of Rock Band on the Nintendo Wii. Check the full story for details.

People who are lucky enough to live near the Royal Festival Hall in Southbank Centre, London should take heed: Video Games Live is coming up, and Philharmonia Orchestra will perform various memorable video game music ranging from Mario, Zelda, Final Fantasy, Space Invaders, Tetris and yes, even Halo 3. The event is scheduled on October 22, 7:30 p.m.

The variety of video games to be covered, from retro-classic gaming to next-gen, will ensure that everyone who watches the event will leave the venue satisfied. We ourselves will be way over our heads with glee after hearing an orchestra play our beloved Space Invaders tune.

Those who are interested better get their tickets as soon as possible. The ticket prices (depending on the seating) range from GB£ 32.50 (US$ 65.25) to GB£ 19.50 (US$ 39.15), with additional booking fees worth GB£ 1.50 or US$ 3 (no booking fee for Southbank Centre members).

There's nothing like videogame music, really. From the simple mono thumpings of Space Invaders, made specifically to sound like a rapidly-beating human heart, to the epic, mountain-shaking chorus of an orchestra as you slay your very first colossus - it evokes a level of emotion that no other music form can even hope to emulate. It's an experience that's meant to be shared, definitely.

Video Games Live, an immersive concert event currently taking the world by storm, hopes to do exactly that, performing at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Not for one, but for two performances (June 29 and 30) of nothing but classic and contemporary video game pieces any fan will surely recognize.

While the fact of VGL actually playing at a national monument alone is already big news, the even bigger breakthrough is that it's going to be the first time video game music to be performed at a live audience in Washington DC - and co-creators Jack Wall and Tommy Tallarico can't stop gushing about it. The latter even gave a hint as to who would be strutting down the red carpet at the event, saying:

We've already started inviting as many local politicians and their families as possible. It's important for us to show everyone how incredibly creative, artistic and significant video games and the culture surrounding them have become.

Politicians, you say? Here's hoping a particular someone actually made it into the guest list, so he sees (and hears) how games aren't as bad as he makes them out to be. It's a long shot, but there's no harm in dreaming, is there?

You can check out the read link for more info about this spectacular event.

Not news, but entertaining anyway. If some of you folks are still playing any one of the various incarnations of the arcade classic Pole Position, on the many emulators available - emulators on the PSP, on the PC, etc. - then this video is likely to entertain. Behold, Game Over Project">Guillaume Reymond, his Game Over Project, and the Original Human Pole Position:

For your enlightenment, the Game Over Project is a project developed by Swiss artist Guillaume Reymond, and it is set to feature animation movies that should revive the retro videogames. Previous projects include an animation featuring Space Invaders and Pong.

For more info in this artistic gaming endeavor, feel free to click our read link below.

Have you heard of the kid who played Space Invaders using only his brain? No, this isn't an opening for a lame joke. According to Live Science, with the help of a technique that takes data from the surface of the brain, a 14-year-old boy from St. Louis was able to play the two-dimensional Atari game without so much as lifting a finger.

The kid already had grids implanted to monitor his brain for epilepsy, and those same grids were linked to the videogame. He was then asked to move his hands, talk, and imagine things. These movements were then correlated by researchers to the different signals fired by the brain. They then asked the boy to play Space Invaders by moving his hand and tongue and then to imagine those movements without actually performing them.

"He cleared out the whole Level One basically on brain control," said Eric Leuthardt, a researcher at the School of Medicine at Washington University in St. Louis. "He learned almost instantaneously. We then gave him a more challenging version in two-dimensions and he mastered two levels there playing only with his imagination."

Leuthardt and colleagues actually performed this research on four adults a couple of years ago. The team observed quicker reaction times in the boy compared to the adults, along with a higher level of detail control. Chalk that one up to time spent playing videogames. If you're interested, you can check out a vid of the research here.