Now that everybody’s going back to school, you’re probably going to have to endure boring courses and lectures about things you will never actually use in real life. But at Wabash College in Indiana (US), freshmen get to play Portal as a class assignment.

A man in Hawaii (US) is suing NCsoft, the creators of the popular Lineage and Lineage II, claiming that, because of his addiction to the game, he can’t function properly in his everyday life and that even taking a bath or getting dressed is a problem for him.

He believes NCsoft was irresponsible by not warning him appropriately about how the game could become so addictive. So, obviously, he believes the company has to pay.

The Nintendo Wii has proven useful in the past in different areas aside from video games and entertainment. Its motion controllers and friendly interface have made it a surprisingly effective tool for rehabilitation and Wii Fit has managed to push people of all ages off the couch. In another surprising use for Nintendo’s console, sports medicine may be benefited in one its most important areas. The treatment of sports injuries.

As time passes and computer power increases, more and more tasks are performed by machines. A computer’s ability to do huge calculations in no time and also to perform with precision time and time again make them ideal for a number of areas where humans wouldn’t be up to the task. Even though we are clearly surpassed in certain situations, the human mind is still an awesome tool which can perform with amazing results in certain situations

One of these situations has been adapted into a game and is already proving a huge success.

The game is called Foldit and it deals with the internal structure of proteins, some of the most important building blocks of life. The game was developed at the University of Washington (US) and in it, players try to solve different puzzles that represent how a real protein molecule would behave. By manipulating the structure of these molecules, players earn points for discovering stable configurations.

For many years the big names of the sports world, like Reggie Jackson, Broadway Joe Namath, Big Joe Montana and the mighty Jerry Rice, have entered the Halls of Fame for their outstanding feats in their respective sports. Now, heroes of a different kind are being given the same treatment when the International Video Game Hall of Fame (IVGHF) conducts its first induction ceremony on August 5, 2010.

Has it ever happened to you that you are certain you have some money in you pocket or wallet? Maybe a $10 or a $20 just lying there. You are sure you can count on it to get some food after a night out, or maybe some breakfast the morning after. And then, you reach in there and there’s nothing. Not even a little lint. Did I change it all for ones and made it rain? Did I actually buy a round for those Avon ladies? I guess we’ll never know. But the thing is you feel kind of cheated, and that’s how I felt yesterday when I tried to play Alan Wake‘s new episode.

Sega recently released the Genesis Classics collection for the PC, hoping to bring back that feeling in those of us old enough to remember. I mean the awesome feeling, not the “That’s it???!!” feeling. Hits from Sega’s past such as Golden Axe, Space Harrier and Ecco the Dolphin were a success in this past release so Sega is launching a new group of Genesis games for the PC. This new collection will include hits like the awesome Eternal Champions (Xavier FTW!), Columns, Super Thunder Blade II and Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle.

With the recent increase in popularity of casual games, especially in social media sites such as Facebook, more and more companies are showing interest in this new segment. The big entertainment companies are aware of this new market and Disney, being among the giants in the industry, is making its move by going into talks to buy casual games company, Playdom.

Computed tomography or CT scan is one of the most useful tools medicine has today. It allows doctors to look inside out bodies without having to cut them open. One of the latest uses of this technology is a process called Image Guided Radiation Therapy (IGRT) which greatly improves the accuracy of traditional radiation therapy. Unfortunately, IGRT also presented some risks but now, technology originally designed for video games is helping improve this life saving technology.

When Microsoft debuted Project Natal, now officially known as Kinect, Milo was one of the biggest surprises in the show. It was really impressive to see how Milo interacted with the real world. The boy could apparently participate in a conversation and reacted to the things that were shown to him.

Microsoft and Peter Molyneux were silent for a while on Milo‘s development, but recently, at the TEDGlobal 2010 conference in England, new details were revealed about Milo‘s future.