There’s good news and bad news from Japan today for everyone who’s been lamenting the lack of Shenmue over the past ten years. The good news is, a third Shenmue game is on the way, called Shenmue City. The bad news is, it’s going to be a social network style game created for the new Japanese Yahoo! Mobage service. Just let that sink in for a second, and when you’re ready you can keep reading…

On January 30, 2008, Microsoft offered Yahoo Inc. $44.6 billion to merge both internet companies according to a story published in Reuters.

By merging, the businesses will be able to compete with the current popular web company Google Inc. According to Game Daily writer James Brightman, this would be the biggest merger since Time Warner Cable and America Online in 2000.

Apparently, Microsoft offered Yahoo $31 per share in cash and stock, which means that in return, Yahoo would agree to allow Microsoft to dominate the banner ads often used by corporate brand advertisements, which are known to attract up to 500 million visitors to the site. Yahoo and Microsoft are popularly used for their headline and financial news, sports and entertainment; but as far as a search engine, more people use Google.

It’s nearly impossible to make a list of games to suggest to everyone for specific gift-giving holidays. When I write a holiday guide for my newspaper column, I instead suggest a few games and suggest the type of person each game (or console) will best appeal to. Top Ten lists for holidays rarely work well for everyone and, when blindly followed, leave many gift recipients under-joyed.

With silly illustrations, Yahoo! has broken down the Fatherly types into some common categories, picking one or two games each type of dad might enjoy for Father’s Day 2007.

Here’s a quick rundown and the low/highlights…