Before you start furiously clicking through the source link to see where on the list of Architect's Journal's "Top 10" gaming worlds Second Life falls, we're just going to tell you upfront that it's number seven. That's three full spots ahead of the (apparently) FAT-inspired Super Mario World! Outrageous, we know, we know.

The list is rounded out by some rather ... interesting choices -- from Jet Set Willy's house to Halo's ring world, and everything in between, which are all discussed in highfalutin terms that we simply can't wrap our heads around. "Gemutlich?" "Miminalism" (note: not "minimalism")? We're sticking with the video games, thank you very much.

[Via Kotaku]

With Project Natal, Uncharted 2, Metroid: Other M, Scribblenauts, and everything else going on at E3, the 25th anniversary of Tetris almost went unnoticed this past week, which is a real shame. We met up with Alexey Pajitnov, the creator of the game, and sat down with him to mark the occasion. Tetris may very well be the "remember when?" dividing line among video game generations, and it was quite an honor to meet the man behind the game that's become one of the cornerstones of the industry.

You can listen to the full audio of the interview below, and head beyond the break for probably the world's shortest documentary, entitled "The Tetris Effect." Seriously, it's only three minutes long. How you can sum up the impact of a game that's still fun to play and appears on every major and minor platform around is beyond us. Maybe one of you readers will feel inspired to do an in-depth Ken Burns style documentary on it someday.

He's one of the sweetest people we've met in the industry, and despite having invented one of the most prolific games in the world, he's very humble and down to earth. Give it a listen and try to imagine a world without Tetris.

Tetris Online is gearing up for a Tetris Party ... party. It's announced the second in its series of tournaments, this time featuring the WiiWare puzzler's co-op mode. Between February 1 and 15, registered teams of two will be able to compete to get the highest score and fastest time to 150 lines. The top 100 teams will receive 1200 Wii Points, just enough to get that copy of Tetris Party they clearly already have.

These tournaments finally justify all that time and effort most of us have put into Tetris. Extreme line-clearing skill always seemed like the kind of thing that should help people get ahead in life, but until these tournaments, it just hasn't.

For us, there are a few select games that never leave the immediate vicinity of our DS. Tetris DS and Space Invaders Extreme can be immediate sources of instant bliss, so we're never without them when out and about in the real world, where the danger of not being able to game can be very real and present. What about you all?

What are those few games that get constant rotation in the cartridge slot of your DS? What game (or games) do you constantly come back to for amusement?

Believe it or not, the image above is not some ten-year-old's 5th grade collage. It's real science, by the fine chaps in the department of psychiatry at the University of Oxford. The study sat individuals in front of a 12-minute clip of "traumatic scenes of injury and death" (we're not talking Mario falling into a pit here), gave them a 30-minute break, and then split them into two groups. One group was asked to sit in silence. The other played Tetris for ten minutes.

The study found that those who played Tetris had significantly fewer flashbacks of the gruesome video in the days that followed, according to mandatory diaries kept by the participants. The results suggest that Tetris acts as a "cognitive vaccine" against the effects of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), which correlates with contemporary treatments that call for the use of visual "distractions" to treat reoccurring mental trauma. But much like Heroin before it, Tetris may end up being the cure that needs to be cured. In other words: Use only as directed.

[Via guardian.co.uk]

We've always been big fans of Tetris, to tell the truth, and now it would seem the game has real health benefits. According to a study done in the UK, the game can help those with post-traumatic stress disorder. The study exposed volunteers to disturbing imagery and, for some, allowed them to play the game after. For those that played the game, stress levels reduced and they suffered from fewer flashbacks of the disturbing imagery.

So, make more time in your busy life to play some games. It's good for you!


[Via /.]

A lot of girls love Tetris.

See, that right there is why we're bloggers and not songwriters: An idea that we can only drum up seven syllables on is enough for YouTube's brentalfloss to write a complete set of lyrics to the soundtrack permanently etched in all our psyches: "Korobeiniki."

Be forewarned: This isn't for kids nor the workplace, and some may find it a touch offensive. But we're almost certain he's got his tongue planted firmly in his cheek. Almost. ... His tongue's in his cheek, right?

Electronic Arts has answered the call for more games on Google's Android mobile device platform – i.e. the T-Mobile G1 – with a version of Tetris now available for download from the EA Mobile site. The game is selling for $7.99. It will be followed next month by Bejeweled and Monopoly: Here & Now Edition.

In an official release, EA Mobile America and Asia publishing veep Adam Sussman calls Android an "exciting new platform" and says that the division has "more games in development" beyond the three revealed today. Looking at its catalog of iPhone / iPod Touch games, it's probably safe to expect some variation of Spore and Scrabble to be in the bunch.

Tetris Party on WiiWare is classic Tetris action. If you're expecting some kind of re-imagining or complete overhaul to the classic game, then you won't find it. What you will find is a very competent installment in the series, complete with several fun and exciting single-player modes and a very streamlined approach to playing online. If you're a fan of Tetris, then you're going to like what's here in Tetris Party.

It's a pretty big week for releases. On top of plenty of games available at retail, there's a couple of imports available on the Virtual Console, as well as one awaited WiiWare release (can you guess what it is?). Head past the break and start thinking about cracking open that piggy bank.

We've soaked up Tetris on countless platforms. There's a balance to strike between versions that retain enough of the core game to be authentically Tetris, and adding new puzzle elements. Tetris Party for WiiWare nails this demand, providing about a dozen game modes, many of which, are all-new. Call it "yet another Tetris?" Maybe. But this is a Tetris on which we'll gladly spend 1,200 Wii points with its release sometime this month.

Nintendo claims there are 18 modes, 10 of which are new, but we only agree technically; the company counts some modes twice as single- and multi-player games. (Most modes support up to four players on one system, and a few work with up to six online.) We tore into as many as we could before overloading like a kid on a Halloween sugar-high. Here's how they stand up.

Nintendo has kicked off the second day of its fall media summit with a close look at Tetris Party, a robust addition of the evergreen puzzler for WiiWare. The game's producer has confirmed an October release, priced at 1,200 Wii Points ($12) -- or roughly 67¢ per mode (there are 18 of them!). Included in the bunch is a Balance Board mode exercise that requires squatting to rotate the pieces. Betcha can't beat 10 lines!

Gallery: Tetris Party

It's amazing the kind of games people can create in LittleBigPlanet. You can do so much more than platforming -- you can do racing too! And now, it appears you can also recreate Tetris, the classic Russian puzzle game. Just watch this video to see!

[Thanks, Abdul A.S.!]

All week, Joystiq will be revealing the 25 finalists for the IndieCade: International Festival of Independent Games, set to take place October 10 through 17 in Bellevue, Washington. The winners will be announced on October 11.

The Misadventures of P. B. Winterbottom (Website)

In terms of paradoxes and other temporal mechanics, Winterbottom makes Braid look like Mario in the future. From what we've seen and played of the game, our heads turn to mush thinking about how to solve these puzzles. Best of all, it's all in the name of eating pie. Take that, cake lovers.