Chris Wilson continues to blog about progress with IE 7. CSS improvements? Finally. It sounds like they’re adding a bunch of other things to make it at least acceptable among web designers again, which is good to see. Nothing like competition to light a fire under a formerly dead project, unbelievable that for a time they thought IE 6 meant Internet Explorer was done and dusted. Microsoft take note - the internet does not stand still, nor should its browsers.

Yeah, I’m late to the party, busy week. What looks to be the final or near final Xbox 360 design has surfaced on the web and I’m pretty keen. Now we just have to find out what some of the mystery widgets are, for example the port on the right. Not quite as sleek as I’d expected but far nicer than the old XBrick, much as I love my Xbox. Of course, it could have been a lot worse.

Great deal here if you don’t own RalliSport Challenge 2 (and you should). Get Rallisport 2, three months live subscription and a headset for less than a years live subscription usually costs alone. Thanks to nomaad at The Shack for this one.

Apparently, almost 4.5 of people in Massachusetts have an LJ account. That’s a hell of a lot of emo for one American state. (Found via the splendid Waxy)

Except, er, it’s bollocks. So many of the "answers" are just plain wrong. 30 people in the UK games industry? WTF is the Umbrella Syndicate? And since when was Flash a 3D design tool? Honestly, sort it out.

Ah well. Try this instead. Old one but a good one, far more fun and accurate. Think I ended up with 33/35 when I did it a while ago.

Simple games rule mobile charts according to recent research. Well gosh. Who’d have thought people with mobile phones would just want quick and easy games to prevent boredom at bus stops?

Not quite top of the list of stupid things people have been paid to research, but it’s well up there for how utterly obvious it is. In the immortal words of Fark, still no cure for cancer.

Skinning your console has come of age. Having modded the hell out of my Xbox for no good reason like the geek I am (green lit gem, controller ports, dongles and fan port - I’ll eventually photo it one day) I might just have to get one of these. And a Mac Mini skin. And a Mac Mini to go with it.

No, not C++, real spoken languages. Turns out the Old Tongue language in Jade Empire (due Friday in the UK, can’t wait) is an artificial language rather than some Far Eastern dialect. It cost Bioware a mere 2 grand to commission, a bargain at five times the price, surely. Even better, the same guy is creating FOUR different dialects for The Dragon Age. I guess Bioware took it on board when people criticised KOTOR for having what felt like about five lines for the Twileks. I love details like this, Bioware truly can do little wrong.

Good news - sounds like GTA: San Andreas on PC is headed in the right direction. GTA 3 for PC was a fairly weak port, though Vice City was somewhat better.

San Andreas on PC gets custom sound tracks, fast loading higher res textures, bigger draw distances, mouse look and a PC-DVD release - nothing stelar but that’s enough check boxes for me. All sounds good, shame they didn’t add multiplayer but then you can’t have everything. I look forward to this title cheerily destroying my free time on release. What can I say, I never did get on with the PS2 controls.

Was pointed to this for £28.99, thought any UK readers might appreciate it. Seriously looking forward to this one, the engine sounds most of all for some reason. The GT40 and Porsche 911 in particular sound astoundingly good in the trailers. By way of comparison, as one friend put it, the Dodge Viper in Gran Turismo 4 sounds more like a lawnmower.

This is easily one of the most proffesional and interesting looking mods I know of in development and for once it’s not an FPS. It’s an RTS set in the Halo universe but built on the Generals engine. Let the new teaser trailer convince you to keep an eye on it.

The Hollywood Reporter talks to Lorne Lanning about where Oddworld is headed next - in short, films and TV. He’s got some interesting things to say about the games industry right now too and the direction it’s headed.