Google's ears must be ringing because the House of Commons seems to be saying its name a lot this week. Ministers in the UK are arguing over Google's supposed influence in UK copyright policy.

Pete Wishart, a Scottish MP from Perth, took to the floor earlier in the week to give online rights groups and companies like Google a piece of his mind. Ars Technica has a great news story chronicling the exchange among lawmakers. First up is MP Wishart:

The lawyer of a man accused of attempting to firebomb several synagogues in New Jersey is saying that his client suffers from mental illness and was unduly influenced by video games. The 19-year-old man, Anthony M. Graziano of Lodi, N.J., pled not guilty to first-degree attempted murder, bias intimidation and aggravated arson for two attacks on synagogues in the area. Graziano was in court today seeking a reduction in his $5 million bail. Superior Court Judge Liliana DeAvila-Silebi cut the bail in half because Graziano is "destitute."

Another day, another developer accusing Zynga of swiping its game design. Bingo Blitz developer Buffalo Studios has accused Zynga of copying its design for its recently announced Bingo game. They say Zynga has "obviously played" its Bingo game. Last week iPhone game developer Nimblebit accused Zynga of ripping off its popular mobile title Tiny Tower.

The company put together a side-by-side comparison of its game against Zynga's recently announced Bingo game here.

For the third time in the past year, THQ has announced once again that it is moving away from licensed titles targeted at children and is  focusing instead on core games.

“THQ will be a more streamlined organization focused only on our strongest franchises,” said Brian Farrell, President and CEO of THQ.

They also pointed out that Saints Row: The Third is doing very well, having shipped 3.8 million units globally, with expectations of 5-6 million shipped during the life cycle of the title.

Update: This story is apparently ancient history from March 2010. While it's fun to refresh your memory, it's not news. We apologize for presenting it as such.

The Australian Christian Lobby is doing its best to slow down the momentum of an R18+ ratings classification in Australia by using a new tactic: comparing mature video games to cigarettes. The group used the public consultation period for the R18+ classification to assail the games industry.

Update: Here we go again... Edge is reporting that the company still needs funding for the game, according to GSC spokesperson Oleg Yavorsky:

"We are still in the process of seeking funding to back up the project," GSC spokesperson Oleg Yavorsky told Edge. "We are hopeful things turn out well eventually. The team really wants to see STALKER continue."

Is BioWare banning Star Wars The Old Republic players for accessing areas and loot meant for higher level characters or is someone pulling everyone's leg in this Reddit thread? Rock, Paper, Shotgun examines the story and the alleged email from BioWare. 

Nintendo announced that it will host what it calls a "telethon" to promote its Nintendo video services on the 3DS. When you think of telethons, you might imagine Jerry Lewis helping to raise money for muscular dystrophy, or St. Jude's raising money for kids with cancer, so perhaps using the term "telethon" is a bit presumptuous on Nintendo's part.

A new article written by Iowa State University professor of psychology Douglas Gentile posits that playing social games may cause players to be more helpful in real-life social situations. Social games require the help of friends - and in turn for the player to be helpful to his or her friends. In an article published in the latest issue of the Nature Reviews/Neuroscience journal, Gentile uses several studies to toy with the idea that social games might inspire players to be helpful to others in real-life.

According to EA's Peter Moore Battlefield has either taken market share from Modern Warfare 3, has added millions of new customers into the mix, or both. The COO of EA insists that Battlefield 3 has successfully taken a slice of Modern Warfare 3’s market share, even though the latest title in Activision's top franchise has become the fastest selling entertainment product of all time.

Nintendo has issued a statement clarifying what Shigeru Miyamoto said in an article on Wired yesterday. In that interview the Mario and Zelda creator said that he was retiring from his current position to focus on developing games for the company. But the headline coming out of that interview across the internet was that "Miyamoto is retiring."

Nintendo issued an official follow-up statement saying that it wasn't true and that Miyamoto's comments might have been misunderstood:

How far will Rovio go to market Angry Birds? As far as they can, apparently. Besides the numerous licensing, marketing and merchandising deals, the high profile brand is being used as a cross-marketing tools for companies like Wonderful Pistachios.

Psychiatrist Philip Tam believes internet addiction should be classified as a disorder. The Sydney, Australia based psychiatrist and some Australian parents think that internet addiction and online game addiction need to be officially classified as addictions so that children can be treated for the so-called disorders.

According to a press release issued this morning by the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA), new research shows that violent video games alter the brain functions in young men. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to analyze the long-term effects of violent video game play on the brain, researchers found that changes in brain regions associated with cognitive function and emotional control in young adult men occur after one week of game play. The results of this study were presented at the annual meeting of the RSNA.

It seems like everyone simply "misunderstood" last week when I Am Alive creative director Stanislas Mettra said that the survival game wouldn't be coming to the PC because of piracy. In an interview with IncGamers, Mettra said that piracy makes porting a game to the PC financially difficult for publishers and developers.

If there's one thing you can say about anti-game campaigner and UK Labour MP Keith Vaz, it's that he is tenacious in his fight against games. This week MP Vaz raised his fourth early day motion aimed at violent games, this time specifically targeting Activision's recently released Modern Warfare 3.

Edge Magazine, citing an anonymous source, is reporting that "Xbox 720" development kits will be in the hands of developers by the end of the year. They claim that .developers like Ubisoft Montreal are already using 'target boxes' based on Microsoft's intended and expected specifications for its new console machine. Those that already have them will get new ones by the year's end.

Wait what? The new Professor Layton game from Nintendo does not include the bonus game London Life if you live in Europe. Wait, what? Yes apparently European gamers don't get the bonus content. Our own Andrew Eisen gives us an impression of a European gamer buying the new Layton game to show you the irony of the situation...

In an interview with Eurogamer (which was conducted during Gamescom earlier this year and has yet to be published on the site in its entirety) Gearbox co-founder Brian Martel indicated his belief that Duke Nukem Forever was not reviewed fairly. He argues that some reviewers may have used the game as a chance to "soapbox" and that "everybody should really be thankful that it existed to some degree at all."

"As much as [reviewers] claim they want innovation, they don't," Ubisoft’s North American executive director Laurent Detoc said, responding to the lukewarm reception Rocksmith received from critics.

New research from the University of Queensland suggests that playing violent video games leads to players seeing themselves and their opponents as "lacking core human qualities" such as warmth, open-mindedness, and intelligence. The research, conducted by Dr. Brock Bastian from UQ's School of Psychology, was recently published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.

Simon Lane and Lewis Brindley, the duo that run the popular YouTube series Yogscast, claim that they deserve a portion of the credit for the success of Mojang's popular indie builder Minecraft.

Mojang's virtual world has managed to sell over three million copies despite being still being in beta. In an interview with Edge, Lane and Brindley tell the publication that they have played a  major part in the game's success thanks to its popular Minecraft series on their YouTube channel, which receives around 80 million views every month.

Dueling reports on the future of Doom 4 make for an interesting morning. In one report from Kotaku, an "anonymous source" tells the publication that because Rage performed so poorly, id Software's next big title in the Doom series had been delayed. The anonymous source went on to say that Bethesda and its parent company Zenimax held a "company-wide meeting" in Dallas, where the decision was finally made. Finally, the source claimed that there was “a serious lack of confidence in the project management at id."

EA Maxis is having a bit of fun with Herman Cain's 9.9.9. tax plan this week with a new video created using various The Sims products. President Barack Obama, Texas Governor Rick Perry, and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney guest-star. You can check out the short video to your left.

If you're not familiar with the former Godfather Pizza CEO and Republican presidential candidate's plan, it promotes a 9 percent personal income tax, 9 percent corporate tax and a 9 percent national sales tax.

Uncharted series developer Naughty Dog says that without the money from Sony's PSN Pass, the company wouldn't be able to afford to include as much online content as it has with Uncharted 3. In fact, they say that if they didn't implement Online Pass, they would have had to split the game into two different games - single and multiplayer. Uncharted 3 director Justin Richmond made the comments in a recent interview with TheSixthAxis.

Two UK tabloids - The Sun and The Daily Mail - are highlighting comments from a neuroscientist who claims that video games can cause dementia in children. Neuroscientist Baroness Susan Greenfield told a gathering at the science centre (part of the Sherbourne Girls' School) in Dorset this week that online gaming and activities such as Facebook can "disable connections in the brain" - and in extreme circumstances - cause dementia in children. She also said that, on average, children spend around 2,000 hours a year either playing games or doing other things online.

Financial analytics group Bundle has ranked the 100 largest U.S. cities by the amount of money spent on games through outlets like GameStop, EBGames, and Steam - using "anonymous spending data" provided by credit card companies and the U.S. government. So what was the #1 town when it came to spending cold-hard-cash on video games?

The man responsible for the worst movie ever made (The Room) sets his sights on web TV with a new Machina.com show called The Tommy Wi-Show. In the first episode Tommy, or TW as his alien friends call him, takes on Mortal Kombat. Is the show bad? Good? So bad it's good? So bad it’s bad? I don't know - he sounds like a drunken German weightlifter... Watch the episode to your left.

Thanks to Kyle Orland for the tip.. I think.

When the zombie apocalypse comes, undergarments are optional. A player who obviously has too much time on his hands noticed that one of the characters in Dead Island - Xian - forgot to put her panties on. He created a ridiculously long video that rambles on for a well over a minute before showing (after the 1:55 mark) the character’s freshly shorn ..squirrel.

Electronic Arts claims that NHL 12 had the best week ever. Based on the company's internal estimates, NHL 12 had its biggest launch week in the franchise's history with more than $27 million is sales at retail outlets worldwide. EA also claims that first week unit sales of NHL 12 were up 19 percent across Europe and North America. The game launched Sept. 9 in Europe and Sept. 13 in North America.