It is my mother's birthday. I've come to realize that I'm too involved in nerdy tech stuff to possibly consider what a mother would want as a birthday gift. They need a thinkgeek.com for moms. 

News Blips:

Sony takes on the second-hand market with the addition of the “PSN Pass,” a one-time code that will be included in their first-party titles. Basically, this is PlayStation’s “Project Ten Dollar.” Starting with Resistance 3, Sony’s games will come packed with a code which will grant the user full access to online features. This is a quick way to make money from used-game sales. With Sony not charging for PSN, they can probably get away with this, but no one likes being nickel and dimed. Eventually, this affront to Gamestop -- and that is what this is -- will come to a head. While there is little chance that the retailer wouldn’t put Resistance 3 on their shelves, something like that is likely somewhere down the line. [Ars Technica]

Bethesda is publishing Dishonored, a new game from Arkane Studios. The team responsible for this new “first-person stealth/action adventure” is led by Harvey Smith, lead designer on Deus Ex. According to an upcoming Game Informer cover story, the game will feature an assassination mission that doesn’t require the player to kill anybody. The in-game morality system will manifest itself through actions instead of being dependent on choices in a dialog tree. Still no word on whether or not the title “Dishonored” is a reference to the Ohio State football program -- probably, though.

Burnout is back, and this time it’s a download-only game. “Inspired by pinball, retro music, and game shows -- [Burnout CRASH!] is really simple,” Criterion's website reads about its new collision game. “Drive in an intersection, cause a massive pile-up, and blow up everything in sight.” As a kid, there were very few things I liked better than mindlessly smashing toy cars into one another. As an adult...yeah, I’m pretty much the same. The latest in the Burnout series will be available for Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network this fall. 

The Apple App Store reaches 15 billion downloads. That's two apps for every person on Earth. As we know, games make up a huge portion of those App Store transactions. The next closest competitor, Android, has only recently reached 5 billion downloads according to AndroLib. It is hard to imagine that Nintendo and Sony aren’t worried about these numbers, but it doesn’t seem like either console maker has the heart to take on Steve Jobs’ application ecosystem. Now, check out this fart machine I just downloaded. 

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