Hideo Kojima has officially joined the blogosphere. Hideoblog, hosted on Konami\'s Kojima Productions site, is an interesting read. It\'s a classic example of bringing some everyday humanity to a legendary figure, and reading Kojima\'s descriptions of checking email while eating lunch and the light reflecting from Tokyo\'s Roppongi Hills brings a real sense of the man behind the Metal Gear Solid franchise. And on some days Kojima is doing things like getting his copy of Hard Boiled autographed by Frank Miller. It\'s a bit surreal, and should be a must-read for any Kojima acolytes. Check it out.

Created and maintained by Timothy St. Hilaire, Old Grandma Hardcore is a Blogspot blog that details the gaming life of Tim\'s grandmother. At first, it might seem like a gimmick, but after reading some of the posts and watching the videos Tim and Grandma post on the site, it becomes completely clear that Grandma is hard freaking core. Whether it\'s God of War or Growlanser, Grandma got game. Click for more.

The GP2X is releasing this Fall in the US and worldwide, and already a homebrew community is budding. Richard Weeks sends word that he has created a community website for GP2X enthusiasts called MyGP2X.com. The site features news and coverage of developments in the GP2X community. Recent posts cover the port of the GP32 Commodore 64 emulator, Frodo, to GP2X as well as the GP2X port of Duke Nukem 3D. If you\'re curious about the GP2X and not sure where to start, we recommend MyGP2X.com as a growing node. With recently launched forums, the site is bound to become a hub for GP2X news. Check out http://www.MyGP2X.com for more about the GP2X.

In a great analysis of Microsoft\'s latest announcements about Xbox Live Arcade for Xbox 360, Joystiq\'s Vladimir Cole details how Xbox Live Arcade is a growing threat to the traditional retail chain. And that\'s not necessarily a bad thing for game publishers: \"Sure, the games on offer right now are non-threatening casual games, but it's only a matter of time until gamers are downloading entire triple-A titles and not just demos of them. With more and more retailers moving towards the sale of used games, first- and third-party publishers are going to push the direct-to-consumer channel even harder.\" Check out the full story on Joystiq here.

Heavy.com has expanded its machinima offerings and broken new ground in the IPTV arena with the announcement of the first-ever full season of broadband-distributed programming. The network has announced several new shows, including \"Honey, I Killed the Geezer\" (created using Atari\'s Indigo Prophecy), \"Tourettes Cowboy\" (created using Activision\'s GUN), and \"Dr. Philprah, Colossus Whisperer\" (created using Sony\'s Shadow of the Colossus). There are several more series slated to premiere this month, and each will see multiple episodes released this Fall.

We here at GamesFirst are always fans of game enthusiasts showing their love in new and creative ways. You see fan art and fan fiction, but have you ever imagined there would be fan opera? Jonathan Mann has created a Mario Opera, and quite frankly the musical performances aren\'t bad; in fact, they\'re indicative of some serious musical talent implemented in a sometimes - but not always - cheesy way. Whether or not Mario is the place to show off that talent might be in question, though. Our advice is to not bother with the preview, but instead take a moment to listen to the songs themselves. Our personal favorite? The Lizard Wizard.

Sometimes the best source of news is a blog, and when a good one shows up we\'re obligated to point it out. If you\'ve never heard of the Game Politics blog on LiveJournal, take note, because it\'s a website that should be a part of every serious gamer\'s morning ritual. The website focuses on news that pertains to video games in the political arena, like anti-game rallies, anti-game legislation, and anti-game personalities. At the moment the site is discussing, among other things, Eidos\'s decision to postpone the release of the hotly debated 25-to-Life until 2006. The \"cop-killer simulation\" has been a center for controversy in the mainstream media. If keeping yourself informed about the industry is important, this is a site you\'ll want to check regularly.

Namco has cut the ribbon on the teaser website for Tales of Legendia, the latest in the popular Tales series of RPGs. The Tales games have become renowned over the years for their stylized cartoon graphics, their young, well-developed characters, and the games\' real-time battle system. The website has basic information on the story, the characters, and the environments that you can expect to be adventuring through when the game releases come 2006. The last time we saw the Tales series, it was on the Nintendo GameCube in Tales of Symphonia, one of the best RPGs to ever appear on the system. Or on any system. Tales of Legendia will be released in winter of 2006 for the PS2.

This is a day for Revolution news. We\'ve already mentioned this site elsewhere on GamesFirst, but in light of the upcoming possible unveiling of the Nintendo Revolution controller in just a few days, we figured we\'d point out some rather light-hearted entertainment to deal with the system. Joystiq.com has an article up that recaps and links to a number of fan mock-ups of the Nintendo Revolution controller. Included in the list are supposed eyewitness reports that may or may not be true. They\'re fun to read over knowing there\'s a possibility that you\'ll know the truth by the 16th of this month, which makes the mystery a bit more bearable. It will also make the disappointment sharper if Nintendo continues keeping its mouth shut. Included in the list of suggested features for the Revolution controller are such things like hot and cold feedback regions and the ever-popular touch-pad screen. Check it out.

In a move that looks very similar to the I Love Bees campaign, Microsoft has registered another mysterious site, Origen360.com. This looks a heck of a lot like the early OurColony site, and Microsoft has a long history of using alt-reality gaming to sell us stuff.