London's Science Museum - which is currently playing host to the Game On exhibition -has announced not only an extension to the time it will be there but also a raft of new events set to take place at the museum...

"The Science Museum has announced details of the Game On evening events for January and February 2007. Coinciding with special late openings of the acclaimed exhibition, the events see expert speakers from the videogames industry taking to the stage to provide unprecedented insights into world of interactive entertainment.

Game On has been impressing visitors since October this year. Its series of events in November and December allowed the public access to key industry figures such as Eidos' Ian Livingstone and programming legend David Braben. The early 2007 events will include hosts such as Edge editor Margaret Robertson, who will host the first January talk, and Jonathan Smith from Lego Star Wars developer Traveller's Tales.

Topics for discussion will include the motivation behind playing games, prospects for the future of video gaming, insights into the history of video game development and the challenges of designing a game for the modern market.

Gaetan Lee, Game On events co-ordinator at the Science Museum said: "With this final series of events, we are presenting a thorough view of video gaming�s past, present and future. Jonathan Smith will show us how we make games today and we'll look back to where games have come from with Games Gone By. We'll take a look into the future of video game environments with Dr Chris Doran and to put gaming as a whole into context, Margaret Robertson looks at why we play games in the first place in the opening lecture on January 16th."

The 2007 events in full:

16 January, 19.00 - 20.00
Why We Play Games
Margaret Robertson, Edge magazine

Forty years ago, video games were played on large laboratory computers by a few scientists. Today they are a multi-billion-pound industry with millions of players worldwide. But what effects are games having on society and us? Join the editor of Edge magazine, Margaret Robertson, as she looks at this question and how the design of video games makes them such a popular and compulsive medium.

22 January, 19.00 - 20.00
Video Games: Look of the future
Dr Chris Doran, Geomerics

Our computers and consoles have an amazing amount of processing power, creating realistic lighting, textures and characters. How is this done and are there limits to what can be re-created on a screen? Discover, with Dr Chris Doran of Geomerics, what the games of the future will look like.

2 February, 19.00 - 20.00
Games Gone By: A history of video games

Most people think that video gaming starting in the 1970s and 1980s with classic games such as Pong, Space Invaders and Pac-Man, but the real story of video games goes back even further. Come along and discover the machines, the people and true stories behind the birth of the games industry as speakers from the International Game Developers Association delve deep into gaming's past.

Please note that the Game On exhibition will close at 21.30 not 21.00 on this night.

6 February, 19.00 - 20.00
Building a Computer Game
Jonathan Smith, TT Games

Modern video games aren't made by just one person, but by large teams of artists, programmers and designers. Uncover the true story of their creation as Jonathan Smith of TT Games reveals the process and the people behind the Lego Star Wars series from concept to shop shelf.

Entry to the Cyber Suits: Capturing human motion event is free. Prices for all other events are as follows:

Talk only £7
Talk and exhibition £10 (normal exhibition admission price £8.50)

To book tickets now call 0870 870 4868 (booking fee applies). Online booking will be available from www.sciencemuseum.org.uk shortly.

Tickets are strictly limited so early booking is strongly advised. All talks are 45 minutes long with an opportunity to put questions to the speaker at the end."

On Tuesday we brought you news of Playstations 3s being returned to stores en-masse after scalpers failed to make a return on the console.

Well today the guys over at Kotatu have done some interesting research into the decline in demand and come up with some interesting figures as well as conversations with major US retailers.

Technorati Tags: PS3, eBay

As a Christmas treat, Sony have released walkthrough guides to every level in the PSP puzzel game LocoRoco. The guides, which can be downloaded individually or as a collection per game world, can be found on the US Playstation website.

Various news outlets in the US are reporting that tens of thousands of PS3's are being returned to stores across the country after many of the consoles bought by resellers failed to sell at the exhoribitant rates that many had been expecting.

Many of the consoles which are being returned, according to local US papers such as The Hamilton Spectator, are being returned unopened, and sometimes two or more consoles are being returned at the same time. Last week several websites reported that the bottom had fallen out of the market for PS3 online auctions with many being little over the $600 paid for the console. Most still had not met the reserve price despite bids standing at $620.

It is currently unclear what action the retailers are taking with regards to PS3 resellers trying to return consoles after failing to sell them on but some US papers are reporting that many, especially the larger outlets such as Best Buy and Walmart are refusing cash refunds and only giving store credit. Many are refusing to take the consoles back at all as much stock remains unsold.

This is all in sharp contrast to the Xbox 360 launch last year and Wii launch this year where paying well over the odds was (and still is in the case of the Wii) the only way you can get your hands on one.

With many analysts stumped at the failure of the PS3 to sell outside of all but the big cities in the US, many are suggesting the PS3 may be about to suffer a similar fate as the 3DO, the only console to this day that was more expensive at launch.

Technorati Tags: PS3, Best Buy, Ebay, Xbox 360, Wii, 3DO

This week's Xbox Live Arcade release (and the last of this year) is an updated version of the arcade classic Rally-X, available for download for 400 Microsoft points, or around £3.40.

MMORPG Dark and Light has announced that it is now free to play - at least for the first 10 levels - allowing players the equivalent of a free trial that's not time limited.

What's the trick? No trick, just the goal to give most players the chance to start an unlimited adventure in the world of Ganareth.
From the 10th level, the gamer continues the adventure with no limit but he cannot collect more XP points (Fighting, Social, and Craft).
If he decides to keep progressing though Ganareth, he will have to buy a Dark and Light activation key and will have to choose to be either a Freedom or a Master player.

Nevrax have been having some problems recently, going into receivership throwing the future of their MMORPG Ryzom into turmoil. Now Gameforge have stepped up and taken control of Ryzom. As a result, the billing system has re-opened, giving hope to current Ryzom players that service will continue as normal.

A playable demo of Dreamfall: The Longest Journey has been released by Funcom, showing off parts of their sequel to The Longest Journey, which was released earlier this year. The demo comes at a staggering 3.5Gb in size. No more details are available yet, although there is some speculation this isa ctually the full version of the game, and an unlock key servcie will be forthcoming.

You can grab the demo from one of these mirrors.

• 3D Gamers
• GameSpot
• Internode Games Network

Take 2 has launched a new website for their upcoming FPS Bioshock. The website, with the requisite age verification block due to the content, can be found at www.bioshockgame.com. The site has videos, screenshots, news and other information from the developers Irrational Games. Bioshock will be released for the Xbox 360 and PC only, and no release date has been announced.

The XCN has organised an interview with Frank O'Connor, Content Manager at Bungie Studios.

Back in the infancy of the original Halo, what were your hopes for the series?
Frank O Connor: Halo actually started its life as a real-time strategy game for the Macintosh, but the guys here at Bungie had so many story ideas that eventually it grew out of that genre and into a first-person shooter.

The Xbox Community Network (XCN) is holding a competition, with first prize being an Xbox 360 HD DVD Player. To enter, visit www.aceybongos.com and answer the question:

What would ten million Xbox 360 consoles look like?