When veteran developers Rare changed their logo earlier this week, it got me thinking about other studio's brands, and how a good logo can really help define what a developer is all about.

Take Epic Games, for example. The company's logo is awful, just awful, but at the same time, it does its job: Epic is a studio specialising in graphics technology, biceps, neckless men and large guns, so it makes perfect sense for their logo to look like something you would have found on the box of a graphics card in 2002.

I don't want to spend tonight talking about logos that only "do their job", though. I want to talk about ones that are great, not just on the merits of the company they represent, but in their own right as well.

To that end, I've picked some of my favourites. My criteria was this: just like any great piece of corporate branding, from Ford to Polaroid, it had to be timeless. Something that won't just look good the year its first designed, but will look (or has looked good) for decades.

To do that, a logo can't look like a comic book from the 1990s, or something you'd find on the cover of a European dance album. It has to be simple, and it has to be stark, both so that it can be easily identifiable from any angle at at any size, and also so it can weather the winds of style and fashion that whip through the design world once or twice a decade.

Here, then, are my favourites, whether they be developer, publishers or both. Feel free to chime in with your own, and if it's something I've forgotten about or overlooked, I'll throw it right in!

Zoe Mode (Chime)
SCE Japan Studio (LocoRoco, Ico, Shadow of the Colossus)
Lionhead Studios (Fable, Black & White)
Sega (Sonic, Jet Set Radio, Outrun)
Polytron (Fez)
Foundation IX (Outrun 2, Marvel vs Capcom 2 XBLA/PSN)
Capcom (Street Fighter, Resident Evil)
Konami (Metal Gear Solid, Pro Evolution Soccer)
Rockstar (Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead Redemption)
Nintendo (Mario, Zelda)

As seen on Penny Arcade.

I don't think I remember the last time a "trend" in entertainment technology generated such widespread loathing as 3D has in the past six months. If you're one of the haters, brace yourself, because it's only going to get worse.

Going by what a number of publishers have told trade site MCV, it seems 3D will be the industry's biggest push in the immediate future, and not, as you'd expect, motion controls.

"This will be on the cutting edge of gaming for the next year or two", SCEE boss Andrew House says. "If Avatar taught us one thing in an age of globalisation, it's that when consumers embrace something it moves quickly. This is definitely a wave of the future and one that we intend to ride."

Namco Bandai's Olivier Comte is equally optimistic. "Natal and Move are two new tools, but I don't think either are the next revolution of games," he said. "I believe the next revolution will be 3D. I have tested some 3D games and I think it is a big change."

Thankfully, Take-Two's Ben Feder acts as a voice of reason, saying "The use of 3D needs to be meaningful to the gamer and publishers will need to ask questions. Will it draw players further into my world? Will it change how they interact with the game? Will it make the title more fun and keep the player engaged? The answers need to be ‘yes' for them to fit into our strategy of being a leader in innovation and quality."

Forget motion – 3D to dominate E3 [MCV] [image: Getty]

Attack of the Show host Olivia Munn, who recently played a reporter in Iron Man 2, is appearing as a correspondent for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart over the next couple of weeks.

A Comedy Central spokesperson tells Reuters that Munn's appearance is a "tryout", something that is not unusual for the network. However, Munn is the highest profile individual to try, points out Reuters.

Last year, Munn appeared in Playboy magazine.

Olivia Munn trying out as Daily Show correspondent [Reuters Thanks, Phil!] [Pic]

This won't be news to anyone that knows enough about Mario to win a pub trivia night on the flora or the Mushroom Kingdom, but still. The delivery of this secret is as great as the secret itself.

Yes, the clouds in Mario are the same as the bushes, just in different colours. Shocking, but we already knew that. What we want to know now is, why did Toad have to die because he knew? What sinister plot is behind the copy + paste that warrants the execution of one of Mario's closest friends?

[via Destructoid]

Musician Trent Reznor has had a long relationship with game developer id. He scored Quake and did music for Doom 3 that did not make it into the game. No wonder there have been rumors about Reznor and Doom 4.

When asked about that rumor, Reznor replied, "I haven't been contacted by them and find it unlikely that I would have time at this point."

Reznor is currently busy with his new outfit How to Destroy Angels, which released its first EP this June. Don't rule out future Trent Reznor game involvement! Once upon a time, he even pitched a game concept that ultimately didn't get greenlit.

How To Destroy Angels [tumblr via 1Up] [Pic]

Bizarre Creations combines the street racing thrills of its Project Gotham Racing series with the neon glow of its Geometry Wars games, throws in a little WipEout and Mario Kart and winds up with Blur.

The realism of real world cars and tracks blends with the explosive audacity of Mario Kart-esque power ups—almost every power up strewn about the tracks of Blur has an equivalent in Nintendo's long-running kart racer—for an mix that's initially jarring, but soon feels familiar, as the neon light pouring off taillights and force fields surrounding Fords, Land Rovers and BMWs starts to feel believable. Blur sits somewhere in-between simulation and arcade-style racer, excels in multiplayer and challenges the recently released Split/Second for the high intensity combat racing crown.

Let's focus on what we love about Blur first.

Loved
Grippy: It should be no surprise, given developer Bizarre's racing pedigree, that Blur's driving mechanics are sound. There's an occasional hiccup or two when races become terribly chaotic, thanks to events that throw a sometimes unmanageable 20 cars on the track at once, and the constant firing off of turbos and projectile weapons, but quirks are rare. There's a solid drifting model a real need to pay attention to one's driving line, but even racing game novices should find a thrill in Blur.

The Sweet Spot: Blur's impressive balance between sim and over-the-top arcade style racer offers an interesting challenge for the racing enthusiast who finds Mario Kart too coddling or WipEout too floaty. There's a surprising level of strategy to the game's power ups, with mines and projectiles that can be fired ahead or behind; weapons that can cancel other weapons; and turbo boosts that can help evade homing missiles or provide intensely sharp braking. The strategy of what power up to pick up when, so as to prevent another player from acquiring it, decisions that must be made in the blink of an eye, give Blur more than just fast-paced racing chops.

Challenges Dripfeed: Blur is a pusher of achievements, trophies and challenges. Each race has goals that go beyond simply placing first in a race and doles out a constant stream of rewards, a regular sense of progression that's incredibly addictive. Blur nicely breaks down the pursuit of virtual accomplishment with its distribution of stickers—achievements divided into sub-achievements. Boss battles require that players do more than just outrace opponents, but also experiment with weapons and tackle mid-race challenges. It can be overwhelming at times, but Blur's tracking of everything the player does only enhances its replayability.

Hours Lost To Multiplayer: After becoming frustrated and giving up on the game's career mode at one point, I found the best side of Blur, its online multiplayer portion. The game's artificial intelligence is no match for a group of flesh and blood racers. Online races tend to have fewer contestants than career mode matches, make for more even races and a better sense of rivalry. Blur plays up that friendly rivalry with challenges that players can share with online friends and enemies and lets players share their accomplishments via Twitter or Facebook... if they so choose.

Information Display: Given the high volume of things to accomplish, items to unlock, and career milestones to surpass, Blur's UI design is a commendable for its easy digestion. It's not often I find myself appreciating the information design of a racing game, but Blur presents its massive list of events, unlockables and achievements in a beautiful way.

Perks & Promotions: Online racing in Blur is a constant cycle of receiving new awards, hopping from race to race and enjoying a steady stream of progression. There are car mods to unlock, which can have a huge impact on your strategy, not to mention the siren's song to play just one more round of Blur's multiplayer.

Hated
Challenge Spike: About halfway through Blur's career mode, the difficulty ratcheted up to a point where competing become torturous. With 20 cars on the track, the stressful jockeying of AI-controlled opponents all clustered together in a tight grouping became incredibly frustrating, a fight to progress while a wall of masterfully piloted cars sucked up every power up ahead of me. Chalk it up to bad driving, as I've seen plenty of players finding a spot on the online leaderboards while driving on Hard difficulty, but I hit a wall during Blur's career mode and started hating every minute of it.

The Daily Grind: There's a good deal of repetition in Blur's career mode, thanks to a small selection of race types: Race, a battle for first place; Destruction, a weapon-filled battle against a series of drones and the clock; Checkpoint, a sprint to reach checkpoints while accumulating time and turbo boosts; and One-on-One, two player boss battles. The selection wears thin rather quickly. You'll revisit the same locations again and again in the pursuit of tokens known as Lights, which can mean many repeated races in order to move on.

Bizarre Creations' Blur is an exciting racing game that grows on you quickly and is difficult to put down. The racing is fast, the constantly fed RPG-like progression incredibly addictive, and the tension of projectiles—specifically the red shell-like "Shunt"—bearing down on your car or rapidly humming past you on a path to a competitor, provide a steady stream of thrills. Blur borrow more than it innovates and doesn't carry the same visual punch of some of its direct competitors, but it's a great Mario Kart alternative for anyone without a Nintendo system to take online.

Blur was developed by Bizarre Creations and published by Activision for the PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on June . Retails for $59.99 USD on . A copy of the game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes. Played through six of nine career levels, testing easy, medium and hard difficulties. Competed in dozens of online races, eventually ranking up to level 16.

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Carleton College's Goodsell Observatory gets pranked. As seen on The Star Wars Blog via Albotas.

Harmonix, the studio behind both the original Guitar Hero and Rock Band, could be working on something a little different at the moment: a dance game, built around Microsoft's Project Natal.

So says Game Informer, who report that a recent run of dance song licenses awarded to Harmonix only add further weight to the rumour. There's no word on anything for the PlayStation Move, just the Xbox 360's hands-free motion controller.

It may sound naff to grizzled Rock Band veterans, but Just Dance - a game that asks you to hold a Wii Remote and just dance - has been an absolute phenomenon on the Wii. On Natal, a similar game that didn't ask you to hold anything could be one hell of a party starter.

Or finisher. Depends on how much you enjoy doing the Bus Stop, really.

Harmonix Working On Natal Dance Game? [Game Informer]

As part of a draft plan to "save journalism" (as in, "save newspapers"), the Federal Trade Commission is making a number of proposals to Washington. Among them is a 5% tax on consumer electronics. Hey, game consoles are consumer electronics!

It's already been dubbed the "iPad Tax" by some hipsters, but really, that's a little stupid. Consumer electronics isn't just iPads, or iPhones, or iMacs. It's a Zune, a DS, an Xbox 360, a PS3, a Tivo, a tablet, a laptop and a digital camera as well.

The thinking behind the tax is that it would generate $4 billion annually for the US government, which it could then use to subsidise the continued operation of failing media outlets like newspapers, who have seen their ad revenues drop by over 40% in the past decade.

Putting aside concerns of how this would generate a conflict of interest between the media and the federal government, it's astonishing to think that consumers could be slugged an extra 5% at the register when buying a PlayStation to help save a newspaper.

While 5% doesn't sound like much, on a $500 purchase, that's an extra $25.

Before you grab torches and pitchforks, though, note this isn't law. It's not even the final word from the FTC. It is, as the FTC puts it, "solely for the purposes of discussion". Well, mission accomplished!

POTENTIAL POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS TO SUPPORT THE REINVENTION OF JOURNALISM [FTC]