Is it time for something new? IGN PC examines of the Spring 2009 Line-Up. Batman: Arkham Asylum, Bionic Commando, Ghostbusters, The Godfather II, Wheelman, Champions Online, Jumpgate Evolution, The Sims 3… and plenty more. There’s something in there for everyone it seems.

1. Empire: Total War
2. World Of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Expansion Pack
3. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe
4. Warhammer 40,000: Dawn Of War II
5. World Of Warcraft: Battle Chest
6. World Of Warcraft
7. The Sims 2 Apartment Life Expansion Pack
8. Spore
9. Mystery Case Files: Return To Ravenhearst
10. Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3

Gamasutra covers some Spore chat from GDC.

Arguments aside, Robertson’s look at why Spore has not been taken quite so seriously or taken up by educators as easily as we perhaps would expect provided insight into the complicated issues that arise from the pop science the game portrays. In her words, “This is about looking at a game that was viewed to have enormous potential in so many fields, and looking at whether that has come to pass.”

Robertson has spent the last year researching Spore for magazine articles, speaking to Maxis developers, and also working on serious games for clients like the UK network Channel 4 — so she has some perspective on both Spore and the issues of using games to teach science.

Read more.

IGN features an interview with Kip Katsarelis, senior producer over at Maxis.

Maxis is revealing a brand-new feature of the Spore expansion Spore Galactic Adventures. This new feature is built on the idea that any great spaceship requires a great captain, so Galactic Adventures will let you create special Space Captains who have special abilities and can lead your adventures on a planet’s surface. If this makes you think Captain Kirk, you’re not too far off.

Gamasutra goes over some of the stuff we can expect out of GDC 2009. GDC is only a week away, so they’ll be spending it previewing the major conference tracks, starting out with 20 of the top lectures. Included:

‘Stretching Beyond Entertainment: The Role of Games in Personal and Social Change’, with Maxis’ Will Wright, Oddworld’s Lorne Lanning, Lionhead’s Peter Molyneux, former Electronic Arts CCO Bing Gordon, and Ed Fries.

An extremely rare public design discussion sees Blizzard’s Jeff Kaplan present ‘The Cruise Director of Azeroth: Directed Gameplay within World Of WarCraft’, specifically focusing on “focus on the original development of WoW’s quest system and how it has changed over time.”

Plus a whole lot more Spore from Caryl Shaw, Alex Hutchinson and Chaim Gingold.

NPD sales figures for February, 2009. Spore hangs in there, both the original game and the Creepy & Cute Parts Pack.

1. World Of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Expansion Pack
2. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe
3. Warhammer 40,000: Dawn Of War II
4. World Of Warcraft: Battle Chest
5. F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin
6. Spore
7. World Of Warcraft
8. The Sims 2 Apartment Life Expansion Pack
9. Fallout 3
10. World Of Warcraft: Burning Crusade Expansion Pack
11. Call Of Duty: World At War
12. Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3

13. Left 4 Dead
14. The Sims 2 Deluxe
15. Civilization IV
16. The Sims 2 Mansion & Garden Stuff Expansion Pack
17. Starcraft: Battle Chest
18. Spore Creepy & Cute Parts Pack
19. Diablo Battle Chest
20. The Sims 2 Pets Expansion Pack

The 3rd Annual ELAN Awards opened the online voting for their three Honorary Awards on IGN.com. The ELANS, hosted this year by Tom Kenny, the famous voice of “SpongeBob SquarePants”, on Saturday, April 25, 2009 will present one honorary award to each of the three digital industry sectors they honour.

The ELANS are asking that industry professionals go to the IGN voting booth to cast their vote for the recipients of the “Video Game Hall of Fame”, “Lifetime Achievement in Animation” and the “Visionary Award” (VFX). Le nominees:

VIDEO GAME HALL of FAME

• Nolan Bushnell – Founder of Atari Corporation

• Satoru Iwata – President, Nintendo
• Ken Kutaragi – Father of the Playstation
• Ken Levine – 2K Boston, Bioshock
• Shigeru Miyamoto – The creator of Mario Bros.
• Mike Morhaime – Co-Founder of Blizzard
• Gabe Newell – Valve
• Roberta Williams – Sierra On-Line
• Will Wright – The creator of The Sims & Spore

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT IN ANIMATION

• Phillip Bradley Bird -Director of Ratatouille/The Incredibles

• Hayao Miyazaki – Princess Mononoke
• John Lasseter – Directed Toy Story,A Bug’s Life,Toy Story 2
• Michael Craig Judge – Creator and star of Beavis and Butt-head and King of the Hill
• Nick Park – Producer/Director of Creature Comforts, The Curse of The WereRabbit
• Charles Martin “Chuck” Jones (1912 – 2002) – Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies
• Dr. Osamu Tezuka (1928 – 1989) – Creator of Astro Boy and Kimba the White Lion
• Frederick Avery (1908 – 1980) – Creator of Daffy Duck, Bugs Bunny and more
• Norman McLaren, C.C., C.Q. (1914 – 1987) – Neighbours
  Isadore “Friz” Freleng (1906[1] – 1995) – Developed Porky Pig, Yosemite Sam and more

VISIONARY AWARD (VFX)

• Harrison Ellenshaw – Matte visual effects for Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back

• Phil Tippett – Co-developed Go-Motion for Dragonslayer, creatures for Return of the Jedi
• Ken Ralston – Cast Away, What Lies Beneath, Contact, The Polar Express, Beowulf
• John Knoll – VFX Super Star Trek Generations, Star Trek: First Contact, Pirates Caribbean
• Joe Letteri – Sr VFX Super The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep, X-Men – The Last Stand
• Paul Debevec – Pioneer in high dynamic range imaging image-based modeling & rendering
• Jim Rygiel – VFX Super The Lord of the Rings trilog, Stay Tuned, I Robot, Iron Man
• John Gaeta – Matrix trilogy, Speed Racer,advanced methods “Bullet Time” and more
• Peter Robert Jackson – Heavenly Creatures, The Lord of the Rings trilogy
• David Leo Fincher – Seven, Fight Club, Zodiac and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Voting online for the Winners of these Honorary Awards is open to the media and the Industry ONLY. Voting closes two weeks today, Friday, March 27th at 12 noon PDT in order to give the Winners enough notice to attend the awards ceremony in Vancouver on April 25th.

Calling all aspiring developers! Think you have what it takes to create the next must-have Spore app or widget? Show off your master skills by entering the Spore API Contest! Utilize the extensive content in Sporepedia to create your app from scratch, or download the source code from one of the sample apps (http://www.spore.com/comm/samples) to develop the ultimate Spore app. Whether it’s a display of your own creations, a visualization of current Most Popular New creations or a scenic diorama of Sporecast creations, your only limit is your imagination!

For some inspiration, check out our gallery (http://www.spore.com/comm/developer/gallery/) of some cool applications created by the Maxis team with the Spore API, including a creature battle, aquarium, and a buddy browser!

How to Submit:
• To enter, e-mail a link to your application to: MaxisSaguaro@Maxis.com
• All original applications created using the Spore API will be accepted, and you can enter as many applications as you’d like!
• The deadline to submit your app is April 6th, 2009

Prizes:
-Grand Prize: NVIDIA graphics card
-First runner up: Copy of Spore game and Spore Galactic Adventures
-Second runner up: Copy of Spore Galactic Adventures

For full submission guidelines and contest info, visit: http://www.spore.com/comm/contests/