"games" news and stories

Chess doesn't have the reputation of being the most exciting game out there, but there are two things that you can introduce to living things up a little. The first is money and the second is food (or possibly alcohol, but we'll stick to food in general). Whether you want to gamble on chess games is entirely up to you, but we rather like the idea of getting food involved by making an edible chess set to play with. This cookie cutter set comes with shapes for all the different pieces, as well as with a square, which you can use to make the 64 tiles that make up the board.

You'll need two different colors of cookie dough to play, and the ideal cookie dough will not spread too much when it is baking. Try a vanilla or butter cookie recipe for the white pieces and a chocolate cutout cookie recipe for the dark pieces. If you like peanut butter, this recipe for two tone star cookies will give you both a light and dark dough to work with.

[via neatorama]

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I admit that I did not think it was possible for the King, the strangely masked man of Burger King TV commercial fame, to get any creepier. Unfortunately, I was wrong. Burger King is promoting Sneak King, an inexpensive and ad-laden Xbox 360 game that features - you guessed it - the King. Instead of standing around and fraternizing with attractive women, he hides, creeps and sneaks around the virtual world in which he lives, jumping out from behind objects to force burgers on unsuspecting people. The image of being stalked by the King (as seen in the above trailer) is enough to make you sleep with the lights on just to be on the safe side.

The only reason to buy the game ($3.99 at Burger King) is (a) if you just shelled out for an Xbox 360, don't have the budget for better games and are really desperate to play it or (b) you have some crazy fantasy about being the King, which who the player controls in the game. If you're buying it for the first reason, that's somewhat understandable. If it's the second...

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One of the fun things about bundt pans is that they come in so many different shapes - far more than an ordinary cake pan. The problem with this is that you can end up with too many pans, some of which are only really appropriate for certain occasions and the Holiday Tree bundt is a prime example of this. The Stadium Pan does not have this problem, even though it does have an undeniably unique shape, since there are sporting events running all year long. All you need to do is make sure the icing colors match the team that you're supporting before the match, and you can root for your favorite team while you and your friends chow down.

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Video games and television are sometimes blamed for the "obesity epidemic" because kids (and adults) who sit in front of a screen are less active than their non-couchbound counterparts. Two new video games are being developed by a company called Archimage, and they aim to encourage children to make healthy choices in their diets, hoping to counteract the tendency of some to binge on snack foods while playing games. The games are called Nanoswarm: Invasion from Inner Space and Escape from Diab. Each is an immersive role-playing game that is supposed to help kids learn about how to make the food choices that will keep them healthy, modifying any unhealthy eating behaviors.

A demo of Nanoswarm is available online, blending sci-fi and action adventure in an attempt to disguise the semi-educational message of the game from kids who might be put off by the idea of learning something while playing. It still sounds like a good idea, and if even a few kids are playing this, making a few healthier choices, it seems like a worthwhile game.

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For the next three years, Baby Ruth will be the official candy bar of Major League Baseball. In addition to having a logo proclaiming it as such on the packaging, the candy will also be featured in a number of in-game and TV promotions. The candy bar is nougat, coated in peanuts and dipped in chocolate. The fact that the name is almost identical to that of one of the greatest players of all time can only help endear it to fans.

Many people believe that the candy is named after the baseball player Babe Ruth, due to the similarity in the names. A Snopes article tends to support this theory, but the company that invented the bars, before they were sold to Nestle, says that they were named after President Grover Cleveland's daughter - who was named Ruth. Unfortunately this explanation has a few flaws, as Snopes points out. Not only were the bars introduced in 1921, but Ruth Cleveland died at the age of 12 in 1904, making her an odd choice to have a candy bar named after her.

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