Finding the diamond ring at the bottom of the champagne glass is so old school now, or atleast that’s what Bernie Peng, a computer programmer would like you to believe.

Associated Press reports that Bernie decided to pop the question to his girlfriend in a unique way by programming the popular PopCap’s game “Bejewelled” to have it pop up a wedding ring and a marriage proposal, once she reached a high score.

The marriage that took place this Saturday saw the couple’s wedding cake in form of a console and guests walked away with copies of the game as a gift.

Now who says video game nerds are not romantic enough. Now if only my girlfriend thought the same about me as well!

They usually say that when Judgment Day is near, we’ll see a lot of signs pointing to the Antichrist. So for all those who doubt that the PSP is it, first, we get news from Famitsu that the PSP is (surprisingly!) outselling the DS at least as far as this year is concerned. Then, two French exchange students in London get stabbed more than 250 times (one 80 times after he was dead) so that the perps can get away with two unbelievably rare and more-expensive-than-the-Kohinoor-diamond black PSPs. And if that don’t prove it, we’ve got the PSP wreaking havoc with lives here as well, and worse, we’re the ones who started it all.

When Abhinav’s friend got married a couple of months back, he decided that nothing would be better than blessing the happy couple (and the husband in particular) with a PSP. Talking about the London murders last night, Abhinav mentions that the couple, who’ve been enjoying a textbook romance, recently got into their first major fight. Over the PSP, and this time, it wasn’t the usual complaint we’re used to seeing.

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Now it’s not everyday Microsoft gets really generous with you, but we’ve been pretty darn happy that we’ve been swindling quite a bit of stuff from them over the last year. Sure, we had to give them all to our dear readers (who we’re required by law not to slander, torture, maim or kill.. unfortunately) but still, at least some of us got to go to cool parties, eat lots of free food and get hammered on free booze while they checked out boobs. And oh yes, games too.

Having worked our asses for over a year on the site without seeing a single penny tossed our way (come on, folks, be generous, nominate us in your wills, please?), and having lots of bad shit happen to me over the last couple of months, including getting disconnected from the Internet, getting my DVD player broken, an RRoD’ed Xbox 360 and my Dad checking out of the mortal realm last month, I am finally very pleased to announce that I have been awarded the Xbox India MVP 2008 award, which I guess makes me the second person in the country to win one, after GamingIndians’ Ogden Wernstrom, I mean, Sameer Desai, won the first one last quarter.

For all those curious (read: jealous) folks who’re interested in knowing what goodies I get, here’s a little list:

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For all those who have been following the Indian gaming scene, Mohit Anand’s departure from Microsoft India came as quite a shocker. The news of him stepping down from his post of Country Manager for Microsoft India’s Entertainment and Devices Division was completely out of the blue and caught everyone by surprise. In the ensuing confusion, quite a lot of news sites came out with their take on the circumstances that led to the event, which frankly, seemed to be quite a study in contrast with what we have known about the relationship of Mohit Anand and Microsoft India. So, to set the record set, we decided to talk with the man himself and clear out some of the rumors that have been swirling around on the World Wide Web.

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Oh hey, speaking of mixing booze and silly rhythm games! Last Saturday, Reggie and I were invited to a gamer party hosted by Maxim-now-turned-Microsoft employee, Nikhill Koshi, along with the usual suspects such as fellow employee/friend Sanjoy John and the girls from Genesis (the PR group, not the 16-bit console that had that one kick-ass Aladdin game). Sorry Mohit Anand fans, no loving here for you. Besides that, I suppose there were other people present. I wouldn’t know if mentioning any names would spark your general interest meter, since the games they mostly played were borderline “eh” at most. First you got the men fondling with their balls in FIFA and NBA 2K-whatever for what seemed like forever. Then you got the women laughing it up in Project Gotham Racing and Dead or Alive 4, since they were the easiest games to get into (somebody should introduce these ladies to the Wii!).

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Seems like the PlayStation loyalist are getting some love sent their way, what with eagerly anticipated titles such as Metal Gear Solid 4 getting a launch date and exclusive console bundles too! Adding more cheer to the parade here, is Gaming Indians, who have come with mega triple offer for both, the PSP and PS3 fans, in form of God of War: Chains of Olympus and Patapon for the PSP and Gran Turismo 5 Prologue for the PlayStation 3.Under this offer, you get to save INR 225 on each of the Patapon and GoW:Chains of Olympus and INR 270 on GT5 Prologue.

Interested?

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Did You Just Wet Your Pants?

Who said gamers don’t have a social life? For all those skeptics out there who believe gamers are those species who just camp in the dark basement and game all night jacking off to the barely-clad Japanese RPG chicks, ten of us hardcore gamers from Bangalore got together to prove them wrong!

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