Don't let his robes fool you - you may have more in common with Trinley Dorje than you think. He's only 24, listens to hip-hop on his iPod, and enjoys a good round violent video games. Yes, you read that right - this Buddhist leader enjoys good old-fashioned pwnage as much as the next guy. In fact, despite his disposition, Dorje believes that this type of games can even be therapeutic.

This is one intervention you wouldn't want staged on you. You know how there are now rehab centers for gaming addicts? Well, China's got those too, and you'd be terrified to land in there if you were the patient. As it turns out, a certain clinic in Linyi, Shandong province administers electro shock therapy for Internet addicts. Don't worry, though, the Ministry of Health has already ordered a halt to it.

It's quite an emotional rollercoaster, this week really was. Straight off from the news that the King of Pop has died, we went on to have the usual string of gaming news that rocked our own worlds. With the usual news on lawsuits, layoffs, company shutdowns, convicted murderers over consoles, it was looking to be a sad state of affairs. Good thing we've got our own Neverland to brighten things up a bit. And now we've come to the Fourth of July weekend. Time to kick off those shoes, stretch out, unwind and celebrate. You know we all deserve it. Happy FOJ weekend, everyone!

The global population may be ballooning like mad, but Koei Tecmo seems to think that there aren't enough Dynasty Babies to form a strikeforce. If China has the One-Child policy to discourage procreation, Koei Tecmo does the exact opposite, providing monetary incentives for their employees to have more babies.

Electronic Arts' promise last week to announce an EA Montreal game today is made good with this most recent press release. They've formally confirmed Army of Two: The 40th Day. Yeap, Karl B., you were right on the money! What's cool is that, while the game is confirmed to return to its home consoles (PS3, 360), it's also getting a PSP spin-off! That's a nice change from hearing all these other console games getting DS spin-offs. *coughPrinceOfPersiacough*

They're not all about killing animals and finding out why planes go down - National Geographic announces the formation of NGG: National Geographic Games.  Their mission: to bring the NatGeo experience into gaming. Find out more.

Tomorrow's PlayStation Network update for Japan will include a downloadable demo for the action-adventure rhythm title. Coupled with this announcement, SCEJ has also confirmed that China will get their own localization of Patapon 2, to be released in January. You want screens? Check out the full article.

Here's another batch of scans from Famitsu China. Their recent issue ran a feature on Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, with (nooo, that's not Roxas!) Ven stepping into the limelight of their magazine spread.

The PSP China Bulletin Boards has picked up some new pictures of Sony's rumored PSP-3000. Rather than just a couple of pics of the unit's separate bits and pieces, this new batch shows what appears to be a working model. You can view the pictures over in the full article.

Take-Two Interactive Software, the distributor of Grand Theft Auto 4 (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3) and other games, has given word that it is planning to expand into Asia Pacific markets. The company has tapped an experienced senior executive to help them establish a foothold in Asia. For more information, don't hesitate to click on the "read more" link below.