Gaming News Round-Up: November 16th, 2004

Today's news round-up includes news of a wonderful musical performance at Spike TV's Video Game Awards, and a distinctly odd lawsuit from a Pulp Fiction co-writer. - Television network Spike TV has announced categories, nominees and performances for its 2nd annual Video Game Awards show. Spanning 24 categories, including Game Of The Year, Best Game Based On A Movie, Best PC Game and a host of others, the flagship Game Of The Year category includes Burnout 3: Takedown (Electronic Arts), Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (Rockstar Games), Half-Life 2 (Vivendi Universal Games), Halo 2 (Microsoft Game Studios), and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (Konami). The Spike TV Video Game Awards 2004 show will be hosted by Snoop Dogg, and will air on Tuesday, December 14th, at 9 PM Eastern Time/8 PM Central. The show will also feature musical performances including Sum 41, Ludacris and for the first time ever, a special live performance by Snoop Dogg and the remaining members of The Doors singing "Riders on the Storm." - The Los Angeles Times is reporting that Pulp Fiction co-writer Roger Avary has filed a lawsuit against developer ResponDesign Inc. and Microsoft over the recently released Xbox fitness title, Yourself! Fitness. Filed in the Los Angeles County Superior Court, the lawsuit accuses the two of stealing his idea for a “genre-bending” title for the Xbox, one that he says he pitched to Microsoft during a December 2002 meeting. The ResponDesign title, Yourself! Fitness, which debuted in North America in October, is an exercise game, one in which fitness guru Yumi Lee instructs players through a series of interactive workouts, with over 500 unique exercises including yoga, pilates, cardio fitness, strength training, flexibility exercises, and targeted weight loss routines. The developers of the title created it for Microsoft's hardware, but have no direct creative link with the company, and claim that they created the idea independently of Avary's pitch.