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Today's featured article The Simpsons Game is an action/platformer video game based on the animated television series The Simpsons, made for the Wii, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, Nintendo DS, and PlayStation Portable. It was developed, published, and distributed by Electronic Arts (headquarters pictured). Similarly to the show, the game pokes fun at popular culture, other video games, and Electronic Arts, its publisher. In the self-referential plot, the five Simpson family members—Homer, Marge (with Maggie), Bart, and Lisa—discover that they are forced to participate in a video game and are given superpowers to resolve several situations. Eventually, they must save their 8-bit predecessors from Will Wright, the game's antagonist, and the creator of their video game character selves, Matt Groening. Released in 2007, the game received mixed reviews. Game critics praised its visuals and writing, which included many parodies of other video games, but criticized its short length and poor camera system, which did not always function properly. The Simpsons Game received the Best Game Based on a Movie or TV Show award at the 2007 Spike Video Game Awards and was nominated for Best Video Game Writing at the 2007 Writers Guild of America Awards. (more...) Recently featured: Dwarf planet – 1962 South Vietnamese Independence Palace bombing – Elk Archive – By email – More featured articles... Did you know... From Wikipedia's newest articles: ... that the Wachau in Austria (abbey pictured) inspired the name of the Wachovia area in North Carolina? ... that the Airedale Terrier Paddy the Wanderer was a famous stowaway and traveler who had Wellington harbour as his base? ... that Marie Kudeříková wrote her literary legacy while waiting for her execution in Breslau? ... that style of handwriting of lectionaries ℓ 296 and ℓ 1599 have resemblance to Codex Cyprius? ... that IGN's Adam Ballard described the Wii video game Chrysler Classic Racing as "basically one giant, terrible commercial"? ... that John Hartwell Cocke, who helped Thomas Jefferson build the University of Virginia, has been cited by historians for his knowledge of Jefferson's relationship with Sally Hemings? ... that the rainforests of eastern Australia harbour such trees as the yellow satinheart, five-leaf bonewood, northern yellow boxwood, shiny-leaved condoo, yellow bulletwood and veiny lace-flower? Archive – Start a new article – Nominate an article

In the news The Supreme Court of the Philippines acquits Hubert Webb and six other defendants of the 1991 Vizconde massacre. American diplomat Richard Holbrooke (pictured), chief negotiator of the Dayton Peace Accords, dies at the age of 69. Two bombs explode in Stockholm, Sweden, killing the attacker and injuring two other people. Chinese human rights activist Liu Xiaobo is awarded the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize in absentia, the first time since 1936 that neither the recipient nor a relative attended the presentation ceremony. The SpaceX Dragon, in its first test flight, becomes the first commercially developed spacecraft to successfully return after orbiting the Earth. An original copy of Birds of America by John James Audubon is auctioned for £7.3 million, a record price for the sale of a printed book. Wikinews – Recent deaths – More current events... On this day... December 17: Tenth of Tevet (Judaism, 2010); National Day in Bhutan (1907) 920 – Romanos I became co-Byzantine Emperor with the underage Constantine VII. 1583 – Cologne War: Forces under Ernest of Bavaria defeated the troops under Gebhard Truchsess von Waldburg at the Siege of Godesberg. 1819 – The Republic of Gran Colombia in South America was established, with Simón Bolívar as its first president. 1926 – A coup d'état by the Lithuanian military replaced the democratically elected President Kazys Grinius with Antanas Smetona (pictured). 1935 – The Douglas DC-3, one of the most significant transport aircraft ever built, made its maiden voyage. 1983 – The Provisional Irish Republican Army detonated a car bomb just outside Harrods Department Store in London, UK, killing six people and injuring about 90 others. More anniversaries: December 16 – December 17 – December 18 Archive – By email – List of historical anniversaries It is now December 17, 2010 (UTC) – Refresh this page

Today's featured picture The White-barred Emperor (Charaxes brutus, ssp. natalensis shown here) is a butterfly species native to central and southern Africa. The wingspan is 60–75 mm (2.4–3.0 in) in males and 75–90 mm (3.0–3.5 in) in females. All Charaxes species are tropical Old World butterflies, with the highest diversity in the humid forests around the Indian Ocean, from Africa to Indonesia. Photo: Muhammad Mahdi Karim Recently featured: Frontispiece to A Memoir of Jane Austen – Scene from "The Canterville Ghost" – Karkalla flower Archive – More featured pictures...

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