I may be a master chef in Cooking Mama’s starry eyes, but in real life I can barely boil an egg.

Besides, the recipes in the “Cooking Mama” games can’t be followed step-by-step (well, maybe the instant ramen is an exception). They were designed in a way so I could slice, dice and stir with my stylus, and they don’t tell me the requisite measurements for actually cooking the food if I wanted to.

So when I saw that “Gourmet Chef” was coming out for the DS, and that it included “more than 70 recipes you can make at home,” I just had to try it. After all, I still had France on the brain from my recent trip, so what better way to reminisce than by making some authentic French food?

Read on to see the results (photos and all) of the five dishes I made, and the ratings my hapless, taste-testing boyfriend gave them.

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Forget the long lines of people waiting for “Wii Fit.” At the Nintendo World Store in New York City this afternoon, I witnessed one of the last things any passersby would expect to see…

A watermelon-eating competition.

Who could eat the most slices in six minutes?

In celebration for next month’s “Major League Eating: The Game” WiiWare title, Mastiff Games held a watermelon-eating contest between two real-life competitive eaters featured in the game.

So why make Major League Eating into a game? “We wanted to do a sport that had never been done before, and that was Major League Eating,” said Mastiff head Bill Swartz. “Since no one has done an eating game since ‘Pac Man,‘ and since no one has used the Wii controller as an eating device, that was an added bonus.”

The event was a showdown between the new Sushi-eating world champ, Tim “Eater X” Janus, who is ranked fourth internationally, and his roommate, “Crazy Legs” Conti, ranked 11th in the world. I was told that Crazy Legs is known as the “Evil Knievel of the Alimentary Canal,” and has eaten his way out of a 96-cubic foot sarcophagus of popcorn.

This was to be an epic contest, and the Multiplayer blog would record it in text and photos for posterity. A watermelon-eating champ would be crowned…

(See all the watermelon-eating pictures below.)

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Later today I’ll post an interview I did with Glen Schofield, executive producer for Electronic Arts‘ upcoming M-targeted Halloween space horror game “Dead Space.”

We talked about how and why the game was made, how the creation of this game differs from most other EA games, what Schofield did to hook his bosses’ interest and what the truth is behind that whole no-pause-button fiasco.

But first, let’s look at some “Dead Space” cakes.

I know what you’re thinking: Game cakes are supposed to be baked after a game comes out!

Well, sorry, but you thought wrong.

While describing to me just how tightly his team has bonded while creating “Dead Space,” Schofield mentioned a hot-wings-eating contest (yawn) and a recent grossest-cakes-bake-off (really??). I politely requested photos and explanations. He provided me with two samples:

The “Dead Space” Cakes
(click images to enlarge)

Cake #1

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Last week, I interviewed the makers of the new, performance-enhancing pill for gamers called “FpsBrain.”

I also spoke with a registered dietitian about it, and she likened the pill to most energy drinks out on the market.

Then yesterday, our friends at Kotaku published a pretty comprehensive feature on energy drinks, comparing the different brands’ ingredients, tastes and effectiveness.

But there are two drinks that courageous (and no doubt bouncing-off-the-walls) feature writer Mike Fahey didn’t try: the Nintendo-brand energy drinks Donkey Kong Jungle Juice and Power Up Energy Drink.

Granted, Fahey probably doesn’t live near a Nintendo World Store, so I walked a few blocks from our Times Square office to Rockefeller Center, where I purchased the two drinks for $1.99 each.

Here’s what I tasted…

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Getting your butt handed to you in “Halo 3“?

Take a pill.

About two weeks ago, news of a performance-enhancing pill for gamers made its way around the Internet. Dubbed “FpsBrain” and made by German computer-makers Tomarni, the product promises that a person will have a “remarkable increase in perception and reaction capacities.”

To boot, the website claims that their staff uses FpsBrain four times a week to “enhance their mental performance and their work efficieny [sic].” If it doesn’t work, the company promises “a 110% money-back guarantee.”

Sound like a sketchy, late-night infomercial? I thought so too.

So last week I got in touch with the Berlin-based manufacturer and had an e-mail exchange with CEO Thomas Straßburg. And since I’m no expert on “energy drinks” and performance-enhancing supplements, I also e-mailed a registered dietitian to answer my questions regarding the ingredients of FpsBrain. Here’s what I learned…

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What happens to you when a new game comes out?

You probably don’t go crazy. You probably don’t cut off all family and friends.

But in many little ways you probably change, even if just for a short time. For the past couple of months MTV News checked in on one “Halo 3” fan Kris Henderson to see what affects that game had on him.

We aired the results on Monday to kick off Gamer’s Week. Today on Multiplayer we have that segment for you right here — and it’s followed by a few video diaries Kris made during his first weeks of “Halo”-playing.

Do you see a little of Kris in yourself or someone you know?
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Gilbert Arenas wasn’t just nice enough to pass judgment on our Multiplayer blog when I sat down with him last Thursday. He was also kind enough to talk about some video game-themed sneakers he’s backing, why “NBA Live 08” is worth buying this year, why “Halo 2” might be better than “Halo 3,” and a whole lot more.

Think celebrities don’t know their games? Watch the two videos in this post (one is after the jump!) or just check Arenas’ “Halo 3″ stats.

Watch our host Blair and co. get bucked at our Big Buck Hunter Pro competition held at the Black Bear Lodge in New York City.

At the airport before we left E3, we decided that the best thing before a six-hour flight would be to eat at Chili’s (they serve breakfast!). I took a bite of my sausage patty, and it reminded me of something… Clearly, we still had video games on the brain…

When our plane finally landed in Los Angeles after our six-hour, foodless American Airlines flight, we used our handy rental car to take us to the nearest source of sustenance we could find… and, oh did we find sustenance…

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PC gaming and me — we’ve ve never really mixed. I think it has something to do with the fact that I can’t rely on my left hand for anything other than the thumb (but oh how good a thumb it is). Maybe it’s because every time I time I try to use my keyboard it melts a little and gets all over my hands.

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