We recently ran a video for the just-released Borderlands content "The Secret Armory of General Knoxx." To watch the video, you had to put your birthdate into the window to prove you were old enough to view the M-rated content.

We're sure most of you are familiar with age-gated video content, but we received a few e-mails asking about why some content is age-gated, and that got us thinking... how is video content regulated in the video game industry? We spoke to Eliot Mizrachi of the ESRB to get our questions answered.

Activision Blizzard has become an immensely successful company with three large franchises under its belt. So what's the only thing to do? Begin burning one down! The drama between Activision and Infinity Ward has lead to lawsuits, stories in the press, and rampant speculation about what's really going on. What's clear is that the people who were the driving force behind the series have left the company, and Activision is looking to release as many Call of Duty games in as short of time as possible.

What else happened this week? We play God of War 3, we review Bad Company 2, we give some thoughts on the DSi XL, and we look at the glitch that caused older models of the PlayStation 3 to fail. What a week!

Apple's lawsuit against HTC may have been the talk of the Internet for most of the week, but Valve's teasers for Steam coming to the Mac took the prize for most exciting news. MacHeist also released a new software bundle and the rumor mill gossipped about HDMI on the next Mac mini. Need to catch up?

: Valve has begun sending images to gaming sites showing its properties tarted up in Mac colors and images. Is Steam coming to OS X? We should know very soon.

: Apple's could be the start of a , or the start of a proxy fight against Google's Android. Either way, it may become the poster child for the ills of the US patent system.

Let's look back at the week that was in Microsoft news. Here were the top stories:

Coding error leads to uneven EU browser ballot distribution: The distribution of browser choices on the EU browser ballot released this month to Windows users is uneven. Internet Explorer shows up in the right-most position 50 percent of the time for current IE users, an outcome that's due to Microsoft attempting to shuffle the browsers using JavaScript's sort function.

Microsoft rivals push to send browser ballot on world tour: The lobbying group European Committee for Interoperable Systems (ECIS), which is composed of many Microsoft rivals including Opera, is urging the rest of the world to push Microsoft into offering the browser ballot screen.

Google has acquired a company that allows Microsoft Office users to edit their documents collaboratively on the Web. The acquisition of DocVerse will undoubtedly allow users who are married to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint to edit their documents through Google's services, thanks to a "small, nimble team of talented developers who share [Google's] vision."

Both Google and DocVerse made their announcements Friday afternoon, with each noting that transitioning to cloud document storage and collaboration has been somewhat of a challenge for Office users. "Unfortunately, today, individuals are still forced to make a choice between those two worlds," reads the DocVerse blog post. "Google’s acquisition of DocVerse represents a first step to solve these problems."

Google says that current DocVerse users will be able to continue using the service as usual, but that new signups have been closed until the company is "ready to share what's next." This is no doubt a foreshadowing of Google's plan to integrate DocVerse's capabilities into Google Docs, which allows users to collaborate simultaneously on Google-hosted word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation documents.

The move is just another step in Google's strategy to chip away at Microsoft's dominance in the productivity space. Of course, there are other ways for Office users to share documents online—SharePoint is a popular solution among businesses, for example—but the functionality is still quite different from what's offered through Google Docs. The DocVerse acquisition, combined with Google's recently announced file-storage capabilities, will help beef up Google Docs to the point where it will be even harder for small businesses to resist signing up for Google Apps.

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Microsoft hasn't been the most progressive company when it comes to dealing with gay and lesbian issues on Xbox Live, but the company has just announced a small but important change to its Code of Conduct for the service. You can now describe your relationships with a number of preapproved words.

"Under our previous policy, some of these expressions of self-identification were not allowed in Gamertags or profiles to prevent the use of these terms as insults or slurs," Xbox Live General Manager Marc Whitten wrote. "However we have since heard feedback from our customers that while the spirit of this approach was genuine, it inadvertently excluded a part of our Xbox LIVE community. This update also comes hand-in-hand with increased stringency and enforcement to prevent the misuse of these terms."

You can now describe your orientation as Gay, Bi, Straight, Transgender, or Lesbian. The new code also notes that other words are verboten, and these accepted words are contextual. "Other terms regarding relationship orientation are not allowed. In addition you may not use these terms or any other terms regarding relationship orientation to insult, harass, or any other pejorative use against other users," the document explains.

"I truly believe that our diversity is what makes us strong: diversity in gaming and entertainment options, and diversity in the people that make up this amazing community. I look forward to seeing you on LIVE soon," Whitten said. 

It may seem like a small thing to some, but now gamers don't have to hide their sexual orientation to play on Xbox Live. 

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