They're certainly colorful, aren't they?

After a bit of governmental deliberation the United Kingdom has chosen to make PEGI (Pan European Game Information) ratings the sole standard for labeling the content of videogames. The decision came about as part of the Digital Britain report, an inquiry begun last October by Stephen Carter, the country’s first Minister for Communications, Technology and Broadcasting, to primarily help modernize Britain’s telecommunications capabilities. PEGI’s ratings will be enacted with help from the independent Video Standards Council (think of it as the British version of the Entertainment Consumers Assocation…kinda).

In light of Tuesday’s announcement, PEGI has unveiled its new color-coded classification icons for UK game releases, as seen above. The freshly minted labels keep the same age ranges as the previous ones, but ditch the black-and-white, Electronic Software Ratings Board-like design.

Previous to Tuesday’s ruling, PEGI ratings were used in conjunction with the British Board of Film Classification‘s (BBFC) system of certificate labeling (e.g., Universal, 12 and 18 among others), resulting in a somewhat confusing dual game rating — especially for mature titles. Now that PEGI has control of classifying videogames released in the UK, the hope is to create a clearer and more easily managed system which provides parents and families with easy-to-understand ratings.

If anything, let’s hope for the sakes of our British friends that the decision prevents any more game bans from happening in the future.

I promise this story wasn't an excuse to reuse an image

Not a few days after 1UP posted its bold rumors about Microsoft’s Project Natal — as we mentioned here on Monday– did the company that Bill Gates built snap back and dampen the prophetic claims. According to Xbox’s director of product management, Aaron Greenberg, “Natal will run on Xbox 360 so no new console investment will be necessary.” Greenberg’s statement is directly opposite 1UP’s rumor post, which states that Natal will be released sometime in the fall of 2010 and become “the cornerstone of Microsoft’s next evolution of the Xbox…as an add-on for the Xbox 360…[with] similar hardware but upgraded, repackaged, and rebranded.”

Who really knows, though. Microsoft could be enacting its damage control protocols to cover up an updated model of Xbox; Eurogamer’s rebuttal post isn’t exactly heavy on details. And while an entirely new console is unlikely, Natal being packaged with an Xbox 360 and marketed as a new experience is very feasible. Maybe that’s what 1UP’s source was implying.

Somewhat ironically, Animal House was filmed at the U of O…but you all likely know that by now

First of all: Congratulations recent college graduates. Welcome to a world full of (seemingly unavailable) opportunities!

I’m sorry, that was harsh.

Still, the University of Oregon’s ceremony for the geography and anthropology departments had a wonderfully apocalyptic keynote speaker telling everyone the skills they earned during four years of tuition-giving are for jobs not yet created, and that there are no guarantees of gainful employment right now — but good luck anyway! I laughed for my graduating friend.

As far as Silicon Sasquatch goes we’re back on track this week with our lovely Daily Recaps, and we’ll actually get around to posting additional content over the next few days.

Doug’s preparing a wonderful beginner’s guide to sports games, which is something I’ve always wanted to read considering my inability to get into the genre. I’ll be working on a review for Saints Row 2 and I can’t say enough good things about it from the in-depth customization to the spraying of public property with fecal matter.

Also, look for our impressions of the recently released Overlord II demo; as far as I can tell, controlling a horde of gremlin-sounding demons with a penchant for clubbing baby seals results in guilt-laden hilarity.

Monday’s news = 1UP posts some hefty Project Natal rumors, Verizon steps onto GameTap’s turf and Shigeru Miyamoto really wants to help you win at gaming.

Unfortunately, that's not a trick of perspective. Natal is, right now at least, pretty big.

Microsoft’s Natal hardware, demoed famously at E3 two weeks ago, is kind of the current poster child of gamedom. Sure, E3 2009 had a lot of fantastic announcements from all sorts of developers, publishers and console makers, but the media bees are certainly buzzing about the capabilities of the company’s proprietary Xbox 360 camera.

Now 1UP has confidently posted significant (if proved to be true) rumors about Project Natal, believing that the camera is actually part of a “new” Xbox console package to be launched in the fall of 2010. However, as the post states, don’t think of it as the Xbox 720, but more of what happened between the GameCube and Wii transition: similar hardware that can play the last generation’s games while offering new ones with different control schemes and slightly better graphics. Something tells me this new Xbox will cost a bit more than the Wii’s meager $250 asking price.

I’ve read a lot of postulations about Natal recently, but 1UP is really going all out here. The idea isn’t extremely far fetched, but one would have to question Microsoft’s methodology of extending the 360′s life cycle — which we know the company wants to do. Why continue to carve the gaming population into accessory-laden segments? Oh yeah: cash money.

It’s bad enough with overpriced hard drives, and it was worse when there used to be Core, Pro and Elite models. If Microsoft does introduce a redesigned 360 to bundle with Natal, the price has to be competitive and the package can’t alienate current 360 owners by offering too many upgrades to then negate the older model. Of course the company can do whatever it wants, but the backlash from gamers could be tremendous.

Verizon seems to be everywhere, but you can't say the same for their downloadable game service; not yet at least

Apparently Verizon craves a slice of the deliciously profitable pie that is downloadable PC gaming, à la GameTap.

Joystiq has a story up unveiling that the telecommunications giant will soon be introducing a test program in New York, Rhode Island and Massachusetts to offer over 1,400 PC games for a $9.99 per month subscription fee. The games can be played online, likely through Verizon’s own software, or can be downloaded directly to the computer. I’m sure users can expect some form of DRM considering the format.

Now that one big telecoms company is on the bandwagon, who’ll be next?

An image from Nintendo's patent for "demo play," originally referred to in the document as the Kind Code

It’s been mentioned for a while, but now the truth finally comes out: Nintendo will be introducing a new feature in New Super Mario Bros. Wii that can finish difficult parts of the game for you. Shigeru Miyamoto seems to be spearheading this innovation, currently referred to as “demo play.” The famed designer wants to attract people who give up on games after failing during trying portions of a title.

I truly support the idea, but it took a few minutes of deep pondering to come to that conclusion.

It’s not that I’m worried “demo play” could take away from the experience of overcoming adversities — after all, if someone wants to pay full price for a game to watch it be played, that’s their own decision — it’s that I initially assumed this feature might turn games into a boring spectator sport where friends rent and “beat” a title on autopilot just to say they did. I’m already not a fan of videogames adopting cinematic cliché­ after cinematic cliché, so the idea of literally watching a game like a movie sounded off-putting.

However, I think “demo play” is a promising development for gaming as a whole. How many times have you or someone you know quit a game due to frustration? Maybe the option just being there will bring the more timid and inexperienced toward gaming, and as such the act will become even more socially acceptable.

Sure, the so-called hardcore can use this as flak to say you’re not getting the most out of a difficult game if you let the computer do it for you, but I’ve always been more concerned with the experience of videogames and not high scores or bragging rights. A game’s story, presentation, art style, music and a multitude of other things matter way more than if it’s hard or easy enough. Even with achievements I only try to get the most points in games I care about and love, not solely just to have a bigger gamerscore than someone else.

Ubisoft's James Cameronstravaganza really was the most boring thing about E3 — but we promise to post the older (and much more interesting) info later this week

So that whole triple-E expo thing is over, right?

We still have our Nintendo and Sony conference impressions on-tap and ready to be served, but we’re simply terrible at sliding that frothy information down the counter to you, the frustrated consumer.

Look for those articles later this week with a comp for your first few Jägerbombs.

Yesterday’s news ran quite the gamut of topics: Sony’s trophy system isn’t happening on PSP, Satoru Iwata “scuttles” when it comes to new handhelds and playing a game might just help lower your car insurance rates.

It would be much more of a letdown for PSP owners if PS3 trophies actually came to gamers in this life-sized format

The idea of tracking digital accomplishments for consoles is still a relatively new concept. And though Microsoft blazed the trail with the Xbox 360′s achievements in 2006, Sony wised up and added its own variation to the PlayStation 3 last year.

Unfortunately for fans of Sony’s trophies, the PlayStation Portable won’t be adding its own version anytime soon.

Joystiq asked one of Sony’s PlayStation Network higher-ups, Eric Lempel, about the possibility of adding PSP games to a trophy system linked across both consoles. Lempel gave a pretty clear “No” answer, thanks to the PSP’s trouble with hackers manipulating the hardware and software to no end. It seems the PSP Go won’t remedy the lack of trophies either.

It makes sense for Sony to protect the purity of their trophies, and while some may scoff at the entire concept of digital boasts, it’s very important to make sure hackers and pirates can’t bolster their profiles with fake accomplishments for the sake of those gamers who boldly sacrifice having a life in order to achieve artificial glory.

I have to wonder what Microsoft’s solution would be if they ever released a portable, gaming-specific system? Maybe players would have to sign in to their Passport accounts each time they unlocked an achievement. Scarily enough, I can almost see that happening.

This is really an outlandish mod/fake concept model — but a portable GameCube sure would be wonderful

The Nintendo DSi has had quite the successful launch just two months into its North American life cycle. Even so, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata told CNBC that the company had plans for a different handheld — plans that were eventually scrapped.

The article is rather vague, which isn’t the author’s fault but more due to the coy explanations on the part of Iwata. It’s both refreshing and frustrating to read that Nintendo had another portable system “complete” (though Iwata doesn’t offer any details on what this system was exactly) but refused to release it. Without any specific details, it’s easy to imagine this unseen console could’ve been the greatest thing ever. That’s the problem with mentioning your company had a release-ready product that never felt the clammy touch of nerdy hands.

Yes, Nintendo has a vision and it’s been incredibly successful this generation — it still doesn’t mean that updating the same basic hardware for the second time is the best option, regardless of how well the DSi sells.

Iwata believes in the need for preserving a sense of momentum with Nintendo’s available hardware. But really, that’s just another way of saying, “We’re making a lot of money as-is…why bother?” Some might just accept that as business, which is true, but laurel-resting still looks bad.

Jewel Diver doesn't look like much, but potentially saving your life AND money at the same time is quite an impressive CV for such a simplistic game

Car insurance is one of those necessary evils we all have to deal with. But what if playing a simple game could improve your visual acuity and performance to make you safer on the road and lower your premiums?

Kotaku paraphrased a story found on the San Francisco Chronicle website, SFGate.com, wherein Allstate Insurance has used a simplistic flash game called Jewel Diver — developed by Posit Science — to seemingly improve drivers’ peripheral vision and awareness levels. If the experiment is widespread enough in its success, Allstate might employ the game to test drivers and then offer cheaper rates for those who do well enough.

It’s a fantastic idea on Allstate’s part, and while there are no definitive results yet it’s still a good thing to see the concept of games being used to hypothetically improve public safety. The basic of idea of what a game is doesn’t always have to equal either immature fun or bloody, senseless violence.

Now, let’s get more companies thinking that way.

This was me, 24 hours ago. Please excuse the tardiness with the update.

Hoo boy. Medicine sure is a fun thing, isn’t it? After recovering from liberal applications of medication and sleep to combat a particularly nasty sinus infection, things have returned to normal – including posting the news. And news there is to be posted!

Xbox Live membership has risen to more than 20 million users as the Xbox 360 has moved past 30 million consoles sold worldwide.

Microsoft announced today that it has hit a pair of milestones with the Xbox 360 console: 30 million systems sold worldwide, and 20 million individual users on its Xbox Live service. In the release, Microsoft attributed some of the growth to the New Xbox Experience dashboard overhaul that was launched last fall, saying that new membership numbers have gone up 136 percent since its debut in November. That led Microsoft to earn more than $14 billion on console sales, in addition to almost a billion pieces of content (both paid and free) downloaded via Xbox Live.

A pair of pieces from Electronic Arts ahead of E3. First, the company’s lineup of games for E3 2009 was announced yesterday. Lots of expected titles are on the list — including Mass Effect 2, Brütal Legend, a pair of Need for Speed titles and the full host of EA Sports products. Of course, the list doesn’t include any surprises or E3-specific announcements, but does show that, yes, EA is still gigantic.

Secondly, one of the games that’s going to be on the E3 show floor for Electronic Arts is The Sims 3 – and it’s actually going to be released during the week of E3, too. That hasn’t stopped the Internet from doing what it does best, though – downloading a leaked pirate copy of the game more than 180,000 times already. However, apparently EA got the last laugh with the pirates: “It’s not the full game. Half the world — an entire city — is missing from the pirated copy,” EA spokesman Holly Rockwood told Bloomberg.

On June 9, you too can rock out like Iron Maiden in Rock Band.

Lastly, some quick pieces of news to wrap things up:

• YEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!! Iron Maiden is finally getting more songs in Rock Band. A dozen classic tracks from the heavyweights of English metal including “Number of the Beast,” “Aces High,” and “Run to the Hills” will be available on June 9.
• The world apparently needs more kart racers, and Sega is going to satisfy that need: Sonic and Sega All-Stars has been announced, and it will feature racing action starring characters Sonic the Hedgehog, Tails, Dr. Robotnik, Samba (of Samba de Amigo fame) and more. The game will come to the Xbox 360, PS3, Wii and DS in 2010.
• A new Microsoft Zune has been announced — featuring a built-in HD radio, wifi access, a full-screen Internet browser, and syncing with Xbox Live. More details are sure to surface next week at E3.

And finally, because we love you:

Unless this is the greatest prank Hideo Kojima has pulled in his life, it looks like the konami.jp teaser site that's been counting down for over a week is working toward a Metal Gear announcement next week at E3.

The big pieces of news have come from Kojima Productions and Rockstar, respectively. Starting with the Japanese developer, its teaser site – which has seen multiple countdown clocks on top of ever-changing imagery, all the while focused on a field during a thunderstorm – has now left little question as to what Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima will be working on next. Today, the image of a young Big Boss – replete with eye patch – joined the flashing numbers and letters that have been on the site for well over a week, seeming to imply that a new Metal Gear game of some sort is due to be announced soon.

The other piece of news related to the teaser site and Kojima’s next project comes from scans of a leaked copy of the newest issue of Japan’s Famitsu Magazine, the TIME of Japanese gaming. There’s a feature story with lots of self-editing by Kojima, and accompanied by another image from the countdown that hasn’t been seen yet: Raiden, circa MGS4. It’s good news for Metal Gear fans and, with a bit of elementary math, it looks like the timer will run to zero early next week.

Oh my. The logo for the next piece of GTA IV DLC, "The Ballad of Gay Tony," looks appropriately fabulous.

A week ahead of E3, Rockstar made the other big news of the day by announcing the first details for the second piece of DLC for last year’s Grand Theft Auto IV. “The Ballad of Gay Tony” will release this fall both on Xbox Live and in a disc-based compilation along with “The Lost and Damned,” and puts players in the shoes of Luiz Lopez, who works under Liberty City night-club owner Tony Prince.

After Rockstar has cast players as both Baltic badasses and leaders of a motorcycle gang, it’ll be interesting to see what sorts of situations the club owner’s assistant gets into. It’s likely that more details will be revealed next week at E3, possibly as soon as Monday at Microsoft’s keynote press conference, so stay tuned.

Bioshock 2, the anticipated shooter set in Ayn Rand’s (very) wet dream land, has received a release date – and count it as a win for the old country. In a change from the usual conventions, Bioshock 2 will debut first in Europe. The game will be released on Friday, October 30 in Europe; it will hit stores in the United States on the following Tuesday, November 3. Curiously, publisher Take Two still lists the game as “to be determined” regarding which platforms the sequel will appear on; the original arrived on the Xbox 360, PC, and PlayStation 3. Perhaps that situation will be cleared up by next week.

Some more news briefs to close the day’s recap:

• 1up editor James Mielke has an interview with former members of Team Ninja, including Ninja Gaiden creator Tomonobu Itagaki, marking the first time they’ve really broken radio silence since splitting off from Tecmo last July.
• Two more pieces of Sony-specific PS3 news: Joystiq reports that signs suggest there may be a new “value-added” bundle of the 80 gig PS3 at Best Buy after E3 (keeping the price the same but adding two Greatest Hits games), and safari photography game Afrika is finally due to be released in the United States on the PS3. Pokemon Snap and Toto fans, rejoice!
• Lastly, and quite possibly most awesome-ly, Tim Schafer will be conducting an E3 interview for Brütal Legend over Twitter next week. Submit questions at 6 p.m. PDT on June 2 to @BrutalLegend, and read at 7 p.m. to see Schafer’s answers — #E3BL tag optional, but helpful.

There’s some videogame-related news in here somewhere, I promise. But this is just too good of a story to pass up.

Capcom‘s and GRIN‘s Bionic Commando could have starred a very different protagonist from series originator Nathan “Rad” Spencer. Someone who’s got it all: a bizarre career spanning pornography, artificial limb charity and advocacy, and a rocky marriage with a former Beatle.

Someone who could answer the call of duty and go where no man has gone before.

Imagine what an eye-opening experience it would have been to swing through a city with a bionic arm, doling out ample amounts of violent justice to everyone around…as Heather Mills.

As claimed by The Sun and picked up by Computer and Video Games (CVG), Mills was approached by Capcom for unspecified reasons to contribute to Bionic Commando because of her charitable background in helping amputees. But according to the article, the offer Capcom made was ten times less than Mills’ going rate.

The best part? Mills wanted the game to feature her as the main character.

No, we’re not making this up. Here’s what Mills posted to her Twitter account earlier today:

Got offered to promote an amputee bionic computer game, from a wealthy computer games company I said if you donate a large sum to charity

The stingy company came back saying they couldn’t, what happened to charitable businesses, seems they just want to exploit and give nothing

It may make sense to take the offer but I’d rather donate regularly to many charities much more than they’re offering and not be exploited

There’s more, but it ventures into a pretty dark place.

Though at times it might seem the majority of Internet aficionados have little regard for accurate grammar and spelling, some of us (well, just us three, probably) are especially quick to anger when an established company takes creative liberty with terms that allow no leeway for interpretation.

Kotaku’s Stephen Totilo did a little digging and presented his results. As it turns out, “exclusive” takes on an entirely new meaning in the gamer’s lexicon. Basically, it’s meaningless. Leave it to the videogame PR machine to rob the meaning from an absolute term.

We’ve heard the term “exclusive” tossed around carelessly all too often. Big-name games like Final Fantasy XIII are billed as platform-exclusive, with the supposed implication of that exclusivity extending into eternity, but as last year’s E3 proved, anything can change. More recently, Bethesda confirmed that the PlayStation 3 version of Fallout 3 will receive all the downloadable content that was heretofore only available on Xbox 360 and Windows.

Here’s what exclusive actually means in the real world:

ex·clu·sive (adj.)
1. excluding or having power to exclude
2. limiting or limited to possession, control, or use by a single individual or group

– Merriam-Webster Dictionary

Despite asking Bethesda and Microsoft to clarify their definitions of the word, neither would comment. Fortunately, GameTrailers TV‘s Geoff Keighley was willing to confirm what many had long suspected:

In this day and age, unless otherwise specified, you have to assume ‘exclusive’ means a timed exclusive. In other words it is ‘exclusive’ to one platform for a period of time, or ‘first.’ Of course no one will tell you about the length of exclusivity….This is similar to world exclusives on GTTV or in Game Informer. We have the ‘exclusive’ on a game for a period of time, but other outlets ultimately receive the assets.

Sounds rational to us. After all, publishers are only kidding themselves if they think any length of media exclusivity really matters when the most die-hard of fans will scan magazine pages and post videos of games the instant they’re available at any one source.

Hey gang! Hope you’re still reading the blog since we transitioned to our own turf.

It’s been a crazy couple of days for me, what with migrating the site and, uh, celebrating yet another trip around the sun. I’m hoping to celebrate the anniversary of my birth by going back to my roots with Punch-Out!!

But that’s a story for another time. How about some news?

Look behind you! A three-headed monkey!

Ron Gilbert’s landmark adventure game The Secret of Monkey Island may be en route to the Xbox 360 if a listing on the German games rating board Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle is to be believed. The original game, released in 1990, was one of the first successful adventure games built on the now-famous SCUMM engine.

I’m an adventure game lover, and not in a wholesome fashion. I devour these games with no remorse, thriving on the rapid-fire bizarre humor LucasArts used to douse its adventure games with. I replay them year after year. I drop insult swordfighting lines in daily conversation (never had anyone pick up on it yet) and I sometimes involuntarily yelp “pappapishu!” when I stub my toe or do something equally stupid (and painful.) Not a single Día de Los Muertos goes by where I don’t find myself humming the music from Grim Fandango.

So yeah. I’m a little freaky with this whole genre. But don’t let that deter you from one of the finest games ever made. Depending on the quality of the port and the potential for enhancements, this could herald a revival of a wonderful series of games — and perhaps the genre as a whole. But hey, it’s still unconfirmed by LucasArts, so let’s not get too excited just yet.

Other news in brief:

• Resistance’s PlayStation Home space is launching, but there’s only so much anyone can do to revitalize Sony’s stagnant online virtual world.
• Sucker Punch’s Nate Fox and David Meyer participated in a Q&A on the PlayStation Blog regarding their upcoming superhero adventure, InFamous. There aren’t many big surprises, but it’s a great breakdown on many aspects of the game from the developers.

Guitar Hero 5 is coming and it has songs (surprise!), free-to-play MMO Free Realms has racked up quite the player base in its first few weeks of existence, Valve’s sneaky with its surprises as usual, and Mass Effect 2 footage is available for your viewing pleasure.

Not Guitar Hero 5–but close enough

Though the game has been known about for a while now, Activision today tossed out a few official scraps of details on the upcoming Guitar Hero 5. Players will be able to tackle the game’s tracks with any instrument combination they see fit. Want to sing through a song with three other friends all using microphones? Go ahead.

It’s an interesting mechanic to put into a rhythm game–certainly one that isn’t “authentic” as far real bands go (though, yes, these games aren’t meant to be taken literally). And while we’ve been somewhat biased in favor of Harmonix’s Rock Band titles (or, at least Nick and Doug have), I personally find the gameplay freedom Neversoft’s offering to be great. Add-in the beginnings of a solid-looking track list and the new instant difficulty/instrument swapping, and the next Guitar Hero game might turn out to be one actually worthy of the franchise’s name.

You'd certainly be happy too if you were SOE

Free Realms, Sony Online Entertainment’s recently released free-to-play MMO, has already achieved 1,000,000 registered player accounts in under three weeks’ time. The “free” concept might tarnish these numbers a bit considering the zero-cost entry level for gamers to go and be wizards, but it’s still an impressive amount of people willing to try out an American company’s take on the international concept of micro-transaction gameplay. Also, there’s a trading card game within the MMO. I almost feel compelled to try it now.

You are encouraged to fear Mann Co., but that fear comes with the gentle and stern guidance of a near-naked Australian

Though we already mentioned Valve’s impending Team Fortress 2 update, they’re not quite done yet: The next Team Fortress 2 serving of additional content will also be a…gasp…Spy-oriented extravaganza! You have to love the design team’s miniature poster announcements, with their clever wording and immersion into the strange world of TF2′s 1960s super villain culture. Plus, who doesn’t get a kick out of Mann Co.’s CEO (and Australian), Saxton Hale. The name and trouser-shorts simultaneously scream manliness.

And finally, a closing treat for you: BioWare today released a dual-purpose teaser and pre-E3 video for Mass Effect 2. What else can I say but “Wow.”

Enjoy, and have a great weekend. We’ll be posting some great stuff over this weekend and throughout next week, so keep coming back for more!

The criticisms largely echo mine in reviewing the first add-on, Knothole Island, and it’s an overall shame to again see Lionhead botch its DLC. Costumes and potions will only get your game so far, you know.

You got all excited for nothing, pup

It’s also unfortunate that my predictions of See the Future being more worthwhile turned out wrong–that’s what I get for speculation, I suppose.

News for Thursday: Sony loses cash, a lack of funding shutters another development studio and Telltale Games sells a lot of Strong Bad. It’s all very money-oriented today.

The House of PlayStation might have expectantly lost money, but they're selling many more of these than before

Sony posted a $1 billion loss for the end of the previous financial year ending March 31, 2009; however the company’s operating losses have been cut in half during the same fiscal period. This isn’t anything new considering the global economic issues still plaguing businesses everywhere, but Sony has in the past especially received flak for the high production costs associated with the PlayStation 3.

Now it seems the company has improved the methods of producing their next-gen console to subsequently reduce monetary expenditures and perform better at market in spite of a weakened Yen and slower PlayStation 2 sales.

However, Sony accomplished much more in terms of sales figures: over the last year the company saw a 10-percent increase in sales of PS3 units and a doubling of software sales for the console. Despite the retail successes Sony expects to lose another $1.25 billion over the course of the next fiscal year.

That price drop doesn’t sound too promising, does it?

If only Factor 5 could've used the Force, financially

In some very sad news (as reported by 1UP,) development studio Factor 5, best-known for their series of Rogue Squadron titles, has closed its San Rafael studio. It appears that after financial problems resulting from the bankruptcy of Brash Entertainment last year–with whom Factor 5 was crafting a Superman title–the long-running development studio could no longer afford to keep going.

On a personal note, the Rogue Squadron series for both the Nintendo 64 and GameCube meant a lot to this then-young Star Wars fan. They weren’t just geek indulgences, but truly amazing games for their respective generations and showed what great work Factor 5 was capable of. In the end the company likely felt pigeonholed into the role of “awesome Star Wars game people.” As such they tried to expand their horizons with Lair, which ended up to be a commercial and critical mess.  The complications with Brash seemed to only make matters worse.

Now, they’re gone. We sincerely wish those affected the best of luck in their future endeavors.

Max is certainly enthusiastic about Telltale's success

On the happy side of videogame development, Telltale Games announced that they reached 1,000,000 to-date sales of downloadable episodes for their Sam & Max and Strong Bad games. Congratulations to the independent studio, as it’s quite an impressive milestone to reach for a smaller and more-focused method of creating games.

That’s not meant to sound condescending; it’s a testament to Telltale’s ability to craft humorous titles people truly want to play. I’ll admit I’ve yet to check out any of their episodic games, but now seems like the right time to do so considering the company’s 5-year anniversary sale currently happening on Steam.

Plus, it’s been so long since I’ve watched anything Homestar Runner-related that I might as well get back into the swing of things.

Also, the two-hour season finale of Lost didn’t help much.

Hurley certainly isn't happy with the lateness of this post

Thankfully, it seems, Wednesday was relatively calm as far as news goes: DICE learned from its console prejudices, Blizzard reaffirmed its next MMO is not World of Warcraft: Part Deux and Microsoft bolstered its Platinum Hits collection.

Expect these explosions to somehow be more "hardcore" in the next console Battlefield title

Veteran Battlefield franchise creative director Lars Gustavsson admits that with Battlefield: Bad Company the team treated console gamers “a bit more gently” in crafting content due to DICE‘s PC background. In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Gustavsson talks about the company’s natural progression with its Battlefield games, moving from basic multiplayer functions in Battlefield 1942 to more advanced matchmaking in Bad Company. Still, Gustavsson emphasizes that although the team created a strong console Battlefield game in Bad Company, they now understand future console versions have to be as complex and tailored to hardcore online players as the PC versions have always been.

It’s certainly an appropriate admission for the studio, as Bad Company–though a superb single-player experience that foreshadowed the quality and attention DICE would put into Mirror’s Edge–just didn’t feel like Battlefield. The online portion was very similar in spirit to Battlefield 2 with class load-outs and various vehicles to utilize, but it was more of the same, albeit less grandiose than the PC games. Admittedly, it’s not that easy to shove 64 players into an Xbox Live multiplayer match.

The question now is if DICE will extend these retrospective revelations to their upcoming sequel to Bad Company–otherwise, it’s all talk.  Furthermore, what do Gustavsson’s comments mean for the anticipated (though only rumored) Battlefield 3? Would a hypothetical BF3 become a multi-platform release, a series first for a direct sequel, or will the next core title follow the past trend of PC release first and a stripped-down console counterpart later?

Sorry classic Blizzard franchises–no MMO for you. Besides, Warcraft, you already had your turn.

Though rumored in the past and even partially confirmed by the company itself, Blizzard Entertainment has officially expressed that their next massively multiplayer online title currently in-development will not be based on any of their established StarCraft, Diablo or Warcraft franchises.

World of Warcraft is popular. We all know that. And despite the wide variance in personal feelings about the game, it would be wise to give the Blizzard crew credit where credit’s due–they honed their franchises to be the blockbusters they are today through their own capability and craftsmanship. The company completely deserves its praise and sales.

Still, it’s not always a guaranteed good move to release a brand new MMO under a fresh intellectual property, even if you’re Blizzard. If this next game won’t be based on neither their space, mythical nor fantasy efforts, then what could it possibly be about? Maybe a modern-day MMO where players level up through working menial labor tasks at minimum wage.

We’ll call it: World of Wagecraft.

Army of Two: This much battle-buddy man-love can now be had for less!

Here’s quite the PSA for budget-conscious gamers: Microsoft has added eight new titles to their Platinum Hits line, including popular titles like Gears of War and Mass Effect. It’s good to see Microsoft is bolstering its $20 to $30 hits line (which, admittedly, is an extremely baffling price difference), but let’s be honest here: Gears of War is a nearly three-year-old title and Mass Effect has been selling at the $20 range for awhile now at Best Buy and other retailers.

However, the Mass Effect repackaging does come with the $5 Bring Down the Sky DLC as a bonus–quite the addition for gamers who’ve yet to add BioWare’s fantastic RPG to their collections.

The full list of the new Platinum Hits games, complete with Metacritic links for the curious,  are as follows:

• Gears of War
• Forza Motorsport 2
• Mass Effect
• Viva Piñata
• Army of Two
• Battlefield: Bad Company
• Burnout Paradise
• Fight Night Round 3

Note: Nick pointed out that GameStop stores are offering used copies of Forza Motorsport 2 in a bundle with Marvel: Ultimate Alliance for under $20. That offer is a bit more cost-effective if you don’t mind pre-played games.