What the hell, Activision? According to IGN, you’ve gone and dropped several really promising Vivendi titles. Not cool, you guys.

Amongst those on the guillotine were Ghostbusters: The Video Game, Brütal Legend, WET, 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand, Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena and World in Conflict: Soviet Assault. While it’s still entirely possible that another publisher will swoop in and pick these games up, we’re looking at an uncertain future for all of these. Dammit, I was really looking forward to Brütal Legend, too.

[UPDATE: Fortunately, it looks like both Brütal Legend and Ghostbusters: The Video Game are going to be fine. Hopefully the others are similarly lucky, because some of them actually looked pretty sweet. -zizzy]

Get excited! Tomorrow sees the release of Mass Effect: Ascension by Drew Karpyshyn, lead writer of Mass Effect for the 360 and PC. Sure, you’ll probably be tied up with Soul Calibur IV, and rightly so, but hear me out on this one.
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Castle Crashers, the newest XBLA game from The Behemoth finally has a release date for their eagerly-awaited co-op action game. August 27 is the day you can pay a few spacebucks for this adorable little adventure. Woohoo!

Microsoft has also given release dates for titles such as Bionic Commando: ReArmed and Geometry Wars: RE 2, which you can find after the jump.
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Dear Japan,

I just don’t understand your lack of interest in the Xbox 360. No, really, I don’t see how you can deny a console that offers exactly the kinds of games that have classically piqued the interest of Japanese gamers. Just off the top of my head I can think of Eternal Sonata, Blue Dragon, and Lost Odyssey, not to mention Tales of Vesperia, which is coming to the 360 in a few months, too. That’s four solid JRPG titles that are currently exclusive to Microsoft’s system. Of course, Square Enix is releasing Final Fantasy XIII everywhere except the glorious nation of Nippon, but that’s only because you guys hate is so much.
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Looking for some games to waste your Wii Points on that you might play for an hour and then never click on again? Well, this week just might be for you! Hit the jump to find out what was added to Nintendo’s online catalog.
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Crisis averted.

Until now, the war between music game franchises has left frugal gamers with no option but to pick a side and hope for the best. Following Guitar Hero publisher Activision’s press conference, however, Chris Kohler over at Game|Life brings us good news:

At Activision’s E3 press conference Tuesday, Guitar Hero director Brian Bright told the crowd that if they already owned guitar controllers and drum controllers from “previous games” on the Xbox 360, they’d work with Guitar Hero World Tour.

As a person who owns Rock Band and all its peripherals on the 360, this makes it a lot easier to be on both sides of the music game fence. My Rock Band 2 purchase is all but sealed up, but knowing that I can get the full Guitar Hero World Tour experience without crowding my basement with even more peripherals makes it all the more enticing.

Specifics on now the RB drums will work with GH remain to be revealed, but it should be interesting, as the Guitar Hero World Tour drums require one more input than the Rock Band drums currently have. In addition, Bright did not adress PS3 or Wii compatibility. We’ll have to wait and see.

[Image and info via Wired]

My cautious optimism continues to grow. Gameplay looks like a nice mix between old-school and new-school, and the werehog gameplay doesn’t look completely awful.

Thrilling acrobatics and tandem beatdowns are the name of the game in this latest Prince of Persia trailer. Oh, there are also sweeping vistas to remind you that, yeah, this game looks great. The holiday season is already getting expensive.

The console wars, where the scarring battlefield of two or more different factions of gaming zealots identify themselves under a unified corporate banner in the hopes that their choice of gaming machinery will somehow be the one saving grace of their identity. I am a veteran of many of the original console wars, the worst one in my memory was the one that occurred between Sega and Nintendo back in the early 1990s when it was Super NES vs. Genesis for the “king of 16-bit” crown. It is only through the wisdom that I have gained in my 25 years of gaming that I know now how wrong these idiotic battles are.
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Sony just wrapped up their show and I have to say, it was pretty impressive. Hit the jump for a declicious, bite-sized recap of what went down!
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Nintendo’s press conference just wrapped up. It was just terrible. How terrible? I’ll break it down in a few easy-to-digest paragraphs and even boldify all the important bits.

First, Cammie Dunnaway came on stage and regaled us with her life story and how she went snowboarding once, which was an excellent segway for the introduction of Shaun White Snowboarding, which uses the Wii Balance Board. It looks like a generic snowboarding game and should be completely overlookable.

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Here it is, PS3 and 360 owners! The trailer you can lord all over your friends who only have a Wii! Admittedly, this trailer is extremely light on gameplay footage, but it sure is colorful (yeah, take that, Gears of War 2)! Loved that “only for Playstation 3…in Japan” bit at the end. Of course, all 14 Xbox 360 owners in Japan are probably crying into their life-size Kasumi pillows right about now, hoping that Infinite Undiscovery will fill that gaping RPG whole in their lives.

What? A Gears of War sequel? That’s a shocker.

You have probably already heard, but Gears of War 2 is going to feature more of the same gameplay, with some add tweaks to the cover system, weapon-specific executions, and the ability to take meat shields. Above, you’ll find the E3 walkthrough video from just this morning.

In the video, Marcus and his allies are trying to escape a burning sideways building. Inventive level design? Possibly. To me, though, it still feels like more of the same, simply because of the color scheme. Developers have a trend of associating dingy colors with realism, and every game is just starting to blend together. The graphics do look quite polished, however.

Some of your favorites weapons, such as the Hammer of Dawn, will reappear, but another turret-like gun also makes it’s debut. Hopefully, this sequel won’t just be more of the same.

Wouldn’t ya know it? As I was writing this, Nathan managed to post the entire tracklist, but… uh… enjoy the first part of the article anyway.

With the start of E3 today, Harmonix has revealed the entire setlist for Rock Band 2 as well as a few other awesome details to secure at least 60 of my hard-earned dollars. THere will be 75 regular tracks as well as 9 bonus tracks, all of which will be master recordings. In addition RB2 will feature two debuts: AC/DC will make its first appearance in a video game and in even bigger news, a track from Guns N’ Roses (possibly) long-awaited Chinese Democracy will be a part of the setlist.

Rock Band 2 will also sport a number of other cool amenities. in addition to all DLC being cross-compatible, owners of the first iteration of the series will be able to copy those songs onto their console’s hard drive for use in Rock Band 2, saving the hassle of switching discs. In addition, despite the 84 tracks, MTV wanted to include over 100, so they will be releasing at least 20 master tracks for free via download.

If you really want to know, personal highlights from the tracklist include Journey’s “Any Way You Want It”, Beck’s “E-Pro”, Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ On A Prayer”, and The Who’s “Pinball Wizard”.

Low points include Panic at the Disco’s “Anything they have ever written”.

Horray! AC/DC! It’s about damn time! And a pretty solid set overall, really. Hit the jump for the full list of 84 songs.
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