"And to wrap things up today, here's "The ABCs of Gaming," from a t-shirt design contest at Shirt.woot.com. The contest closed this week. The latest on the site shows another shirt claiming 2nd place in this derby so, who knows, maybe it won. I'm sure the ordering information will follow.

For now, take a long look and see if you can name all 26. I can name about 19 offhand. There's a spoiler solution after the jump."

"Griffith said that CoD5 would be available on PS2, PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, DS, and PC. That pretty much covers every platform but the PSP. Why this is, is anyone’s guess. Griffith also pointed out that CoD5 will be using the same game engine that was used in CoD4. As for the game’s setting, “We’ll bring the intensity of the recent Call of Duty: Modern Warfare title to a new military theater to engage our significantly larger user base which nearly doubled last year as new users came into the fran..."

"Mirror's Edge, from the makers of the Battlefield series, is described as a first-person parkour-inspired action adventure game. We were still wrapping our head around that game-describing mouthful when DICE unleashed a brand new trailer, showing for the first time in-game footage in full flow. With the athletic Faith's exploits fresh in mind, we caught up with DICE's general manager Sean Decker following his presentation to media at Sony's recent PlayStation Day in London to dig a little dee..."

"Listening to the gamespot podcast with Rob Yescombe, he said that they have already started work on Time Splitters 4 and a Lucas Art 'secret project'


YES!!! TIME SPLITTERS 4 IN THE WORKS!!!"

""

"PC
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, Ford Racing Offroad

PS2
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

PS3
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

Xbox 360
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

Wii
Castle of Shikigami III, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, Deca Sports, We Ski

DS
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, Drone Tactics, Myst"

Frogwares developed an investigation game that blends point-and-click and hidden object game mechanics with a variety of puzzle types. The game put players in the shoes of Sherlock Holmes who is to investigate a murder of a young artist who was wrapped in a gorgeous Persian carpet after he was killed. Read in-depth game review, check out screenshots, video and download free trial.

"SEC filings have revealed that Electronic Arts borrowed $1 billion from Morgan Stanley and other lenders to help finance a possible acquisition of Take-Two.

"There's no news here," said EA VP of communications Jeff Brown. "This is just a process point on something we announced in February."

With $2.3 billion on hand in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments, EA already has the funds available to do the deal as it currently stands. With the deal not contingent on financing, wh..."

"Criterion Games, a studio of Electronic Arts, (NASDAQ: ERTS) today announced that the award-winning driving game Burnout Paradise is being rebuilt specifically for the PC. Burnout Paradise will be the first Burnout title ever made for the PC, customized with expanded multiplayer, enhanced online features, and community driven content.

Originally released for the PLAYSTATION 3 computer entertainment system and Xbox 360 videogame and entertainment system, Burnout Paradise has won over 55 aw..."

Following the announcement that Mass Effect will not be using the almost Orwellian modified SecuROM authentication protection, Spore, EA's other big game has been changed as well. SecuROM will still be used, but in a modified reauthentication process that only checks on installation and when the online function is first used.

The positives that can be brought from this announcement apart from the obvious are that this new process will not require a CD in order to play after installation. I...

"The events are pretty basic, but are very similar to what we've seen in show jumping competitions that occasionally play weekdays in the mid afternoons on ESPN. There are a number of jumps that need to be cleared in a certain order, and players are ranked based on their time, with penalties given for mistakes."

Silviu Stahie, a video and PC games editor has written up a blog on five reasons that if Grand Theft Auto IV gets ported to the PC, it will be better than the console reasons. Two of the reasons are that the controls will be much better and how all the bugs from the console versions will be phases out for the PC release. Go to the source to read the three other reasons.

Ah, this is a nice blast from the past. A batch of Ghostbusters concept art has been released, and they show some familiar ghosts that players will have to defeat as well as the good ol' Ectomobile.

With Ghostbusters getting positive previews already, it certainly looks like fans won't be disappointed.

(go to source for all images)

"Upon seeing this scene in the new Ironman movie all I could think of was the pyro from Team Fortress 2. And because my other parody "TF2 Tremors" has been enjoyed by a lot of you, I thought of making a parody with the Pyro.

TF2 has so many options available for parody usage even if the pyro speech is limited, it does at least deliver a comedy effect."

Remember my story about Mass Effect for the PC needing to be authenticated every 10 days? Well Bioware and EA have apparently had a change of heart and changed the system. Now you will only need to enter a code when first installing the game and when you purchase additional content. No word on what's happening to Spore.

Activision recently spoke about what to expect with the company's first game in the James Bond franchise. Activision will be launching the Quantum of Solace video game along with the release of the movie, sometime in Q4 2008. Not much is known about the game so far, but they did announce that the game will use the same (amazing) engine that powered Call of Duty 4.

The game is scheduled to release on Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PSP, DS, and PC.

""...this game will introduce you to many lovely characters. Just like in other games created by Sandlot, all customer types are very realistically and ironically depicted (you’re going to design interior for students obsessed with video games, hippies that cannot stand anything new and fashionable, people that love funhouses, cowboys etc.).""

Pro Cycling Manager 2008 - Tour de France takes the player and puts him or her in the shoes of managing a cycling team in the big event. The PC and PSP versions are both due out on June 19th. Apparently the game has 180 races for you to play and you just dont manage the teams on the sidelines, you actually tell them to use certain tactics during the races.

"From the interview...
GS: I wanted to give you the opportunity to squash a rumor going around various Internet forums where some folks say you doctor your screenshots with image enhancement programs before releasing them. What would you say to that claim?
MC: YES we used Photoshop…. to include the CITIES XL logo on the screenshots =). More seriously, what you are seeing is coming straight from the game engine. Time will prove this to be true."

Developer Realtime Worlds has (according to a credible source) bought back the license for the urban MMO All Points Bulletin game from publisher Webzen with the possible idea of selling it back to Rockstar as Grand Theft Auto: Online. RealTime would only say they resecured the rights to "give themselves some options." Many guess that these options would be either to: A: develop the license themselves; or B: sell a framework for a GTA MMO to Rockstar.

RealTime Worlds released Crackdown last...

IT Territory Casual released Enigma - an innovative hidden object game that will make players look for hidden objects on the classical paintings created by artists of all epochs. According to the game plot, many genious canvases were stolen from museums. And you, as a professional detective and art expert need to find them and restore the damaged paintings.

How could Pandemic possibly release another LotR game you ask? Well, by making it similar to their Star Wars: Battlefront games (in spirit) and calling it LotR: Conquest. This new title will allow players to fight in any of the battles in the Lord of the Rings series and have it go any number of ways depending on how well they do and a variety of other factors. Up to 150 characters (including Sauron) could be onscreen at any one time, and basically the entire Middle Earth universe will be you...

""

"Ex-subscribers to Lord of the Rings Online have been granted a free chance to revisit the MMO and explore updates made to the game since launch.

The "Welcome back to LotRO" campaign, as the free experience is called, runs from May 8 through to May 12 enabling you to blow the dust off your old character(s) and get some play time in.

Naturally if you're so blown away by how the game's changed since you hung up your spurs, you can start paying a monthly subscription fee to play again."

""DOOM is part of the id Software DNA and demands the greatest talent and brightest minds in the industry to bring the next installment of our flagship franchise to Earth," said Todd Hollenshead, CEO, id Software. "It’s critical for id Software to have the best creative minds in-house to develop games that meet the standards synonymous with our titles."

We are looking for talented, ambitious and passionate individuals eager to join our accomplished team of developers working on the industry..."