A new page teasing the "next Metal Gear" went live late tonight on the official website of Metal Gear Solid developer Kojima Productions.

The site text reads, "A Next Metal Gear Is..." and includes a series of bright green images. The final image in the sequence appears to resemble the Xbox 360 power button icon.

Rumors of an eventual Xbox 360 port of Kojima's Metal Gear Solid 4 continued to circulate following the game's June release on PlayStation 3.

In October, Konami PR representative Yoshitaka Arai reportedly told Japanese business journal Kabushiki, "We are investigating releasing a 360 version." The quote was quietly removed from the story a day later.

Publisher Konami has consistently denied rumors of an Xbox 360 version of the game, while Microsoft has consistently proclaimed its obvious desire for one.

Guerilla Games' anticipated PlayStation 3 shooter Killzone 2 will arrive in North America on February 27. 2009--over three and a half years after its E3 2005 debut.

The date was announced this evening on an episode of G4's X-Play, which featured a segment on the game and an appearance by managing producer Kyle Shubel.

Harmonix will release a country music pack for Rock Band on December 16, featuring five songs from various country groups, according to CMT.

While no specific songs were named, the tracks will be from artists Bentley, Brad Paisley, Brooks & Dunn, Miranda Lambert and the Dixie Chicks.

The songs will be released as a download for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of the game.

This week's PlayStation Store update brings about a free issue of Sony's online video magazine Qore, normally priced at $2.99, along with downloadable content for a number of PlayStation 3 games and some PSP versions of popular PS3 games.

If you paid $24.99 for an annual subscription to Qore, don't worry. Since the magazine is free this month, annual subscribers will find an exclusive demo for Proper Games' upcoming animal-kidnapping game Flock in their Download Center.

Downloadable Games
Soldner-X: Himmelssturmer ($9.99)
Set in the distant future, Soldner-X: Himmelssturmer is a fast and furious shoot'em up with state-of-the-art graphics, driving soundtrack and classic fun gameplay sprinkled with fresh innovations. In the storyline, planet Earth's... Read more

The first screenshot of Raven's X-Men Origins: Wolverine has been released via 1UP.

The title is based on the upcoming movie of the same name starring Hugh Jackman. The film will detail Wolverine's past, and is set to cover the Weapon X storyline and reintroduce the character of Sabretooth (Liev Schreiber).

As for the game's prospects, former Fox executive Jeff Katz was optimistic about the project in speaking with MTV recently.

"A couple of the Fox execs, myself and a couple of the principals involved [in 'X-Men Origins: Wolverine'], we're all gamers," said Katz. "So when it came to the 'Wolverine' movie game, it was like, 'Let's do the coolest possible version of an X-Men game.'"

"Even the game itself, from everything I've seen and been told about it, is going to be slightly harder-edged than the X-Men games that have come before--which fits the tone of the movie," he added.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine is set for release alongside the film in May 2009. While only the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 platforms have been confirmed, additional versions may be in the works.

At this point, my expectations for 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand are so high that it can only hope to meet them or fail.

People have compared this game to Snakes on a Plane, predicting inevitable disappointment, but as Fitty says: "If a bitch don't like me somethin's wrong with the bitch." Personally, I've already started the petition to remake this classic for the PlayStation 3.

50 Cent: Blood on the Sand will hit the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in January.

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Western gamers, prepare to be satiated. Namco Bandai has just announced Surge, a new studio and publishing label it says will provide "cutting-edge, genre-defining games that are targeted at satiating the appetite of western gamers."

Afro Samurai (PS3, 360) will mark the first Surge release when it hits on January 27. More Surge games will follow later in the year, with the company stating that they will cover "a wide assortment of categories and platforms."

"Through passion and innovation, Surge will complement our portfolio of established franchises and intellectual property while positioning the company as a creative force," said Namco Bandai marketing VP Andrew Lelchuk.

Surge "personifies our commitment to deliver compelling content for the discriminating player who is looking for games that are not only groundbreaking but also push the envelope," Lelchuk added.

Yesterday, Activision Blizzard's revealed several of its major games for 2009, such as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Guitar Hero 5. Now, the studio has informed VideoGamer that reports of the games are "speculative as far as we're concerned."

The revelations were part of Activision Blizzard's presentation at a conference held by in-game advertising firm Massive Inc, during which Activision detailed its 2009 releases.

In addition to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Guitar Hero 5, the company also spoke of the next Tony Hawk game. "You're not going to be playing Tony Hawk with a controller in your hands," said an Activision executive, according to journalist N'Gai Croal.

The presentation also specified two new racing titles from Project Gotham Racing series developer Bizarre Creations: a James Bond racing game and another game billed as "Mario Kart meets Forza" by a company representative.

Along with N'Gai, MTV Multiplayer's Stephen Totilo provided coverage, lending further credibility to the reports. Both writers are respected and considered credible. It is speculated that Activision did not expect journalists to be reporting live from the event, and presented confidential information not yet meant for public consumption.

LucasArts today released the promised donwloadable mission for the Xbox 360 version of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, along with another set of character skins.

The Jedi Temple Mission Pack, priced at 800 Microsoft Points ($10), brings Darth Vader's Secret Apprentice to Coruscant and the ruins of its Jedi Temple as our action game protagonist searches for more information on his father.

The Mission Pack includes a number of new costumes, such as Temple Exploration Gear, Cybernetic Reconstruction Apprentice, Sith Training Gear, Mace Windu, Darth Maul, Qui-Gon Jinn, Dark Stalker, Lightsaber Training Droid and Combat Training Droid.

A separate 400 Microsoft Point ($5) Character Pack adds a... Read more

Eight new "top-spec" cars and two new multiplayer events will today be released as downloadable content for the PS3 and Xbox 360 editions of Codemaster's racer GRID.

Priced at 800 Microsoft Points ($10), the 8 Ball DLC will also contain four new achievements for the Xbox 360 version, each worth 25 Gamerpoints a piece.

As for the PC release of GRID, the studio said DLC details are coming "shortly."

Details on the cars, and the new achievements, are as follows:

THOSE "8 BALL" CARS IN FULL:
• McLaren F1 GTR - The McLaren F1 GTR wrote itself into the history books as the only GT car to ever win Le Mans outright in the... Read more

Earlier this morning, Mirror's Edge senior producer Owen O'Brien noted that the upcoming downlodable content would feature a "a more abstract aesthetic."

Now, publisher EA has provided some media. Abstract? Well, that's one way to put it.

Promising "no guns, no cops, and no city," the seven downloadable Time Trial maps will hit PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 in late January, priced at 800 Microsoft Points ($10). In addition, PlayStation 3 owners will receive an extra downloadable map for free.

Already out on consoles, the first-person free-running game is due on PC January 13.

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Following up on an earlier promise for more information at a later date, DICE today announced that the first DLC for Mirror's Edge will be a time trial map pack.

The seven maps will be available for PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 for $10 or 800 Microsoft Points. The PlayStation 3 version will also receive an additional map for free.

"The freedom of movement and control in first person has been the most popular aspect of Mirror's Edge so we decided to distil these down to their purest form for this map pack," said DICE senior producer Owen O'Brien, adding, "We deliberately chose a more abstract aesthetic that is still within our distinctive art style and then focused on flow and gameplay to create an experience and challenge very different from the main game."

The DLC will ship late January.

DICE also announced that the PC version of the game will ship to North American stores January 13, with the international release following January 16.

Following fan complaints that LittleBigPlanet level moderation is too strict, marketing manager Mark Valledor has said that the moderation process is evolving, but stopped short of responding to specific points of contention.

"The level moderation process is something we're continually improving," said Valledor. "The small percentage of levels moderated have been done so after the community has reported them using the Good Grief tool. We never moderate levels that have not been reported in this way."

Reports of moderators deleting levels that contained no objectionable or copyright-infringing material have been consistent since the game's release in late October. Sony responded to the allegations by issuing a set of content guidelines for level creators to follow.

"The vast majority of moderated levels were due to offensive material," added Valledor. "However we are evolving the way moderation happens to ensure that creators are made aware of why their level was blocked. More to come shortly."

Valledor also noted the team is working to improve the game's online servers, as well as the search function for user-created levels.

Rockstar's release of Grand Theft Auto 4 on the PC is turning into a headache for some consumers, with many players reporting errors ranging from missing textures to show-stopping crashes.

Shacknews has independently verified the issues, with our own Steve Gibson being met with two separate, nondescript error codes that kept him from loading the game at all.

The bugs have been well documented on the Steam forums, with one user compiling a list of potential fixes.

The game-loading RMN40 error can apparently be nixed in Windows XP by updating to Service Pack 3. Shacknews found success with the Vista workaround, which requires an install of the Microsoft .NET 3.5 Framework (download here) and a reboot. A separate MMA10 error requires users to log out of the Rockstar Social Club multiplayer utility in order to play.

While the missing texture problems (see above image) have been attributed to corrupt graphics drivers, many users have been unable to fix the issue after a driver reinstall. The game is also restricting some users from changing their graphical settings.

Shacknews has contacted Rockstar for comment on the situation.

A new 400GB optical disc could end up being compatible with existing Blu-ray players, such as Sony's PlayStation 3, creator Pioneer has informed online publication Edge.

While current Blu-ray players and drives will not be able to read the 16-layer disc--each layer can hold up to 25GB--Pioneer claims that a firmware update may allow existing players to be compatible. The technology is expected to hit mass market by 2010, with a 1TB version of the disc format expected to arrive within five years.

However, Pioneer further noted that the technology "is not being proposed as a candidate for addition to the existing Blu-ray Disc format" at this time.

Blu-ray discs currently max out in a 50GB design consisting of two 25GB data layers. Sony has yet to comment on the possibility of PS3 support for the new technology.

Details on many of Activision Blizzard's upcoming titles were revealed today during a joint event with in-game advertiser Massive Inc.

According to MTV, Call of Duty 6 is now known as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and is slated to arrive in fall 2009. As previously revealed, series creator and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare veteran Infinity Ward will return for the latest entry.

Furthermore, an in-game shot of Guitar Hero 5 was shown in a demonstration of Massive's in-game advertising strategy for Activision, showing a "Burger King ad to the right of the note highway." Past Guitar Hero games have used similar in-game ads.

Activision also confirmed rumors that the next Tony Hawk title will be played using some type of peripheral rather than with a controller. The skateboarding game will hit Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii and DS in October.

An original James Bond racing title from Project Gotham Racing developer Bizarre Creations was also announced, and is set to debut next September. Bizarre is also working on an original racing title, described by Activision as "Mario Karts meets Forza."

Microsoft's in-game ad firm Massive today announced it has signed separate deals with both publisher Activision and developer Blizzard.

The Blizzard end of the deal will encompass only the company's Battle.net and website advertisements.

"Massive understands and respects our stance against advertising that might detract from gameplay or offend our players," said Blizzard COO Paul Sams.

Under the terms of the Activision deal, Massive will provide its in-game ads to the publisher over several years, for up to 18 Xbox 360 and PC titles. Guitar Hero: World Tour, Quantum of Solace, and Tony Hawk were named as specific titles that Massive would be handling.

Massive and Activision have worked together in the past, with the ad firm running over 330 campaigns with more than 225 advertisers in titles such as Guitar Hero III and Tony Hawk's Proving Ground.

"By incorporating dynamic in-game advertising in our titles where it is appropriate, we can increase the realism of our games by presenting consumers with authentic environments in genuine settings, while also expanding a key growth opportunity for the company," said head of Activision business development Dave Anderson.

Beloved developer Valve has released lifetime retail sales figures for some of its more popular games, including the Half-Life and Counter-Strike series, revealing that the studio has sold over 32.8 million games since the 1998 release of the first Half-Life.

Sales from Valve's digital distribution client are not factored in, with the figures only accounting for worldwide retail sales. With Half-Life 2, Valve began simultaneously releasing all of its PC games at retail and via Steam. The numbers were originally printed in the November issue of Game Informer, then republished by Gamasutra.

Furthermore, it was not specified if the figures of multiplatform games--Half-Life, Half-Life 2, The Orange Box--included both PC and console sales, or just PC.

• Half-Life (Valve) / 1998 - 9.3 Million
• Half-Life: Opposing Force (PC, Gearbox) / 1999 - 1.1 Million
• Half-Life: Blue Shift (PC, Gearbox) / 2001 - 800,000
  
  
• Counter-Strike (PC, Valve) / 2000 - 4.2 Million
• Counter-Strike: Condition Zero (PC, Valve) / 2004 - 2.9 Million... Read more

"They say hope begins in the dark," explains protagonist Richard B. Riddick, voiced and modeled after Riddick film star Vin Diesel. "In the end, everybody bleeds the same."

Packing a new 10-hour sequel along with a remake of the original The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay and a multiplayer mode, Starbreeze's The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena arrives on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 in spring 2009.

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While we've known for a while that Starbreeze's The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena would be an enhanced remake of the previous Riddick game with new content, it turns out that the new content amounts to a 10-hour single-player sequel.

The new campaign packs "new game mechanics, full-game production values ... the works," according to Joystiq, with Big Download clarifying that the campaign is a "direct sequel" to the original and is immediately accessible upon booting the game.

The scope of the new campaign stems from the first-person shooter's recent publisher-related delay. After the game was dropped by ex-publisher Sierra, Atari picked the game up, a move that allowed for more than nine months of additional work.

Along with the new campaign, Athena will include a new multiplayer mode and an enhanced version of Starbreeze's 2004 release The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay (PC, Xbox). Expect Dark Athena to hit PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 in spring 2009.