Rockstar’s been on a roll with the Grand Theft Auto franchise lately, what with the PSP version of Chinatown Wars coming and the upcoming release of Gay Tony DLC for the Xbox 360 version of GTA 4. Todd Mitchell, analyst for Kaufman Bros. Equity Research has some predictions for the series, and they are quite interesting.

Mitchell anticipates two more downloadable GTA IV episodes to be released after The Ballad of Gay Tony. He also notes that since Microsoft’s deal covers only two episodes, these later ones may end up on PS3 as well.

Most interestingly, Mitchell believes that Rockstar will debut GTA V sometime next year. He believes that the only reason it wasn’t shown or teased at E3 was “Rockstar’s track record with delivering on time.”

Another prediction was made, though he wasn’t entirely confident with it: the PSP port of Chinatown Wars may also be released on the PS2. Yes, that aging Sony console no one wants to forget.

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Some fine adventure games have been churned out by Telltale for the last couple of years. The team responsible for Sam & Max, Wallace & Gromit and Strong Bad has been highly successful with their hits on PC; heck, their games are also released on Xbox Live and WiiWare. So, why no PlayStation love?

“It’s easy,” explained the studio’s Dave Grossman to The Guardian. “Our engine doesn’t run on the PlayStation yet.”

The fact that a studio like Telltale hasn’t harnessed the power of the PS3 is quite surprising. I really don’t see how they could lose the PS3 market where episodic games like Penny Arcade Adventures have found great success.

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Developer TopWare, now owned by Zuxxez, has announced a sequel to their Oblivion-esque action-RPG Two Worlds.

The sequel, humorously dubbed Two Worlds II, is being developed for PC, Mac and “next-gen consoles” for release this winter. Apparently the game has been in development for two years and will make “quantum leaps” in all areas, according to the press release.

The studio boasts that the sequel will offer an “unforgettable experience” and that it will feature high-end graphics. Screenshots agree.

The original Two Worlds was severely criticized upon release due to the fact that it had tons of bugs and the gameplay wasn’t up to snuff.

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Oh God, my eyes! While we’ve been celebrating independence and freedom through fireworks, groups of artists had been slaving away on a challenge set by the infamous Yahtzee who declared that between Sucker Punch and Radical - makers of infamous and Prototype, respectively - parody the other’s character the best gets to be the winner.

And then eyeballs exploded all over the world.

Cross-dressing was the name of the game, and the results are something that the world has never seen, and should never see. If you have the courage, hit the link for viewing Alex Mercer riding an unicorn and the infamous guy doing Vegas.

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The new America’s Army 3 developer is sure pleasing a lot of players, a third patch in as many weeks has been released. The update includes:

• Improved console help
• Added Clan support. Add clan tag in Account Settings. You must change information while in single player mode for now.
• Admin VOIP Improvements
• New “version” console command to see the current version
• Server browser performance improvements
• Fixes joining password protected servers so it no longer selects the server underneath the mouse cursor when clicking on the “Join” button in the password entry dialog.
• Fix for settings menu improperly closing when ESC pressed and leaving the player stuck with no UI and limited control
• Mission generation optimizations
• Fixed issue with logging into game servers that sometimes used another player’s soldier profile.
• New TS3 SDK integrated
• Improves how server manages authentication objects
• Fixes issue with players being added to the scoring system not having all of their scoring data written.
• Fixes issue where players not logged into MBS were being logged out if they left the server prior to authenticating
• M320 grenade attaching issue resolved.
• Dedicated server title bar now shows mission and player details
• Fixes the “Waiting for other players” UI so it now appears again.
• Removes some server logging
• Increased communications handling to support when all players use heavy load outs. This may correct many instances where players didn’t spawn correctly or get the correct load out.
• Fixes the M320 getting an extra round of ammo
• Fixes the Account Settings password changing not working properly
• Fixes the IRC link not working
• Fixes the displayed mission type (assault/defense/etc.) shown in the battle planner so it displays properly after side-swapping

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Steam is running one of the biggest deals yet, offering a whopping 20 games from publisher 2K for only $54.

Among the included titles is none other than Bioshock, Civilization IV, Prey and Sid Meyer’s Pirates. Other titles include oldies but goodies, such as railroad Tychoon 2 and 3, and several X-COM games.

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Tecmo Koei, one of the bigger developer/publishers in Japan, is, like many other publishers, asking Sony to cut the price on the PS3 console, in order to boost the install base (and thereby widening the market for the publishers). Tecmo Koei CEO Kenji Matsubara recently said in an interview:

“Whenever I discuss this with Sony reps I always ask them: ‘Please cut the price’, but I don’t have a clear view on Sony’s situation. It’s definitely a way of boosting the PS3 market, but it’s Sony’s strategy and I don’t know their cost structure. Sony introduced cutting-edge technology in the PS3, that’s why people in the industry accept that the PS3 cost is so high, but we’d welcome a price cut.”

The problem is the low install base of the PS3, which doesn’t result in a lot of games being sold, especially in Japan. Coupled with the high development costs of the PS3, it’s turning into a bad business for many publishers, as they simply cannot sell enough games in order to turn a profit.

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Guitar Hero: World Tour gets slew of punk DLC
GameStop lists new Wii bundles
Left 4 Dead 2 gets pre-ordered twice as many as Left 4 Dead 1
Activision thinks DJ Hero is worth its ridiculous price
EA working on Skate 3?
Dante’s Inferno gameplay caught on film, looks awesome
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time Game Review–Better Than You’d Expect
Capcom releasing free Monster Hunter Freedom Unite DLC
Tekken 6 director happy with Street Fighter IV’s success
Valve wants to develop for PS3, hasn’t found a good team yet
Boycott didn’t influence Valve’s decision of Left 4 Dead 1 support
New FFXI DLC gets dated for presale
Sony’s new motion control makes coffee mugs into controllers
Gears of War 2 gets price cut to $39.99
Square Enix sues French retailer for piracy
Battlestations: Pacific getting new DLC packs
Halo 3 gets Double XP weekend for July 4th
FIFA 10 debut trailer

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If you’ve been shaking your fists at Activision for not providing you with enough punk songs in Guitar Hero: World Tour, you’re in luck. It was recently announced that a pack called the Epitaph Punk-O-Rama Track Pack has been added to both Xbox Live and the Playstation Network.

Below is what you will get for 440 Microsoft Points or $5.49:

• “21st Century Digital Boy” by Bad Religion ($1.99 PSN / 200 Wii Points)
• “Linoleum” by NOFX ($1.99 PSN / 200 Wii Points)
• “Ruby Soho” by Rancid ($1.99 PSN / 200 Wii Points)

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It looks like GameStop is taking an alternative approach to the slowly falling Wii sales. How, you ask? Well, by bundling the console with pirate tattoos, rubber duckies and water guns, of course.

No seriously though, GameStop has listed 3 new Wii bundles; the Take a Bath with a Buddy Bundle, the Pirate Tattoo Bundle and the Summer Fun bundle.

Will you actually get these items, or is this just a joke? I think GameStop is actually serious about this, they are really bundling these completely unrelated items with a Wii.

Read (GameStop)

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Some of those supposed Left 4 Dead 2 boycotters must have been lying as Valve recently told Eurogamer that the pre-order numbers for the sequel are twice as much as its predecessor. In the words of Doug Lombardi:

“Our pre-orders are currently double what they were for Left 4 Dead 1 at this point in time away from launch. We’re like 20 weeks out or something like that.”

So what do you guys say? Did you pre-order Left 4 Dead 2? I think I’ll wait until it gets a bit closer to it’s November 17th release date for the PC and Xbox 360.

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It wasn’t too long ago that we discovered that DJ Hero would be priced around $120 for the US and even higher for the UK which had a lot of gamers asking Activision ‘what gives?’.

Well, when asked the same question by Eurogamer, they responded with “We believe that DJ Hero will provide tremendous value for our consumers by delivering an all-new interactive music experience with over 100 individual songs that are highlighted in over 80 unique mixes, a wide variety of…” you get the point.

Activision apparantly thinks DJ Hero will be an amazing game, however much of the community thinks otherwise. I guess we’ll have to wait until its October 27th release date to find out.

Read (Joystiq)

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This shouldn’t come as a surprise to, well, anyone considering the success of EA’s skate and skate 2 — Rumor circulating the web suggests that EA is hard at work on Skate 3, or at least are planning to be hard at work on the game sometime soon.

This rumor comes to us from the Epicly Trife (a site dedicated to skateboarding) twitter which reads: “I just got told ‘tonight we gotta celebrate,’ one of the bro’s got offered to be in SKATE 3.” Now assuming this bro is a pro skater, this rumor may hold some merit.

However, like always, we’ll hold final judgement until we hear word from EA themselves.

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Sure, God of War III won’t be making its way onto the Xbox 360 but who cares? Dante’s Inferno is!

Honestly though, if the above video is anything to go by, Dante’s Inferno is looking to give God of War III a run for its money. Said video contains never before seen gameplay from Dante’s Inferno which was developed by the guys behind Dead Space, Visceral Studios.

Unfortunately for us, Dante’s Inferno won’t hit the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC until January of next year.

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‘ll be honest with you, folks–you know I always am, but this time I have to be particularly blunt about what I’m saying.  I always get a little freaked out whenever I hear about an RPG for Nintendo’s Wii.  There’s just something so very…not right…about the idea.  See, an RPG, in the commonly meant sense of the term, involves a huge production and graphical overload and a story that goes on and on for days or even weeks.  And when you think of the kind of systems that can handle such a venture, “the Wii” is generally about as far down the list as, say, “Colecovision”.

But even I can be wrong–savor the flavor, kids, because this doesn’t happen very often.  I tried Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time and got a pretty good surprise out of it.

As for the plot…wow.  On RPG Cliche Day–okay, on a young man’s sixteenth birthday, he oversleeps, gets up late and dashes off to his Coming Of Age Ceremony.  Yes, they even CALL it the Coming Of Age Ceremony.  I’m both amazed and horrified.  Anyway, after completing said ceremony, he returns to the village to discover that his best friend’s little sister has contracted some kind of mysterious illness that resembles nothing so much as radiation sickness.  No, really.  And it gets better.  So now, on his sixteenth birthday, the boy has to violate the laws of his village and actually LEAVE to go find medicine to heal the “crystal sickness”.

Yeah, you heard all of that right.  An opening jam packed with cliches leads to a little girl getting radiation sickness that, if she survives it, will actually mutate her into being a super-strong entity with rapid healing powers, which turns out to be the exact same disease the hero had, and then the hero will actually break the law to go fetch medicine but no one seems to care about the legal issues here at ALL.

This may well be the most predictable and yet the most ridiculous game plotline I’ve ever heard.  I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen so many tropes in one place, only to be followed up by a ridiculous series of plot holes sufficiently large to drive a herd of chocobo through.

And yet, the game play isn’t half bad.  You’ll get some mini-games in the middle of this full-blown series of adventures, and there’s plenty of variety to be had here.  Sure, it’s all a bit cookie-cutter and plain vanilla, but there’s nothing necessarily wrong with it.  It’s a fairly fun game, and with a little bit of excitement.

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time isn’t exactly the greatest game ever, but it’s a far cry from the worst, too.  There’s reason enough to give it a try that it’ll make at least a decent rental, even if it won’t wind up taking over your life.  If you’ve got a yen for RPGs and a decent tolerance for half-baked plotlines, you’ll probably have a good time with this one.

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