Now that Blizzard has Activision, undisputed masters of *ahem* "getting the most out of a franchise", looking over their shoulders, would a console port of Diablo III really surprise you, were it to happen? OK, no, look. Calm down. I said were it to happen. Because while it's not confirmed, or even strongly hinted at, it may happen. May. Because Blizzard's Rob Pardo has said that it's a "theoretical possibility", and that "of our major franchises, [it's] the one that's most console friendly, for sure". Pretty sure he's talking about the 360 and PS3, there. Can't see Mii support and friend codes really fitting with the whole gates to hell thing.

Console Diablo "theoretically possible" [Eurogamer]

Above, a still from a promo vid for Resistance 2, currently screening at this location. Keen observers will note that's everybody's favourite female Viper jockey Katee Sackhoff trying to console a man who seems to be suffering from a nasty case of the Chimeran virus. I'll leave the speculation over what this all means (and the resulting morse code that spells "blackout") to you, I'm just digging the C&C cutscene vibe the whole thing's putting off.

[Project Abraham]

Stalker had a roughn start to life, but the game managed to scrape together enough charm and innovation to win itself its fair share of fans. But it's the game's prequel - Clear Sky - that's looking to really nail what GSC Game World have been trying to achieve, since it'll have the first game's hook but in what's hopefully a more refined, polished environment.

The recent increase of youth crime has Oasis songwriter Noel Gallagher. Eighteen teenagers have been murdered this year so far in London, and the Metropolitan police have set up a dedicated task force of 75 officers to combat crime. And the cause of this crime? According to Gallagher:

I was up in Liverpool for a week a couple of weeks ago and even on the news there it's every single night... People say it's through violent video games and I guess that's got something to do with it. If kids are sitting up all night smoking super skunk [cannabis] and they come so desensitised to crime because they're playing these video games, it's really, really scary.

Wouldn't these kids not having jobs or getting an education have more to do with it?

Oasis star wants action on knives [BBC via Binge Gamer]

There's a feeling you get when playing Operation Flashpoint that no game since has managed to capture. Not even Oblivion. The feeling of being a real person, alone, in a dangerous place, and each step you take across the game's huge landscape could well be your last. You agree? Then be heartened by this. The latest issue of PC Gamer runs a preview of Operation Flashpoint 2: Dragon, which can be bust summed up by their calling it "the most mind-bogglingly vast and mercilessly realistic battlefield gaming has ever known". Vast, check, merciless, check, OK, that's enough to get me excited.

Operation Flashpoint 2 blown open [PC Gamer, via CVG]

Two teens were apparently arguing over a Sony PSP in Jacksonville, Florida ended in a shooting. According to the Jacksonville Sheriffs Office, 17 year-old Zachary Robinson was arguing with another teenage male when he suddenly started shooting, hitting the other teen twice. The scene took place in Hemming Park, and no one else was hurt. Robinson has been charged with aggravated battery. No word on the victim's condition.

Downtown Shooting Result of Playstation Argument [First Coast News]

Just a friendly reminder! We also have our Top Spin contest, which we will extend over the weekend 'cause of the three-day-weekend and wrap up early next week. Above is baconfrenzy's entry; Ben writes, "The attached file is muh entry, no laughs... well, maybe a chuckle". Here's what's going on: Wimbledon is wrapping up, and the US Open is still a few months away, but Top Spin 3 and Kotaku are bringing you the Kotaku Open. We're going to make this simple for you. Don't bother practicing your twist serve or calling up your doubles partner. All you need to do is get yourself in some tennis attire! We don't particularly care how you do it either: Steal your dad's tennis shorts from '72, Photoshop your head onto Federer's body, or maybe, just maybe you're a tennis superstar with a closet full of visors and wristbands. Send in your pictures to kotakucontestATgmailDOTcom, readers will vote for their favourite, and the winner gets a free copy of Top Spin 3 (platform of your choice!), courtesy of 2K Sports. Match point!

Top Spin [Official Site]

Once was a time Burnout was all about the cars. Then they went and brought bikes into the mix, and everything changed. Criterion got a little...crazy. Started thinking less about the vehicles and more about the pure speed. That doesn't make it any less surprising to hear Criterion is thinking about moving beyond terrestrial vehicles altogether, though, and has announced that, after it's done with the Cagney update, it'll begin working on introducing planes into Burnout Paradise. Yeah, planes. No idea how that will work, but the prospect of crashing a plane into a car at high speed, then going into crash mode, is no doubt an appealing one to the game's core userbase.

[Criterion Games]

America, your PlayStation Store offering for the week was pretty poor, but you're excused. It's a long weekend, you're out drinking and celebrating and letting off fireworks. But Europe & Australia? July 4 means nothing, so you have no excuse. Unless you lot were hanging out for Commando 3 or (the admittedly great) Space Invaders Extreme demo, all you're going to find are the usual assortment of wallpapers you'll never use and trailers you've already seen online. Disappointing, if not predictable.

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Ah, it just wouldn't be an Aaron Greenberg interview without a little juice to it, would it? Xbox's director of product management has, while speaking with Gamasutra, re-iterated a common and well-worn theme amongst Microsoft (and Sony) executives that, after new gamers buy themselves a Wii, they'll eventually "graduate" to a 360 or PS3. And why will they graduate? Well, because of another well-worn argument: that the Wii is a fad:

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Capcom's posted the original art for the Street Fighter IV Ryu anime shown at this year's Captivate. The animation trailer is up on the Capcom site, so you can see that here. To check out the art, that's in the gallery right down there. Enjoy!

「オリジナルアニメ公開！」　プロジェクトマネージャー：塩沢夏希 [SFIV Blog Thanks, Josef !]

It's not just a Fourth of July fireworks display, it's a Fourth of July dual-display! The game is Big Bang Mini, a sort of space shooter in which you launch fireworks at your enemies to destroy them, much like the Americans did to the British back during the Revolutionary War, only in space and without muskets. You get 10 different world, each with their own distinct rules and abilities, and twenty-five music tracks from Yubaba, Smith & Fortune of Nervous Brickdown fame. It's due out this December from SouthPeak Games and developer Arkedo Studios. Kudos to their crack PR team for capitalizing on this most explodey of holidays!

Game Developer magazine's Brandon Sheffield (pictured) has a thoughtful editorial on the realities of the changing video game industry. As the market continues to mushroom at a rapid rate, things are bound to change. According to Sheffield:

Right now, Halo 3, Grand Theft Auto IV, and World of Warcraft are considered our blockbuster titles, and flagships for the industry in popular culture. But when you think about it, it's still just shooting aliens, playing gang banger, and swinging your sword in the forest.

Boiled down to their essentials those things appeal to a very limited group of people, and the complexity of game controls prevents even blockbuster movie attendees, whom we should be attracting, from playing these things.

At least, that's the common line. But is that really the case? Do aliens, wizards, and soldiers really make a piece of entertainment inaccessible? Many millions of people went to see the Iron Man movie over the past two months, and a large percentage of them have probably never picked up a comic book in their lives.

Why is it that people will go see The Lord of the Rings' movies, but many of them will not play the games?

Put on your thinking caps, we've got stuff to think about. Dammit.

The Hardcore Niche [Gamasutra] [Pic]

We were resigned to the fact once retailers started pushing their release dates back to mid-October, but the dev team have gone and made it official, announcing that SOCOM Confrontation has been delayed until October 14. The usual short-term delay reasons are apparent - a desire to add a little more spit, a little more polish, so while you'll be waiting a little longer to get the game, you'll also hopefully be playing one that's a little better.

SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Confrontation Release Date [SOCOM]

Have we seen any of this kind of footage? I can't remember any. This is raw, somebody's-on-the-other-end-of-a-controller video of Mercenaries 2 in action, with lead designer Scott Warner taking the wheel to show how the game's objectives can be completed differently using the three available mercenaries. And by "objectives completed" they mean "make everything around you explode".

Happy Fourth of July you American readers you... and anyone else looking for an excuse to get drunk and blow stuff up. Make sure to drink your mojitos responsibly today and at some point sit down and watch this robot arm suck all of the fun out of Air Hockey. Man, I'd pay good money to see this thing score on itself... I'd pay even more for someone to give it a face just to see the expression when it happens.

The first half of this year belong to the PSP. According to Famitsu publisher Enterbrain, the PSP moved 1,964,461 units, while the Wii was hot on its heels with 1,720,263 units. Rounding out the top three was the Nintendo DS, selling 1,593,844 units. Now that Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G has been out for three months, we'll have to wait and see if the Sony portable still has enough steam to snag the second half of the year.

PSP：196万台でWii越え1位に [Mainichi via PSPHyper]

Scary time! On July 24, Siren: Blood Curuse drops. The reworking on the original PS2 horror title will also be available via PlayStation Store and Blu-ray disc. According to website Eurogamer, Blood Curse will also be broken up into four downloadable chapters, each with three episodes per chapter for PSN downloads.

SIREN最新作がPLAYSTATION Store [Famitsu]