Warren Spector keeps a tidy blog. Sometimes, he even updates it. He did so yesterday, in fact, letting the world know what he's up to now he's working with the chaps at Disney. No firm details on just what it is, but even this vague suggestion is enough to set our short, stubby tongues wagging:

My team and I have been working hard on our own and (get ready for the cool factor to go way up) in collaboration with folks from Disney Feature Animation and Pixar. If I say anymore, I'll get in trouble, so let's just leave it at that.

Yes, Warren, the cool factor just went up by about as far as a Disney games-related coolfactorometer can go.

I'm ba-ack...[Warren Spector's Blog]

Capcom once had a game called Plunder. Pirate game, kind of like Settlers of Catan, only with swashbuckling. Due for release on XBLA, PSN and PC. I say once, however, because while the game itself is still coming, it's had an enforced name change. Seems something else had already trademarked the name Plunder, forcing Capcom to rename the game Age of Booty. Yes. Age of Booty. Bringing the number of expected E3 games featuring the word "booty" to two. Can't wait for the inevitable booty-off.

Plunder Gets Some Booty! [Capcom]

There's a new Dawn of War II trailer doing the rounds, no doubt minted in honour of the week's E3 festivities. Its purpose seems two-fold: to show that Relic, bless them, aren't afraid to put out a trailer comprised solely of gameplay footage, and also (SHOCK) to announce that the Eldar will be amongst the game's races.

Australian Gamer has posted a letter one of its readers received from Michael Atkinson, the South Australian Attorney-General against an R18+ rating for games. The letter is in response to the reader's arguments for the new classification.

I encourage you to read Atkinson's entire response so you can formulate your own judgement. I've previously dissected his position at length, and I won't be doing it again here - I'm afraid my head would explode from the sheer ridiculousness of the situation.

What I would like to do is pull out a few key points from his letter and explain why I feel they're "not a good enough reason" to deny an R18+ rating - to use the Attorney-General's own words.

Sony boss Howard Stringer loves the PS3. Has to. But the Wii? Sony don't make the Wii. So all bets are off, and Sir Howard can hate on it to his heart's content. Speaking in Sun Valley, Idaho last week, Stringer said of Nintendo's console:

I've played a Nintendo Wii. I don't see it as a competitor. It's more of an expensive niche game device. We're selling a lot of PlayStation 3s now and it's still the best way to buy a Blu-ray player.

I've heard the Wii called a lot of things over the past two years, but "expensive niche game device" is definitely a new one. Well done, Howard!

Sony's PlayStation 3 Gaining Ground on Xbox With Games, Blu-Ray [Bloomberg] [Pic]

Earlier this month, we heard a rumour that Microsoft were going to be unveiling a new Halo game at E3. A new Halo game with a twist: there'd be no Master Chief. That rumour's just picked up a little more steam, with GameSpot reporting that - according to "a source with knowledge of the studio's development slate" - Bungie will be announcing a new Halo game "sometime this year" (so not necessarily at E3). This game will be a "darker, grittier" Halo game, featuring a squad of human soldiers and gameplay that's "a cross between Ghost Recon and Gears of War". If Bungie are developing, that's exciting! But we'll wait for confirmation before popping the champagne corks, thanks.

Next Halo squad-based, Master Chief-free? [GameSpot]

The PC hasn't had a great time in the last few years. The latest generation of Xbox and Playstation consoles can rival, and in some cases exceed, its graphics and online capabilities, while the Wii is innovating with peripherals in ways manufacturers such as Razor and Belkin can only dream about.

id Software's John Carmack hasn't given up on the old girl, not yet. He's voiced his opinion of the current state of the platform before, and in a new interview with Shacknews, he reinforces his view:

Yeah, I think that the PC definitely can't.. we can't go on making PC games like we used to. The combination of the dominance of the consoles, as far as market forces there, and piracy.. the traditional AAA, media-heavy boxed game that sells for a bunch of money, and goes out on the PC for a single player experience--it's just not happening. Even if we look at something that had such a push like Crysis, it didn't really do all that well.

id Software's John Carmack and Marty Stratton Talk Quake Live, PC Gaming, and More [Shacknews]

Job pages. They can be gold mines of information, if you're willing to look for it. No need for picks and drills, just a web browser and a mouse cursor.

Local dev portal Sumea recently noticed that Pandemic has placed new positions up on its website. A few of the role descriptions include this tidbit: "That's right, new IP. Freshly baked creative freedom and the chance to make your mark on a new, huge success." If that wasn't enough, the job requirements for the "Designer - Team A" position give us an idea of what the studio might be working on:

Open world / sandbox experience a plus. As is experience with LUA. We are a SCRUM based team, but even if you have never done the agile development thing before, we are sure you will fit right in.

Update: It's been suggested the IP is the new Batman game, long-rumoured to be in development at Pandemic. If that's that case, I'd hardly call it "new".

Pandemic Studios - Careers in Brisbane [Official site, via Sumea]

It's happened to us all at one time or another. You're playing a game and BAM - something happens, be it totally unexpected, shocking or confusing. And it leaves you with your jaw on the floor (or in your lap, for those who sit and game). Gametrailers has put together a short video compiling what it believes are the top ten of these moments, from Final Fantasy characters dying through to bumping uglies in Grand Theft Auto.

Whether you laugh, cry, or scream in anger, this video is sure to prompt a reaction. As you may have guessed, spoilers await!

TOP 10 OMGWTF moments [Gametrailers, via Blue's News]

The coming week will be completely dominated by E3 coverage. Come to think of it, the previous week was completely dominated by pre-E3 coverage. After the jump we've compiled a scene-setter of sorts, aggregating together all the lineups announced, so you know some of what to look for in the coming onslaught of copy.

Kotaku's crack staff on the scene will be Brian Crecente, Michael McWhertor, Brian Ashcraft, Mike Fahey, Leigh Alexander, and Adam Barenblat. They're going to be very busy.

The lights were dimmed when I walked into what Tuesday will be transformed into the main gaming hall for E3. I almost expected to hear the gentle sounds of of life support equipment, the woosh of oxygen, the beep of an EKG monitor.

Instead there was the clank of the very tiny booths being assembled, the murmur of conversation and, perhaps only in my imagination, a gentle weeping.

Hey at least there will be the games right? The games are what matter, not the booths... right? Right?

New Trailer for FEAR Sequel, Project Origin
Because a dose of scary is exactly what you need in the morning.

Some Guy Went and Built a Sentry Gun
It turns, it shoots, it cleans the house! Well, not that last thing.

Super Mario Mural: And ... Mario's Already Missed a Coin
Awesome art on what probably was a less-than-awesome wall.

Rock Band 2 Gameplay Trailer
Here's a clip for a game we'll never play, if the first Rock Band is anything to go by.

MK vs DCU E3 Trailer: Cool Gameplay, No New Characters
Who wants to see Batman kick the crap out of Scorpion? I sure do.

Flagship Sunk, Who's In Charge of Hellgate?
Just goes to show that it takes more than Bill Roper to make a successful game developer.

Kotaku Originals: Make It a Blockbuster Week
You missed news last week, trust me. It's okay though, because everything you didn't see is right here!

Reddit turned up an absolutely depressing thread in a forum the other day. Wasn't really worth a post unto itself, but I thought it'd be a good conversation starter because man, I don't think I have encountered anything like this:

My saddest gaming experience was while playing Creatures, that experimental game where you had to take care of creatures equipped with a neural network which made them able to learn things.

One of my creatures got pregnant but was also very sick. Her health stats were dropping and I was hoping she would be able to lay her egg in time. She only had 3% life over when she finally did. Afterwards, she laid down next to the egg, closed her eyes, and died. Minutes later, the egg hatched, and a cute little creature came out. His mother's body still laid there. He crawled around it, uttering the same sounds the whole time. He then crept up against her and went to sleep.

I stopped playing the game then.

So, short of game adaptations for Bambi, Brian's Song, Field of Dreams or Terms of Endearment, can a game be a tearjerker? I know colleagues (*cough cough Leigh Alexander) who were extremely emotional after finishing Metal Gear Solid 4. Is such emotion a worthy goal of a product engineered to be fun? What games have made you cry? Any? Tell us, dammit, while I ... sniff ... wipe the dust out of my eyes here.

Gamasutra has an interesting look at the issue of casual portal exclusives and how such exclusives may be hurting the casual games industry — and pulling developers into a no-win fray. Russell Carroll compares the digital milieu to regular retail establishments: "I can't imagine having to go to Target to get EA games and to Wal-Mart to get Activision games", and notes that this could be a good thing if it winds up being a Pepsi/Coke type thing (which, frankly, I can't quite imagine, since beverages and games are just slightly different animals). And what of the poor developers?:

A new report has been released on the utility of 'serious games' and in-game marketing in virtual spaces like Second Life; OTOinsights, the research arm of One to One Interactive, takes a look at the success (or lack thereof) of marketing attempts by major firms. They describe the results as 'uneven' and make some suggestions on how companies can better utilise virtual spaces to pitch their product(s):

More creepy little kids, more long hallways with flicker lights, more stuff to shoot, Developer Monolith Productions just dropped their new E3 trailer for Project Origin on us. Project Origin is the sequel to creepy shooter F.E.A.R. This new trailer shows off some new weapons, enemies and locations. Stay tuned next week for our hands-on impressions of the game when we play through a chunk at E308.

Over at Gamers With Jobs, Julian Murdoch looks at the craft of writing about games — and how being a gaming journalist has improved his relationship with games. While I've found writing about games has significantly cut into my time I can spend playing games — and there's a difference between playing for pleasure and playing for pay — I'll agree with many of Murdoch's thoughts in regards to going into situations with a new perspective, one that is frequently quite positive:

This trailer is so well-done, it almost makes me overcome my fear of this game — which I don't know if it's actual fear of the environment I'd be in, or just fear of the fact a video game made me shit my pants. Then again, I freaked myself out reading the Wikipedia entry for The Amityville Horror. I probably should stick to, like, Imagine: Babyz or something.

Joystiq noticed that James Wan, the director of the "Saw" series of horror flicks, was credited on GameTrailers as the director of this clip. Interestingly, he's not mentioned at all in the credits. But it does give us a definitive date for the game's release: Oct. 21. So you'll have 10 full days before Halloween to get all sorts of scary cosplay ideas.
Saw Director Takes a Stab at Dead Space with 'Loved Ones' Trailer[Joystiq]

Jason Rohrer (creator Passage, Immortality, and others) is back with another game, this one with the theme of regret (bet you never would've guessed from the title). Rohrer and a journalist writing about the design process game up with the theme, after nixing such topics as "stop snitching", "torture policy", and "stop-and-frisk". The game itself deals with feeding animals ... sort of:

They're the people in the shadows. You don't know their names, but you know their words. They localizers, the folks that take games from not only another language, but also another culture and open them up for another audience. "Good translation is tough to quantify", says Tokyo-based localizer Matt Alt. "If it's well done, it sort of disappears. Ideally the person playing the game doesn't even realise they're reading something that wasn't originally written in their native tongue". He runs AltJapan along with his wife (and company president!) Hiroko Yoda run out of a small second story office on Tokyo's westside. And with 99.999 percent of the games AltJapan works on that's true. Well, save for one: Ninja Gaiden II. read more »

There's a more or less constant trickle of mainstream articles discussing people 'finding love in all the wrong places' — but Tom Francis has a hilarious look at his attempts to play the dating game in MMOs. He tracks his progress in EVE Online, WoW and City of Heroes. The CoH section is my personal favourite, featuring Francis' trenchcoated character, 'Manley Power,' whose bio page read "Power's two favourite things are commitment and changing himself".:

No, he didn't assemble it by whacking a large wrench against a pile of parts either. But this guy is a serious engineer, cooking up an auto-fire paintball sentry gun. And although this isn't necessarily gameplay footage, you can watch as some poor test subject wearing a BMX helmet gets pounded in several tests. So I'm gonna say its germane because, shit, it's Sunday, and sentries are a treasured friend/loathsome foe in Team Fortress 2, Perfect Dark, and other games. And this is PC gaming, if getting shot to shit by a PC is a game.

Note that this weapon is not being fired by remote control. It's recognising moving objects and firing on them automatically. The distraction test is a pretty good measure of its abilities.

Of course, having the laptop that operates it right next to it probably would not do well in a real firefight. Maybe it'd be a good burglar-blaster, but then, forget your keys, step in the door, and you're taking a paintbath in the living room.

Latest Video [paintballsentry.com]

In this new Prince of Persia trailer we get a look at The Hunter, a creature of the Corrupted. The creature, once a Prince, can crawl across surfaces and leap around. In the story, The Hunter was a prince who became jaded by his lifestyle and traded his soul to be able to hunt the most dangerous quarry of all: People. He's brought back to hunt the Prince of Persia in the game. Make sure to check back this week as we cover Prince of Persia and all of the other games of E3.

PC Gamers can get the original Two Worlds in one package with the "Tainted Blood" and "Curse of Souls" add ons next month, in the Two Worlds: Epic Edition just announced by SouthPeak Games.

The release will add eight new multiplayer maps, more than 70 online quests, plus a new town where characters can train themselves in gladiator combat. GamersHell has eight screenshots, one is above.

The full press release from SouthPeak is after the jump.