According to movie site Latino Review, Ward has been pulled off the flick. Sony and producer Avi Arad did not want to wait for Ward to contractually deliver drafts for other projects (like Hitman 2).

Instead, writing team Thomas Dean Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer, who penned the CONAN movie reboot, are being eyed as writers for the Uncharted flick. “At press time, negotiations are underway and it looks like a deal is imminent,” writes Latino Review. “Expect to hear it officially in the trades.”

News: Exclusive: Conan Writing Duo Chart Course For Drake’s Fortune! [Latino Review]

Game or film would be bad enough. Both together would be like multiplying zeroes. The Movie Blog drops word of Boll’s latest ambition, which is confusingly titled Bloodrayne 3: Warhammer. Yeah, I have no idea what that means, either, except maybe a C&D in the mail from Mythic Entertainment? Kristanna Loken is said to be back in the lead role.

I couldn’t track down what The Movie Blog was sourcing but this post says this movie will begin filming in January. Which means it’ll be finished in February. Or at least look like it.

Uwe Boll to Bring Us Bloodrayne 3: Warhammer [The Movie Blog via Joystiq]

Tom Burt, who owns #203 of the all-electric sports car made by the Silicon Valley company, wrote on Tesla’s “Customer Blog”:

A team of sound engineers from Microsoft Game Studios (some working on Forza, some on Project Gotham Racing) asked if I was willing to take my Roadster to a track so they could record a variety of sounds. Some time ago they had the opportunity to record Tesla motor noises when a prototype was being run on a dyno at Tesla. But the teams were excited about the prospect of recording other sounds, particularly tire skid and squeal noises, without the interference of loud engine and exhaust noise. Of course I said “yes.”

Burt provided pics of his miked-up ride, which you can see above. (There are more at the link).

Burt is listed on Microsoft’s official site as a corporate vice president and deputy general counsel for litigation. The Tesla Roadster did appear in PGR 4 (released 2007). Of course, why would they re-record the engine note if it wasn’t needed for a new game? It could also be that Burt misspoke or misunderstood who was asking for the audio.

We’ve reported on rumours of PGR 5 in development in the past, so this is not exactly surprising. Still, I’ve emailed Microsoft to notify them of Burt’s comments and ask them for one.

Microsoft Executive Confirms PGR5 in the Works [Kokugamer via GameStooge]

The Spike TV Video Game Awards will once again double as an E3 as new games are revealed and new trailers are unveiled. Halo: Reach is coming. As is whatever this game is, teased first on Kotaku right now.

Thoughts? Theories? Is it Ken Levine’s new game? Is it BioShock 3? Is it related to anything that shows up in Google when you type in 2K Games and Dubai? We here at Kotaku can only speculate about the secrets the VGA people are holding onto. They won’t tell us anything.

The name of the game and gameplay will premiere during the VGAs on December 12 at 8pm ET/PT (noon AEDT, December 13) on Spike. A Halo: Reach trailer is also scheduled for the broadcast.

1up.com reports that this is a teaser for Spec Ops and we can now even watch an August-posted TV commercial for it.

Take this with a grain of salt, but this clip sure looks like it’s revealing some new multiplayer modes for Modern Warfare 2, found lurking somewhere in the game’s code.

There are three modes in total: VIP (just like Counter-Strike), Capture The Flag (with a single flag between two teams) and Global Thermonuclear War, which one side has to capture. Once captured, the thing goes off, killing everybody.

If you squint through all the garbage written on-screen, you can make out allegations that these modes are all tucked away on the disc waiting to be unlocked as DLC. Makes sense on a basic level, but the bonkers language isn’t helping their cause.

[via VG247]

And that’s about all we know at this stage, other than a title, No More Heroes: Heroes Paradise.

But we can’t say that No More Heroes making the high-definition transition from the Wii to the PS3/360 is much of a surprise. Grasshopper lead Goichi Suda has previously expressed his interest in bringing Travis Touchdown and crew to other consoles.

And, considering Suda’s interest in Project Natal — and presumably Sony’s PS3 motion controller — the No More Heroes franchise seems like a no-brainer kind of port.

Or maybe Suda and crew were motivated by No More Heroes’ Japanese publisher Marvelous Entertainment, which has expressed its disappointment with sales, hinting at the possibility of up-res ports of its moderately selling Wii games.

It’s not the first time we’ve heard this – far from it – but we had previously been unaware of the timing of the move.

Though still unconfirmed, according to our sources almost all of the studio’s staff (around 200 people) in Los Angeles are to be laid off today, with those few remaining to be incorporated into other Electronic Arts development teams. The move is expected to be announced to Pandemic staff at 11 a.m. PT.

Pandemic were first formed in 1998, and for a while there, seemed to be on the verge of becoming one of the world’s premier development houses. Following on from the success of Full Spectrum Warrior, Mercenaries and Star Wars: Battlefront, they were purchased in 2007 by Electronic Arts, where things should have been on the up and up.

Instead, the company released a succession of lacklustre sequels, and took a body-blow when Pandemic’s Australian experiment failed following the cancellation of the costly – and doomed – Dark Knight game, which resulted in the closure of Pandemic’s Brisbane studio.

It’s believed Pandemic’s remaining IP (including The Saboteur) will be passed onto EA’s Montreal studio (Army of Two).

Remember, as of yet, this is all unconfirmed; we’d expect an official announcement on the closure later today.

They too may be looking for sunnier weather, the better to enjoy the pungent stench of rotting flesh with, and maybe a little help from CEDA in New Orleans. According to a screen grab sent our way, there may be hope for our Yankee zombie killers yet, a fun little Easter Egg of a cameo that we’re still attempting to confirm for ourselves.

(Click on the above image to Boomer-size it.)

Thanks to Ackers for the heads up.

They reckon that, with the rumoured machine due to launch late next year, it’s going to be powered by the second iteration of nVidia’s Tegra chipset, not the original as was first suggested. For reference, the Zune HD – capable of stuff like this – runs on the Tegra, while Nintendo’s new handheld would be running on the Tegra 2.

nVidia reckon the Tegra 2 has four times the power of the Tegra. So look at what the Zune HD can do then imagine something… better.

Course, we still have no idea what Nintendo have planned for their next handheld; it could be another two-screen device, it could be a return to the single-screen days of the Game Boy, it could be something else entirely. But hey, whatever it is, it’s nice to know (if this info checks out) that we’re looking at a substantial upgrade from the current DS tech.

Oh, and if you’re interested, the Digital Foundry piece also has some less concrete stuff on Sony’s supposed PSP2 as well.

In Theory: Nintendo DS2 vs. Sony PSP2 [Digital Foundry]

Here’s the quote, which That VideoGame Blog attributes to audio of the event:

I did in the last game a voice for a character called Gaz and in this game I’m now voicing a guy called Ghost, who now just got a spin-off comic of his own and they’re talking about another little game to go with it. So, I’m quite excited about it. It’s grown and grown and grown.

Destructoid notes the context in which this was mentioned – “another little game to go with” a spinoff comic – means it could be just a flash game to coincide with the book’s launch (which coincided with the game’s Nov. 10 release). That’s a pretty reasonable take, although I’ve asked Robert Bowling if he or Infinity Ward would like to say any more.

Modern Warfare 2’s Ghost Getting His Own Game? [That VideoGame Blog via Destructoid]