Local dev portal Tsumea picked up on a July 23 article over at Playstation Lifestyle about the Sydney-based Team Bondi and LA Noire. The article references a post on TB's website, which states the studio is looking for animators to help finish production on the PS3-exclusive, noir-inspired title.

The thing is, the post in question is over two months' old. Anyway, that's not what caught my eye.

Have a read of the last comment by Aus artist for the PL story:

Team bondi lost all its lead programmers a few months ago and havent been able to fill the positions as far as i know. From what I have heard they are currently suffering from financial troubles. Previous emloyees [sic] have said it was a terrible place to work also.

L.A. Noire Almost Complete? [Playstation Lifestyle, via Tsumea]

Those early rumblings just might be true. Back in May, rumours swirled that filmmaker Brett Ratner was directing the God of War movie. In a MGM press release for the new RoboCop movie, there's this bit of info:

David Self's credits include 13 Days and Road To Perdition. He wrote God of War for Universal, to which Brett Ratner is attached to direct, and was a writer on Universal's Wolfman currently in production.

That press release is obviously incorrect. It should read: "He wrote God of War for Universal, to which Brett Ratner is attached to direct and fuck up".

Brett Ratner Confirmed? [/Film] [Pic]

Console wars are so last season. Now we've got setlist wars for music games. When Rock Band 2's formidable list was confirmed during E3 week, we uttered a low whistle for all the catching up Guitar Hero: World Tour would have to do to to keep it a competition.

Now, via the Something Awful forums comes what purports to be a leaked list of World Tour songs by their respective sections. Now, we know now that Rock Band and Guitar Hero are somewhat different in terms of who plays them and what their motivation is, and a great Rock Band song might've made a boring Guitar Hero III song. But are all bets off now that we've got band sets for both games?

And if so, let's play pretend for a sec, and imagine that what follows after the jump is actually Guitar Hero: World Tour's list. If it is, then who do you think's winning now?

Not confirmed, but Nintendo-centric Japanese blog Rambing Man has a street date for Wii Music: The game will apparently be released on October 16th for ¥5,800 ($US 54) as part of the Touch Generation Series and will have Wi-Fi. Other details floating include a Japanese release date for Captain Rainbow (August 28th for ¥6,800 or $US 63) and Valkyrie Profile DS (October 2nd for ¥5040 or $US 47). Oh, new Wii-mote straps, too. Make that new, coloured Wii-mote straps. Priced at ¥300 a piece, they'll come in white, pink, blue and green. All four will be available for ¥1,000. Those will be out this September, says Rambling Man.

Quick show of hands: Who's interested in picking up Wii Music? Who's keen for new strap colours?

Wii Music 発売日決定 [Rambling Man via Jonnyram@GAF] [Pic]

The only thing there was more of at E3 than games were complaints about E3's new, tidy, business-like format. Everyone from company execs to game developers to the working press seemed to have something unhappy to say about the show.

Coasting right there along with the complaints was a building buzz that next year's E3 was going to have to undergo some mammoth changes. Just how mammoth? According to a number of well connected sources I spoke with during the show, there's considerable thought going into opening the doors, this time officially, to the public at next year's big event.

Reached for comment earlier today, the Entertainment Software Association had this to say:

The PlayStation Lifestyle blog promises that on August 3rd, a "MAJOR" PlayStation 3 exclusive will be announced that makes MAG, Killzone 2 and inFAMOUS look like "NOTHING" (yes, the author seems to like all-caps).

The blog also says it'll offer three hints on Saturday, July 26th, stressing that it is a "new" PlayStation 3 "exclusive". In this case, it's the author, not I, who put those words in quotes — does that make anyone else a little leery?

Right now, all that's up in the post is a reminder that the announcement is unrelated to Square Enix's event over the same August date. Uh, oo-kay? Oh yeah, and they've got three words listed, all of them crossed out with strikethrough:

RPG
FPS
Next gen Twisted metal

Real? Hoax? Guess we'll find out.

Announcing MAJOR new PS3 exclusive on 3 August [PlayStation Lifestyle]

The Dark Knight is out. Where's the game? In an interview with G4 TV, thespian Gary Oldman let it slip that a Dark Knight game is "in the works". He described how Lieutenant Gordan is in a small scene on top of the Major Crime Unit building when Batman "jumps off the building and opened his wings to fly away and save the day" — "so it doesn't stop and start", says Oldman, "like you're watching a movie". In the now since pulled interview clip, Oldman did not mention the developer or release date. Rumour has it that Pandemic is working on the title. Neato.

'Dark Knight' Game Leaks [The Feed]

When we talked to SEGA of America president Simon Jeffery at E3 last week, he showered us with knowledge and know-how. He also threw in a quick mention of a game we hadn't heard anything about — officially, that is — Resident Evil 5 for the Wii. To say that we were surprised to hear it mentioned would be an understatement, despite our non-reaction if front of Mr. Jeffery.

We followed up with a couple folks about the on camera slip of the tongue, starting with Nintendo's Reggie Fils-Aime.

Discussing our Executive Pop Quiz, in which we asked Nintendo Corporate Affairs VP Denise Kaigler if Resident Evil 5 was getting a Wii version, Mr. Fils-Aime fired back with a "Not yet!" and a laugh that left us more confused than when we started the question.

Additional "spy" photos of the alleged PSP-3000 hardware update that we posted last night have come to our attention, again courtesy of the PSPChina.net message board. These shots show off what appears to be a working prototype of the PlayStation Portable, said to have built-in microphone support, among other alleged new functionality.

Hit the jump for exciting photos of the new thinner PSP ring, another look at the PS button and one more cosmetic change. While you do say, chant "This is a rumour, this is a rumour".

Remember when we told you to pencil (yes, pencil) in upcoming Remedy title Alan Wake for the Tokyo Game Show? As Kotaku's own Mike McWhertor pointed out a mention that it would be at TGS appeared in a Windows branded contest that actually dates from last year. Over on the Alan Wake Forums, Remedy has posted:

The Microsoft Vista promotion referring to TGS took place in 2007, and is old news - we've had the winner over for taking the pictures already.

Sorry for the confusion and possible disappointment, but this was not an annoucement that Wake would be shown at TGS 2008. Remedy's team is just getting back from a bit of holiday and we haven't had time to chat with Microsoft on upcoming shows/showings yet.

Oh. Question: Then why didn't we see it at E3?

How far has Remedy comed on Alan Wake [Alan Wake via VG247]