Two new bits of information related to Gears of War 2. were recently revealed at the San Diego Comic-Con 08. The first was the possibility of seeing linked achievements in the game, and the second was some preliminary information on a US$ 130 bundle for the game. Learn more about both after the jump!

We all know that Ubisoft and Jordan Mechner have been working on a new Prince of Persia video game for the PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3. Well, apparently that's not the only thing Mechner's been busy with. At this year's San Diego Comic-con he revealed that he is currently working on a follow-up to Karateka. More information on this can be found in the full article.

Midway has announced that it will be merging its San Diego and Los Angeles Studios by this September. Among other things, this merger may have a direct effect on the work of the development team behind TNA iMPACT! (Microsoft Xbox 360, Sony PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii). Further details on this announcement are available in the full article.

If you feel that you aren't getting enough bang out of your buck due to the rather problematic issues noted in Major League Baseball 2K8 (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable,  Wii, and DS), then we've got some good news for you. 2K Sports has announced that it will be rolling out an update for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of the game which will take care of these problems. More details about the update in our full article.

In order to bring more life to games such as Top Spin 3, Unreal Tournament 3, Midnight Club Los Angeles and Grand Theft Auto IV, the respective game developers tapped ImageMetrics to craft the games' facial animation.

A video is also included to show of the things brought to life by ImageMetrics' technology. Check it out after the jump!

Word is out that a gamer over in California has been experiencing trouble with his copy of Halo 3. And while the ailments are pretty run-of-the-mill (crashes), the player's reaction wasn't. He's filed a lawsuit against Microsoft and Bungie over the problem, the details of which you can check out via the full article.

A two-month survey conducted by the National Institute on Media and Family (NIMF) involving 60 retailers in the U.S. show that 46% of retailers sell M-rated video games to teens. The East County Youth Coalition and other youth groups are now requesting retailers to provide employees with proper training and separate M-rated titles from other games.

More on this at the full article!

 

If you want to get the recent number of NBA games that have come out this year, then you'll probably want to do it in the best style possible. Mad Catz Interactive, Inc. is giving you a chance to look the part while playing your favorite NBA team as they plan to release NBA-themed controllers and other related accessories.

Darren Richardson, president and chief executive officer of Mad Catz, explains the brief history of the San Diego based company's renewed acquisition of the license since last April:

Mad Catz initially launched its line of NBA video game controllers and accessories during the 2004-2005 NBA season and these products have proven to be an important part of our strategy to offer gamers the opportunity to personalize their video game accessories with the world's leading sports, video game and entertainment images and brands.

The extension of this agreement with the NBA ensures that this valuable sports franchise will remain with Mad Catz for the next several years. We look forward to continuing to provide gamers and NBA fans with high-quality controllers and accessories for all current and prior generation consoles that bring the NBA arena excitement into the living room.

Mad Catz is planning to produce game controllers and faceplates for all 30 NBA teams, all of which will be available through NBAstore.com, NBA arena stores, and online game retailers. These peripherals and accessories will be made available for the Microsoft Xbox, Xbox 360, Sony PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, and Nintendo Wii, DS.

When we first learned that Rockstar San Diego is currently developing the fourth installment to the widely-successful street racing franchise Midnight Club, we can't help but be excited. The series is well known for excellent environment re-creation as well as top notch physics simulation surpassing the expectations of the period it was released.

The next entry will be dubbed as Midnight Club: Los Angeles and is expected to be released on platforms Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. While Rockstar has yet to give an official release date window for the game, the developer dished out the first ever screenshots for the title through its dedicated Midnight Club web page.

We are still not certain if real vehicles will be appearing in Midnight Club: LA but judging from the screenshots, it seems that Mazda and Kawasaki have already joined the fray. It should be remembered that past iterations featured fictional vehicles because the manufacturers didn't want to be associated with illegal street racing.

Anyway, updates as we them! In the mean time, just enjoy the screenshots below.

See the other screenshots after the jump!

For a game so faithfully tied to the motion pictures, Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Conspiracy (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3) was designed to be anything but a movie game. San Diego-based High Moon Studios spoke to The Hollywood Reporter recently, and it was discovered that while the game picked up the Jason Bourne from the beginnings of "The Bourne Identity," it was designed to stand on its own two legs, separately from the movies.

 

"We started off almost making a straight 'Bourne Identity' adaptation," said chief creative officer Emmanuel Valdez. In the eyes of third-party onlookers, it would have been a wrong decision: the first movie premiered in 2001 -  the same year Robert Ludlum passed away - which was quickly followed with the second installment premiering just a year before the game development started.

"We knew we didn't have enough time to build a quality 'Bourne Ultimatum' game and come out with it at the same time as the movie. So we decided to do things differently, something new," Valdez stressed, and so it became that The Bourne Conspiracy would have to make do on its own. And yet it had to be original, but intimately close to what fans of the movie - the potential customers of the game - recognize from the big screen.

Striking a balance between the two, coupled with unavoidably difficult negotiations between the intellectual property owners and the creative force, was often the undoing of movie-based games. But Ludlum Estate, holders of the Bourne IP, made a choice that sealed the game's blockbuster potential.

They chose to hire a creative consultant to advise them during the game's development, and they selected independent game producer Matt Wolf, an industry veteran from Electronic Arts and SEGA Entertainment. "Head-butts" involved in the creative process were easily smoothed out, and it turned the movie hero into a hero perfectly sculpted for the video game scene.

Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Conspiracy will touch Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 gamers by mid-2008 and will be released under the newly revived Sierra label of Vivendi.