Many gamers have longed for days gone by in the gaming scene, and Capcom recently decided to bring Mega Man back to his roots with Mega Man 9. Now you'll be able to see just how old-school the game is with this new cinematic we found on GameTrailers. Find the video after the jump!

This year, we've seen a lot of crazy things. But what's been popular though (Vanessa Ann Hudgens photos aside)? Yahoo! can probably answer that with their annual "Top Trends in Search" list for 2007.

While there are a lot of keywords being searched this year, what concerns us is the list of top 10 searches in technology. Who're the movers and shakers? You can probably guess already, but read more to see the full list!

It looks like somebody from Sony Computer Entertainment Europe's (SCEE) been taking lessons from Electronic Arts. The Wikipedia site reports that someone's been editing their entry for Bungie's Halo game series by adding some additional words. Fighting words it seems, if you happen to be a big fan of Halo 3 for the Xbox 360. The controversial add-on said: "Although it won't look any better than Halo 2." As the page was mainly for factual details on the game, that subjective statement did stick out like a sore thumb.

Here's a screenshot of the said edits - the red text to the right indicates the new additions (click to enlarge):

 

What makes the news all the more interesting is that WikiScanner traced the editor's IP address - 217.18.23.2 - to SCEE's Liverpool (UK) studio. Black propaganda from Sony to stifle Halo 3's upcoming launch this September 25? Unlikely - Wikipedia indicates that the edit was done way back in April. What we're looking at is probably someone at the SCEE office having a bit of fun...at the title's expense.

So, why did it take so long to detect this months-old tweak? WikiScanner was introduced to Wikipedia on August 14, 2007 - only a little more than two weeks ago. Check back in case WikiScanner  picks up more of these unsolicited edits to the site.

 

There was quite a buzz when some sources used the Wikipedia Scanner created by a college graduate to track users that try to modify Wikipedia entries. One worth taking note of was Electronic Arts' page which was supposedly edited more than once by an employee from EA. Turns out the stories were true, and EA even talked to GamesIndustry.biz about it.

An EA spokesperson explained that the company sometimes updates websites like Wikipedia to "ensure accuracy of their own corporate information." Reasons on why they were attempts to cover the tracks of EA founder Trip Hawkins - something that the Wikipedia community will not allow in some conditions - and to change a few lines about lawsuits charged against EA were still left in the dark.

However, the spokesperson did state, "EA has sent a correction to Yahoo Finance when they had misspelled the name of an EA executive." Trip Hawkins, who was almost wiped off from the pages of Wikipedia for reasons unknown, is currently on vacation and has yet to give his input on the matter.

Website Shack News did quite a lot of detective work to find out that there's something going on behind Electronic Arts' Wikipedia pages. Shack News is claiming that multiple attempts to erase EA founder Trip Hawkins' information from the Wiki have been tracked down to be from EA's Redwood headquarters area.

Using the Wikipedia Scanner, they found out that a modification - done back in November 20, 2006 to remove Hawkins' name from EA's "key people" section on the company's Wikipedia page - was done using a computer with the supposed IP from EA. The same user also removed the references for Hawkins and took away a paragraph about the big man's business plan.

A couple of months after, someone using the same IP tried to remove Hawkins' name from the "History" section. Strange enough, the reference for him was back on the page. Some other changes by who we can assume as the same user, include removing some paragraphs from "Criticism" section and putting a spin on the lawsuit filed by overworked, under-compensated employees to make EA look a little better.

What does Resident Evil, Phoenix Wright and Devil May Cry have in common? Pretty boys. Shinji Mikami of course! A warm Happy Birthday goes out to one of the gaming industry's living legends who turns 42 today!

Mikami has been in the gaming industry for more than 15 years now and is responsible for a number of games we all know and love. Aside from the ever popular video games mentioned above, he's worked on such classics as Aladdin and Goof Troop during the days of the Super Nintendo, Dino Crisis and God Hand.

After working with the Resident Evil franchise with Capcom for almost a decade (so many zombies, so little time,) he joined Studio Clover in 2004 where he worked with Hideki Kamiya to produce Devil May Cry. He later founded Seeds Inc. together with Kamiya and Atsushi Inaba which was last heard to be in the process of developing a new game.

Certainly a lifetime of achievement can't be fully captured in a scant three paragraphs but cheers to Shinji Makima and again a Happy Birthday!

For those who have been waiting for the release date announcement of BlackSite: Area 51, we have reports of a possible ETA. Our internet hamsters have found three sites with the same placeholder date for the upcoming video game from Midway Studios Austin.

GameStop and EBGames (naturally) agrees on one placeholder date for BlackSite: Area 51 for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC; Wikipedia also shows that same date. They all show a September release, September 3 to be exact. Hmm... We couldn't find an announcement for the original release date, though ThreeSpeech has also taken a swing for the Europe release: September 14.

We'll keep an eye out for that official announcement, until we find one, we'll pigeonhole this article in the Rumor bin. Stay tuned.

Bethesda Softworks' upcoming new entry to the Fallout franchise is definitely one of the games to watch out for next year, and since every single Fallout fan - including those of us here at QJ.NET - are getting downright rabid for more information about the game, we'll try to keep this as short and sweet as possible.

Without further ado, here are a few more details about the game.

• As we mentioned before, the game starts with your character's birth. After choosing what your character will look like at 19 (what, no age choice?), you get the "moving around" tutorial once you hit the age of 2. At the age of 10, you get the combat and game menu tutorial. At 16, you take a test to get bonuses to attributes you seem to best fit. At 19, you finally get to go out of the Vault to look for your missing daddy.
• Skill choices will be more important than ever. Choosing certain main skills can close off some quests entirely.
• The third-person combat view will be similar to the one used in Resident Evil 4
  
• Radiation is present almost everywhere in the world outside the Vault. You can regain health by consuming food, cola and water, but you should keep an eye on the rad level of these items, especially the water.
• Doctoring will once again play a big part in Fallout 3, as the broken bones and similar bodily harm you get during battles can only be healed by a doctor or by using a surgeon's kit. You should get these healed as soon as possible as they give you penalties such as not being able to run or getting a huge hit to your accuracy.
  

The Wikipedia entry for Fallout 3 also mentions that Karma titles gained in the Xbox 360 version of the game will grant corresponding Xbox Live Achievements. Remember, Fallout 3 is coming Fall 2008 for PC, PS3, and Xbox 360. Start counting down the days.

Orson Scott Card, author of Ender's Game (the Hugo Award winner and Nebula Award winner), is a recovering game addict - or at least that's one interpretation you can give his interview over at Gaming Today. Ender's Game is being turned into a movie by Warner Brothers, and at the same time Orson Scott Card is open to the possibility of his book becoming a video game.

For those not familiar with Ender's Game, just understand that it's one of the best sci-fi books ever written (in our honest opinions). A fast-paced story about violence, evil, war, and leadership. It's required reading, or so Wikipedia claims, at the Marine Corps University at Quantico.

And if it's good enough for the US Marines, it should be good enough for you gamers out there, right? Anyway, back to the interview. Orson Scott Card talked about being addicted to gaming:

The weird thing was that even when I wasn't playing, I felt a tremendous anxiety. I had responsibilities - there were cities waiting for me to tell them what to build! Now, I'm not insane. My conscious mind knew that it was just a game, and when I wasn't running the program, nothing was happening at all. But I invested so much tension in the playing of the game that it didn't go away when I left the computer. The call of duty was still there.

The interview also tackled what goes into writing a story for video games. Card said:

Games CAN'T have the kind of storylines that movies and books have, or they wouldn't be playable. ... What makes a game work is the opposite of what makes a story work. In a story, you are seeking to find out what really happened - why people do what they do, what the results of their choices are. ... In a game, the opposite illusion must be created. Even though most games absolutely force you to follow preset paths, the gamewrights try to give you the illusion that you are making free choices (even though you are actually, in almost all games, still being channeled through certain puzzles with fixed solutions).

As for Ender's Game, it won't just be one game in Card's vision:

• The Battle Room. This pivotal set in the book can be several game modules in real life.
• Space war games. The three wars (back in Mazer's time all the way to Ender's time).
• Story-based games. Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow.
• MMORPG. This one is based on the Battle School in Ender's Game.
• The Fantasy Game. The "mind game" from the novel.
• The Hive Queen. It's like Civilization (a game franchise that Card was addicted to).
• Post-war war. Card describes this as being like Risk.

Well, Mr. Card, there are quite a few fans here at QJ.NET who would be first in line to get a game that follows the Hegemon.

 

Okay, since there's a decent amount of Buzz for this Square Enix game that's set to use the Unreal Engine and grace both Sony PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Xbox 360, here's the latest news that we could find regarding The Last Remnant. The development team assigned to work on it follows below:

• Director: Hiroshi Takai
• Chief Artist: Kimihiko Miyamae
• Events: Kouji Kobayashi
• Composer: Tsuyoshi Sekito
• Producer: Nobuyuki Ueda
• Exec. Producer: Akitoshi Kawazu
• Art Producer: Yusuke Naora

This info was first leaked into the wilds of the intarwebs via Jonnyram of NeoGAF. A quick sift through Wikipedia reveals that composer Tsuyoshi Sekito has games like Brave Fencer Musashi, Chocobo's Dungeon 2, Final Fantasy Origins, and Front Mission Online under his belt. He's also worked with Nobuo Uematsu, Kenichiro Fukui, and Keiji Kawamori on the music of "FFVII: Advent Children."

Yusuke Naora on the other hand has served as art director for these Square pieces: Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VIII, Final Fantasy X, and Final Fantasy VII Advent Children. He's also served as Art Supervisor for Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII.

Director Hiroshi Takai has worked on Saga Frontier, and The Bouncer, among others. Kimihiko Miyamae previously worked on Unlimited Saga. Kouji Kobayashi's got FFVIII and Resident Evil: Code: Veronica Complete in his resume. Noboyuki Ueda's most known for FFVIII and Akitoshi Kawazu was involved with FFXII.