It's the first week for QuickJump QuickPeek's second year! Some things never change, while others... well, they get quite a pretty make-over too. Debuting this week are our blog-specific Weekend Warriors, marching all over the QJ.NET blog with their very own in-depth recaps for a full seven days' worth of industry news. Take a gander... some of you may have only seen your preferred blog's Warrior, but now, it might pay to see how everything went for everyone else in the community.

Some intriguing comments have been dropped by Epic Games stalwart Cliff Bleszinski about Kojima Productions' Metal Gear Sold franchise. According to the Gears of War 2 dev, they won't be following the MGS storytelling strategy which he referred to as "on the way out." What's the full score? See it in the full article and tell us what you think.

The game industry may be getting swamped with sequels, remakes, annualization, and all manner of money-raking tactics. That's bad news, an analyst says, because creativity among developers is often compromised. He says, however, publishers are better off in the long run by breeding talent among the minds behind the medium. Get his full take in the article after the jump.

Remember Hideo Kojima and Jade Raymond's interview from a few months back? Well, we might have been musing about them coming up with a Metal Gear Solid - slash - Assassin's Creed hybrid, and now... well... Let's just say we're pretty amused. In this gameplay video, we see Altair running around a familiar-looking war zone, carrying his own rifle and trying to fight a couple of... nah. Sorry. No spoilers. Anyways, though the video appears to not take itself seriously (clue: April 1, 2008), you can't help but think if there's actually more than meets the eye...

Let's play a little association game. When I say "men in video game development," whose names come first to mind? Kojima? Jaffe? Miyamoto? The list goes on. Now how about if I say "women in video games development?" You probably thought of Jade Raymond then... blank. Kind of imbalanced ain't it? That was the point of Emily Newton-Dunn, former producer of the Burnout series. She remarks that there is a gender imbalance in the industry and that there should be more women making games. Full story after the "read more" link below.

Many were left unsatisfied after From Software didn't offer anything groundbreaking in Armored Core 4, but naysayers would have a field day pretending not to be impressed after they see the latest trailer of Armored Core 4A: For Answer (Microsoft Xbox 360, Sony PlayStation 3). You can check it out yourself at the full article.

That's right, Assassin's Creed producer Jade Raymond and Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima went one on one in an interview. Unfortunately, they didn't talk about a cross-over between Altair and Solid Snake. They did discuss about game development, so check out the full article for more details.

It's an endless debate when talking about girls playing the same video games guys play. They say girls only like MMORPGs, then follow up with "there are no girls on internet." Others believe female gamers stick to casual games, but Mario and Pokemon titles have more fanboys than fangirls.

No matter what your stand is, here's a list of non-girly games that aren't Barbie, Bratz, or any of those glamorous stuff.

For many of us, this isn't really such a big deal. For the purists and hardcore-fans, however, the topic of whether a localized game should be subbed or dubbed is a factor that can potentially alter the entire play experience. We'll be taking a look at this matter a littler further, by way of a feature piece. Check it out in the full article.

Japanese video game giant Konami's stock prices may have taken a hit when it was announced that Kojima Productions was delaying the highly anticipated Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots for the Sony PlayStation 3, but there's more good news than bad as sales and profits steadily grow. This week Konami has revealed its financial performance for fiscal 2007's first half and great results were observed. MLB Power Pros for the Nintendo Wii sold big in Japan, while Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops is keeping the West occupied. Read the full article for more.