With Fall settling in, you can expect the usual bumper crop harvest of annual sports sims to come our way. One of these titles include Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer 2009, which has been confirmed to be released this October 17 on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and the PC. Find out more about the upcoming game in our full article.

European video game news site CVG reports that Bizarre Creations is currently readying a playable demo for Project Gotham Racing 4. This was announced during a Bizarre Creation press event held today in the company's Liverpool offices.

The demo is expected to be out and about around the game's October 12 release in Europe. It will reportedly contain the Nurburgring track and will come packed with a few different Arcade challenges for Xbox 360 owners to check out.

No word has come out about a North American demo yet, but it'll probably come around PGR4's October 2 U.S. release date. Details on the playable cars are still under wraps as well, but we'll bring you more updates as we get them.

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.

In an official announcement made not later than today, Konami Digital Entertainment GmbH revealed that the company's Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 will be featuring none other than Michael Owen, English striker and one of Newcastle United's pride and glory, on both the packaging (UK specific) and the promotional materials for the game.

Together with Cristiano Ronaldo, Owen will be combining image and skill on the UK packshots of Pro Evolution Soccer's latest installment. Barring any critical opinion of his choice for Newcastle over Liverpool, Owen still keeps a reputation level with his 178 league goals, 37 of which were for England.

"Securing Michael Owen is a real coup for Konami. Since he burst on to the scene, he has proven himself an incredible goal-scorer, netting at every level both domestic and international," said Jon Murphy, Team Leader for Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 at Konami.

Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 will be heading to the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Windows PC over DVD, PS2, PSP and Nintendo DS by fall of 2007, featuring Konami's new Teamvision artificial intelligence system for dynamic and real-time play.

Develop has recently announced the list of finalists nominated to receive awards offered by the Develop Industry Excellence Awards. Set for the region of UK and Europe, the awards will be held during the Develop Conference & Expo to be held this year at Brighton. Again.

 

Top of the nominees list is Realtime Worlds (Crackdown), bagging a whopping seven nominations. Evolution Studios (MotorStorm), Rare (Viva Piñata), SCEE Studio Liverpool (Formula One Championship Edition), and independent developer and publisher Introversion (DEFCON) get three nominations a-piece. Other nominees include GSC Game World (S.T.A.L.K.E.R.) from Russia, EA DICE (Battlefield series) and Avalanche from Sweden, Opera from Norway, and Fishlabs from Germany.

Some of the big names nominated for the 2007 awards night include Eidos Hungary, Ubisoft France development studios, Eden Studios, and Kynogon. The fate of these nominees will be decided by a panel of almost 100 industry experts who choose only excellence over anything else. Stuart Dinsey, publisher of Develop magazine, stated:

In a period which has seen the launch of two home consoles, the continued improvement of Xbox 360 and PC software, and the mobile games market emerge as a genuine creative and commercial alternative to the more traditional games platforms, only the most excellent titles have any chance of standing out from the crowd.

Two other special awards, Development Legend and overall Grand Prix, will be given away in the awards night on July 25 to be honored to individuals, companies, or titles deserving in the eyes of the magazine's editorial staff.