It seems that God of War 2 director Cory Barlog has finally let us in on some of the details of the new project he'll be working on with film director George Miller. Suffice to say, they will be resurfacing a classic 1980's movie title and adapting it to the video game platform. To find out what this new project is all about, click on the "read more" link below for more information.

According to Newsweek's N'Gai Croal, the New York-based NPD Group will limit the data it releases to its non-paying customers starting with the October hardware sales data, which is due for release later this month. Hardware sales data will no longer be available every month, and the Top Ten SKUs charts will be cut in half. Hardware sales data as well as the Top Ten software titles will instead be released on a quarterly and yearly basis. Find out more at the full article.

Moral Kombat, Spencer Halpin's controversial feature-length documentary about video game violence, will be premiering at the VideoGame Expo in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on November 3. If you're in the area on that date, check it out. It should be a pretty interesting and thought-provoking experience.

In case you haven't heard about Moral Kombat yet, here's a backgrounder. According to a press release announcing the documentary's premiere, Moral Kombat is "a probative work that examines interactive entertainment as a medium and seeks to objectively portray the debate in a fair and poignant fashion". It's also the first high-def documentary shot entirely in HD three years ago.

The film includes testimonies from a few leading figures in the video game violence issue, some of whom will be present at the premiere for a panel discussion moderated by Newsweek's N'Gai Croal. Among those who will grace the Moral Kombat premiere are prominent anti-games advocate Jack Thompson and Lorne Lanning, video game developer and co-founder of Oddworld Inhabitants.

Microsoft and Newsweek are it again, this time wagering on the future of the PS3. Last time, Microsoft's J. Allard bet that Sony wouldn't reach its target goal of sales for the PSP.

This time around it's Xbox Live's director of technical strategy Andre Vrignaud who is making the wager against the same Newsweek reporter N'Gai Croal. Croal describes how Vrignaud wanted to wager with the same stakes - targetting Croal's dreadlocks - but instead they settled for a steak dinner in Gotham steakhouse. In Vancouver, no less.

Vrignaud predicts that Sony will be releasing a low-end PS3 with a 40GB hard drive on the holidays. It will not have WiFi or a memory card reader and will not be backward compatible. An external WiFi device will be available separately to accommodate those who still want the function. This low-end PS3 will be available for US$ 399 while the 80GB version will drop to US$ 499 as the 60GB version drops out of the market.

So in quick summary, here's the wager:

• Vrignaud's predicts a low-end PS3 worth US$ 399 will be out by November 23, Black Friday of 2007.
  
• Croal's side of the bet is that Sony will stick to only one PS3 type for the rest of the year.

Last time, J. Allard had to wear dreadlocks to make good on the wager when the PSP exceeded sales expectations. Croal has been known to give predictions in the past, but we'll have to wait to see who'll pay for that steak dinner.

Like other Namco Bandai games that we all thought were Sony PlayStation stalwarts, Beautiful Katamari is closing in on an exclusivity deal with Microsoft for the Xbox 360. So says an article in the Newsweek blogs.

The article says it got the information from sources close to Namco Bandai, indicating that Microsoft's aggressive drive to snare exclusives from Japanese developers is finally paying off.

This comes as a big surprise as many who have thought that Beautiful Katamari for the PlayStation 3 is a foregone conclusion considering all the press that's been written from official sources.

Newsweek's article cited the trend of Namco Bandai games pledging allegiance to the Xbox 360 as a potential indicator of things to come. So far, Eternal Sonata and Ace Combat have done just that. Neither Microsoft nor Namco Bandai have made comments or hints towards such a development in their business plans.

Readers are reminded that everything is still just a rumor. We will confirm or debunk the rumor as soon as official statements are made by the legitimate parties.

Will Xbox 360 have the Royal Rainbow all to itself? At least, that's what Newsweek's N'Gai Croal is speculating. He points out the trend that's been happening recently in Namco Bandai. Cases in point:

Ridge Racer 6 was released as a 360-exclusive launch title for the 360. It should be noted that the Ridge Racer franchise has always been associated with the PlayStation consoles. However, Ridge Racer 7 became a PlayStation 3 exclusive.

Also, Ace Combat 6, the latest addition to the previously Sony PlayStation-only franchise, was introduced as a timed Xbox exclusive game - with a PS3 version to be released after some time.

See any patterns? Croal supposes that Namco is in the process of "flirting" with Microsoft, though it could not let go of its long-time relationship with Sony. Well, whatever drama there may be, it's not impossible that the same thing will happen with the quirky little favorite that is the Katamari franchise.

Croal's source did mention that Beautiful Katamari, the upcoming sequel to the PlayStation 2 hit, We Love Katamari, will roll into the batch of video games that will be released as Xbox 360 exclusives, and will most probably be announced at the upcoming E3 event.

PS3 owners need not be alarmed, however. The Newsweek blogger did note that none of the games were entirely lost to Sony; they eventually made their way back into the PlayStation 3 console.

But he emphasizes that Sony's currently weak PS3 sales are what may be causing the problem. Sony is not strong enough to hold on to its supposedly exclusive games and franchises. Microsoft's aggressive courting of Japanese game publishers are also to be taken into account as well, and if the current trend goes on, everything that previously belonged to Sony may eventually be found alongside Microsoft.

N'Gai Croal is a writer for magazine Newsweek. J. Allard is a Microsoft executive, and him being bald-headed is important in this one. Because you see, the two made a bet last year that the PlayStation Portable (PSP) wouldn't reach the 10 million units shipped within 12 months like the PlayStation 2 (PS2).

Here's the gist of their bet: If Croal loses, Allard gets to cut off Croal's dreadlocks live on stage. If Allard loses, he would have to wear a dread lock for one whole month. As you all know, Sony made their target two months earlier and Allard, being a good sport, has done good on his wager.

"Admittedly, the PSP was a beautiful device with incredible specs. it had a fantastic screen and I knew that they'd sell millions of them, but I just didn't think that demand could be higher than for the PS2. Hats off to Sony for outpacing the PS2 velocity with their PSP. Dreads on for N’Gai for calling it," posted J Allard on his official blog.

If you want to read J Allard's whole blog entry, refer to the Read link below.

Yep, you read the title right. We won't be seeing Sonic for quite some time in the future. When talking about the recent announcement of the Nintendo-Sega collaboration, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, Sega president Simon Jeffery told Newsweek that they're planning to give their blue hedgehog a bit of a make-over, meaning no new Sonic titles in the near future.

We are actually undergoing a fairly considerable refresh of Sonic as an intellectual property, as a character. Sonic on the Wii is probably the first product that's come to market that reflects that. We're not going to be bringing another game out on the other platforms for quite some time, because we feel that it is time to reinvent Sonic, to make Sonic contemporary again. At the same time, even the recent 360 and PlayStation 3 games have sold extremely well.

Reinvent Sonic, eh? Wonder how that's going to end up. Well, they already have started going back to "the original Sonic" with Sonic and the Secret Rings. I say that's actually a good start. Of course, before you give someone some make-over, you'd have to revisit your roots first. It's going to be interesting to see how they will "make Sonic contemporary again" though.

We fished the picture above from a Neoseeker forums thread on Sonic art. Well, let's just hope that "Sonic In a Dress" remains as a fan's concept art, and not make it to the final drafts of Sega. (pink looks sooo good on blue though)

Soldier of Fortune-esque title with a next-gen polish, Army of Two will be making its way to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 sometime this 2007. If you've grabbed the team briefing vid trailer we handed to you a week ago, you'd know this title doesn't just pack tactical, team-based gameplay; it's also about all the lovin' in-between.

Now here's a game that gets right down to the innards of actually being teamed up with a living, breathing and talking partner. Unfortunately, with the wrong combination, you could catch a case of the "Abbott and Costello" syndrome. Such is the case with Tyson Rios and Elliot Salem - two former Army Rangers who now provide their much needed skills as souped up bodyguards or military reinforcements.

Now while the trailer did sport a good pack of one-liners to fill a box of large fries, Alain Tascan, Electronic Arts' Montreal Studio General Manager, says that characters might not be as chatty as the one-and-a-half minute trailer. In fact, he said in a phone discussion with Newsweek's N'Gai Croal that the game's dialogue is still being tinkered with. Like the game's music, the character's dialogue will be added in the end.

But will they keep the humor? That's a definite yes. The constant interaction in a game that screams teamwork is enough to warrant some form of bond between the in-game duo, but not in the context that MTV thinks it to be (laugh it up MTV). Tascan said once to Level Up, "Humor is one of the most difficult things to get right. We want to add some humor to the game to differentiate it from the competition. Because shoot shoot shoot and hide is not all we want to do."

Either they're doing all of this on purpose to get our attention, or EA just has that arrogant, eherm, charm that only a special few acquire. Most memorable WTF-EA-quote so far? Well, for me it is EA senior VP Glenn Entis asking people to improve motion physics during the Montreal Games Summit and making the tactical error of citing Final Fantasy (of all things) as an example of "bad motion" in games. In his words:

In Final Fantasy, the modelling fidelity was really better than the motion fidelity. In other words, when you looked at the models, they signalled an expectation to the audience that the motion couldn't deliver upon.

This, right before he says that EA's amazing attempt at achieving realism is Tiger Woods PGA Tour. His proof that the golf game is achieving realism? Tiger Woods couldn't tell he was looking at CG. Yep. A certified "WTF-EA?" Moment right there.

Other recent WTF-EA moments include EA CEO Larry Probst saying that before, gamers were complaining, but now, after they've done some alterations, players are now happy about their microtransation-pay-for-simple-cheat-codes business model. In his words:

We did a better job on Need for Speed Carbon, and we're not hearing those same kinds of complaints or negative feedback about that product. It's generating a lot of money through microtransactions. So it's a learning process, it's iterative and we'll get better about it as we go. Need for Speed is the first example of getting smarter about it.

He said this to Newsweek. Perhaps he actually meant the fact that they started to release free downloadable jerseys for Madden and NCAA Football, but to imply that all the complaints happened before the cheat-codes for money fiasco just is just plain... oh never mind.

Get the rest of the article after the Jump!