A StarCraft 2 gameplay footage video from the cover disc of the August issue of PC Gamer recently managed to end up on YouTube. The said video features several new Protoss units available in Blizzard's StarCraft 2.

New units previewed include the Soul Hunter, which seems to be another "dark" mechanized, rapid-fire Protoss unit; the Phase Cannon, or a slightly more mobile photon cannon; the Twilight Archon, what looks to be an upgraded Archon; and the Tempest, or what looks to be like a "Dark Carrier."

Each of the mentioned units can be seen in action in the two-and-a-half minute video. What's nice is that freezing the video at 2:14 also reveals several interesting details. for one thing, a unit that bears a striking resemblance to the Reaver, can be spotted.

The video's description also hints that the Protoss Observer will be making a return, along with the Dark Templar and the High Templar. The video description also claims that the High Templar have new ability that allows the High Templar to create forcefields that could block paths and/or trap enemy units. As for the Dark Templar, no additional abilities were revealed.

A quick look at the official StarCraft 2 site reveals that these mentioned units are yet to be featured there. Anyhow, the video is below, click play and enjoy!

Eidos Interactive has announced that the much hyped remake, Tomb Raider Anniversary, has taken the top slot in a number of EU territories on both the PlayStation 2 and PC format charts. In the UK, the game is still at first place, and is a bestseller for the second week since it was released on June 1. The remake of the original 1996 game is also number one in Germany and France.

Given the warm welcome the game has received from the critics, and the game's faithful return to what people loved about the Tomb Raider franchise, this boost in sales isn't surprising. As Eurogamer's Kristan Reed said in his review of the game, this "celebratory remake" managed to improve on the original, without taking away what made it special.

We're now a bit curious as to how well the PSP version of the game fared in the EU. We'll update you about that as soon as we find the numbers.

If you have around US$ 2000 to burn and you plan to use laptops as tools to help you "show-off" (by that we mean a portable media center) instead of nice comfy small things that you can fit on your lap and type on, then the HP HDX "Dragon" 20.1 monitor laptop could be for you.

Yes, the price may be a bit steep, and the laptop may be huge, but HP does say that their targeted group of users are comprised of folks who don't have enough space for a tower desktop, and those who need to use high-end editing/audio-video applications on the go. HP also hints that there may be some gaming applications for this laptop. Here's what CTO for HP's Global Gaming Business, Rahul Sood had to say about the laptop:

The HP 20" HDX was originally conceived by the notebook design team before the gaming business units was even setup! So to be clear, the gaming business did not design this notebook, which is pretty wild considering this notebook is perfect for gaming (I should mention that the HP 20” HDX plays games better than 98% of the gaming notebooks on the planet (with MAX MAX MAX settings) and it seems to be priced to compete). Yes, the media speculated, but the bottom line is notebooks take much longer than 8 months to complete.

Well? Did he convince you? Or would you rather go with the Alienware gaming laptops? If Rahul Sood managed to at least get you curious, a dated yet informative video on the laptop should be below, and a data-sheet is also available at the Full Article.

When we last heard about Spore, we learned that Electronic Arts was no longer counting on revenue from Spore for this current fiscal year. Based on that information, this means that the earliest we'd probably see Spore is at least until after March 2008 (the current fiscal year ends then). This delay though doesn't mean that EA has stopped marketing the anticipated game. In fact, EA has something for fans of the "god-game" genre.

Load up The Sims 2: Pets, and have your sim go use his PC. You'll find out that the pixel and polygon sims aren't bound by the constraints of real-world release date delays. Your sim can play Spore. You can't. Not yet at least.

Click play on the video below to get a better idea of what we're saying.

Electronic Arts has confirmed the existence of the next SimCity. Tentatively called SimCity Societies, the game is supposedly set to be different from SimCity 4. EA is reportedly giving extra effort into making this new installment a bit more than an improvement of the previous iteration.

The game will be previewed at the upcoming E3 this July and an official announcement regarding the game made by EA is expected to be spread around next week. Official images of the game should also be out by that time.

Given the working title, some of us here at QJ speculate that the latest SimCity will not only be an excellent Civil Engineering/Urban Planning toolset, but also include more complex Sims (or crowds of Sims) dynamics in the game.

Now that Eidos' Tomb Raider Anniversary is out on retail, this is probably the last trailer post on the game that you'll be seeing. Of course, last doesn't mean least, as these two videos do give you a decent preview/teaser of the best "remade" moments in the game. You'll see familiar stages, wolves, weird winged things, and that ever-so-memorable T-Rex.

Eidos Interactive's "Launch" trailer seems to be set on introducing the game to those who are new to the franchise, while the "Origins" video, as mentioned above, is set to give fans of the series good reason to, at the least, consider checking the remake out.

The embed's below, you know the drill.

Get the other video after the jump.

Codemasters Online Gaming has recently announced that it's working on a casual puzzle action video game that is flavored to with the hot themes of a 20-year old film. Yes, they're working on bringing Dirty Dancing to the PC.

Why Dirty Dancing? Well aside from the fact that it's the 20th anniversary of the film, Anne Parduci, Executive Vice President of the film studio Lionsgate had this to say:

For two decades, girls and women have identified with Baby, and through this wonderful game from Codemasters, they will have the opportunity to immerse themselves in her world like never before.

Other than the the odd mix of genres - a casual action puzzle game, little is known about the game. We do know though, that Lionsgate is confident that the game will be "an instant hit online". Given that the movie is still airing on cable, and that people are still empathizing with Patrick Swayze, that confidence seems apt.

It's safe to say that the particular target audience of this game shouldn't be a mystery to anyone. A game for each taste then - only fair, right?

Latinoreview.com is a site known to videogame movie fans because around a year and a half ago, they managed to acquire an early draft of the Halo movie script and gave it a review. The site's latest victim, er, script review? Prince of Persia.

Last month, we reported that a movie version of Ubisoft's Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time managed to get a director despite it's being delayed 'til the Summer of 2009. However, you're all probably curious about how the movie will treat the beloved franchise of Jordan Mechner, right? Fortunately the scripts reviewer notes that it "reads and feels" like a 9th century Indiana Jones. That's a good thing, right?

What's revealed so far is that the concept of time manipulation, and the concept that a limited amount of sand consumed by a Dagger of Time, is included in the movie. The script review also gives out a few characters' names, but since we wouldn't want to spoil anything for you folks, we'll just hide all that behind our "read" link below.

Aside from odd names, the script for the movie seems like a step in the right direction. Unfortunately we'll have to wait a bit more to see if the movie will be worth our money.

Given that Blizzard's StarCraft is mostly responsible for the gaming craze in Korea, even reaching the degree of interest that most popular sports get, and even granting top players celebrity status, Blizzard surprisingly managed to keep StarCraft 2 a secret since it's production started at around 2004 (ideas were laid down around 2003).

Speaking to MSNBC, Blizzard's Rob Pardo explains that they keep their games under code names and they train their development team to refer to projects by their code names. He expounds: "We’re just really careful about talking about the game internally. We don’t bring external folks through unannounced product areas. But I think even I’m surprised that we were able to keep it under wraps all the way to the end."

What's nice is that while answering that line of inquiry, Pardo humorously noted the Penny Arcade strip about that matter, saying, "Well, Penny Arcade figured it out!"

Oh, and if you're sick of Blizzard's mantra of "It'll ship when its ready," then tough luck. Pardo explains that they've "learned to keep release dates really close to the vest" What's definite, though, is that Pardo confirms that it won't be released within this year. He says: "Some people were hoping, because of how advanced the game looks, that we’d have it out by Christmas, but that’s definitely not happening."

Given that we've mentioned that the game's been started conceptually around 2003, and was in earnest production around a year after that, you may be wondering why it takes Blizzard so long to finish their games. Pardo explains that they have "smaller development teams than other companies in the industry, and that turns into longer development cycles." The StarCraft 2 team is currently at around 40 people.

Rob Pardo's take on StarCraft 2s biggest competitor? Pardo noted that in the presence of more modern RTS games, StarCraft 2 stands out because of its capabilities in the "competitive" scene. Moreover, storyline-wise, he feels that their setting far better than their competitors. Here's his words: "our story and our world and our IP [that] we developed in StarCraft is superior to what we’re going to be competing against."

It seems that StarCraft 2's biggest competitor is still StarCraft, or at least the nostalgia surrounding the first game. "It’s not so much beating StarCraft that’s the problem, it’s beating people’s perception and nostalgia of StarCraft."

For the complete MSNBC interview with Rob Pardo, feel free to head to it using our "read' link below.

Here's why people are eager to compare Haze to other upcoming shooters. For one thing there's word, and even a petition to turn Ubisoft and Free Radical's Haze into a PS3 exclusive. Second, it's being compared to other sci-fi heavy shooters in other consoles – you guessed it, a Halo 3 comparison is hard to avoid.

Okay, we move from Haze to Crysis, and why the comparisons between the two are inevitable. Here's why: add the existence of Haze on the PlayStation 3; the persistent rumors that the PC console Crysis will be made for next-gen consoles; and Crytek's bold declaration that Crysis, as it is on the PC (without any porting or adjustments) is too robust for current next-generation consoles - even for the Cell powered PS3; and direct comparison of Crysis to other shooters on the PS3 becomes slightly unavoidable. Too many fans' toes are going to get stepped on.

   

Fortunately the intrepid folks at PlayStation Universe have done something like that. They decided to put similar looking screens of Haze and Crysis side by side for visual comparison. The result? Well, nothing conclusive really.

While the banana leaves in the jungles in Crysis look far better than the  foliage in Haze, the dust and the textures in Haze look mighty impressive. Well, at least in this blogger's monitor-burned eyes it does. Perhaps your eyes are more discerning; take a gander at the thumbnails here.

    

All we need now is a decent Haze to Halo 3 comparison and we've got enough material for a classic "Forum pow-wow."