Drivers, start your engines! It sure looks like there's a new top-notcher on the UK's gaming preference, and it doesn't have anything to do with soccer balls, plumber long jumps or WWII reincarnates. Burnout Paradise from publisher Electronic Arts left the competition in a flurry of dust and burning rubber, and even set EA at a tie for the most games on the top ten with Nintendo. More at the full story.

Need for Speed: ProStreet rips its way into first place in the UK for the week of December 1, finally eclipsing Assassin's Creed, which has dropped to fourth place. ProStreet was in second place last week. See the full list of top 20 games for the UK in the full article.

The Chart track for the UK's all format polls for the week ending November 24 indicates that Assassin's Creed (PS3, DS, Xbox 360, PC) has stepped out of the shadows, retaining its presence as the top game for the said time period.

That said, we imagine the guys will be curious about the rest of last week's top contenders. You can view the list over in the full article.

We're sure you're itching to see how the latest game releases are performing in the UK's Chart Tracks, so we took a look and the results were a mix of the expected and the unexpected. As anyone would have guessed, Activision was able to come in and conquer with its multiplatform juggernaut Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare for the Microsoft Xbox 360, Sony PlayStation 3, and PC. Sony PlayStation 2 releases also remain strong, while Bungie's Halo 3 slides down the ranks. Find out more in the full story!

You may love 'em or hate 'em but let's face it, the contributions of bosses to gaming are almost as important as those of the good guys themselves. In this edition of the QuickList, we're honoring the cream of the crop among the bad guys. The criteria? We scrutinized each based on what he had to offer and what he does best. Whether it's style, toughness or infamy, we took them by what they had to offer and we found 10 left standing. Again, this is all subjective and your opinions are as good as ours. Here they are:

10. The Polar Bear (Ice Climber)- After hours of grueling debates on the subject of whether he's even a boss or not, the Ice Climber Polar Bear has eked his way to a cliff-hanging tenth spot on this list. There's not a lot to say about him in terms of difficulty, but gamers from the past know what time it is when they see the hot, red briefs over the off-white fur. It means you're taking too long to climb and he'll force-advance the level with a jumping fart.

Usually, there's no problem getting to his face and pounding his toes with a mallet, but when playing with a friend or sibling, it sparks an unfriendly war of who gets to nail him. The only way to make sure that you do the honors is to sabotage your partner with guerrilla tactics like unorthodox body checks and busting the floors where they stand. We won't be surprised to hear about domestic violence resulting from this scenario.

The rest of the bad-ass bosses await after the jump!

We've been going crazy waiting for the Simpsons movie to come out, then this happens. Electronic Arts has put up a countdown site which just screams of "the Simpsons". Now what can we make out of all this?

As Kotaku pointed out "a classic Simpson's yellow screen featuring the title 'XXII' done in a mock GTA IV style. Underneath is a counter using the now-famous Matt Groening font" If that wasn't a dead giveaway, the garish pink toolbar on top and the same Matt Groening font can be found there as well. So is this the sign of a new Simpsons game? Perhaps. Still the movie is set to be out this July 27, so it's a pretty long time for the announcement. Another question that has been posed, is "Why in four days?"

Well, we can't really give you much aside from the link to the site itself (click on the read link). If any of you guys can dig up more information on this, help out the rest of the gaming community and post it.

All addictions are hard to quit, especially when you're unwilling to quit. Well, according to a Korean company named Xtive, they might just have the cure via subliminal messages.

Xtive has developed an inaudible sound sequence created to send subliminal signals to the gamer's brain. According to Xtive president, Yun Yun-hae, "We incorporated messages into an acoustic sound wave telling gamers to stop playing. The messages are told 10, 000 to 20, 000 times per second. Game users can’t recognize the sounds. But their subconscious is aware of them and the chances are high they will quit playing."

Tests have reportedly been successful. The project was brought about by game addiction becoming a major problem in Korea (as in anywhere else for that matter). Yun-hae adds that forcing kids to quit have their obvious side effects. The sound sequence can make them stop on their own. They plan to have the phonogram commercialize with help from their government and game companies. The game devs can reportedly install the system themselves, playing the inaudible sounds when the gamer has exceeded a certain period of time.

This had us scared though. "We can easily change the messages. In this sense, the potential for this technology is exponential." Would that be like the Simpsons' "yvan eht nioj"? Hmmm. That remains to be seen. Or subconsciously heard.

Another independent video game developer is out to prove their worth. Industry mainstays who have worked on game titles such as Madden, Halo 1 and 2, SOCOM, and Star Wars Battlefront have come together to form Sniper Studios. The newborn indie studio aims to foster "top notch game design and development technology within each level of the production pipeline."

Sniper Studios is co-founded by industry veterans Matt McKnight and Jeff Hasson. A recent addition is Ted Fitzgerald who's assigned to be the VP of Production and Business Development. McKnight would be the President and CEO, while Hasson will serve as the studios' general manager. The co-founders have had extensive experience from Electronic Arts, working on familiar titles like NCAA Football, Madden NFL, Knockout Kings, and The Simpsons. Fitzgerald has been in the biz for 14 years and has recently worked at LucasArts Star Wars Battlefront.

Snipers Studios first big bucks deal is with Sega of America, which will publish a still-unnamed game this year. We wish them the best of luck in their endeavors and hopefully, they'd be able to serve us up with kickass games.