Famous for creating beloved videogame software like Earthworm Jim, MDK and Messiah, designer, David Perry now busies himself with offloading seemingly arbitrary diatribes and opinions about the state of videogames. All this in between farting out the occasional crappy, free to play MMO, and carefully combing that immaculately coiffed do of his.

But... he does think EA's upcoming free to play online shooter, Battlefield Heroes is going to be a "phenomenon". Read on to find out why.

Pivotal Games and Eidos Interactive are confident that their February 2008 release Conflict: Denied Ops (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC) will carry explosive action and good graphics. Now they want to make sure that the musical score is just as intense. They've decided to get Richard Jacques for the job to do just that. Find out why in the full article.

Gears of War by Epic Games is one of those titles that Microsoft Xbox 360 and PC owners can never get over. Now, the National Entertainment Collectibles Association (NECA) is announcing action figures for every die-hard Marcus Fenix fan out there. Interested? Proceed to the full article for all the details.

Video game designer Tim Schafer's upcoming title Brutal Legend has landed a cover spot on the latest issue of Game Informer. This is according to a post on the official Double Fine forums.

Not much is known about Brutal Legend just yet, but the mag describes it as "A Rock n' Roll roadshow". Actor Jack Black will apparently be voicing roadie Eddie Riggs, presumably the game's main protagonist. We'll report more details as soon as soon as they surface.

Schafer's most recent project was the 2005 platformer Psychonauts. The game received critical acclaim but suffered from lackluster sales.

Volunteers of David Perry's Project: Top Secret will have something to expect this Christmas since they have been such very good boys and girls. And what is this great big present? Volunteers will be given all the tools necessary to develop the Top Secret racing MMORPG.

"This is like Christmas for the mod community," said Perry. Like Christmas it is, since the brave souls who volunteered working on the game will be able to choose and use any game engine of their choice, be it the Unreal Engine, Crysis, or id.

IGN's Modcenter is in charge of giving out various development tools to the participants of Project: Top Secret, while Acclaim will pay for the usage of every budding game developer's gaming engine of choice.

Since Project: Top Secret will eventually award the person who made the most contributions into the development of the game, the free usage of tools is nothing short of entirely helpful, and awesome.

If you're interested in joining the community effort of making the next best MMORPG, then there's no more reason to hold back: the gaming development tools are already taken care of.

A lot of fans mourned when Blizzard cancelled Starcraft Ghost. However, the same community also applauded the company for its willingness to "pull the plug" on a game it felt was not up to Blizzard's standards.

After all, this is one of the few companies with an almost perfect track record. Every PC game it has released received much acclaim from critics and created loyal fan base among gamers.

World of Warcraft Lead Designer Rob Pardo recently spoke at the Hollywood and Games Summit and disclosed a lot of interesting details about how Blizzard runs its company.

What would interest most gamers though is the fact that Starcraft Ghost may not be dead after all and is just sleeping. This became clear as Pardo was discussing cancelled projects/games by Blizzard,

We're just willing to cancel the products that fail. That's important to our brand. We're willing to bite the bullet and write off those expenses. Sometimes six months into development, the idea doesn't flow. Our most recent one was Starcraft Ghost.

With that game we were very stubborn. I still believe in that game and the characters but we were not able to execute at the level we wanted to... Rather than work on that we had to focus on our other games. We're hoping one day to return to it.

"Hoping one day to return to it..." - These are the words that bring hope to myself and other gamers who desperately wanted Starcraft Ghost to come out. Well, nothing to do now but wait and hope Blizzard finds the magic balance that'll make the game worthy of being released.

While waiting, we will all have Starcraft II to chew on so no big loss really.

 

Set in Greece, Theseis features the exploits of Andronicos and Pheve as they try to uncover the truth behind the disappearance of their stepfather. The game combines the realms of the natural and supernatural as brother and sister join forces to put to rest the struggle between good and evil that his disappearance brings about.

We recently had the chance to chat with Track 7's Demetris Papadopoulos, product manager for Theseis, about their upcoming game. In the interview, we were given a peek as to what to expect for the PC version, as well as some hints as to what gamers might see in the future 360 version. More importantly, he gave us a glimpse of Greece, past and present, and that's something many adventurers, perhaps even Andronicos and Pheve's father, would have been willing to give their lives for.

   

The Full Interview after the jump!

A new week, a new line-up of games. Check out the list for this week, as it's probably more "varied" than the number of colors that Dennis Rodman's hair comes in.

Topping the list as probably the most-anticipated in the bunch is the WoW: Burning Crusade expansion pack. The Outland is going to be opened via the Dark Portal, so better prepare yourself for an MMO-spree (and sleepless nights) for the next couple of weeks after this. Phoenix Wright: Justice for All is also bound to sweep the jury as the dramatic lawyer simulation would get some hard-hitting sales figures on the DS charts. As for the ballers, NCAA March Madness 07 is also coming out this week, so maybe it would be a good time to finally put the demo to rest and get the game itself already.

Others on the list include:

• WarioWare: Smooth Moves (Wii)
• Fossil League: Dino Tournament Championship (NDS)
• Great Invasions (PC)
• Barbie and the 12 Dancing Princesses (NDS)

A lot of the "party-game crowd" are definitely going to be eying WarioWare. For all intents and purposes though, you'd still get a lot of dancing in that Barbie title coming out as well. Captain Sarcasm says it's going to be one of the toughest calls to make.

Not only does this clip, taken from the newest 1UP show, gives you a glimpse of how it's looking inside the Valve offices, it also includes new footage from Half Life 2: Episode 2. Witness a thrilling buggy ride as the developers of the game explain what they've added to make Half Life 2 even more thrilling.

Later parts of the video show Portal, the innovative puzzle game that caused a lot of stir when it was announced. Utilizing a similar idea that Prey debuted with, the difference here is that Valve's concept of the portal technology is much less combat-oriented. Instead, they've decided throw bunches of insane, theoretically impossible puzzles after the player, as he needs to reach the exit of a room using only his portal gun.

Console gamers are lucky, as they'll receive a big bundle of goodness that includes the main game, Episode 1, 2 and Portal. The original game and Episode 1 are already released on the PC and have been subject to widespread critical acclaim. The Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of Half Life 2 are expected to be released in 2007.