Not too long ago, it was revealed that Blizzard (now formally known as Activision Blizzard) had another MMO game in the works for the near future. With Starcraft II still being months if not years away from completion and release, it would be hard not to assume the highly likely chance of the game being associated with or a size-story of Blizzard’s crowning achievement, World of Warcraft.

Turns out that those assumptions would be wrong. Blizzard has recently announced that the new MMO will be it’s own separate game, and not linked to WoW or any of the other games produced in the past by the company. While this very well might not be the Diablo III that many of Blizzard’s loyal fans have been wishing for, it seems as though the PC gaming giant may be trying to spice up it’s MMO’s with something new.

At the very least, it could be the respite that people who don’t wish to shell out gobs of money a month have been waiting for. That, and it would be a welcomed fix for those twitchy individuals anxiously awaiting for more development to be released about Starcraft II.

THanks to G4TV, we have the first footage of the Ghostbusters game we only found out about 2 days ago.

Also new online is the official website, though it opens with a teaser trailer with no in game footage. It does however have some great screen shots of Slimer, Ray, and Mr Stay Puft.

The site also reveals some of the game’s story. You’ll be playing as a new recruit who will team with the original Ghostbusters team to take on the latest outbreak of the dead, undead, and recently dead.

GameInformer has revealed the cover of their next issue to include the mega-ton announcement of the ultimate untapped 80’s license: Ghostbusters.

Of course this is more than just a game cash-in. Harold Ramis and Dan Aykroyd are writing the games script and along with Bill Murray will reprise their roles as Dr. Egon Spengler, Dr. Raymond Stantz, and Dr. Peter Venkman. Of course this is no huge surprise since Aykroyd let slip to the Edmonton Sun back in February that Vivendi Universal had secured the rights and he was going to be involved. Around that same time we heard of an All CG Ghostbusters movie, but its hard to say if they were talking about the same thing or if that third movie is still happening.

Now lets get Sigourney Weaver, Annie Potts, and Ernie Hudson. And lets pull Rick Moranis out of retirement to bring back the brilliance of Louis Tulley.

It goes without saying that a sand box game where you roll around NYC taking calls to bust ghosts would be the ideal game style, but they’re not saying anything just yet. The actual story will have more info, and Game Informer subscribers will be able to access some of this material by logging on to the site this Friday.

UPDATE: Variety reports Ernie Hudson (Winston Zedemore), Annie Potts (Janine Melnitz) and William Atherton (Walter Peck) have all been cast. In addtion, Brian Doyle-Murray will play an unspecified charater.

Variety also specifies some of the developers. Terminal Reality will handle the PC, 360, and PS3 versions. Red Fly Studio will develop the PS2, Wii, and DS versions.

Don’t get too excited by the photo above. These are not the actors to play Beaker and Dr Bunson Honeydew in a live action Muppet movie. They are Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins, the creators of Penny Arcade. This weekend they’re in the middle of the Penny-Arcade Expo in Washington, and they’ve issued a new trailer for their first game.
Its some big news that the game, titled “On The Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode One” will be hitting Xbox 360 in addition to Mac, Linux, and Windows.
Wired Magazine also offers a profile, declaring “This is the story of how two douches from Spokane, Washington, became the most powerful players in the videogame industry.”

In 2004, there were 3 big first person shooter games; Doom 3, Halo 2, and Valve’s Half Life 2. Of the three, many gamers consider this to be the best, and for good reason. The game is second to few in terms of graphical quality, story telling, gameplay, and capability for modding. Built on a modified version of the Havok physics system, a large part of the game’s appeal is simply picking up objects laying on the ground and throwing them at people. A weapon known as the gravity gun allows players to use the physics system to make anything into a weapon. Players take control of series protagonist Gordon Freeman, as he is awoken from stasis nearly two decades after the end of the original Half Life. He emerges into a world overrun by the combine. Joining up with a resistance group, Freeman has to fight back against all odds, battling head crabs, police officers, and alien creatures with a large variety of weapons.

As mentioned before, another part of this game’s popularity has to do with the modding community. There are several mods ranging from new deathmatch maps to full game conversions. One of the more popular mods, “Gary’s Mod” allows players to simply spawn objects in a sandbox environment just to play around with the physics system. Another mod is an attempt at recreating the popular N64 game GoldenEye. Of course when you’re through with the main game, there is plenty of more material coming to keep fans occupied. Episode 1 was released this year, continuing Gordon Freeman’s quest. This fall will see the release of Episode 2, along with the source engine based Team Fortress 2 and Portal. Xbox 360 and PS3 gamers can grab a special “orange box” containing the main game, as well as all the extras mentioned above. Whichever way you decide to get it, don’t miss out on the chance to play one of the best FPS games ever.

System Requirements
Processor: 1.2 GHZ or better
OS: Windows 98 and higher (including Vista)
Internal Memory: 256 MB RAM
Storage: 4.5 GB
Graphics: DirectX 7 or greater
Internet connection required for verification
DVD-ROM drive (unless obtained from Steam)

As we’ve seen from Fable, Peter Molyneux has a habit of overestimating his ambitions. However, when he does pull through, some pretty amazing things happen. Case in point, The Movies. One-half sim game and one-half movie development kit, you are tasked with building a movie studio from the ground up. Build sets, create scripts, and keep your stars happy so you can keep producing academy-award winning hits. Starting in the 1920s, you unlock new sets and technologies each decade. Like any good sim, cost management is a must. Pay attention to the news ticker to see what movies will be in demand. Build research facilities to discover new technologies, makeover centers to keep your stars satisfied with their image, and even rehab for users that develop eating or drinking disorders. When making movies, you can edit each scene, add in subtitles, and even record voice overs. You can even take your creations online, and share them with the world. (By the way, check out my film making debut here) It’s a shame this game didn’t take off as well as it could have, but for those who love making their own content, or if you fantasied about being a big name film maker, grab this up.

Minimum Requirements
Operating System: Windows 98SE or greater (including Vista)
8X speed CD-Rom drive for instillation
Storage: 2.4 GB or Greater Available hard disk space plus 500 MB for Windows swap file
Video: 3D Hardware accelerator card – 100% DirectX 9.0c compatible 32 MB
Memory: 256 MB RAM
Sound: 100% DirectX 9.0c compatible 16-bit sound card
Processor: Pentium III or Athlon 800MHz equivalent or faster
Minimum requirements may not guarantee optimal performance

Also check out the “Stunts and Effects” expansion pack, also available for $20.

The worst kept secret in RTS is now common knowledge.

Moments ago at the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational in South Korea, the veteran PC developers announced StarCraft 2 as their next game. IGN is liveblogging the event. Official images and video are expected soon.

Its good to know Blizzard was only teasing. Some kind of update should be rolling onto Blizzard’s site soon. This news is perfectly timed as the next Powet Game Night will be the original StarCraft!

I’ve already spoken of the pure excitement I have over the forthcoming Half Life Orange Box, but this trailer in particular is quite entertaining. The art style is perfect for a game. While Valve has the best visuals in the industry for rendering regular people, the highly animated look of Team Fortress 2’s players is reaching Pixar levels. Yeah I’m saying it. We’re out of that glass eyed uncanny valley of Spider-Man 3 visuals and squarely into spirited animated movie territory.