If Duke Nukem had a brother, it’d probably be Serious Sam. Croatian developer Croteam has reminded fans (and everyone else) on the official site that they’re still working on the third installment of the shooter series, adding that the team is “pretty close to signing a publishing deal”.

Serious Sam was first released in 2000, and won several awards, including Game of The Year from GameSpot. The sequel, Serious Sam – The Second Encounter, was released in 2002 on several platforms.

Those anxiously awaiting the release of Splinter Cell: Conviction will be happy to hear that Ubisoft has recently launched a teaser site for the game.

However, they won’t be very happy to hear that the site doesn’t display much infromation other than the above insignia followed by the text: Site currently under investigation. If you have any information on Sam Fisher, please report it here. VOMACOIFINNOCNT.

Hmm, what could that mean? Perhaps some hints at the plot, perhaps some random nonsense who knows. We’ll have to wait until this holiday season when Splinter Cell: Conviction is supposed to hit shelves.

Japanese electronics giant Sony has reported a loss of $1 billion, the largest in over 25 years. The company said that losses were seen across all divisions, including consumer electronics and video games. Furthermore, Sony said that they expected losses to continue for the PlayStation and electronics divisions.

From the $billion loss, the gaming division accounts for well over half, $600 million, is what the division lost just last quarter. Sony expects to lose $1.3 billion on the gaming division in the next 12 months. Ouch.

If a product listing on Microsoft’s official Xbox website isn’t enough confirmation that Wolfenstein 3D will be hitting the Xbox Live Arcade, I don’t know what is.

This will come as great news to retrogamers and moderngamers a like as the 1992 Wolfenstein 3D was pretty much responsible for popularizing the PC FPS genre.

Unfortunately the listing doesn’t give us any word as to when the title will drop but let’s hope its soon. Oh yeah, it lists HDTV 1080i in the details, perhaps some remastered graphics? We can only hope.

Factor 5, developers of the Rogue Squadron series and Liar, has announced that the San Rafael based studio is shutting down. This is due to the bankruptcy and failure of Brash Entertainment, a leading investor in the San Rafael based studio

However, Factor 5′s German studio — and headquarters — located in Cologne, Germany, is unaffected by the closure and will continue normal operations.

Though on occasion films like Valkyrie point out that there were some Nazis who opposed HItler’s racist ideology the fascist group is a popular punching bag for the media. Set a war movie in Vietnam or Korea and it’s impossible to escape the political and social ramifications of those conflicts, yet when you set a film in the European Theatre of World War II you’ve got an instant clean conscience for most viewers.

It seems the Nazi movement lives on to this day and not just in the thuggery and ignorance of Neo Nazi skinheads, but in a legitimate political party in Germany. Recently a German ex-politician was arrested for supposedly threatening the Nazis via a protest poster on a website. The poster depicts the classic hero Bomberman holding aloft a cake with a burning fuse and text that reads “No cakewalk for Nazis.”

While I doubt many people would lose sleep over actual violence being perpetrated against a group that still clings to such outmoded, racist beliefs which ultimately culminate in genocide, they still have legal rights and protections under the laws of civilized nations. Ironically if the sort of fascist government that Nazi Germany had was still in place violence against Nazis might go unpunished.

While Nintendo has had great success putting out an endless stream of games featuring Mario doing everything from administering medication to traveling through the cosmos (yet never doing any actual plumbing oddly enough) some of their characters have had very few outings. One of the biggest cult sensations on any Nintendo console was Punch-Out of the eight bit era. Players guided underdog boxer Little Mac through his career, with the best players eventually topping powerhouse Mike Tyson. While he’s put in cameo appearances in a few games since then, a SNES Punch-Out title was his only other starring appearance for a long time.

Now Nintendo is putting him back into the ring for the Wii and they’re celebrating this with a special event in the Nintendo store located in Rockefeller Center in New York City two days before the release. Fans of the series will be able to compete against each other in a single round elimination Punch-Out tournament (yes, the Wii version). The winner walks away with a customized World Video Boxing Association trophy, a Little Mac training sweatshirt and some other swag, including of course a copy of the game.

If you’re not interested in making a public spectacle of yourself you can stop by to pick up a copy of the game two days before the official launch, test it out on a kiosk or stroll down memory lane by playing one of the previous games via the virtual console. The event takes place from 1-4 pm on Saturday May 16th at 10 Rockefeller Plaza.

One of the few benefits about having less time to play video games is that by the time I get around to some of the best titles they’ve dropped in price significantly. Unfortunately one of the only options many times is to pick up a used copy from Gamestop or other reseller, meaning that your money isn’t going to support the people who worked so hard making the game.

That’s why Microsoft keeps adding more games to the Platinum Hits collection, where you can pick up titles you haven’t played yet or traded in and want a second (or third, or sixth) run at for a mere $20. The newest round of titles offers a wide range of titles; family friendly gaming, shooters for the adrenaline addict and some sports titles.

Gears of War, Mass Effect, Forza Motorsport 2, Viva Pinata, Army of Two, Battlefield Bad Company, Burnout Paradise and EA Sports Fight Night Round 3 are the newest games added, bringing the full roster of platinum titles up to forty five. These titles will all feature new box designs in their re-released, branded under the collective banner of “Greatness is Earned”.

Sports games have always been a significant portion of the gaming landscape—be they football, baseball, basketball, or another other sport, there’s no shortage of people looking to step into the roles of their favorite players, racers and fighters and try and do those things that their heroes do every time they show up on television.

This is no different with the release of Smackdown Vs. Raw 2009.

I’d give you the plot synopsis for this one, but it’d take a couple pages.  See, one of the really truly awesome things about Smackdown Vs. Raw 2009 is that each of the characters will have a positively huge storyline.  Just for a for instance, if you play as The Undertaker (my personal favorite), not only will you get to pound both Santino and Finlay into the ground (possibly opening up the patently ridiculous Hornswoggle as a management character), you’ll also go into the heavyweight championship to take on the Great Khali when both Santino and Finlay will form a coalition specifically intended to take out The Undertaker.

I have never been so convinced that Transmetropolitan was right.  TV wrestling is, indeed, phallocentric soap opera for, among others, intellectually lazy intellectual people who get off by cultural slumming. I admit to enjoying  a bit of the brain candy every so often, and there’s really nothing like this for brain candy.

Of course, it’s not all about just really arrogant ways to say “brain candy”, no sir—this is also about pounding cultural stereotypes into oblivion.  Santino, for instance—he’s from JERSEY.  His accent is thicker than Olive Garden’s alfredo sauce, and he comes in with an on-screen graphic that features a waving Italian tricolor flag.  It almost—ALMOST!—felt like I was beating the hell out of Italy itself.

I will say this much for Smackdown Vs. Raw 2009—they really have captured the pomp, circumstance and majesty that this entire sport is built around.  When I walked the Undertaker in for Royal Rumble, they actually had a dozen guys wearing hooded cassocks line my path with live torches.  It was probably unnecessary, but really, I’m glad they took the trouble.  Why the Undertaker doesn’t show up in more horror flicks is beyond me.  But anyway.

Sure, the gameplay is sort of limited—pound hell out of a competitor until he refuses to continue and then attempt to pin him.  But you can’t really blame the game for this, as this is pretty much all that wrestling actually is.  That whole saw about silk purses and sow’s ears?  Yeah, that was made for games like this.

If you’re already a Smackdown / Raw / ECW fan, then you probably don’t need me to tell you that this is a fairly fun game with some interesting storylines.  Thus, this next remark goes out to those who already aren’t watching the show with any regularity, much like myself.  You don’t need to have a really intimate knowledge of the show to be able to follow the game, so if you want a quick introduction to the world of Smackdown / Raw / ECW, then you’ll have exactly what you need in Smackdown Vs Raw 2009.  For fans it’s a must-buy, and for everyone else, it’s actually a pretty good rental.

Microsoft to feature Xbox 360 motion sensing hardware at E3?
Second round of TF2 Sniper updates released
New Blizzard MMO to be completely new franchise
PETA displeased with upcoming Ringling Bros. Wii title
Stride offers Steve Wiebe 10 grand in quarters to beat Donkey Kong record
Halo 3’s Render-to-Video service enters public beta
Ghostbusters’ multiplayer showcased on video
Resident Evil: Degeneration hits App Store
Sony says don’t expect a PS3 Slim anytime soon
Star Trek D-A-C Now Available for Xbox
Battlefield developer “underestimated console gamers”
Radeon 4890 first to break 1 GHz barrier
Kojima announces an announcement with a teaser
TF2 Sniper “Bow” unlock clarified
Call of Duty 7 in production
Bethesda says more DLC a possibility
Soul Calibur IV Game Review–Long Or Short Term, Still A Value
Song of Ice And Fire Getting Game Treatment