We mentioned a few weeks ago that Game Informer’s December issue will be revealing the all-new Tomb Raider game. Here it is, the cover, showing a new kind of Tomb Raider. The new magazine, spilling all the beans, will be out next week.

The new Tomb Raider game features Lara Croft’s first adventure, where she has to fight to stay alive, hence the “A Survivor is Born” promo title. The official title for the new game? Simply “Tomb Raider“.

We can’t tell you how much we wish this was true. But it’s only a piece of fan art from The Simpsons fans over at Springfield Punx. It appears Mr. Burns has finally hired the right man for the job. What sort of role do you image Mr. Freeman of Half Life fulfilling on The Simpsons?

Amazon has been known to throw us some pretty heft deals with bountiful savings. Today is no different as the online mega-retailer has posted a whole slew of deals that focus mainly on video game accessories.

While we aren’t going to go into too much detail, some things to keep an eye out for are Street Fighter IV Tournament Edition FighSticks for just $105 and the  PS3 Fighting Stick 3 from Hori for $30.

This is just a small glimpse of the deals going on over at Amazon so be sure to head over and check it out.

via joystiq

In the real time strategy genre there are quite a few titles that stand out above the rest. However, on a global scale Blizzard’s StarCraft undoubtedly takes the cake. Their most recent release, StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty is no different with sales numbers to prove it.

While there has been no official word of a release date for the inevitable expansion, Blizzard is giving US StarCraft 2 players a pleasant surprise this morning. The game developer has announced that the United States is now a public test region and will be allowed to participate in patch beta tests. If you’re a World of Warcraft player you’re undoubtedly familiar with the public test realms that give players a sneak peak and what’s to come.

While the public beta test roll out is quite widespread, there are some restrictions in place. According to the FAQ: “players must have an active StarCraft 2 North America game account created before November 11, 2010. The player’s account must not be a guest pass account, suspended, or banned.”

So, who’s pumped for some StarCraft 2 beta testing?

Battlefield 3 has pretty much been confirmed for 2011 with these words from EA CEO John Riccitiello, who spoke about the next Call of Duty and what EA has planned for 2011:

“I have great expectations to do a lot better in 2011 than in 2010 on the strength of a couple of products like Bulletstorm and Crysis 2, but most importantly for us, Battlefield 3, which I feel incredibly good about.”

The upcoming Battlefield 3 is the long awaited sequel to Battlefield 2, one of the finest and most popular multiplayer shooters ever made. Via BF3Blog.com.

A recent update confirms that the scheduled Red Faction movie, which is to appear on SyFy, will begin shooting in January and will be released on May. Which is kinda quick — just a few months or so for post production? Don’t expect any big CGI on this one.

The news comes from THQ’s Danny Bilson, who Tweeted about it. The Red Faction movie will most likely be the usual SyFy fare, with cardboard characters and silly plot. But hey, what ever gets to spread the word of Red Faction around, right?

Over the past few weeks (or is it months?), Sony has been working on a PlayStation phone, or PSP Phone, in great secrecy — not really, there’s tons of leaked photos of the thing, and now, a video.

The PSP Phone, or PlayStation Phone, appears like any other touchscreen-based Android smartphone, but it slides open to reveal a PSP Go-like controller. The video doesn’t show any games played, and we’re not sure whether the games will be PSP games or Android games. We’re kinda hoping for both.

Nintendo has announced that they plant to release a Super Mario Book for its 25th anniversary of the plumber turned hero. So, far only Japan will be getting the book, called “Super Mario 25th Anniversary Commemorative Book”. The book will be released separately and with Super Mario All-Stars Limited Edition, and will include 144 pages on the history of Mario, interviews, a collection of Mario manga, poster, and a CD, and will also be sold separately for just $10. No word on whether it’ll ever see the day of light outside of Japan.

Blizzard likes to keep control of all their IP rights, even if games are broadcast on television, Blizzard wants a cut. Which means they’re not happy when Korean game TV channels MBC Game and OnGameNet have been broadcasting StarCraft tournaments without Blizzards consent.

Blizzard has sued both companies, and they’re now looking to expand the lawsuit to include Korea e-Sports Players Association (KeSPA), which manages StarCraft tournaments. It seems a Blizzard has become quite the control freak, demanding a licensing fee for broadcasting of game tournaments, something which has been going on for at least a decade in Korea.

Valve is one of the most iconic game developers in the game. Not only have franchise like Half-Life and Counter-Strike become synonomous with the first person shooter genre, they are continuing to push our and support new titles like Counter-Strike: Source and Team Fortress 2. While both of these titles have been out for quite some time Valve is continuing to develop and release new features for them.

If you’re a Steam user you probabably noticed some time ago that a Counter-Strike: Source beta had been added but what about Team Fortress 2? Well, it was announced today that a Team Fortress 2 beta is now available to all TF2 owners and will give gamers a sneak peak at what’s to come.

According to Valve, TF2 beta testers will be able to check out the following things:

• Testing and tuning various class, item, and weapon changes
• Testing map changes and variants
• Running higher level, game-wide experiments (like doubling player health)
• Testing new technologies without the risk of breaking the game

via valve