Holy God, Microsoft just answered two of my biggest prayers. The latest upcoming backwards compatibility update for the Xbox 360 covers a round of half-decent titles, but also includes the A-List But Sadly Forgotten (And Thus Very Cheap) Champions of Awesome,Panzer Dragoon OrtaandJet Set Radio Future, thus bringing my list of Xbox games I can finally play on my 360 up to… uh, two. I can’t say for certain whether or not that includes theJSRF/Sega GTbundle disc, but seeing as how the Xbox 360 compatibility list now includes both of those titles, it very well might....

It takes 90 hours and over 100,000 clicks to get from San Francisco to New York in Google Streetview. You know, just in case you were wondering.

OK, so it looks like we won’t be seeing the Nintendo DSi in territories outside of Japan until sometime next year … possibly late next year. But hey, that’s not going to stop us from coveting what the Japanese already have, is it? Nintendo has revealed the first batch of downloadable DSi Ware titles, set to launch on December 24, and it’s full of some familiar faces and a few oddities....

The chance of aGoldenEye 007revival via Xbox LIVE Arcade or Virtual Console appears no more feasible now than it was around a year ago. Speaking in response to a fan question about a port coming to either of those two downloadable platforms, a representative of Rare responded, largely, in the negative. That was some time ago, my friend. Fate was against us that day. Destiny conspired to raise the hurdles even as we attempted to clear them, resulting in unpleasant groinal injury....

We already know thatAge of Conanenjoyedhealthy preorder and launch sales, but has its momentum carried over into the summer months? According toAge of Conan’s developer-publisher team, Funcom and Eidos, it most certainly has. Age of Conanhas been one of the top-selling PC games in every territory it’s been released in thus far, and it was the best-selling PC game in several European countries during the month of June. While the exact number of up-to-date worldwide sales have yet to be compiled due to the different ways they’re tracked in each country, Funcom has revealed that over 700,000 accounts have been created....

Traversing the environment inJust Cause 2isn’t always going to be a horizontal steal-a-car or by-the-sole-of-your-boots kind of thing. Developer Avalanche Studios is now pumping another way to roll in the game: through the air. In the latest video released for the open-world action title, the studio responsible for the game tells viewers that vertical gameplay is a priority. The protagonist, Rico Rodriguez, can take to the air at almost any time — and we mean that; you’ll see in the video — with the aid ofa grappling hookand a parachute....

So, as you’re all doubtlessly aware by now, thanks to themillionsuponmillionsofcommunityblogsonthesubject,BioShockwasreleased in demo formon Xbox Live last night. So great was the response from Xbox Live users that the demo was downloading as slowly as 1% every ten minutes for some people. My Live friends list was just full of people sitting in their dashboards, clearly awaiting their own chance to visit 2K’s nightmarish rapture. Not only did the servers grind to a crawl, in some cases they halted completely....

A fresh rumor has been flying around thatBioShockwould be heading to the PlayStation 3 in 2008, no doubt sparking off fanboy flamewars up and down the Internet. Well, 2K Games has decided tosquash those rumorsin a most brutally honest manner, and is sick of hearing about it. Responding to a post on the 2K forums about the rumor, an official moderator had this to say: “Please don’t tell me you made an account just for this question … There will be no PS3 version ofBioShock....

Why make a black Wii Fit balance board? Because people want color options on the devices they’ll stomp and slide their grimy, nasty feet on. There’s a new bundle coming for the holiday forWii Fit Plus, of course. Why wouldn’t there be? This UK bundle (no North American announcement yet) includes the game and ablackWii Fit balance board. Stomp off your holiday chub on a device that will be that much easier to trip over in the dark....

In yet another case of game-related homicide, a 13-year-old Pennsylvania boy stabbed his 16-year-old brother to death last Sunday over an argument stemming from whose turn it was to use the boys’ video game console. Police Chief Daniel Kortanhad this to sayregarding the incident: I don’t believe the actual game itself was the cause of it. I don’t believe they were acting out in any way or mimicking anything in a video game....

Before you get too excitedabout another map,Call of Duty: World at WarPC players, keep in mind this free “new” map is essentially “Makin,” but with daylight. Also, the balloons aren’t real. I’m sorry to ruin the surprise, but someone had to do it. On the other hand, the PC version ofWorld at Warhas gotten another patch before its console brethren, and can bedownloaded here. I guess it’s not all bad when you take this into consideration....

Leave it up to the genius mind of Sony to remind us that the PlayStation 3 is nothing like the Wii. I’m glad they’re here to say so, because without them, I would have assumed they were exactly the same console. Sony Computer Entertainment Australia’s Managing Director Michael Ephraim finally made it all so clear: Back to the Wii comment, we have to compare apples with apples. They do not have these kind of applications....

If anyone is going to try and pull off Snake’s deep and gruff voice, Christian Bale is the man to do it. Word is,the new issue ofNutsmagazine(it’s a U.K. magazine — blame the brits for the funny name), there’s an interview with the Batman himself, in which he mentions that he’s gunning for the role of Solid Snake in the upcoming, and hopefully Uwe Boll-less, film adaptation ofMetal Gear Solid....