A new batch ofSonic the Hedgehog 4screenshots have arisen, detailing the recently unveiled Casino Street Zone. The first half of the gallery shows the Xbox 360 version of the game, while the latter half is the Wii version. I’m sure you’ll be able to tell the difference. We should be getting our hands on a review version of the game soon and will be able tofinallyprovide a full verdict onSonic 4before the month’s end....

Happy Mother’s Day! I know it’s a little early, but the newest episode of HAWP hands the reins over to Mama Burch (who they obviously inherited their film-making skills from) in celebration. Like the good children they are, Anthony and Ashly give her episode idea a try. It’s up now, and you’re able to watch it.Just head on over to Gametrailers. Enjoy!

BioWare is incredibly busy lately, what with working onMass Effect 2andDragon Age: Origins. Still, there are some out there who would like to see the RPG darling work harder, and wonder why there’s no word of aBaldur’s Gate 3. Well, BioWarehas explainedwhy this won’t happen and, as usual, it’s the lawyers who are to blame. “TheBaldur’s GateandDungeons & Dragonsproperty is of course controlled by Atari, and owned originally by Hasbro, so it’s a complicated, convoluted way of getting there,” explains BioWare’s Greg Zeschuk....

I;m actually not sure if this newest holiday move from Nintendo is downright genius or downright scary, but either way I’m sure it’ll have an impact. It was announced today that you’re able to visit http://mariowishlist.varitalk.com and check off Nintendo DS items that you want to see under the Christmas tree this holiday. After listing who the person is that you hope to get this gift from, they will receive a personalized call or email from Mario, letting them know that you hope to get a specific gift from them!...

I cannot WAIT to play this game. Thank whatever gods there are or aren’t that there are developers out there with the creativity to make titles like this. For some reason I’m reminded of Icom’sDeja Vu,though I’m sure this offering will be much, much better.Hit the jump for three more videos of Hotel Dusk in action.

I love Flash-based web games, especially the ones that come out of Japan. This new one,Eki Golf(Station’s Golf)lets you play as a balding salary man at a train station. His boredom has him hitting golf balls with an umbrella. The goal? To both swing for distance and to hit bystanders in the face with a golf ball. Brilliant, isn’t it? The art style really sets it off. I’d buy this for a portable game system!...

Microsoft is obviously planning to pimp Kinect in Japan, as it hasn’t given up trying to appeal to that territory yet. With that in mind, here’s the television commercial it aims to do it with, demonstrating the alleged appeal of being able to play without a controller in your hand. As seems to be Microsoft’s modus operandi, the commercial fails to show Kinect in motion. No games are shown, and the fabled amazing interactions between human and Xbox are nowhere to be seen....

Gaming has finally arrived on the Mac platform as of yesterday whenSteam launched. There’s a ton of new games to play, but there’s a ton more that you and I both are hoping will hit the platform in the future. In fact, there’s so many potential Steam Mac titles that it’s hard to keep track of. Enter SavyGamer’s handySteam Mac watchlist. They tell me that they plan to regularly update this list that tracks both Steam-enabled Mac games and games that have Mac ports but are currently unavailable on Valve’s handy service....

Keith Vaz, the UK’s premier game hating MP, has beenkicking up a stink once moreabout interactive entertainment. Amusingly, I had never heard aboutKaboom: The Suicide Bombing Gamebefore Vaz decided to make a public spectacle of it, but thanks to him, yet another game is getting free promotion that it doesn’t deserve. Just in case you were wondering,Kaboomis a very rubbish game in which you make a terrorist detonate himself to try and kill as many as possible....

[Last week, I asked you to tell me about a moment in your gaming career that really made you work hard. Our first promoted blog on that topic is from Revuhlooshun, who tells us about his struggles with the boss fights ofFinal Fantasy V. Want to see your own work on our front page? Make sure you write a blog onour current topic: Relaxation. — JRo] A lot of people argue on for days about which is the hardestFinal Fantasygame in the nearly 25 year old franchise....

Because raccoon caps and team-based shooters are f’ing metal, Fatshark’sLead and Goldexists. The new teaser footage,which debuted this weekend, reveals more about title, taking it out of the Wild West shooter muck as it showcases the game’s RPG andTeam Fortress 2-like components. Looking sharp, this downloadable appears as if its something we can get on board with. Fatshark released a few still images of the game earlier this morning, each featuring manly men doing manly stuff like shooting people in the face....

While it looks likeStreet Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Limight have been financed from the change found in the coin box of my local 7-11’sStreet Fighter IIcabinet, it doesn’t look likeLost Planetwill be getting the same treatment. In an interview for Capcom’s investor relation’sWeb site, the company’s Head of Character Content Business Toshihiro Tokumaru hints that the economic crisis won’t be affecting the film. “Speaking ofLost Planet,” he says, “that project will cost somewhere between 150 and 200 million dollars to make....

Lulz Security — the anonymous group of info-divulging pranksters who have claimed responsibility for awave of attackson videogame publishers and government bodies — has today called it quits. The group claims it had only intended a fifty-day voyage on the Lulz Boat, and declares its work over. That said, the Lulz Lizards could not leave without one last hurrah. Its parting gift was an info dump containing 550,000 batches of personal info fromBattlefield Heroesbeta users and a further 50,000 random game forum users....