The Internet went wild whenCodename Revolutionrevealed a mysterious UPC that pointed to a new Wii related SKU (trolling UPCsis the new trolling US Patent Office Web sites, you know). This new SKU, simply called “Wii Play n’ Learn,” was thought to be a possible new hardware bundle. Nintendo of America actually answers their phones when 1UP calls, and was able to confirm that this recent UPC may be causing some unnecessary confusion....

A few hours ago, Microsoft released a live-action ad — a short film, really — forHalo: ODST. It boils down the life of an ODST in theHalouniverse in 90 seconds, and, as you’ll see below the fold, it isn’t a pretty one. The director of the film is Rupert Sanders, the same guy who did theHalo 3ad spot “Believe,” which, if memory serves me, faired well with the Internet crowd. I don’t expect this ad spot to do any worse, certainly....

Hate, hate, hatred! Reverend Anthony wanted you all to feel his hatred of all things in this life and forced the community to focus on what theyhate most when it comes to videogames. Topics ranged from weak villains, bad level designs, dumb gimmicks and even about gamers themselves. Here’s all of the blogs that made it to the front page last month: Of all the promoted blogs, Brilliam’s topic on Gamers got the most attention....

Sweaty men, loincloths, busty wenches and lots of blood.Age of Conan: Unchainedhas something for everyone. Now it has something for fans of the latest movie.The Savage Coast of Turanis a premium adventure pack which whisks players off to Turan, essentially Persia of the Hyborian Age. Expect to meet and fight characters and monsters from the most recent addition to the franchise while exploring several new regions and uncovering a variety of new dungeons....

New York City is a wonderful place, but the newest trailer forCrysis 2illustrates the perils of flying into town in the midst of an alien invasion. The creatures annihilate an arriving military force; perhaps next time, they’ll think twice about using helicopters as their mode of transportation. (Speaking of which, I get the feeling that Giant Bomb’s Ryan Davis already likes this game.) This two-minute trailer appears to take place well after the invasion has begun, since the area around the Flatiron Building is deserted save for a wall plastered with missing person photos....

Demon’s Souls, a game so notoriously hard that our own Dale Northadmitted he could not even finish it, has earned the grudging respect of many gamers because of its crazy level of challenge. Still, the game earned very high scores, and really stuck out as being very different among other RPGs. At least, it is always nice to get a breath of fresh air in that genre. If you waited on it because you were afraid you would get your ass beat, maybe now is a good time to give it a second try, especially since Atlus has just announced the Greatest Hits version....

Since the beginning of the week, I’ve been playingViewtiful Joe 2on Backlog and it’s been … well, I don’t remember the first game being this hard. Even on “Kids” mode, I’m struggling a bit with this fourth boss. I’m determined, however, and still enjoying the sense of humor in the game. If you like, you may join me and the rest of the lunatics in our chat room right now. It’s all going on right now atDestructoid’s Justin....

The votes came in and they came in hard. Tonight, Backlog returns with its second series playingKiller 7. Now would be the best possible time for me to discover that my Wii isn’t reading discs properly, my GameCube AC adapter is in storage on the other end of the country and there isn’t a store within reasonable driving distance which could replace it or supply me with a copy of the game for PlayStation 2....

Yes, I know. I onlyeverwrite aboutBayonettathese days (apparently, writing less than one post a day on a game incorporates 100% of my average ten-posts-per-day quota), but I have legitimate news this time. Sega has today revealed a Western release date for Platinum Games’ sexy action title. North America gets the game on January 5, while Europe will be able to pick it up on January 8. If you are impatient, you can get theinferior PS3 versionof the gamevia import, since it’s all in English....

Third time’s the charm, so I’m told. So, if it doesn’t work this time, we’re just going to give up and torture you with deliberations on polka. Don’t make us go there. This episode of Bit Transmission really is going to have a lot of discussion aboutMega Man 10, but that’s not all. Oh, no sir. We’re also going to talk about other things. Really important things. And we might let Colette go on aboutFinal Fantasy XIIIfor a bit....

If your a fan of theBit.Tripseries, chances are that you’re already hip to this jive, but I figured I’d lay it on you anyway. you’re able to buy the soundtrack forBit.Trip RUNNERnow onCDbaby.com(along with the soundtracks for all the otherBit.Tripgames.) It’s a pretty awesome set list, featuring compositions from the regularBit.Tripsound designer, and that group that people always tell me that I should like, Anamanaguichi. The good people at Gaijin Games even threw in a few bonus tracks, never before made available to human ears....

Eurogamer is reportingthat Adrian Bolton, general manager at Codemasters Guildford and the developer behindBodycount, has left the company. He’s actually not the first person to leave the development team onBodycount. Stuart Black, creative director on the game, left the company back in July as well. These departures have causedBodycountto be slightly delayed and we can now expect the game to be released in Summer 2011. Codemasters CEO Rod Cousens assures the media that the game is in safe hands despite the people that have left and insists that there’s nothing wrong....

TheS.T.A.L.K.E.R.gameshave always been some of the major go-to examples for showing how much of a positive impact modding can have. You definitely can’t go wrong with the Complete series of mods, which streamline the overhaul process. The latest Complete package, this time forCall of Pripyat,is now being offeredas a free download. The focus has always been on improving the visuals, audio, and atmosphere (arguablythereason to play these titles) without revamping elements just for the sake of it....