BradNicholson

In case you were worried, Burnout isn’t dead. IP owner and publisher of the franchise, EA, has been keen on teasing this fact in the past, but now a smidgen of evidence has emerged to support the existence of a new game in the franchise. The Australian Classification Review Board, a service similar to the US’ ESRB, has rated a brand new Burnout title dubbed “Burnout Crash,” a PG-rated joint set to be published by EA.

And, well, that’s all we know for sure at moment. As for speculation, though, there’s a lot of that out there. On the developer front, it’s been suggested in the past that Criterion, now fresh off the release of Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, could be resuming its work on the Burnout series with this new title. Criterion is of course the studio behind all the Burnout games, and did an especially good job with the last iteration, Burnout Paradise. And while you’d figure that Criterion would just be slated to work on the next NFS title considering the praise Hot Pursuit has received, it's been strongly suggested by EA’s Partrick Soderlund that Black Box is the next in line to give the NFS series a spin.   

It’s no secret that GameStop has been looking to get its fingers into the digital distribution cookie jar. The downloadable sector is growing fast enough to threaten the brick-and-mortar retailer’s bottom line. Why go to a store with pushy employees when you can just download what you want from the comfort of your own couch, right? So, it’s really not a huge surprise that GameStop has acquired Spawn Labs and is in the process of purchasing Stardock’s digital distro platform Impulse, two pickups that will surely pave the way for GameStop to start moving into the digital space.

Spawn Labs--the lesser known entity in this deal--is basically a peer-to-peer gaming service similar to OnLive. It specializes in streaming games to users via everyone's favorite omnipresent cloud. Impulse, on the other hand, is one of the few big names in digital distribution that's not "Steam." It may not be as popular as Valve's service, but Impulse has been turning a profit, which has become a point of concern for Stardock’s founder Brad Wardell. "When Impulse became our number one source of revenue," Wardell told Joystiq in an interview, "I realized it was time for us to look at our options there." Earlier he said that it wasn’t his goal to grow Impulse into a dedicated retailer, so he was open to selling the business.  
 

OK, that Spider-Man game reveal slated for this weekend? Go ahead and keep your date with a liveblog of that WonderCon Beenox Studios-led panel, but go into the endeavor with these knowledge nuggets in tow: the game is called Spider-Man: Edge of Time, and it’ll feature a split narrative in the “connected and evolving” timelines of classic Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2099. In other words, Edge of Time will have two distinct settings--the catch being that what Spider-Man does in one world will, supposedly, have an effect in the other as the dual Spider-Mans change the others’ timeline.
 

The word about the Mafia II “Director’s Cut” package has been on the street for a while, but now 2K Games has made it official: the publisher is indeed putting out an all DLC-inclusive, cheaper ($30) version of the title across all three of its platforms, the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC. 

On the consoles, Mafia II "Director’s Cut" will receive the platform’s respective best seller branding, which changes its name to Mafia II Greatest Hits on the PS3 and Mafia II Platinum Hits on Xbox 360. The PC version is the only one that’ll be actually referred to as "Director’s Cut" on the packaging, but all three will combine the same content: the core game, its three content-lean downloadable add-ons, and its four, once retail-exclusive “style” DLC packs.  

• The Betrayal of Jimmy: Players take on Empire Bay through an alternate perspective of the mob through the eyes of Jimmy, a mercenary. Jimmy is the guy the other guys call when they need to finish the job. The Betrayal of Jimmy features dozens of intense arcade-style, city-based missionsthat keep Jimmy driving, shooting and rampaging through Empire Bay. 
• Jimmy's Vendetta: Once the mob's most effective ally, Jimmy is now its greatest enemy. Fueled by rage, Jimmy takes on Italian and Irish mobsters in a slew of unlockable city quests, including assassination and timed vehicle pursuits ending in dramatic shootouts. 
• Joe’s Adventures: Play as Joe Barbaro as he rampages through Empire Bay in the wake of Vito Scaletta's prison sentence. Joe must uncover the traitor who betrayed Vito while overcoming the challenges of moving up the ranks in the mob. 
• Four Style Packs [Ed. Once retailer-exclusive] including Vegas, Renegade, Greaser and War Hero - each with two cars and two suits for in-game use. 

“Renegade Ops” is the, uh, inspired name of the next project to come out of Avalanche Studios, the developer of the open-world action title Just Cause and its quirk-filled follow-up Just Cause 2. And get this--Ops is a downloadable, vehicular combat game that uses Just Cause 2's tech.

In a press release put out by Avalanche's publishing partner Sega, a bit of the setup is explained. In the campaign portion, you'll control “mobile commando unit” in charge of killing terrorist goons led by a bad dude named "Inferno." You'll be able to accomplish this unforgettable goal with up to four players online, but you’ll also be able to get your anti-terrorist on by lonesome or with a couch partner via split-screen play. Sega claims that the shooter will also feature a“wide” array of vehicles to use and plenty of heavy weapons, including the Gatling gun and an electromagnetic shock gun. Sounds renegade.
 

Bummer news for Mega Man fans coming from Capcom this morning. According to a recent posting on the game’s official blog, Mega Man Universe has been cancelled. In addition to this announcement, the publisher also shot out a quick apology to those looking forward to the game’s once-impending Spring 2011 release across both XBLA and PSN.

Mega Man Universe was an updated take on the Mega Man formula that married user-created content to classic 2D Mega Man action. Capcom claimed that it was set to “deliver the most creative Mega Man experience yet” with MMU, allowing users to generate their own levels, create their own characters from prefab parts, and assign their own special weapons and items. There was also a touch of crossover appeal to the game--several classic Capcom characters such as Ryu and Sir Arthur were set to make an appearance in it.

Over its debut weekend, Nintendo 3DS users in Europe and the US have hit a variety social venues to report a not-so-fun hardware error associated with the new-fangled handheld’s software suspension functionality. Some users, upon suspending games, are being greeted with a lock-up accompanying a black screen that explains, simply, that there’s something wrong. Now, this wouldn’t be an issue if following the on-screen instructions was indeed a viable solution, but for a minority, it hasn’t been. 

If you’re a victim of the black screen, know that Nintendo is aware that this is an issue with the system. Earlier this afternoon, the publisher tossed out an official response to Eurogamer, stating that anyone who has a problem with their software should install the latest firmware update to device and, if problems persist, contact Nintendo customer support.  
 

If anyone is experiencing any problems with their Nintendo 3DS console, we recommend that in the first instance they download and install the latest system update, now available online.

If the problems still persist we recommend they contact their local Nintendo Customer Service centre to investigate the problem further.

In an article that has since been pulled from CVG, NetherRealm Studios producer Hans Lo seems to have let some new info slip about the studio's post-release plans for its upcoming fighting game, Mortal Kombat. He named the first two downloadable characters for the game, the blind, sword-toting ninja Kenshi and a new lady in red, named Scarlet.

Scarlet is perhaps the more interesting of the two potential options, though only because her origin isn't the result of careful design. In the arcade version of Mortal Kombat II, a red version of Jade, Kitana, or Mileena would occasionally load due to some sort of palette glitch. Much like any other inexplicable or unnamed character or bug in any of the early MK games, fans quickly assumed this was some sort of deliberate secret, and took to calling the character "Skarlett." With no official spelling available for the character, we'll have to wait and see how that all comes out.