It seems like 505 Games has teamed up with Paramount Pictures to bring Grease to our Nintendo gaming platform of choice: Wii and Nintendo DS. As a big Grease fan, I have to say that I find the news intriguing, but I’m not quite sure what such a game might entail. Dancing? Singing?

According to a Paramount spokesperson, the game will take “full advantage of the Nintendo Wii’s motion-sensing controls and microphone and the DS touch screen.” And John Kavanah, the Senior Vice President of Video Games for Paramount Digital Entertainment added, “Grease is the ideal opportunity to reach a broad gaming audience who love to sing, dance and have fun with a party-style game.” So it seems like singing and dancing might be in the cards.

It will be really interesting to see what 505 Games/Paramount come up with in regards to this game. In the meantime, I’m off to play the soundtrack on repeat. Grease Lightning!

Via | GameGirl

Image: Nintendo

Attention all Resident Evil fans: the rumor mill is spinning with news that director Paul W.S. Anderson is already working on the script for the next Resident Evil film: Afterlife. According to insiders, the film will be set between Tokyo and Alaska and should be hitting theaters sometime in September 2010.

Actually, we can go a little more specific than that. How’s September 17, 2010? If you’re going to circle the date, though, do it with a pencil, as this is still firmly settled in the rumor camp and not quite in the official side of things. There’s also no news as to whether Milla Jovovich will be repirising her role. But hopefully we’ll find out soon enough.

Via | Kotaku

Image: Ubisoft

Raven Software has at last revealed the specs for its upcoming classic first-person shooter Wolfenstein. The game is coming out in August for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC. If you prefer your games on your computer, no problem. Now you can take notes on what the minimum requirements are so you can be sure to have your system at the ready once the game launches. If you’re going for the Xbox 360 or PS3 versions, well, then you don’t have to worry about any of this.

For you PC gamers out there, here goes:

Software:

• Microsoft(R) Windows(R) XP or Windows Vista(R) (Windows 95/98/ME/2000 are unsupported)
• Microsoft DirectX(R) 9.0c (included & required for Windows XP & Vista)

Hardware:

• CPU: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 3.2 GHz or AMD Athlon(TM) 64 3400+ processor
• RAM: 1GB RAM
• Video Card: 256MB NVIDIA(R) Geforce(R) 6800 GT or ATI Radeon(TM) X800
• Sound Card: 100% DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card
• HDD Space: 8GB (Plus an additional 800MB for Windows swap file)
• Media: 100% Microsoft Windows compatible DVD-ROM drive
• Internet: Broadband connection and service required for multiplayer

Via | CVG

Image: Raven/id/Endrant Studios

Microsoft invites their Call of Duty: World at War players to celebrate the 4th of July on Xbox Live. From July 3 to July 6 all Xbox Live gold members will receive double XP when playing the game. This offer is valid worldwide, so no one has to feel left out. In addition, Map Pack 2 maps will be made available on July 3 through a playlist update, which will integrate the new maps into the rotations.

So if you’ve got some free time before your 4th of July parties, or even during your 4th of July parties, log on in to Xbox Live and launch CoD. Double XP is a pretty sweet deal. Thanks, Microsoft!

Via | Ripten

Image: Activision

It’s official: Blizzard killed off LAN support for StarCraft II. No SCII LAN parties for you! Instead, Blizzard wants you to sign up to Battle.net and stay there. They hope that this move helps protect users against piracy, by offering a one-stop shop for all multiplayer needs. Mostly, it just sounds like Blizzard really, really wants you to sign up to Battle.net and will not rest until everyone has done so.

The official word from Blizzard PR’s team member, Bob Colayco is as follows:

“We don’t currently plan to support LAN play with StarCraft II, as we are building Battle.net to be the ideal destination for multiplayer gaming with StarCraft II and future Blizzard Entertainment games. While this was a difficult decision for us, we felt that moving away from LAN play and directing players to our upgraded Battle.net service was the best option to ensure a quality multiplayer experience with StarCraft II and safeguard against piracy.

Several Battle.net features like advanced communication options, achievements, stat-tracking, and more, require players to be connected to the service, so we’re encouraging everyone to use Battle.net as much as possible to get the most out of StarCraft II. We’re looking forward to sharing more details about Battle.net and online functionality for StarCraft II in the near future.”

Undoubtedly, this will likely cause some bitterness and resentment among gamers, but I’m somewhat certain it won’t hurt SCII’s sales any when the game finally comes out. Of course, there’s always Diablo III - which will also lack LAN support.

Via | Joystiq

Image: Blizzard

If you’ve managed to play through all of your games over the weekend and are searching for some fresh titles to add to your collection, look no further. This week sees quite a few decent games added to the shelves, and if you managed not to blow all your cash on last week’s releases, then you’re probably in luck.

June 30 -

• Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood - Xbox 360, PS3
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - Xbox 360, PS3, PSP, Wii, DS, PC
• Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs - Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, DS, PC
• Mega Man Star Force 3: Red Joker - Nintendo DS
• Steambot Chronicles: Battle Tournament - PSP

July 1 -

Marvel vs. Capcom 2 - Xbox 360

July 2 -

• Infernal: Hell’s Vengeance - Xbox 360

Via | QJ

Image: Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood // Ubisoft

If you’re a World of Warcraft player, you might be aware that Mountain Dew has teamed up with Blizzard to offer up some neat prizes during their Mountain Dew Game Fuel promotional campaign. Every 15 minutes they give away a prize on their website, www.mountaindewgamefuel.com, ranging from t-shirts to gaming laptops. So it’s something worth checking out.

Also, for US players, you can hop on over to the website to redeem your free battle bot in-game companion pet. It’s free and all you have to do is click a couple of buttons. Oh, and make sure your WoW account is bound to Battle.net. Players outside of the US are out of luck on that one. After you’ve got your pet, wait 24 hours and head on back to the website to pick up red or blue colored “fuel” to power your in-game pet. Nice way to kill a few minutes of standing around time in the game, watching your red bot slap around a blue bot and/or vice versa.

As part of the campaign, Mountain Dew has also released a commercial, which I’m sorry to say is kind of lame and nonsensical. But it’s fun to watch all the same. So here you go:

Image: Blizzard

It’s a good day to be playing Age of Conan as Funcom has rolled out a new content patch, or Update, called “Gangs of Tarantia.” The name presumably points to the added content in the city of Tarantia, which sees the addition of the Tarantia Commons District, where high level adventurers can kick some booty. The new area includes single player and group dungeons.

In addition, there’s been some item/system changes. Items will now have more of an effect on statistics than they did before. Pets now get gear bonuses. And there’s been some changes to the heroic system. The developers go into minute detail on all of this over at the AoC website, so you can sit there calmly and read through it all.

For those of you that enjoy crafting, there’s been a “complete overhaul” of the gems profession. They’ve made it more “flexible, easier to use, and a lot more rewarding.”

Guild cities will now see some NPCs moving in. Guards will patrol the streets, merchants will join the fun, and new social pets have been added as well.

Overall, some big additions to the game, and something that will likely see a lot of subscriptions renewed as players rush in to see what might’ve changed. Enjoy your Hyborian adventure!

Image: Funcom

If you woke up this morning and decided you wouldn’t mind an extra $5 million in your bank account, maybe you could device something similar to this: Sueing a video game developer - such a Square Enix - for ‘deceiving’ you. Or at least, that’s what Esther Leong of San Francisco is currently doing. Apparently, she feels deceived by the publisher with regards to Final Fantasy XI. She and her army of lawyers are sueing for $5 million for “unfair business practices, false advertising and unjust enrichment.”

Well, okay then. Apparently, the company concealed information with regards to its fees, late payment penalties, interest rates and so on and so forth. For those that play/have played FFXI, do you think this lawsuit has a leg to stand on? Are the policies that questionable or do you think Square Enix has been upfront enough with its fees?

Via | Destructoid

Image: Square Enix

Back in 2007, Daniel Petric shot and kill his mother and simultaneously injured his father after the parents took away his Halo 3. It’s been a long two years and a long trial, but the ruling came through today, sentencing Petric to 23 years in prison. The sentence might have been worse - life without parole - but leniency seems to have been given on the basis of age and also the defense’s argument that the boy was addicted to the video game.

The father cried for mercy when the ruling came in, saying that the boy “still does not understand why he did something so terrible.” Twenty-three years to come to terms with what he’s done is probably going to feel like a very long time.

Tragic story all around.

Via | Joystiq

Image: Stock.xchng