The Need for Speed ProStreet gig didn't work out for Electronic Arts and internal studio Black Box, but the superstar publisher decided they could still make a turnaround for the franchise again, starting with Need for Speed Undercover. Perhaps guided by the popularity of night and illegal street racing movies, Need for Speed Undercover's design resettled for the open sandbox design of Most Wanted with a different story. A story, they say, that will include Mission Impossible 3's Maggie Q.

NPD Group's recent survey manged to investigate the niche segment of the gaming market that is extreme gaming, together with six other segments that the games industry has categorized gamers like us under. Feeling like a can of peaches at your local convenient mart? Well, welcome to new, modernized, cash-driven games industry, folks. Find out where'd you fit in among the 20,000 sampled at the full story.

Let's start this week early, shall we? Coming up on retail shelves starting July 27 all the way to the first few days of August is another hailstorm of PC games from the independent front, though you'd probably love this week for the release of Namco Bandai's SoulCalibur IV and its limited edition kits. But if there's anything more significant this time, it's the appearance of more Olympics-themed games as the week heralds the eve before the World Olympics in Beijing. We take them all at the full story.

This week's release list can be described in a few words: college football. Tuesday marks the release of multiplatform sports game NCAA Football 2009 on every modern console there is to date. During our search, we've found that some games haven't surfaced in the previous weeks - even on online retail. So expect to see a repeat showing this week. Maybe we should consider renaming "On Shelves This Week" to "Should Be Out This Week"... Now there's a thought. Upcoming releases follows at the full story.

So what's going to be in our videogaming menu starting this week? A whole lot of DS games once again, we tell you, though there's a few gems or two in the Nintendo handheld rough on Tuesday. There's a music rhythm game for almost every console out there, plus a couple new additions to the portfolio of PC games. Somehow we're also seeing another relaunching of Gears of War for the Xbox 360 the "Refresh" edition. We don't know why it's re-listed, but it is. The full list follows at the full story.

Community Dev-fr jump started a new Nintendo DS homebrew development competition called Compo Debile Dev-fr ("compose silly," roughly translated), and already the event has pooled in a core selection of noteworthy games. Well, at least what we've handpicked right here are all games. Time to prep your Nintendo handhelds for a test ride, because here comes Kram's Audition Shooter, MasterDje's VP_ANIS, and ToiletKing's DeadJey - at the full story.



Download: Audition Shooter
Download: VP_ANIS
Download: DeadJey

This issue is another one of those weeks where you could selectively stave off from spending hard-earned cash, but then there are millions of gamers who need their gaming fix. Gladly enough, third-party publishers on the Nintendo DS and Nintendo Wii have addressed the casual gaming populace, and that pretty much sums up this week's retail release line up. On second thought, no - we still have an MMO, EA Maxis' pre-Spore sampler, a formerly retail, now PSN game, plus the release of Rock Band on the Nintendo Wii. Check the full story for details.

2K Sports, the folks who are gearing up a new hockey game for the Wii, has also timely announced the master copy release of Top Spin 3 to mass production. The tennis simulator has gone gold for the DS, PlayStation 3, Wii, and Xbox 360, and soon enough, tennis fans would be able to create their own avatar and grand slam against the likes of Sharapova and Federer. Details at the full story.

NPD Group has released the market performance results for May 2008, and already the PR armies at Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony have began to churn out their reformatted versions of the results. Of course, each one talks only about what they've achieved so far in the fifth month of the Year of the Rat, but what happens when we put them all together? Yes, we get the full NPD May story.

One of Russia's most distinguished game developer and publisher, 1C company, has announced two new game projects that will be their first on the next generation consoles. The two games are based on Captain Blood novels and the successful IL-2 Sturmovik flight combat simulation series.  Both are now heading to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 (to North America with help), but even handhelds will feel some love as well.