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.

This week welcomes the much-loved and much-awaited Metal Gear Solid 4 from Konami. No longer should we worry about broken street dates, because today it all becomes official. But Solid Snake is not the only superhero around as there's also Goku and the gang of Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit, as well as the big, green machine, The Incredible Hulk. If you'd rather work on the sidelines, then Don King Present: Prizefigther is here as well to show you the ropes of managing in the boxing profession, as well as Total Extreme Wrestling 2008. More games await after the jump!

Developer Alekmaul has released an improved version of the xRick homebrew game originally developed by GPF. This new build will carrying some bug fixes, although the developer had to disable its load/save state feature. The changelog is available over in the full article.


Download:xRick v2.0

Gaming piracy is a serious problem that seems impossible to eradicate. But is there hope for game developers? According to Atari founder Nolan Bushnell, there is, thanks to the TPM encryption chips that are being built into some of the latest motherboards. More in the full article.

Phil Harrison, Infogrames' new top boss, was never secretive over his plans to cater games to the new broader market. Alone in the Dark (PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, Windows, Xbox 360) will probably be the last major mainstream title queued up in Atari's arsenal if this was true. Thankfully it's not - well not in entirety. Atari will still be catering to hardcore, but not in the same respects as before. Go to the full story for more.

Atari has been sufficiently warned by NASDAQ as early as March to raise its stock value. Atari didn't, even with the completed merger with Infogrames. Thus, Atari is now delisted. What are its implication? Details over at the full article.

It's difficult to run out of games to play on the Nintendo DS, and that may actually be a bad thing. According to Game Republic head honcho Yoshiki Okamoto who's been in the industry since the world even saw Street Fighter, the Atari crash might be right around the corner. Head over to the full article for details.

Finally, the marriage is complete. After asking for a deadline extension, Atari has finally accepted Infogrames' proposal last March for a merger - to the tune of US$ 11 million. More details after the jump.

Sometimes, when people start over, they change their names. In the case of Infogrames, David Gardner and Phil Harrison are thinking of dropping the company name altogether in the interest of starting anew. More on this proposed new beginning after the jump.

In another interview with Games Industry, Infogrames CEO Gardner was able to talk about how they're doing things now in Atari. In fact he stated that given their competitors and how big the gaming industry is, they don't have room for any mistakes anymore. Find out what Gardner said in the full article.