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Build your perfect squad and pit it against the masses.

Top industry figures discuss what gaming will be like in ten years time.

In the world of Star Trek, there's nothing quite like grabbing a few moments of R&R with your first mate on the holodeck or heading down to engineering to check up on your favorite ship's power core. Unfortunately, as we've been unable to explore the interior of our own ships since we first got our hands on Star Trek Online's pre-release beta program (nonetheless the final product), those wonderfully humdrum space activities will have to be postponed for a little while. But hey, they're coming ... or so says Cryptic executive producer Craig Zinkievich, at least.

"Anything we can do to make the game feel even more like Star Trek is something we want to do ... so, definitely, we want to give people more of their ship," he tells Inc Gamers, adding, "This is one of those things we want to get perfect before introducing it to players, though," indicating that the functionality likely won't be arriving in the near future. And us, well we just want to passive aggressively flirt with crew members -- is that so much to ask?

It looks like IGN has re-upped their Bit.Trip RUNNER footage. The videos are slightly different, and the music seems a bit changed as well. Check out the footage below! Bit.Trip Runner Nintendo Wii Gameplay - Level 1 Direct link and more footage here (thanks NintenDaan!)

Check out the cameos in the video right here (thanks Oscar!)

When THQ announced that the De Blob franchise would continue this year, we didn't imagine it had anything this big in store for what we thought of as a semi-obscure Wii franchise. The publisher has partnered with the "Syfy Channel" (ugh) on a new banner called "Syfy Kids," a multimedia initiative including web content, TV, and games -- and De Blob is going to be featured heavily.

"We are pleased that our owned franchise de Blob has been selected as a foundational character and storyline for Syfy's new Syfy Kids brand," said THQ's Doug Clemmer. "We look forward to working closely with Syfy to introduce de Blob's colorful world to a new audience of young adults via webisodes, television and other media, broadening awareness for this loveable hero."

Most importantly, this De Blob resurgence will result in new video games. The announcement claims that THQ will release new de Blob games across "multiple gaming platforms" by the end of March 2011. That's something you can appreciate even if you never watch a second of SyFy.

"Somebody seems to be covering Bloodco's pipes in strawberry jam," thought Russel. The first batch of screens from Rockstar's long-awaited L.A. Noire have finally surfaced over at Game Informer, likely having enjoyed a lengthy three martini lunch in some dark, smokey bar in Uptown for the past ever. The screens depict things very appropriate to the period -- white wall tires and smart business suits; long shadows and plenty of pistols. As for other details, we won't know until the latest issue hits newsstands.

Top industry figures discuss what gaming will be like in ten years time.

Top industry figures discuss what gaming will be like in ten years time.

Top industry figures discuss what gaming will be like in ten years time.

This image was included in an article we posted earlier, but I thought I’d draw attention to it in a post of its own. Nice to see Scribblenauts make it into that list! I wonder just how much of a longtail seller Scribblenauts will be. Congrats to the 5th Cell gang on a job [...]

Every company has its ups and downs. Out of those downs, there are usually a few that are horrific monstrosities that will forever stay with fans of the entire industry. It’s just a part of being in the industry spotlight. Nintendo has been there, as well as the other hardware players. [...]

Phoenix Wright, Scrabble and more hit the downloadable channels this week.

When can you get your hands on these highly anticipated games? Click through to find out.

[Image via Times Online] While we're certain you well-adjusted lotharios spent your Valentine's Day basking in the adoration of your significant other, 99 Star Trek Online fans spent the day breaking the most unapologetically dorky world record known to mankind: The most costumed Star Trek fans ever gathered in a single place. We imagine they also broke the "most depressing way to spend a Valentine's Day" record as well, but we don't have any way of empirically proving that.

No, you know what? We take back that mean thing we just said. 99 people chose to dress up like their favorite Star Trek character, suffered crummy weather to gather on London's Millennium Bridge, and celebrated this thing that they love. Hell, if we'd known Atari representatives were going to be there to distribute free lifetime subscriptions to the game, we would've happily helped to bring the grand total of participants into the triple digits.

This week's release is quite the treat. Sonic & Knuckles was a great game when it released back in the day, made even greater if you had yourself Sonic 2 and Sonic 3 -- which you probably did. Now that experience is on the Virtual Console and if, like me, you have both of those games downloaded on your Wii, you can relive the experience all over again.

Or you can just watch the above episode of VC in Brief for free.

• Sonic & Knuckles (Sega Genesis, 1 player, 800 Wii Points)

Every week, we like to check out what's new on the Virtual Console. We offer these videos as a sort of taste to help you decide whether or not you would want the game in question. We also toss in our own two cents because we're pushy jerks like that.VC in Brief: Sonic & Knuckles (Sega Genesis)

We generally opt for punnier headlines, but it's difficult when the news is as uninspiring as this. GamesRadar's much-hyped PS3 exclusive announcement has been revealed: FirstPlay, a weekly digital "magazine" for European PS3 owners. Much like Qore, it will provide video previews and exclusive demos of anticipated PlayStation titles. However, unlike Qore, it will be produced weekly.

FirstPlay will be available in the UK beginning in March, with other European territories to follow shortly thereafter. Individual episodes can be purchased for 99p, while a three month subscription will cost £8.99. Replacing Veronica Belmont for this strictly-European offering is British comedian Lucy Porter. Hopefully, she'll find some time to make fun of the people that thought this announcement was going to be about Resistance 3.

Filed under: Podcasts While this week's episode of the Xbox 360 Fancast is chock-full of gaming news, including lots of info from Microsoft's X10 event and a Spoiler Warning segment for Assassin's Creed II, that is not its primary purpose. No, the real reason for this week's episode is to spread the gospel of Ted Tyson's Toyota Town. Truly, if there is a better car-buying experience on planet Earth, the members of X3F have not found it. Just listen to the latest episode and we're positive that you too will learn to love saving money on the best new and pre-owned vehicles that Texas has to offer.

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Hosts: Richard Mitchell (SenseiRAM), Alexander Sliwinski (Sli Xander), Xav de Matos (Snypz) and Dave Hinkle (KnifefightYaDad)

Produced by Richard Mitchell

Music: Intro/Outro: "Electromooq" by Uma Floresta. Break: "So Says I" by The Shins.

For fans: Xbox 360 Fancast Facebook group

Make sure to buy a box of Wetnaps along with that copy of the new issue of Edge Magazine, because that thing's got Crysis 2 details leaking out if it all over the place. We already know the game will take place in New York, but according to the developer, it'll be "a New York City like none in games or cinema." Crytek is more interested in having the city environment act as a focus on the action rather than a big open sandbox, so while you'll see lots of the city above, you'll only be able to travel in "constrained freedom," or only about "three storeys up and down."

The magazine also contains info about the new Nanosuit 2, which seems to augment not only your physical powers, but sensory perception in various modes as well, giving you the ability to hear conversations at a distance or see directional bullet trails or x-rays. The suit can also increase your powers of memory, apparently, as the devs promise the game should have "five big things you'll remember forever." Oh no, wait, wrong switch -- it was set on the increased hype setting there. Our bad.

[Thanks, Peter!]

In its "NPD: Behind the Numbers" feature for January, Gamasutra included a chart of the top five DS games in the US for 2009. As expected, the list is dominated by Nintendo's evergreen first-party lineup; however, at number five was a third-party title, 5th Cell's Scribblenauts. WB announced earlier this month that the bizarre adventure puzzle game shipped over a million copies. It sold "over 900k for sure," 5th Cell creative director Jeremiah Slaczka told Joystiq.

"The DS is a very different market than console, I think treating it as such helps," Slaczka said about cracking the DS market. "I think it's one of the toughest markets to sell on because the demographic is so broad: gamers, non-gamers, kids, adults, boys, girls. And unlike the Wii, it's even more limiting in power. Making a game that appeals to everyone is tough." And that kind of universal appeal is exactly what 5th Cell went for with Scribblenauts -- an approach that put them in some pretty exclusive company.

Yep, another 4 pages of in-depth analysis for the most recent set of NPD numbers. I don’t know why the podcast crew gives me such a hard time when I talk NPD data. I love this kind of stuff! I know that there has to be one or two of you that [...]