Here are a few things I missed while reading the Foo Fighter's awesome tour rider:

• Microsoft explains their policy on the word Gay in gamertags
• Gory games cut crime?  Expect new lows of real world violence when Ninja Gaiden II hits
• CBS buys C|Net (owner of Gamespot) for way more than it's worth
• Is Call of Duty 4 a MMO?  I guess I missed the Morloc mission
• Lucasarts gets pithy about the lack of multiplayer in Force Unleashed
• Ars Technica takes Microsoft down a peg or two about the Xbox 360 numbers
• New racing rig is totally awesome, Dave might have to sell the plane to get it though
• Capcom wants to know which Street Fighter IV figure you want, no Stretch Armstrong Dhalsim available
• Haze questions answered, I guess we find out next week if the game was worth the wait

I'm not sure why but I've never gotten into the Dragon Ball Z franchise but I'm guessing they are fairly popular as Atari keeps cranking out games based on the series (which Cyril ends up reviewing).  If you want to get a taste of Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit, the new high-def version of the game be sure to check out the demo which was released on Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network this afternoon to see if the move to the HD era was good for the franchise or not.

Undeniably GRID is looking to be pretty if not pretty fun to play. Code Masters released this new trailer that showcases some of the tracks located in Japan and focuses on street courses and drift racing. You get a real feeling of bone crunch when you see the way collisions are done. Yet another racing game that I will play simply to destroy my collection of pretty cars. Muah ha ha ha. [READ MORE]

Yes it looks like Guitar Hero IV is going the Rock Band route and adding drums and singing. So how do you make it different? Why move one pad to the cymbal area and add another cymbal. Joystiq has a picture from Game Informer showing off a prototype. This just means another drum set I need to keep in the living room because I bet this thing won't work with Rock Band. My house isn't big enough to hold all these faux instruments.

Blockbuster is hosting a 24 hour Guitar Hero 3 tournament at one of their Dallas, Texas stores.  It goes from Friday the 16th to Saturday the 17th, with Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert starting the ceremonies.  A donation of $5 will get you unlimited playtime, and even better, your donations go to improve children's education in Dallas.  Oh, and there are some cool prizes for the winners too.  I wish they were doing one of these in Columbus, although I probably wouldn't make it out of the medium bracket. [READ MORE]

Traveller's Tales has released a demo of the PC version of LEGO Indiana Jones.  Since LucasArts's Indiana Jones game has been delayed this will be serving as your quasi-movie tie in game for the upcoming film.  I'm interested to see how this one plays as Traveler's Tales did such a good job with the LEGO Star Wars games.

Articles

• TheTechLounge covers a "flagship budget" review of the ASUS 8600GT TOP Video Card.
• Getting their hands on Neverwinter Nights 2: Mysteries of Westgate, WarCry leaves no mystery about their impressions.
• MMO travel time is covered in Steinhauer's Opinion: The Long Road, also over at WarCry.
• Legit Reviews is game testing 2GB versus 4GB of memory on Vista 64-bit.

Videos, Screens

• VIDEOS:  Alone in the Dark Trailer #9 (MP4); Baja Physics and Suspension Dev Diary Video (WMV); Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Heroes 2 Trailer #2 (WMV, QT); The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian DS Trailer (QT); Rocketmen: It Came from Uranus Trailer #2 (WMV HD); Rig n' Roll Interview Video.

• SCREENS:  Ninja Gaiden 2; X-Blades; LostWinds (Wii); Rocketmen: It Came from Uranus; Sudden Strike 3: Arms for Victory (PC); Skate It (Wii and DS shots); Top Spin 3 (X360); Lost Planet: Extreme Condition Colonies Edition; Lineage II: Hellbound (PC); Total Extreme Wrestling 2008 (PC); Tamagotchi Connection: Corner Shop 3 (DS); Mister Slime (DS); B-Boy; Grip: Warlord; Gothic 4.

Thanks to AtomicGamer, Strategy Informer, Legit Reviews, WarCry, and TheTechLounge for today's news roundup.

2K Sports has released the debut trailer for Top Spin 3 which features such tennis stars as Roger Federer, Andy Roddick, Maria Sharapova, James Blake, Bjorn Borg and Monica Seles.  The game will features 40 different events and while the animations and gameplay look great the faces of the players remind me that once again we still have a way to go before we cross the Uncanny Valley.

Here are a few things I missed while watching the first seven minutes of Speed Racer:

• Law of the land talks about how to create real video game legislation
• Activision is shelving the Tony Hawk series for this year, it's amazing what competition can do
• No video game tie-ins for Indiana Jones or Batman, this isn't necessarily a bad thing
• Aaron Goldberg trashes the PS3, RROD of irony escapes without notice
• Silicon Knights talks about the Mana system in Too Human
• Bizzare Creations is no longer doing DLC for Project Gotham Racing 4, up to Microsoft for new content

I've made no attempt to cover up my love of Little Bit Planet since I saw it at E3 last year.  Here's the new trailer from the game which debut at the Sony event in London this week.  There's some new gameplay shown off as well as some new Killzone 2 inspired sackboy creatures.   This footage is almost enough to offset the news that we won't be getting a beta of the game before it's released this fall.

Articles

• Our own John Yan ain't got nothin' nice to say to the Cleveland Indians GM. [GamingNexus Blogs]
• WarCry looks at the difficult task of roleplaying a merchant in this edition of RoleCraft: Professional RP.
• "The most robust of them all," here's Techgage's review of the ASUS X48-based P5E3 Premium Wi-Fi-AP board.

Videos, Screens

• VIDEOS:  Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit Trailer #6 (MP4); NASCAR 09 Paint Booth Trailer (WMV); Street Gears Cinematic Trailer (WMV); Mythos Open Beta Trailer (WMV); Assault Heroes 2 Big Bosses Trailer #1, #2 (QT); Elefunk Trailer (MP4); Ninja Gaiden 2 Lunar Staff Trailer #1, #2, #3, Castle, Brooklyn, Venice Environments (WMV).

• SCREENS:  Ninja Gaiden 2 (X360); Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors (Wii); The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor; MotorStorm Pacific Rift (PS3); Race Driver: GRID [demo shots]; The Lord of the Rings: Conquest; Street Gears (PC); Trainz: The Complete Collection (PC); Sins of a Solar Empire (PC); Sudden Strike 3 add-on (PC) [winter landscapes]; Voltage (PS3); Men of War (PC); Battle Rage: The Robot Wars (Wii); Toki Tori (Wii); Code Lyoko: Quest for Infinity (PS2 and PSP shots); Code Lyoko: Fall of X.A.N.A. (DS).

Thanks to WarCry, AtomicGamer, and Techgage for today's news roundup.

The folks at Pandemic Studios are working to bring hobbits, orcs, and Balrogs to life as they have just announced The Lord of the Rings: Conquest today. This time around you'll be able to join the evil forces of Sauron instead of playing as the good guys only. Some images of the game can be found on the official website but June 20th will be the date that you'll get to see game footage on GT TV. I'd really like to see how the game works taking the part of a Cave-troll or the Balrog.  With the recent announcement that Ian McKellem is set to reprise his role of Gandalf for the two Hobbit movies, there seems to be a good amount of Tolkien news coming about these days. [READ MORE]