We all get a little desperate sometimes. (By the way new Silent Hill Homecoming screenshots)

Industry and multi-console news

New media: Prince of Persia screenshots, Guitar Hero: World Tour screenshots

• Capcom has announced Tatsunoko Productions VS Capcom Cross Generation of Heroes, a fighting game pitting Capcom heroes against anime characters from Tatsunoko, a company responsible for series like Space Ace, Speed Racer and Yattaman. The only two characters confirmed from them so far are Gatchaman and Casshern. Famitsu has screenshots -- note the Servbots in the background, possibly hinting at Mega Man or Tron Bonne as playable.
• Oblivion and Fallout developer Bethesda has announced a "long-term development partnership with Splash Damage, developer of Enemy Territory.
• The Office for National Statistics says that high video game sales helped lessen the decline in retail sales overall in the UK in April.
• Some people have been analyzing stills from the Guitar Hero: World Tour trailer to figure out what the new guitar looks like.
• The production company responsible for the Castlevania and Tekken films has secured $200 million in financing for five films. Among projects they have planned are a film based on Pac Man and a sequel to Hard Boiled. If they combined those, I'd watch it.
• Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G has overtaken Mario Kart Wii on the newest Japanese sales chart.
• Gamasutra has an opinion piece arguing for creating artificial scarcity in the downloadable games market by only making games available for a limited time. "The problem, in a nutshell is this: An infinitely long tail gluts the market, confounds the consumer, and commoditizes developers." (This article seems especially timely given the news in the Microsoft section below)
• The 2008 Classic Game Expo has been cancelled.
• Maxis co-founder Jeff Braun has confirmed the existence of a new Oddworld game.
• Gamestop's CEO says that despite the company's strong earnings, they're aware of the current economic environment and how it may affect them. Fuel prices are cutting down on trips to smaller stores in shopping centers.
• GameSetWatch has a column on how "digital board games" like Boom Blox might actually have less appeal because they're too tied to reality. "The problem for my father was he couldn’t associate Boom Blox as a videogame, but rather as a videogame of a table-top game. My pop can set up blocks and knock them down, but, as in GTA IV, he cannot decimate a city block with a rocket launcher and a bus."
• There's a petition going before the Japanese Diet to ban erotic games and magazines featuring underage characters. No doubt it's mostly aimed at loli characters, which are in disturbing abundance, but they're in for a headache if they start trying to debate whether a given freakish-eyed anime girl with giant breasts is supposed to be 15 or 18.

PC and mobile news

New GameTap titles: Dangerous Waters, The Chosen
New content: Ship Simulator 2008 1.41 patch, Wings of Power II: Spitfire patch

• Interplay games are returning to GameTap.
• KingsIsle Entertainment has announced Wizard101, a fantasy-based 3D virtual world for teens.
• As we all know, one of the biggest problems with Crysis is it just doesn't look good enough. Good thing, then, that there are people working on an unofficial texture mod for the game.
• The required system specs for Starcraft 2 have leaked.
• The people who made World of Whorecraft have now made Rage of Bonan. That's Age of Conan if you couldn't figure it out.
• Perhaps capitalizing on the Zero Punctuation review, Amazon has Painkiller Gold Edition for $9.58.

Nintendo news

• Nintendo Wii Fanboy shows how to make a Wii Wheel training rig, along with explaining why you'd need such a thing.
• Castlevania producer Koji Igarashi is still not sold on the idea of using the Wii remote as a whip in a Castlevania game. "I still think it’s going to get tiring after a while." But as for the system as a whole, he adds: "I see it as a viable platform, the more and more I think about it.”
• Beer Pong is coming to WiiWare.
• GameSpy talks to Dr. Judith Stern about Wii Fit. "What is a misstep here is using BMI as an index of fitness. There's no basis for that. And it promises you something that it can't deliver."
• Along similar lines, MTV has a personal trainer go through Wii Fit and gets his comments.
• Disney has announced Disney Fairies: Tinker Bell for the DS. The screenshot is the best part: "Leaf dress, red leaf dress, blue leaf dress, yellow leaf dress, orange leaf dress, purple leaf dress." I'M LIVING THE DREAM
• Amazon has Contra 4 for $19.99.

Sony news

New game: The Con
New content: Rock Band tracks, PixelJunk Monsters album, Hot Shots Golf: Open Tee 2 beginner and intermediate demos
New media: Metal Gear Solid 4 screenshots

• The next issue of EGM reports that BioShock is coming to the PS3.
• The official Playstation blog has an interview with the composers for PixelJunk Monsters.
• The PS3 version of Guitar Hero III is getting a free God of War track in June.
• Tomonobu Itagaki says that Ninja Gaiden Sigma was "no good. ... Despite the fact that it's on a 'next-generation' console there's no evolution whatsoever. That was made not by me, but one of my sub-ordinates who basically tried to copy the success of Ninja Gaiden."
• Kojima is thinking about Metal Gear Solid 5. Geez, this guy.
• Amazon's deal of the day is NBA Ballers: Chosen One for $34.99. They also have Dungeon Explorer: Warrior of Ancient Arts for $19.99.

Microsoft news

New content: Time Shift maps, Chessmaster Live Breaking the Lines minigame
New media: Infinite Undiscovery trailer, Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix screenshots featuring Akuma

• MIcrosoft's Marc Whitten says there will be no spring dashboard update this year, and underperforming Live Arcade titles will now be delisted. See you in hell, Yaris.
• He also mentions that, in lieu of the dashboard update, they're releasing a DRM tool to fix licensing issues that people have had with replacement 360s, in which downloaded games were only playable in trial form when not online or with the main account signed in.
• Shane Kim says it's possible the Forza 2 team could develop Project Gotham Racing 5.
• Doug Lombardi says Valve will "probably be making some announcements pretty soon" regarding Team Fortress 2 DLC on the 360.
• CliffyB (I'm still calling him that, dammit) answers questions about Gears 2.
• Square Enix has announced a September 2 worldwide release date for Infinite Undiscovery.
• The 360 version of the new Hulk game will have an exclusive Red Hulk. I don't know why.
• Gamespot has a video interview with Tomonobu Itagaki about Ninja Gaiden II.
• Microsoft knows now that RichardGaywood is a real name, but that doesn't change things. "While it may be clear to some that Gaywood is a legitimate surname, it may not be obvious to other Xbox LIVE members." Thank God we've been protected.
• Next Generation has, of all things, a feature on the making of Kung Fu Chaos. "Born during the developer’s Just Add Monsters days, when it was just a couple of guys and a gal with a wealth of experience but no cash, this 2003 Xbox exclusive ranks among the most misunderstood, wronged and plain unlucky games ever made."
• Amazon's deal of the day is NBA Ballers: Chosen One for $34.99.