1up has another round of the worst video game box art.

Industry and multi-console news

New media: Facebreaker trailers

• EA has secured a one billion dollar loan for a potential buyout of Take Two.
• Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li has been given a release date of February 17, 2009.
• The newest episode of GameTrailersTV features coverage of the upcoming Ghostbusters game.
• Gamespot has a feature on making superhero games. Unfortunately, movie tie-ins can mean more than they ought to -- The Incredible Hulk Ultimate Destruction sold "not nearly as well" as the earlier Hulk game based on the movie.
• EA is purchasing Rupture, a social networking site made by the guy who created Napster.
• GameSetWatch has an opinion piece on being a gamer and coming to grips with adulthood.
• Here's Scorpion's new look from Mortal Kombat vs. DC. Thrilling.
• Chris Hind has scans of the first issue of TV Gamer magazine from 1983.
• In honor of Mother's Day which is already over by the time you read this, Destructoid lists the best video game moms.
• Kezins has a summary of Niko Bellic's background from before GTA4 begins.
• You can watch video of a GTA4 bit on Saturday Night Live from the most recent episode, but if you drive a nail into your foot it will be funnier.
• The Escapist looks at the changing world of game difficulty. " Once upon a time, games were competitors. Now, primarily, they're entertainers. They aimed to beat you. Now, to be beaten."
• Flash of Steel has a series of posts about significant ancient-themed strategy games.
• BOB is a device for parents that can be programmed to shut off a TV or game system after a certain period of time, to give kids a hard limit on how much they can watch/play. Only cold, emotionless machines can control your children.
• Slate has an article on "what GTA4 gets right about gangland and illegal economies," written by a professor of sociology and African-American studies at Columbia University.
• N'Gai Croal laments that mainstream game reviews are missing the gameplay. "Mainstream critics must sum up an experience that's anywhere from six to 100 hours long-one that's fundamentally non-narrative, as we keep insisting--in the same amount of space or less that's devoted to 90-120-minute movie. The end result is a review where so much effort has been spent distilling the game into something that's understandable to non-gamers that no-one ever asks how truthful the distillation is."
• British Gaming Blog lists the ten best games never released in Europe. You didn't get Final Fantasy VI, Chrono Trigger or Super Mario RPG? Man, being European sucks.

PC and mobile news

• GameTap now has a page specifically focused on their indie games.

Nintendo news

New media: Professor Layton and the Mysterious Time Machine art and screenshots

• EA has announced Skate It for the Wii and DS.
• The New York Times describes the World Ends With You as "one of the best role playing games ever designed for anything."
• People with too much time and energy have created a functioning giant NES controller/coffee table.
• Platypus Comix looks at one of those How to Draw The Legend of Zelda books.
• Zelda Informer writes about the message of Majora's Mask. Disclaimer: I can't personally vouch for it because I don't want to read a lengthy essay about a game I haven't even played yet.
• Yes, I haven't played Majora's Mask, yes, I must be a horrible person.

Sony news

• Gamespost has a Q&A postmortem with the developers of Chains of Olympus.
• Amazon and Gamestop have God of War III available for pre-order, claiming a March 2 release date.
• Hideo Kojima responds to claims that he was disappointed in the graphics of MGS4. "Westerners do not have a tradition of modesty. And so, the statements are translated correctly, but the original meaning is totally different. And those statements are on a totally different website and the meaning totally changes." Yeah Kotaku, this is totally a "PR disaster", thanks for your awesome input.

Microsoft news

New media: First Gears of War 2 gameplay footage -- Also available on the Live Marketplace

• People with Vista Premium can stream Netflix movies to their 360s. It's not an official feature, though.