Cryptic Studios has officially announced that they're working on Star Trek Online. The game's official site mentions that it's being developed for consoles as well as PC.

Industry and multi-console news

New media: Rock Band 2 battle of the bands demonstration, Lego Batman screenshots, Lord of the Rings: Conquest gameplay footage, Spider-Man: Web of Shadows trailer featuring goofy symbiote Wolverine

• Capcom has provided a few more details on its Resident Evil: Degeneration CG movie.
• Gamasutra has a roundtable discussion with indie shooter developers responsible for games like Every Extend and Everyday Shooter.
• At Microsoft's recent Gamefest event, two BioShock designers gave a lecture on the process of designing Rapture.
• A Force Unleashed demo is coming in August.
• Gamespot has an interview with the creators of Penny Arcade looking back at the first episode of their adventure game series.
• GamePolitics lists off the ESA's political donations for the second quarter of 2008.
• The guy in the Fallout shirt asking about game ratings on the Australian panel show Q&A talks about the experience. It turns out he's an editor for the site GameArena.
• Jack Thompson is opening his own website. He has sent around a press release announcing the site despite the fact that it's no more than a parked domain at the moment.
• Siliconera has scans of the Mirror's Edge mini-comic given away at Comic Con.
• Mark Wahlberg apparently hasn't played Max Payne. "I didn't want to play because I have an addictive personality. I got more responsibility now than I've ever had with the kids and everything else. I don't want to be spending 14 hours on the videogame and then eight hours on the set."
• Bethesda says there is a neutral character path in Fallout 3 along with the usual paths of good or evil.
• Capcom's Christian Svensson says they'd need "a lot more people" buying the original Okami before they considered a sequel. Given the people who made the original aren't even there anymore, I'm not too bothered.
• Ed Boon explains how the Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe world works, namely how Scorpion can beat up Superman. "The quick answer is that Superman actually does have two weaknesses: Kryptonite and magic." oh god it was better before you explained
• MTV talks to the developers of Mega Man 9 about the challenges and benefits of making an 8-bit retro game.

PC and mobile news

New media: Stargate Worlds trailer

• Privateering has been added to Pirates of the Caribbean Online.
• In preparation for the upcoming open beta, EA has announced the system requirements for Red Alert 3.
• As you would expect, access keys to the Lich King beta Blizzard has given out at fan conventions are selling for high prices on Ebay.
• Gaia Online is launching an MMO, and they're calling it zOMG. Ugh.

Nintendo news

New WiiWare title: Pong Toss
New Virtual Console titles: Chase HQ, Art of Fighting 2

• Somebody has translated the Captain Rainbow trailers so we can start to make sense of them.
• Red Steel 2 will support the MotionPlus add-on.
• Unsolved Crimes has been announced for release this fall on the DS.
• The people working on the fan-translation of Mother 3 have asked for help giving the enemies appropriately creative names.
• Amazon has Manhunt 2 for $16.81.

Sony news

• Gamasutra has an opinion piece looking back fondly on Bushido Blade.
• PS3 Fanboy offers suggestions on which PS3 Greatest Hits are worth the money.
• EA explains why Red Alert 3 isn't coming to the PS3: "PS3 is a very powerful system but as you guys know it's very exotic and tough to develop for and our engine really at the time wasn't designed for PS3."
• Konami has a list of countries they won't take credit card purchases from, which is making it hard for some people to play Metal Gear Online.

Microsoft news

• The Live free weekend is over, and people are still reporting that they can play PC/360 cross platform titles for free on a 360 with a Silver account. Joystiq asked Microsoft about it and was told only that they will issue an official statement shortly.
• Major Nelson has revealed release dates for several big Arcade titles, including Geometry Wars 2 this week and Bionic Commando Rearmed August 13.
• A series of videos on YouTube are purported to show a 360 modder installing and using a leaked version of the new dashboard.
• Frank O'Connor says the plan is to "explore not exploit" Halo. "We have a really detailed story bible, we do really have it all planned out. There are so many areas of the universe to explore, the real challenge is picking which is the most exciting area for people."
• The Ninja Gaiden II mission mode pack released last week caused errors for some people and was pulled. The Gamerscore blog originally said they hoped to get it back up on Monday, but that's been changed to TBD.
• Amazon's deal of the day is Final Fantasy XI : Wings of the Goddess for $7.99.