Kotaku has a large gallery of screenshots from SimCity Creator, which apparently now allows you to build Crystalgard.

Industry and multi-console news

New media: Dark Void gameplay footage

• Ludlum Entertainment has reacquired the rights to make games based on the works of Robert Ludlum from Vivendi. Vivendi has been dropping a number of titles after its merger with Activision.
• Edge looks at the secrets of great menu design.
• Pre-orders are down for this year's versions of NCAA Football and Madden, but EA says that doesn't necessarily mean lower sales.
• EA has delayed Tiberium until the 2009-10 fiscal year.
• And Ubisoft has delayed HAWX until 2009.
• GameShadow is now offering a metrics service based on data taken from users of its free game patching system. "As examples, GameShadow announced that a very high percentage of gamers who played Call of Duty 4 also played games like Company of Heroes and Battlefield, while eschewing FPS entries like Crysis, BioShock and Quake 4—implying that a game’s subject matter is more important than its genre when it comes to gamer preferences."
• IGN lists the top 10 games for the Saturn.
• This week's Zero Punctuation video covers E3. Let me sum it up for you: "Everything sucks."
• THQ and Epic Games execs think we won't see a new game system for several years, possibly as late as 2018.
• The Telegraph reports that the UK government favors the BBFC over PEGI for game ratings. The ELSPA is denying any decision has been made.
• Joystiq gathers together the best of E3 awards from several sites, including 1up, IGN and Game Trailers.
• MSNBC has footage of Meredith Vieira, Matt Lauer, Al Roker and Natalie Morales playing Rock Band on the Today show. This video steals life.
• If you only rented Soul Calibur IV, you're missing out, because the instruction booklet comes with a coupon for fried chicken.
• GamesRadar returns to the familiar but always interesting well of comparing Japanese and American box art. Why did no one tell me Smuggler's Run was called Crazy Bump's in Japan.
• Street Fighter IV producer Yoshinori Ono was surprised to see Americans using Abel the most of the new characters. “With all due to respect to him, he’s a great character, but honestly we thought Crimson Viper would be a big hit here. We got a lot of marketing data and a lot of advice from our US branch in creating that character. She was kind of custom tailored for the States and we thought people would like her.”
• D3 has trademarked the name Onechanbara: Bikini Samurai Squad. It could be an alternate title for Onechanbara: Bikini Zombie Slayers, or it could mean one of the other games in the series may come to America.
• I don't know why video exists of Denis Dyack being interviewed in bed by half-naked Penthouse Pets, but it does. Compare and contrast to Cliff Bleszinski doing the same thing.
• As long as we're mixing gentlemen's magazines with video games, a writer for Playboy denies that this year's E3 sucked. "Would you like to know what happens to a game like Flower at the old E3? It crawls into a corner and sobs until the pain stops because someone has curb-stomped it. The old E3 was all the worst parts of nerd culture mashed up with all the worst parts of frat culture."
• Richard Garriott wants to send a digital copy of your DNA into space. "A select few will have their DNA digitized and sent. And, theoretically, if anything happens to the human race, it could be their DNA that is used to resurrect humanity."

PC and mobile news

New content: Galactic Dream: Rage of War demo, Romance of the Three Kingdoms XI demo

• EA being EA: They say they'd "love" to sell Spore creature parts "as we do with The Sims store online."
• Hackers attacked the Scrabble Facebook app, forcing it to be shut down temporarily, presumably in response to the removal of Scrabulous. Those Scrabble fans are serious dudes.
• Morroblivion is a mod that, you guessed it, imports Morrowind files into Oblivion.

Nintendo news

• Ragnarok Online is coming to the DS.
• Despite its initial slow sales, Boom Blox has hit 450,000 units sold.
• Hudson has announced Tetris Party for WiiWare. The game will include 18 different modes, many of which using motion controls and the balance board.
• Tecmo has announced Nostalgia no Kaze (The Winds of Nostalgia) for the DS.
• DS sales have dropped considerably in Japan. Maybe there's finally no one left who doesn't already have one.
• Wii Brew has introduced the Wii Pack Generator, "a web-based utility that allows you to select from the most recent, up to date, and high quality homebrew for your Nintendo Wii and create a custom pack."
• Rising Star will be bringing Grasshopper Manufacture's Flower, Sun, and Rain to Europe in October.
• The Phoenix Wright manga is coming to America.
• An indie developer has created an audio-only sex game using the Wii remote. The link has video of it in action, along with a creepy guy just sitting on a couch and watching.

Sony news

• PS3 firmware 2.42 has been released.
• Atlus has announced Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. The King of Abaddon for the PS2.
• Valve has denied rumors that Portal: Still Alive is coming to PSN.

Microsoft news

New Live Arcade title: Geometry Wars 2

• Castle Crashers features Alien Hominid as a playable character. He'll automatically be unlocked for anyone who already owns his Arcade game.
• Weta has released photos of their upcoming line of Halo 3 statues.
• Ron Carmel of 2D Boy has written an opinion piece on what Microsoft needs to change to satisfy indies.
• The official Japanese 360 blog has Castle Crashers listed for 1800 points and Braid for 1200. If these prices are carried over for North America, Castle Crashers would overtake Penny Arcade Adventures as the most expensive Arcade title to date.
• According to reports (well, a report), Microsoft has started using the Opus chipset in repaired 360s.
• There's a rumor that the tabletop game Zombies!!! is coming to Xbox Live Arcade.
• Teach your kids the proper way with the Halo corpse alphabet.