Gamespot has a selection of screenshots from the various games shown at Square Enix' ridiculously titled DKΣ3713 event, including this one from Parasite Eve: The Third Birthday. I suppose a gun battle in a wedding dress is still an improvement from the last time Aya was in formal wear.

Industry and multi-console news

• The Burnout Paradise bikes pack, which is the new name for the Davis update, is releasing in September.
• Hollyoaks star Gemma Atkinson is joining the cast of Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3.
• Forbes has an article on the casual game boom going bust. "The possibility of your doing well is really, really low. Regardless of how well your games sell, you're not going to make a lot of money."
• This year saw the lowest number of E3 Game Critics Awards going to Japanese developers in 11 years.
• There's a rumor that the next Medal of Honor will take place in Afghanistan.
• If you've played the demo then you already know this, but Kim Kardashian has joined Peter Moore in the growing list of, uh, celebrities that are selectable as characters in Facebreaker.
• A group called Direct Action to Stop the War is protesting Ubisoft for their involvement in America's Army, saying the game violates UN protocols concerning military recruitment of children.
• Destructoid has video of Madden the man talking about Madden the game.
• In the wake of the murder of a taxi driver in Thailand supposedly inspired by GTA, the Thai Ministry of Health has released a list of the ten most dangerous games. No, "man" isn't on the list.

PC and mobile news

• GTA4 has been officially announced for the PC with a release date of November 18.
• Warhammer Online gets a September 18 release date.
• Blizzard has changed the recruit-a-friend program in World of Warcraft.
• Turner is looking to sell GameTap.
• John Carmack says he has turned down several offers to make a Quake MMO.
• Gamasutra has an opinion piece on the excuses made for piracy.
• Designer Jeffrey Kaplan explains World of Warcraft's achievements system.
• The Escapist talks to several developers about their choice to go indie.
• How They Got Game talks about the ongoing project to archive virtual worlds, and presents video of the final five minutes of EA Land, formerly known as the Sims Online. This is the way the world ends -- not with a bang but a "lost server connection" error.

Nintendo news

New media: Fatal Frame IV trailers

• A Wii system menu hack is in the works to make your Wii region-free without a modchip.
• Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People will be released August 11.
• Capcom is refining Spyborgs "considerably". Christian Svensson calls it "pretty much as significant an overhaul as Dark Void underwent from its first announcement to its first big reveal."
• Chrono Trigger DS won't hit PAL territories until early 2009.
• Starmen.net has a complete guide to everything that was changed between Mother 2 and Earthbound.

Sony news

New media: Mercenaries 2 trailer demonstrating what the PS2 version looks like

• The official Playstation blog lays out what you get for pre-ordering LittleBigPlanet.
• An interactive travel guide for the PSP called Talkman Travel is coming to PSN this Thursday.
• The Eye of Judgment World Championships start August 14.
• A homebrewer has gotten Windows Vista to run on a PS3 for seemingly no reason.
• Team ICO is feeling no rush at the moment in developing their PS3 title. "Time is not critical yet... Production has not reached the critical stage."
• Pricing has been announced for SOCOM: Confrontation.
• The PSP release of Destroy All Humans! Big Willy Unleashed has been canceled.
• The PS3 version of BioShock will include a Survivor mode which basically makes the game tougher.
• Phantasy Star Portable is selling very well in Japan, with 90% of its initial shipment disappearing from shelves on release day.
• Square Enix and Roen are teaming to present Final Fantasy Versus XIII formal wear. Not enough zippers and pockets.

Microsoft news

New Live Arcade title: Braid
New media: Infinite Undiscovery screenshots

• There's a new system update to download. It doesn't do anything.
• DLC on the 360 has brought in $240 million, with 180 million of that made in the last 12 months.
• During a keynote at the Develop conference, Bungie's Damian Isla spoke about Halo's AI systems.
• He also mentioned that Bungie has "a lot to learn" from the success of Call of Duty 4. "They did some very innovative things to keep people going and their experience-rewards system was something that we paid a lot of attention to."
• Rare senior software engineer Nick Burton talks about the Live Arcade version of Goldeneye. "It's just what happens legally sometimes. Not necessarily with games, but you see it with music and films. Things get locked in this legal limbo. Even most of the parties involved, probably all the parties involved want to solve it. It's such a complex issue."
• This week's Zero Punctuation review is Ninja Gaiden II.
• Jonathan Blow has explained why Braid is priced at 1200 points. "There is a significant possibility that Braid would have been the next Psychonauts or Beyond Good and Evil (critically acclaimed but nobody played it), even at $10. If that happens at $10 then I am in debt and have to get a job and can’t make games any more. If that happens at $15, maybe I can still make games."
• Amazon's deal of the day is The Bourne Conspiracy for $39.99.