Codemasters has provided the first screenshots of Asobo Studios' open-terrain off-road racer FUEL. The screenshots show the game's "alternate present" world where climate change has ravaged the planet's climate and racers compete for fuel.

FUEL will include a variety of locales, like forests, mountains and deserts, and both two-wheel and four-wheel racing. Codemasters promises the globally-warmed title will arrive in 2009 on PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3.

Continuing its wave of Guitar Hero World Tour announcements, publisher Activision today revealed that beloved bands Tool and The Police will be featured in the game.

Along with the below on-disc tracks, the multi-instrument music title will sport a specially-created Tool venue, made with the help of the band and said to highlight the "art style that has become a staple in their music videos, live shows and album artwork."

• Tool - "Schism"
• Tool - "Parabola"
• Tool - "Vicarious"
• The Police - "Demolition Man"

In addition, The Police vocalist Sting will be a playable character in the game.

Bringing drums and vocals to the once guitar-only franchise, Guitar Hero World Tour arrives on PS2, PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii this fall. Vicarious Visions is handling the Wii release and Budcat is on the PS2 edition, with Neversoft doing the PS3 and 360 entries.

Blizzard has let loose four new screenshots from its hellish hack-and-slasher Diablo III. Included are a number of characters leaping through the air and hitting things.

The new PC RPG, boasting new-and-improved Battle.net functionality, is "heavily in development" and will see release when it's done.

Death Tank, once a mini-game in Lobotomy Software's PowerSlave for the Sega Saturn, is coming to Xbox 360's Xbox Live Arcade, as was hinted by Germany's software ratings board.

Now developed by Snowblind Studios, the game is a two-dimensional multiplayer shooter a la Worms, but made real-time instead of turn-based. Lobotomy staffer Ezra Dreisbach, who is credited with the development of Death Tank, now works at Snowblind.

The digitally-downloadable revival will support four players on the same console and up to eight players online. A release date and price have not yet been announced, but the game's first screenshots were released by the studio today.

Three new screenshots from Blizzard's real-time strategy sequel StarCraft 2 have trickled in, depicting various battle scenarios between Protoss and Zerg forces. And lasers, or as Shacknews editor Chris Faylor identifies them, "pew pew."

StarCraft 2 was recently pegged as the debut point for an enhanced version of Blizzard's online Battle.net matchmaking system, featuring friends lists, in-game chat, and achievements.

A release date is far from certain, but studio owner Activision Blizzard recently said the highly-anticipated PC game "should" arrive next year.

With the long-rumored Ninja Blade now officially unveiled, publisher Microsoft has provided new screenshots and higher resolution takes of older shots from the game.

An Xbox 360 exclusive set in a realistic recreation of Tokyo, the From Software-developed action title will see players defending humanity from "a horrific, genetically mutating disease," according to Microsoft, when it arrives next year.

Nintendo has released a batch of new screenshots from Wii Music, depicting several colorful performance venues from grassy meadows to basement clubs and TV stages. Mii avatars can also be seen playing a variety of instruments.

Wii Music sets a departure from mega-hit music games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero by making failure impossible. The Wii Remote-controlled game, the final step in Nintendo designer Shigeru Miyamoto's original vision for the Wii, will jam its way into living rooms this holiday season.

To describe Gas Powered Games' Demigod as a DotA clone is doing a disservice to its target audience. Demigod is DotA for people who think DotA sounds like a division of Homeland Security.

So what is Demigod? Picture a PC RTS where the player controls a single, gigantic hero unit--an RTS/action-RPG hybrid. Each side has an automatically-spawning horde of minor units, with the Demigod's task being to either direct them to a specific location, or impact the battle to the point that your side eventually overtakes the opposing enemy.

As such, Demigods come in two categories: Assassins and Generals. The former are pure warriors, while the latter primarily take command of the minions, ordering them to capture specific control points.

At the beginning of a match, your chosen Demigod begins its life at level one. As you cause havoc, smashing enemy forces and fortresses, your hero unit progresses in level, each milestone granting one point to be spent in a branching talent tree. Talents range from passive bonuses to direct abilities, the skillsets being particular to each Demigod. For instance, the Rook, the game's poster-god, has a talent... Read more

Scorpion's flame-ridden fatality is the focus of the two new screenshots from Midway Chicago's fighter Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, which arrives on PS3 and 360 this fall.

Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 2 will come to North America next year for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 2, publisher Namco Bandai announced today.

The Omega Force-developed sequel will send players back into space in the Gundam universe's robotic "mobile suits" for more Dynasty Warriors-derived battlefield hack-and-slash gameplay. The new game will feature new suits, new weapons, new moves, and online multiplayer.

Gundam 2's first screenshots accompanied today's announcement as well as some concept art.

With EA Maxis' long-awaited life simulator Spore due on PC and Mac this Sunday, publisher EA has released new screenshots of the game's civilization and space play.

For more on the multi-stage lifeform incubator, check out our latest impressions.

Sony Computer Entertainment Japan today pulled back the curtain on the official PlayStation 3 Wireless Headset, which hits Japan on October 30 at 5,000 yen ($46).

The Bluetooth device allows gamers to communicate with other online players for up to eight hours on a single charge, can be charged via USB, and sports a noise canceling feature. In addition to voice chat, the headset allows users to bring up an on-screen indicator showing battery charge, volume levels, connection quality, and mute status.

While the the PS3 is compatible with practically any Bluetooth or USB microphone, this marks the first time that Sony has produced an officially-branded Bluetooth headset. It also represents the first implementation of detailed headset information into the PS3's on-screen display.

Joining the forthcoming PS3 Wireless Keypad as part of Sony's recent focus on communication, the headset is expected to arrive in Europe and North America shortly after its Japanese debut, though Sony has yet to provide any concrete details.

Insomniac Games' shooter sequel Resistance 2 (PS3) will debut on November 4 in North America, publisher Sony Computer Entertainment America announced today.

The previously revealed Public Beta program will launch in early October, allowing GameStop pre-order customers and Qore subscribers to experience the game's 60-person online multiplayer and 8-player online co-op.

Resistance 2 will arrive in both regular and collector's edition varieties, which will respectively sell for $59.99 and $79.99. Included in the collector's edition are:

• Created by DC Unlimited, an exclusive Chimeran Hybrid action figure with Bullseye weapon.
• A double-sided hard-cover Resistance 2 art book covering war-torn America from two unique perspectives.
• Exclusive in-game HVAP Wraith multiplayer weapon skin... Read more

This week's update to the Wii's online Shop Channel brings with it the seemingly traditional mix of one new WiiWare game, and two Virtual Console retro re-releases.

WiiWare
• My Aquarium (Hudson) / 500 Wii Points ($5)
Virtual Console
• Clu Clu Land (Nintendo, NES) / 500 Wii Points ($5)
• Super Mario RPG (Square, SNES) / 800 Wii Points ($8)

All three games are now up for download. Read on for more details... Read more

BioWare showed off the Dragon Age: Origins toolset at the Penny Arcade Expo yesterday, and for those of us not at the show, the Canadian developer sent along these screenshots. More details about the toolset shipping with the game can be found here.

In commemoration of this week's Penny Arcade Expo, developer Hothead Games has released the first batch of screenshots and a piece of artwork from Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, Episode 2.

The downloadable RPG is slated to hit PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 this winter.

It's been a while, but THQ has blessed us with three more Saints Row 2 (PC, PS3, X360) videos featuring the one-and-only Gary Busey. He talks up the game's wieldable props, costumes and flying.

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More videos, and new screenshots from Volition's open-world action game sequel follow ... Read more

As previously rumored, Activision today confirmed that it will debut an accelerometer motion sensor for the Nintendo DS alongside a new Tony Hawk game this fall.

Due out in November, Tony Hawk's Motion brings twisting, tilting and turning skateboarding controls to the DS. The game, developed by Creat Studios, also marks the first time that a Tony Hawk entry has featured snowboarding.

In addition to Tony Hawk and the motion sensor, the $39.99 bundle will pack a second motion-controlled game, Creat's action-oriented puzzler Hue Pixel Painter.

Hidden Path Entertainment, developer of the Xbox Live Arcade trivia game Wits & Wagers, is bringing the tower defense genre back to the PC with Defense Grid: The Awakening.

Tower defense started as a popular modification to Blizzard's Warcraft III. The gameplay--building and upgrading various towers that shoot at ever-stronger lines of enemies marching toward the player's base--proved addictive enough to pave way for the PlayStation 3 release of Q-Games's PixelJunk Monsters and an expansion pack earlier this year.

With Defense Grid, Hidden Path is bringing the tower-defending phenomenon back to its PC roots with 20 levels. The game will be released this November.

Last week, Japanese publication Famitsu provided the first comparison images highlighting the "wider color gamut and anti-reflection technology" of the new PSP-3000.

GameSpot has now provided a few more pictures, better illustrating the difference between the current PSP-2000 and the PSP-3000 redesign, due out in October.