Nothing like a long weekend to get the gaming news rolling. Of course, the big story surrounds the controversy involving Blizzard, Nihilistic Software, and StarCraft: Ghost. This story is pretty fresh, with the details about Nihilistic's removal as developer hitting the web at only 9:30pm EST. All we have to go on right now is a blurb from a PR rep, so it should be an exciting tomorrow if we get something more official from Blizzard regarding the issue. When I spent time with StarCraft: Ghost at E3, I felt like it had plenty going for it, but there was just a lack of involving gameplay. The visuals, sounds, animations, and controls were all spot-on, but I just didn't have the fun I was expecting. With the shadow of Halo 2 looming ever larger, I think Blizzard wants to do the right thing and make sure Ghost doesn't disappoint, even if it means a massive delay. Of course, this is all speculation, who knows the real reason for the split, but an interesting story to definitely follow.

	StarCraft: Ghost Delayed/Nihilistic Dropped In a recent announcement, Blizzard has revealed that the upcoming console-only StarCraft shooter will not be released this year, slipping to somewhere in 2005. If you recall, earlier this month, Blizzard had delayed Ghost till "when it's done," estimating sometime in December, but there appears to be much more work to be done. Mike Morhaime, Blizzard Entertainment president and co-founder, commented "...we plan to build additional time into the schedule to polish the game until it meets the high standards that our customers have come to expect from Blizzard products." The press release had no mention of Nihilistic Software and when contacted by HomeLAN Fed, the company responded, "Nihilistic has completed its contribution on StarCraft: Ghost. They are contracted to begin work on another project in the months ahead. Due to the requirements of that obligation and the delay of StarCraft, it was mutually determined that now would be the best time for them to complete their work."
	No Backwards Compatibility for Xbox 2 GamesIndustry.biz reports this evening that sources within Microsoft, who are close to a few executives, can confirm that there will be no backwards compatibility between Microsoft's current and upcoming consoles. According to the article, Microsoft had retained an emulation group of engineers to see if they can make it happen, but due to a radically different hardware architecture and the possibility of violating nVidia patents, backwards compatibility is deemed improbable.
	GBA's Successor Underway Speaking at the European ELSPA Games Summit, Computer and Video Games reports that Nintendo Europe managing director David Gosen has gone on record as saying, "New Game Boy iterations are under review right now, before the first DS is sold." While this doesn't specifically state whether a whole new system or just an upgrade over the current GBASP is in the works, something is definitely going on in the Nintendo labs. Remember, the Nintendo DS is not the GBA's successor but rather Nintendo's third pillar in it's trio of systems.
	San Andreas Not Online In an interview with a Dutch gaming magazine, Rockstar's creative director Dan Houser confirmed that there will be no online play in the upcoming Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, citing that it would simply be "impossible." He continued, "San Andreas will not be online, we would have to sacrifice too much for it. We have a lot of script writers working on GTA, and they use so many scenarios to build the story - it's impossible to do that in an online game, that problem has not been solved." He wraps it up by not committing to any online GTA.
	Kingdom Hearts Slips to 2005 Joining with StarCraft: Ghost, Square Enix's follow up to their Disney RPG, Kingdom Hearts II, has been officially pushed back till 2005, according to Japanese magazine Jump. However, the GBA game Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories is still planned for a fall release. Interesting to note is that the magazine confirms at least five Final Fantasy characters will make an appearance and that Japan is holding a pre-launch party late August.
	Misc. Q&As/Interviews IGN spoke with Microsoft's Group Manager of Casual Games, Greg Canessa and they discussed Xbox Live Arcade. GameSpot has a designer diary this evening with a few personnel involved with Spy Fiction as well as a video interview with porn star Sunrise Adams, talking about her influence on Backyard Wrestling 2: There Goes the Neighborhood.
	Misc. Media/Previews
	GamerFeed previews Bujingai: The Forsaken City. Game Informer shows off new videos and images of Astro Boy. IGN has a hands-on impression of the incredibly wacky Under The Skin. GameSpy cranks it up with shots of Ratchet and Clank: Up Your Arsenal.
	Simply put, IGN goes hands-on with Syberia II.
	The folks at IGN gets tribal with some new videos of Donkey Konga.
	GameSpy uses the power of the sun to deliver new screens of Boktai 2: Solar Boy Django and Riviera: Place of Promise.
	GameSpy has a handful of screenshots for Metal Gear Ac!d.
	TeamXbox rockets off with a preview of the GTA/Mars Attacks hybrid, Destroy All Humans! (PS2, Xbox). IGN blasts us a ton of new footage for tomorrow's Mega Man Anniversary Collection (PS2, GCN), goes hands-on with Spider-man 2 (PS2, Xbox, GCN), and shows us the first shots for Stolen (PS2, Xbox, GCN). They also boast new videos of ESPN NFL 2K5 (PS2, Xbox, GCN). Games Domain takes a look at Acclaim's The Last Job (PS2, Xbox). HomeLAN Fed and Game Informer have game impressions of Spider-man 2 (PS2, Xbox, GCN). There's also some footage of Spidey darting around some buildings at Team Xbox. GameSpot previews Galleon: Islands of Mystery (Xbox, GCN) and posts screens of Street Racing Syndicate (PS2, Xbox, GCN). 1up takes the time to preview Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone (PS2, Xbox). CVG does the whole shebang with Second Sight (PS2, Xbox, GCN), offering up an in-depth hands-on impression and footage.