I was able to finish Steven Kent's The Ultimate History of Video Games this evening. The 600-page tome should be a part of every gamer's bookshelf. The book, which looks at the gaming industry's history dating back to the pre-pinball days, is structured in a way where on every page there's an actual quote from someone relevant to the current topic; it's really cool to get that insider's perspective. The book is a bit heavy on the Atari age and focuses more on the U.S. executives of Sega and Nintendo than it does the Japanese side of things, but it offers so many glimpses and backstory that I tried to drag out finishing it as long as possible. A couple areas where it shined were the two Senate investigative commissions regarding game violence, the heated battles within Atari's management, and the console war between the Super Nintendo and Genesis. If you want to learn more about the history of the industry, pick this up.

	Nintendo Unveils Famicom Mini Vol. 3 Japanese gamers will get ten more classic NES games early August as Nintendo has announced the latest volume of Famicom Mini titles. The headliners are Metroid, Kid Icarus, Castlevania, Zelda II: Adventure of Link, and Super Mario Bros. 2. I'm not sure if the last one is the version that's already been released or if that's the Japanese-only sequel that was basically just a harder version of the original, but I seriously hope it's the latter.
	Chronicles of Riddick on PS2? GameSpot discovers that in a recent interview with movie site ComingSoon.net, actor Vin Diesel let the cat out of the bag that a PlayStation 2 version of The Chronicles of Riddick: Butcher Bay is in the works and the development team is pushing hard to get it ready for the holiday season. Diesel is quoted as saying that he's "...trying to get the PS2 game [to retailers] by Christmas; to release with the DVD." On the contrary, a VU Games spokesperson told GameSpot today that "...at this time there are no plans to do Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay on PlayStation 2."
	Booster Pack for Project Gotham Racing 2 Gamers will soon be able to download a new booster pack for Project Gotham Racing 2, dubbed the Long Beach Booster Pack. The premium content, selling for $4.99, will contain eight new tracks based on the southern Californian city and eight new vehicles, including the Ariel Atom 2 and VW Nardo.
	From Software Acquires Tenchu From Software, developer of such titles as Lost Kingdoms and Armored Core 3, has announced they have acquired the worldwide rights to Activision's Tenchu series. The agreement excludes the rights to all titles released before Tenchu 3, with includes Tenchu Kurenai. From Software plans to expand the Tenchu franchise into areas outside of the video game market.
	Misc. Q&As/Interviews TotalVideoGames chats it up with Naughty Dog's Evan Wells, game director on Jak III. Experience Gaming speaks with Derek Proud, producer at THQ working on Destroy All Humans!. TeamXbox sits down with technical evangelist of the Xbox Live platform, Andre Vrignaud.
	Misc. Media/Previews
	The Magic Box gets us started with new shots of Gran Turismo 4. Game Informer dig up new shots of Tekken 5. Sixteen new images of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater are at GameSpot tonight. GamerFeed previews Way of the Samurai 2 (videos at GameSpot). CVG has plenty of scary screens showing off Resident Evil Outbreak File #2. New images of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex are at GameSpy.
	Games Domain previews the hotly anticipated RPG, Sudeki. TeamXbox has plenty of goodies for us: a hands-on preview of Rainbow Six 3: Black Arrow, preview of Iron Phoenix, and videos of Conker: Live & Reloaded.
	Tons of gameplay footage showing off Tales of Symphonia at GameSpot this evening.
	IGN brings us the first details and screenshots of this Crazy Taxi lookalike, Smashing Drive.
	GameSpot shakes a tackle to deliver this new movie of NCAA Football 2005 (PS2, Xbox, GCN) and takes a look at Burnout 3: Takedown (PS2, Xbox). They also bring us new screens of King Arthur (PS2, Xbox, GCN) and Black (PS2, Xbox). FileShack has a new trailer for Outlaw Golf 2 (PS2, Xbox) while TeamXbox previews Test Drive: Eve of Destruction (PS2, Xbox). GameSpy previews the defensive gameplay of Madden NFL 2005 (PS2, Xbox, GCN) and has shots of Capcom Fighting Jam (PS2, Xbox). IGN chips in with footage of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004 (PS2, Xbox, GCN).