I love the laid-back feeling of LNC on Fridays. There's just so much familiarity with the Bungie Halo Update and Rumor Control and Prime Time Friday (although it appears we have been stiffed this week!). And today, we're treated with some awesome news; $20 Katamari Damacy! Who would've thunk'd it!? $20 is that magical price point where I feel like, "What the hell do I have to lose? Can't be THAT bad!" Of course, nothing but positivity has been coming out regarding this quirky title and it looks like Namco just made everyone's game shelf a bit more crowded this September.

	Katamari Damacy for $19.99 Online retailer GameStop has added a listing for Namco's Japanese cult success, Katamari Damacy, and have priced it at an incredible value: $19.99. Namco has yet to confirm to media that this will indeed be the price, but it does coincide with rumblings on the E3 show floor about a "budget price." GameStop has it listed for a September 21 release date and the title as Katamari Damashi.
	No Xbox 2 In The Next Year Yesterday in a financial meeting, Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, commented, "There's no new Xbox in the next year, but, man, are we hard at work on that next Xbox; that's all we'll say." Pretty clear, right? No Xbox 2 till 2006, yes? Unfortunately, his remark is highly open to interpretation. Microsoft's financial calendar runs from July 1 to June 30, so Ballmer could've meant no Xbox 2 until July 1, 2005 at the absolute earliest, leaving it open for a holiday 2005 launch. Or did he simply mean that next year, 2005, just won't see an Xbox 2? Right now, both Ballmer and Microsoft refuse to offer clarity.
	Sony Behind Open Development In a couple key moves recently, Sony Computer Entertainment has been getting behind groups that work collaborative developer relationships to produce open standards for game development. First, Sony has joined up with Collada, an "open and extensible collaboratively designed interchange file format." Also, Sony has become a member of the Khronos Group, an organization developing the OpenGL ES API, a spin-off of OpenGL for use with many consumer devices. More details on Sony's relationship with these groups are to be revealed during the upcoming SIGGRAPH next month.
	Bungie Weekly Update How did we ever survive before these updates? I think if I ever missed one, my blood would quickly freeze and I'd need medical attention. Anyway, this week's installment is 98% Halo 2 free! Everyone is in super-crunch mode at Bungie so instead, Frankie regales us with a tale of a last minute trip to Europe to show Halo 2 to English and German 'game ratings' officials. Ya know, our equivalent of the ESRB.
	Hurricane Pack Pushed Back I'm a poet and I didn't even know it. 1up reports that Tecmo has decided to hold off on the release of Ninja Gaiden Hurricane Pack Vol. 1 in order to give players time to register for its Master Ninja Tournament. So the new date is now August 9 for the free, downloadable content.
	Misc. Q&As/Features IGN interviews Capcom's "Mr. Suda" about Killer 7. They also have a clip of an upcoming episode of Icons that has video of Tomonobu Itagaki at work. HomeLAN Fed speaks with Robert Watson, lead designer at Crome Studios, who are working on King Arthur.
	Misc. Media/Previews
	We begin tonight at GameSpot who deliver some rather pretty shots of Final Fantasy XII. They also have an official trailer for Okami, import impressions of Samurai Showdown V, and a HUUUUGE preview of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (IGN has their article here). GameZone previews the recently delayed Monster Hunter. The Magic Box hosts new shots of Dragon Quest VIII and Armored Core: Nine Breaker. IGN goes to the mat with these screens of WWE SmackDown! vs. Raw. Also at IGN are screens of Dynasty Warriors 4: Empire, King of Fighters: Maximum Impact, and wraps it up with a trailer of Kengo 3. GameSpy previews Virtua Fighter 4 Final Tuned and has screens of Samurai Warriors: Xtreme Legends.
	TeamXbox gives a gift to its readers; custom Halo 2 desktop backgrounds! They also have a trailer for Rainbow Six 3: Black Arrow. IGN also has Halo 2 backgrounds in beautiful 1920x1536 format.
	Some new footage of Mega Man X: Command Mission is at IGN tonight.
	GameSpot spends time with a preview build of Pathway to Glory (NG).
	IGN draws a penalty by going hands-on with Winning Eleven 8 (PS2, Xbox). Hockey action at GameSpot with new footage of ESPN NHL 2K5 (PS2, Xbox). TeamXbox talks about new features in the game. There's also footage of Mortal Kombat: Deception (PS2, Xbox) and screens of Backyard Wrestling 2 (PS2, Xbox). Back to TeamXbox, they grab the wheel in this impression of Juiced (PS2, Xbox). They also experiment with a Ricky-less Miami Dolphins in Madden NFL 2005 (PS2, Xbox, GCN). HomeLAN Fed blows stuff up in this preview of Terminator 3: The Redemption (PS2, Xbox, GCN). IGN reveals new images of Killer 7 (PS2, GCN) and previews the pig-playing aspect of Blinx 2. Finally, GameSpy offers their preview of Shaman King (PS2, GCN).