Posted before the weekend, but unnoticed somehow, is a Steam update that hypes the newly released SiN: Emergence game as well as the upcoming first Episode for Half-Life 2. The update also discusses maps for Counter-Strike and Day of Defeat Source, stating that new maps for the multiplayer shooters will be released soon:

Counter-Strike: Source has more HDR-enabled versions of maps on the way, along with some enhancements to the game itself. Day of Defeat: Source is getting ready for a significant release that will add a number of new features, along with a new map named Colmar. Colmar is the first map to take advantage of a new objective system that allows us to build different kinds of levels than currently exist. Stay tuned for specifics on how the map plays out, but for now here’s a screenshot of the sleepy night-time village.

Below are the mentioned screenshots:

These titles were shipped:

• Puresim Baseball 2007

• Rush for Berlin

The Japanese love their PlayStations over anything else: according to a post-E3 Famitsu poll, Japanese gamers were most interested in impressions of the PS3 controller and information on Final Fantasy XIII. They were also interested in the console’s price and release date, as well as its menu/interface and the online service.

Nintendo’s Wii was mostly ignored - gamers from the region were only interested in the Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Snake playable announcement… and that’s it! Instead, they were focused almost exclusively on the PS3 (game screenshots) and Final Fantasy XIII (polymorphic content details), along with details on Square Enix’s games lineup.

It’s no surprise that the Japanese want to know about the PS3, but whatever happened to love for Nintendo? Microsoft is getting pretty beat up in the region, and if this poll is any indication, Sony is going for “teh win.”

As if we didn’t need another Duke Nukem Forever release date: a 3DR forum member has posted the scan of a page from the July edition of PC Gamer which states that it has received “official word” that DNF will be released sometime next year.

Please do take it with buckets of salt, because, first of all, it’s not directly from 3D Realms; and secondly, do you really think Duke Nukem Forever will EVER be released? It’s a myth! An urban legend! Kidding aside, it’d be great if the game gets released soon.

A fan interview with Rasmus Sisgaard of IO Interactive on Hitmanforum indicates that Hitman: Blood Money has gone gold, though there has been no official announcement regarding the matter. Scoop:

It has been fantastic working on Hitman Blood Money. It has also been very tough. There have been many nights and weekends, where we’ve been working on the game, but all of the people at IoI are fantastic, and so it feels more like having fun than work at times. I’m writing this, the day after the PC version has gone goldmaster, and shipped to the manufacturer, and I have to tell you it’s a wonderful feeling.

It’s funny how it gets when you work on a game for this long, because in the end I couldn’t really figure out if it was a good game or not, because I more or less only saw my own levels everyday, and focused on the bugs. But when I saw the levels the other guys were working on, and they were sitting there pointing out which bugs they were fixing, the only thing I could think and say was, “Holy #¤%&! Your level is the coolest one ever. So much better than mine. The entire game is gonna rock”. And it was the exact same when people saw my levels. I guess it was something like couldn’t see the forest for the trees.

Indie developer Big Toe has announced the release of Dark Matter, its “visually stunning” top-down shooter. A remake of the classic game, Dark Matter features 30 missions, a Challenge mode, weapon upgrades, score achievement medals and support for the Xbox 360 controller in-game.

A new patch for Star Wars: Empire at War has been released, updating the RTS to v1.04. It’s a 22.6 MB download which includes balance changes, bug fixes, support for custom maps, an editor for creating custom maps and more. Download it from LucasArts, 3D Gamers and Gamer’s Hell.

Citing a Japanese source, IGN is reporting that Nintendo has shipped three million copies of Animal Crossing: Wild World in Japan alone. It is without any doubt a huge success, and has now spawned an anime movie.

According the report, the untitled Animal Crossing anime movie is being prepared for a Japanese opening this December. Jouji Shimura is serving as director, and the game’s staff is said to be cooperating on the project. As usual, no US plans for the movie are known yet.

E3 2006 saw the unveiling of quite a few big titles: Halo 3, GTA 4, Wii games, Assassin’s Creed and many others. But it also saw the absence of many notables of the past year. Gamespot has an article up that details the games absent, including Killzone PS3, Devil May Cry 4 and, most noticeably, Resident Evil 5.

They forgot to include Duke Nukem Forever! Never mind…

A patch for Blitzkrieg 2 has been released, updating the WWII strategy title to v1.5. The update offers multiplayer balance changes and addresses other issues. There is also an update available for SOLDNER, patching it to v33671. The corresponding dedicated server was released too.