Namco Bandai Games has announced that Eureka Seven Vol. 2: The New Vision will be available for the PS2 in Spring 2007. The game, a prequel to the animated show, is the next installment in the aerial combat series. Scoop:

After abandoning the corrupt military and becoming a professional lifter, Sumner Sturgeon has become disenchanted with the life of an air sport athlete. Fate intervenes when his lost love returns and enlists his help to discover and stop the creation of the dangerous CFS (Compact Feedback System). Join Sumner on his quest to find the truth, compete in lift races, and pilot over 17 powerful LFOs (Light Finding Operations) in a variety of thrilling gameplay modes such as Story Mode, Survival Mode, Dream Match and Conflict Mode. With an enthralling storyline that arrives at the dawn of the anime series, this anticipated title promises to deliver an enduring action-propelled experience.

Bringing good news to SCi is Warner Bros., who has acquired ten percent of the company in a deal worth 44.5 million GBP. SCi is taking this deal very ambitiously, as the company has announced that it will create games based on Looney Tunes characters for portables; produce up to ten games based on Hanna-Barbera characters; games based on the Batman character as well as the hit TV show OC. Additionally, SCi has acquired the licensed for animated TV shows Loonatics Unleashed and Legion of Super Heroes.

That’s not all: it will also produce up to 20 games in total across current and next-gen platforms, with Warner Bros. providing primary distribution and media buying services to Eidos in the US. Expect to see these titles released from 2008 onwards.

There was no doubt Gears of War would be big, but sometimes ‘big’ is often an understatement: Microsoft has announced that Epic Games‘ shooter has sold 2 million copies worldwide (half of it in the US) since its launch on November 7. This success was testified by the fact that the game toppled Halo 2 as the most played multiplayer game on Xbox Live, with 1 million unique users having logged on.

Free content is in the pipeline for the game as well, so Gears of War gamers can look forward to more action sometime soon.

The latest offshoot from Bungie is Certain Affinity, founded by industry veteran Max Hoberman. He has worked on the multiplayer component for Halo 2 and the upcoming Halo 3; developers from Digital Anvil, Origin as well as others from Bungie make up the rest of the team.

Certain Affinity will have a certain affinity towards Halo it seems, as, according to their announcement, the studio’s first project is developing multiplayer maps for Halo 2, which will be released by Microsoft this Spring. The company is also working on a new Xbox 360 title that will be unveiled at a later date.

Those who still play Xbox games will be glad to know that Microsoft has finally issued another backwards compatibility update for the Xbox 360, adding support for oft-requested games such as Psychonauts, Conker: Live and Reloaded, Destroy All Humans and Fahrenheit/Indigo Prophecy. A full list of updated games can be found after the jump; those without a broadband connection can check here for details on how to get the update.
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A list of games that shipped in the past few days:

• Anarchy Online: Lost Eden
  
• Air Assault: Task Force
  
• Elder Scrolls: Knights of the Nine
  
• Pimp My Ride (X360)
  
• Rayman Raving Rabbids (PC, PS2, GBA)
  
• Rainbow Six: Vegas (PC)
  
• Star Trek
  
• Vigil: Blood Bitterness

Quite a few patches:

• Age of Pirates v1.43 on Playlogic

• Birth of America v1.10d on the AGEOD forums

• Dark Messiah of Might and Magic v1.02 on the Official Website

• DEFCON v1.2 on the Official Website

• NHL 07 v2.0 on EA Sports

• Nexuiz v2.2.1 on the Official Website

• Pacific Storm v1.3 on 3D Gamers

• Rainbow Six: Vegas v1.01 on the Official Website

• Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends v2.2 on the Official Website

• Starshatter: The Gathering Storm v5.0.1 on the Official Website

• Star Wars Empire at War Forces of Corruption v1.1 on LucasArts

• Warhammer: Mark of Chaos v1.6 on 3D Gamers, FileFront, The Patches Scrolls and Worthplaying

No doubt one of the older PC game developers around, Epic has disclosed that it plans on offering free content to Gears of War gamers, as they have done on the PC for so many years. During a backstage interview during the SpikeTV VGAs, the Epic guys stated their pledge for free content through Xbox Live and that they have been working on it long before the game was launched. No details could be extracted.

Atari and Ignition Entertainment have announced Mercury Meltdown Revolution, the series’ first foray on the Wii.

Mercury Meltdown Revolution is a brain-teasing puzzle game that challenges players to immerse themselves in a colourful world of sci-fi machines, crazy characters, and bubbling test tubes. Using the Wii Remote, Players guide a liquid mercury ‘blob’, around traps, door switches, spikes, moving floors and other hazardous elements in order to complete the level.

As expected, the game will make use of the console’s motion-sensitive controller, but will also support the Wii Classic and Gamecube controllers; it will feature 480p support, over 150 levels, hidden labs to unlock, “state of the art” blob physics and more.

Mercury Meltdown Revolution is slated for release during Spring 2007.

The Shadowgrounds soundtrack is now available through Sumthing Else, according to a press release by Frozenbyte. Available through both retail and online stores, the soundtrack features “heavy” guitar riffs performed by Amen, guitarist from Finnish hard rock band Lordi.

The soundtrack is retailing at 13 Euros, and as a special Christmas present, all copies throughout the month of December with come with a signature from composer Ari Pulkkinen.

The sci-fi part of Assassin’s Creed is yet to be explained, but the cat may be out of the bag, thanks to an interview with Kristen Bell. In an interview with IGN TV, the star of Veronica Mars explains her relation to the game, as well as the following interesting bit: “It’s actually really interesting to me. It’s sort of based on the research that’s sort of happening now, about the fact that your genes might be able to hold memory. And you could argue semantics and say it’s instinct, but how does a baby bird know to eat a worm, as opposed to a cockroach, if its parents don’t show it? And it’s about this science company trying to, Matrix-style, go into peoples brains and find out an ancestor who used to be an assassin, and sort of locate who that person is.”

As expected, Ubisoft is yet to comment on this. However, if a certain gameplay video from X06 is any indication, we might be in for a sci-fi game.

An open letter from the Lost Planet team has been making the rounds lately, offering word straight from the horse’s mouth that they are taking everyone’s suggestions into consideration and improving the game as necessary. It’s a long (and in-depth) letter, but some of the major points include improved multiplayer, navigation changes, replay changes, and more.

Hit the jump for the full letter.
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The studio behind the upcoming action-RPG Hellgate: London has expanded itself with the formation of a new development studio: Flagship Seattle. With that they also announced the studio’s first game: Mythos, an online RPG that will be used to test the networking technology behind the multiplayer component of Hellgate: London. Mythos will be digitally distributed globally sometime next year.

Flagship Seattle is being led by Travis Baldree, who previously worked at Wild Tangent as the Lead Designer on the popular free-to-play game Fate. Other members of the studio have worked on a range of titles including Dungeon Siege, Total Annihilation and SWAT 3.

The second game to come out from the Sega-Aliens deal is a next-gen RPG being made by Obsidian Entertainment, the people awesome RPGs like Star Wars KOTOR II and Neverwinter Nights 2.

In the works for the PC and unspecified consoles, the Aliens RPG will “build upon the distinctive look and feel of the original films while utilizing next-generation technology to create an entirely different and unique Alien experience,” according to the press release.

So why Obsidian? “With Obsidian Entertainment’s development pedigree, they were our first choice to bring the Alien franchise to the RPG universe,” said Simon Jeffery, President and COO, SEGA of America, Inc. “They are the only developer for us that could effectively combine the Alien mythology with compelling RPG gameplay to create the ultimate Alien experience.”

No release date was mentioned.

2K Games sent out word that Jade Empire: Special Edition for the PC will ship on February 26, 2007. It is a delay from the title’s original release period of January 2007.