Sony Online Entertainment has announced that Jon Smedley will open this week’s SOE Fan Faire in Las Vegas with a “community address” on Friday at 8.30pm EDT. In it he will be showing off the games that will be on display at the event, including a completely new SOE online game, which is set to launch later this month. Scoop:

To kickoff the 2007 SOE Fan Faire, SOE President John (”Smed”) Smedley will provide opening remarks to the more than 1000 video game fans coming to the Rio All Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas for this year’s Fan Faire video game convention. This first-ever “Community Address” combines a live presentation with a streaming video broadcast online, where Smed will give both Fan Faire attendees and other gamers the kind of look at SOE products usually reserved for industry events such as E3. Both audiences will see the latest from upcoming titles like Pirates of the Burning Sea™ and Gods & Heroes: Rome Rising™. Fan Faire guests and online viewers will also get their first looks at Secrets of Faydwer™, the next expansion for EverQuest®, and Rise of Kunark™, the upcoming expansion for EverQuest® II.

In another first for Fan Faire, Smed will also unveil an all-new, SOE online game, which is set to formally launch in late August. Fan Faire guests will have the first chance to demo this new title throughout Fan Faire weekend, August 3-5. The SOE Fan Faire is a unique social event in which players of SOE’s most popular titles congregate to meet their online, game-playing peers. This year’s event boasts a plethora of game-themed live events including tournaments, contests, live quests, a variety of panel discussions and tons of great gaming related contests.

This week’s additions to the Wii Shop Channel are Star Soldier (NES), Dynamite Headdy (Sega Genesis) and Drop Off (TurboGrafx16). Here’s the scoop:

Star Soldier (NES, 1 player, Rated E for Everyone - Mild Fantasy Violence, 500 Wii Points): The standard for vertically scrolling shooters, Star Soldier is the original game that spawned all of the titles in the long-running Soldier series. Go inside a floating space station inhabited by a giant computer known as Starbrain. Your mission: to stop Starbrain’s galactic invasion by piloting Caesar, a new, compact space fighter through 16 deadly stages. Collect power capsules to increase three different attributes of your ship: firepower, movement speed and defensive shields. Blast wave after wave of approaching enemies or use the innovative Trap Zone feature to fly beneath a land mass and avoid incoming fire. Conquer each stage to make your way to the final confrontation with Starbrain.

Dynamite Headdy (Sega Genesis, 1 player, Rated E for Everyone - Comic Mischief, 800 Wii Points): Headdy, a toy with a detachable head, arrives in North Town to find that the evil puppet king Dark Demon is causing serious problems. Dark Demon is gathering up all the puppets in town and turning some into his own evil minions, while eliminating the rest of the puppets that aren’t good enough to join his legions. Headdy is captured and is targeted for the incinerator, but escapes in the nick of time. Now he’s got to save the town. To do so, Headdy has to take on all manner of bad guys and even has to contend with his lifelong nemesis, Trouble Bruin the bear. Can Headdy overcome all his foes and take down Dark Demon?

Drop Off (TurboGrafx16, 1 player, Rated E for Everyone, 600 Wii Points): Brave five rounds of haunting, nightmarish dreams in this take on the classic arcade puzzler. To save his dearly beloved from the malicious demon that controls her dreams and holds her captive, our brave hero plunges himself into the nightmare to vanquish this evil foe. Deftly use the arrow items and control the angle of the ball to shatter the blocks that descend from the top of the screen. Set your sights on the joints holding the blocks together and knock off multiple blocks in one exhilarating blow. As you drop more and more blocks, their shapes will change, allowing you to earn bonus points. You must use your concentration and reflexes to defeat the demon and save your beloved.

To celebrate the studio’s tenth anniversary, as well as the development of Fable 2, Lionhead has released episode two of its video diary, highlighting the upcoming game’s one-button combat system.

The video diary also talks about the development team’s comical anecdotes about their real-life combat encounters with the sword-master they had hired to demonstrate “real sword-fighting.” They also show a friendly football match between Lionhead and Rare, another fellow UK developer.

You can view the video on the studio’s website; it is also embedded below:

Sony just can’t seem to get any break. Gamespot reports that the company, which is under legal attack over patent suits over its Blu-ray discs and the PS3’s digital security technology, has been slapped with another lawsuit, this time over the parallel processing Cell chip used to power the console.

Parallel Processing Corporation of California cites a patent for “synchronized parallel processing with shared memory” as the basis of its suit, alleging that Sony is infringing on its patent - to which it is the “exclusive licensee” - with the PS3. Apparently, Sony’s actions have caused the “irreparable harm and monetary damage” to the company, who is seeking damages and legal fees with interest, as well as the impounding and destruction of all Sony products that infringe on the patent.

As expected, Sony did not reply when contacted.

This studio update on Bizarre Creation’s website reveals the locations that will be present in Project Gotham Racing 4. It also talks about the “racification” of the tracks, the challenge of adding motorcycles, weather and some other things related to the locations themselves.

The newest episode in Myst Online: Uru Live has been launched by GameTap. Dubbed Familiar Voices, the latest addition allows players to continue the journey with all new puzzles, content and Ages as seen in recently released episodes.

In “Familiar Voices,” the newly-elected D’ni Restoration Council (DRC) releases its first Age - Jalak. Though Cate Alexander has been elected to lead the DRC, there still remains a power struggle within the Council which begins to spread throughout the cavern. Rumors of a war continue to grow, but a voice from the past returns to offer new hope.

The newly released Age of Jalak features an ancient arena that was once used for D’ni competitions, allowing players to compete and even create their own games. More information can be found on the game’s website.

This lengthy post on the Enemy Territory: Quake Wars website talks about many things, among which is word of a second beta for the upcoming multiplayer shooter. They also offer details on the new Valley map as well as changes in the new beta, which is going to be released within a week or two. Here’s the scoop:

Last week I flew back to London from the E3 Business and Media Summit in Los Angeles. We demonstrated Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars on the PC and XBOX 360, so to get back and start reading so many positive previews has made everyone here feel great. I’m even more pleased about the recent announcement that ETQW has been nominated for two E3 Games Critics Awards; Best PC Game of Show and Best Multiplayer Game of Show - this should be good news if you’re in possession of a Beta key, because the build the journalists played at E3 was a preview of the Beta 2 build that we’re about to release to you! The build is in testing at Activision right now and will be initially released to the QuakeCon audience for BYOC play. We hope to have it to FilePlanet within the next week or two for a wide release to all of our public beta testers.

Citing the September issue (what?!) of GamePro magazine, Joystiq reports that Rock Band will also feature Nirvana’s “Nevermind” as a full downloadable album to rock out to. This comes after word at E3 that albums from The Who and Metallica will be released as downloadable content.

The report also states that the game will do away with fictional locales found in Harmonix’s previous series Guitar Hero. Instead it will feature 41 venues, spread out across various cities like New York, Tokyo, Paris, Amsterdam, London and more.

Joystiq also contacted Harmonix about the date provided in the magazine article - November 6. The response? “Holiday 2007.”