Ignition Entertainment has announced Teenage Zombies: Invasion of the Alien Brain Thingys, an adventure game for the DS. Scoop:

The Earth is under attack by a horde of Alien Brain… uh…Thingys! Humans, succumbing to ray-guns, mind-control, and shiny flying saucers, have failed to defend their planet and let it fall easily into the clutches of the Big Brain and his army of Brain Thingys. The only hope left for mankind is three Teenage Zombies that have arisen from a graveyard disturbed in the invasion. The undead trio ignores their normal human victims in favor of the pulsing pink brains they see EVERYWHERE - all the while being lured to the ultimate lunch: THE BIG BRAIN! The Big Brain soon realizes he’s overlooked this “Super Race” as they inexplicably resist mind control, are unaffected by ray-gun wounds, and devour his Brain Thingy Armies like sweets! He refocuses his efforts and resources to battle the Earth’s greatest champions: The Teenage Zombies!

The game parodies the Zombie genre, as well as 1950s style science-fiction. It will be presented with a comic book look featuring comic book panels, dialog boxes and storytelling. Gameplay involves side-scrolling adventure, stylus mini-games, double-screen boss battles and puzzle challenges. Players will be able to bite into big, pink brains starting Spring 2008.

Legal loopholes may allow the release of Manhunt 2 in the UK, where it has been denied classification twice now. According to MCV, the game could be released as a digital download without needing any BBFC rating, as the Video Recordings Act does not cover mediums of delivery like the Internet.

Neither Take-Two nor Rockstar have commented on the matter. The game has been re-rated M in North America and will be released in the region on October 31 for PS2, PSP and Wii.

The Dreamcast classic is back on the Wii! Sega has announced Samba de Amigo, its classic rhythm music game, for the aforementioned Nintendo console. The game will have players shake to the beats of a samba-infused soundtrack comprised of new songs as well as fan-favorites from the original game.

Playing as the grinning, sombrero-topped monkey, Amigo, players shake the Wii Remote™ and Nunchuk™ like maracas, in time with the visual beats of the music on-screen. The perfect party game, Samba De Amigo is packed with lively stages and a host of colourful characters. More details about this exciting new title including a full song listing as well as new special features will be revealed over the next few months.

It is in development at Gearbox Software and will be available exclusively on the Wii during Spring 2008.

Ahead of the game’s release next month, Harmonix has announced details behind ROCKBAND.com, a website that will hook into the upcoming rhythm game’s multiplayer and band features. The social community site will launch alongside the game on November 20 and will feature in-depth leaderboards, personal and band home pages, and a “Musicians Meeting Musicians” classified section to help form bands online. The site will offer members the opportunity to message each other and blog about their musical tastes and accomplishments. Here’s the deal:

• Personal & Band Pages: ROCKBAND.com will automatically load your in-game characters and game stats from an online database so your personal profile page will always be up to date. Choose from four genres in the game to customize your profile pages with cool background skins that reflect your rock tastes.

• Band Classifieds: Find and create your own band through the ROCKBAND.com Band Classifieds page. Here you can advertise your own rocker skills or search through dozens of rocker profiles to choose band mates who share similar music tastes.

• Rock Band Leaderboards: Climb to the top of the charts as a solo artist or band! From band rankings to solo scores, the ROCKBAND.com leaderboards will earn you fame and fortune as you progress on your journey to Rock Band stardom.

• Rocker Blogs: Find out what’s happening behind the scenes with your favorite bands through their blogs. Use your blog to communicate with band mates about practice times, meet others with similar musical interests and keep your groupies in the loop with the website’s unique blogs.

• Rock Band Forums: Interact with other rockers and music lovers about anything and everything rock!

• Photo Creator: (Coming Soon!) Take the ultimate promo band or solo shot with the website’s Photo Creator. Pick a location, the right lighting, and a coordinated (or not!) pose for your band. Take it over the top cheesy or seriously intense. It’s all about your band’s total image.

THQ has announced that it will release exclusively developed titles on Xbox Live Arcade starting with Spongebob Squarepants: Underpants Slam, an action game based on the popular Nickelodeon cartoon. It is expected to be released sometime next month. The game will be followed by Screwjumper, an original title, and Elements of Destruction and Rocket Riot.

Renowned game composer Jesper Kyd has composed the “dark and distorted” soundtrack for Kane & Lynch: Dead Men, an upcoming co-op action game from IO Interactive, the creators of the Hitman series. The game will be available next month for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.

First, the demos:

• Juiced 2 on 3D Downloads, ActionTrip, ComputerGames.ro, FileFront, FileShack, Gamer’s Hell, Games32, Internode Games Network and PixelRage

• Warhammer 40,000 Squad Command (PSP) on Rapidshare (direct download)

• Command & Conquer 3 v1.09 on ActionTrip, FanGaming, FileFront, Gamer’s Hell and GameSpot

• Culpa Innata on FileFront and Gamer’s Hell

• Lord of the Rings Online Book 11 on GameSpot

• MotoGP ‘07 v1.1 on FileFront and Gamer’s Hell

• Rainbow Six Vegas v1.06 on 3D Downloads, FileFront, FileShack, Gamer’s Hell, Games32 and Strategy Informer

• World in Conflict v1.002 on FileFront and Gamer’s Hell

• The Witcher v1.1 on ActionTrip, FileFront, FileShack and Gamer’s Hell

The pre-order program for Pirates of the Burning Sea has begun, offering gamers who purchase the MMORPG an invitation to access the game up to 15 days prior to the launch, a pet, exclusive weapons and an original soundtrack CD containing 60 minutes of pirate-themed music.

This page marks the call for recruits for the culmination of beta testing for Tabula Rasa, one that will see 10,000 keys given out on a first-come-first-serve basis. The beta wrap-up event will indeed feature the assassination of General British, lead designer Richard Garriott’s in-game avatar.

A rogue team of Tabula Rasa agents will be playing and challenge you to take on General British himself on Friday 26th October 2007 from 19:00h to 21:00 h BST (20:00h to 22:00h CET). As always, stay vigilant… you never know what surprises lurk around the corner…

Do you have the guts to take down the man?

Well, do you?

In good news to both Microsoft and Nintendo, the two console-makers have posted profitable quarters. In fact, this is Microsoft Entertainment Division’s first ever profitable three-month segment for the current fiscal year’s first quarter. The division encompasses all of the company’s hardware and software gaming endeavors, recording an operating income of $165 million, compared to last year’s loss of $142 million during the same period.

Nintendo’s profits are even more staggering, though theirs is not quarterly but semi-annual. The Japan-based company has posted an operating profit of up to 188 billion yen, compared to 67.1 billion yen the year before. Sales for this period soared from 299 billion yen to 695 billion yen. The company has raised its annual profit outlook to 275 billion yen, up 30 billion yen from its last forecast.

Meanwhile, the Sony camp is grieving over huge losses of approximately 96.7 billion yen ($847 US million) for the past quarter, down 53.2 billion year-on-year, attributed largely to the price point of the PS3 console. Apparently, the console is selling at a price lower than the production cost, according to a statement put out by the company. Sony aims on breaking even or better in its game business in the second half of the business year to March.

The games division didn’t stop Sony from posting an overall quarterly profit across its fully business. Overall, the company reported a profit of 90.5 billion yen, compared to a loss of 20.8 billion yen during the same period last year. It is attributed largely to strong sales of TVs, cameras and camcorders.

The upcoming v1.2 patch for Enemy Territory: Quake Wars will add quite a few new features including voice chat; it will also implement a number of other tweaks, as revealed by lead game designer Paul Wedgewood on the game’s community website.

According to the post, voice chat will come with a wide array of configuration options and support for various chatting devices. Other changes in the patch include 7.1 speaker support, improved quad-core processor performance, smarter bots, UI improvements and general stability. The patch will also modify the game’s weapon damage based on statistics and user feedback.

Though no specific release date was mentioned, it was noted that work on it has finished and that it is undergoing testing at Activision.

According to a comment post on the official PlayStation Blog, Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune has gone gold and is definitely headed for its November 20 release date. “We went “gold” last week,” wrote Naughty Dog AI and animation programmer Christian Gyrling. “Right now the game is in other words 100% done and is currently going through the approval process.”

He also noted that a demo of the game will be available for download through the PlayStation Store sometime before the full game is released. No exact date was offered though.

The latest publisher to join the Steam bandwagon is Codemasters, who have made sure to release Clive Barker’s Jericho on almost every digital download service… ever. Their participation in Valve’s service will also see the release of Overlord and DIRT later this month.

Future games from the publisher will be on Steam day and date with their retail release. However, their agreement does not extend to past games, so do not expect to see older Codemasters games on the service anytime soon.

Nintendo DS owners will get an adventure game next year, courtesy of Focus Home Interactive and Pendulo Studios who are bringing Runaway: The Dream of the Turtle to the dual-screened handheld. The portable version of the game will take full advantage of the platform’s touch-screen controls, and will feature a new graphical codec that offers over hour of animated sequences to further the plot.

The game will comprise of 6 chapters, 30 characters, up to 100 locations, an intuitive zoom system, a new navigation system and an integrated help system to solve the most difficult puzzles.

Runaway will be released in North America during Q2 2008.

Bethesda has announced that it will release Shivering Isles, the expansion pack to Elder Scrolls IV, for the PS3 through retail. The standalone disc will allow gamers the chance to experience the expansion of the award-winning RPG.

This retail release follows the October release of the Game of the Year edition of Elder Scrolls IV for the PS3, which includes the Shivering Isles pack. The expansion offers more than 30 hours of new gameplay, allowing players to explore an entirely new plane of Oblivion.

Shivering Isles will hit PS3 on November 20.