Codemasters today announced Colin McRae: DiRT 2, the sequel to their 2007 best-selling off-road racer. In development at Codemasters Studios for release on PS3, Xbox 360 and PC, as well as Wii, DS and PSP in 2009, the game will honor the life of the rally legend, Colin McRae, who consulted on the series for over ten years before dying in a tragic helicopter accident.

“Colin McRae was all about the speed, the excitement and the entertainment of rally driving. Even when we first worked with him over ten years ago, he captured a freedom and a spirit that enthralled rally fans.” said Gavin Raeburn, senior executive producer at Codemasters Studios. “Later his showmanship shone through in events such as the X-games, the Dakar Rally and the Race of Champions. He could do things with a car that no one else would and that’s where we’re taking the series with new events at the extreme edge of rally and autosport. It will be a great tribute to an incredible champion.”

The sequel will feature a roster of contemporary off-road events as well as real-life racing personalities and officially licensed rally cars and off-road vehicles. It will be powered by the third generation of the EGO engine which benefits from tuned-up car-handling physics system and new damage engine effects. It will also show two times more detail than its predecessor.

Codemasters has released three ‘target’ visuals and confirmation that the original’s shitty multiplayer will be fixed in the sequel.

Modification tools for Call of Duty: World at War are now available, offering you the chance to create custom content for the recently-released shooter.

Grab the tools from AtomicGamer, FileFront and Gamer’s Hell.

A new developer diary for Prince of Persia has been released, showing off footage from the upcoming action-adventure game. Developers talk about the open-world nature of the game, on-demand dialog system, story and other aspects of the title.

The game is due out December 2 on PS3 and Xbox 360; a PC version is expected on December 9.

Convenience store 7-Eleven is getting into the games business, as the company announced that they will sell seven games this holiday season along with pre-paid game cards for a variety of online services.

In fact, the store is currently selling big titles such as Guitar Hero: World Tour, Gears of War 2 and Fallout 3. Advance reservations and midnight sales of new releases are also promised.

Additionally, a wide range of pre-paid cards will be available, ranging from MMOs like World of Warcraft to gift cards for Xbox Live and PlayStation Network.

7-Eleven runs over 6,000 stores in the United States, more than GameStop’s 5,100 stores in the country.

To coincide with the release of the fourth Terminator movie, Warner Bros. has announced Terminator Salvation – The Videogame, the tie-in game of the upcoming highly anticipated Christian Bale-starring film which is due to hit big-screens in May 2009.

The game, as expected, will have players assume the role of John Connor, humanity’s hope and leader, in a third-person action game with armed combat against Skynet enemies from the film as well as completely new ones exclusive to the game.

It is in development at GRIN Studios (Bionic Commando) and will be published by Equity Games and Evolved Games.

“Terminator Salvation – The Videogame allows players to battle for survival against Skynet enemies utilizing an incredibly fluid and realistic control set,” said Cos Lazouras, President of Halcyon Games. “The player will be led through a visceral story with extremely polished production values to create a fully interactive Terminator experience.”

Blizzard Entertainment today announced that Wrath of the Lich King, its second expansion pack for World of Warcraft, has sold more than 2.8 million copies in its first day of availability, making it the fastest-selling PC game of all time. The record was previously held by the studio’s other expansion for WoW – The Burning Crusade – released back in January 2007, selling nearly 2.4 million copies during its first day at retail.

“We’re grateful for the incredible support that players around the world have continued to show for World of Warcraft,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “Wrath of the Lich King contains some of the best content we’ve created for the game so far, and we look forward to seeing even more players log in to experience it in the days ahead.”

The expansion adds a whole new continent to explore, the Death Knight hero class and more. World of Warcraft, prior to the launch of the expansion, had more than 11 million players.

Taking their cue from Microsoft, Sony Computer Entertainment America has confirmed that Trophy support will be mandatory in PS3 games released after January 2009.

Similar to Xbox Live’s Achievements, the Trophy system rewards players for in-game achievements. It was introduced earlier this year in a PS3 firmware update. Some games have been patched to include Trophy support, but almost 90% of the PS3 games out there don’t support the feature.

Rockstar Games has officially announced the first details of the first downloadable content for the Xbox 360 version of Grand Theft Auto 4. It will not be released this holiday season, but now has a definite release date – February 17, 2009.

Dubbed “The Lost and Damned”, the DLC will introduce a new character and feature a plot that intersects with the main storyline of the original game. It will also include new multiplayer modes, weapons, music, vehicles and more.

No pricing was announced, but four screenshots were released.

Sega sends word that the collector’s edition for The House of the Dead: Overkill will come encased in an exclusive collector’s slipcase and is accompanied by an exclusive graphic novel. It will only be available through selected retailers as a pre-order bonus.

More interesting, however, is the addition of a “Prelude to an OVERKILL” graphic novel that tells the stories of Agents Washington and Varla Gunns on the night before the events of the game. It has been illustrated by Steve Copter of dissident punk bad “Black Mekon”.

The game is due out exclusively for the Wii in February 2009.

Finished Dead Space, but want more of the lore? Run to your nearest comic book store, as today marks the release of the hardbook comic based on the game. It serves as a prequel story for the game and has been written by Antony Johnson and illustrated by Ben Templesmith.

The book also features an exclusive bonus art section and a background section on the major characters.

Square Enix US president John Yamamoto has revealed that the new Los Angeles studio will start by working on downloadable games on all platforms – Xbox Live, WiiWare and PlayStation Network.

He notes that the team is still small, but that they hope to increase it to over 30 by the end of the next year.

The new studio will also be charged with researching middleware; Square Enix’s recently title The Last Remnant, which was both a critical and commercial success, was built on Epic’s Unreal Engine 3.

The studio is also currently gearing up to work on a multiplatform action game.

Google haters can now rest a little bit easier knowing that the tech giant won’t be breaking into gaming anytime soon, as Google has decided to terminate the customizable 3D social networking platform Lively just a few months after launching it.

"We’ve decided to shut Lively down at the end of the year," reads a post on the Official Google Blog. "We want to ensure that we prioritize our resources and focus more on our core search, ads and apps business."

The company had wanted to inspire “passionate start-ups” in the gaming industry, but had failed to do so itself. Google is still in the game biz as they are serving in-game ads now.

In more music news, film, television and video game composer Garry Schyman has created the original music score for Destroy All Humans: Path of the Furons, the latest installment in the human-probing series. The game is set in the ‘70s and the score is inspired by music styles from that era, including classic film scores by Lalo Schifrin, Jerry Goldsmith and Roy Budd. It was recorded with a live symphony orchestra as well as a brass band, flute soloist and more.

“The idea for DAH3 was to continue the approach set in DAH1 and DAH2 as though I was a film composer writing in that period,” said Garry Schyman. “Of course wah wah guitar is slathered throughout because it was so ubiquitous and influential. Personally this is my favorite of the three DAH scores. I love this style of music!”

The game is due out next month on Xbox 360.

Audiophiles listen up: Sumthing Else has announced that they will release the original music score composed by Ed Lima and Duncan Watt, offering all of the music from the game in one conveniently packed CD. It is due out November 25 via retail stores and through digital download and iTunes.

The score has been composed by Ed Lima (Prey, Doom 3) and Duncan Watt (Need for Speed: ProStreet). Interestingly, no music had been featured during gameplay, but the score was composed to support the story, accompanying cut-scenes and menus in the game. It was recorded with the Filmharmonic Orchestra and Choir at the Dvorak Hall of Rudolfinum in Prague. Below is the track list:

• Main Theme
• The Story So Far
• Baker’s Dozen
• Double Time
• The First Bad News / Letters To Loved Ones
• For Matthew
• We Happy Fewer
• Eindhoven/Roadblocks/Frankie’s Choice
• Those We Lost
• Farewell Is Goodbye

With the console versions out of the way, it appears DICE is pimping up the upcoming release of the PC version of Mirror’s Edge with support for PhysX’s physics engine, noting that NVIDIA 8-series and above cards will offer enhanced physics support for the game.

In fact, to show off the power of the PC, they released a trailer showcasing PhysX effects below. The game is due out on PC in January 2009.