Dreaming of a black Xbox 360 controller? Wake up! Microsoft ain’t making one… yet. But thanks to Alcaron, you can have your sweaty hands on a black-colored Xbox 360 controller by just spending $5, notwithstanding the labor required of course.

Over at Alcaron’s Projects, you’ll find a DIY guide to blackening your precious controller, after which you can sit back and show off the controller to your friends and prospective girlfriend in hopes to impress her with your uber-painting skills.

EA’s conference call saw quite a few surprise announcements, the biggest of which is the revival of the classic Road Rash series. The company revealed that development on The Sims 3 has commenced and that it will be a fiscal 2009 title, which begins on April 1, 2008. It was also stated that another installment in the Sim City series is also in the works, as well as a Simpsons sequel, Sims on Wii and a PS3 version of The Sims 2: Holiday Edition (2006 or 2007 Holiday season).

“There is a new Road Rash game,” an EA executive bluntly stated. No further details were given. It was also stated that a next-gen version of Black is being developed, though it is not clear whether it will be a full-blown sequel or a revamp of the original. As per the executive, it will be a “next-generation version of Black.”

Sad news is there too: those looking forward to Crysis and Army of Two will have to wait longer. Both titles have been delayed to EA’s fiscal 2008, which begins on April 1, 2007. No reason for the delays was given.

The colors just keep on coming: Nintendo has announced that gamers in North America will be able to empty their pockets for two more colors of the DS Lite - Onyx and Coral Pink (both pictured). Gamers can do so on September 13.

Nintendo took the opportunity to also announce that New Super Mario Bros. has hit the 1 million unit sales mark after just 12 weeks on sale in the region. Overall, the DS and its game sales are both up more than 300 percent in July alone.

The Xbox 360 backwards compatibility team has churned out another update that focuses on revising previous additions rather than adding compatibility to more. That’s not to say some titles weren’t added: Black, Star Wars Battlefront 2 and Pro Evolution Soccer 5 are now playable on the next-gen console. The following list of games has received updates, focusing on making them more compatible with the new console:

• Darkwatch
  
• Fable
  
• Fable: The Lost Chapters
  
• Forza Motorsport
  
• Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
  
• Half-Life 2
  
• kill.switch
  
• Ninja Gaiden
  
• Ninja Gaiden Black
  
• SSX 3
  
• Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Chaos Theory
  
• World Series Baseball 2K3

Quite a few games have been released. Check them out:

• 24: The Game (PS2)
  
• Black (PS2, Xbox)
  
• Dungeons & Dragons: Online Stomreach (PC)
  
• FIFA Street 2 (PS2, Xbox, Gamecube, DS, PSP)
  
• The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II (PC)
  
• The Sims 2: Open for Business (PC)
  
• SWAT 4: The Stetchkov Syndicate (PC)

EuroGamer carries word from Criterio’s Alex Ward that a Xbox 360 version of Black, the studio’s latest project, will NOT be made. “I keep reading all over forums that we’re going to make a 360 version of BLACK, and it’s just not true,” he said bluntly.

He also responded to “conspiracy theories” surrounding the lack of backwards compatibility support for Criterion’s titles, saying that it doesn’t depend on the developer or publisher - it depends on Microsoft. He has already asked them “four times” to get the Burnout titles working on the Xbox 360, but ultimately Microsoft is the one to decide which Xbox games the 360 will support.

Ward seemingly gave away confirmation that the studio is planning a next-gen sequel of Black: “The only time you’ll see [the BLACK franchise] on the Xbox 360 is when we make BLACK 2 on it in a few years.”

Gotta get Black!