Yes and no. Looks like Warhawk is getting an ESRB rating for the Playstation Portable, but it's probably not the Warhawk you're thinking of.

As much as I'd love to see the PS3's Warhawk make its way to the PSP in some form (like using the PSP as a rear view or to play remotely), my sources at Sony tell me there are no current plans for such a beast. Instead this is more than likely just the rumblings of the original Warhawk becoming a PSOne downloadable game on the Playstation network.

Warhawk ready to fly on the PSP too? [Siliconera]

The latest issue of EGM is hitting subscriber mailboxes now, giving them a proper first look at Street Fighter IV. But the mag's long-running Quartermann-collected rumors are pointing to a new game from Geometry Wars and Project Gotham Racing developer Bizarre Creations. Quartermann writes that Bizarre's new owner, Activision, may already have them hard at work on a new driving title, one set in the James Bond universe. The title could feature "a load of driving elements," something Bizarre knows a thing or two about.

Of course, it's Bond, so gadgetry and missile launching Aston Martins sound like a strong possibility. Bizarre sure knows shooting, too. With the twenty-second Bond picture scheduled for a 2008 release, we might hear more about this rumored project very soon.

Quatermann: Bizarre Working on James Bond [1UP]

Someone who is more than close enough to know such things has tipped us off over the weekend that, yes, Treyarch are indeed hard at work on Call of Duty 5. And that, yes, the series is heading back to World War II. That's the stuff we'd heard already. What we didn't know is that, according to this tipster, the game's set in the under-utilized Pacific theater, something only one major WWII shooter - the awful Medal of Honour: Pacific Assault - has tried before. While (if true) the move back to well-worn WWII is mostly disappointing, if this game can branch out and explore some of the less "popular" aspects of the conflict (China, Burma, New Guinea), it might not be so bad.
[Image]

Face it: Japanese Wii owners buy Wii Sports, Wii Fit and maybe Super Mario Galaxy. That's about it, really! So, when a third party company releases something that, well, isn't any of those three, what happens? Not much. That's No More Heroes executive producer and Harvest Moon creator Yasuhiro Wada and No More Heroes and Killer 7 creator Goichi Suda hoping to give out toilet paper and hoping to sign copies of NMH. Thing is, after twenty minutes of Suda and Wada standing in front of Akihabara's Sofmap, nobody bought the game. Keep in mind, that not only two well-known game creators were giving out toilet paper, but there was also a woman in a mini-skirt (that, after the jump). Talk about a tough crowd!

Japanese game press like IT Media, GA Graphic and Famitsu were at the bust of an event and didn't have any customers to photograph at the launch. According to Akiba Blog, a staffer from Famitsu publisher Enterbrain apparently went and bought a copy of No More Heroes for Wada and Suda to sign. Regardless of what you think of No More Heroes, stuff like this isn't just sad for Suda and co., but for Wii owners ultimately. No More Heroes isn't your typical Wii game, and it seems to be getting punished for that. Hope it does better in the States — for the Wii's sake.

Hit the jump for the mini-skirt cosplay girl.

Joystiq is reporting that Canada may have to wait until 28 December for Rock Band - past Christmas and Boxing Day. Best Buy Canada and Future Shop both have the 28 December release date. Kotakuite Josh K. also pointed us to the Rock Band forums where cranky Canadians are sounded off over the potential wait and extra cost. Now, online retailers have been and will continue to be wrong about this sort of stuff before, so I guess our Canadian friends will just have to wait and see whether they're actually getting shafted on a release date or not.

Rumor: Rock Band Canadian release pushed back past Christmas, Boxing Day [Joystiq]

The gang at UK pub Gamer picked up on a job listing from Call of Duty 3 developer Treyarch that might point to the series returning to its World War II roots. The posting at Activision's career opportunities page is looking for a level builder to work on an "industry leading First-Person Shooter action war franchise" with serious experience. Later in the job description, Treyarch writes "if you're a fan of World War 2 shooters, then even better!"

Quite the leap, no? While we're positive that Call of Duty 5 is coming, we aren't sure whether Infinity Ward or Treyarch or another developer altogether will be holding the reins.

Level Builder - Call of Duty [Treyarch via Gamer]

It looks like Ash may have been right. Stuff magazine is running a rumor item on the possibility of an upcoming Aibo, the robotic dog, working with the Playstation Portable and Playstation 3. The rumor goes that the Sony Aibo PS, as they call it, is being resuscitated by Sony's Playstation division in an attempt to "bolster the PS3's arsenal."

The Aibo PS will appear with its own avatar within Home and react in the real world as he does in the PS3's upcoming interactive environment, according to the article. The rumor article goes on to say that you will be able to download new personalities for the dog from the Playstation Network and that the dog will be fully controllable using a PSP via WiFi. The dog's head camera will send a real world vid feed to the PSP's screen as well. The Dpad will control walking movement and the four main buttons will deal with head movement, which seems odd.

The Stuff folks rate this rumor as having a 53 percent probability. Seems like a cool concept, but I wonder if there's the market for it to hit the real world. Who am I kidding? A remote control dog that can send live video from its head, sign me up for a baker's dozen.

Matt Smith's Facebook [via Gamespot UK, thanks Matthew]

"The content you posted in the site blogeek is property of Ziff Davis, given from Capcom only to Ziff Davis and EGM issues, with embargo for the publications. Your publication of this subject is theft of intellectual property and should have immediate legal consequences. Ziff Davis and Futuro want you to cut off the content form your site immediately."

Brazilian gaming blog Blogeek says that they have some new, unreleased details on Street Fighter IV. Normally, these sorts of rumors would be dealt with a snort, a dismissal and a "you're not 1UP!", but Blogeek's got the unreleased screen shots to back it up. They're both similar to the screen via 1UP that was unleashed today, set in the same Chinese market, but happen to feature Ryu's counterpart, Ken Masters. That would either make Blogeek extremely adept with a PhotoShop stamp tool or lend weight to their credibility.

Fortunately, reader Douglas was kind enough to help us out with a translation of the leaked (and still rumored) details on the game. According to Blogeek, Street Fighter IV will take place some time between Super Street Fighter II Turbo and Street Fighter III, which makes the return of Chun Li and Dhalsim more understandable.

Back in August, Sega filed an application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark office to protect the Dreamcast trademark. Now their original filing is good until December of 2009, this new filing has added some new terms to the mix that are sparking speculation of a Dreamcast 2 being in the cards. From the filing:

home video game machines; player-operated electronic controllers for electronic video game machines; video game interactive controller, namely, hand held pads, and floor pads or mats; joysticks for video games; computer cursor control devices, namely, computer mouse; flash memory cards; video game software, computer game programs

Ready to see what's instead early next year Nintendo-wise? Game site CVG has apparently confirmed a big list of Wii and DS titles. Doesn't seem to include Super Smash Bros. Brawl, but there other games which certainly won't make up for its absence. On to the list!

Angry Gamer are claiming to have the inside word on the impending staff purges at Australian development studio Auran, the team behind Dark Reign, Fury and XBLA's Battlestar Galactica. Predictably, given it's lukewarm response since launch, MMO brawler Fury is being blamed for the mess, the insider saying it's been a "financial disaster" for the studio. Staff across Auran have reportedly been told to look elsewhere for work, with Melbourne's Tantalus, a specialist in licensed handheld titles, taking on many of the refugees. As for the fate of Fury, which is published in the US by Gamecock, who knows, though the source speculates the handling and maintenance of the game might be shipped off to China on the cheap.
Auran out of steam [Angry Gamer]

UPDATE: Auran's Tony Hilliam has labelled the rumours as "exaggerated". Hit up Kotaku Australia for the full rundown.

A commenter on sister site Valleywag, who claims to be a current Gamespot employee, wrote anonymously about the current situation surrounding rumors of former editorial director Jeff Gerstmann's termination. The new user, known as "gamespot", who does a fairly solid impression of a bitter employee of CNet, if nothing else, provides possible insight into the emotional state at Gamespot's editorial staff. In response to a Valleywag post that quoted another supposed CNet employee, one whose "gut" had informed them that Gerstmann was fired for unspecified "larger" reasons, "gamespot" chimed in. Many had questioned the timing of the termination, wondering why, if the Kane & Lynch: Dead Men review had been published over two weeks ago, was Jeff fired just two days ago?

Commenter "gamespot" responded.

Have you seen the movie Underworld? OK, great. Now take that movie and relate it in absolutely no way to Tomb Raider Underworld, the rumored next TR sequel since the trademark was discovered. Said to revolve around the Mayan calendar, or more specifically, the five unnamed days at the end of the year known only as "Wayeb'." During this time, the realm of the living and dead was said to blur, leading us to only one, inevitable plotline in the game: giant ghost/zombie jubblies.

Tomb Raider Underworld [via gamelife]

The Shacknews crew dug up employment listings from Gamasutra's job board that point to a new development studio being established in Bay Area of northern California by "creators of the award-winning 'Bioshock'." While that listing has since changed to exclude the BioShock reference, it jibes with a posting from the seemingly well informed Surfer Girl of blog Surfer Girl Reviews Star Wars.

Girl wrote on her blog that "a good chunk of the BioShock team did not want to work with Ken [Levine] ever again" and that publisher 2K "let them set up a new studio so that they can make Bioshock 2, leaving Ken with Project X." 2K Boston, Girl writes, is "essentially rebuilding a team from almost scratch again." Consider it rumor for now, but, if true,

Ex-BioShock Staff Starting New 2K Studio in Bay Area, Next 2K Boston Project on Unreal Engine 3 [Shacknews]
Disaster: Your Irrational Behavior is BioShocking [Surfer Girl Reviews Star Wars]

According to a reliable-looking tip we just received, Amazon is getting into the Black Friday fun with some decent game deals. They have savings up to 50% on games, though we're digging these in particular:

Halo 3 Legendary for Xbox 360 $79.99 ( save $50 )
Bioshock for Xbox 360 $39.99 ( save $20 )
Gears of War for Xbox 360 $39.99 ( save $20 )
PlayStation 3 SixAxis controller $19.99 ( save $30 )
$20 Wii games with more Wiis in stock

If you haven't picked up Bioshock or Gears yet, it looks like a decent chance to do so, even if you can really get either game for $50 on a normal day. Hit the jump for a full list of what we've heard.

Ghost Squad may not be the only arcade light gun shooter Sega plans to refit for the Wii Zapper, as Go Nintendo has uncovered a listing for House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return at rental service Gamefly. We can fairly safely assume that this will bring both The House of the Dead 2, based on the Sega Naomi hardware, and The House of the Dead III, originally for the Sega Chihiro hardware. The two titles have made console appearances on the Dreamcast and Xbox, respectively, but have never been bundled before.

At this point, Sega has made no official announcements about such a collection, but Gamefly's track record of spoiling announcements has been fairly solid so far. As a superfan of The House of the Dead 2, I am cautiously optimistic, hoping that I'll get the Wii opportunity to give the shotgun-heavy The House of the Dead III a second chance.

House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return [Gamefly via Go Nintendo]

Our contacts indicate that a refreshed DS is complete. It is thinner (it has no GBA port), has on-board storage and larger screens. However, we do not expect a revamped Wii or DS until sales begin to tail off in all three major geographies.

According to a historically reliable NeoGAF member, one who has access to Gamestop's list of upcoming software releases, Irem's R-Type Tactics is coming to North America courtesy of publisher Atlus. Rebranded R-Type Command, the game is said to be scheduled for a March 4, 2008 release date at an MSRP of $39.99. The game eschews the lightning fast reflexes needed to avoid enemy fire from Bido adversaries, instead offering up turn-based, hex-based strategic gameplay. You won't control just one ship, but a fleet of space craft.

We're waiting to hear back from Atlus on the matter to see if this rumor turns out to be true.

R-Type Tactics (PSP) coming to the U.S.! Bring on R-Type Command! [NeoGAF]