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Weekly Webcomic Wrapup is prepping the grill

You guys are not prepared to even begin fathoming the depth of the extent of the infiniteness of edible materials that we are going to grill this Memorial Day weekend. There are meats you've never heard of sizzling away on our charcoal-powered rigs, corn-cobs dressed in spices from lands that don't appear on traditional maps. What's that on our grill now? Is that a smaller grill, which is also ablaze, cooking even smaller meatstuffs? And on that grill -- another, smaller grill? How can this be?

While we work our flamebroiled magic, check out our seven favorite webcomics from this past week below. Make sure you vote for your favorite in the poll posted after the jump!

Predatory Instincts (Digital Unrest)
Boss Room (Brawl in the Family)
Witchin' (Penny Arcade)
Pitwit (Awkward Zombie)
Enhanced Interrogation (Virtual Shackles)
Failoc (Nerf Now)
Untitled (Another Videogame Webcomic)

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Gears of War 3 campaign trailer is a great soccer moment

For us, the most exciting part of the Champions League Final was when that grotesque tentacle-necked monster started tossing cars around, while Black Sabbath's "War Pigs" played in the background.

Or did that happen in the Gears of War 3 campaign trailer that premiered after the game? We might be getting the two mixed up. We'll watch the trailer again (after the break) to straighten the situation out.

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Level-5 trademarks 'Professor Layton and the Last Specter'

Last year at E3, Nintendo showed off Professor Layton and the Mask of Miracle (the fifth Layton game) as part of its 3DS showcase -- without a word about Professor Layton and the Specter's Flute (Layton 4), leading fans (and, well, us) to fear that the company would pass over the last DS game in favor of getting that new 3D hotness into stores.

A North American trademark (number 85325626, if you want to see it yourself) found by Siliconera suggests that won't be the case. Level-5 filed a trademark for "Professor Layton and the Last Specter." Last year around the same time, Level-5 trademarked Professor Layton and the Unwound Future, which was then announced at E3 and released in September. So it seems likely Nintendo has at least one more game in store for the regular old DS this year!

Now, let's just hope London Life survives localization.

Final Fantasy V rated by ESRB for North American PSN release

After brutally taunting us by releasing the job-centric RPG in Japan and announcing it for Europe, an ESRB rating has revealed that Square Enix is bringing Final Fantasy V to the North American PSN. The game is something of an oddity for the series, having never made it to the U.S. in its native SNES format -- it only came stateside as part of the Final Fantasy Anthology, and as the expanded GBA title Final Fantasy V Advance.

Between this, Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger, we've got a lot of Square Enix PSOne Classics to look forward to -- now we just have to wait for the PlayStation Store to fling open its long-shuttered doors.

Section 8: Prejudice Overdrive Map Pack coming June 1

Are you familiar with the nooks, crannies and sweet, skydiveable air above each of the maps included in TimeGate Studios' beefy downloadable shooter, Section 8: Prejudice? Next Tuesday, June 1, the game will receive the Overdrive Map Pack, a bundle which includes two new maps which will be playable in all game modes: A magma-covered battlefield known as Abaddon, and a decidedly colder frozen wasteland called Sky Dock.

The two new maps will launch on Xbox Live Marketplace and Games for Windows Marketplace for 320 Microsoft Points ($3.99). Sounds like a fair price for the raw, visceral thrill of plummeting into a pool of volcanic rock. Yes, that's not the smartest strategic move, but c'mon.

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StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm teaser shoots its way onto the Internet

We're not sure what the original distribution plan for the 45-second teaser for Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm was, but we're pretty sure it wasn't "Let it leak onto every video site on the Internet." Regardless, we're glad it's here -- and after watching it below, we wager you will be, too. ... continue reading.

'George Plimpton's Video Falconry' captured on video

During a recent Judge John Hodgman podcast about the fairness of strategy guides, reference was made to George Plimpton's Video Falconry, a ColecoVision game from an alternate universe in which the writer was not an Intellivision advocate.

Newgrounds reached into an interdimensional portal (that had some kind of trans-reality FTP connection, or something) and retrieved footage of the lost ColecoVision classic. And the only hurdle you have to breach in order to see it for yourself is the one at the bottom of this post.

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Readers pick best webcomic: His Dark Thesis

As subscribers to a profession that is based entirely on the presupposition that all computers will work perfectly all the time no matter what, we certainly sympathize with Gabe's plea in Penny Arcade's latest Wrapup-winning comic, "His Dark Thesis." What we cannot get behind, however, is his desire to punch the internet. How can you punch the internet when it's got videos of cats hugging smaller cats on it? You cannot. We forbid it.

Second and third place went to Brawl in the Family's "Roy G. Biv" and Awkward Zombie's "Griefing," respectively. If you've got a strip you want to see in the next line-up, drop a link in the comments, or send in a tip!

OnLive knocks 75% off most titles for Memorial Day weekend

Cloud gaming service OnLive hopes you'll spend some of your free time this holiday weekend playing (and purchasing) games from its library. In a tweet from earlier today, it was announced that "most" of its catalog is selling for 75 percent off over this Memorial Day weekend.

To check out exactly what's available at the discounted price, you'll need to sign into the service. Thankfully that's free, as is the ability to demo the first 30 minutes of a majority of the games it has available.

Amnesia marathon (and scare-a-thon) for charity this weekend

Charity's great and all, but we've found that it rarely affords us opportunities to watch people scream and cry in terror. What's up with that? We need to cause suffering as we're easing it. Luckily, a group of gamers is filling that void this weekend, with a charity gaming marathon guaranteed to make you feel good and make the participants feel scared to death.

Vernon Shaw and his brother Tim plan to take turns in an Amnesia: The Dark Descent marathon tomorrow and Sunday -- while the inactive player and a group of volunteers conspire to scare the player "in every way imaginable." It's the perfect weekend for the more sympathetic sadists in our audience!

Proceeds from the marathon will go to Camp Kesem UCSD, which holds annual camp events for children of cancer patients. The event will be livestreamed here.

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Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D trailer does a roll call

In case you were wondering just how many hired guns are jam-packed into Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D for Nintendo 3DS, this latest trailer from Capcom gives us a quick rundown. ... continue reading.

WRUP: Tis the BBQ season

Sources claim summer will unofficially launch this weekend. Contacted for comment, representatives for the season said they wouldn't comment on rumor or speculation. When presented with uncooked burgers and hot dogs, they tersely stated, "We have nothing to announce at this time." So, don't be surprised if summer starts this weekend. We'll update if we hear more.

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Transformers: Dark of the Moon multiplayer trailer runs and guns

Looks like the surprisingly exciting multiplayer component from War for Cybertron is back for another round of automotive mech-slaughter. Check out the latest trailer for Transformers: Dark of the Moon below to see the game's competitive combat unfold by land, by air and ... by robot. ... continue reading.

Resistance 'Dual Pack' coming July 5, bonus content revealed

Clearly you're enthusiastic about the Resistance series if you don't own either of the first two games, so it goes without saying that you're all about dressing up as a generic-looking soldier in the third game's multiplayer. Insomniac apparently knows this, as the studio took to the US PlayStation blog today to announce said multiplayer "Capelli" skin as part of the bonuses included in the Resistance "Dual Pack," launching on July 5. He's ... uh ... got a beanie? Awesome?

As previously revealed by an insert in the Battle: Los Angeles Blu-ray, the two-pack of Resistance titles will also include "$10 worth of bonus content," detailed as the "Aftermath" map, a skin bundle, and the "wraith skin" multiplayer weapons for Resistance 2. When the pack arrives on July 5, it comes with an asking price of $39.99.

Mortal Kombat marked down to $40 on Amazon

Hey, we like murder as much as the next person, but you gotta admit it's an expensive "hobby." Buying all of those shovels and bags of lime, not to mention all of the gas your van uses as you spend hours looking for just the right abandoned factory -- it ain't cheap.

Thankfully, Amazon has just marked down Mortal Kombat to $40 on both the PS3 and Xbox 360, which is a game where people get murdered constantly. It's a much healthier alternative to actual, real-life killing, you know?

Sony Network Entertainment head addressing US Congress next week

Following Sony's announcement of the PSN data leak, Congress sent an inquiry to the company seeking more information about the breach and Sony's response to it. And Sony responded to that with ... an open letter.

Now Sony Network Entertainment president Tim Schaff plans to make an actual, personal appearance before the House subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade, to discuss follow-up questions sent to the company by Representative Mary Bono Mack. The questions speak to the nature of the stolen data, the method through which it was stolen, and how Sony plans to keep data safe in the future. Schaff will be joined by a representative from Epsilon, a marketing company who suffered its own recent data breach.

We're guessing the members of the subcommittee will all have their "Welcome Back" copies of InFamous hand-delivered.

Call of Duty: Black Ops PC patch released, Treyarch targeting end of month for mod tools

Though the rest of the planet has been entirely consumed by the fires of Modern Warfare 3 fever, the Call of Duty: Black Ops PC community is being rewarded for its dedication. Treyarch just launched a hefty patch on Steam for the shooter, fixing a number of issues that have long plagued its multiplayer component. Check out the full list of changes after the jump!

One change included therein is the preparation for player-created mods -- a feature which, according to a recent Tweet from Treyarch community manager Josh Olin, is "still targeting an end-of-month release." We're quickly running out of month, but we'll make sure to let you know if it delivers on this promise!

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Shadows of the Damned screens show Hell from a new perspective

The latest screens from Shadows of the Damned include things we've come to expect (by which we mean total horrors) -- as well as something we didn't. The screen above shows a stylized, side-scrolling 2D segment that kind of looks like And Yet It Moves moved to Hell. ... continue reading.

First copies of Forza 4 include five extra cars, pre-order bonuses revealed

Despite the fact that retailers will assuredly have plenty of extra copies of Forza 4 when it arrives at retail, perhaps you're interested in pre-ordering the game long before its planned fall launch? Well that's just peachy, 'cause today Microsoft announced pre-order bonuses that folks can pick up at a variety of retailers.

Unfortunately -- as has become de rigeur as of late -- rather than making it so fans of the series can actually acquire all the pre-order items that they're nicely plunking down money for ahead of time, various retailers have exclusive in-game content that can only be attained through a pre-order at their stores. In essence, this means that folks who pre-order Forza 4 at Target are locked out of the bonuses being offered at Amazon, GameStop, Walmart, and Best Buy... at least, unless the retailer DLC is offered later through XBLM.

At very least, fans who pick up the game (at any store) around its launch later this year will snag a quintet of free vehicles in the "Ship Bonus" car pack, listed alongside the aforementioned pre-order items below the break. The car pack will only be free to folks purchasing the "first production run" of Forza 4, so be sure to choose your fastest supercar for shuttling to the local brick and mortar.

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Square Enix and n-Space tease 'Heroes of Ruin' for 3DS

Developer n-Space (Geist, the Call of Duty DS games) posted some art to Facebook related to a 3DS game called Heroes of Ruin, which it's evidently making for Square Enix -- and then pulled the image. The developer didn't offer any additional info, but the artwork suggests a fantasy setting with some modern-ish technology (like handguns!)

It also suggests giant cat-men.

A picture of four fantasy-type characters fighting makes us think of Gauntlet or other co-op dungeon adventures, but that's just speculation. For real information -- like what exactly a "Hero of Ruin" could possibly be -- we must wait, either until E3 comes or Square Enix decides to tell us. In the meantime, find the full image past the break.

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