Remember how Nickelback thought they would pass on the benefit of their insight as "rock" "gods" a week back? Well Dave Mustaine from Megadeth also weighed in on a video cast, making a much more positive commentary, this time about Rock Band. Basically Mustaine thinks it's a good thing, and encourages punters to pity the fools who don't understand technology. The vid is linked to the jump below...

New screenshots for Star Wars: The Old Republic are now available on our game page for the title with the MMO based in the world of the classic Knights of the Old Republic titles looking very, very nice indeed.

Scope out the new screenshots now at the game page. The real money is in the comments at the official site where debate rages about the meaning of each SS and what it will result in in-game.

The title - announced in October - will the second MMOG based in the Star Wars universe after Star Wars: Galaxies. We're looking forward to seeing how this one pans out - the Knights of the Old Republic universe is a pretty foundation for an MMOG. What role would you play in a Star Wars MMO?

Details on the sequel to last years killer adventure title Uncharted: Drake's Fortune have been revealed with the cover shot for next month's GameInformer - the game is called Uncharted 2: Among Thieves.

The GameStop owned (owners of EBGames over here) magazine GameInformer revealed a little more information than just the title - the game will feature a brand new "free climbing mechanic and stealth gameplay" and a focus on Marco Polo's adventures - but more information about the game will be released in the near future.

What did you think of the original Uncharted: Drake's Fortune? It was definitely had a lot of the right elements (and a few of the wrong ones) but the new one has the potential to get it all right. Plus the allure of playing out "Cliffhanger" with free climbing mechanics sounds pro!

Game Informer

Sumner Redstone is Very Rich. The kind of Very Rich that allows people like me to capitalise the V and the R. He's the majority owner of National Amusements, which makes him the owner of CBS, MTV, Viacom, Dreamworks, Paramount and a whole bunch of other stuff.

One thing Sumner no longer owns is a 87% stake in Midway Games. He did, but has just sold it for USD100,000. Yes, a two bedroom unit in most places will cost you more to buy than 87% of the company who brought us such unforgettable titles as NBA Jam, Mortal Kombat, NFL Blitz, Rampage, Galaga and my personal fave, Super High Impact Football. Sumner is clearing house as he may be Very Rich, but he also has a tonne of debt.

Of course, Midway is an all sorts of bother at present. Delisted a couple of weeks back from the stock exchange because its shares were less than a dollar would have come as quite a blow, but the canny fellas at Reuters did the math and the value of the shares as sold by Redstone is... USD0.00012 cents a share.

Halo 3: Recon - the standalone expansion pack for Halo 3 coming to the Xbox 360 next year - is no longer called Halo 3: Recon. It's now called Halo 3: ODST, a reference to the type of marine soldier you play (an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper).

The name change is so the team can directly reflect what your experience with Halo 3: ODST will be - perhaps they had focus groups who were scared they'd be restricted to reconnaissance the entire game when all they wanted to do was pew pew.

To celebrate the name change they released a name change trailer where you can see the same stuff you've already seen but with a brand new name!

All joking aside, how do you think this standalone expansion will go? Are you still playing Halo 3 online or have you moved on to bigger and better things?

The ambitious plan to recreate Half-Life on the Source engine has picked up steam recently - with a range of new screenshots and a brand new trailer being released.

The new trailer for Black Mesa shows off scenes from the iconic beginning to Half-Life as well as quite a few other memorable scenes from the game.

You can watch the Black Mesa Debut Trailer in our videos library now to scope it out for yourself, or head over to the official site for more details on how the project is coming along.

What do you think of the project? Did you miss out on the original Half Life - would this version make it more playable for you? And do you think there are any other games that could do with a 1:1 conversion to a brand new engine?

Well, not exactly violence, but plenty of harsh words, shoving and jostling.

Background: it's currently Thanksgiving holiday in the US. This apparently means two public holidays - the first day is devoted to stuffing yourself silly with food - presumably put on your credit card as your home is being foreclosed. The second is the notorious "Black Friday", when stores around the nation open up early - some at midnight - and offer the best bargains of the year. Once again likely to be purchased with credit, 'cos if God wanted us to exercise fiscal restraint, he wouldn't have given us interest free terms, amirite?

When you see some sickening low price for a LCD TV being advertised over here as proof the yanks have it made in retail land - good chance it's been lifted from a Black Friday catalogue.

Anyway, back to the "violence". Most "bargain day early openings" are typically a war where the people most willing to sacrifice their dignity and throw some elbows are most likely to end up clutching their prized goodies. This time around, witness as crazed Americans (many of whom queued up hours in advance for a 5.00AM opening) melee for the last Xbox 360/Guitar Hero pack.

This disturbs me way more than seeing a few disembowelled zombies or spooky psycho FEAR 2 girls, to be honest. I'm a little fetal ball of cringe right now.

Jodie hit the streets - or pavilion floor it seems - this week to see what people think of three music rhythm band games - Wii Music, Guitar Hero World Tour and Rock Band.

Not a huge surprise in the answers at this point really. On a different note people, we need a new name for the genre of music rhythm games which involve bands. Suggest away!

Creative Assembly - the guys behind the Total War series - are working on an RTS for consoles at the moment and they've got a new Dev Diary out.

As the team behind Stormrise is based in Brisbane, their Dev Diary for the game has a very familiar tone to it. It's a decent watch as well - hopefully they really flesh out the armies in the game to give them truly different playing styles.

Watch the Stormrise dev diary now to see more info on the unique vision CA has planned for the game.

Our man Andy snapped up interviews with some of the winners at the GDAA Awards last weekend - there weren't many as Melbourne based developers Blue Tongue Entertainment snapped up the lion's share for their title De Blob.

Dung - the game created by other Melbournites Firemint for the Project Joystick competition - also won an award at the show.

Andy wraps up with not just his opinion on the planned net filter - he and Jodie asked some others for their opinions at Melbourne's (Melbourne again!) eGames event.