MediaMemo has a piece up talking about the state of Midway, who's original holding company, Redstone National Amusements, as owned by Sumner Redstone sold his 87 percent stake just before the weekend for an incredible USD $100,000 to a private investor, Mark Thomas.

Redstone's National Amusements holding company has sold its 87 percent stake in Midway (MWY) for $100,000, plus the assumption of $70 million in debt, to Thomas. On Friday, that stake was worth something like $30 million.

The real upside for Redstone, will be a tax loss of some $800 million, though it's unclear how he will be able to use that to help restructure his debt. Over the years,
Redstone invested an estimated $500 million in the game maker.

An official announcement regarding the incredibly cheap selling of Midway is expected soon, which should also paint a better picture for the future of the company who only just released their Mortal Kombat Vs DC Universe title.

In other publisher acquisition news, the UK's Daily Mail newspaper has purportedly outed Ubisoft and EA as potential purchasers of SCi Entertainment, the parent company to Eidos, publisher of Tomb Raider.

SCi Entertainment, the owner of the Lara Croft Tomb Raider computer games franchise, is in bid talks once again. It follows a nightmare year for the firm in which its losses have quadrupled and the share price has slumped 92 per cent. A source familiar with the matter said discussions are at an 'early-stage' and that SCi received approaches from two separate firms within the past few weeks.

The "two" firms are suggested to be both EA and Ubisoft.

Rockstar are prepping for imminent PC launch of Grand Theft Auto 4 and have sent along a couple more of the machinima videos they've been busy creating to promote the games biggest new feature - the video editor.

Check out The Choice and NYC right here in the AusGamers video library.

Grand Theft Auto 4 for the PC hits Australian shelves this Wednesday, December 3 2008.

The mod team behind the upcoming Black Mesa have released an official trailer for their upcoming Source Engine total conversion - a re-creation of the original and classic Half-Life.

Black Mesa (formerly Black Mesa: Source) is a Half-Life 2 total conversion remaking VALVe Software's award-winning PC game, Half-Life. Utilizing the Source engine, Black Mesa will reintroduce the player as Doctor Gordon Freeman, along with the original cast of memorable characters and environments seen in Half-Life. Black Mesa was built and founded on the basis that Half-Life: Source was inadequate as the Source engine port of Half-Life, regardless of the intentions of VALVe Software. As such, Black Mesa was founded to fully reconstruct the Half-Life universe utilizing Source to its fullest potential in terms of art detail, level sizes and code features. This total conversion will not require Half-Life: Source to play - only a copy of any Source Engine game installed on Steam.

Today's trailer offers a very slick look at the mod, definitely a cut-above what you would usually expect from a project like this. Check it out right here on AusGamers.

In addition to a complete re-creation of the original Half-Life singleplayer campaign, Black Mesa intends to support full cooperative multiplayer and a deathmatch component. You can find a few more screenshots on our game page or check out the mod's official site for more specifics.

Lucasarts and Bioware have released a new batch of screenshots from their forthcoming MMO, Star Wars: The Old Republic giving us a more detailed look at some of the game's environments and their inhabitants.

Check them out on our Star Wars: The Old Republic game page. No new details, release dates of platform information have yet been revealed.

Some possible good news for Battlefield 2 players languishing in a world of no updates for the last many months with a forum post from a DICE employee mentioning that a beta patch might be available "before Christmas".

This will hopefully correct some of the long-standing issues with the game, including a series of annoying exploits and bugs. There's no official word on what we can expect in the patch but hopefully there'll be a few nice surprises in there as well, so stay tuned for more.

Something to check out for the weekend; Eipix have released a playable demo of Pyroblazer, their futuristic arcade racing title.

In addition to the single player modes such as Quick Race and Championship, Pyroblazer™ will also offer players the ability to compete against each other in 6-player local and internet-based combat racing. Powered by Eipix’s proprietary Ultra Engine and Ageia’s PhysX middleware, the game offers racing and sci-fi fans an experience unlike any other in the genre.

You can grab the 790MB demo right here from AusGamers files.

Pyroblazer is now available for online download-purchase on PC from Steam, Gamers Gate and Direct 2 Drive. Check out our game page for more details, trailers and screenshots.

Japanese gaming magazine, Famitsu, recently revealed a demo for Resident Evil 5 would be hitting both the PS3 and Xbox 360 formats in Japan December 5, sparking the Western side of the internets to get all flustered and assume the rest of the world would not see a demo of the hotly anticipated game.

Of course the Western internets is so often wrong, and in this case, Capcom have confirmed the demo would most certainly be released in all regions. Exactly when we'll see it, however, is unknown.

We've contacted Capcom though to see if they can't give us a heads up, and as soon as we hear back, we'll let you know. In the meantime head over to our Resident Evil 5 game page for more info, videos and screens.

Of course, no one person caught up in the recent terrorist attack in Mumbai is as special as another, but Kotaku have pointed out that videogame voice actor, Michael Rudder (Prince of Persia, FarCry and Splinter Cell, to name a few), was one of the people caught in the cross-fire. Literally.

The actor was dining at the Oberoi Hotel in Mumbai when militants opened fire. Rudder was hit by three bullets and rushed to hospital where he successfully underwent surgery and is expected to make a full recovery.

It is kind of ironic he provided voices in a game based around anti-terrorism, but pointing that out aside we wish him all the best and look forward to his next game work.

SEGA have released the first developer diary trailer for Stormrise, the post-apocalyptic real-time strategy title in the works at Creative Assembly's Brisbane studio (best known for their work on the Total War series).

The 3 minute video features commentary from the game's Aussie developers, discussing the storyline, how they are approaching console-focused RTS and the differences between the game's 2 main factions. Check it out right here on AusGamers.

They've also released a swag of new screenshots, stop by our Stormrise game page for the works. Stormrise is pegged for a 2009 release on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

Rockstar have confirmed that while all the same multiplayer modes offered in the console version of Grand Theft Auto IV will be in the PC version, the player count for certain modes such as GTA Race and Deathmatch will be doubled from the console cutoff of 16 to 32.

On top of the doubled multiplayer count, the PC version will also pack the exclusive Video Editor tool we showcased yesterday, allowing players to not only record their amazingly elite skillz, but also test their creative fortitude by making basically anything they can with the in-game tools of GTA 4. There are a number of examples shown in the above link.

For more info, check out our Grand Theft Auto IV game page.

The New Xbox Experience (or NXE) recently reshaped the Xbox 360 User Interface offering, among other things, customisable avatars not at all dissimilar to Nintendo's Miis.

In a recent interview with Gamesindustry.biz, Rare boss, Mark Betteridge, talked about the system, Rare's involvement in it, and where it all came from.

"The concept of avatars is something that we came up with about four years ago now," he told the site (sounds like they're trying to shake the "you copied Nintendo" consensus to me). "As standalone avatar products, we want to own that space, because we think it's a huge, huge space going forward - it appeals across genres, across age ranges, demographics, and there's
an enormous opportunity there."

The whole interview is interesting because Betteridge eludes to third-parties showing interest in avatar integration in their games, which again, is something pretty close to what Nintendo is doing.

It will be interesting to see where both Rare and Microsoft take the avatar system - maybe if you could use your creation in a game like Gears of War 2?

In an interview with official US Ninty mag, Nintendo Power, Legend of Zelda right-hand man, Eiji Aonuma, has revealed his passion for topping the critical success of what is regarded as one of the best games of all time, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

"I’m happy that a title I worked on some time ago remains highly praised to this day," he told Nintendo Power. "But that also shows how none of the subsequent games in the series have surpassed it. As someone who is still working on the series, I have mixed feelings about that. Because I haven’t yet surpassed it, I can’t quit. Surprisingly, that simple motivation may be the reason I continue to work on the Zelda series."

That's good news for those of us who've lost all faith in Nintendo and their ability to feed the hardcore gamers with their beloved franchises (especially the Zelda franchise). Hopefully they hold off on a new Zelda, however, until a Nintendo console can put out higher quality games (at least in HD).

F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin from Monolith Productions and Warner Interactive has been refused classification in Australia, with no specific reason given by the ratings board for their decision.

F.E.A.R. 2 joins a lengthy list of mature titles banned in Australia for various forms of "questionable content", of which many have been resubmitted with specific omissions or censorship, leaving Australians with a product not as it was intended to be.

The discussion for a change to the ratings system (for the inclusion of an R18+ rating), has been going on for a while now, and it was recently revealed the Australian public would be able to put their two cents into the issue before the end of the year.

As soon as we know more about why the game was RC'd we'll let you know.

Rockstar has given AusGamers an early peek at another new trailer for the Video Editor tool for Grand Theft Auto IV on PC.

The video highlights the ease of recording your gameplay shenanigans simply using the in-game phone. Once recorded, you can then edit together your various clips and voila, you're an instant Rockstar star.

To check out the new video, just hit this link, and once you've done that, be sure to have a look at the following vids showcasing the sort of thing one might be inclined to make with such a cool tool.

• Super Niko
  
• Get Sprunk
• Burgatory
  
• Comrades
  
• My Enemy
• Liberty
  
• Peeper
  
• Gutterballs

GTA IV is due out on PC early next month, so those who held off on picking up a console (or the game on console) to play it on PC should start crossing out the days and weeks you'll be playing this over the next few months.

We have heaps more available on our Grand Theft Auto IV game page, including our console review.

It's somewhat belated, but with so many race modes, missions and activities to partake in, we were lost in the virtual Los Angeles Rockstar San Diego crafted for their latest Midnight Club update.

An incredibly solid game-engine with stunning visuals, licensed vehicles, memorable landmarks, and a neat soundtrack should keep most driving game fans happy. There are a few negative points, but overall, this is a classy racer, and one worth checking out.

For our full in-depth report, hit this link. And if you want to see or know more, check out our Midnight Club LA game page.

Last week some users had discovered that downloads from the Xbox 360's Xbox Live Marketplace were not being counted towards their monthly download quota through Internet Service Provider iiNet.

Today iiNet have now officially announced this new intended feature of their service.

iiNet customers that own an Xbox 360 will be able to download quota-free from Xbox LIVE an amazing array of exciting content such as Xbox LIVE Arcade games, new game demos and add-ons, game trailers and console updates. “Our present to Xbox 360 owners this Christmas is quota-free downloads. By signing up with iiNet, customers can play long and hard, download the hottest new game demos from Xbox LIVE and not run down the household quota” said Mark White, Chief Operating Officer, iiNet.

It's important to note however that this quota-free traffic does not appear to extend to the data used while playing multiplayer games over Xbox Live, as that traffic is generally peer to peer.

The important part is that content such as game demos, patches, Xbox Live Arcade games, downloadable content and patches - all continuously growing in size - will no longer contribute to iiNet users monthly quota.

iiNet and other Australian ISPs already offer other gaming related download-quota relief in the form of Steam content servers and file download mirrors, so let's hope other providers follow suit on this one - PlayStation Network content would be a good next step.

Time for some Wii love with Disaster: Day of Crisis from Nintendo and Monolith Studios.

Disaster is an interesting title because it takes the Wii party game concept and ties it all together in an epic, over-the-top action/disaster movie-esque extravaganza. You'll be fighting terrorists, performing CPR and washing wounds with gusto if you pick this game up.

For our full thoughts, head right on into our review, and be sure to check out all available media and info on our Disaster: Day of Crisis game page.

Last Friday night the Games Developers Association of Australia (GDAA) held their annual industry awards ceremony at the Game Connect Asia Pacific Conference here in Brisbane. The awards focus on games that are developed exclusively by Australian companies.

de Blob for the Nintendo Wii from Melbourne-based Blue Tongue cleaned up, taking home five of the nine awards - you can see the full list of awards on the press release.

It was good to see Australian gaming continue to grow and become a serious industry, although some of the big names - like Krome, Pandemic and Creative Assembly, arguably some of Australia's most renowned game developers - were noticeably absent from the proceedings.

AusGamers was actually present at the event as a sponsor, which is a bit of a new thing for us - we sponsored two of the award categories. As always we're keen to do whatever we can to encourage the growth of gaming in Australia and make life better for Australian gamers, and helping grow the industry at its source seems like a good idea as well, so we're hoping to work a bit more closely with Aussie game developers in the future.

Well, at least it's confirmed to be hitting the UK December 12, so it's a safe bet we'll be seeing it around then as well (though the Aussie press release says "mid-December").

From December 12 an all-new area called Knothole Island will expand the world of Albion, offering numerous quests, items and new characters to meet.

The remote island of Knothole is dying. Its golden sands and lush vegetation are covered with snow, its people freezing, its treasures buried. Only a hero can face the trials of the three shrines to bring back the sunshine.

New free items will also become available as DLC including a new weight loss potion (something I desperately need in-game), Knight's Boots, Assassin's Gloves and more.

There's also a new Fable 2 dashboard theme available in celebration of the release of the New Xbox Experience, available now.

D-Pad Magazine has some interesting information up outlining a lot of SCE activity for the next little while, and despite Sony's stance none of it is confirmed, and everything within their internal meetings is subject to change, we thought we should bring it to your attention anyway, because most of it is really reassuring for the PS3, PSP and PSN moving forward.

The most interesting stuff comes in the form of purported price cuts for PAL territories this March (likely to coincide with some of the forthcoming big releases), LittleBigPlanet and MotorStorm coming to PSP and very minor bits of info for three of the PS3's big '09 releases; Uncharted, KillZone 2 and God of War 3.

Take from this what you will, but the damage control in effect does at least point to some of this being precious info to Sony and recent comments from God of War creator, David Jaffe, on his blog do back up what the D-Pad report is suggesting. At any rate, we just can't wait to see more of God of War 3.