Got some game news for you, fresh from the oven.

Well... 'freshish', maybe a week old at worst. It's all right, just put heaps of nutella on it, you won't even notice the mould.

There might soon be an honest to goodness new console entering the market. It’s called the Ouya (which I assume will be pronounced ArglFerglboobaga, because console names are dumb), a concept Android based game console that’s projected to retail for a measly $99. Some of the backers for the Ouya project include Xbox alumni Ed Fries and designer Yves Béhar, probably best known for the Jawbone bluetooth headset. The goal is a game console with an open development platform and all free games. Sounds crazy intriguing.

As collaborations between various companies hint to us the brand wars of the last generation was nothing more than bullshit to make us buy more consoles (spoiler, yes they were) we’re seeing some innovative partnerships. The newest collaboration is Sony and OnLive. Their new streaming Google TV device the Sony Internet Player has an input for an OnLive controller. Not a definite confirmation that OnLive and Sony have a deal going, but a strong hint. Meanwhile we still don’t have OnLive in Australia as our internet is managed by tin cans and string.

Big Call of Duty news with the announcement of Call of Duty Online, a free to play version of Call of duty that looks basically just like the full games multiplayer. I’m pretty surprised Activision are just giving it away, I wonder how they’ll monetise it (Spoiler: micro payments up the wazoo).

In other CoD news, to celebrate July 4^th, the day America successfully fended off an invasion of aliens in an air strike led by their president and former pizza magnate Herman Cain, Activision has dropped the price of their Black Ops and MW3 map packs by 50% from the 3 July to the 9 July.

In even more Call of Duty Black Ops 2 is advertising preorders with promises of a reimagined version of Nuketown, called Nuketown 2025. I find myself intrigued by this game far more than past CoDs. We’re definitely in the third quarter big marketing push for CoD leading up to their next release. It’s almost become a seasonal tradition.

Little Big Planet is about to appear in Kart form. Little Big Planet Karting is opening a Beta soon and applicants can login and register through the PSN.

For anime fans VIZ Media, responsible for bringing numerous popular anime shows to the west, is launching a 24 hour anime network on consoles. The streaming service will cost $6.99 (US), stream in HD and will have a regular schedule of programming, not on demand. Best of all the service will be completely uncensored. Unfortunately most of the shows will be English dubbed, subtitles are preferred in my house. No idea if the service will come to Australia, under ten bucks a month sounds like a good deal, but, you know, string can internet.

Guardians of Middle Earth might be the first good Lord of the Rings game on consoles, launching soon on XBLA and PSN.

Here’s a trailer for Darksiders 2, reminding me I still haven’t finished Darksiders yet. It stars James Cosmo, commander of the nights watch in the (greatest ever) TV show Game of Thrones. It’s weird such a comic styled game has a live action trailer, especially one that’s so deathly (he he) serious.

Images of the Game of Thrones MMO Seven Kingdoms which looks suspiciously good, I hope it’s not all set in Westeros though, I want to be a Dothraki Bloodrider.

There was a brief kerfuffle this week that suggested Blizzard were auto banning people for running Wine in Linux while playing Diablo 3. For a short while it looked like Blizzards ban hammer had run rampant on Linux users. But Blizzard countered with a, ‘Ok, but no’, asserting they had tested the issue extensively and had found no evidence that Linux complementary software was causing bans. If you’re banned from Diablo 3, you’re banned with reason. This seemed to be confirmed by more people than had originally complained coming forward to say they use Linux and Wine with Diablo 3 without a problem. Leaving, I imagine, a few loud complainers who got fifteen minutes of fame a bit red faced.

I haven’t played Ghost Recon: Future Soldier yet, although it’s high on my list, so I’m not as bummed at this news as some might be, but the DLC Arctic Strike has been pushed back from its release date of yesterday. Ubisoft want to polish it up a bit apparently. They actually used the word ‘polish’ in the press release.

I’m totally going to get Diablo 3 at some point. But this video doesn’t quite encourage me to get it as soon as I can.

800,000 people have signed up for Battlefield 3 Premium. Wow, and people say there’s a Global Financial Crisis going on.

By now you must have seen the Meet The Pyro video. Well you get a little piece of the Pyros imaginary wonderland from Valve, the balloonicorn that features in the video is available to buy as a real balloon. No word on my complete collection of Team Fortress 2 action figures though.

Kaz Hirai got a one of a kind limited edition PS3 from Sony as a thank you when he departed his post as Sony big game guy this week. Maybe his one has party chat.

The Expendables 2 has a video game, it’s called The Expendables 2 video game and is coming soon to XBLA and PSN. It’s a prequel title that leads into the movie’s plot. Ha ha ha... plot.

Hero Academy, a seriously brilliant little mobile, turn based pvp game, is coming to Steam and will feature a brand new team based on Team Fortress 2 characters. All purchased items will be cross platform, so if you’ve all ready splashed out for one of the downloadable teams (or all of them like I have) then they should be accessible on Steam. If anyone wants to get humiliated by me, my gamer name is Irishnipples. Really.

I feel like I’m cursed. I loved Kingdoms of Amalur, the company 38 Games goes bust (and gets its staff to work another month when it can’t pay them which is dastardly), I equally loved Prototype 2, now Radical Entertainment have gone through with a bunch of layoffs cutting 89 staff as a result of poor sales of Prototype and Prototype 2. Activision was considering selling the studio but decided to sack the majority of employees instead, nasty. Remaining staff will support other Activision projects, but Radical’s own projects have all been cancelled. It’s a tragic end for a studio that’s made a bunch of really solid, excellent games.

Sega is shutting offices in Australia and Europe following some big financial losses over the last few years, their annual income has dropped nearly by half. On the plus side no more new ghastly attempts to resurrect Sonic.

They’re still talking about a Carmen Dandiego movie, and Jennifer Lopez is still attached. Still no Halo movie.

The Short film series Forward Onto Dawn, to promote Halo 4, has a teaser trailer visible below. It’s low on detail but high on promise, could be impressive. Still no Halo mov... actually, maybe this is the best we’re going to get.

The Valve and Adult Swim collaboration was announced. It’s a new hat. Sigh.

Friefall, a game I’m prepared to buy a PC for, has 500,000 registered users and is about to enter the second phase of its Beta.

Firefall also has an awesome and free online manga comic book you can read here: http://www.firefallthegame.com/manga/

Age of Empires Online has gone from Freemium to ‘totes free’. All premium content will be available through gameplay using Empire points, the in game currency.

NBA2K13 Special Edition comes with a real live basketball which you can use to emulate the events that you see in the game. Probably not with the same level of skill though, but maybe if you practise very hard and eat your vegetables... no, actually you’ll never be able to do that stuff. There’s also a special cover for your controller textured like a basketball, so when you hold it you can remember your uncoordinated flailing on the court and sob uncontrollably as you play.

That's it, see you later!