It might seem as though the once-strong relationship between Rockstar Games, developers of the highly profitable Grand Theft Auto franchise, and Sony, the progenitor of the consoles said franchise once almost exclusively appeared on, is on the outs. Following the 360-exclusive Lost and Damned DLC, and the movement from the series' portable appearances to the DS with GTA: Chinatown Wars, it appears Rockstar has jilted all things PlayStation in hopes of attracting younger, more lucrative suitors.

However, this isn't exactly the case. In a recent interview with MTV Multiplayer's Stephen Totilo, PSP hardware marketing chief John Koller explained that Sony isn't ready to let that particular cash cow go out to pasture. Koller commented that the two PSP-based GTA titles sold like bullet-riddled hotcakes, adding that there's "definitely continued conversations with Rockstar" regarding future Grand titles on Sony's handheld. We can only pray that they'll be as Phil Collins-centric as the last one.

We were jazzed to hear that Jonathan Blow's introspective chrono-manipulative platformer Braid would be making its way onto PCs via Stardock's digital distribution service Impulse -- though we wondered why Blow hadn't set up a wider launch platform for the computerfied adaptation of his XBLA indie hit. Hothead's agreement to bring the title to Macs was a step in the right direction, but we've just received word of a huge movement to further propagate the plight of Mr. Tim -- a Valve presser just confirmed that Braid is on its way to Steam.

It'll be hitting the popular digital distribution platform on March 31 (the same day as Impulse's Braid launch) at a price point of $14.99. That's a whole four cents more expensive than the title's cost on Impulse. Man, isn't that just like Valve? Always trying to nickel and dime penny and four-penny the little man.

Vin Diesel vehicles don't really need much of a plot to be brilliant or successful (see: xXx) -- regardless of this fact, it seems the upcoming follow-up to one of the most surprisingly well put together licensed games ever, Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena, has a story we're itching to dive into. A recent trailer teases some of the plot points we'll be uncovering when the game drops April 7.

Here's what we picked up during our first pass through the trailer (embedded after the jump) -- throughout Dark Athena, Mr. Diesel will be "hunting" some "zombies" on a derelict space station, facing off against a feisty villainess, and stabbing anything that hoves into his field of vision. Yep, that sounds about right.

See: Chronicles of Riddick: AoDA HD Trailer Download

A press release promoting the upcoming technopocalypse sim Terminator Salvation: The Videogame (not to be confused with Terminator Salvation: The Movie or Terminator Salvation: The X-treme Bible for Time Traveling Robots) which recently landed in our inbox was a grab bag of mixed blessings. It unveiled the talent which will lend their voices and likenesses to the game -- notable names include hip-hop artist Common, actress Moon Bloodgood, and Rose McGowan, who will voice a role exclusive to the game.

Sadly, the film's star, Christian Bale, wasn't on the list of included voice actors we received. We contacted Mr. Bale for a comment, and received the following (NSFW) response: "WHAT THE (explitive deleted) IS IT WITH YOU? WHAT DONT YOU (e.d.)ING UNDERSTAND? YOU GOT ANY (e.d.)ING IDEA ABOUT, "HEY IT'S (e.d.)ING DISTRACTING HAVING SOMEONE ASK ME ABOUT VIDEO GAMES WHILE I'M WORKING ON A (e.d.)ING SCENE? GIVE ME AN ANSWER! WHAT DON'T YOU GET ABOUT IT? (e.d.)'S SAKE MAN, YOU'RE AMATEUR."

Full presser's after the (e.d.)ing break.

Typically, when Australia's Office of Film and Literature Classification (the game rating board for the Land Down Under) is criticized for shoddy job performance, the attacks are coming from ... well, people like us. This is because the board's highest rating is MA15+, meaning games containing similar content to games rated Mature by the ESRB are often refused classification and sent back to the developer for content cuts.

However, the OFLC has recently come under fire from its harshest critics, not due to its refusal to classify certain games, but rather, because of its rating for the recently released expansion to GTA IV, The Lost and Damned. These critics take issue with the fact that the expansion earned a rating from the OFLC without undergoing any content cuts, while GTA IV was forced to clean up its act before getting approved. These critics claim the similarities between the core game and expansion are evidence of major disparities in the Australian rating board.

These critics might have a point -- the OFLC could be taking on a more lax approach to their classification of mature content titles. However, it's just as likely that Rockstar made content cuts to Lost and Damned before the first submission in order to avoid a refusal of classification -- and a costly resubmission. There's only one way to tell: Australian readers, we need you to boot up the game and, well, check for any and all wangs. We know, it's a lot to ask.

By now you're probably tired of reading about slick Hollywood-based video game launch parties attended by C-list celebrities and wannabes who probably game about as much as your grandma. Capcom finally got it right by opening up the Street Fighter IV party to the public. The only problem was that so many people showed up for the event that the fire marshal ended up restricting access, and a lot of people went home without getting their game on.

For those of you who didn't make it to the Geffen Museum Street Fighter Takeover in downtown Los Angeles, we offer up the gallery below from the event. There were tons of console stations where you could play the game, imported versions of the SFIV Japanese arcade game, a Street Fighter Club rumble pit, a "museum" full of Street Fighter products from over the years, Street Fighter arcade cabinets painted by different artists, plenty of people in costumes, and of course, game producer Ono-san.

If you're hesitant to drop a Jackson on tomorrow's expansion for Rockstar's magnum opus, a recent UGO preview of The Lost and Damned might have a few tidbits that'll make you renew that studio apartment lease in Liberty City. In addition to the lengthy new campaign, the add-on will apparently ... add on a few chopper-centric multiplayer modes.

Some modes are simply bike-infused rehashes of the original gametypes, but a few stick out like a sore, awesome thumb -- namely, Chopper vs. Chopper, in which one player rides through checkpoints around the city on a bike while his opponent chases him down in a gun-toting helicopter; and the revamped Race mode, which arms competing bikers with clubs, which they can use to take out other players in a brutal, Road Rash-esque fashion. We'll let you know if these new gametypes are worth the price of admission once we've had a chance to get lost in The Lost and Damned.

[Via Evil Avatar]

A particularly watchful, Columbo-esque reader at Kotaku recently put a few widespread pieces of information together to draw an intriguing conclusion -- Sony Bend, the studio behind every Syphon Filter title to date, recently put up a help wanted ad calling for a full-time game tools programmer with PS3 or Xbox 360 experience. It's doubtful that they'll need to use the latter of those two, but it's enough to give rise to rumors that Sony's cooking up a current-gen installment in their decade-old action franchise.

But wait, there's more -- adding further fuel to the Filter flames is an entry on the Credits page of digital content creation company PCB Productions. About a quarter of the way down the page, the company acknowledges their mo-cap work for Syphon Filter 5, a PS3 title coming out of, you guessed it, Sony Bend. This one ranks pretty high on the likelihoodometer -- we'll be waiting with bated breath to see if Sony will confirm Gabe's triumphant return to home consoles.

We've known for a while now that the release of the downloadable, episodic brawler Watchmen: The End is Nigh would coincide with the March 6 release date of the slow-mo film adaptation of the same name, but for the sake of certain specificity (say that five times fast), Warner Bros. just clarified the launch date of the game. Xbox 360 (and PC) users can find it in their usual Wednesday offerings on March 4, while PSN users can can pick it up on Thursday, March 5. They're cutting it awfully close to the film's opening night, but we doubt anyone will have much trouble blowing through the game's two-hour-long campaign in time for a midnight screening.

Sony released this new God of War III trailer today, to go alongside our brand new preview. It's an extended version of the one shown during the VGAs in December and features some of Kratos' new abilities and the game's god-sized scale -- the ending camera shot turns Kratos into a flea! The video was rendered in-game, so cross your blades that it keeps on looking this good -- and angry -- as development continues. Okay, we'll stop writing now, so you can get to watching the darned thing already!

Hey, remember Dead to Rights, that mediocre shooter you played in aught-two that inspired you to teach your pekingese how to bite the hands off of gun-toting criminals? If the mention of that particular franchise summons fuzzy nostalgia, we've got great news -- according to a preview in the upcoming issue of PlayStation: The Official Magazine, Namco is bringing the series back to life after almost four years of inactivity with an entirely new installment, simply titled Dead to Rights.

The game is being developed by Volatile Games (the minds behind Reservoir Dogs, which doesn't exactly fill us with confidence), and is coming out on the PS3 (and according to 1UP, possibly the 360 as well). As the numberless and subtitleless moniker would suggest, the game is neither a prequel, sequel or off-shoot, but a reimagining of the series. For instance, instead of a bloodthirsty malamute, Shadow will be a slobbering French Mastiff. Also, the hard-nosed detective will be played by Tom Hanks. Rather than kill criminals, they'll get into playful shenanigans.

Fine, we're describing Turner & Hooch. How long do we have to wait for a video game adaptation of that heartwarming masterpiece?

A lawsuit filed against Paramount Pictures by the Mario Puzo estate, which claims that the company owes $1 million to the deceased writer's family for sales and rentals of the 2006 video game adaptation of The Godfather, was settled out of court Friday. Electronic Arts, developer and publisher of the title, wasn't involved in the suit, as Paramount was responsible for handling the film's licensing rights. The terms of the settlement have yet to be explicitly explained, but we're guessing Paramount made the Puzo estate an offer that they found impossible to turn down. Wait, we mean -- dammit!

Media Molecule's über-charming LittleBigPlanet racked up a ton of nominations in the Academy of Arts and Sciences' Interactive Achievement Awards, so it's only appropriate that one of the major minds behind the D.I.Y. title makes an appearance at the D.I.C.E. Summit, where the awards will be ... awarded. Said mind is firmly housed within the skull of Media Molecule co-founder Alex Evans, who will be delivering a speech at the event, which will take place in Las Vegas from Feb. 17 to Feb. 20.

Evans' brain joins a number of other brains belonging to notable gaming industry movers and shakers, including EA CEO John Riccitiello, Resident Evil 5 producer Jun Takeuchi and Valve's head honcho, Gabe Newell, who will deliver the keynote. We'd certainly like to see Evans bust out another entertaining LittleBigPowerpointPresentation, but we're not holding out hope. The D.I.C.E. Summit is serious business.

We've harbored a secret love for the Time Crisis series since our initial exposure during the PS1 era, though we've always had our reservations about the use of the light gun peripheral. Why introduce such an unnecessary middleman into the equation? We want to end the lives of our seemingly cloned adversaries by simply laying our fingers upon them. We then want to proclaim to all passerbys, "These? These are the hands of the Angel of Death! Tremble, all, before our mighty digits!"

Said fantasy can now be realized in inappropriate social situations thanks to Namco, who dropped Time Crisis Strike onto the Apple App Store today. In addition to the "finger of death" mechanic mentioned above, players can also tilt the handheld in order to dodge the enemy's gigantic, molasses-slow bullets. For just $5.99 -- a pittance, really -- you can imbue your hand's extremities with devastating power.