This is a category that's especially close to my heart, kudos to those who dared to risk all, who colored outside the lines and put the extra thinkin' effort into giving us something fresh.

Once again, a lot of our editors agreed on one very special title... Unreal Tournament III... just kidding!

A few months ago, Acclaim's David Perry said some pretty harsh words that got him into the headlines, saying that E3 is broken and an embarrassment, and that Sony has no chance of making money on the PlayStation 3.

Apparently he wasn't through speaking his mind. This guy gets into the news more often for what he says than for his games. More bashing from Perry in the full article.

Acclaim boss David Perry seems to be making a habit out of bold claims. Remember how he said that E3 was broken and an embarrassment? Well now he says that Sony has "pretty much no chance of making money on the PS3." His E3 claim was valid, from what we've seen of the event, but this claim may be premature. What do you guys think?

Despite getting a lot of bad rep and portents of doom this year, ESA has announced that they will still be holding an E3 event next year. They'd better make some changes if they really intend to push through with it though. More in the full article.

Yet another one boards the "hate E3" wagon. David Perry, founder of Shiny Entertainment and chief creative officer at Acclaim, has called the event "broken," "stupid," and an "embarrassment." More after the "read more" link.

Alternative rock appears to be the flavor of the moment, with Harmonix readying the release of Pixies' Doolittle album among Rock Band's (Xbox 360, PS3) newest downloadable content. More details on this bundle's track list are available in the full article.

We've been anxiously waiting for any news about 100 Bullets ever since it was first announced. If you feel the same way, then you'd probably want to hear about this rumor that the game will be coming out by next year. To find out more, head on over to the full article.

Pivotal Games and Eidos Interactive are confident that their February 2008 release Conflict: Denied Ops (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC) will carry explosive action and good graphics. Now they want to make sure that the musical score is just as intense. They've decided to get Richard Jacques for the job to do just that. Find out why in the full article.

Video game designer Tim Schafer's upcoming title Brutal Legend has landed a cover spot on the latest issue of Game Informer. This is according to a post on the official Double Fine forums.

Not much is known about Brutal Legend just yet, but the mag describes it as "A Rock n' Roll roadshow". Actor Jack Black will apparently be voicing roadie Eddie Riggs, presumably the game's main protagonist. We'll report more details as soon as soon as they surface.

Schafer's most recent project was the 2005 platformer Psychonauts. The game received critical acclaim but suffered from lackluster sales.

A lot of fans mourned when Blizzard cancelled Starcraft Ghost. However, the same community also applauded the company for its willingness to "pull the plug" on a game it felt was not up to Blizzard's standards.

After all, this is one of the few companies with an almost perfect track record. Every PC game it has released received much acclaim from critics and created loyal fan base among gamers.

World of Warcraft Lead Designer Rob Pardo recently spoke at the Hollywood and Games Summit and disclosed a lot of interesting details about how Blizzard runs its company.

What would interest most gamers though is the fact that Starcraft Ghost may not be dead after all and is just sleeping. This became clear as Pardo was discussing cancelled projects/games by Blizzard,

We're just willing to cancel the products that fail. That's important to our brand. We're willing to bite the bullet and write off those expenses. Sometimes six months into development, the idea doesn't flow. Our most recent one was Starcraft Ghost.

With that game we were very stubborn. I still believe in that game and the characters but we were not able to execute at the level we wanted to... Rather than work on that we had to focus on our other games. We're hoping one day to return to it.

"Hoping one day to return to it..." - These are the words that bring hope to myself and other gamers who desperately wanted Starcraft Ghost to come out. Well, nothing to do now but wait and hope Blizzard finds the magic balance that'll make the game worthy of being released.

While waiting, we will all have Starcraft II to chew on so no big loss really.