Are you sitting down? Kung fu Panda revealed!

In the midst of random industry non-news and other things of little importance comes three screens of the upcoming powerhouse action game, Kung fu Panda. Based on the upcoming movie of the same name, Kung fu Panda allows players to embark on an epic adventure as they master the specialized Kung Fu fighting styles of, title character, Po the Panda. OK, we'll stop pretending like this is Halo 4 but Activision has done well with their translations of G rated films in both sales and execution. While previous movie-based games will hardly win a gameplay award, they always look polished and fun. Also, we hear the points are pretty easy to get - so sign us up.

Ken Levine will be involved with BioShock 2

We briefly mentioned this during our recap of the Take Two earnings call last night, but we wanted to echo the story so BioShock fans can sleep easy. At the tail-end of the Take Two earnings call last night Chairman Strauss Zelnick clarified questions we had regarding the BioShock sequel that was announced during the 2K investors call earlier in the day. When discussing the upcoming sequel Zelnick assured listeners that BioShock series creator Ken Levine, "will be working on BioShock 2."

While we hope this means Ken will lend his vision to the 2K Marin team in hopes of creating yet another successful foray into the franchise, who knows if it means Ken will just be in Australia on a LOST landmark bus tour. So readers we ask, how important is Ken Levine's involvement in a sequel to BioShock?

Interplay resurrection report: new website

Well, calling it a "website" might be a bit of a stretch. It's more of a digital poster really. Still, it looks like the rebirth of Interplay is officially underway. Fastidious X3F readers will recall that the company submitted an SEC filing late last year that detailed plans to return to the video game development business, largely in thanks to the profits made in the sale of the Fallout IP to Bethesda. Said plans included the revival of several of Interplay's well-known franchises including Earthworm Jim, MDK, and Baldur's Gate. It seems that Interplay is moving forward with its plans, as the new website will attest. Consisting solely of the image seen above, Interplay.com clearly references all three of the franchises mentioned above as well as Fallout (most likely the MMO Interplay has been talking about since 2006). Let's hope we see some details sooner rather than later.

Take 2 News: GTA DLC into 2009 & more

We reported previously that hidden in the depths of a Take 2 shareholder's announcement lurked official news of a sequel to Bioshock, but in fact that announcement held a few other interesting gems as well. First, the news that there will continue to be DLC for GTA IV through the year 2009 (the confirmed Microsoft exclusive ones are set to hit in 2008.) Second and on the Bioshock front, was of course the sequel news, but also that Ken Levine is at work on some form of original IP. The other news regards games confirmed to be releasing this year and next year, which are Midnight Club: Los Angeles, Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution, Top Spin 3, and Don King Presents: Prizefighter all for 2008, then Mafia II, Borderlands, and Bioshock 2 for 2009

Lost Planet: Colonies, Confirmation & Details

Remember when we said that soon we'd have more information on Lost Planet: Colonies? Well we weren't lying, as this week's Famitsu confirmed a ton of information about the game. First and foremost, this is not an entirely new game, this is a remake of the original with more assets and expanded multiplayer. Think of it as similar to Ninja Gaiden Sigma, only for the same console. Hmmm, so that explains why the ESRB was able to rate it so early ... Anyway here's some of the things listed in the article as new:

• New Multiplayer modes, including Humans VS Akrid
  
• 4 New maps, 2 of which are possibly a city and a desert
• New Female Playable Character
• Ten New weapons
• New Monsters
  
• Trial Battle and Score Attack modes for the campaign bosses
• 360/PC Cross-platform play
  

Now while this all sounds great, we still have a few questions. First, price, this can't possibly be a full-retail title can it? There's new content, but unless there's still some secrets held back there's not much more than the original had. But if this hits at the right price ($40 or so) it could see a resurgence in the online Lost Planet community. That leads us right to our second question though, with this seeing release on PC and 360, why not simply make it available as DLC? Perhaps it's because so few in Japan actually have a 360 to download to, and this is seeing release there first on May 29th. No word on release dates for other territories just yet.

Bioware: Mass Effect 2 "to a whole new level"

Commenting to MTV's Multiplayer blog, the Bioware doctors spoke briefly about the side-quests in Mass Effect (which we can all agree were repetitive and far too similar). There are a few comments made about the "reasoning" behind the Mass Effect sidequest choices, but a clever reader can tell it really came down to time. Which is mentioned as being spent mostly on tech and engineering in the first game, and the team's subsequent freedom to spend that time on "making things a little bit richer." Hopefully it'll be more than just a little bit, but as the recent DLC revealed it seems that Bioware has shifted their internal bar for sidequest quality. As long as the doctors make good on their mentioned plans to make the difference in quality between Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 similar to the difference between Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate 2, then we don't have anything to worry about with this trilogy

Harmonix wants to embrace Rock Band user content

Chatting it up with GamesIndustry.biz, Harmonix's Greg LoPiccolo talked Rock Band and its future mentioning that the Rock Band platform could eventually grow to allow user content. When questioned about possibly hitting a creativity wall, LoPiccolo told GamesIndustry.biz that Harmonix "would like to make it possible for people to introduce their own music into sort of the Rock Band ecosystem" and that they would "love to have it be a vehicle for people to be able to express themselves in terms of creating their own music and bringing it to a wider audience." LoPiccolo did make it clear that such an avenue for growth is a "pretty complicated topic" due to implementation, IP problems and ratings, but is confident that Rock Band will grow as a platform ... whatever that entails.

Bloodshot sees another bloody European delay

Our speculative speculation ended up being correct, Condemned 2: Bloodshot will not be releasing to Europe as planned and has again been pushed back a few weeks. SEGA confirmed the release date slip with Eurogamer and is now scheduling Bloodshot's gruesome content to make a European debut in a few weeks on Thursday, April 4th. SEGA didn't divulge the reason for the delay, but one could probably chalk it up to development and them not getting the game to certification in time rather than shipment issues. But we know you can handle the delay European friends, it isn't like you haven't been anticipating Rock Band's release for the past four months.

Dark Messiah content pack reappears on XBLM

Even before releasing the game itself, Ubisoft dropped fresh content for the Oblivion-esque PC port Dark Messiah of Might and Magic: Elements for the Xbox 360. By the time we had a chance to scratch our heads at downloadable content for a game that didn't exisit (at retail that is), Ubisoft pulled the plug and the content was removed from the Xbox Live Marketplace.

Well, like an adamant Terminator, the content pack is back and ready to roll. 400 MS creds gets you new maps, classes and weapons. Unfortunatley the download pack does not include fun, maybe that's next time!

GTA IV Ad Artwork & Factoids List

With the game's release getting closer and closer, GTA IV's marketing strategy is begining to gain momentum. There's already been some viral marketing for the game, but now New York is playing host to GTA IV murals featuring characters from the game. The murals are designed to feel as though they extend into the wall and are very high quality. Photos of all the images, including the earlier ads, are in the gallery below.

As for news other than pretty pictures, a four-page list of features, moments, bullet points and more was posted on thegamereviews and includes all sorts of interesting little bits of information. Spilit into various themes, the list concerns technical issues, locations, characters, groups, pyhsics and more, the impressions read as a great list of things to expect for those of us who just can't wait the six weeks 'till release.