Naughty Dog's Uncharted 2: Among Thieves took top honors in the annual Best of E3 Game Critics Awards with the "Best of Show" prize tucked firmly in Nathan Drake's belt. The game also received two other awards: "Best Console Game" and "Best Action/Adventure Game". Hit the full article for the other big winners.

We got word that Naughty Dog's former employees, Bob Rafai and E. Daniel Arey, who worked on titles such as Crash Bandicoot, the Jak and Daxter series, and Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, have teamed up to form an all new studio: Big Red Button Entertainment.

Details can be found in the full article.

After Jason Hughes announced that Steel Penny Games will be joining the ranks of WiiWare developers working to bring innovative and unique titles for the Wii, he discussed some of the details of Bruiser and Scratch, their first game on the platform. In an interview conducted by VC Reviews, he also discusses the company's take on the game development scene as well as some insightful comments for developers in general. More about this in the full article after the jump!

As Nintendo probably hoped, independent gaming studios are lining up for Wii Software, gunning for the chance to make it big in the wake of the Nintendo Wii's success. And like Nintendo of America announced, WiiWare games are definitely coming this year with Steel Penny Games' latest addition to the WiiWare collection announced to arrive sometime before the second half of 2008. More details at the full story.

There are video game awards, and then there are video game awards. This particular video game awards feature is probably of the latter, but with a lot of good-natured irreverence thrown into the mix. While it would have been easier for us to just make an article about our favorite games (and we did), we felt that the gaming year of 2007 had a lot to offer, and thus we're giving credit (and blame) where it's due.

Check out the winners in the full article.

Originally posted on January 21, 2008 at 1:14 PM.

(Editor's Note: Happy new year! Time to serve this year's first ever QuickJump QuickPeek; now let's party like it's nineteen seventy-ni.. err... 2008!)

Had fun with our barrage of QuickPeek special edition fireworks? Last week sure capped the year on a good note, and this week, the gaming industry welcomes 2008 with its own dazzling display of pyrokinetics - including some pre-CES goodies on the side!

* Article originally posted on Jan 05, 2008 at 02:38 PM.

Various game companies are out to spread the holiday cheer by delivering several personalized digital Christmas cards dedicated to all gamers. You can take a look at the Christmas cards presented by PopCap Games, Marvelous Entertainment, Naughty Dog, Bioware and Square Enix in the full article.

Many are skeptic about Capcom's Okami moving to the Nintendo Wii after Didier Malenfant from Ready at Dawn, the video game development company in charge of the project, said it'll be an exact port. Some say it's just an easy way to make quick money, but Senior Director of Strategic Planning & Research Christian Svensson stressed out that the guys behind Okami for the Nintendo Wii are highly skilled and aren't making shovelware.

Over at Capcom's official forums, Svensson addressed naysayers who believe Okami appearing on the Nintendo platform is a mere move for extra cash. His post read:

Given that the only port we've done to date was RE4, which has a 90+ gamerankings score and provided AMAZING value for the platform, has this really been Capcom's modus operendi such that this allegation should be leveled at us? Zack & Wiki is getting better reviews than just about anything you'll see this year on Wii, except possibly [Super Mario Galaxy]. Shovelware is not what we do.

Before that, he placed trust in Ready at Dawn as an experienced group of former Naughty Dog and Blizzard employees who "shipped their own titles that have rediculously high review scores." Svensson continued, "if we wanted a cheap and dirty port, I could have turned around and picked any one of 50 houses and gotten it done for less and perhaps more quickly."

With that said, there are still no signs of any new content for Okami on the Nintendo Wii. "We've got no current plans to make a 40-60 hour game 50-70 hours. The game just doesn't need it to still be one of the best games and best values on any platform," said Svensson. It seems like there are also no plans progressive scan or 16:9 mode, since he said "frankly, we're still exploring feasibility of it. It's not as simple as 'flick a switch' and it works that way. If we find it's doable, you'll hear about it closer to launch."

Bonus features may be included, but we'll have to wait for any official announcements. "We really want to get everything else in the game up and running properly before we go adding other features or benefits," Svensson commented. Chances are something good is waiting though, especially if we ponder upon one of Svensson's posts.

...if you MUST assume the worst, assume that you will have an amazing 40-60 hour adventure that is one of gaming's most impressive pieces of art to play in fantastic new ways. If you want to hope for the best, well, perhaps we'll have more to say in a few months, but for now we're going to have to ask for your patience.

Naughty Dog's Crash Bandicoot was one of the top video game titles for the original PlayStation (PSOne). Now that Radical Entertainment has taken over the reins of the franchise with Crash of the Titans, we have to say that the development studio really has to deliver lest it wants disappointed bandicoots fans right at its doorsteps

Well, Radical Entertainment wasn't afraid to showcase Crash of The Titans during E3 and so far, the comments from those who've seen it are good. We're giving you now the opportunity to judge for yourselves as we share with you the official assets shown at the event.

Aside from the Wii version, Crash of the Titans will also have PC, PlayStation 2, Nintendo DS and mobiles version.

See the other screenshots and trailer video after the jump!

Back in March, we learned that there's this mysterious video game in the works called Crash of the Titans. Some speculated that this could be a new Crash Bandicoot title or the 80s hit Clash of the Titans. If we are to believe our eyes and poor Spanish comprehension, then Crash of the Titans is all about our favorite marsupial.

According to the scanned page of a Spanish game magazine, the new video game will be available for the Wii, Nintendo DS, and Game Boy Advance (GBA). We didn't see any mention of other platforms so it is highly possible that Crash of the Titans is going to be a Nintendo exclusive. Back in July 2006, even publisher Vivendi mentioned that it will resurrect the fanny pack-bearing creature on the Nintendo Wii.

It should be remembered, however, that the first ever Crash Bandicoot game appeared on PlayStation 1 (PSOne) more than 10 years ago. It was developed by studio Naughty Dog and published by Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA). If you remember this character from that era, take a closer look because Crash Bandicoot is sporting a new image.

The tentative release date for Crash of the Titans, still based from the Spanish magazine, is sometime this October.

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Update: Over at the Gameswank forums, member Dorfdad managed to post some more scans containing the Crash Bandicoot feature from the Spanish game mag. And from what's written in these pages, we learned that the title of the currently Nintendo-only game will be Crash Bandicoot: Landing of the Titans. Not much though has been revealed about the gameplay and other features of this title (because we still can't comprehend Spanish well), so we guess we'll have to wait a little longer for a more official announcement about the Landing of the Titans. For now, let's see what changes are going to be made to Crash through these mag scans: