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Melissa Batten, 36, who worked as a software development engineer in Microsoft’s Xbox division,was killedby her estranged husband earlier this week. Her husband, Joseph Batten, also 36, murdered Melissa before shooting himself. Melissa had worked for Microsoft since 2002 and her name can be found in the credits of such games asHalo 3andGears of War. She had been working more recently with Rare for its Xbox 360 titles. Prior to joining Microsoft, Batten had worked as a lawyer with a Harvard education....

Theofficial siteforNo More Heroesis now up, causing collective aniticpation for Suda 51’s latest slice of tripped-out, carnage-packed potential greatness to rise another excitable notch. While the majority of the content is yet to appear, there are a few small black and white, vintage-film style images from the trailer to check out on the Story page, with the promise of character and (presumably control) system information, as well as more pictures to come....

The Consumer Electronics Show does have plenty of gaming news coming out of it, but for the past several years I’ve attended, I can tell you that almost none of it comes out of the event’s Gaming Showcase. Going to the company booths elsewhere gets you more, and a lot of companies show their wares away from the crowded show floor. The Gaming Showcase itself is usually pretty sad in comparision....

As youBioShockPC owners have probably long since been aware, both the retail and Steam versions of the game came bundled with somepain-in-the-assDRM. While 2K wasquick to increasethe install limits after receiving bags of consumer hate mail, one had to wonder why they didn’t just do away with it altogether. Although it’s taken a good ten months since release, 2K hasfinallyrealized that their copy protection really hasn’t been doing anything besides pissing people off....

So here we are again, at the beginning of the newest chapter of our gaming field guide. I’m sure you all know the drill by now. Each week we take two archetypes of the 21st century gaming world and analyse their traits, play habits and peculiarities, to arm you with the knowledge you may well need to survive an encounter in the wild. It’s a dangerous and unpredictable world out there, so follow me through to the other side of the jump, where this week we take a look at Technical Gamers and overzealous Caucasian Japanophiles....

Brace yourself, Internet. Themere rumorof Climax developing a new 2.5DRocket Knightgame made you guys bananas (myself included), and now that said rumor has been verified as truth, I don’t even know what to do. 1UP has gotan exclusive preview of the tentatively titledRocket Knight, which is due out in early 2010 on Xbox LIVE Arcade, PlayStation Network, and Steam. Besides looking gorgeous and exactly how I would envision a revival of the retro series, the new game has an interesting backstory as well....

I pretend I’m rational, pragmatic, unsentimental. I deal with theissues, man, the core of our intellectual relationship with games, the subtle layers of gamer psychology. And I feign androgyny; my gender has no place in my writing. I’ll even scrutinize a digital rack with the best of ’em (isn’t it just a bit sad thatthis articlewas #1 onGametaband didn’t leave the top ten all weekend?) Then, though, I see this picture and every component of my veneer dissolves like the polar ice caps against the march of Man’s global campaign to subjugate nature....

The nature of this post will undoubtedly raise awareness ofBlazBlue: Continuum Shift‘s existence on the torrent sites, which is a bummer, no question. But Aksys Games’ anti-piracy parody video doesn’t have enough views for the amount of work that went into its production. You can see my dilemma. The staff at Aksys knows how to have a good time during work hours, and I don’t think anyone can appreciate how important that is more than the rowdy bunch of characters responsible for this blog you are currently reading....

Whilewe were toldthat the first two chapters of the live action prequel toAlan Wake, “Bright Falls,” were set to go live today for Gold members of Xbox LIVE I’ve been trying to watch them for most of the morning and as of this writing haven’t seen them pop up anywhere. Maybe I’m just dumb and missing it entirely, but luckily I have the above trailer to tide me over… until I go to theNew York Times websiteand watch the two episodes there....

Yeah, I know I always wax poetic when it comes to judging these contests. It’s so hard, you guys are all so good, blah blah blah. It’s true though: the Destructoid community has some of the most creative and clever individuals I’ve had the pleasure of brushing past in the comments, and you guys make it a true challenge (as well as a pleasure) to pick a winner. For ourDamnationsteampunk PC contest, we were majorly impressed with quite a few of the entries....

Darksidersis pretty damn gory, but is it bad enough to deserve a ban? According to the United Arab Emirates, it is. No reason has been given, but the UAE’s stock reply is always that it will anything that “contradicts with UAE’s customs and traditions.” I’m guessing the Heaven/Hell focus might have something to do with it, but who knows? When games are banned, logical reasons and sensible explanations aren’t usually in abundance, soDarksiderswill just be joiningGod of WarandGrand Theft Auto IVas games that Arabs aren’t allowed to play, but will just pirate anyway if they really want to....

If there’s one thing Atari has done right, it’s downloadable gaming. Such classics asRez HD,Lumines LiveandEvery Extend Extra Extremehave done pretty well for themselves. Well enough, in fact, for Atari to bundle all three Q Entertainment games together in a retail package. The pack will hit in Spring 2009 and will go under the umbrella name ofQ3— meaningQubed. Terrible name, but pretty good games. I already haveRezandLumines Liveon my 360’s hard drive, but this is a great deal to those who are lacking the games....

Last week,we reported— based on an article by theWall Street Journal— thatStarCraft IIcost $100 million to develop. This is not true. TheWSJhas sinceissued a correction, saying that the figure actually related toWorld of Warcraft, notStarCraft II. Well then, how much did it cost to make? Unfortunately for curious minds, it seems as if this will be another one of those secrets to be taken to the grave. Blizzard was quick to point out that it “has never disclosed the development cost ofStarCraft II, and for competitive reasons, we will not do so....