SouthPeak Games announces they have acquired the rights to publish the next installment in Firefly's Stronghold series of real-time strategy games. This leads to their announcement of Stronghold 3, saying Firefly Studios is currently developing the sequel for release on PCs in 2011. "Stronghold 3 will be a terrific addition to our line-up as our premier release for Spring 2011," said Melanie Mroz, SouthPeak's CEO. "Publishing the newest sequel to the popular Stronghold franchise provides additional visibility to our brand and robust portfolio of games. With a strong built-in user base, we believe the enhancements incorporated into this sequel will drive further growth for the franchise, enhance our revenue stream through traditional retail sales, as well as significantly strengthen our digital offering where there remains tremendous growth opportunity." The Stronghold 3 Website is live, though there is not much there at the moment besides the warning to "gird your loins."

MCV has what looks like a pretty strong confirmation of rumored plans for a PC edition of Fable III, the next installment in Lionhead's RPG series. They have an image of the game box emblazoned with the following blurb: "Only on Xbox 360 & Windows."

A post on superannuation lists a slew of domain names registered by Activision that seem to point to a futuristic installment in the Call of Duty series. They point to DNS listings for callofdutyfuturewarfare.com, callofdutyfuturewarfare2.com, callofdutyfuturewarfare3.com, advancedwarfare2.com, advancedwarfare3.com, codfuturewarfare.com, codfuturewarfare2.com, codfuturewarfare3.com, futurewarfare2.com, futurewarfare3.com, secretwarfare2.com, secretwarfare3.com, spacewarfare2.com, and spacewarfare3.com.

CCP announces a setback to the release of Tyrannis, the upcoming 13th expansion for EVE Online, their sci-fi MMORPG. This devblog explains the one-week delay to May 26, and here's the announcement:

After careful consideration, the EVE Online dev team has decided to delay the deployment of EVE Online: Tyrannis by one week to May 26th, and the market seeding of Planetary Command Centers (which will be used to allow players to start developing planets) to June 8th. This will allow the development team to finalize polish on the features and players to have a period of time to study the new gameplay, scan planets for resources, train skills needed for structures and make plans for which planets they want to More about this decision can be found in a recent devblog by CCP t0rfifrans, EVE‘s Senior Producer. EVE Gate, the web-based social portal into EVE Online, will be available May 26th. EVE Online: Tyrannis is EVE‘s 13th free expansion, offering two major features in Planetary Interaction and EVE Gate. You can find out more about them at the feature site.

The Left 4 Dead Blog announces the fourth in their series of weekly mutations for Left 4 Dead 2 is now available. Travelocity will pleased to learn this is called "Last Gnome On Earth," which is described like so: "Do you crave attention? Want all the infected to swarm you and the gnome you are carrying? Then we have the game mode for you. The team needs to carry the garden gnome from start to finish in any campaign. The common infected hate the gnome and will swarm whoever is carrying him. Watch out putting him on the ground, a boomer explosion will send him flying!"

The LEGO Universe Website is now accepting preorders for Netdevil's upcoming LEGO MMORPG. They are offering those who preorder an exclusive astronaut minifigure as well as a code to redeem to add the minifigure to the game. Word is this is a limited offer while supplies last.

A new "Age/Revert" Trailer from Singularity shows off the age and revert functions of the "Time Manipulation Device" in Raven's upcoming temporal first-person shooter. The trailer is not meant for younger viewers, and so it is embedded behind an age-gate below, though of course this can be thwarted with a Time Manipulation Device (or basic arithmetic). Continue here to read the full story.

A new behind-the-scenes trailer from Transformers: War for Cybertron outlines the story in the upcoming Transformers prequel. The developers explain how the game will show the formative days of the Autobots and Decepticons, and express their enthusiasm for the game's storytelling. The game is also the subject of a new interview on AtomicGamer where Matt "Tony The" Tieger of developer High Moon Studios discusses the project.

The Star Wars: The Old Republic Website offers a new article outlining the Advanced Class System in the upcoming Star Wars MMORPG. They describe this as the system that helps determine whether Han shot first: "But, do you want to be the kind of Smuggler that sneaks into the middle of a firefight and quickly blasts away at an opponent from point-blank range? Or do you want to be the kind that keeps to the outskirts of the battle, strategically picking your targets from a distance?" They also offer a new developer blog where Principal Lead Writer Daniel Erickson describes creating the world of Voss for the game. Also, there's a video interview on IncGamers TV talking about the game with Daniel.

The InstantAction interview on BitMob besieges InstantAction's Louis Castle to discuss browser-based gaming. The conversation covers a wide variety of topics, including advantages to InstantAction's approach, DRM, supporting reviewers and Linux, fighting spam, affiliate programs, Apple's iPad, and more.

• Call of Juarez - Bound in Blood on Impulse. Save 50%.
• Determinance on Impulse. Save 33%.
• Fallen Earth on Impulse. Save 25%.
• For The Glory on Impulse. Save 60%.
• Portal on Steam. Save 100%.
• Sherlock Holmes - The Awakened on Impulse. Save 35%.
• Sherlock Holmes - Nemesis on Impulse. Save 35%.
• Sherlock Holmes Sleuth Pack on Impulse. Save 35%.
• Sherlock Holmes Versus Jack the Ripper on Impulse. Save 35%.
• SimCity Societies on Impulse. Save 50%.
• The Saboteur on Impulse. Save 25%.
• Selected Shooters on GOG.com. Save 50%.
• Sid Meier's Civilization IV: The Complete Edition on Impulse. Save 75%.
• Torchlight on Steam. Save 50%.
• Tropico 3 - Steam Special Edition on Steam. Save 75%.
  
  Still on sale (previously reported):
  Continue here to read the full story.

• Bulletstorm on IncGamers.

• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Resurgence Pack on Blue's News.

• Cellphones Now Used More for Data Than for Calls. Thanks j.c.f.
• Exclusive BlackBerry tablet information. Thanks Acleacius.

Thanks Mike Martinez.

• NVIDIA CFO: Manufacturing yield problems are 'easing'.
• Sun CEO Still Sunny After Drubbing From Larry Ellison. Thanks Neutronbeam.
• End of Support for XP SP2 is End of an Era. Thanks Slashdot.

Thanks Acleacius.

• Facebook Privacy Settings- How To Fix Your Profile In 2 Minutes.
• Jason Clark, Colorado Gubernatorial Candidate, Takes Out Craigslist Ad For Running Mate.
• Online Talk, Suicides and a Thorny Court Case. Thanks Mike Martinez.
• Mother killed by man she met on Facebook after 'whirlwind romance'.
• "Kill Your Facebook Page" Backlash Gains Speed. Thanks Ant via Digg.

• Action! PC Hockey is due at the end of this month, and is currently offering a 20% discount on past seasons purchased prior to the release…

Link of the Day: 20,000 Pieces of Missing Mail Found in Postal Carrier's Garage. Thanks brother19. More life imitates Seinfeld. "Too many people got their mail! Close to 80%. No body from the post office has ever cracked the 50% barrier! It's like the three minute mile!"

Computer and Video Games reports Treyarch has stated Call of Duty: Black Ops will feature dedicated servers for multiplayer play, confirming a report that surfaced before the recent announcement of the seventh installment in the military shooter series. Dedicated server support was absent from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, in spite of petitions and other protests from unhappy PC gamers, and while Infinity Ward was insistent that this was a necessity, Treyarch studio head Mark Lamia doesn't agree. "I think dedicated servers are excellent. I don't see any reason not to see them unless... well, I just don't see any reason not to," Lamia recently told PC Format magazine. "It seems people like them and we're excited about what we're doing right now." He explains they are working to offer the best of both worlds. "We do work very hard to reconcile the desire to manipulate and modify those dedicated servers with offering them the persistent experience and benefits that the console system provides," he said. "We're working very hard to marry those two things, so people can run dedicated servers and also participate in the communal experience the console players get to have, given they're all on first-party servers." Issue 221 of PC Zone featuring an eight-page Call of Duty: Black Ops preview is now in the hands of subscribers, and will hit UK newsstands soon.

Battlefront.com announces plans for Combat Mission Shock Force - NATO, a third module for their contemporary land warfare simulation. Word is: "This Module introduces forces from three additional NATO countries: Germany, Canada and the Netherlands, as well as some new, much requested, units and vehicles for the Syrian side. All done with the same attention to detail found in previous Combat Mission titles." At this time there is no indication of when this will be released.

Xbox LIVE's Major Nelson's new podcast chats with Infinity Ward's Robert Bowling about the just announced Resurgence map pack for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Shacknews highlights the most relevant revelations, which are that two of the maps will be remakes of Vacant and Strike from Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, while the other three maps will be Carnival, a "desolated amusement park," which they say is "complete with a rollercoaster, world of tomorrow and fun house," Fuel, described as a "sniper haven," and Trailer Park, which is "a maze" with "super tight corridors." Word is this will be 1200 MS points ($15.00 USD) when it hits Xbox 360 on June 3, with the PC and PS3 releases to follow.

The Cliff Bleszinski First Look Interview on GameTrailers.com corners the Epic designer in a dark alley to discuss Bulletstorm, the first-person shooter in development at People Can Fly. Cliff discusses the "new verbiage" in the game (which is gameplay, not etymology), also outlining plot points, new weapons, over-the-top boss fights, Bulletstorm's sense of humor, and more. The visuals in this clip include stills of concept art and brief gameplay b-roll which are repeated quite a bit, but there is also a gameplay trailer with all the gameplay footage, including multiple depictions of Bulletstorm's pet kick-then-shoot maneuver. Thanks Joker961.

The Formula 1 2010 Game Website offers a new trailer showing off the weather effects in Formula 1 2010, as F1 racing is a rain-or-shine business. The clip includes extensive commentary from the developers at Codemasters and pre-alpha gameplay footage using 2009 car models as placeholders.

A fourth "making of" trailer from Split/Second is now available, offering some outlook from the developers at Black Rock Studio about the audio in the upcoming racing game. I prefer to make my own car sounds when playing driving games, except I keep having to wipe spittle off the monitor. The embedded version of the clip follows. Continue here to read the full story.

PC Gamer Readers' Top 100: 20-1 is online with the results of reader voting for favorite PC games of all time. The results have inclusions that may be more than a little surprising, like The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion at #7, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 at #6, EVE Online at #3, and Fallout 3 at #2. Thanks Joker961 via Kotaku.

• Medal of Honor on Destructoid. Thanks Joker961.

• Rock Band DLC Week of 5/18 - Grateful Dead and The Smithereens.
• Good Girl Artist Does A Very Good Bayonetta. Thanks Joker961.

Thanks Ant.

• Comcast iPad App - Control Your Box from Your iPad.
• T-Mobile Loses Subscribers, Pins Hopes On HSPA+.
• And Then There Was A Solid Gold iPad. Thanks Joker961.

• Splinter Cell: Conviction Performance In-depth on TechSpot.
• Technology linked to happiness, study claims. Thanks [H]ard-OCP.
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 465 leaked, benchmarked on HEXUS.net.
• Galaxy Ships GeForce GTX 470 GC With Industry-First Flip Fan.
• Flashing Your Video Card's (GPU) BIOS on Bjorn3D.com.

• Microsoft: IE6 is past its expiration date. Thanks Mike Martinez.
• Study shows you really can feel things that happen in virtual reality. Thanks Joker961.

• Microsoft: MSE safe from Windows kernel hook attack. Thanks Mike Martinez.
• New DoS attack uses Web servers as zombies. Thanks [H]ard-OCP.

Thanks Mike Martinez.

• Nintendo sends the legal hounds after game pirates.
• Child abuse 'big business online'. Thanks Acleacius.
• Legal experts: LimeWire likely doomed.
• Music piracy unstoppable, Universal admits.
• Wi-fi owner fined for lax security in Germany.

• Arctic Cooling ARCTIC C2 4-Port USB Charger on Vortez Hardware.
• Cooler Master HAF 932 AMD Edition Case on Tweaknews.
• CoolIT ALC ECO Liquid CPU Cooling on Guru3D.
• Crucial Ballistix PC3-12800 (1600MHz) 6GB RAM Kit on TweakTown.
• ECS H57H-MUS Motherboard on PureOC.
• Mushkin Ridgeback 996902 PC3 16000 2 x 2GB RAM on Overclockers Club.
• NETGEAR Powerline AV 200 XAVB2001 Adapter Kit on TweakTown.
• ROCCAT Kova Gaming Mouse on MADSHRIMPS.
• Sapphire HD 5850 Toxic Graphics Card on MetkuMods.
• Sony Alpha NEX-5 Camera on Digital Trends.
• Spire Thermax Eclipse II SP984B1-V2 Heatsink on FrostyTech.com.
• Thermaltake Frio CPU Air Cooler on [H]ard-OCP.
• Thermaltake V3 Black Edition ATX Computer Case on Futurelooks.
• Zotac GeForce GTX-470 Fermi Video Card on Benchmark Reviews.

• Bungie: New IP can be bigger than Halo…
• Game Sales in April Show 'Something is Terribly Wrong,' says Pachter. Didn't predict it, can't explain it…
• The 30 Greatest Live-Action Video Game Commercials Ever…

What's Been Renewed, What's Been Canceled, What's Left on TV.com has the TV scorecard (thanks Ant). Under cancelled we see: "Better Off Ted... Needed a miracle to return." And under renewed is: "Undercover Boss ... This season's biggest new hit." Clever sitcom can't find an audience, but the world beats a path to the door of the next smarmy fake "reality" show. Boo.

Uncancelled Links:	Thanks Ant and Mike Martinez and Acleacius.
Play:	Vehicles.
Links:	Sh*t My Kids Ruined. Bad Romance- Love in the Time of Videogames.
Stories:	Last Chance to Spot Shuttle Atlantis in Night Sky. Thanks dakslf. 'Annie' comic strip ending after 85 years. Thanks Digg. Principal tells parent to 'eat s--- and die'.
Science:	Are children more likely to survive plane crashes than adults? Thanks j.c.f. The laser turns 50. Car hackers can kill brakes, engine, and more.
Images:	Who is Your Best Friend? Test for Dog or Spouse.
Media:	This Resident Evil: Afterlife trailer is literally funny. Thanks Joker961. Iron Man 4 trailer. Chinook pilot showing off.
The Funnies:	Mac Portal Funny. Thanks dakslf.
Follow-up:	Patrick Jean's 'Pixels' might hit the big screen. Gulf Oil Spill Far Greater Than Thought, Some Experts Say. Oil spill could go on for years, experts say.