Happy Starcraft II Day, here's your cake. There's a StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty Walkthrough on FileFront. Also, The Orange County Register has photos of the game's launch at the Fountain Valley Fry's Electronics store. Thanks Ant.

Gamasutra interviews Hiromichi  "Tiger" Tanaka of Square Enix about FINAL FANTASY XIV, the upcoming MMO installment in the FF series of role-playing games. A natural question is what the new game means to the future of FINAL FANTASY XI, their other MMORPG in the series. They learn that while they would like players to migrate to the new game, they will continue to support the old one as long as is warranted: "Since FFXI has been out of eight years, we think it's reached its time now, so obviously we would want FFXI players to shift to FFXIV. However, we do understand if FFXI players have special memories of FFXI, so there must be some people who will continue to play FFXI. So, we would like to keep of them happy, and we will try to introduce some bonus for our customers, probably from a monetary point of view. However, of course, we will continue working on FFXI. Even after we launch FFXIV, we will still continue the development side. So, as long as the players enjoy the game, we will continue the service." Thanks Strategy Informer.

Dungeon Siege III Details on IGN is an interview with Rich Taylor, Obsidian's project director on Dungeon Siege III, the next installment in the action/RPG series. Topics include designing for PCs and consoles, multiplayer support, the story, items, and more. The interview is accompanied by a cinematic trailer. Also, we have a pair of new Dungeon Siege III screenshots.

Thanks Mike Martinez.

• BioShock 2 Patch Notes for 360 and PS3.
• Taking Games Beyond Whack and Tilt.
• Street Fighter x Tekken Due in Two Years.
• PS3's Netflix app update- We take an in-depth look.
• Section 8 PS3 Tournament.
• Rare fan community closes due to Rare's own BS.

• Why the iPad Hasn't Killed Kindle. Thanks Ant via Digg.

• Intel takes the next step in Silicon Photonics.
• Apple announces new Mac Pro with up to 12 cores. Thanks Mike Martinez.
• Long-neglected Mac Pro, Cinema Display finally updated.

• Should Facebook add a dislike button. Thanks [H]ard-OCP.

Well, it's certainly not black in these parts yet, but I need to make an early departure today to deal with a family emergency. My apologies.

Ars Technica has word of another blow to another of the more contested aspects of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, following news that "jailbreaking" a cell phone is allowable. They report the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has ruled (Adobe Acrobat-format) that breaking through digital rights management does not automatically invoke the DMCA's "anti-circumvention" provisions. Getting past such DRM is said to be permissible for accessing the work, as well as "fair use," saying: "Merely bypassing a technological protection that restricts a user from viewing or using a work is insufficient to trigger the DMCA's anti-circumvention provision. The DMCA prohibits only forms of access that would violate or impinge on the protections that the Copyright Act otherwise affords copyright owners." There are suggestions that this may apply to the recent decision that made RealDVD illegal, and they have attempted to contact MGE to see if they will appeal the RealDVD case.

Game retailer GameStop has acquired Kongregate, the purveyor of web-based games said to host 10 million games a month. Financial terms of the deal are not being disclosed, but word is Kongregate will maintain its offices in San Francisco and continue under the leadership of co-founders Jim and Emily Greer. It's not clear how they plan to monetize this acquisition, but word is: "The move is part of an effort by the Grapevine, Tex.-based video game retailer to grow its digital business."

Captains of DarkTide is a web-based, fantasy-themed MMOG from Silverlode Interactive where the player is the captain of a mighty sailing ship, doing battle against magical creatures and other players. As closed beta testing has concluded, they are now inviting players to participate in open beta testing of the game. Here's word: "As of August 3rd all players who have registered at www.playdarktide.com will be granted instant access to the CoDT open beta. Each player will start with a fantasy ship, outfitted with cannons, archers and even a ballista. Captains will be able to explore the world, try all six races and factions, and recruit powerful humanoids and magical creatures for their crews. Each zone offers increasingly challenging encounters and gives access to new ship designs and more powerful weaponry."

The Providence Journal has word that the proposed $75 million loan guarantees have been approved in an effort to lure developer 38 Studios into moving to Rhode Island from Massachusetts. The article calls the loan guarantees for the developer founded by former major league pitcher Curt Schilling "controversial," but the lone dissenting loan vote was from a vibrator manufacturer: "The guarantee passed on an 8-to-1 vote, with Karl Wadensten, president of Vibco, a manufacturer of industrial vibrators, the lone opposition vote. Three members of the board were absent." The article makes it sound like a move by 38 Studios is now a sure thing, saying Schilling spoke at a news conference following the board meeting, saying he’s been negotiating exclusively with Rhode Island for the last four months, and stating: "This is a partnership."

Today is launch day for StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, Blizzard's real-time sequel that's been a dozen years in the making (or waiting, at least). There is a Known Issues - Technical Support related list and a Current list of bugs on the StarCraft II Forums outlining issues with the game (thanks Big Download). Also, since there turns out to be no option within the game to activate anti-aliasing, there's a post on PC Games Hardware explaining how to turn this on in the control panel for NVIDIA graphics cards. As there is no corresponding option for ATI owners, they have word from ATI on why, saying: "third parties found that 4x AA led to a reduction in fps rendering at lower screen resolutions, which only became more noticeable at larger resolutions. After evaluating our options, our engineering team opted not to provide AA support for StarCraft II within the Catalyst Control Center, even though the competition has included AA support in their driver at launch. We are committed to making AA perform at an acceptable level before we release it to our customers. We will continue to work with Blizzard on this matter and hope to offer our customers an acceptable AA solution at a later date." On a related note, PC Perspective has an article on this topic that includes benchmarks for NVIDIA accelerators showing what sort of performance hit this entails. On a semi-related note, there is a StarCraft II Q&A with Blizzard's Rob Pardo on USATODAY.com discussing the game in general terms.

A new patch is automatically available on Steam to update Counter-Strike: Source, Valve's teamplay first-person shooter. The included bug fixes, audio tweaks, and clan tag changes are outlined below. Continue here to read the full story.

Another automatic patch is now available on Steam to update Alien Swarm, Valve's recently released, freeware top-down shooter. The new version includes a performance tweak, cheat protection, and a dedicated server browser. Here are the patch notes. Continue here to read the full story.

GOG.com now offers sales of Space Quest 1+2+3 to go along with their previous DRM-free reissue of Space Quest 4+5+6, offering even more of Sierra's classic space adventures. Word is: "The first two installments require text input to interact with the environment, but Space Quest 3 is of the more modern point-and-click variety. Despite the lack of full-talkie voiceovers, you'll surely recognize the witty, sarcastic humor and cunning sci-fi references you know and love from the later installments."

GameZone - Five Issues With PC Gaming.
Personally, my biggest pet peeve with the PC is the lack of split-screen multiplayer.

Koku Gamer - Sony and Their Perpetual Hole. Thanks Joker961.
Sony has been digging this perpetual hole for itself since it released the PS3. They are probably the company with least amount of concern for the gamer and their relentless self-promoting and attempted cash-cows have cost them a lot this generation, especially considering the PS2 was a juggernaut last generation for doing almost the opposite of what Sony is doing now. One can only wonder what the executives at Sony are thinking when they make these business decisions and I can only say, thank God that platform has managed to get some really great games on it brought to them by third-parties or this could have very well been the end of the PlayStation.

• Diablo 3 on 1UP.com. Speculation about the final player class.
• World of Warcraft: Cataclysm on Strategy Informer.

• Shogun 2: Total War on Blue's News.

• Dead Rising Collectible "Zombrex" Edition announced for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Thanks Batman X.
• Demo: Madden NFL 11 on Xbox LIVE.
• The Signal for Alan Wake is Available Today on Xbox LIVE.
• PS3 firmware 3.41 adds recommendations and...nothing else.
• Rock Band DLC Week of 7/27 - Avenged Sevenfold and Juanes Packs.
• PS3 first person shooters just got exponentially more enveloping- The PS3 Assault Rifle Controller. Thanks Joker961.
• PlayStation Move: Not just another Wii - VideoGamer.com.
• THQ: Red Dead hurt UFC 2010 sales.
• Ubi: Michael Jackson will sell 1m+. And if not, blame Red Dead.
• Xbox LIVE Games on Demand: LOTR: Conquest, SmackDown vs. RAW 2008 and 2009.

• Microsoft should cut out the middlemen, build its own phones.
• iPad Owners Are ‘Selfish Elites.’ Critics Are ‘Independent Geeks.’ Discuss.

• OpenGL 4.1 Specification Released. Thanks Ant and Slashdot.
• AMD Leads the Way at SIGGRAPH 2010 with Performance Gains and Comprehensive ISV Certifications. Thanks [H]ard-OCP.

• Yahoo Japan To Use Google Search Technology. Thanks Acleacius.
• Old School Color Cycling with HTML5. Thanks Ant via Boing Boing.
• Firefox 'CPU resources' issue better but not gone. Thanks [H]ard-OCP.

• Major Flaw Found in Apple’s Safari Browser. Thanks Ant via Digg.
• Internet warriors hone skills at Black Hat. Thanks [H]ard-OCP.
• Citibank discloses security flaw in iPhone banking application.
• The Dangers of Friending Strangers- the Robin Sage Experiment. Thanks Acleacius.

• Government says DMCA can’t stop jailbreaking, unlocking.
• The DMCA just got a little weaker. Thanks Ant via Linux Today.
• Cybercrime costs a business $3.8 million-year, study finds.
• Members to Probe Tech Giants on Privacy.

• Reign: Conflict of Nations on Gaming Nexus.
• Resident Evil 5 on WorthPlaying.
• Rise of Flight - Iron Cross Edition on Games On Net.
• The Whispered World on GameZone.

• AMD 890GX: GIGABYTE vs. ASRock on MetkuMods.
• Antec DF-30 Dark Fleet Mid-Tower Case on Benchmark Reviews.
• Arctic Cooling C1 Mobile USB Charger with Solar Panel on TweakTown.
• ASUS N61Jv Optimus Core i5 16" Notebook on PC Perspective.
• Choiix Cruiser Wireless Blue Trace Mouse on Neoseeker, Overclockers Club, and PureOC.
• Choiix Power Fort Advanced battery pack on DarkVision Hardware.
• Cirago USB 3.0 Hard Drive Dock CDD2000 on Test Freaks.
• COMPRO Technology IP70 Day and Night Megapixel-HD H.264 Network Camera on Futurelooks.
• Corsair Force 120GB SSD on Hardware Canucks.
• Corsair Professional Series Gold AX1200 PSU on PC Perspective.
• Crucial Ballistix DDR3-1600 4GB Dual Channel RAM Kit on ThinkComputers.org.
• Enermax Volcanus Case on Hardware Secrets.
• Flip Video MinoHd on Computer & Consumer Electronic Reviews.
• GELID Icy Vision Graphics Card Cooler on TweakTown.
• GPU Air Cooler Royale on Bjorn3D.
• HP ZR30w 30-Inch S-IPS LCD Monitor on HotHardware.
• Nokia E73 Mode Cell Phone on Digital Trends.
• NVIDIA Quadro 5000 2.5GB Fermi-based Professional Graphics Card on PC Perspective.
• Rosewill Libertas 800W PSU on Hardware Secrets.
• Rosewill Super Slim 2.4GHz Wireless Touchpad Keyboard on Legit Reviews.
• Samsung LN55C650 Monitor on TechReviewSource.com.
• Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex TV HD Media Player on Big Bruin.
• Scythe Rasetsu CPU Cooler on Technic3D. In German.
• SilenX Extreme Efflizio Silent CPU Cooler on Tweaknews.
• Sparkle GeForce GTX480 Graphics Card on OverclockersHQ.com.
• StarTech.com Infosafe 2.5" SATA HDD Enclosure & PCIe 2 Port USB 3.0 Card Adapter on Vortez Hardware.
• Synology DiskStation DS411+ NAS on HEXUS.net.
• Thermaltake Armor A90 VL90001W2Z Case on HardwareLogic.
• Thermaltake Frio Cooler on techPowerUp.

Thanks Ant.

• The History of Starcraft…
• Bethesda games now on Impulse and Trainz Simulator 2010 Now Available on Steam…
• Jersey Shore to Be Made into a Video Game. Survival/horror?…
• Big News by Daniel Floyd announces these clever game lectures will now be a weekly series on the Escapist, and implies he also has a new gig at Pixar…
• The Guild Season 4 Music Video: "Game On"…
• Space Empires is now live on Facebook, offering turn-based combat in a science-fiction setting…

Well today is the launch day for StarCraft II. This is obviously a big deal for real-time strategy buffs, which I do not count myself as, but also to PC gamers in general (which I do), so it will be interesting to see how big this all turns out to be. Meanwhile, I will be giving the game a try myself, though I imagine it will probably just kick my non-strategic ass pretty badly.

Real-Time Links:	Thanks Ant and Mike Martinez and Acleacius.
Play:	AirBeat. Ka-Bloom. CanPop.
Links:	6 Ways Your Office Is Literally Killing You. Retr0Bright. Clean cases, consoles, and LEGO bricks. Thanks Boing Boing. Ancient Ninja: Separating the Men from the Myth.
Stories:	Boat made from plastic bottles completes Pacific voyage. 99 Cents Only Stores sued over price increase. Thanks Neatorama. Verbed! Thanks Neatorama.
Science:	Education 'helps brain compensate for dementia changes'.
Images:	Top 10 Best Halo 3 Screenshots of All Time. Press Start! - a set on Flickr. Thanks Boing Boing. Skateboard with Many Wheels.
Media:	Video Games Are Dangerous. Blockheads Burritos Brawl: Fight Breaks Out At Restaurant. Meanwhile At Walmart ....
Auction:	My Little Pony Team Fortress 2 Spy. Thanks Morris via Plaza.