For whatever reason, the artist that penned the "Le Tour de France" logo in the lower right hand corner of the box art managed to make it look like "Le deTour France."  Which is neither here nor there, though this year's Pro Cycling Manager - Tour de France 2008 will certainly travel through the painstakingly recreated race.  (I'm also recalling Russel Crowe in A Good Year in which he'd always drive by the French cyclists, honking his horn, flipping them off, and yelling out "Laaance Aaaarmstrong!")  Again, neither here nor there.  We've got five new screenshots from developer Cyanide Studio. [READ MORE]

Here are a double bushel full of screenshots from Lost Planet: Colonies Edition that show off the new Egg Hunt mode, the new environments, and some of the other new goodies that be released in the game.

Demo

• The new demo for Race Driver: GRID is mirrored over at AtomicGamer.
• For all your driving/business sim needs, Bus Simulator 2008 demo v1.0 is out (also in German), plus Bonus Pack #2 for the game.

Videos, Screens

• VIDEOS:  LittleBigPlanet PlayStation Day 2008 Trailer (WMV); MotorStorm Pacific Rift Pre-Alpha Tech Trailer (WMV HD); Killzone 2 PlayStation Day 2008 Trailer (WMV); Resistance 2 Teaser Trailer (MPEG); Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures Insider Video #3 (WMV SD; WMV Web); World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Zul'Drak, Vehicular Combat, Sholazar Basin, Borean Tundra; Battlefield: Bad Company B Company Trailer (QT); Burnout Paradise PC Trailer (QT HD); Top Spin 3 Trailer (WMV HD, MP4 HD); SpongeBob SquarePants: Drawn to Life Trailer (QT HD, WMV SD, WMV Small); Spectraball Gameplay Trailer (WMV); Enemy Territory: Quake Wars Stroylent Video #1, #2 (QT HD), Console Gameplay (WMV HD, QT HD, QT SD, WMV).

• SCREENS:  Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures (PC); Iron Grip: Warlord (PC); Brothers In Arms: Hell's Highway; Spectral Force 3 (X360); X-Blades (PC) [user interface]; The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar (PC) [Book 13 Epic Quest]; Roogoo; Grand Theft Auto IV; DOFUS (PC) [2.0 map pics];

Articles

• The i3DSpeed, a project of iXBT.com and Digit-Life.com, is dedicated to informing you about performance on a large number of graphics cards under Windows XP and Vista.
• Pi Studios has Video Game Testers/Quality Assurance positions available in their Houston, TX, office -- details on Craigslist.

Thanks to Pi Studios, AtomicGamer, and Digit-Life for today's news roundup.

Here are a few things I missed while watching the first seven minutes of Speed Racer:

• Law of the land talks about how to create real video game legislation
• Activision is shelving the Tony Hawk series for this year, it's amazing what competition can do
• No video game tie-ins for Indiana Jones or Batman, this isn't necessarily a bad thing
• Aaron Goldberg trashes the PS3, RROD of irony escapes without notice
• Silicon Knights talks about the Mana system in Too Human
• Bizzare Creations is no longer doing DLC for Project Gotham Racing 4, up to Microsoft for new content

This is interesting. Looks like Electronic Arts is going to be putting the console hit Burnout Paradise on the PC. Not only that but it's going to be rebuilt specifically for the PC. Don't know what that entails yet but I'm wondering if this won't be another test bed for their new copy protection scheme with SecuRom. With all the peripherals available for the PC, you can build a pretty kicking rig to race around the city. [READ MORE]

Activision and id Software are taking a much more humorous approach to their new official site in support of the Enemy Territory: Quake Wars console release.  The 2-in-1 health and ammo of the Strogg Race, Stroyent, gets one of those warm, sunny commercials dealing honestly with the problem of Projectile Dysfunction.

The folks at Pandemic Studios are working to bring hobbits, orcs, and Balrogs to life as they have just announced The Lord of the Rings: Conquest today. This time around you'll be able to join the evil forces of Sauron instead of playing as the good guys only. Some images of the game can be found on the official website but June 20th will be the date that you'll get to see game footage on GT TV. I'd really like to see how the game works taking the part of a Cave-troll or the Balrog.  With the recent announcement that Ian McKellem is set to reprise his role of Gandalf for the two Hobbit movies, there seems to be a good amount of Tolkien news coming about these days. [READ MORE]

Shrapnel Games is looking for a few good testers. Open Beta testing for their game War Plan Pacific is starting soon. The game is PC based war strategy goodness that takes place in a war torn World War II era Pacific ocean. The game is mostly Naval warfare but I wouldn't be surprised if there were perhaps some mini strategy games where the action focuses on the capturing small islands since taking islands was key in the Pacific. Details on who qualifies and how to sign up for the open beta after the jump. [READ MORE]

Demo

• Can't get enough detective work?  Investigate this demo for The Lost Cases of Sherlock Holmes.
• The historical war game, Sango 2, has a demo mirrored at AtomicGamer.

Articles

• If you've been following along, Defunct Games is up to chapters 11 and 12 in their Cyril Reads Ninja Gaiden feature, the web's #1 video game book-on-tape internet radio show.
• Xbox America shines their Community Spotlight on "Meg a destr0yer."
• AtomicGamer has reviewed (again) Grand Theft Auto IV.  (And here's their hints and tricks guide for getting ahead in the game.)
• Legit Reviews features the NVIDIA Hybrid SLI and HybridPower Benchmarked and Explained.
• Digit-Life reviews the NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX Graphics Card.

Videos, Screens

• VIDEOS:  Iron Man Behind the Scenes Wii Trailer; LostWinds Gameplay Trailer (WMV); NOMBZ: Night of a Million Billion Zombies! Video (QT); Sango 2 Gameplay Video #1, #2; Buzz! Quiz TV Trailer (MP4 HD); Code Lyoko: Quest for Infinity (PS2, PSP) Trailer (QT); Code Lyoko: Fall of X.A.N.A. Trailer (WMV); Deca Sports Teaser Trailer #4 (WMV).

• SCREENS:  Haze (PS3); A Stroke of Fate (PC); 9th Company: Roots of Terror (PC); NASCAR 09 [Paint Shop]; Secret Agent Clank (PSP); Salvation (PC); Limbo of the Lost (PC); Pro Cycling Manager - Tour de France 2008 (PC); International Athletics (PSP); Top Trumps: Doctor Who.

Thanks to Defunct Games, Xbox America, AtomicGamer, Legit Reviews, and Digit-Life for today's news roundup.

If you've given up on The Lords of the Rings Online then Turbine wants you back and to help convince you they are worth the monthly fee they are having a free weekend of play for all previous subscribers.  Starting tomorrow (May 8th) and running through Monday (May 12th) previous subscribers will be able to hop back on and check out all the new content in the game.  

I have to wonder how effective these schemes are.  I was big into City of Heroes for a while before I gave up on the game after getting into way too much XP debt.  I re-installed and re-played the game during one of NC Soft's free weekends and while I enjoyed the experience I managed to sink my main character even further into XP debt and swore off the game for good.  What do you think?  Would a free weekend of a play ever entice you to re-install and re-play a MMO that you've given up on? [READ MORE]

For those purchasing hardware, you know how confusing it can be sometimes to know what video card is right for you. NVIDIA's looking to simplify this a little bit so they can be more consumer friendly. I think both AMD and NVIDIA need to take this initiative so as to not confuse people out there looking for new video cards for their system. I have an idea for NVIDIA. Stick with the GeForce name and keep your number scheme. It's at 9xxx series right now and I know that 9600 cards aren't going to perform as well as 9800 cards. That's not bad. Now get rid of the letters at the end signifying the line and just use normal words like Basic, Premium, and Hardcore. Or go the Stabucks route and use Tall, Grande, and Venti. Ok maybe not that but use simple words instead of cryptic letters to designate what type of audience your product is aimed at.

Besides games, I love movies and it hurts to see both of them get bastardized by Uwe Boll. The guy makes bad movies period and on top of that he makes bad movies based on some good video games. You'd think companies would learn not to sign off on the deal to give him the ability to turn their creations into horrible wastes of time. Word is if StopUweBoll.org gets 1 million signatures, he'll stop making movies. To help achieve that goal, Stridge Gum has said they would provide one free coupon for a pack of their gum to each individual who signs the petition should the 1 million mark be reached between May 7th and 14th 2008. So what are you waiting for? Go sign the petition and chew bubble gum. If you sign it you won't be out of bubble gum. [READ MORE]

If you're itching to see some Far Cry 2 action, well the video below will give you the first glimpse and some information about the game. It's not being made by the same folks who did the first one so we'll see how the people at Ubisoft Montreal  I have to say that by visiting Africa and camping outside to do research takes some guts so I hope they got some great experiences and translate that into the game.