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]

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.

Articles

• Our own John Yan ain't got nothin' nice to say to the Cleveland Indians GM. [GamingNexus Blogs]
• WarCry looks at the difficult task of roleplaying a merchant in this edition of RoleCraft: Professional RP.
• "The most robust of them all," here's Techgage's review of the ASUS X48-based P5E3 Premium Wi-Fi-AP board.

Videos, Screens

• VIDEOS:  Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit Trailer #6 (MP4); NASCAR 09 Paint Booth Trailer (WMV); Street Gears Cinematic Trailer (WMV); Mythos Open Beta Trailer (WMV); Assault Heroes 2 Big Bosses Trailer #1, #2 (QT); Elefunk Trailer (MP4); Ninja Gaiden 2 Lunar Staff Trailer #1, #2, #3, Castle, Brooklyn, Venice Environments (WMV).

• SCREENS:  Ninja Gaiden 2 (X360); Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors (Wii); The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor; MotorStorm Pacific Rift (PS3); Race Driver: GRID [demo shots]; The Lord of the Rings: Conquest; Street Gears (PC); Trainz: The Complete Collection (PC); Sins of a Solar Empire (PC); Sudden Strike 3 add-on (PC) [winter landscapes]; Voltage (PS3); Men of War (PC); Battle Rage: The Robot Wars (Wii); Toki Tori (Wii); Code Lyoko: Quest for Infinity (PS2 and PSP shots); Code Lyoko: Fall of X.A.N.A. (DS).

Thanks to WarCry, AtomicGamer, and Techgage for today's news roundup.

If you live in Columbus and can pry yourself away from Grand Theft Auto IV for 90 minutes you might want to head down to Columbus State's Nestor Hall Auditorium from 6-7:30 to listen to a panel talking about video games as the Convergence of Art and Technology.  The Q&A panel will feature several smart people as well as one idiot from a local video game website (me).  The topics will range from the morals and ethics of video games to ARG's and more.  The panel will open up to the public at some point so you can ask me fun pointed questions that I will answer with vague yet satisfying answers.

There's also the Downtown Digital Arts festival going on which will be open before and during the panel.  Thanks to the Fuse Factory for inviting me to participate.

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]

This year EA's putting different athletes onto their NCAA Football 09 games based on the platform it is released. For the PlayStation 2 you have DeSean Jackson from California who went to the Philadelphia Eagles at #49. The 163rd selection overall, Owen Schmitt from West Virigina (Who BTW choked their last game against Pitt to drop from the National Title game) will be showcased on the PSP version. As announced previously, Darren McFadden will be the 360 coverboy and Matt Ryan will be on the PS3 cover. The Wii version doesn't even get a real player as the mascot for the Michigan State University Spartans will grace the cover for that console's version. [READ MORE]

Articles

• Still enjoying a crap-ton of press, here's the official WarCry preview on Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures.
• If you have any questions for Cryptic Studios' next round of Ask Cryptic, then you can go to their forums and, uh, ask Cryptic.  They also want fan-based ideas on what we'd all like them to be showing off during summer conventions.  (I'm personally aching for a glimpse at how robust the character creation options will be for Champions Online.
• Killer Betties held a conference call with Warhammer Online.  The folks at ActionTrip also talked to EA Mythic, covering WAR's PvE, RvR, guilds, classes, careers, sieges, and more.
• Legit Reviews looks at another version of the GeForce 8800 GT 256MB card in their ECS GeFroce 8800 GT 256MB video card review.
• AtomicGamer reviews The World End