Joystiq just got their hands on four news screens of Rockstar’s GTA: IV, as well as some very interesting concept art and illustrations.  Check out the breath-taking screenshots first, then the concept art:

Grand Theft Auto IV looks like Gold!  We’ll keep you posted on the latest downloads and multimedia.

They’ve updated their original entry to add a list of lesser-known but linkable gamer-babes, so go check it out. Personally, I’ve always thought that to the intense-nerd-gamer, any female gamer would appear very hot…

Now, however, there are actually pictures of the PS3, compliments of GameRader.  Check them out here.

Bungie.net claims that the first Halo faceplate for the Xbox 360 will become available to consumers in October.  They give neither a specific launch date for the faceplate, nor a price, but the plate looks hot! 

Appearing hither and thither are a trifecta of Half Life 2: Episode 2 screenshots. Half Life 2: Ep 2 is expected to be released in the Fourth Quarter of 2006, but there has already been a release of its trailer. The following three “screenshots” are from DigitalBattle.com, but a closer review of the trailer for Episode 2 will suggest that the alleged screenshots of in-game action are merely just screen-captures of certain moments in the official trailer.  But they are rather pretty:

Before I tell you where to get these gorgeous screenshots, I feel compelled to inform you of the obvious: that the year that this game purports to be in (2142), is 100 years after 1942, which of course was the height of WWII and the year that the previous Battlefield game took place in.  This begs the question, will EA Games continue to name their expansions in such a pattern?  Will there be a Battlefield 2242, a Battlefield 2342, and a Battlefield 2442?  Will the Battlefield series die with this game?  In any case, the newest Battlefield 2142 screenshots are available at EA Games’ official website, along with a 20 minute gameplay video.

Although something is clearly better than nothing, it’s a shame when only one screenshot is officially released of a game that is sure to be the strategic game-of-next-year: C&C III (3): Tiberium Wars. 

The caption reads: “A GDI Harvester collects Tiberium in an undisclosed Yellow Zone”.

The full resolution image is at the official site.

Fed up with being bated into watching Flash videos, only to discover that it’s just a viral marketing ploy, or a means for the creator to express his vested interests?  If not, then check out this flash video, which thankfully waits till the end to prattle off its pacifistic propaganda.  Decent production and delivery through the Flash format, the only thing that upsets me is the blunt ultimate message.  There’s no need to be so direct and frank; it really does sacrifice a lot of the artistic integrity.  Allowing for many aesthetic and moral interpretations is much better than forcefully imploring one’s audience to a moral/political cause, in my humble opinion.  I’m not saying that I disagree with the sentiments of the video, but rather I disagree with the way that they are finally imparted.  With that single objection aside, I do rather like the Mario animation, and I think that, overall, it is a flash video well worth watching.

Mario: Back to the Start

What could be cuter than integrating a Pokemon into the skin of a Nintendo DS?  Nothing.  And nothing could be farther from reality.  Too bad.  Here’s the fan-created concept: