Playback: The Week in Review

Yes, this has been a crazy week. Last week at this time I was on a quick flight down to New Orleans to hear the Gathering of Developers' big announcement that it was building a game based on the Blair Witch Project. The first game (yes, they'll be several games, as a happy Mike Wilson indicated at the Nocturne release party) will be powered by the dark and spooky Nocturne engine. From what we've heard so far, the Blair Witch game will be developed by the same crew behind Nocturne, although we hear Nspace will be lending some assistance (Haxan Films and Nspace are both based in Florida). No real details have surfaced yet, other than that the game will not be the movie's story would not be ported over to the Nocturne engine (which would be a pretty dumb idea considering we already know the ending). So a related storyline will be developed to support the game. From all indications, gamers are excited to hear the announcement. Now we just need to have someone pick up The Matrix and make a game.

Back to news - this week seems to have been saturated with screenshots of just about everything and from what we've heard so far, readers have had no complaints. We had ingame Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation shots along with some high-end prerendered Lara shots, more shots of Activision's Soldier of Fortune, and a brief look at Cavedog's upcoming first-person shooter Amen. So if you're looking for eye candy, click on the links below.

It looks as though Infogrames may be the winner in the long-running "Who will buy GT Interactive" contest. We heard earlier this week that Infogrames founder, president, and CEO Bruno Bonnell was seen wandering the halls of GT Interactive. There hasn't been any word about how much Infogrames will pay for GT, but sources say an announcement is expected today (although the last four Fridays were all seen as announcement dates as well and those never happened either). Hasbro, the other company rumored to be a potential GT buyer, appears to have completely given up interest in GT. Why? Well, it may have something to do with Hasbro's biggest competitor and its last big buy. Mattel's purchase of The Learning Company appears to be the worst buy of the decade, as TLC has lost US$105 million in the third quarter. Mattel expected TLC to earn $50 million. With GT's position as unstable as it is, going into the end of the year fiscal earnings and reporting anything scary might have been a bad move for Hasbro. Although it does seem like a change of heart, since the company did pick up MicroProse, and that brand seems to be as healthy as ever since it was acquired. Now we just have to wait for the final announcement.

For your weekend pleasure, here's a list of the games you should find on retailers' shelves this weekend. Happy gaming!

In other news:Word on the street is that Microsoft has offered to buy Eidos Interactive. While we're not sure how the beautiful Lara Croft would fit into the Microsoft's lineup, Tomb Raider is coming soon, and it could make Eidos a whole bundle of money - surprise, surprise. Considering Microsoft's last two large game-realm purchases: FASA Interactive and Access Software - the deal makes sense. Why? Microsoft bought both companies before the release of their top tier titles. FASA's license was used for Hasbro's MechWarior 3 as Access was ready to put the finishing touches on Links LS Extreme and Links LS 2000. Considering that Eidos is getting ready to release Tomb Raider: The Next Revelation, Microsoft could reap all the benefits of a top-selling title without worrying about paying for its development. Regardless, Eidos says that it doesn't comment on rumors regarding acquisition. However, the company did acknowledge that there have been acquisition rumors floating about for a while. Calls to Microsoft went unreturned as of press time, but if these rumors do bear any truth, we'll relay the facts to you. And since Microsoft lost the big Department of Justice case today, we may have to wait a few days as the company figures out what to do next.