You know how Tropic Thunder  has a sort of Apocalypse Now feeling to it, except that it's a comedy? Well, that comparison is now more complete than ever before, as a new trailer promoting the film has surfaced, in the form of a mockumentary surrounding it, called Rain Of Madness, a sly and funny skewer of Apocalypse's companion piece Heart of Darkness.

It's hilarious, it's for mature audiences only, and it only works if you have iTunes, so keep that in mind before you get a look at it, but look you shall, my friends, and enjoy the genius.

Tropic Thunder: Rain Of Madness

The Daily Feed With Alison Haislip:...

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Here's what happened today in the world of videogames, technology and popular culture:

• TVersity has launched Version 1.0 of their media streaming solution and it is currently available for download.
• PlayStation 3's v2.41 update is live now.
• According to Apple, the 3G iPhone is uncrackable.
• Whether Google will appeal the recent ruling that it provide youtube records to Viacom remains to be seen.
• A new available patch update for Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots brings in a new game mode and match option for Metal Gear Online.
• Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal yesterday charged the Entertainment Software Rating Board in being 'under the influence' when it comes to depicting alcohol in video games.
• Mad Catz, third-party accessory manufacturer, has signed a licensing agreement with Ubisoft to create a series of accessories for Petz games.
• Midway shows us the joys of the darker side of professional football with the announcement of Blitz: The League II. 
• Bungie may have hinted a new game announcement at E3 during their 91-minute podcast.
• Mirriam-Webster has decided to add the word 'fanboy' to its 11th Edition Collegiate Dictionary this year.
• Unjustly ignored Konami Wii launch-title Elebits is getting the sequel treatment.
• Dark Sector, like so many before it, has cleaned up its act for the Australian market.
• The Exploratorium has promised to stream a total eclipse of the sun from China to Second Life.
• Nintendo, SEGA, EA and Ubisoft have chosen to support the Pan-European Game Information (PEGI) rating system for the U.K. game market.

Electronic Arts announced the soundtrack for the Madden '09, and the 2009 edition of this venerable sports game is going to rock, we can assure you. It may even roll.

To celebrate the series 20th (!) anniversary, EA will present a full slate of live music events, tributes and television appearances leading up the game’s street date.  Highlights from the soundtrack include Busta Rhymes featuring Linkin Park and Young Dre, The Truth featuring Good Charlotte, as well as returning Madden NFL hit makers Franz Ferdinand, Gym Class Heroes (both with pre-album prerelease tracks), All American Rejects, Shinedown, Senses Fail, Disturbed, The Offspring and Airbourne.

Click the cut for the full list!

Any escape (or partial escape) from Uncle Sam is a definite plus.

Massachusetts could possibly be the next state to offer tax breaks for game developers if a proposed bill passes. The bill entitles the companies to claim up to 20 percent of the cost of building or equiping a studio for game development if the cost is over $500,000.

Current game developers located in the region are Lord of the RIngs Online dev Turbine, Harmonix who created some music game, and Zoo Tycoon tamers Blue Fang. As sweet as the deal sounds to developers, the state is concerned that the cost of the proposed tax break could be too high - as high as $100 million a year. Ouch.

Also, the proposal is part of a larger bill for film studio productions in the area and it's still unclear whether the mentioned proposal above would be part of the grander scale.

Last May, GamePolitics.com reported that Gerogia Governor Sonny Perdue signed a bill similar to the proposed tax break in Massachusetts. Can you believe this? The government actually supporting the video game industry? Times are changing friends.

GamesIndustry: Massachusetts may offer developer tax breaks

Southpeak games  has released a trailer featuring Things on Wheels (XBLA), Dream Pinball 3D (PC, Wii, DS), Monster Madness: Grave Danger (PS3), Roogoo (PC, Wii, DS, X360), NinjaTown (DS), X-Blades (PC, PS3, Xbox 360) and Raven Squad (PC, Xbox 360).  If you're interested in anything by Southpeak Games take a gander.

Southpeak Games Project Reel

Southpeak Games - Developer Reel

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We're a little intrigued and a little afraid of the above FlashlightDVR. It's a fully-functioning film and digital videocamera built into what looks (and acts) like a flashlight.

According to Swann Communications, who make the thing, The FlashlightDVR can record video either internally, via 128MB flash memory, or externally through an SD card (up to 2GB, sold separately). The DVR utilizes the MPEG4 technology which allows for increased video storage capacity. Plus, it has nightvision. 

“Our customers continually tell us that they are in need of surveillance products that can be easily concealed,” explains Guy Pithie, Swann Communication’s Vice President North America. “The FlashlightDVR is just the type of product that will allow anyone to capture surveillance video without raising any suspicion. We believe this product will be embraced by law enforcement, security professional and private investigators. It is also has possibilities to be used on hunting, camping or boating trips in the great outdoors!”

Um, Guy, who are these customers who continually need to watch things in private? And what are they taping? We've seen enough sex comedies from the 1980s to have some ideas...

It's not exactly a surprise, but it is official now: Activision today announced that it received the stockholder approval necessary to consummate the company's agreement with Vivendi. So the merger of Activision and Vivendi is complete.  The transaction is expected to close on or around July 9, 2008. Vivendi Games, the parent company of Blizzard Entertainment and Sierra, will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Activision.

Vivendi will receive around 295.3 million newly issued shares of Activision common stock. Concurrently with the merger, Vivendi will purchase approximately 62.9 million newly issued shares of Activision common stock at a price of $27.50 per share for a total of approximately $1.7 billion in cash, resulting in a total Vivendi ownership stake in Activision Blizzard of approximately 52% on a fully diluted basis and approximately 54% of shares outstanding.

We predict a lot of shareholder champagne drinking this evening.

Kung Fu Panda creators DreamWorks Animation and Intel has joined forces to enhance the movie studio's 3D authoring capabilities with the help of Intel's latest Nehalem processors and Larrabee accelerator units. DreamWorks will be utilizing these components in order to create the studio's first stereoscopic 3D film, Monsters vs. Aliens, due out in March 2009.

According to TG Daily, Intel's contribution to DreamWorks are the company's "latest high-performance processing technologies, including future chips with multiple processing cores," said by spokesman Nick Knupffer. He also mentioned that the units were developed because of an increased audience demand for 3-D animated films.

"Technology plays a significant role in enabling our artists to tell great stories," said by CEO of DreamWorks Animation Jeffrey Katzenberg on a statement. "By utilizing Intel's industry-leading computing products, we will create a new and innovative way for moviegoers to experience our films in 3-D."

Ironically, DreamWorks partnered up with one of Intel's biggest competitors, AMD, to create the hit Shrek 3. Well if Monsters vs. Aliens turns out to be a great hit, we may not have to go to Universal Studios Hollywood just to experience Shrek 4D.

TGDaily: DreamWorks switches to Intel, creates 3D movies with Larrabee

Sacha Baron "Borat" Cohen is up to his old tricks. Yesterday, we brought you the news of how the comic actor fooled some top minds in the intelligence community, today, it looks like he fooled some cornpone yokels in Arkansas too!

Cohen's newest flick centers on Bruno, an openly gay German reporter. In the stunt, he apparently organized a night of cage fighting and dollar beers for some red-meat eatin' Southerners, but instead of the beatings they'd expected, they were greeted with fighters who ripped off each other's clothes and made the sexy-sexy on each other.

As you'd expect, the drunken crowd was not pleased, and threw beer at the homosexual grapplers. They were forced to escape down a secret hallway, and, presumably, Cohen got the footage he needed.

"We had a contract for cage fighting. We were deceived," said Dwight Duncan, president and CEO of Four States Fair Grounds in Texarkana, where Arkansas fights tooks place last month.

Can't wait for the movie! Are you going to see it?

USA Today: Sacha Baron Cohen caper?: Racy martial arts show draws ire in Arkansas

There's a war brewing on Facebook, and we're not talking about Heather being all, like, mad at Lisa over the comment she made on her profile picture. Two different word making games are fighting for ultimate word-making/facebook supremacy.

The champion: Scrabulous, Facebook's killer app. The challenger Scrabble, the app made by EA that's basically the electronic version of the board game Scrabulous is based upon.

Jayant Agarwalla, co-creator of Scrabulous, suggested that Electronic Arts would have a tough time attracting "the attention and patronage of a large and dedicated user base," as Scrabulous has with nearly a half-million daily users.

"We strongly believe that people should have the option of playing what they like, rather than be forced by developers into using something they offer only for monetary gains," Agarwalla said in a statement.

Hmm...them's fighting words! Which (if either) do you play?

USA Today: Facebook could see a standoff over Scrabble

In the bombardment of upcoming 'Tales' series games from Namco Bandai, including Tales of Vesperia pictured above, the company just announced another Tales of... for the Nintendo Wii. This would be the second 'Tales' game from Namco Bandai, set to be released early 2009, following on Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World that was released in Japan last month and is due to arrive here this fall.

Alongside the newly announced game, a couple of portable 'Tales' game are currently in the works for the DS, Tales of Hearts, and the PSP, Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology 2. C'mon and say this with us everyone: Namco Bandai has a lot of 'Tales' to tell.

IGN: Tales Series Continues On Wii

Emotiv, a San Francisco-based collection of mad scientist and computer engineers, say they've developed a headset that allows you to play videogames with your mind.

The EPOC headset features 16 sensors that measure electrical activity in your brain using electroencephalography, while a built in gyroscopes keeps track of your head movements. The sensors read your moods and facial expressions, then, through voodoo or something, you control objects on your screen mentally. Presumably, your consicousness can then be stored on a disc and everlasting life is yours!

"There is a direct correlation between thought and what happens on screen," Emotiv co-founder Tan Le said. "It really fulfills this long fantasy people have had of moving objects just with thought."

We don't believe this will actually work as promised, but we've often been wrong before. In any case, we'll be able to see this winter when the device and the first game for it (a martial arts title) hits shelves. It'll run you 299 dollars.

AFP: Mind games: computer headset lets brain control action

Ubisoft is branching out. The awesome french game publishing company is purchasing Hybride Technologies, the studio behind the visual effects of 300 and Sin City films.

Hybride will stay in the movie biz, and continue turning out cutting edge digitial effects, but will also work with Ubisoft on making videogame development tools to boost graphics that much further. The goal is cinema-style visuals in games.

"This alliance is a true first for the industry," commented Ubisoft Montreal CEO Yannis Mallat. "Ubisoft and Hybride share the same vision of entertainment convergence and a common passion for innovation and creativity."

So how often does Blizzard converse console game possibilities with console makers? Here's Chief Operating Officer Paul Sams's answer for you:

"We have constant conversations with the console manufacturers. We speak to them all the time and talk about the different things that are coming down the pipe. I think all of them would like to see Blizzard games on their systems, but for us it’s all about making the right game for the right platform, and thus far we haven’t found the right one for our franchises."

That begs the question, what's taking so long then? Well, according to the MTV Multiplayer interview, Blizzard has to carefully analyze what game suits best for a specific console:

That's correct, $50 off the current Xbox 360 Pro price.

Kotaku reports that a sneaky GameStop employee sent over some cell pictures hinting at this coming Sunday's possible big sale. There is no absolute, official word yet from Microsoft but it's just a huge coincidence that the price slash will drop on the day before the company's big E3 conference.

Again, stay tuned on Monday!

Kotaku: GameStop's Leaked Xbox 360 Price Drop Info

On Thursday, July 17th, from 12pm - 1:30pm, Capcom is letting a select few into their booth at E3. Follow the link below to get to an email address where you can plead your case.

There doesn't seem to be any requirements or conditions. Just send an email and if they get back to you, you're in. At the booth will be all of their new games and a "mysterious Street Fighter IV rug!"

And if you're not going to be at E3, a) you planned your summer incorrectly, and b) you should be watching G4's 278 hours of coverage or whatever the number is. There will be announcements aplenty and the G4 coverage starts Monday, July 14 at 1PM Eastern.

capcom-unity.com: Go to E3 with Capcom!

Prepare yourself for the most dope rhymin’, laser gun-totin’, hip hoppin’ episode of Videogame Theater yet! This episode finds the stars of classics old school, sci-fi videogames Defender, Missile Command and Robotron 2084 uniting in hip hop supergroup Defenders of the Universe to do battle with the evil Space Invaders and other videogame aliens. Yes, Defenders of the Universe an interplanetary music video filled with space ship star wars, alien decapitations and plenty of puppet sex!

Best of all, voicing the Defenders of the Universe puppets are real rapper Cyco of horrorcore legends Insane Poetry (Defender), Lord G of West Coast all-stars Militia (Robotron 2084) and L.A. underground sensation Neila (Missile Commander), all of whom have appeared on G4’s multi-platform hip hop series Freestyle 101. So the rhymes are HOT! The Defenders even diss other space videogames (watch out Galaga and Zaxxon!), so you know there’s gonna be hell to pay in the puppet hip hop community!

Videogame Theater airs every other Tuesday on EscapistMagazine.com.

Atari and Chuck E. Cheese creator Nolan Bushnell has gazed into his crystal ball and determined that World of Warcraft is over.

In an interview with Gamasutra, Bushnell said:

"World of Warcraft just passed what I call the Bushnell Threshold. The Bushnell Threshold is... I watch my sons, and because they're my sons, they tend to start things at the beginning, or sometimes a little bit before. So they play and play and play and play, and all of a sudden, they don't play anymore. They stayed with World of Warcraft for a long time. My older son all of a sudden got Mage 72 or whatever it is and quit. All at once. Cold turkey. I didn't think it was going to happen. And my 14-year-old is getting close to there, which is surprising."

Coming from anyone else, we might dispute Bushnell's vision of the future, but because the dude successfully predicted the appeal of bloopy lights on TV screens and pizza served by anthropomorphic mice, we gotta give him the benefit of the doubt. When he sees the future, he sees the future, even if it involves a rat handing off a slice of pepperoni!

Also, we sort of feel the same thing with Warcraft... maybe it hasn't jumped the shark yet, but it's water-skiing around the ramp in its leather jacket. Do you think so?

Gamasutra: Nolan Bushnell: What The Game Industry Misses

Nintendo, SEGA, EA and Ubisoft have chosen to support the Pan-European Game Information (PEGI) rating system for the U.K. game market. 

'PEGI is the solution for today, and the solution for tomorrow,' ELSPA (the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association) director general Paul Jackson said at the Westminster Media Forum in Whitehall in the presence of civil servants and the media. The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), best known for their Manhunt 2 ban last year,  currently holds the majority of the video game content rating market. So what does PEGI offer better?

SEGA Europe CEO Mike Hayes compared PEGI's advantages against the BBFC as reported by Next Generation:

“If you look at the PEGI system against the film ratings board in the UK, you will see that PEGI is the only system that has the power to prevent games publishers distributing unsuitable content to children,” he said. “It can ban a publisher’s entire output, rather than just a single title. This power is backed by the entire industry.”

However, BBFC Director David Cook questioned PEGI's structure as he stated that he is not 'clear who PEGI is' and denied the company's increase on ratings cost. Hit the source link for more comments from Nintendo and Sega. How about that dice icon above? Rated 'Pimp'?

NextGeneration: Nintendo, EA, Ubisoft and Sega Back PEGI