Here's a re-cap of the top stories of the day in videogames, technology and popular culture.

• Nintendo released three spooky games on the Virtual Console for Halloween. Ooh. Scary!
• PlayStation 3 games are coming out in November. Here's a list.
• Some members of the game industry are slamming the used-game market, hard.
• The developers of The Simpsons Game are not happy with Rockstar, saying "The people who make Grand Theft Auto spazzed out like little babies."
•  Fire up your high-end PC, gamers: The first playable Crysis single-player demo is live, right now, on FIleFront. 
• Red Octane has a solution for Guitar Hero 3 battery-rundown: a $19.99 add-on battery pack that will be available on the 31st directly from Red Octane's store.
• Our review of the Turtle Beach AK-R8 Gaming Headphones.
• A Resident Evil CGI movie is coming.

Even though potential distribution partners Fox and Universal have pulled out of the project, Microsoft, Peter Jackson, and WETA are still in pre-production discussions on making a Halo film happen, according to reports. These new talks center on finding a creative partner to help shoulder some of the costs of making it happen.

So, it seems that the Halo project, which was long thought dead, might not be quite as dead as everyone thought it was. Of course, the raging success of Halo 3, which has already brought in hundreds of millions of dollars, might have something to do with that.

Play: Halo film hope flickers

Gamers that have been experiencing some lag in Team Fortress 2 on the 360 should be happy. Valve has patched the game with the following fixes:

• Reduced network bandwidth usage in multiplayer.
• Improved overall game performance.
• Arranged search results to favor preferred host conditions.
• Improved searching for ranked games.
• Addressed a possible false report of too little storage space on larger hard drives.

Now go! Get your TF2 on!

How ripped-off would you feel if you bought Gears of War, tore into it, and discovered that the entire game consisted of the way-way-short single-player campaign? No multi-player. No nothing.

Pretty ripped-off, we imagine.

That nightmare almost happened, according to Epic president Mike Capps.

"I was going to cut multiplayer from Gears because I thought it wasn't coming together fast enough...The day before E3 I'm like 'no, guys, it's not pulling together.' And they made it, they pulled it together, and then we won every award."

You sure did, Mike. Tragedy=averted!

Pro-G: Epic was ready to scrap Gears multiplayer

There's good news and bad news for lovers of The Flash. The good news is that the film is on track, and it has a director and even a storyline. The bad news? The director is David Dobkin, who directed the atrocious-looking Vince Vaughn Elf ripoff Fred Claus, which is headed to theaters soon.

The storyline, though, will be the Wally West Flash, which is really the best of all the Flash stories they could have picked. There's no timeline for production, or a release date, but it's likely to be long after George Miller's Justice League, and will likely feature the same actor as The Flash.

Dark Horizons: David Dobkin Directs "The Flash"

Greg Berlanti, the creator of Everwood, will write and direct a Green Lantern film, according to the trade newspapers. The movie will focus on the Hal Jordan as Green Lantern story, and may well touch on the Green Lantern Corps, as well. This is great news for all GL fans, as this movie has been in the talking stages for quite some time now.

We can only hope that Green Lantern will have to face Sinestro in the film, because Sinestro is one of the most badass villains of all time. There's not much more news right now, but there will be soon, and you can bet that TheFeed will be on it when it happens.

Dark Horizons.com: Greg Berlanti Helms "Green Lantern"

Painkiller was a pretty sweet game that slipped under most people's radar, but here comes a new version in Painkiller: Overdose.

Think Serious Sam vs. demons!

Harmonix and Mtv released the set-list for upcoming music game Rock Band today.

The game will feature 58 tracks, mostly master recording, spanning just about every genre of rockin' music from the 1960s to the nows. But that's not all:

Eric Brosius, Harmonix audio lead stated, “We are working with our music partners to set an exciting download schedule, both for launch and beyond. Through DLC, players will have the ability to take a deeper dive into the music of the artists featured on the Rock Band disc, or further explore different genres of rock or additional bands if they choose.”

It's a really good list. Forty-five tracks were revealed with 13 to be uncovered during gameplay. Click the cut for the full, official list.

We know they're only cutscenes, but they look pretty awesome. Grab your GunCon 3 and check out Time Crisis 4 on the PlayStation 3.

Skype is an odd thing. It's better than most VoIP providers and certainly useful if you make a lot of long-distance calls that could be cheaper over the web, but it requires that ever elusive internets connection.

This new mobile device hits UK stores this Friday and will let Skype users make Skype calls and send Skype IMs to the Skype friends while they presumably have Wi-Fi access.

Thankfully, the phone will make standard cell calls and send texts if you don't happen to find yourself in Wi-Fi range (or in Europe).

No word on a US release. Do you use Skype? Would you consider a Skype cell?

Yahoo News: Skype and 3 launch mobile phone

Saw IV, the next in the series of the horror franchise, won the box office lottery over the weekend, raking in a respectable $32 million. Seems that, once again, people want to see what Jigsaw's gotten himself up to since last we saw him. Of course, last we saw him, we thought he was dead, but it's Saw, so anything's possible.

Also over the weekend, Dan In Real Life did a pretty tidy $12 million worth of business, proving that Steve Carrell can draw people, at least on a medium scale. Not a whole lot else happened in the world of the movie business. Maybe it's because there aren't any good movies out.

Yahoo! News: "Saw IV" butchers competition at box office

Captain Christopher Pike is central to the history of Star Trek. The first captain of the Enterprise, Pike was the predecessor to Captain Kirk, and even appeared in a few episodes of the original series. Now, that role has been cast in J.J. Abrams' Star Trek, according to rumor, and the person playing the part will be Josh Lucas, the star of Poseidon.

This production is really cooking now, although this is just a rumor. However, it comes from a source that has been dead on so far when it comes to casting rumors on the project, so you never know. Meanwhile, William Shatner has been on record as saying that he's not been contacted to be in the film, though Leonard Nimoy has, and that he's a little upset about it.

IESB: Is This the Face of Capt. Pike?

Former media rivals NBC, which is owned by General Electric, and Fox, owned by the News Corp., have teamed up to bring free, ad-supported television shows to the Web via a new site called Hulu.com.

Based in Los Angeles with around a hundred employees, Hulu has a distribution ring that includes Microsoft, AOL, MySpace, Yahoo and Comcast and is presenting episodes of around 90 television shows. Shows available include The Office, 24, The Simpsons and The A-Team.

Yes, that’s right, The A-Team.

They also just signed up MGM, which distributes stuff like Chapelle's Show and Reno 911, and Sony, which has archives full of shows like I Dream of Jeannie. 

Today's Nugget: An impossibly cool pair of videogame-inspired kicks from Nike.

The shoes above are based on retro game 720, and are way, way too cool for your feet.

Click the cut for a picture of the inspiration for the tennis shoes.

T-Mobile is launching a new Windows Mobile 6 smartphone called the "Shadow" this Wednesday, October 31st. What a perfect name for Halloween.

The phone will run $149.99 with a new 2-year contract and will feature a custom UI built by Microsoft specifically for the device.

This could be evidence that Microsoft is looking to entrench itself deeper in the phone market after the iPhone's launch.

Engadget: The T-Mobile Shadow, October 31 for $149.99

Eighteen-year-old Heroes star Hayden Panettiere is set to star as the queen of shock rock, Wendy O. Williams, singer of notorious ‘70s destructo-punks The Plasmatics.

Filming is set to begin in early March 2008 with a 2009 release in mind, the biopic will “follow the shock-rocker's life through her troubled upbringing and early New York punk rock scene,” ending with her tragic suicide. Producers chose the Heroes star as the lead role to "shock" moviegoers - to live up to Williams name. Film,

"[Williams] was all about rebellion and shocking people,” producer Jason Weinberg noted. “Why not the Williams legacy shock the world again with Hayden?"

Williams committed suicide in 1998 at the age of 49, whereas Panettiere has years to go until she loses her good looks and has to contemplate offing herself.

Kittyradio.com: THE CHEERLEADER IS WENDY O WILLIAMS?

Upcoming must-have Wii title Super Smash Bros. Brawl will feature a level editor, and custom levels will be sent to your Wii daily. Is there anything cooler than that? We think not.

Players will be able to construct levels based on any of the game's 2D backgrounds, placing 3D objects on top to create new stages and choosing the music that will accompany each stage.

"You start by choosing the size of the stage, the background pattern, and the music that will play. Oops! Sorry. For music, you’ll only be able to choose from the songs you have available," says the game's official site.

"Those who enjoy a little effort may be able to enjoy this stage builder for the rest of their lives," Smash Bros. site promises.

The Wii's Virtual Console is getting all scary this week in honor of Halloween by including three spooky, creepy games for your downloading pleasure.

Castlevania II Simon's Quest, SAMURAI-GHOST, and MAGICIAN LORD are yours to enjoy. Hit the break for the full, official details!

Not only will there be another spate of Resident Evil films, but some are even, it seems, going to deviate from the Paul W.S. Anderson live-action trilogy, and at least one will be completely CGI. With the advent of films like Beowulf and Avatar, it looks like filmmakers are really into the idea of doing movies that are completely computer generated.

The makers of the film promise a brand new storyline, not related to any of the previous movies, and say that the project will be completed and released sometime in 2008. Though we're not sure if it will be released straight-to-DVD, or if there will be any theatrical distribution, you can count on TheFeed to provide more news as it happens.

Shacknews: Resident Evil Becoming Feature Length CG Movie

TheFeed gets to play around with all the cool new gadgets and tell you what to think about them. Here’s the scoop on the…

Turtle Beach AK-R8 Gaming Headphones
Available: Now
Price: $149.95 MSRP

So you like to play PC games late at night or your girlfriend/real doll doesn’t like hearing your World of Warcraft raids? You need a good set of headphones, but you want to take advantage of surround sound… take a look at these.

PROS:

• Surround Sound Actually Works!
• Includes USB 5.1 Sound Card
• Headphones Auto-Adjust and are Comfortable
• Monitors Room Audio or Cancels It

How was your weekend? Did you start rocking out with Guitar Hero III? We did too. Are your batteries already depleted? Wish you could just use your Xbox 360 pack or plug it in to your PS3?

Too bad!

Red Octane has a solution for you: a $19.99 add-on battery pack that will be available on the 31st directly from Red Octane's store.

We're not impressed. We do love the game, though.

Engadget: Guitar Hero III's wireless guitar battery pack costs you more moolah

Fire up your high-end PC, gamers: The first playable Crysis single-player demo is live, right now, on FIleFront.

Helpfully, Nvidia have released ‘Crysis optimized’ video card drivers. Keep in mind that these drivers are still Beta. Nvidia Forceware 169.01 ‘Beta’ Driver Download

You might be like, "Can my PC handle what may be the most complicated graphics in a game ever made?" Check out the system requirements.

Gaming Today: Great Nanosuits, Batman! Crysis Single Player Demo!

The developers of The Simpsons Game are not happy with Rockstar, saying "The people who make Grand Theft Auto spazzed out like little babies" over the inclusion of a GTA parody level in The Simpsons Game. 

As TheFeed reported, the dust-up began when Rockstar objected to a "Grand Theft Scratchy" advertisment, and continued when EA pulled content that parodied Rockstar's flag-ship title from The Simpsons Game.

The Simpsons' Senior producer Matt Warburton shot back in an episode of Game Heads: "They’re supposed to be rockstars… That’s not a big Rockstar move, to be afraid of The Simpsons making fun of their game."

Executive producer Matt Selman piled on with: "Rockstar’s] games are full of satire, lame attempts at parody… basically putting the words sixty-nine in wherever they can find it… Trust me, I’ll be the first person in line to play Grand Theft Auto 4… in five years when it comes out."

Though it's a hopelessly out-of-date piece of pop culture verbiage, only one response is appropriate here: Oh, SNAP!

GamePolitics:  Rockstar “Spazzed Out Like Little Babies” Says Simpsons Producer

Some members of the game industry are slamming the used-game market, hard.

Free Radical director Steve Ellis told website mcvuk.com,  "it isn’t fair that retailers are claiming all of the profits from the sale of second-hand titles, and it is bizarre that our industry tolerates it."

On one hand, we don't get it: We sell our second hand rowing machines and socks at a bi-weekly yard-sale, so why can't we do the same with games? Plus we love walking into a game store and snapping up the cheapest, most-lowdown "videogames that time forgot" for a song... but on the other hand...

“I can’t imagine going into PC World and buying a pre-owned copy of MS Office. It just wouldn’t happen," Ellis said. "The logical conclusion of this – the retailers’ ultimate goal – is that they only ever sell one original copy of any game and then they pass it around between everyone who wants to play it, keeping all of the profit for themselves except for that initial sale."

No matter how you feel about the PlayStation 3 as a console, it's hard to deny the drought of killer games for the system. But November, and the start of the holiday buying-things season, brings with it the hope of a glorious rainfall of PS3 games to quench your gaming thirst.

But is it enough?

Website PS3 Informer took on the challenge of analyzing and comparing all the PS3 releases for the month, and in doing so, make a good case for the potential of the system starting to be realized: There are some smokin' games coming out this coming month. Rock Band, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, Assassin's Creed, Call of Duty 4, and more will all be vying for your attention.

Check out the list yourself.