Who can Michael Thorton trust?

Personally, I don't know yet since Alpha Protocol won't be released until October, 2009 but until then, we can watch the developers from Obsidian Entertainment talk about how they created an authentic real-world RPG full of espionage and action.

Check out the Alpha Protocol Developer Diary below.

Alpha Protocol Developer Diary: The World

We're all patriots here, and before you start scarfing down tubes of meat that were heated on an outdoor fire pit, why not take a moment to check out this week's MMO Report. This week Casey tells you all about the upcoming Final Fantasy XI add-on scenario, the Bioware/Mythic merger, and all the troubles World of Warcraft has been having in China. Be thankful you live in the Western Hemisphere. So sit back, press play, and enjoy your 4th of July weekend!

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At this rate, pirates are never going out of style. Check out the first look at the gameplay from Tales of Monkey Island from Telltale Games.

The revamped classic adventure series will be released on July 7th, 2009 for the Wii and PC.

It's an excellent week for summer celebration. Whether you're celebrating Canada Day, the formation of the "We Hate Blair Herter" Facebook club, or America's birthday, there are tons of reasons to party this week. The G4tv.com gang is all set for a weekend of beaches, barbecues, karaoke, and more...but it wouldn't be complete without a healthy dose of gaming. Here's what your favorite writers and editors are playing this weekend. As always, leave a comment and let everyone know what you're playing.

Stephen Johnson: Because I am well known as an American patriot, and because the 4th of July is the most patriotic of all holidays (except Arbor Day) I will be spending my weekend revisiting one of the most blatantly American video games ever made. I’ll be playing Duke Nukem on the Xbox. In keeping with the 4th of July theme, I’m going to follow Duke up with some Oregon Trail on my iPhone and wash it all down with a PC MAME version of Burgertime.

More zombies are a good thing, which is why I'm happy to report that Techland's Dead Island, an open-ended zombie thriller set on what should be an island paradise, is definitely still in development. Who is Techland? It's the studio behind the better-than-expected Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood.

I last saw Dead Island while reporting for 1UP.com way back in August 2007. There hasn't been much word on Dead Island, but Techland told me silence isn't a reason to be worried about the project.

"I can understand how impatient our fans must be to see more news and assets from Dead Island," said Techland international brand manager Blazej Krakowiak in an e-mail. "Unfortunately our agreement with the game’s worldwide publisher imposed a media silence on us. All we are allowed to say is that the game is in development and doing great and that all future updates regarding the game will come directly from the publisher."

Dead Island didn't have a publisher when Techland was showing the game off in Germany, so that's a good sign. The developer was more than happy to show off their layered skin system, though, which let you hack away at multiple dimentions of zombie flesh. Still, Dead Island was a shell of a game at the time, more of a promising zombie tech demo.

"I know it’s not much at the moment," said Krakowiak. "We’re really excited with what we’ll be able to share with fans but for the moment our hands are tied."

Whatever gets me more zombies!

Fans of EA’s wildly popular Battlefield franchise will be pleased to know that the newest installment, Battlefield 1943, will be released on Xbox Live on July 8 (1200 MS Points), and July 9 on the PlayStation Network. Unfortunately, PC players will have to wait until the fall to get their hands on the game, despite their being the reason for the franchise's massive success.

Offering a more stylized take on the World War II FPS, Battlefield 1943 will once again give players the chance to fight on foot, in vehicles, and in the sky across several famous WWII locations in the South Pacific. Throw in destructible environments and a streamlined class system, and you have a recipe for some good old-fashioned WWII mayhem.

Anyone out there looking forward to jumping back into a WWII Battlefield game?

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Valve continues to make their case for the quick turnaround on Left 4 Dead 2, despite fan accusations the developer is abandoning the original Left 4 Dead community too quickly. Their motives will become clearer later this year, promised Valve marketing director Doug Lombardi in an interview with CVG, where he teased a Left 4 Dead downloadable content announcement later this summer.

No details on the content were provided.

"I think 8, 9 months from now," said Lombardi, "once everything's been out for a while and everyone's had time to see the complete product of Left 4 Dead 2 and see continued support for Left 4 Dead 1, they may sort of see what we were up to and what the method of our madness was there."

I'd say Valve's earned our trust at this point. Let's see how this one plays out.

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It doesn’t quite pack the same kind of punch as the mergers and acquisitions we saw last week (Zenimax/id Software, Mythic/BioWare), but it turns out that Warner Bros. has been cleared to purchase famed publisher Midway for the previously submitted bid of $33 million, the Chicago Tribune reports.

In the end, Warner Bros.’ bid was the only one Midway received, which is a bit sad, but when you’re in the midst of Chapter 11 bankruptcy, I guess one bid is all you really need. Apparently, there were some intellectual property disputes regarding several Midway franchises including Mortal Kombat (and the production company that has produced two MK movies) and Wheelman (which Vin Diesel’s Tigon Studios co-produced with Midway). However, those issues have been resolved.

As for the Midway studios that Warner Bros. won't be acquiring (San Diego and Newcastle), Joystiq reports that they will be shut down in 60 days, unless they are purchased in the meantime. Currently, there haven't been any bids for either studio or any of the unclaimed properties.

Mortal Kombat, Spy Hunter and This is Vegas (maybe) are solid properties, but the one Midway franchise that I hope Warner’s takes fullest advantage of is Joust. Midway, please give me a next-gen Joust game, and I swear I’ll never ask you for anything else again.

Am I right people?

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Inspired Media Entertainment, the company behind Christian RTS Left Behind, plans to combine the powers of God with the powers of video games and capitalism by creating a game portal for Christian games.

"The company's goal is to establish an affiliate network with at least one percent of the churches — just 3,000 — that would produce an average sales of 50 games per church a year within three years," said Left Behind Games CEO Troy Lyndon. "This alone would generate supplemental revenue of $3 million a year, but more importantly, will provide parents with a healthy alternative for their children."

When the site launches in the next couple months, pious gamers will be able to pick up the Left Behind games, the Charlie Church Mouse games, and a full selection of hundreds of other family friendly titles.

Given that so many people in the country are religious, does it seem strange to you that there are so few worthwhile Christian games out there? It seems like a gold-mine in terms of both getting rich and saving souls! If you're not a Christian, would you play a game with overt Christian themes, if it was good?

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Rocksteady Studio developers (and famed writer Paul Dini) take you behind the scenes of Batman's "...worst night of his life" in this behind-the-scenes developer video for the Eidos-published Batman: Arkham Asylum.

Batman: Arkham Asylum Inside the Asylum

The Batmobile will lose it's wheel when the Joker gets away August 25 on the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.

Twitter and World of Warcraft go together perfectly--both are social experiments that double as incredible time-sinks. But can you combine them? Yes, you can. Tweetcraft allows you to send and receive tweets while in Azeroth. This is just the thing for those boring Griffin trips, eh?

The application also supports auto-tweets when you start the game, enter an instance and earn an achievement, and auto-posting of in-game screenshots It seems like just the thing to help you fill out your raid, brag when you take down a boss, or find a group among your twitter friends. It's also the perfect thing to make work-bound twitter followers jealous of the fact that you're free to play World of Warcraft while they're stuck in the office! And it's free!

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In an interview with OXM, Splinter Cell: Conviction creative director Maxime Beland reveals that the game should take around 12 hours to complete on normal difficulty. The game will also ship with a "realistic" difficulty that will be soul-crushing, from the way Beland describes the mode:

"...Realistic is going to be really f*cking hard - you're going to need stealth, two bullets is going to kill you, the enemies are going to be super-lethal."

There seems to be a big difference between the two modes. Normal is so everyone can finish the game. That's fine. I'd appreciate a hard mode between that and realistic, however. Something not as brutal, but more challenging than normal. What do you think?

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Alright, folks. Listen up! If you haven't purchased Fallout 3 yet and have a PC capable of running the game, it's time to bite the bullet. This weekend, Bethesda's game is 50% on Valve's Steam service and will only run you $25.

You can't beat that deal!

Fallout 3 @ Steam

Welcome to "Morning Hangover" -- an excellent way to start your day with the crew at TheFeed...no matter what you're recovering from. Every morning you'll hear musings from two of TheFeed's editors and have the chance to share  your thoughts on what's going on in the gaming world. So buckle up, say your prayers, eat your vitamins, and keep reading!

Patrick Klepek: Even though I'm someone who tends to find themselves accidentally absorbed in an iPhone game, the last thing I expected to spend my afternoon doing yesterday was obsessing over an on-rails version of Doom. Yet, I spent almost two hours tapping away at my screen with Doom Resurrection, trying to determine whether G4tv.com should care whether it exists. The weird part? Time Crisis was already released on the iPhone, yet Doom Resurrection is preicesly what Namco Bandai should have done with Time Crisis on the iPhone -- but they didn't. In conclusion? Give me more Doom Resurrection, please. 

With gaming budgets ballooning at ridiculous speeds, the chances of making a profit on a game are becoming more tenuous than ever. And while some publishers haven’t shied away from taking risks on original IPs, the risk/reward margin is an ever-present concern. Similarly, the pressure to consistently deliver quality titles is higher than ever. As a result of these crushing realities, we could start seeing fewer titles on store shelves.

During an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Eidos life president, and general gaming giant, Ian Livingstone spoke about the financial realities surrounding modern gaming, saying: