Happy post-Independence Day! Are all of your fingers still intact from those fireworks? Here's what went down on our original web franchises this week:

• Sessler's Soapbox: this week Adam takes a moment to discuss the gaming possibilities offered by Apple's iPhone. Do you buy fully-functional games for the iPhone? Or do you follow in Adam's footsteps and read the paper or do some crossword puzzles on your iPhone in your spare time? Either way, it's a subject begging for a debate, so check out this week's Soapbox and let us know what you think.
• The 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.
• Fresh Ink: Blair Butler ran into legendary comic book writer Grant Morrison at Meltdown Comics in Los Angeles, and talked with him about some of the highlights of his long and storied career, which includes having written Animal Man, Final Crisis, and We3. They talked about what's next on Morrison's docket, and where he sees the future going for the world of comics. 

And now, the news:

Welcome back to The Hot Sheet, G4tv.com's light-hearted look at the industry. As always, data and analysis is unscientific, and facts may be slightly altered for comedic purposes. Let's get in touch with our feelings, shall we? (Oh, and happy 4th of July!)

What People Can't Wait To Get Their Hands On

People have got summer fun on the mind, which explains Wii Sports Resort being on top of this week's Amazon.com snapshot of top pre-orders. Nancy Drew is an odd one, from our core perspective at least. And in the distance, the faint sounds of tuba, trombone, and creative student cheers can be heard...

Amazon.com's Top 10 Pre-ordered video game items, as of 1:43PM, Saturday July 4, 2009

1) Wii Sports Resort
2) Nancy Drew: Ransom of the Seven Ships
3) Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box
4) Dissidia Final Fantasy
5) Metroid Prime Trilogy: Collectors Edition

Artist, renaissance man, poet laureate…It’s hard for me to describe myself, as modifiers haven’t yet been invented to encompass the whole of what I am, but I’ll try. My name is Mike D’Alonzo, and I am Manager of New Media and Editorial here at G4, where I oversee all of the content provided by the show teams on the website. In my spare time, I am training to be a wind walker and a spiritual guide, but I’m a simple man with simple tastes. Why, just the other day, President Obama and I were having a laugh at my secret lair in ________________, and I was telling him that I had discovered the secret to fusion technology, but hadn’t yet found the right bidder. We just laughed and laughed and went back to playing human chess with the remains of those lost at Pompeii. What can I say? That’s who I am.
 
Now, read about me in the following hilarious interview.

Interview: Mike D'Alonzo - Manager of New Media and Editorial, G4tv.com
By: Patrick Roche-Sowa

Patrick: Where were you sired? 

Mike: I was born in a naval hospital in Norfolk, VA, while my Dad was in the Navy during Vietnam. So, actually, he didn’t meet me for a couple of months after I was born. However, my family and my childhood both resided in New Jersey, very close to Atlantic City, and, yes, I’m proud of it, and, yes, it’s a lot nicer there than you think.

Greg Rucka is one of the most acclaimed comic book writers and novelists in the business. Along with wife -- and fellow comic writer -- Jen Van Meter, Rucka is at the forefront of modern comic book writing, as evident from his work on Queen and Country, Whiteout, Gotham Central, Superman: World of New Krypton, DC's Action Comics, and most recently Detective Comics, starring Batwoman.

So you can imagine how excited we were when he agreed to guest host Fresh Ink Online in place of host Blair Butler, who happens to be one of his biggest fans. So sit back and enjoy this special edition of Fresh Ink Online, where Greg chats about three of his all-time favorite comics, The Question, Justice League International, and Mage: The Hero Discovered. Enjoy!

Make sure visit us on Twitter, Facebook and MySpace.

Subscribe to G4's Fresh Ink Podcast by clicking your preferred service:

Oh, hello. I didn't see you there.

I'm Andrew Pfister, your new Senior Games Editor. What I'll actually be doing for the site is in that nebulous and exciting "planning stage," but it will definitely involve writing words about videogames. That much I can promise you.
 
If you've seen or heard my name before, you're either a long-time reader of Electronic Gaming Monthly, a listener of the 1UP.com podcasts (of which I was producer), or you went to high school with me. Sadly, I am not the heir to the Pfister Pfaucet Pfortune, I am unrelated to Academy Award-nominated Director of Photography Wally Pfister, and I am unaffiliated with the Pfister Hotel in downtown Milwaukee, though it is indeed a lovely hotel.
 
Who I am is a guy who paid close enough attention in school (go Bucky), made the right friends, wrote the right things, and found myself with excellent jobs, working with excellent people in excellent places: now that list includes G4tv.com. I'm platform-agnostic (everyone has high points and low points), terrible at real-time strategy but can hold my own in nearly everything else, and I can grow a wicked beard in a matter of weeks. My favorite game is your favorite game -- how crazy is that?!?
 
Oh, I'm also incapable of answering interview questions seriously.

Hooray for holiday weekends! We hope you all have a safe and fun Fouth of July weekend, and stay away from those firecrackers. Here's what happened today in video games, popular culture and technology.

• TheFeed's Patrick and Raymond are back for a morning hangover, where Raymond fondly remembers the late, great Alexis Arguello.
• Paramount and 505 Games are making a Grease game.
• Green Day and a bunch of other hard rock bands are bringing new tracks to Rock Band.
• Developers Tetsuya Mizuguchi And Suda 51 believe that Project Natal will "open an entirely new door" for gaming.
• Microsoft's Major Nelson explains the purpose behind bringing Silverlight support to the Xbox 360 to show advertisements.

It's impossible to resist the allure of ATN. The videos with moonwalking birds, vicious horses, sewer worms and robotic geishas draw you in like fish caught in a net. Don't even try. because it's pointless.

Find the video links from Around the Net for Attack of the Show after the jump.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen has somehow wormed its way into America's collective heart, earning mega bucks at the box office. Don't hold it against us that we were a little hesitant at first to check out the movie's video game sibling. We've been burned in the past by movie spin-offs (yeah, Wanted, I'm looking at you) and didn't know if we could take having our fragile little hearts broken again.

However, X-Play's Transformers expert Matt Keil reviewed the game and it wasn't all that bad. From his review: 

"If you loved the movie, and for some reason a lot of people did, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is worth a weekend rental. It gets more things right than the first film’s game, but still doesn’t quite rise above the “average” threshold. There’s clearly a good game to be had out of the Transformers property, though, so here’s hoping Activision keeps trying while they have access to the license. Spider-Man: Web of Shadows proved that you don’t need a movie tie-in to make a good licensed game, so maybe next year’s recently announced Transformers title will follow suit."

Click here to read the rest of the written review and watch the X-Play video!

Are your thumbs totally over Street Fighter IV? Are you looking to put your joystick to better use on new fertile ground? 

X-Play's Justin Fassino has a review of BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger which brings the popular title to consoles for the first time:

"As a fighting game, it hits all the right buttons: the action is furious, with combos stringing well into the double digits. The character design has that unique Arc System Works flare, from the morphing demon Arakune to the Hellboy-ish Iron Tager. In fact, one of the strengths of BlazBlue is the differentiation between characters; the roster runs the gamut from sword-wielding anime hero to vampire princesses to ninjas."

To read the rest of the review and watch the X-Play video, click here!

For the last year or so, I’ve asked multiple companies when they thought their next-next-gen systems would be arriving. Everyone seemed to agree this generation will most likely break the mold of the typical 5-year console cycle. Now with Microsoft exec Steve Ballmer dropping word on his company bringing out a "new console" next year, my stomach's getting a little uneasy. Sure, Microsoft as a company is denying it, but Microsoft can keep a secret about as well as TMZ.

Dear console makers: We don’t need new machines yet.

There are a number of things that push the coming of a new generation, the main two being current hardware becoming dated and developers can’t push the hardware any further. The third push comes from companies trying to one-up each other; if one thinks the other is making a new console, the others will follow suit. Last? The consumer is demanding it.

If you’re a Dragon Ball fan, and you have some kind of personal issue with mega publisher Namco Bandai, then you’re not going to like what I’m about to tell you.

For the next five years, Namco will be the exclusive North American distributor of all Dragon Ball videogames. And while the deal doesn’t officially kick in until January 2010, Namco will be publishing three upcoming games based on the popular anime and manga series: DB: Raging Blast for the Xbox 360 and PS3, DB: Revenge of King Piccolo for the Wii, and DB Z: Attack of the Saiyans for the Nintendo DS.

Namco executive vice president Makoto Iwai said via press release:

Experience feudal Japan with this gameplay trailer for Muramasa: The Demon Blade featuring two heroes, Kisuke and Momohime, two brave young heroes who must venture across the countryside to gather cursed swords to counter an evil Shogun.

In this gameplay trailer, Kisuke and Momohime wield their blades to battle various gods from the Netherworld. Muramasa: The Demon Blade is set to be released in September 2009 for the Nintendo Wii.

Muramasa: The Demon Blade Heroes Gameplay Trailer

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

During this year’s E3, EA announced EA Sports MMA, a new mixed-martial arts fighting franchise EA hopes will be a major contender against THQ’s UFC series. And while the tension is sure to ramp up once MMA gets closer to release, there seems to already be some preliminary rumbling going on behind the scenes.

Evil Avatar reports that the confirmed word on the street is that any non-UFC-affiliated fighter who signs on to appear in EA’s MMA will “forever be banned for fighting in the UFC.”

Given the critical and financial success of THQ’s recent UFC 2009: Undisputed, it’s hardly surprising that the UFC would want to ensure it maintains first right of refusal with regards to unsigned talent. Plus, UFC is the dominant force for mixed-martial arts, so if prospective fighters want the most exposure, there’s really only one place they can go. And I find it hard to believe that any young fighter would want to jeopardize his entire future just to appear in an EA-published mma game when he could simply appear in THQ’s game and fight on mma’s biggest stage.

 When I contacted EA to find out its take on these reports (which could end up being quite an interesting battle if the UFC stands behind this policy), an EA representative simply said, “We have no comment regarding the alleged UFC threats to fighters as it pertains to EA Sports MMA.”

This response was to be expected, especially for as fresh as these allegations are, and for as potentially damaging this situation could be for EA’s new franchise. Expect to see plenty more about this whole mess in the near future.

Source

Security researching Charlie Miller has discovered a vulnerability on the iPhone that could let hackers run unsigned code using SMS messages to attack. Miller has been asked by Apple not to reveal the details of the issue so to give Apple's coders time to fix the security hole.

Miller did share some of the things that would be possible if a hacker was able to exploit the vulnerability:

"The SMS vulnerability allows an attacker to run software code on the phone that is sent by SMS over a mobile operator's network. The malicious code could include commands to monitor the location of the phone using GPS, turn on the phone's microphone to eavesdrop on conversations, or make the phone join a distributed denial of service attack or a botnet."

Apple is currently working on a solution, but it is unknown if it will require a firmware update. If you see a small 3.0.1 update soon with no real changelog, you'll know why!

In the meantime, I wouldn't worry about this as it would require the hacker to have your number and you don't give your number out to hackers, do you?

Source